SCENE III. The fame. A Shepherd's Cottage. Enter FLORIZEL and PERDITA. FLO. These your unufual weeds to each part of you Do give a life: no fhepherdefs; but Flora, Peering in April's front. This PER. 9 your extremes,] That is, your exceffès, the extravagance of your praises. JOHNSON. By his extremes, Perdita does not mean his extravagant praises, as Johnson fuppofes; but the extravagance of his conduct, in obfcuring himfelf" in a fwain's wearing," while he "pranked her up most goddefs-like." The following words, O pardon that I name them, prove this to be her meaning. M. MASON. The gracious mark o'the land,] The object of all men's notice and expectation. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "He was the mark and glass, copy and book, "That fashion'd others." MALONE. prank'd up:] To prank is to dress with oftentation. So, in Coriolanus: "For they do prank them in authority." Again, in Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661: In every mefs have folly, and the feeders 3 Digeft it-] The word it was inferted by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. fworn, I think, To how myself a glass.] i. e. one would think that in putting on this habit of a shepherd, you had sworn to put me out of countenance; for in this, as in a glass, you shew me how much below yourself you must descend before you can get upon a level with me. The fentiment is fine, and expreffes all the delicacy, as well as humble modesty of the character. Warburton. Dr. Thirlby inclines rather to Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, which certainly makes an easy fenfe, and is, in my opinion, preferable to the prefent reading. But concerning this paffage I know not what to decide. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton has well enough explained this paffage according to the old reading. Though I cannot help offering a tranfpofition, which I would explain thus: But that our feafis In every mess have folly, and the feeders To show myself a glass. i. e. But that our ruftick feafts are in every part accompanied with abfurdity of the fame kind, which cuftom has authorized, (cuftom which one would think the guests had fworn to observe,) I fhould blush to present myself before a glass, which would fhow me my own person adorned in a manner fo foreign to my humble ftate, or fo much better habited than even that of my prince. STEEVENS. I think the means only to fay, that the prince, by the ruftick habit that he wears, feems as if he had fworn to thow her a glafs, in which the might behold how the ought to be attired, inftead of being " moft goddefs-like prank'd up." The paffage quoted in p. 329, from King Henry IV. P. II. confirms this interpretation. In Love's Labour's Loft, Vol. VII. p. 72, a forefter having given the Princefs a true reprefentatien of herself, the addreffes him :-" Here, good my glass." Again, in Julius Cæfar: FLO. I blefs the time, When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father's ground.5 PER. Now Jove afford you caufe! To me, the difference forges dread; your greatness Hath not been us'd to fear. Even now I tremble To think, your father, by fome accident, I, your glass, "Will modeftly difcover to yourself, Again, more appofitely, in Hamlet : 66 he was indeed the glass, "Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves." Florizel is here Perdita's glass. Sir T. Hanmer reads-woon, inftead of fworn. There is, in my opinion, no need of change; and the words "to fhew myself" appear to me inconsistent with that reading. Sir Thomas Hanmer probably thought the fimilitude of the words fworn and fwoon favourable to his emendation; but he forgot that fwoon in the old copies of thefe plays is always written. found or fwound. MALONE. 5 When my good falcon made her flight across Thy father's ground.] This circumftance is likewise taken from the novel : 66 And as they returned, it fortuned that Doraftus (who all that day had been hawking, and killed store of game,) incountered by the way these two maides." MALONE. • To me the difference forges dread;] Meaning the difference between his rank and hers. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: 7 "The courfe of true love never did run smooth, "But either it was different in blood-." M. MASON. his work, fo noble, Vilely bound up?] It is impoffible for any man to rid his mind of his profeffion. The authorship of Shakspeare has fupplied him with a metaphor, which, rather than he would lofe it, he has put with no great propriety into the mouth of a country Should I, in these my borrow'd flaunts, behold FLO. Apprehend Nothing but jollity. The gods themselves, As I feem now: Their transformations maid. Thinking of his own works, his mind paffed naturally to the binder. I am glad that he has no hint at an editor. JOHNSON. The allufion occurs more than once in Romeo and Juliet : "This precious book of love, this unbound lover, "To beautify him only lacks a cover.' Again: 8 "That book in many eyes doth share the glory, -The gods themselves, STEEVENS. Humbling their deities to love,] This is taken almoft literally from the novel : "The Gods above difdaine not to love women beneath. Phoebus liked Daphne; Jupiter Io; and why not I then Fawnia? One fomething inferior to these in birth, but far fuperior to them in beauty; born to be a fhepherdeffe, but worthy to be a goddeffe." Again: "And yet, Doraftus, fhame not thy fhepherd's weed.-The heavenly gods have fometime earthly thought; Neptune became a ram, Jupiter a bull, Apollo a fhepherd: they gods, and yet in love;-thou a man, appointed to love." MALONE. 2 Nor in a way-] Read :-Nor any way. RITSON. Nor in a way fo chafte:] It must be remembered that the transformations of Gods were generally for illicit amours; and confequently were not " in a way fo chafte" as that of Florizel, whose object was to marry Perdita. A. C. PER. O but, dear fir,' Your refolution cannot hold, when 'tis Oppos'd, as it must be, by the power o'the king: One of these two must be neceffities, Which then will speak; that you must change this purpose, Or I my life. FLO. Thou dearest Perdita, 2 With these forc'd thoughts, I pr'ythee, darken not The mirth o'the feaft: Or I'll be thine, my fair, Or not my father's: for I cannot be Mine own, nor any thing to any, if I be not thine: to this I am moft conftant, We two have fworn fhall come. PER. Stand you aufpicious! O lady fortune. 1 O but, dear fir,] In the oldeft copy the word-dear, is wanting. STEEVENS. The editor of the fecond folio reads-O but, dear fir; to complete the metre. But the addition is unneceffary; burn in the preceding hemiftich being used as a diffyllable. Perdita in a former part of this scene addreffes Florizel in the same respectful manner as here: "Sir, my precious lord," &c. I formerly, not adverting to what has been now ftated, proposed to take the word your from the fubfequent line; but no change is neceffary. MALONE. I follow the second folio, confeffing my inability to read-burn, as a word of more than one fyllable. STEEVENS. "With thefe forc'd thoughts,] That is, thoughts far-fetched, and not arifing from the prefent objects. M. MASON. |