This wimpled,' whining, purblind wayward boy; 2 Regent This wimpled- -] The wimple was a hood or veil, which fell over the face. Had Shakespeare been acquainted with the flammeum of the Romans, or the gem which reprefents the marriage of Cupid and Pfyche, his choice of the epithet would have been much applauded by all the advocates in favour of his learning. In Ifaiah, chap. iii. v. 22. we find the mantles, and the wimples, and the crifping-pins ;" and, in The Devil's Charter, 1607, to wimple is used as a verb. "Here, I perceive a little rivelling "Above my forehead, but I wimple it, STEEVENS. 2 This fignior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid ;] It was fome time ago ingenioufly hinted to me, (and I readily came into the opinion;) that as there was a contraft of terms in giant-dwarf, so, probably, there fhould be in the word immediately preceding them; and therefore that we fhould restore, This fenior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. i. e. this old young man. And there is, indeed, afterwards, in this play, a description of Cupid which forts very aptly with fuch an emendation. That was the to make his Godhead wax, way For he hath been five thousand years a boy. The conjecture is exquifitely well imagined, and ought by all means to be embraced unless there is reason to think, that, in the former reading, there is an allufion to fome tale, or character in an old play. I have not, on this account, ventured to disturb the text, because there feems to me some reason to fufpect, that our author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that tragedy there is the character of one Junius, a Roman captain, who falls in love to distraction with one of Bonduca's daughters; and become an arrant whining flave to this paffion. He is afterwards cured of his infirmity, and is as abfolute a tyrant against the fex. Now, with regard to these two extremes, Cupid might very probably be ftiled Junius's giant-dwarf: a giant in his eye, while the dotage was upon him; but fhrunk into a dwarf, so foon as he had got the better ofit. THEOBALD. Mr. Upton has made a very ingenious conjecture on this paffage. He reads, This fignior Julio's giant-dwarf Shakespeare, fays he, intended to compliment Julio Romano, who drew Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms, Of trotting paritors: (O my little heart!) And wear his colours! like a tumbler's hoop! Still drew Cupid in the character of a giant-dwarf. Dr. Warburton And I to be a corporal of bis file, &c.] In former editions, And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop! A corporal of a field is quite a new term: neither did the tumblers ever adorn their hoops with ribbands, that I can learn for those were not carried in parade about with them, as the fencer carries his fword: nor, if they were, is the fimilitude at all pertinent to the cafe in hand. I read, -like a tumbler ftoop. To ftcop like a tumbler agrees not only with that profeffion, and the fervile condefcenfions of a lover, but with what follows in the context. The wife tranfcribers, when once the tumbler appeared, thought his boop must not be far behind. WARBURTON. The conceit feems to be very forced and remote, however it be understood. The notion is not that the boop wears colours, but that the colours are worn as a tumbler carries his boop, hanging on one shoulder and falling under the oppofite arm. JOHNSON. Corporals of the field are mentioned in Carew's Survey of Cornwall, and Raleigh fpeaks of them twice, vol. i. p. 103. vol. ii. p. 367. edit. 1751. I fuppofe they were distinguished by a particular kind of fath or uniform. TOLLET. -like a German clock, Still a repairing;] The following extract is taken from a book called The Artificial Clock. Still a repairing; ever out of frame; groan: Clock-Maker, 3d edit. 1714.-" Clock-making was fuppofed to "have had its beginning in Germany within lefs than thefe two "hundred years. It is very probable, that our balance-clocks "or watches, and fome other automata, might have had their beginning there; &c." Again, p. 91." Little worth re"mark is to be found till towards the 16th century; and then "clock-work was revived or wholly invented anew in Germany, "as is generally thought, because the ancient pieces are of Ger"man work." A skilful watch-maker informs me, that clocks have not been commonly made in England much more than one hundred years backward. To the inartificial conftruction of these first pieces of mechanism, executed in Germany, we may fuppofe Shakespeare alludes. The clock at Hampton-Court, which was fet up in 1540, (as appears from the infcription affixed to it) is faid to be the first ever fabricated in England. STEEVENS. 5 Some men must love my lady, and fome Joan.] To this line Mr. Theobald extends his fecond act, not injudiciously, but, as was before obferved, without fufficient authority. JOHNSON. ACT ACT IV. SCENE I. A Pavilion in the Park near the Palace. Enter the Princefs, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, Lords, Attendants, and a Forefter. PRINCESS. AS that the king, that spurr'd his horse so WA hard Against the steep uprifing of the hill? Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. -Then, forester, my friend, where is the bufh, Prin. I thank my beauty; I am fair, that shoot; And thereupon thou fpeak'ft, the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me madam, for I meant not fo. no? O fhort-liv'd pride! not fair? alack, for woe! Prin. Nay, never paint me now; Where fair is not, praife cannot mend the brow. Here,-good my glafs,-take this for telling true; [Giving him money. Fair payment for foul words is more than due. For. • Here, good my glass,] To understand how the princefs has her glafs fo ready at hand in a cafual converfation, it must be remembered that in thofe days it was the fashion among the For. Nothing but fair is that, which A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise. When, for fame's fake, for praise, an outward part,? As I, for praise alone now feek to spill The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curft wives hold that felf-lovereignty Only for praise fake, when they ftrive to be the French ladies to wear a looking-glafs, as Mr. Bayle coarsely reprefents it, on their bellies; that is, to have a small mirrour fet in gold hanging at the girdle, by which they occafionally viewed their faces or adjusted their hair. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson, perhaps, is mistaken. She had no occafion to have recourse to any other looking-glass than the Forester, whom the rewards for having fhewn her to herfelf as in a mirror. STEEVENS. "When, for fame's fake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart.] The harmony of the measure, the eafinefs of the expreffion, and the good fenfe in the thought, all concur to recommend these two lines to the reader's notice. WARBURTON. -that my heart means no ill.] We fhould read, tho' my beart WARBURTON. That my heart means no ill, is the fame with to whom my heart means no ill: the common phrafe fuppreffes the particle, as I mean bim [not to him] no barm. JOHNSON. VOL. II. C c Prin. |