The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one! O, these I lack, To make you garlands of; and, my sweet friend, To strew him o'er and o'er. FLO. What? like a corse? PER. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corse: or if,-not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms 5. flowers: Come, take your Methinks, I play as I have seen them do In Whitsun' pastorals: sure, this robe of mine FLO. What you do, Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; And own no other function: Each your doing", Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, PER. O Doricles, confessed, however, that the colour of the oxlip is taken notice of by other writers. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: 66 yellow oxlips bright as burnish'd gold." See vol. v. p. 232, n. 9. STEEVENS. 5 -not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms.] So, Marston's Insatiate Countess, 1613: "Isab. Heigh ho, you'll bury me, I see. "Rob. In the swan's down, and tomb thee in my arms.” Again, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: 6 66 O come, be buried' "A second time within these arms." Malone. Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each act crowns the act. JOHNSON. Your praises are too large but that your youth, And the true blood, which peeps fairly through it", Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd ; With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, You woo'd me the false way. FLO. To put you to't.-But, come; our dance, I pray: 7 but that your youth, And the true BLOOD which PEEPS fairly through it,] So, Marlowe, in his Hero and Leander : "Through whose white skin, softer than soundest sleep, "With damaske eyes the ruby blood doth peep." The part of the poem that was written by Marlowe, was pubFished, I believe, in 1593, but certainly before 1598, a Second Part or Continuation of it by H. Petowe having been printed in that year. It was entered at Stationers' Hall in September 1593, and is often quoted in a collection of verses entitled England's Parnassus, printed in 1600. From that collection it appears, that Marlowe wrote only the first two Sestiads, and about a hundred lines of the third, and that the remainder was written by Chapman. MALONE. 8 I think, you have As little SKILL to fear,] To have skill to do a thing was a phrase then in use equivalent to our to have a reason to do a thing. The Oxford editor, ignorant of this, alters it to: "As little skill in fear." which has no kind of sense in this place. WARburton. I cannot approve of Warburton's explanation of this passage, or believe that to have a skill to do a thing, ever meant, to have reason to do it; of which, when he asserted it, he ought to have produced one example at least. The fears of women, on such occasions, are generally owing to their experience. They fear, as they blush, because they understand. It is to this that Florizel alludes, when he says, that Perdita had little skill to fear.-So Juliet says to Romeo: "But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true "Than those who have more cunning to be strange." M. MASON. "You as little know how to fear that I am false, as," &c. MALONE. PER. I'll swear for 'em 9. POL. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Ran on the green-sward: nothing she does, or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself; CAM. He tells her something, That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is The queen of curds and cream. CLO. Come on, strike up. DOR. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, gar lick, To mend her kissing with. MOP. CLO. Not a word, a word; we stand 2 Now, in good time! upon our [Musick. 9 Per. I'll swear for 'em.] I fancy this half line is placed to a wrong person. And that the King begins his speech aside : "Pol. I'll swear for 'em, "This is the prettiest," &c. JOHNSON. We should doubtless, read thus: "I'll swear for one." i. e. I will answer or engage for myself. Some alteration is absolutely necessary. This seems the easiest, and the reply will then be perfectly becoming her character. RITSON. He tells her something, The meaning must be that calls the blood up She, but a little before, That makes her blood look out:] this. The Prince tells her something into her cheeks, and makes her blush.' uses a like expression to describe the Prince's sincerity: 66 your youth "And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it, The old copy reads-look on't. STEEVENS. 2 THEOBALD. we stand, &c.] That is, we are now on our behaviour. JOHNSON. So, in Every Man in his Humour, Master Stephen says: Nay, we do not stand much on our gentility, friend." 66 STEEVENS. Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Poz. Pray, good shepherd, what fair swain is this, Which dances with your daughter? SHEP. They call him Doricles; and boasts himself 3 To have a worthy feeding: but I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it; He looks like sooth 5: He says, he loves my daugh ter; I think so too: for never gaz'd the moon Upon the water, as he'll stand, and read, As 'twere, my daughter's eyes; and, to be plain, I think, there is not half a kiss to choose, Who loves another best 6. POL. She dances featly. SHEP. So she does any thing; though I report it, 3 AND boasts himself-] Thus the old copy. Mr. Rowe proposed to read-" and he boasts himself;" but the omission of the pronoun frequently occurs in our poet and all his contemporaries. MALONE. 4 - a worthy FEEDING] I conceive feeding to be a pasture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pasturage not inconsiderable, not unworthy of my daughter's fortune. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's explanation is just. So, in Drayton's Mooncalf: 66 Finding the feeding for which he had toil'd "To have kept safe, by these vile cattle spoil'd." Again, in the sixth song of the Polyolbion : 66 so much that do rely Upon their feedings, flocks, and their fertility." "A worthy feeding (says Mr. M. Mason,) is a valuable, a substantial one." Thus, Antonio, in Twelfth-Night: "But were my worth, as is my conscience, firm, Worth here means fortune or substance. STEEVens. 5 He looks like SOOTH :] Sooth is truth. Obsolete. So, in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: "Thou dost dissemble, but I mean good sooth." STEEVENS. 6 Who loves ANOTHER best.] Surely we should read-Who loves the other best. M. MASON. That should be silent: if young Doricles Enter a Servant. SERV. O master, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe ; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he sings several tunes faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes. CLO. He could never come better: he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down', or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably. 8 SERV. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves he has the prettiest love-songs for maids so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings1: jump her 7 DOLEFUL matter, MERRILY set down,] This seems to be another stroke aimed at the title-page of Preston's Cambises: “A lamentable Tragedy, mixed full of pleasant Mirth," &c. STEEVENS. 8 no milliner can so fit HIS customers with gloves :] In the time of our author, and long afterwards, the trade of a milliner was carried on by men. MALONE. 9 of DILDOS -] "With a hie dildo dill," is the burthen of The Batchelors' Feast, an ancient ballad, and is likewise called the Tune of it. STEEVENS. See also, Choice Drollery, 1656, p. 31: "A story strange I will you tell, "But not so strange as true, "Of a woman that danc'd upon the rope, "With a dildo, dildo, dildo, "With a dildo, dildo, dee." MALONE. -fadings:] An Irish dance of this name is mentioned by Ben Jonson, in The Irish Masque at Court: 66 and daunsh a fading at te wedding,” |
