LAUNCE. And thereof comes the proverb,Blessing of your heart, you brew good ale. SPEED. Item, She can sew. LAUNCE. That's as much as to say, Can she so? SPEED. Item, She can knit. LAUNCE. What need a man care for a stock with a wench; when she can knit him a stock"? SPEED. Item, She can wash and scour. LAUNCE. A special virtue; for then she need not be wash'd and scour'd. SPEED. Item, She can spin. LAUNCE. Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can spin for her living. SPEED. Item, She hath many nameless virtues. LAUNCE. That's as much as to say, bastard virtues; that, indeed, know not their fathers, and therefore have no names. SPEED. Here follows her vices. LAUNCE. Close at the heels of her virtues. SPEED. Item, She is not to be kiss'd fasting", in respect of her breath. LAUNCE. Well, that fault may be mended with a breakfast: Read on. SPEED. Item, She hath a sweet mouth. Shakspeare's time in brewing ale, and the same office is still performed by them in many counties in England. MALONE. 5 Blessing of your heart, &c.] So, in Ben Jonson's Masque of Augurs: 6 Night: 7 "Our ale's o' the best, Prays for their souls that brew it." STEEVENS. knit him a STOCK?] i. e. a stocking. So, in Twelfth 66 it does indifferent well in a flame-colour'd stock." STEEVENS. - She is not to be KISS'D fasting,] The old сору reads,-she is not to be fasting, &c. The necessary word, kiss'd, was first added by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS. 8 sweet mouth.] This I take to be the same with what is now LAUNCE. That makes amends for her sour breath. SPEED. Item, She doth talk in her sleep. LAUNCE. It's no matter for that, so she sleep not in her talk. SPEED. Item, She is slow in words. LAUNCE. O villainy, that set this down among her vices! To be slow in words, is a woman's only virtue : I pray thee, out with't; and place it for her chief virtue. SPEED. Item, She is proud. LAUNCE. Out with that too; it was Eve's legacy, and cannot be ta'en from her. SPEED. Item, She hath no teeth. LAUNCE. I care not for that neither, because I love crusts. SPEED. Item, She is crust. LAUNCE. Well; the best is, she hath no teeth to bite. vulgarly called a sweet tooth, a luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats. JOHNSON. So, in Thomas Pagnell's translation of Ulrick Hutton's book De Medecina Guaiaci et morbo Gallico, 1539:-"delicates and deynties wherewith they may stere up their sweete mouthes, and provoke their appetites." Yet how a luxurious desire of dainties can make amends for offensive breath, I know not. A sweet mouth may however mean a liquorish mouth, in a wanton sense. So, in Measure for Mea sure: "Their saucy sweetness, that do coin heaven's image, &c." STEEVENS. There is, I conceive, no difficulty here. When Speed uses the term sweet mouth, he may use those words with a view to the works of the confectioner, and allude to a "luxurious desire of dainties and sweetmeats;" but in Launce's reply,-the same words may be understood in a quite different sense, as expressive of the beauty playing about that part of the face, which, according to him, may make amends for an offensive breath. Hall in his Satires, book iv, sat. l., 1599, has used the expression here introduced : "Let sweet mouth'd Mercia bid what crownes she please, "For half-red cherries, or greene garden peas," &c. MALONE. SPEED. Item, She will often praise her liquor9. LAUNCE. If her liquor be good, she shall: if she will not, I will; for good things should be praised. SPEED. Item, She is too liberal1. LAUNCE. Of her tongue she cannot; for that's writ down she is slow of: of her purse she shall not; for that I'll keep shut: now of another thing she may; and that cannot I help". Well, proceed. SPEED. Item, She hath more hair than wit3, and more faults than hair, and more wealth than faults. LAUNCE. Stop there; I'll have her; she was mine, and not mine, twice or thrice in that last article Rehearse that once more. SPEED. Item, She hath more hair than wit,LAUNCE. More hair than wit,-it may be; I'll 9 praise her liquor.] That is, shew how well she likes it by drinking often. JOHNSON. I too LIBERAL.] Liberal, is licentious and gross in language. So, in Othello: "Is he not a most profane and liberal counsellor?" Again, in The Fair Maid of Bristow, 1605, bl. 50: "But Vallenger, most like a liberal villain, JOHNSON. "Did give her scandalous ignoble terms." STEEvens. Again, in Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612: next that the fame 2 66 "Of your neglect and liberal-talking tongue, "Which breeds my honour an eternal wrong." MALONE. cannot I help.] Thus the old copy, for which Mr. Steevens has given us-I cannot help. This minute matter is noticed, lest it should be supposed that the printer had committed an MALONE. errour. 