King. How fares your majesty?

Prin. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. King. Madam, not fo; I do befeech you, stay. Prin. Prepare, I fay.-I thank you, gracious lords, For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, Out of a new-fad foul, that you vouchsafe In your rich wisdom to excufe, or hide, The liberal oppofition of our fpirits:

*

8

If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
In the converse of breath, your gentleness
Was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord!
An heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue : '
Excufe me fo, coming fo fhort of thanks,
For my great fuit so easily obtain'd.

King. The extreme part of time extremely forms All caufes to the purpose of his speed;

And often, at his very loofe,' decides

That which long procefs could not arbitrate.
And though the mourning brow of progeny

ward to refent them) and will infift on fuch fatisfaction as will not difgrace my character, which is that of a foldier. To have decided the quarrel in the manner propofed by his antagonist, would have been at once a derogation from the honour of a foldier, and the pride of a Spaniard. STEEVENS.

•-liberal-] Liberal, in our author, frequently fignifies, as in this inftance, free to excefs. So in Much ado about Nothing: like a most liberal villain,

66

"Confefs'd, &c.

Again, in Othello,

"I'll be in fpeaking liberal as the North." STEEVENS. In the converfe of breath,] Perhaps converfe may, in this line, mean interchange. JOHNSON.

An heavy heart bears not an humble tongue :] Thus all the editions; but, furely, without either fenfe or truth. None are more humble in fpeech, than they who labour under any oppreffion. The Princefs is defiring her grief may apologize for her not expreffing her obligations at large; and my correction is conformable to that fentiment. Befides, there is an antithefis between heavy and nimble; but between heavy and humble, there is none. THEOBALD.

And often, at his very loofe, decides, &c.] At his very loofe may mean, at the moment of his parting, i. e. of his getting loose, or away STEEVENS,

from us.

Forbid the smiling courtesy of love,

The holy fuit which fain it would convince;"
Yet fince love's argument was first on foot,
Let not the cloud of forrow juftle it

From what it purpos'd: Since, to wail friends lost,
Is not by much fo wholesome, profitable,

As to rejoice at friends but newly found.

Prin. I understand you,not, my griefs are double.
Biren. Honeft plain words beft pierce the ear of
grief:-

And by these badges understand the king.
For your fair fakes have we neglected time,
Play'd foul play with our oaths: your beauty, ladies,
Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours
Even to the opposed end of our intents:
And what in us hath feem'd ridiculous,
As love is full of unbefitting strains

All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain,
Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye,
Full of ftraying fhapes, of habits, and of forms,
Varying in fubjects as the eye doth roll,
To every varied object in his glance:
Which party-coated prefence of loose love,
Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
Have mifbecom❜d ouroaths and gravities;
Thofe heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,

-which fain it would convince;] We must read,
—which fain would it convince;

that is, the entreaties of love which would fain over-power grief. So Lady Macbeth declares, That he will convince the chamberlain with wine. JOHNSON.

3 Honest plain words, &c.] As it feems not very proper for Biron to court the princefs for the king in the king's prefence, at this critical moment, I believe the speech is given to a wrong perfon. I read thus,

Prin. I understand you not, my griefs are double:
Honeft plain words beft pierce the ear of grief.
King. And by theje badges, &c. JOHNSON.

Suggested us to make them: Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewife yours. We to ourselves prove falfe,
By being once falfe for ever to be true

To thofe that make us both; fair ladies, you:
And even that falfhood, in itfelf a fin,
Thus purifies itself, and turns to grace.

Prin. We have receiv'd your letters full of love 3
Your favours, the embassadors of love:
And in our maiden council rated them
At courtship, pleasant jeft, and courtesy;
As bombaft, and as lining to the time:
But more devout than this, in our refpects,"

4 Suggested us] That is, tempted us. JOHNSON.

Have

As bombaft, than as lining to the time:] This line is obfcure. Bombaft was a kind of loofe texture not unlike what is now called wadding, ufed to give the dreffes of that time bulk and protuberance, without much increase of weight; whence the fame name is given a tumour of words unfupported by folid fentiment. The Princefs, therefore, fays, that they confidered this courtship as but bombaft, as fomething to fill out life, which not being closely u nited with it, might be thrown away at pleasure. JOHNSON. 6 But more devout than these are our refpects

Have we not been:]

This nonfenfe fhould be read thus,

But more devout than this, (fave our respe@s)
Have we not been;·

i. e. fave the refpect we owe to your majesty's quality, your court hip we have laugh'd at, and made a jelt of.

