Adr. Patience, unmov'd, no marvel though she pause; 1 But were we burden'd with like weight of pain, This fool-begg'd patience in thee will be left.5 Luc. Well, I will marry one day, but to try;— Here comes your man, now is your husband nigh. Enter DROMIO of Ephesus. Adr. Say, is your tardy master now at hand? Dro. E. Nay, he is at two hands with me, and that my two ears can witness. Adr. Say, didst thou speak with him? know'st thou his mind? Otherwhere signifies-in other places. So, in King Henry VIII, Act II, sc. ii: "The king hath sent me otherwhere." Again, in Chapman's version of the second Book of Homer's Odyssey: 1 "For we will never go, where lies our good, though she pause;] To pause is to rest, to be in quiet. Johnson. 2 They can be meek, that have no other cause.] That is, who have no cause to be otherwise. M. Mason. 3 A wretched soul, bruis'd with adversity, We bid be quiet, &c.] Shakspeare has the same sentiment in Much Ado about Nothing, where Leonato says "Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief And again: 66 'tis all men's office to speak patience Douce. 4 With urging helpless patience ] By exhorting me to patience, which affords no help. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "As those poor birds that helpless berries saw." Malone. 5 fool-begg'd] She seems to mean, by fool-begg'd patience, that patience which is so near to idiotical simplicity, that your next relation would take advantage from it to represent you s a fool, and beg the guardianship of your fortune. Johnson. Dr. E. Ay, ay, he told his mind upon mine ear: Beshrew his hand, I scarce could understand it. Luc. Spake he so doubtfully, thou couldst not feel his meaning? Dro. E. Nay, he struck so plainly, I could too well feel his blows; and withal so doubtfully, that I could scarce understand them.6 Adr. But say, I pr'ythee, is he coming home? It seems, he hath great care to please his wife. Dro. E. Why, mistress, sure my master is horn-mad. Adr. Horn-mad, thou villain? Dro. E. I mean not cuckold-mad; but, sure, he 's stark mad: When I desir'd him to come home to dinner, Dro. E. Quoth my master: I know, quoth he, no house, no wife, no mistress;— I thank him, I bare home upon my shoulders; Adr. Go back again, thou slave, and fetch him home. 6 - that I could scarce understand them.] i. e. that I could scarce stand under them. This quibble, poor as it is, seems to have been a favourite with Shakspeare. It has been already introduced in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: 66 my staff understands me." Steevens. 7 — a thousand marks in gold:] The old copy reads—a hundred marks. The correction was made in the second folio. Malone. 8 Will you come home? quoth I;] The word home, which the metre requires, but is not in the authentick copy of this play, was suggested by Mr. Capell. Malone. I know not thy mistress; out on thy mistress!] dissonant line originally stood thus: " suppose this I know no mistress; out upon thy mistress! Steevens. Dro. E. Go back again, and be new beaten home? For God's sake, send some other messenger. Adr. Back, slave, or I will break thy pate across. Dro. E. And he will bless that cross with other beat ing: Between you I shall have a holy head. Adr. Hence, prating peasant; fetch thy master home. Dro. E. Am I so round with you, as you with me,1 That like a football you do spurn me thus? You spurn me hence, and he will spurn me hither: [Exit. 1 Am I so round with you, as you with me,] He plays upon the word round, which signified spherical, applied to himself, and unrestrained, or free in speech or action, spoken of his mistress. So the King, in Hamlet, bids the Queen be round with her son. Johnson. 2 -case me in leather.] Still alluding to a football, the bladder of which is always covered with leather. Steevens. 3 Whilst I at home starve for a merry look.] So, in our poet's 47th Sonnet: "When that mine eye is famish'd for a look." Malone. 4 Of my defeatures:] By defeatures is here meant alteration of features. At the end of this play the same word is used with a somewhat different signification. Steevens. 5 My decayed fair -] Shakspeare uses the adjective gilt, as a substantive, for what is gilt, and in this instance fair for fairness. To us naλov, is a similar expression. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, the old quartos read: Demetrius loves your fair." But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale, Again, in Shakspeare's 68th Sonnet : "Before these bastard signs of fair were born." Again, in his 83d Sonnet: "And therefore to your fair no painting set." Pure is likewise used as a substantive in The Shepherd to the Flowers, a song in England's Helicon, 1614. "Do pluck your pure, ere Phoebus view the land." Steevens. Fair is frequently used substantively by the writers of Shakspeare's time. So, Marston, in one of his Satires: "As the greene meads, whose native outward faire Farmer. 6 too unruly deer,] The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his Poem on The Ladies Girdle: "This was my heaven's extremest sphere, Shakspeare has played upon this word in the same manner in his Venus and Adonis: "Fondling, saith she, since I have hemm'd thee here, "Within the circuit of this ivory pele, "I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer "Feed where thou wilt on mountain or on dale." The lines of Waller seem to have been immediately copied from these. Malone. 7 - poor I am but his stale.] The word stale, in our author, used as a substantive, means not something offered to allure or attract, but something vitiated with use, something of which the best part has been enjoyed and consumed. Johnson. I believe my learned coadjutor mistakes the use of the word stale on this occasion. "Stale to catch these thieves," in The Tempest, undoubtedly means a fraudulent bait. Here it seems to imply the same as stalking-horse, pretence. I am, says Adriana, but his pretended wife, the mask under which he covers his amours. So, in King John and Matilda, by Robert Davenport, 1655, the Queen says to Matilda: Again: I am made your stale, I knew I was made "A stale for her obtaining." Again, in the old translation of the Menæchmi of Plautus, 1595, from whence, perhaps, Shakspeare borrowed the expression: "He makes me a stale and a laughing-stock." Steevens. In Greene's Art of Coney-catching, 1592, a stale is the confederate of a thief; "he that faceth the man," or holds him in discourse. Again, in another place, "wishing all, of what estate Luc. Self-harming jealousy!-fy, beat it hence. Adr. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dispense. I know his eye doth homage otherwhere; Or else, what lets it but he would be here? Sister, you know, he promised me a chain;— So he would keep fair quarter with his bed! I see, the jewel, best enamelled, Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still, [Exeunt. soe er, to beware of filthy lust, and such damnable stales," &c. A stale, in this last instance, means the pretended wife of a crossbiter. Perhaps, however, stale may here have the same meaning as the French word chaperon. Poor I am but the cover for his infidelity. Colline. * Would that alone alone he would detain,] The first copy reads— Would that alone a love &c. The correction was made in the second folio. Malone. 9 I see, the jewel, best enamelled, Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still, Wear gold: and so no man, that hath a name, But falshood and corruption doth it shame.] The sense is this: "Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; however, often touching will wear even gold; just so the greatest character though as pure as gold itself, may, in time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falshood and corruption." Warburton. Mr. Heath reads thus: yet the gold 'bides still, That others touch, though often touching will By falshood and corruption doth it shame. Steevens. The observation concerning gold is found in one of the early dramatick pieces, Damon and Pithias, 1582: 66 gold in time does wear away, "And other precious things do fade: friendship does ne'er decay." Malone. |