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Have with our neelds created both one flower,
Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted;
But yet a union in partition;

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.1

9 Have with our needs, &c.] Most of our modern editors, with the old copies, have-needles; but the word was probably written by Shakspeare neelds, (a common contraction in the inland counties at this day,) otherwise the verse would be inharmonious. See Gammer Gurton's Needle.

Again, in Sir Arthur Gorges' translation of Lucan, 1614: "Thus Cato spake, whose feeling words

"Like pricking neelds, or points of swords," &c.

Again, in Stanyhurst's Virgil, 1582:

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The same ideas occur in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

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"Would ever with Marina be:

"Be 't when they weav'd the sleeded silk,
"With fingers long, small, white as milk,
"Or when she would with sharp neeld wound
"The cambrick," &c.

Again, ibil:

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Deep clerks she dumbs, and with her neele composes "Nature's own shape."

In the age of Shakspeare many contractions were used. Ben Jonson has wher for whether, in the prologue to his Sad Shepherd; and in the Earl of Sterline's Darius, is sport for support, and twards for towards.

Of the evisceration and extension of words, however, T. Churchyard affords the most numerous and glaring instances; for he has not scrupled even to give us rune instead of ruin, and miest instead of mist, when he wants rhymes to soon, and criest. Steevens.

In the old editions of these plays many words of two syllables are printed at length, though intended to be pronounced as one. Thus spirit is almost always so written, though often used as a monosyllable; and whether, though intended often to be contracted, is always (I think, improperly) written at length. Malone. 1 Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,

Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.] The old copies read-life coats, &c. Steevens.

And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly:

Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it;
Though I alone do feel the injury.

Her. I am amazed at your passionate words:
I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.
Hel. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
To follow me, and praise my eyes and face?
And made your other love, Demetrius,
(Who even but now did spurn me with his foot).
To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare,
Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
To her he hates? and wherefore doth Lysander
Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
And tender me, forsooth, affection,
But by your setting on, by your consent?
What though I be not so in grace as you,
So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
But miserable most, to love unlov'd?
This you should pity, rather than despise.
Her. I understand not what you mean by this.
Hel. Ay, do, perséver,2 counterfeit sad looks,

The true correction of the passage I owe to the friendship and communication of the ingenious Martin Folkes, Esq.-Two of the first, second, &c. are terms peculiar in heraldry, to distinguish the different quarterings of coats. Theobald.

These are, as Theobald observes, terms peculiar to heraldry; but that observation does not help to explain them-Every branch of a family is called a house; and none but the first of the first house can bear the arms of the family, without some distinction. Two of the first, therefore, means two coats of the first house, which are properly due but to one. M. Mason.

According to the rules of heraldry, the first house only (e. g. a father who has a son living, or an elder brother as distinguished from a younger) has a right to bear the family coat. The son's coat is distinguished from the father's by a label; the younger brother's from the elder's by a mullet. The same crest is common to both. Helena, therefore, means to say, that she and her friend were as closely united, as much one person, as if they were both of the first house; as if they both had the privilege due but to one person, (viz. to him of the first house) the right of bearing the family coat without any distinguishing mark. Malone. 2 Ay, do, perséver,] Persever is the reading of all the old copies. The word was formerly so pronounced.

Make mows upon me when I turn my back;
Wink at each other; hold the sweet jest up:
This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
You would not make me such an argument.3
But, fare ye well: 'tis partly mine own fault;
Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy.

Lys. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!

Hel. O excellent!

Her.

Sweet, do not scorn her so.

Dem. If she cannot entreat, I can compel.

Lys. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat; Thy threats have no more strength, than her weak prayers.

Helen, I love thee; by my life, I do;

I swear, by that which I will lose for thee,
To prove him false, that says I love thee not.
Dem. I say, I love thee more than he can do.
Lys. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
Dem. Quick, come,—

Her.

Lysander, whereto tends all this?

Lys. Away, you Ethiop!
Dem.

No, no, sir:-he will4

Thus our author, in All's well that ends well, Act IV, sc. ii: say thou art mine, and ever

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"My love, as it begins, so shall perséver."

