# The Works of Ben Jonson/Volume 6/The Sad Shepherd/Act 2 Scene 1

* ↑ ———— and becomes his ray.] i.e. his dress, alluding to what she had just said,"And here he comes new claithed, like a prince."Whalley appears, I know not how, to have found some difficulty in this trite expression.
* ↑ There is much natural beauty in these speeches of Lorel; and the rustic cast of the imagery is entirely conformable to the grotesque character of the speaker. I must not omit observing that the whole is sketch'd out from the song of Polyphemus to his mistress Galatea, in Ovid's Metamorphoses, lib. 13. Whal. Jonson has borrowed many traits of his Lorel from the Polyphemus of Theocritus, but with a freedom, which evinces the hand of a master. There is nothing in the Syracusian poet more beautiful than the descriptive parts of the Cyclop's soliloquy, and not much in the poetry of our own language that surpasses the rustic courtship of the witch's son. What resemblance Whalley could find in it to Ovid, I am at a loss to discover.
* ↑ Deft mistress! whiter than the cheese new prest, Why start ye from me, &c.] Ω λευκα Γαλατεια, τι τον φιλεοντ' αποβαλλῃ; Λευκοτερα πακτας ποτιδειν, απαλωτερα δ' αρνος. Idyl. xi. 45.
* ↑ And though my nase be camused.] i.e. broad and flat. This feature also, is from the Greek poet—πλατεια δε ῥος ετι χειλει—In Lorel's next speech, there is a perpetual recurrence to Theocritus:———Βοτα χιλια βοσκω,Κη'κ τουτων το κρατιστον αμελγομεους γαλα πινωΤυρος δ' ου λειπει μ' ουτ' εν θερει, ουτ' εν οπωρῃ,Ου χειμωνος ακρῳ Jonson mentions "a swarm of bees:" it is singular that this species of rural wealth should be overlooked by the Sicilian bard, when the introduction of it would have been so characteristic both of the scenery and the lover. Lorel's dwelling too is embellished with a richness which does not appear in the original description, (beautiful as it is,) and which being at once appropriate and tasteful, evinces the fancy no less than the fertility of the copyist. The reader may compare the passages.Εντι δαφναι τηνει, εντι ῥαδιναι κυπαρισσοι,Εντι μελας κισσος, εντ' αμπελους ἁ γλυκύκαρπο,ή Ενι ψυχρον ύδωρ, το μοι & πολυδενδρι ΑναΛεύκας εκ χιον, ποιον αμβροσιον, προϊητι. Jonson's description of the oak, however, (as Mr. Waldron has observed in his Supplement,) is in a great measure borrowed from the Shepherd's Calendar.
* ↑ And bring me wax and honey in bilive.] This word, which is derived by some from by le eve, and by others, from combinations equally fantastic, is composed of be (with) and life, and means freely, actively, readily, &c.
* ↑ —————This fine Smooth bawson's cub, the young grice of a gray.] A bear's cub, and the young ones of a badger. Whal. Whalley appears to have missed the meaning of the poet, who, though he probably alludes to the σκυμνως αρκτων of Theocritus, (Ovid is out of the question,) was much too strict an observer of propriety to people the forest of Sherwood with bears young or old. The bawson cub (for so it should be read) and the young grice of a gray, are one and the same thing, namely, a young badger. Bawson indeed, as a substantive, (like brock which follows,) is a badger; but the word is used here as an adjective, and means bulky, overgrown, or when taken in a complimentary sense, as in this place, plump and sleek. Grice, Whalley says, is properly a sucking pig." It is commonly used in this sense, I believe; but it is as properly the suckling of a badger or even of a bear, as a swine. It is in short, a young cub. Smooth could not be said of a (bear or) badger, whose hair is harsh and rough; though the epithet might be aptly applied to the grice, or suckling.
