"No sooner a sowing but out by and by, With _mother_ or (and?) boy that alarum can cry; And let them be armed with a sling or a bow." And again, "A sling for a _mother_, a bow for a boy." But surely such a term could not be used of the ladies of the Court of France. The context shows that it is not mother-in-law that is meant. 'Captain' in the next line may appear suspicious; but lovers were in the habit of regarding their mistresses as commanders, whose orders they were bound to obey. "She that I spake of our great captain's _captain_," Othel. ii. 1. Steevens states that _guerrière_ is a favourite term for a mistress in Ronsard. * * * * * "Use him as he uses thee; _and_ so farewell." * * * * * SC. 2. "In his youth He had the wit, which I can well observe," etc. I doubt if the editors have perfectly understood this passage. I cannot, for example, see that they have been aware that the 'tongue' and the 'hand' both belong to the metaphorical 'clock'--the former being the bell which sounds, when the latter gives the signal by arriving at the point of twelve, that is, when 'Exception,' _i.e._ contradiction, 'bids it speak.' * * * * * "In their poor praise he humbled. Such a man." I would read _whose_ for 'their,' evidently suggested by 'them' in the preceding line; and as the verb 'humble' rarely, if ever, occurs without its object, we should perhaps read, as I have done, 'humbled _him_.' * * * * * "Whose judgements are Mere fathers of their garments." I incline to suspect that 'fathers' should be _children_--not an unusual error. (See Introd. p. 66.) "A parcel of conceited feather-caps, _whose fathers were their garments_."--Old Play quoted by Steevens. "Whose mother was her painting."--Cymb. iii. 4. "Believe it, sir, That clothes do much upon the wit, as weather Does on the brain; and thence, sir, comes your proverb, _The tailor makes the man_." Jonson, Staple of News, i. 1. See, however, the character of Piso in Marston's Scourge of Villainy, Sat. xi. * * * * * SC. 3. "Fond done, done fond; _for only he_ Was this King of Priam's joy." "And here fair Paris comes, the hopeful youth, of Troy, Queen Hecub's darling son, _King Priam's only joy_." Fletch. and Rowl. Maid in Mill, ii. 2. * * * * * "_I'_ faith I do; her father bequeathed her to me." * * * * * "Extend his might, _save_ only where qualities were level." * * * * * "_Diana no_ queen of virgins, that would suffer her poor knight _to be_ surprised."