Address yourself to entertain them sprightly, Enter Shepherd, Clown, MOPSA, DORCAS, and others, with POLIXENES and CAMILLO disguised. Shep. Fie, daughter! when my old wife lived, upon This day she was both pantler, butler, cook, Both dame and servant; welcomed all, served all : Would sing her song and dance her turn; now here, At upper end o' the table, now i' the middle; And bid us welcome to your sheep-shearing, As your good flock shall prosper. Per. 60 [To Pol.] Sir, welcome : 70 It is my father's will I should take on me The hostess-ship o' the day. [To Cam.] You're welcome, sir. Give me those flowers there, Dorcas. sirs, 56. pantler, pantry-maid (or man). Reverend For you there's rosemary and rue; these keep Pol. Shepherdess, A fair one are you-well you fit our ages Per. Sir, the year growing ancient, Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter, the fairest flowers o' the season Are our carnations and streak'd gillyvors, Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind Pol. Do you neglect them? Per. Wherefore, gentle maiden, For I have heard it said There is an art which in their piedness shares With great creating nature. Pol. Say there be; Yet nature is made better by no mean But nature makes that mean: so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. marry You see, sweet maid, we 76. Grace and remembrance. Rosemary was 'for remembrance,' rue (through a confusion with rue, 'regret') for 'grace'; cf. Ham. iv. 5. 82. gillyvors, 'gilliflowers'; variously interpreted as wallflowers, or a kind of carnation. 86. For, because. 87. an art. 'The art is simply the transmission of the 80 90 pollen from one flower to another of different colour, which may be done either by the hand of man, or by nature, by means of the air and by bees' (Roach Smith, The Rural Life of Shakespeare, quot. Deighton). 92 f. Polixenes illustrates the 'artificial' process of producing crosses between flowers of different colours by the process of grafting. A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind Which does mend nature, change it rather, but Pol. Then make your garden rich in gillyvors, And do not call them bastards. Per. I'll not put The dibble in earth to set one slip of them; And only live by gazing. Per. Out, alas! You'ld be so lean, that blasts of January my fair'st friend, I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might Become your time of day; and yours, and yours, That wear upon your virgin branches yet Your maidenheads growing: O Proserpina, 100. dibble, a pointed instrument for making holes. 104. Hot, aromatic. 105. that goes to bed wi' the sun. The marigold or sunflower was called the Sponsus solis, 'because it slept and awakened with the sun.' 100 ΣΙΟ For the flowers now, that frighted thou let'st fall That come before the swallow dares, and take Flo. 120 What, like a corse? Per. No, like a bank for love to lie and play on; 130 Not like a corse; or if, not to be buried, But quick and in mine arms. flowers: Come, take your Methinks I play as I have seen them do In Whitsun pastorals: sure this robe of mine Flo. Still betters what is done. sweet, What you do When you speak, I'ld have you do it ever when you sing, 118. Dis's waggon, Pluto's chariot. 120. dim, of subdued, unobtrusive colour. 126. crown imperial, the Fritillaria imperialis, or fritillary. It had been introduced into England from Constantinople, and was highly prized for its 'stately beautifulness.' 127. flower-de-luce, a kind of iris; elsewhere (as by Spenser) often called the flower Delice (flos deliciarum). 134. Whitsun pastorals, plays performed at Whitsuntide. Cf. Two Gentlemen, iv. 4., where Julia feigns to have played 'at Pentecost. . . a lamentable part' -'twas Ariadne passioning for Theseus' perjury.' To sing them too: when you do dance, I wish you 140 And own no other function: each your doing, Crowns what you are doing in the present deed, O Doricles, Per. You woo'd me the false way. Flo. I think you have That never mean to part. Per. I'll swear for 'em. 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, Too noble for this place. Cam. He tells her something 150 That makes her blood look out: good sooth, she is 160 The queen of curds and cream. Clo. Come on, strike up! Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, garlic, To mend her kissing with! Мор. 144. singular, unique. 146. queens, each unique and supreme in its kind. 147. large, unreserved. 152. skill, reason. Now, in good time! 160. out, Theobald's emendation for F, on 't. 163. in good time, used ironically, like Fr. à la bonne heure. Cf. Tam. of Shrew, ii. 1. 96. |