As passes colouring. Deare Gentlewoman, 26 Emil. As well as one so great, and so forlorne Emil. A daughter, and a goodly babe, I am innocent as you, Pau. I dare be sworne: These dangerous, vnfafe Lunes i'th'King, befhrew them: 26, 27. Deare... Lady?] One line, Cap. Mal. Steev. Var. Sing. Ktly. 26. [Enter Emilia. Johns. Re-enter Keeper with Emilia. Cap. 27. our] one F.. gtacious] F. 30 35 38 30. borne] born FF, Rowe, Pope, Han. Cap. 36. I am] I'm Pope +. 38. i'th'] o' the Cap. conj. Var. Rann, Mal. Steev. Var. Knt. all; which is good, but perhaps not as helpful as it might be. All other editions have a comma only after 'stain' at the end of the line, which is, I think, wrong. If a comma be needful at all, it should follow the first 'staine,' as in the Folio, inasmuch as the sense is: 'Here's such a fuss, to make that which is no stain at all, a stain so black that it cannot be coloured.'-ED.] 31. something] WALKER (Crit. i, 222) in speaking of the variable accent of something and nothing, adds: Note that Surrey always lays the stronger accent in the final syllable of such words.' So in the present passage: She ìs, something, etc.; as if she had said "some whit before," etc.' So also in IV, iv, 416, Perdita says: 'I cannot speak So well (nothing so well),' etc. 37. sworne] LADY MARTIN (p. 354): This Paulina exclaims in her hot anger; and in the words that follow shows her clear common-sense and fearless courage, of which she gives remarkable proofs at a later stage. From first to last she regards the conduct of Leontes as simple madness. 38. vnsafe Lunes i'th'King] THEOBALD: I have nowhere, but in our author, observed this word adopted in our tongue, to signify frenzy, lunacy. But it is a mode of expression with the French,—il y a de la lune, i. e. he has got the moon in his head; he is frantick. Cotgrave: Lune, folie. [Cotgrave also gives: 'Il y a de la lune. He is a foolish, humorous, hare-braind, giddie-headed fellow.']-STEEVENS: A similar expression occurs in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1608 [II, ad fin.]: 'I know 'twas but some peevish moon in him.'-M. MASON: The old copy reads; lunes in the king,' which should not have been changed. The French phrase has: 'dans la tête;' and the passage, quoted by Steevens from The Revenger's Tragedy has 'some peevish moon in him.'-SCHMIDT: Lunes' has been substituted by modern editors for 'lines' in Merry Wives, IV, ii, 22, and Tro. and Cres. II, iii, 139; for 'lunacies' He must be told on't, and he shall : the office 39. on't] of it Pope, Han. he fhall] shall Rowe, Pope, Han. 40. take't] take it F 40 44 in Ham. III, iii, 7.-COLLIER (ed. ii): The MS changes 'unsafe' to unsane, which certainly is more appropriate, and to say that the king's lunes' are dangerous' and unsafe is mere tautology. [Is there not tautology also in 'unsane lunes' ?]-STAUNTON: The old text needs no alteration; dangerous' like its synonym 'perilous' was sometimes used for biting, caustic, mischievous; and in some such sense may very well stand here.-GROSART, in his edition of Greene's Prose Works, says that two instances of the use of this word are to be therein found. The passages are as follows: 'The more she stroue against the streame the lesse it did preuaile, the closer shee couered the sparke, the more it kindled: yea, in seeking to vnlose the Lunes, the more shee was intangled.'-Mamillia: The second part, 1593 (p. 189, ed. Grosart). 'Loue, yea, loue it is (ô Pharicles) and more if more may be that hath so fettered my freedome and tyed my libertie with so short a tedder, as either thou must be the man which must vnlose me from the lunes, or else I shal remaine in a lothsome Laberinth til the extreme date of death deliuer me.'