The bound of honour; or, in act, or will,

The sense seems to be this:—what sudden slip have I made, that I should catch a wrench in my character. So, in Timon of Athens:

An uncurrent encounter seems to mean an irregular, unjustifiable congress. Perhaps it may be a metaphor from tilting, in which the shock of meeting adversaries was so called. Thus, in Drayton's Legend of T. Cromwell E. of Essex:

"Yet these encounters thrust me not awry."

The sense would then be :-In what base reciprocation of love have I caught this strain? Uncurrent is what will not pass, and is, at present, only applied to money.

Mrs. Ford talks of some strain in her character, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's Custom of the Country, the same expression

occurs:

66 strain your loves

“With any base, or hir'd persuasions.”

To strain, I believe, means to go awry. So, in the 6th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"As wantonly she strains in her lascivious course.” Drayton is speaking of the irregular course of the river Wye.

Steevens. The bounds of honour, which are mentioned immediately after, justify Mr. Steevens in supposing the imagery to have been taken from tilting. Henley.

Johnson thinks it necessary for the sense, to transpose these words and read: "With what encounter so uncurrent have I strained to appear thus? But he could not have proposed that alteration, had he considered, with attention, the construction of the passage, which runs thus: "I appeal to your own conscience, with what encounter," &c. That is, "I appeal to your own conscience to declare with what encounter so uncurrent I have strained to appear thus." He was probably misled by the point of interrogation at the end of the sentence, which ought not to have been there. M. Mason.

The precise meaning of the word encounter in this passage may be gathered from our author's use of it elsewhere:

"Who hath

"Confess'd the vile encounters they have had

"A thousand times in secret." Much Ado about Nothing. Hero and Borachio are the persons spoken of. Again, in Measure for Measure: "We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place: if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense." Again, in Cymbeline:

found no opposition

"But what he look'd for should oppose, and she
"Should from encounter guard."

That way inclining; harden'd be the hearts
Of all that hear me, and my near❜st of kin
Cry, Fy upon my grave!

Leon.

I ne'er heard yet,
That any of these bolder vices wanted
Less impudence to gainsay what they did,
Than to perform it first."

Her.

That's true enough;

Though 'tis a saying, sir, not due to me.
Leon. You will not own it.

Her.

More than mistress of,
Which comes to me in name of fault, I must not
At all acknowledge. For Polixenes,

(With whom I am accus'd) I do confess,

I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd;8

As, to pass or utter money that is not current, is contrary to law, I believe our author in the present passage, with his accustomed license, uses the word uncurrent as synonymous to unlawful. I have strain'd, may perhaps mean-I have swerved or deflected from the strict line of duty. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"Nor aught so good, but strain'd from that fair use,
"Revolts."

Again, in our author's 140th Sonnet:

"Bear thine eyes straight, though thy proud heart go wide.”

A bed-swerver has already occurred in this play.

"To appear thus,” is, to appear in such an assembly as this; to be put on my trial. Malone.

7 I ne'er heard yet,

That any of these bolder vices wanted

Less impudence to gainsay what they did,

Than to perform it first.] It is apparent that according to the proper, at least according to the present, use of words, less should be more, or wanted should be had. But Shakspeare is very uncertain in his use of negatives. It may be necessary once to observe, that in our language, two negatives did not originally affirm, but strengthen the negation. This mode of speech was in time changed, but, as the change was made in opposition to long custom, it proceeded gradually, and uniformity was not obtained but through an intermediate confusion. Johnson.

Examples of the same phraseology (as Mr. Malone observes) occur in this play, p. 183; in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, sc. xii, and in King Lear, Act II, sc. iv; and (as Mr. Ritson adds) in Macbeth, Act III, sc. vi. Steevens.

(With whom I am accus'd) I do confess

I lov'd him, as in honour he requir'd; &c.] So, in Dorastus and Faunia: "What hath passed between him and me, the Gods

With such a kind of love, as might become
A lady like me; with a love, even such,
So, and no other, as yourself commanded:

Which not to have done, I think, had been in me
Both disobedience and ingratitude,

To you, and toward your friend; whose love had spoke,
Even since it could speak, from an infant, freely,
That it was yours. Now, for conspiracy,

I know not how it tastes; though it be dish'd
For me to try how: all I know of it,

Is, that Camillo was an honest man;

And, why he left your court, the gods themselves,
Wotting no more than I, are ignorant.

Leon. You knew of his departure, as you know
What you have underta’en to do in his absence.
Her. Sir,

You speak a language that I understand not:
My life stands in the level of your dreams,9
Which I'll lay down.

