Page images
PDF
EPUB

Whereon the thought might think fometime it faw
The carcafe of a beauty spent and done".
Time had not scythed all that youth begun,
Nor youth all quit; but, fpite of heaven's fell rage,
Some beauty peep'd through lattice of fear'd age'.

Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,
Which on it had conceited characters,
Laund'ring the filken figures in the brine.
That season'd woe had pelleted in tears',

And

6-fpent and done.] Done, it has been already obferved, was anciently used in the fenfe of confumed. So, in the Rape of Lucrece: "And, if poffefs'd, as foon decay'd and done.”

MALONE.

7 Some beauty peep'd through lattice of fear'd age.] Thus, in the

3d Sonnet :

"So thou through windows of thine age fhalt fee,
"Defpite of wrinkles, this thy golden time."

Again, in Cymbeline:

or let her beauty

"Look sbrough a cafement, to allure false hearts,
"And be falfe with them."

In Macbeth we meet with the fame epithet applied as here:
"my way of life

"Is fallen into the fear, the yellow leaf." MALONE. Shakspeare has applied this image to a comick purpose in King Henry VI. P. II: "He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red Lattice, and I could difcern no part of his face from the window: at laft I fpied his eyes; and methought he had made two holes in the alewife's new petticoat, and peep'd through." STEEVENS.

8 Oft did the beave ber napkin-] Her bandkerchief. See Vol. VII, P. 374, n. 7. MALONE.

9 Which on it bad conceited characters,] Fanciful images. Thus, in The Rape of Lucrece:

crece:

Which the conceited painter drew fo proud,-". MALONE. Laund'ring the filken figures in the brine

That feafon'd woe bad pelleted in tears,] So, in The Rape of Lu

"Seafoning the earth with fhowers of filver brine."

Laundering is wetting. The verb is now obfolete. To pellet is to form into pellets, to which, being round, Shakspeare, with his ufual licence, compares falling tears. The word, I believe, is found no where but

here and in Antony and Cleopatra:

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

-My brave Egyptians all,

"By the difcandying of this pelleted storm,
"Lie gravelefe."

[ocr errors]

And often reading what contents it bears;
As often fhrieking undiftinguish'd woe,
In clamours of all fize2, both high and low.

Sometimes her level'd eyes their carriage ride3,
As they did battery to the spheres intend;
Sometime diverted their poor balls are ty'd
To the orbed earth; fometimes they do extend
Their view right on; anon their gazes lend
To every place at once, and no where fix'd,
The mind and fight diftractedly commix'd.

Her hair, nor loofe, nor ty'd in formal plat,
Proclaim'd in her a careless hand of pride;
For fome, untuck'd, defcended her sheav'd hat,
Hanging her pale and pined cheek befide;

In Julius Cæfar we meet with a kindred thought:
es -mine eyes,

"Seeing thofe beade of forrow ftand in thine,
"Began to water."

Again, in King Henry IV. P. I.

-beads of fweat have trod upon thy brow."

Again, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"A fea of melting pearl, which fome call tears." MALONE. Seafon'd woe had pelleted in tears,] This phrafe is from the kitchen. Pellet was the ancient culinary term for a forced meat ball, a well-known Seafoning. STEVENS.

2

of all fize, Size is here used, with Shakspeare's ufual negħi. gence, for fixes. MALONE.

3. Sometimes ber level'd eyes their carriage ride,] The allufion, which is to a piece of ordnance, is very quaint and far-fetched. MALONE. In The Merchant of Venice, the eyes of Portia's picture are reprefented as mounted on thofe of Bassanio:

"Move these eyes?

"Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
"Seem they in motion?" STEEVENS.

4 Sometime diverted-] Turned from their former direction. So,

in As you like it :

"I rather will fubject me to the malice

"Of a diverted blood, and bloody brother." MALONE.

5 To the orbed earth;-] So, in the mock tragedy in Hamlet: "-and Tellus' orbed ground." STEEVENS.

6-ber fheav'd bat,] Her fraw hat. MALONE.

7-pined cheek-] So, Spenfer, (as an anonymous writer has obferved,) B. III. c. ii. ft. 51. “—like a pined ghot." MALONE.

Some

Some in her threaden fillet ftill did bide,

And, true to bondage, would not break from thence
Though flackly braided in loose negligence.

A thousand favours from a maund fhe drew
Of amber, crystal, and of bedded jet ',
Which one by one she in a river threw,
Upon whose weeping margent she was fet ;
Like ufury, applying wet to wet 2,

• Some in her threaden fillet-] I suspect Shakspeare wrote-i threaden fillet. MALONE.

9-from a maund she drew] A maund is a hand-basket. The is yet ufed in Somerfetfhire. MALONE.

Of amber, cryftal, and of bedded jet,] Thus the quarto, 1609 bedded be right, it must mean, fer in some kind of metal. Our au ufes the word in The Tempeft:

"my fon i' the ooze is bedded."

The modern editions read-beaded jet, which may be right; made of jet. The construction, I think, is,-she drew from a mau thousand favours, of amber, cryftal, &c. MALONE.

Baskets made of beads were fufficiently common even fince time of our author. I have feen many of them. Beaded jet, is formed into beads. STEEVENS.

