8 And France, (whofe armour confcience buckled on But the word maid, cheats the poor maid of that) The world, who of itself is peised well, This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word, 8 "STEEVENS. Again, in the Downfal of Robert E. of Huntington, 1601: "The world shall not depart us 'till we die.' -rounded in the ear] i.e. Whispered in the ear. The word is frequently ufed by Chaucer, as well as later writers. So, in Lingua, or A Combat of the Tongue, &c. 1607: "I help'd Herodotus to pen fome part of his Mufes; lent Pliny ink to write his history, and rounded Rabelais in the ear when he hiftorified Pantagruel." Again, in The Spanish Tragedy: "Forthwith Revenge, he rounded me i' th' ear." STEEVENS. Commodity, the bias of the world;] Commodity is intereft. 30, in Damon and Pythias, 1582: Again: 66 for vertue's fake only, "They would honour friendship, and not for commoditie.”. "I will ufe his friendship to mine own commoditic." STEEVENS. Το To a most base and vile-concluded peace.- But for because he hath not woo'd me yet: Gain, be my lord; for I will worship thee! [Exit. ACT III. SCENE I. The French king's pavilion. Enter Conftance, Arthur, and Salisbury. Conft. Gone to be marry'd! gone to fwear a peace! Falfe blood to falfe blood join'd! Gone to be friends! Shall Lewis have Blanch? and Blanch thofe pro vinces ? It is not fo; thou haft mis-spoke, mif-heard ; -clutch my hand,] To clutch my hand, is to clasp it close. So, in Antonio's Revenge, 1602: "The fist of strenuous vengeance is clutch'd." STEEVENS. VOL. V. E Thou Thou shalt be punifh'd for thus frighting me, And though thou now confefs, thou didst but jeft, Sal. As true, as, I believe, you think them falfe, That give you caufe to prove my faying true. Conft. Oh, if thou teach me to believe this forrow, As doth the fury of two defperate men, As it makes harmful all that fpeak of it. 2 Arth. I do befeech you, madam, be content. Ugly, If thou, &c.] Malfinger appears to have copied this paffage in The Unnatural Combat : "If thou hadst been born "Deform'd and crooked in the features of Thy 3 Ugly, and fland'rous to thy mother's womb, 3 "Thy body, as the manners of thy mind, "I had been bleft." STEEVENS. fightless] The poet ufes fightless for that which we now exprefs by unfightly, difagreeable to the eyes. JOHNSON. prodigious,] That is, portentous, fo deformed as to be ta ken for a foretoken of evil. JOHNSON. 4 In this fenfe it is used by Decker in the first part of the Honeft Whore, 1635: yon comet fhews his head again; "Twice hath he thus at crofs-turns thrown on us Again, in The Revenger's Tragedy, 1607: "Over whofe roof hangs this prodigious comet." Again, in the English Arcadia, by Jarvis Markham, 1607: "0 yes, I was prodigious to thy birth-right, and as a blazing star at thine unlook'd for funeral." STEEVENS. Sal. Pardon me, madam, I may not go without you to the kings. Conft. Thou may'ft, thou fhalt, I will not go with thee: I will inftruct my forrows to be proud ; [Throws herself on the ground. Enter 5 - makes its owner ftout.] The old editions have :-makes its ovner loop: the emendation is Hanmer's. JOHNSON. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, b. vi: "Full with fout grief and with disdainful woe." To me, and to the fate of my great grief, STEEVENS. In Much ado about Nothing, the father of Hero, depreffed by her difgrace, declares himfelf fo fubdued by grief that a thread may lead him. How is it that grief in Leonato and lady Constance produces effects directly oppofite, and yet both agreeable to nature? Sorrow foftens the mind while it is yet warmed by hope, but hardens it when it is congealed by defpair. Diftrefs, while there remains any profpect of relief, is weak and flexible, but when no fuccour remains, is fearless and ftubborn; angry alike at those that injure, and at thofe that do not help; carelefs to please where nothing can be gained, and fearlefs to offend when there is nothing further to be dreaded. Such was this writer's knowledge of the paffions. JOHNSON. 7 -bid kings come bow to it.] I must here account for the liberty I have taken to make a change in the divifion of the 2d and 3d acts. In the old editions, the 2d act was made to end here; though it is evident, lady Conftance here, in her despair, feats herielf on the floor: and the muft be fuppofed, as I formerly obferved, immediately to rife again, only to go off and end the act decently; or the fat fene must fhut her in from the fight of the audience, an abfurdity I cannot accufe Shakespeare of. Mr. Gildon and fome other criticks fancied, that a confiderable part of the zd act was loft; and that the chafm began here. I had joined in |