Not a word with him but a jeft.

BOYET.

And every jeft 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.

MAR. Two hot fheeps, marry!

BOYET.

And wherefore not fhips?

No fheep, fweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.'

MAR. You fheep, and I pasture; Shall that finish the jeft?

BOYET. So you grant pasture for me.

MAR.

[Offering to kiss her. Not fo, gentle beast;

6

My lips are no common, though several they be.

unless we feed on your lips,] Our author has the fame ex

preffion in his Venus and Adonis:

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

6 My lips are no common, inclofed field of a private private property. Of a lord that he grew fat;

though feveral they be. ] Several is an proprietor; fo Maria fays, her lips are that was newly married, one obferved "Yes, faid fir Walter Raleigh, " any beaft will grow fat, if you take him from the common and graze him in the feveral." JOHNSON.

So, in The Rival Friends, 1632:

my fheep have quite difgreft

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

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

Of late he broke into
That does belong to me.

Severall

Again, in Fenton's Tragical Difcourfes, 4to, bl. 1. 1597. -"he entered commons in the place which the olde John thought to be referved feverall to himself," p. 64. b. Again, in Holinfhed's Hift. of England, B. VI. p. 150,- "not to take and pale in the commons, to enlarge their feveralles. STEEVENS.

BOYET. Belonging to whom?

MAR.

To my fortunes and me.

PRIN. Good wits will be jangling: but, gentles,

agree:

My lips are no common, though feveral they be.] In Dr. Johnson's note upon this paffage, it is faid that SEVERAL is an inclofed fielď of a private proprietor.

Dr. Johnfon has totally miftaken this word. In the first place it fhould be fpelled feverell. This does not fignify an inclosed field or private property, but is rather the property of every landholder in the parish. In the uninclofed parishes in Warwickshire 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, fome little grafs land is interfperfed, and there are here and there fome little patches of green fwerd. The next year this ploughed field bears wheat, and the grafs land is preserved for hay; and the year following the proprietors fow it with beans, oats, or barley, at their difcretion; and the next year it lies fallow again; fo 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 herdfmen and thepherds to attend them, in order to prevent them from going into the two other fields which bear corn and grass. These laft are called the feverell, which is not feparated from the common by any fence whatever; but the care of preventing the cattle from going into the feverell, is left to the herdsmen and shepherds; but the herdsmen have no authority over a town bull, who is permitted to go where he pleafes in the feverell. DR. JAMES.

Holinhed's Defeription of Britain, p. 33, and Leigh's Accedence of Armourie, 1597, p. 52. fpell this word like Shakspeare, Leigh alfo mentions the town bull, and fays, "all feverells to him are common." TOLLET.

My lips are no common, though feveral they be.] A play on the word feveral, which, befides its ordinary fignification of Separate, diftinct, likewife fignifies in uninclofed lands, a certain portion of ground appropriated to either corn or meadow, adjoining the common field. In Minfheu's Di&ionary, 1617, is the following article : TO SEVER from others. Hinc nos pafcua & campos feorfim ab aliis feparatos Severels dicimus.' In the margin he fpells the word as Shakspeare does-feverels. Our author is feldom careful that his comparisons fhould anfwer, on both fides. If feveral be under

The civil war of wits were much better ufed
On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'is abused.
BOYET. If my obfervation, (which very
feldom

lies,)

By the heart's ftill rethorick, difclofed with eyes, " Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

PRIN. With what?

BOYET. With that which we lovers intitle, affected. PRIN. Your reafon?

BOYET. Why, all his behaviours did make their

retire

To the court of his eye, peeping thorough defire:
His heart, like an agate, with your print impreffed,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride expreffed:
His tongue, all impatient to speak and not fee,
Did ftumble with hafte in his eye-fight to be;
All fenfes to that fenfe did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair:
Methought, all his fenfes were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in cryftal for fome prince to buy;

ftood in its ruftick fenfe, the adverfative particle ftands but awkwardly. To say, that though land is feveral, it is not a common, feems as unjuftifiable as to affert, that though a house is a cottage, it is not a palace. MALONE.

7 By the heart's ftill rhetorick, difclofed with eyes,] So, in Daniel's Complaint of Rofalind, 1594:

Sweet filent rhetorick of perfuading eyes;

es Dumb eloquence —.

MALONE.

8 His tongue, all impatient to speak and not fee,] That is, his tongue being impatiently defirous to fee as well as speak. JOHNSON.

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

STEEVENS.

9 To feel only looking—] Perhaps we may better read: " To feed only by looking.

JOHNSON.

Who, tend'ring their own worth, from where they were glafs'd,

2

Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd.
His face's own margent
did quote fuch amazes,
That all eyes faw his eyes enchanted with gazes:
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,

An you give him for my fake but one loving kiss. PRIN. Come, to our pavilion: Boyet is difpos'd

BOYET. But to speak that in words, which his eye hath difclos'd:

I only have made a mouth of his eye,

By adding a tongue which I know will not lie. Ros. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'ft fkilfully.

MAR. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him.

Ros. Then was Venus like her mother; for her father is but grim.

BOYET. Do you hear, my mad wenches?

2 His face's own margent did quote, &c.] In our author's time, notes, quotations, &c. were ufually printed in the exterior margin So, in Romeo and Juliet:

of books.

"And what obfcur'd in this fair volume lies,
"Find written in the margin of his eyes."

Again, in Hamlet: "I knew you must be edified by the margent."

MALONE.

ARM. Warble, child; make paffionate my fense of hearing.

MOTH. Concolinel-

[Singing. ARM. Sweet air!-Go, tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the fwain, bring him feftinately hither; I muft employ him in a letter to my love.

4

--

3 Concolinel-) Here is apparently a fong loft. JOHNSON. I have obferved in the old comedies, that the fongs are frequently omitted. On this occafion the ftage direction is generally - Here they fingor, Cantant. Probably the performer was left to choose his own ditty, and therefore it could not with propriety be exhibited as part of a new performance. Sometimes yet more was left to the difcretion of the ancient comedians, as I learn from the following circumftance in K. Edward IV. P. II. 1519: Jockey is led whipping over the ftage, speaking fome words, but of no im portance.

Again, in Greene's Tu Quoque, 1614:

"Here they two talk, and rail what they lift." Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635:

He places all things in order, finging with the ends of old ballads as he does it.'

Again, in Marlton's Dutch Courtefan, 1605:

"Cantat Gallice.

Again, in the 5th A&:

But no fong is fet down.

"Cantat faltatque cum Cithara."

Not one out of the many fongs fuppofed to be fung in Marfton's Antonio's Revenge, 1602, are inferted; but instead of them, cantant. STEEVENS.

4 feftinately hither; ] i. e. haftily. Shakspeare ufes the adjeative feftinate, in King Lear: Advife the Duke where you are going, to a moft feftinate preparation." STEEVENs.