Delight in them sets off3: some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone; and most poor matters
Point to rich ends. This my mean task

6

Would be as heavy to me, as odious; but

5 There be some sports are PAINFUL; and their LABOUR DELIGHT in them sets off:]

Molliter austerum studio fallente laborem.

Hor. sat. 2. lib. ii. STEevens,

We have again the same thought in Macbeth: "The labour we delight in physicks pain.", After "and," at the same time must be understood. Mr. Pope, unnecessarily reads-" But their labour-," which has been followed by the subsequent editors.

In like manner in Coriolanus, Act IV. the same change was made by him. "I am a Roman, and (i. e. and yet) my services are, as you are, against them." Mr. Pope reads "I am a Roman, but my services," &c. MALONE.

I prefer Mr. Pope's emendation, which is justified by the following passage in the same speech:

This my mean task would be

"As heavy to me as 'tis odious; but

"The mistress that I serve," &c.

It is surely better to change a single word, than to countenance one corruption by another, or suppose that four words, necessary to produce sense, were left to be understood. STEEVENS.

Only one word, yet, is left to be understood. At the same time is explanatory of the sense in which that word is employed.

BOSWELL.

This my mean task WOULD BE-] The metre of this line is defective in the old copy, by the words would be being transferred to the next line. Our author and his contemporaries generally use odious as a trisyllable. MALONE.

Mr. Malone prints the passage as follows:

This my mean task would be

"As heavy to me, as odious: but—”

The word odious, as he observes, is sometimes used as a trisyllable.-Granted; but then it is always with the penult. short. The metre, therefore, as regulated by him, would still be defective.

By the advice of Dr. Farmer, I have supplied the necessary monosyllable-'tis; which completes the measure, without the slightest change of sense. STEEVENS.

I have restored the reading of the old copy. The first line is indeed defective, but innumerable instances of the same license

The mistress, which I serve, quickens what's dead,
And makes my labours pleasures: O, she is

Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed;
And he's composed of harshness. I must remove
Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up,
Upon a sore injunction: My sweet mistress
Weeps when she sees me work; and says, such
baseness

Had ne'er like éxecutor. I forget":

But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours;

Most busy-less, when I do it 3.

Enter MIRANDA; and PROSPERO at a distance. MIRA. Alas, now! pray you, Work not so hard: I would, the lightning had Burnt up those logs, that you are enjoin'd to pile! Pray, set it down, and rest you: when this burns, "Twill weep for having wearied you: My father Is hard at study; pray now, rest yourself;

He's safe for these three hours.

FER

O most dear mistress,

The sun will set, before I shall discharge

What I must strive to do.

occur in these plays. See the Essay on Shakspeare's Versification. Boswell.

7

I forget:] Perhaps Ferdinand means to say-I forget my task; but that is not surprising, for I am thinking on Miranda, and these sweet thoughts, &c. He may, however mean, that he forgets or thinks little of the baseness of his employment." Whichsoever be the sense, And, or For, should seem more proper in the next line, than But. MALONE.

8 MOST BUSY-less, when I do it.] The two first folios read:

"Most busy lest, when I do it."

'Tis true this reading is corrupt; but the corruption is so very little removed from the truth of the text, that I cannot afford to think well of my own sagacity for having discovered it.

THEOBALD.

MIRA.

If you'll sit down,

I'll bear your logs the while: Pray, give me that: I'll carry it to the pile.

FER.

No, precious creature : I had rather crack my sinews, break my back, Than you should such dishonour undergo, While I sit lazy by.

MIRA.

It would become me

As well as it does you and I should do it
With much more ease; for my good will is to it,
And yours it is against9.

PRO.

Poor worm! thou art infected;

You look wearily.

This visitation shews it.

MIRA.

FER. No, noble mistress; 'tis fresh morning with

me,

When you are by at night'. I do beseech you, (Chiefly, that I might set it in my prayers,) What is your name?

MIRA.

Miranda :-O my father,

Admir'd Miranda

I have broke your hest 2 to say so!

