Quem recitas, meus eft, o Fidentine, libellus; THEOB.* L. 15.- but I answer you right painted cloth.] This alludes to the fashion, in old Tapestry hangings, of Motto's and moral Sentences from the mouths of the figures work'd or painted in them. The poet again hints at this cuftom. in his poem call'd, Tarquin and Lucrece : Who fears a Sentence, or an old man's faw, Shall by a painted Cloth be kept in awe. THEOB.. Ibid.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, I answer you right, in the ftile of the painted cloth. Something feems wanting, and I know not what can be propofed better. JOHNS. P. 476. 1. 16. inland man.] Is ufed in this play for one. ivilifed, in oppofition to the ruftick of the priest. So Orlando before" Yet am I inland bred, and know fome nurture." JOHNS. P. 477. 1. 10. an unquestionable spirit.] That is, a fpirit not inquifitive, a mind indifferent to common objects, and negligent of common occurrences. Here Shakespeare has ufed a paffive for an active mode of fpeech: fo in a former fcene, The Duke is too difputable for me, that is, too dif putatious. JOHNS. Ibid.] May it not mean unwilling to be converfed with? CHAMIER. P. 478, 1. 15. -to a living humour of madness.] If this be the true reading we muft by living understand lafting, or permanent, but I cannot forbear to think that fome antithefis was intended which is now loft; perhaps the paffage ftood thus, I drove my fuitor from a dying humour of love to a living humour of madness. Or rather thus, from a mad humour of love to a loving bumour of madness, that is, from a madness that was love, to a love that was madness. This feems fomewhat harsh and ftrained, but fuch modes of speech are not unufual in our poet: and this harfhness was probably the caufe of the corruption. JOHNS. P. 479. 1. 6.]Capricious, is not here humourfome, fantastical, &c. but lafcivious: Hor. Epod. 10. Libidinofus immolabitur: caper. The Goths, are the Getæ: Ovid. Trift. V. 7. The thatch'd houfe, is that of Baucis and Philemon, Ovid.. Met. VIII, 630.. Stipulis et cannâ tecta paluftri. UPTON.* L. 11. ftrikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. om.] Nothing was ever wrote in higher humour than this fimile. A great reckoning, in a little room, implies that the entertainment was mean, and the bill exttavagant. The poet here alluded to the French proverbial phrase "of the quarter of an hour of Rabelais :" who faid, there was only one quarter of hour in human life paffed ill, and that was between the calling for the reckoning and paying it. Yet the delicacy of our Oxford editor would correct this into, It ftrikes a man more dead than a great reeking in a little room. This is amending with a vengeance. When men are joking together in a merry humour, all are disposed to laugh. One of the company fays a good thing; the jeft is not taken; all are filent, and he who faid it, quite confounded. This is compared to a tavern jollity interrupted by the coming in of a great reckoning. Had not Shakespeare reafon now in this cafe to apply his fimile, to his own cafe, against his critical editor? Who, 'tis plain, taking the phrase to ftrike dead in a literal fenfe, concluded, from his knowledge in philofophy, that it could not be fo effectually done by a reckoning as by a recking. WARB. L. 16. •and what they fwear in poetry, &c.] This fentence feems perplexed and inconfequent, perhaps it were better read thus, "What they fwear as lovers they may be faid to feign as poets." L. 27. A material fool!] A fool with matter in him; a JOHNS. fool ftocked with notions. JOHNS. P. 480..1. 3. By foul is meant coy or frowning. What tho' ?] What then. HAN M. L. 13. L. 25. Sir Oliver.] He that has taken his first degree at the univerfity, is in the academical stile called Dominus, and in common language was heretofore termed Sir. This was not always a word of contempt; the graduates affumed it in their own writings; fo Trevifa the hiftorian writes himself Syr John de Trevifa. JOHNS. P. 481. L. 22. Not O fweet Oliver, O brave, &c.] Some words of an old ballad. WARB. Of this fpeech, as it now appears, I can make nothing, and think nothing can be made. In the fame breath he calls his mistress to be married, and fends away the man that should marry them. Dr. Warburton has very happily obferved, that O fweet Oliver is a quotation from an old fong; I believe there are two quotations put in oppofition to each other. For wind I read wend, the old word for go. Perhaps the whole paffage may be regulated thus, Clo. "I am not in the mind, but it were better for me to be married of him than of another, for he is not like to. marry me well, and not being well married it will be a good excufe for me hereafter to leave my wife. Come, fweet Audrey, we must be married, or we must live in bawdry." Jaq. "Go