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So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness
Were in his pride or fharpnefs; if they were,
His equal had awak'd them; 2 and his honour,
Clock to itself, knew the true minute when
Exception bid him fpeak, and, at this time,
His tongue obey'd his hand : 3 who were below him
He us'd as creatures of another place; 4

And bow'd his eminent top to their low ranks,
Making them proud of his humility,

In their poor praise he humbled: 5 Such a man

Might

are only allowed by mankind in him that over-powers them by great qua. lities. JOHNSON.

Point thus:

He had the wit, which I can well obferve To-day in our young lords: but they may jeft, Till their own fcorn returns to them un-noted, Ere they can bide their levity in bonour, So like a courtier. Contempt, &c. The punctuation recommended by Sir William Blackstone is, I believe, the true one, at leaft it is fuch as deferves the reader's confideration.

BLACKSTONE.

STEEVENS.

2 Nor was used without reduplication. So, in Meafure for Measure: "More nor lefs to others paying,

"Than by felf-offences weighing."

The old text needs to be explained. He was fo like a courtier, that there was in bis dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of wit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuoufness ever appeared, they had been awakened by foine injury, not of a man below him, but of his equal. This is the complete image of a well-bred man, and somewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV. JOHNSON.

3 We should read-His tongue obey'd the band. That is, the band of bis bonour's clock, showing the true minute when exceptions bad him speak.

JOHNSON. 4 i. e. he made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. The Oxford editor, not understanding the fenfe, has altered another place, to a brother-race.

WARBURTON.

I doubt whether this was our author's meaning. I rather incline to think that he meant only, that the father of Bertram treated those below him with becoming condefcenfion, as creatures not indeed in fo bigb a place as himself, but yet holding a certain place; as one of the links, though not the largest, of the great chain of fociety. MALONE.

5 But why were they proud of his humility? It should be read and pointed thus:

Making

Might be

a copy to thefe younger times; Which, follow'd well, would démonstrate them now But goers backward.

Ber.

His good remembrance, fir,

Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb ;

So in approof lives not his epitaph,

As in your royal fpeech."

King. 'Would, I were with him! He would always fay, (Methinks, I hear him now; his plaufive words

He scatter'd not in ears, but grafted them,

Making them proud; and bis bumility,

In their poor praife, be bumbled

To

i. e. by condefcending to ftoop to his inferiors, he exalted them and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor prife, he bumbled even his bumility. The fentiment is fine. WARBURTON.

Every man has feen the mean too often proud of the bumility of the great, and perhaps the great may fometimes be bumbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or difcernment: this, however, is not fo common; the mean are found more frequently than the great. JouNSON.

I think the meaning is,-Making them proud of receiving such marks of condefcenfion and affability from a perfon in fo elevated a situation, and at the fame time lowering or humbling himself, by ft hoping to accept of the encomiums of mean perfons for that humility.- The construction feems to be," he being humbled in their poor praise MALONE.

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Giving them a better opinion of their own importance, by his condefcending manner of behaving to them. M MASON.

6 Epitaph for character.

I should wish to read

WARBURTON.

Approof fo lives not in bis epitaph,

As in your royal speech.

Approof is approbation. If I should allow Dr. Warburton's interpretation of epitaf b, which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no fenfe in the prefent reading. JOHNSON.

We might, by a flight tranfpofition, read

So bis approof lives not in epitaph.

Approof certainly means approbation. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is this:-Iis epitaph or infcription on his tomb is not fo much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal fpech.

TOLLET.

There can be no doubt but the word approrf is frequently used in the fenfe of approbation, but that is not always the cafe; and in this place it fignifies proof or confirmation. The meaning of the paffage appears to be this: The truth of his epitaph is in no way to fully proved, as by your royal fpeech." It is needlefs to remark, that epitaphs generally contain the character and praifes of the deceafed. M. MASON.

To grow there, and to bear,) - Let me not live,
Thus his good melancholy oft began,
On the catastrophe and heel of paftime,
When it was out,-let me not live, quoth he,
After my flame lacks oil, to be the fnuff
Of younger fpirits, whofe apprehenfive fenfes
All but new things difdain; whose judgements are
Mere fathers of their garments; whofe conftancies
Expire before their fafhions :- -This he wifh'd:
I, after him, do after him wish too,

Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home,
I quickly were diffolved from my hive,

To give some labourers room.

2 Lord.

You are lov'd, fir;

They, that least lend it you, fhall lack you firtt.

King. I fill a place, I know't.-How long is 't, count, Since the phyfician at your father's died ?

He was much fam'd.

Ber.

