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Flying between the cold moon and the earth,
Cupid all arm'd: a certain aim he took

"A ftar dif-orb'd," however, (See Troilus and Creffida,) is one of our author's favourite images; and he has no where fo happily expressed it as in Antony and Cleopatra :

"

the good fars, that were my former guides, "Have empty left their orbs, and shot their fires

"Into th'abyfm of hell."

To these remarks may be added others of a like tendency, which I met with in the Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. "That a compliment to Queen Elizabeth was intended in the expreffion of the fair Veftal throned in the Weft, feems to be generally allowed, but how far Shakspeare defigned, under the image of the Mermaid, to figure Mary Queen of Scots, is more doubtful. If by the rude fea grew civil at her fong, is meant, as Dr. Warburton fupposes, that the tumults of Scotland were appeased by her addrefs, the observation is not true; for that fea was in a form during the whole of Mary's reign. Neither is the figure juft, if by the flars fhooting madly from their Spheres to hear the fea-maid's mufick, the poet alluded to the fate of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and particularly of the Duke of Norfolk, whofe proje&ed marriage with Mary, was the occafion of his ruin. It would have been abfurd and irreconcileable to the good fenfe of the poet, to have reprefented a nobleman afpiring to marry a Queen, by the image of a ftar fhooting or defcending from its sphere."

See alfo Mr. Rifon's obfervations on the fame subject. On account of their length, they are given at the end of the play. STEEVENS.

Cupid all arm'd:] All arm'd, does not fignify dreffed in panoply, but only enforces the word armed, as we might fay, all booted.

So, in Greene's Never too Late, 1516:

JOHNSON.

"Or where proud Cupid fat all arm'd with fire." Again, in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the 4th book of the Eneids "All utterly I could not feem forfaken." Again, in K. Richard III: ·

"His horfe is flain, and all on foot he fights."

Shakspeare's compliment to queen Elizabeth has no fmall degree of propriety and elegance to boaft of. The fame can hardly be faid of the following, with which the tragedy of Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, concludes. Death is the fpeaker, and vows he will spare none but facred Cynthia's friend,

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"Whom Death did fear before her life began;
"For holy fates have grav'n it in their tables,

At a fair veftal, throned by the west; 3
And loos'd his love-fhaft fmartly from his bow,
As it fhould pierce a hundred thousand hearts:
But I might fee young Cupid's fiery fhaft
Quench'd in the chafte beams of the wat'ry moon;
And the imperial vot'refs paffed on,

In maiden meditation, fancy-free.*

Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell:
It fell upon a little weflern flower,-
Before, milk-white; now purple with love's
wound,-

And maidens call it, love-in-idlenefs. '

"That Death fhall die, if he attempt her end

"Whofe life is heav'n's delight, and Cynthia's friend."

If incenfe was thrown in cart-loads on the altar, this propitious deity was not difgufted by the fmoke of it.

STEEVENS.

At a fair vefal, throned by the weft;] A compliment to queen Elizabeth. POPE.

It was no uncommon thing to introduce a compliment to her majefty in the body of a play. So, again in Tancred and Gifmunda, 1592:

"There lives a virgin, one without compare,
"Who of all graces hath her heavenly fhare;
"In whose renowne, and for whose happie days,
"Let us record this Pæan of her praife.' Gantant.

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STEEVENS,

Thus

-fancy-free.] i. c. exempt from the power of love. in Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment in Suffolke and Norfolke, written by Churchyard, Chastity deprives Cupid of his Bow, and prefents it to her Majesty : and bycaufe that the Queene had chosen the best life, fhe gave the Queene Cupid's Bow, to learne to shoote at whome the pleafed fince none coulde wounde her highneffe hart, it was mecte (said Chaftitie) that the fhould do with Cupid's Bowe and arrowes what she pleafed." STEEVENS.

▼ And maidens call it, love-in-idlenefs.] This is as fine a metamorphofis as any in Ovid: With a much better moral, intimating that irregular love has only power when people are idle, or not 'well employed. WARBURTON.

I believe the fingular beauty of this metamorphofis to have been quite accidental, as the poet is of another opinion, in The Tamring a Shrew, A& I. fc. iv;

of

Fetch me that flower; the herb I fhow'd thee once;
The juice of it, on fleeping eye-lids laid,
Will make or man or woman madly dote
Upon the next live creature that it fees.
Fetch me this herb; and be thou here again,
Ere the leviathan can swim a league.

PUCK. I'll puta girdle round about the earth In forty minutes. [Exit PUCK.

