505. This is the flower that smiles on every one,] The broken disjointed metaphor is a fault in writing. But in order to pass a true judgment on this fault, it is still to be observed, that when a metaphor is grown so common as to desert, as it were, the figurative, and to be received into the common style, then what may be affirmed of the thing represented, or the substance, may be affirmed of the thing representing, or the image. To illustrate this by the instance before us, a very complaisant, finical, over-gracious person, was so commonly called the flower, or, as he elsewhere expresses it, the pink of courtesy, that in common talk, or in the lowest style, this metaphor might be used without keeping up the image, but any thing affirmed of it as an agnomen: hence it might be said, without offence, to smile, to flatter, &c. And the reason is this in the more solemn, less-used metaphors, our mind is so turned upon the image which the metaphor conveys, that it expects this image should be, for some little time, continued by terms proper to keep it in view. And if, for want of these terms, the image be no sooner presented than dismissed, the mind suffers a kind of violence by being drawn off abruptly and unexpectedly from its contemplation. Hence it is, that the broken, disjointed, and mixed metaphor, so much shocks us. But when it is once become worn and hacknied by common use, then even the very first mention of it is not apt to excite in us the representative image; but brings immediately before us the idea of the thing represented. And

then

then to endeavour to keep up and continue the borrowed ideas, by right adapted terms, would have as ill an effect on the other hand; because the mind is already gone off from the image to the substance. Grammarians would do well to consider what has been here said, when they set upon amending Greek and Roman writings. For the much-used hacknied metaphors being now very imperfectly known, great care is required not to act in this case temerariously. WARBURTON.

This is the flower that smiles on every one,

To shew his teeth as white as whale's bone.] As white as whale's bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. In the Faery Queen, B. III. c. 1. st. 15. "Whose face did seem as clear as crystal stone, "And eke, through feare, as white as whales bone."

And in L. Surrey, fol. 14. edit. 1567:

"I might perceive a wolf, as white as whales bone, "A fairer beast of fresher hue, beheld I never

none."

Skelton joins the whales bone with the brightest precious stones, in describing the position of Pallas: "A hundred steppes mounting to the halle, "One of jasper, another of whales bone; "Of diamantes, pointed by the rokky walle.”

Crowne of Lawrell, p. 24, edit. 1736.

WARTON.

It should be remembered that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a

whale.

whale. The same simile occurs in the old black letter

romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date: "The erle had no chylde but one,

"A mayden as white as whales bone."

And in many other passages.

STEEVENS.

522. The virtue of your eye must break my oath.] I believe the author means, that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, must dissolve the obligation of the oath. The princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part of the ambiguity. JOHNSON. 583. Three-pil'd hyperboles,] A metaphor from the pile of velvet. So, in the Winter's Tale, Autolycus says,

"I have worn three-pile."

STEEVENS.

spruce affectation,] The old copies read affection. There is no need of change. We already in this play have had affection for affectation;-" witty without affection." The word was used by our author and his contemporaries, as a quadrisyllable.

MALONE.

592. Sans, sans, I pray you.] It is scarce worth remarking, that the conceit here is obscured by the punctuation. It should be written Sans SANS, i. e. without SANS; without French words: an affectation of which Biron had been guilty in the last line of his speech, though just before he had forsworn all affectation in phrases, terms, &c. TYRWHITT.

596. Write, &c.] This was the inscription put upon the door of the houses infected with the plague,

to

to which Biron compares the love of himself and his companions; and pursuing the metaphor, finds the tokens likewise on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or discolorations, by which the infection is known to be received. JOHNSON.

So, in Histriomastix, 1610:

"It is as dangerous to read his name on a playdoor, as a printed bill on a plague door."

Again, in the Whore of Babylon, 1607:

"Have tokens stamp'd on them to make them known,

"More dreadful than the bills that preach the plague." STEEVENS.

That you stand forfeit, being those that sue ?] That is, how can those be liable to forfeiture, that begin the process? The jest lies in the ambiguity of sue, which signifies to prosecute by law, or to offer a petition. JOHNSON.

621. you force not to forswear.] You force not, is the same with you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with less reluctance. JOHNSON. So, in Warner's Albion's England, B. X. ch. 59. -he forced not to hide how he did err." STEEVENS.

66

641.

consent,] . e. a conspiracy. So, in

King Henry VI. Part I.

"l -the stars

"That have consented to king Henry's death."

644.

STEEVENS.

zany,] A zany is a buffoon, a merry Andrew, a gross mimick. So, in Antonio's Revenge,

1602:

"Laughs them to scorn, as man doth busy apes, "When they will zany men."

646. -smiles his cheek in years ;

STEEVENS, -] In years,

signifies, into wrinkles. So, in The Merchant of Ve

nice:

"With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come." See the note on that line. WARBURTON. Webster, in his Dutchesse of Malfy, makes Castruchio declare of his lady: "She cannot endure merry company, for she says much laughing fills her too full of the wrinckle." FARMER.

Again, in Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue, &c. 1607:

"That light and quick, with wrinkled laughter painted." STEEVENS.

-some Dick,

Who smiles his cheek in years:] Smiling his cheek is sufficiently supported by the instances produced; but the phrase of "smiling his cheek in years" (even after Dr. Warburton's interpretation) is so harsh, that I suspect our author wrote--in jeers (formerly written jeeres.) The old copy has yeeres; so that there is but the change of one letter for another nearly resembling it.

3

Out-roaring