Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath: I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier.

4

King. How fares your majesty?

[Exeunt Worthies.

Prin. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night.
King. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay.
Prin. Prepare, I say.-I thank you, gracious lords,
For all your fair endeavours; and entreat,

Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe
In your rich wisdom, to excuse, or hide,
The liberal opposition of our spirits:
If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
In the converse of breath, your gentleness

I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion,] This has no meaning. We should read, the day of right; i. e. I have seen that a day will come when I shall have justice done me, and therefore I prudently reserve myself for that time.

Warburton.

I believe it rather means, I have hitherto looked on the indignities I have received, with the eyes of discretion, (i. e. not been too forward to resent them) and shall insist on such satisfaction as will not disgrace my character, which is that of a soldier. To have decided the quarrel in the manner proposed by his antagonist, would have been at once a derogation from the honour of a soldier, and the pride of a Spaniard.

"One may see day at a little hole," is a proverb in Ray's Collec tion: " Day-light will peep through a little hole," in Kelly's. Again, in Churchyard's Charge, 1580, p. 9:

وو

Steevens.

"At little hoales the daie is seen." The passage is faulty; but Warburton has mistaken the meaning of it, and the place in which the error lies.

Armado means to say, in his affected style, that "he had discovered that he was wronged, and was determined to right himself as a soldier;" and this meaning will be clearly expressed if we read it thus, with a very slight alteration:-"I have seen the day of wrong, through the little hole of discretion." M. Mason. liberal-] Free to excess. So, in The Merchant of Venice: there they show

5

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Something too liberal." Steevens.

6 In the converse of breath,] Perhaps converse may, in this line, mean interchange. Johnson.

Converse of breath means no more than conversation "made up of breath," as our author expresses himself in Othello. Thur also, in The Merchant of Venice:

"Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy." Steevens.

Was guilty of it.-Farewel, worthy lord!
A heavy heart bears not an humble tongue:7
Excuse me so, coming so short of thanks
For my great suit so easily obtain❜d.

King. The extreme parts of time extremely form
All causes to the purpose of his speed;
And often, at his very loose, decides

That which long process could not arbitrate:
And though the mourning brow of progeny
Forbid the smiling courtesy of love,

The holy suit which fain it would convince;9

7 A heavy heart bears not an humble tongue :] Thus all the editions; but, surely, without either sense or truth. None are more humble in speech, than they who labour under any oppression. The Princess is desiring her grief may apologize for her not expressing her obligations at large; and my correction is conformable to that sentiment. Besides, there is an antithesis between heavy and nimble, but between heavy and humble, there is none. Theobald.

The following passage in King John, inclines me to dispute the propriety of Mr. Theobald's emendation:

-grief is proud, and makes his owner stout." By humble, the Princess seems to mean obsequiously thankful.

So, in The Merchant of Venice:

"Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key

Steevens.

"With 'bated breath, and whispering humbleness," &c. A heavy heart, says the Princess, does not admit of that verbal obeisance which is paid by the humble to those whom they address. Farewel therefore at once. Malone.

8 And often, at his very loose, decides &c.] At his very loose, may mean, at the moment of his parting, i. e. of his getting loose, or away

from us.

So, in some ancient poem, of which I forgot to preserve either the date or title:

"Envy discharging all her pois'nous darts,

"The valiant mind is temper'd with that fire,

"At her fierce loose that weakly never parts,

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"But in despight doth force her to retire." Steevens.

which fain it would convince;] We must read:

which fain would it convince,"

that is, the entreaties of love which would fain over-power grief. So, Lady Macbeth declares: "That she will convince the chamberlains with wine." Johnson.

If Johnson was right with respect to the meaning of this passage, I should think that the words, as they now stand, would express it without the transposition which he proposes to make.

Yet, since love's argument was first on foot,
Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it

From what it purpos'd; since, to wail friends lost,
Is not by much so wholesome, profitable,

As to rejoice at friends but newly found.

Prin. I understand you not; my griefs are double.1 Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief;

And by these badges understand the king.
For your fair sakes have we neglected time,

Place a comma after the word it, and fain it would convince, will signify the same as fain would convince it. In reading, it is certain that a proper emphasis will supply the place of that transposition. But I believe that the words which fain it would convince, mean only what it would wish to succeed in obtaining. To convince is to overcome; and to prevail in a suit which was strongly denied, is a kind of conquest. M. Mason.

