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Betwen two blades, which bears the better tem

per,

Between two horses, which doth bear him best. 3
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye,
I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgement:
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law.
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw..

PLAN. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance:
The truth appears so naked on my fide,
That any purblind eye may find it out.

SOM. And on my side it is so well apparell'd, So clear, so shining, and so evident, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. PLAN. Since you are tongue-ty'd, and so loath

to fpeak,

In dumb significants proclaim your thoughts:
Let him, that is a trueborn gentleman,
And stands upon the honour of his birth,
If he suppose that I have pleaded truth,
From off this briar pluck a white rose with me.

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bear him beft, i. e. regulate his motions most adroitly.

So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"He bears him like a portly gentleman." STEEVENS.

4 In dumb fignificants - ) I susped, we should read-fignificance.

MALONE.

I believe the old reading is the true one. So, in Love's Labour's Loft: Bear this fignificant [i. e. a letter] ) to the country maid, Jaquenetta." STEEVENS.

5 From off this briar pluck a white rose with me.] This is given as the original of the two badges of the houses of York and Lancafter, whether truly or not, is no great matter. But the proverbial expreffion of faying a thing under the rose, I am perfuaded, came from thence. When the nation had ranged itself into two great factions, under the white and red rose, and were perpetually plotting and counterplotting against one another, then, when a matter of faction was communicated by either party to his friend in the fame quarrel, it was natural for him to add, that he faid it

Som. Let him that is no coward, nor no flat

terer,

But dare maintain the party of the truth,

Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me.

WAR. I love no colours; and, without all co

lour

Of base infinuating flattery,
I pluck this white rose, with Plantagenet.

SUF. I pluck this red rose, with young Somerset; And say withal, I think he held the right.

VER. Stay, lords, and gentlemen; and pluck no

more,

Till you conclude that he, upon whose side
The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree,
Shall yield the other in the right opinion.

under the rose; meaning that, as it concerned the faction, it was religioufly to be kept secret. WARBURTON.

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This is ingenious! What pity, that it is not learned too? -The rose (as the fables say) was the symbol of filence, and confecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates, to conceal the lewd pranks of his mother. So common a book as Lloyd's Dictionary might have inftru&ed Dr. Warburton in this. Huic Harpocrati Cupido Veneris filius parentis fuæ rosam dedit in munus, ut fcilicet fi quid licentius dictum, vel actum fit in convivio, sciant tacenda effe omnia. Atque idcirco veteres ad finem convivii fub rofa, Anglicè under the rose, transacta effe omnia ante digreffum conteftabantur; cujus formæ vis eadem effet, atque ifta, Μισῶ μνάμονα συμπόταν. Probant hanc rem verfus qui reperiuntur in marmore:

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" Eft rosa flos Veneris, cujus quo furta laterent,
Harpocrati matris dona dicavit amor.
"Inde rosam menfis hofpes suspendit amicis,
" Convivæ ut fub ea dida tacenda sciant.

UPTON.

6 I love no colours;) Colours is here used ambiguously for tints

and deceits. Johnson.

So, in Love's Labour's Loft:

I do fear colourable colours."
STEEVENS.

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SOM. Good inaster Vernon, it is well objected;" If I have fewest, I fubfcribe in filence.

PLAN. And I.

VER. Then, for the truth and plainness of the cafe,
I pluck this pale and maiden blofsom here,
Giving my verdict on the white rose side.

Som. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off;
Left, bleeding, you do paint the white rose red,
And fall on my side so against your will.

VER. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed,
Opinion shall be furgeon to my hurt,
And keep me on the fide where still I am.
Sом. Well, well, come on: Who elfe?
LAW. Unless my study and my books be false,
The argument you held, was wrong in you;

[TO SOMERSET.

In fign whereof, I pluck a white rose too.
PLAN. Now Somerset, where is your argument?
Som. Here, in my scabbard; meditating that,

Shall die your white rose in a bloody red.
PLAN. Mean time, your cheeks do counterfeit
our rofes;

For pale they look with fear, as witnessing
The truth on our fide.

