COST. It may be fo: but if he fay it is fo, he is, in telling true, but fo, fo.5

KING. Peace.

COST.be to me, and every man that dares not fight!

KING. No words.

COST. of other men's fecrets, I beseech you.

KING. So it is, befeged with fable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-opprefsing humour to the most wholesome phyfick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the fixth hour; when beafis moft graze, birds beft peck, and men fit down to that nourishment which is called fupper. So much for the time when: Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obfcene and most prepofterous event, that draweth from my fnow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou vieweft, beholdeft, furveyeft, or feeft: But to the place, where,-It ftandeth north-north-east and by eaft from the weft corner of thy curious-knotted garden. There did I fee that low-fpirited fwain, that bafe minnow of thy mirth,"

5 but fo, fo.] The fecond fo was added by Sir T. Hanmer, and adopted by the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

6

curious-knotted garden :] Ancient gardens abounded with figures of which the lines interfected each other in many directions. Thus, in King Richard II:

"Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,

"Her knots diforder'd," &c.

In Thomas Hill's Profitable Art of Gardening, &c. 4to. bl. 1. 1579, is the delineation of " a proper knot for a garden, whereas is fpare roume enough, the which may be fet with Time, or Ifop, at the discretion of the Gardener." In Henry Dethicke's Gar

COST. Me.

KING. that unletter'd fmall-knowing foul,
COST. Me.

KING. that shallow vaffal,

COST. Still me.

KING. which, as I remember, hight Coftard, COST. O me!

KING. forted and conforted, contrary to thy eftablished proclaimed edict and continent canon, with-with-O with—but with this I pafsion to fay wherewith.

COST. With a wench.

KING. with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more fweet understanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have fent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy fweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and eftima

tion.

DULL. Me, an't fhall please you; I am Antony Dull.

dener's Labyrinth, bl. 1. 4to. 1586, are other examples of proper knots deuifed for gardens." STEEVENS.

"

7

bafe minnow of thy mirth,] The base minnow of thy mirth, is the contemptible little object that contributes to thy entertainment. Shakspeare makes Coriolanus characterize the tribunitian infolence of Sicinius, under the fame figure:

"This Triton of the minnows!”

Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: "Let him denie that there was another fhewe made of the little minnow his brother," &c.

STEEVENS.

3-with-with-] The old copy reads-which with. The correction is Mr. Theobald's. MALONE.

KING. For Jaquenetta, (fo is the weaker vessel called, which Iapprehended with the aforefaid fwain,) I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; and fhall, at the leaft of thy Sweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heartburning heat of duty,

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.

BIRON. This is not fo well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard.

KING. Ay, the best for the worst. But, firrah, what say you to this?

COST. Sir, I confefs the wench.

KING. Did you hear the proclamation ?

COST. I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.'

KING. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

COST. I was taken with none, fir, I was taken with a damofel,

KING. Well, it was proclaimed damofel.

COST. This was no damofel neither, fir; fhe was a virgin.

KING. It is fo varied too; for it was proclaimed, virgin.

COST. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.

veffel of thy law's fury ;] This feems to be a phrase adopted from fcripture. See Epift. to the Romans, ix. 22: -the vessel of wrath." Mr. M. Mason would read-vafal inftead of vessel. STEEVENS.

86

1 I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.] So Falstaff, in The Second Part of King Henry IV: -it is the disease of not liftening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal." STEEVENS.

KING. This maid will not serve your turn, fir.
COST. This maid will serve my turn, fir.

KING. Sir, I will pronounce your fentence; You fhall faft a week with bran and water.

COST. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

KING. And Don Armado fhall be your keeper.My lord Biron fee him deliver'd o'er.—

And go we, lords, to put in practice that

Which each to other hath so strongly sworn,→→ [Exeunt King, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN. BIRON. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle fcorn. Sirrah, come on.

COST. I fuffer for the truth, fir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore, Welcome the four cup of profperity! Affliction may one day smile again, and till then, Sit thee down, forrow! [Exeunt,

SCENE II.

Another part of the fame. Armado's House.
Enter ARMADO and MOTH.

ARM. Boy, what fign is it, when a man of great fpirit grows melancholy?

MOTH. A great fign, fir, that he will look fad. ARM. Why, fadness is one and the self-fame thing, dear imp.2

2

dear imp.] Imp was anciently a term of dignity. Lord Cromwell, in his laft letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his

MOTH. No, no; O lord, fir, no.

ARM. How canft thou part fadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal ?3

MOTH. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough fenior.

ARM. Why tough senior? why tough senior? MOTH, Why, tender juvenal ? why tender juvenal?

ARM. I fpoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.

MOTH. And I, tough fenior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough.

fon. It is now used only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in our author's time it was ambiguous, in which state it fuits well with this dialogue, JOHNSON.

Piftol falutes King Henry V. by the fame title.

STEEVENS.

The word literally means a graff, flip, fcion, or fucker: and by metonymy comes to be used for a boy or child. The imp, his fon, is no more than his infant fon. It is now fet apart to to fignify young fiends; as the devil and his imps.

Dr. Johnson was mistaken in fuppofing this a word of dignity. It occurs in The Hiftory of Celeftina the Faire, 1596: "-the gentleman had three fonnes, very ungracious impes, and of a wicked nature." RITSON.

3

my tender juvenal?] Juvenal is youth. So, in The Noble Stranger, 1640;

"Oh, I could hug thee for this, my jovial juvinell." STEEVENS.

tough fenior, as an appertinent title to your old time,] Here and in two fpeeches above the old copies have fignior, which appears to have been the old fpelling of fenior. So, in the last scene of The Comedy of Errors, edit. 1623: "We will draw cuts for the fignior; till then, lead thou first." In that play the fpelling has been corrected properly by the modern editors, who yet, I know not why, have retained the old fpelling in the paffage before us. MALONE.