No point, quoth I;' my servant straight was mute. Kath. Lord Longaville said, I came o'er his heart; And trow you, what he call'd me? Prin. Qualm, perhaps. Kath. Yes, in good faith. Prin. Go, sickness as thou art! Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps.* But will you hear? the king is my love sworn. Prin. And quick Birón hath plighted faith to me. In their own shapes; for it can never be, Prin. Will they return? Boyet. They will, they will, God knows ; And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows: Prin. How blow? how blow? speak to be understood. Boyet. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud; Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.3 [1] Point in French is an adverb of negation; but, if properly spoken, is not sounded like the point of a sword. A quibble, however, is intended. From this and the other passages it appears, that either our author was not well acquainted with the pronunciation of the French language, or it was different formerly to what it is at present. The former supposition appears to me much the more prc. bable of the two. MALONE. [2] This line is not universally understood, because every reader does not know that a statute-cap is part of the academical habit. Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education. JOHNSON. Woollen caps were enjoined by act of parliament, in the year 1571, the 13th of Queen Elizabeth. "Besides the bills passed into acts this parliament, there was one which I judge not amiss to be taken notice of it concerned the Queen's care for employment for her poor sort of subjects. It was for continuance of making and wearing woollen caps, in behalf of the trade of cappers; providing, that all above the age of six yeares, (except the nobility and some others) should on sabbath days and holy days, wear caps of wool, knit, thicked, and drest in England, upon penalty of ten groats." Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth. Vol. II. p. 74. GREY. This act may account for the distinguishing mark of Mother Red-cap. STE. The king and his lords probably wore hats adorned with feathers. So they are represented in the print affixed to this play in Mr. Rowe's edition, probably from some stage tradition. MALONE. [3] Ladies unmask'd, says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink from before them. JOHNSON. Holinshed says, "The Britains began to avale the hills where they had lodged," i e. they began to descend the hills. If Shakespeare uses the word vailing in this Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, Boyet. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand. [Exe. Prin. Ros. KATH. and MAR. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE and DUMAIN, in their proper habits. King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess? Boyet. Gone to her tent: Please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither? King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. Boyet. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord. [Exti. Biron. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again when God doth please : He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares At wakes, and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs; And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know, Have not the grace to grace it with such show. This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve; Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve: He can carve too, and lisp: Why, this is he, That kiss'd away his hand in courtesy ; This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice, That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice In honourable terms; nay, he can sing A mean most meanly ; and, in ushering, sense, the meaning is-Angels descending from clouds which concealed their beauties. TOLLET. To avale comes from the French aval, term de batelier. STEEVENS. [4] Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a salutation first used by the Lady Rowena to King Vortiger. Afterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth night, to carry a wassel or waissail bowl from house to house, which was presented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in process of time wassel signified intemperance in drinking, and also a meeting for the purpose of festivity. MALONE. [5] The mean in music is the tenor. So Bacon: "The treble cutteth the air so "sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal and therefore a mean or tenor is the sweetest." STEEVENS. Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet; King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, That put Armado's page out of his part! Enter the Princess, usher'd by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants. Biron. See where it comes!-Behaviour, what wert thou, Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now? King. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke ; Prin. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke ; For virtue's office never breaks men's troth. A world of torments though I should endure, We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game; [6] As white as whales bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. Skelton joins the whales bone with the brightest precious stones, in describing the position of Pallas. T. WARTON. It should be remember'd that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a whale. STEEVENS. This white whale his bone, now superseded by ivory, was the tooth of the Horsewhale, Morse, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon translation of Orosius. HOLT WHITE. A mess of Russians left us but of late. Prin. Ay, in truth, my lord; Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state. Ros. Madam, speak true :-It is not so, my lord; In courtesy, gives undeserving praise. By light we lose light: Your capacity Is of that nature, that to your huge store Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor. Ros. This proves you wise and rich; for in my eye,— Biron. I am a fool, and full of poverty. Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong, It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue. Biron. O, I am yours, and all that I possess. Ros. All the fool mine? Biron, I cannot give you less. Ros. Which of the visors was it, that you wore ? Biron. Where? when? what visor? why demand you this? Ros. There, then, that visor; that superfluous case, That hid the worse, and show'd the better face. King. We are descried: they'll mock us now downright. Dum. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest. Prin. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your highness sad? Ros, Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why look you pale ? Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy. Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me ; Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout; [7] This is a very lofty and elegant compliment. JOHNSON. Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance; Nor never more in Russian habit wait. Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song: Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical; these summer-flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation: I do forswear them: and I here protest, By this white glove, (how white the hand, God knows!) Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes: And, to begin, wench,-so God help me, la !— My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw. Ros. Sans SANS, I pray you.9 Biron. Yet I have a trick Of the old rage :-bear with me, I am sick; Prin. No, they are free, that gave these tokens to us. That you stand forfeit, being those that sue?? Biron. Peace; for I will not have to do with you. [8] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in The Winter's Tale, Autolycus says: "I have worn three-pile." STEEVENS. [9] i. e. without sans; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the last line of his speech, though just before he had forsworn all affectation in phrases, terms, &c. TYRWHITT. [1] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolourations, by which the infection is known to be received. JOHNSON. [2] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process? The jest lies in the ambiguity of sue, which signifies, to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition. JOHNSON. |