I was; I told him, of as good as he fo he laugh'd, and let me go. But what talk we of fathers, when there is fuch a man as Orlando? 8 Cel. O, that's a brave man! he writes brave verses, fpeaks brave words, fwears brave oaths, and breaks them bravely, quite traverse, athwart the heart of his lover; as a puny tilter, that spurs his horse but on one fide, breaks his staff like a noble goofe : but all's 8-quite traverse, athwart &c.] An unexperienced lover is here compared to a puny tilter, to whom it was a difgrace to have his lance broken acrofs, 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 phrafe of fpurring the horfe 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 reafon 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, And to break across was the ufual phrafe, as appears from fome wretched verses of the fame author, fpeaking of an unskilful tilter: &c. "Methought fome flaves he mift: if fo, not much amifs: Oue 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 bufinefs 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 flaves 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 upto 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 mistress. 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 :shall fay Bring us but to this fight, and you I'll prove a busy actor in their play. SCENE V. Another part of the foreft. Enter Silvius, and Phebe. [Exeunt. Sil. Sweet Phebe, do not scorn me; do not, Phebe: Say, that you love me not; but say not fo In bitterness: The common executioner, Whose heart the accuftom'd fight of death makes hard, Again, in Philafler, by Beaumont and Fletcher: He fhall 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 ?] Enter 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. WARBURTON. Either Dr. Warburton's emendation, except that the word deals, wants its proper conftruction, or that of fir T. Hanmer, may serve the purpose; but I believe they have fixed corruption upon the wrong word, and should rather read: Than be that dies his lips by bloody drops? Will you fpeak with more fternnefs than the executioner, whofe lips are ufed to be fprinkled with blood? The mention of drops implies 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: 66 all with purpled bands "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 fo oft in fport, Dyed at laft no colour for't." So, Heywood, in his Epigrams, 1562: "Is thy husband a dyer, woman? alack, "Had he no colour to dye thee on but black? "Dieth he oft? yea, too oft when customers call; 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. Enter Rofalind, Celia, and Corin. Phe. I would not be thy executioner; -- That eyes, that are the frail'ft and fofteft things, Now fhew the wound mine eyes hath made in thee; The cicatrice and capable impreffure Thy palm fome moment keeps: but now mine eyes, That can do hurt. 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; "Yet is his luck a little worfe "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 fecond 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 impreffure, bol low mark. JOHNSON. You You meet in fome fresh cheek the power of fancy Phe. But, till that time, Come not thou near me: and, when that time comes, Afflict me with thy mocks, pity me not; As, till that time, I fhall not pity thee. Rof. And why, I pray you? Who might be your That you infult, exult, and all at once, (As, -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 thofe 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 accufe the perfon spoken to only for infulting and exulting; then, instead ofall at once, it ought to have been, both at once. But by examining the crime of the perfon accused, we shall difcover that the line is to be read thus: That you infult, exult, and rail at once. For these three things Phebe was guilty of. But the Oxford edi tor 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. 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 figus 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 perfor calls it afterwards, and hints it again. So in Ben Jonfon'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 clearly from the paffage in Lodge's Rofalynde, which Shakspeare has herc |
