MOTH. It was fo, fir; for fhe had a green wit. ARM. My love is most immaculate white and red. MOTH. Moft maculate thoughts, mafter, are masked under fuch colours. ARM. Define, define, well-educated infant. MOTH. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, affift me! ARM. Sweet invocation of a child; moft pretty, and pathetical! MOTH. If the be made of white and red, Her faults will ne'er be known; I For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, For ftill her cheeks poffefs the fame, A dangerous rhyme, mafter, against the reafon of white and red. ARM. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar ?3 9 Moft maculate thoughts,] So, the first quarto, 1598. The folio has immaculate. To avoid fuch notes for the future, it may be proper to apprize the reader, that where the reading of the text does not correspond with the folio, without any reason being affigned for the deviation, it is always warranted by the authority of the firft quarto. MALOne. For blufhing-] The original copy has-blush in. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 2 Which native he doth owe.] i. e. of which she is naturally poffeffed.-To owe is to poffefs. So, in Macbeth: 3 "the the King and the Beggar ?] See Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 4th edit. Vol. I. p. 198. MOTH. The world was very guilty of fuch a ballad fome three ages fince: but, I think, now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it would neither ferve for the writing, nor the tune. ARM. I will have the fubject newly writ o'er, that I may example my digreffion 4 by fome mighty precedent. Boy, I do love that country girl, that I took in the park with the rational hind Costard ;5 fhe deferves well. MOTH. To be whipped; and yet a better love than my mafter. [Afide. ARM. Sing, boy; my spirit grows heavy in love. MOTH. And that's great marvel, loving a light wench. ARM. I fay, fing. MOTH. Forbear till this company be past. my digreffion-] Digreffion on this occafion fignifies the act of going out of the right way, tranfgreffion. So, in Romeo and Juliet: Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece : 66 my digreffion is fo vile, fo base, STEEVENS. "That it will live engraven on my face." MALONE. the rational hind Coftard;] Perhaps we should readthe irrational hind, &c. TYRWHITT. The rational hind, perhaps, means only the reafoning brute, the animal with fome Share of reafon. STEEVENS. I have always read irrational hind; if hind be taken in its beftial fenfe, Armado makes Coftard a female. Farmer. Shakspeare uses it in its bestial fense in Julius Cæsar, A& I. fc. iii. and as of the masculine gender: "He were no lion, were not Romans hinds." Again, in King Henry IV. P. I. fc. iii: " -you are a shallow cowardly hind, and you lie." STEEVENS. Enter DULL, COSTARD, and JAQUENETTA. DULL. Sir, the duke's pleasure is, that you keep Coftard fafe and you must let him take no delight, nor no penance; but a' muft faft three days a-week: For this damfel, I must keep her at the park; she is allowed for the day-woman." Fare you well. 6 ARM. I do betray myself with blushing.-Maid. ARM. I will vifit thee at the lodge. ARM. I know where it is fituate. JAQ. Lord, how wife you are! ARM. I will tell thee wonders. JAQ. With that face ?8 JAQ. So I heard you say. ARM. And fo farewell. ⚫ for the day-woman.] "i. e. for the dairy-maid. Dairy, fays Johnson in his Dictionary, is derived from day, an old word for milk. In the northern counties of Scotland, a dairymaid is at prefent termed a day or dey." Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. 7 That's hereby.] Jaquenetta and Armado are at cross purposes. Hereby is ufed by her (as among the vulgar in fome counties) to fignify as it may happen. He takes it in the sense of just by. STEEVENS. With that face?] This cant phrafe has oddly lafted till the present time; and is used by people who have no more meaning annexed to it, than Fielding had; who putting it into the mouth of Beau Didapper, thinks it neceffary to apologize (in a note) for its want of fenfe, by adding" that it was taken verbatim, from very polite converfation." STEEVENS. JAQ. Fair weather after you! DULL. Come, Jaquenetta, away. [Exeunt DULL and JAQUENETTA. ARM. Villain, thou shalt faft for thy offences, ere thou be pardoned. COST. Well, fir, I hope, when I do it, I fhall do it on a full ftomach. ARM. Thou shalt be heavily punished. COST. I am more bound to you, than your fellows, for they are but lightly rewarded. ARM. Take away this villain; fhut him up. MOTH. Come, you tranfgreffing flave; away. COST. Let me not be pent up, fir; I will fast, being loofe. MOTH. No, fir; that were faft and loose: thou fhalt to prison. COST. Well, if ever I do fee the merry days of defolation that I have seen, some shall fee MOTH. What fhall fome fee? COST. Nay nothing, mafter Moth, but what they look upon. It is not for prifoners to be too filent in their words; and, therefore, I will fay nothing: Come, &c.] To this line in the first quarto, and the firft folio, Clo. by an error of the prefs is prefixed, instead of Con. i. e. Conftable or Dull. Mr. Theobald made the neceffary correction. MALONE. 1 It is not for prifoners to be too filent in their words ;] I fuppofe we fhould read, it is not for prifoners to be filent in their wards, that is, in custody, in the holds. JOHNSON. The first quarto, 1598, (the most authentic copy of this play,) reads" It is not for prifoners to be too filent in their words ;". and fo without doubt the text should be printed. MALONE. VOL. VII. D I thank God, I have as little patience as another man; and, therefore I can be quiet. [Exeunt MoTH and COSTARD. ARM. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is bafer, guided by her foot, which is baseft, doth tread. I fhall be forfworn, (which is a great argument of falfhood,) if I love: And how can that be true love, which is falfely attempted? Love is a familiar; love is a devil: there is no evil angel but love. Yet Sampfon was fo tempted: and he had an excellent ftrength: yet was Solomon fo feduced; and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-fhaft 3 is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The firft and fecond cause will not ferve my turn ;4 the paffado he respects not, the duello he regards not his difgrace is to be called boy; but his glory is, to fubdue men. Adieu, valour! ruft, rapier be ftill, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, 15 I don't think it neceffary to endeavour to find out any meaning in this paffage, as it feems to have been intended that Coftard fhould speak nonfenfe. M. MASON. 2 -affect] i. e. love. So, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. XII. ch. lxxiv: 3 "But this I know, not Rome affords whom more you might affect, "Than her," &c. STEEVENS. butt-Shaft-] i. e. an arrow to fhoot at butts with. The butt was the place on which the mark to be shot at was placed. Thus, Othello fays here is my butt, "And very fea-mark of my utmost fail." STEEVENS. 4 The first and fecond caufe will not ferve my turn ;] See the laft A&t of As you like it, with the notes. JOHNSON. ruft, rapier!] So, in All's well that ends well: STEEVENS. |