Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown] As thefe lines ftand in all the editions, there is not only an Anticlimax with a vengeance; but fuch a jumble, that makes the whole, I think, stark nonfenfe. I have ventu ed at a tranfpofition of the fecond and third lines, by the advice of my friend Mr. Warburton; and by a minute change, or two, cleared up the fenfe, I hope to the poet's intention. THEOB. Vailing bere is to be diftinguished from veiling, and carries the fame fenfe as in the phrafe vailing a bonnet, that is, patting off, lowering, finking down. HANM.* Difmafkt, their damask fweet commixture fpean, Are ANGELS VEILING clouds, or rifes blown.} This ftrange nonfenfe, made worse by the jumbling together and tranfpofing the lines, I directed Mr. Theobald to read thus: P. 74, 1. 15. Fair ladies, mafkt, are rafes in the bud; Fair ladies masked are roses in the bud; Or Angels veil'd in clouds: are roles blown, Difmaskt, 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 Shakefpear's purpose to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance to compare her to a cloud; and per haps the ill-bred reader will fay a lucky one. However I fuppofed the Poet could never be so 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 criticifin, is a great deal more fubtile and refined, and fays it should not be angels veil'd in clouds, but angels va:ling clouds ; i. e. capping the fun as they go by him, juft as a man vails his bonnet. WARB. Ibid.] I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation fhould be treated with fo much contempt, or why wailing clouds fhould be capping the fun. Ladies unmasked, fays Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting thole clouds which obfcured their brightness, fink from before them. What is L. 21. JOHNS. WARB. there in this abfurd or contemptible? Ibid.] Angels 'vailing clouds, or roses blown. CAPELL. fhapelets gear;] Shapelefs, for uncouth, or what Shakespeare elsewhere calls diffufed. L. 27. Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here. JOHNS P. 75, 1. 21. This is the flower that fmiles on ev'ry one.] The broken disjointed metaphor is a fault in writing. But in order to pafs a true judgment on this fault, it is still 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 elfewhere expreffes it, the pink of courtefie, that in common talk, or in the loweft ftile, this metaphor might be used without keeping up the image, but any thing affirmed of it as of an agnomen: hence it might be faid, without offence, to fmile, to flatter, &c. And the reafon is this; in the more folemn, lefs-ufed metaphors, our mind is fo turned upon the image which the metaphor conveys, that it expects, this image should be, for fome little time, continued, 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 violence by being drawn off abruptly and unexpectedly from its contemplation. Hence it is that the broken, disjointed, and mixed metaphor fo much shocks us But when it is once become worn and hacknied by common ufe, then even the very first mention of it is not apt to excite in us the reprefentative image; but brings immediately before us the idea of the thing reprefented. And then to endeavour to keep up and continue the borrowed 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 substance. Grammarians would do well to confider what has been here faid when they set upon amend ing Greek and Roman writings. For the much-used hacknied metaphors being now very imperfectly known, great care is required not to act in this cafe temerariously, WARE. bebaviour, what wert thou, L. 27. 'Till this man fhewed thee? and what art thou now?] These are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves fo much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learned, 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 conWARB. temptible quality. Ibid.] What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprised in the quotation. JOHNS. 76, 1. 9. The virtue of your eye MUST break: my oatb] Common fenfe requires us to read, MADE break my oath, It was i. e. made me. And then the reply is pertinent the force of your beauty that made me break my oath, therefore you ought not to upbraid me with a crime which you yourfelf was the cause of. WARB. I believe the author means that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, muft diffolve the obligation of the oath. The Princefs, in her anfwer, takes the most ividious part of the ambiguity. JOHNS. P. 78, 1. 