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. I.iii.169 (29,5) [--or, were you both our mothers I care no more for, than I do for heaven. So I were not his sister] [W: I can no more fear, than I do fear heav'n.] I do not much yield to this emendation; yet I have not been able to please myself with any thing to which even my own partiality can give the preference. Sir Thomas Banner reads, _Or were you both our mothers_. I cannot ask for more than that of heaven. _So I were not his sister_; can be no other Way _I your daughter_, but _he must be my brother_?