Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

Long.

This same shall go.

[He reads the sonnet.

Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye
('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument)
Persuade my heart to this false perjury?

Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but, I will prove,

Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;

Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is:

Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is:

If broken then, it is no fault of mine; If by me broke, What fool is not so wise, To lose an oath to win a paradise ?2

Biron. [Aside] This is the liver vein,3 which makes flesh a deity;

A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry.
God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the way.
Enter DUMAIN, with a paper.

Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! stay. [Stepping aside.

Biron. [Aside] All hid, all hid, an old infant play:

but they are now worn only by boors and sea-faring men: and we have dealers, whose sole business it is to furnish the sailors with shirts, jackets, &c. who are called slop-men, and their shops, slop-shops. Theobald.

I suppose this alludes to the usual tawdry dress of Cupid, when he appeared on the stage. In an old translation of Casa's Galateo is this precept: "Thou must wear no garments, that be over much daubed with garding: that men may not say, thou hast Ganimedes hosen, or Cupides doublet." Farmer.

2 To lose an oath to win a paradise?] The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599, in which this sonnet is also found, reads-To break an oath. But the opposition between lose and win is much in our author's manner. Malone.

3 the liver vein,] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. Johnson.

So, in Much Ado about Nothing:

"If ever love had interest in his liver." Steevens. All hid, all hid,] The children's cry at hide and seek.

Musgrave.

Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky,

And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye.
More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish;
Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish!5
Dum. O most divine Kate!

5

Biron.
O most prophane coxcomb! [Aside.
Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye!
Biron. By earth she is but corporal; there you lie.6
[Aside.

Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted."

-four woodcocks in a dish!] See note on Much Ado about Nothing, Act V, sc. i.

Douce.

6 By earth she is but corporal; there you lie.] Old edition: By earth, she is not, corporal, there you lie.

Dumain, one of the lovers, in spite of his vow to the contrary, thinking himself alone here, breaks out into short soliloquies of admiration on his mistress; and Biron, who stands behind as an eves-dropper, takes pleasure in contradicting his amorous raptures. But Dumain was a young lord; he had no sort of post in the army: what wit, or allusion, then, can there be in Biron's calling him corporal? I dare warrant, I have restored the poet's true meaning, which is this: Dumain calls him mistress divine, and the wonder of a mortal eye; and Biron in flat terms denies these hyperbolical praises. I scarce need hint, that our poet commonly uses corporal, as corporeal. Theobald.

I have no doubt that Theobald's emendation is right. The word corporal in Shakspeare's time, was used for corporeal. So, in Macbeth:-"each corporal agent."

Again:

[ocr errors]

and what seem'd corporal, melted

"As breath into the wind."

Again, in Julius Cæsar:

"His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit."

This adjective is found in Bullokar's Expositor, 8vo. 1616, but corporeal is not.

Not is again printed for but in the original copy of The Comedy of Errors, and in other places. Malone.

7—

amber coted.] To cote is to outstrip, to overpass. So, in Hamlet:

66 certain players

"We coted on the way."

Again, in Chapman's Homer:

[ocr errors]

Words her worth had prov'd with deeds, "Had more ground been allow'd the race, and coted far his steeds."

The beauty of amber consists in its variegated cloudiness, which Dumain calls foulness. The hair of his mistress in varied shadows

Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. [Aside. Dum. As upright as the cedar.

Biron.

Her shoulder is with child.

Dum.

Stoop, I say;

[Aside.

As fair as day.

Biron. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine.

[Aside.

Dum. O that I had my wish!
Long.

And I had mine! [Aside.

[Aside.

King. And I mine too, good Lord!

Biron. Amen, so I had mine: Is not that a good

word?

Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she

8

Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be.

[Aside.

Biron. A fever in your blood, why, then incision Would let her out in saucers; Sweet misprision! [Aside.

9

exceeded those of amber. Foul may be used (as fair often is) as a substantive. Pliny in his Nat. Hist. B. XXXVII, ch. xi, p. 609, informs us that "Nero Domitius made a sonnet in the praise of the haire of the Empresse Poppaa his wife, which he compared to amber; and from that time our daintie dames and fine ladies have begun to set their mind upon this colour," &c. Steevens. Quoted here, I think, signifies marked, written down. So, in All's well that ends well:

"He's quoted for a most perfidious knave."

