2. LADY. And why fo, my good lord?

Not for because

MAM. Your brows are blacker; yet black brows, they fay, Become fome women beft; fo that there be not Too much hair there, but in a femicircle,

Or half-moon made with a pen.

2. LADY.

Who taught you this?"

MAM. I learn'd it out of women's faces.-Pray

now

What colour are your eye-brows?

1. LADY.

Blue, my lord.

MAM. Nay, that's a mock: I have feen a lady's

nofe

That has been blue, but not her eye-brows.

Hark ye:

2. LADY. The queen, your mother, rounds apace: we fhall Present our services to a fine new prince, One of these days; and then you'd wanton with us, If we would have you.

I. LADY.

She is spread of late

Into a goodly bulk: Good time encounter her! HER. What wisdom ftirs amongst you? Come, fir, now

I am for you again: Pray you,

And tell 's a tale.

Мам.

fit by us,

Merry, or fad, fhall't be?

A fad tale's best for winter:""

HER. As merry as you will.

MAM.

8my good lord?] The epithet-good, which is wanting in the old copies, is tranfplanted (for the fake of metre) from a redundant fpeech in the following page. STEEVENS.

9 Who taught you this?] You, which is not in the old copy, was added by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

2 A fad tale's beft for winter:] Hence, I fuppofe, the title of the play. TYRWHITT.

I have one of fprites and goblins.

HER. Let's have that, fir." Come on, fit down :-Come on, and do your best

To fright me with your sprites; you're powerful at it.

MAM. There was a man,-—————

HER.

Nay, come, fit down; then on.

MAM. Dwelt by a church-yard;-I will tell it

foftly;

Yon crickets fhall not hear it.

HER.

And give't me in mine ear.

Come on then,

Enter LEONTES, ANTIGONUS, Lords, and Others.

LEON. Was he met there? his train? Camillo with him?

1. LORD. Behind the tuft of pines I met them;

never

Saw I men fcour fo on their way: I ey'd them
Even to their fhips.

LEON.

2

How blefs'd am I a

In my juft cenfure? in my true opinion? 3

This fuppofition may feem to be countenanced by our author's 98th Sonnet :

"Yet not the lays of birds, &c.

"Could make me any Summer's story tell."

And yet, I cannot help regarding the words-for winter (which fpoil the measure) as a playhouse interpolation. All children delight in telling difmal ftories; but why should a dismal story be best for winter? STEEVENS.

fir.

9 Let's have that, fir.] The old copy redundantly reads-good

STEEVENS.

2 How blefs'd am I

For the fake of metre, I fuppofe, our author wrote-How bleffed then am I- STEEVENS.

3 In my just cenfure? in my true opinion?] Cenfure, in the time of our author, was generally ufed (as in this inftance) for judge

Alack, for leffer knowledge! -How accurs'd,
In being fo bleft!-There may be in the cup
A fpider steep'd,' and one may drink; depart,
And yet partake no venom; for his knowledge
Is not infected: but if one prefent

The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye, make known
How he hath drank, he cracks his gorge, his fides,
With violent hefts: "I have drank, and seen the
fpider.

Camillo was his help in this, his pander:-
There is a plot against my life, my crown;
All's true, that is miftrufted:-that falfe villain,
Whom I employ'd, was pre-employ'd by him:
He has difcover'd my defign, and I
Remain a pinch'd thing; yea, a very trick

ment, opinion. So, fir Walter Raleigh, in his commendatory verfes prefixed to Gascoigne's Steel Glaffe, 1576:

"Wherefore to write my cenfure of this book.”

MALONE. Alack, for leffer knowledge!] That is, O that my knowledge were lefs. JOHNSON.

A spider fteep'd,] That fpiders were esteemed venomous, appears by the evidence of a perfon who was examined in Sir T. Overbury's affair. "The Counteffe wifhed me to get the frongeft poyfon I could, &c. Accordingly I bought feven great Spiders, and cantharides." HENDERSON.

