The bound of honour; or, in act, or will, The sense would then be: - In what base reciprocation of love have I caught this strain? Uncurrent is what will not pass, and is, at present, only applied to money. Mrs. Ford talks of - fome strain in her character, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Custom of the Country, the fame expression occurs: "-ftrain your loves " With any base, or hir'd perfuafions." To ftrain, I believe, means to go awry. So, in the 6th song of Drayton's Polyolbion: "As wantonly she strains in her lafcivious course." Drayton is speaking of the irregular course of the river Wye. STEEVENS. The bounds of honour, which are mentioned immediately after, juftify Mr. Steevens in supposing the imagery to have been taken from tilting. HENLEY. Johnson thinks it neceffary for the sense, to transpose these words and read, "With what encounter fo uncurrent have I ftrained to For appear thus?" But he could not have proposed that alteration, had he confidered, with attention, the construction of the paffage, which runs thus: " I appeal to your own confcience, with what encounter," &c. That is, "I appeal to your own confcience to declare with what encounter so uncurrent I have strained to appear thus. He was probably mifled by the point of interrogation at of the end of the sentence, which ought not to have been there. M. MASON. JON Athens g, in The precife meaning of the word encounter in this passage may be gathered from our author's use of it elsewhere: "Who hath "Confefs'd the vile encounters they have had "A thousand times in fecret." Much ado about Nothing. Hero and Borachio are the persons spoken of. Again, in Measure for Meafure: " We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place: if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompence." Again, in Cymbeline: found no oppofition " But what he look'd for should oppose, and the As, to pass or utter money that is not current, is contrary to in Dalaw, I believe our author in the present passage, with his accustomed licence, uses the word uncurrent as synonymous to unlawful. I have ftrain'd, may perhaps mean I have swerved or defle&ed from the ftrict line of duty. So, in Romeo and Juliet: L 1 Of all that hear me, and my near'st of kin Cry, Fie upon my grave! LEON. I ne'er heard yet, Than to perform it first.5 Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not At all acknowledge. For Polixenes, (With whom I am accus'd,) I do confess, I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd; 6 "Nor aught so good, but strain'd from that fair use, Again, in our author's 140th Sonnet: " Bear thine eyes ftraight, though thy proud heart go wide." A bed-swerver has already occurred in this play. To appear thus," is, to appear in such an affembly as this; to be put on my trial. MALONE. I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices wanted Less impudence to gain-fay what they did, Than to perform it first.] It is apparen that according to the proper, at leaft according to the prefent, use of words, less thould be more, or wanted should be had. But Shakspeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It may be necessary once to observe, that in our language, two negatives did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. This mode of speech wasin time changed, but, as the change was made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through anintermediate confufion. JOHNSON. Examples of the fame phraseology (as Mr. Malone observes,) occur in this play, p. 31; in Antony and Cleopatra, A& IV. fc. xii. and in King Lear, Act. II sc. iv; and as Mr. Ritson adds) in Macbeth, A& III. fc. vi. STEEVENS. 6 For Polixenes, (With whom I am accus'd,) I do confess I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd; &c.] So, in Doraftus With such a kind of love, as might become To you, and toward your friend; whose love had' spoke, Even fince it could speak, from an infant, freely, I know not how it tastes; though it be dish'd afi For me to try how: all I know of it, Is, that Camillo was an honest man'; And, why he left your court, the gods themselves, LEON. You knew of his departure, as you know What you have underta'en to do in his absence. HER. Sir, 25 Ling lejs w гу ивіс blenit affres me cha gcukm but th ne obferr IV. k ids in in D You speak a language that I understand not: Which I'll lay down. LEON. J Your actions are my dreams; You had a bastard by Polixenes, and Faunia: " What hath passed between him and me, the Gods only know, and I hope will presently reveale. That I loy'd Egifthus, I cannot denie; that I honour'd him, I shame not to confefs. But as touching lafcivious luft, I say Egifthus is honeft, and hope myself to be found without spot. For Franion, [Camillo, I can neither accuse him nor excuse him. I was not privie to his departure. And that this is true which I have here rehearsed, I refer myselfe to the divine oracle." MALONE. 7 My life stands in the level of your dreams,] To be in the level is, by a metaphor from archery, to be within the reach. JOHNSON. This metaphor, (as both Mr. Douce and Mr. Ritson have already observed,) is from gunnery. See p. 65, n. 4. So, in King Henry VIII: And I but dream'd it:-As you were past all shame, Thy brat hath been cafst out, like to itself, Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage, HER. Sir, spare your threats; The bug, which you would fright, me with, I seek. To me can life be no commodity: The crown and comfort of my life, your favour, 7- As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact are fo, fo past all truth :) I do not remember that fald is used any where abfolutely for guilt, which must be its sense in this place. Perhaps we should read: Those of your pack are fo. Pack is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal in. vedive. JOHNSON. I should guess sect to be the right word. See King Henry IV. P. II. A& II. fc. iv. It In Middleton's Mad World, my Masters, a Courtezan says: is the easiest art and cunning for our fea to counterfeit sick, that are always full of fits when we are well." FARMER. Thus, Falstaff, fpeaking of Dol Tearsheet: " So is all her fet; if they be once in a calm, they are fick." Those of your fact may, however, mean those who have done as you do. STEEVENS. That fald is the true reading, is proved decisively from the words of the novel, which our author had in his mind, both here, and in a former paflage [" I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices," &c.]: " And as for her faid Pandosto) it was her part to deny fuch a monftrous crime, and to be impudent in forswearing the fact, fince the had passed all shame in committing the fault." MALONE. 8 Which to deny concerns more than avails: ) It is your business to deny this charge, but the mere denial will be useless; will prove nothing. MALONE. 9 The crown and comfort of my life,] The Supreme blessing of my life. So, in Cymbeline : "O that husband! " My fupreme crown of grief." MALONE. I do give loft; for I do feel it gone, But know not how it went: My second joy, 2 Now, my liege, The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth, 4 **Starr'd most unluckily, i. e. born under an inauspicious planet. So, in Romeo and Juliet: And shake the yoke of inauspicious tars "From this world-wearied flesh." STEEVENS. 3 I have got strength of limit.] I know not well how ftrength of limit can mean strength to pass the limits of the child-bed chamber; which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read in a more easy phrafe, ftrength of limb. And now, &c. JOHNSON. Mr. M. Mason judiciously conceives strength of limit to mean, the limited degree of strength which it is customary for women to acquire, before they are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing. STEEVENS. 4 -I tell you, 'Tis rigour, and not law.) This also is from the novel: "Bellaria, no whit difmaid with this rough reply, told her husband Pandofto, that he spake upon choller, and not confcience, for her virtuous life had been fuch as no spot of fufpicion could ever slayne. And if she had borne a friendly countenance to Egisthus, it was in respect he was his friend, and not for any lusting affection: therefore if the were condemned without any farther proofe, it was rigour نت bat nay, ords d in alder irt to aring ONE and not law." MALONE. will f my |