Impossible be strange attempts, to those That weigh their pain in sense; and do suppose, What hath been,-] I understand the meaning to be this: The affections given us by nature often unite persons between whom fortune or accident has placed the greatest distance, or disparity, and cause them to join, like likes (instar parium), like persons in the same situation of life. -This interpretation is strongly confirmed by a subsequent speech of the countess's steward, who is supposed to have over-heard this soliloquy of Helena: "Fortune, she said, was no goddess, that had put such difference between their two estates." The mightiest space in fortune, for, persons the most widely separated by fortune, is certainly a licentious expression; but it is such a licence as Shakspere often takes. Thus, in Cymbeline, the diminution of space is used for the diminution of which space, or rather distance, is the cause. MALONE. 235. -Senoys-] The Sanesi, as they are termed by Boccace. Painter, who translates him, calls them Senois. They were the people of a small republick, of which the capital was Sienna. The Florentines were at perpetual variance with them. 257. Rosignoll. STEEVENS. -Rousillon- -] The old copy reads 272. He had the wit, which I can well observe Till their own scorn return to them; unnoted, Ere they can hide their levity in honour.] i. e. ere their titles can cover the levity of their behaviour, and make it pass for desert. WARBURTON. I believe honour is not dignity of birth or rank, but acquired reputation: Your father, says the king, had the same airy flights of satirical wit with the young lords of the present time, but they do not what he did, hide their unnoted levity in honour, cover petty faults with great merit. This is an excellent observation. Jocose follies, and slight offences, are only allowed by mankind in him that overpowers them by great qualities. Point thus: ་ JOHNSON. He had the wit, which I can well observe So like a courtier. Contempt, &c. 276. BLACKSTONE. So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness His equal had awak'd them; -] This passage is so very incorrectly pointed, that the author's meaning is lost. As the text and stops are reformed, these are most beautiful lines, and the sense is this"He had no contempt or bitterness; if he had any thing that look'd like pride or sharpness (of which qualities contempt and bitterness are the excesses), his equal had awaked them, not his inferior to whom he scorn'd to discover any thing that bore the shadow of pride or sharpness." WARBURTON. The original edition reads the first line thus: So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness. The sense is the same. Nor was used without reduplication. So, in Measure for Measure: "More nor less to others paying, "Than by self-offences weighing." The old text needs to be explained. He was so like a courtier, that there was in his dignity of manner nothing contemptuous, and in his keenness of wit nothing bitter. If bitterness or contemptuousness ever appeared, they had been awakened by some injury, not of a man below him, but of his equal. This is the complete image of a well-bred man, and somewhat like this Voltaire has exhibited his hero Lewis XIV. JOHNSON. 281. His tongue obey'd his hand.- -] His is put for its. So, in Othello: -hér motion ❝ Blush'd at herself.". -instead of itself. STEEVENS. 282. He us'd as creatures of another place ;] i. e. He. made allowances for their conduct, and bore from them what he would not from one of his own rank. 284. Making them proud of his humility, In their poor praise, he humbled: -] 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. 291. So in approof lives not his epitaph, As in your royal speech.] Perhaps the meaning is this: His epitaph or inscription on his tomb is not so much in approbation or commendation of him, as is your royal speech. TOLLET. 302. -whose judgments are Mere fathers of their garments ;- -] Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent 321. JOHNSON. MALONE. -Steward, and Clown.] A Clown, in Shakspere, 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 ser vant 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 rustick, of remarkable petulance, and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown. JOHNSON. Cardinal Wolsey, after his disgrace, wishing to shew king Henry a mark of his respect, sent him his fcol 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. "Shakspere to thee was dull, whose best jest lies "In trunk hose, which our fathers call'd the 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. See Vol. II. p. 15. STEEVENS. The following lines in The Careless Shepherdess, a comedy, 1656, exhibit probably a faithful portrait of this once admired character: |