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ISAB. Sir, make me not your ftory. 6

LUCIO.

It is true.

I would not-though 'tis my familiar fin

6 — make me not your flory.] Do not, by deceiving me, make me a fubject for a tale. JOHNSON.

Perhaps only, Do not divert yourself with me, as you would with a ftory, do not make me the fubject of your drama. Benedick talks of becoming the argument of his own scorn.

Sir W. D'Avenant reads--fcorn inftead of flory.

After all, the irregular phrafe [me, &c.] that perhaps, obfcures this paffage, occurs frequently in our author, and particularly in the next scene, where Efcalus fays: "Come me to what was done to her."'—« Make me not your flory," may therefore fignifyinvent not your flory on purpose to deceive me. It is true," in Lucio's reply, means What I have already told you, is true. Mr. Ritfon explains this paffage, do not make a jeft of me." REED. I have no doubt that we ought to read (as I have printed,) Sir, mock me not; -your ftory.

-

So, in Macbeth:

STEEVENS.

«Thou com'ft to use thy tongue :-thy Story quickly." In King Lear we have « Pray, do not mock me.'

I beseech you, Sir, (fays Ifabel) do not play upon my fears; referve this idle talk for fome other occafion; proceed at once to your tale. Lucio's fubfequent words, [« 'Tis true,"-i. e. you are right; I thank you for reminding me;] which, as the text has been hitherto printed had no meaning, are then pertinent and clear. Mr. Pope was fo fenfible of the impoffibility of reconciling them to what preceded in the old copy, that he fairly omitted them.

What Isabella fays afterwards, fully fupports this emendation : "You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me."

I have observed that almost every paffage in our author, in which there is either a broken speech, or a fudden tranfition without a connecting particle, has been corrupted by the careleffnefs of either the tranfcriber or compofitor. See a note on Love's Labour's Loft, Ad. II. fc. i:

A man of fovereign, peerlefs, he's efteem'd."
And another on Coriolanus, A& I. sc. iv:

You fhames of Rome! you herd of Boils and plagues
Plafter you o'er!" MALONE.

So

7 I would not ] i. e. Be assured, I would not mock you. afterwards: Do not believe it:" i. e. Do not fuppofe that I would mock you. MALONE.

I am fatisfied with the fenfe afforded by the old punctuation.

STEEVENS.

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jest, Tongue far from heart,- play with all virgins fo:" I hold you as a thing enfky'd, and fainted;

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With maids to feem the lapwing,] The Oxford editor's note on this paffage is in thefe words: The lapwings fly, with feemimg fright and anxiety, far from their nefts, to deceive those who seek their young. And do not all other birds do the fame? But what has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this bird is compared ? It is another quality of the lapwing that is here alluded to, viz. its perpetually flying fo low and fo near the paffenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. This made it a proverbial expreffion to fignify a lover's falfhood: and it seems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, fays:

- And lapwings that well conith lie." WARBURTON.

The modern editors have not taken in the whole fimilitude here they have taken notice of the lightnefs of a fpark's behaviour to his miftrefs, and compared it to the lapwing's hovering and fluttering as it flies. But the chief, of which no notice is taken, is, and to jeft." (See Ray's Proverbs) « The lapwing cries, tongue far from heart." i. e. moft fartheft from the neft, i. e. She is, as Shakspeare has it here, Tongue far from heart. The farther the is from her neft, where her heart is with her. young ones, fhe is the louder, or perhaps all tongue." SMITH. Shakspeare has an expreffion of the like kind, in his Comedy of

ETTOTS:

Adr. Far from her neft the lapwing cries away;

My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curfe." We meet with the fame thought in Lyly's Campajpe, 1584; from whence Shakspeare might borrow it:

"Alex.

you refemble the lapwing, who crieth moft where her neft is not, and fo, to lead me from efpying your love for Campafpe, you cry Timoclea." GREY.

9 I would not though 'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,

Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins fo: &c.] This paf

fage has been pointed in the modern editions thus :

'Tis true: I would not (though 'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jest,

Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo:

I hold you, &c.

According to this punduation, Lucio is made to deliver a fentiment dire&ly oppofite to that which the author intended. Though

By your renouncement, an immortal fpirit;
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

ISAB. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me. LUCIO. Do not believe it. Fewnefs and truth,

'tis thus:

Your brother and his lover

have embrac'd:

As thofe that feed grow full; as bloffoming time,

2

'tis my common practice to jeft with and to deceive all virgins, I would not fo play with all virgins.

