But once before I spoke to the purpose: When? Nay, let me have't; I long. LEON. Why, that was when Three crabbed months had four'd themselves to death, Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, HER. It is Grace, indeed. Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose twice: The one for ever earn'd a royal husband; [Giving her hand to POLIXENES. And clap thyself my love;] She open'd her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrafe to clap up a bargain, i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands. So, in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: Speak, widow, is't a match? "Shall we clap it up?” Again, in a Trick to catch the old One, 1618: "Come, clap hands, a match." Again, in K. Henry V : "and fo clap hands, and a bargain." STEEVENS. This was a regular part of the ceremony of troth-plighting, to which Shakspeare often alludes. So, in Measure for Measure: "This is the hand, which with a vow'd contrác "Was faft belock'd in thine." Again, in King John: Phil. It likes us well. Young princes, clofe your hands. "Auft. And your lips too, for I am well affur'd, " That I did fo, when I was first assur’d.” So alfo, in No Wit like a Woman's, a Com. by Middleton, 1657: "There thefe young lovers fhall clap hands together." I fhould not have given fo many inftances of this cuftom, but that I know Mr. Pope's reading-" And clepe thyfelf my love,” has many favourers. The old copy has-A clap, &c. The cor. rection was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. * It is Grace, indeed!] Referring to what she had just said—“ O, would her name were Grace!" MALONE. ~ LEON. Too hot, too hot: [Afide. To mingle friendship far, is mingling bloods. I have tremor cordis on me:-my heart dances; But not for joy,-not joy.-This entertainment May a free face put on; derive a liberty From heartiness, from bounty, fertile bofom,' And well become the agent: it may, I grant: But to be paddling palms, and pinching fingers, As now they are; and making practis'd fmiles, As in a looking-glass ;-and then to figh, as 'twere The mort o'the deer; O, that is entertainment My bofom likes not, nor my brows.-Mamillius, Art thou my boy? MAM. LEON. 2 Ay, my good lord. I'fecks?' Why, that's my bawcock. What, haft fmutch'd thy nofe? 9 from bounty, fertile bofom,] I fuppofe that a letter dropped out at the press, and would read—from bounty's fertile bofom. MALONE. By fertile bofom, I fuppofe, is meant a bofom like that of the earth, which yields a fpontaneous produce, In the fame ftrain is the addrefs of Timon of Athens: "Thou common mother, thou, "Teems and feeds all!" STEEVINS. * The mort o'the deer;] A leffon upon the horn at the death of the deer. THEOBALD. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: " He that bloweth the mort before the death of the buck, may very well mifs of his fees." Again, in the oldeft copy of Chevy Chafe: "The blewe a mort uppone the bent." STEEVENS. 3 I'fecks?] A fuppofed corruption of-in faith. Our prefent vulgar pronounce it-fegs. STEEVENS. Why, that's my bawcock.] Perhaps from beau and coq. It is ftill faid in vulgar language that fuch a one is a jolly cock, a cock of the game. The word has already occurred in Twelfth Night, and is one of the titles by which Pistol speaks of K. Henry the Fifth. STEEVENS They fay, it's a copy out of mine. Come, captain, We must be neat; not neat, but cleanly, captain: And yet the steer, the heifer, and the calf, Are all call'd, neat.-Still virginalling 6 [Obferving POLIXENES and HERMIONE. Upon his palm?-How now, you wanton calf? Art thou my calf? MAM. Yes, if you will, my lord. LEON. Thou want'ft a rough pash, and the shoots that I have, We must be neat ;] Leontes, feeing his fon's nofe fmutch'd, cries, we must be neat; then recollecting that neat is the ancient term for borned cattle, he fays, not neat, but cleanly. JOHNSON. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong 3: "His large provifion there of flesh, of fowl, of neat." STEEVENS. 