He had the wit, which I can well obferve To-day in our young lords: but they may jeft Till their own fcorn return to them; unnoted Ere they can hide their levity in honour. • So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness Were in his pride or fharpness, if they were, His equal had awak'd them; and his honour, WARBURTON. I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, fays the King, had the fame airy flights of fatirical wit with the young lords of the prefent time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit. This is an excellent obferva tion. Jocofe follies, and flight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities. 6 So like a Courtier, no Con- if they were, His Equal badawak'd them.-] This paffage is fo very incorrectly pointed, that the Author's Meaning is loft. As the, Text I and Stops are reform'd, these are moft beautiful Lines, and the Senfe is this- "He had no "Contempt or Bitterness; if he had any thing that look'd "like Pride or Sharpness (of "which Qualities Contempt and "Bitterness are the Exceffes,) "his Equal had awak'd them, "not his Inferior: to whom he "fcorn'd to discover any thing "that bore the Shadow of Pride "or Sharpnefs." WARBURTON. The original edition reads the firft line thus, So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness. The fenfe is the fame. Nor was used without reduplication. So in Meafure for Measure, More nor lefs to others paying, Than by felf-offences weighing. The old text needs to be explained. He was fo like a courtier, that there was in his dig nity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of awit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuoufnefs ever appeared, they had been arvakened by fome injury, not of a man below him, but of his Equal. This is the complete image of a well-bred man, and fomewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV. Clock Clock to itself, knew the true minute when 'His tongue obey'd his hand. Who were below him 8 He us'd as creatures of another place, And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks ; In their poor praise he humbled: Such a man Which, follow'd well, would now demonftrate them Ber. His good remembrance, Sir, Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb; King. Would, I were with him! he would always fay, Methinks, I hear him now; his plaufive words Since I nor wax, nor honey can bring home, To give fome labourers room. 2 Lord. You're loved, Sir; They, that leaft lend it you, fhall lack you first. He was much fam'd. Ber. Some fix months fince, my Lord. King. If he were living, I would try him yet;-. Lend me an arm;the reft have worn me out With feveral applications-nature and sickness Debate it at their leifure-Welcome, count, My fon's no dearer. 2 Ber. Thank your Majefty. Whofe judgments are Mere fathers of their garments.] Who have no other ufe of their [Flourish. Exeunt. faculties, than to invent new modes of dress. SCENE I SCENE VI. Changes to the Countess's at Roufillon. Enter Countess, Steward and Clown 3: Will now hear; what fay you of this gentlewoman? 4 Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modefty, and make foul the clearness of our defervings, when of ourselves we publish them. Count. What does this knave here? get you gone, Sirrah; the complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flownefs that I do not, for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours. 3 Steward and Clown.] A Clown in Shakespeare is commonly taken for a licensed jefter, or domeftick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, fince fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only fervant reprefented is Patifon the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wife. In fome plays, a fervant, or ruftic, of remarkable petulance and freedom of fpeech, is like wife called a Clown. 4 To even your content] To act up to your defires. Clo. 5 you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries YOURS; Well, but if he had folly to commit them, he neither wanted knavery, nor any thing else, fure, to make them his own. This nonfenfe should be read, To make fuch knaveries YARE; nimble, dextrous, i. e. Tho' you be fool enough to commit knaveries, yet you have quicknefs enough to commit them dextroufly: for this obfervation was to let us into his character. But now, tho' this be fet right, and, I dare fay, in Shakespeare's own words, yet the former part of the fentence will ftill be inaccurate you lack not folly to commit THEM. Them, what? the fense requires knaveries, but the anteU 3 cedent King. Would, I were with him! he would always fay, Methinks, I hear him now; his plaufive words Since I nor wax, nor honey can bring home, To give fome labourers room. 2 Lord. You're loved, Sir; They, that leaft lend it you, fhall lack you first. He was much fam'd. Ber. Some fix months fince, my Lord. King. If he were living, I would try him yet;Lend me an arm; -the reft have worn me out With feveral applications-nature and fickness Debate it at their leifure-Welcome, count, My fon's no dearer. Ber. Thank your Majefty. [Flourish. Exeunt. faculties, than to invent new modes of dress. SCENE |