With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest, 'tis my familiar sin With maids to seem the lapwing,] The Oxford editor's note on this passage is in these words: The lapwings fly, with seeming fright and anxiety, far from their nests, to deceive those who seek their young. And do not all other birds do the same? But what has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this bird is compared? It is another quality of the lapwing that is here alluded to, viz. its perpetually flying so low and so near the passenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is suddenly gore again. This made it a proverbial expression to signify a lover's falshood: and it seems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, says: 66 And lapwings that well conith lie." Warburton. The modern editors have not taken in the whole similitude here: they have taken notice of the lightness of a spark's behaviour to his mistress, and compared it to the lapwing's hovering and fluttering as it flies. But the chief, of which no notice is taken, is,-". and to jest." (See Ray's Proverbs) "The lapwing cries, tongue far from heart." i. e. most farthest from the nest, i. e. She is, as Shakspeare has it here,—Tongue far from beart. "The farther she is from her nest, where her heart is with her young ones, she is the louder, or perhaps all tongue." Smith. Shakspeare has an expression of the like kind, in his Comedy of Errors: "Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries away; "My heart prays for him, though my tonguedo curse." We meet with the same thought in Lyly's Campaspe, (1584); from whence Shakspeare might borrow it: "Alex. you resemble the lapwing, who crieth most where her nest is not, and so, to lead me from espying your love for Campaspe, you cry Timoclea." Grey. 5 I would not-though 'tis my familiar sin With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest, Tongue far from heart,-play with all virgins so: &c.] This passage has been pointed in the modern editions thus: 'Tis true:-I would not (though 'tis my familiar sin With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest, Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins so: I hold you, &c. According to this punctuation, Lucio is made to deliver a sentiment directly opposite to that which the author intended. Though 'tis my common practice to jest with and to deceive all virgins, I would not so play with all virgins. The sense, as I have regulated my text, appears to me clear and easy. 'Tis very true, (says he) I ought indeed, as you say, to proceed at once to my story. Be assured. I would not mock you. Ff VOL. III. I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and sainted; As with a saint. Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus: Your brother and his lover" have embrac'd: As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,3 Though it is my familiar practice to jest with maidens, and, like the lapwing, to deceive them by my insincere prattle, though, I say, it is my ordinary and habitual practice to sport in this manner with all virgins, yet I should never think of treating you so, for I consider you, in consequence of your having renounced the world, as an immortal spirit, as one to whom I ought to speak with as much sincerity as if I were addressing a saint. Malone. Mr. Malone complains of a contradiction which I cannot find in the speech of Lucio. He has not said that it is his practice to jest with and deceive all virgins. "Though (says he) it is my practice with maids to seem the lapwing, I would not play with all virgins so ;". meaning that she herself is the exception to his usual practice. Though he has treated other women with levity, he is serious in his address to her. Steevens. • Fewness and truth, &c.] i. e. in few words, and those true ones. In few, is many times thus used by Shakspeare. Steevens. Your brother and his lover-] i. e. his mistress; lover, in our author's time, being applied to the female as well as the male sex. Thus, one of his poems, containing the lamentation of a deserted maiden, is entitled, "A Lover's Complaint." So, in Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatory, bl. 1. no date: "—he spide the fetch, and perceived that all this while this was his lover's husband, to whom he had revealed these escapes." That from the seedness the bare fallow brings Malone. To teeming foison; even so-] As the sentence now stands, it is apparently ungrammatical. I read, At blossoming time, &c. That is, As they that feed grow full, so her womb now at blossoming time, at that time through which the seed time proceeds to the harvest, her womb shows what has been doing. Lucio ludicrously calls pregrancy blossoming time, the time when fruit is promised, though not yet ripe. Johnson. Instead of that, we may read-doth; and, instead of brings, bring. Foizon is plenty. So, in The Tempest: nature should bring forth, "Of its own kind, all foizon," &c. Teeming foizon, is abundant produce. Steevens. That from the seedness the bare fallow brings Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin Juliet? Lucio. Is she your cousin? Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection. Lucio. She it is. Isab. O, let him marry her! Governs lord Angelo; a man, whose blood The passage seems to me to require no amendment; and the meaning of it is this: "As blossoming time proves the good tillage of the farmer, so the fertility of her womb expresses Claudio's full tilth and husbandry." By blossoming time is meant, the time when the ears of corn are formed. M. Mason. This sentence, as Dr. Johnson has observed, is apparently ungrammatical. I suspect two half lines have been lost. Perhaps however an imperfect sentence was intended, of which there are many instances in these plays:—or, as might have been used in the sense of like. Tilth is tillage. So, in our author's 3d Sonnet: "For who is she so fair, whose unear'd womb "Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?" Malone. Bore many gentlemen, In hand, and hope of action:] To bear in band is a common phrase for to keep in expectation and dependance; but we should read: with hope of action. Johnson. So, in Macbeth: "How you were borne in hand," &c. Steevens. 1 with full line ] With full extent, with the whole length. Johnson, Bu doth rebate and blunt his natural edge Which have, for long, run by the hideous law, And follows close the rigour of the statute, Lucio. Has censur'd hims Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath A warrant for his execution. Isab. Alas! what poor ability 's in me To do him good? Lucio. Assay the power you have. Isab. My power! Alas! I doubt,— 2 to give fear to use ] To intimidate use, that is, praetices long countenanced by custom. Johnson. 3 Unless you have the grace-] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour. So, when she makes her suit, the provost says: 4 "Heaven give thee moving graces!" Johnson. my pith Of business] The inmost part, the main of my message. So, in Hamlet: "And enterprizes of great pith and moment." Johnson. Steevens. 5 Has censur'd him—] i. e. sentenced him. So, in Othello: to you, lord governor, 66 "Remains the censure of this hellish villain." Steevens. We should read, I think, He bas censured bim, &c. In the MSS. of our author's time, and frequently in the printed copy of these plays, he has, when intended to be contracted, is writtenb'as. Hence probably the mistake here. So, in Othello, 4to. 1622: "And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets Again, in All's well that ends well, p. 247, folio 1623, we find H'as twice, for He has. See also, Twelfth Night, p. 258, edit. 1623: 65 b'as been told so," for " he has been told so." Malone. Lucio. Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, As they themselves would owe them.7 Isab. I'll see what I can do. Lucio. But, speedily. Isab. I will about it straight; Good sir, adieu. [Exeunt. ACT II.....SCENE I. A Hall in ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost, Ang. We must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,1 6 All their petitions are as freely theirs -] All their requests are as freely granted to them, are granted in as full and beneficial a manner, as they themselves could wish. The editor of the second folio arbitrarily reads-as truly theirs; which has been followed in all the subsequent copies. Malone. 7 would owe them.] To owe, signifies in this place, as in many others, to possess, to have. Steevens. 8 the mother -] The abbess, or prioress. Johnson. Provost,] A provost martial, Minshieu explains, "Prevost des mareschaux: Præfectus rerum capitalium, Prætor rerum capitalium." Reed. A provost is generally the executioner of an army. So, in The Famous History of The. Stukely, 1605, bl. 1: 66 Provost, lay irons upon him, and take him to your charge Again, in The Virgin Martyr, by Massinger: |