Seemeth their conference, the conceits have wings; Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, fwifter things.

Rof. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off.

Biron. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure fcoff.. King. Farewel, mad wenches; you have fimple wits. [Exeunt King and Lords.

Prin. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovites. Are these the Breed of wits fo wondred at?

Boyet. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puft out.

Rof. Well-liking wits they have; grofs, grofs; fat, fat.

Prin. O poverty in wit-kingly ?-poor flout! Will they not (think you) hang themselves to night? Or ever, but in vifors, fhew their faces?

This

pert Biron was out of count'nance quite. Rof. O! they were all in lamentable cafes. The King was weeping-ripe for a good word. Prin. Biron did fwear himself out of all fuit. Mar. Dumain was at my fervice, and his fword: No, point, quoth I; my fervant ftrait was mute. Cath. Lord Longueville faid, I came o'er his heart; And, trow you, what he call'd me?

Prin. Qualm, perhaps.

Cath. Yes, in good faith.

Prin. Go, fickness as thou art!

Rof. Well, better wits have worn plain statutecaps 3,

Better wits have worn plain ftatute-caps.] This line is not univerfally understood, beCaufe every reader does not know

But

But will you hear? the King is my love fworn,
Prin. And quick Biron hath plighted faith to me,
Cath. And Longueville was for my service born.
Mar. Dumain is mine, as fure as bark on tree.
Boyet. Madam, and pretty mistreffes, give ear;
Immediately they will again be here

In their own shapes; for it can never be,
They will digeft this harfh indignity.
Prin. Will they return?

Boyet. They will, they will, God knows;
And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows:
Therefore, change Favours, and when they repair,
Blow, like fweet rofes, in this fummer air.

Prin. How, blow? how, blow? speak to be understood,

Boyet. Fair ladies, mafkt, are roses in their bud, Dif

courtly ftudents, and that better wits may be found in the common places of education.

Fair ladies, mafkt, are rofes in the bud; Difmafkt, their damafk fweet

commixture fhewn,
Are ANGELS VEILING clouds,
or rofes blown.] This ftrange
nonfenfe, made worfe by the
jumbling together and tranfpo-
fing the lines, I directed Mr.
Theobald to read thus:

Fair ladies mafk'd are roses in
the bud ;
Or ANGELS VEIL'D IN clouds:
are roses blown,
Difmafkt, their damak fweet

commixture fhewn.
But he, willing to fhew how well
he could improve a thought,
would print it,

Or Angel-veiling Clouds, i. e. clouds which veil Angels : And by this means gave us, as

the old proverb fays, a cloud for a Juno. It was Shakespeare's purpofe to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance to compare her to a cloud: and perhaps the ill-bred reader will fay a lucky one, However, I fuppofed the Poet could never be fo nonfenfical as to compare a masked lady to a cloud, though he might compare her mask to one. The Oxford Editor, who had the advantage both of this emendation and criticism, is a great deal more fubtile and refined, and fays it fhould not be angels veil'd in clouds, but angels vailing clouds, i. e. capping the fun as they go by him, just as a man veils his bonnet.

WARBURTON.

I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation fhould be treat ed with fo much contempt, of why wailing clouds should be cap-,

Dismafkt, their damafk fweet Commixture fhewn,
Are angels vailing clouds: or roses blown.
Prin. Avaunt, perplexity; what shall we do,
If they return in their own fhapes to woo?

Rof. Good Madam, if by me you'll be advis'd,
Let's mock them ftill, as well known, as difguis'd;
Let us complain to them what fools were here,
Difguis'd, like Muscovites, in fhapeless gear';
And wonder what they were, and to what end
Their fhallow Shows, and Prologue vilely penn'd,
And their rough carriage fo ridiculous,
Should be presented at our Tent to us.

Boyet. Ladies, withdraw, the Gallants are at hand. Prin. Whip to our Tents, as roes run o'er the land. [Exeunt *.

Before the Princess's Pavilion.

Enter the King, Biron, Longueville, and Dumain, in their own habits; Boyet, meeting them.

