KING. If he were living, I would try him yet;Lend me an arm;-the rest have worn me out With feveral applications:-nature and fickness Debate it at their leifure. Welcome, count; My fon's no dearer. Enter Countefs, Steward, and Clown." COUNT. I will now hear: what fay you of this gentlewoman? nature and fickness Debate it-] So, in Macbeth: "Death and nature do contend about them." STEEVENS 6- Sterward, and Clown.] A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licenfed jefter, or domeftick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, fince fools were at that time maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the houfe. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only fervant reprefented is Patifon the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wife. In fome plays, a fervant, or a ruftic, of a remarkable petulance and freedom of fpeech, is likewife called a clown. JOHNSON. Cardinal Wolfey, after his difgrace, wifhing to show King Henry VIII. a mark of his refpect, fent him his fool Patch, as a prefent; whom, fays Stowe, the King received very gladly." MALONE. This dialogue, or that in Twelfth Night, between Olivia and the Clorun, feems to have been particularly cenfured by Cartwright, in one of the copies of verfes prefixed to the works of Beaumont and Fletcher: STEW. Madam, the care I have had to even your content,' I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modefty, and make foul the clearnefs of our defervings, when of ourselves we publifh them. COUNT. What does this knave here? Get you gone, firrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flownefs, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit 66 Shakspeare to thee was dull, whofe beft jeft lies "I' th' lady's queftions, and the fool's replies; "Old fafhion'd wit, which walk'd from town to town "In trunk-hofe, which our fathers call'd the Clorun." In the MS. regifter of Lord Stanhope of Harrington, treasurer of the chamber to King James I. from 1613 to 1616, are the following entries: Tom Derry, his majefty's fool, at 2s. per diem,-1615 Paid John Mawe for the diet and lodging of Thomas Derrie, her majefty's jefter, for 13 weeks, 10l. 185. 6d.-1616." STEEVENS. The following lines in The Careless Shepherdess, a comedy, 1656, exhibit probably a faithful portrait of this once admired character: "Why, I would have the fool in every act, To fee him bold out his chin, hang down his hands, "I'd rather hear him leap, or laugh, or cry, "I never faw READE peeping through the curtain, 7 to even your content,] To act up to your 8 defires. JOHNSON. when of ourselves we publish them.] So, in Troilus and Creffida: "The worthinefs of praise diftains his worth, "If he that's prais'd, himfelf brings the praise forth." MALONE. them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours." CLO. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow. COUNT. Well, fir. CLO. No, madam, 'tis not fo well, that I am poor; though many of the rich are damn'd: But, if I may have your ladyship's good will to go to the world,' Ifbel the woman and I will do as we may. COUNT. Wilt thou needs be a beggar? CLO. I do beg your good-will in this cafe. CLO. In Ifbel's cafe, and mine own. Service is no heritage: and, I think, I fhall never have the -you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours.] After premifing that the accufative, them, refers to the precedent word, complaints, and that this by a metonymy of the effect for the caufe, ftands for the freaks which occafioned thofe complaints, the fenfe will be extremely clear. "You are fool enough to commit thofe irregularities you are charged with, and yet not fo much fool neither, as to difcredit the accufation by any defect in your ability." HEATH. It appears to me that the accufative them refers to knaveries, and the natural fenfe of the paffage feems to be this: "You have folly enough to defire to commit thefe knaveries, and ability enough to accomplish them." M. MASON. 2 3 are damn'd:] See S. Mark, x. 25; S. Luke, xviii. 25. GREY, to go to the world,] This phrafe has already occurred in Much ado about nothing, and fignifies to be married: and thus, in you Like it, Audrey fays: " it is no difhoneft defire, to As 4 and I-] I, which was inadvertently omitted in the first copy, was fupplied by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. s Service is no heritage:] This is a proverbial expreffion. Needs muft when the devil drives, is another. RITSON. bleffing of God, till I have iffue of my body; for, they fay, bearns are bleffings. COUNT. Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry. CLO. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go, that the devil drives. COUNT. Is this all your worship's reafon? CLO. Faith madam, I have other holy reasons, fuch as they are. COUNT. May the world know them? CLO. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry, that I may repent. COUNT. Thy marriage, fooner than thy wickednefs. CLO. I am out of friends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's fake. COUNT. Such friends are thine enemies, knave. CLO. You are fhallow, madam; e'en great friends; Clo. You are shallow, madam; e'en great friends;] The meaning [i. e. of the ancient reading mentioned in the fubfequent note] feems to be, you are not deeply skilled in the character or offices of great friends. JOHNSON. The old copy reads-in great friends; evidently a mistake for een, which was formerly written e'n. The two words are so near in found, that they might eafily have been confounded by an inattentive hearer. The fame mistake has happened in many other places in our author's plays. So, in the prefent comedy, Act III, fc. ii. folio, 1623: "Lady. What have we here? "Clown. In that you have there.” Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "No more but in a woman." Again, in Twelfth Night: "Tis with him in ftanding water, between boy and man." The corruption of this paffage was pointed out by Mr. Tyrwhitt. For the emendation now made, I am answerable. MALONE. for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a-weary of. He, that cars my land,' fpares my team, and gives me leave to inn the crop: if I be his cuckold, he's my drudge: He, that comforts my wife, is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; he, that cherishes my flesh and blood, loves my flefl and blood; he, that loves my flesh and blood, is my friend: ergo, he that kiffes my wife, is my friend. If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage; for young Charbon the puritan, and old Poyfam the papift, 6 the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a-weary of] The fame thought is more dilated in an old MS. play, entitled, The Second Maia's Tragedy: 7 Soph. I have a wife, would the were fo preferr'd! 86 "And keepes 'em owte; nay more, a husband's fure STEEVENS. -that ears my land,] To ear is to plough. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: Make the fea ferve them, which they ear and wound "With keels of every kind." STEEVENS. See 1 Sam. viii. 12. Ifaiah, xxx. 24. Deut. xxi. 4. Gen. Exod. xxxiv. 21. for the ufe of this verb. HENLEY. xlv. 6. |