* O, that your face were not so full of O's! KATH. A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows 6 ! PRIN. But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair Dumain?? KATH. Madam, this glove. PRIN. Did he not send you twain ? KATH. Yes, madam; and moreover, Some thousand verses of a faithful lover: A huge translation of hypocrisy. Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity. MAR. This, and these pearls, to me sent Longaville; The letter is too long by half a mile. *First folio omits not so. Rosaline, a black beauty, reproaches the fair Katharine for painting. JOHNSON. Johnson mistakes the meaning of this sentence; it is not a reproach, but a cautionary threat. Rosaline says that Biron had drawn her picture in his letter; and afterwards playing on the word letter, Katharine compares her to a text B. Rosaline in reply advises her to beware of pencils, that is, of drawing likenesses, lest she should retaliate; which she afterwards does, by comparing her to a red dominical letter, and calling her marks of the small pox óes, M. MASON. A POX 5 so full of O's!] Shakspeare talks of " - firy O's and eyes of light," in A Midsummer-Night's Dream. STEEVENS. of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows!] "Pox of that jest!" Mr. Theobald is scandalized at this language from a princess. But there needs no alarm-the small por only is alluded to; with which, it seems, Katharine was pitted; or, as it is quaintly expressed, "her face was full of O's." Davison has a canzonet on his lady's sicknesse of the pore and Dr. Donne writes to his sister: "at my return from Kent, I found Pegge had the PoxeI humbly thank God, it hath not much disfigured her." FARMER. "A pox of that jest," &c. This line, which in the old copies is given to the Princess, Mr. Theobald rightly attributed to Katharine. MALOne. 7 But what was sent to you from FAIR Dumain?] The old copies, after But, insert Katharine. We should, therefore, read: But, Katharine, what was sent you from Dumain?" RITSON. PRIN. I think no less: Dost thou not wish in heart, The chain were longer, and the letter short? MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never part. PRIN. We are wise girls, to mock our lovers so. Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking SO. That same Birón I'll torture ere I go. O, that I knew he were but in by the week! 8 - in by the week!] This I suppose to be an expression taken from hiring servants or artificers; meaning, I wish I was as sure of his service for any time limited, as if I had hired him. The expression was a common one. So, in Vittoria Corombona, 1612: "What, are you in by the week? So; I will try now whether thy wit be close prisoner." Again, in The Wit of a Woman, 1604: "Since I am in by the week, let me look to the year." 9 STEEVENS. wholly to my BEHESTS ;] The quarto, 1598, and the first folio, read-to my device. The emendation, which the rhyme confirms, was made by the editor of the second folio, and is one of the very few corrections of any value to be found in that copy. MALONE. Mr. Malone, however, admits three other corrections from the second folio in this very sheet. STEEVENS. 1 And make him proud to make me proud that jests!] The meaning of this obscure line seems to be,-I would make him proud to flatter me who make a mock of his flattery.-Edinburg Magazine, for Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. 2 SO PORTENT-like, &c.] In former copies : "So pertaunt-like, would I o'er-sway his state, 66 That he should be my fool, and I his fate.” 3 PRIN. None are so surely caught, when they are As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such ex- As gravity's revolt to wantonness*. MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote; In old farces, to show the inevitable approaches of death and destiny, the Fool of the farce is made to employ all his stratagems to avoid Death or Fate; which very stratagems, as they are ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into the very jaws of Fate. To this Shakspeare alludes again in Measure for Measure: 66 merely thou art Death's Fool; "For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, It is plain from all this, that the nonsense of pertaunt-like, should be read, portent-like, i. e. I would be his fate or destiny, and, like a portent, hang over, and influence his fortunes. For portents were not only thought to forebode, but to influence. So the Latins called a person destined to bring mischief, fatale portentum. WARBURTON. The emendation appeared first in the Oxford edition. MALONE. Until some proof be brought of the existence of such characters as Death and the Fool, in old farces, (for the mere assertion of Dr. Warburton is not to be relied on,) this passage must be literally understood, independently of any particular allusion. The old reading might probably mean-" so scoffingly would I o'ersway," &c. The initial letter in Stowe, mentioned by Mr. Reed in a note on the passage in Measure for Measure, here cited, has been altogether misunderstood. It is only a copy from an older letter which formed part of a Death's Dance, in which Death and the Fool were always represented. I have several of these alphabets. Douce. 3 None are so, &c.] These are observations worthy of a man who has surveyed human nature with the closest attention. JOHNSON. 4 to wantonness.] The quarto, 1598, and the first folio, have to wantons be. For this emendation we are likewise indebted to the second folio. MALONE. Since all the power thereof it doth apply, Enter BoYET. PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace? PRIN. Thy news, Boyet? BOYET. Prepare, madam, prepare Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are Muster your wits; stand in your own defence; they, What are That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say. BOYET. Under the cool shade of a sycamore, I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour: *First folio omits is. 5 Saint Dennis to saint Cupid!] The princess of France invokes, with too much levity, the patron of her country, to oppose his power to that of Cupid. JOHNSON. Johnson censures the Princess for invoking with so much levity the patron of her country, to oppose his power to that of Cupid; but that was not her intention. Being determined to engage the King and his followers, she gives for the word of battle St. Dennis, as the King, when he was determined to attack her, had given for the word of battle St. Cupid: 66 Saint Cupid then, and soldiers to the field." M. MASON. of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,-the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies. NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them ? HOL. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules. ARM. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club. HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose. MOTH. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry: well done, Hercules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it. ARM. For the rest of the worthies ?- 4 myself, or this gallant gentleman,] The old copy hasand this, &c. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. We ought, I believe, to read in the next line-shall pass for Pompey the great. If the text be right, the speaker must mean that the swain shall, in representing Pompey, surpass him, "because of his great limb." MALONE. "Shall pass Pompey the great," seems to mean, shall march in the procession for him; walk as his representative. 5 STEEVENS. to make an offence gracious ;] i. e. to convert an offence against yourselves, into a dramatic propriety. STEÉVENS. |
