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 Biron, 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, (Knowing aforehand of our merriment,) To dash it like a Christmas comedy: Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight To make my lady laugh, when she's dispos'd,- BOYET. d Full merrily Hath this brave manage, this career, been run. BIRON. Lo, he is tilting straight! Peace; I have done. Enter COSTARD. Welcome, pure wit! thou partest a fair fray. COST. O Lord, sir, they would know, (*) Old copies, 'tis. a That smiles his cheek in years;] One that by incessant grinning wears his face into wrinkles. Thus, in the "Merchant of Venice," Act I. Sc. 1, "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." b By the squire,-] From the French esquiere, a square, or rule. e Go, you are allow'd;] That is, you are hired, licensed as a fool or jester,— "There is no slander in an allow'd fool." Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 5. d Hath this brave manage,-] The quarto has nuage, and the folio, 1623, manager. e Pompey the great;] Some surprise has been expressed at Costard's first pronouncing the name Pompion, and then giving it, immediately after, correctly; but his former speeches show either COST. O Lord, sir, the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will show whereuntil it doth amount: for mine own part, I am, as they say, but to parfect one man, in one poor man; Pompion the great, sir. BIRON. Art thou one of the Worthies? COST. It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompey the great; for mine own part, I know not the degree of the Worthy; but I am to stand for him. BIRON. Go, bid them prepare. COST. We will turn it finely off, sir; we will [Exit COSTARD. KING. Biron, they will shame us, let them not approach. take some care. BIRON. We are shame-proof, my lord: and 't is f Where zeal strives to content, and the contents This passage, as it stands, looks like a printer's jumble. Some editors have attempted to render it intelligible by substituting die for dies, and them for that; and others, lies, in place of dies. Perhaps we should read:- Where zeal strives to content, and discontent Shakespeare has before indulged in the same antithesis,- 44 Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Sc 1. Enter ARMADO. ARM. Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy royal sweet breath, as will utter a brace of words. [ARMADO converses with the KING, and delivers him a paper. PRIN. Doth this man serve God? PRIN. He speaks not like a man of God's making. ARM. That's all one, my fair, sweet, honey monarch: for, I protest, the schoolmaster is exceedingly fantastical; too-too vain; too-too vain: But we will put it, as they say, to fortuna della guerra. I wish you the peace of mind, most royal couplement ! [Exit ARMADO. KING. Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies: He presents Hector of Troy; the swain, Pompey the great; the parish curate, Alexander; Armado's page, Hercules; the pedant, Judas Machabæus. And if these four Worthies in their first show thrive, These four will change habits, and present the other five. BIRON. There is five in the first show. BIRON. The pedant, the braggart, the hedgepriest, the fool, and the boy : Abate throw at novum; and the whole world again Cannot prick out five such, take each one in his vein. KING. The ship is under sail, and here she comes amain. [Seats brought for the KING, PRINCESS, &c. COST. It is great, sir ;-Pompey surnam❜d the great; That oft in field, with targe and shield, did make my foe to sweat: And travelling along this coast, I here am come by chance; And lay my arms before the legs of this sweet lass of France. If your ladyship would say, Thanks, Pompey, I had done. PRIN. Great thanks, great Pompey. COST. "Tis not so much worth; but, I hope, I was perfect: I made a little fault in great. BIRON. My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best Worthy. Enter NATHANIEL, armed, for Alexander. NATH. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander; By east, west, north, and south, I spread my conquering might: My 'scutcheon plain declares that I am Alisander. BOYET. Your nose says, no, you are not; for it stands too right. BIRON. Your nose smells, no, in this, most tender-smelling knight. PRIN. The conqueror is dismay'd: Proceed, good Alexander. NATH. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander. BOYET. Most true, 't is right; you were so, COST. COST. O, sir [to NATH.], you have overthrown Alisander the conqueror! You will be scraped out of the painted cloth for this: your lion, that holds his poll-ax sitting on a close stool, will be given to A-jax: he will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror, and afeard* to speak! run away for shame, Alisander. [NATH. retires.] There, an 't shall please you; a foolish mild man; an honest man, look you, and soon dash'd! He is a marvellous good neighbour, in sooth; and a very good bowler: but, for Alisander, alas, you see how 't is;-a little o'erparted:-But there are Worthies a coming will speak their mind in some other sort. PRIN. Stand aside, good Pompey. (*) First folio, afraid. "Abate a throw," &c. b You lie,-] We must suppose that, on his entrance, Costard prostrates himself before the court; hence Boyet's joke. HOL. You have put me out of countenance. BIRON. False: we have given thee faces. HOL. But you have out-fac'd them all. BIRON. An thou wert a lion, we would do so. BOYET. Therefore, as he is an ass, let him go. And so adieu, sweet Jude! nay, why dost thou stay? DUM. For the latter end of his name. BIRON. For the ass to the Jude; give it him: —Jud-as,(8) away! HOL. This is not generous; not gentle; not humble. abone face on a flask.] Query, Boni-face, or Bon-face? When he breathed, he was a man-] These words are from Enter ARMADO, armed, for Hector. BIRON. Hide thy head, Achilles; here comes Hector in arms. DUM. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry. KING. Hector was but a Trojan in respect of this. BOYET. But is this Hector? DUM. I think Hector was not so clean-timbered. LONG. His leg is too big for Hector. DUM. More calf, certain. BOYET. No; he is best indued in the small. BIRON. This cannot be Hector. DUM. He's a god or a painter; for he makes ARM. Sweet lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. LONG. I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against Hector. DUM. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound. ARM. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried: when he breathed, he was a man'—But I will forward with my device: Sweet royalty [to the PRINCESS], bestow on me the sense of hearing. [BIRON whispers COSTARD. PRIN. Speak, brave Hector: we are much delighted. ARM. I do adore thy sweet grace's slipper. ARM. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal,— CoST. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone; she is two months on her way. (*) First folio omits Peace. (4) Old copies yea. the quarto. The flio, 1623, omits them. ARM. What meanest thou? Cosr. Faith, unless you play the honest Trojan, the poor wench is cast away: she's quick; the child brags in her belly already; 't is yours. ARM. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? thou shalt die. COST. Then shall Hector be whipped for Jaquenetta that is quick by him; and hanged for Pompey that is dead by him. Dux. Most rare Pompey! ARM. For mine own part, I breathe free breath: I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies. KING. How fares your majesty? PRIN. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. KING. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay. PRIN. Prepare, I say.--I thank you, gracious lords, For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, с KING. The extreme parts of time extremely forms All causes to the purpose of his speed; The holy suit which fain it would convince; d From what it purpos'd; since, to wail friends lost, PRIN. I understand you not; my griefs are double. (*) Folio, 1623, he, a I go woolward for penance.] To go woolward, i. e. to go with a woollen garment next the skin, was a penance appointed for pilgrims and penitents; and from this arose the saying, when any one was shirtless, that he went woolward. Thus, in Lodge's "Incarnate Devils," 1596,-" His common course is to go always untrust; except when his shirt is a washing, and then he goes woolward." And in Samuel Rowland's collection of Epigrams and Satyres, which he quaintly intitules, "The Letting of Humour's lood in the Head-Vaine," &c., Satyre 4: "He takes a common course to goe untrust, b A heavy heart bears not a humble tongue:] I am very doubtful of the genuineness of this line; the true lection is probably,"A heavy heart bears but a humble tongue." Or, as Theobald suggested, - "A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue." Mr. The extreme parts of time-] The word parts here is an admitted misprint. Mr. Singer proposes to substitute haste. Collier's corrector rewrites the line, "The extreme parting time expressly forms," &c. A much slighter change will render the sense clear. I would read, "The extreme dart of time extremely forms All causes to the purpose of his speed," &c. And I am strengthened in my belief that parts is a corruption for dart or shaft by the next line,— "And often, at his very loose, decides," &c. (*) First folio, so. To loose an arrow is to discharge it from the bow:-"th' Archers terme, who is not said to finish the feate of his shot before he give the loose, and deliuer his arrow from his bow."-PUTIENHAM'S Arte of English Poesie, 1589, p. 145. Thus, in Midsummer-Night's Dream," Act II. Sc. 1,— "And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow, As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts." So also in Ben Jonson's " Every Man out of His Humour," Act III. Sc. 3 (Gifford's Edition): 68 her brain's a very quiver of jests! and she does dart them abroad with that sweet loose, and judicial aim, that you would" &c. Where, from not knowing, strangely enough, the technical meaning of this term, the accomplished editor has punctuated the passage thus,"She does dart them abroad with that sweet, loose, and judicial aim," &c. By the extreme dart of time, the King means as he directly after explains it," The latest minute of the hour." d Which fain it would convince:] To convince is to conquer, to So in "Macbeth," Act I. Sc. 7, overcome. "his two chamberlains Will I with wine and wassel so convince," &c. • I understand you not; my griefs are double.] For double, which seems a very inapposite expression, Mr. Collier's corrector suggests dull,-a good conjecture: but, as coming nearer to the letters in the text, I think it more likely the poet wrote, "my griefs hear dully." Which, besides, appears to lead more naturally to Biron's rejoin. der: "Honest plain words est pierce the ear of grief." |