thou with me, and let me counfel thee." [they whisper. Clo. "Farewel, good Sir Oliver," not O fweet Oliver, brave Oliver, leave me not behind thee, but Wend away, I will not to wedding with thee to-day. Of this conjecture the reader may take as muc has fhall appear neceffary to the fenfe, or conducive to the humour.JOHN. Ibid. This paffage is thus regulated by Mr. Capel, Clo. I am not in the mind but I were better to be married of him than of another: for he is not like to marry me well; and not being well married, it will be a good excufe for me hereafter to leave my wife." Jaq. Go thou with me, and let me counsel thee. [afide. We must be marry'd, or we must live in bawdry. Not, O fweet Oliver, O brave Oliver, Leave me not behind thee; But wind away, Begone, I fay, I will not to wedding with thee. P. 482. 1. 8. There is much of nature in this pretty per verfenefs of Rofalind; fhe finds faults in her lover, in hope to be contradicted, and when Celia in fportive malice too readily feconds her accufations, fhe contradicts herself, rather than fuffer her favourite to want a vindication. JoнN. as the touch of holy bread] We should read beard, L. 12. that is, as the kifs of an holy faint or hermit, called the kifs of charity: This makes the comparison just and decent; the other impious and abfurd. WARB. L. 14. a nun of Winter's fifterhood] What idea does a nun of Winter's fifterhood give us? tho' I have not ventur'd to disturb the text, it feems more probable to me that the poet wrote; A nun of Winifred's fifterhood, &c. Not, indeed, that there was any real religious order of that denomination; but the legend of St.. Winifred is this. She was a chriftian virgin at Holywell a fmall town in Flintfhire, fo tenacious of her chastity, that when a tyrannous governor laid fiege to her, he could not reduce her to compliance, but was obliged to ravish, and afterwards beheaded her in revenge of her obftinacy. This tradition forts very well with our poet's allufion. THEOE. Ibid] a nun of Winter's fifter-bood] This is finely expreffed. But Mr. Theobald fays, the words give bim no idea. And 'tis certain, that words will never give men what nature has denied them. However, to mend the matter, he fubftitutes Winifred's fifterhood. And, after fo happy a thought, it was to no purpose to tell him there was no religious order of that denomination. The plain truth is, Shakespeare meant an unfruitful fifterhood, which had devoted itself to chastity. For as thofe who were of the fifterhood of the fpring were the votaries of Venus; those of fummer, the votaries of Ceres; thofe of autumn, of Pomona; fo thefe of the fifterhood of winter were the votaries of Diana: Called, of winter, because that quarter is not, like the other three, productive of fruit or increase. On this account, it is, that, when the poet speaks, of what is moft poor, he inftances in winter, in thefe fine lines of Othello, But riches endlefs is as poor as winter To him that ever fears he shall be poor. The other property of winter that made him term them of its fifterhood is its coldness. So in Midfummer Night's Dream, To be a barren fifter all your life, Chanting fait hymns to the cold fruitless moon. WARB.. L. 22. •as concave as a cover'd goblet,] Why a cover'd ? Because a goblet is never kept cover'd but when empty. Shakespeare never throws out his expreffions at random. WARB.. Ibid.] If Shakespeare does not, I am afraid Mr. Warburton does; for he here afferts a thing, in which every young lady,. who has been at a ball, can contradict him; that a goblet is. never kept cover'd, but when empty. And, though Mr.. Warburton does not frequent thofe affemblies; yet there are a great many other inftances, where it may be very proper to cover a cup, that is not empty; as if people are apt to preach over their liquor, or if there fhould be more than the company cares to drink at the prefent. In thefe, and other like cafes, it is lawful and ufual to put on the cover to keep. out flies or duft; and to prevent the bishop, negus, or whatever liquor, from dying. CAN. P. 483. 1. 5. quite travers, 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 spurring the barfe 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 Clinias and Dametas fays, the wind took fuch bold of his ftaff 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 faves be mift: if fo, not much amifs: One faid he brake across, full well it fo might be, &c. This is the allufion. So that Orlando, a young gallant, af fecting the fashion (for brave is here ufed, as in other places, for fashionable) is reprefented either unfilful in courtship, or timorous. The lover's meeting or appointment corresponds to the tilter's career: And as the one breaks ftaves, the ather, breaks oaths. The bufinefs is only meeting fairly,, |