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Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed fovereign of fighs and groans;
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents:
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces:
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors: (O my little heart!)
And I to be a corporal of his field,+

And wear his colours! like a tumbler's hoop!
What? what? I love! I fue! I feek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,*

Still

drew Cupid in the character of a giant-dwarf. Dr. Warburton thinks, that by Junio is meant youth in general. JOHNSON.

3 Of trotting paritors :———— -] An apparitor, or paritor, is an officer of the bishop's court who carries out citations; as citations are most frequently iffued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government. JOHNSON.

And I to be a corporal of his file, &c.] In former editions,
And I to be a corporal of his field,

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 boops 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 floop 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 underflood. 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;
And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch'd, that it may ftill go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all:
And, among three to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls ftuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Tho' Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to figh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! go to!-It is a plague,
That Cupid will impofe for my neglect
Of his almighty, dreadful, little, might.
Well, I will love, write, figh, pray, fue, and groan:
Some men must love my lady, and fome Joan. [Exit,

Clock-Maker, 3d edit. 1714.-" Clock-making was fuppofed to "have had its beginning in Germany within lefs than these 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 fkilful 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 thefe firft pieces of mechanifm, 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

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ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Pavilion in the Park near the Palace.

Enter the Princess, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, Lords,
Attendants, and a Forefter.

PRINCES S.

AS that the king, that fpurr'd his horse fo hard

WAS

Against the steep uprifing of the hill?

Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he.
Prin. Whoe'er he was, he fhew'd a mounting mind.
Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.

-Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?
For. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A ftand, where you may make the fairest shoot.

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.
Prin. What, what? firft praise me, then again fay,
no ?

O fhort-liv'd pride! not fair? alack, for woe!
For. Yes, madam, fair.

Prin. Nay, never paint me now;

Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
• Here,-good my glass,-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 princess has her glafs fo ready at hand in a casual conversation, it must be remembered that in those days it was the fashion among

the

For. Nothing but fair is that, which you inherit. Prin. See, fee, my beauty will be fav'd by merit. O herefy in fair fit for thefe days!

A giving hand, though foul, fhall have fair praife.
But come, the bow: Now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I fave my credit in the shoot;
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to fhew my skill;
That more for praife than purpofe meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is fometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detefted crimes;

When, for fame's fake, for praife, an outward part,?
We bend to that the working of the heart:

As I, for praife alone now feek to spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curft wives hold that felf-fovereignty

Only for praife fake, when they ftrive to be

Lords o'er their lords?

the French ladies to wear a looking-glafs, as Mr. Bayle coarfely re prefents it, an their bellies; that is, to have a fmall mirrour fet in gold hanging at the girdle, by which they occafionally viewed their faces or adjusted their hair. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon, perhaps, is mistaken. She had no occafion to have recourfe 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 praife, an outward part,

We bend to that the wo king of the beart.]

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 should read,

—tho' my heart

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 him [not to him] ne barm, ~ JOHNSON.

VOL. II.

C c

Prin.

Prin. Only for praife: and praise we may afford To any lady, that fubdues a lord.

Enter Coftard.

Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth."

Coft. Good dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady?

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the reft that have no heads.

Coft. Which is the greatest lady, the highest P
Prin. The thickeft, and the tallest.

Coft. The thickeft, and the talleft! it is fo; truth

is truth.

An' your waist, miftrefs, were as flender as my wit,' One o' thefe maids girdles for your waist should be fit.

-a member of the commonwealth.] Here, I believe, is a put for kind of jeft intended; a member of the common-wealth is one of the common people, one of the meaneft. JOHNSON. ( An' your waifi, miftrefs, were as flender as my wit, One o' thefe maids girdles for your waist should be fit.] It is plain And was not one of her maid's girdles fit for her? that my and your have all the way changed places, by fome accident or other; and that the lines fhould be read thus,

An' my wafte, miftrefs, was as flender as your wit, One of thefe maids girdles for my wafle should be fit. The lines are humourous enough, both as reflecting on his own grofs fhape, and her flender wit.

WARBURTON.

This conjecture is ingenious enough, but not well confidered. It is plain that the ladies girdles would not fit the princefs. For when the has referred the clown to the thick:ft and the tallest, he. turns immediately to her with the blunt apology, truth is truth; and again tells her, you are the thickeft here. If any alteration is to be made, I should propofe,

An' your waist, mistress, were as flender as your wit. This would point the reply; but perhaps he mentions the flendernefs of his own wit to excufe his bluntnefs. JOHNSON.

I

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