Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
Fixing it only here1: should I (damn'd then,)
Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
That mount the Capitol2; join
the Capitol2; join gripes with

hands

3

Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood, as
With labour;) then lie peeping in an eye3,
Base and unlustrous as the smoky light

4

That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit,
That all the plagues of hell should at one time
Encounter such revolt.

to the manner in which the tenant performed homage to his lord. "The lord sate, while the vassal kneeling on both knees before him, held his hands jointly together between the hands of his lord, and swore to be faithful and loyal." See Coke upon Littleton, sect. 85. Unless this allusion be allowed, how has touching the hand the slightest connection with taking the oath of loyalty? HOLT WHITE.

The very touch of such a hand would make the feeler swear to be true. Boswell.

FIXING it only here:] The old copy has-Fiering. The correction was made in the second folio. MALONE.

2 as common as the stairs

66

That mount the Capitol ;] Shakspeare has bestowed some ornament on the proverbial phrase as common as the highway." STEEVENS. 3-join gripes with hands, &c.] The old edition reads: join gripes with hands

66

"Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood as
"With labour) then by peeping in an eye," &c.

I read :

then lie peeping-.

Hard with falsehood, is, hard by being often griped with frequent change of hands.' JOHNSON.

4 Base and UNLUSTROUS- -] Old copy-illustrious. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. That illustrious was not used by our author in the sense of inlustrous or unlustrous, is proved by a passage in the old comedy of Patient Grissell, 1603: " the buttons were illus

trious and resplendent diamonds." MALONE.

A "lack-lustre eye" has been already mentioned in As You Like It. STEEVENS.

IMO.

Has forgot Britain.

IACH.

My lord, I fear,

And himself. Not I,

Inclin'd to this intelligence, pronounce

The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces That, from my mutest conscience, to my tongue, Charms this report out.

IMO.

Let me hear no more.

LACH. O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my

heart

With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady

5

So fair, and fasten'd to an empery 3,

Would make the great'st king double! to be partner'd

With tomboys o, hir'd with that self-exhibition"

5 — to an EMPERY,] Empery is a word signifying sovereign command; now obsolete. Shakspeare uses it in King Richard III.: "Your right of birth, your empery, your own."

STEEVENS.

6 With TOMBOYS,] We still call a masculine, a forward girl, tomboy. So, in Middleton's Game at Chess :

"Made threescore year a tomboy, a mere wanton."

Again, in W. Warren's Nurcerie of Names, 1581:
"She comes not unto Bacchus' feastes,
"Or Flora's routes by night,

"Like tomboyes such as lives in Rome
"For euery knaues delight."

Again, in Lyly's Midas, 1592: "If thou should'st rigg up and down in our jackets, thou would'st be thought a very tomboy.” Again, in Lady Alimony:

"What humourous tomboys be these?—

"The only gallant Messalinas of our age."

It appears from several of the old plays and ballads, that the ladies of pleasure, in the time of Shakspeare, often wore the habits of young men. So, in an ancient bl. I. ballad, entitled The Stout Cripple of Cornwall:

"And therefore kept them secretlie

"To feede his fowle desire,

Apparell'd all like gallant youthes,
"In pages' trim attyre.

Which your own coffers yield! with diseas'd ven

tures,

That play with all infirmities for gold

Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff",
As well might poison poison! Be reveng'd;

Or she, that bore you, was no queen, and you
Recoil from your great stock.

IMO.

Reveng'd!
How should I be reveng'd? If this be true,
(As I have such a heart, that both mine ears
Must not in haste abuse,) if it be true,
How should I be reveng'd?

"He gave them for their cognizance
"A purple bleeding heart,

"In which two silver arrows seem'd
“The same in twaine to part.
"Thus secret were his wanton sports,
"Thus private was his pleasure;
"Thus harlots in the shape of men
"Did waft away his treasure."

Verstegan, however, gives the following etymology of the word tomboy: "Tumbe. To dance. Tumbod, danced; hereof we yet call a wench that skippeth or leapeth lyke a boy, a tomboy: our name also of tumbling cometh from hence." STEEVENS.

