BIRON. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out?— Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me; Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance; Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue; Nor never come in visor to my friend"; Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song: Taffata phrases, silken terms precise, Three-pil'd hyperboles', spruce affection Figures pedantical; these summer flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation: I do forswear them: and I here protest, By this white glove, (how white the hand, God Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd 9 66 my FRIEND ;] i. e. mistress. So, in Measure for Measure : he hath got his friend with child." STEEVENS. I THREE-PIL'D hyperboles,] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in The Winter's Tale, Autolycus says: 2 66 I have worn three-pile." STEEVEns. spruce AFFECTION,] The modern editors read-affectation. There is no need of change. We already in this play have had affection for affectation; "-witty without affection." The word was used by our author and his contemporaries, as a quadrisyllable; and the rhyme such as they thought sufficient. MALONE. In the Merry Wives of Windsor the word affectation occurs, and was most certainly designed to occur again in the present instance. No ear can be satisfied with such rhymes as affection and ostentation. STEEVENS. See the Essay on Shakspeare's Versification. Boswell. And, to begin, wench,-so God help me, la!- BIRON. 3 Sans SANS, I pray you.] It is scarce worth remarking, that the conceit here is obscured by the punctuation. It should be written Sans SANS, i. e. without SANS; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the last line of his speech, though just before he had forsworn all affectation in phrases, terms, &c. TYRWHItt. 4 Write, Lord have mercy on us,] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolorations, by which the infection is known to be received. JOHNSON. So, in Histriomastix, 1610: "It is as dangerous to read his name on a play-door, as a printed bill on a plague-door." Again, in The Whore of Babylon, 1607: 66 Have tokens stamp'd on them to make them known, "More dreadful than the bills that preach the plague." Again, in More Fools Yet, a collection of Epigrams, by R. S. 1610: "To declare the infection for his sin, “A crosse is set without, there's none within.” Again, ibid.: "But by the way he saw and much respected "Whereon was plac'd (as 'tis the custom still) STEEVENS. So, in Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters, 1632: "Lord have mercy on us may well stand over their doors, for debt is a most dangerous city pestilence." MALONE. PRIN. No, they are free, that gave these tokens to us. BIRON. Our states are forfeit, seek not to undo us. Ros. It is not so; For how can this be true, That you stand forfeit, being those that sue? BIRON. Peace; for I will not have to do with you. Ros. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend. BIRON. Speak for yourselves, my wit is at an end. KING. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression Some fair excuse. PRIN. The fairest is confession. Were you not here, but even now, disguis'd? PRIN. And were you well advis'd'? When you then were here, KING. I was, fair madam. PRIN. What did you whisper in your lady's ear? KING. That more than all the world I did respect her. PRIN. When she shall challenge this, you will reject her. KING. Upon mine honour, no. PRIN. Peace, peace, forbear; Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear 7. That you stand forfeit, being those that SUE?] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process. The jest lies in the ambiguity of sue, which signifies to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition. JOHNSON. 6 -well ADVIS'D?] i. e. acting with sufficient deliberation. So, in The Comedy of Errors: with "My liege I am advis'd in what I say." STEEVENS. -you FORCE not to forswear.] You force not is the same you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with less reluctance. JOHNSON. So, in Warner's Albion's England, b. x. ch. 59: 66 he forced not to hide how he did err." STEEVENS. KING. Despise me, when I break this oath of mine. PRIN. I will; and therefore keep it :-Rosaline, What did the Russian whisper in your ear? Ros. Madam, he swore, that he did hold me dear As precious eye-sight; and did value me KING. What mean you, madam? by my life, my troth, I never swore this lady such an oath. Ros. By heaven, you did; and to confirm it plain, You gave me this: but take it, sir, again. KING. My faith, and this, the princess I did give; I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve. PRIN. Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear; And lord Birón, I thank him, is my dear :What; will you have me, or your pearl again? BIRON. Neither of either; I remit both twain.— I see the trick on't ;-Here was a consent 9, (Knowing aforehand of our merriment,) To dash it like a Christmas comedy: Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany1, 8 Neither of either ;] This seems to have been a common expression in our author's time. It occurs in The London Prodigal, 1605, and other comedies. MALONE. 9a CONSENT,] i. e. a conspiracy. So, in K. Henry VI. Part I. I : "That have consented to king Henry's death." STEEVENS. zany,] A zany is a buffoon, a merry Andrew, a gross mimick. So, in Marston's Insatiate Countess, 1613: 66 sung 66 "To every seuerall zanie's instrument." Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight2, some Dick, That smiles his cheek in jeers; and knows the trick Again, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602: 2 3 66 Laughs them to scorn, as man doth busy apes, "When they will zany men." STEEVENS. some TRENCHER-KNIGHT,] See 66 page 435: - some DICK, That smiles his cheek in JEERS;] Mr. Theobald says,—he "cannot for his heart, comprehend the meaning of this phrase.". It was not his heart but his head that stood in the way. In years, signifies into wrinkles. So, in The Merchant of Venice: "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.” See the note on that line.-But the Oxford editor was in the same case, and so alters it to fleers. WARBURton. Webster, in his Dutchess of Malfy, makes Castruchio declare of his lady: "She cannot endure merry company, for she says much laughing fills her too full of the wrinckle." FARmer. Again, in Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue, &c. 1607: "That light and quick, with wrinkled laughter painted." Again, in Twelfth-Night : - he doth smile his cheek into more lines than are in the new map," &c. STEEVENS. 66 The old copies read-in yeeres. Jeers, the present emendation, which I proposed some time ago, I have since observed, was made by Mr. Theobald. Dr. Warburton endeavours to support the old reading, by explaining years to mean wrinkles which belong alike to laughter and old age. But allowing the word to be used in that licentious sense, surely our author would have written, not in, but into, years-i. e. into wrinkles, as in a passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from Twelfth-Night: " he does smile his cheek into more lines than are in the new map," &c. The change being only that of a single letter for another nearly resembling it, I have placed jeers (formerly spelt jeeres) in my text. The words-jeer, flout, and mock, were much more in use in our author's time than at present. In Othello, 1622, the former word is used exactly as here: - "And mark the jeers, the gibes, and notable scorns, "That dwell in every region of his face." Out-roaring Dick was a celebrated singer, who, with William Wimbars, is said by Henry Chettle, in his Kind Harts Dreame, to have got twenty shillings a day by singing at Braintree fair, VOL. IV. 2 F |