What both you spur and stop.* Iach. 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 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 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 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: 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; Imo. Reveng'd! Iach. Should he make me Live like Diana's priest, betwixt cold sheets;" In your despite, upon your purse? Revenge it. Imo. What ho, Pisanio! Iach. Let me my service tender on your lips. 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; 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 Country call'd his! and you his mistress, only 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, Which you know, cannot err: The love I bear him 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, Your lord; myself, and other noble friends, 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, Imo. : Willingly; 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, - being strange,] i. e. being a stranger. Steevens. Steevens. |