OBE.
Having once this juice,
I'll watch Titania when she is afleep,

And drop the liquor of it'in her eyes;
The next thing then fhe waking looks upon,
(Be on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,)

But fee, while idly I ftood looking on,
"I found th' effect of love in idleness;
"And now in plainnefs I confess to thee,
"Tranio, I burn, I pine, I perifh, Tranio,
"If I atchieve not this young modeft girl."

And Lucentio's was furely a regular and honeft paffion. It is scarce neceffary to mention that love-in-idleness is a flower. Taylor, the water poet, quibbling on the names of plants, mentions it as follows:

"When paffions are let loose without a bridle,
"Then precious time is turn'd to love-in-idle."

STERVENS.

The flower or violet, commonly called panfies, or heart's ease, is named love-in-idleness in Warwickshire, and in Lyte's Herbal. There is a reason why Shakspeare fays it is now purple with love's wound," because one or two of its petals are of a purple

colour. TOLLET.

It is called in other counties the Three coloured violet, the Herb of Trinity, Three faces in a hood, Cuddle me to you, &c. STEEVENS. -] This expreffion

6 I'll put

girdle round about the earth

alfo occurs in The Bird in a Cage, 1633:

Perhaps, it is proverbial:

And when I have put a girdle 'bout the world, "This purchase will reward me."

Again, in Buffy d'Ambois, by Chapman, 1613:

"To put a girdle round about the world."

And in other plays. STEEVENS.

She shall pursue it with the foul of love.
And ere I take this charm off from her fight,
(As I can take it with another herb,)
I'll make her render up her page to me,
But who comes here? I am invifible;7
And I will over-hear their conference.

Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him.

DEM. I love thee not, therefore purfue me not. Where is Lyfander, and fair Hermia?

The one I'll flay, the other flayeth me.

8

Thou told'ft me, they were ftol'n into this wood, And here am I, and wood within this wood,"

7

I am invifible;] I thought proper here to obferve, that, as Oberon and Puck his attendant, may be frequently observed to fpeak, when there is no mention of their entering, they are defigned by the poet to be supposed on the stage during the greatest part of the remainder of the play; and to mix, as they pleafe, as fpirits, with the other actors; and embroil the plot, by their interpofition, without being feen, or heard, but when to their own purpose.

See Tempeft, page 41, note 5.

STEEVENS.

THEOBALD.

The one I'll flay, the other flayeth me.] The old copies read "The one I'll stay, the other fayeth me. STEEVENS. Dr. Thirlby ingeniously faw it muft be, as I have corrected in the THEOBALD.

text.

9

and wood within this wood,] Wood, or mad, wild, raving.

РОРЕ.

In the third part of the Countefs of Pembroke's Ivy-Church, 1591, is the fame quibble on the word:

"Daphne goes to the woods, and vowes herself to Diana; "Phoebus grows ftark wood for love and faucie to Daphne." We also find the fame word in Chaucer, in the character of the Monke, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 184:

"What fhulde he ftudie, and make himfelven wood?" Spenfer also uses it, Aglogue III. March:

"The elf was fo wanton, and fo wode."

"The name Woden," fays Verftegan in his Reftitution of Decayed Intelligence, &c. 1605: " fignifies fierce or furious; and in like fense we ftill retain it, faying when one is in a great rage, that he is wood, or taketh on as if he were wood." STEEVENS.

Because I cannot meet with Hermia.

Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more. HEL. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; But yet you draw not iron, for my heart

2

Is true as fteel: Leave you your power to draw,
And I fhall have no power to follow

you.

DEM. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair? Or, rather, do I not in plaineft truth Tell you-I do not, nor I cannot love you? HEL. And even for that do I love you the more I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,

The more you beat me, I will fawn on you: Ufe me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me, Neglect me, lofe me; only give me leave, Unworthy as I am, to follow you.

What worfer place can I beg in your love, (And yet a place of high refpect with me,) Than to be used as you ufe your dog?

DEM, Tempt not too much the hatred of my fpirit;

For I am fick, when I do look on thee.

HEL. And I am fick, when I look not on you. DEM. You do impeach your modesty3 too much, To leave the city, and commit yourself

Into the hands of one that loves you not;

2 You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant:

But yet you draw not iron,] I learn from Edward Fenton's Certaine Secrete Wonders of Nature, bl. 1. 1569, that - "there is now a dayes a kind of adamant which draweth unto it fleshe, and the fame fo ftrongly, that it hath power to knit and tie together, two mouthes of contrary perfons, and drawe the heart of a man out of his bodie without offendyng any parte of him."

3

STEEVENS.

· impeach your modefty. -] i. c. bring it into queftion. So

in The Merchant of Venice, A& III. fc. ii :

"And doth impeach the freedom of the flate,
"If they deny him juftice." STEEVENS.

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