King⋅ F

AIR Sir, God fave you! Where's the Princefs?

Boyet. Gone to her Tent.

Please it your Majefty, command me any service to

her?

King. That fhe vouchsafe me audience for one word.
Boyer, I will; and fo will fhe, I know, my lord.

ping the fun. Ladies unmasked, fays Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting thofe clouds which obcfured their brightnefs, fink from before them. What is there in this abfurd or contemptible?

5

[Exit.

fhapeless gear ;] Shapeless, for uncouth, or what Shakespeare elsewhere calls diffufed. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here.

B

Biron. This fellow picks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again, when Jove doth please : He is wit's pedlar, and retails his wares At wakes and waffels, meetings, markets, fairs: And we that fell by grofs, the Lord doth know, Have not the grace to grace it with fuch show. This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve; Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve. He can carve too, and lifp: why, this is he, That kift away his hand in courtesy; This is the ape of form, Monfieur the nice, That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice In honourable terms; nay, he can fing A mean moft mainly; and, in ufhering, Mend him who can; the ladies call him fweet, The ftairs, as he treads on them, kifs his feet. This is the flower, that fmiles on every one, To fhew his teeth, as white as whale his bone.

This is the flower, that smiles on ev'ry one.] The broken disjointed metaphor is a fault in writing. But in order to pass a true judgment on this fault, it is fill to be obferved, that when a metaphor is grown fo common as to defert, as it were, the figurative, and to be received into the common ftile, then what may be affirmed of the thing reprefented, or the fubftance, may be affirmed of the thing reprefenting, or the image. To illuftrate this by the inftance before us, a very complaifant, finical, over-gracious perfon, was fo commonly called the flower, or, as he elsewhere expreffes it, the pink of courtefie, that in common talk, or in the lowest stile, this metaphor might be used without keeping up the image,

And

but any thing affirmed of it as
of an agnomen: hence it might
be faid, without offence, to
smile, to flatter, &c. And the
reafon is this; in the more so-
lemn, lefs- ufed metaphors, our
mind is fo turned upon
the image
which the metaphor conveys,
that it expects, this image fhould
be, for fome little time, conti-
nued, by terms proper to keep
it in view. And if, for want
of these terms, the image be no
fooner prefented than difmiffed,
the mind fuffers a kind of vio-
lence by being drawn off abrupt-
ly and unexpectedly from its con-
templation. Hence it is that
the broken, disjointed, and mix'd
metaphor fo much fhocks us.
But when it is once become worn
and hacknied by common use,
then even the very first mention.

of

And confciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.

King. A blifter on his fweet tongue with my heart, That put Armado's Page out of his Part!

Enter the Princefs, Rofaline, Maria, Catharine, Boyet, and attendants.

Biron. See, where it comes; behaviour, what wert thou 7,

'Till this man fhew'd thee? and what art thou now?
King. All hail, fweet Madam, and fair time of day!
Prin. Fair in all hail is foul, as I conceive.
King. Conftrue my speeches better, if you may.
Prin. Then with me better, I will give you leave.
King. We come to vifit you, and purpofe now

To lead you to our Court; vouchsafe it then. Prin. This field fhall hold me, and fo hold your

VOW:

Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur'd men,

of it is not apt to excite in us the reprefentative image; but brings immediately before us the idea of the thing represented. And then to endeavour to keep up and continue the borrow'd ideas, by right adapted terms, would have as ill an effect on the other hand: Because the mind is already gone off from the image to the fubftance. Grammarians would do well to confider what has been here faid when they fet upon amending Greek and Roman writings. For the much ufed hacknied metaphors being now very imperfectly known, great care is required not to act in this cafe temerariously. WARBURTON. 7 behaviour, what wert thou,

'Till this man fhew'd thee? and

what art thou now ?] Thefe are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themfelves fo much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modeft filent accomplishment, under the direction of nature and common fenfe, which does its office in promoting focial life without being taken notice of. But that when it degenerates into fhew and parade, it becomes an unmanly contemptible quality.

WARBURTON.

What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprifed in the quotation,