But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,

With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan;*
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan."

[Exit.

year, the equinoxes, the length of the days and nights, the rising and setting of the twelve signs of the Zodiack, &c.-But the town of Strasburgh carries the bell of all other steeples of Germany in this point." These elaborate clocks were probably often "out of frame." MALONE.

I have heard a French proverb that compares any thing that is intricate and out of order, to the coq de Strasburg that belongs to the machinery of the town-clock. ́S. W.

sue, and groan;] And, which is not in either of the authentic copies of this play, the quarto, 1598, and the folio, 1623, was added, to supply the metre, by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

* Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.] To this line Mr. Theobald extends his second Act, not injudiciously, but without sufficient authority. JOHNSON.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Another part of the same.

Enter the Princess, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Fo

rester.

PRIN. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard

Against the steep uprising of the hill?

BOYET. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. PRIN. Whoe'er he was, he show'd a mounting

mind.

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.-

Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?"

where is the bush,

That we must stand and play the murderer in?] How familiar this amusement once was to ladies of quality, may be known from a letter addressed by Lord Wharton to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated from Alnewik, Aug. 14, 1555: "I besiche yor Lordeshipp to tayke some sporte of my litell grounde there, and to comaund the same even as yo.r Lordeshippes owne. My ladye may shote with her crosbowe," &c. Lodge's Illustrations of British History, &c. Vol. I. p. 203.

Again, in a letter from Sir Francis Leake to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Vol. III. p. 295:

"Yo. Lordeshype hath sente me a verie greatte and fatte stagge, the wellcomer beynge stryken by your ryght honourable Ladie's hande, &c.-My balde bucke lyves styll to wayte upon yo.r L. and my Ladie's comyng hyther, w.ch I expect whensoever shall pleas yow to apointe; onelé thys, thatt my Ladie doe nott hytt hym throgh the nose, for marryng hys whyte face;

FOR. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot.

PRIN. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st, the fairest shoot. FOR. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. PRIN. What, what? first praise me, and again say, no?

O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!
FOR. Yes, madam, fair.

PRIN.

Nay, never paint me now; Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. Here, good my glass,' take this for telling true; [Giving him money.

Fair payment for foul words is more than due. FOR. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. PRIN. See, see, my beauty will be sav'd by merit.

howbeitt I knoe her Ladishipp takes pitie of my buckes, sence the last tyme yt pleased her to take the travell to shote att them," &c. Dated July, 1605. STEEvens.

"Here, good my glass,] To understand how the princess has her glass so ready at hand in a casual conversation, it must be remembered that in those days it was the fashion among the French ladies to wear a looking-glass, as Mr. Bayle coarsely represents it, on their bellies; that is, to have a small mirrour set in gold hanging at their girdle, by which they occasionally viewed their faces or adjusted their hair. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson, perhaps, is mistaken. She had no occasion to have recourse to any other looking-glass than the Forester, whom she rewards for having shown her to herself as in a mirror.

66

STEEVENS.

Whatever be the interpretation of this passage, Dr. Johnson is right in the historical fact. Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abuses, is very indignant at the ladies for it: They must have their looking-gla ses carried with them, wheresoever they go: and good reason, for how else could they see the devil in them?" And in Massinger's City Madam, several women are introduced with looking-glasses at their girdles. FARMER.

O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.—
But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to shew my skill,
That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes;

8

When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart:
As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no

ill.9

BOYET. Do not curst wives hold that self-sove

reignty1

Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

PRIN. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord.

• When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart:] The harmony of the measure, the easiness of the expression, and the good sense in the thought, all concur to recommend these two lines to the reader's notice. WARBURTON.

9

that

my

heart means no ill.] That my heart means no ill, is the same with to whom my heart means no ill. The common phrase suppresses the particle, as I mean him [not to him] no harm. JOHNSON.

1-that self-sovereignty-] Not a sovereignty over, but in, themselves. So, self-sufficiency, self-consequence, &c.

MALONE.

Enter COSTard.

PRIN. Here comes a member of the commonwealth.2

COST. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady?

PRIN. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads.

COST. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? PRIN. The thickest, and the tallest.

COST. The thickest, and the tallest! it is so; truth is truth.

An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, One of these maids' girdles for your waist should

be fit.

Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here.

PRIN. What's your will, sir? what's your will? COST. I have a letter from monsieur Biron, to one lady Rosaline.

PRIN. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine:

-- a member of the commonwealth.] Here, I believe, is a kind of jest intended: a member of the common-wealth, is put for one of the common people, one of the meanest.

JOHNSON.

The Princess calls Costard a member of the commonwealth, because she considers him as one of the attendants on the King and his associates in their new-modelled society; and it was part of their original plan that Costard and Armado should be members of it. M. MASON.

even.

God dig-you-den-] A corruption of-God give you good
MALONE.

See my note on Romeo and Juliet, Act II. sc. iv. STEEVENS.