Page images
PDF
EPUB

2

Being lass-lorn; thy pole-clipt vineyard;
And thy fea-marge, fteril, and rocky-hard,

than that of the turfy mountains, would, for want of this precaution, be devoured, and so the intended ftover [hay, or winter keep] with which these meads are proleptically described as Thatched, be loft.

The giving way and caving in of the brims of those banks, occafioned by the heat, rains, and frosts of the preceding year, are made good, by opening the trenches from whence the banks themselves were at first raised, and facing them up a fresh with the mire those trenches contain. This being done, the brims of the banks are, in the poet's language, pioned and twilled. --Mr. Warton himself in a note upon Comus, hath cited a passage in which pioners are explained to be diggers (rather trenchers) and Mr. Steevens mentions Spenser and the author of Muleasses, as both ufing pioning for digging. TWILLED is obviously formed from the participle of the French verb touiller, which Cotgrave interprets filthily to mix or mingle; confound or shuffle together; bedirt; begrime; besmear: fignifications that join to confirm the explanation here given.

This bank with pioned and twilled brims is described, as trimmed, at the behest of Ceres, by spungy April, with flowers, to make cold nymphs chafte crowns. These flowers were neither peonies nor lilies, for they never blow at this season, but "ladysmocks all filver white," which during this humid month, start up in abundance on fuch banks, and thrive like oats on the fame kind of foil:" Avoine touillée croift comme enragée." That OU changes into W, in words derived from the French is apparent in cordwainer, from cordouannier, and many others. HENLEY.

Mr. Henley's note contends for small proprieties, and abounds with minute obfervation. But that Shakspeare was no diligent Botanist, may be afcertained from his erroneous descriptions of a Cowslip, (in the Tempest and Cymbeline) for who ever heard it characterized as a bell-shaped flower, or could allow the drops at the bottom of it to be of a crimson hue? With equal carelessness, or want of information, in the Winter's Tale he enumerates

"lilies

of all kinds," among the children of the spring, and as contemporaries with the daffodil, the primrose, and the violet. It might be added, (if we must speak by the card) that wherever there is a bank there is a ditch; where there is a ditch there may be water; and where there is water the aquatic lilies may flourish, whether the bank in question belongs to a river or a field. These are petty remarks, but they are occafioned by petty cavils - It was enough for our author that Peonies and Lilies were well-known

1

Where thou thyself do'st air: The queen o'the sky
Whose watery arch, and messenger, am I,
Bids thee leave these; and with her fovereign grace,
Here on this grass-plot, in this very place,
To come and sport: her peacocks fly amain;
Approach, rich Ceres, her to entertain,

Enter CERES.

CER. Hail, many-colour'd messenger, that ne'er
Dost disobey the wife of Jupiter;
Who, with thy faffron wings, upon my flowers
Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing showers:

1

flowers, and he placed them on any bank, and produced them in any of the genial months, that particularly fuited his purpose. He who has confounded the customs of different ages and nations, might eafily confound the produce of the seasons.

That his documents de Re Rufticâ were more exact, is equally improbable. He regarded objets of Agriculture, &c. in the gross, and little thought, ht, when he meant to bestow fome ornamental epithet on the banks appropriated to a Goddefs, that a future critic would with him to say their brims were filthily mixed or mingled, confounded or shuffled together, bedirted, begrimed, and befmeared. Mr. Henley, however, has not yet proved the exiftence of the derivative which he labours to introduce as an English word; nor will the lovers of elegant description wish him much fuccess in his attempt. Unconvinced therefore by his strictures, I shall not exclude a border of flowers to make room for the graces of the spade, or what Mr. Pope, in his Dunciad, has styled- the majesty of mud." STEEVENS.

Near

8 → and thy broom groves,] Broom, in this place, fignifies the Spartium Scoparium, of which brooms are frequently made. Gamlingay in Cambridgeshire it grows high enough to conceal the tallest cattle as they pass through it; and in places, where it is cultivated, still higher.. STEEVENS.

9 Being lafs-lorn;) Lass-lorn is forsaken of his mistrefs. Spenfer:

2

Who after that he had fair Una lorn." STEEVENS,

Sa

thy pole-clipt vineyard] To clip is to twine round or embrace, The poles are clip'd or embraced by the vines. Vineyard is here feud as a trifyllable. STEEVENS,

1

(

And with each end of thy blue bow dost crown My bosky acres, and my unshrubb'd down,

Rich scarf to my proud earth; Why hath thy queen Summon'd me hither, to this short-grass'd green?+ IRIS. A contract of true love to celebrate;

And fome donation freely to estate

On the bless'd lovers.

