I had a hundred pound on't: And then a whoreson jackanapes must take me up for swearing; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my pleasure. 1 LORD. What got he by that? You have broke his pate with your bowl. 2 LORD. If his wit had been like him that broke it, it would have run all out. [Aside. CLO. When a gentleman is disposed to swear, it is not for any standers-by to curtail his oaths: Ha? 2 LORD. No, my lord; nor [Aside.] crop the ears of them1. CLO. Whoreson dog!—I give him satisfaction 2? 'Would, he had been one of my rank! 3 [Aside. 2 LORD. To have smelt like a fool. CLO. I am not more vexed at any thing in the earth,-A pox on't! I had rather not be so noble as I am; they dare not fight with me, because of the queen my mother: every jack-slave hath his belly full of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that no body can match. 2 LORD. You are a cock and capon too; and you crow, cock, with your comb on 1. [Aside. are aimed. He who is nearest to it wins. is a state of great advantage. JOHNSON. "To kiss the jack" This expression frequently occurs in the old comedies. So, in A Woman Never Vex'd, by Rowley, 1632; "This city bowler has kissed the mistress at the first cast." STEEVENS. No, my lord, &c.] This, I believe, should stand thus: "1 Lord. No, my lord. "2 Lord. Nor crop the ears of them. [Aside." JOHNSON. 2 I GIVE him satisfaction?] Old copy-gave. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. Perhaps this is a ludicrous use of the duellist's phrase, 'I gave him satisfaction; I broke his pate with my bowl.' BOSWELL. 3 To have SMELT] A poor quibble on the word rank in the preceding speech. MALONE. The same quibble has already occurred in As You Like It, Act I. Sc. II.: "Touch. Nay, if I keep not my rank “Ros. Thou losest thy old smell." STEEVENS. CLO. Sayest thou? 5 1 LORD. It is not fit, your lordship should undertake every companion that you give offence to. CLO. No, I know that: but it is fit, I should commit offence to my inferiors. 2 LORD. Ay, it is fit for your lordship only. CLO. Why, so I say. 1 LORD. Did you hear of a stranger, that's come to court to-night? CLO. A stranger! and I not know on't! 2 LORD. He's a strange fellow himself, and knows it not. [Aside. 1 LORD. There's an Italian come; and, 'tis thought, one of Leonatus' friends. CLO. Leonatus! a banished rascal; and he's another, whatsoever he be. Who told you of this stranger? 1 LORD. One of your lordship's pages. CLO. Is it fit, I went to look upon him? Is there no derogation in't? 1 LORD. You cannot derogate, my lord. CLO. Not easily, I think. 2 LORD. You are a fool granted; therefore your issues being foolish, do not derogate. [Aside. CLO. Come, I'll go see this Italian: What I have lost to-day at bowls, I'll win to-night of him. Come, go. 2 LORD. I'll attend your lordship. [Exeunt CLOTEN and first Lord. That such a crafty devil as is his mother Should yield the world this ass! a woman, that 4 with your comb on.] The allusion is to a fool's cap, which hath a comb like a cock's. JOHNSON. The intention of the speaker is to call Cloten a coxcomb. 3 every COMPANION] The use of companion was the same as of fellow now. It was a word of contempt. JOHNSON. It occurs with this meaning frequently in Shakspeare. MALONE. Bears all down with her brain; and this her son Of thy dear husband, than that horrid act stand, To enjoy thy banish'd lord, and this great land! SCENE II. [Exit. A Bed-chamber; in one Part of it a Trunk. IMOGEN reading in her Bed; a Lady attending. IMO. Who's there? my woman Helen ? LADY. IMO. What hour is it? LADY. Please you, madam. Almost midnight, madam. IMO. I have read three hours then: mine eyes are weak: Fold down the leaf where I have left: To bed: Take not away the taper, leave it burning; To your protection I commend me, gods! [Sleeps. LACHIMO, from the Trunk. 6 From fairies, and the tempters of the night,] Banquo, in Macbeth, has already deprecated the same nocturnal evils: LACH. The crickets sing, and man's o'er-labour'd sense Repairs itself by rest: Our Tarquin' thus How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily 9! 7 "Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature "Gives way to in repose!" STEEVENS. OUR Tarquin -] The speaker is an Italian. JOHNSON. 8- Tarquin thus Did SOFTLY press the RUSHES,] This shows that Shakspeare's idea was, that the ravishing strides of Tarquin were softly ones, and may serve as a comment on that passage in Macbeth. See vol. xi. p. 98, n. 9. BLACKSTONE. 66 the rushes." It was the custom in the time of our author to strew chambers with rushes, as we now cover them with carpets the practice is mentioned in Caius de Ephemera Britannica. JOHNSON. 66 So, in Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible, 8vo. 1587: Sedge and rushes,-with the which many in this country do use in sommer time to strawe their parlors and churches, as well for coolenes as for pleasant smell." Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: 66 66 his blood remains. Why strew rushes.” Again, in Bussy d'Ambois, 1607: "Were not the king here, he should strew the chamber like a rush." Shakspeare has the same circumstance in his Rape of Lucrece : by the light he spies 66 "Lucretia's glove wherein her needle sticks ; "He takes it from the rushes where it lies," &c. The ancient English stage also, as appears from more than one passage in Decker's Gul's Hornbook, 1609, was strewn with rushes; "Salute all your gentle acquaintance that are spred either on the rushes or on stooles about you, and drawe what troope you can from the stage after you." STEEVENS. 9 Cytherea, How bravely thou becom'st thy bed! fresh lily! And WHITER THAN THE SHEETS!] So, in our author's Venus and Adonis : "Who sees his true love in her naked bed, 66 Teaching the sheets a whiter hue than white." And whiter than the sheets! That I might touch! But kiss; one kiss !-Rubies unparagon'd, How dearly they do't!-'Tis her breathing that Perfumes the chamber thus': The flame o' the taper Bows toward her; and would under-peep her lids, To see the enclosed lights, now canopied 2 Under these windows: White and azure, lac'd With blue of heaven's own tinct.-But my de sign. Again, in The Rape of Lucrece : "Who o'er the white sheets peers her whiter chin.” Thus, also, Jaffier, in Venice Preserved: 66 in virgin sheets, "White as her bosom." STEEVENS. I 'Tis her breathing that MALONE. Perfumes the chamber thus:] The same hyperbole is found in The Metamorphosis of Pygmalion's Image, by J. Marston, 1598 : 2 66 no lips did seem so fair "In his conceit; through which he thinks doth flie "So sweet a breath that doth perfume the air." MAlone. now CANOPIED] Shakspeare has the same expression in Tarquin and Lucrece : "Her eyes, like marigolds, had sheath'd their light, "Till they might open to adorn the day." MALone. 3 Under these WINDOWS:] i. e. her eyelids. So, in Romeo and Juliet: 66 Thy eyes' windows fall, "Like death, when he shuts up the day of life." Again, in his Venus and Adonis : "The night of sorrow now is turn'd to day; 4 White AND azure, lac'd MALONE. WITH blue of heaven's own tinct.] We should read: 66 White with azure lac'd, "The blue of heaven's own tinct." i. e. the white skin laced with blue veins. So, in Macbeth: WARBURTON. "His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood." |