-Id. (p. 198). Whereon Grosart remarks (p. 332): The context in Greene shows Clarinda in very lunacy and frenzy of love-passion for Pharicles. . . . Neither Dr Schmidt in his Lexicon, s. v., nor Dyce in his great Glossary, nor any of the editors, has been able to adduce another example of the word. This is only one of a multitude of instances wherein Greene sheds light on Shakespearian words and cruxes.' Had Greene's learned editor turned to Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, Bk. I, chap. ii, sec. ix, and read, in the Caparison of a Hawk': The jesses were made sufficiently long for the knots to appear between the middle and the little fingers of the hand that held them, so that the lunes, or small thongs of leather, might be fastened to them with two tyrrets, or rings; and the lunes were loosely wound round the little finger' (quoted in Cent. Dict.), I think he would not have been so sure that he had found the same word in both Greene and Shakespeare. The recurrence of the phrase 'unloose the lunes,' in the two passages, should have put him on his guard, as well as its occurrence in The Carde of Fancie (p. 120, ed. Grosart) :-'no Hauke so haggard, but will stoop at the lure: no Niesse [an eyas] so ramage [wild] but will be reclaimed to the Lunes.'-ED. 40, 41. me, . . . blister.] The comma and the period should change places. 44. Commend] DEIGHTON: In this idiomatic or formal phrase this word [commend] has acquired a somewhat peculiar signification. The resolution would seem to be, Give my commendation to him, or, Say that I commend myself to him, meaning that I commit and recommend myself to his affectionate remembrance. So, we have the Latin, "Me totum tuo amori fideique commendo" (Cicero, Epist. ad Att. iii, 20); and "Tibi me totum commendo atque trado" (Id. Epist. Fam. ii, 6). At your honor, and your goodneffe is fo euident, That your free vndertaking cannot misse A thriuing yffue: there is no Lady liuing So meete for this great errand; please your Ladiship 55 To visit the next roome, Ile presenrly Acquaint the Queene of your most noble offer, But durft not tempt a minister of honour Paul. Tell her (Emilia) 47. to th' to 'th Ff. to the Cap. lowd'ft] loudest Var. Rann, Mal. Steev. Var. Knt, Sing. Sta. 52. is fo] are so Coll. (MS). 54. there is] there's Han. Dyce ii, iii. 56. presenrly] F.. 60 58. hammered of] Ff, Rowe. hammer'd on Han. hammer'd of Pope et cet. 60. Leaft] Left Rowe. the same time, in considering the question of the origin and proper meaning of the English phrase, the custom of what was called Commendation in the Feudal System is not to be overlooked; the vassal was said to commend himself to the person whom he selected for his lord. Commend is etymologically the same word as command; and both forms, with their derivatives, have been applied, in Latin and the modern tongues more exclusively based upon it, as well as in English, in a considerable variety of ways.'-Craik, Eng. of Shakespeare, 279. 45. dares] SKEAT (Dict.): The present tense, I dare, is really an old past tense, so that the third person is he dare (cf. he shall, he can); but the form he dares is now often used, and will probably displace the obsolescent he dare, though grammatically as incorrect as he shalls or he cans. 53. free] SCHMIDT places the present use of this word under ‘guiltless, innocent, harmless.' [The value of Schmidt's Lexicon lies in its separation of the verbal and substantive uses of the same word. But the manifold divisions and subdivisions of meaning, when not based on English authority, are to be accepted with caution. Thus here, to suppose that Emilia characterises the undertaking as innocent is to give a patronising, commendatory air in her address to Paulina, quite uncalled for. The 'free undertaking' is the freely offered undertaking.-ED.] 56. presenrly] That is, instantly. 58. hammered of] For examples of the use of of where we should now use on, see, if necessary, ABBOTT, § 175. Ile vse that tongue I haue: If wit flow from't As boldnesse from my bosome, le't not be doubted Emil. Now be you bleft for it. Ile to the Queene : please you come fomething neerer. 62 65 Gao. Madam, if't please the Queene to fend the babe, I know not what I shall incurre, to passe it, Hauing no warrant. Pau. You neede not feare it (fir) 70 This Childe was prifoner to the wombe, and is By Law and processe of great Nature, thence Free'd, and enfranchis'd, not a partie to The anger of the King, nor guilty of (If any be) the trespasse of the Queene. Gao. I do beleeue it. Paul. Do not you feare: vpon mine honor, I Will stand betwixt you, and danger. 