Her and her blind boy's scandal'd company I have forsworn. Iris. Of her society Be not afraid; I met her deity, Cutting the clouds towards Paphos; and her son Whose vows are, that no bed-rite shall be paid, Mars's hot minion is return'd again: Her waspish-headed son has broke his arrows, Swears he will shoot no more, but play with sparrows, And be a boy right out. Cer. Highest queen of state," Great Juno comes; I know her by her gait. Enter JUNO. Jun. How does my bounteous sister? Go with me, To bless this twain, that they may prosperous be, And honour'd in their issue. SONG. JUNO. Honour, riches, marriage-blessing, Juno sings her blessings on you, 6 Highest queen of state, Great Funo comes; I know her by her gait.] Mr. Whalley thinks this passage a remarkable instance of Shakspeare's knowledge of ancient poetic story; and that the hint was furnished, by the Divum incedo Regina of Virgil. John Taylor, the water-poet, declares, that he never learned his Accidence, and that Latin and French were to him Heathen Greek; yet, by the help of Mr. Whalley's argument, I will prove him a learned man, in spite of every thing he may say to the contrary: for thus he makes a gallant address his lady; "Most inestimable magazine of beauty? in whom the port and majesty of Juno, the wisdom of Jove's brain-bred girle, and the feature of Cytherea, have their domestical habitation." Farmer. So, in The Arraignement of Paris, 1584: "First statelie Juno, with her porte and grace." Chapman also, in his version of the second Iliad, speaking of Juno, calls her 66 - the goddesse of estate." Steevens. 8 Cer. Earth's increase," and foison plenty, 9 Fer. This is a most majestic vision, and Harmonious charmingly: May I be bold To think these spirits? Pro. Spirits, which by mine art 7 Earth's increase, and foison plenty, &c.] All the editions, that I have ever seen, concur in placing this whole sonnet to Juno; but very absurdly, in my opinion. I believe every accurate reader, who is acquainted with poetical history, and the distinct of. fices of these two goddesses, and who then seriously reads over our author's lines, will agree with me, that Ceres's name ought to have been placed, where I have now prefixed it. Theobald. And is not in the old copy. It was added by the editor of the second folio. Earth's increase, is the produce of the earth. The expression is scriptural: "Then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, even our God, shall give us his blessing." PSALM lxvii. Malone. This is one among a multitude of emendations which Mr. Malone acknowledges to have been introduced by the editor of the second folio; and yet, in contradiction to himself, in his Prolegomena, he depreciates the second edition, as of no importance or value. Fenton. 8 foison plenty;] i. e. plenty to the utmost abundance; foison signifying plenty. See p. 54. Steevens. • Harmonious charmingly:] Mr. Edwards would read: "Harmonious charming lay." For though (says he) the benediction is sung by two goddesses, it is yet but one lay or hymn. I believe, however, this passage appears, as it was written by the poet, who, for the sake of the verse, made the words change places. We might read (transferring the last syllable of the second word to the end of the first)" Harmoniously charming." Ferdinand has already praised this aerial Masque, as an object of sight; and may not improperly or inelegantly subjoin, that the charm of sound was added to that of visible grandeur. Both Juno and Ceres are supposed to sing their parts. Steevens. A similar inversion occurs in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "But miserable most to live unloy'd." Malone. I have from their confines call'd, to enact Fer. Let me live here ever; So rare a wonder'd father,1 and a wife, Make this place Paradise. [JUNO and CERES whisper, and send IRIS on employment. Pro. Sweet now, silence; Juno and Ceres whisper seriously; There's something else to do: hush, and be mute, Iris. You nymphs, call'd Naiads, of the wand'ring brooks, With your sedg'd crowns, and ever-harmless looks, You sun-burn'd sicklemen, of August weary, Enter certain Reapers, properly habited: they join with the Is almost come.-[To the Spirits.] Well done;-avoid; -no more. 1 — a wonder'd father,] i. e. a father able to perform, or produce such wonders. Steevens. 