This line is likewise quoted in Belvidere, or the Garden of the Muses, 1610, p. 29. and in England's Par- nassus, printed in 1600, p. 261. STEEVENS. Might not the poet have intended this, as an apostrophe to Marlow himlelf? HENLEY. ACT IV. Line 34. SWAM in a gondola.] That is, been at Venice, the seat at that time of all licentiousness, where the young English gentlemen wasted their fortunes, debased their morals, and sometimes lost their religion. The fashion of travelling, which prevailed very much in our author's time, was considered by the wiser men as one of the principal causes of corrupt manners. It was therefore gravely censured by Ascham in his Schoolmaster, and by bishop Hall in his Quo Vadis; and is here, and in other passages, ridiculed by Shakspere. JOHNSON. 61. A Rosalind of a better leer than you.] i. e. of a better feature, complexion, or colour, than you. So, in P. Holland's Pliny, B. XXXI. c. ii. p. 403: "In some places there is no other thing bred or growing, but brown and duskish, insomuch as not only the cattel is all of that lere, but also the corn on the ground, &c." The word seems to be derived from the Saxon Hleare, facies, frons, vultus. So it is used in Titus Andronicus, act iv. sc. 2. See leer in catchword Alphabet. "Here's "Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer." TOLLET. In the notes on the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, "His lady is white as wales bone, 100. "So faire a blosme on tre." STEEVENS. -chroniclers of that age] Sir T. Hanmer JOHNSON. Mr. Edwards proposes the same emendation, and "The coroner hath sat on her, and finds it-Chris- I believe, however, the old copy is right. MALONE. fountain.] Mr. Malone supposes an allusion here to some well Statues, and particularly that of Diana, with water conveyed through them to give them the appearance of Now could I cry Like any image in a fountain, which Runs lamentations. And again in Drayton : Here in the garden, wrought by curious hands, Naked Diana in the fountain stands. Rosamond's Epistle to Henry II. WHALLEY. 150. -I will laugh like a hyen,] The bark of the hyena very much resembles a loud laugh. So, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "You laugh hyena like, weep like a crocodile." STEEVENS. 156. make the doors] See Doors, catch-word Alphabet. 161. -Wit, whither wilt?] This was an exclamation much in use, when any one was either talking nonsense, or usurping a greater share in conversation than justly belonged to him. The same expression occurs more than once in Taylor the water-poet, and seems to have been the title of some ludicrous performance. STEEVENS. Mr. Reed thinks the allusion may be to the following performance: "The Wil of Wit, Wit's Will or Wil's Wit, chuse you whether containing five dis. courses, the effects whereof follow: Reade and Judge: Newly corrected and amended, being the fifth time imprinted. Compiled by Nicholas Breton, gentleman, 4to. 1606." 1.67. 167. You shall never take her without her answer,] See Chaucer's Marchantes Tale, ver. 10138-10149: "Ye, sire, quod Proserpine, and wol ye so? "Now by my modre Ceres soul I swere, "That I shal yeve hire suffisant answere, "And alle women after for hire sake; "That though they ben in any gilt ytake, "With face bold they shul hemselve excuse, "And bere hem doun that wolden hem accuse. "For lacke of answere, non of us shul dien. "Al had ye seen a thing with bothe youre eyen, "Yet shul we so visage it hardely, " And wepe and swere and chiden subtilly, "That ye shull ben as lewed as ben gees." TYRWHITT. 169. make her fault her husband's occasion,] That is, represent her fault as occasioned by her husband. Sir T. Hanmer reads, her husband's accusation. JOHNSON, 187. I will think you the most pathetical break-promise.] The same epithet occurs again in Love's Labour Lost, and with as little apparent meaning: 66 - most pathetical nit." STEEVENS. 199.to her own nest.] So, in Lodge's Rosalynde. "And I pray you (quoth Aliena) if your own robes were off, what metal are you made of that you are so satyricall against women? Is it not a foule bird defiles the owne nest?" STEEVENS, 224. His leather skin and horns to wear.] Shakspere seems to have formed this song on a hint afforded by the the novel which furnished him with the plot of his play. "What news, Forrester? Hast thou wounded some deere, and lost him in the fall? Care not, man, for so small a losse; thy fees was but the skinne, the - shoulders, and the horns." Lodge's Rosalynd, or Euphues's Golden Legacie, 1592. For this quotation the reader is indebted to Mr. Malone. STEEVENS. 233. The foregoing noisy scene was introduced only to fill up an interval, which is to represent two hours. This contraction of the time we might impute to poor Rosalind's impatience, but that a few minutes after we find Orlando sending his excuse. I do not see that by any probable division of the acts this absurdity can be obviated. JOHNSON. 234. And here's much Orlando!] Thus the old copy. The modern editors read, but without the least authority. STEEVENS. I wonder much, Orlando is not here. The word much should be explained. It is an expression of latitude, and taken in various senses. Here's much Orlando-i.e. Here is no Orlando, or we may look for him. We have still this use of it, as when we say, speaking of a person who we suspect will not keep his appointment, "Ay, you will be sure to see him there much!" 282. Vengeance is used for mischief.] See catch-word Alphabet. WHALLEY. JOHNSON. 293. Youth and kind] Kind is the old word for nature. See Kind, catch-word Alphabet. 3 JOHNSON. 304.. |