Which blows these pitchy vapours from their biding,
Hindering their present fall by this dividing:
So his unhallow'd haste her words delays,
And moody Pluto winks while Orpheus plays.

Yet, foul night-waking cat, he doth but dally,
While in his hold-fast foot the weak mouse panteth:
Her sad behaviour feeds his vulture folly1,
A swallowing gulf that even in plenty wanteth:
His ear her prayers admits, but his heart granteth
No penetrable entrance to her plaining:
Tears harden lust, though marble wear with

raining.

Her pity-pleading eyes are sadly fix'd
In the remorseless wrinkles of his face 2;
Her modest eloquence with sighs is mix'd,
Which to her oratory adds more grace.
She puts the period often from his place;
And 'midst the sentence so her accent breaks,
That twice she doth begin, ere once she speaks3.

She cónjures him by high almighty Jove,
By knighthood, gentry, and sweet friendship's oath,
By her untimely tears, her husband's love,
By holy human law, and common troth,

By heaven and earth, and all the power of both,

The old copy, I think, is correct:-" He knows no gentle right, but still her words delay him, as a gentle gust blows away a blackfaced cloud." BOSWELL.

-his vulture FOLLY.] Folly is used here, as it is in the sacred writings, for depravity of mind. So also, in Othello:

"She turn'd to folly, and she was a whore." MALONE. 2 In the REMORSELESS wrinkles of his face ;) Remorseless is pitiless. See vol. ix. p. 60, n. 7; and p. 391, n. 1. MALONE. 3 She PUTS THE PERIOD OFTEN FROM HIS PLACE, And 'MIDST THE SENTENCE SO her ACCENT BREAKS, That twice she doth begin,] So, in A Midsummer-Night's

Dream:

“Make periods in the midst of sentences,

"Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
" And in conclusion dumbly have broke off," &C. STEEVENS.

That to his borrow'd bed he make retire,
And stoop to honour, not to foul desire.

Quoth she, reward not hospitality 4

With such black payment as thou hast pretended';
Mud not the fountain that gave drink to thee;
Mar not the thing that cannot be amended;
End thy ill aim, before thy shoot be ended6;
He is no wood-man that doth bend his bow
To strike a poor unseasonable doe.

4- reward not HOSPITALITY, &c.]

my hospitable favours

"You should not ruffle thus."

So, in King Lear:

STEEVENS.

5- pretended;] i. e. proposed to thyself. So, in Macbeth:

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- Alas the day!

"What good could they pretend?" STEEVENS.

End thy ill aim, before thy SHOOT be ended:] It is manifest, from the context, that the author intended the word shoot to be taken in a double sense; suit and shoot being in his time pronounced alike. So, in The London Prodigal, 1605:

&c.

"But there's the other black-browes, a shrood girl,
"She hath wit at will, and shuters two or three."

Again, in The Puritan, a Comedy, 1607 :

"Enter the Sutors.

"Are not these archers?-what do you call them, shooters,"

Again, in Lilly's Euphues and his England, 1580: "There was a lady in Spaine, who after the death of her father had three suters, and yet never a good archer," &c. MALONE.

I adhere to the old reading, nor apprehend the least equivoque.

A sentiment nearly parallel occurs in Macbeth:

- the murd'rous shaft that's shot,

"Hath not yet lighted."

"He is no wood-man that doth bend his bow," very strongly

supports my opinion. STEEVENS.

There is no doubt that shoot was one of the ideas intended to be conveyed. It is, in my apprehension, equally clear, that the suit or solicitation of a lover was also in our author's thoughts. Shoot (the pronunciation of the two words being granted to be the same) suggests both ideas. - The passage quoted from Macbeth, in the preceding note, does not, as I conceive, prove any thing. The word shot has there its usual signification, and no double meaning could have been intended. MALONE.

My husband is thy friend, for his sake spare me;
Thyself art mighty, for thine own sake leave me;
Myself a weakling, do not then ensnare me:
Thou look'st not like deceit; do not deceive me:
My sighs, like whirlwinds, labour hence to heave

thee.

If ever man were mov'd with woman's moans, Be moved with my tears, my sighs, my groans;

All which together, like a troubled ocean,
Beat at thy rocky and wreck-threat'ning heart,
To soften it with their continual motion;
For stones dissolv'd to water do convert.
O, if no harder than a stone thou art,
Melt at my tears and be compassionate!
Soft pity enters at an iron gate'.

