PRO. What, said she nothing? SPEED. No, not so much as-take this for thy pains. To testify your bounty, I thank you, you have testern'd me; in requital whereof, henceforth carry your letters yourself: and so, sir, I'll commend you to my master. PRO. Go, go, be gone, to save your ship from wreck; Which cannot perish, having thee aboard", [Exeunt. The opposition is between brought and telling. Though Mr. Steevens had before him this easy and clear explanation of the words found in the only authentick copy of this play, he adhered to the sophisticated reading of the second folio, the words which are above explained being "to him unintelligible." MALONE. 4 you have TESTERN'D me;] You have gratified me with a tester, testern, or testen, that is, with a sixpence. JOHNSON. The old reading is-cestern'd. STEEVENS. This typographical error was second folio. MALONE. corrected by the editor of the Mr. H. White, in Mr. Steevens's edition of 1803, quotes a passage from one of Latimer's sermons [preached at Stamford in 1750] to show that a tester was in Latimer's time of the value of tenpence the truth is, that it had a different value at different times. See Fleetwood's Chronicon Pretiosum, p. 32. "Testens, or as we now commonly call them, testers, from a head that was upon them, were coined (as is before said) 36 Hen. VIII. [1542]. Sir H. Spelman says they were French coin of the value of 18d.; and he does not know but they might have gone for as much in England: he says it was brass, and covered over with silver; and in Henry the Eighth's days, for 12d.; but 1 Edw. VI. [1547], it was brought down to 9d. and then to 6d. (which still retains the name)." MALONE. 5 Which cannot perish, &c.] The same proverb has been already alluded to in the first and last scenes of The Tempest. REED. SCENE II. The Same. The Garden of JULIA'S House. Enter JULIA and LUCETTA. JUL. But say, Lucetta, now we are alone, Would'st thou then counsel me to fall in love? Luc. Ay, madam; so you stumble not unheedfully. JUL. Of all the fair resort of gentlemen, That every day with parle encounter me, According to my shallow simple skill. my JUL. What think'st thou of the fair Sir Eglamour? Luc. As our knight well-spoken, neat and fine; But, were I you, he never should be mine". JUL. What think'st thou of the rich Mercatio ? Luc. Well, of his wealth; but of himself, so, so JUL. What think'st thou of the gentle Proteus ? Luc. Lord, lord! to see what folly reigns in us! JUL. How now, what means this passion at his name? Luc. Pardon, dear madam; 'tis a passing shame, That I, unworthy body as I am, Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen. 6 -he SIR EGLAMOUR never should be mine.] Perhaps Sir Eglamour was once the common cant term for an insignificant inamorato. So, in Decker's Satiromastix: 66 "Adieu, Sir Eglamour; adieu lute-string, curtain-rod, goosequill," &c. Sir Eglamour of Artoys indeed is the hero of an ancient metrical romance, Imprinted at London, in Foster-lane, at the sygne of the Harteshorne, by John Walley," bl. I. no date. STEEVENS. 7 Should CENSURE thus-] To censure, in our author's time, JUL. Why not on Proteus, as of all the rest? Luc. Then thus,-of many good I think him best. JUL. Your reason? Luc. I have no other but a woman's reason; I think him so, because I think him so. JUL. And would'st thou have me cast my love on him? Luc. Ay, if you thought your love not cast away. JUL. Why, he of all the rest hath never mov'd me. Luc. Yet he of all the rest, I think, best loves ye. JUL. His little speaking shows his love but small. Luc. Fire that's closest kept, burns most of all®. JUL. They do not love, that do not show their love. Luc. O, they love least, that let men know their love. JUL. I would, I knew his mind. Luc. Peruse this paper, madam. Say, from whom? Luc. That the contents will show. Luc. Sir Valentine's page; and sent, I think, from Proteus: He would have given it you, but I, being in the way, generally signified to give one's judgment or opinion. So, in The Winter's Tale, Act II. Sc. I.: "In my just censure? in my true opinion? See the note there. MALone. & FIRE that's closest kept, burns most of all.] The second and third words in this line are thus abbreviated in the only authentick copy of this play; and hence it appears that fire is here, as in many other places in these plays, used as a dissyllable. So, in the " Letting of Humour's Blood," 8vo. 1600: "O rare compound, a dying horse to choke, "Of English fyer and of Indie smoke." If it should be urged, that "Fire that is closest " is a smoother line, I answer that we are not to re-write our author's plays. MALONE. Did in your name receive it; pardon the fault, I pray. There, take the paper, see it be return'd; Luc. To plead for love deserves more fee than hate. * Luc. That you may ruminate. [Exit. JUL. And yet, I would I had o'erlook'd the letter. It were a shame, to call her back again, 1 And pray her to a fault for which I chid her. When willingly I would have had her here! *First folio, ye. 9-a goodly BROKER!] A broker. was used for matchmaker, sometimes for a procuress. JOHNSON. So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond, 1599: "And flie (o flie) these bed-brokers unclean, "The monsters of our sex," &c. STEEVENS. Again, more appositely, in "Look to 't, for I'le stab ye," a collection of satirical verses by S. R. i. e. Samuel Rowlands, 8vo. 1604: "You scurvie fellow in the broker's suite "A sattin doublet fac'd with greace and ale, * * * * "Thou that within thy table hast set down "The names of all the squirrils in the towne," &c. MALONE. say No, to that, &c.] A paraphrase on the old proverb, STEEVENS. "Maids say nay, and take it." 2 How angerly I taught my brow to frown, When inward joy enforc'd my heart to smile! And ask remission for my folly past:- Re-enter Lucetta. Luc. What would your ladyship? * JUL. Is it dinner-time? Luc. I would, it were; 3 That you might kill your stomach on your meat, And not upon your maid. JUL. What is't that you Took up so gingerly? Luc. Nothing. JUL. Why didst thou stoop then? Luc. To take a paper up that I let fall. JUL. And is that paper nothing? Luc. Nothing concerning me. JUL. Then let it lie for those that it concerns. Luc. Madam, it will not lie where it concerns, Unless it have a false interpreter. JUL. Some love of yours hath writ to you in rhime. Luc. That I might sing it, madam, to a tune: Give me a note: your ladyship can set. 4 JUL. As little by such toys as may be possible: *First folio, Is't. 2 HOW ANGERLY-] Thus the old copy; and such was the usage of that time; not angrily, as several of the modern editions have exhibited the word. So, in Macbeth : 66 3 Why how now, Hecate? thou look'st angerly." MALONE. stomach-] Was used for passion or obstinacy. JOHNSON. 4 As little BY such toys-] Set is here used equivocally, in the preceding speech, in the sense in which it is used by musicians ; and in the present line with the addition of the preposition by, in a quite different sense. To set by in old language signifies to make account of. So, in the First Book of Samuel, xviii. 30: "David behaved himself more wisely than all, so that he was much set by." MALONE. |