The fenfe, as I have regulated my text, appears to me clear and casy. 'Tis very true, (fays he) I ought indeed, as you say, to proceed at once to my story. Be affured, I would not mock you. Though it is my familiar practice to jeft with maidens, and, like the lapwing, to deceive them by my infincere pratile, though, I fay, it is my ordinary and habitual practice to sport in this manner with all virgins, yet I should never think of treating you fo; for I confider you, in confequence of your having renounced the world, as an immortal spirit, as one to whom I ought to speak with as much fincerity as if I were addreffing a faint. MALONE.

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Mr. Malone, complains of a contradi&ion which I cannot find in the fpeech of Lucio. He has not faid that it is his practice to jeft with and deceive all virgins. Though (fays he) is is my practice with maids to feem the lapwing, I would not play with all virgins fo; meaning that she herself is the exception to his ufual practice. Though he has treated other women with levity, he is ferious in his addrefs to her. STEEVENS.

2 Fewness and truth, &c.] i. e. in few words, and thofe true ones. In few, is many times thus ufed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 3 Your brother and his lover — ] i. e. his mistress; lover, in our author's time, being applied to the female as well as the male fex. Thus, one of his poems, containing the lamentation of a deferted maiden, is entitled, "A Lover's Complaint.

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So, in Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatory, bl. 1. no dáte : « — fpide the fetch, and perceived that all this while this was his lover's husband, to whom he had revealed these escapes." MALONE.

-as blooming time,

That from the feedness the bare fallow brings

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To teeming foifon; even fo As the fentence now Rands, it is apparently ungrammatical. I read,

At blooming time, &c.

That from the feedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foifon; even fo her plenteous womb
Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry.

ISAB. Some one with child by him? - My coufin
Juliet?

LUCIO. Is fhe your coufin?

ISAB. Adoptedly; as fchool-maids change their

names,

By vain though apt affection.

LUCIO.

ISAB. O, let him marry her!

LUCIO.

She it is.

This is the point, The duke is very firangely gone from hence: · Bore many gentlemen, myfelf being one, In hand, and hope of action: 6 but we do learn

That is, As they that feed grow full, so her womb now at bloffoming time, at that time through which the feed time proceeds to the harvest, her womb fhows what has been doing. Lucio ludicrously calls pregnancy blooming time, the time when fruit is promised, though not yet ripe. JOHNSON.

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Inftead of that, we may read doth; and, inftead of brings, bring. Foizon is plenty. So, in The Tempel:

66

nature fhould bring forth,

"Of its own kind, all foizon, &c.

Teeming foizon, is abundant produce.

STEEVENS.

The paffage feems to me to require no amendment; and the meaning of it is this: « As bloffoming time proves the good tillage of the farmer, fo the fertility of her womb expreffes Claudio's full tilth and husbandry.' By bloffoming time is meant, the time

when the ears of corn are formed. M. MASON.

This fentence, as Dr. Johnfon has obferved, is apparently ungrammatical. I fufped two half lines have been loft. Perhaps however an imperfe& fentence was intended, of which there are many inftances in thefe plays : or, as might have been used in

the fenfe of like. Tilth is tillage.
So, in our author's 3d Sonnet:

"For who is fhe fo fair, whofe unear'd womb.
"Difdains the tillage of thy husbandry?"

Bore many gentlemen,

MALONE.

In hand, and hope of action:] To bear in hand is a common

By thofe that know the very nerves of flate,
His givings out were of an infinite diftance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Governs lord Angelo; a man, whose blood
Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the fenfe;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions,) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrefts him on it;

And follows clofe the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace, by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo: and that's my pith

2

Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
ISAB. Doth he fo feek his life?

phrafe for to keep in expectation and dependance; but we should

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"How you were borne in hand," &c.

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STEEVENS.

with full line] With full extent, with the whole length.

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JOHNSON.

to give fear to use To intimidate ufe, that is, pra&ices long countenanced by cuftom. JOHNSON.

Unless you have the grace-] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So, when the makes her fuit, the provoft fays:

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Heaven give thee moving graces!" JOHNSON.
my pith

Of business-The inmost part, the main of my message.

So, in Hamlet:

JOHNSON.

STEEVENS.

And enterprizes of great pith and moment."

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