"... that done, straight murder
One of thy basest grooms, and lay you both
Grasp'd arm in arm in thy adulterate bed,
Men call in witness of that _mechall_ sin."
_Old English Drama_, vol. i. p. 71.
--where the editor's note is--"probably derived from the French word
_méchant_, wicked." In his "English Traveller:"
"... Yet whore you may;
And that's no breach of any vow to heaven:
Pollute the nuptial bed with _michall_ sin."
Dilke's _Old English Plays_, vol. i. p. 161.
This misprint the editor corrects to _mickle_: professing, however, as
he well might, distrust of his amendment. Nares discards Dilke's guess,
and says, "If a right reading, it must be derived from _mich_, truant,
adulterous." Whereby to correct one error he commits another, assigning
to _mich_ a sense that it never bears. If haply any doubt should remain
as to what the true reading in the above passage is, a reference to
Heywood's _Various History concerninge Women_ will at once assoil it. In
that part of his fourth book which treats of adulteresses (p. 195.),
reciting the very story on which his play was founded, and calling it "a
moderne historie lately happening, and in mine owne knowledge," he
continues his narrative thus:
"With this purpose, stealing, softly vp the stayres, and
listening at the doore, before hee would presume to knocke, hee
might heare a soft whispering, which sometimes growing lowder,
hee might plainely distinguish two voyces (hers, and that
gentleman's his supposed friend, whom the maide had before
nominated), where hee might euidently vnderstand more than
protestations passe betwixt them, namely, the _mechall_ sinne
itselfe."
Mr. Halliwell, in his compilation of _Archaic and Provincial Words_,
gives _Mechall_, wicked, adulterous, with a note of admiration at
Dilke's conjecture; and a reference to Nares, in v. _Michall_. Mr. H.
neither adduces any authority for his first sense, "wicked," nor can
adduce one.
_To lowt_, to mock or contemn. A verb of very common occurrence, but, as
might be expected, quite unknown to the commentators on Shakspeare,
though its meaning was guessed from the context. As it would be tedious
and unnecessary to write all the instances that occur, let the following
suffice:
"To the holy bloud of Hayles,
With your fyngers and nayles,
All that ye may scratche and wynne;
Yet it woulde not be seen,
Except you were shryven,
And clene from all deadly synne.
There, were we flocked,
_Lowted_ and mocked;
For, now, it is knownen to be
But the bloud of a ducke,
That long did sucke
The thrifte, from every degre."
"The Fantassie of Idolatrie," Foxe's _Acts and
Monuments_, vol. v. p. 406. (Cattley's edition.)
"Pride is it, to vaunt princely robes, not princely virtues.
Pride is it to _lowte_ men of lower sort or pore {353} lasers,
as is some men's guise."--_The Third Booke of Nobilitye_; writte
in Latine by Laurence Humfrey, late Englished, 1563.
"Among serving men also, above all other, what wicked and
detestable oaths are there heard! If there be any of that sort
which fear God, and love his word, and therefore abstain from
vain oaths, how doth his company _lout_ him! Look what an ass is
among a sort of apes, even the very same is he among his
fellows."--_The Invective against Swearing_, p. 361.; Works of
Thomas Becon (Parker Society).
Samson was accounted of the Philistines for a fool, but he would rather
die than suffer that opprobry unrevenged (Judic. xvi.).
"David was _lowted_ of Michol Saul's daughter, but she was made
therefore barren all her life."--2 Reg. vi.
And same page, a little _above_:
"He that calleth his brother fool, that is to say, contemn him,
mock him, or, as men call it now-a-days, _lowting_ of a man,
committeth such murder as is worthy hell-fire and eternal
damnation."--_A Declaration of the Ten Commandments_, ch. ix. p.
373.; Early Writings of Bishop Hooper (Parker Society).
"Renowned Talbot doth expect my ayde, And I am _lowted_ by a
traitor villaine And cannot help the noble Cheualier."
The First Part of _Henry VI._, Actus Quartus, Scena Prima (First
Folio Shakspeare).
Where I would note, by the way, that in three copies of the folio 1632,
now by me, it is printed "_at_ traitor," although two of these folios
have different title-pages; that which appears to be the later
impression bears under the portrait these words: "London, printed by
Thos. Cotes, for Robert Allot, and are to be sold _at his shop_ at the
signe of the Blacke Beare, in Paul's Church-yard, 1632." The other wants
the words "at his shop," as described in MR. COLLIER'S edition.
The mention of MR. COLLIER'S name is a hint that reminds me to advertise
him of a mistake he lies under, in supposing that the Duke of
Devonshire's copy of the Play of _King Richard II._ in 4to., dated 1605,
is unique (_vid._ Collier's _Shakspeare_, vol. iv. p. 105.,
Introduction); as there is another in the Philosophical Institute at
Hereford, presented by the late Edward Evans, Esq., of Eyton Hall, in
the same county.
But to return. Mr. Halliwell, in his work above quoted, furnishes
another instance of the verb _lowt_, from Hall's _History of King Henry
IV._, which the reader may consult for himself. I will merely add, that
the interpretation there propounded is plausible but unsound, the
context only giving aim to his conjecture.
(_To be continued._)
* * * * *