This was a notion generally prevalent in our author's time. So, in Holland's Leaguer, a pamphlet published in 1632: "- like the Spider, which turneth all things to poifon which it tafteth."

6

MALONE.

violent hefts :-] Hefts are heavings, what is heaved up.

So, in Sir Arthur Gorges' Tranflation of Lucan, 1614:

"But if a part of heavens huge sphere

"Thou chufe thy pond'rous heft to beare." STEEVENS. He has difcover'd my defign, and I

Remain a pinch'd thing;] The fenfe, I think, is, He hath now difcovered my defign, and I am treated as a mere child's baby, a thing pinched out of clouts, a puppet for them to move and actuate as they pleafe. HEATH,

For them to play at will:-How came the pofterns So easily open?

1. LORD.

By his

great authority;

Which often hath no lefs prevail'd than fo,
On your command.

LEON.

I know't too well.

Give me the boy; I am glad, you did not nurse

him:

Though he does bear fome figns of me, yet you
Have too much blood in him.

HER.

What is this? fport?

LEON. Bear the boy hence, he fhall not come about her;

Away with him—and let her fport herself
With that she's big with; for 'tis Polixenes
Has made thee fwell thus.

This fenfe is poffible; but many other meanings might ferve as well. JOHNSON.

The fame expreffion occurs in Eliofto Libidinofo, a novel by one John Hinde, 1606: "Sith then, Cleodora, thou art pinched, and haft none to pity thy paffions, diffemble thy affection, though it coft thee thy life." Again, in Greene's Never too late, 1616: " Had the queene of poetrie been pinched with fo many paffions," &c. Thefe inftances may ferve to fhow that pinched had anciently a more dignified meaning than it appears to have at prefent. Spenfer, in his Faery Queen, B. III. c. xii. has equipped grief with a pair of pincers:

"A pair of pincers in his hand he had,

"With which he pinched people to the heart."

The fenfe propofed by the author of The Revifal may, however, be fupported by the following paffage in The City Match, by Jafper Maine, 1639:

66

Pinch'd napkins, captain, and laid

"Like fishes, fowls, or faces."

Again, by a passage in All's well that ends well:-" If you pinch me like a pafty, [i. e. the cruft round the lid of it, which was anciently moulded by the fingers into fantaftick thapes,] I can fay no more." STEEVENS,

HER. But I'd fay, he had not,

And, I'll be fworn, you would believe my faying, Howe'er you lean to the nayward.

LEON.

You, my lords,

Look on her, mark her well; be but about
To fay, he is a goodly lady, and

The juftice of your hearts will thereto add,
'Tis pity, he's not honeft, honourable:

Praife her but for this her without-door form,
(Which, on my faith, deserves high speech,) and
ftraight

The fhrug, the hum, or ha; thefe petty brands,
That calumny doth ufe:-O, I am out,
That mercy does; for calumny will fear

Virtue itfelf:-thefe fhrugs, thefe hums, and ha's,
When you have faid, fhe's goodly, come between,
Ere you can say she's honeft: But it be known,
From him that has most cause to grieve it should be,
She's an adultress.

HER.

Should a villain say so,
The most replenish'd villain in the world,
He were as much more villain: you, my lord,
Do but mistake."

The fubfequent words" a very trick for them to play at will,” appear ftrongly to confirm Mr. Heath's explanation. MALONE. 8 -for calumny will fear

Virtue itself:] That is, will ftigmatize or brand as infamous. So, in All's well that ends well:

my maiden's name

"Sear'd otherwife." HENLEY.

you, my lord,

Do but mistake.] Otway had this paffage in his thoughts, when he put the following lines into the mouth of Caftalio:

Should the bravest man

"That e'er wore conquering fword, but dare to whifper "What thou proclaim'ft, he were the worst of liars:

My friend may be mistaken." STEEVENS,