Her. It is Grace, indeed. Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice: The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; The other, for fome while a friend. [Giving her hand to Polixenes. [Afide. Leo. Too hot, too hot To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me :-my heart dances; But not for joy,-not joy. This entertainment May a free face put on; derive a liberty From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bofom, And well become the agent: it may, I grant: But to be padling palms, and pinching fingers, As now they are; and making practis'd fmiles, As in a looking-glafs ; and then to figh, as 'twere The mort o'the deer; oh, that is entertainment My bofom likes not, nor my brows.Mamillius, Art thou my boy? Mam Ay, my good lord..io i vide Leo. I'fecks ? Why, that's my bawcock, What, haft fmutch'd to thy nofe? They people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase-to clap up a bargain, i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands. So, in Ram-alley or Merry Tricks, 1611: Speak, widow, is't a match? 16,6 "Shall we clap it up?" Again, in a Trick to catch the old One,: 1616: "Come, clap hands, a match.” Again, in K. Hen. V : and fo clap hands, and a bargain." STEEVENS. 8 The mort o'the deer; A leffon upon the horn at the death of the deer. THEOBALD. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: "He that bloweth the mort before the death of the buck, may very well mifs of his fees." Again, in the oldest copy of Chevy Chafe: رو "The blewe a mort uppone the bent." STEEVENS. Why, that's my bawcock.] Perhaps from beau and It is ftill faid in vulgar language that fuch a one is a jolly cock, a cock coq. of They fay, it's a copy out of mine. Come, captain, We must be neat ; not neat, but cleanly, captain: And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf, Are all call'd, neat.-Still virginalling [Obferving Polixenes and Hermione. Upon his palm ?-How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf? Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord. Leo. Thou want'ft a rough path, and the fhoots that I have ', To of the game. The word has already occurred in Twelfth Night, and is one of the titles by which Pistol fpeaks of K. Henry the Fifth. STEEVENS. We must be neat; Leontes, feeing his fon's nofe fmutch'd, cries, we must be neat, then recollecting that neat is the ancient term for horned cattle, he fays, not neat, but cleanly. JOHNSON. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong 3: "His large provifion there of flefh, of fowl, of neat." Still virginalling] STEEVENS. Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals. JOHNSON. A virginal, as I am informed, is a very small kind of spinnet. Queen Elizabeth's virginal book is yet in being, and many of the leffons in it have proved fo difficult, as to baffle our most expert players on the harpfichord, "When we have hufbands, we play upon them like virginal jacks, they must rife and fall to our humours, or else they'll never get any good strains of mufic out of one of us." Decker's Untruffing the Humorous Poet. Again, in Ram-alley or Merry Tricks, 1611: "Where be these rafcals that skip up “Like virginal jacks ?” and down Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: "This was her schoolmafter, and taught her to play upon play upon the virginals, &c." STEEVENS. 3 Thou want ft a rough pash, and the fhoots that I have,] Pafis kifs. Paz. Spanish. i. e. thou want'ft a mouth made rough by a beard, to kifs with. Shoots are branches, i. e. horns. Leontes is alluding to the enfigns of cuckoldom. A mad-brain'd boy is, however, call'd a mad pask in Cheshire. STEEVENS. A rough 1 To be full like me :-yet, they fay, we are No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true Thou A rough pah feems to mean a rough hide or skin. Perhaps it comes from the plural of the French word peau, or from a corrup tion of the Teutonic, peltz, a pelt. TOLLET.. + As o'er-dy'd blacks, Sir T. Hanmer understands, blacks died too much, and therefore Totten. JOHNSON. It is common with tradefmen to dye their faded or damaged ftuffs, black. O'er-dy'd blacks may mean those which have receiv, ed a dye over their former colour. There is a paffage in The old Law of Maffenger, which might lead us to offer another interpretation: "Blacks are often fuch diffembling mourners "There is no credit given to't, it has loft "All reputation by falfe fons and widows "I would not hear of blacks." It seems that blacks was the common term for mourning, So, in a Mad World my Mafters, 1608: Black however will receive no other hue without discovering itself "Lanarum nigra nullum colorem bibunt.” through it. No bourn 66 Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. viii. STEEvens. ] Bourn is boundary. So, in Hamlet : from whofe bourn No traveller returns ·welkin-eye:· Biue eye; an eye of the fame colour with the welkin, or sky. 7 JOHNSON. my collop!] So, in the First Part of K. Henry VI: Instead of this line, which I find in the folio, the modern editors Thou doft make poffible things not fo held, And fellow'ft nothing: Then, 'tis very credent', And hardning of my brows. Pol. What means Sicilia ? Her. He fomething feems unfettled. Leo. What cheer? how is't with you, beft brother? As if you held a brow of much distraction: Leo. No, in good earnest. How fometimes nature will betray its folly, editors have introduced another of no authority: Mr. Rowe first made the exchange. I am not certain that I un derstand the reading which I have restored. Affection, however, I believe, fignifies imagination. Thus, in the Merchant of Venice: 66 affections, Masters of paffion, fway it, &c." i. e. imaginations govern our paffions. Intention is as Mr. Locke expreffes it, "when the mind with great earnestnefs, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, confiders it on every fide, and will not be called off by the ordinary folicitation of other ideas." This vehemence of the mind feems to be what affects Leontes fo deeply, or, in Shakespeare's language,-ftabs him to the center. STEEVENS. Thou doft make poffible things not fo held,] i. e. thou doft make thofe things poffible, which are conceived to be impoffible. JOHNSON. credent, i. e. credible. So, in Meafure for Meafura, a&t V. fc. v: "For my authority bears a credent bulk." STEEVENS. 2 What cheer? how is't with you, best brother?] This line feems rather to belong to the preceding fhort speech of Polixenes, than to Leontes. STEEVENS. Of Of my boy's face, methoughts, I did recoil How like, methought, I then was to this kernel, Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight. Leo. You will? why, happy man be his dole!- Are you fo fond of your young prince, as we Pol. If at home, fir, He's all my exercife, my mirth, my matter: 3 Will you take eggs for money?] This feems to be a proverbial expreffion, ufed when a man fees himself wronged and makes no refiftance. Its original, or precife meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a cuckold for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's nest; he therefore that has eggs laid in his nest, is faid to be cucullatus, cuckow'd, or cuckold. JOHNSON. The meaning of this is, will you put up affronts? The French have a proverbial faying, A qui vendez vous coquilles? i. e. whom do you defign to affront? Mamillius's anfwer plainly proves it. Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight. SMITH. I meet with Shakespeare's phrafe in a comedy, call'd A Match at Midnight, 1633:"I fhall have eggs for my money; I muft hang myself." STEEVENS. 4 happy man be his dole! -} May his dole or bare in life be to be a happy man. JOHNSON. The expreffion is proverbial. Dole was the term for the allowance of provifion given to the poor, in great families. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque, 1599: "Had the women puddings to their dole ?" STEEVENS. Leo. |