From Dis's waggon!" daffodils, That come before the fwallow dares, and take O Proferpina, For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'ft fall "Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remiffis." STEEVENS. The whole paffage is thus tranflated by Golding, 1587: "While in this garden Proferpine was taking her paftime, "In gathering either violets blew, or lillies white as lime,"Dis fpide her, lou'd her, caught hir up, and all at once well neere. "The ladie with a wailing voice afright did often call "Hir mother "And as fhe from the upper part hir garment would have rent, By chance the let her lap flip downe, and out her flowers went." -violets, dim, But fweeter than the lids of fund's eyes,] I fufpect that our author mistakes Juno for Pallas, who was the goddess of blue eyes. Sweeter than an eye-lid is an odd image: but perhaps he ufes weet in the general fenfe, for delightful. JOHNSON. It was formerly the fashion to kifs the eyes, as a mark of extraordinary tendernefs. I have fomewhere met with an account of the firft reception one of our kings gave to his new queen, where he is faid to have kiffed her fayre eyes. So, in Chaucer's Troilus and Creffeide, v. 1358: "This Troilus full oft her eyin two "Gan for to kiffe," &c. Again, in an ancient MS. play of Timon of Athens, in the poffeffion of Mr. Strutt the engraver: "O Juno, be not angry with thy Jove, "But let me kiffe thine eyes, my fweete delight." p. 6. b. The eyes of Juno were as remarkable as thofe of Pallas. · βοώπις πότνια "Ηρη. Homer. But (as Mr. M. Mafon obferves) "we are not told that Pallas was the goddess of blue eye-lids; befides, as Shakspeare joins in the comparison, the breath of Cytherea with the eye-lids of Juno, it is evident that he does not allude to the colour, but to the fragrance, of violets." STEEVENS. Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses, That eye was Juno's, "Thofe lips were hers that won the golden ball, Spenfer, as well as our author, has attributed beauty to the eye-lid: "Under the fhadow of her even brows." Again, in his 40th Sonnet: 3 Faery Queen, B. II. c. iii. ft. 25. "When on each eye-lid fweetly do appear "An hundred graces, as in fhade they fit." MALONE. pale primrofes, That die unmarried, ere they can behold &c.] So, in Pimlyco, or Runne Red-Cap, 1609: "The pretty Dazie (eye of day) "The Prime-Rofe which doth firft difplay "Her youthful colours, and firft dies: Again, in Milton's Lycidas: 66 the rathe primrose that forfaken dies." Mr. Warton, in a note on my last quotation, afks "But why does the Primrofe die unmarried? Not because it blooms and decays before the appearance of other flowers; as in a state of folitude, and without fociety. Shak fpeare's reafon, why it dies unmarried, is unintelligible, or rather is fuch as I do not wish to understand. The true reafon is, because it grows in the fhade, uncherished or unfeen by the fun, who was supposed to be in love with fome forts of flowers." STEEVENS. 9 bold oxlips,] Gold is the reading of Sir T. Hanmer; the former editions have bold. JOHNSON. The old reading is certainly the true one. The oxlip has not a weak flexible ftalk like the cowflip, but erects itfelf boldly in the face of the fun. Wallis, in his Hift. of Northumberland, fays, that the great oxlip grows a foot and a half high. It fhould be confeffed, however, that the colour of the oxlip is taken notice of by other writers. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: 66 yellow oxlips bright as burnifh'd gold." See Vol. V. p. 61, n. 2. STEEVENS. The flower-de-luce being one! O, thefe I lack, To make you garlands of; and, my fweet friend, To ftrew him o'er and o'er. FLO. What? like a corfe? PER. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corfe: or if,-not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers: Methinks, I play as I have seen them do In Whitfun' paftorals: fure, this robe of mine FLO. What you do, I'd have you buy and fell fo; fo give alms; To fing them too: When you do dance, I wish you So fingular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the prefent deeds, That all your acts are queens. PER. O Doricles, not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms.] So, Marfton's Infatiate Countefs, 1613: Ifab. Heigh ho, you'll bury me, I fee. Again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre; 1609: 3 O come, be buried "A fecond time within thefe arms." MALONE. Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each aft crowns the act. JOHNSON. Your praises are too large: but that your youth, And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it," Do plainly give you out an unftain'd shepherd; With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, You woo'd me the falfe way. FLO. I think, you have To put you to't.-But, come; our dance, I pray: 4 but that your youth, And the true blood which fairly peeps through it,] So, Marlowe, in his Hero and Leander: "Through whofe white skin, fofter than foundeft fleep, "With damaske eyes the ruby blood doth peep." The part of the poem that was written by Marlowe, was publifhed, I believe, in 1593, but certainly before 1598, a Second Part or Continuation of it by H. Petowe having been printed in that year. It was entered at Stationers' Hall in September 1593, and is often quoted in a Collection of verses entitled England's Parnaffus, printed in 1600. From that collection it appears, that Marlowe wrote only the firft two Seftiads, and about a hundred lines of the third, and that the remainder was written by Chapman. MALONE. 9 I think, you have As little kill to fear,] To have skill to do a thing was a phrafe then in ufe equivalent to our to have a reason to do a thing. The Oxford editor, ignorant of this, alters it to: As little Jkill in fear. which has no kind of fenfe in this place. WARBURTON. I cannot approve of Warburton's explanation of this paffage, or believe that to have a skill to do a thing, ever meant, to have reafon to do it; of which, when he afferted it, he ought to have produced one example at least. The fears of woinen, on fuch occafions, are generally owing to their experience. They fear, as they bluth, because they underftand. It is to this that Florizel alludes, when he fays, that Perdita had little kill to fear.-So Juliet fays to Romeo: "But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true You as little know how to fear that I am falfe, as, &c. MALONE PER. I'll fwear for 'em." POL. This is the prettieft low-born lafs, that ever Ran on the green-fward: nothing fhe does, or feems, But fmacks of fomething greater than herself; Too noble for this place. CAM. He tells her fomething, That makes her blood look out: Good footh, fhe is The queen of curds and cream. CLOWN. Come on, ftrike up. DOR. Mopfa must be your mistress: marry, garlick, To mend her kiffing with. Mop. Now, in good time! CLOWN. Not a word, a word; we ftand upon our manners. Come, ftrike up. [Mufick. 6 Per. I'll fwear for 'em.] I fancy this half line is placed to a wrong perfon. And that the king begins his speech afide: Pol. I'll fwear for 'em, This is the prettieft &c. JOHNSON. We fhould doubtless read thus: I'll fwear for one. i. e. I will answer or engage for myself. Some alteration is abfolutely neceffary. This feems the cafieft, and the reply will then be perfectly becoming her character. RITSON. He tells her fomething, That makes her blood look out:] The meaning must be this. The prince tells her fomething that calls the blood up into her cheeks, and makes her blush. She, but a little before, ufes a like expreffion to defcribe the prince's fincerity: -your youth And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it, The old copy reads-look on't. we fand, &c.] That is, we are now on our behaviour. So, in Every Man in his Humour, Mafter Stephen fays- 46 STEEVENS. |