2 Upon whofe weeping margent he was fet,

Like ufury, applying wet to wet,] In K. Henry VI. P. III. meet with a fimilar thought:

"With tearful eyes add water to the fea,

"And give more ftrength to that which hath too much." Thefe two lines are not in the old play on which the Third Par K. Henry VI. is formed.

Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

"With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew,

"Adding to clouds more clouds with his deep fighs.”

Again, in As you like it:

"Thou mak'ft a teftament

"As worldings do, giving the fum of more

"To that which hath too much."

Perhaps we should read:

Upon whole margent weeping she was fet.

The words might have been accidentally tranfpofed at the prefs. We ing margent, however, is, I believe, right, being much in our al thour's manner. Weeping for weeped or be-weeped; the margin wett with tears. MALONE.

To weep is to drop. Milton talks of

"Groves whofe rich trees wept od ́rous gums and balm.”

Pop

Or monarchs' hands, that let not bounty fall
Where want cries fome3, but where excefs begs all.

Of folded schedules had fhe many a one,
Which the perus'd, figh'd, tore, and gave the flood;
Crack'd many a ring of pofied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their fepulchers in mud*;
Found yet more letters fadly pen'd in blood,
With fleided filk feat and affectedly

5

Enfwath'd, and feal'd to curious fecrecy.

Pope fpeaks of the "weeping amber," and Mortimer obferves that "rye-grafs grows on we ping ground," i. e. lands abounding with wet, like the margin of the river on which this damfel is fitting. The rock from which water drops, is likewife poetically called a weeping rock: Κρή ηντ' ἀεγαον πέτρης α'πὸ ΔΑΚΡΥΟΕΣΣΗΣ. STEVENS, 3 Where want cries fome,-] I once fufpected that our authour wrote: Where want craves fome-, MALONE.

I cry halves, is a common phrafe among school-boys. STEEVENS. 4 Bidding them find their fepulchers in mud;] So, in The Tempeft: "My fon i' the ooze is bedded." MALONE.

Again, ibidem:

te

-I wish

"Myfelf were mudded in that oozy bed

"Where my fon lies." STEEVENS.

5 With fleided filk feat and affectedly-] Sleided filk is, as Dr. Percy has elsewhere obferved, untwisted filk, prepared to be used in the weaver's fley or fly. So, in Pericles:

"Be't, when the weav'd the fleided filk."

A weaver's fley is formed with teeth like a comb. - Feat is, curiously, nicely. See Vol. VIII. p. 312, n. 6.

• With fleided filk feat and affectedly

MALONE.

Enfwatb'd, and feal'd to curious fecrecy.] To be convinced of the propriety of this defcription, let the reader confult the Royal Letters, &c. in the British Museum, where he will find that anciently the ends of a piece of narrow ribbon were placed under the feals of letters, to connect them more clofely. STEEVENS.

Florio's Italian and English Dialogues, entitled his Second Frutes, 1591, confirm Mr. Steevens's obfervation. In p. 89, a perfon, who is fuppofed to have just written a letter, calls for fome wax, fome fealing thread, his dust-box, and his feal." MALONE.

VOL. X.

A a

Thefe

Thefe often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes,
And often kifs'd, and often 'gan to tear";
Cry'd, O falfe blood! thou register of lies,
What unapproved witness doft thou bear!

Ink would have feem'd more black and damned here!
This faid, in top of rage the lines fhe rents,
Big difcontent fo breaking their contents.

A reverend man that graz'd his cattle nigh,
(Sometime a blußerer, that the ruffle knew
Of court, of city, and had let go by
The swifteft hours,) obferved as they flew
Towards this afflicted fancy faftly drew;
And, privileg'd by age, defires to know
In brief, the grounds and motives of her woe.

7 And often kiss'd, "and often "gan to tear,] The old copy reads, I think, corruptedly:

[blocks in formation]

But the correfponding rhyme rather favours the conjectural reading which I have inferted in the text. Befides, her tears had been mentioned in the preceding line. MALONE.

8-that the ruffle knew-] Rufflers were a species of bullies in the time of Shakspeare. "To rule in the common-wealth," is a phrafe in Titus Andronicus. STEVENS.

In Sherwood's French and English Dictionary at the end of Cotgrave's Dictionary, Ruffle and burliburly are fynonymous. See alío Vol. III. p. 325, n. 7.

9-and bad let go by

MALONE.

The fwifteft hours-] Had paffed the prime of life, when time appears to move with his quickeft pace. MALONE.

[ocr errors]

3-obferved as they flew ;] i. e. as the fcattered fragments of paper flew. Perhaps, however, the parenthefis that I have inferted, may not have been intended by the authour. If it be omitted, and the favifteft bours be connected with what follows, the meaning will be, that this reverend man, though engaged in the bustle of court and city, had not fuffered the bufy and gay period of youth to pass by without gaining fome knowledge of the world. MALONE.

this afflicted fancy-] This afflicted love fick lady. Fancy, it has been already obferved, was formerly fometimes ufed in the fenfe of love. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream:

"Sighs and tears, poor fancy's followers." MALONE.

Sa

« PreviousContinue »