Nor in requests importunate to bee:
For ouermuche, dothe tier the courser free?”
Touchstone, the clown, in As You Like It (act ii. sc. 4, l. 43, vol. ii. p. 400), names the various tokens of his affections for Jane Smile, and declares, “I remember, when I was in love I broke my sword upon a stone and bid him take that for coming a-night to Jane Smile: and I remember the kissing of her batlet and the cow’s-dugs that her pretty chopt hands had milked.”
It may, however, from the general inaccuracy of spelling in the early editions of Shakespeare, be allowed to suppose a typographical error, and that the phrase in question should read, not “anvil of my sword,” but “handle;”—I clip, or embrace the handle, grasp it firmly in token of affection.
The innocence of broken love-vows is intimated in Romeo and Juliet (act ii. sc. 2, l. 90, vol. vii. p. 42),—
“Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say ‘Ay,’
And I will take thy word: yet if thou swear’st,
Thou mayst prove false: at lovers’ perjuries,
They say, Jove laughs.”
And most closely is the sentiment represented in the design by Otho van Veen (p. 140), of Venus dispensing Cupid from his oaths, and of Jupiter in the clouds smiling benignantly on the two. The mottoes are, “Amoris ivsivrandvm pœnam non habet,”—Love excused from periurie,—and “Giuramento sparso al vento.”