Where that and other fpecialties are bound;
To-morrow you fhall have a fight of them.
King. It fhall fuffice me; at which interview,
All liberal reafon I will yield unto.

Mean time, receive fuch welcome at my hand,
As honour, without breach of honour, may
Make tender of to thy true worthiness:
You may not come, fair princefs, in my gates;
But here without you fhall be fo receiv'd,
As you fhall deem yourfelf lodg'd in my heart,
Though fo deny'd fair harbour in my house.
Your own good thoughts excufe me, and farewel:
To-morrow we fhall vifit you again.

Prin. Sweet health and fair defires confort your

grace!

King. Thy own wifh wish I thee in every place!

[Exit. Biron. Lady, I will commend you to my own

heart.

I would be glad to fee it.

commendations;

Biron. I would, you heard it groan.

Rof. Is the fool fick ?

Biron. Sick at the heart.

Rof. Alack, let it blood.

Biron. Would that do it good?

Rof. My phyfick fays, I.

Biron. Will you prick't with your eye?

Rof. Non poynt, with my knife.

Biron. Now, God fave thy life!

Rof. And yours from long living!

Biron. I cannot ftay thankfgiving.

[Exit.

Dum. Sir, I pray you, a word; What lady is that

fame??

Non poynt,-] So in the Shoemaker's Holiday, 1600:

66

-tell me where he is.

Boyet.

"No point. Shall I betray my brother?" STEEVENS. What lady is that fame?] It is odd that Shakespeare should

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make

Boyet. The heir of Alençon, Rosaline her name. Dum. A gallant lady! Monfieur, fare you well. [Exit.

Long. I befeech you, a word; What is the in the

white?

Boyet. A woman fometimes, an you faw her in the light,

Long. Perchance, light in the light: I defire her

name,

Boyet. She hath but one for herself; to defire that, were a fhame.

Long. Pray you, fir, whofe daughter?
Boyet. Her mother's, I have heard.

1

Long. God's bleffing on your beard!
Boyet. Good fir, be not offended:
She is an heir of Faulconbridge,
Long. Nay, my choler is ended.
She is a moft fweet lady.

Boyet. Not unlike, fir; that may be. [Exit Long.
Biron. What's her name in the cap?

Boyet. Katharine, by good hap.

Biron. Is the wedded, or no?

Boyet. To her will, fir, or fo.

Biron. You are welcome, fir; adieu !

Boyet. Farewell to me, fir, and welcome to you.

[Exit Biron Mar. That laft is Biron, the merry mad-cap lord; Not a word with him but a jeft.

Boyet. And every jeft but a word.

make Dumain enquire after Rofaline, who was the mistress of Biron, and neglect Katharine, who was his own. Biron behaves in the fame manner. No advantage would be gained by an exchange of names, because the laft fpeech is determined to Biron by Maria, who gives a character of him after he has made his exit. Perhaps all the ladies wore masks but the princess.

STEEVENS.

God's blefing on your beard!] That is, mayft thou have fenfe and seriousness more proportionate to thy beard, the length of which fuits ill with fuch idle catches of wit, JoHNSON..

Prin. It was well done of you, to take him at his

word.

Boyet. I was as willing to grapple, as he was to board.

Mar. Too hot fheeps, marry !

Boyet. And wherefore not fhips?

No fheep, fweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips Mar. You fheep, and I pasture; Shall that finish the jeft?

Boyet. So you grant pasture for me.
Mar. Not fo, gentle beaft;

My lips are no common, though several they be 3.

2

Boyet.

unless we feed on your lips.] Shakespeare has the fame expreffion in his Venus and Adonis:

"Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or on dale,

Graze on my lips.

3 My lips are no common, though feveral they be.] Several is an inclosed field of a private proprietor; fo Maria fays, her lips are private property. Of a lord that was newly married, one obferved that he grew fat; 66 Yes," faid fir Walter Raleigh, "any beast will grow fat, if you take him from the common and graze him in the feveral." JOHNSON.

So, in The Rival Friends, 1632:

66

my fheep have quite difgreft

"Their bounds, and leap'd into the feverall."

Again, in Green's Difputation, &c. 1592:

rather would have

mewed me up as a henne, to have kept that feverall to himself by force, &c." Again, in Sir John Oldcastle, 1600;

"Of late he's broke into a feverall
"That does belong to me.

