Art thou a feodary for this act, and look'st I am ignorant in what I am commanded". PIs. Madam, here is a letter from my lord. 6 Art thou a FEODARY for this act,] A feodary is one who holds his estate under the tenure of suit and service to a superior lord. HANMER. "Art thou a feodary for this act." Art thou too combined, art thou a confederale, in this act?-A feodary did not signify a feudal vassal, as Sir Thomas Hanmer and the subsequent editors have supposed, (though if the word had borne that signification, it certainly could not bear it here,) but was an officer appointed by the Court of Wards, by virtue of the statute 32 Henry VIII. c. 46, to be present with, and assistant to the Escheators in every county at the finding of offices, and to give in evidence for the king. His duty was to survey the lands of the ward after office found, [i. e. after an inquisition had been made to the king's use,] and to return the true value thereof to the court, &c. "In cognoscendis rimandisque feudis (says Spelman) ad regem pertinentibus, et ad tenuras pro rege manifestandas tuendasque, operam navat; Escaetori ideo adjunctus, omnibusque nervis regiam promovens utilitatem." He was therefore, we see, the Escheator's associate, and hence Shakspeare, with his usual licence, uses the word for a confederate or associate in general. The feudal vassal was not called a feodary, but a feodatary and feudatory. In Latin, however, feudatarius signified both. MALONE. How a letter could be considered as a feudal vassal, according to Hanmer's interpretation, I am at a loss to know. Feodary means, here, a confederate, or accomplice. So, Leontes says of Hermione, in The Winter's Tale : 66 More, she's a traitor, and Camillo is "A federary with her." I also think that the word feodary has the same signification in Measure for Measure, though the other commentators do not, and have there assigned my reasons for being of that opinion. M. MASON. 7 I am ignorant in what I am commanded.] i. e. I am unpractised in the arts of murder. STEEVENS. So, in King Henry IV. Part I. : "O, I am ignorance itself in this." MALONE. IMO. Who? thy lord? that is my lord? Leonatus? O, learn'd indeed were that astronomer, That knew the stars, as I his characters; He'd lay the future open.-You good gods, Let what is here contain'd relish of love, Of my lord's health, of his content,-yet not, That we two are asunder,-let that grieve him, (Some griefs are med'cinable; that is one of them, For it doth physick love 9 ;)—of his content, All but in that !-Good wax, thy leave:-Bless'd be, You bees, that make these locks of counsel! Lovers, And men in dangerous bonds, pray not alike; Though forfeiters* you cast in prison, yet You clasp young Cupid's tables '.-Good news, gods! [Reads. * First folio, forfeytours. 8 let that grieve him,] I should wish to read: 66 Of my lord's health, of his content,-yet no ; "That we two are asunder, let that grieve him! TYRWHITT. Tyrwhitt wishes to amend this passage by reading no, instead of not, in the first line; but it is right as it stands, and there is nothing wanting to make it clear, but placing a stop longer than a comma, after the word asunder. The sense is this:-" Let the letter bring me tidings of my lord's health, and of his content; not of his content that we are asunder-let that circumstance grieve him; but of his content in every shape but that." M. MASON. The text is surely right. Let what is here contained relish of my husband's content, in every thing except our being separate from each other. Let that one circumstance afflict him! MALONE. 9 For it doth PHYSICK love;] That is, grief for absence keeps love in health and vigour. JOHNSON. So, in The Winter's Tale; "It is a gallant child; one that indeed, physicks the subject, makes old hearts fresh." STEEVENS. I Bless'd be, You bees, that make these locks of counsel! Lovers, And men in dangerous bonds, pray not alike; Though forfeiters you cast in prison, yet You clasp young Cupid's tables.] The meaning of this, which had been obscured by printing, forfeitures for forfeiters, is no more than that the bees are not blessed by the man who forfeiting a bond is sent to prison, as they are by the lover for whom they perform the more pleasing office of sealing letters. STEEVENS. រ Justice, and your father's wrath, should he take me in his dominion, could not be so cruel to me, as you, O the dearest of creatures, would not even renew me with your eyes. Take notice, that I am in Cambria, at Milford-Haven: What your own love will, out of this, advise you, follow. So, he wishes you all happiness, that remains loyal to his vow3, and your, increasing in love*, LEONATUS POSTHUMUS. O, for a horse with wings!