Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine

eyes,

Her feet were too much dainty for fuch tread! Dam. O vile! then as he goes, what upward lies The ftreet fhould fee as the walk'd over head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. Nothing fo fure, and thereby all forfworn. King. Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove,

Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. Dum. Ay, marry, there ;-fome flattery for this

evil.

Long. O, fome authority how to proceed; Some tricks, fome quillets, how to cheat the devil. 7 Dum. Some falve for perjury.

Biron. O, 'tis more than need!

8

Have at you then, affection's men at arms:
Confider, what you first did fwear unto ;-
To faft, to ftudy, and to fee no woman;
Flat treafon 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you faft? your stomachs are too young;
And abftinence ingenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to ftudy, lords,
In that each of you had forfworn his book.
Can you ftill dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of ftudy's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?

Some tricks, fome quillets, bow to cheat the devil.] Quillet is the peculiar word applied to law-chicane. I imagine the original to be this, in the French pleadings, every feveral allegation in the plaintiff's charge, and every diftin&t plea in the defendant's anfwer, began with the words qu'il eft;from whence was formed the word quillet, to fignify a falfe charge or an evafive answer. WARBURTON. -affection's men at arms :] A man at arms, is a foldier armed at all points both offenfively and defenfively. It is no more than, Ye foldiers of affection. JOHNSON. E e

VOL. II.

From

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive; They are the ground, the book, the academes, From whence doth fpring the true Promethean fire Why, univerfal plodding prifons up

The nimble fpirits in the arteries; '
As motion, and long-during action, tires
The finewy vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forfworn the use of eyes;
And study too, the caufer of your vow.
For where is any author in the world,
Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye;
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our learning likewife is.
Then, when ourselves we fee in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewife fee our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forfworn our books:
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
3 In leaden contemplation have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes

Of

9 From women's eyes, &c.] This and the two following lines are omitted, I suppose, by mere overfight in Dr. Warburton's edition. JOHNSON.

The nimble fpirits in the arteries ;] In the old fyftem of phyfic they gave the fame office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves; as appears from the name which is derived from aga riły. WARBURTON.

2 Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye?] i. e. a lady's eyes give a fuller notion of beauty than any authour. JOHNSON.

In leaden contemplation have found out
Such fiery numbers]

Alluding to the discoveries in modern aftronomy; at that time greatly improving, in which the ladies' eyes are compared, as ufaal, to fars. He calls them numbers, alluding to the Pythagorean principles of aftronomy, which were founded on the laws of harmony. The Oxford editor, who was at a lofs for the conceit, changes numbers to notions, and fo lofes both the fenfe and the gal

lantry

Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other flow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practifers,
Scarce fhew a harveft of their heavy toil.
But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
Lives not alone immured in the brain;
But with the motion of all elements,
Courses as swift as thought in every power;
And gives to every power a double power
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious feeing to the eye:
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
A lover's ear will hear the lowest found,
When the fufpicious head of theft is stopt.+
Love's feeling is more foft and fenfible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails.

Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in tafte: For valour is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides ?

Subtle

lantry of the allufion. He has better luck in the following line, and has rightly changed beauty's to beauteous. WARBURTON.

Numbers are, in this paffage, nothing more than poetical meafures. Could you, fays Biron, by folitary contemplation, have attained fuch poetical fire, fuch fpritely numbers, as have been prompted by the eyes of beauty? The aftronomer, by looking too much aloft, falls into a ditch. JOHNSON.

-the fufpicious head of theft is flopp'd.] i. e. a lover in parfuit of his mistress has his fenfe of hearing quicker than a thief (who fufpects every found he hears) in purfuit of his prey. But Mr. Theobald fays, there is no contrast between a lover and a thief: and therefore alters it to thrift, between which and love, he fays, there is a remarkable antithefis. What he means by contraft and antithefis, I confefs, I don't understand. But 'tis no matter: the common reading is fenfe; and that is better than either one or the other. WARBURTON.

