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choly, I did commend the black-oppreffing humour to the most wholesome phyfick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time, when? About the fixth hour; when beafts most graze, birds beft peck, and men fit down to that nourishment which is called fupper. So much for the time when : Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walk'd upon: it is yeleped, thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obfcene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my Snow-white pen the ebon-colour'd ink, which here thou vieweft, beholdeft, furveyeft, or feest: But to the place, where,It ftandeth north-north-east and by east from the weft corner of thy curious-knotted garden: There did I fee that low-fpirited fwain, that bafe minnow of thy mirth, s

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COST. Me.

KING.that unletter'd fmall-knowing foul,
COST. Me.

KING. that fhallow vaffal,

- curious-knotted garden:] Ancient gardens abounded with figures of which the lines interfected each other in many directions. Thus in King Richard II:

"Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd.

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"Her knots disorder'd, &c.

In Thomas Hill's Profitable Art of Gardening, &c. 4to. bl. 1. 1579, is the delineation of a proper knot for a garden, whereas is fpare roume enough, the which may be fet with Time, or Ifop, at the difcretion of the Gardener." In Henry Dethicke's Gardener's Labyrinth, bl. 1. 4to. 1586, are other examples of “ proper knots deuifed for gardens. STEEVENS.

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8 bafe minnow of thy mirth,] The base minnow of thy mirth, is the contemptible little object that contributes to thy entertainShakipeare makes Coriolanus characterize the tribunitian infolence of Sicinius, under the fame figure:

ment.

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hear you not

"This Triton of the minnows!"

Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: Let him denie that there was another fhewe made of the little minnow his brother," &c. STEEVENS.

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COST. Still me.

KING.which, as I remember, hight Coftard,
COST. O me!

KING.-forted and conforted, contrary to they eftablished proclaimed edit and continent canon, withwith? -O with-but with this I paffion to fay where

with.

COST. With a wench.

KING. with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more fweet underflanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-efleemed duty pricks me on) have fent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy Sweet Grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and eftimation.

DULL. Me, an't fhall please you; I am Antony Dull.

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KING. For Jaquenetta, (fo is the weaker veffel called, which I apprehended with the aforefaid fwain,). I keep her as a veffel of thy law's fury; and jhall, at the leaft of thy fweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty,

Don Adriano de Armado. BIRON. This is not fo well as I look'd for, but the beft that ever I heard.

KING. Ay, the beft for the worft. But, firrah, what say you to this?

COST. Sir, I confefs the wench.

⚫ KING. Did you hear the proclamation?

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with-with-] The old copy reads-which with. The corre&ion is Mr. Theobald's. MALONE.

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veffel of thy law's fury;] This feems to be a phrase adopted from fcripture. See Epift. to the Romans, ix. 22. the veffel of wrath. Mr. M. Mason would read-vassal instead of vessel.

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STEEVENS.

COST. 'I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.'

KING. It was proclaim'd a years imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

COST. I was taken with none, fir; I was taken with a damofel.

KING. Well, it was proclaimed damofel.

COST. This was no damofel neither; fir, fhe was a virgin.

KING. It is fo varied too; for it was proclaim'd, virgin.

COST. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.

KING. This maid will not ferve your turn, fir. COST. This maid will ferve my turn, fir.

KING. Sir, I will pronounce your fentence; You fhall faft a week with bran and water.

COST. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

KING. And Don Armado fhall be your keeper.My lord Biron fee him deliver'd o'er.

And

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go we, lords, to put in practice that

Which each to other hath fo flrongly fworn.[Exeunt.

BIRON. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, Thefe oaths and laws will prove an idle fcorn.Sirrah, come on.

COST. I fuffer for the truth, fir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore, Welcome the four cup of prof

3 I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.] So, Falstaff, in The Second Part of K. Henry IV:

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it is the difeafe of not liftening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. STEEVENS.

perity! Affliction may one day fmile again, and till then, Sit thee down, forrow!

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Another part of the fame. Armado's Houfe.

Enter ARMADO and MOTн.

ARM. Boy, what fign is it, when a man of great fpirit grows melancholy?

MOTH. A great fign, fir, that he will look fad. ARM. Why, fadnefs is one and the felf-fame thing, dear imp.

MOTH. No, no; O lord, fir, no.

ARM. How can't thou part fadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal?'

MOTH. By a familiar demonftration of the working, my tough fenior.

ARM. Why tough fenior? why tough fenior? MOTH. Why tenderjuvenal? why tender juvenal?

dear imp.] Imp was anciently a term of dignity.* Lord Cromwell, in his laft letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his Jon. It is now ufed only in contempt or abhorrence: perhaps in our author's time it was ambiguous, in which ftate it fuits well with this dialogue. JOHNSON.

Pistol falutes King Henry V. by the fame title.

STEEVENS.

The word literally means a graff, flip, Scion, or fucker: and by metonymy comes to be used for a boy or child. The imp, his fon, is no more than his infant fon. It is now fet apart to fignify young fiends; as the devil and his imps.

Dr. Johnson was mistaken in supposing this a word of dignity. It occurs in The History of Celeftina the Faire, 1596: 66 the gentleman had three fonnes, very ungracious impes, and of a wicked nature." RITSON.

my tender juvenal?] Juvenal is youth. So, in The Noble Stranger, 1640:

"Oh, I could hug thee for this, my jovial juvinell."

STEEVENG

ARM. I fpoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.

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MOTH. And I, tough fenior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough. ARM. Pretty, and apt.

MOTH. How mean you, fir? I pretty, and my faying apt? or I apt, and my faying pretty? ARM. Thou pretty, because little.

MOTH. Little pretty, becaufe little: Wherefore

apt?

ARM. And therefore apt, because quick.
MOTH. Speak you this in my praife, mafter?
ARM. In thy condign praife.

MOTH. I will praife an eel with the fame praise.
ARM. What? that an eel is ingenious?

MOTH. That an eel is quick.

ARM. I do fay, thou art quick in answers: Thou heat'ft my blood.

MOTн. I am answer'd, fir.

ARM. I love not to be cross'd.

MOTH. He speaks the mere contrary, croffes love not him. 7

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[Afide.

tough fenior, as an appertinent title to your old time,] Here and in two speeches above the old copies have fignior, which appears to have been the old fpelling of fenior. So, in the laft fcene of The Comedy of Errors; edit 1623: “We will draw cuts for the fignior ; till then, lead thou firft." In that play the fpelling has been corrected properly by the modern editors, who yet, I know not why, have retained the old fpelling in the paffage before us. MALONE.

Old and tough, young and tender, is one of the proverbial phrases collected by Ray. STEEVENS.

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croffes love not him.] By croffes he means money. So, in As You Like It, the Clown fays to Celia, "if I fhould bear you, I fhould bear no crofs." JOHNSON.

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