Bear a fair presence, though your heart be tainted; Teach sin the carriage of a holy saint; Be secret-false; What need she be acquainted? What simple thief brags of his own attaint? It therefore seems to me more probable that the errour in this passage arose from the inattention of the transcriber or printer to the rhyme at the end of the fourth line, than in any other way. How negligent one or the other was in this respect, appears twelve lines lower, where, instead of attaint, the rhyme intended for saint, we have attaine. With respect to love-springs, or "the buds of love," it may be observed that the word springs, in its primary signification, means the young shoots or buds of plants; and that when sprigs that issue from the earth are meant, they are often denominated by our old writers-water-springs. See Psalm cvii. v. 33. The word in the sense which it bears here is, I believe, now little known except to agriculturists; (Dr. Johnson has it not in his Dictionary;) but to Shakspeare, perhaps from his early residence in the country, it appears to have been familiar; for he again uses it in his Venus and Adonis : "This canker that eats up love's tender spring." Again, in the Rape of Lucrece: "To dry the old oak's sap, and cherish springs." So, in Pliny's Natural History, by Ph. Holland, folio, 1600, 1. 526, b. xxii. ch. 21: "So long as they [sprouts] are no other than buds sprouting forth under the concavitie or pit-hole of the aforesaid joints, they term them oculos, [i. e. oilets or eyes ;] marie, in the very top they be named by them germina [i. e. sprigs or burgeons.] Now these oilets are properly (in twigs or sets of trees,) those buds called, where the new spring first shooteth forth." [Oculi autem in arborum furculis proprie vocantur, unde germinant.] See also Cotgrave's Dict. folio, 1611: "Bourgeonnement. A springing, budding, putting out." "Bourgeonner. To bud, spring or sprout out; to burgeon, put or shoot out." Hence doubtless springal, a youngster or stripling. The substantive spring, however, in this sense, seems to have gradually become obsolete; and sprig, which is perhaps a corruption of the same word, to have taken its place. And with a reference to the same term, our author in Venus and Adonis makes the goddess say, "If springing things be any jot diminish'd, 66 They wither in their prime, prove nothing worth." The notion that love is gradually built up, and that the lover's 'Tis double wrong, to truant with your bed, Being compact of credit, that you love us; Though others have the arm, shew us the sleeve; We in your motion turn, and you may move us. bosom is the mansion where this sovereign deity resides, appears to have been a favourite with our poet. Thus, in the passage in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, which has already been partly quoted by Mr. Steevens, but which I shall cite here more fully, because it confirms the observation just now made: "O thou, that dost inhabit in my breast, "Leave not the mansion so long tenantless, "Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall." Again, in his 119th sonnet: "And ruin'd love, when it is built anew." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Let not the piece of virtue which is set Again, in Troïlus and Cressida : 66 Time, force, and death, "Do to the body what extremes you can; I have only to add, that if the reader should look at the second scene of the fifth act of Coriolanus, as directed by Mr. Steevens in the preceding note, he will find nothing in the text or notes relative to the subjects now before us, either in his fourth edition of 1793, or in his posthumous edition of 1803; but he will be no great loser. The note which was meant to be referred to, may indeed be found in his third edition of 1778, but was struck out in the subsequent editions. The only valuable part of it is a passage quoted from Holinshed, by Mr. Tollet, explanatory of the word springs. MALONE. 6 his own ATTAINT?] The old copy has-attaine. The emendation is Mr. Rowe's. MALONE. 