Prin. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do,
If they return in their own shapes to woo?

Ros. Good madam, if by me you 'll be advis'd,
Let's mock them still, as well known, as disguis'd:
Let us complain to them what fools were here,
Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear;2
And wonder, what they were; and to what end
Their shallow shows, and prologue vilely penn'd,
And their rough carriage so ridiculous,
Should be presented at our tent to us.

Boyet. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand.
Prin. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land.

[Exeunt Princess,3 Ros. KATH. and MAR. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, in their proper habits.

King. Fair sir, God save you! Where is the princess? Boyet. Gone to her tent: Please it your majesty, Command me any service to her thither?

King. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word. Boyet. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord. [Exit. Biron. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas;4 And utters it again when God doth please.

the sun. Ladies unmask'd, says Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting those clouds which obscured their brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd or contemptible?

Johnson.

Holinshed's History of Scotland, p. 91, says: "The Britains began to avale the hills where they had lodged." i. e. they began to descend the hills, or come down from them to meet their enemies. If Shakspeare uses the word vailing in this sense, the meaning is-Angels descending from clouds which concealed their beauties; but Dr. Johnson's exposition may be better. Tollet. To avale comes from the Fr. aval [Terme de batelier] Down, downward, down the stream. So, in the French Romant de la Rose, v. 1415:

"Leaue aloit aval enfaisant

"Son melodieux et plaisant."

Again, in Laneham's Narrative of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle, 1575: “. -as on a sea-shore when the water is avail'd." Steevens.

2

shapeless gear;] Shapeless, for uncouth, or what Shakspeare elsewhere calls diffused. Warburton.

3 Exeunt Princess, &c.] Mr. Theobald ends the fourth Act here.

Johnson.

He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares

5

At wakes, and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs:
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
He can carve too, and lisp: Why, this is he,
That kiss'd away his hand in courtesy:
This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice

4 — pecks up wit, as pigeons peas;] This expression is proverbial:

"Children pick up words as pigeons peas,

"And utter them again as God shall please."

See Ray's Collection. Steevens.

Pecks is the reading of the first quarto. The folio has-picks. That pecks is the true reading, is ascertained by one of Nashe's tracts; Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 1594: "The sower scattered some seede by the highway side, which the foules of the ayre peck'd up." Malone.

5

-wassels,] Wassels were meetings of rustic mirth and intemperance. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

Antony,

"Leave thy lascivious wassels”

See note on Macbeth, Act I, sc. vii. Steevens.

Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a salutation first used by the Lady Rowena to King Vortiger. Afterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth-night, to carry a wassel or waissail bowl from house to house, which was presented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in process of time wassel signified intemperance in drinking, and also a meeting for the purpose of festivity. Malone.

6 He can carve too, and lisp:] The character of Boyet, as drawn by Biron, represents an accomplished squire of the days of chivalry, particularly in the instances here noted.-"Le Jeune Ecuyer apprenoit long-temps dans le silence cet art de bien parler, lorsqu'en qualité d'Ecuyer TRANCHANT, il étoit debout dans les repas & dans les festins, occupé à couper les viandes avec la propreté, l'addresse & l'elegance convenables, et à les faire distribuer aux nobles convives dont il étoit environné. Joinville, dans sa jeunesse, avoit rempli à la cour de Saint Louis cet office, qui, dans les maisons des Souverains, étoit quelquefois exercé par leurs propres enfans." Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie, Tom. I, p. 16. Henley.

"I cannot cog, (says Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor) and say, thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping hawthorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel-." Malone.

In honourable terms; nay, he can sing

7

A mean most meanly; and, in ushering,

Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet:
This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whales bone: 8
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.

King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, That put Armado's page out of his part!

7 A mean most meanly; &c.] The mean in musick, is the tenor. So, Bacon: "The treble cutteth the air so sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal; and therefore a mean or tenor is the sweetest."

Again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622:

"Thus sing we descant on one plain-song, kill:
"Four parts in one; the mean excluded quite."

Again, in Drayton's Barons' Wars. Cant. iii.

"The base and treble married to the mean."

Steevens.

8-as white as whales bone:] As white as whales bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. In The Fairy Queen, B. III, c. i, st. 15:

"Whose face did seem as clear as crystal stone,

"And eke, through feare, as white as whales bone."

Again 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. T. Warton. as whales bone:] The Saxon genitive case. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

"Swifter than the moones sphere."

It should be remember'd that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a 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." Steevens.

This white whale his bone, now superseded by ivory, was the tooth of the Horse-whale, Morse, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon translation of Orosius. H. White.

Enter the Princess, usher'd by BOYET; ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants.

Biron. See where it comes!-Behaviour, what wert

thou,

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now? 9
King. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!
Prin. Fair, in all hail, is foul, as I conceive.
King. Construe my speeches better, if you may.
Prin. Then wish me better, I will give you leave.
King. We came to visit you; and purpose now

To lead you to our court: vouchsafe it then.
Prin. This field shall hold me; and so hold your vow:
Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur❜d men.

King. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke; The virtue of your eye must break my oath.1

Prin. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure
As the unsullied lily, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,
I would not yield to be your house's guest:

So much I hate a breaking-cause to be
Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.

9 Behaviour, what wert thou,

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?] These are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves so much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modest silent accomplishment under the direction of nature and common sense, which does its office in promoting social life without being taken notice of. But that when it degenerates into show and parade, it becomes an unmanly contemptible quality. Warburton.

What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprized in the quotation. Johnson.

Till this man show'd thee?] The old copies read-" Till this mad man," &c. Steevens.

An error of the press. The word mad must be struck out. M. Mason.

1 The virtue of your eye must break my oath.] I believe our 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.

King. O, you have liv'd in desolation here,` Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.

Prin. Not so, my lord: it is not so, I swear;

We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game; A mess of Russians left us but of late.

King. How, madam? Russians?

Prin.

Ay, in truth, my lord; Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state.

Ros. Madam, speak true:-It is not so my lord;
My lady, (to the manner of the days)

In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.2
We four, indeed, confronted were with four
In Russian habit: here they stay'd an hour,
And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,
They did not bless us with one happy word.
I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.
Biron. This jest is dry to me.-Fair, gentle sweet,3
Your wit makes wise things foolish; when we greet
With eyes best seeing heaven's fiery eye,

By light we lose light: Your capacity

Is of that nature, that to your huge store
Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor.

2 My lady, (to the manner of the days)

In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.] To the manner of the days, means according to the manner of the times.-Gives undeserving praise, means praise to what does not deserve it.

M. Mason.

3 Fair, gentle sweet,] The word fair, which is wanting in the two elder copies, was restored by the second folio. Mr. Malone reads "My gentle sweet."

"My fair, sweet honey monarch" occurs in this very scene, p. 137. Steevens.

Sweet is generally used as a substantive by our author, in his addresses to ladies. So, in The Winter's Tale:

66 When you speak, sweet,

"I'd have you do it ever."

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:

"And now, good sweet, say thy opinion."

Again, in Othello:

66 O, my sweet,

"I prattle out of tune."

The editor of the second folio, with less probability, (as it appears to me) reads-fair, gentle sweet. Malone.

when we greet &c.] This is a very lofty and elegant compliment. Johnson.