Might be a copy to these younger times; Which, follow'd well, would démonstrate them now But goers backward. BER. His good remembrance, sir, Lies richer in your thoughts, than on his tomb; As in your royal speech *. and made them proud; and, in the gracious receiving their poor praise, he humbled even his humility. The sentiment is fine. WARBURTON. Every man has seen the mean too often proud of the humility of the great, and perhaps the great may sometimes be humbled in the praises of the mean, of those who commend them without conviction or discernment: this, however, is not so common; the mean are found more frequently than the great. JOHNSON. I think the meaning is," Making them proud of receiving such marks of condescension and affability from a person in so elevated a situation, and at the same time lowering or humbling himself, by stooping to accept of the encomiums of mean persons for that humility.' The construction seems to be," he being humbled in their poor praise." MALONE. Giving them a better opinion of their own importance, by his condescending manner of behaving to them. M. MASON. 4 So in approof lives not his EPITAPH, As in your royal speech.] Epitaph for character. I should wish to read 66 Approof so lives not in his epitaph, "As in your royal speech." WARBURTON. Approof is approbation. If I should allow Dr. Warburton's interpretation of epitaph, which is more than can be reasonably expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading. We might, by a slight transposition, read "So his approof lives not in epitaph." JOHNSON. Approof certainly means approbation. So, in Cynthia's Re venge : "A man so absolute in my approof, "That nature hath reserv'd small dignity "That he enjoys not." Again, in Measure for Measure : "Either of commendation or approof." STEEVENS. Perhaps the meaning is this :-" His epitaph or inscription on KING. 'Would, I were with him! He would (Methinks, I hear him now; his plausive words 5 On the catastrophe and heel of pastime, Of younger spirits, whose apprehensive senses cies his tomb is not so much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal speech." TOLLET. There can be no doubt but the word approof is frequently used in the sense of approbation, but this is not always the case; and in this place it signifies proof or confirmation. The meaning of the passage appears to be this: "The truth of his epitaph is in no way so fully proved, as by your royal speech. It is needless to remark, that epitaphs generally contain the character and praises of the deceased. Approof is used in the same sense by Bertram, in the second Act: 66 Laf. But I hope your lordship thinks him not a soldier. "Ber. Yes, my lord, and of very valiant approof." M. MASON. Mr. Heath supposes the meaning to be this: "His epitaph, or the character he left behind him, is not so well established by the specimens he exhibited of his worth, as by your royal report in his favour." The passage above quoted from Act II. supports this interpretation. MALONE. 5 Thus-] Old copy-This. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 6-whose judgments are Mere FATHERS of their garments ;] Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes of dress. JOHNSON. I have a suspicion that Shakspeare wrote—“ Mere feathers of their garments;" i. e. whose judgments are merely parts (and insignificant parts) of their dress, worn and laid aside, as feathers are, from the mere love of novelty and change. He goes on to say, that they are even less constant in their judgments than in their dress : Expire before their fashions:-This he wish'd: Since I nor wax, nor honey, can bring home, To give some labourers room. 2 LORD. You are lov'd, sir; They, that least lend it you, shall lack you first. KING. I fill a place, I know't.-How long is't, count, Since the physician at your father's died? BER. Some six months since, my lord. KING. If he were living, I would try him yet ;— Lend me an arm ;-the rest have worn me out With several applications:-nature and sickness Debate it at their leisure. Welcome, count; My son's no dearer. BER. 66 Thank your majesty. their constancies Expire before their fashions." TYRWHITT. Flourish. The reading of the old copy-fathers, is supported by a similar passage in Cymbeline : 66 some jay of Italy "Whose mother was her painting-." Again, in the same play : 66 No, nor thy tailor, rascal, "Who is thy grandfather; he made those clothes, 66 Which, as it seems, make thee." There the garment is said to be the father of the man :-in the text, the judgment, being employed solely in forming or giving birth to new dresses, is called the father of the garment. So, in King Henry IV. Part II. : 7 66 every minute now "Should be the father of some stratagem." MALone. - nature and sickness DEBATE it -] So, in Macbeth : "Death and nature do contend about them." STEEVENS. SCENE III. Rousillon. A Room in the Countess's Palace. Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown 8. COUNT. I will now hear: what say you of this gentlewoman? 8- Steward, and CLOWN.] A Clown in Shakspeare is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestick fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were at that time maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise. In some plays, a servant, or a rustic, of a remarkable petulance and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown. JOHNSON. Cardinal Wolsey, after his disgrace, wishing to show King Henry VIII. a mark of his respect, sent him his fool Patch, as a present; whom, says Stowe, "the King received very gladly." MALONE. This dialogue, or that in Twelfth-Night, between Olivia and the Clown, seems to have been particularly censured by Cartwright, in one of the copies of verses prefixed to the works of Beaumont and Fletcher: 66 Shakspeare to thee was dull, whose best jest lies "I' th' lady's questions, and the fool's replies; "Old fashion'd wit, which walk'd'from town to town "In trunk-hose, which our fathers call the Clown." In the MS. Register of Lord Stanhope of Harrington, treasurer of the chamber to King James I. from 1613 to 1616, are the following entries: "Tom Derry, his majesty's fool, at 2s. per diem,-1615: Paid John Mawe for the diet and lodging of Thomas Derrie, her majesty's jester, for 13 weeks, 10l. 18s. 6d.1616." STEEVENS. The following lines in The Careless Shepherdess, a comedy, 1656, exhibit probably a faithful portrait of this once admired character: 66 Why, I would have the fool in every act, STEW. Madam, the care I have had to even your content, I wish might be found in the calendar of my past endeavours; for then we wound our modesty, and make foul the clearness of our deservings, when of ourselves we publish them 1. Get you COUNT. What does this knave here? gone, sirrah: The complaints, I have heard of you, I do not all believe; 'tis my slowness, that I do not: for, I know, you lack not folly to commit them, and have ability enough to make such knaveries yours 2. CLO. "Tis not unknown to you, madam, I am a poor fellow. COUNT. Well, sir. CLO. No, madam, 'tis not so well, that I am "To see him hold out his chin, hang down his hands, "About him but breaks jests.— "I'd rather hear him leap, or laugh, or cry, "I never saw READE peeping through the curtain, 9 - to even your content,] To act up to your I desires. JOHNSON. - when of ourselves we publish them.] So, in Troilus and Cressida : 2 "The worthiness of praise disdains his worth, "If he that's prais'd, himself brings the praise forth." MALONE. you lack not folly to commit THEM, and have ability enough to make such knaveries YOURS.] After premising that the accusative, them, refers to the precedent word, complaints, and that this, by a metonymy of the effect for the cause, stands for the freaks which occasioned those complaints, the sense will be extremely clear: "You are fool enough to commit those irregularities you are charged with, and yet not so much fool neither, as to discredit the accusation by any defect in your ability." HEATH. It appears to me that the accusative them refers to knaveries, and the natural sense of the passage seems to be this: "You have folly enough to desire to commit these knaveries, and ability enough to accomplish them." M. MASON. |
