Nor, I am sure, there is no force in eyes If ever, (as that ever may be near) You meet in some fresh cheek the power of fancy, That love's keen arrows make. But, till that time, Phe. Come not thou near me: and, when that time comes, Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not; As, till that time, I shall not pity thee. Ros. And why, I pray you? [advancing] Who might be your mother," That you insult, exult, and all at once, Over the wretched? What though you have more beauty,7 4 power of fancy,] Fancy is here used for love, as before, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Johnson. 5 Who might be your mother,] It is common for the poets to express cruelty by saying, of those who coinmit it, that they were born of rocks, or suckled by tigresses. Johnson. 6 That you insult, exult, and all at once,] If the speaker intended to accuse the person spoken to only for insulting and exulting; then, instead of-all at once, it ought to have been, both at once. But, by examining the crime of the person accused, we shall discover that the line is to be read thus: That you insult, exult, and rail at once. For these three things Phebe was guilty of. But the Oxford editor improves it, and, for rail at once, reads domineer. Warburton. I see no need of emendation. The speaker may mean thus: Who might be your mother, that you insult, exult, and that too all in a breath? Such is, perhaps, the meaning of all at once. Steevens. What though you have more beauty,] The old copy reads: What though you have no beauty. Steevens. 7 Though all the printed copies agree in this reading, it is very accurately observed to me, by an ingenious unknown corres. pondent, who signs himself L. H. (and to whom I can only here make my acknowledgment) that the negative ought to be left out. Theobald. That no is a misprint, appears clearly from the passage in Lodge's Rosalynde, which Shakspeare has here imitated: "Sometimes have I seen high disdaine turned to hot desires.Because thou art beautiful, be not so coy; as there is nothing more faire, so there is nothing more fading."-Mr. Theobald corrected the error, by expunging the word no; in which he was copied by the subsequent editors; but omission, (as I have often observed) is, of all the modes of emendation, the most excep (As, by my faith, I see no more in you tionable. No was, I believe, a misprint for mo, a word often used by our author and his contemporaries for more. So, in a former scene of this play: "I pray you, mar no mo of my verses with reading them ill-favour'dly." Again, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Sing no more ditties, sing no mo." Again, in The Tempest: "Mo widows of this business making. Many other instances might be added. The word is found in almost every book of that age. As no is here printed instead of mo, so in Romeo and Juliet, Act V, we find in the folio, 1623, Mo matter, for No matter. This correction being less violent than Mr. Theobald's, I have inserted it in the text. "What though I should allow you had more beauty than he, (says Rosalind) though by my faith," &c. (for such is the force of As in the next line) "must you therefore treat him with disdain?" In Antony and Cleopatra we meet with a passage constructed nearly in the same manner: 66 Say, this becomes him, "(As his composure must be rare indeed "Whom these things cannot blemish) yet," &c. Again, in Love's Labour's Lost: "But say that he or we, (as neither have) "Receiv'd that sum," &c. Again, more appositely, in Camden's Remaines, p. 190, edit. 1605: "I force not of such fooleries; but if I have any skill in sooth-saying, (as in sooth I have none) it doth prognosticate that I shall change copie from a duke to a king." Malone. As mo, (unless rhyme demands it) is but an indolent abbreviation of more, I have adopted Mr. Malone's conjecture, without his manner of spelling the word in question. If mo were right, how happens it that more should occur twice afterwards in the same speech? Steevens. 8 Of nature's sale-work:] Those works that nature makes up carelessly and without exactness. The allusion is to the practice of mechanicks, whose work bespoke is more elaborate than that which is made up for chance-customers, or to sell in quantities to retailers, which is called sale-work. Warburton. You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her, Ros. He's fallen in love with her foulness,2 and she 'll fall in love with my anger: If it be so, as fast as she answers thee with frowning looks, I'll sauce her with bitter words.-Why look you so upon me? Phe. For no ill will I bear you. Ros. I pray you, do not fall in love with me, For I am falser than vows made in wine: Besides, I like you not: If you will know my house, 'Tis at the tuft of olives, here hard by: Will you go, sister?-Shepherd, ply her hard:- [Exeunt Ros. CEL. and COR. 9 That can entame my spirits to your worship.] So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand." Steevens. 1 Foul is most foul, being foul to be a scoffer.] The sense is, The ugly seem most ugly, when, though ugly, they are scoffers. Johnson. with her foulness,] So, Sir T. Hanmer; the other editions-your foulness. Johnson. 2 3 though all the world could see, None could be so abus'd in sight as he.] Though all mankind could look on you, none could be so deceived as to think you beautiful but he. Johnson. Phe. Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might; Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight 24 If Sil. Sweet Phebe, Phe. Ha! what say'st thou, Silvius? Sil. Sweet Phebe, pity me. Phe: Why, I am sorry for thee, gentle Silvius. you do sorrow at my grief in love, By giving love, your sorrow and my grief Phe. Thou hast my love; Is not that neighbourly? Phe. Why, that were covetousness. Silvius, the time was, that I hated thee; And yet it is not, that I bear thee love: That I shall think it a most plenteous crop To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps: loose now and then A scatter'd smile,5 and that I'll live upon. 4 Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might; Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?] The second of these lines is from Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1637, sign. B b. where it stands thus: "Where both deliberate, the love is slight: "Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?" This line is likewise quoted in Belvidere, or the Garden of the Muses, 1610, p. 29, and in England's Parnassus, printed in 1600, p. 261. Steevens. This poem of Marlowe's was so popular, (as appears from many of the contemporary writers) that a quotation from it must have been known at once, at least by the more enlightened part of the audience. Our author has again alluded to it in the Two Gentlemen of Verona.-The "dead shepherd," Marlowe, was killed in a brothel, in 1593. Two editions of Hero and Leander, I believe, had been published before the year 1600; it being entered in the Stationers' Books, Sept. 28, 1593, and again in 1597. Malone. Phe. Know'st thou the youth that spoke to me ere while? Sil. Not very well, but I have met him oft; And he hath bought the cottage, and the bounds, That the old carlot once was master of." Phe. Think not I love him, though I ask for him; But, sure, he 's proud; and yet his pride becomes him: Did make offence, his eye did heal it up. Than that mix'd in his cheek; 'twas just the difference To fall in love with him: but, for my part, I love him not, nor hate him not; and yet I have more cause1 to hate him than to love him: 5 To glean the broken ears after the man That the main harvest reaps: loose now and then A scatter'd smile,] Perhaps Shakspeare owed this image to the second chapter of the book of Ruth: "Let fall some handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them that she may glean them." Steevens. 6 That the old carlot once was master of.] i. e. peasant, from carl or churl; probably a word of Shakspeare's coinage. Douce. 7—a peevish boy:] Peevish, in ancient language, signifies weak, silly. So, in King Richard III: "When Richmond was a little peevish boy." Steevens. 8 He is not tall; yet for his years he's tall:] The old copy reads: He is not very tall, &c. For the sake of metre, I have omitted the useless adverb-very. Steevens. 9 the constant red, and mingled damask.] "Constant red" is uniform red. "Mingled damask" is the silk of that name, in which, by a various direction of the threads, many lighter shades of the same colour are exhibited. Steevens. |