And, by this virgin palm, now kiffing thine,
I will be thine and till that inftant fhut
My woful felf up in a mourning house,
Raining the tears of lamentation,

For the remembrance of my father's death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part;
Neither intitled to the other's heart.

King. If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up thefe powers of mine with reft;' The fudden hand of death close up mine eye!

8

Hence, ever then, my heart is in thy breast. Biron. And what to ine, my love? and what to me? Rof. You must be purged too, your fins are rank; You are attaint with fault and perjury; Therefore, if you my favour mean to get, A twelve-month shall you spend, and never rest,

To flatter up thefe porers of mine with reft;] Dr. Warburton would read fetter, but flatter or footh is, in my opinion, more appofite to the king's purpose than fetter. Perhaps we may read,

To flatter on thefe hours of time with reft;

That is, I would not deny to live in the hermitage, to make the year of delay pafs in quiet. JOHNSON.

? Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me ? Rof. You must be purged too: your fins are rank:

You are attaint with fault and perjury;

Therefore if you my favour mean to get,

A twelvemonth fhall you spend, and never reft
But feek the weary beds of people fuck.]

These fix verfes both Dr. Thirlby and Mr. Warburton concur to think fhould be expunged; and therefore I have put them between crotchets not that they were an interpolation, but as the author's firft draught, which he afterwards rejected; and executed the fame thought a little lower with much more fpirit and elegance. Shakespeare is not to anfwer for the prefent abfurd repetition, but his actor-editors; who, thinking Rofaline's fpeech too long in the fecond plan, had abridg'd it to the lines above quoted; but, in publishing the play, ftupidly printed both the original fpeech of Shakespeare, and their own abridgment of it. THEOBALD.

But seek the weary beds of people fick.

Dum. But what to me, my love? but what to me? Cath. A wife!-a beard, fair health, and honefty; With three-fold love I wish you all these three. Dum. O, fhall I fay, I thank you, gentle wife? Cath. Not fo, my lord;-atwelve-month and a dayI'll mark no words that fmooth-fac'd wooers fay. Come, when the king doth to my lady come; Then, if I have much love, I'll give you fome.

Dum. I'll ferve thee true and faithfully till then.
Cath. Yet fwear not, left you be forfworn again.
Long. What fays Maria?

Mar. At the twelve-month's end,

I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend.
Long. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long.
Mar. The liker you; few taller are fo young.
Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me,
Behold the window of my heart, mine eye,
What humble fuit attends thy answer there;
Impose some service on me for thy love.

Rof. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron,
Before I faw you; and the world's large tongue
Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks;
Full of comparifons and wounding flouts;
Which you on all eftates will execute,
That lie within the mercy of your wit:
To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain;
And therewithal, to win me, if you please,
(Without the which I am not to be won)
You shall this twelve-month-term from day to day
Vifit the fpeechlefs fick, and still converfe
With groaning wretches; and your task fhall be,
With all the fierce endeavour of your wit,
To enforce the pained impotent to smile.

Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be, it is impoffible:

2

Mirth

Mirth cannot move a foul in agony.

Rof. Why, that's the way to choak a gibing fpirit, Whofe influence is begot of that loose grace, Which fhallow-laughing hearers give to fools. A jeft's profperity lies in the ear

2

Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it: then, if fickly ears,
Deaft with the clamours of their own dear groans,
Will hear your idle fcorns, continue then,
And I will have you, and that fault withal :
But if they will not, throw away that spirit;
And I fhall find you empty of that fault,
Right joyful of your reformation.

Biron. A twelve month? well; befal what will befal, I'll jeft a twelve-month in an hofpital.

Prin. Ay, fweet my lord; and fo I take my leave. [To the King. King. No, madam; we will bring you on your way. Biron. Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill, thefe ladies' courtesy Might well have made our fport a comedy.

King. Come, fir, it wants a twelve-month and a day, And then 'twill end.

Biron. That's too long for a play.

Enter Armado.

Arm. Sweet majefty, vouchsafe me—
Prin. Was not that Hector?

Dum. That worthy knight of Troy.

Arm. I will kifs thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a votary; I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her fweet love three years. But, most

2 dear groans,] Dear fhould here, as in many other places, be dere, fad, odious. JOHNSON.

efteemed greatnefs, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled, in praife of the owl and the cuckow? it should have follow'd in the end of our fhow.

King. Call them forth quickly, we will do fo.
Arm. Holla! approach.-

Enter all, for the fong.

This fide is Hiems, winter.

This Ver, the fpring: the one maintained by the owl,

The other by the cuckow.

Ver, begin.

The SON G.

SPRIN G.

When daizies pied, and violets blue,3
And lady fmocks all filver white,
And cuckow-buds of yellow bue,

4

Do paint the meadows with delight;"

The cuckow then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus fings be,
Cuckow !

Cuckow! cuckow!-O word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear.

When, &c.] The first lines of this fong that were tranfpofed, have been replaced by Mr. Theobald. JOHNSON.

+ -cuckow-buds-] Miller fays, that lady-fmocks and cuckooflowers are only different names of the fame plant. STEEVENS.

5 Do paint the meadows with delight ;] This is a pretty rural fong, in which the images are drawn with great force from nature. But this fenfelefs expletive of painting with delight, I would read

thus,

Do paint the meadows much-bedight, i.e. much bedecked or adorned as they are in fpring-time. The epithet is proper, and the compound not inelegant. WARBURTON. Much lefs elegant than the prefent reading. JOHNSON.

When

When fhepherds pipe on oaten straws,

And merry larks are plowmens' clocks:
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,

And maidens bleach their fummer fmocks;
The cuckow then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus fings be,
Cuckow !

Cuckow! cuckow! O word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear!

WINTER.

When ificles bang by the wall,

And Dick the Shepherd blows his nail;
And Tom bears logs into the ball,

And milk comes frozen home in pail;
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly fings the ftaring owl,
Tu-whit! to-whoo!.

A merry note,

While greafy Joan ‘doth keel the pot.

When all aloud the wind doth blow,

And coughing drowns the parfon's faw;

And birds fit brooding in the now,

Aud Marian's nofe looks red and raw;

When roafted crabs kif in the bowl,
Then nightly fings the fiaring owl,
Tu-whit! 10-whoo!

A merry note,

While greafy Joan doth keel the pot.

doth keel the pot.] This word is yet ufed in Ireland, and fignifies to /cum the pot.

Dr. GOLDSMITH.

So in Marlton's Dumb Knight, 1607.-"Faith, Doricus, thy ** brain boils, keel it, keel it, or all the fat's in the fire." STBEVENS.