Ant. Widow? a pox o'that! How came that widow in? Widow Dido!7 Seb. What if he had said, widower Eneas too? good lord, how you take it! Adr. Widow Dido, said you? you make me study of that: She was of Carthage, not of Tunis. Gon. This Tunis, sir, was Carthage. Adr. Carthage? Gon. I assure you, Carthage. Ant. His word is more than the miraculous harp.8 Ant. What impossible matter will he make easy next? Seb. I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple. Ant. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, bring forth more islands. 7 Gon. Ay? Widow Dido!] The name of a widow brings to their minds their own shipwreck, which they consider as having made many widows in Naples. Johnson. Perhaps our author remembered "An inscription for the sta tue of Dido," copied from Ausonius, and inserted in Davison's Poems: "O most unhappy Dido, "Unhappy wife, and more unhappy widow! "And in thy lover more unfortunate!" &c. The edition from whence I have transcribed these lines, was printed in 1621, but there was a former in 1608, and another some years before, as I collect from the following passage in a letter from Dr. John Chamberlain to Mr. Carleton, July 8, 1602: "It seems young Davison means to take another course, and turn poet, for he hath lately set out certain sonnets and epigrams." Chamberlain's Letters, Vol. I. among Dr. Birch's MSS. in the British Museum. Malone. A ballad of Queen Dido is in the Pepysian collection, and is also printed in Dr. Percy's Reliques. It appears at one time to have been a great favourite with the common people. "O you ale-knights," exclaims an ancient writer, "you that devoure the marrow of the mault, and drinke whole ale-tubs into consumptions; that sing QUEEN DIDO over a cupp, and tell strange newes over an ale-pot," &c. Jacke of Dover, his quest of Inquirie, or his privy Search for the veriest Foole in England, 4to. 1604, sig. F. Ritson. 8 the miraculous harp.] Alluding to the wonders of Amphion's music. Steevens. Ant. Why, in good time. Gon. Sir, we were talking, that our garments seem now as fresh, as when we were at Tunis at the marriage of your daughter, who is now queen. Ant. And the rarest that e'er came there. Ant. O, widow Dido; ay, widow Dido. Gon. Is not, sir, my doublet as fresh as the first day I wore it? I mean in a sort. Ant. That sort was well fish'd for. Gon. When I wore it at your daughter's marriage. I ne'er again shall see her. O, thou, mine heir Hath made his meal on thee! Fran. Sir, he may live; I saw him beat the surges under him, And ride upon their backs; he trod the water, The surge most swollen that met him: his bold head 'Bove the contentious waves he kept, and oar'd Himself, with his good arms, in lusty stroke To the shore, that o'er his wave-worn basis bow'd, He came alive to land. Alon. No, no, he's gone. Seb. Sir, you may thank yourself for this great loss; That would not bless our Europe with your daughter, But rather lose her to an African; Where she, at least, is banish'd from your eye, Who hath cause to wet the grief on't. Alon. Pr'ythee, peace. Seb. You were kneel'd to, and impórtun'd otherwise, 9 The stomach of my sense:] By sense, I believe, is meant both reason and natural affection. So, in Measure for Measure: Against all sense do you impórtune her." Mr. M. Mason, however, supposes 66 sense, in this place, means feeling." Steevens. By all of us; and the fair soul herself Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at Which end of the beam she'd bow.1 We have lost your son, I fear, for ever: Milan and Naples have More widows in them, of this business' making, Alon. So is the dearest of the loss. When you should bring the plaster. Seb. Ant. And most chirurgeonly. Very well. Gon. It is foul weather in us all, good sir, When you are cloudy. Seb. Ant. Foul weather? Very foul. Gon. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord,- Seb. 1 Weigh'd, between lothness and obedience, at Which end o'the beam she'd bow.] Weigh'd means deliberated. It is used in nearly the sanie sense in Love's Labour Lost, and in Hamlet. The old copy reads-should bow. Should, was, probably, an abbreviation of she would, the mark of elision being inadvertently omitted [sh'ould]. Thus, he has, is frequently exhibited in the first folio-h'as. Mr. Pope corrected the passage, thus: "at which end the beam should bow." But omission of any word in the old copy, without substituting another in its place, is seldom safe, except in those instances, where the repeated word appears to have been caught by the compositor's eye, glancing on the line above or below, or where a word is printed twice in the same line. Malone. 