WARBURTON.

We have receiv'd your letters full of love 3
Your favours the ambassadors of love;
And in our maiden council rated them
A courtship, pleafant jeft, and courtesy,

As bombaft and as lining to the time;
But more devout than these are our respects
Have we not been, and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment.

The fixth verfe being evidently corrupted, Dr. Warburton pro

pofes to read,

But more devout than this (fave our respects)
Have we not been;

VOL. II.

Hh

Mr.

Have we not been, and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion like a merriment.

Dum. Our letters, madam, fhew'd much more than jest.

Long. So did our looks.

Rof. We did not quote them fo."

King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves.

Prin. A time, methinks, too fhort,

To make a world without-end bargain in :
No, no, my lord, your grace is perjur'd much,
Full of dear guiltinefs; and therefore, this-
If for my love (as there is no fuch cause)
You will do aught, this fhall you do for me:
Your oath I will not truft; but go with speed
To fome forlorn and naked hermitage,
Remote from all the pleasures of the world;
There stay, until the twelve celestial figns
Have brought about their annual reckoning.
If this auftere infociable life

Change not your offer made in heat of blood;
If frofts, and fafts, hard lodging, and thin weeds
Nip not the gaudy bloffoms of your love,
But that it bear this trial, and last love;
Then, at the expiration of the year,

Come challenge, challenge me, by these deserts;

Dr. Johnson prefers the conjecture of fir Thomas Hanmer,
But more devout than this, in our respects.

I would read, with lefs violence, I think, to the text, though with the alteration of two words,

But more devout than these are your respects

Have we not seen,

Obferv. & Conject. &c. printed at Oxf. 1766.

I read with fir T. Hanmer,

But more devout than this, in our refpe&s, JOHNSON. We did not coat them fo.] We fhould read, quote, esteem, reckon, though our old writers fpelling by the car, probably wrote cote, as it was pronounced. JOHNSON.

And, by this virgin palm, now kiffing thine,
I will be thine and till that instant shut
My woful felf up in a mourning house,
Raining the tears of lamentation,

For the remembrance of my father's death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part;
Neither intitled to the other's heart.

King. If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up thefe powers of mine with reft; The fudden hand of death close up mine eye!

&

Hence, ever then, my heart is in thy breast. Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me? Rof. You must be purged too, your fins are rank; You are attaint with fault and perjury;

Therefore, if you my favour mean to get,
A twelve-month fhall you spend, and never rest,

To flatter up these powers of mine with reft;] Dr. Warburton would read fetter, but flatter or fouth is, in my opinion, more appofite to the king's purpose than fetter. Perhaps we may read, To flatter on thefe hours of time with reft;

That is, I would not deny to live in the hermitage, to make the year of delay pafs in quiet. JOHNSON.

9 Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me ? Rof. You must be purged too: your fins are rank:

You are attaint with fault and perjury;

Therefore if you my favour mean to get,

A tavelvemonth fhall you spend, and never reft,
But feek the weary beds of people fick.]

These fix verfes both Dr. Thirlby and Mr. Warburton concur to think should be expunged; and therefore I have put them between crotchets not that they were an interpolation, but as the author's firft draught, which he afterwards rejected; and executed the fame thought a little lower with much more fpirit and elegance. Shakespeare is not to answer for the prefent abfurd repetition, but his actor-editors; who, thinking Rofaline's fpeech too long in the fecond plan, had abridg'd it to the lines above quoted; but, in publishing the play, ftupidly printed both the original fpeech of Shakespeare, and their own abridgment of it. THEOBALD.