62. from't] Ff, Rowe+, Cap. Dyce, Wh. Sta. Cam. Huds. Rlfe. from it Var. '73 et cet. 63. le't] let 't Ff, Rowe+, Cap. Dyce, Wh. Sta. Cam. Huds. Rlfe. let it Var. '73 et cet. 71. This] The Rowe+, Var. Rann, Mal. Steev. Var. Coll. Dyce, Huds. 76-78. I do... danger] Lines end: upon...danger Cap. Mal. Steev. Var. Sing. Ktly. 78. betwixt] 'twixt Pope+, Var. Rann, Mal. Steev. Var. Sing. Ktly, Dyce ii, iii. 62. wit] Generally, in Shakespeare, this means intellectual power, which, to suit the passage, can be here modified into keenness, tact, address.-ED. 63. le't] Note the typographical care with which the absorption of the t of 'let' is indicated. See II, i, 18. 66. please . . . neerer] The only explanation which I can find for this sentence is that Paulina is not actually inside the Prison, but stands without at the Gate or Entrance, and Emilia asks her to enter or to come further within it. If this be so the Scene should not be laid, as it is in many Editions since the days of Pope, in 'A Prison.' It would be better, I think, to place it At the Gate of a Prison;' the Gaoler says, I shall bring Emelia forth,' which does not sound as if they were all within the Prison. Moreover, Paulina's very first words, The keeper of the prison, call to him,' betoken that she is outside the prison and is summoning him to the entrance. Capell, followed, substantially, by many editors also, places the Scene in an 'Outer-room of a Prison' which would, perhaps, explain the Gaoler's words, but hardly account for Paulina's and Emilia's.-ED. 68. to passe it] ABBOTT, § 356: That is, I know not what penalty I shall incur as the consequence of, or for, letting it pass. [See II, i, 122.] 73, 74. partie to see ABBOTT, § 457. guilty of] For other examples of accented monosyllables, 77, 78. WALKER (Crit. iii, 100) expresses his approval of the present metrical Scana Tertia. Enter Leontes, Seruants, Paulina, Antigonus, Leo. Nor night, nor day, no rest: It is but weaknesse To beare the matter thus: meere weakneffe, if The cause were not in being: part o'th cause, Is quite beyond mine Arme, out of the blanke 1. Scœna...] Scena... F. Scene iv. Pope +. The Palace. Pope. 2. Enter...] Enter Leon. Ant., Lords and other Attendants. Rowe. Ant. and Lords, waiting, and other Attend. Enter Leon. Cap. 5 8 5. meere] mear F, Rowe i. weaknesse, if] weakness. If Coll. Dyce, Sta. Cam. Huds. Wh. ii. 6. being] being, Coll. Dyce, Sta. Cam. Ktly, Huds. Wh. ii (subs.). 7. harlot-King] harlot king Cap. et seq. division of these lines, in preference to that adopted by Capell, and then goes on to say: 'I notice this passage, because it gives me occasion to remark, that Shakespeare very frequently concludes his scenes with a seven-syllable line; so that any objection to such an arrangement of the lines in such a situation, as being out of place, is unfounded. See the present play, Lear, Macbeth, and Othello. Note, too, the conclusion of The Two Noble Kinsmen, as bearing upon the question how far the Fifth Act of that play belongs to Shakespeare. 7. harlot-King] SKEAT (Dict.): Harlot' was originally used of either sex indifferently; in fact, more commonly of men in Middle English. It has not, either, a very bad sense, and means little more than 'fellow.' 'He was a gentil harlot and a kind.'-Chaucer, C. T. 649. Of disputed origin, but presumably Teutonic, viz. from the Old High German, karl, a man. This is a well-known word, appearing also as Icelandic karl, a man, fellow, Anglo-Saxon ceorl, a man, and in the modern English, churl. The suffix is the usual French diminutive suffix -ot, as in bill-ot from bille; it also appears in the English personal name Charlotte, which is probably the very same word. We actually find the whole word carlot in As You Like It, III, v, 108. [Unfortunately, this note is not given in As You Like It, in this edition. It never occurred to me to look for 'carlot' under harlot.-ED.] 8. Arme] JOHNSON: Beyond the aim of any attempt that I can make against him. 'Blank' and 'level' are terms of archery.-DOUCE: 'Blank' and 'level' mean mark and aim; but they are terms of gunnery, not archery. [It is hazardous to make a positive assertion with regard to Shakespeare's language. Compare ‘a wellexperienced archer hits the mark His eye doth level at.'—Pericles, I, i, 164.]—FIELD (Sh. Soc. Papers, iii, 136): 'Arm' is here a misprint for aim. We have arm' also for aim in Tro. and Cres. V, vii, 6, and in Ham. IV, vii, 24. R. G. WHITE (ed. i): Although an object may be out of point-blank shot, nothing can be said to be beyond |