Run not before mine honour; nor my lufts PER. O but, dear fir," Your refolution cannot hold, when 'tis Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o'the king: One of these two must be neceffities, Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose, Or I my life. With thefe forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not I be not thine: to this I am most constant, We two have fworn fhall come. PER. Stand you aufpicious! O lady fortune. quently were not "in a way fo chafte" as that of Florizel, whofe object was to marry Perdita. A. C. ▾ O but, dear fir,] In the oldeft copy the word-dear, is wanting. STEEVENS. The editor of the fecond folio reads-O but, dear fir; to complete the metre. But the addition is unneceffary; burn in the preceding hemiftich being used as a diffyllable. Perdita in a former part of this fcene addreffes Florizel in the fame respectful_manner as here: "Sir, my precious lord," &c. I formerly, not adverting to what has been now ftated, propofed to take the word your from the fubfequent line; but no change is neceffary. MALONE. I follow the fecond folio, confeffing my inability to read-burn, as a word of more than one fyllable. STEEVENS. 8 With thefe forc'd thoughts,] That is, thoughts far-fetched, and not arifing from the prefent objects. M. MASON. Enter Shepherd, with POLIXEN ES and CAMILLO, difguifed; Clown, MOPSA, DORCAS, and others. FLO. See, your guests approach: Address yourself to entertain them fprightly, And let's be red with mirth. SHEP. Fye, daughter! when my old wife liv'd, upon This day, fhe was both pantler, butler, cook With labour; and the thing, fhe took to quench it, on, 9 And bid us welcome to your fheep-fhearing, PER. Welcome, fir! [To PoL. It is my father's will, I fhould take on me The hostessship o'the day:-You're welcome, fir! [To CAMILLO. Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.-Reverend firs, there's rosemary, and rue; these keep "That which you are, miftrefs o' the feaft:] From the novel : "It happened not long after this, that there was a meeting of all the farmers' daughters of Sicilia, whither Fawnia was alfo bidden as mifirefs of the feaft." MALONE. Seeming, and favour, all the winter long: POL. Shepherdefs, (A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages With flowers of winter. PER. Sir, the year growing ancient,- Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyflowers, POL. Do you neglect them? PER. Wherefore, gentle maiden, For I have heard it faid,* For you there's rofemary, and rue; thefe keep Grace, and remembrance, be to you both,] Ophelia distributes the fame plants, and accompanies them with the fame documents. There's rofemary, that's for remembrance. There's rue for you: we may call it herb of grace." The qualities of retaining seeming and favour, appear to be the reason why thefe plants were confidered as emblematical of grace and remembrance. The nofegay diftributed by Perdita with the fignifications annexed to each flower, reminds one of the ænigmatical letter from a Turkish lover, described by lady M. W. Montagu. HENLEY. Grace, and remembrance,] Rue was called herb of Grace. Rofemary was the emblem of remembrance; I know not why, unless because it was carried at funerals. JOHNSON. Rofemary was anciently fuppofed to ftrengthen the memory, and is prefcribed for that purpofe in the books of ancient phyfick. STEEVENS. 2 For I have heard it faid,] For, in this place, fignifies-because that. So, in Chaucer's Clerkes Tale, Mr.Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 8092; "She dranke, and for fhe wolde vertue plefe, "She knew wel labour, but non idel efe." STEEVENS. There is an art, which, in their piedness, shares POL. Say, there be; Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean: fo, o'er that art, That nature makes. You fee, fweet maid, we marry A gentler fcion to the wildest stock; And make conceive a bark of bafer kind By bud of nobler race: This is an art Which does mend nature,-change it rather: but The art itself is nature. POL. Then make your garden rich in gillyflowers,* And do not call them baftards. 3 There is an art, which, in their piedness, shares With great creating nature.] That is, as Mr. T. Warton obferves, "There is an art which can produce flowers, with as great a variety of colours as nature herself." This art is pretended to be taught at the ends of fome of the old books that treat of cookery, &c. but, being utterly impracticable, is not worth exemplification. STEEVENS. in gilly flowers,] There is fome further conceit relative to gillyflowers than has yet been difcovered. The old copy, (in both inftances where this word occurs,) reads-Gilly'vors, a term ftill used by low people in Suffex, to denote a harlot. In A Wonder, or a Woman never vex'd, 1632, is the following paffage: A lover is behaving with freedom to his miftrefs as they are going into a garden, and after fhe has alluded to the quality of many herbs, he adds: "You have fair rofes, have you not?" "Yes, fir, (fays the,) but no gilly flowers." Meaning, perhaps, that she would not be treated like a gill-flirt, i. e. wanton, a word often met with in the old plays, but written flirt-gill in Romeo and Juliet. I fuppofe gill-flirt to be derived, or rather corrupted, from gillyflower or carnation, which, though beautiful in its appearance, is apt, in the gardener's phrafe, to run from its colours, and change as often as a licentious female. Prior, in his Solomon, has taken notice of the fame variability in this fpecies of flowers: PER. I'll not put The dibble in earth to fet one flip of them: Defire to breed by me.-Here's flowers for you; PER. Out, alas! You'd be fo lean, that blafts of January Would blow you through and through.-Now, my fairest friend, I would, I had fome flowers o'the spring, that might Your maidenheads growing:-O Proferpina, the fond carnation loves to fhoot "Two various colours from one parent root." In Lyte's Herbal, 1578, fome forts of gilliflowers are called small bonefties, cuckoo gillofers, &c. And in A. W's. Commendation of Gafcoigne and his Pofies, is the following remark on this fpecies of flower: "Some thinke that gilliflowers do yield a gelous smell." See Gafcoigne's Works, 1587. STEEVENS. The following line in The Paradife of Daintie Devises, 1578, may add fome fupport to the first part of Mr. Steevens's note: "Some jolly youth the gilly-flower esteemeth for his joy." MALONE. S dibble -] An inftrument used by gardeners to make holes in the earth for the reception of young plants. See it in Minfbeu. STEEVENS. |