Arm. By virtue, thou enforceft laughter; thy filly thought, my fpleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous fmiling: O pardon me, my ftars! Doth the inconfiderate take falve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for a falve? Moth. Doth the wife think them other? is not l'envoy a falve? Arm. No, page, it is an epilogue or difcourfe, to make plain Some obfcure precedence that hath tofore been fain. The fox, the ape, and the humble bee, There's the moral, now the l'envoy.. Moth. I will add the l'envoy; fay the moral again. Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. Moth. Until the goofe came out of door, And stay'd the odds by adding four. A good l'envoy, ending in the goofe; would you defire more? Coft. The boy hath fold him a bargain; a goose, that's flat; Sir, your penny-worth is good, an' your goose be fat. To fell a bargain well is as cunning as faft and loofe. Let me fee a fat l'envoy; that's a fat goose. Arm. Come hither, come hither; How did this argument begin? Meth. By faying, that a Coftard was broken in a shin. Then call'd you for a l'envoy. Coft. True, and I for a plantan; Thus came the argument in; Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goofe that you bought, And he ended the market. Arm. But tell me; how was there a * Coflard broken in a fhin? Coftard is the name of a species of apple. Moth. Moth. I will tell you fenfibly. Coft. Thou haft no feeling of it, Moth. I will speak that l'envoy. Coftard running out, that was fafely within, Fell over the threshold, and broke my fhin. Arm. We will talk no more of this matter. Coft. 'Till there be more matter in the fhin. Arm. Sirrah, Coftard, I will infranchise thee. Coft. O, marry me to one Francis; I fmell fome Penvoy, fome goofe in this. Arm. By my fweet foul, I mean, fetting thee at li berty; enfreedoming thy perfon; thou wert immur'd, reftrained, captivated, bound. Coft. True, true, and now you will be my purgation, and let me loofe. Arm. I give thee thy liberty, fet thee from durance, and, in lieu thereof, impofe on thee nothing but this; bear this fignificant to the country-maid Jaquenetta; there is remuneration; [Giving him fomething.] for the best ward of mine honours is rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow. Moth. Like the fequel, I. Signior Coftard, adieu. [Exit. [Exit: Coft. My fweet ounce of man's flesh, my in-cony Few! Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings remuneration.-What's the price of this incle? a penny: No, I'll give you a remuneration : why, it carries it. Remuneration!-wly, it is a s Like the fequel, I.] Sequele, in French, fignifies a great man's train. The joke is that a fingle page was all his train. WARBURTON. 9 My in-cony Jew!] Incony or kony in the north fignifies, fine, delicate as a kony thing, a fine thing. It is plain therefore, we fhould read, my-incony JEWEL. WARBURTON. Cony has the fignification here given it, but incony I never heard nor read elfewhere. I know not whether it be right, however fpecious, to change Jew to jewel. few, in our author's time, was, for whatever reason, apparently a word of endearment. So in Midsummer Night's Dream, Moft tender Juvenile, and the moft lovely Jew. fairer name than a French crown. I will never buy and fell out of this word. SCENE III. Enter Biron. Biron. O my good knave Caftard, exceedingly well met. Caft. Pray you, Sir, how much carnation ribbon Biron. O why then three farthings worth of filk. Coft. Well, I will do it, Sir. Fare you well. Coft. I fhall know, Sir, when I have done it. Coft. I will come to your worship, to-morrow morn ing. Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, flave, it is but this: The Princefs comes to hunt here in the park: And in her train there is a gentle lady; When tongues fpeak fweetly, then they name her name, And Rofaline they call her; afk for her, And to her fweet hand fee thou do commend Biron. O! and I, forfooth, in love! 2 This Signior Junio's giantdwarf, Dan Cupid.] It was fome time ago ingenioufly hinted to me, (and I readily came into the Opinion ;) that as there was a Contraft of Terms in giantdwarf, fo, probably, there fhould be in the Word immediately preceding them; and therefore that we should restore, This Senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. i. e. this old young Man. And there is, indeed, afterwards in this play, a Defcription of Cupid, which forts very aptly with fuch an Emendation. That was the way to make his Godhead wax, [Exit. Regent the former Reading, there is an Allufion to fome Tale, or Character in an old Play. I have not, on this Account, ventured to difturb the Text, becaufe there feems to me fome reafon to fufpect; that our Author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that Tragedy there is the Character of one falls in Love to Distraction with Junius, a Roman Captain, who one of Bonduca's Daughters; and becomes an arrant whining Slave to this Peffion. He is afterwards cured of his Infirmity, and is as abfolute a Tyrant against the Sex. Now, with regard to these two Extremes, Cupid might very probably be filed Junius's giant For he hath been five thousand dwarf: a Giant in his Eye, while the Dotage was upon him; but fhrunk into a Dwarf, fo foon as he had got the berter of it. years a Boy. The Conjecture is exquifitely well imagined, and ought by all means to be embrac'd, unless there is reafon to think, that, in THEOBALD. Mr. Upton has made a very ingenious Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms, * Of trotting paritors: (O my little heart!) And wear his colours! like a tumbler's hoop! genious conjecture on this paf- And wear his Colours like a Tumbler's hoop! A Corporal of a Field is quite a new Term: neither did the Tumblers ever adorn their Hoops with Ribbands, that I can learn: for Thofe were not carried in Parade about with them, as the Fencer carries his Sword: Nor, if they were, is the Similitude at all pertinent to the Cafe in hand. I read, like a tumbler ftoop. To stoop like a Tumbler agrees not only with that Profeffion, and the fervile Condefcenfions of a Lover, but with what follows in the Context. The wife Tranfcribers, when once the Tumbler appear'd, thought his Hoop muft not be far behind. WARBURTON. The conceit feems to be very forced and remote, however it be understood. The notion is not that the hoop wears colours, but that the colours are worn as a tumbler carries his hoop, hanging on one fhoulder and falling under the oppofite arm. L 2 And |