The word in the old copy is-coted; but that (as Dr. Johnson has observed in the last scene of this play,) is only the old spelling of quoted, owing to the transcriber's trusting to his ear, and following the pronunciation. To cote, is elsewhere used by our author, with the signification of over-take, but that will by no means suit here. Malone.

The word here intended, though mispelled, is quoted, which signifies observed or regarded, both here and in every place where it occurs in these plays; and the meaning is, that amber itself is regarded as foul, when compared with her hair. M. Mason.

[merged small][ocr errors]

but a fever she

Reigns in my blood,] So, in Hamlet:

"For, like the hectic, in my blood he rages." Steevens.

why, then incision

Would let her out in saucers;] It was the fashion among the young gallants of that age, to stab themselves in the arms, or elsewhere, in order to drink their mistress's health, or write her name in their blood, as a proof of their passion.

Thus, in The Humorous Lieutenant, a gentleman gives the following description of him, when in love with the King:

Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ. Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. [Aside.

Dum. On a day, (alack the day!)

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom, passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:

Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;1
That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!2
But alack, my hand is sworn,3

Ne'er to fluck thee from thy thorn:*

Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;

Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.

Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee:

Thou for whom even Jove would swear,

Juno but an Ethiop were;

5

"Thus he begins, though light and life of creatures,
66 Angel-ey'd king, vouchsafe at length thy favour;

"And so proceeds to incision."

But the custom is more particularly described in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, where Phantaste, describing the different modes of making love, says: "A fourth with stabbing himself, and drinking healths, or writing languishing letters in his blood."—And in the Palinode, at the end of the play, Amorphus says: "From stabbing of arms, &c. Good Mercury deliver us!" M. Mason.

1 -'gan passage find;] The quarto, 1598, and the first folio, have-can. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. In the line next but one, Wish (the reading of the old copies) was corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

2 Air would I might triumph so!] Perhaps we may better read: "Ah! would I might triumph so!" Johnson.

3

my hand is sworn,] A copy of this sonnet is printed in England's Helicon, 1614, and reads:

"But, alas! my hand hath sworn."

It is likewise printed as Shakspeare's, in Jaggard's Collection, 1599. Steevens.

-from thy thorn:] So, Mr. Pope. The original copy reads-throne. Malone.

5

-even Jove would swear,] The word even has been supplied; and the two preceding lines are wanting in the copy published in England's Helicon, 1614. Steevens.

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.—

This will I send; and something else more plain,
That shall express my true love's fasting pain."
O, would the King, Biron, and Longaville,
Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill,

Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note;
For none offend, where all alike do dote.

Long. Dumain, [advancing] thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society:

You may look pale, but I should blush, I know,
To be o'erheard, and taken napping so.

King. Come, sir, [advancing] you blush; as his your case is such;

You chide at him, offending twice as much:
You do not love Maria; Longaville
Did never sonnet for her sake compile;
Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart
His loving bosom, to keep down his heart.
I have been closely shrouded in this bush,
And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush.
I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion;
Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion:
Ah me! says one; O Jove! the other cries;
One, her hairs' were gold, crystal the other's eyes:

Swear is here used as a dissyllable. Mr. Pope, not attending to this, reads-ev'n Jove, which has been adopted by the subsequent editors. Malone.

But

I would willingly abandon the adoption, if I could read the line without it, and persuade myself that I was reading a verse. when was swear ever used as a dissyllable, at the end of a verse? Steevens.

6 my true love's fasting pain.] Fasting is longing, hungry, wanting. Johnson.

7 One, her hairs-] The folio reads-On her hairs, &c. I some years ago conjectured that we should read-One her hairs were gold, &c. i. e. the hairs of one of the ladies were of the colour of gold, and the eyes of the other as clear as crystal. The King is speaking of the panegyricks pronounced by the two lovers on their mistresses. On examining the first quarto, 1598, I have found my conjecture confirmed; for so it reads. One and on are frequently confounded in the old copies of our author's plays. See a note on King John, Act III, sc. iii. Malone.

« AnteriorContinua »