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And wonder what they were, and to what end
Their fhallow Shows, and prologue vilely penn'd,
And their rough carriage fo ridiculous,

Should be prefented at our Tent to us.

Boyet. Ladies, withdraw, the Gallants are at hand.
Prin. Whip to our Tents, as roes run o'er the land.

SCENE VII.

Before the Princess's Pavilion.

[Exeunt.

Enter the King, Biron, Longueville, and Dumain, in their own habits; Boyet, meeting them.

KingBoyet. Gone to her Tent.

AIR Sir, God fave you! Where's the Princess?

Please it your Majefty, command me any service to her? King. That the vouchfafe me audience for one word. Boyet. I will; and fo will fhe, I know, my lord.

[Exit. Biron. This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again, when Jove doth pleafe: 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 fhow. This gallant pins the wenches on his fleeve; Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. He can carve too, and lifp: why, this is he, That kift away his hand in courtefy; 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 (6), To fhew his teeth, as white as whale his bone..

*Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here.
(6) This is the flower, that fmiles on every one,

And

Tofher bis teeth as white as whale his bone.] The broken and

disjointed

And confciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.
King A blifter on his fweet tongue with my heart,
That put Armado's Page out of his Part!

SCENE

disjointed metaphor is a fault in writing. But in order to pass a true judgment on this fault, it is ftill 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 il luftrate this by the inftance before us, a very complaifant, finical, over-gracious perfon, was fo commonly called the flower, or, as be ellewhere expreffes it, the pink of courtesie, that in common talk, or in the lowest ftile, this metaphor might be used without keeping up the image, but any thing affirmed of it as of an agromen: hence it might be faid, without offence, to fmile, to flatter, &c. And the reafon is this; in the more folemn, less-used metaphors, our mind is fo turned upon the image which the metaphor conveys, that it expects, this image fhould be, for fome little time, continued, by terms proper to keep it in view. And if, for want of these terms, the image be no fooner prefented than dif miffed, the mind suffers a kind of violence by being drawn off abruptly and unexpectedly from its contemplation. Hence it is that the broken, disjointed, and mixed metaphor so much shocks us. when it is once become worn and hack nied by common use, then even the very first mention 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 used hacknied metaphors being now very imperfectly known, great care is required not to act in this cafe temerariously. WARBURTON. As white as whales bone, is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. In the Fairy Queen, b. iii. c. i. ft. 15.

"Whofe face did feem as clear as crystal ftone,

"And eke, through feare, as white as whales bone."

But

And in Tuberville's Poems, printed in the year 1570, is an ode intitled, " In Praife of Ladie P."

"Her mouth fo fmall, her teeth fo white,

"As any whale his bone;

Her lips without fo lively red,

"That paffe the corall tone."

And in L. Surrey, fol. 14. edit. 1567.

"I might perceive a wolf, as white as whales bone,
"A fairer beaft of fresher hue, beheld I never none."

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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?
King. All hail, fweet Madam, and fair time of day!
Prin. Fair in all hail is foul, as I conceive.
King. Conftrue my fpeeches better, if you may.
Prin. Then with me better, I will give you leave.
King. We come to vifit you, and purpose 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.
King. Rebuke me not for That, which you provoke ;
The virtue of your eye muft break my oath (8).

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A daughter, as white as whales bone.

Prin.

Skelton joins the whales bone with the brightest precious flones, in de

fcribing the pofition of Pallas.

"A hundred fteppes mounting to the halle, "One of jafper, another of whales bone;

"Of diamantes pointed by the rokky walle." Crowne of Lawrell, p. 24. edit. 1736.

(7)

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Mr. WARTON.

behaviour, what avert thou, Till this man fber'd thee? and what art thou now?] These are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves fo much upon teaching, as a thing no where elfe 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 comprised in the quotation.

(8) The virtue of your eye must break my oath.] Common sense requires us to read,

-MADE break my oath,

i. e. made me. And then the reply is pertinent It was the force of your beauty made me break my oath, therefore you ought not to upbraid me with the crime which you yourself was the cause of.

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WARBURTON.
I believe

Prin. You nick-name virtue; vice you should have spoke :

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure
As the unfully'd lilly, I proteft,

A world of torments though I fhould endure,
I would not yield to be your house's guest :
So much I hate a breaking cause to be
Of heav'nly oaths, vow'd with integrity.
King. O, you have liv'd in defolation here,
Unfeen, unvifited, much to our shame.
Prin. Not fo, my lord; it is not fo, I swear;
We have had paftimes here, and pleasant game.
A mefs of Ruffians left us but of late.
King. How, Madam? Ruffians?
Prin. Ay, in truth, my lord;

lord:

Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state.
Rof. Madam, fpeak true. It is not fo, my
My lady, to the manner of these days,
In courtely gives undeferving praise.
We four, indeed, confronted were with four
In Ruffian habit: here they ftay'd an hour,
And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,
They did not bless us with one happy word.
I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.
Biron. This jeft is dry to me. Fair, gentle, fweet,
Your wit makes wife things foolish; when we greet (9)
With eyes beft feeing heaven's fiery eye,

By light we lofe light; your capacity

Is of that nature, as to your huge store

Wife things feem foolish, and rich things but poor.
Rof. This proves you wife and rich; for in my eye-
Biron. I ain a fool, and full of poverty.

Rof. But that you take what doth to you belong,
It were a fault to fnatch words from my tongue.

I believe the author means that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, must diffolve the obligation of the oath. The princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part of the ambiguity.

(9) This is a very lofty and elegant compliment.

Biron. Q, I am yours, and all that I poffefs.
Rof. All the fool mine?

Biron. I cannot give you lefs.

Rof. Which of the vizors was it that you wore ? Biron. Where? when? what vizor? why demand you this?

Rof. There, then, that vizor, that fuperfluous Cafe, That hid the worse, and shew'd the better face.

King. We are defcried; they'll mock us now downright.

Dum. Let us confefs, and turn it to a jeft.

Prin. Amaz'd, my lord why looks your Highness fad?

Rof. Help, hold his brows, he'll fwoon: why look you pale?

Sea-fick, I think, coming from Mufcovy.

Biron. Thus pour the ftars down plagues for Perjury, Can any face of brafs hold longer out?

Here ftand I, lady, dart thy fkill at me ;

Bruise me with fcorn, confound me with a flout; Thruft thy fharp wit quite through my ignorance; Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit ; And I will with thee never more to dance, Nor never more in Ruffian habit wait. O! never will I truft to fpeeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue;

Nor never come in vizor to my friend,

Nor woo in rhime, like a blind harper's fong. Taffata-phrafes, filken terms precife,

Three-pil'd hyperboles, fpruce affectation,

Figures pedantical, these fummer flies,

Have blown me full of maggot oftentation:

I do forfwear them; and I here proteft,

By this white glove, (how white the hand, God
knows!)

Henceforth my wooing mind fhall be exprest
In ruffet yeas and honeft kerfy noes:
And to begin, wench, (fo God help me, law!)
My love to thee is found, fans crack or flaw.
Rof. Sans, fans, I pray you.

Biron. Yet I have a trick

Of the old rage: bear with me, I am fick.

S 2

I'll

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