Heigh, ho! sing, heigh, ho! unto the green holly: II. Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, Though thou the waters warp', Though the old text may be tortured into a meaning, perhaps it would be as well to read: "Because the heart's not seen." y harts, according to the ancient mode of writing, was easily corrupted. FARMER. So, in the Sonnet introduced into Love's Labour's Lost: "Through the velvet leaves the wind "All unseen 'gan passage find." STEEVENS. Again, in Measure for Measure: "To be imprison'd in the viewless winds." MALONE. Though thou the waters WARP,] The surface of waters, so long as they remain unfrozen, is apparently a perfect plane; whereas, when they are, this surface deviates from its exact flatness, or warps. This is remarkable in small ponds, the surface of which, when frozen, forms a regular concave; the ice on the sides rising higher than that in the middle. KENRICK. To warp was, probably, in Shakspeare's time, a colloquial word, which conveyed no distant allusion to any thing else, physical or mechanical. To warp is to turn, and to turn is to change: when milk is changed by curdling, we now say it is turned: when water is changed or turned by frost, Shakspeare says, it is curdled. To be warp'd is only to be changed from its natural state. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson is certainly right. So, in Cynthia's Revels, of Ben Jonson: "I know not, he's grown out of his garb a-late, he's warp'd. And so, methinks too, he is much converted." Thus the mole is called the mould-warp, because it changes the appearance of the surface of the earth. Again, in The Winter's Tale, Act I.: 66 'My favour here begins to warp." Dr. Farmer supposes warp'd to mean the same as curdled, and adds that a similar idea occurs in Timon: "the icicle "That curdled by the frost," &c. STEEVENS. Among a collection of Saxon adages in Hickes's Thesaurus, vol. i. p. 221, the succeeding appears: pinter sceal gepeonpan Thy sting is not so sharp As friend remember'd not 2. Heigh, ho! sing, heigh, ho! &c. DUKE S. If that you were the good sir Rowland's As you have whisper'd faithfully, you were; peden, winter shall warp water. So that Shakspeare's expression was anciently proverbial. It should be remarked, that among the numerous examples in Manning's excellent edition of Lye's Dictionary, there is no instance of peonpan or geþeonpan, implying to freeze, bend, turn, or curdle, though it is a verb of very extensive signification. Probably this word still retains a similar sense in the northern part of the island, for in a Scottish parody on Dr. Percy's elegant ballad, beginning, "O Nancy, wilt thou gang with me," I find the verse Nor shrink before the wintry wind," is altered to "Nor shrink before the warping wind." HOLT WHITE. 66 The meaning is this: Though the very waters, by thy agency, are forced, against the law of their nature, to bend from their stated level, yet thy sting occasions less anguish to man, than the ingratitude of those he befriended. HENLEY. Wood is said to warp when its surface, from being level, becomes bent and uneven; from warpan, Saxon, to cast. So, in this play, Act III. Sc. III: "-then one of you will prove a shrunk pannel, and, like green timber, warp, warp." I doubt whether the poet here alludes to any operation of frost. The meaning may be only, Thou bitter wintry sky, though thou curlest the waters, thy sting, &c. Thou in the line before us refers only to-bitter sky. The influence of the winter's sky or season may, with sufficient propriety, be said to warp the surface of the ocean, by agitation of its waves alone. That this passage refers to the turbulence of the sky, and the consequent agitation of the ocean, and not to the operation of frost, may be collected from our author's having in King John described ice not as warped or uneven, but as uncommonly smooth: "To throw a perfume on the violet, "To smooth the ice," &c. MALONE. 2 As friend REMEMBER'D not.] Remember'd for remembering. So, afterwards, Act III. Sc. last: "And now I am remember'd —.” i. e. and now that I bethink me, &c. MALONE. That lov'd your father: The residue of your fortune, ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in the Palace. Enter Duke Frederick, OliveR, Lords, and At tendants. DUKE F. Not see him since? Sir, sir, that cannot be : But were I not the better part made mercy, I should not seek an absent argument Of my revenge, thou present: But look to it; Seek him with candle; bring him dead or living, Thy lands, and all things that thou dost call thine, OLI. O, that your highness knew my heart in this! 3 -as thy MASTER is:] The old copy has-masters. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 4 an absent ARGUMENT] An argument is used for the contents of a book; thence Shakspeare considered it as meaning the subject, and then used it for subject in yet another sense. JOHNSON. S SEEK him with CANDLE;] Alluding, probably, to St. Luke's Gospel, ch. xv. v. 8: If she lose one piece, doth she not light a candle, and seek diligently till she find it?' STEEVENS. I never lov'd my brother in my life. DUKE F. More villain thou.-Well, push him out of doors; And let my officers of such a nature Make an extent upon his house and lands": SCENE II. The Forest. Enter ORLANDO, with a paper. ORL. Hang there, my verse, in witness of my love: And, thou, thrice-crowned queen of night, survey With thy chaste eye, from thy pale sphere above, Thy huntress' name, that my full life doth sway' O Rosalind! these trees shall be my books, And in their barks my thoughts I'll character: 6 And let my officers of such a nature "To make an Make an EXTENT upon his house and lands :] extent of lands," is a legal phrase, from the words of a writ, (extendi facias,) whereby the sheriff is directed to cause certain lands to be appraised to their full extended value, before he delivers them to the person entitled under a recognizance, &c. in order that it may be certainly known how soon the debt will be paid. MALONE. 7 - expediently,] That is, expeditiously. JOHNSON. Expedient, throughout our author's plays, signifies-expeditious. So, in King John: "His marches are expedient to this town." Again, in King Richard II.: "Are making hither with all due expedience." STEevens. 8 - thrice-crowned queen of night,] Alluding to the triple character of Proserpine, Cynthia, and Diana, given by some mythologists to the same goddess, and comprised in these memorial lines: Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana, 9 Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittis. JOHNSON. that My full LIFE DOTH SWAY.] So, in Twelfth Night: M. O. A. I. doth sway my life." STEEVENS. That every eye, which in this forest looks, Shall see thy virtue witness'd every where. Run, run, Orlando; carve, on every tree, The fair, the chaste, and unexpressive1 she. [Exit. Enter CORIN and TOUCHStone. COR. And how like you this shepherd's life, master Touchstone ? TOUCH. Truly, shepherd, in respect of itself, it is a good life; but in respect that it is a shepherd's life, it is naught. In respect that it is solitary, I like it very well; but in respect that it is private, it is a very vile life. Now in respect it is in the fields, it pleaseth me well; but in respect it is not in the court, it is tedious. As it is a spare life, look you, it fits my humour well; but as there is no more plenty in it, it goes much against my stomach. Hast any philosophy in thee, shepherd? COR. No more, but that I know, the more one sickens, the worse at ease he is; and that he that wants money, means, and content, is without three good friends:-That the property of rain is to wet, and fire to burn: That good pasture makes fat sheep; and that a great cause of the night, is lack of the sun That he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of good breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred 2. unexpressive-] For inexpressible. JOHNSON. Milton also, in his Hymn on the Nativity, uses unexpressive for inexpressible: 66 Harping with loud and solemn quire, "With unexpressive notes to heaven's new-born heir." MALONE. he, that hath learned no wit by nature nor art, may complain of GOOD breeding, or comes of a very dull kindred.] I am in doubt whether the custom of the language in Shakspeare's time did not authorise this mode of speech, and make "complain of good breeding" the same with "complain of the want of VOL. VI. 2 E |