Ere he arrive his weary noon-tide prick 3;
And let thy mifty vapours march fo thick 4
That in their fmoky ranks his fmother'd
May fet at noon, and make perpetual ni

Were Tarquin night, (as he is but night's o
The filver-fhining queen he would diftain
Her twinkling handmaids 7 too, by him def
Through night's black bofom fhould not po
So fhould I have copartners in my pain:

And fellowship in woe doth woe affuage
As palmers' chat makes fhort their pilgri

"Ye fen-fuck'd fogs,." STEEVENS.S 3-noon-tide prick;] So, in one of our authour's pla "And make an evening at the noon-tide prick i. e. the point of noon. Again, in Damon and Pythias, "It pricketb faft upon noon." STEEVENS. Again, in Acolaftus his After-witte, 1600:

"Scarce had the fun attain'd his noon-tide pric 4 And let thy mifty vapours march fo thick,] The qu dent error of the prefs, reads-mufty. The fubfequen mifty. So, before:

"Covers the fhame that follows fuch delight." 5-(as be is but night's child,)] The wicked, in fcri are called the children of darkness. STEEVENS. 6-be would diftain;] Thus all the copies before which reads:

The filver-fbining queen he would difdain.

Dr. Sewell, unwilling, to print nonfenfe, altered this to-bim would difdain. MALONE.

7 Her twinkling handmaids-] That is, the ftars. and Creffida:

By all Diana's waiting-women yonder,

"And by herfelf, I will not tell you whofe." M 8 Through night's black bofom fhould not peep again:]

"Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dar "To cry, bold, bold." MALONE.

9 And fellowship in woe doth woe affuage,] So, in Kin "But then the mind much fufferance doth o'er-f "When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship.

Where now 2 I have no one to blush with me,
To cross their arms, and hang their heads with mine,
To mask their brows *, and hide their infamy;
But I alone, alone muft fit and pine,

Seafoning the earth with fhowers of filver brine3;
Mingling my talk with tears, my grief with groans,
Poor waiting monuments of lafting moans.

O night, thou furnace of foul-reeking smoke,
Let not the jealous day behold that face
Which underneath thy black all-hiding cloak
Immodeftly lies martyr'd with difgrace!
Keep ftill poffeffion of thy gloomy place,.
Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

or if four woe delight in fellowship-."

So Chaucer, Troilus and Crefeide, B. I.

"Men faie, to wretch is confolation,

"To have another fellow in his paine." MALONE.
Solamen miferis focios habuiffe doloris.

I believe this is a line of Cato's difticks. It is found in a common fchool book; Synopfis communium locorum. STEEVENS.

1 As palmers' chat makes fort their pilgrimage.] This is the reading of the quarto, 1594. The octavo, 1616, and all the modern editions, read, unintelligibly:

As palmers that make short their pilgrimage. MALONE.

As palmers' chat makes fhort their pilgrimage.] So, in K. Richard II:

rough uneven ways

"Draw out our miles, and make them wearifome:

"And yet your fair difcourfe hath been as fugar,
"Making the hard way fweet and delectable."

Again, ibid:

46 wanting your company,

"Which, I proteft, hath very much beguil'd
"The tedioufnefs and procefs of my travel."

STEEVENS.

-] Where for whereas. See Vol. VI. p. 195, n. 4.

2 Where now

To cross their arms, and hang their heads with mine,
To malk their brows,-] So, in Macbeth:

What, man! ne'er pull your bat upon your brows;
"Give forrow words." MALONE.

MALONE.

3 Seafoning the earth with fhowers of filver brine;] So, in Shakfpeare's Lover's Complaint:

"Laund'ring the filken figures in the brine,

"Which feafon'd woe had pelleted in tears.'

"

Again, in All's well that ends well :- tears,-the best brine a maiden can feafon her praife in." MALONE.

K 2

That

That all the faults which in thy reig
May likewise be fepulcher'd in thy

Make me not object to the tell-tale day
The light will fhew, character'ds in m
The ftory of fweet chastity's decay,
The impious breach of holy wedlock's
Yea, the illiterate that know not how

To 'cipher what is writ in learned bo
Will quote my loathfome trefpafs in

The nurse, to ftill her child, will tell m
And fright her crying babe with Tarqui
The orator, to deck his oratory,

Will couple my reproach to Tarquin's f
Feaft-finding minstrels, tuning my de

Will tie the hearers to attend each lin
How Tarquin wronged me, I Collatin

4 May likewife be fepulcher'd in thy fhade!] TH thus accented by Milton, in his Verfes on our a "And fo fepulcher'd in fuch pomp does lie "That kings for fuch a tomb would with t 5-character'd in my brow,] So, in one of Danie

"And if a brow with care's characters pain This word was, I fuppofe, thus accented when our is at this day pronounced in the fame manner by of Ireland, where, I believe, much of the pron Elizabeth's age is yet retained. MALONE. 6 Will quote-] Will mark or obferve. So, in "I am forry that with better heed and judg "I had not quoted him."