ร STEEVENS. My lips are no common, though feveral they be.]

In the note upon this paffage it is faid that SEVERAL is an inclosed field of a private proprietor.

Dr. Johnson has totally miftaken this word. In the first place it fhould be fpelled feverell. This does not fignify an inclosed field or private property, but is rather the property of every landholder in the parish. In the uninclofed parishes in Warwickshire and other counties, their method of tillage is thus. The land is divided into three fields, one of which is every year fallow. This the farmers plough and manure, and prepare for bearing wheat. Betwixt the lands and at the end of them, fome little grafs land is interfperfed, and there are here and there, fome little patches of green fwerd. The next year this ploughed field bears wheat,

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and

Boyet. Belonging to whom?

Mar. To my fortunes and me.

Prin. Good wits will be jangling: but, gentles,

agree:

The civil war of wits were much better used
On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abused.
Boyet. If my obfervation, (which very feldom lyes)
By the heart's ftill rhetorick, difclofed with eyes,
Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

Prin. With what?

Boyet. With that which we lovers intitle, affected. Prin. Your reason?

Boyet. Why, all his behaviours did make their re

tire

To the court of his eye, peeping thorough defire:
His heart, like an agat, with your print impreffed,
Proud with his form, in his eye pride expreffed :
His tongue, all impatient to fpeak and not fee +,
Did ftumble with hafte in his eye-fight to be ;
All fenfes to that fenfe did make their repair,
To feel only looking on fairest of fair :

and the grafs land is preferved for hay; and the year following the proprietors fow it with beans, oats, or barley, at their dif cretion ;. and the next year it lies fallow again; fo that each field in its turn is fallow every third year; and the field thus fallowed is called the common field, on which the cows and fheep graze, and have herdsmen and fhepherds to attend them, in order to prevent them from going into the two other fields which bear corn and grafs. Thefe laft are called the feverell, which is not separated from the common by any fence whatever; but the care of preventing the cattle from going into the feverell is left to the herdimen and thepherds; but the herdsmen have no authority over the town buil, who is permitted to go where he pleases in the feverell. Dr. JAMES.

Holinfhed's Defcription of Britain, p. 33, and Leigh's Accedence of Armouric, 1597, p. 52. fpell this word like Shakefpeare. Leigh mentions the town bull, and fays, "all feverals to him are common." TOLLET.

4 His tongue, all impatient to speak and not fee,] That is, his tongue being impatiently defirous to fee as well as fpeak. JOHNSON. 5 To feel only looking- ] Perhaps we may better read:

To feed only by looking

JOHNSON.

Me

Methought, all his fenfes were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for fome prince to buy ;
Who, tendring their own worth, from whence they
were glafs'd,

Did point out to buy them, along as you pafs'd.
His face's own margent did quote fuch amazes,
That all eyes faw his eyes inchanted with gazes:
I'll give you Aquitain, and all that is his,
An you give him for my fake but one loving kiss.
Prin. Come, to our pavilion: Boyet is difpos'd-
Boyet. But to fpeak that in words, which his eye
hath difclos'd:

I only have made a mouth of his eye,

By adding a tongue which I know will not lye.
Rof. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'ft
fkilfully.

Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news
of him.

Rof. Then was Venus like her mother; for her father is but grim.

Boyet. Do you hear, my 'mad wenches ?

Mar. No.

Boyet. What then, do you fee?

Rof. Ay, our way to be

gone.

Boyet. You are too hard for me‘.

6 Boyet. You are too hard for me.] Here, in all the books, the 2d act is made to end: but in my opinion very mistakenly. I have ventured to vary the regulation of the four laft acts from the printed copies, for thefe reafons. Hitherto the 2d act has been of the extent of seven pages; the 3d of but five; and the 5th of no lefs than twenty-nine. And this difproportion of length has crowded too many incidents into fome acts, and left the others quite barren. I have now reduced them into a much better equality; and diftributed the business likewife, (fuch as it is) into a more uniform caft. THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald has reafon enough to propofe this alteration, but he should not have made it in his book without better authority or more need. I have therefore preserved his observation, but continued the former divifion. JOHNSON.

ACT

1