Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, Boyet. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand. [Exe. Prin. Ros. KATH. and MAR. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE and DUMAIN, in their proper habits. King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess? Boyet. Gone to her tent: Please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither? King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. At wakes, and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs; A mean most meanly ; and, in ushering, sense, the meaning is-Angels descending from clouds which concealed their beauties. TOLLET. To avale comes from the French aval, term de batelier. STEEVENS. [4] Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a salutation first used by the Lady Rowena to King Vortiger. Afterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth night, to carry a massel or waissail bowl from house to house, which was presented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in process of time wassel signified intemperance in drinking, and also a meeting for the purpose of festivity. MALONE [5] The mean in music is the tenor. So Bacon: "The treble cutteth the air so "sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal; and therefore a mean or tener is the sweetest," STEEVENS. Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet; King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, That put Armado's page out of his part! Enter the Princess, usher'd by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants. Biron. See where it comes!-Behaviour, what wert thou, Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now ? King. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke ; Prin. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke ; . For virtue's office never breaks men's troth. A world of torments though I should endure, So much I hate a breaking-cause to be We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game; [6] As white as whales bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. Skelton joins the whales bone with the brightest precious stones, in describing the position of Pallas. T. WARTON. It should be remember'd that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a whale STEEVENS. This white whale his bone, now superseded by ivory, was the tooth of the Horsehale, Morse, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon translation of Orosius. HOLT WHITE. A mess of Russians left us but of late. Prin. Ay, in truth, my lord; Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state. Ros. Madam, speak true :-It is not so, my lord; In courtesy, gives undeserving praise. By light we lose light: Your capacity Is of that nature, that to your huge store Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but podr. Ros. But that you take what doth to you belong, Ros. All the fool mine? Biron. I cannot give you less. possess. ? Ros. Which of the visors was it, that you wore Biron. Where? when? what visor? why demand you this? Ros. There, then, that visor; that superfluous case, That hid the worse, and show'd the better face: King. We are descried: they'll mock us now downright. Dum. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest. Prin. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your highness sad? Ros. Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why look you pale ? Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy. Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury. Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me ; Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout; [7] This is a very lofty and elegant compliment. JOHNSON. Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance; Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; And I will wish thee never more to dance, Nor never more in Russian habit wait. O! never will I trust to speeches penn'd, Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue; Nor never come in visor to my friend; Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song: Taffata phrases, silken terms precise, Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical; these summer-flies Have blown me full of maggot ostentation : I do forswear them: and I here protest, By this white glove, (how white the hand, God Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd Biron. Yet I have a trick Of the old rage:-bear with me, I am sick; They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes: For the Lord's tokens on you do I see. Prin. No, they are free, that gave these tokens to us. That you stand forfeit, being those that sue? Biron. Peace; for I will not have to do with you. [8] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in The Winter's Tale, Autolycus says: "I have worn three-pile." STEEVENS. [9] ie without sans; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the last line of his speech, though just before he had forsworn all affectation in phrases, terms, &c. TYRWHITT. [1] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolourations, by which the infection is known to be received. JOHNSON. [2] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process? Tire jest lies in the ambiguity of sue, which signifies, to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition. JOHNSON. Ros. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend. Biron. Speak for yourselves, my wit is at an end. King. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression Some fair excuse. Prin. The fairest is confession. Were you not here, but even now, disguis'd? King. Madam, I was. Prin. And were you well advis'd ?3 King. I was, fair madam. Prin. When you then were here, What did you whisper in your lady's ear? King. That more than all the world I did respect her. Prin. When she shall challenge this, you will reject her. King. Upon mine honour, no. Prin. Peace, peace, forbear: Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear." Ros. Madam, he swore, that he did hold me dear Prin. God give thee joy of him! the noble lord⚫ King. What mean you, madam? by my life, my troth, I never swore this lady such an oath. Ros. By heaven, you did; and to confirm it plain, You gave me this: but take it, sir, again. King. My faith, and this, the princess I did give ; I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve. Prin. Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear; Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany, [3] i. e. acting with sufficient deliberation. STEEVENS. [4] You force not, is the same with, you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with less reluctance. JOHNSON. [5] A zany is a buffoon, a merry Andrew, a gross mimick. STEEVENS. |