Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,) Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but, I will prove, Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is: If broken then, it is no fault of mine; If by me broke, What fool is not so wise, To lose an oath to win a paradise ?3 3 BIRON. [Aside.] This is the liver vein,* which makes flesh a deity; A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the way. Enter DUMAIN, with a paper. LONG. By whom shall I send this?-Company! stay. [Stepping aside. BIRON. [Aside.] All hid, all hid," an old infant play: To lose an oath to win a paradise?] The Passionate_Pilgrim, 1599, in which this sonnet is also found, reads-To break an oath. But the opposition between lose and win is much in our author's manner. MALONE. the liver vein,] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. JOHNSON. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "If ever love had interest in his liver." STEEVENS. * All kid, all hid,] The children's cry at hide and seek. MUSGRAVE. Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish; Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish!6 DUM. O most divine Kate! 6 BIRON. O most prophane coxcomb! [Aside. DUM. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye! BIRON. By earth she is but corporal; there you lie." [Aside. -four woodcocks in a dish!] See note on Much Ado about Nothing, Act V. sc. i. DOUCE. 7 By earth, she is but corporal; there you lie.] Old edition: By earth, she is not, corporal, there you lie. Dumain, one of the lovers, in spite of his vow to the contrary, thinking himself alone here, breaks out into short soliloquies of admiration on his mistress; and Biron, who stands behind as an eves-dropper, takes pleasure in contradicting his amorous raptures. But Dumain was a young lord; he had no sort of post in the army what wit, or allusion, then, can there be in Biron's calling him corporal? I dare warrant, 1 have restored the poet's true meaning, which is this. Dumain calls his mistress divine, and the wonder of a mortal eye; and Biron in flat terms denies these hyperbolical praises. I scarce need hint, that our poet commonly uses corporal, as corporeal. THEOBALD. I have no doubt that Theobald's emendation is right. The word corporal in Shakspeare's time, was used for corporeal. So, in Macbeth-" each corporal agent." Again: and what seem'd corporal, melted "As breath into the wind.' Again, in Julius Cæsar: "His corporal motion govern'd by my spirit." This adjective is found in Bullokar's Expositor, 8vo. 1616, but corporeal is not. Not is again printed for but in the original copy of The Comedy of Errors, and in other places. MALONE. DUM. Her amber hairs for foul have amber coted.R BIRON. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. 8 amber coted.] To cote is to outstrip, to overpass. So, in Hamlet: 66 certain players "We coted on the way." Again, in Chapman's Homer: 66 Words her worth had prov'd with deeds, "Had more ground been allow'd the race, and coted far his steeds." The beauty of amber consists in its variegated cloudiness, which Dumain calls foulness. The hair of his mistress in varied shadows exceeded those of amber. Foul may be used (as fair often is) as a substantive. Pliny in his Nat. Hist. B. XXXVII. ch. xi. p. 609, informs us that " Nero Domitius made a sonnet in the praise of the haire of the Empresse Poppaa his wife, which he compared to amber; and from that time our daintie dames and fine ladies have begun to set their mind upon this colour," &c. STEEVENS. Quoted here, I think, signifies marked, written down. So, in All's well that end's well: "He quoted for a most perfidious knave." The word in the old copy is-coted; but that (as Dr. Johnson has observed in the last scene of this play,) is only the old spelling of quoted, owing to the transcriber's trusting to his ear, and following the pronunciation. To cote, is elsewhere used by our author, with the signification of over-take, but that will by no means suit here. MALONE. The word here intended, though mispelled, is quoted, which signifies observed or regarded, both here and in every place where it occurs in these plays; and the meaning is, that amber itself is regarded as foul, when compared with her hair. M. MASON. BIRON. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine. DUM. O that I had my wish! LONG. [Aside. And I had mine! [Aside. KING. And I mine too, good Lord! [Aside. BIRON. Amen, so I had mine: Is not that a good word? 9 [Aside. DUM. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. BIRON. A fever in your blood, why, then incision Would let her out in saucers;1 Sweet misprision! [Aside. 1 DUM. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ. BIRON. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. but a fever she Reigns in my blood,] So, in Hamlet: "For, like the hectic, in my blood he rages.” why, then incision [Aside. STEEVENS. Would let her out in saucers;] It was the fashion among the young gallants of that age, to stab themselves in the arms, or elsewhere, in order to drink their mistress's health, or write her name in their blood, as a proof of their passion. Thus, in The Humorous Lieutenant, a gentleman gives the following description of him, when in love with the King: "Thus he begins, though light and life of creatures, 66 Angel-ey'd king, vouchsafe at length thy favour; "And so proceeds to incision." But the custom is more particularly described in Jonson's Cynthia's Revels, where Phantaste, describing the different modes of making love, says :-" A fourth with stabbing himself, and drinking healths, or writing languishing letters in his blood."—And in the Palinode, at the end of the play, Amorphus says: "From stabbing of arms, &c. Good Mercury deliver us !" M. MASON. DUM. On a day, (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee: Thou for whom even Jove would swear," 'gan passage find ;] The quarto, 1598, and the first folio, have can. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. In the line next but one, Wish (the reading of the old copies) was corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 3 4 Air, would I might triumph so!] Perhaps we may better read: "Ah! would I might triumph so!" JOHNSON. my hand is sworn,] A copy of this sonnet is printed in England's Helicon, 1614, and reads: "But, alas! my hand hath sworn." It is likewise printed as Shakspeare's, in Jaggard's Collection, 1599. STEEVENS. 5 from thy thorn: So, Mr. Pope. The original copy. reads throne. MALONE. 6 even Jove would swear,] The word even has been supplied; and the two preceding lines are wanting in the copy published in England's Helicon, 1614. STEEVENS. Swear is here used as a dissyllable. Mr. Pope, not attending to this, reads-ev'n Jove, which has been adopted by the subse quent editors. MALONE. |