PRIN. But what was fent to you from fair Dumain ?2

KATH. Madam, this glove.

PRIN.

Did he not fend you twain?

KATH. Yes, madam; and moreover,

Some thousand verfes of a faithful lover:

A huge tranflation of hypocrify.

Vilely compil'd, profound fimplicity.

MAR. This, and these pearls, to me fent Longaville;

The letter is too long by half a mile,

PRIN. I think no lefs; Doft thou not wifh in heart,

The chain were longer, and the letter fhort?
MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never

part.

PRIN, We are wife girls, to mock our lovers fo. Ros. They are worse fools, to purchase mocking fo.

That fame Birón I'll torture ere I

go.

O, that I knew he were but in by the week! 3 How I would make him fawn, and beg, and feek;

2 But what was fent to you from fair Dumain?] The old copies, after But infert Katharine. We fhould therefore read:

3

"But, Katharine, what was fent you from Dumain?"

RITSON.

in by the week!] This I fuppofe to be an expreffion taken from hiring fervants or artificers; meaning, I wifh I was as fure of his fervice for any time limited, as if I had hired him.

The expreffion was a common one, So, in Vittoria Corombona,

1612:

"What, are you in by the week? So, I will try now whether thy wit be close prisoner. Again, in The Wit of a Woman, 1604: "Since I am in by the week, let me look to the year."

"

STEEVENS.

And wait the feason, and observe the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes;
And fhape his fervice wholly to my behefts;
And make him proud to make me proud that jefts! *
So portent-like' would I o'ersway his flate,
That he fhould be my fool, and I his fate.

3

wholly to my behefts; ] The quarto, 1598, and the firft folio, read to my device. The emendation, which the rhyme confirms, was made by the editor of the fecond folio, and is one of the very few corre&ions of any value to be found in that copy. MALONE.

Mr. Malone, however, admits three other corrections from the fecond folio, in this very sheet. STEEVENS.

4 And make him proud to make me proud that jefts!] The meaning of this obfcure line feems to be, I would make him proud to flatter me who make a mock of his flattery.

Edinburgh Magazine for Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

So portent-like, &c.] In former copies :

So pertaunt-like, would I o'er-fway his flate,
That he should be my fool, and his fate.

In old farces, to fhow the inevitable approaches of death and deftiny, the Fool of the farce is made to employ all his ftratagems to avoid Death or Fate, which very ftratagems, as they are ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into the very jaws of Fate. this Shakspeare alludes again in Meafure for Measure:

merely thou art Death's Fool;

"For him thou labour'ft by thy flight to fhun,
"And yet runt towards him ftill.

Το

It is plain from all this, that the nonsense of pertaunt-like, should be read, portent-like, i. e. I would be his fate or destiny, and, like a portent, hang over, and influence his fortunes. For portents were not only thought to forebode, but to influence. So the Latins called a perfon deftined to bring mischief, fatale portentum.

WARBURTON.

The emendation appeared firft in the Oxford edition. MALONE. Until fome proof be brought of the existence of such chara&ers as Death and the Fool, in old farces, (for the mere affertion of Dr. Warburton is not to be relied on,) this paffage must be literally underflood, independently of any particular allufion. The old reading might probably mean -"fo fcoffingly would I o'erfway," &c. The initial letter in Stowe, mentioned by Mr. Reed in Meafure for Meafure, here cited, has been altogether misunderstood. It is only

PRIN. None are fo' furely caught, when they are catch'd,

As wit turn'd fool; folly, in wisdom hatch'd,
Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school;
And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.

Ros. The blood of youth burns not with fuch excefs,

As gravity's revolt to wantonnels.7

MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, As foolery in the wife, when wit doth dote; Since all the power thereof it doth apply, To prove, by wit, worth in fimplicity.

Enter BOYET.

PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face.

BOYET. O, Iam ftabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace?

PRIN. Thy news, Boyet?

ΒΟΥΕΤ.

Prepare, madam, prepare!

Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are

Against your peace: Love doth approach disguis'd
Armed in arguments; you'll be furpris'd:
Mufter your wits; ftand in your own defence;
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

a copy from an older letter which formed part of a Death's Dance, in which Death and the Fool were always reprefented. I have fe veral of these alphabets. DOUCE.

6 None are fo, &c.] Thefe are obfervations worthy of a man who has furveyed human nature with the closeft attention.

་

JOHNSON.

to wantonnefs.] The quarto, 1598, and the firft folio have to wantons be. For this emendation we are likewife indebted to the fecond folio. MALONE,

8

PRIN. Saint Dennis to faint Cupid! What are

they,

That charge their breath against us? fay, fcout, fay.
BOYET. Under the cool fhade of a sycamore,
I thought to close mine eyes fome half an hour:
When, lo! to interrupt my purpos'd reft,
Toward that fhade I might behold addreft
The king and his companions: warily
I ftole into a neighbour thicket by,
And overheard what you fhall overhear;
That, by and by, disguis'd they will be here.
Their herald is a pretty knavish page,
That well by heart hath conn'd his embassage:
Action, and accent, did they teach him there;
Thus must thou speak, and thus thy body bear:
And ever and anon they made a doubt,
Prefence majestical would put him out;
For, quoth the king, an angel fhalt thou fee;
Yet fear not thou, but fpeak audaciously.
The boy reply'd, An angel is not evil;
I fhould have fear'd her, had fhe been a devil.
With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the
fhoulder;

Making the bold wag by their praises bolder.
One rubb'd his elbow, thus; and fleer'd, and fwore,
A better speech was never spoke before:

Saint Dennis, to faint Cupid!] The princess of France invokes, with too much levity, the patron of her country, to oppose his power to that of Cupid. JOHNSON.

Johnfon cenfures the Princefs for invoking with fo much levity the patron of her country, to oppofe his power to that of Cupid; but that was not her intention. Being determined to engage the King and his followers, the gives for the word of battle St. Dennis, as the King, when he was determined to attack her, had given for the word of battle St. Cupid:

Saint Cupid then, and foldiers to the field. "
M. MASON,

Another, with his finger and his thumb,
Cry'd, Via! we will do't, come what will come:
The third he caper'd, and cried, All goes well:
The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell.
With that, they all did tumble on the ground,
With fuch a zealous laughter, so profound,
That in this fpleen ridiculous appears,
To check their folly, paffion's folemn tears.
PRIN. But what, but what, come they to vifit us?
BOYET. They do, they do; and are apparel'd
thus,-

3

Like Mufcovites, or Ruffians: as I guess, 3

2

Spleen ridiculous -] Is, a ridiculous fit of laughter.

JOHNSON.

The Spleen was anciently fuppofed to be the cause of laughter. So, in fome old Latin verfes already quoted on another occafion: Splen ridere facit, cogit amare jecur. STEEVENS.

.

66

- paffion's folemn tears.] So, in A Midfummer Night's Dream: Made mine eyes water, but more merry tears

"The paffion of loud laughter never shed. MALONE.

3 Like Mufcovites, or Ruffians: as I guess,] The fettling commerce in Ruffia was, at that time, a matter that much ingroffed the concern and converfation of the publick. There had been several em. baffies employed thither ou that occafion; and feveral tracts of the manners and ftate of that nation written: fo that a mask of Mufcovites was as good an entertainment to the audience of that time, as a coronation has been fince. WARBURTON.

A mask of Muscovites was no uncommon recreation at court long before our author's time. In the first year of King Henry the Eighth, at a banquet made for the foreign ambaffadors in the parliament-chamber at Westminster came the lorde Henry, Earle of Wiltshire, and the lorde Fitzwater, in twoo long gounes of yellowe fatin travarfed with white fatin, and in every ben of white was a bend of crimofen fatin after the fashion of Ruffia or Ruflande, with furred hattes of grey on their hedes, either of them havying an hatchet in their handes, and bootes with pykes turned up. Hall Henry VIII. p. 6. This extract may ferve to convey an idea of the dress used upon the present occafion by the king aud his lords at the performance of the play. RITSON.