23. Write, &c.] This was the infcription put upon the door of the houfes infected with the plague, to which Biron compares the love of himlelf and his companions; and purfuing the metaphor finds the tokens likewife on the ladies. The tokens of the plague are the first spots or difcolourations by which the infection is known to be received. JOHNS. -bow can this be true, L. 30. That you should for feit, being those that fue.] Tbat is, how can those be liable to forfeiture that begin the process. The jeft lies in the ambiguity of sue which fignifies to profecute by law, or to offer a petition. JOHNE. P.79, 1. 17. You force not to forfwear.] You force not is the fame with you make no difficulty. This is a very just observation. The crime which has been once committed, is committed again with lefs reluctance. P. 80, 18-Seme Zany-Against the old copies. JOHNS. P. 80, 1. 10. That fmiles his cheek in years.] Thus the whole fet of impreffions: but I cannot for my heart comprehend the fenfe of this phrafe. I am perfuaded, I have reftored the poet's word and meaning by reading jeers. Boyet's character was that of a fleerer, jeerer, mocker, corping blade. THEOB. Ibid.] - fmiles his cheek in years.] Mr. Theobald fays, he cannot for his heart, comprehend the fenfe of this phrafe." It was not his heart but his head that flood in his way. In years, fignifies into wrinkles. in The Merchant of VENICE, So "With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come. See the note on that line. -But the Oxford editor, was in the fame cafe, and fo alters it to fleers. L. 16. In vill and error WARB. Much upon this it is—And might not you.] I believe this,paffage should be read thus, "in will and error Boyet, Much upon this it is. JOHNS. L. 23. -go, you are allowed;] i. e. you may say what you will; you are a licensed fool, a common jefter. So Twelfth Night. There is no flander in an allowed fool. WAR B. P. 81, 1. 9. You cannot beg us.] That is, we are not fools, our next relations cannot beg the wardship of our persons and fortunes. One of the legal tests of a natural is to try whether he can number. JOHNS. P. 82, 1. 4. That sport best pleases, which doth least know how. Where zeal ftrives to content, and the contents Dies in the zeal of that which it presents; Their form, &c.] The third line may be read better thus, -The contents, Die in the zeal of him which them prefents. This fentiment of the Princess is very natural, but lefs generous than that of the Amazonian Queen, who says on a like occafion in Midsummer-Night's Dream. "I love not to iee wretchednefs o'ercharg'd, JOHNS. CAPELL L. 30. A bare throw at Novum.] This paffage I do mot understand. I fancy that Novum bould be Novem, and the fame allution is intended between the play of nine pins and the play of the nine worthies, but it lies too deen for my investigation. JOHNS. Ibid. I fuppofe it fhould be, "A fair throw at nowem,' as it carried fomething more than half that number. REVI.* P. 83, 1.6. With Libbard's bead on knee.] This alludes to the old heroic habits, which on the knees and fhoulders had ufually, by way of ornament, the refemblance of a Leopard's or Lion's head. THEOR. P. 84, 1. 13. Your lion that holds the poll-ax fitting on a clofeftool.] Alexander the Great, as one of the nine worthies, bears gules; a lion, or, feiant in a chair, holding a battle-ax argent. Vide, Ger. Leigh's Accidence of Armouries. But why, becaufe Nathaniel had behaved ill as Alexander, was that worthy's Hion and polt ax to be given to Ajax? Coftard, the clown, has a conceit in this very much of a piece with his character. The name of Ajax is equiVocally used by him; and he means, the infignia of fuch a conqueror, as the curate exhibited in his wretched reprefentation, ought to be given to a Fakes; fit verbo reverentia! the fame fort of conundrum is ufed by B. Jonson at the close of his poem, called The Famous Voyage. And I could with for their eternized fakes, My mufe had plow'd with his that fung A-jax. THEOB. P. 87, 1. 12. This Hector far furmounted Hannibal. The party is gone.] CAP.* All the editions ftupidly, have placed these laft words as part of Armado's fpeech in the interlude, I have ventured to give them to Cftrd, who is for putting Armade out of his part, by telling him the party (i. e. his mistress Jaquenetta), is gone two months with child by him. THEOB.* P. 87. Between lines five, fix, infert from the old copies, When he breathed he was a man.- CAPELL L. 28. More Ates.] That is, more instigation. Ate was the mischievous goddess that incited bloodshed. JOHN'S. P. 88, 1. 6.my arms-]. The weapons and armour which he wore in the character of Pompey. JOHN. |