Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here. Prin. What's your will, fir? what's your will? Prin. O thy letter, thy letter: he's a good friend of mine. Stand afide, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve j Break up this capon. 2 Boyet. I am bound to ferve. This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; Prin. We will read it, I fwear. Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet reads. BY heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art love ly. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, bave commiferation on thy be roical vaffal. The magnanimous and moft illuftrate Boyet, you can carve ; i.e. Our poet ufes this metaphor, as the French do their poulet ; which fignifies both a young fowl and a love letter. Poulet, ama toria litera, fays Richelet; and quotes from Voiture, Repondere au plus obligeant poulet du monde; to reply to the most obliging letter in the world. The Italians ufe the fame manner of expreffion, when they call a love-epistle, una pollicetta amorofa. I owed the hint of this equivocal ufe of the word to my ingenious friend Mr. Bishop. THEOBALD. To break up was a peculiar phrase in carving. PERCY. 3 Break the neck of the wax, -] Still alluding to the capon. + More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer, &c.] I JOHNSON. would read, fairer than fair, more beautiful, &c. T. T. king Cophetuas fet eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and be it was that might rightly fay, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (0 bafe and obscure vulgar !) videlicet, be came, faw, and overcame: he came, one; faw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the King. Why did he come? to fee. Why did he fee? to overcome. To whom came be? to the beggar. What saw he? the beggar. Whom overcame be? the beggar. The conclufion is victory; on whofe fide? the King's; the captive is enrich'd: on whofe fide? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whofe fide? the king's? no, on boib in one, or one in both. I am the king; (for so stands the comparison) thou the beggar, for fo witneffeth thy lowlinefs. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What fhalt thou exchange for rags? robes; for tittles? titles: for thy felf? me. Thus expelling thy reply, I prophane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy pilure, and my beart on thy every part. Thine in the dearest design of industry, DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. "Thus doft thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainft thee, thou lamb, that ftandeft as his prey; કં king Cophetua.] This ftory is again alluded to in Henry IV. Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof. But of this king and beggar, the ftory, then doubtless well known, is, I am afraid, loft. Zenelophon has not appearance of a female name, but fince I know not the true name, it is idle to guess. JOHNSON. The ballad of King Cophetua and the Beggar-Maid may be feen in the Reliques of Ancient Poetry, vol. i. The beggar's name was Penelophon, here corrupted. PERCY. The poet alludes to this fong in Romeo and Juliet, Henry IV. 2d part, and Richard II. STEEVENS. Thus doft thou hear, &c.] Thefe fix lines appear to be a quotation from fome ridiculous poem of that time. WARBURTON. Sub Submiffive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play. Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better? Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the ftile. Prin. Elfe your memory is bad, going o'er it ere while.7 Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court, 8 A phantafme, a Monarcho; and one that makes 7 leigh, 66 sport ere while.] Juft now; a little while ago. So Ra Here lies Hobbinol our foepherd, while e'er. JOHNSON. -a monarcho;] Sir T. Hanmer reads, The allufion is to a fantastical character of the time." Popular applaufe (fays Meres) dooth nourish fome, neither do they gape after any other thing, but vaine praife and glorie,as in our age Peter Shakerlye of Paules, and Monarcho that lived about the court." p. 178. FARMER. In Nash's Have with you to Saffron-Walden, 1595, I meet with the fame allufion. .but now he was an infulting monarch "above Monarcho the Italian, that ware crownes in his fhoes, and quite renounced his natural English accents and gestures, and "wrefted himfelf wholly to the Italian puntilio's, &c." An allufion of a fimilar kind remains unexplained in Ben Jonfon's Alchemist, act i. fc. 1. and a face cut for thee, "Worfe than Gamaliel Ratfey's." Gamaliel Ratfey was a famous highwayman, who always robbed in a mask. I once had in my poffeffion a pamphlet containing his life and exploits, in the title-page of which he is reprefented with this ugly vifor on his face. STEEVENS. To the prince, and his book-mates. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it ? Prin. From which lord, to which lady? N Coft. From my lord Biron, a good mafter of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rofaline. Prin. Thou haft mistaken this letter. Come, lords, away. Here, fweet, put up this'; 'twill be thine another day. [Exit Princefs attended. Boyet. Who is the fhooter? who is the fhooter? Rof. Shall I teach you to know? Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty. Rof. Why, the that bears the bow. Finely put off. Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns: but, if thou marry, Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry. Finely put on !— Rof. Well then, I am the fhooter. Boyet. And who is your deer? Rof. If we chufe by horns, yourself; come not near, Finely put on, indeed!— Mar. You ftill wrangle with her, Boyet, and the ftrikes at the brow. Boyet. But the herself is hit lower. Have I hit her now? Rof. Shall I come upon thee with an old faying, 9 rather, Come, lords, away.] Perhaps the Princefs faid Come, ladies, away. The rest of the scene deferves no care. JOHNSON. that that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when 'queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Rof. Thou can't not hit it, bit it, bit it. Thou can't not hit it, my good man. Boyet. An' I cannot, cannot, cannot; An' I cannot, another can. [Singing. [Exit Rof. Coft. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it. Mar. A mark marvellous well fhot; for they both did hit it. Boyet. A mark? O, mark but that mark; a mark, fays my lady; Let the mark have a prick in't; to mete at, if it may 1 be. Mar. Wide o' the bow-hand! i'faith, your hand is out. Coft. Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout. Boyet. An' if my hand be out, then, belike, your hand is in. Coft. Then will she get the upfhot by cleaving the pin. Mar. Come, come, you talk greafily, your lips grow foul. Coft. She's too hard for you at pricks, Sir; challenge her to bowl. Boyet. I fear too much rubbing; good night my good owl. [Exeunt all but Coftard. queen Guinever] This was king Arthur's queen, not over famous for fidelity to her husband. See the fong of the Boy and the Mantle in Mr. Percy's Collection. In Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, the elder Loveless addresses Abigail, the old incontinent waiting-woman, by this name. STEEVENS. |