(_Continued from_ p. 402.)
_No did, no will, no had, &c._--
"_K. John._ . . . I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.
_Hubert._ _No had_ (my Lord), why, did you not provoke me?"
_King John_, Act IV. Sc. 2.
So the first folio edition of Shakspeare. A palpable error, as the
commentators of the present would pleasantly observe, and all the world
would echo the opinion; but here, as in most other {521} instances,
commentators and all the world may be wrong, and the folios right. The
passage has accordingly been corrupted by the editors of Shakspeare into
what was more familiar to their modern ears: "Had none, my Lord!" Though
the mode of speech be very common, yet, to deprive future editors of all
excuse for ever again depraving the genuine text of our national Bible, I
shall make no apology for accumulating a string of examples:
"_Fort._ Oh, had I such a hat, then were I brave!
Where's he that made it?
_Sol._ Dead: and the whole world
Yields not a workman that can frame the like.
_Fort._ _No does?_"
"Old Fortunatus," _Old English Plays_, vol. iii. p. 140., by Dilke:
who alters "No does?" into _None does?_ thinking, I presume, that he had
thereby simplified the sentence:
"_John._ I am an elde fellowe of fifty wynter and more,
And yet in all my lyfe I knewe not this before.
_Parson._ _No dyd_, why sayest thou so, upon thyselfe thou lyest,
Thou haste euer knowen the sacramente to be the body of Christ."
_John Bon and Mast Person._
"_Chedsey._ Christ said 'Take, eat, this is my body;' and not 'Take ye,
eat ye.'
_Philpot._ _No did_, master doctor? Be not these the words of Christ,
'Accipite, manducate?' And do not these words, in the plural number,
signify 'Take ye, eat ye;' and not 'Take thou, eat thou,' as you would
suppose?"--Foxe's _Acts and Monuments_, vol. vii. p. 637., Cattley's
edition.
"_Philpot._ Master Cosins, I have told my lord already, that I will
answer to none of these articles he hath objected against me: but if
you will with learning answer to that which is in question between my
lord and me, I will gladly hear and commune with you.
_Cosins._ _No will_ you? Why what is that then, that is in question
between my lord and you?"--_Id._, p. 651.
"_Philpot._ And as I remember, it is even the saying of St. Bernard
[viz. The Holy Ghost is Christ's vicar on earth (_vic-arius_), and a
saying that I need not to be ashamed of, neither you to be offended at;
as my Lord of Durham and my Lord of Chichester by their learning can
discern, and will not reckon it evil said.
_London._ _No will?_ Why, take away the first syllable, and it soundeth
Arius."--_Id._ p. 658.
"_Philpot._ These words of Cyprian do nothing prove your pretensed
assertion; which is, that to the Church of Rome there could come no
misbelief.
_Christopherson._ Good lord, _no doth_? What can be said more
plainly?"--_Id._, p. 661.
Again, at p. 663. there occur no less than three more instances and at p.
665. another.
"_Careless._ No, forsooth: I do not know any such, nor have I heard of
him that I wot of.
_Martin._ _No have_, forsooth: and it is even he that hath written
against thy faith."
Then _Martin_ said:
"Dost thou not know one Master Chamberlain?
_Careless._ No forsooth; I know him not.
_Martin._ _No dost!_ and he hath written a book against thy faith
also."--_Id._, vol. iii. p. 164.
"_Lichfield and Coventry._ We heard of no such order.
_Lord Keeper._ _No did?_ Yes, and on the first question ye began
willingly. How cometh it to pass that ye will not now do so?"--_Id._,
p. 690.
"Then said Sir Thomas Moyle: 'Ah! Bland, thou art a stiff-hearted
fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor answer when thou art called.'
'_Nor will_,' quoth Sir John Baker. 'Master Sheriff, take him to your
ward.'"--_Id._, vol. vii. p. 295.
Is it needful to state, that the original editions have, as they ought to
have, a note of interrogation at "Baker?" I will not tax the reader's
patience with more than two other examples, and they shall be fetched from
the writings of that admirable papist--the gentle, the merry-hearted More:
"Well, quod Caius, thou wylt graunte me thys fyrste, that euery thynge
that hath two erys is an asse.--Nay, mary mayster, wyll I not, quod the
boy.--_No wylt_ thou? quod Caius. Ah, wyly boy, there thou wentest
beyond me."--The Thyrde Boke, the first chapter, fol. 84. of Sir Thomas
More's _Dialogues_.
