Enter Dumain.

Long. By whom fhall I fend this?

Company! ftay. [Stepping afide. Biron. [Afide.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play; Like a demy-god, here fit I in the fky, And wretched fool's fecrets heedfully o'er-eye: More facks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish; Dumain transform'd, four woodcocks in a dish! Dum. O most divine Kate!

Biron. O most prophane coxcomb!

[Afide. Dum. By heaven the wonder of a mortal eye! Biron. By earth, fhe is not corporal; there you

3

lie. [Afide. Dum. Her amber hair for foul hath amber coted.+ Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted.

[Afide.

By earth, foe is but corporal, there you lie.] Old edition:
By earth, he is not, corporal, there you lie.

Dumain, one of the lovers, in fpite of his vow to the contrary, thinking himself alone here, breaks out into fhort foliloquies of admiration on his miftrefs; and Biron, who ftands behind as an eves-dropper, takes pleafure in contradicting his amorous raptures. But Dumain was a young lord: he had no fort of poft in the army: what wit, or allufion, then, can there be in Biron's calling him corporal? I dare warrant, I have reftored the poet's true meaning, which is this. Dumain calls his mistress divine, and the wonder of a mortal eye; and Biron in flat terms denies these hyperbolical praifes. I fcarce need hint, that our poet commonly ufes corporal as corporeal. THEOBALD.

Theobald's emendation is plaufible, but perhaps unneceffary. The paffage may be thus explained. Dumain fwears first, by beaven, that the is the wonder of a mortal eye Biron feems in his reply to mean, Swear next by earth, that he is not corporal; and when you have carried matters fo far, I fhall not fcruple to tell you in yet plainer terms, that you lye. STEEVENS.

4-amber coted.] To core is to outftrip, to overpafs. So in Hamlet. -certain players

66

"We cored, &c."

So in Chapman.

Words her worth had prov'd with deeds

"Had more ground been allow'd the race, and coted far

"his fleeds."

STEEVENS.

Dd 4

Dum.

Dum. As air as day.

[Afide

Biron. Ay, as fome days; but then no fun muft

fhine.

King. And I mine too, good Lord!

[Afide.

[Afide,

[Afide.

[Afide.

Biron. Amen, so I had mine! Is not that a good

word?

Dum. I would forget her, but a fever the Reigns in my blood, and will remembred be. Biron. A fever in your blood! why then, incifion Would let her out in fawcers; fweet mifprifion! [Afide.

Dum. Once more I'll read the ode, that I have

writ.

Biron. Once more I'll mark, how love can vary [Afide.

wit.

Dumain reads bis fonnet.

On a day, (alack, the day!)
Love, whofe month is ever May,
Spy'd a bloffom passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unfeen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, fick to death,
Wish'd bimfelf the heaven's breath.
Air, (quoth he) thy cheeks may blow
Air, would I might triumph so ! 4
But, alack, my band is fworn,
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:

Air, would I might triumph fo!] Perhaps we may better read, Ah! would I might triumph fa! JOHNSON.

Yow,

Do not call it fin in me,

That I am forfworn for thee:

Thou, for whom even Jove would swear,
Juno but an Ethiope were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.

This will I fend, and fomething else more plain,
That shall exprefs my true love's fafting pain. "
O, would the King, Biron, and Longaville,
Were lovers too, ill, to example ill.

Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note;
For none offend, where all alike do dote.

Long. Dumain, thy love is far from charity,
That in love's grief defir'ft fociety: [coming forward.
You may look pale; but I fhould blush, I know,
To be o'er-heard, and taken napping so.

fuch;

King. Come, Sir, you blush; as his, your cafe is [coming forward. You chide at him, offending twice as much, You do not love Maria? Longaville Did never fonnet for her fake compile ? Nor never lay'd his wreathed arms athwart His loving bofom, to keep down his heart. I have been closely fhrowded in this bush, And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush, I heard your guilty rhimes, obferv'd your fashion ; Saw fighs reek from you, noted well your paffion.

even Jove would fwear,] The word even has been fupplied. STEEVENS.

7

my true love's fafting pain.] I should rather chufe to read feftring, rankling. WARBURTON.

There is no need of any alteration. Fafting is longing, hungry, wanting. JOHNSON.

Ay,

Ay me! fays one; O Jove! the other cries;
Her hairs were gold; cryftal the other's eyes.
You would for paradife break faith and troth;

[To Long.
And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath.
[To Dumain.
What will Biron fay, when that he fhall hear
A faith infringed, which fuch zeal did fwear?
How will he fcorn? how will he fpend his wit?
How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it??
For all the wealth that ever I did fee,

I would not have him know fo much by me.
Biron. Now ftep I forth to whip hypocrify.
Ah, good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me.
[Coming forward.
Good heart, what grace haft thou, thus to reprove
Thefe worms for loving, that art most in love?
Your eyes do make no coaches: In your tears,
There is no certain princefs that appears?
You'll not be perjur'd, 'tis a hateful thing;
Tuh, none but, minftrels like of fonnetting.
But are you not afham'd? nay, are you not
All three of you, to be thus much o'er fhot?
You found his more; the king your mote did fee;
But I a beam do find in each of three.

O, what a scene of foolery have I seen,
Of fighs, of groans, of forrow, and of teen!
O me, with what flrict patience have I fat,
To fee a king transformed to a knot!

Το

How will be triumph, leap, and laugh at it?] We fhould certainly read, geap, i. e. jeer, ridicule. WARBURTON.

To leap is to exult, to skip for joy. It must ftand. JOHNSON. To fee a king transformed to a knot !] Knot has no fenfe that can fuit this place. We may read fot. The rhimes in this play are fuch, as that fat and fot may be well enough admitted. JOHNSON.

A knot is, I believe, a true lover's knot, meaning that the King

-lay'd

To fee great Hercules whipping a gigg,
And profound Solomon tuning a jigg!
And Neftor play at pufh-pin with the boys,
And critic Timon laugh at idle toys! 9
Where lyes thy grief? O tell me, good Dumain;
And gentle Longaville, where lyés thy pain?
And where my liege's? all about the breast.
A candle, ho!

King. Too bitter is thy jest.

Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view?

Biron. Not you by me, but I betray'd by you. I, that am honeft; I, that hold it fin

To break the vow I am engaged in.

-lay'd his wreathed arms athwart

His loving bofom so long,

i. e. remained so long in the lover's pofture, that he feemed actually transformed into a knot. The word fat is in fome counties pronounced for. This may account for the feeming want of exact rhime. In the old comedy of Albumazar, the fame thought oc

"His arms in this fad knot."

STEEVENS.

A knott is likewife a Lincolnshire bird of the fnipe kind, is foolish even to a proverb, and is faid to be eafily enfnared. Ray in his ornithology obferves, that it took its name from Canute, who was particularly fond of it.

The knott is enumerated among other delicacies by fir Epicure Mammon, in Ben Jonfon's Alchemist.

"My foot-boy fhall eat pheasants, &c.

"Knots, godwits, &c.

COLLINS.

critic Timon] ought evidently to be cynic.

WARBURTON.

There is no need of change. Critic and critical are used by our author in the fame fenfe as cynic and cynical. Iago, fpeaking of the fair fex as harfhly as is fometimes the practice of Dr. WarburSTEEVENS. ton, declares he is nothing, if not critical.