Ros. I'faith, his hair is of a good colour." CEL. An excellent colour: your chefnut was ever the only colour. Ros. And his kiffing is as full of fanctity as the touch of holy bread. CEL. He hath bought a pair of caft lips of Diana: a nun of winter's fifterhood kiffes not more religiously; the very ice of chastity is in them. ftantly reprefented in ancient painting or tapestry, with red hair and beard. So, in The Infatiate Countefs, 1613: "I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas." STEEVENS. 7 I'faith, his hair is of a good colour.] There is much of nature in this petty perverfenefs of Rofalind; The finds faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia in fportive malice too readily feconds her accufations, fhe contradicts herself rather than fuffer her favourite to want a vindication. JOHNSON. 8 — as the touch of holy bread.] We should read beard, that is, as the kifs of an holy faint or hermit, called the kifs of charity. This makes the comparison just and decent; the other impious and abfurd. WARBURTON. 2 a pair of caft lips of Diana:] i. e. a pair left off by Diana. THEOBALD. a nun of winter's fifterhood-] This is finely expreffed. But Mr. Theobald fays, the words give him no ideas. And it is certain, that words will never give men what nature has denied them. However, to mend the matter, he substitutes Winifred's fifterhood. And after fo happy a thought, it was to no purpose to tell him there was no religious order of that denomination. The plain truth is, Shakspeare meant an unfruitful fifterhood, which had devoted itself to chastity. For as thofe who were of the fifterhood. of the fpring, were the votaries of Venus; thofe of fummer, the votaries of Ceres; thofe of autumn of Pomona: fo thefe of the fifterhood of winter were the votaries of Diana; called, of winter, because that quarter is not, like the other three, productive of fruit or increafe. On this account it is, that when the poet fpeaks of what is most poor, he inftances it in winter, in these fine lines of Othello't "But riches fineless is as poor as winter "To him that ever fears he fhall be poor." Ros. But why did he fwear he would come this morning, and comes not? CEL. Nay certainly, there is no truth in him. CEL. Yes: I think he is not a pick-purse, nor a horse-stealer; but for his verity in love, I do think him as concave as a cover'd goblet,' or a worm eaten nut. Ros. Not true in love? CEL. Yes, when he is in; but, I think he is not in. Ros. You have heard him fwear downright, he was. CEL. Was is not is: besides, the oath of a lover is no stronger than the word of a tapfter; they are both the confirmers of falfe reckonings: He attends here in the foreft on the duke your father. The other property of winter that made him term them of its fifterhood, is its coldnefs. So, in The Midfummer Night's Dream: "To be a barren fifter all your life, Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon." WARBURTON. There is certainly no need of Theobald's conjecture, as Dr. Warburton has moft effectually fupported the old reading. In one circumftance, however, he is mistaken. The Golden Legend, p. ccci, &c. gives a full account of St. Winifred and her fifterhood. Edit. by Wynkyn de Worde, 1527. STEEVENS. 3 — as concave as a cover'd goblet,] Why a cover'd? Because a goblet is never kept cover'd but when empty. Shakspeare never throws out his expreffions at random. WARBURTON. Warburton asks, "Why a cover'd goblet?"—and answers," Because a goblet is never covered but when empty." If that be the cafe, the cover is of little ufe; for when empty, it may as well be uncovered. But it is the idea of hollownefs, not that of emptiness, that Shakspeare wishes to convey; and a goblet is more completely hollow when covered, than when it is not. M. MASON. Ros. I met the duke yesterday, and had much question with him: He afked me, of what parentage I was; I told him, of as good as he; fo he laugh'd, and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when there is such a man as Orlando? CEL. O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verfes, fpeaks brave words, fwears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the - much question—] i. e. converfation. So, in The Mer chant of Venice: "You may as well ufe queftion with the wolf." STEEVENS. 