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Nor could she moralize his wanton sight',
More than his eyes were open'd to the light.

He stories to her ears her husband's fame,
Won in the fields of fruitful Italy;

And decks with praises Collatine's high name,
Made glorious by his manly chivalry

With bruised arms and wreaths of victory";

Her joy with heav'd-up hand she doth express, And wordless so, greets heaven for his success.

Far from the purpose of his coming thither,
He makes excuses for his being there.
No cloudy show of stormy blustering weather
Doth yet in his fair welkin once appear;
Till sable Night, mother of Dread and Fear,
Upon the world dim darkness doth display,
And in her vaulty prison stows the day".

"I knew you must be edified by the margent, ere you had done."

In all our ancient English books, the comment is printed in the margin. MALONE.

7 Nor could she MORALIZE his wanton sight-] To moralize here signifies to interpret, to investigate the latent meaning of his looks. So, in Much Ado About Nothing: "You have some moral in this Benedictus." Again, in The Taming of the Shrew: and has left me here to expound the meaning or moral of his signs and tokens." MALONE.

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8 With BRUISED ARMS and WREATHS of VICTORY;] So, in King Richard III. :

"Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,

"Our bruised arms hung up for monuments." MALONE. 9 Till sable Night, MOTHER of Dread and Fear,

Upon the world dim darkness doth display,

And in her vaulty prison sTows the day.] So, Daniel in his Rosamond, 1592:

"Com'd was the night, mother of sleep and fear,
"Who with her sable mantle friendly covers

"The sweet stolne sports of joyful meeting lovers."

Thus the quarto, 1594, and the three subsequent editions. The octavo, 1616, without any authority, reads thus:

For then is Tarquin brought unto his bed,
Intending weariness with heavy spright1;
For, after supper, long he questioned

With modest Lucrece, and wore out the night; Now leaden slumber3 with life's strength doth fight; And every one to rest himself betakes,

Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds, that wakes *.

As one of which doth Tarquin lie revolving
The sundry dangers of his will's obtaining;
Yet ever to obtain his will resolving,

"Till sable night, sad source of dread and fear,

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Upon the world dim darkness doth display,

"And in her vaulty prison shuts the day." MAlone. Stows I believe to be the true, though the least elegant, reading. So, in Hamlet, Act IV. Sc. I.: "Safely stow'd.'

STEEVENS. INTENDING Weariness with heavy spright;] Intending is pretending. See vol. v. p. 469, n. 7. MALONE.

2

For, after supper, long he QUESTIONED

With modest Lucrece,] Held a long conversation. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

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I pray you, think you question with the Jew." Again, in As You Like It: "I met the duke yesterday, and had much question with him." MALONE.

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leaden slumber -] So, in King Richard III.:
"Lest leaden slumber peise me down to-morrow."

4 And every one to rest HIMSELF betakes,

STEEVENS.

Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds, that WAKES.] Thus the quarto. The octavo 1600, reads:-themselves betake, and in the next line:

"Save thieves, and cares, and troubled minds that wake." But the first copy was right. This disregard of concord is not uncommon in our ancient poets. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

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two lamps burnt out in darkness lies."

Again, in The Tempest, 1623:

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at this hour

"Lies at my mercy all mine enemies." MALONE.

Though weak-built hopes persuade him to abstaining:

Despair to gain, doth traffick oft for gaining;
And when great treasure is the meed propos'd,
Though death be adjunct, there's no death
suppos'd.

Those that much covet, are with gain so fond,
That what they have not, that which they possess,
They scatter and unloose it from their bond,
And so, by hoping more, they have but less;
Or, gaining more, the profit of excess

5 Though DEATH be ADJUNCT,] So, in King John:
Though that my death were adjunct to the act.”

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STEEVENS.

6 That WHAT they have not, that which they possess,] Thus the quarto, 1594. The edition of 1616 reads:

"Those that much covet, are with gain so fond,

"That oft they have not that which they possess ;

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They scatter and unloose it," &c.

