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Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it

may know

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur:
Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up,

I stagger in :-But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armour 7, hung by the

wall

gone

round 8,

So long, that nineteen zodiacks have
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me :-'tis surely, for a name.

have so little relation to each other, that both can scarcely be right we may read flash for fault; or, perhaps, we may read,

"Whether it be the fault or glimpse-"

That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. Yet the same sense follows in the next lines. JOHNSON.

Fault, I apprehend, does not refer to any enormous act done by the deputy, (as Dr. Johnson seems to have thought,) but to newness. The fault and glimpse is the same as the faulty glimpse.. And the meaning seems to be-" Whether it be the fault of newness, a fault arising from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority, of which the new governor has yet had only a glimpse,-has yet taken only a hasty survey; or whether," &c. Shakspeare has many similar expressions. MALONE.

7- like UNSCOUR'D ARMOUR,] So, in Troilus and Cressida : "Like rusty mail in monumental mockery." STEEVENS. So long, that NINETEEN Zodiacks have gone round,] The Duke, in the scene immediately following, says:

9

"Which for these fourteen years we have let slip." THEOBALD.

But this new governor

AWAKES me all the ENROLLED PENALTIES,

Which have, like unscour'd armour, HUNG BY THE WALL
So long,

Now puts the DROWSY AND NEGLECTED act

Freshly on me :] Lord Strafford, in the conclusion of his Defence in the House of Lords, had, perhaps, these lines in his thoughts:

LUCIO. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

CLAUD. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service:
This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation 2:

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him;
I have great hope in that: for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect3,

"It is now full two hundred and forty years since any man was touched for this alledged crime, to this height, before myself.Let us rest contented with that which our fathers have left us; and not awake those sleeping lions, to our own destruction, by raking up a few musty records, that have lain so many ages by the walls, quite forgotten and neglected." MALONE.

so tickle-] i. e. ticklish. This word is frequently used by our old dramatic authors. So, in The True Tragedy of Marius and Scilla, 1594 :

66 -lords of Asia

"Have stood on tickle terms."

Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612:

2

66

upon as tickle a pin as the needle of a dial." STEEVENS. her APPROBATION] i. e. enter on her probation, or noviciate. So again, in this play:

66

I, in probation of a sisterhood."

Again, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608 : "Madam, for a twelvemonth's approbation,

"We mean to make the trial of our child."

MALONE.

3 PRONE and speechless dialect,] I can scarcely tell what signification to give to the word prone. Its primitive and translated senses are well known. The author may, by a prone dialect, mean a dialect which men are prone to regard, or a dialect natural and unforced, as those actions seem to which we are prone. ther of these interpretations is sufficiently strained; but such distortion of words is not uncommon in our author. For the sake of an easier sense, we may read :

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in her youth

"There is a pow'r, and speechless dialect,
"Such as moves men."

Ei

Such as moves men; beside, she hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade.

LUCIO. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack". I'll to her.

CLAUD. I thank you, good friend Lucio.

LUCIO. Within two hours,

CLAUD. Come, officer, away.

Or thus:

[Exeunt.

"There is a prompt and speechless dialect." JOHNson. Prone, perhaps, may stand for humble, as a prone posture is a posture of supplication.

So, in The Opportunity, by Shirley, 1640:

"You have prostrate language."

The same thought occurs in The Winter's Tale : "The silence often of pure innocence "Persuades, when speaking fails."

Sir W. D'Avenant, in his alteration of the play, changes prone to sweet: I mention some of his variations, to shew that what appear difficulties to us, were difficulties to him, who, living nearer the time of Shakspeare, might be supposed to have understood his language more intimately. STEEvens.

Prone, I believe, is used here for prompt, significant, expressive, (though speechless,) as in our author's Rape of Lucrece it means ardent, head-strong, rushing forward to its object:

"O that prone lust should stain so pure a bed!" Again, in Cymbeline: "Unless a man would marry a gallows, and beget young gibbets, I never saw any one so prone." MALONE. 4 Under grievous IMPOSITION;] I once thought it should be inquisition, but the present reading is probably right. "The crime would be under grievous penalties imposed." JOHNSON. lost at a game of TICK-TACK.] Tick-tack is a game at tables. "Jouer au tric-trac," is used in French in a wanton sense. MALONE.

The same phrase, in Lucio's sportive sense, occurs in Lusty Juventus. STEEVENS

SCENE IV.

A Monastery.

Enter Duke, and Friar THOMAS.

DUKE. No; holy father; throw away that thought;

Believe not that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bosom: why I desire thee To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends Of burning youth.

FRI.

May your grace speak of it? DUKE. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd';

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,

Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps".

Believe not that the DRIBBLING dart of love

Can pierce a COMPLETE bosom :] Think not that a breast completely armed can be pierced by the dart of love, that comes "fluttering without force." JOHNSON.

A dribber, in archery, was a term of contempt which perhaps cannot be satisfactorily explained. Ascham, in his Toxophilus, edit. 1589, p. 32, observes: " if he give it over, and not use to shoote truly, &c. he shall become of a fayre archer a starke squirter and dribber."

In the second stanza of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia, the same term is applied to the dart of Cupid:

"Not at first sight, nor yet with dribbed shot,

"Love gave the wound," &c. STEEVENS.

7-the life REMOV'D ;] i. e. a life of retirement, a life remote, or removed, from the bustle of the world.

So, in the Prologue to Milton's Masque at Ludlow Castle: I mean the MS. copy in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge: I was not sent to court your wonder

66

"With distant worlds, and strange removed climes."

STEEVENS.

witless BRAVERY-] Bravery, in the present instance,

signifies showy dress. So, in The Taming of a Shrew :

I have delivered to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence ',)
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious sir,

You will demand of me, why I do this?

FRI. Gladly, my lord.

DUKE. We have strict statutes, and most biting

laws,

(The needful bits and curbs for head-strong

steeds',)

"With scarfs, and fans, and double change of bravery."

STEEVENS. 9-keeps.] i. e. dwells, resides. In this sense it is still used at Cambridge, where the students and fellows, referring to their collegiate apartments, always say they keep, i. e. reside there. Reed.

1 (A man of STRICTURE, and firm abstinence,)] Stricture makes no sense in this place. We should read

"A man of strict ure and firm abstinence." i. e. a man of the exactest conduct, and practised in the subdual of his passions. Ure is an old word for use, practice: so enur'd, habituated to. WARBURTON.

Stricture may easily be used for strictness; ure is indeed an old word, but, I think, always applied to things, never to persons. JOHNSON.

ness.

Sir W. D'Avenant, in his alteration of this play, reads—strictUre is sometimes applied to persons, as well as to things. So, in the old interlude of Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1661 : "So shall I be sure

"To keep him in ure.”

The same word occurs in Promos and Cassandra, 1578:

"The crafty man oft puts these wrongs in ure." STEEVENS. 2 (The needful BITS and CURBS for head-strong steeds,)] In the copies

"The needful bits and curbs for head-strong weeds." There is no manner of analogy or consonance in the metaphors here; and, though the copies agree, I do not think the autho would have talked of bits and curbs for weeds. On the other hand, nothing can be more proper, than to compare persons of

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