OBE. Stand afide: the noife they make, PUCK. Then will two, at once, woo one; And thofe things do beft please me, That befal prepofterously. Enter LYSANDER and HELENA. Lys. Why fhould you think, that I fhould woo in fcorn? Scorn and derifion never come in tears : Look, when I vow, I weep; and vows fo born, In their nativity all truth appears. How can these things in me feem fcorn to you, Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true? * HEL. You do advance your cunning more and more. When truth kills truth, O devilifh-holy fray! Thefe vows are Hermia's: Will you give her o'er? Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh: Your vows, to her and me, put in two fcales, Lys. I had no judgement, when to her I swore. o'er. Lys. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you. 7 Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true 3] This is faid in allufion to the badges (i. e. family crefts) anciently worn on the feeves of fervants and retainers. So, in The Tempeft: "Mark the badges of thefe men, and then fay if they be true." STLEVENS. DEM. [awaking.] O Helen, goddefs, nymph, perfect, divine! To what, my love, fhall I compare thine eyne? 8 Thy lips, thofe kiffling cherries, tempting grow! But 7 Taurus' fnow,] Taurus is the name of a range of mountains in Afia. JOHNSON. 8 This princess of pure white,] Thus all the editions as low as Sir Thomas Hanmer's. He reads: "This pureness of pure white;" and Dr. Warburton follows him. The old reading may be jufti fied from a paffage in fir Walter Raleigh's Discovery of Guiana, where the pine-apple is called The princess of fruits. Again, in Wyat's Poems, "Of beauty princeffe chief." STEEVENS. In The Winter's Tale we meet with a fimilar expreffion: 9 image: 66 good footh, fhe is "The queen of curds and cream." MALONE. •feal of blifs!] He has in Meafure for Meafure, the fame But my kiffes bring again, "Seals of love, but feal'd in vain." JOHNSON. More appofitely, in Antony and Cleopatra: "My play-fellow, your hand; this kingly feal, "And plighter of high hearts." STEEVENS. —join, in fouls,] i. e. join heartily, unite in the same mind. Shakspeare in K. Henry V. uses an expreffion not unlike this: "For we will hear, note, and believe in heart;" i. e. heartily believe: and in Mcafure for Measure, he talks of eleding with special foul. In Troilus and Creffida, Ulyffes, relating the chara&er of He&or as given him by Æneas, fays; If you were men, as men you are in show, You would not use a gentle lady fo; To vow, and fwear, and fuperpraife my parts, with private foul "Did in great Ilion thus tranflate him to me.' .. And, in All Fools, by Chapman, 1605, is the fame expreffion as that for which I contend: ་་ Happy, in foul, only by winning her." Again, in a masque called Luminalia, or the Festival of Light, 1637: "You that are chief in fouls, as in your blood." Again, in Pierce Pennylefs his Supplication to the Devil, 1595: whofe fubverfion in foul they have vow'd." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602. B. XII. ch. lxxv: "Could all, in foul, of very God fay as an Ethnick faid "To one that preached Hercules?" Again, in our author's Twelfth Night: "And all thofe fwearings keep as true in foul." Sir T. Hanmer would read-in flouts; Dr. Warburton, infolents. I rather believe the line fhould be read thus: STEEVENS. "But you muft join, ill fouls, to mock me too?" Ill is often ufed for bad, wicked. So, in The Sea Voyage of Beaumont and Fletcher, A& IV. fc. i: They did begin to quarrel like ill men; which I cite the rather, because ill had there alfo been changed into in, by an error of the prefs, which Mr. Sympfon has corrected from the edition 1647. TYRWHITT. This is a very reasonable conje&ture, though I think it hardly right. JOHNSON. We meet with this phrase in an old poem by Robert Dabourne : Men fhift their fashions- "They are in fouls the fame." FARMER. ▲ fimilar phrafeology is found in Meafure for Meafure: "Is't not enough thou haft fuborn'd these women "To accufe this worthy man, but in foul mouth "To call him villain!" MALONE. 3 A trim exploit, a manly enterprize, HEL. Never did mockers wafte more idle breath. 3 A trim exploit, a manly enterprize, &c.] This is written much in the manner and spirit of Juno's reproach to Venus in the fourth book of the Eneid: “Egregiam vero laudem & fpolia ampla refertis, STEEVENS. none, of noble fort,] Sort is here ufed for degree or quality. So, in the old ballad of Jane Store: "Long time I lived in the court, With lords and ladies of great fort." MALONE. extort A poor foul's patience,] Harrass, torment. JOHNSON. 6 My heart with her but, as gueft-wife, fojourn'd; And now to Helen it is home return'd,] The ancient copies read to her." Dr. Johnson made the correction, and exemplified the fentiment by the following paffage from Prior: ،، No matter what beauties I faw in my way, They were but my vifits; but thou art my home." So, in our author's 109th Sonnet: STEEVENS. "This is my home of love; if I have rang'd, DEM. Difparage not the faith thou doft not know, Left, to thy peril, thou aby it dear. Look, where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear. Enter HERMIA. HER. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes, The ear more quick of apprehenfion makes; Lys. Why fhould he ftay, whom love doth prefs to go? HER. What love could prefs Lyfander from my fide? Lys. Lyfander's love, that would not let him bide, Fair Helena; who more engilds the night Than all yon fiery oes' and eyes of light. Why feek'st thou me? could not this make thee know, The hate I bare thee made me leave thee fo? 7 all yon fiery oes-] Shakspeare ufes O for a circle. in the prologue to K. Henry V.. can we crowd "Within this little 0, the very cafques "That did affright the air at Agincourt?" Again, in The Partheneia Sacra, 1633: So, the purple canopy of the earth, powder'd over and befet with filver oes, or rather an azure vault," &c. STEEVENS. D'Ewes's Journal of Queen Elizabeth's Parliaments, p. 650, men tions a patent to make fpangles and oes of gold; and I think haberdafhers call fmall curtain rings, O's, as being circular. TOLLET. |