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BOULT. I have cried her almost to the number of her hairs; I have drawn her picture with my

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voice on

BAWD. And I pr'ythee tell me, how dost thou find the inclination of the people, especially of the younger sort ?

BOULT. 'Faith, they listened to me, as they would have hearkened to their father's testament. There was a Spaniard's mouth so watered, that he went to bed to her very description.

BAWD. We shall have him here to-morrow with his best ruff on.

BOULT. To-night, to-night. But, mistress, do you know the French knight that cowers i' the hams' ?

Sd BAWD. Who? monsieur Veroles?

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BOULT. Ay; he offered to cut a caper at the

Now, sir, hast thou cried her through the market?

have drawn her picture with my voice.] So, in The Wife for a Month, [by Fletcher, vol. v. p. 285, edit. 1778,] Evanthe says,

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"I'd rather thou had'st deliver'd me to pirates,

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Betray'd me to uncurable diseases,

Hung up my picture in a market-place,

"And sold me to vile bawds!

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And we are told in a note on this passage, [by Mr. Reed] that it was formerly the custom at Naples to hang up the pictures of. celebrated courtezans in the publick parts of the town, to serve as directions where they lived. Had not Fletcher the story of Ma

rina in h his mind, when he wrote the above lines? M. MASON.

The Wife for a Month was one of Fletcher's latest plays. "It was exhibited in May, 1624. MALONE.

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a Spaniard's mouth so water'd, THAT he went, &c.] Thus the quarto 1619. The first copy reads, a Spaniard's mouth water'd, and he went," &c. MALONE.

ing

COWERS i' the hams?] To cower is to sink by bendhams. So, in King Henry VI. :

The splitting rocks cowr'd in the sinking sands."yed Again, in Gammer Gurton's Needle:

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They cower so o'er the coles, their eies be blear'd with smoke." STEEVENS.

proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow

BAWD. Well, well; as for him, he brought his disease hither: here he does but repair it'. I know, he will come in our shadow, to scatter his crowns in the sun

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he offered to cut a caper at the proclamation; but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her to-morrow.] If there were no other proof of Shakspeare's hand in this piece, this admirable stroke of humour would furnish decisive evidence of it.

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MALONE.

here he does but REPAIR it.] To repair here means to renovate. So, in Cymbeline:

"O, disloyal thing!

"That should'st repair my youth-."

Again, in All's Well That Ends Well:

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It much repairs me

"To talk of your good father." MALONE.

to scatter his crowns in the sun.] There is here perhaps some allusion to the lues venerea, though the words French crowns in their literal acceptation were certainly also in Boult's thoughts. It occurs frequently in our author's plays. So, in Measure for Measure:

"Lucio. A French crown more.

"Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me."

MALONE.

I see no allusion in this passage to the French disease, but merely to French crowns in a literal sense, the common coin of that country.

Boult had said before, that he had proclaimed the beauty of Marina, and drawn her picture with his voice. He says, in the next speech, that with such a sign as Marina they should draw every traveller to their house, considering Marina, or rather the picture he had drawn of her, as the sign to distinguish the house, which the Bawd, on account of her beauty, calls the sun and the meaning of the passage is merely this:" that the French knight will seek the shade or shelter of their house, to scatter his money there."-But if we make a slight alteration in this passage, and read " on our shadow," instead of “ in our shadow," it will then be capable of another interpretation. "On our shadow" may mean on our representation or description of Marina;' and the sun may mean the real sign of the house. For there is a passage in The Custom of the Country, which gives reason to imagine that the sun was, in former times, the usual sign of a brothel.

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When Sulpitia asks, "What is become of the Dane ?" Jacques

BOULT. Well, if we had of every nation a traveller, we should lodge them with this sign 9.

BAWD. Pray you, come hither awhile. You have fortunes coming upon you. Mark me; you must seem to do that fearfully, which you commit willingly; to despise profit, where you have most gain. To weep that you live as you do, makes pity in your lovers: Seldom, but that pity begets you a good opinion, and that opinion a mere profit 1. MAR. I understand you not.

BOULT. O, take her home, mistress, take her home: these blushes of her's must be quenched with some present practice.

BAWD. Thou say'st true, i' faith, so they must: for your bride goes to that with shame, which is her way to go with warrant 2.

replies, "What! goldy-locks! he lies at the sign of the sun to be new-breeched." M. MASON.