FER.

Indeed, the top of admiration; worth
What's dearest to the world! Full many a lady

9 And yours against.] The old copy reads:

"And yours it is against."

By the advice of Dr. Farmer I have omitted the words in Italicks, as they are needless to the sense of the passage, and would have rendered the hemistich too long to join with its successor in making a regular verse. STEEVENS.

'tis fresh morning with me,

When you are by at NIGHT.]

Tu mihi curarum requies, tu nocte vel atrâ
Lumen-

hest For behest; i. e. command. So before, Act I.

"Refusing her grand hests —."

STEEVENS.

I have ey'd with best regard; and many a time
The harmony of their tongues hath into bondage
Brought my too diligent ear: for several virtues
Have I lik'd several women; never any
With so full soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she ow'd,
And put it to the foil: But you, O you,
Só perfect, and so peerless, are created
Of every creature's best 3.

MIRA.

I do not know

One of my sex; no woman's face remember,
Save, from my glass, mine own; nor have I seen
More that I may call men, than you, good friend,
And my dear father: how features are abroad,
I am skill-less of; but, by my modesty,
(The jewel in my dower,) I would not wish
Any companion in the world but you;

Nor can imagination form a shape,

3 Of every creature's best.] Alluding to the picture of Venus by Apelles. JOHNSON.

66

Had Shakspeare availed himself of this elegant circumstance, he would scarcely have said, of every creature's best," because such a phrase includes the component parts of the brute creation. Had he been thinking on the judicious selection made by the Grecian Artist, he would rather have expressed his meaning by "every woman's," or every beauty's best." Perhaps he had only in his thoughts a fable related by Sir Phillip Sidney in the third book of his Arcadia. The beasts obtained permission from Jupiter to make themselves a King; and accordingly created one of every creature's best :

66

"Full glad they were, and tooke the naked sprite,

"Which straight the earth yclothed in his clay : "The lyon heart; the ounce gave active might; "The horse good shape; the sparrow lust to play; "Nightingale voice, entising songs to say, &c. &c. "Thus man was made; thus man their lord became." In the 1st book of the Arcadia, a similar praise is also bestowed by a lover on his mistress :

"She is her selfe of best things the collection."

STEEVENS.

Besides yourself, to like of: But I prattle
Something too wildly, and my father's precepts
I therein do forget *.

FER.

I am, in my condition, A prince, Miranda; I do think, a king;

(I would, not so!) and would no more endure This wooden slavery, than to suffer 5

The flesh-fly blow my mouth.-Hear my soul speak ;

The very instant that I saw you, did

My heart fly to your service; there resides,
To make me slave to it; and for your sake,
Am I this patient log-man.

4 Therein forget.] The old copy, in contempt of metre, reads "I therein do forget." STEEVENS.

5 - than I WOULD suffer, &c.] The old copy reads-Than to suffer. The emendation is Mr. Pope's STEEVENS.

The reading of the old copy is right, however ungrammatical. So, in All's Well that Ends Well: "No more of this, Helena, go to, no more; lest it be rather thought you affect a sorrow, than to have."

See vol. x. p. 311, n. 8.

Again, in Measure for Measure:

"Admit

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that there were

No other way to save him, but that either
"You must lay down the treasures of your body,
"To this supposed, or else to let him suffer,

"What would you do?" MALONE.

The defective metre shows that some corruption had happened in the present instance. I receive no deviations from established grammar, on the single authority of the folio. Steevens.

6 The flesh-fly BLOW my mouth.] i. e. swell and inflame my mouth. So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Here is a vent of blood and something blown."

Again, ibid. :

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and let the water-flies

"Blow me into abhorring."

6

MALONE.

I believe Mr. Malone is mistaken. To blow, as it stands in the text, means the act of a fly by which she lodges eggs in flesh.' So, in Chapman's version of the Iliad :

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I much fear, lest with the blows of flies

"His brass-inflicted wounds are fill'd-" STEEVENS.