Enter a Lady.

LADY.

The queen, madam,

Desires your highness' company.

IMO. Those things I bid you do, get them de

spatch'd.

I will attend the queen.

PIs.

Madam, I shall. [Exeunt.

as our author has elsewhere expressed it. Dr. Warburton, because the buds of flowers are here alluded to, very idly reads― "Shakes all our buds from blowing."

The buds of flowers undoubtedly are meant, and Shakspeare himself has told us in Romeo and Juliet that they grow:

"This bud of love, by summer's ripening breath

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May prove a beauteous flower, when next we meet."

MALONE.

A bud without any distinct idea, whether of flower or fruit, is a natural representation of any thing incipient or immature; and the buds of flowers, if flowers are meant, grow to flowers, as the buds of fruits grow to fruits. JOHNSON.

Dr. Warburton's emendation may in some measure be confirmed by those beautiful lines in The Two Noble Kinsmen, which I have no doubt were written by Shakspeare. Emilia is speaking of a rose :

"It is the very emblem of a maid.

"For when the west wind courts her gentily,

"How modestly she blows and paints the sun

"With her chaste blushes?-when the north comes near her

"Rude and impatient, then like chastity,

"She locks her beauties in the bud again,

"And leaves him to base briars." FARMER.

I think the old reading may be sufficiently supported by the following passage in the 18th Sonnet of our author:

"Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May."

Again, in The Taming of the Shrew :

"Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds shake fair buds.”

Lyly, in his Euphues, 1581, as Mr. Holt White observes, has a similar expression : "The winde shaketh off the blossome, as well as the fruit." STEEVENS.

SCENE V.

Rome. An Apartment in PHILARIO'S House,

Enter PHILARIO, IACHIMO2, a Frenchman, a Dutchman, and a Spaniard3.

IACH. Believe it, sir: I have seen him in Britain: he was then of a crescent note; expected to prove so worthy, as since he hath been allowed the name of: but I could then have looked on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his side, and I to peruse him by items.

PHI. You speak of him when he was less furnished, than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within.

4

FRENCH. I have seen him in France: we had very many there, could behold the sun with as firm eyes as he.

IACH. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weighed rather by her

2 -

- Iachimo,] The name of Giacomo occurs in The Two Gentlemen of Venice, a novel, which immediately follows that of Rhomeo and Julietta in the second tome of Painter's Palace of Pleasure. MALONE.

3 a DUTCHMAN, and a SPANIARD.] Thus the old Mynheer, and the Don, are mute characters.

copy; but Shakspeare, however, derived this circumstance from whatever translation of the original novel he made use.of. Thus, in the ancient one described in our Prolegomena to this drama : Howe iiii merchauntes met all togyther in on way, whyche were of iiii dyverse landes," &c. STEEVENS.

66

4 — MAKES him-] In the sense in which we say, This will make or mar you. JOHNSON.

So, in Othello:

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This is the night

"Tha either makes me, or for does me quite."

STEEVENS.

Makes him, in the text, means forms him. M. MASON.

value, than his own,) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter 5.

FRENCH. And then his banishment :

IACH. Ay, and the approbation of those, that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colours", are wonderfully to extend him'; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar without less quality.

5

words him,-a great deal from the matter,] Makes the description of him very distant from the truth. JOHNSON.

6 under her colours,] Under her banner; by her influence. JOHNSON.

7 — and the APPROBATION of those,-ARE wonderfully to extend him ;] This grammatical inaccuracy is common in Shakspeare's plays. So, in Julius Cæsar :

"The posture of your blows are yet unknown." See vol. xii. p. 134, and vol. iv. p. 389. The modern editors, however, read-approbations.

Extend has here the same meaning as in a former scene. p. 8, n. 4. MALONE.

See

"This

I perceive no inaccuracy on the present occasion. matter of his marrying his king's daughter,"-" and then his banishment;"-" and the approbation of those," &c. “ are (i. e. all these circumstances united) wonderfully to extend him."

STEEVENS.

