Than the queen's life? a gracious innocent foul;
More free, than he is jealous.

Ant. That's enough.

Atten. Madam, he hath not flept to-night; commanded

None should come at him.

Paul. Not fo hot, good fir;

I come to bring him fleep. "Tis fuch as you,-
That creep like fhadows by him, and do figh
At each his needlefs heavings,-such as you
Nourish the cause of his awaking: I

Do come with words as med'cinal as true;
Honeft, as either; to purge him of that humour,
That preffes him from fleep.

Leo. What noise there, ho?

Paul. No noife, my lord; but needful conference, About fome goffips for your highness.

Leo. How?

Away with that audacious lady: Antigonus,

I charg'd thee, that the should not come about me; I knew, fhe would.

Ant. I told her fo, my lord,

On your difpleafure's peril, and on mine,
She fhould not vifit you.

Leo. What, can't not rule her?

Paul. From all difhonefty, he can in this,
(Unless he take the courfe that you have done,
Commit me, for committing honour) truft it,
He fhall not rule me.

Ant. Lo you now; you hear!

When the will take the rein, I let her run;
But fhe'll not stumble.

Paul. Good my liege, I come,

And, I befeech you, hear me, who profefs
Myfelf your loyal fervant, your phyfician,
Your most obedient counsellor; yet that dares
Lefs
appear fo, in comforting your evils,
Than fuch as moft feem yours :-I fay, I come

From

From your good queen.

Leo. Good queen!

Paul. Good queen, my lord, good queen! I fay, good queen;

And would by combat make her good, fo were 17! A man, the worst about you.

Leo. Force her hence.

1

Paul. Let him, that makes but trifles of his eyes, First hand me: on mine own accord, I'll off; But, first, I'll do my errand.The good queen, For fhe is good, hath brought you forth a daughter; Here 'tis; commends it to your bleffing.

Leo. Out!

[Laying down the child.

A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door :

1 And would by combat make her good, so were I
A man, the worft about you.]

A moft

Paulina fuppofes the king's jealousy to be raised and inflamed by the courtiers about him; who, fhe finely fays:

creep like fhadows by him, and do figh

At each bis needlefs heavings:]

Surely then, he could not fay, that were the a man, the worst of thefe, he would vindicate her mistrefs's honour against the king's fufpicions, in fingle combat. Shakespeare, I am perfuaded,

wrote:

-fo were I

A man, on th' worst about you,

i. e. were I a man, I would vindicate her honour, on the worst of thefe fycophants that are about you. WARBURTON.

The worst means only the lowest. Were I the meaneft of your fervants, I would yet claim the combat against any accufer.

}

DON JOHNSON.

8 A mankind witch!· A mankind woman, is yet ufed in the midland counties, for a woman violent, ferocious, and mifchievous. It has the fame fenfe in this paffage. Witches are fuppofed to be mankind, to put off the foftness and delicacy of women; therefore fir Hugh, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, fays of a woman fufpected to be a witch, "that he does not like when a woman has a beard." Of this meaning Mr. Theobald has given examples. JOHNSON. OTA So, in the Two Angry Women of Abington, 15996

"That e'er I fhould be feen to ftrike a woman.

"Why she is mankind, therefore thou may'st strike her."

I am as ignorant in that, as you

In fo intitling me: and no lefs honest

Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant, As this world goes, to pafs for honeft.

Leo. Traitors!

Will you not pufh her out? give her the baftard :-
[To Antigonus.
Thou, dotard, thou art woman-tyr'd, unroofted
By thy dame Partlet here,-take up the bastard;
Take't up, I fay; give't to thy 'crone.

Paul.

It has been observed to me that man-keen is a word still used in the north of England, where it is applied to horfes that bite at those who dress them, and to girls when they are indecently forward and fhew themselves too fond of men. Mankind and mankeen, however, feem in general to have one common meaning. So, in Stephens's apology for Herodotus, p. 263: "He cured a man-keene wolfe which had hurt many in the city." STEEVENS.

