Abs. Heaven
Hath now plan'd all our rough woes smooth and
even.
Mil. At court [a] large relation in apt form
Shall tender pass'd proceedings; but to distinguish,
Excellent lady, your unparallel'd praises
From those but seem, let this serve: bad women
Are nature's clouds, eclipsing her fair shine:
The good, all-gracious, saint-like and divine. [Exeunt Omnes.
FOOTNOTES:
[164] To levell at, or to hit the white, were phrases taken from archery, and often used by our ancient writers. The white was the mark at which archers practised when they learned to shoot. So in Massinger's "Emperor of the East," act iv. sc. 3—
"The immortality of my fame is the white I shoot at;"
in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Four [Plays in One" (Dyce's edit.), ii. 512]—
"And let your thoughts flee higher; aim them right,
Sir, you may hit, you have the fairest white;"
in Lyly's "Euphues and his England," 1582—"Vertue is the white we shoot at, not vanitie" (p. 11). Again, "He glaunced from the marke Euphues shot at, and hit at last the white which Philautus set up" (p. 18).
Again, "An archer saye you, is to be knowen by his aime, not by his arrowe: but your aime is so ill, that if you knewe howe farre wide from the white your shaft sticketh, you would hereafter rather breake your bowe then bend it."—Ibid. 57.