Mr. M. Mason's note is too ingenious to be omitted; and yet, where humour is forced, (as in the present instance,) it is frequently obscure, and especially when vitiated by the slightest typographical error or omission. All we can with certainty infer from the passage before us is, that an opposition between sun and shadow was designed. STEEVENS.

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we should lodge them with this sign.] If a traveller from every part of the globe were to assemble in Mitylene, they would all resort to this house, while we had such a sign to it as this virgin. This, I think, is the meaning. A similar eulogy is pronounced on Imogen in Cymbeline: "She's a good sign, but I have seen small reflection of her wit." MALONE.

I-a MERE profit.] i. e. an absolute, a certain profit. So, in Hamlet:

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things rank and gross in nature

"Possess it merely."

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:

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'Engag'd my friend to his mere enemy." MALONE.

for your bride goes to that with shame, which is her way to go with warrant.] You say true; for even a bride, who has the sanction of the law to warrant her proceeding, will not surrender her person without some constraint. "Which is her way to go with warrant," means only to which she is entitled to go.'

MALONE.

BOULT. 'Faith some do, and some do not. But, mistress, if I have bargained for the joint,ENGĂ BAWD. Thou may'st cut a morsel off the spit. A BOULT. I may so.

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BAWD. Who should deny it? Come young one, I like the manner of your garments well.

BOULT. Ay, by my faith, they shall not be changed yet.

BAWD. Boult, spend thou that in the town: report what a sojourner we have; you'll lose nothing by custom. When nature framed this piece, she meant thee a good turn; therefore say what a paragon she is, and thou hast the harvest out of thine own report*.

BOULT. I warrant you, mistress, thunder shall not so awake the beds of eels, as my giving out her beauty stir up the lewdly-inclined. I'll bring home some to-night.

ui tasi dorM BAWD. Come your ways; follow me. dkins isuc9 o' MAR. If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,

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3 When nature framed this piece, she meant thee a good turn ;] A similar sentiment occurs in King Lear:

"That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh,
"To raise my fortunes." STEEVENS.

and thou hast the harvest out of thine own report.] So, in

Much Ado About Nothing:

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***** Frame the season for your own harvest.'

STEEVENS.

thunder shall not so awake the beds of eels,] Thunder is not supposed to have an effect on fish in general, but on eels only, which are roused by it from the mud, and are therefore more easily taken. So, in Marston's Satires:

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appeare,

They are nought but eeles, that never will sar Till that tempestuous winds, or thunder, teareas of "Their slimy beds." L. ii. Sat. vii. v. 204. WHALLEY.J^ 6 If fires be hot, knives sharp, or waters deep,] So, in Antony and Cleopatra: 50 28 3066 09

-E9% if knife, drugs, serpents, have 26 grad soncatriz of Edge, sting, or operation, I am safe." STEEVENS, REJT Again, more appositely, in Othello:

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Untied I still my virgin knot will keep".
Diana, aid my purpose!

BAWD. What have we to do with Diana? Pray you, will you go with us?

[Exeunt.

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ཏྲ,•,,་ཐེ Enter CLEON and DIONYZA.

DION. Why, are you foolish? Can it be undone? CLE. O Dionyza, such a piece of slaughter The sun and moon ne'er look'd upon!

DION

You'll turn a child again.

I think

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CLE. Were I chief lord of all the spacious world,

I'd give it to undo the deed. O lady,

Much less in blood than virtue, yet a princess
To equal any single crown o' the earth,

I' the justice of compare! O villain Leonine,
Whom thou hast poison'd too!

If thou hadst drunk to him, it had been a kindness

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7 Untied I still my VIRGIN KNOT will keep.] same classical allusion in The Tempest:

We have the

"If thou dost break her virgin-knot," &c. MALONE.

PHEY

8 Can it be undone?] Thus, Lady Macbeth;

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wing what's done, is done." STEEVENS,

to undo the deed.]. So, in Macbeth:

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"Wake Duncan with this knocking:-Ay, would thou could'st!"

In Pericles, as in Macbeth, the wife is more criminal than the husband, whose repentance follows immediately on the murder. Thus also, in Twine's translation: "But Strangulio himself consented not to this treason, but so soon as he heard of the foul mischaunce, being as it were all amort, and amazed with heaviness, &c. and therewithal he looked towardes his wife, › saying, Thou wicked woman," &c. STEEVENS.

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