I fhall offer an etymology of the adjective mankind, which may perhaps more fully explain it. Dr. Hickes's Anglo-Saxon grammar, p. 119. edit. 1705, obferves: "Saxonicè man eft a mein quod Cimbricè eft nocumentum, Francicè eft nefas, fcelus." So that mankind may fignify one of a wicked and pernicious nature, from the Saxon man, mischief or wickedness, and from kind, nature. TOLLET.

-]

9 -thou art woman-tyr'd ;· Woman tyr'd, is peck'd by a woman. The phrafe is taken from falconry, and is often employed by writers contemporary with Shakespeare. So, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612; 1. "He has given me a bone to tire on.' Again, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631:

-the vulture tires

Upon the eagle's heart."

Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

"Muft with keen fang tire upon thy flefh."

Partlet is the name of the hen in the old story book of Reynard the Fox, STEEVENS.

thy crone.]

i. e. thy old worn-out woman. A croan is an old toothless sheep: thence an old woman. So, in the Mal-content, 1606 There

Paul. For ever..

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou...

Tak'ft up the princess, by that forced basenefs
Which he has put upon't!

Leo. He dreads his wife.

Paul. So, I would, you did; then, 'twere past all

doubt,

You'd call your children yours.

Leo. A neft of traitors!

Ant. I am none, by this good light.

Paul. Nor I; nor any,

But one, that's here; and that's himself: for he
The facred honour of himself, his queen's,
His hopeful fon's, his babe's, betrays to flander,
Whofe fting is fharper than the fword's; and will not
(For, as the cafe now ftands, it is a curfe
He cannot be compell'd to't) once remove
The root of his opinion, which is rotten,
As ever oak, or ftone, was found.

Leo. A callat,

Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her huf

band,

And now baits me !-This brat is none of mine;
It is the iffue of Polixenes:

I

3

is an old crone in the court, her name is Maquerelle." Again, in Love's Miftrefs, by T. Heywood, 1636:

"Witch and hag, crone and beldam."

Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "All the gold in Crete cannot get one of you old crones with child." Again, in the an cient enterlude of the Repentaunce of Marie Magdalene, 1567

"I have knowne painters that have made old crones,
"To appeare as pleasant as little prety young Jones."

Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou

Tak'
ft up the princefs, by that forced bafenefs]

STEEVENS.

Leontes had ordered Antigonus to take up the baftard; Paulina forbids him to touch the princefs under that appellation. Forcedis falfe, uttered with violence to truth. JOHNSON.

Hence

Hence with it; and, together with the dam,
Commit them to the fire.

Paul. It is yours;

And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge,
So like you, 'tis the worse.Behold, my lords,
Although the print be little, the whole matter
And copy of the father: eye, nose, lip,

The trick of his frown, his forehead; nay, the valley,
The pretty dimples of his chin, and cheek; his fmiles 3;
The very mould and frame of hand, nail, finger :
And, thou, good goddess nature, which haft made it
So like to him that got it, if thou haft.
The ordering of the mind too, 'mongst all colours
No yellow in't ; left fhe fufpect, as he does,
Her children not her husband's!

Leo. A grofs hag!

And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd, That wilt not stay her tongue.

Ant. Hang all the hufbands,

That cannot do that feat, you'll leave yourself
Hardly one fubject.

Leo. Once more, take her hence.

Paul. A moft unworthy and unnatural lord

Can do no more.

Leo. I'll have thee burnt.

his fimiles;] These two redundant words might be rejected, efpecially as the child has already been reprefented as the inheritor of its father's dimples and frown. STEEVENS.

4 No yellow in't;

Yellow is the colour of jealoufy. JOHNSON.

So, Nym fays in the Merry Wives of Windfor: "I will poffefs him with yellowness." STEEVENS.

5 And, lozel,

This is a term of contempt, frequently used by Spenfer. I likewife meet with it in the Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: To have the lozel's company;"

22

A lozel is a worthlefs fellow. Again, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

"Peace, prating lozel, &c." STEEVENS.