As much in private, and I'll bid adieu. [They converse apart. Kath, What, was your visor made without a tongue ? Long. I know the reason, lady, why you ask. Kath. O, for your reason! quickly, sir; I long. Long. You have a double tongue within your mask, And would afford my speechless visor half. Kath. Veal, quoth the Dutchman ;-Is not veal a calf? Kath. No, a fair lord calf. Kath. No, I'll not be your half: Take all, and wean it; it may prove an ox. Long. Look, how you butt yourself in these sharp Will you give horns, chaste lady? do not so. [mocks! Kath. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow. Long. One word in private with you, ere I die. Kath. Bleat softly then, the butcher hears you cry. [They converse apart. Boyet. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen As is the razor's edge invisible, Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen; Above the sense of sense: so sensible Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings, Boyet. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out. Ros. Well-liking wits they have; gross,gross; fat,fat. The king was weeping-ripe for a good word. [9] Well-liking is the same as embonpoint. So, in Job xxxix. 4: "Their young ones are in good liking." STEEVENS. No point, quoth I: my servant straight was mute. Prin. Qualm, perhaps. Kath. Yes, in good faith. Prin. Go, sickness as thou art! Ros. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps.2 But will you hear? the king is my love sworn. Prin. And quick Birón hath plighted faith to me. In their own shapes; for it can never be, Prin. Will they return? Boyet. They will, they will, God knows; And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows: Prin. How blow? how blow? speak to be understood. Boyet. Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud: Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown, Are angels veiling clouds, or roses blown.3 [1] Point in French is an adverb of negation; but, if properly spoken, is not sounded like the point of a sword. "A quibble, however, is intended. From this and the other passages it appears, that either our author was not well acquainted with the pronunciation of the French language, or it was different formerly to what it is at present. The former supposition ap. pears to me much the more probable of the two. MALONE. [2] This line is not universally understood, because every reader does not know that a statute-cap is part of the academical habit Lady Rosaline declares that her expectation was disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education. JOH. Woollen caps were enjoined by act of parliament, in the year 1571, the 13th of Queen Elizabeth. Besides the bills passed into acts this parliament, there was one which I judge not amiss to be taken notice of-it concerned the Queen's care for employment for her poor sort of subjects. It was for continuance of making and wearing woollen caps, in behalf of the trade of cappers; providing, that all above the age of six yeares, (except the nobility and some others) should on sabbath days and holy days, wear caps of wool, knit, thicked, and drest in England, upon penalty of ten groats." Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. II. p. 74. GREY. This act may account for the distinguishing mark of Mother Red-cap. STE. The king and his lords probably wore hats adorned with feathers. So they are represented in the print affixed to this play in Mr. Rowe's edition, probably from some stage tradition. MAL. [3] Ladies unmask'd. says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink from b fore them. JOH. Holinshed says, "The Britains began to avale th hills where they had lodged," i. e. they began to descend the hills. If Shakspeare uses the word Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, If they return in their own shapes to woo? Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, Boyet. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand. [Exe. Prin. Ros. KATH. and MAR. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE and DUMAIN, in their proper habits. King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess? Boyet. Gone to her tent: Please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither? King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. Boyet. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord. [Exit. Biron. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again when God doth please: He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares A mean most meanly ; and, in ushering, vailing in this sense, the meaning is-Angels descending from clouds which concealed their beauties. TOLLET. To avale comes from the Fr. aval, term de batelier. STE EVENS. [4] Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a salutation first used by the La. dy Rowena to King Vortiger. Afterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth night. to carry a wassel or waissail bowl from house to house, which was presented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in process of time wassel signified intemperance in drink. ing, and also a meeting for the purpose of festivity. MAL. [5] The mean in music is the tenor. So Bacon: "The treble cutteth the "air so sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal; and there "fore a mean or tenor is the sweetest," STEEV. Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet; King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, That put Armado's page out of his part! Enter the Princess, usher'd by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants. Biron. See where it comes !-Behaviour, what wert thou, ? Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now King. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke ; Prin. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke ; For virtue's office never breaks men's troth. Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure As the unsullied lily, I protest, A world of torments though I should endure, We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game; [6] As white as whales bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. Skelton joins the whales bene with the brightest precious stones, in describing the position of Pallas. T. WARTON. It should be remember'd that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a whale. STEEV. This white whale his bone, now superseded by ivory, was the tooth of the Horse-whale, Morse, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon translation of Orosius. HOLT WHITE. 35* VOL. II. A mess of Russians left us but of late. Prin. Ay, in truth, my lord; Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state. In courtesy, gives undeserving praise. We four, indeed, confronted here with four, By light we lose light: Your capacity Is of that nature, that to your huge store Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong, Ros. All the fool mine? Biron. I cannot give you less. Ros. Which of the visors was it, that you wore? Biron. Where? when? what visor? why demand you this? Ros. There, then, that visor; that superfluous case, That hid the worse, and show'd the better face. King. We are descried; they'll mock us now down right. Dum. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest. Prin. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your highness sad? Ros. Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why look you pale? Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy. Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me; Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout; [7] This is a very lofty and elegant compliment. JOHNSON. |