Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. Dum. [gathers up the pieces]. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. 200 Biron. [To Costard.] Ah! you whoreson loggerhead, you were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty! I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me, fool, to make up the mess; He, he, and you, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. Biron. King. Will these turtles be gone? True, true; we are four. Hence, sirs; away! Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. 205 210 [Exeunt Costard and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O! let us embrace. As true we are as flesh and blood can be: King. What! did these rent lines show some love of thine? 215 213. show] shew Q1; will shew Ff, Q 2. v. ii. 361, and 3 Henry VI. 1. iv. 73. A good example occurs in Lodge's Euphues Golden Legacie (Shakes. Lib. 1875, p. 118), 1590: "which Ganimede espying thinking hee [Saladyne] had had his Mistresse long inough at shrift, sayd: what, a match or no? A match (quoth Aliena) or els it were an ill market. I am glad (quoth Ganimede), I wold Rosader were wel here to make up a messe." 205. and you, and you] Both referring to "my liege." Reed omitted one "and you." 216. of all hands] on every side. Biron. Did they? quoth you. Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, 220 Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? 225 King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now? She an attending star, scarce seen a light. 218. quoth you] omitted Capell. F 4, Cambridge. 219. man of Inde] Craig quotes from Ascham's Toxophilus (Arber, p. 212): "The men of Inde had theyr bowes made of a rede." Inde was a common early name for India, abundantly illustrated in New Eng. Dict. 220. gorgeous cast] Milton (Todd, ii. 373) has this in the mundane sense (the Orient). Biron repeats this eastern adoration, to Rosaline, at v. ii. 201, 202. 223. peremptory] "unawed, regardless" (Schmidt). See King John, II. i. 454; 1 Henry IV. 1. iii. 17, etc. Arrogant, over-confident. eagle-sighted] A reference to the eagle's supposed power, alone of all birds, of looking at the sun. It is mentioned in Chaucer's Assembly of Foules. See Pliny, I. xxvii. (Holland's translation, p. 160); and Greene, Menaphon (Grosart, vi. 105), 1589: “ Pardon me, faire shepheardesse, . for I cannot chuse, being Eagle-sighted, but gaze on the Sunne the first time I see it"; and in his Mourning Garment (ix. 157): "I am not Eagle-sighted, and therefore feare to flie too nigh the Sunne." 230 221. strooken] Qq, Ff 1, 2, 3; strucken as an obscured shadow: in this, not unlike unto the Morning-star, which looketh very cheerfully on the world, so long as the Sun looketh not on it." It is ascribed to Horace in Entertainment of Ambassador to Landgrave of Hesse, 1596: "There was the Lady Anna and many that waited on the Princess. And she herselfe, as Horace says of Julium Sidus, stood by her bedside, velut inter ignes luna minores" (Nichols' Progresses, iii. 388-9). 228. attending star] Staunton says: "It was a prevailing notion formerly that the moon had an attending star. Sir Richard Hawkins, in his Observations on a Voyage to the South Seas in 1593, remarks: "Some I have heard say, and others write, that there is a starre which never separateth itself from the moon, but a small distance." Lodge mentions Hawkins's star in Euphues Golden Legacie (Shakes. Lib. 1875, p. 79), 1590: "for as the Moone never goes without the starre Lunisequa, so a lover never goeth without the unrest of his thoughts." I doubt if Shakespeare refers to it here. He is not definite enough. See v. ii. 205. 230, 236, 243, 247, 280, 284, 286, etc. O] For Biron's ejaculation "O!" see above, III. i. 164, note. Where several worthies make one dignity, 235 She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot. 240 A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, A wife of such wood were felicity. The hue of dungeons and the school of night; 246. wood] Rowe (ed. 1); word Qq, Ff. 245 250 252. school] Qq, Ff; scowl Theobald; stole Hanmer; soul, soil, shade, scroll, shroud, seal and suit various conjectures and lections. 233. worthies] excellencies, things of worth. