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Ros. My physick says, I."

BIRON. Will you prick't with your eye?
Ros. No poynt, with my knife.
BIRON. Now, God save thy life!
Ros. And yours from long living !

BIRON. I cannot stay thanksgiving. [Retiring.
DUM. Sir, I pray you, a word: What lady is

that same?9

BOYET. The heir of Alençon, Rosaline her name. DUM. A gallant lady! Monsieur, fare you well. [Exit.

LONG. I beseech you a word; What is she in

the white ?

BOYET. A woman sometimes, an you saw her

in the light.

My physick says, I.] She means to say, ay. The old spelling of the affirmative particle has been retained here for the sake of the rhyme. MALONE.

• No poynt,] So, in The Shoemaker's Holliday, 1600:

[blocks in formation]

- tell me where he is.

"No point. Shall I betray my brother?" STEEVENS.

No point was a negation borrowed from the French. See the note on the same words, Act V. sc. ii. MALONE.

Biron be

• What lady is that same?] It is odd that Shakspeare should make Dumain enquire after Rosaline, who was the mistress of Biron, and neglect Katharine, who was his own. haves in the same manner. No advantage would be gained by an exchange of names, because the last speech is determined to Biron by Maria, who gives a character of him after he has made his exit. Perhaps all the ladies wore masks but the princess.

STEEVENS.

They certainly did. See p. 42. where Biron says to Rosaline" Now fair befal your mask!" MALONE.

LONG. Perchance, light in the light: I desire

her name.

BOYET. She hath but one for herself; to desire

that, were a shame.

LONG. Pray you, sir, whose daughter ?
BOYET. Her mother's, I have heard.
LONG. God's blessing on your beard!
BOYET. Good sir, be not offended:
She is an heir of Falconbridge.
LONG. Nay, my choler is ended.
She is a most sweet lady.

BOYET. Not unlike, sir; that may be.

[Exit LONG.

BIRON. What's her name, in the cap ?
BOYET. Katharine, by good hap.
BIRON. Is she wedded, or no?

BOYET. To her will, sir, or so.

BIRON. You are welcome, sir; adieu!

BOYET. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. [Exit BIRON.-Ladies unmask.

MAR. That last is Biron, the merry mad-cap lord; Not a word with him but a jest.

BOYET.
And every jest but a word.
PRIN. It was well done of you to take him at
his word.
BOYET. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to

board.

God's blessing on your beard!] That is, may'st thou have sense and seriousness more proportionate to thy beard, the length of which suits ill with such idle catches of wit. JOHNSON.

I doubt whether so much meaning was intended to be conveyed by these words. MALONE.

MAR. Two hot sheeps, marry!

BOYET. And wherefore not ships? No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.* MAR. You sheep, and I pasture; Shall that finish

the jest?

BOYET. So you grant pasture for me.

MAR.

[Offering to kiss her.

Not so, gentle beast;

My lips are no common, though several they be.3

- unless we feed on your lips.] Our author has the same expression in his Venus and Adonis :

"Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale;
" Graze on my lips." MALONE.

* My lips are no common, though several they be.] Several is an inclosed field of a private proprietor; so Maria says, her lips are private property. Of a Lord that was newly married, one observed that he grew fat; "Yes," said Sir Walter Raleigh, " any beast will grow fat, if you take him from the common and graze him in the several." JOHNSON.

So, in The Rival Friends, 1632:

66

- my sheep have quite disgrest

"Their bounds, and leap'd into the several."

Again, in Green's Disputation, &c. 1592: "rather would have mewed me up as a henne, to have kept that severall to himself by force," &c. Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600:

"Of late he broke into a severall

"That does belong to me."

Again, in Fenton's Tragical Discourses, 4to. bl. 1. 1597 :" he entered commons in the place which the olde John thought to be reserved severall to himself," p. 64. b. Again, in Holinshed's History of England, B. VI. p. 150:-" not to take and pale in the commons, to enlarge their severalles." STEEVENS.

My lips are no common, though several they be.] In Dr. Johnson's note upon this passage, it is said that SEVERAL is an inclosed field of a private proprietor.

Dr. Johnson has totally mistaken this word. In the first place it should be spelled severell. This does not signify an inclosed field or private property, but is rather the property of every landholder in the parish. In the uninclosed parishes in Warwickshire, BOYET. Belonging to whom?

MAR.

To my fortunes and me. PRIN. Good wits will be jangling: but, gentles,

agree:

and other counties, their method of tillage is thus. The land is divided into three fields, one of which is every year fallow. This the farmers plough and manure, and prepare for bearing wheat. Betwixt the lands, and at the end of them, some little grass land is interspersed, and there are here and there some little patches of green swerd. The next year this ploughed field bears wheat, and the grass land is preserved for hay; and the year following the proprietors sow it with beans, oats, or barley, at their discretion; and the next year it lies fallow again; so that each field in its turn is fallow every third year; and the field thus fallowed is called the common field, on which the cows and sheep graze, and have herdsmen and shepherds to attend them, in order to prevent them from going into the two other fields which bear corn and grass. These last are called the severell, which is not separated from the common by any fence whatever; but the care of preventing the cattle from going into the severell, is left to the herdsmen and shepherds; but the herdsmen have no authority over a town bull, who is permitted to go where he pleases in the severell. DR. JAMES.

Holinshed's Description of Britain, p. 33, and Leigh's Accedence of Armourie, 1597, p. 52, spell this word like Shakspeare. Leigh also mentions the town bull, and says: "all severells to him are common." TOLLET.

My lips are no common, though several they be.] A play on the word several, which, besides its ordinary signification of separate, distinct, likewise signifies in uninclosed lands, a certain portion of ground appropriated to either corn or meadow, adjoining the common field. In Minsheu's Dictionary, 1617, is the following article: "TO SEVER from others. Hinc nos pascua et campos seorsim ab aliis separatos Severels dicimus." In the margin he spells the word as Shakspeare does severels. Our author is seldom careful that his comparisons should answer on both sides. If several be understood in its rustick sense, the adversative particle stands but awkwardly. To say, that though land is several, it is not a common, seems as unjustifiable as to assert, that though a house is a cottage, it is not a palace.

:

MALONE.

The civil war of wits were much better used
On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abused.
BOYET. If my observation, (which very seldom

lies,)

By the heart's still rhetorick, disclosed with eyes, Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

PRIN. With what?

BOYET. With that which we lovers entitle, affected.

PRIN. Your reason?

BOYET. Why, all his behaviours did make their

retire

To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire :
His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed :
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
Did stumble with haste in his eye-sight to be;
All senses to that sense did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair :
Methought, all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in chrystal for some prince to buy;

* By the heart's still rhetorick, disclosed with eyes,] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rosalind, 1594:

" Sweet silent rhetorick of persuading eyes;
"Dumb eloquence-." MALONE.

* His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,] That is, his tongue being impatiently desirous to see as well as speak.

JOHNSON.

Although the expression in the text is extremely odd, I take the sense of it to be that his tongue envied the quickness of his eyes, and strove to be as rapid in its utterance, as they in their perception.-Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

• To feel only looking - Perhaps we may better read : "To feed only by looking-." JOHNSON.

VOL. VII.

E

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