8

To be full like me :-yet, they fay, we are
Almost as like as eggs; women say so,

That will fay any thing: But were they falfe
As o'er-dy'd blacks 9, as wind, as waters; false

ing met with the subftantive pash in any English author, I once fufpected that Shakspeare wrote-a rough plash. A hedge, when it is become too thin, is ftrengthened by cutting fome of the long branches, and interweaving them with the boots that remain. This process is at this day in fome places called plafhing, and the branches fo interwoven (which stand out, and confequently make the hedge rougher than it was before,) are termed plashes. So, in K. Henry V :

- her bedges even-pleach'd,

"Like prifoners wildly over-grown with bair,
"Put forth diforder'd twigs."

But I have lately learned that pafb in Scotland fignifies a bead. The old reading therefore may ftand. Many words, that are now used only in that country, were perhaps once common to the whole island of Great Britain, or at least to the northern part of England. In Turkey bafch, and perhaps pafcb alfo, has the fame fignification. Hence Bafhaw, or, as it is fometimes written, Pacha. The meaning therefore of the prefent paffage, I fuppofe, is this. You tell me (fays Leontes to his fon) that you are like me; that you are my calf. I am the horned bull: thou wanteft the rough head and the horns of that animal, completely to refemble your father.

Sir T. Hanmer fays, Paz, in Spanish is a kifs. If he could have shewn that paz or pan, was an English noun, and that it fignified (not a kifs, but) a face, or bead, his obfervation might have thrown fome light on the paffage before us; which it certainly does not at prefent. MALONE. 8 To be full like me.] Full is here as in other places, ufed by our author, adverbially to be entirely like me. MALONE.

9 As o'er dy'd blacks,] Sir T. Hanmer understands, blacks died too much, and therefore rotten. JOHNSON.

It is common with tradefmen to dye their faded or damaged stuffs, black. O'er-dy'd blacks may mean those which have received a dye over their former colour.

There is a paffage in The old Law of Maffinger, which might lead us to offer another interpretation:

"Blacks are often fuch diffembling mourners,

"There is no credit given to't, it has loft

"All reputation by falfe fons and widows:

"I would not hear of blacks."

It feems that blacks was the common term for mourning. So, in A Mad World my Mafters, 1608:

in fo many blacks

"I'll have the church hung round."

Black, however, will receive no other hue without discovering itself through it. "Lanarum nigræ nullum colorem bibunt," Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. viii. STEEVENS.

As dice are to be wish'd, by one that fixes
No bourn 'twixt his and mine; yet were it true
To fay, this boy were like me.-Come, fir page,
Look on me with your welkin-eye2: Sweet villain!
Moft dear'ft! my collop 3!-Can thy dam ?-may't be?
Affection! thy intention stabs the center 4:

Thou dost make poffible, things not fo held,

Communicat'ft with dreams;-(How can this be?)—
With what's unreal thou coactive art,

And fellow'ft nothing: Then, 'tis very credent,
Thou may'ft co-join with fomething; and thou doft;
(And that beyond commiffion; and I find it,)
And that to the infection of my brains,
And hard'ning of my brows.

Pol. What means Sicilia?

1 No bourn-] Bourn is boundary. STEEVENS. 2

welkin-eye :] Blue eye; an eye of the fame colour with the welkin, or fky. JOHNSON.

3 my collop!] So, in the Firft Part of K. Henry VI:

"God knows, thou art a collop of my flesh." STEEVENS. 4 Affection! thy intention ftabs the centre :] Affection, I believe, fignifies imagination. Thus, in the Merchant of Venice:

66

affections,

"Mafters of paffion, fway it," &c.

i. e. imaginations govern our paffions. Intention is, as Mr. Locke expreffes it, "when the mind with great earnestnefs, and of choice, fixes its view on any idea, confiders it on every fide, and will not be called off by the ordinary folicitation of other ideas." This vehemence of the mind feems to be what affects Leontes fo deeply, or, in Shakspeare's language, ftabs bim to the center. STEEVENS.

I think, with Mr. Steevens, that affection means here imagination, or perhaps more accurately, "the difpofition of the mind when strongly affected or poffeffed by a particular idea." And in a kindred fenfe at least to this, it is ufed in the paffage quoted from the Merchant of Venice, where the original reading is not affections but affection.-Intention is again ufed in the fame fenfe as here, in the Merry Wives of Windfor: "She did fo courfe o'er my exteriors, with such a greedy intention," &c. MALONE.

5 Thou doft make poffible, things not fo beld,] i. e. thou doft make thofe things poffible, which are conceived to be impoffible. JOHNSON. To exprefs the fpeaker's meaning, it is neceflary to make a fhort paufe after the word poffible. I have therefore put a comma there, though perhaps in ftrictnefs it is improper. MALONE.

- credent,] i. e. credible. So, in Measure for Measure, A&V. fc. v: "For my authority bears a credent bulk." STEEVENS. Her.

K 2

Her. He fomething feems unfettled.

Pol. How, my lord?

What cheer? how is't with you, best brother 72

Her. You look,

As if you held a brow of much distraction:
Are you mov'd, my lord?

Leon. No, in good earnest.

How fometimes nature will betray its folly,
Its tenderness; and make itself a pastime

To harder bofoms! [afide.]-Looking on the lines
Of my boy's face, methoughts, I did recoil
Twenty three years; and faw myself unbreech'd,
In my green velvet coat; my dagger muzzled,
Left it fhould bite its master, and fo prove,
As ornaments oft do, too dangerous.

How like, methought, I then was to this kernel,
This fquafh, this gentleman :-Mine honeft friend,
Will you take eggs for money??

Mam.

7 What cheer & bow is't with you, beft brother?] This line, which in the old copy is given to Leontes, has been attributed to Polixenes on the fuggeftion of Mr. Steevens. Sir T. Hanmer had made the fame emendation. MALONE.

3 Are you mov'd, my lord ?] We have again the fame expreffion on the fame occafion, in Othello:

Othel. "I fee my Lord, you are mov'd.

Iago. "No, not much mov'd, not much." MALONE.

9

- my dagger muzzled,

Left it fhould bite its mafter, &c.] So, in another place: "I have a fword will bite upon my neceffity." And, in King Lear:

ance.

"I have feen the day with my good biting faulchion
"I would have made them fkip." HENLEY.
This fquath,] See Vol. II. p. 488, n. 6. MALONE.

Will you take eggs for money? This feems to be a proverbial expreffion, ufed when a man fees himself wronged and makes no refiftIts original, or precife meaning, I cannot find, but I believe it means, will you be a cuckold for hire. The cuckow is reported to lay her eggs in another bird's neft; he therefore that has eggs laid in his neft, is faid to be cucullatus, cuckow'd, or cuckold. JOHNSON.

The meaning of this is, will you put up affronts? The French have a proverbial faying, A qui vendez vous coquilles ? i. e. whom do you defign to affront? Mamillius's anfwer plainly proves it. Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight. SMITH.

Mam. No, my lord, I'll fight.

Leon. You will? why, happy man be his dole-My

brother,

Are you fo fond of your young prince, as we

Do feem to be of ours?

Pol. If at home, fir,

He's all my exercise, my mirth, my matter:
Now my fworn friend, and then mine enemy;
My parafite, my foldier, ftatesman, all:
He makes a July's day thort as December;
And, with his varying childness, cures in me
Thoughts that would thick my blood.

Leon. So ftands this fquire

Offic'd with me: We two will walk, my lord,
And leave you to your graver fteps.-Hermione,
How thou lov'ft us, fhew in our brother's welcome;
Let what is dear in Sicily, be cheap :

Next to thyfelf, and my young rover, he's

4

Apparent to my heart.

Her. If you would feek us,

I meet with Shakspeare's phrase in a comedy, call'd A Match at Midnight, 1633:—" I shall have eggs for my money; I must hang myself.” STEEVENS.

Leontes feems only to afk his fon, if he will fly from an enemy. In the following paffage the phrafe is evidently to be taken in that fenfe : "The French infantery fkirmisheth bravely afarre off, and the cavallery gives a furious onfet at the firft charge, but after the first head they will take eggs for their money." Relations of the most famous Kingdoms and common wealths thorowout the world, quarto, 1650, p. 154. REED.

This phrafe feems to me to have meant originally,- Are you fuch a poltron as to fuffer another to ufe you as he pleafes, to compel you to give him your money and to accept of a thing of fo fmall a value as a few eggs in exchange for it? This explanation appears to me perfectly confiftent with the paffage quoted by Mr. Reed. He, who will take eggs for money feems to be what, in As you like it, and in many of the old plays, is called a tame fnake. MALONE.

3 - happy man be bis dole !] May his dole or fhare in life be to be a bappy man. JOHNSON.

See Vol. I. p. 164, n. 5; Vol. III. p. 262, n.8; and Vol. V. p. 156, n. 6. MALONE.

4 Apparent] That is, heir apparent, or the next claimant.

JOHNSON

K 3

We

We are yours i'the garden: Shall's attend you there?
Leon. To your own bents difpofe you: you'll be found,
Be you beneath the sky:-I am angling now,
Though you perceive me not how I give line.
Go to, go to!

[afide.

[obferving Polix. and Her. How the holds up the neb, the bill to him! And arms her with the boldness of a wife

To her allowing hufband! Gone already;

Inch-thick, knee-deep; o'er head and ears a fork'd one. [Exeunt POLIXENES, HERMIONE, and Attendants. Go, play, boy, play ;-thy mother plays, and I Play too; but fo disgrac'd a part, whofe iffue Will hifs me to my grave; contempt and clamour Will be my knell.-Go, play, boy, play ;-There have been,

Or I am much deceiv'd, cuckolds ere now;

And many a man there is, even at this prefent,
Now, while I fpeak this, holds his wife by the arm,
That little thinks the hath been fluic'd in his absence,
And his pond fish'd by his next neighbour, by
Sir Smile, his neighbour: nay, there's comfort in't,
Whiles other men have gates; and thofe gates open'd,
As mine, against their will: Should all defpair,
That have revolted wives, the tenth of mankind
Would hang themselves. Phyfick for't there is none;
It is a bawdy planet, that will strike

Where 'tis predominant; and 'tis powerful, think it,
From east, weft, north, and fouth: Be it concluded,
No barricado for a belly; know it;

It will let in and out the enemy,

With bag and baggage: many a thousand of us
Have the difeafe, and feel't not.-How now, boy?

5 To her allowing bufband!] Allowing in old language is approv ing. MALONE.

-a fork'd one.] That is, a borned one; a cuckold. JOHNSON. So, in Othello:

"Even then this forked plague is fated to us,
"When we do quicken." MALONE.

Mam.