"Why, quod he, what coulde I answere ellys, but clerely graunt hym that
I believe that thyng for none other cause but only bycause the
Scripture so sheweth me?--_No could ye?_ quod I. What yf neuer
Scripture had ben wryten in thys world, should there neuer haue bene
eny chyrch or congregacyon of faythfull and ryght beyleuyng
people?--That wote I nere, quod he. _No do ye?_ quod I."--_Id._, fol.
85.
In taking leave of this idiom, it would not perhaps be amiss to remark,
that "ye can," in Duke Humphey's rejoinder to the "blyson begger of St.
Albonys," is not, as usually understood, "you can?" but "yea can?"
* * * * *
_To be at point_ = to be at a stay or stop, _i.e._ settled, determined,
nothing farther being to be said or done: a very common phrase. Half a
dozen examples shall suffice:
" . . . . . What I am truly
Is thine, and my poore countries to command:
Whither indeed before they (thy) heere-approach,
Old Seyward with ten thousand warlike men
Already _at a point_, was setting forth."
_Macbeth_, Act IV. Sc. 3. 1st Fol.
No profit to give the commentators' various guesses at the import of the
phrase in the above passage, which will be best gathered from the following
instances of its use elsewhere. But, before passing further, I beg
permission to inform MR. KNIGHT that the original suggester of "sell" for
"self," in an earlier part of this play, whose name {522} he is at a loss
for, was W. S. Landor, whose footnote to vol. ii. p. 273., Moxon's edit. of
his works, is as follows:
"And here it may be permitted the editor to profit also by the
manuscript, correcting in Shakespeare what is _absolute nonsense_ as
now printed:
'_Vaulting_ ambition that o'erleaps _itself_,
And falls on the _other side_.'
Other side of what? It should be _its sell_. _Sell_ is saddle in
Spenser and elsewhere, from the Latin and Italian."
A correspondent of "N. & Q."., Vol. vii., p. 404., will be delighted to
find his very ingenious discovery brought home, and corroborated by
Landor's valuable manuscript: but it is an old said saw--"Great wits jump."
Now to our examples:
"_Pasquin._ Saint Luke also affirmeth the same, saying flatly that he
shall not be forgiuen. Beholde, therefore, how well they interprete the
Scriptures.
_Marforius._ I am alreadie _at a poynt_ with them, but thou shalt doo
me great pleasure to expounde also vnto me certayne other places, vppon
the which they ground this deceit."--_Pasquine in a Traunce_, turned
but lately out of the Italian into this tongue by W. P.: London, 1584.
"But look, where malice reigneth in men, there reason can take no
place: and, therefore, I see by it, that you are all _at a point_ with
me, that no reason or authority can persuade you to favour my name, who
never meant evil to you, but both your commodity and profit."--Foxe's
_Acts and Monuments_, vol. viii. p. 18.
"Not so, my lord," said I, "for I am _at a full point_ with myself in
that matter; and am right well able to prove both your
transubstantiation with the real presence to be against the Scriptures
and the ancient Fathers of the primitive Church."--_Id._, p. 587.
"_Winchester._ No, surely, I am fully determined, and fully _at a
point_ therein, howsoever my brethren do."--_Id._, p. 691.
"_Brad._ Sir, so that you will define me your church, that under it you
bring not in a false church, you shall not see but that we shall soon
be _at a point_."--_Id._, vol. vii. p. 190.
"_Latimer._ Truly, my lord, as for my part I require no respite, for I
am _at a point_. You shall give me respite in vain; therefore, I pray
you let me not trouble you to-morrow."--_Id._, p. 534.
"Unto whom he (Lord Cobham) gave this answer: 'Do as ye shall think
best, for I am _at a point_.' Whatsoever he (Archbishop Arundel) or the
other bishops did ask him after that, he bade them resort to his bill:
for thereby would he stand to the very death."--_Id._, vol. iii. pp.
327-8.
"'Et illa et ista vera esse credantur et nulla inter nos contentio
remanebit, quia nec illis veris ista, nec istis veris illa
impediuntur.' Let bothe those truthes and these truthes be beleued, and
we shall be _at appoinct_. For neither these truthes are impaired by
the other, neither the other by these."--_A Fortresse of the Faith_, p.
50., by Thomas Stapleton: Antwerp, 1565.
"A poore man that shall haue liued at home in the countrie, and neuer
tasted of honoure and pompe, is alwayes _at a poynt_ with himselfe,
when menne scorne and disdayne him, or shewe any token of contempt
towardes his person."--John Calvin's _CVIII. Sermon on the Thirtieth
Chap. of Job_, p. 554., translated by Golding: London, 1574.
"As for peace, I am _at a point_."--_Leycester Correspondence_, Camd.
Soc., p. 261.