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, II. iv. 166. 235, 236. flourish... rhetoric] "letting pass the flowers of rhetoric" occurs in Sidney's Arcadia, bk. v. 236. Fie] Gascoigne says, in The Complaint of Philomene (Arber, p. III), 1576: "Hir second note is fye, In Greeke and Latin phy, In english fy and every toong, That ever yet read I." painted rhetoric] Compare Lodge, Euphues Golden Legacie (Shakes. Lib. 1875, p. 18): "A painted tongue may shroud a subtle heart"; and R. Edwards, Damon and Pithias (Hazlitt's Dodsley, iv. 88), ante 1566: "these need no subtle sleight, No painted speech the matter to convey." 242. crutch... cradle] " From cradle to crutch, from infancy to old age," was a symbolical expression used several times by Greene: "from the cradle to the crouch, and from the crouch had one legge in the grave" (Penelope's Web [Grosart, v, 224], 1587). He has it later in A Looking-Glass for London. In other places the antithesis is between "cradle" and "saddle." 244. black as ebony] Compare Hakluyt's Voyages (ed. 1811, iii. 502), Francis de Ulloa: "a conie blacke as heben-wood" (1540). as 252. school of night] "Night' is frequently used in Shakespeare as emblematic of ugliness,' or 'of sorrow,' and the 'nurse of crime'" (Schmidt). It is not a great stretch of imagination to give a suitable meaning to the words, especially as we have "school" in this play (v. ii. 71) in the sense of "learning"; and elsewhere in the common sense of a system of doctrine. The teachings of night are as black as night itself. Schools were not beloved institutions at this time; and if we add to this the augmented objectionableness of a night-school, we get a good type of ugliness. But if this note does not satisfy the reader, let him turn to the weedy wilderness of words collected by Furness at the passage, Biron. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. Dum. To look like her are chimney-sweepers black. For fear their colours should be wash'd away. 255 260 265 270 Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here. [Showing his shoe. Biron. O! if the streets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were much too dainty for such tread. Dum. O vile! then, as she goes, what upward lies The street should see as she walk'd overhead. 275 253. crest] dress, crete, crage, cresset and best various conjectures and lections. 256. and] F 4; omitted Qq, F 1; an Ff 2, 3. 263. black] blake Q 1. 265. sweet] swart anonymous conjecture. crack] Q 2, Ff 3, 4; crake Q 1, Ff 1, 2. 268. their] her Q 2. 274. [Showing his shoe] Johnson, Steevens, Craig, etc. 253. beauty's crest] i.e. lightness or brightness, as shown by the words 'spirits of light" in the next line. Blackness," "hell" and "night" stand for ugliness, as "brightness," "heaven' and "light" stand for beauty. 254. Devils spirits of light] Compare 2 Corinthians xi. 14; and Measure for Measure, 11. iv. 17 (note, Arden edition). 258,259. black . . . turns the fashion] Lyly has the same thought: "such a common thing it is amongst you to commend, that oftentimes for fashion's King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Dum. Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil. 280 Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil. 285 O! 'tis more than need. Have at you then, affection's men-at-arms : Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young, 280. O! nothing] Qq, F 1; Nothing Ff 2, 3, 4, Cambridge. O tis Qq, Ff 2; 'Tis Cambridge. 285. quillets] subtleties. Compare 2 Henry VI. III. i. 261: "do not stand on quillets how to slay him: Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety, sleeping or waking, 'tis no matter how." The use in the text is the earliest in New Eng. Dict. Origin obscure, but perhaps a variant of "quiddit." Gabriel Harvey has "quillity" earlier. Compare also Holland's Plinie, xi. 3 (1601): "to judge and determine of these doubtful quillets and their causes.' Shakespeare uses the word several times later. 289. To fast... no woman] So Lucio says in Measure for Measure, 1. iv. 60, 61: "Blunt his natural edge with profits of the mind, study and fast." 296-301. For when would you true Promethean fire] Dyce omits these 290 295 300 286. O! 'tis] |