[So in approof lives not his epitaph,
As in your royal speech]
[W: _Epitaph_ for character.] I should wish to read,
_Approof_ so lives not _in his_ epitaph,
_As in your royal speech._
_Approof_ is _approbation._ If I should allow Dr. _Warburton's_
interpretation of _Epitaph,_ which is more than can be reasonably
expected, I can yet find no sense in the present reading.
I.ii.61 (20, 9) [_whose judgments are meer fathers of their garments_]
Who have no other use of their faculties, than to invent new modes
of dress.
I.iii (21, 1) [_Enter Countess, Steward, and Clown_] A _Clown_ in
Shakespeare is commonly taken for a _licensed jester,_ or domestick
_fool._ We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his
plays, since fools were, at that time, maintained in all great families,
to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's
family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the
_fool._ This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted,
not by the great only, but the wise.
In some plays, a servant, or a rustic, of remarkable petulance
and freedom of speech, is likewise called a clown.
I.iii.3 (21, 2) [to even your content] To act up to your desires.
I.iii.45 (23, 4) [You are shallow, madam, in great friends; for the
knaves come to do that for me, which I am a weary of] [Tyrwhitt:
my great] The meaning seems to be, you are not deeply skilled in
the character of offices of great friends. (1773)
I.iii.96 (26, 1) [Clo. That man should be at woman's command, and yet
no hurt done!--Tho' honesty be no puritan, yet it will do no hurt;
it will wear the surplice of humility over the black gown of a
big heart] The clown's answer is obscure. His lady bids him do
as he is _commanded._ He answers with the licentious petulance of
his character, that _if a man does as a woman commands, it is
likely he will do amiss;_ that he does not amiss, being at the
command of a woman, he makes the effect, not of his lady's goodness,
but of his own _honesty,_ which, though not very nice or
_puritanical,_ will _do no hurt;_ and will not only do no hurt, but,
unlike the _puritans_, will comply with the injunctions of superiors,
and wear the _surplice of humility over the black gown of a big
heart_; will obey commands, though not much pleased with a state of
subjection.
Here is an allusion, violently enough forced in, to satirize the
obstinacy with which the _puritans_ refused the use of the ecclesiastical
habits, which was, at that time, one principal cause of the
breach of union, and, perhaps, to insinuate, that the modest purity
of the surplice was sometimes a cover for pride.
I.iii.140 (28,3) [By our remembrances] That is, _according to_ our
recollection. So we say, he is old _by_ my reckoning.