CER.

Tell me, heavenly bow.

If Venus, or her fon, as thou dost know,

Do now attend the queen? fince they did plot
The means, that dusky Dis my daughter got,

Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company

I have forsworn.

IRIS.

Of her fociety

Be not afraid; I met her deity

Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her fon

Dove-drawn with her: here thought they to have

done

Some wanton charm upon this man and maid,
Whose vows are, that no bed-rite shall be paid
Till Hymen's torch be lighted: but in vain;
Mars's hot minion is return'd again;

Her waspish-headed fon has broke his arrows,

3 My bosky acres, &c.] Bosky is woody. Bosky acres are fields Boscus is middle Latin

divided from each other by hedge-rows. for wood. Bosquet, Fr. So Milton:

"And every bosky bourn from side to fide."

Again, in K. Edward I. 1599.

"Hale him from hence, and in this bosky wood

" Bury his corps." STEEVENS.

4-to this short-grass'd green?] The old copy reads short-gras'd Short-graz'd green means grazed fo as to be short. The

green.

corredion was made by Mr. Rowe. STEEVENS.

Swears he will shoot no more, but play with spar

rows,

And be a boy right out.

CER.

Highest queen of state,

Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.

Enter JUNO,

$

JUNO. How does my bounteous sister? Go with

me,

To bless this twain, that they may profperous be,
And honour'd in their issue,

SONG.

JUNO. Honour, riches, marriage-bleffing,
Long continuance, and increasing,
Hourly joys be till upon you!
Juno fings her blessings on you.

Highest queen of state,

Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait.] Mr. Whalley thinks this paflage a remarkable instance of Shakspeare's knowledge of ancient poetic story; and that the hint was furnished by the Divum incedo Regina of Virgil

John Taylor, the water-poet, declares, that he never learned his Accidence, and that Latin and French were to him Heathen Greek; yet, by the help of Mr. Whalley's argument, I will prove him a learned man, in spite of every thing he may say to the contrary: for thus he makes a gallant address his lady; inestimable magazine of beauty! in whom the port and majesty of Juno, the wisdom of Jove's brain-bred girle, and the feature of Cytherea, have their domestical habitation." FARMER.

So, in The Arraignement of Paris, 1584:

" First statelie Jung, with her porte and grace."

"Moft

STEEVENS.

i 1

CER. Earth's increase, and foifon plenty; 7
Barns, and garners never empty;
Vines, with cluft'ring bunches growing;
Plants, with goodly burden bowing;
Spring come to you, at the farthest,
In the very end of harvest!
Scarcity and want shall shun you;
Ceres' blessing so is on you,

FER, This is a most majestic vifion, and Harmonious charmingly: * May I be bold

6 Earth's increase, and foison plenty; &c.] All the editions, that I have ever feen, concur in placing this whole fonnet to Juno; but very abfurdly, in my opinion. I believe every accurate reader, who is acquainted with poetical history, and the distinct offices of these two goddesses, and who then seriously reads over our author's lines, will agree with me that Ceres's name ought to have been placed, where I have now prefixed it. THEOBALD.

And is not in the old copy. It was added by the editor of the second folio. Earth's increase, is the produce of the earth. The expreffion is scriptural: "Then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, even our God, shall give us his bleffing." PSALM Ixvii. MALONE.

This is one amongst a multitude of emendations which Mr. Malone acknowledges to have been introduced by the Editor of the second Folio; and yet, in contradiction to himself in his Prolegomena, he depreciates the second edition, as of no importance or value.

FENTON.

7- foison plenty ;] i. e. plenty to the utmost abundance; foison fignifying plenty. See p. 62. STEEVENS.

8 Harmonious charmingly:] Mr. Edwards would read:

“Harmonious charming lay."

For though [fays he] the benediction is sung by two goddesses, it is yet but one lay or hymn. I believe however, this paflage appears as it was written by the poet, who, for the fake of the verse, made the words change places.

We might read [transferring the last fyllable of the second word to the end of the first] " Harmoniously charming."

Ferdinand has already praised this aerial Masque as an object of fight and may not improperly or inelegantly subjoin, that the

« PreviousContinue »