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What both you spur and stop.*

Iach.
Had I this cheek
To bathe my lips upon; this hand, whose touch,
Whose every touch, would force the feeler's soul
To the oath of loyalty; this object, which
Takes prisoner the wild motion of mine eye,
Fixing it only here: should I (damn'd then)
Slaver with lips as common as the stairs
That mount the Capitol;7 join gripes with hands
Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood, as
With labour;) then lie peeping in an eye,8

4 What both you spur and stop.] What it is that at once incites you to speak, and restrains you from it. Johnson.

This kind of ellipsis is common in these plays. What both you spur and stop at, the poet means. See a note on Act II, sc. iii. Malone.

The meaning is, what you seem anxious to utter, and yet withhold. M. Mason.

The allusion is to horsemanship. So, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book 1: "She was like a horse desirous to runne, and miserably spurred, but so short-reined, as he cannot stirre forward."

Again, in Ben Jonson's Epigram to the Earl of Newcastle : "Provoke his mettle, and command his force." Steevens.

5- this hand, whose touch,

would force the feeler's soul

To the oath of loyalty?] There is, I think, here a reference to the manner in which the tenant performed homage to his lord. "The lord sate, while the vassal kneeling on both knees before him, held his hands jointly together between the hands of his lord, and swore to he faithful and loyal." See Coke upon Littleton, sect. 85. Unless this allusion be allowed, how has touching the hand the slightest connection with taking the oath of loyalty? H. White. 6 Fixing it only here:] The old copy has-Fiering. The correction was made in the second folio. Malone.

7 -as common as the stairs

That mount the Capitol;] Shakspeare has bestowed some ornament on the proverbial phrase "as common as the highway." Steevens.

8 -join gripes with hands, &c.] The old edition reads:

I read:

join gripes with hands

Made hard with hourly falsehood (falsehood as
With labour) then by peeping in an eye, &c.

then lie peeping

Hard with falsehood, is hard by being often griped with frequent change of hands. Johnson.

Base and unlustrous as the smoky light
That's fed with stinking tallow; it were fit,
That all the plagues of hell should at one time
Encounter such revolt.

Imo.

Has forgot Britain.

Iach.

My lord, I fear,

And himself. Not I,

Inclin'd to this intelligence, pronounce

The beggary of his change; but 'tis your graces
That, from my mutest conscience, to my tongue,
Charms this report out.

Imo.

Let me hear no more Iach. O dearest soul! your cause doth strike my heart With pity, that doth make me sick. A lady

So fair, and fasten'd to an empery,'

Would make the great'st king double! to be partner'd With tomboys, hir'd with that self-exhibition3

Which your own coffers yield! with diseas'd ventures, That play with all infirmities for gold

Which rottenness can lend nature! such boil'd stuff,✩

9 Base and unlustrous-] Old copy-illustrious. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. That illustrious was not used by our author in the sense of inlustrous or unlustrous, is proved by a passage in the old comedy of Patient Grissell, 1603: " the buttons were illustrious and resplendent diamonds." Malone.

A "lack-lustre eye" has been already mentioned in As you Like it. Steevens.

1

to an empery,] Empery is a word signifying sovereign command; now obsolete. Shakspeare uses it in King Richard III: "Your right of birth, your empery, your own." Steevens.

2 With tomboys,] We still call a masculine, a forward girl, a tomboy. So, in Middleton's Game at Chess:

"Made threescore year a tomboy, a mere wanton.”

Verstegan, gives the following etymology of the word tomboy: "Tumbe. To dance. Tumbod, danced; heerof we yet call a wench that skippeth or leapeth lyke a boy, a tomboy: our name also of tumbling cometh from hence." Steevens.

3 hir'd with that self-exhibition &c.] Gross strumpets, hired with the very pension which you allow your husband. Johnson. 4 such boil'd stuff,] The allusion is to the ancient process of sweating in venereal cases. See Timon of Athens, Act IV, sc. iii. So, in The Old Law, by Massinger:

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look parboil'd,

"As if they came from Cupid's scalding-house."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Sodden business! there's a

As well might poison poison! Be reveng'd;
Or she, that bore you, was no queen, and you
Recoil from your great stock.

Imo.

Reveng'd!
How should I be reveng'd? If this be true,
(As I have such a heart, that both mine ears
Must not in haste abuse,) if it be true,
How should I be reveng'd?

Iach.

Should he make me

Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets;"
Whiles he is vaulting variable ramps,

In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it.
I dedicate myself to your sweet pleasure;
More noble than that runagate to your bed;
And will continue fast to your affection,
Still close, as sure.

Imo.

What ho, Pisanio!

