ון Biron. [Aside.] Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear! Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper. Long. Ah me, I am forsworn ! Biron. [Aside.] Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers! 70 King. [Aside.] In love, I hope: sweet fellowship in shame! Biron. [Aside.] One drunkard loves another of the name. Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? not by two that I know: Thoumak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of Love's Tyburn" that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move: Oh, sweet Maria, empress of my love!— Enter DUMAIN, with a paper. Dumain transform'd! four woodcocks 77 in a dish! Biron. [Aside.] Oh, most profane coxcomb! Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber Biron. [Aside.] An amber-colour'd raven was Dum. As upright as the cedar. Her shoulder is with child. Dum. [Reads. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,— Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me. Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, If broken, then, it is no fault of mine: Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein," which A green goose a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. out o' the way. 10. Like a perjure, wearing papers. "Perjure" is an old 1 form of perjurer;' and it was the penalty for one convicted of perjury to wear papers on the breast, describing the offence. 7. Shape of Love's Tyburn. The gallows at Tyburn was of triangular form. 72. Guards. Trimmings, facings, ornaments. See Note 21, Act iii., "Measure for Measure." 13. Disfigure not his slop. The Folio gives 'shop' (altered by some editors to 'shape') for "slop," which accords best with "hose" in the preceding line. See Note 25, Act iii., "Much Ado about Nothing." 74. This is the liver vein. See Note 7, Act iv., "Tempest." 75 All hid, all hid. The child's game now known as 'hide Stoop, I say; As fair as day. Biron. [Aside.] Ay, as some days; but then no altered in stopping, and in changing not to 'but,' by those who find the passage, as it stands, difficult of comprehension. But, to our thinking, it may be thus interpreted: Bironcontradicts Dumain in his assertion that Katharine is "the wonder of a mortal eye;" and styles him "corporal," as he has before called himself a "corporal of his (Love's) field," and in allusion to his being "mortal," material, or corporeal,—for which latter word Shakespeare often uses corporal." 79. Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted. "Coted" is here used in its sense of gone side by side with, surpassed, outvied; and in its sense of quoted (often thus pronounced), observed, marked, noted. Thus Dumain means that in the varied shades of colour and clouded beauty of amber, his mistress's hair surpasses it; and that in comparison with her hair, amber may be cited as ugly. 80. Incision would let her out in saucers. "Incision" is (strictly) cutting as in surgery but Shakespeare here, and elsewhere, uses it for "blood-letting." It was a fashion for young gallants to wound themselves in the arm, as a proof of devotion, On a day-alack the day!- Through the velvet leaves the wind, Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn ;- Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee; Thou, for whom Jove 81 would swear Turning mortal for thy love. This will I send, and something else more plain, That in love's grief desir'st society: You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, To be o'erheard and taken napping so. King. [Advancing.] Come, sir, you blush: as his your case is such; You chide at him, offending twice as much: I have been closely shrouded in this bush, I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion, Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion: Ah me! says one; O Jove! the other cries; One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes: [To Long.] You would for paradise break faith and troth; that they might toast their lady's name, or write it, in the liquor that flowed. 81. Thou, for whom Jove. "Thou" (as printed in the old copies) has been sometimes changed to 'Thee,' as an emphatic repetition of the final word of the preceding line; but the change is not needful. 82. Fasting. longing, desirous. 83. Wreathed arms. Crossed arms, folded arms. The same expression occurs in The Two Gentlemen of Verona," Act ii., sc. 1, where Speed tells his master that he has "learned to wreathe his arms like a mal-content." Used in the sense of famishing, hungering, 84. These worms. Biron uses this epithet here for human beings submitting to their mortal destiny of falling in love, as Prospero uses it when he sees his daughter yield to her fascination for Ferdinand :-" Poor worm! thou art infected." 