Ceft. The boy hath fold him a bargain; a goose that's flat; Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goose be fat. Moth. By faying, that a Coftard was broken in a shin. Then call'd you for a l'envoy. Coft. True, and I for a plantan ; Thus came the argument in; Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought, And he ended the market. Arm. But tell me; how was there a Coftard broken in a fhin? Moth. I will tell you fenfibly. Coft. Thou haft no feeling of it, Moth, I Coftard running out, that was fafely within, Arm. We will talk no more of this matter. Arm. By my fweet foul, I mean, fetting thee at liberty; enfreedoming thy perfon; thou wert immur'd, reftrained, captivated, bound. Coft. True, true, and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose. Arm. I give thee thy liberty, fet thee from durance, and in lieu thereof impofe on thee nothing but this; bear this fignificant to the country-maid Jaquenetta; there is remuneration; for the best ward of mine honours is rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow.- [Exit. Moth. Like the fequel, I. Signior Coftard, adieu. [Exit. Coft My fweet ounce of man's flesh, my in-cony Jew! Now will I look to his remuneration. Remune I 5 ration! ration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings remuneration: What's the price of this incle a penny. No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it. Remuneration!-why, it is a fairer na ne than a French crown (16). I will never buy and fell out of this word. Enter Biron. Biron. O my good knave Coftara, exceedingly well met. Coft. Pray you, Sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration ? Biron. What is a remuneration ? Coft. Marry, Sir, half-penny farthing. i. Biron. O, why then three farthings worth of filk. Coft. Well, I will do it, Sir: fare you well. Coft. Ifhall know, Sir, when I have done it. Hark, flave, it is but this: The Princess comes to hunt here in the park: -And in her train there is a gentle Lady; When tongues fpeak fweetly, then they name her name, And Rofaline they call her; afk for her, And to her fweet hand fee thou do commend This feal'd up counfel. There's thy guerdon; go. Coft. Guerdon, -O fweet guerdon! better than remuneration, eleven pence farthing better: most sweet -- (16) No, I'll give you a remuneration: why? it carries its remuneration. Why? it is a fairer name than a French-crown.] Thus this paffage has hitherto been writ, and pointed, without any regard to common fenfe, or meaning. The reform, that I have made, flight as it is, makes it both intelligible and humorous. guerdon! guerdon! I will do it, Sir, in print. Guerdon, remune ration.. Biron. O and I, forfooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; [Exit. This whimpled, whining, purblind wayward boy, Of trotting parators. (O my little heart!) (17) This Signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid.] It was fome time ago ingeniously hinted to me, (and I readily came into the opinion;) that as there was a contraft of terms in giant-dwarf, so, probably, there fhould be in the words immediately preceding them; and therefore that we should reftore, This Senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. i. e. this old, young man. And there is, indeed, afterwards in this play, a description of Cupid, which forts very aptly with fuch an emendation. That was the way to make his godhead wax, For be bath been five thousand years a boy. The conjecture is exquifitely well imagin'd, and ought by all means to be embrac'd, unless there is reason to think, that, in the former reading, there is an allusion to some tale, or character in an old play. I have not, on this account, ventur'd to disturb the text, because there feems to me some reason to fufpect, that our author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that tragedy there is the character of one Junius, a Roman captain, who falls in love to diftraction with one of Bonduca's daughters; and becomes an arrant whining have to this paffion. He is afterwards cur'd of his infirmity, and is as abfolute a tyrant against the fex. Now, with regard to these two extremes, Cupid might very probably be ftiled Junius's giant-dwarf: a giant in his eye, while the dotage was upon him; but thrunk into a dwarf, fo foon as he had got the better of it. Our poet writing the name with the Italian termination, and calling him Signior Junio, would, I think, be an objection of little weight to urge, that the Roman captain could not therefore be meant, And And I to be a corporal of his file, (18) A woman that is like a German clock, Well, I will love, write, figh, pray, fue and groan: (18) And I to be a corporal of his field, And wear bis colours like a tumbler's hoop!] [Exit. A corporal of a field is quite a new term: neither did the tumblers ever adorn their boops with ribbands, that I can learn : for those were not tarried in parade about with them, as the fencer carries his fword: Nor, if they were, is the fimilitude at all pertinent to the case in hand. But to floop like a tumbler agrees not only with that profeffion, and the fervile condefcenfions of a lover, but with what follows in the context. What mifled the wife tranfcribers at first, feems this: When once the Tumbler appear'd, they thought, his boop must not be far behind. Mr. Warburton ACT ACT III. SCENE, a Pavilion in the Park near the Palace. Enter the Princefs, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, Lords, AS that the King, that fpurr'd his horse fo hard Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Then Forefter, my friend, where is the bush, For. Here by, upon the hedge of yonder coppicè'; A ftand, where you may make the faireft fhoot: Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair, that shoot: And thereupon thou speak'ft the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me, madam: for I meant not fo. Prin. What, what? firft praise me, then again fay, no? O fhort-liv'd pride! not fair? alack, for woe! For. Yes, madam, fair. Prin. Nay, never paint me now; Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. A giving hand, though foul, fhall have fair praise. 2 |