:

I love thee not a jar o'the clock behind
What lady she her lord. - You'll stay?

You put me off with limber vows: But I,
Though you would feek to unsphere the stars with

oaths,

Should yet say, Sir, no going. Verily,
You shall not go: a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prifoner,
Not like a guest, so you shall pay your fees,
When you depart, and save your thanks. How say

you?

My prifoner? or my guest? by your dread verily,

One of them you shall be.

POL.

Your guest then, madam:

To be your prifoner, should import offending;

4

-- a jar o'the clock - ] A jar is, I believe, a single repetition of the noise made by the pendulum of a clock; what children call the ticking of it. So, in K. Richard II:

My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar."

STEEVENS.

A jar perhaps means a minute, for I do not suppose that the ancient clocks ticked or noticed the seconds. See Holinshed's DeScription of England, p. 241. TOLLET.

To jar certainly means to tick; as in T. Heywood's Troia Britannica, cant. IV. ft. 107; edit. 1609. "He hears no wakingclocke, nor watch to jarre." HOLT WHITE.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1601: -" the owle shrieking, the toades croaking, the minutes jerring, and the clockę striking twelve,"

MALQNE.

1

Which is for me less easy to commit,

Than you to punish.

HER.

Not your gaoler then, But your kind hostess. Come, I'll question you Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were

We were, fair queen,

Two lads, that thought there was no more behind, But fuch a day to-morrow as to-day,

And to be boy eternal.

HER. Was not my lord the verier wag o'the two? POL. We were as twinn'd lambs, that did frisk

i'the fun,

And bleat the one at the other: what we chang'd,
Was innocence for innocence; we knew not
The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd
That any did: Had we pursued that life,
And our weak spirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With stronger blood, we should have answer'd

heaven

Boldly, Not guilty; the imposition clear'd,
Hereditary ours."

*-lordings) This diminutive of lord is often used by Chaucer. So, in the prologue to his Canterbury Tales, the hoft fays to the company, v. 790, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit:

Lordinges (quod he) now herkeneth for the befte."

STEEVENS.

The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd-] Doctrine is here used as a trifyllable. So children, tickling, and many others. The editor of the second folio inferted the word no, to supply a supposed defed in the metre, [ - no, nor dream'd] and the interpolation was adopted in all the subsequent editions. MALONE.

I cannot suppose myself to be reading a verse, unless I adopt the emendation of the second folio. STEEVENS.

7

the impofition clear'd,

Hereditary ours.] i. e. fetting aside original fin; bating the im

(

HER.

By this we gather,

You have tripp'd fince.
POL.
O my most sacred lady,
Temptations have fince then been born to us: for
In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl;

Your precious self had then not cross'd the eyes

Of my young play-fellow.

Of this make no conclusion; lest you say, *
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;

The offences we have made you do, we'll answer;

position from the offence of our first parents, we might have boldly protested our innocence to heaven. WARBURTON.

Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclufon; left you say, &c.] Polixenes had faid, that fince the time of childhood and innocence, temptations had grown to them; for that, in that interval, the two queens were become women. To each part of this observation the queen answers in order. To that of temptations the replies, Grace to boot! i. e. though temptations have grown up, yet I hope grace too has kept pace with them. Grace to boot, was a proverbial expression on these occafions. To the other part, she replies, as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclusion from thence, for that would be making your queen and me devils, &c. WARBURTON.

This explanation may be right; but I have no great faith in the existence of fuch a proverbial expreffion. STEEVENS.

She calls for Heaven's grace, to purify and vindicate her own character, and that of the wife of Polixenes, which might feem to be fullied by a species of argument that made them appear to have led their husbands into temptation.

Grace or Heaven help me! - Do not argue in that manner; do not draw any conclusion or inference from your, and your friend's, having, fince those days of childhood and innocence, become acquainted with your queen and me, for, as you have faid that in the period between childhood and the prefent time temptations have been born to you, and as in that interval you have become acquainted with us, the inference or infinuation would be strong against us, as your corrupters, and, by that kind of chafey your queen and I would be devils. MALONE.

1

If you first sinn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you flipp'd not

With any but with us.

HER. What? have I twice said well? when was't

before?

I pr'ythee, tell me: Cram us with praise, and make us
As fat as tame things: One good deed, dying tongue-

lefs,

Slaughters a thousand, waiting upon that.
Our praifes are our wages: You may ride us,
With one foft kiss, a thousand furlongs, ere
With spur we heat an acre. But to the goal; 8-
My last good deed was, to entreat his stay;
What was my first? it has an elder fifter,
Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!

• With Spur we heat an acre. But to the goal;-) Thus this passage has been always printed; whence it appears, that the editors did not take the poet's conceit. They imagined that, But to th' goal, meant, but to come to the purpose; but the sense is different, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus:

ere

With Spur we heat an acre, but to the goal.

i. e. good usage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we stop short, even there where both our interest and our inclination would otherwife have carried us.

WARBURTON.

I have followed the old copy, the pointing of which appears to afford as apt a meaning as that produced by the change recommended by Dr. Warburton, STEEVENS,

But once before I spoke to the purpose: When?

Nay, let me have't; I long.

LEON.

Why, that was when Three crabbed months had four'd themselves to

death,

Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter,

I am yours for ever.

HER.

It is Grace, indeed,2

Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose

twice:

The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;

The other, for fome while a friend.

[Giving her hand to POLIXENES.

And clap thyself my love;) She open'd her hand, to clap the palm of it into his, as people do when they confirm a bargain. Hence the phrase to clap up a bargain, i. e. make one with no other ceremony than the junction of hands. So, in Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611:

Speak, widow, is'ta match?

" Shall we clap it up?"

Again, in a Trick to catch the old One, 1618:

Again, in K. Henry V:

and fo clap hands, and a bargain." STEEVENS. This was a regular part of the ceremony of troth-plighting, to

which Shakspeare often alludes. So, in Measure for Measure:

"This is the hand, which with a vow'd contract

Was faft belock'd in thine."

Again, in King John:

"Phil. It likes us well. Young princes, close your hands. Aust. And your lips too, for I am well affur'd,

"That I did so, when I was first assur'd."

So also, in No Wit like a Woman's, a Com. by Middleton, 1657: " There these young lovers fhall clap hands together."

1 should not have given so many instances of this custom, but that I know Mr. Pope's reading - "And clepe thyself my love," has many favourers. The old copy has- A clap, &c. The cor redion was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE.

* It is Grace, indeed! Referring to what the had just faid"0, would her name were Grace!! MALONE.