Aur. Very true, fir; he, fir, he; that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. CLOWN. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but look'd big, and spit at him, he'd have run. Aur. I must confefs to you, fir, I am no fighter: I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. CLOWN. How do you now? Aur. Sweet fir, much better than I was; I can stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and pace foftly towards my kinfman's. CLOWN. Shall I bring thee on the way? AUT. No, good-faced fir; no, fweet fir. CLOWN. Then fare thee well; I must go buy fpices for our fheep-fhearing. AUT. Profper you, fweet fir!-[Exit Clown.] Your purfe is not hot enough to purchase your fpice. I'll be with you at your fheep-fhearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the fhearers prove sheep, let me be unroll'd, and my name put in the book of virtue! 3 3 Fog on, jog on, the foot-path way,* A merry Your fad tires in a mile-a. [Exit. let me be unroll'd, and my name put in the book of virtue!] Begging gypfies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had fomething of the show of an incorporated body. From this noble fociety he wishes he may be unrolled, if he does not fo and fo. WARBURTON. 4 Jog on, jog on, &c.] Thefe lines are part of a catch printed in an Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills compounded of witty ballads, Jovial Songs, and merry catches, 1661," 4to. p. 69, REED. SCENE III. The fame. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA. FLO. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Do give a life: no fhepherdefs; but Flora, Peering in April's front. This your fheep-fhear ing Is as a meeting of the petty gods, PER. $ And merrily hent the file-a:] To hent the ftile, is to take hold of it. I was miftaken when I faid in a note on Measure for Measure, A& IV. fc. ult. that the verb was-to hend. It is to hent, and comes from the Saxon pentan. So, in the old romance of Guy Earl of Warwick, bl. 1. no date: Again: "Some by the armes hent good Guy." "And fome by the brydle him bent." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, B. III. c. vii: "Great labour fondly haft thou hent in hand." STEEVENS. 6 your extremes,] This is, your excesses, the extravagance of your praifes. JOHNSON. By his extremes, Perdita does not mean his extravagant praifes, as Johnfon fuppofes; but the extravagance of his conduct, in obfcuring himfelf in a fwain's wearing," while he "prank'd her up moft goddefs-like." The following words, O pardon that I name them, prove this to be her meaning. M. MASON. 7 The gracious mark o' the land,] The object of all men's notice and expectation. JOHNSON. 8 With a fwain's wearing; and me, poor lowly maid, So, in King Henry IV. P. II: 8 "He was the mark and glass, copy and book, "That fashion'd others." MALONE. prank'd up:] To prank is to drefs with oftentation. So, in Coriolanus: "For they do prank them in authority." Again, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661: "I pray you go prank you." STEEVENS. 9 Digeft it -] The word it was inferted by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. 2 -fworn, I think, To how myself a glass.] i. e. one would think that in putting on this habit of a thepherd, you had fworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glafs, you fhew me how much below yourself you must defcend before you can get upon a level with me. The fentiment is fine, and expreffes all the delicacy, as well as humble modefty of the character. WARBURTON. Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, which certainly makes an eafy fenfe, and is, in my opinion, preferable to the prefent reading. But concerning this paffage I know not what to decide. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton has well enough explained this paffage according to the old reading. Though I cannot help offering a tranfpofition, which I would explain thus: But that our feafts In every mess have folly, and the feeders To how myself a glass. i. e. But that our ruftick feafts are in every part accompanied with abfurdity of the fame kind, which custom has authorized, (custom which one would think the guests had fworn to obferve,) I should blush to prefent myself before a glass, which would show me my own perfon adorned in a manner fo foreign to my humble state, or so much better habited than even that of my prince. STEEVENS. FLO. I blefs the time, When my good faleon made her flight across PER. I think the means only to fay, that the prince, by the ruftick habit that he wears, feems as if he had fworn to fhow her a glafs, in which the might behold how he ought to be attired, instead of being "moft goddefs-like prank'd up." The paffage quoted in p. 119, from King Henry IV. P. II. confirms this interpretation. In Love's Labour's Loft, Vol. V. p. 244, a forefter having given the princess a true representation of herself, the addreffes him," Here, good my glass." Again, in Julius Cæfar: I, your glafs, "Will modeftly difcover to yourself, "That of yourself," &c. Again, more appofitely, in Hamlet: 66 he was indeed the glass, "Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves." Florizel is here Perdita's glafs. Sir T. Hanmer reads-fwoon, inftead of fworn. There is, in my opinion, no need of change; and the words "to fhew myself" appear to me inconfiftent with that reading. Sir Thomas Hanmer probably thought the fimilitude of the words worn and fwoon favourable to his emendation; but he forgot that woon in the old copies of thefe plays is always written found or fwound. MALONE. 2 When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father's ground.] This circumftance is likewife taken from the novel: " And as they returned, it fortuned that Doraftus (who all that day had been hawking, and killed store of game,) incountered by the way thefe two maides." MALONE. 3 To me, the difference forges dread;] Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "The courfe of true love never did run fmooth, "But either it was different in blood—.” M. MASON. 4 How would he look, to fee his work, fo noble, Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence? FLO. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love,' have taken The fhapes of beafts upon them: Jupiter Became a bull, and bellow'd; the green Neptune A ram, and bleated; and the fire-rob'd god, Golden Apollo, a poor humble fwain, As I feem now: Their transformations Were never for a piece of beauty rarer; Nor in a way' fo chafte: fince my defires bis work, fo noble, Vilely bound up?] It is impoffible for any man to rid his mind of his profeffion. The authorship of Shakspeare has fupplied him with a metaphor, which rather than he would lofe it, he has put with no great propriety into the mouth of a country maid. Thinking of his own works, his mind paffed naturally to the binder. I am glad that he has no hint at an editor. JOHNSON. The allufion occurs more than once in Romeo and Juliet: Again: "That book in many eyes doth fhare the glory, 5 The gods themselves, STEEVENS. Humbling their deities to love,] This is taken almoft literally from the novel: "The Gods above difdaine not to love women beneath. Phoebus liked Daphne; Jupiter Io; and why not I then Fawnia? One fomething inferior to thefe in birth, but far fuperior to them in beauty; born to be a fhepherdeffe, but worthy to be a goddeffe." Again: "And yet, Doraftus, fhame not thy fhepherd's weed. The heavenly gods have fometime earthly thought; Neptune became a ram, Jupiter a bull, Apollo, a fhepherd: they gods, and yet in love;-thou a man, appointed to love." MALONE. -] Read :-Nor any way. RITSON. 6 Nor in a way Nor in a way fo chafte:] It must be remembered that the tranf. formations of Gods were generally for illicit amours; and confe |
