GUI. Why, he but sleeps2: If he be gone, he'll make his grave a bed; And worms will not come to thee 3. ARV. With fairest flowers, Whilst summer lasts, and I live here, Fidele, I - CLOUTED brogues-) Are shoes strengthened with clout or hob-nails. In some parts of England, thin plates of iron, called clouts, are likewise fixed to the shoes of ploughmen and other rusticks. Brog is the Irish word for a kind of shoe peculiar to that kingdom. STEEVENS. • Why, he but sleeps :) I cannot forbear to introduce a passage somewhat like this, from Webster's White Devil, or Vittoria Corombona, [1612] on account of its singular beauty : "Oh, thou soft natural death! thou art joint twin 3 And worms will not come to THEE.] This change from the second person to the third, is so violent, that I cannot help imputing it to the players, transcribers, or printers; and therefore wish to read: " And worms will not come to him." STEEVENS. This is another instance in support of what I have said upon a former passage : Euriphile "Thou wast their nurse, they took thee for their mother, "And every day do honour to her grave." MALONE. • With fairest flowers Whilst SUMMER LASTS, &c.] So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, (edit. 1609): No, I will rob Tellus of her weede, "To strewe thy greene with flowers, the yellowes, blues, "The purple violets and marygolds, "Shall as a carpet hang upon thy grave, " While summer dayes doth last." STEEVENS.. With charitable bill (O bill, sore-shaming none, To winter-ground thy corse'. s - the ruddock would, With charitable bill, bring thee all this; Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none, TO WINTER-GROUND thy corse.) Here again, the metaphor is strangely mangled. What sense is there in winter-grounding a corse with moss? A corse might indeed be said to be wintergrounded in good thick clay. But the epithet furr'd to moss directs us plainly to another reading: "To winter-gown thy corse:" i. e. thy summer habit shall be a light gown of flowers, thy winter habit a good warm furr'd gown of moss. WARBURTON. I have no doubt but that the rejected word was Shakspeare's, since the protection of the dead, and not their ornament, was what he meant to express. To winter-ground a plant, is to protect it from the inclemency of the winter-season, by straw, dung, &c. laid over it. This precaution is commonly taken in respect of tender trees or flowers, such as Arviragus, who loved Fidele, represents her to be. The ruddock is the red-breast, and is so called by Chaucer and Spenser : "The tame ruddock, and the coward kite." The office of covering the dead is likewise ascribed to the ruddock, by Drayton in his poem called The Owl: "Cov'ring with moss the dead's unclosed eye, See also, Lupton's Thousand Notable Things, b. i. p. 10. STEEVENS. -the ruddock would," &c. Is this an allusion to the "Babes of the Wood," or was the notion of the red-breast covering dead bodies, general before the writing that ballad? PERCY. In Cornucopia, or divers Secrets wherein is contained the rare Secrets in Man, Beasts, Foules, Fishes, Trees, Plantes, Stones, and such like most pleasant and profitable, and not before committed to bee printed in English. Newlie drawen out of divers Latine Authors into English, by Thomas Johnson, 4to. 1596, signat. E. it is said: "The robin redbrest if he find a man or woman dead, will cover all his face with mosse, and some thinke that if the body should remaine unburied that he would cover the whole body also." REED. Gur. Pr'ythee, have done: And do not play in wench-like words with that Which is so serious. Let us bury him, And not protract with admiration what Is now due debt.-To the grave. ARV. Say, where shall's lay him ? This passage is imitated by Webster in his tragedy of The White Devil; and in such manner as confirms the old reading: "Call for the robin-red-breast and the wren, "Since o'er shady groves they hover, "And with leaves and flowers do cover "The friendless bodies of unburied men; "Call unto his funeral dole "The ant, the field-mouse, and the mole, "To rear him hillocks that shail keep him warm," &c. FARMER. Which of these two plays was first written, cannot now be determined. Webster's play was published in 1612, that of Shakspeare did not appear in print till 1623. In the preface to the edition of Webster's play, he thus speaks of Shakspeare : "And lastly (without wrong last to be named) the right happy and copious industry of M. Shakspeare," &c. STEEVENS. We may fairly conclude that Webster imitated Shakspeare; for in the same page from which Dr. Farmer has cited the foregoing lines, is found a passage taken almost literally from Hamlet. It is spoken by a distracted lady: - you're very welcome; "Here's rosemary for you, and rue for you; "Heart's ease for you; I pray make much of it; Dr. Warburton asks, "What sense is there in winter-grounding a corse with moss?" But perhaps winter-ground does not refer to moss, but to the last antecedent, Aowers. If this was the construction intended by Shakspeare, the passage should be printed thus: "Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none. "To winter-ground thy corse " i. e. you shall have also a warm covering of moss, when there are no flowers to adorn thy grave with that ornament with which Winter is usually decorated. So, in Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher, 1625: "He looks like Winter, stuck here and there with fresh flowers."-I have not, however, much confidence in this observation. MALONE. Gur. By good Euriphile, our mother. Be't so: And let us, Polydore, though now our voices Have got the mannish crack, sing him to the ground, As once our mother; use like note, and words, Save that Euriphile must be Fidele. Gur. Cadwal, I cannot sing: I'll weep, and word it with thee : For notes of sorrow, out of tune, are worse Than priests and fanes that lie. ARV. We'll speak it then. BEL. Great griefs, I see, medicine the less': for Cloten Is quite forgot. He was a queen's son, boys: rotting Together, have one dust; yet reverence, 6 As once our mother;) The old copy reads: "As once to our mother;" The compositor having probably caught the word-to from the preceding line. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 7 Great griefs, I see, medicine the less :) So again, in this play : - a touch more rare 8 He was paid for that :) Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: "He has paid for that:" rather plausibly than rightly. Paid is for punished. So, Jonson: "Twenty things more, my friend, which you know due, "For which, or pay me quickly, or I'll pay you." JOHNSON. So Falstaff, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, after having been beaten, when in the dress of an old woman, says, " I pay'd nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning." MALONE. (That angel of the world,) doth make distinction Of place 'tween high and low. Our foe was princely; And though you took his life, as being our foe, Yet bury him as a prince. GUI. Pray you, fetch him hither. Thersites' body is as good as Ajax, When neither are alive. ARV. If you'll go fetch him. We'll say our song the whilst.-Brother, begin. [Exit BELARIUS. Gur. Nay, Cadwal, we must lay his head to the east; My father hath a reason for't. ARV. 'Tis true. Gur. Come on then, and remove him. So,-Begin. SONG. 9 GUI. Fear no more the heat o' the sun', Thou thy worldly task hast done, Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages: Golden lads and girls all must, Arv. Fear no more the frown o' the great, Care no more to clothe, and eat ; To thee the reed is as the oak: - REVERENCE, (That angel of the world,)-] Reverence, or due regard to subordination, is the power that keeps peace and order in the world. JOHNSON. 1 Fear no more, &c.] This is the topick of consolation that nature dictates to all men on these occasions. The same farewell we have over the dead body in Lucian. Τέκνον "αθλιον "έκετι διψήσεις, ἔκετι πεινήσεις, &c. WARBURTON. |