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Run not before mine honour; nor my lufts
Burn hotter than my faith.

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.

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With thefe forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not
The mirth o'the feaft: Or I'll be thine, my fair,
Or not my father's: for I cannot be
Mine own, nor any thing to any, if

I be not thine: to this I am most constant,
Though destiny say, no. Be merry, gentle;
Strangle fuch thoughts as thefe, with any thing
That you behold the while. Your guefts are coming:
Lift up your countenance; as it were the day
Of celebration of that nuptial, which

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
Both dame and fervant: welcom'd all; ferv'd all:
Would fing her fong, and dance her turn: now here,
At upper end o'the table, now, i'the middle;
On his fhoulder, and his: her face o'fire

With labour; and the thing, fhe took to quench it,
She would to each one fip: You are retir'd,
As if you were a feafted one, and not
The hoftefs of the meeting: Pray you, bid
These unknown friends to us welcome: for it is
A way to make us better friends, more known.
Come, quench your blushes; and present yourself
That which you are, mistress o'the feaft: Come

on,

9

And bid us welcome to your fheep-fhearing,
As your good flock shall prosper.

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

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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:
Grace, and remembrance, be to you both,"
And welcome to our fhearing!

POL.

Shepherdefs, (A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages With flowers of winter.

PER.

Sir, the year growing ancient,-
Not yet on fummer's death, nor on the birth
Of trembling winter,-the faireft flowers o'the
feafon

Are our carnations, and streak'd gillyflowers,
Which fome call, nature's baftards: of that kind
Our ruftick garden's barren; and I care not
To get flips of them.

POL.

Do you neglect them?

PER.

Wherefore, gentle maiden,

For I have heard it faid,*

For you there's rofemary, and rue; thefe keep
Seeming, and favour, all the winter long:

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
With great creating nature.'

POL.

Say, there be;

Yet nature is made better by no mean,

But nature makes that mean: fo, o'er that art,
Which, you fay, adds to nature, is an 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.

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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:
No more than, were I painted, I would with
This youth fhould fay, 'twere well; and only there-
fore

Defire to breed by me.-Here's flowers for you;
Hot lavender, mints, favory, marjoram;
The marigold, that goes to bed with the fun,
And with him rifes weeping: these are flowers
Of middle fummer, and, I think, they are given
To men of middle age: You are very welcome.
CAM. I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
And only live by gazing.

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
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours;
That wear upon your virgin branches yet

Your maidenheads growing:-O Proferpina,
For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'ft fall

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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.

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