85. Your eyes do make no coaches. Biron alludes to the line [To Dum.] And Jove, for your love, would in fringe an oath. What will Birón say when that he shall hear I would not have him know so much by me. Ah, good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me! These worms for loving, that are most in love? in the king's sonnet, "No drop but as a coach doth carry thee." The Folio misprints 'couches' for "coaches" here. 86. Teen. Grief, trouble. See Note 19, Act i., "Tempest." 87. Gnat. Used here, and elsewhere, by Shakespeare, to express something extra small and insignificant. 88. Gig. A kind of top, made of horn; like a cup, and hollow. 89. Critic Timon. "Critic" is here used in the sense of 'cynic;' as Biron has previously used the same word for a harsh censor, a rigorous reviewer, where he says he has been "a very beadle to a humorous sigh; a critic, nay, a night-watch constable." The term originally meant a judger, an examiner ; one who discerned and pronounced on the beauties as well as defects of a literary work; but in the proneness of men to find fault, the word soon came to signify almost wholly a discoverer of blemishes and blamer of demerits. 90. With men, like men. This has been variously changed to Or groan for Joan ? or spend a minute's time Soft! whither away so fast? Enter JAQUENETTA, with letter, and COSTARD. Jaq. God bless the king! What present hast thou there ?95 Cost. Some certain treason. King. What makes treason here 996 Cost. King. neither, Nay, it makes nothing, sir. King. Hence, sirs; away! Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt COSTARD and JAQUENEtta. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, oh, let us embrace! As true we are as flesh and blood can be: The treason and you go in peace away together. Biron. Did they, quoth 100 you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head; and, strucken blind, Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, King. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy: your grace needs My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; not fear it. She an attending star, scarce seen a light. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore Biron. My eyes are, then, no eyes, nor I Birón: let's hear it. Oh, but for my love, day would turn to night! Dum. [Picking up the pieces.] It is Birón's Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty writing, and here is his name., Biron. [To COSTARD.] Ah, you loggerhead! 'moon-like men, vane-like men,' &c.; but the passage, as it stands, appears to us to mean-'with men, like men (men in general, or mankind', of strange inconstancy.' The first Folio omits the word "strange; "which was supplied in the second, 1632. 91. Groan for Joan? This has been altered to 'groan for love; but besides that we lose the jocular effect of the chiming sound between "groan ” and “Joan," it has been already pointed out that Shakespeare uses "Joan" to represent the ordinary race of womankind. See Note 44, Act iii. 92. Pruning me. Arranging myself, setting myself in order, making myself spruce; as a bird trims and smooths out his feathers. 93. A state. The word "state" here seems to include the meaning of stationary position, dignity and grace while standing still, and stature. 94 A true man, or a thief. See Note 40, Act iii., "Much Ado about Nothing." 95 What present hast thou there? The word " present" here has been changed to 'peasant,' and to 'presentment.' But present" is here used in the sense (which it bears in legal language) of a letter or mandate exhibited per presentes (by these presents). Shakespeare has introduced this very law phrase in "As You Like It," i. 2:-" Be it known unto all men by these presents." 96. What makes treason here? What does treason do here? See Note 26, Act ii., "Merry Wives " 97. Our person. See Note 49, Act iv. 98. Mess. As at great festive dinners the company was usually divided into fours, called messes, and served together, the word came to mean a set of four persons. 99. Of all hands. This idiomatic phrase has been explained to have the same signification as 'in any hand;' that is, in any case, at any rate, at all events. But inasmuch as "of" was often used for 'on,' the phrase seems to us to mean ' on all hands,' on all sides, on every account. 100. Quoth. Said. Gothic, quithan, to say. To things of sale a seller's praise belongs,- Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye: And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy: Oh, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine. King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony. Biron. Is ebony like her? oh, wood divine! A wife of such wood were felicity. Oh, who can give an oath ? where is a book? That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack, If that she learn not of her eye to look : No face is fair that is not full so black. 101. Scowl. Misprinted 'schoole' in the Folio. 'Stole,' 'shade,'' soil,' have been proposed; but "scowl" (Warburton's suggestion, adopted by Theobald) seems best, as nearest to the word given in the old copy. 102. Beauty's crest. A poetic equivalent for 'fairness; ' as Act V. Scene 1. |