Iach. Let me my service tender on your lips.
Imo. Away!-I do condeinn mine ears, that have
So long attended thee.-If thou wert honourable,
Thou wouldst have told this tale for virtue, not
For such an end thou seek'st; as base, as strange.
Thou wrong'st a gentleman, who is as far
From thy report, as thou from honour; and
Solicit❜st here a lady, that disdains

Thee and the devil alike.—What ho, Pisanio!-

stew'd phrase indeed." Again, in Timon of Athens: "She's e'en setting on water to scald such chickens as you are." "All this stuff about boiling, scalding, &c. is a mere play on stew, a word which is afterwards used for a brothel by Imogen. Steevens.

5 Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets;] Sir Thomas Hanmer, supposing this to be an inaccurate expression, reads: Live like Diana's priestess 'twixt cold sheets;

but the text is as the author wrote it. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, DIANA says:

"My temple stands at Ephesus; hie thee thither;
"There, when my maiden priests are met together," &c.

Malone.

6 Let me my service tender on your lips.] Perhaps this is an allusion to the ancient custom of swearing servants into noble families. So, in Caltha Poetarum, &c. 1599:

66 she swears him to his good abearing,

"Whilst her faire sweet lips were the books of swearing."

Steevens.

7

8

The king my father shall be made acquainted
Of thy assault: if he shall think it fit,
A saucy stranger, in his court, to mart
As in a Romish stew, and to expound
His beastly mind to us; he hath a court
He little cares for, and a daughter whom
He not respects at all.-What ho, Pisanio!-
Iach. O happy Leonatus! I may say;
The credit, that thy lady hath of thee,
Deserves thy trust; and thy most perfect goodness
Her assur'd credit!-Blessed live you long!
A lady to the worthiest sir, that ever

Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only
For the most worthiest fit! Give me your pardon.
I have spoke this, to know if your affiance
Were deeply rooted; and shall make your lord,
That which he is, new o'er: And he is one
The truest manner'd; such a holy witch,
That he enchants societies unto him:9
Half all men's hearts are his.

Imo.

You make amends.

Iach. He sits amongst men, like a descended god:1 He hath a kind of honour sets him off,

7 As in a Romish stew,] Romish was, in the time of Shakspeare, used instead of Roman. There were stews at Rome in the time of Augustus. Steevens.

8 - and a daughter whom-] Old copy-who. Corrected in the second folio. Malone.

9

such a holy witch,"

That he enchants societies unto him:] So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

66 he did in the general bosom reign

"Of young and old, and sexes both enchanted

"Consents bewitch'd, ere he desire have granted." Malone. like a descended god:] So, in Hamlet:

66

a station like the herald Mercury,

"New lighted on a heaven-kissing hill "

The old copy has-defended. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio. Defend is again printed for descend, in the last scene of Timon of Athens.

Malone.

So, in Chapman's version of the twenty-third Book of Homer's Odyssey:

as he were

"A god descended from the starry sphere." Steevens. VOL. XVI.

F

More than a mortal seeming. Be not angry,
Most mighty princess, that I have adventur'd
To try your taking a false report; which hath
Honour'd with confirmation your great judgment
In the election of a sir so rare,

Which you know, cannot err: The love I bear him
Made me to fan you thus; but the gods made you,
Unlike all others, chaffless. Pray, your pardon.

Imo. All's well, sir: Take my power i'the court for

yours.

Iach. My humble thanks. I had almost forgot

To entreat your grace but in a small request,
And yet of moment too, for it concerns

Your lord; myself, and other noble friends,
Are partners in the business.

Imo.

Pray, what is 't?

Iach. Some dozen Romans of

us, and

your lord, (The best feather of our wing)3 have mingled sums, To buy a present for the emperor;

Which I, the factor for the rest, have done

In France: 'Tis plate, of rare device; and jewels,
Of rich and exquisite form; their values great;
And I am something curious, being strange,
To have them in safe stowage; May it please you
To take them in protection?

Imo.

:

Willingly;
And pawn my honour for their safety since
My lord hath interest in them, I will keep them
In my bed-chamber.

Iach.

They are in a trunk, Attended by my men: I will make bold

To send them to you, only for this night;

I must aboard to-morrow.

Imo.

2

O, no, no.

Iach. Yes, I beseech; or I shall short my word,

taking a-] Old copy, vulgarly and unmetrically, taking of a-.

3

Steevens.

best feather of our wing-] So, in Churchyard's Warning to Wanderers Abroad, 1593:

"You are so great you would faine march in fielde,
"That world should judge you feathers of one wing."

- being strange,] i. e. being a stranger. Steevens.

Steevens.

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