And confciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.

KING. A blifter on his fweet tongue, with my heart,

That put Armado's page out of his part!

Enter the Princefs, ufher'd by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and attendants.

BIRON. See where it comes !-Behaviour, what wert thou,

Till this man fhow'd thee? and what art thou now?? KING. All hail, fweet madam, and fair time of day!

PRIN. Fair, in all hail, is foul, as I conceive. KING. Conftrue my fpeeches better, if you may. PRIN. Then with me better, I will give you leave.

tooth of the Horfe-whale, Morfe, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon tranflation of Orofius.

Behaviour, what wert thou,

HOLT WHITE,

Till this man Jhow'd thee? and what art thou now?] Thefe are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves fo much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modeft filent accomplishment under the direction of nature and common fenfe, which does its office in promoting focial life without being taken notice of. But that when it degenerates into fhow and parade, it becomes an unmanly, con temptible quality. WARBURTON.

What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprized in the quotation. JOHNson.

Till this man fhow'd thee?] The old copies read—" Till this mad man, &c. STEEVENS.

An error of the prefs. The word mad must be ftruck out.

M. MASON.

KING. We came to vifit you; and purpose now To lead you to our court: vouchsafe it then. PRIN. This field fhall hold me; and fo hold your vow:

Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur'd men.

KING. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke;

2

The virtue of your eye muft, break my oath. PRIN. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth,
Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure
As the unfullied lily, I proteft,

A world of torments though I fhould endure,
I would not yield to be your house's guest:
So much I hate a breaking-cause to be
Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.
KING. O, you have liv'd in defolation here,
Unfeen, unvifited, much to our fhame.
PRIN. Not fo, my lord; it is not fo, I swear;
We have had paftimes here, and pleasant game;
A mefs of Ruffians left us but of late.

KING. How, madam? Ruffians?

PRIN.

Ay, in truth, my lord;

Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state.
Ros. Madam, fpeak true:-It is not fo my lord;
My lady, (to the manner of the days,)

In courtesy, gives undeferving praise. 3

The virtue of your eye must break my oath. ] I believe our author means that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, muft diffolve the obligation of the oath. The princess, in her anfwer, takes the moft invidious part of the ambiguity.

3 My lady, (to the manner of the days,

JOHNSON.

An courtesy, gives undeferving praife,] To the manner of the

We four, indeed, confronted were with four
In Ruffian habit: here they stay'd an hour,
And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,
They did not blefs us with one happy word.
I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
When they are thirfly, fools would fain have drink.
BIRON. This jeft is dry to me.-Fair, gentle
fweet,

Your wit makes wife things foolish: when we greet'
With eyes beft feeing heaven's fiery eye,
By light we lofe light: Your capacity
Is of that nature, that to your huge ftore

Wife things feem foolish, and rich things but poor.
Ros. This proves you wife and rich; for in my

eye,

BIRON. I am a fool, and full of poverty.

day, means according to the manner of the times. Gives unde ferving praife, means praife to what does not deferve it.

M. MASON.

4 Fair, gentle sweet,] The word fair, which is wanting in the two elder copies, was reftored by the fecond folio. Mr. Malone My gentle fweet."

reads (6

My fair, feet honey monarch" occurs in this very fcene, P. 349. STEEVENS.

Sweet is generally used as a fubftantive by our author, in his addreffes to ladies. So, in The Winter's Tale:

"I prattle out of tune.

The editor of the fecond folio, with lefs probability, (as it appears to me,) reads fair, gentle, fweet.

MALONE.

when we greet, &c.] This is a very lofty and elegant

compliment. JOHNSON.

VOL. VII.

Ꮓ

Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong, It were a fault to fnatch words from my tongue. BIRON. O, I am yours, and all that I poffefs. Ros. All the fool mine?

BIRON.

I cannot give you lefs. Ros. Which of the vifors was it, that you wore? BIRON. Where? when? what vifor? why demand you this?

Ros. There, then, that vifor; that fuperfluous

cafe,

That hid the worfe, and fhow'd the better face. KING. We are defcried: they'll mock us now downright.

DUM. Let us confefs, and turn it to a jeft.

PRIN. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your highnefs fad?

Ros. Help, hold his brows! he'll fwoon! Why look you pale?—

Sea-fick, I think, coming from Muscovy.

BIRON. Thus pour the flars down plagues for perjury.

Can any face of brafs hold longer out?— Here ftand I, lady; dart thy skill at me ;

Bruife me with fcorn, confound me with a flout; Thrust thy fharp wit quite through my ignorance; Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; And I will wish thee never more to dance, Nor never more in Ruffian habit wait. O! never will I truft to fpeeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a fchool-boy's tongue :

Nor never come in vifor to my friend;

Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's fong:

my friend;] i. e. miftrefs. So, in Measure for Measure: he hath got his friend with child. STEEVENS.

Taffata phrafes, filken terms precife,

Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation,' Figures pedantical; these fummer-flies

Have blown me full of maggot oftentation:
I do forfwear them: and 1 here proteft,

By this white glove, (how white the hand,
God knows!)

Henceforth my wooing mind fhall be exprefs'd
In ruffet yeas, and honeft kerfey noes:
And, to begin, wench,-fo God help me, la! —
My love to thee is found, fans crack or flaw.
Ros. Sans SANS, I pray you.

Yet I have a trick

BIRON.
Of the old rage:-bear with me, I am fick ;
I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us fee;-
Write, Lord have mercy on us," on those three ;

6 Three-pil'd hyperboles,] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in The Winter's Tale, Autolycus fays:

7

"I have worn three-pile. STEEVENS.

Spruce affe&tation,] The old copies read

affection.

STEEVENS.

The modern editors read affectation. There is no need of change. We already in this play have had affection for affectation; witty without affection." The word was ufed by our author and his contemporaries, as a quadrifyllable; and the rhyme fuch as they thought fufficient. MALONE.

86

In The Merry Wives of Windfor the word affectation occurs, and was most certainly defigned to occur again in the prefent inftance. No ear can be fatisfied with fuch rhymes as affection and oftentation. STEEVENS.

8 Sans SANS, I pray you.] It is fcarce worth remarking, that the conceit here is obfcured by the pun&uation. It fhould be written Sans SANS, i. e. without SANS; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the laft line of his fpeech, though just before he had forfworn all affectation in phrases, terms, &c. TYRWHITT.

9 Write, Lord have mercy on us,] This was the infcription put upon the door of the houses infe&ted with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing