Pis. I was going, sir, To give him welcome. Exit Pisani. Imo. Continues well my lord ? His health, 'be seech you ? lach. Well, madam. Imo. Is he dispos'd to mirth ? I hope, he is. Iach. Exceeding pleasant; none a stranger there When he was here, I never saw him sad. cries, O! Can my sides hold”, to think, that man,—who knows 2 “And I am something curious, being strange, " To have them in safe stowage.”. Here also strange evidently means, being a stranger. M. Mason. he is call'd The BRITON REVELLER.) So, in Chaucer's Coke's Tale, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 4369 : “ That he was cleped Perkin revelour." STEEVENS. he FURNACES The thick sighs from him ;] So, in Chapman's preface to his translation of the Shield of Homer, 1598; - furnaceth the universall sighes and complaintes of this transposed world." STEEVENS. So, in As You Like It : And then the lover, LAUGHS-cries, O! Laughter holding both his sides.” Steevens. So, in Troilus and Cressida, vol. viii. p. 266 : 3 By history, report, or his own proof, Will my lord say so? laughter. It is a recreation to be by, And hear him mock the Frenchman: But, heavens know, Some men are much to blame. Imo. Not he, I hope. lach. Not he: But yet heaven's bounty towards him might Imo. What do you pity, sir ? Am I one, sir ? Lamentable! What! I pray you, sir, Lach. That others do, 0!-enough, Patroclus ; “ In pleasure of my spleen-” HARRIS. In himself, 'tis much ;] If he merely regarded his own character, without any consideration of his wife, his conduct would be unpardonable. MALONE, count-] Old copy—account. Steevens. 5 6 7 I was about to say, enjoy your-But You do seem to know Had I this cheek To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch, Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul To the oath of loyalty"; this object, which timely KNOWING,] Rather-timely known. Johnson. I believe Shakspeare wrote-known, and that the transcriber's ear deceived him here as in many other places. MALONE. - For certainties “ The remedy's then born—," MALONE. Perhaps the meaning is, as I have pointed the passage: For certainties “ The remedy, then borne." They are either past all remedy; or, the remedy being timely suggested to us by the knowing them, they are the more easily borne. J. BOADEN. 8 What both you spur and stop.] What it is that at once incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. “Johnson. This kind of ellipsis is common in these plays. What both you spur and stop at, the poet means. See a note on Act II. Sc. III. MALONE. The meaning is, what you seem anxious to utter, and yet withhold.' M. Mason. The allusion is to horsemanship. So, in Sidney's Arcadia, book i. : “ She was like a horse desirous to runne, and miserably spurred, but so short-reined, as he cannot stirre forward.” Again, in Ben Jonson's Epigram to the Earl of Newcastle : “ Provoke his mettle, and command his force.” STEEVENS. - this hand, whose touch, would force the feeler's soul To the oath of loyalty ?] There is, I think, here a reference 9 Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye, mount the Capitol”; join gripes with hands 3 2 to the manner in which the tenant performed homage to his lord. “ The lord sate, while the vassal kneeling on both knees before him, held his hands jointly together between the hands of his lord, and swore to be faithful and loyal.” See Coke upon Littleton, sect. 85. Unless this allusion be allowed, how has touching the hand the slightest connection with taking the oath of loyalty? Holt White. The very touch of such a hand would make the feeler swear to be true. Boswell. * Fixing it only here :) The old copy has-Fiering. The correction was made in the second folio. MALONE. as common as the stairs That mount the Capitol ;) Shakspeare has bestowed some ornament on the proverbial phrase as common as the highway.” STEEVENS. 3 — join gripes with hands, &c.] The old edition reads : join gripes with hands “ With labour) then by peeping in an eye,” &c. I read : “—then lie peeping—." Hard with falsehood, is, hard by being often griped with frequent change of hands.' Johnson. 4 Base and UNLUSTROUS—] Old copy-illustrious. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. That illustrious was not used by our author in the sense of inlustrous or unlustrous, is proved by a passage in the old comedy of Patient Grissell, 1603 : the buttons were illustrious and resplendent diamonds.” Malone, A “ lack-lustre eye” has been already mentioned in As You Like It. STEEVENS. Imo. My lord, I fear, And himself. Not I, Let me hear no more, Iach. O dearest soul ! your cause doth strike my heart With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady So fair, and fasten'd to an empery, Would make the great'st king double ! to be part. ner'd With tomboys', hir'd with that self-exhibition? 5 — to an EMPERY,] Empery is a word signifying sovereign command ; now obsolete. Shakspeare uses it in King Richard III.: “ Your right of birth, your empery, your own.” STEEVENS. 6 With TOMBOYs,) We still call a masculine, a forward girl, tomboy. So, in Middleton's Game at Chess : “ Made threescore year a tomboy, a mere wanton.” Again, in W. Warren's Nurcerie of Names, 1581 : “ She comes not unto Bacchus' feastes, “ Or Flora's routes by night, “For euery knaues delight.” Again, in Lyly's Midas, 1592: “ If thou should'st rigg up and down in our jackets, thou would'st be thought a very tomboy.” Again, in Lady Alimony: What humourous tomboys be these ? “ The only gallant Messalinas of our age.” It appears from several of the old plays and ballads, that the ladies of pleasure, in the time of Shakspeare, often wore the habits of young men. So, in an ancient bl. 1. ballad, entitled The Stout Cripple of Cornwall : “ And therefore kept them secretlie “ To feede his fowle desire, |
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