a bailiff; then he compassed a motion of the prodigal son, and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue: some call him Autolycus. Clo. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig: he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings. Aut. Very true, sir; he, sir, he; that 's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. Clo. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but looked big, and spit at him, he 'd have run. Aut. I must confess to you, sir, I am no fighter: I am false of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. Clo. How do you now? Aut. Sweet sir, much better than I was; I can stand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and pace softly towards my kinsman's. Clo. Shall I bring thee on the way? Aut. No, good-faced sir; no, sweet sir. Clo. Then fare thee well; I must go buy spices for our sheep-shearing. Aut. Prosper you, sweet sir!-[Exit Clo.] Your purse is not hot enough to purchase your spice. I'll be with you at your sheep-shearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the shearers prove sheep, let me be unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue!? 5 Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,8 And merrily hent the stile-a:9 Your sad tires in a mile-a. [Exit. motion of the prodigal son,] i. e. the puppet-shew, then called motions. A term frequently occurring in our author. 6 Warburton. Prig, for my life, prig:] To prig is to filch. Malone. In the canting language Prig is a thief or pick-pocket; and therefore in The Beggars Bush, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Prig is the name of a knavish beggar. Whalley. 1 let me be unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue!] Begging gypsies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had something of the show of an incorporated SCENE III. The same. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA. Flo. These your unusual weeds to each part of you Do give a life: no shepherdess; but Flora, Peering in April's front. This your sheep-shearing And you the queen on 't. Per. body. From this noble society he wishes he may be unrolled, if he does not so and so. Warburton. 8 Fog on, jog on, &c.] These lines are part of a catch printed in An Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills compounded of witty Ballads, jovial Songs, and merry Catches, 1661, 4to. p. 69. Reed. 9 And merrily hent the stile-a:] To hent the stile, is to take hold of it. I was mistaken when I said in a note on Measure for Measure, Act IV, sc. ult. that the verb was-to hend. It is to hent, and comes from the Saxon pentan. So, in the old romance of Guy Earl of Warwick, bl. 1. no date: Again: "Some by the armes hent good Guy." "And some by the brydle him hent.” Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. III, c. vii: 1 "Great labour fondly hast thou hent in hand." Steevens. the extravagance your extremes,] That is, your excesses, of your praises. Johnson. By his extremes, Perdita does not mean his extravagant praises, as Johnson supposes; but the extravagance of his conduct, in obscuring himself "in a swain's wearing," while he "pranked her up most goddess-like." The following words, O pardon that I name them, prove this to be her meaning. M. Mason. 2 The gracious mark o' the land,] The object of all men's notice and expectation. Johnson. So, in King Henry IV, P. II: 3 "He was the mark and glass, copy and book, "That fashion'd others." Malone. prank'd up:] To prank is to dress with ostentation. So, in Coriolanus: In every mess have folly, and the feeders "For they do prank them in authority." Again, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661: "I pray you go prank you." Steevens. 4 Digest it-] The word it was inserted by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 5- sworn, I think, To show myself a glass.] i. e. one would think that in putting on this habit of a shepherd, you had sworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glass, you shew me how much below yourself you must descend before you can get upon a level with me. The sentiment is fine, and expresses all the delicacy, as well as humble modesty of the character. Warburton. Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, which certainly makes an easy sense, and is in my opinion, preferable to the present reading. But concerning this passage I know not what to decide. Johnson. Dr. Warburton has well enough explained this passage according to the old reading. Though I cannot help offering a transposition, which I would explain thus: But that our feasts In every mess have folly, and the feeders i. e. But that our rustick feasts are in every part accompanied with absurdity of the same kind, which custom has authorized, (custom which one would think the guests had sworn to observe,) I should blush to present myself before a glass, which would show me my own person adorned in a manner so foreign to my humble state, or so much better habited than even that of my prince. Steevens. I think she means only to say, that the prince, by the rustick habit that he wears, seems as if he had sworn to show her a glass, in which she might behold how she ought to be attired, instead of being "most goddess-like prank'd up." The passage quoted in p. 254, from King Henry IV, P. II, confirms this interpretation. In Love's Labour's Lost, Vol. IV, p. 55, a forester having given the Princess a true representation of herself, she addresses him:-"Here, good my glass." Again, in Julius Cæsar: I, your glass, "Will modestly discover to yourself, Again, more appositely, in Hamlet: Flo. I bless the time, When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father's ground. Per. Now Jove afford you cause! To me, the difference forges dread; your greatness Hath not been us'd to fear. Even now I tremble To think, your father, by some accident, Should pass this way, as you did: O, the fates! How would he look, to see his work, so noble, Vilely bound up? What would he say? Or how Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold The sternness of his presence? Flo. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, he was indeed the glass, "Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves." Florizel is here Perdita's glass. Sir T. Hanmer reads-swoon instead of sworn. There is, in my opinion, no need of change; and the words "to show myself" appear to me inconsistent with that reading. Sir Thomas Hanmer probably thought the similitude of the words sworn and swoon favourable to his emendation; but he forgot that swoon in the old copies of these plays is always written sound or swound. Malone. 6 When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father's ground.] This circumstance is likewise taken from the novel: " -And as they returned, it fortuned that Dorastus (who all that day had been hawking, and killed store of game) incountered by the way these two maides." Malone. 7 To me the difference forges dread;] Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "The course of true love never did run smooth, "But either it was different in blood 8 his work, so noble, M. Mason. Vilely bound up?] It is impossible for any man to rid his mind of his profession. The authorship of Shakspeare has supplied him with a metaphor, which, rather than he would lose it, he has put with no great propriety into the mouth of a country maid. Thinking of his own works, his mind passed naturally to the binder. I am glad that he has no hint at an editor. Johnson. The allusion occurs more than once in Romeo and Juliet: "This precious book of love, this unbound lover, Again: "To beautify him only lacks a cover.” "That book in many eyes doth share the glory, "That in gold clasps locks in the golden story." Steevens. Humbling their deities to love, have taken Per. O but, dear sir,2 Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o' the king: Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose, Or I my life. 9 The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love,] This is taken almost literally from the novel: "The Gods above disdaine not to love women beneath. Phœbus liked Daphne; Jupiter Io; and why not I then Faunia? One something inferior to these in birth, but far superior to them in beauty; born to be a shepherdesse, but worthy to be a goddesse." Again: "And yet, Dorastus, shame not thy shepherd's weed.-The heavenly gods have sometime earthly thought; Neptune became a ram, Jupiter a bull, Apollo a shepherd: they gods, and yet in love;-thou a man, appointed to love." Malone. 1 Nor in a way-] Read:-Nor any way. Ritson. Nor in a way so chaste:] It must be remembered that the transformations of gods were generally for illicit amours; and consequently were not "in a way so chaste" as that of Florizel, whose object was to marry Perdita. A. C. 20 but, dear sir,] In the oldest copy the word-dear, is wanting. Steevens. The editor of the second folio reads-O but, dear sir; to com-, plete the metre. But the addition is unnecessary; burn in the preceding hemistich being used as a dissyllable. Perdita in a former part of this scene addresses Florizel in the same respectful manner as here: "Sir, my precious lord," &c. I formerly, not adverting to what has been now stated, propose to take the word your from the subsequent line; but no change is necessary. Malone. I follow the second folio, confessing my inability to read—burn, as a word of more than one syllable. Steevens. |