BIRON. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons

peas;

5

And utters it again when God doth please:
He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares

6

At wakes, and wassels, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
He can carve too, and lisp: Why, this is he,
That kiss'd away his hand in courtesy ;

Specks up wit, as pigeons peas;] This expression is proverbial:

"Children pick up words as pigeons peas,

"And utter them again as God shall please.”

See Ray's Collection. STEEVEns.

Pecks is the reading of the first quarto. The folio has-picks. That pecks is the true reading, is ascertained by one of Nashe's tracts; Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 1594: The sower scattered some seede by the highway side, which the foules of the ayre peck'd up." MALONE.

6 -wassels,] Wassels were meetings of rustic mirth and intemperance. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

Antony,

"Leave thy lascivious wassels”.

See note on Macbeth, Act I. sc. vii.

STEEVENS.

Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a salutation first used by the Lady Rowena to King Vortiger. Afterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth-night, to carry a wassel or waissail bowl from house to house, which was presented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in process of time wassel signified intemperance in drinking, and also a meeting for the purpose of festivity. MALONE.

7 He can carve too, and lisp:] The character of Boyet, as drawn by Biron, represents an accomplished squire of the days of chivalry, particularly in the instances here noted." Le jeune Ecuyer apprenoit long-temps dans le silence cet art de bien parler, lorsqu'en qualité d' Ecuyer TRANCHANT, il étoit debout dans les repas & dans les festins, occupé à couper les viandes avec la propreté, l'addresse & l'elegance convenables, et à les faire distribuer

This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honourable terms; nay, he can sing

8

A mean most meanly; and, in ushering,
Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet:
This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whales bone;"

aux nobles convives dont il étoiet environné. Joinville, dans sa jeunesse, avoit rempli à la cour de Saint Louis cet office, qui, dans les maisons des Souverains, étoit quelquefois exercé par leurs propres enfans.' Memoires sur l'ancienne Chevalerie, Tom. I. p. 16. HENLEY.

"I cannot cog, (says Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor,) and say, thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping haw thorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel." On the subject of carving see Vol. V. p. 40, n. 2. MALONE.

8 • A mean most meanly; &c.] The mean, in musick, is the tenor. So, Bacon: "The treble cutteth the air so sharp, as it returneth too swift to make the sound equal; and therefore a mean or tenor is the sweetest."

Again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622:

"Thus sing we descant on one plain-song, kill;
"Four parts in one; the mean excluded quite.'

Again, in Drayton's Barons' Wars. Cant. iii:
"The base and treble married to the mean."

9

STEEVENS.

as white as whales bone:] As white as whales bone is a proverbial comparison in the old poets. In The Fairy Queen, B. III. c. i. st. 15:

"Whose face did seem as clear as chrystal stone,
"And eke, through feare, as white as whales bone."

And in L. Surrey, fol. 14, edit. 1567:

"I might perceive a wolf, as white as whales bone,

"A fairer beast of fresher hue, beheld I never none." Skelton joins the whales bone with the brightest precious stones, in describing the position of Pallas:

"A hundred steppes mounting to the halle,

"One of jasper, another of whales bone;

"Of diamantes, pointed by the rokky walle."

7

Crowne of Lawrell, p. 24, edit. 1736. T. WARTON.

And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.
KING. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my
heart,

That put Armado's page out of his part!

Enter the Princess, usher'd by BOYET; ROSAline, MARIA, KATHARINE, and Attendants.

BIRON. See where it comes!-Behaviour, what wert thou,

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?'

as whales bone:] The Saxon genitive case. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:

"Swifter than the moones sphere."

2

It should be remember'd that some of our ancient writers supposed ivory to be part of the bones of a whale. The same simile occurs in the old black letter romance of Syr Eglamoure of Artoys, no date:

"The erle had no chylde but one,

"A mayden as white as whales bone."

Again, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Isembras, bl. 1. no date:

"His wyfe as white as whales bone." Again, in The Squhr of Low Degree, bl. 1. no date: "Lady as white as whales bone."

Again, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599:

66

his herrings which were as white as whales bone," &c. STEEVENS.

This white whale his bone, now superseded by ivory, was the tooth of the Horse-whale, Morse, or Walrus, as appears by King Alfred's preface to his Saxon translation of Orosius.

HOLT WHITE.

Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?] These are two wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call manners, and value themselves so much upon teaching, as a thing no where else to be learnt, is a modest silent accomplishment under the direction of nature and common sense, which does its office in promoting social life without being taken notice of. But

KING. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!

PRIN. Fair, in all hail, is foul, as I conceive. KING. Construe my speeches better, if you may. PRIN. Then wish me better, I will give you leave. KING. We came to visit you; and purpose now To lead you to our court: vouchsafe it then. PRIN. This field shall hold me; and so hold your

VOW:

Nor God, nor I, delight in perjur'd men. KING. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke ;

The virtue of your eye must break my oath." PRIN. You nick-name virtue: vice you should have spoke;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth. Now, by my maiden honour, yet as pure As the unsullied lily, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,

I would not yield to be your house's guest: So much I hate a breaking-cause to be Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.

that when it degenerates into show and parade, it becomes an unmanly contemptible quality. WARBURTON.

What is told in this note is undoubtedly true, but is not comprized in the quotation. JOHNSON.

Till this man show'd thee?] The old copies read-" Till this mad man," &c. STEEVENS.

An error of the press. The word mad must be struck out.
M. MASON.

* The virtue of your eye must break my oath.] I believe our author means that the virtue, in which word goodness and power are both comprised, must dissolve the obligation of the oath. The Princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part of the ambiguity. JOHNSON.

KING. O, you have liv'd in desolation here, Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame. PRIN. Not so, my lord; it is not so, I swear; We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game; A mess of Russians left us but of late.

KING. How, madam? Russians?

PRIN.

Ay, in truth, my lord; Trim gallants, full of courtship, and of state,

Ros. Madam, speak true:-It is not so, my lord; My lady, (to the manner of the days,)

3

In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.
We four, indeed, confronted here with four
In Russian habit: here they stay'd an hour,
And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,
They did not bless us with one happy word.
I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.
BIRON. This jest is dry to me.-Fair, gentle

sweet,*

Your wit makes wise things foolish; when we greet

3

My lady, (to the manner of the days,)

In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.] To the manner of the days, means according to the manner of the times.-Gives undeserving praise, means praise to what does not deserve it. M. MASON.

• Fair, gentle sweet,] The word fair, which is wanting in the two elder copies, was restored by the second folio. Mr. Malone reads-" My gentle sweet."

"My fair, sweet honey monarch" occurs in this very scene, p. 182. STEEvens.

Sweet is generally used as a substantive by our author, in his addresses to ladies. So, in The Winter's Tale:

66 When you speak, sweet,

"I'd have you do it ever."

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:

"And now, good sweet, say thy opinion."