2 Than we bring men to comfort them:] It does not clearly appear whether the king and these lords thought the ship lost. This passage seems to imply, that they were, themselves, confident of returning, but imagined part of the fleet destroyed. Why, indeed, should Sebastian plot against his brother, in the following scene, unless he knew how to find the kingdom, which he was to inherit? Johnson. Gon. I' the commonwealth, I would, by contraries, Successions; bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none: 3 No occupation; all men idle, all; And women too; but innocent and pure : Seb. And yet he would be king on't. Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning. 4 Gon. All things in common nature should produce Without sweat, or endeavour: treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,5 3 And use of service, none; contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none.] The defective metre of the second of these lines, affords a ground for believing that some word was omitted at the press. Many of the defects, however, in our author's metre, have arisen from the words of one line being transferred to another. In the present instance, the preceding line is redundant. Perhaps the words here, as in many other passages, have been shuffled out of their places. We might read And use of service, none; succession, Contract, bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none. -succession being often used by Shakspeare as a quadrisyllable. It must, however, be owned, that in the passage in Montaigne's Essays, the words contract and succession are arranged in the same manner as in the first folio. If the error did not happen in this way, bourn might have been used as a dissyllable, and the word omitted at the press, might have been none: contract, succession, None; bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none. Malone. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.] All this dialogue is a fine satire on the Utopian treatises of government, and the impracticable inconsistent schemes, therein recommended. Warburton. 5 any engine,] An engine is the rack. So, in K. Lear: like an engine, wrench'd my frame of nature "From the fix'd place." It may, however, be used here in its common signification of instrument of war, or military machine. Steevens. F Would I not have; but nature should bring forth, Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects? Ant. None, man; all idle; whores, and knaves. To excel the golden age.7 Seb. Ant. Long live Gonzalo! 'Save his majesty! And, do you mark me, sir?Alon. Pr'ythee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me. Gon. I do well believe your highness; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and nimble lungs, that they always use to laugh at nothing. Ant. 'Twas you we laugh'd at. Gon. Who, in this kind of merry fooling, am nothing to you: so you may continue, and laugh at nothing still. Ant. What a blow was there given? 6 Seb. An it had not fallen flat-long. Gon. You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would all foizon,] Foison, or foizon, signifies plenty, ubertas; not moisture, or juice of grass, as Mr. Pope says. Edwards. So, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. XIII. ch. 78: "Union, in breese, is foysonous, and discorde works decay." Mr. Pope, however, is not entirely mistaken, as foison, or fizon, sometimes bears the meaning which he has affixed to it. See Ray's Collection of South and East Country words. Steevens. nature should bring forth, Of its own kind, all foizon, all abundance, To feed my innocent people.] "And if, notwithstanding, in divers fruits of those countries, that were never tilled, we shall find, that in respect of our's, they are most excellent, and as delicate unto our taste, there is no reason Art should gain the point of our great and puissant mother, Nature." Montaigne's Essaies, ubi sup. Malone. 7 I would with such perfection govern, sir, To excel the golden age.] So Montaigne, ubi supra: “Me seemeth, that what in those [newly discovered] nations we see by experience, doth not only EXCEED all the pictures, wherewith licentious poesie hath proudly imbellished the GOLDEN AGE, and all her quaint inventions to fain a happy condition of man, but also the conception and desire of philosophy." Malone. 8 - of brave mettle;] The old copy has-metal. The two words are frequently confounded in the first folio. The epithet, |