See alfo Vol. I. p. 130, n. 2; and Vol. II. p. 432, n. 6. MALONE.

And fright her crying babe with Tarquin's na with which the poet here invefts the name of Tarqu buted to the famous John Talbot earl of Shrewsbury, Richard I. See Vol. VI. p. 24, n. 8. MALONE. Thus, in Dryden's Don Sebaftian:

"Nor thall Sebaftian's formidable name

"Be longer us'd to fill the crying babe." ST 8 Feaft-finding minfirels.-] Our ancient minstrels attendants on feafts. I queftion whether Homer's higher character. STEEVENS.

Let my good name, that fenfeless reputation,
For Collatine's dear love be kept unspotted:
If that be made a theme for difputation,
The branches of another root are rotted;
And undeferv'd reproach to him allotted,
That is as clear from this attaint of mine,
As I, ere this, was pure to Collatine.

O unfeen shame! invifible difgrace!
O unfelt fore! creft-wounding, private scar!
Reproach is ftamp'd in Collatinus' face,
And Tarquin's eye may read the mot afar,
How he in peace is wounded, not in war.

Alas, how many bear fuch fhameful blows,
Which not themselves, but he that gives them, knows!

If, Collatine, thine honour lay in me,
From me by strong affault it is bereft.
My honey loft, and I, a drone-like bee,
Have no perfection of my fummer left,
But robb'd and ranfack'd by injurious theft:

In thy weak hive a wandering wafp hath crept,
And fuck'd the honey which thy chafte bee kept.

Yet am I guiltless of thy honour's wreck';
Yet for thy honour did I entertain him;
Coming from thee, I could not put him back,

For

9 —may read the mot afar,] The motto, or word, as it was fometimes formerly called. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"The word, lux tua vita mibi.”

Again, in the title of Nafh's Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596: "The mott or pæefie, instead of omne tulit pun&tum, pacis fiducia nunquam."

The modern editions read unintelligibly:

-may read the mote afar.

MALONE.

■ Yet am I guiltless of thy bonour's wreck;] The old copy reads, I think, corruptedly:

Yet am I guilty of thy honour's wreck;

Dr. Sewell has endeavoured to make fenfe by a different punctuation: Yet, am I guilty of thy honour's wreck?

But this does not correfpond with the next verfe, where the words are arranged as here, and yet are not interrogatory, but affirmative. Guilty

For it had been difhonour to disdain him: Befides of wearinefs he did complain him,

And talk'd of virtue :-O, unlook'd for
When virtue is prophan'd in fuch a dev

Why should the worm intrude the maiden
Or hateful cuckows hatch in fparrows' neft
Or toads infect fair founts with venom mud
Or tyrant folly lurk in gentle breafts 3?
Or kings be breakers of their own behefts?
But no perfection is fo abfolute 4,
That fome impurity doth not pollute.

The aged man that coffers up his gold,
Is plagu'd with cramps, and gouts, and pai
And scarce hath eyes his treasure to behold,

was, I am perfuaded, a mifprint. Though the firft qua been printed under our authour's infpection, we are conclude that it is entirely free from typographical fau was probably not a very diligent corrector of his fheets; tentive he might have been, I am forry to be able to ob withstanding an editor's best care, fome errors will hap

If the prefent emendation be not juft, and the auth then undoubtedly there was fome errour in the fubfeque fpeare might have written

"Yet am I guilty of thy honour's wreck?

"No; for thy honour did I entertain him." The compofitor's eye might have glanced a fecond t line, and thus the word Yet might have been inadverten

2Why fhould the worm intrude the maiden bud?] S Night:

"But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud, "Feed on her damask cheek." MALONE. 5 Or tyrant folly lurk in gentle breafts?] Folly is, I ufed as in fcripture, for wickedness. Gentle is well-born. 4 But no perfection is fo abfolute,] So complete. So,

-ftill fhe vies

"With abfolute Marina."

Perhaps But has here the force of But that. MALO no perfection is fo abfolute,

That fome impurity doth not pollute.] So, in Orbello: "Where's that palace, where into foul things "Sometimes intrude not ?" STEEVENS.