Lift up your countenance; as it were the day Of celebration of that nuptial, which We two have sworn shall come. Per. Stand you auspicious! O lady fortune, Enter Shepherd, with POLIXEN ES and CAMILLO disguised; Clown, MOPSA, DORCAS, and Others. Flo. See your guests approach: Shep. Fye, daughter! when my old wife liv'd, upon Both dame and servant: welcom'd all: serv'd all: On his shoulder, and his: her face o' fire With labour; and the thing, she took to quench it, As your good flock shall prosper. Per. Welcome, sir! [to PoL. It is my father's will, I should take on me [TO CAMILLO. Give me those flowers there, Dorcas.-Reverend sirs, j Grace, and remembrance,] These words refer to the rosemary and rue, which Perdita had given them. Rue was called herb of grace, from its being used in exorcisms against evil spirits; rosemary was the emblem of remembrance, and was supposed to have a medicinal power in strengthening the memory, Pol. Shepherdess, (A fair one are you,) well you fit our ages With flowers of winter. Per. Sir, the year growing ancient,— Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth Of trembling winter,-the fairest flowers o' the season Pol. Do you neglect them? Per. Wherefore, gentle maiden, For I have heard it said, There is an art, which, in their piedness, shares Pol. Say, there be; Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes that mean: so, o'er that art, Which you say, adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock; And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race; This is an art Which does mend nature,-change it rather: but Pol. Then make your garden rich in gillyflowers, And do not call them bastards. Per. I'll not put The dibble' in earth to set one slip of them : No more than, were I painted, I would wish This youth should say, 'twere well; and only therefore Desire to breed by me.-Here's flowers for you; Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram ; For I have heard-] i. e. Because their variety of tints is artificially produced. The art is pretended to be taught in old books of cookery, &c. but, being utterly impracticable, is not worth exemplification.-STEevens. dibble-] An instrument used by gardeners to make holes in the earth for the reception of young plants.-STEEVENS. Perdita's aversion to gillyflowers arises from the belief that their being specked with white and red was the result of art; and she therefore considers them as the emblems of a painted or immodest woman.-DOUCE. The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun, Per. Out, alas! You'd be so lean, that blasts of January Would blow you through and through,-Now, my fairest friend, I would, I had some flowers o'the spring, that might That come before the swallow dares, and take Flo. What? like a corse? Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corse: or if,-not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers: Methinks, I play as I have seen them do In Whitsun' pastorals: sure, this robe of mine Does change my disposition. Flo. What you do, Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you do it ever: when you sing, I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs, To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish you A wave o'the sea, that you might ever do So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, O Doricles, Per. You woo'd me the false way. Flo. I think, you have To put you to't.-But, come; our dance, I pray : That never mean to part. Per. I'll swear for 'em. Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Cam. He tells her something, That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, garlick, To mend her kissing with. Mop. Now, in good time! Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our man ners. Come, strike up. [Musick. Here a dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what Fair swain is this, which dances with your daughter? Shep. They call him Doricles; and he boasts himself m act.-JOHNSON. Each your doing, &c.] That is, your manner in each act crowns the "As little skill-] i. e. As little reason.-WARBURTON. • — we stand-] That is, we are now on our behaviour.-JOHNSON. 1 To have a worthy feeding :" but I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it; He looks like sooth: He says, he loves my daughter; I think so too: for never gaz'd the moon Upon the water, as he'll stand, and read, As 'twere, my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain, Who loves another best. Pol. She dances featly, Shep. So she does any thing; though I report it, Do light upon her, she shall bring him that Enter a Servant. Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedlar at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he sings several tunes, faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes. Clo. He could never come better: he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably. Serv. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes"; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves: he has the prettiest love songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings: jump her and thump her; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, slights him, with Whoop, do me no harm, good man. Pol. This is a brave fellow. Pa worthy feeding :] I conceive feeding to be a pasture, and a worthy feeding to be a tract of pasturage not inconsiderable.-JOHNSON. ૧ sooth:] Truth. Obsolete. dildos and fadings: jump her and thump her ;] These were the nonsensical burthens of several popular songs. |