8- without LESS quality.] Whenever less or more is to be joined with a verb denoting want, or a preposition of a similar import, Shakspeare never fails to be entangled in a grammatical inaccuracy, or rather, to use words that express the very contrary of what he means. In a note on Antony and Cleopatra, I have proved this incontestably, by comparing a passage similar to that in the text with the words of Plutarch on which it is formed. The passage

66

is :
-I-condemn myself to lack

"The courage of a woman, less noble mind

"Than she-."

Again, in The Winter's Tale :

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I ne'er heard yet

"That any of these bolder vices wanted

"Less impudence, to gainsay what they did,
"Than to perform it first."

Again, in King Lear :

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I have hope

"You less know how to value her deserts
"Than she to scant her duty."

But how comes it, he is to sojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance?

PHI. His father and I were soldiers together; to whom I have been often bound for no less than my life:

Enter POSTHUMUS.

Here comes the Briton: Let him be so entertained amongst you, as suits, with gentlemen of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality.-I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman; whom I commend to you, as a noble friend of mine: How worthy he is, I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing.

FRENCH. Sir, we have known together in Orleans.

POST. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtesies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still 9.

FRENCH. Sir, you o'er-rate my poor kindness: I was glad I did atone my countryman and you'; it

See note on Antony and Cleopatra, vol. xii. p. 373, n. 4. Mr. Rowe and all the subsequent editors read-without more quality, and so undoubtedly Shakspeare ought to have written. On the stage, an actor may rectify such petty errors; but it is the duty of an editor to exhibit what his author wrote. MALONE.

As on this occasion, and several others, we can only tell what Hemings and Condel printed, instead of knowing, with any degree of certainty, what Shakspeare wrote, I have not disturbed Mr. Rowe's emendation, which leaves a clear passage to the reader, if he happens to prefer an obvious sense to no sense at all. STEEVENS.

9 - which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still.] So, in All's Well That Ends Well:

"Which I will ever pay, and pay again,

"When I have found it."

Again, in our author's 30th Sonnet :

"Which I new pay, as if not pay'd before."

MALONE,

I did ATONE, &c.] To atone signifies in this place to reconcile. So, Ben Jonson, in The Silent Woman :

"There had been some hope to atone you,”.

had been pity, you should have been put together with so mortal a purpose, as then each bore, upon importance of so slight and trivial a nature2.

PosT. By your pardon, sir, I was then a young traveller: rather shunned to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences: but, upon my mended judgment, (if I offend not to say it is mended,) my quarrel was not altogether slight.

*

FRENCH. 'Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of swords; and by such two, that would, by all likelihood, have confounded one the other 1, or have fallen both.

4

IACH. Can we, with manners, ask what was the difference?

FRENCH. Safely, I think: 'twas a contention in

*First folio omits not.

Again, in Heywood's English Traveller, 1633:

2

"The constable is call'd to atone the broil."

STEEVENS.

upon IMPORTANCE of so slight and trivial a nature.] Importance is here, as elsewhere in Shakspeare, importunity, instigation. See vol. xi. p. 498, n. 2; and vol. iv. p. 253, n. 5.

MALONE. So, in Twelfth-Night: "Maria wrote the letter at Sir Toby's great importance." Again, in King John:

3

"At our importance hither is he come." STEEVENS.

rather shunned to go even with what I heard, &c.] This is expressed with a kind of fantastical perplexity. He means, I was then willing to take for my direction the experience of others, more than such intelligence as I had gathered myself. JOHNSON.

This passage cannot bear the meaning that Johnson contends for. Posthumus is describing a presumptuous young man, as he acknowledges himself to have been at that time; and means to say, that he rather studied to avoid conducting himself by the opinions of other people, than to be guided by their experience." To take for direction the experience of others, would be a proof of wisdom, not of presumption. M. MASON.

4

CONFOUNDED One the other,] To confound, in our author's time, signified-to destroy.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra, vol. xii. p. 280.

What willingly he did confound he wail'd." MALOne.