3 She hath MORE HAIR THAN WIT,] An old English proverb. See Ray's Collection : "Bush natural, more hair than wit.” Again, in Decker's Satiromastix : "Hair! 'tis the basest stubble; in scorn of it "This proverb sprung,-He has more hair than wit." Again, in Rhodon and Iris, 1631: "Now is the old proverb really perform'd; "More hair than wit." STEEVENS. prove it: The cover of the salt hides the salt, and therefore it is more than the salt: the hair, that covers the wit, is more than the wit; for the greater hides the less. What's next? SPEED. And more faults than hairs, LAUNCE. That's monstrous: O, that that were out! SPEED. And more wealth than faults. LAUNCE. Why, that word makes the faults gracious: Well, I'll have her: And if it be a match, as nothing is impossible, SPEED. What then? LAUNCE. Why, then will I tell thee,—that thy master stays for thee at the north gate. SPEED. For me? LAUNCE. For thee? ay; who art thou? he hath staid for a better man than thee. SPEED. And must I go to him? 4 the COVER of the salt hides the salt,] The ancient English salt cellar was very different from the modern, being a large piece of plate, generally much ornamented, with a cover, to keep the salt clean. There was but one salt cellar on the dinner table, which was placed near the top of the table; and those who sat below the salt were, for the most part, of an inferior condition to those who sat above it. MALONE. 5 - makes the faults GRACIOUS:] means graceful. So, in K. John: Gracious, in old language, "There was not such a gracious creature born." Again, in Albion's Triumph, 1631: "On which [the freeze] went festoons of several fruits in their natural colours, on which in gracious postures lay children sleeping." Again, in The Male Content, 1604: "The most exquisite, &c. that ever made an old lady gracious by candle-light." STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's interpretation of the word gracious has been controverted, but it is right. We have the same sentiment in The Merry Wives of Windsor : 66 O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults 'Look handsome in three hundred pounds a year!" MALONE. LAUNCE. Thou must run to him, for thou hast staid so long, that going will scarce serve the turn. SPEED. Why didst not tell me sooner? 'pox of your love-letters! [Exit. LAUNCE. Now will he be swing'd for reading my letter; An unmannerly slave, that will thrust himself into secrets!-I'll after, to rejoice in the boy's correction. [Exit. SCENE II. The same. A Room in the DUKE's Palace. Enter DUKE and THURIO; PROTEUS behind. DUKE. Sir Thurio, fear not, but that she will love you Now Valentine is banish'd from her sight. THU. Since his exíle she hath despis'd me most, Forsworn my company, and rail'd at me, That I am desperate of obtaining her. 6 DUKE. This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice which with an hour's heat Dissolves to water, and doth lose his form. A little time will melt her frozen thoughts, And worthless Valentine shall be forgot.How now, sir Proteus? Is your countryman, According to our proclamation, gone? PRO. Gone, my good lord. DUKE. My daughter takes his going grievously". 6 TRENCHED in ice-] Cut, carved in ice. Trancher, to cut, Fr. So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: 7 JOHNSON. "Is deeply trenched in my blushing brow." STEEVENS. - grievously,] So some copies of the first folio, 1623, the only authentick copy of this play; others (of which mine is one) have heavily. Those copies which have grievously, have also, in one of Launce's speeches in the preceding scene, "in that last article," instead of which, in the copies that read heavily, |