A LOVER'S COMPLAINT. FROM off a hill whose concave womb re-worded Upon her head a platted hive of straw, Nor youth all quit; but, spite of Heaven's fell rage, c Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne, a Re-worded-echoed. b Laid. So the original. But it is usually more correctly printed lay. The idiomatic grammar of Shakspere's age ought not to be removed. C Napkin-handkerchief. Iago says, of Desdemona's fatal handkerchief "I am glad I have found this napkin." d Conceited characters-fanciful figures worked on the handkerchief. • Laund'ring-washing. 'Pelleted-formed into pellets, or small balls. Sometimes her levell'd eyes their carriage ride, a As they did battery to the spheres intend; a Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat, A thousand favours from a maundd she drew Or monarch's hands, that let not bounty fall Where want cries "some," but where excess begs all. Of folded schedules had she many a one, Which she perus'd, sigh'd, tore, and gave the flood; Found yet mo' letters sadly penn'd in blood, Shakspere often employs the metaphor of a piece of ordnance; but what in his plays is generally a slight allusion, here becomes a somewhat quaint conceit. b Th' orbed. We retain orbed as a dissyllable, according to the original. Mr. Dyce has the orb'd. • Sheav'd-made of straw, collected from sheaves. & Maund-a basket. The word is used in the old translation of the Bible. e Bedded. So the original, the word probably meaning jet imbedded, or set, in some other substance. Steevens has beaded jet,-jet formed into beads; which Mr. Dyce adopts. f Mo-more. This word is now invariably printed more. It occurs in subsequent stanzas. Why should we destroy this little archaic beauty by a rage for modernizing? With sleided silk feat and affectedly These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes, Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!" A reverend man that graz'd his cattle nigh, Slided silk. The commentators explain this as "untwisted silk." In the chorus to the fourth act of Pericles,' Marina is pictured "When she weav'd the sleided silk With fingers long, small, white as milk." Percy, in a note on this passage, says, "untwisted silk, prepared to be used in the weaver's sley." The first part of this description is certainly not correct. The silk is not untwisted, for it must be spun before it is woven; and a strong twisted silk is exactly what was required when letters were to be sealed "feat" (neatly) "to curious secresy." In Mr. Ramsay's Introduction to his valuable edition of the Paston Letters,' the old mode of sealing a letter is clearly described :-" It was carefully folded, and fastened at the end by a sort of paper strap, upon which the seal was affixed; and under the seal a string, a silk thread, or even a straw, was frequently placed running around the letter." b Gave. So the original. Malone changes the word to 'gan. This appears to us, although it has the sanction of Mr. Dyce's adoption, an unnecessary change; gave is here used in the sense of gave the mind to, contemplated, made a movement towards, inclined to. Shakspere has several times "my mind gave me ;" and the word may therefore, we think, stand alone here, as expressing inclination. © Malone, by making the sentence parenthetical which begins at "sometime a blusterer," and ends at "swiftest hours," causes the reverend man's attention to be drawn to the scattered fragments of letters as they flew-a very snow-storm of letters. Surely this is nonsense! "The swiftest hours, observed as they flew," clearly show that the reverend man, although he had been engaged in the ruffle, in the turmoil, of the court and city, had not suffered the swiftest hours to pass unobserved. He was a man of experience, and was thus qualified to give advice. d Fancy is often used by Shakspere in the sense of love; but here it means one that is possessed by fancy. |