The alteration is plausible, but not necessary. If it be objected to the reading of the first copy, that these misers cannot scatter what they have not, (which they are made to do, as the text now stands,) it should be observed, that the same objection lies to the passage as regulated in the latter edition; for here also they are said to scatter and unloose it," &c. although in the preceding line they were said "oft not to have it." Poetically speaking, they may be said to scatter what they have not, i. e. what they cannot be truly said to have; what they do not enjoy, though possessed of it. Understanding the words in this sense, the old reading may remain.

A similar phraseology is found in Daniel's Rosamond, 1592: "As wedded widows, wanting what we have."

Again, in Cleopatra, a tragedy, by the same author, 1594 : their state thou ill definest,

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"And liv'st to come, in present pinest;

"For what thou hast, thou still dost lacke:

"O mindes tormentor, bodies wracke:

"Vaine promiser of that sweete reste,
"Which never any yet possest."

"Tam avaro deest quod habet, quam quod non habet," is one of the sentences of Publius Syrus. MALONE.

Is but to surfeit, and such griefs sustain,
That they prove bankrupt in this poor-rich gain.

The aim of all is but to nurse the life

With honour, wealth, and ease, in waining age;
And in this aim there is such thwarting strife,
That one for all, or all for one we gage;
As life for honour, in fell battles' rage;

Honour for wealth; and oft that wealth doth cost
The death of all, and all together lost.

So that in vent'ring ill', we leave to be
The things we are for that which we expect ;
And this ambitious foul infirmity,

In having much, torments us with defect
Of that we have: so then we do neglect

The thing we have; and, all for want of wit,
Make something nothing, by augmenting it ".

Such hazard now must doting Tarquin make,
Pawning his honour to obtain his lust;
And, for himself, himself he must forsake:
Then where is truth, if there be no self-trust?
When shall he think to find a stranger just,

When he himself himself confounds, betrays
To slanderous tongues, and wretched hateful
days'?

7 So that in vent'ring ILL,] Thus the old copy. The modern editions read:

"So that in vent'ring all

-."

But there is no need of change. "In venturing ill," means, 'from an evil spirit of adventure, which prompts us to covet what we are not possessed of.' MALONE.

8 MAKE Something NOTHING, by AUGMENTING it.] Thus, in Macbeth:

9

66 so I lose no honour

"By seeking to augment it," &c. STEEVENS.
himself CONFOUNDS,] i. e. destroys.

Dict. in voc.

5

MALONE.

See Minsheu's

Now stole upon the time the dead of night,
When heavy sleep had clos'd up mortal eyes;
No comfortable star did lend his light,
No noise but owls' and wolves' death-boding cries:
Now serves the season that they may surprise

The silly lambs; pure thoughts are dead and still,
While lust and murder wake, to stain and kill.

And now this lustful lord leap'd from his bed,
Throwing his mantle rudely o'er his arm;
Is madly toss'd between desire and dread;
Th' one sweetly flatters, th' other feareth harm ;
But honest Fear, bewitch'd with lust's foul charm,

and wretched hateful DAYS?] The modern editions read, unintelligibly: "To slanderous tongues, the wretched hateful lays.” MALONE

2 Now stole upon the time the dead of night, &c.] So, in Mac

beth:

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Now o'er the one half world

"Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
"The curtain'd sleep: now witchcraft celebrates
"Pale Hecat's offerings; and wither'd murder,
"Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,

"Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
"With Tarquin's ravishing sides, towards his design
"Moves like a ghost." MALONE.

"Now stole upon the time the dead of night,
"When heavy sleep had clos'd up mortal eyes;
No comfortable star did lend his light-

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pure thoughts are dead and still,

"While lust and murder wake-.'

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From this and two follow

ing passages in the poem before us, it is hardly possible to suppose but that Mr. Rowe had been perusing it before he sat down to write The Fair Penitent:

"Once in a lone and secret hour of night,

"When every eye was clos'd, and the pale moon,
"And silent stars-

"Fierceness and pride, the guardians of her honour,
"Were lull'd to rest, and love alone was waking."

STEEVENS.

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