Or Cytherea's breath; pale primroses, So, in Marston's Infatiate Countefs, 1613: 66 That eye was Juno's, "Thofe lips were hers that won the golden ball, Spenfer, as well as our author, has attributed beauty to the eye-lid: "Under the fhadow of her even brows." Again, in his 40th Sonnet: Faery Queen, B. II. c. iii. ft. 25. "When on each eye-lid fweetly do appear "An hundred graces, as in fhade they fit." MALONE. -pale primrofes, That die unmarried, ere they can behold &c.] So, in Pimlyco, or Runne Red-Cap, 1609: "The pretty Dazie (eye of day) "The Prime-Rofe which doth firft difplay "Her youthful colours, and first dies: Again, in Milton's Lycidas: -the rathe primrose that forfaken dies." Mr. Warton, in a note on my last quotation, afks "But why does the Primrofe die unmarried? Not because it blooms and decays before the appearance of other flowers; as in a state of folitude, and without fociety. Shakspeare's reason, why it dies unmarried, is unintelligible, or rather is fuch as I do not wish to understand. The true reafon is, because it grows in the fhade, uncherished or unfeen by the fun, who was fuppofed to be in love with fome forts of flowers." STEEVENS. 9bold oxlips,] Gold is the reading of Sir T. Hanmer; the former editions have bold. JOHNSON. The old reading is certainly the true one. The oxlip has not a weak flexible ftalk like the cowflip, but erects itself boldly in the face of the fun. Wallis, in his Hift. of Northumberland, fays, that the great oxlip grows a foot and a half high. It should be confeffed, however, that the colour of the oxlip is taken notice of by other writers. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: 66 yellow oxlips bright as burnish'd gold.” See Vol. V. p. 61, n. 2. STEEVENS. The flower-de-luce being one! O, these I lack, To make you garlands of; and, my fweet friend, To ftrew him o'er and o'er. FLO. What? like á corfe? PER. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corfe: or if,-not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers: Methinks, I play as I have seen them do In Whitfun' paftorals: fure, this robe of mine FLO. What you do, Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you do it ever: when you fing, I'd have you buy and fell fo; fo give alms; Pray fo; and, for the ordering your affairs, To fing them too: When you do dance, I wish A wave o'the fea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move ftill, still so, and own No other function: Each your doing,3 So fingular in each particular, you Crowns what you are doing in the prefent deeds, That all your acts are queens. PER. 2 not to be buried, O Doricles, But quick, and in mine arms.] So, Marfton's Infatiate Countefs, 1613: "Ifab. Heigh ho, you'll bury me, I fee. "Rob. In the fwan's down, and tomb thee in my arms.” Again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre; 1609: 3 O come, be buried "A fecond time within these arms." MALONE. Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each act crowns the act. JOHNSON. Your praises are too large: but that your youth, And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it," Do plainly give you out an unftain'd shepherd; With wifdom I might fear, my Doricles, You woo'd me the falfe way. FLO. 5 I think, you have As little skill to fear, as I have purpose That never mean to part. 4 but that your youth, And the true blood which fairly peeps through it,] So, Marlowe, in his Hero and Leander : "Through whofe white skin, fofter than foundest sleep, "With damaske eyes the ruby blood doth peep." year. The part of the poem that was written by Marlowe, was publifhed, I believe, in 1593, but certainly before 1598, a Second Part or Continuation of it by H. Petowe having been printed in that It was entered at Stationers' Hall in September 1593, and is often quoted in a Collection of verfes entitled England's Parnaffus, printed in 1600. From that collection it appears, that Marlowe wrote only the first two Seftiads, and about a hundred lines of the third, and that the remainder was written by Chapman. MALONE. 9 I think, you have As little kill to fear,] To have skill to do a thing was a phrase then in ufe equivalent to our to have a reason to do a thing. The Oxford editor, ignorant of this, alters it to: As little kill in fear. which has no kind of fenfe in this place. WARBURTON. I cannot approve of Warburton's explanation of this paffage, or believe that to have a skill to do a thing, ever meant, to have reafon to do it; of which, when he afferted it, he ought to have produced one example at least. The fears of women, on fuch occafions, are generally owing to their experience. They fear, as they bluth, because they underftand. It is to this that Florizel alludes, when he fays, that Perdita had little fkill to fear.-So Juliet fays to Romeo: "But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true You as little know how to fear that I am falfe, as, &c. MALONES PER. I'll fwear for 'em." POL. This is the prettieft low-born lafs, that ever Ran on the green-fward: nothing fhe does, or feems, But fmacks of fomething greater than herself; Too noble for this place. CAM. He tells her fomething, That makes her blood look out: Good footh, fhe is The queen of curds and cream. CLOWN. Come on, ftrike up. DOR. Mopfa must be your mistress: marry, garlick, To mend her kissing with.— Mop. Now, in good time! 8 CLOWN. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our manners. Come, ftrike up. [Mufick. 6 Per. I'll fwear for 'em.] I fancy this half line is placed to a wrong perfon. And that the king begins his fpeech afide: Pol. I'll fwear for 'em, This is the prettieft &c. JOHNSON. We should doubtlefs read thus: I'll fwear for one. i. e. I will answer or engage for myfelf. Some alteration is abfolutely neceffary. This feems the eafieft, and the reply will then be perfectly becoming her character. RITSON. 7 He tells her fomething, That makes her blood look out:] The meaning must be this. The prince tells her fomething that calls the blood up into her checks, and makes her blush. She, but a little before, ufes a like expreffion to defcribe the prince's fincerity: -your youth And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it, Do plainly give you out an unftain'd shepherd. THEOBALD. The old copy reads-look on't. STEEVENS. 8 we ftand, &c.] That is, we are now on our behaviour. JOHNSON. So, in Every Man in his Humour, Mafter Stephen fays- 46 STEEVENS. Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdeffes. POL. Pray, good fhepherd, what Fair fwain is this, which dances with your daughter? SHEP. They call him Doricles; and he boasts himself" To have a worthy feeding: but I have it He looks like footh: He fays, he loves my daugh ter; I think fo too; for never gaz'd the moon 9 and he boafts himself—] The old copy reads and boasts himfelf; which cannot, I think, be right. The emendation was made by Mr. Rowe. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-a boasts himself. MALONE. a worthy feeding:] I conceive feeding to be a pafture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pafturage not inconfiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon's explanation is juft. So, in Drayton's Moon-calf: Finding the feeding for which he had toil'd "To have kept fafe, by these vile cattle fpoil'd." Again, in the fixth fong of the Polyolbion: " 66 fo much that do rely Upon their feedings, flocks, and their fertility." "A worthy feeding (fays Mr. M. Mafon) is a valuable, a fubftantial one. Thus Antonio, in Twelfth Night: "But were my worth, as is my confcience, firm, Worth here means fortune or fubftance. STEEVENS. 3 He looks like footh:] Soth is truth. Obfolete. So, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: "Thou doft diffemble, but I mean good footh." STEEVENS, 4 Who loves another beft.] Surely we should read-Who loves the other best. M. MASON. |