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

You put me off with limber vows: But I,

Though you would feek to unfphere the ftars with

oaths,

Should yet fay, Sir, no going. Verily,
You fhall not go: a lady's verily is
As potent as a lord's. Will you go yet?
Force me to keep you as a prisoner,

Not like a gueft; fo you fhall pay your fees,
When you depart, and fave your thanks. How fay

you?

My prifoner? or my gueft? by your dread verily, One of them you shall be.

POL.

Your gueft then, madam: To be your prifoner, fhould import offending;

4

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

66

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

STEEVENS.

A jar perhaps means a minute, for I do not fuppofe that the

ancient clocks ticked or noticed the feconds.

fcription of England, p. 241. TOLLET.

See Holinfhed's De

He hears no waking

To jar certainly means to tick; as in T. Heywood's Troia Britannica, cant. IV. ft. 107; edit. 1609. clocke, nor watch to jarre.

HOLT WHITE.

the owle fhrieking, the

So, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1601: toades croaking, the minutes jerring, and the clockę ftriking twelve,

MALONE.

Which is for me lefs easy to commit,
Than you to punish.

HER.

Not your gaoler then,

But your kind hoftefs. Come, I'll queftion you Of my lord's tricks, and yours, when you were

boys;

We were, fair queen,

POL. 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 purfued that life,
And our weak fpirits ne'er been higher rear'd
With ftronger blood, we fhould have answer'd
heaven

Boldly, Not guilty; the impofition 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

The doctrine of ill-doing, no, nor dream'd-] Doctrine is here ufed as a trifyllable. So children, tickling, and many others. editor of the fecond folio inferted the word no, to fupply a fuppofed defect in the metre, no, nor dream'd] and the interpolation was adopted in all the fubfequent editions. MALONE.

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

7

the impofition clear'd,

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

POL.

O my moft facred lady, Temptations have fince then been born to us: for In those unfledg'd days was my wife a girl; Your precious felf had then not cross'd the eyes Of my young play-fellow.

Of this make no conclufion; left you fay,*
Your queen and I are devils: Yet, go on;

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

pofition from the offence of our firft parents, we might have boldly protefted our innocence to heaven. WARBURTON.

Grace to boot!

Of this make no conclufion; left you Jay, &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 obfervation the queen anfwers 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 expreffion on these occafions. To the other part, fhe replies, as for our tempting you, pray take heed you draw no conclufion 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 fpecies 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 conclufion or inference from your, and your friend's, having, fince thofe 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 ac◄ quainted with us, the inference or infinuation would be ftrong against us, as your corrupters, and, by that kind of chafe,' your queen and I would be devils.

ΜΑΙΟΝΕ.

If you firft finn'd with us, and that with us
You did continue fault, and that you flipp'd not
With any but with us.

LEON.

Is he won yet?

HER. He'll flay, my lord.

LEON.

At my requeft, he would not.

Hermione, my deareft, thou never spok'st
To better purpose.

HER. What? have I twice faid 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 thoufand, waiting upon that.

8

Our praifes are our wages: You may ride us,
With one foft kifs, a thoufand furlongs, ere
With fpur we heat an acre.
But to the goal;
My laft good deed was, to entreat his stay;
What was my firft? it has an elder fifter,
Or I mistake you: O, would her name were Grace!

With fpur we heat an acre. But to the goal;] Thus this paffage 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 fenfe is different, and plain enough when the line is pointed thus:

ere

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

i. e. good ufage will win us to any thing; but, with ill, we stop fhort, even there where both our intereft 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,

9

Ere I could make thee open thy white hand,
And clap thyfelf my love; then didft thou utter,
I am yours for ever.

HER.

2

It is Grace, indeed, Why, lo you now, I have spoke to the purpose

די

twice:

The one for ever earn'd a royal husband;
The other, for fome while a friend.

[ Giving her hand to POLIXENEs.

9 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't a match?

"Shall we clap it up?"

Again, in a Trick to catch the old One, 1618: "Come, clap hands, a match.

Again, in K. Henry V:

แ

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:

ན་

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

"That I did fo, when I was firft affur'd."

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

I should not have given fo many inftances of this cuftom, but that I know Mr. Pope's reading → “And clepe thyfelf my love,” has many favourers. The old copy has-A clap, &c. The corLedion was made by the editor of the fecond folio.

MALONE.

2 It is Grace, indeed! Referring to what he had jult faid-"0, would her name were Grace! MALONE.