SOM.

No, Plantagenet,

'Tis not for fear; but anger,-that thy cheeks &

7-well objected; ) Properly thrown in our way, justly proposed. JOHNSON.

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So, in Chapman's Version of the gift Book of Homer's Odyssey = " Excites Penelope t'object the prize,

" (The bow and bright steeles) to the woers' strength."

STEEVENS.

but anger, that thy cheeks &c.] i. e. it is not for fear that my cheeks look pale, but for anger; anger, produced by this circumftance, namely, that thy cheeks blush, &c. MALONE.

Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our rofes;
And yet thy tongue will not confefs thy error.
PLAN. Hath not thy rose a canker, Somerset?
SOM. Hath not thy rose a thorn, Plantagenet?
PLAN. Ay, sharp and piercing, to maintain his

truth;

Whiles thy confuming canker eats his falsehood.
SOM. Well, I'll find friends to wear my bleed-

ing rofes,

That shall maintain what I have faid is true,
Where falfe Plantagenet dare not be seen.

?

PLAN. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand, I scorn thee and thy fashion, peevish boy.

9 I fcorn thee and thy fashion,] So the old copies read, and rightly. Mr. Theobald altered it to faction, not confidering that by fashion is meant the badge of the red rose, which Somerset said he and his friends would be diftinguished by. But Mr. Theobald asks, If faction was not the true reading, why should Suffolk immediately reply,

Turn not thy Scorns this way, Plantagenet.

Why? because Plantagenet had called Somesset, with whom Suffolk fided, peevish boy. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald with great probability reads-faction. Plantagenet afterward uses the same word:

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this pale and angry rose

"Will I for ever, and my faction, wear."

In King Henry V. we have pation for paction.

We should un

doubtedly read and thy faction. The old spelling of this word was faccion, and hence fashion easily crept into the text.

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So, in Hall's Chronicle, EDWARD IV. fol. xxii. -- whom, we ought to beleve to be sent from God, and of hym onely to bee provided a kynge, for to extinguish both the faccions and partes [i. e. parties of of Kyng Henry the VI. and of Kyng Edward

the fourth." MALONE.

As fashion might have been meant to convey the meaning affigned to it by Dr. Warburton, I have left the text as I found it, allowing at the same time the merit of the emendation offered by Mr. Theobald, and countenanced by Mr. Malone. STEEVENS.

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SUF. Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet.
PLAN. Proud Poole, I will; and scorn both him

and thee.

SUF. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. Sом. Away, away, good William De-la-Poole! We grace the yeoman, by conversing with him. WAR. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him,

Somerset;

His grandfather was Lionel duke of Clarence, * Third son to the third Edward king of England; Spring crestless yeomen from so deep a root?

PLAN. He bears him on the place's privilege, 4 Or durft not, for his craven heart, say thus.

Som. By him that made me, I'll maintain my
words

On any plot of ground in Christendom:
Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cambridge,

* His grandfather was Lionel duke of Clarence, The author mistakes. Plantagenet's paternal grandfather was Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. His maternal grandfather was Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who was the son of Philippa the daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence. That duke therefore was his maternal great great grandfather. See Vol. XII. p. 215, n. 7.

3

MALONE.

Spring crefflefs yeomen - ] i. e. those who have no right to arms.

WARBURTOΟΝ.

4 He bears him on the place's privilege, The Temple, being a religious house, was an asylum, a place of exemption, from violence, revenge, and bloodshed. JOHNSON.

It does not appear that the Temple had any peculiar privilege at this time, being then, as it is at present, the residence of lawstudents. The author might, indeed, imagine it to have derived some such privilege from its former inhabitants, the Knights Templars, or Knights Hospitalers, both religious orders: or blows might have been prohibited by the regulations of the Society: what is equally probable, he might have neither known nor cared any thing about the matter. RITSON.

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