7 hir'd with that self-exhibition, &c.] Gross strumpets, hired with the very pension which you allow your husband. JOHNSON. 8 such BOIL'D stuff,] The allusion is to the ancient process of sweating in venereal cases. See Timon of Athens, Act IV. Sc. III. So, in The Old Law, by Massinger :

66

look parboil'd,

"As if they came from Cupid's scalding-house." Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Sodden business! there's a stewed phrase indeed." Again, in Timon of Athens : "She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are." All this stuff about boiling, scalding, &c. is a mere play on stew, a word which is afterwards used for a brothel by Imogen.

STEEVENS.

The words may mean,-such corrupted stuff; from the substantive boil. So, in Coriolanus :

But, I believe, Mr. Steevens's interpretation is the true one.

MALONE.

Should he make me

IACH.
Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets9
Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,

;

In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it.
I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure;
More noble than that runagate to your bed;
And will continue fast to your affection,
Still close, as sure.

IMO.

What ho, Pisanio!

IACH. Let me my service tender on your lips1.
IMO. Away!—I do condemn mine ears, that have
So long attended thee.—If thou wert honourable,
Thou would'st have told this tale for virtue, not
For such an end thou seek'st; as base, as strange.
Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far
From thy report, as thou from honour; and
Solicit❜st here a lady, that disdains

Thee and the devil alike.-What ho, Pisanio!-
The king my father shall be made acquainted
Of thy assault: if he shall think it fit,
A saucy stranger, in his court, to mart
As in a Romish stew 2, and to expound

9 Live like Diana's PRIEST, betwixt cold sheets ;] Sir Thomas Hanmer, supposing this to be an inaccurate expression, reads:

66

Live like Diana's priestess 'twixt cold sheets;

but the text is as the author wrote it. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Diana says:

"My temple stands at Ephesus; hie thee thither;

"There, when my maiden priests are met together," &c.

MALONE. Let me my service tender on your lips.] Perhaps this is an allusion to the ancient custom of swearing servants into noble families. So, in Caltha Poetarum, &c. 1599:

she swears him to his good abearing,

"Whilst her faire sweet lips were the books of swearing.”

STEEVENS.

2 As in a ROMISH stew,] Romish was, in the time of Shakspeare, used instead of Roman. There were stews at Rome in the time of Augustus. The same phrase occurs in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607:

3

His beastly mind to us; he hath a court
He little cares for, and a daughter whom
He not respects at all.-What ho, Pisanio!-
LACH. O happy Leonatus! I may say ;
The credit, that thy lady hath of thee,
Deserves thy trust; and thy most perfect goodness
Her assur'd credit !-Blessed live you long!
A lady to the worthiest sir, that ever

Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only
For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon.
I have spoke this, to know if your affiance
Were deeply rooted; and shall make your lord,
That which he is, new o'er: And he is one
The truest manner'd; such a holy witch,

That he enchants societies unto him*:

Half all men's hearts are his.

IMO.

You make amends.

IACH. He sits 'mongst men, like a descended god 5:

my mother deem'd me chang'd,

"Poor woman! in the loathsome Romish stewes : and the author of this piece seems to have been a scholar. Again, in Wit In A Constable, by Glapthorne, 1640 : "A Romish cirque, or Grecian hippodrome."

66

Again, Thomas Drant's translation of the first epistle of the second book of Horace, 1567:

"The Romishe people wise in this, in this point only just." STEEVENS.

3 and a daughter WHOм-] Old copy-who. Corrected in the second folio. MALONE.

such a holy wITCH,

That he ENCHANTS SOCIETIES UNTO HIM:] So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

66

he did in the general bosom reign

"Of young and old, and sexes both enchanted

"Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted."

like a DESCENDED god :] So, in Hamlet :

66

a station like the herald Mercury,

"New lighted on a heaven kissing-hill."

MALONE.

The old copy has-defended. The correction was made by the