Of youth and ignorance; both my revenge and hate, Ber. Pardon, my gracious lord; for I fubmit King. Take her by the hand, And tell her, fhe is thine: to whom I promise Ber, I take her hand. King. Good fortune, and the favour of the king, Smile upon this contract; whofe ceremony Shall feem expedient on the new-born brief, And be perform'd to-night; the folemn feaft Shall more attend upon the coming space, himself with deftructive violence againft pofts or walls. To this the allufion, I fuppofe, is made. JOHNSON. Shakespeare has the fame expreffion in Cymbeline, where Postkumus fays: Whence come these flaggers on me?" STEEVENS. whose ceremony Shall feem expedient on the new-born brief, And be perform'd to-night-] This, if it be at all intelligible, is at least obfcure and inaccurate. Perhaps it was written thus: what ceremony Shall feem expedient on the new-born brief, Shall be perform'd to-night; the folemn feaft Shall more attend. -] The brief is the contract of efpoufal, or the licence of the church. The king means, What ceremony is neceffary to make this contrac a marriage, fhall be immediately performed; the rest may be deayed, JaнNSON. Expecting Expecting abfent friends. As thou lov'ft her, [Exeunt all but Parolles and Lafeu Laf. Do you hear, monfieur? a word with you. Par. Your pleasure, fir? Laf. Your lord and mafter did well to make his recantation. Par. Recantation?—————My lord ? Par. A moft harfh one; and not to be understood without bloody fucceeding. My mafter? Laf. Are you companion to the count Roufillon? man. Laf. To what is count's man; count's mafter is of another ftile. Par. You are too old, fir; let it fatisfy you, you are too old. Laf. I must tell thee, firrah, I write man; to which title age cannot bring thee. Par. What I dare too well do, I dare not do. Laf. I did think thee, for two ordinaries'; te be a pretty wife fellow; thou didst make tolerable vent of thy travel; it might pass: yet the scarfs, and the bannerets, about thee, did manifoldly diffuade me from believing thee a veffel of too great a burden. I have now found thee; when I lofe thee again, I care not yet art thou good for nothing but taking up; and that thou art scarce worth. Par. Hadft thou not the privilege of antiquity upon thee, "The old copy has this fingular stage direction: Parolles and Lafeu ftay behind, commenting of this wedding. STEEVENS. -for two ordinaries, ] While I fat twice with thee at table. JOHNSON. 2 taking up;-] To take up, is to contradict, to call to account, as well as to pick off the ground. JOHNSON. Laf. Do not plunge thy felf too far in anger, left thou haften thy trial; which if-Lord have mercy on thee for a hen! So, my good window of lattice, fare thee well; thy cafement I need not open, for I look through thee. Give me thy hand. Par. My lord, you give me moft egregious indignity. Laf. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it. Par. I have not, my lord, deferv'd it. Laf. Yes, good faith, every dram of it; and I will not bate thee a fcruple: Par. Well, I shall be wifer: Laf. E'en as foon as thou can'ft, for thou haft to pull at a smack o'the contrary. If ever thou be'st bound in thy fcarf, and beaten, thou fhalt find what it is to be proud of thy bondage. I have a defire to hold my acquaintance with thee, or rather my knowledge; that I may fay, in the default, he is a man I know. Par. My lord, you do me moft infupportable vex ation. Laf. I would it were hell-pains for thy fake, and my poor doing eternal: for doing, I am paft; as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me • leave 4: 3 [Exit. Par. in the default,] That is, at a need. JOHNSON. 4 for doing I am paft: as I will by thee, in what motion age will give me leave.] Here is a line loft after paft; fo that it should be diftinguished by a break with afterifks. The very words of the loft line it is impoffible to retrieve; but the fenfe is obvious enough. For doing I am paft; age has deprived me of much of my force and vigour, yet I have ftill enough to fhew the world I can do myfelf right, as I will by thee, in what motion [or in the best manner] age will give me leave. WARBURTON. This fufpicion of chafm is groundless. The conceit which is fo thin that it might well escape a hafty reader, is in the word past, I am paft, as I will be patt by thee. JOHNSON. VOL. IV. Doing, Par. Well, thou hast a son shall take this difgrace off me'; fcurvy, old, filthy, fcurvy lord!-Well, I must be patient; there is no fettering of authority. I'll beat him, by my life, if I can meet him with any convenience, an he were double and double a lord. I'll have no more pity of his age, than I would have of-I'll beat him, an if I could but meet him again. Re-enter Lafeu. Laf. Sirrah, your lord and master's marry'd, there's news for you; you have a new mistress. Par. I moft unfeignedly befeech your lordship to make some reservation of your wrongs: He is my good lord whom I ferve above, is my master. Laf. Who? God? Par. Ay, fir.. Laf. The devil it is, that's thy mafter. Why doft thou garter up thy arms o' this fashion? doft make hofe of thy fleeves do other fervants fo? Thou wert best fet thy lower part where thy nofe ftands. By mine honour, if I were but two hours younger, I'd beat thee methinks, thou art a general offence, and every man fhould beat thee. I think, thou waft created for men to breathe themselves upon thee. Doing is here ufed obfcenely. So, in Meafure for Measure: "Bawd. Well, what has he done? "Clown. A woman." Again, in Ben Jonfon's tranflation of a paffage in an Epigram of Petronius: Again, in The Fox: "Do I not know if women have a will, They'll do, 'gainft all the watches in the world?" COLLINS. • Well, thou haft a fon fhall take this difgrace off me ;-] This the poet makes Parolles fpeak alone; and this is nature. A coward fhould try to hide,his poltroonery even from himself.-An ordinary writer would have been glad of fuch an opportunity to bring him to confeffion. WARBURTON. Par. Par. This is hard and undeferved measure, my lord. Laf. Go to, fir; you were beaten in Italy for picking a kernel out of a pomegranate; you are a vagabond, and no true traveller: you are more faucy with lords, and honourable perfonages, than the heraldry of your birth and virtue gives you commiffion. You are not worth another word, elfe I'd call you knave. I leave you. [Exit. Enter Bertram.. Par. Good, very good; it is fo then.-Good, very good; let it be conceal'd a while. Ber. Undone, and forfeited to cares for ever! Ber. Although before the folemn prieft I have fworn, I will not bed her. Par. What? what, fweet heart? Ber. O my Parolles, they have married me :I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. Par. France is a dog-hole, and it no more merits The tread of a man's foot: to the wars! Ber. There's letters from my mother; what the import is, I know not yet. Par. Ay, that would be known: To the wars, my boy, to the wars! He wears his honour in a box unseen, That hugs his kicksy-wickfy here at home; Spending his manly marrow in her arms, In former copies: than the commiffion of your birth and virtue gives you he raldry.] Sir Tho. Hanmer restored it. JOHNSON. 7 That bugs his kickfy-wickly &c.] Sir T. Hanmer, in his Gloffary, obferves that kickfy-wickfy is a made word in ridicule and difdain of a wife. Taylor, the waterpoet, has a poem in difdain of his debtors, intitled, a kickfy-winfy, or a Lerry come-twang, Dr. GRAY. |