Nor any unproportion'd thought his act 60
Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;[b 1]
The[a 1] friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to[a 2] thy soul with hoops[a 3][b 2] of steel,
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd,[a 4] unfledged comrade.[a 5][b 3] Beware 65
Of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in,
Bear 't that the opposed[a 6] may beware of thee.
Give every man thine[a 7] ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man's censure,[b 4] but reserve thy judgment.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 70
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are most select and generous, chief in that.[a 8][b 5]
- ↑ 62. The] F; Those Q 1,Q,
- ↑ 63. them to] Q 1, F, them unto Q.
- ↑ 63. hoops] hooks, Pope and several editors.
- ↑ 65. new-hatch'd] Q, unhatch't F.
- ↑ 65. comrade] F; courage Q 1, Q.
- ↑ 67. opposed] Q, F; opposer Qq 4–6.
- ↑ 68. thine] F, thy Q.
- ↑ 74. Are . . . that] Rowe, followed by many editors; Are of a most select and generall chiefe in that: Q 1; Or of a most select and generous, chiefe in that: Qq 2, 3; Ar of a most select and generous, cheefe in that: Q 4; Are of a most select and generous, chiefe in that: Qq 5, 6; Are a most select and generous cheff in that, Ff. See note below.
- ↑ 61. vulgar] common; be easy in your manners but do not make yourself cheap.
- ↑ 63. hoops] Clar. Press remarks in opposition to Pope's hooks: "grappling with hooks is the act of an enemy and not of a friend."
- ↑ 65. comrade] Accented on the second syllable, as in 1 Henry IV, IV. i. 96. If the courage of Q be right, it must be understood as bravery, frequent in our old drama in the sense ot a gallant. Examples of courage used of a person are cited in New Eng. Dict. from Hoby (1561) and W. Browne (1647).
- ↑ 69. censure] opinion, as in Macbeth, V. iv. 14: "our just censures."
- ↑ 74. Are . . . that] If we read "Are of a most select and generous chief in that," chief may be taken to mean eminence, as in Horman (quoted in New Eng. Dict.), "He wanne the the chieffe at every game." If we read as here, chief means chiefly. The Cambridge editors suggest that "chiefe" and "of" in the margin of the MS. were meant as alternatives for "best" and "in," line 73, and got by mistake into line 74. They, therefore, favour White's "Are most select and generous