7 - make us BUT believe,] The old copy reads-not believe. It was corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Then, gentle brother, get you in again; Comfort my sister, chear her, call her wife: "Tis holy sport, to be a little vain, When the sweet breath of flattery conquers strife. ANT. S. Sweet mistress, (what your name is else, I know not, Nor by what wonder you do hit of mine,) Less, in your knowledge, and your grace, you show not, Than our earth's wonder; more than earth divine. Teach me, dear creature, how to think and speak; The folded meaning of your words' deceit. But if that I am I, then well I know, Your weeping sister is no wife of mine, Nor to her bed no homage do I owe; Far more, far more, to you do I decline'. From the whole tenour of the context, it is evident, that the negative (not) got place in the first copies instead of but. And these two monosyllables have by mistake reciprocally dispossessed one another in many other passages of our author's works. THEOBALD. 8 Being COMPACT of credit,] Means, being made altogether of credulity. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, Part II. 1632: 66 66 -she's compact Merely of blood Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis : 66 Love is a spirit, all compact of fire." STEEVENS. Again, in Much Ado About Nothing: 66 If he, compact of jars, grow musical." MALONE. 9 — vain,] Is light of tongue, not veracious. JOHNSON. O, train me not, sweet mermaid 2, with thy note, To drown me in thy sister's flood3 of tears; Sing, syren, for thyself, and I will dote: Spread o'er the silver waves thy golden hairs, And as a bed I'll take thee 3, and there lie; And, in that glorious supposition, think He gains by death, that hath such means to die :Let love, being light, be drowned if she sink"! I 1 to you do I decline.] Far more do I fall off or decline from her to you. MALONE. 2 sweet mermaid,] Mermaid is only another name for syren. So, in the Index to P. Holland's Translation of Pliny's Natural History: “Mermaids in Homer were witches, and their songs enchantments." STEEVENS. So, in our poet's Venus and Adonis : Thy mermaid voice hath done me double wrong." 3 MALONE. in thy SISTER's flood-] The old copy reads-sister. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALOne. 4 Spread o'er the SILVER waves thy GOLDEN hairs:] So, in Macbeth; "His silver skin laced with his golden blood." MALONE. The author of Remarks, &c. 8vo. 1783, has a similar observation; but this remark was written, and I think noted in my first edition, before the publication of the book referred to. MALONE. S - as a BED I'll take THEE,] Bed, which the word lie fully supports, was introduced in the second folio. The old copy has bud. MALONE. Mr. Edwards suspects a mistake of one letter in the passage, and would read-I'll take them.-Perhaps, however, both the ancient readings may be right::-as a bud I'll take thee, &c. i. e. I, like an insect, will take thy bosom for a rose, or some other flower, and, "-phoenix-like, beneath thine eye "Involv'd in fragrance, burn and die." It is common for Shakspeare to shift hastily from one image to another. Mr. Edwards's conjecture may, however, receive support from the following passage in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I. Sc. II. : Luc. What are you mad, that you do reason so? ANT. S. Not mad, but mated'; how, I do not know. Luc. It is a fault that springeth from your eye. ANT. S. For gazing on your beams, fair sun, being by. 8 Luc. Gaze where you should, and that will clear your sight. ANT. S. As good to wink, sweet love, as look on Luc. Why call you me love? call my sister so. Luc. That's my sister. ANT. S. No; It is thyself, mine own self's better part; Mine eye's clear eye, my dear heart's dearer heart; Let LOVE, being light, be drowned if SHE sink!] Love means -the Queen of love. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : 66 Now for the love of love, and her soft hours." Again, more appositely in our author's Venus and Adonis : "Love is a spirit, all compact of fire, "Not gross to sink, but light, and will aspire." Venus is here speaking of herself. Again, ibidem: "She's love, she loves, and yet she is not lov'd." MALONE. 7 Not mad, but MATED ;] i. e. confounded. So, in Macbeth : "My mind she has mated, and amaz'd my sight." STEEVENS. I suspect there is a play upon words intended here. Mated signifies not only confounded, but matched with a wife and Antipholus, who had been challenged as a husband by Adriana, which he cannot account for, uses the word mated in both these M. MASON. senses. Unquestionably mated means here, as elsewhere, bewildered, puzzled. The Duke in the fifth act uses the very same words, where certainly no quibble was intended, nor do I believe that any was meant here: "I think you are all mated or stark mad." MALONE. 8 Gaze WHERE-] The old copy reads, when. STEEVENS. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. |