FROM off a hill whose concave womb re-worded"
A plaintful story from a sistering vale,
My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,
And down I laid to list the sad-tun'd tale:
Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,
Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,
Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain.

Upon her head a platted hive of straw,
Which fortified her visage from the sun,
Whereon the thought might think sometime it

saw

The carcase of a beauty spent and done.
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, spite of Heaven's fell
rage,

Some beauty peep'd through lattice of sear'd age.

Re-worded-echoed.

b Laid. So the original. But it is usually more correctly printed lay. The idiomatic grammar of Shakspere's age ought not to be removed.

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,b
Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine
That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,
And often reading what contents it bears
As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,
In clamours of all size, both high and low.
Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride,
As they did battery to the spheres intend;"
Sometime diverted their poor balls are tied
To th' orbed earth: sometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend

Napkin-handkerchief. Emilia says, of Desdemona's fatal

handkerchief

a Sheav'd-made of straw, collected from sheaves.

b Maund a basket. The word is used in the old translation of the Bible.

Bedded. So the original, the word probably meaning jet imbedded, or set, in some other substance. Steevens has beaded jet,-jet formed into beads; which Mr. Dyce adopts.

d Mo-more. This word is now invariably printed more. It occurs in subsequent stanzas. Why should we destroy this little archaic beauty by a rage for modernizing?

Sleided silk. The commentators explain this as "untwisted silk." In the chorus to the fourth act of Pericles, Marina is pictured

"When she weav'd the sleided silk With fingers long, small, white as milk." Percy, in a note on this passage, says, "untwisted silk, prepared to be used in the weaver's sley." The first part of this description is certainly not correct. The silk is not untwisted, for it must be spun before it is woven; and a strong twisted silk is exactly what was required when letters were to be scaled "feat" (neatly) "to curious secresy." In Mr. Ramsay's Introduction to his valuable edition of the Paston Letters, the old mode of sealing a letter is clearly described:-" It was carefully folded, and fastened at the end by a sort of paper strap, upon which the seal was affixed; and under the seal a string, a silk thread, or even a straw, was frequently placed running around the letter."

Gave. So the original. Malone changes the word to 'gan. This appears to us, although it has the sanction of Mr. Dyce's adoption, an unnecessary change; gave is here used in the sense of gave the mind to, contemplated, made a movement towards, inclined to. Shakspere has several times my mind gave me;" and the word may therefore, we think, stand alone here as expressing inclination.

Malone, by making the sentence parenthetical which begins at "sometime a blusterer," and ends at "swiftest hours," causes the reverend man's attention to be drawn to the scattered fragments of letters as they flew-a very snowstorm of letters. Surely this is nonsense!

"The swiftest hours, observed as they flew," clearly show that the reverend man, although he had been engaged in the ruffle, in the turmoil, of the court and city, had not suffered the swiftest hours to pass unobserved. He was a man of experience, and was thus qualified to give advice.

D Fancy-is often used by Shakspere in the sense of love; but here it means one that is possessed by fancy. Bat-club.

Of one-the original reads O one.

For on his visage was in little drawn,
What largeness thinks in paradise was sawn.*

'Small show of man was yet upon his chin;
His phoenix down began but to appear,
Like unshorn velvet, on that termless skin,
Whose bare out-bragg'd the web it seem'd to

wear;

b

Yet show'd his visage by that cost more dear;
And nice affections wavering stood in doubt
If best 't were as it was, or best without.

'His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongued he was, and thereof free;
Yet, if men mov'd him, was he such a storm
As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly though
they be.

His rudeness so with his authoriz'd youth
Did livery falseness in a pride of truth.

"Well could he ride, and often men would say
That horse his mettle from his rider takes:
Proud of subjection, noble by the sway,
What rounds, what bounds, what course, what
stop he makes!

And controversy hence a question takes,
Whether the horse by him became his deed,
Or he his manage by the well-doing steed.

• Can is the original reading; but Malone changed it to came, and he justifies the change by a passage in Macbeth, Act 1, Sc. III., where he supposes the same mistake occurred. In that passage we did not receive the proposed correction; nor do we think it necessary to receive it here. Can is constantly used by the old writers, especially by Spenser, in the sense of began; and that sense, began for additions, is as intelligible as came for additions. For is used in the sense of as.

"That he did in the general bosom reign
Of young, of old; and sexes both enchanted,
To dwell with him in thoughts, or to remain
In personal duty, following where he haunted:
Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire, have granted;
And dialogued for him what he would say,
Ask'd their own wills, and made their wills
obey.

'Many there were that did his picture get,
To serve their eyes, and in it put their mind;
Like fools that in the imagination set
The goodly objects which abroad they find
Of lands and mansions, theirs in thought as-

sign'd;

And labouring in mo pleasures to bestow them, Than the true gouty landlord which doth owe them: "

'So many have, that never touch'd his hand, Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart. My woeful self, that did in freedom stand, And was my own fee-simple, (not in part,) What with his art in youth, and youth in art, Threw my affections in his charmed power, Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.

'Yet did I not, as some my equals did, Demand of him, nor being desired yielded; Finding myself in honour so forbid, With safest distance I mine honour shielded : Experience for me many bulwarks builded Of proofs new-bleeding, which remain❜d the foil

Of this false jewel, and his amorous spoil.

'But ah! who ever shunn'd by precedent
The destin'd ill she must herself assay?
Or forc'd examples, 'gainst her own content,
To put the by-pass'd perils in her way?
Counsel may stop a while what will not stay;
For when we rage, advice is often seen
By blunting us to make our wits more keen.

'Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood,
That we must curb it upon others' proof,
To be forbid the sweets that seem so good,
For fear of harms that preach in our behoof.
O appetite, from judgment stand aloof!
The one a palate hath that needs will taste,
Though reason weep, and cry It is thy last.

a Talents is here used in the sense of something precious. Impleach'd-interwoven. Invis'd-invisible.

d Suit. "The noble suit in court" is, we think, the suit made to her in court. Mr. Dyce says suitors.

Havings. Malone receives this as accomplishments—Mr. Dyce as fortune.

Blossoms-young men; the flower of the nobility.
Of richest coat-of highest descent.