* ↑ Gae, take them hence, &c.] The fol. reads Gar, which Mr. Waldron corrects, as in the text. It is somewhat singular that Earine should speak the rustic language of Lorel, unless it was meant as a ridicule upon it in this place. So little of her part appears in what remains of this play, that we have no means of ascertaining her real character; it is however to be presumed that the "beautiful" shepherdess who could kindle such a flame in the breast of Æglamour, was of no vulgar strain, and that her accomplishments were no ways inferior to those of Mellifleur and Amie. Had Jonson lived to print the Sad Shepherd, or even the portion which we now have of it, we might have hoped for more regularity in the appropriation of the different dialects, which are now apparently confounded. He had taken much pains to acquire the northern phraseology from Lacy the player, (a native of Yorkshire,) and he would have used it with strict propriety. As it is, the orthography of the folio is changeful, uncertain, and of little authority.
* ↑ Limmer.] i.e. vile, worthless, &c. Literally, it means a night-robber; but our Saxon ancestors used the word in a variety of senses, all, however, strongly expressive of contempt, or baseness. It is still current in the north of England; but is ecnfined, I believe, to females.
* ↑ Owl-spiegle.] The same with ulen spiegle, or owl-glass. Whal. See vol. iv. p. 61.
* ↑ Which maids will twire at 'tween their fingers thus!] To twire is to leer affectedly, to glance at obliquely, or surreptitiously, at intervals, &c. It is frequent in our old writers. Thus Marston: "I saw a thing stir under a hedge, and I peeped, and I peered, and I twired underneath," &c. Ant. and Mellida. And Fletcher."I saw the wench that twired and twinkled at theeThe other day, the young smug wench," &c.Woman Pleased. It occurs also in Shakspeare: ""When sparkling stars twire not, thou gildst the even."Son. xxviii. v. 12. i.e. When the stars do not gleam, or appear at intervals. "Perhaps," says Mr. Malone," for twire we should here read twirl!" To my amazement, Mr. Steevens does not acquiesce in this exquisite conjecture; but, having learned from Tyrwhitt, that twire (spoken of a bird,) is probably a translation of susurro, he inclines to think that twire means quire, and consequently that the sense of the line is, "When sparkling stars sing not in concert," &c. This is surely "the best fooling of all," as sir Andrew observes, even though Mr. Steevens immediately adds, "Still twire may be a corruption." Well might he wind up this farrago with exclaiming, as he does, "So much for guess work!" Twire should not have been suffered to grow obsolete, for we have no word now in use that can take its place, or be considered as precisely synonymous with it in sense: leer and twinkle are merely shades of it.
* ↑ We earth'd her in the shades; when our dame Hecate] Mr. Davies, who is much disturbed at Jonson's presuming to pronounce Hecate as a trisyllable in his Masque of Queens, while Shakspeare is pleased to use it only as a dissyllable, might have quieted his spirit if he had looked into this passage, and pronounced the word just as he liked. In making Hecate a trisyllable, our poet, it seems, "intended to show his learning," and enjoy a mean triumph over the small Latin and no Greek of his "adversary!" Dram. Miscel. v. ii. Yet the spleen of Davies is more tolerable than the tedious absurdity of the other commentators, who labour to justify our great poet's pronunciation of this word from a mass of contemporary authorities, as if it was not a matter of the utmost indifference, and determined, in every case, by the measure of the verse. Shakspeare gave the word as he found it in Middleton, without caring whether it were a dissyllable or a trisyllable, and Jonson was too well acquainted with rhythm not to know that there were few places in English verse in which it would not stand as either. In his "addycions to Jeronymo," he had this line, "And yonder pale faced Hecate there, the moon," little forseeing, poor man, when he lightly slurred over the three syllables, that he should be accused of insulting the memory of Shakspeare, if he ventured, hereafter, to lay any stress upon the last.
* ↑ With all the barkand parish-tikes set at her.] The progress of Hecate over new made graves, and the barking of the dogs, are taken from the superstitions of antiquity; Theocritus describes her in the same manner:———Ἑκατα, ταν και σκυλακες τρομεοντιΕρχομεναν νεκυων ανα τ' ηρια, και μελαν αίμα. Idyll. 2.Whal.