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But, too unruly deer, he breaks the pale,
And feeds from home; poor I am but his stale."

Again, in his 83d Sonnet:

"And therefore to your fair no painting set."

Pure is likewise used as a substantive in The Shepherd to the Flowers, a song in England's Helicon, 1614:

"Do pluck your pure, ere Phoebus view the land."

STEEVENS.

Fair is frequently used substantively by the writers of Shakspeare's time. So, Marston, in one of his Satires:

6

"As the greene meads, whose native outward faire
"Breathes sweet perfumes into the neighbour air."

FARMER.

too unruly deer,] The ambiguity of deer and dear is borrowed, poor as it is, by Waller, in his Poem on The Ladies Girdle:

"This was my heaven's extremest sphere,

"The pale that held my lovely deer." JOHNSON.

Shakspeare has played upon this word in the same manner in his Venus and Adonis :

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Fondling, saith she, since I have hemm'd thee here, "Within the circuit of this ivory pale,

"I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer,

"Feed where thou wilt on mountain or on dale."

The lines of Waller seem to have been immediately copied from these. MALONE.

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-poor I am but his stale.] The word stale, in our author, used as a substantive, means not something offered to allure or attract, but something vitiated with use, something of which the best part has been enjoyed and consumed. JOHNSON.

I believe my learned coadjutor mistakes the use of the word stale on this occasion. "Stale to catch these thieves," in The Tempest, undoubtedly means a fraudulent bait. Here it seems to imply the same as stalking-horse, pretence. I am, says Adriana, but his pretended wife, the mask under which he covers his amours. So, in King John and Matilda, by Robert Davenport, 1655, the Queen says to Matilda :

Again:

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I am made your stale,

"The king, the king your strumpet," &c.

[blocks in formation]

Luc. Self-harming jealousy!-fye, beat it hence.
ADR. Unfeeling fools can with such wrongs dis-
pense.

I know his eye doth homage otherwhere;
Or else, what lets it but he would be here?
Sister, you know, he promis'd me a chain ;-
Would that alone alone he would detain,8
So he would keep fair quarter with his bed!
I see, the jewel, best enamelled,

Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still,
That others touch, yet often touching will
Wear gold and so no man, that hath a name,
But falshood and corruption doth it shame."

Again, in The Misfortunes of Arthur, 1587:

"Was I then chose and wedded for his stale,
"To looke and gape for his retireless sayles

"Puft back and flittering spread to every winde?" Again, in the old translation of the Menæchmi of Plautus, 1595, from whence, perhaps, Shakspeare borrowed the expression:

"He makes me a stale and a laughing-stock."

STEEVENS.

In Greene's Art of Coney-catching, 1592, a stale is the confederate of a thief; "he that faceth the man,' 99 or holds him in discourse. Again, in another place, "wishing all, of what estate soever, to beware of filthy lust, and such damnable stales," &c. A stale, in this last instance, means the pretended wife of a cross-biter.

Perhaps, however, stale may have here the same meaning as the French word chaperon. Poor I am but the cover for his infidelity. COLLINS.

• Would that alone alone he would detain,] The first copy reads

Would that alone a love &c.

The correction was made in the second folio. MALONE.

9 I see, the jewel, best enamelled,

Will lose his beauty; and though gold 'bides still,

That others touch, yet often touching will

Wear gold: and so no man, that hath a name,

But falshood and corruption doth it shame.] The sense is

Since that my beauty cannot please his eye,
I'll weep what's left away, and weeping die.
Luc. How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!
[Exeunt.

this: "Gold, indeed, will long bear the handling; however, often touching will wear even gold; just so the greatest character, though as pure as gold itself, may, in time, be injured, by the repeated attacks of falshood and corruption."

Mr. Heath reads thus:

yet the gold 'bides still,

WARBURTON.

That others touch, though often touching will
Wear gold and so a man that hath a name,

By falshood and corruption doth it shame. STEEVENS.

This passage in the original copy is very corrupt. It readsyet the gold bides still

That others touch; and often touching will
Where gold; and no man, that hath a name
By falshood &c.

The word though was suggested by Mr. Steevens; all the other emendations by Mr. Pope and Dr. Warburton. Wear is used as a dissyllable. The commentator last mentioned, not perceiving this, reads-and so no man, &c. which has been followed, I think improperly, by the subsequent editors.

The observation concerning gold is found in one of the early dramatick pieces, Damon and Pithias, 1582:

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-gold in time does wear away,

"And other precious things do fade: friendship does ne'er decay." MALONE.

SCENE II.

The same.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Syracuse.

ANT. S. The gold, I gave to Dromio, is laid up Safe at the Centaur; and the heedful slave Is wander'd forth, in care to seek me out. By computation, and mine host's report, I could not speak with Dromio, since at first I sent him from the mart: See, here he comes.

Enter DROMIO of Syracuse.

How now, sir? is your merry humour alter'd?
As you love strokes, so jest with me again.
You know no Centaur? you receiv'd no gold?
Your mistress sent to have me home to dinner?
My house was at the Phoenix? Wast thou mad,
That thus so madly thou didst answer me?

DRO. S. What answer, sir? when spake I such a word?

ANT. S. Even now, even here, not half an hour since.

DRO.S. I did not see you since you sent me hence, Home to the Centaur, with the gold you gave me. ANT. S. Villain, thou didst deny the gold's receipt;

And told'st me of a mistress, and a dinner;
For which, I hope, thou felt'st I was displeas'd.
DRO. S. I am glad to see you in this merry vein :
What means this jest? I pray you, master, tell me.

ANT. S. Yea, dost thou jeer, and flout me in the

teeth?

Think'st thou, I jest? Hold, take thou that, and

that.

[Beating him. DRO. S. Hold, sir, for God's sake: now your jest is earnest :

Upon what bargain do you give it me?

ANT. S. Because that I familiarly sometimes Do use you for my fool, and chat with you, Your sauciness will jest upon my love, And make a common of my serious hours.1 When the sun shines, let foolish gnats make sport, But creep in crannies, when he hides his beams. If you will jest with me, know my aspect,2 And fashion your demeanour to my looks, Or I will beat this method in your sconce.

DRO. S. Sconce, call you it? so you would leave battering, I had rather have it a head: an you use these blows long, I must get a sconce for my head, and insconce it too; or else I shall seek my wit in my shoulders. But, I pray, sir, why am I beaten? ANT. S. Dost thou not know?

DRO. S. Nothing, sir; but that I am beaten.

1 And make a common of my serious hours.] i. e. intrude on them when you please. The allusion is to those tracts of ground destined to common use, which are thence called commons.

2

STEEVENS.

know my aspect,] i. e. study my countenance.

STEEVENS.

and insconce it too;] A sconce was a petty fortification. So, in Orlando Furioso, 1599:

Again:

"Let us to our sconce, and you my
“Ay, sirs, ensconce you how

lord of Mexico."

you can."

Again:

"And here ensconce myself, despite of thee."

STEEVENS.

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