V10. Sure, my noble lord, If she be so abandon'd to her sorrow As it is spoke, she never will admit me. DUKE. Be clamorous, and leap all civil bounds, Rather than make unprofited return. V10. Say I do speak with her, my lord; What then ? DUKE. O, then unfold the passion of my love, Surprise her with discourse of my dear faith: It shall become thee well to act my woes ; She will attend it better in thy youth, Than in a nuncio of more grave aspéct, Vio. I think not so, my lord. DUKE. Is not more smooth, and rubious; thy small pipe I know, thy constellation is right apt For this affair :-Some four, or five, attend him; When least in company :-Prosper well in this, To call his fortunes thine. I'll do my best, V10. To woo your lady: yet, [Aside.] a barful strife"! Whoe'er I woo, myself would be his wife. [Exeunt. 6 -a woman's part.] That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were then personated by boys. JOHNSON. 7 — a BARFUL strife!] i. e. a contest full of impediments. STEEVENS, SCENE V. A Room in OLIVIA'S House. Enter MARIA, and Clown. MAR. Nay, either tell me where thou hast been, or I will not open my lips, so wide as a bristle may enter, in way of thy excuse: my lady will hang thee for thy absence. CLO. Let her hang me: he, that is well hanged in this world, needs to fear no colours. MAR. Make that good. 8 Clown.] As this is the first Clown who makes his appearance in the plays of our author, [i. e. in Mr. Steevens's edition,] it may not be amiss from a passage in Tarleton's News out of Purgatory, to point out one of the ancient dresses appropriated to the character: ". - I saw one attired in russet, with a button'd cap on his head, a bag by his side, and a strong bat in his hand; so artificially attired for a clowne, as I began to call Tarleton's woonted shape to remembrance." STEEVENS. Such perhaps was the dress of the Clown in this comedy, in All's Well That Ends Well, &c. The Clown, however, in Measure for Measure, (as an anonymous writer has observed,) is only the tapster of a brothel, and probably was not so apparelled. MALONE. The reader for full information on this subject must be referred to Mr. Douce's dissertation. BOSWELL. 9 fear no colours.] This expression frequently occurs in the old plays. So, in Ben Jonson's Sejanus. The persons conversing are Sejanus, and Eudemus the physician to the princess Livia: Sej. You minister to a royal lady then? "Eud. She is, my lord, and fair. 66 66 Sej. That's understood "Of all their sex, who are or would be so; "And those that would be, physick soon can make 'em : "For those that are, their beauties fear no colours.” Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599: 66 — are you disposed, sir? "Yes indeed I fear no colours; change sides, Richard." : STEEVENS. CLO. He shall see none to fear. MAR. A good lenten answer': I can tell thee where that saying was born, of, I fear no colours. CLO. Where, good mistress Mary? MAR. In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your foolery. CLO. Well, God give them wisdom, that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents. MAR. Yet you will be hanged, for being so long absent: or, to be turned away 2; is not that as good as a hanging to you? CLO. Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and, for turning away, let summer bear it out 3. MAR. You are resolute then? CLO. Not so neither; but I am resolved on two points. I LENTEN answer:] A lean, or as we now call it, a dry answer. JOHNSON. Surely a lenten answer, rather means a short and spare one, like the commons in Lent. So, in Hamlet: what lenten enter 66 tainment the players shall receive from you." STEEVENS. 2 - or, To be turn'd away;] The editor of the second folio omitted the word to, in which he has been followed by all subsequent editors. MALONE. 3 — and, for TURNING AWAY, let SUMMER bear it out.] This seems to be a pun from the nearness in the pronunciation of turning away and turning of whey. I found this observation among some papers of the late Dr. Letherland, for the perusal of which, I am happy to have an opportunity of returning my particular thanks to Mr. Glover, the author of Medea and Leonidas, by whom, before, I had been obliged only in common with the rest of the world. I am yet of opinion that this note, however specious, is wrong, the literal meaning being easy and apposite. "For turning away, let summer bear it out." It is common for unsettled and vagrant serving-men, to grow negligent of their business towards summer; and the sense of the passage is: "If I am turned away, the advantages of the approaching summer will bear out, or support all the inconveniencies of dismission; for I shall find employment in every field, and lodging under every hedge." STEEVENS. MAR. That, if one break, the other will hold; or, if both break, your gaskins fall. CLO. Apt, in good faith; very apt! Well, go thy way; if sir Toby would leave drinking, thou wert as witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria. MAR. Peace, you rogue, no more o' that; here comes my lady: make your excuse wisely, you were best. [Exit. Enter OLIVIA, and MALVOLIO. CLO. Wit, an't be thy will, put me into good fooling! Those wits, that think they have thee, do very oft prove fools; and I, that am sure I lack thee, may pass for a wise man: For what says Quinapalus? Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit3. -God bless thee, lady! OLI. Take the fool away. CLO. Do you not hear, fellows? Take away the lady. OLI. Go to, you're a dry fool; I'll no more of you: besides, you grow dishonest. CLO. Two faults, madonna", that drink and good counsel will amend: for give the dry fool drink, then is the fool not dry; bid the dishonest man mend himself; if he mend, he is no longer dis 4-if one (POINT) break,] Points were metal hooks, fastened to the hose or breeches, (which had then no opening or buttons,) and going into straps or eyes fixed to the doublet, and thereby keeping the hose from falling down. BLACKSTONE. So, in King Henry IV. Part I.: "Their points being broken,down fell their hose." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: -mingle eyes "With one that ties his points?" STEEVENS. - Better a witty fool, than a foolish wit.] Hall, in his Chro"that he nicle, speaking of the death of Sir Thomas More, says: knows not whether to call him a foolish wise man, or a wise foolish man." JOHNSON. 6- madonna,] Ital. mistress, dame. So, La Maddona, by way of pre-eminence, the Blessed Virgin. STEEVENS. honest; if he cannot, let the botcher mend him : Any thing, that's mended, is but patched': virtue, that transgresses, is but patched with sin; and sin, that amends, is but patched with virtue: If that this simple syllogism will serve, so; if it will not, What remedy? As there is no true cuckold but calamity, so beauty's a flower :-the lady bade take away the fool: therefore, I say again, take her away. OLI. Sir, I bade them take away you. CLO. Misprision in the highest degree !-Lady, Cucullus non facit monachum; that's as much as to say, I wear not motley in my brain. Good madonna, give me leave to prove you a fool. OLI. Can you do it? CLO. Dexteriously, good madonna. CLO. I must catechize you for it, madonna; Good my mouse of virtue, answer me. OLI. Well, sir, for want of other idleness, I'll 'bide your proof. CLO. Good madonna, why mourn'st thou ? OLI. I know his soul is in heaven, fool. CLO. The more fool you, madonna, to mourn for your brother's soul being in heaven.-Take away the fool, gentlemen. OLI. What think you of this fool, Malvolio? doth he not mend? MAL. Yes; and shall do, till the pangs of death shake him: Infirmity, that decays the wise, doth ever make the better fool. CLO. God send you, sir, a speedy infirmity, for the better encreasing your folly! Sir Toby will be sworn, 7 - Any thing, that's mended, is but PATCHED:] Alluding to the patched or particoloured garment of the fool. MALONE. |