Jaq. Of Coftard, King. Where hadst thou it ? Coft. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. King. How now, what is in you? why doft thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my Liege, a toy your Grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to paffion, and therefore let's hear it. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his name. Biron. Ah, you whorefon loggerhead, you were born to do me fhame. [To Costard. Guilty, my lord, guilty: I confefs, I confefs. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mefs. He, he, and you; and you, my liege, and I Are pick-purfes in love, and we deferve to die. Biron. True, true; we are four : Will these turtles be gone? King. Hence, Sirs, away. Coft. Walk afide the true foik, and let the traitors ftay. [Exeunt Coftard and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, fweet lovers, O, let us embrace: As true we are, as flesh and blood can be. The fea will ebb and flow, heaven will fhew his face : We cannot cross the cause why we were born ; King. What, did thefe rent lines fhew fome love of thine? Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who fees the heavenly Rofaline. That (like a rude and favage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east) Bows not his vaffal head, and, ftrucken blind, Kiffes the base ground with obedient breast ? What peremptory eagle-fighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her Majesty ? King. What zeal, what fury, hath inspir'd thee now? My love (her miftrefs) is a gracious moon; Do meet, as at a Fair, in her fair cheek; Where nothing wants, that want itself doth seek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues; Fy, painted rhetorick! O, fhe needs it not : To things of fale a feller's praise belongs : She paffes praife, the praife too fhort, doth blot. A wither'd hermit, fivescore winters worn, Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye : Ánd gives the crutch the cradle's infancy; O, who can give an oath? where is a book, No face is fair, that is not full fo black? And (1) She (an attending ftar)] Something like this is a ftanza of Sir Henry Wotton, of which the poetical reader will forgive the infertion - Ye ftars, the train of night, That poorly fatisfy our eye's More by your number than your light: Te common people of the fkies, What are ye when the fun full rife! (2) Is Ebony like ber? O Word divine] This is the Reading of all the Editions that I have feen: but both Dr. Thirlby and Mr. Warburton concurr'd in reading (as I had likewise conjectur'd) O Wood divine! THEOBALD. () In former Editions; The School of Night,] Black, being the School of Night is a Piece of Mystery above my Comprehenfion. hould be, the Stole of Night: but I have preferr'd the Conjecture I had guefs'd, it of And beauty's creft becomes the heavens well (4). Biron. Devils fooneft tempt, resembling fpirits of light: O, if in black my lady's brow be deckt, It mourns, that Painting and ufurping Hair Should ravish doters with a falfe aspect : And therefore is the born to make black fair. Her Favour turns the fashion of the days, For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red that would avoid difpraise, Paints itfelf black to imitate her brow. Dum. To look like her, are chimney-fweepers black. Long. And fincé her time, are colliers counted King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. For fear their colours fhould be wash'd away. King. Twere good, yours did for, Sir, to tell you plain, of my Friend Mr. Warburton, who reads the fearl of night, as it comes nearer in Pronunciation to the corrupted Reading, as well as agrees better with the other Images. THFOBALD. (4) And beauty's CREST becomes the heavens well.] This is a contention between two lovers about the preference of a black or white beauty. But, in this reading, he who is contending for the white, takes for granted the thing in difpute; by faying, that white is the creft of beauty. His adverfary had just as much reason to call black fo. The question debated between them being which was the creft of beauty, black or white. Shakespeare could never write fo abfurdly Nor has the Oxford Editor at all mended the matter by fubftituting dress for creft. We fhould read, And beauty's CRETE becomes the heavens well. i. e. beauty's white, from creta. In this reading the third line is a proper antithefis to the first. I fuppofe the blunder of the tran fcriber arofe from hence, the French word crefte in that pronunciation and orthography is crete, which he understanding, and knowing nothing of the other fignification of crete from creta, critically altered it to the English way of fpelling, crefte. WARBURTON. This emendation cannot be received till its author can prove that crete is an English word. Befides, creft is here properly opposed to Badge. Black, fays the King, is the badge of bell, but that which graces heaven is the creft of beauty. Black darkens hell, and is therefore hateful: white adorns heaven, and is therefore lovely. I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day : eyes, The street should see as the walkt over head. Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there ;-some flattery for this evil. Some tricks, fome quillets, how to cheat the devil (5). Biron. O, 'tis more than need. Have at you then, Affection's Men at arms (6) To faft, to ftudy, and to fee no woman; And where that you have vow'd to study, (Lords) (5) Some tricks, fome quillets, bow to cheat the devil.] Quillet is the peculiar word applied to law-chicane. I imagine the original to be this; in the French pleadings, every feveral allegation in the plaintiff's charge, and every diftinct plea in the defendant's answer, began with the words Qu'il eft ;- from whence was formed the word quillet, to fignify a falfe charge or an evasive answer. WARBURTON. (6) Affection's men at arms;] A man at arms, is a foldier armed at all points both offenfively and defenfively. It is no more than, Te foldiers of affection. VOL. II. R * From * From women's eyes this doctrine I derive ; The nimble fpirits in the arteries (7); Such *This and the two following lines are omitted, I fuppose, by mere over-fight, in Dr. Warburton's edition. (7) The nimble fpirits in the arteries ;] In the old fyftem of phy fic they gave the fame office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves; as appears from the name which is derived from äega WARBURTON. (8) Teaches fuck BEAUTY as a woman's eye ?] This line is abfolute nonfenfe. We should read, DUTY, i. e. ethics, or the offices and devoirs that belong to man. A woman's eye, says he, teaches obfervance above all other things. WARBURTON. This emendation is not fo ill conceived as explained, but perhaps we might read, Reaches fuch beauty. The fenfe is plain without correction. A lady's eye gives a fuller notion of beauty than any authour. (9) In leaden contemplation have found out Such fiery numbers,] Alluding to the difcoveries in modern aftronomy; at that time greatly improving, in which the ladies eyes are compared, as ufual, to fars. He calls them numbers, alluding to the Pythagorean principles of aftronomy; which were founded on the laws of harmony. The Oxford Editor, who was at a lofs for the conceit, changes numbers to notions, and fo lofes both the sense and the gallantry of the allufion. He has better luck in the following line, and has rightly changed beauty's to beauteous. WARBURT. Numbers are in this paffage nothing more than poetical measures. 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