2 Leave your crisp channels,] Crisp, i. e. curling, winding, Lat. crispus. So, Henry IV. Part I. Act I. sc. iv. Hotspur, speaking of the river Severn: "And hid his crisped head in the hollow bank." Crisp, however, may allude to the little wave or curl (as it is commonly called) that the gentlest wind occasions on the surface of waters. Steevens. Fer. This is most strange; your father's in some passion That works him strongly. Mira. 3 And, like the baseless fabrick of this vision, &c.] The exact period at which this play was produced is unknown: it was not, however, published before 1623. In the year 1603, the Tragedy of Darius, by Lord Sterline, made its appearance, and there I find the following passage: "Let greatness of her glassy sceptres vaunt, "Not sceptres, no, but reeds, soon bruis'd, soon broken; "And let this worldly pomp our wits enchant, "All fades, and scarcely leaves behind a token. "Those golden palaces, those gorgeous halls, "Those stately courts, those sky-encount'ring walls, Lord Sterline's play must have been written before the death of Queen Elizabeth, (which happened on the 24th of March, 1603,) as it is dedicated to James VI. King of Scots. Whoever should seek for this passage (as here quoted from the 4to. 1603) in the folio edition, 1637, will be disappointed, as Lord Sterline made considerable changes in all his plays, after their first publication. Steevens. 4 all which it inherit,] i. e. all who possess, who dwell upon it. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "This, or else nothing, will inherit her." Malone. 5 And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,] Faded means here -having vanished; from the Latin, vado. So, in Hamlet: "It faded on the crowing of the cock." To feel the justice of this comparison, and the propriety of the epithet, the nature of these exhibitions should be remembered. The ancient English pageants were shows, exhibited on the reception of a prince, or any other solemnity of a similar kind. They were presented on occasional stages, erected in the streets. Originally, they appear to have been nothing more than dumb shows; Leave not a rack behind: We are such stuff but, before the time of our author, they had been enlivened, by the introduction of speaking personages, who were characteristically habited. The speeches were sometimes in verse; and, as the procession moved forward, the speakers, who constantly bore some allusion to the ceremony, either conversed together in the form of a dialogue, or addressed the noble person, whose presence occasioned the celebrity. On these allegorical spectacles very costly ornaments were bestowed. See Fabian, II. 382. Warton's Hist. of Poet. II. 199, 202. The well-known lines before us may receive some illustration from Stowe's account of the pageants, exhibited in the year 1604, (not very long before this play was written,) on King James, his Queen, &c. passing triumphantly from the Tower to Westminster; on which occasion seven gates or arches were erected, in different places, through which the procession passed.-Over the first gate was represented the true likeness of all the notable houses, TOWERS and steeples, within the citie of London.""The sixt arche, or gate of triumph was erected above the Conduit in Fleete-Streete, whereon the GLOBE of the world was seen to move, &c. At Temple-bar, a seaventh arche or gate was erected, the fore-front whereof was proportioned in every respect like a TEMPLE, being dedicated to Janus, &c.-The citie of Westminster, and dutchy of Lancaster, at the Strand had erected the invention of a Rainbow, the moone, sunne, and starres, advanced between two Pyramides," &c. ANNALS, p. 1429, edit. 1605. Malone. 6 Leave not a rack behind:] "The winds (says Lord Bacon) which move the clouds above, which we call the rack, and are not perceived below, pass without noise." I should explain the word rack somewhat differently, by calling it the last fleeting vestige of the highest clouds, scarce perceptible, on account of their distance and tenuity. What was anciently called the rack, is now termed by sailors-the scud. The word is common to many authors contemporary with Shakspeare. So, in the Faithful Shepherdess, by Fletcher: shall I stray "In the middle air, and stay "The sailing rack." Again, in David and Bethsabe, 1599: "Beating the clouds into their swiftest rack." Again, in the prologue to the Three Ladies of London, 1584: "We list not ride the rolling rack that dims the chrystal skies." Again, in Shakspeare's 33d Sonnet: "Anon permits the basest clouds to ride "With ugly rack on his celestial face." Again, in Chapman's version of the twenty-first Iliad: the cracke "His thunder gives, when out of heaven it tears atwo his racke." |