1 I understand you not; my griefs are double.] I suppose, she means, 1. on account of the death of her father; 2. on account of not understanding the king's meaning.-A modern editor, [Mr. Capell] instead of double, reads deaf; but the former is not at all likely to have been mistaken, either by the eye or the ear, for the latter. Malone.

2 Honest plain words &c.] As it seems not very proper for Biron to court the Princess for the King in the king's presence at this critical moment, I believe the speech is given to a wrong person. I read thus:

Prin. I understand you not, my griefs are double:

Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief.

King. And by these badges &c. Johnson.

Too many authors sacrifice propriety to the consequence of their principal character, into whose mouth they are willing to put more than justly belongs to him, or at least the best things they have to say. The original actor of Biron, however, like Bottom in The Midsummer Night's Dream, might have wrested this speech from an inferior performer. I have been assured, that Mercutio's rhapsody concerning the tricks of Queen Mab, was put into the mouth of Romeo by the late Mr. Sheridan, as often as he himself performed that character in Ireland. Steevens.

I think Johnson judges ill in wishing to give this speech to the King, it is an apology not for him alone, but for all the competitors in oaths, and Biron is generally their spokesman. M. Mason. In a former part of this scene Biron speaks for the King and the other lords, and being at length exhausted, tells them, they must woo for themselves. I believe, therefore, the old copies are right in this respect; but think with Dr. Johnson that the line "Honest," &c. belongs to the Princess. Malone. VOL. IV.

Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies,
Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours
Even to the opposed end of our intents:
And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,-
As love is full of unbefitting strains;

All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain;
Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye
Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms, 3
Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll
To every varied object in his glance:
Which party-coated presence of loose love
Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
Have misbecom❜d our oaths and gravities,
Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,
Suggested us to make: Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewise yours: we to ourselves prove false,
By being once false for ever to be true
To those that make us both,-fair ladies, you:
And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,

Thus purifies itself, and turns to grace.

Prin. We have receiv'd your letters, full of love;

3 Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms,] The old copies read-Full of straying shapes. Both the sense and the metre appear to me to require the emendation which I suggested some time ago: "strange shapes" might have been easily confounded by the ear with the words that have been substituted in their room. In Coriolanus we meet with a corruption of the same kind, which could only have arisen in this way:

"Than crave the higher [hire] which first we do deserve." The following passages of our author will, I apprehend, fully support the correction that has been made:

"In him a plenitude of subtle matter,

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Applied to cautels, all strange forms receives."

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

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the impression of strange kinds

Lover's Complaint.

"Is form'd in them, by force, by fraud, or skill."

In King Henry V, 4to. 1600, we have-Forraging blood of French nobility, instead of Forrage in blood, &c. Mr. Capell, I find, has made the same emendation. Malone..

4 Suggested us-] That is, tempted us. Johnson.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

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Knowing that tender youth is soon suggested." Steevens.

Your favours, the embassadors of love;
And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
As bombast, and as lining to the time:5
But more devout than this, in our respects,
Have we not been; and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment.

5 As bombast, and as lining to the time:] This line is obscure. Bombast was a kind of loose texture not unlike what is now called wadding, used to give the dresses of that time bulk and protuberance, without much increase of weight; whence the same name is given to a tumour of words unsupported by solid sentiment. The Princess, therefore, says, that they considered this courtship as but bombast, as something to fill out life, which not being closely united with it, might be thrown away at pleasure. Johnson. Prince Henry calls Falstaff, "my sweet creature of bombast."

We have receiv'd your letters full of love;
Your favours the embassadors of love;
And in our maiden council rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
As bombast, and as lining to the time:
But more devout than these in our respects,

Have we not been, and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment.

Steevens.

The sixth verse being evidently corrupted, Dr. Warburton proposes to read:

But more devout than this (save our respects)

Have we not been ; —

Dr. Johnson prefers the conjecture of Sir T. Hanmer:

But more devout than this, in our respects.

I would read, with less violence, I think, to the text, though with the alteration of two words:

But more dévout than these are your respects
Have we not seen,- Tyrwhitt.

The difficulty, I believe, arises only from Shakspeare's remarkable position of his words, which may be thus construed.-But we have not been more devout, or made a more serious matter of your letters and favours than these our respects, or considerations and reckonings of them, are, and as we have just before said, we rated them in our maiden council at courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy. Tollet.

The quarto, 1598, reads:

But more devout than this our respects.

There can be no doubt, therefore, that Sir T. Hanmer's conjecture is right. The word in, which the compositor inadvertently omitted, completes both the sense and metre.

Malone.