Again, in Glapthorne's Argalus and Parthenia, 1639:

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for ever

May they in love and union still perséver." Steevens. such an argument.] Such a subject of light merriment.

So, in the first part of King Henry IV, Act II, sc. ii:

Johnson.

it would be argument for a week," &c. Steevens.

4 No, no, sir:-he will, &c.] This passage, like almost all those in these plays in which there is a sudden transition, or the sense is hastily broken off, is much corrupted in the old copies. My text [No, no; he 'll-sir,] is formed from the quarto printed by Fisher, and the first folio. The words "he 'll" are not in the folio, and Sir is not in the quarto. Demetrius, I suppose, would say, No, no; he 'll not have the resolution to disengage himself from Hermia. But, turning abruptly to Lysander, he addresses him ironically::-"Sir, seem to break loose;" &c. Malone.

Seem to break loose; take on, as you would follow;
But yet come not: You are a tame man, go!

Lys. Hang off, thou cat, thou bur: vile thing let

loose:

Or I will shake thee from me, like a serpent.

Her. Why are you grown so rude? what change is this,

Sweet love?

Lys.

Thy love? out, tawny Tartar, out!

Out, loathed medicine! hated potion, hence!
Her. Do you not jest?

Hel.

Yes, 'sooth; and so do you. Lys. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee. Dem. I would I had your bond; for I perceive, A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your word. Lys. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead? Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.

Her. What, can you do me greater harm, than hate? Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love? Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?

I am as fair now, as I was erewhile.

Since night, you lov'd me; yet, since night you left me: Why, then you left me,-O, the gods forbid!

In earnest, shall I say?

Lys.

Ay, by my life;

And never did desire to see thee more.
Therefore, be out of hope, of question, doubt,
Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest,
That I do hate thee, and love Helena.

No critical remedy is nearer at hand, than a supposition that obscure passages are sentences designedly abrupt and imperfect.-Lysander calls Hermia an "Ethiop."- "No, no, sir:" replies Demetrius; i. e. she is none; and then ironically speaks to her of Lysander, as of one whose struggle to break loose is merely a pretended effort. He next addresses his provocation personally to Lysander.-I have left the text as I found it; only reading (for the sake of metre) he will, instead of he 'll. Steevens. The only difficulty in this passage arises from the words-he will, sir, which are omitted in the second folio. In that edition it runs thus:

"No, no, sir, seeme to breake loose;

"Take on as you would follow,

"But yet come not: you are a tame man, go." This appears to me the true reading. M. Mason.

Her. O me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!5 You thief of love! what, have you come by night, And stol'n my love's heart from him?

Hel.

Fine i 'faith!

Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
No touch of bashfulness? What, will you tear
Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet, you!

Her. Puppet! why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures, she hath urg'd her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.-
And are you grown so high in his esteem,
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole?" speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low,

But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

Hel. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen, Let her not hurt me: I was never curst;7

I have no gift at all in shrewishness;

50 me! you juggler! you canker-blossom!] Fuggler in this line is used as a trisyllable. So again, in K. Henry VI, P. I: "She and the dauphin have been juggling."

So also tickling, wrestler, and many more.

Malone.

you canker-blossom!] The canker-blossom is not in this place the blossom of the canker or wild rose, which our author alludes to in Much Ado about Nothing, Act 1, sc. iii:

"I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace:" but a worm that preys on the leaves or buds of flowers, always beginning in the middle. So, in this play, Act II, sc. iii:

"Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds." Steevens.

6 thou painted maypole?] So, in Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 8vo. 1583: "But their cheefest iewell thei bryng from thence is their Maie pole, whiche thei bryng home with great veneration, as thus: Thei have twentie or fourtie yoke of oxen, every oxe hauyng a sweete nose gaie of flowers placed on the tippe of his hornes, and these oxen drawe home this Maie pole, (this stinckyng idoll rather) whiche is couered all ouer with flowers and hearbes bounde rounde aboute with strynges from the top to the bottome, and some tyme painted with variable colours," &c. Steevens.

7 curst;] i. e. shrewish or mischievous.

Thus in the old proverbial saying: "Curst cows have short horns." Steevens.

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