1

In whose comparison all whites are ink,
Writing their own reproach; To whose soft seizure
The cygnet's down is harsh, and spirit of sense
Hard as the palm of ploughman! This thou tell'st

here ufed metaphorically, with an allusion at the same time to its literal meaning; and the jingle between hand and handleft is per fectly in our author's manner.

The beauty of a female hand seems to have made a strong impression on his mind. Antony cannot endure that the hand of Cleopatra should be touched:

To let a fellow that will take rewards,

"And fay, God quit you, be familiar with
"My playfelow, your hand, this kingly feal,

"And plighter of high hearts."

Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

they may feize

"On the white wonder of dear Juliet's hand.".

In The Winter's Tale, Florizel with equal warmth, and not less

poetically, descants on the hand of his mistress:

"I take thy hand; this hand

"As foft as dove's down, and as white as it';
"Or Ethiopian's tooth; or the fann'd fnow

"That's bolted by the northern blafts twice o'er."

This paffage has, I think, been wrong pointed in the late editions:

Pour'st in the open ulcer of my heart

Her eyes, her hair, her cheek, her gait; her voice

Handleft in thy discourse;

In whose comparison, &c.

O that her hand!

We have the fame play of words in Titus Andronicus :
"O handle not the theme, to talk of hands,
"Left we remember still, that we have none!"

We may be certain therefore that those lines were part of the additions which our poet made to that play. MALONE.

Though our author has many and very confiderable obligations to Mr. Malone, I cannot regard the foregoing supposition as one of them; for in what does it consist? In making Shakspeare anfverable for two of the worst lines in a degraded play, merely because they exhibit a jingle fimilar to that in the fpeech before us.

3 and spirit of sense

STEEVENS.

Hard as the palm of ploughman!) In comparison with Creffida's hand, fays he, the spirit of fenfe, the utmost degree, the most ex. quifite power of fenfibility, which implies a foft band, fince the sense of touching, as Scaliger says in his Exercitations, refides

As true thou tell'st me, when I fay-I love her;
But, saying, thus, instead of oil and balm,
Thou lay'st in every gash that love hath given me
The knife that made it.

PAN. I speak no more than truth.
TROI. Thou dost not speak fo much.

PAN. 'Faith, I'll not meddle in't. Let her be as the is: if the be fair, 'tis the better for her; an she be not, she has the mends in her own hands. 4 TRO. Good Pandarus! How now, Pandarus? PAN. I have had my labour for my travel; illthought on of her, and ill-thought on of you: gone

chiefly in the fingers, is hard as the callous and insensible palm of the ploughman. Warburton reads:

--spite of fenfe

Hanmer,

- to the spirit of sense.

It is not proper to make a lover profess to praise his mistress in Spite of fenfe; for though he often does it in spite of the sense of others, his own senses are fubdued to his defires. JOHNSON.

Spirit of fenfe is a phrase that occurs again in the third act of this play:

"nor doth the eye itself,

"That moft pure spirit of fenfe, behold itself." Mr. M. Mafon (from whom I have borrowed this parallel) recommends Hanmer's emendation as a neceffary one.

4

STÉEVENS.

She has the mends - ) She may mend her complexion by the affiftance of cosmeticks. JOHNSON.

I believe it rather means - She may make the best of a bad bargain, This is a proverbial faying.

So, in Woman's a Weathercock, 1612:

"I mall stay here and have my head broke, and then I have the mends in my own hands:"

Again, in S. Goffon's School of Abuse, 1579:-turne him with his back full of tripes, and his hands loden with his own amendes."

Again, in The Wild Goose Chaft, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "The mends are in mine own hands, or the furgeon's."

STEEVENS

(

between and between, but small thanks for my labour.

TRO. What, art thou angry, Pandarus? what, with me?

PAN. Because she is kin to me, therefore she's not fo fair as Helen: an she were not kin to me, she would be as fair on friday, as Helen is on sunday. But what care I? I care not, an she were a black-a-moor; 'tis all one to me. TRO. Say I, she is not fair?

PAN. I do not care whether you do or no. She's a fool to stay behind her father; 5 let her to the Greeks; and so I'll tell her, the next time I fee her: for my part, I'll meddle nor make no more in the matter.

TRO. Pandarus,

PAN. Not I.

TRO. Sweet Pandarus,

PAN. Pray you, speak no more to me; I will leave all as I found it, and there an end.

[Exit PANDARUS. An Alarm. TRO. Peace, you ungracious clamours! peace, rude founds! Fools on both fides! Helen must needs be fair,

5

to stay behind her father; Calchas, according to Shakspeare's authority, The Destruction of Troy, was "a great learned bishop of Troy," who was sent by Priam to consult the oracle of Delphi concerning the event of the war which was threatened by Agamemnon. As soon as he had made his oblations and demaunds for them of Troy, Apollo (fays the book) aunswered anto him, saying; Calchas, Calchas, beware that thou returne not back again to Troy; but goe thou with Achylles, unto the Greekes, and depart never from them, for the Greekes shall have vi&orie of the Troyans by the agreement of the Gods." Hift. of the DeAruction of Troy, translated by Caxton, 5th edit. 4to. 1617. This prudent bishop followed the advice of the Oracle, and immediately joined the Greeks. MALONE.

When with your blood you daily paint her thus.
I cannot fight upon this argument;
It is too ftarv'd a subject for my fword,
But Pandarus-O gods, how do you plague me!
I cannot come to Greffid, but by Pandar;
And he's as tetchy to be woo'd to woo,
As she is stubborn-chaste against all fuit.
Tell me, Apollo, for thy Daphne's love,
What Creffid is, what Pandar, and what we?
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl:
Between our Ilium, and where she refides,
Let it be call'd the wild and wandering flood;
Ourself, the merchant; and this failing Pandar,
Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark."

Alarum. Enter ÆNEAS.

ÆNE. How now, prince Troilus? wherefore not afield? 8

TRO. Because not there; This woman's answer

Ilium,] Was the palace of Troy. JOHNSON.

Ilium, properly speaking, is the name of the city; Troy, that of

the country. STEEVENS.

7- this failing Pandar,

Our doubtful hope, our convoy, and our bark.] So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor:

"This punk is one of Cupid's carriers.;

Clap on more fails," &c. MALONE.

8 How now, prince Troilus? wherefore not afield?] Shakspeare it appears from various lines in this play, pronounced Troilus improperly as a dissyllable; as every mere English reader does at this day.

So also, in his Rape of Lucrece:

-

" Here manly Hedor faints, here Troilus swounds."

MALONE.

forts,] i. e, fits, suits, is congruous. So, in King Henry Vs

"It forts well with thy fierceness." STELVENS. VOL. XVI.

For womanish it is to be from thence.

What news, Eneas, from the field to-day?

ANE. That Paris is returned home, and hurt.

TRO. By whom, Æneas?

ANE.

Troilus, by Menelaus.

TRO. Let Paris bleed: 'tis but a scar to scorn;

Paris is gor'd with Menelaus' horn.

[Alarum.

ÆNE. Hark! what good sport is out of town

to-day!

TRO. Better at home, if would I might, were

But, to the sport abroad ;-Are you bound thither?

Whose height commands as subject all the vale,

To fee the battle. Hector, whose patience

Is, as a virtue, fix'd, to-day was mov'd:

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Hector, whose patience

Is, as a virtue fix'd, Patience sure was a virtue, and there