(Good gentleman!) the wrongs I have done thee, stir Of my behind-hand slackness!-Welcome hither, (At least, ungentle,) of the dreadful Neptune, Flo. She came from Libya.' Leon. Good my lord, Where the warlike Smalus, That noble honour'd lord, is fear'd, and lov'd? Flo. Most royal sir, from thence; from him, whose daughter His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her: thence Not only my success in Libya, sir, But my arrival, and my wife's, in safety 7 Leon. whose daughter The blessed gods His tears proclaim'd his, parting with her:] This is very ungrammatical and obscure. We may better read: whose daughter His tears proclaim'd her parting with her. The prince first tells that the lady came from Libya; the King, interrupting him, says, from Smalus? from him, says the Prince, whose tears, at parting, showed her to be his daughter. Johnson. The obscurity arises from want of proper punctuation. By placing a comma after his, I think the sense is cleared. Steevens. 8 The blessed gods-] Unless both the words here and where were employed in the preceding line as dissyllables, the metre is defective. We might read-The ever-blessed gods;-but whether there was any omission, is very doubtful, for the reason already assigned. Malone. I must confess that in this present dissyllabic pronunciation I have not the smallest degree of faith. Such violent attempts to produce metre should at least be countenanced by the shadow of examples. Sir T. Hanmer reads Here, where we happily are. Steevens. Purge all infection from our air, whilst you 9 For which the heavens, taking angry note, Worthy his goodness. What might I have been, Lord. Enter a Lord. Most noble sir, That, which I shall report, will bear no credit, (His dignity and duty both cast off) Fled from his father, from his hopes, and with Leon. Where's Bohemia? speak. My marvel, and my message. To your court Her brother, having both their country quitted Flo. Camillo has betray'd me; Whose honour, and whose honesty, till now, Endur'd all weathers. Lord. Lay 't so, to his charge; Who? Camillo? He's with the king your father. Leon. Lord. Camillo, sir; I spake with him; who now Has these poor men in question.1 Never saw I Wretches so quake: they kneel, they kiss the earth; 9 A graceful gentleman;] i. e. full of grace and virtue. 1 M. Mason. in question.] i. e. conversation. So, in As you Like it: "I met the Duke yesterday, and had much question with him." Steevens, Forswear themselves as often as they speak: Per. O, my poor father! The heaven sets spies upon us, will not have Leon. You are married? Flo. We are not, sir, nor are we like to be; The stars, I see, will kiss the valleys first:The odds for high and low 's alike.2 Leon. When once she is my wife. My lord, She is, Leon. That once, I see, by your good father's speed, Will come on very slowly. I am sorry, Most sorry, you have broken from his liking, Flo. Though fortune, visible an enemy, Dear, look up: Should chase us, with my father; power no jot 2 The odds for high and low's alike,] A quibble upon the false dice so called. See note in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Vol. III. p. 37, n. 9. Douce. 3 Your choice is not so rich in worth as beauty,] Worth signifies any kind of worthiness, and among others that of high descent. The King means that he is sorry the Prince's choice is not in other respects as worthy of him as in beauty. Johnson. Our author often uses worth for wealth; which may also, together with high birth, be here in contemplation. Malone. So, in Twelfth Night: "But where my worth as is my conscience firm," &c. Steevens 4 Remember since you ow'd no more to time &c.] Recollect the period when you were of my age. Malone. Sir, my liege, Which he counts but a trifle. Paul. Your eye hath too much youth in 't: not a month Leon. [To FLO. Is yet unanswer'd: I will to your father; Enter AUTOLYCUS and a Gentleman. Aut. 'Beseech you, sir, were you present at this relation? 1 Gent. I was by at the opening of the fardel, heard the old shepherd deliver the manner how he found it: whereupon, after a little amazedness, we were all commanded out of the chamber; only this, methought I heard the shepherd say, he found the child. Aut. I would most gladly know the issue of it. 1 Gent. I make a broken delivery of the business;— But the changes I perceived in the king, and Camillo, were very notes of admiration: they seemed almost, with staring on one another, to tear the cases of their eyes; there was speech in their dumbness, language in their very gesture; they looked, as they had heard of a world ransomed, or one destroyed: A notable passion of wonder appeared in them: but the wisest beholder, that knew no more but seeing, could not say, if the importance were joy, or sorrow:5 but in the extremity of the one, it must needs be. Enter another Gentleman. Here comes a gentleman, that, happily, knows more: 5 if the importance were joy, or sorrow;] Importance here means, the thing imported. M. Mason. The news, Rogero? 2 Gent. Nothing but bonfires: The oracle is fulfilled; the king's daughter is found: such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to express it. Enter a third Gentleman. Here comes the lady Paulina's steward; he can deliver you more. How goes it now, sir? this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion: Has the king found his heir? 3 Gent. Most true; if ever truth were pregnant by circumstance: that, which you hear, you'll swear you see, there is such unity in the proofs. The mantle of queen Hermione:-her jewel about the neck of it:-the letters of Antigonus, found with it, which they know to be his character:-the majesty of the creature, in resemblance of the mother;-the affection of nobleness, which nature shows above her breeding,—and many other evidences, proclaim her, with all certainty, to be the king's daughter. Did you see the meeting of the two kings? 2 Gent. No. 3 Gent. Then have you lost a sight, which was to be seen, cannot be spoken of. There might you have beheld one joy crown another; so, and in such manner;7 that, it seemed, sorrow wept to take leave of them; for their joy waded in tears. There was casting up of eyes, 6 the affection of nobleness,] Affection here perhaps means disposition or quality. The word seems to be used nearly in the same sense in the following title: "The first set of Italian Madrigalls Englished, not to the sense of the original ditty, but to the affection of the noate," &c. By Thomas Watson, quarto, 1590. Affection is used in Hamlet for affectation, but that can hardly be the meaning here. Perhaps both here and in King Henry IV, affection is used for propensity: 7 66 -in speech, in gait, "In diet, in affections of delight, "In military exercises, humours of blood, "He was the mark and glass," &c. Malone. so, and in such manner,] Our author seems to have picked up this little piece of tautology in his clerkship. It is the technical language of conveyancers. Ritson. |