6 Still virginalling-] Still playing with her fingers, as a girl playing on the virginals. JOHNSON. A virginal, as I am informed, is a very small kind of fpinnet. Queen Elizabeth's virginal-book is yet in being, and many of the leffons in it have proved fo difficult, as to baffle our most expert players on the harpsichord. So, in Decker's Satiro-maftix, or the Untruffing of the Humorous Poet, 1602: When we have hufbands, we play upon them like virginal jacks, they muft rife and fall to our humours, or elfe they'll never get any good ftrains of mufick out of one of us." Again, in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "Where be these rafcals that skip and down A virginal was ftrung like a spinnet, and shaped like a piano forte. MALONE. 7 Thou want 'ft a rough path, and the hoots that I have,] Pafh (fays Sir T. Hanmer) is kifs. Paz. Spanish, i. e. thou want'ft a mouth made rough by a beard, to kifs with. Shoots are branches, i. e. horns. Leontes is alluding to the enfigns of cuckoldom. A madbrain'd boy is, however, call'd a mad pob in Cheshire. STEEVENS. Thou want'ft a rough pah, and the boots that I have, in connection with the context, fignifies- -to make thee a calf thou must To be full like me: yet, they fay, we are That will fay any thing: But were they falfe have the tuft on thy forehead and the young horns that shoot up in it, Leontes afks the Prince: as I have. - How now, you ranton calf! Art thou my calf? Mam. Yes, if you will, my lord. Leon. Thou want'st a rough pas, and the boots that I have, To pa fignifies to push or dash against, and frequently occurs in old writers. Thus Drayton: 66 They either poles their heads together past." Again, in How to choose a good Wife from a bad, 1602. 4to: learn pafb and knock, and beat and mall, "Cleave pates and caputs." When in Cheshire a pafh is used for a mad-brained boy, it is defigned to characterize him from the wantonnefs of a calf that blunand runs his head against any thing. HENLEY. ders on, In Troilus and Creffida, the verb pash also occurs: waving his beam Upon the pahed corfes of the kings "Epiftrophus and Cedius." And again (as Mr. Henley on another occafion obferves) in the Virgin Martyr: when the battering ram "Were fetching his career backward, to prsh "Me with his horns to pieces." STEEVENS. I have lately learned that pab in Scotland fignifies a bead. The old reading therefore may ftand. Many words, that are now used only in that country, were perhaps once common to the whole island of Great Britain, or at least to the northern part of England. The meaning therefore of the prefent paffage, I fuppofe, is this. You tell me (fays Leontes to his fon) that you are like me; that you are my calf. I am the horned bull: thon wanteft the rough head and the horns of that animal, completely to refemble your father. MALONE. 8 To be full like me :] Full is here as in other places, used by our author, adverbially;-to be entirely like me. MALONE. 9 As o'er-died blacks,] Sir T. Hanmer understands blacks died too much, and therefore rotten. JOHNSON. As dice are to be wifh'd, by one that fixes 2 No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true To fay, this boy were like me.-Come, fir page, Look on me with your welkin-eye: 3 Sweet villain! Most dear'ft! my collop! -Can thy dam?-may't be? Affection! thy intention ftabs the center;" It is common with tradefmen to die their faded or damaged ftuffs, black. O'er died blacks may mean those which have received a die over their former colour. There is a paffage in The old Law of Massenger, which might lead us to offer another interpretation: Blacks are often fuch diffembling mourners, It seems that blacks was the common term for mourning. in fo many blacks "I'll have the church hung round". So, in Black, however, will receive no other hue without difcovering itfelf through it. "Lanarum nigræ nullum colorem bibunt." Plin. Nat. Hift. Lib. VIII. STEEVENS. The following paffage in a book which our author had certainly read, inclines me to believe that the laft is the true interpretation. "Truly (quoth Camillo) my wool was blacke, and therefore it could take no other colour." Lyly's Euphues and his England, 4to. 1580. MALONE. 2 No bourn] Bourn is boundary. So, in Hamlet; "No traveller returns." STEEVENS, 3welkin-eye:] Blue-eye; an eye of the fame colour with the welkin, or fky. JOHNSON. my collop!] So, in The First Part of K. Henry VI: "God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh." STEEVENS. Affection! thy intention frabs the center:] Inftead of this line, which I find in the folio, the modern editors have introduced another of no authority: Imagination! thou doft ftab to the center. Mr. Rowe first made the exchange. I am not fure that I un |