Enter a Lady. Lady. The queen, madam, Defires your highness' company. Imo. Those things I bid you do, get them dif patch'd. I will attend the queen. Pis. Madam, I fhall. SCENE V. ROM E. An apartment in Philario's house. [Exeunt. Enter Philario, Iachimo, and a Frenchman'. Iac. Believe it, fir: I have seen him in Britain ; he was then of a crefcent note; expected to prove fo worthy, as fince he has been allowed the name of: but I could then have look'd on him without the help of admiration; though the catalogue of his endowments had been tabled by his fide, and I to peruse him by items. 2 Phil. You fpeak of him when he was lefs furnish'd, than now he is, with that which makes him both without and within. I think the old reading may be fufficiently fupported by the following paffage in the 18th Sonnet of our author: Rough winds do bake the darling buds of May." Again, in the Taming of a Shrew : "Confounds thy fame, as whirlwinds fake fair buds.” STEEVENS. -and a Frenchman.] The old copy reads-a Frenchman, a Dutchman. and a Spaniard. STEEVENS. 2 —makes him] In the fenfe in which we fay, This will make or mar you. JOHNSON. French French. I have seen him in France: we had very many there, could behold the fun with as firm eyes as he. Iach. This matter of marrying his king's daughter, (wherein he must be weigh'd rather by her value, than his own) words him, I doubt not, a great deal from the matter. French. And then his banifhment. Iach. Ay, and the approbation of thofe, that weep this lamentable divorce, under her colours, are wonderfully to extend him; be it but to fortify her judgment, which else an easy battery might lay flat, for taking a beggar' without more quality. But how comes it, he is to fojourn with you? How creeps acquaintance? Phil. His father and I were foldiers together; to whom I have been often bound for no lefs than my life: Enter Pofthumus. Here comes the Briton: Let him be fo entertained amongst you, as fuits, with gentlemen of your knowing, to a stranger of his quality.-I beseech you all, be better known to this gentleman; whom I commend to you, as a noble friend of mine: How worthy he is, I will leave to appear hereafter, rather than story him in his own hearing. French. Sir, we have known together in Orleans. Poft. Since when I have been debtor to you for courtefies, which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay ftill. 3 words him a great deal from the matter.] Makes the defcription of him very distant from the truth. JOHNSON. 4 -under her colours,-] Under her banner; by her influence. JOHNSON. swithout more quality.] The folio reads lefs quality. Mr. Rowe first made the alteration. STEEVENS. French. French. Sir, you o'er rate my poor kindness: I was glad I did atone my countryman and you; it had been pity, you should have been put together with fo mortal a purpose, as then each bore, upon importance of fo flight and trivial a nature. Poft. By your pardon, fir, I was then a young traveller; rather fhunn'd to go even with what I heard, than in my every action to be guided by others' experiences: but, upon my mended judgment, (if I offend not to fay it is mended) my quarrel was not altogether flight. French. 'Faith, yes, to be put to the arbitrement of fwords; and by fuch two, that would, by all likelyhood, have confounded one the other, or have fallen both. Iach. Can we, with manners, afk what was the difference? 8 French. Safely, I think: 'twas a contention in publick, which may, without contradiction, fuffer the report. It was much like an argument that fell out last night, where each of us fell in praife of our country miftreffes: This gentleman at that time. vouching, (and upon warrant of bloody affirmation) his to be more fair, virtuous, wife, chaste, constant, qualified, and lefs attemptible, than any the rareft of our ladies in France. 6 -I did atone, &c.] To atone fignifies in this place to reconcile. So Ben Jonfon, in The Silent Woman: "There had been fome hope to atone you." Again, in Heywood's English Traveller, 1633: "The conftable is call'd to atone the broil." See Vol. VII. p. 474. STEEVENS. 1 rather funn'd to go even with what I heard, &c.] This is exprefied with a kind of fantastical perplexity. He means, I was then willing to take for my direction the experience of others, more than fuch intelligence as I had gathered myself. which may, without contradiction,doubtedly, may be publickly told. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. -] Which, un Fach. Iach. That lady is not now living; or this gentleman's opinion, by this, worn out. Poft. She holds her virtue ftill, and I my mind. Iach. You must not fo far prefer her 'fore ours of Italy. 9 Poft. Being fo far provok'd as I was in France, I would abate her nothing; though I profess myself her adorer, not her friend. Iach. As fair, and as good, (a kind of hand-in-hand comparison) had been fomething too fair, and too good, for any lady in Britany. If fhe went before others 9-though I profefs, &c.] Though I have not the common obligations of a lover to his miftrefs, and regard her not with the fondness of a friend, but the reverence of an adorer. 3 JOHNSON. -If he went before others I have feen, as that diamond of yours outluftres many I have beheld, I could not believe the excelled many, What? if he did really excel others, could he not believe the did excel them? Nonfenfe. We must ftrike out the negative, and the fenfe will be this, "I can eafily believe your mistress excels many, tho' fhe be not the most excellent; just as I fee that diamond of yours is of more value than many I have beheld, though I know there are other diamonds of WARBURTON. much greater value.' The old reading, I think, may very well ftand; and I have therefore replaced it. "If (fays Iachimo) your mistress went before fome others I have feen, only in the fame degree your diamond outluftres many I have likewife feen, I fhould not admit on that account that the excelled many but I ought not to make myself the judge of who is the faireft lady, or which is the brightest diamond, till I have beheld the finest of either kind which nature has hitherto produced." The paffage is not nonfenfe. It was the bufinefs of Jachimo to appear on this occafion as an infidel to beauty, in order to fpirit Pofthumus to lay the wager, and therefore will not admit of her excellence on any comparison. The author of The Revifal would read: STEEVENS, Though your lady exI fhould explain the fentence thus: " celled as much as your diamond, I could not believe the excelled many; that is, I too could yet believe that there are many whom The did not excel." But I yet think Dr. Warburton right. JOHNSON. others I have seen, as that diamond of yours out luftres many I have beheld, I could not believe the excelled many: but I have not feen the most precious diamond that is, nor you the lady. Poft. I prais'd her, as I rated her fo do I my ftone. Iach. What do you esteem it at? Poft. More than the world enjoys. Iach. Either your unparagon'd mistress is dead, or fhe's out-priz'd by a trifle. Poft. You are mistaken: the one may be fold, or given; if there were wealth enough for the purchase, or merit for the gift: the other is not a thing for fale, and only the gift of the gods. Iach. Which the gods have given you ? Poft. Which, by their graces, I will keep. Iach. You may wear her in title yours: but, you know: ftrange fowl light upon neighbouring ponds.. Your ring may be ftolen too: fo, of your brace of unprizeable ettimations, the one is but frail, and the Dr. Warburton's alteration makes perfect fenfe, but the word nct is not likely to have crept into the text without foundation. Printers fometimes omit, and fometimes mifrepresent an author's words, but I believe, fcarcely ever infert words without even the femblance of authority from the manufcript before them; and therefore, in my apprehenfion, no conjectural regulation of any paffage ought to be admitted, that requires any word of the text to be expunged, without fubftituting another in its place. Omiffions in the old copies of our author, are, I believe, more frequent than is commonly imagined. In the prefent inftance, I fufpect he wrote: I could not but believe, &c. Thus the reafoning is exact and confequential.-ff the exceeded other women that I have seen, in the fame proportion that your diamond furpaffes others that I have bebeld, I could not but acknowledge that he excelled many; but I have not feen the most valuable diamond, nor you the most beautiful woman; and, therefore, I cannot allow that fhe excels all. As the paffage now ftands, even with Mr. Steevens's explanation, the latter member of the fentence-but I have not feen, &c. is not fufficiently oppofed to the former. MALONE. other |