I was; I told him, of as good as he fo he laugh'd, But what talk we of fathers, when and let me go. Cel. O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, fpeaks brave words, fwears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite traverfe, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that fpurs his horse but on one fide, breaks his ftaff like a noble goofe: but all's 8quite traverse, athwart &c.] An unexperienced lover is here compared to a puny tilter, to whom it was a difgrace to have his lance broken across, as it was a mark either of want of courage or addrefs. This happened when the horse flew on one fide, in the career; and hence, I fuppofe, arofe the jocular proverbial phrase of fpurring the horse only on one fide. Now as breaking the lance against his adverfary's breaft, in a direct line, was honourable, fo the breaking it across against his breast was, for the reason above, dishonourable: hence it is, that Sidney, in his Arcadia, fpeaking of the mock-combat of Climias and Dametas fays, The wind took fuch hold of his faff that it croft quite over his breast, &c. And to break across was the ufual phrafe, as appears from fome wretched verfes of the fame author, fpeaking of an unfkilful tilter: "Methought fome flaves he mist: iffo, not much amiss: "One faid he brake acrofs, full well it fo might be, &c." This is the allufion. So that Orlando, a young gallant, affecting the fashion (for brave is here used, as in other places, for fafhionable) is reprefented either unfkilful in courtship, or timorous. The lover's meeting or appointment correfponds to the tilter's career; and as the one breaks ftaves, the other breaks oaths. The business is only meeting fairly, and doing both with addrefs: and 'tis for the want of this, that Orlando is blamed. WARBURTON. So, in Northward Hoe, 1657: "-melancholick like a tilter, that had broke his faves foul before his miftrefs." STEEVENS. A puny tilter, that breaks bis ftaff like a noble goofe. Sir T. Hanmer altered this to a nofe-quill'd goofe, but no one feems to have regarded the alteration. Certainly nofe-quil'd is an epithet likely to be corrupted: it gives the image wanted, and may in a great measure be fupported by a quotation from Turberville's Falconrie. "Take with you a ducke, and flip one of her wing feathers, and having thruft it through her nares, throw her out unto your hawke." FARMER. all's brave, that youth mounts, and folly guides :Who comes here? Enter Corin. Cor. Mistress, and master, you have oft enquired After the fhepherd that complain'd of love; Whom you faw fitting by me on the turf, Praifing the proud difdainful fhepherdess That was his miftrefs. Cel. Well, and what of him? Cor. If you will fee a peageant truely play'd, Rof. O, come, let us remove; The fight of lovers feedeth those in love :- SCENE V. [Exeunt. Another part of the foreft. Enter Silvius, and Phebe. Sil. Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe: Say, that you love me not; but fay not fo In bitterness: The common executioner, Whose heart the accuftom'd fight of death makes hard, Again, in Philafter, by Beaumont and Fletcher: He shall for this time only be feel'd up 46 With a feather through bis nofe, that he may only Again, in the Booke of Hawkyng Huntyng, and Fyfbyng, &c. bl. 1. no date: "and with a pen put it in the haukes nares once or twice, &c." STEEVENS. Falls Falls not the axe upon the humbled neck, will you ferner be Than he that dies and lives by bloody drops ?] This is fpoken of the executioner. He lives indeed by bloody drops, if you will: but how does he die by bloody drops? The poet must certainly have wrote-that deals and lives, &c. i. e. that gets his bread by, and makes a trade of cutting off heads: but the Oxford editor makes it plainer. He reads: Than he that lives and thrives by bloody drops. Enter WARBURTON. Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word deals, wants its proper conftruction, or that of fir T. Hanmer, may ferve the purpofe; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read: Than he that dies his lips by bloody drops? Will you fpeak with more sternnefs than the executioner, whose lips are used to be sprinkled with blood? The mention of drops im plies fome part that must be sprinkled rather than dipped. JOHNSON. I am afraid our bard is at his quibbles again. To dye means as well to dip a thing in a colour foreign to its own, as to expire. In this fenfe, contemptible as it is, the the executioner may be faid to die as well as live by bloody drops. Shakspeare is fond of oppof," ing these terms to each other. In K. John is a play on words not unlike this: all with purpled bands 66 "Dy'd in the dying laughter of their focs." Camden has preserved an epitaph on a dyer, which has the fame turn: "He that dyed so oft in sport, So, Heywood, in his Epigrams, 1562: "Is thy husband a dyer, woman? alack, So, Puttenham, in his Art of Poetry, 1589: "We once fported upon a country fellow, who came to run for the best game, and was by his occupation a dyer, and had very big fwelling legs. Γ Enter Rofalind, Celia, and Corin. Phe. I would not be thy executioner; That eyes,-that are the frail'ft and fofteft things, Thy palm fome moment keeps: but now mine eyes, Sil. O dear Phebe, If ever (as that ever may be near) 1 "He is but coarse to run a course, "Whofe thanks are bigger than his thigh; "That often dyes before he die." "Where ye fee the words courfe and dye ufed in divers fenfes, one giving the rebound to the other." STEEVENS. He that lives and dies, i. e. he who to the very end of his life continues a common executioner. So, in the second scene of the fifth act of this play, "live and die a fhepherd." TOLLET. To die and live by a thing is to be conftant to it, to perfevere in it to the end. Lives therefore does not fignify is maintained, but the two verbs taken together mean, who is all his life converfant with bloody drops. MUSGRAVE. The cicatrice and capable impreffure] Cicatrice is here not very properly used; it is the fear of a wound. Capable impressure, bollow mark. JOHNSON. You You meet in fome fresh cheek the power of fancy s Phe. But, till that time, Come not thou near me: and, when that time comes, Rof. And why, I pray you? Who might be That you infult, exult, and all at once *, your 2 power of fancy,] Fancy is here ufed for love, as before in the Midfummer Night's Dream. See p. 105. alfo vol. ii. p. 323. JOHNSON. 3-Who might be your mother,] It is common for the poets to exprefs cruelty by faying, of those who commit it, that they were born of rocks, or fuckled by tigreffes. JOHNSON. 4 That you infult, exult, and all at once,] If the speaker intended to accuse the perfon spoken to only for infulting and exulting; then, instead of-all at once, it ought to have been, both at once. But by examining the crime of the perfon accused, we fhall difcover that the line is to be read thus: That you infult, exult, and rail at once. For thefe three things Phebe was guilty of. But the Oxford editor improves it, and, for rail at ence, reads domineer. WARBURTON. I fee no need of emendation. The fpeaker may mean thus Who might be your mother, that you infult, exult, and that too all in a breath. Such is perhaps the meaning of all at once. STEEVENS. S what though you have no beauty,] Though all the printed copies agree in this reading, it is very accurately obferved to me by an ingenious unknown correfpondent, who figns himfelf L. H. (and to whom I can only here make my acknowledgement) that the negative ought to be left out. THEOBALD. I confider this the old reading as a humorous way of expreff ing her little fhare of beauty, or her foulncfs, as the fame perfon calls it afterwards, and hints it again. So in Ben Jonson's Alchemift, act i. fc. 1: 66 --a thin thredden cloke "That scarce would cover your no-buttocks." ToLLET. That the reading of the old copy is wrong, appears very clear. ly from the paffage in Lodge's Rofalynde, which Shakspeare has here |