Some fix months fince, my lord.
King. If he were living, I would try him yet ¡→→→
Lend me an arm ;-the rest have worn me out
With feveral applications :-nature and sickness
Debate it at their leifure. Welcome, count;
My fon's no dearer.

Ber.

Thank your majefty.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt. Flourish.

Roufillon. A Room in the Countefs's Palace.

Enter Countefs, Steward, and Clown.

Count. I will now hear: what fay you of this gentle.

woman?

Stew.

? Who have no other ufe of their faculties, than to invent new modes of drefs. JOHNSON.

I have a fufpicion that Shakspeare wrote-meer feathers of their gar ments; i. e. whofe judgements are meerly parts (and infignificant parts) of their drefs, worn and laid afide, as feathers are, from the meer love of novelty and change. TYRWHITT.

* A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or dɔe mestick

1

Stew. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my paft endeavours; for then we wound our modefty, and make foul the clearness of our defervings, when of ourfelves we publish them.

Count. What does this knave here? Get you gone, firrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my flownefs, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make fuch knaveries yours.2

Clo. 'Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow.

Count. Well, fir.

Clo. No, madam, 'tis not fo well, that I am poor; though many of the rich are damn'd: 3 But, if I may have your ladyfhip's good will to go to the world, Ifbel the woman and I will do as we may.

Count. Wilt thou needs be a beggar?

Clo. I do beg your good-will in this cafe.
Count. In what cafe?

Clo. In Ifbel's cafe, and mine own.

Service is no heri

tage:

meftick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, fince fools were at that time maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the houfe. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only fervant reprefented is Patifon the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wife.

In fome plays, a fervant, or a ruftic, of a remarkable petulance and freedom of speech is likewife called a clown. JOHNSON.

Cardinal Wolfey, after his difgrace, wishing to show King Henry VIII. a mark of his refpect, fent him his fool Patch, as a pr fent; whom, says Stowe, the King received very gladly." MALONE.

9 To act up to your defires. JOHNSON.

2 After premifing that the accufative, them, refers to the precedent word, complaints, and that this by a metonymy of the effect for the cause, ' ftands for the freaks which occafioned thofe complaints, the fenfe will be extremely clear. "You are fool enough to commit thofe irregularities you are charged with, and yet not fo much fool neither, as to difcredit the accufation by any defect in your ability. HEATH.

It appears to me that the accufative them refers to knaveries, and the natural fenfe of the paffage feems to be this: "You have folly enough to defire to commit thefe knaveries, and ability enough to accomplish them." M. MASON.

3 See S. Mark, x. 25;. S. Luke, xviii. 25. GREY.

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tage: 4 and, I think, I fhall never have the bleffing of God, till I have iffue of my body; for, they fay, bearns are bleffings. Count. Tell me thy reafon why thou wilt marry.

Clo. My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on ! by the flesh; and he muft needs go, that the devil drives. Count. Is this all your worship's reason?

Clo. Faith madam, I have other holy reafons, fuch as they are. Count. May the world know them?

Clo. I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry, that I may repent. Count. Thy marriage, fooner than thy wickedness.

Cl. I am out of friends, madam; and I hope to have friends for my wife's fake.

Count. Such friends are thine enemies, knave.

Clo. You are shallow, madam; e'en great friends; 5 for the knaves come to do that for me, which I am a-weary of. He, that ears my land, 6 fpares my team, and gives me leave to inn the crop; if I be his cuckold, he's my drudge: He, that comforts my wife, is the cherisher of my flesh and blood; he, that cherishes my flesh and blood, loves my flesh and blood; he, that loves my flesh and blood, is my friend: ergo, he that kiffes my wife, is my friend. If men could be contented to be what they are, there were no fear in marriage; for young Charbon the puritan, and old Poyfam the papift, how foe'er their hearts are fever'd in religion, their heads are both one, they may joll horns together, like any deer i'the herd. Count. Wilt thou ever be a foul-mouth'd and calumnious knave?

Clo.

4 This is a proverbial expreffion. Needs muft when the devil drives, is another.

RITSON.

5 The meaning [ï. e. of the ancient reading mentioned in the fubfequent note] feems to be, you are not deeply fkilled in the character or offices of great friends. JOHNSON.

The old copy reads-in great friends; evidently a mistake for e'en, which was formerly written e'n. The two words are fo near in found, that they might eafily have been confounded by an inattentive hearer. The fame mistake has happened in many other places in our author's plays. MALONE.

To ear is to plough.. STEEVENS. See 1 Sam. viii. 12. Ifaiah, xxx. 24. Exod. xxxiv. 21. for the use of this verb.

Deut. xxi. 4. Gen. xlv. Q.
HENLEY

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