Seemeth their conference, the conceits have wings; Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, fwifter things. Rof. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off. Biron. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure fcoff.. King. Farewel, mad wenches; you have fimple wits. [Exeunt King and Lords. Prin. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovites. Are these the Breed of wits fo wondred at? Boyet. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puft out. Rof. Well-liking wits they have; grofs, grofs; fat, fat. Prin. O poverty in wit-kingly ?-poor flout! Will they not (think you) hang themselves to night? Or ever, but in vifors, fhew their faces? This pert Biron was out of count'nance quite. Rof. O! they were all in lamentable cafes. The King was weeping-ripe for a good word. Prin. Biron did fwear himself out of all fuit. Mar. Dumain was at my fervice, and his fword: No, point, quoth I; my fervant ftrait was mute. Cath. Lord Longueville faid, I came o'er his heart; And, trow you, what he call'd me? Prin. Qualm, perhaps. Cath. Yes, in good faith. Prin. Go, fickness as thou art! Rof. Well, better wits have worn plain statutecaps 3, Better wits have worn plain ftatute-caps.] This line is not univerfally understood, beCaufe every reader does not know But But will you hear? the King is my love fworn, In their own shapes; for it can never be, Boyet. They will, they will, God knows; Prin. How, blow? how, blow? speak to be understood, Boyet. Fair ladies, mafkt, are roses in their bud, Dif courtly ftudents, and that better wits may be found in the common places of education. Fair ladies, mafkt, are rofes in the bud; Difmafkt, their damafk fweet commixture fhewn, Fair ladies mafk'd are roses in commixture fhewn. Or Angel-veiling Clouds, i. e. clouds which veil Angels : And by this means gave us, as the old proverb fays, a cloud for a Juno. It was Shakespeare's purpofe to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance to compare her to a cloud: and perhaps the ill-bred reader will fay a lucky one, However, I fuppofed the Poet could never be fo nonfenfical as to compare a masked lady to a cloud, though he might compare her mask to one. The Oxford Editor, who had the advantage both of this emendation and criticism, is a great deal more fubtile and refined, and fays it fhould not be angels veil'd in clouds, but angels vailing clouds, i. e. capping the fun as they go by him, just as a man veils his bonnet. WARBURTON. I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation fhould be treat ed with fo much contempt, of why wailing clouds should be cap-, Dismafkt, their damafk fweet Commixture fhewn, Rof. Good Madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, Boyet. Ladies, withdraw, the Gallants are at hand. Prin. Whip to our Tents, as roes run o'er the land. [Exeunt *. Before the Princess's Pavilion. Enter the King, Biron, Longueville, and Dumain, in their own habits; Boyet, meeting them. King⋅ F AIR Sir, God fave you! Where's the Princefs? Boyet. Gone to her Tent. Please it your Majefty, command me any service to her? King. That fhe vouchsafe me audience for one word. ping the fun. Ladies unmasked, fays Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting thofe clouds which obcfured their brightnefs, fink from before them. What is there in this abfurd or contemptible? 5 [Exit. fhapeless gear ;] Shapeless, for uncouth, or what Shakespeare elsewhere calls diffufed. WARBURTON. Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here. B Biron. This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again, when Jove doth please : He is wit's pedlar, and retails his wares At wakes and waffels, meetings, markets, fairs: And we that fell by grofs, the Lord doth know, Have not the grace to grace it with fuch show. This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve; Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. He can carve too, and lifp: why, this is he, That kift away his hand in courtesy; This is the ape of form, Monfieur the nice, That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice In honourable terms; nay, he can fing A mean moft mainly; and, in ufhering, Mend him who can; the ladies call him fweet, The ftairs, as he treads on them, kifs his feet. This is the flower, that fmiles on every one, To fhew his teeth, as white as whale his bone. This is the flower, that smiles on ev'ry one.] The broken disjointed metaphor is a fault in writing. But in order to pass a true judgment on this fault, it is fill to be obferved, that when a metaphor is grown fo common as to defert, as it were, the figurative, and to be received into the common ftile, then what may be affirmed of the thing reprefented, or the fubftance, may be affirmed of the thing reprefenting, or the image. To illuftrate this by the inftance before us, a very complaifant, finical, over-gracious perfon, was fo commonly called the flower, or, as he elsewhere expreffes it, the pink of courtefie, that in common talk, or in the lowest stile, this metaphor might be used without keeping up the image, And but any thing affirmed of it as of And confciences, that will not die in debt, King. A blifter on his fweet tongue with my heart, That put Armado's Page out of his Part! Enter the Princefs, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, Boyet, and attendants. Biron. See, where it comes; behaviour, what wert thou 7, 'Till this man fhew'd thee? and what art thou now? To lead you to our Court; vouchsafe it then. Prin. This field fhall hold me, and fo hold your VOW: Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur'd men, of it is not apt to excite in us the reprefentative image; but brings immediately before us the idea of the thing represented. And then to endeavour to keep up and continue the borrow'd ideas, by right adapted terms, would have as ill an effect on the other hand: Because the mind is already gone off from the image to the fubftance. Grammarians would do well to confider what has been here faid when they fet upon amending Greek and Roman writings. For the much ufed hacknied metaphors being now very imperfectly known, great care is required not to act in this cafe temerariously. WARBURTON. 7 behaviour, what wert thou, 'Till this man fhew'd thee? and what art thou now ?] Thefe are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themfelves fo much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modeft filent accomplishment, under the direction of nature and common fenfe, which does its office in promoting focial life without being taken notice of. But that when it degenerates into fhew and parade, it becomes an unmanly contemptible quality. WARBURTON. What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprifed in the quotation, |