Leon.

Your actions are my dreams;

You had a bastard by Polixenes,

And I but dream'd it:-As you were past all shame, (Those of your fact are so) so past all truth:1

only know, and I hope will presently reveale. That I lov'd Egisthus, I cannot denie; that I honour'd him, I shame not to confess. But as touching lascivious lust, I say Egisthus is honest, and hope myself to be found without spot. For Franion, [Camillo] I can neither accuse him nor excuse him. I was not privie to his departure. And that this is true which I have here rehearsed, I refer myselfe to the divine oracle." Malone.

9 My life stands in the level of your dreams,] To be in the level is, by a metaphor from archery, to be within the reach. Johnson. This metaphor, (as both Mr. Douce and Mr. Ritson have already observed) is from gunnery. See p. 210, n. 5.

So, in King Henry VIII:

1

"Of a full charg'd confederacy." Steevens.

As you were past all shame,

(Those of your fact are so) so past all truth:] I do not remember that fact is used any where absolutely for guilt, which must be its sense in this place. Perhaps we should read:

Those of your pack are so.

Pack is a low coarse word well suited to the rest of this royal invective. Johnson.

Which to deny, concerns more than avails:2

For as

Thy brat hath been cast out, like to itself,
No father owning it, (which is, indeed,
More criminal in thee, than it) so thou

Shalt feel our justice; in whose easiest passage,
Look for no less than death.

Her.

Sir, spare your threats;
The bug, which you would fright me with, I seek.
To me can life be no commodity:

The crown and comfort of my life,3 your favour,
I do give lost; for I do feel it gone,

But know not how it went: My second joy,
And first-fruits of my body, from his

presence,

I am barr'd, like one infectious: My third comfort,
Starr'd most unluckily, is from my breast
The innocent milk in its most innocent mouth,
Haled out to murder: Myself on every post
Proclaim'd a strumpet; With immodest hatred,
The child-bed privilege denied, which 'longs

I should guess sect to be the right word. See King Henry IV, P. II, Act II, sc. iv.

In Middleton's Mad World, my Masters, a Courtezan says: "It is the easiest art and cunning for our sect to counterfeit sick, that are always full of fits when we are well." Farmer.

Thus, Falstaff, speaking of Dol Tearsheet: "So is all her sect: if they be once in a calm, they are sick." Those of your fact, may, however, mean-those who have done as you do. Steevens.

That fact is the true reading, is proved decisively from the words of the novel, which our author had in his mind, both here, and in a former passage: ["I ne'er heard yet, That any of these bolder vices," &c.] "And as for her [said Pandosto] it was her part to deny such a monstrous crime, and to be impudent in forswearing the fact since she had passed all shame in committing the fault." Malone.

2 Which to deny, concerns more than avails:] It is your business to deny this charge, but the mere denial will be useless; will prove nothing. Malone.

3 The crown and comfort of my life,] The supreme blessing of my life. So, in Cymbeline:

"O that husband!

"My supreme crown of grief." Malone.

4 Starr'd most unluckily,] i. e. born under an inauspicious planet. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"And shake the yoke of inauspicious stars

"From this world-wearied flesh." Steevens.

To women of all fashion:-Lastly, hurried
Here to this place, i' the open air, before
I have got strength of limit. Now, my liege,
Tell me what blessings I have here alive,

That I should fear to die? Therefore, proceed.
But yet hear this; mistake me not;— -No! life,
I prize it not a straw:-but for mine honour,
(Which I would free) if I shall be condemn'd
Upon surmises; all proofs sleeping else,
But what your jealousies awake; I tell you,
'Tis rigour, and not law. Your honours all,
I do refer me to the oracle;

Apollo be my judge.

1 Lord.
This your request
Is altogether just: therefore, bring forth,
And in Apollo's name, his oracle.

[Exeunt certain Officers.

Her. The emperor of Russia was my father:
O, that he were alive, and here beholding
His daughter's trial! that he did but see
The flatness of my misery; yet with eyes
Of pity, not revenge!

I have got strength of limit.] I know not well how strength of limit can mean strength to pass the limits of the child-bed chamber; which yet it must mean in this place, unless we read in a more easy phrase, strength of limb. And now, &c. Johnson.

Mr. M. Mason judiciously conceives strength of limit to mean, the limited degree of strength which it is customary for women to acquire, before they are suffered to go abroad after child-bearing.

6

I tell you

Steevens.