[Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud;
Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shewn,
Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown]
[Hammer: angels vailing clouds] [Warburton exercised his sarcasm
on this] I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation should be
treated with so much contempt, or why _vailing clouds_ should be
_capping the sun. Ladies unmask'd,_ says Boyet, _are_ like _angels
vailing clouds,_ or letting those clouds which obscured their
brightness, sink from before them. What is there in this absurd
or contemptible?
V.ii.309 (444,1) [_Exeunt ladies_] Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act
here.
V.ii.337 (447,4) [--behaviour, what wert thou, 'Till this
mad man shew'd thee? and what art thou now?] [These are two
wonderfully fine lines, intimating that what courts call _manners,_
and value themselves so much upon teaching, as a thing no where
else to be learnt, is a modest silent accomplishment under the
direction of nature and common sense, which does its office in
promoting social life without being taken notice of. But that
when it degerates into shew and parade, it becomes an unmanly
contemptible quality. Warburton.] What is told in this note is
undoubtedly true, but is not comprised in the quotation.
V.ii.348 (448,5) [The virtue of your eye must break my oath] I believe
the author means that the _virtue,_ in which word _goodness_
and _power_ are both comprised, _must dissolve_ the obligation of the
oath. The Princess, in her answer, takes the most invidious part
of the ambiguity.