5 For valour is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides ?]

The poet is here obferving how all the fenfes are refined by love. But what has the poor fenfe of Smelling done, not to keep its place among its brethren? Then Hercules's valour was not in climbing

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be

Subtle as fphinx'; as fweet and mufical

As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair:"
And, when love speaks, the voice of all the Gods "
Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.

i

Never

the trees, but in attacking the dragon gardant. I rather think, that for valour we should read favour, and the poet meant,, that Hercules was allured by the odour and fragrancy of the golden ap ples. THEOBALD.

6 As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair :] This expreffion. like that other in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, of

Orpheus' harp was ftrung with poet's finews,

is extremely beautiful, and highly figurative. Apollo, as the fun, is represented with golden hair; fo that a lute ftrung with his hair, means no more than ftrung with gilded wire.

WARBURTON. How much more fublime is the imagination of our poet, which represents that inftrument as ftrung with the fun-beams, which in poetry are called Apollo's hair. REVISAL.

1 And when love speaks the voice of all the Gods Makes beaven drowsy with the harmony!]

This nonsense we should read and point thus,

And when love fpeaks the voice of all the Gods,
Mark, beaven drowfie with the harmony.

i. e. in the voice of love alone is included the voice of all the Gods. Alluding to that ancient Theogony, that Love was the parent and fupport of all the Gods. Hence as Suidas tells us, Palæphatus wrote a poem called, "Apgodine & "Egzή pwvù & λóy®. The voice and Speech of Venus and Love, which appears to have been a kind of cofmogony, the harmony of which is fo great, that it calms and allays all kinds of diforders; alluding again to the antient ufe of mufic, which was to compofe monarchs, when, by reafon of the cares of empire, they ufed to pafs whole nights in reftlefs inquietude. WARBURTON.

I cannot find any reafon for this emendation, nor do I believe the poet to have been at all acquainted with that ancient theogony mentioned by the critic. The former reading, with the flight addition of a fingle letter, was, perhaps, the true one. When LOVE Speaks, (fays Biron) the affembled Gods reduce the element of the sky to a calm, by their barmonious applauses of this favoured orator.

A

Never durft poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;
O, then his lines would ravifh favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.-

From womens' eyes this doctrine I derive: *

A very ingenious friend obferves, that the meaning of the paffage may be this.-That the voice of all the Gods united, could infpire only drowfinefs, when compared with the chearful effects of the voice of Love. That fenfe is fufficiently congruous with the rest of the fpeech.

Dr. Warburton has raifed the idea of his author, by imputing to him a knowledge, of which, I believe, he was not poffeffed; but should either of thefe explanations prove the true one, I shall offer no apology for having made him stoop from the critic's elevation. I would, however, read,

Makes beaven drowsy with its harmony.

Though the words mark and bebold are alike used to befpeak or fummon attention, yet the former of them appears fo harth in Dr. Warburton's emendation, that I read the line feveral times over before I perceived its meaning. To speak the voice of the Gods appears to me as defective in the fame way. Dr. Warburton, in a note on All's well that Ends well, obferves, that to speak a found is a barbarifm. To speak a voice is, I think, not lefs reprehenfible. STEEVENS.

Few paffages have been more canvaffed than this. I believe, it wants no alteration of the words, but only of the pointing.

And when love Speaks (the voice of all) the Gods
Make beaven drowsy with the harmony.

Love, I apprehend, is called the voice of all, as gold, in Timon, is said to speak with every tongue; and the Gods (being drowsy themfelves with the harmony) are fuppofed to make heaven drowly. If one could possibly fufpect Shakespeare of having read Pindar, one fhould fay, that the idea of mufic making the hearers drowsy, was borrowed from the firft Pythian. T. T.

From womens' eyes this doctrine I derive :] In this fpeech I fufpect a more than common inftance of the inaccuracy of the first publishers.

From womens' eyes this do&rine I derve,

and feveral other lines are as unneceffarily repeated. Dr. Warbur ton was aware of this, and omitted two veifes, which Dr. Johnfon has fince inferted. Perhaps the players printed it from piece-meal parts, or retained what the author had rejected, as well as what had undergone his revifal. It is here given according to the regulation of the old copies. STEEV. NS.

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They