Impoffible be ftrange attempts, to those SCENE Flourish cornets. The court of France. II. [Exit. Enter the king of France, with letters, and divers attendants. 9 King. The Florentines and 9 Senoys are by the ears; Have fought with equal fortune, and continue A braving war. 1 Lord. So 'tis reported, fir. King. Nay, 'tis moft credible; we here receive it A certainty, vouch'd from our coufin Auftria, With caution, that the Florentine will move us For speedy aid; wherein our dearest friend Prejudicates the bufinefs, and would feem To have us make denial. I Lord. His love and wisdom, King. He hath arm'd our anfwer, 9 ·Senoys -] The Saneft, as they are term'd by Boccace. Painter, who tranflates him, calls them Senois. They were the people of a small republick, of which the capital was Sienna. The Florentines were at perpetual variance with them. STEEVENS. 2 Lord. 2 Lord. It may well ferve Anursery to our gentry, who are fick For breathing and exploit. King. What's he comes here? Enter Bertram, Lafeu, and Parolles. 1 Lord. It is the count Roufillon', my good lord, Young Bertram. King. Youth, thou bear'ft thy father's face; Hath well compos'd thee. Thy father's moral parts -Roufillon,] The old copy reads Rofignoll He had the wit, which I can well obferve : To STEEVENS. ie. Ere their titles can cover the levity of their behaviour, and make it pafs fot defert. The Oxford editor, not understanding this, alters the line to Ere they can vye their levity with his honour. WARBURTON. I believe bonour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, fays the king, had the fame airy flights of fa tirical wit, with the young lords of the prefent time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit. This is an excellent obfervation. Jocofe follies, and flight of fences are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities. JOHNSON. C 2 A paf To-day in our young lords; but they may jeft, A paffage in the fecond act of the Merry Wives of Windsor, may ferve to fhew, that Hanmer's change is needlefs: "hiding mine honour in my neceffity." STEEVENS. 3 So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or Sharpness; if they were, His equal had awak'd them ; —] This paffage is so very incorrectly pointed, that the author's meaning is loft. As the text and ftops are reformed, these are most beautiful lines, and the fenfe is this- "He had no contempt or bitterness; if he had any thing that look'd like pride or sharpness, (of which qualities contempt and bitterness are the exceffes,) his equal had awaked them, not his inferior: to whom he fcorn'd to discover any thing that bore the shadow of pride or sharpness." WARBURTON. The original edition reads the first line thus: So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness The fenfe is the fame. Nor was used without reduplication. So, in Measure for Measure: "More nor lefs to others paying, "Than by felf-offences weighing." The old text needs to be explained. He was fo like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in bis keennefs of wit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been awakened by fome injury, not of a man below him, but of his equal. This is the complete image of a well bred man, and fomewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV. JOHNSON. 4 His tongue obeyed his hand :-] We should read: His tongue obeyed the band. That is, the band of his honour's clock, fhewing the true minute when exceptions bad him fpeak. JOHNSON. His is put for its; fo, in Othello: 66 -her motion "Blush'd at herself,". -instead of itself. STEEVENS. He He us'd as creatures of another place; In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man Which, follow'd well, would demonftrate them now But goers backward. Ber. His good remembrance, fir, Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb; 7So in approof lives not his epitaph, As in your royal speech. King. 5 He us'd as creatures of another place ;] i. e. He made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. The Oxford editor, not understanding the fenfe, has altered another place, to a brother-race. WARBURTON. "Making them proud of his humility, In their poor praife, he humbled But why were they proud of his humility? It should be read and pointed thus: -Making them proud; and his humility, In their poor praife, he humbled i. e. by condefcending to ftoop to his inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praife, he humbled even his humility. The fentiment is fine. the WARBURTON. Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of great, and perhaps the great may fometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or difcernment: this, however, is not fo common; the mean are found more frequently than the great. JOHNSON. So in approof lives not his epitaph, As in your royal speech.] Epitaph for character. I fhould wish to read : WARBURTON. Approof fo lives not in his epitaph, Approof is approbation. If I fhould allow Dr. Warburton's interpretation of Epitaph, which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no fenfe in the prefent reading. JOHNSON. We might, by a flight tranfpofition, read : So his approof lives not in epitaph. Approof certainly means approbation. So, in Cinthia's Revenge, 1613: King. Would, I were with him! He would always fay, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plaufive words I, after him, do after him wish too, Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home, To give fome labourer room. 2 Lord. You are lov'd, fir; They, that leaft lend it you, fhall lack you first. King. I fill a place, I know't. -How long is't, count, "A man so abfolute in my approof, "That nature hath referv'd fmall dignity "That he enjoys not." Again, in Meafure for Meafure: "Either of condemnation or approof." STEEVENS. Perhaps the meaning is this: His epitaph or infeription on his tomb is not fo much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal fpeech. TOLLET. -whofe judgments are Mere fathers of their garments;} Who have no other ufe of their faculties, than to invent new modes of drefs. JOHNSON. I have a fufpicion that Shakespeare wrote-meer feathers of their garments; i. e. whofe judgments are meerly parts (and infignificant parts) of their drefs, worn and laid afide, as feathers are, from the meer love of novelty and change. He goes on to fay, that they are even less constant in their judgments than in their drefs: their conftancies Expire before their fashions. TYRWHITT. |