ARM. Take away this villain; shut him up. MOTH. Come, you transgressing slave; away. COST. Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose.

MOTH. No, sir; that were fast and loose: thou shalt to prison.

COST. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I have seen, some shall see

MOTH. What shall some see ?

COST. Nay nothing, master Moth, but what they look upon. It is not for prisoners to be too silent in their words *; and therefore, I will say nothing: I thank God, I have as little patience as another man; and, therefore I can be quiet.

5

[Exeunt MoTH and CoSTARD. ARM. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, (which is a great argument of falsehood,) if I love: And how can that be true love, which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; love is a devil: there is no evil angel but love. Yet Sampson was so tempted; and he had an excellent strength: yet was Solomon so seduced; and he had a very good

4 It is not for prisoners to be silent in their WORDS ;] I suppose we should read-it is not for prisoners to be silent in their wards, that is, in custody, in the holds. JOHNSON.

The first quarto, 1598, (the most authentic copy of this play,) reads" It is not for prisoners to be too silent in their words; and so without doubt the text should be printed. MALONE.

I don't think it necessary to endeavour to find out any meaning in this passage, as it seems to have been intended that Costard should speak nonsense. M. MASON.

5

affect-] i. e. love. So, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, b. xii. ch. lxxiv:

"But this I know, not Rome affords whom more you might

affect,

"Than her," &c. STEEVENS.

wit. Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello he regards not: his disgrace is to be called boy; but his glory is, to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust, rapier! be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonneteer9. Devise wit; write pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio. [Exit.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Another part of the Same. A Pavillion and Tents at a distance.

Enter the Princess of France, ROSALINE, Maria, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants.

BOYET. Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits 1:

6 BUTT-shaft —] i. e. an arrow to shoot at butts with. The butt was the place on which the mark to be shot at was placed. Thus, Othello says

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here is my butt,

66 And very sea-mark of my utmost sail."

STEEVENS.

7 The first and second cause will not serve my turn ;] See the last Act of As You Like It, with the notes.

8

JOHNSON.

rust, rapier!] So, in All's Well that Ends Well:
Rust, sword! cool blushes, and Parolles, live!”

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STEEVENS.

9-sonneteer.] The old copies read only-sonnet.

The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. MALONE.

I

STEEVENS.

your DEAREST spirits:] Dear, in our author's language,

Consider who the king your father sends;
To whom he sends; and what's his embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem;
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain; a dowry for a queen.
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,
As nature was in making graces dear,
When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.

PRIN. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but

mean,

Needs not the painted flourish of your praise2;
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues3:

has

many shades of meaning. In the present instance and the next, it appears to signify-best, most powerful. STEEVENS.

2 Needs not the painted flourish of your praise ;] Rowe has borrowed and dignified this sentiment in his Royal Convert. The Saxon Princess is the speaker:

"Whate'er I am

"Is of myself, by native worth existing,
"Secure, and independent of thy praise:

"Nor let it seem too proud a boast, if minds

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By nature great, are conscious of their greatness,
"And hold it mean to borrow aught from flattery."

"Fucati sermonis opem mens conscia laudis
"Abnuit.”

3 Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,

STEEVENS.

Not utter'd by base sale of CHAPMEN's tongues:] So, in our author's 102d Sonnet :

"That love is merchandiz'd, whose rich esteeming
"The owner's tongue doth publish every where."

MALONE.

Chapman here seems to signify the seller, not, as now commonly, the buyer. Cheap or cheaping was anciently the market: chapman therefore is marketman. The meaning is, that—the esti mation of beauty depends not on the uttering or proclamation of the seller, but on the eye of the buyer. JOHNSON.

I am less proud to hear you tell my worth,
Than you much willing to be counted wise
In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
But now to task the tasker,-Good Boyet,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame
Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow;
Till painful study shall out-wear three years,
No woman may approach his silent court:
Therefore to us seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,
To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor:

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick despatch,
Impórtunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humbly-visag'd suitors, his high will.
Boy. Proud of employment, willingly I go.

[Exit. PRIN. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.Who are the votaries, my loving lords,

That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke ? 1 LORD. Longaville is one.

PRIN.

5

Know you the man?

MAR. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Falconbridge solémnized,

In Normandy saw I this Longaville :

A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd";

4 BOLD of your worthiness,] i. e. confident of it. STEEVENS. 5 Longaville-] For the sake of manners as well as metre, we ought to read-Lord Longaville STEEVENS.

A man of sovereign PARTS he is esteem'd ;] Thus the folio. The first quarto, 1598, has the line thus:

"A man of sovereign, peerlesse, he's esteem'd."

I believe, the author wrote:

"A man of,-sovereign, peerless, he's esteem'd."

A man of extraordinary accomplishments, the speaker perhaps

Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms:
Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well.
The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss,

(If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,)

8

Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will; Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills It should none spare that come within his power. PRIN. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so? MAR. They say so most, that most his humours know.

PRIN. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow.

Who are the rest?

KATH. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd:

would have said, but suddenly checks herself; and adds-" sovereign, peerless he's esteem'd." So, before: "Matchless Navarre. Again, in The Tempest:

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but you, O you,

So perfect, and so peerless are created."

In the old copies no attention seems to have been given to abrupt sentences. They are almost uniformly printed corruptly, without any mark of abruption. Thus, in Much Ado about Nothing, we find both in the folio and quarto: - but for the stuffing well, we are all mortal." See Act I. Sc. I. See also Measure for Measure, Act I. Sc. V. : Sir, mock me not :-your story."

Perhaps our author wrote:

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66

"A man, a sovereign pearl, he is esteem'd."

MALONE.

i. e. not only a pearl, but such a one as is pre-eminently valuable. In Troilus and Cressida Helen is called-" a pearl;" and in Macbeth the nobles of Scotland are styled-" the kingdom's pearl."-The phrase—“ a sovereign pearl" may also be countenanced by "captain jewels in a carkanet," an expression which occurs in one of our author's Sonnets.

Sovereign parts, however, is a kin to royalty of nature, a phrase that occurs in Macbeth. STEEVENS.

7 WELL FITTED in the arts,] Well fitted is well qualified.

JOHNSON.

The, which is not in the old copies, was added for the sake of the metre, by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

8 MATCH'D with] Is combined or joined with. JOHNSON.