Arm. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, (which is a great argument of falshood,) if I love: And how can that be true love, which is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; love is a devil: there is no evil angel but love. Yet Sampson was so tempted: and he had an excellent strength: yet was Solomon so seduced; and he had a very good wit. Cupid's butt-shaft3 is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello he regards not: his disgrace is to be called boy; but his glory is, to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust, rapier !5 be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me some extemporal god of rhyme, for, I am sure, I shall turn sonneteer." Devise wit; write pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio. [Exit. 2 affect-] i. e. love. So, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. XII, ch. lxxiv: 3 "But this I know, not Rome affords whom more you might affect, "Than her," &c. Steevens. butt-shaft] i. e. an arrow to shoot at butts with. The butt was the place on which the mark to be shot at was placed. Thus, Othello says 66 here is my butt, "And very sea-mark of my utmost sail." Steevens. 4 The first and second cause will not serve my turn;] See the last act of As you like it, with the notes. Johnson. 5 66 rust, rapier!] So, in All's well that ends well: Rust, sword! "cool blushes, and Parolles, live!" Steevens. 6 — sonneteer.] The old copies read only-sonnet. Steevens. The emendation is Sir T. Hanmer's. Malone. ACT II....SCENE I. Another part of the same. A Pavilion and Tents at a distance. Enter the Princess of France, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, lords, and other attendants. Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits:7 Consider who the king your father sends; To whom he sends; and what 's his embassy: Of all perfections that a man may owe, Prin. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues:" 7 -your dearest spirits:] Dear, in our author's language, has many shades of meaning. In the present instance and the next, it appears to signify-best, most powerful. Steevens. 8 Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;] Rowe has bor. rowed and dignified this sentiment in his Royal Convert. The Saxon Princess is the speaker: "Whate'er I am "Is of myself, by native worth existing, "Nor let it seem too proud a boast, if minds By nature great, are conscious of their greatness, "And hold it mean to borrow aught from flattery." 9 Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues:] So, in our author's 102d Sonnet: "That love is merchandiz'd, whose rich esteeming "The owner's tongue doth publish every where." Malone. Chapman here seems to signify the seller, not, as now com I am less proud to hear you tell my worth, To know his pleasure; and in that behalf, Tell him, the daughter of the king of France, Who are the votaries, my loving lords, That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? 1 Lord. Longaville is one. Prin. Know you the man? Mar. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Falconbridge solémnized, In Normandy saw I this Longaville: A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;3 monly, the buyer. Cheap or cheaping was anciently the market; chapman therefore is marketman. The meaning is, that the estimation of beauty depends not on the uttering or proclamation of the seller, but on the eye of the buyer. Johnson. 1 Bold of your worthiness,] i. e. confident of it. Steevens. 2 Longaville-] For the sake of manners as well as metre, we ought to read-Lord Longaville -. Steevens. 3 A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;] Thus the folio. The first quarto, 1598, has the line thus: "A man of sovereign peerlesse, he 's esteem'd.", I believe, the author wrote: "A man of,-sovereign, peerless, he 's esteem'd." A man of extraordinary accomplishments, the speaker perhaps would have said, but suddenly checks herself; and adds “sove. Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms: (If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil) Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will; Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth, Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd; Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill; And much too little of that good I saw, Is my report, to his great worthiness. reign, peerless, he 's esteem'd." So, before: "Matchless Na varre." Again, in The Tempest: 66 but you, O you, "So perfect, and so peerless, are created." In the old copies no attention seems to have been given to abrupt sentences. They are almost uniformly printed corruptly, without any mark of abruption. Thus, in Much Ado about Nothing, we find both in the folio and quarto: ". but for the stuffing well, we are all mortal." Perhaps our author wrote: Malone. "A man, a sovereign pearl, he is esteem'd." i. e. not only a pearl, but such a one as is pre-eminently valuable. In Troilus and Cressida Helen is called-"a pearl," and in Macbeth the nobles of Scotland are styled-"the kingdom's pearl."The phrase" a sovereign pearl" may also be countenanced by -"captain jewels in a carcanet," an expression which occurs in one of our author's Sonnets. Sovereign parts, however, is a kin to royalty of nature, a phrase that occurs in Macbeth. Steevens. * Well fitted in the arts,] Well fitted is well qualified." Johnson. The, which is not in the old copies, was added for the sake of the metre, by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 5 - match'd with —] Is combined or joined with. Johnson. And much too little &c.] i. e. And my report of the good I saw, is much too little compared to his great worthiness. Heath Ros. Another of these students at that time Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love; With such bedecking ornaments of praise? Prin. Re-enter BOYET. Now, what admittance, lord? Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach; And he, and his competitors in oath,7 Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady, (Like one that comes here to besiege his court) To let you enter his unpeopled house. [The ladies mask. Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRON, and attendants. King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Navarre. Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and, welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wild fields too base to be mine. 7 competitors in oath,] i. e. confederates. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate "Our great competitor." Steevens... & Were all address'd-] To address is to prepare. So, in Hamlet: It lifted up its head, and did address "Itself to motion." Steevens. |