-Hear'st thou, Pisanio? 2 Justice, &c.] Old copy-" Justice, and your father's wrath, &c. could not be so cruel to me as you, O, the dearest of creatures, would even renew me with your eyes." This passage, which is probably erroneous, is nonsense, unless we suppose that the word as has the force of but. "Your father's wrath could not be so cruel to me, but you could renew me with your eyes." M. MASON. I know not what idea this passage presented to the late editors, who have passed it in silence. As it stands in the old copy, it appears to me unintelligible. The word not was, I think, omitted at the press, after would. By its insertion a clear sense is given : Justice and the anger of your father, should I be discovered here, could not be so cruel to me, but that you, O thou dearest of creatures, would be able to renovate my spirits by giving me the happiness of seeing you. Mr. Pope obtained the same sense by a less justifiable method; by substituting but instead of as; and the three subsequent editors adopted that reading. MALONE. Mr. Malone reads-" would not," and I have followed him. 3 that remains LOYAL TO HIS Vow, &c.] This subscription to the second letter of Posthumus, affords ample countenance to to Mr. M. Mason's conjecture concerning the conclusion of a former one. See p. 44, n. 4. STEEVENS. 4 and YOUR, increasing, &c.] We should, I think, read thus" and your, increasing in love, Leonatus Posthumus,"-to make it plain, that your is to be joined in construction with Leonatus, and not with increasing; and that the latter is a participle present, and not a noun. TYRWHITT. (Who long'st, like me, to see thy lord; who long'st, O, let me 'bate,-but not like me :-yet long'st,- For mine's beyond beyond 5,) say, and speak thick, How we may steal from hence; and, for the gap 8 Why should excuse be born or e'er begot R ? 5 For mine's beyond beyond,)] The comma, hitherto placed after the first beyond, is improper. The second is used as a substantive; and the plain sense is, that her longing is further than beyond; beyond any thing that desire can be said to be beyond. So, in King Lear: 66 RITSON. Beyond all manner of so much I love you." STEEvens. 6 - speak thick,] i. e. croud one word on another, as fast as possible. So, in King Henry IV. Part II. Act II. Sc. III. : "And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, Again, in Macbeth : 66 as thick as tale "Came post with post-." See vol. xi. p. 43, n. 3. STEEVENS. 7- from our hence-going, And our return,] i. e. in consequence of our going hence and returning back. All the modern editors, adopting an alteration made by Mr. Pope,-Till our return. In support of the reading of the old copy, which has been here restored, see Coriolanus, Act II. Sc. I. : "He cannot temperately support his honours, "From where he should begin and end." See note on that passage. MALONE. 8 Why should excuse be born or e'er begot ?] Why should I contrive an excuse, before the act is done, for which excuse will be necessary? MALONE. We'll talk of that hereafter. Pr'ythee, speak, How many score of miles may we well ride "Twixt hour and hour? PIS. One score, 'twixt sun and sun, Madam, 's enough for you; and too much too. IMO. Why, one that rode to his execution, man, Could never go so slow: I have heard of riding 9 wagers, Where horses have been nimbler than the sands That run i' the clock's behalf' :--But this is foolery : Go, bid my woman feign a sickness; say She'll home to her father: and provide me, pre sently, A riding suit; no costlier than would fit A franklin's housewife 2. PIS. Madam, you're best consider3. IMO. I see before me, man, nor here, nor here, Nor what ensues; but have a fog in them, 9 of RIDING wagers,] Of wagers to be determined by the speed of horses. MALONE. This practice was, perhaps, not much less prevalent in Shakspeare's time, than it is at present. Fynes Moryson, speaking of his brother's putting out money to be repaid with increase on his return from Jerusalem, (or, as we should now speak, travelling thither for a wager,) defends it as an honest means of gaining the charges of his journey, especially when "no meane lords & lords' sonnes & gentlemen in our court put out money upon a horse race under themselves, yea, upon a journey on foote." Itin. Part I. b. 3. ch. i. BLAKEWAY. That run i' the clock's behalf:] This fantastical expression means no more than sand in an hour-glass, used to measure time. WARBURTON. 2 A FRANKLIN'S housewife.] A franklin is literally a freeholder, with a small estate, neither villain nor vassal. JOHNSON. 3 Madam, YOU'RE best consider.] That is, "you'd best consider." M. MASON. So afterwards, in Sc. VI. : " I were best not call." MALONE. |