5 quite traverse, athwart, &c.] An unexperienced lover is here compared to a puny tilter, to whom it was a difgrace to have his lance broken acrofs, as it was a mark either of want of courage or addrefs. This happened when the horse flew on one fide, in the career: and hence, I fuppofe, arcfe the jocular proverbial phrafe of Spurring the horse only on one fide. Now as breaking the lance against his adverfary's breaft, in a direct line, was honourable, fo the breaking it across against his breaft was, for the reason above, difhonourable: hence it is, that Sidney, in his Arcadia, speaking of the mock-combat of Clinias and Dametas fays, "The wind took fuch hold of his ftaff that it croft quite over his breaft," &c.And to break across was the ufual phrafe, as appears from fome wretched verfes of the fame author, fpeaking of an unskilful tilter: 66 Methought fome flaves he mift: if fo, not much amifs: "For when he most did hit, he ever yet did mifs. "One faid he brake across, full well it fo might be," &c. This is the allufion. So that Orlando, a young gallant, affecting the fashion, (for brave is here used, as in other places, for fashionable,) is reprefented either unskilful in courtship, or timorous. The lover's meeting or appointment correfponds to the tilter's career; and as the one breaks ftaves, the other breaks oaths. The bufinefs is only meeting fairly, and doing both with addrefs: and 'tis for the want of this, that Orlando is blamed. WARBURTON. So, in Northward Hoe, 1607: melancholick like a tilter, that had broke his flaves foul before his mistress." 66 STEEVENS. A puny tilter, that breaks his staff like a noble goofe:] Sir Thomas Hanmer altered this to a nofe-quill'd goofe, but no one feems to have regarded the alteration. Certainly nofe-quill'd is an epithet likely to be corrupted: it gives the image wanted, and may in a heart of his lover;' as a puny tilter, that fpurs his horse but on one fide, breaks his staff like a noble goofe: but all's brave, that youth mounts, and folly guides:-Who comes here? Enter CORIN. COR. Mistress, and mafter, you have oft enquired After the shepherd that complain'd of love; Who you faw fitting by me on the turf, Praising the proud difdainful fhepherdess That was his mistress. CEL. Well, and what of him? COR. If you will fee a pageant truly play'd, Ros. you fhall fay [Exeunt. great measure be fupported by a quotation from Turberville's Falconrie: "Take with you a ducke, and flip one of her wing feathers, and having thruft it through her nares, throw her out unto your hawke." FARMER. Again, in Philafter, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "He fhall for this time only be feel'd up "With a feather through his nafe, that he may only "See heaven," &c. Again, in the Booke of Hawkyng, Huntyng, and Fishing, &c. bl. 1. no date : and with a pen put it in the haukes nares once or twice," &c. STEEVENS. 5 of his lover;] i. e. of his miftress. See Vol. IV. p. 211, note 3. MALONE. SCENE V. Another part of the Forest. Enter SILVIUS and PHEBE. SIL. Sweet Phebe, do not fcorn me; do not, Say, that you love me not; but fay not fo Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck, 6 -Will you ferner be Than be that dies and and lives by bloody drops ?] This is fpoken of the executioner. He lives indeed by bloody drops, if you will: but how does he die by bloody drops? The poet muft certainly have wrote: that deals and lives, &c. i. c. that gets his bread by, and makes a trade of cutting off heads: but the Oxford editor makes it plainer. He reads: Than he that lives and thrives by bloody drops. WARBURTON. Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word deals, wants its proper conftruction, or that of Sir Tho. Hanmer, may ferve the purpofe; but I believe they have fixed. corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read: Than he that dies his lips by bloody drops? Will you fpeak with more fternnefs than the executioner, whose lips are ufed to be Sprinkled with blood? The mention of drops implies fome part that must be fprinkled rather than dipped. JOHNSON. I am afraid our bard is at his quibbles again. To die, means as well to dip a thing in a colour foreign to its own, as to expire. In this fenfe, contemptible as it is, the executioner may be faid to die as well as live by bloody drops. Shakspeare is fond of oppofing thefe terms to each other. |