Enter Biron. Biron. O my good knave Coftard, exceedingly well met. Coft. Pray you, Sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration? Biron. What is a remuneration? Coft. Marry, Sir, half-penny farthing. Biron. O, why then three farthings worth of filk. Coft. When would you have it done, Sir? Coft. Well, I will do it, Sir: fare you well. Coft. I fhall know, Sir, when I have done it. Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first. Coft. I will come to your worship to morrow morning. Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, flave, it is but this : The Princess comes to hunt here in the park : When tongues fpeak fweetly, then they name her name, And to her fweet hand fee thou do commend This feal'd up counfel, There's thy guerdon; go. Coft. Guerdon,-O fweet guerdon! better than remuneration, eleven pence farthing better: moft fweet guerdon! I will do it, Sir, in print. Guerdon, remuneration.[Exit. Biron. O! and I, forfooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; A Á very beadle to a humorous figh: Paffage has hitherto been writ, and pointed, without any Regard to Common Senfe, or Meaning. The Reform, that I have made, flight as it is, makes it both intelligible and humourous. A critick; nay, a night-watch conftable, This whimpled, whining, purblind wayward boy, Of trotting parators (O my little heart!) What? (17) This Signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid.] It was fome time ago ingenioufly hinted to me, (and I readily came into the Opinion) that as there was a Contraft of Terms in giant-dwarf, so, probably, there should be in the Words immediately preceding them; and therefore that we should restore, This Senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. i. e. this old, young Man. And there is, indeed, afterwards in this Play, a Defcription of Cupid, which forts very aptly with fuch an Emendation. That was the way to make his Gedhead wax, The Conjecture is exquifitely well imagin'd, and ought by all Means And wear his Colours like a Tumbler's hoop!] A Corporal of a Field is quite a new Term: neither did the Tumblers ever adorn their Hoops with Ribbands, that I can learn for Thofe were not carried in Parade about with them, as the Fencer carries his Sword: Y What? I love! I fue! I feek a wife! SCENE, a Pavilion in the Park near the Palace. Enter the Princefs, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, Lords, Attendants, and a Forefter. PRINCESS. AS that the King, that spur'd his horse so hard WAS Against the steep uprifing of the hill? Sword: Nor, if they were, is the Similitude at all pertinent to the Cafe in hand. But to floop like a Tumbler agrees not only with that Profeffion, and the fervile Condefcenfions of a Lover, but with what follows in the Context. What mifled the wife Tranfcribers at first, seems This: When once the Tumbler appear'd, they thought, his Hoop muft not be far behind. Mr. Warburton. Boyet. Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Then Forester, my friend, where is the bush, O fhort-liv'd pride! not fair? alack, for wo! For. Yes, madam, fair. Prin. Nay, never paint me now; Where fair is not, praife cannot mend the brow. A giving hand, though foul, fhall have fair praise. When for fame's fake, for praife, an outward part, The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Prin. Only for praife; and praise we may afford Enter Enter Coftard. Boyet. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Coft. God dig-you-den all; pray you, which is the head lady? Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads. Coft. Which is the greatest lady, the higheft? Coft. The thickest and the talleft? it is fo, truth is truth. An your wafte, mistress, were as flender as my wit, One o' these maids girdles for your wafte should be fit. Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here. Prin. What's your will, Sir? what's your will? Coft. I have a letter from Monfieur Biron, to one lady Rofaline. Prin. O thy letter, thy letter: he's a good friend of mine. Stand afide, good bearer. Break up this capon. Boyet, you can carve; (19) Boyet. I am bound to ferve. This letter is miftook, it importeth none here; It is writ to Jaquenetta. Prin. We will read it, I fwear. Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. (19) Boyet, you can carve; Break up this Capon.] i. e. open this Letter. Our Poet uses this Metaphor, as the French do their Poulet; which fignifies both a young Fowl, and a Love-letter. Poulet, amatoriæ Litteræ ; fays Richelet and quotes from Voiture, Répondre au plus obligeant Poulet du Monde; To reply to the moft obliging Letter in the World. The Italians ufe the fame manner of Expreffion, when they call a LoveEpifle, una Pollicetta amorofa. I ow'd the Hint of this equivocal ute of the Word to my ingenious Friend Mr. Bishop. I obferve in Weftwardboe, a Comedy written by a Contemporary with our Author, that one of thefe Letters is likewife call'd a Wild-fowl. A&t. 2. Sc. 2. At the Skirt of that Sheet in black Work is wrought his Name. Break not up the Wild-fowl till anon, and then feed upon him in Private. Boyet |