are of honourable parts, and are the governor of this place.

Lrs. Why, hath your principal made known unto you who I am?

MAR. Who is my principal?

Lrs. Why, your herb-woman; she that sets seeds and roots of shame and iniquity. O, you have heard something of my power, and so stand aloof' for more ferious wooing. But I protest to thee, pretty one, my authority shall not fee thee, or else, look friendly upon thee. Come, bring me to some private place. Come, come.

MAR. If you were born to honour, show it now; If put upon you, make the judgment good That thought you worthy of it.

8

and fo stand aloof -) Old copies-aloft. Corrected

by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

* If you were born to honour, show it now;] In the Gesta Romanorum, Tharsia (the Marina of the present play) preserves her chastity by the recital of her story : "Miserere me propter Deum et per Deum te adjuro, ne me violes. Refifte libidini tuæ, et audi casus infelicitatis meæ, et unde fim diligenter confidera. Cui cum univerfos casus suos expofuiffet, princeps confufus et pietate plenus, ait ei, -' Habeo et ego filiam tibi fimilem, de qua fimiles cafus metuo.' Hæc dicens, dedit ei viginti aureos, dicens, ecce habes amplius pro viginitate quam impofitus eft. Dic advenientibus ficut mihi dixifti, et liberaberis."

The affecting circumstance which is here said to have struck the mind of Athenagoras, (the danger to which his own daughter was liable,) was probably omitted in the tranflation. It hardly, otherwise, would have escaped our author.

MALONE.

It is preserved in Twine's tranflation, as follows: "Be of good cheere, Tharfia, for furely I rue thy case; and I myselfe have also a daughter at home, to whome I doubt that the like chances may befall," &C. STEEVENS.

Lrs. How's this? how's this?-Some more ;

be sage.9

MAR. For me,

That am a maid, though most ungentle fortune
Hath plac'd me here within this loathfome stie,
Where, fince I came, diseases have been fold
Dearer than physick, -O that the good gods
Would set me free from this unhallow'd place,
Though they did change me to the meanest bird
That flies i'the purer air!

Lys.

I did not think

Thou could'st have spoke so well; ne'er dream'd

thou could'ft.

Had I brought hither a corrupted mind,

Thy speech had alter'd it. Hold, here's gold for

thee :

Perséver still in that clear way thou goeft,

And the gods ftrengthen thee!

MAR. The gods preserve you!

Lys.

For me, be you thoughten

That I came with no ill intent; for to me
The very doors and windows favour vilely.
Farewell. Thou art a piece of virtue, and

9

- Some more;-be fage.] Lysimachus says this with a

sneer.-Proceed with your fine moral discourse. MALONE.

* Perséver still in that clear way thou goest,] Continue in your present virtuous disposition. So, in The Two Noble Kinfmen, 1634:

" Of clear virginity, be advocate

"For us and our distresses." MALONE.

See Vol. XIX. p. 94, n. 2. STEEVENS.

2

Tempest:

a piece of virtue,] This expreffion occurs in The

thy mother was

"A piece of virtue-." STEEVENS,

I doubt not but thy training hath been noble.— Hold; here's more gold for thee.

A curse upon him, die he like a thief,

That robs thee of thy goodness! If thou hear'st

from me,

It shall be for thy good.

[AS LYSIMACHUS is putting up his Purse, BOULT enters.

BOULT. I beseech your honour, one piece for

me.

Lrs. Avaunt, thou damned door-keeper! Your

house,

But for this virgin that doth prop it up,
Would fink, and overwhelm you all. Away!

[Exit LYSIMACHUS.

BOULT. How's this? We must take another course with you. If your peevish chastity, which is not worth a breakfast in the cheapest country under the cope, shall undo a whole household, let me be gelded like a spaniel. Come your ways.

MAR. Whither would you have me ?

BOULT. I must have your maidenhead taken off, or the common hangman shall execute it. Come your way. We'll have no more gentlemen driven away. Come your ways, I say.

Again, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Let not the piece of virtue, which is set
"Betwixt us,-."

Octavia is the person alluded to. MALONE.

3

- under the cope,] i. e. under the cope or covering of heaven. The word is thus used in Cymbeline. In Coriolanus we have " under the canopy;" with the same meaning.

STEEVENS. Re-enter Bawd.

BAND. How now! what's the matter?
BOULT. Worse and worse, mistress; she has here

spoken holy words to the lord Lyfimachus.

BAWD. O abominable !

BoULT. She makes our profession as it were to stink afore the face of the gods.4

BAWD. Marry, hang her up for ever !

BOULT. The nobleman would have dealt with her like a noblemen, and she sent him away as cold as a snowball; saying his prayers too.

BAWD. Boult, take her away; use her at thy pleasure: crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.5

* She makes our profession as it were to stink afore the face of the gods.] So, in Measure for Measure, the Duke says to the Bawd:

5

"Canft thou believe thy living is a life,
"So stinkingly depending?

"Clown. Indeed, it does stink in some fort, fir-."
STEEVENS.

-crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable.] So, in the Gesta Romanorum : "Altera die, adhuc eam virginem audiens, iratus [leno) vocans villicum puellarum, dixit, duc eam ad te, et frange nodum virginitatis ejus."

MALONE.

Here is perhaps some allusion to a fact recorded by Dion Caffius and by Pliny, B. XXXVI. ch. xxvi. but more circumftantially by Petronius. See his Satyricon, Variorum edit. p. 189. A skilful workman who had discovered the art of making glass malleable, carried a specimen of it to Tiberius, who asked him if he alone was in possession of the secret. He replied in the affirmative; on which the tyrant ordered his head to be struck off immediately, left his invention should have proved injurious to the workers in gold, filver, and other metals. The same story, however, is told in the Gesta Romanorum, chapter 44. STEEVENS.

BOULT. An if she were a thornier piece of ground than she is, she shall be ploughed.

MAR. Hark, hark, you gods !

BAWD. She conjures: away with her. Would she had never come within my doors! Marry hang you! She's born to undo us. Will you not go the way of women-kind? Marry come up, my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays !? [Exit Bawd. BOULT. Come, mistress; come your way with

me.

MAR. Whither would you have me?

BOULT. To take from you the jewel you hold fo

dear.

MAR. Prythee, tell me one thing first.
BOULT. Come now, your one thing.

8

MAR. What canst thou with thine enemy to be? BOULT. Why, I could with him to be my master, or rather, my mistress.

7

MAR. Neither of these are yet so bad as thou art,9

She shall be ploughed.] So, in Antony and Cleopatra :
She made great Cæfar lay his fword to bed,

"He plough'd her, and the cropp'd." STEEVENS. -my dish of chastity with rosemary and bays!] Anciently many dishes were ferved up with this garniture, during the season of Christmas. The Bawd means to call her a piece of oftentatious virtue. STEEVENS.

* Mar. Prythee, tell me one thing first.

Boult. Come now, your one thing ;) So, in King Henry IV.

Part II:

"P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
"Poins. Go to, I stand the push of your one thing."

MALONE.

Neither of these are yet so bad as thou art,] The word yet

was inferted by Mr. Rowe for the fake of the metre.

MALONE.