In Tarquin's likeness I did entertain thee:
Hast thou put on his shape to do him shame?
To all the host of heaven I complain me,
Thou wrong'st his honour, wound'st his princely

name.

Thou art not what thou seem'st; and if the same,
Thou seem'st not what thou art, a god, a king;
For kings like gods should govern every thing.

How will thy shame be seeded in thine age,
When thus thy vices bud before thy spring?
If in thy hope thou dar'st do such outrage,

7 Soft pity enters at an IRON GATE.) Meaning, I suppose, the gates of a prison. STEEVENS.

8 How will thy shame be SEEDED in thine age,

When thus thy vices bud before thy spring? This thought

is more amplified in our author's Troilus and Cressida:

the seeded pride,

"Thathath to its maturity grown up

" In rank Achilles, must or now be cropt,
"Or, shedding, breed a nursery of evil,
"To over-bulk us all." STEEVENS.

What dar'st thou not, when once thou art a king? O, be remember'd', no outrageous thing

From vassal actors can be wip'd away;

Then kings' misdeeds cannot be hid in clay 2.

This deed will make thee only lov'd for fear,
But happy monarchs still are fear'd for love :
With foul offenders thou perforce must bear,
When they in thee the like offences prove :
If but for fear of this, thy will remove;

For princes are the glass, the school, the book,
Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look.

And wilt thou be the school where Lust shall learn?
Must he in thee read lectures of such shame ?
Wilt thou be glass, wherein it shall discern
Authority for sin, warrant for blame,
To privilege dishonour in thy name?

9 If in thy hope thou dar'st do such outrage,

What dar'st thou not when thou art once a king?] This sentiment reminds us of King Henry Fourth's question to his son: "When that my care could not withhold thy riots, "What wilt thou do, when riot is thy care?" STEEVENS. O, be remember'd,] Bear it in your mind. So, in King Richard II.:

"-joy being wanting,

"It doth remember me the more of sorrow."

MALONE.

The memory

Then kings' misdeeds cannot be HID IN CLAY.] of the ill actions of kings will remain even after their death. So, in The Paradise of Dainty Devises, 1580 :

"Mine owne good father, thou art gone; thine ears are stopp'd with clay."

Again, in Kendal's Flowers of Epigrams, 1577:

"The corps clapt fast in clotted clay,

"That here engrav'd doth lie." MALONE.

3 For princes are the GLASS, the school, the воок, Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look.] So, in King Henry IV. Part II. :

"He was the mark and glass, copy and book,

"That fashion'd others."

Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis. Claud.

MALONE.

Thou back'st reproach against long-lived laud,
And mak'st fair reputation but a bawd.

Hast thou command? by him that gave it thee,
From a pure heart command thy rebel will :
Draw not thy sword to guard iniquity,
For it was lent thee all that brood to kill.
Thy princely office how canst thou fulfil,
When, pattern'd by thy fault, foul Sin may say,
He learn'd to sin, and thou didst teach the way?

Think but how vile a spectacle it were,
To view thy present trespass in another.
Men's faults do seldom to themselves appear;
Their own transgressions partially they smother:
This guilt would seem death-worthy in thy brother.
O, how are they wrapp'd in with infamies,
That from their own misdeeds askaunce their

eyes!

To thee, to thee, my heav'd-up hands appeal,
Not to seducing lust, thy rash relier;
I sue for exil'd majesty's repeal 6;

Let him return, and flattering thoughts retire:
His true respect will 'prison false desire,

4

And wipe the dim mist from thy doting eyne,
That thou shalt see thy state, and pity mine.

- PATTERN'D by thy fault,] Taking thy fault for a pattern or example. So, in the Legend of Lord Hastings, Mirrour for Magistrates, 1587:

"By this my pattern, all ye peers, beware." MALONE. 5 Not to seducing lust, thy rash RELIER ;) Thus the first copy. The edition of 1616 has-thy rash reply. Dr. Sewel, without authority, reads:

"Not to seducing lust's outrageous fire." MALONE. 6 for exil'd majesty's REPEAL;) For the recall of exiled

majesty. So, in one of our author's plays :

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if the time thrust forth

"A cause for thy repeal-." MALONE.