And then be put to the dead quat."
(_White Devil_, 4to, H.)
That the word in this sense was not general may be gathered from the
fact that George Turberville, in his full description of the various
methods of hunting the hare (_Noble Art of Venerie_, 1575), makes no use
of it, but speaks constantly of the hare's form. _Quat_ for _squat_
(non-substantival) is still frequent in some of the dialects, and is the
word specially used of a hare or other game when flattening itself on
the earth to escape observation. In West Somersetshire it is used in
connection with the verb to go--"The hare went quat" (Elworthy). This
is the modern use most nearly approximating to that of the present
passage.
Line 476. _Watt_, the old name for a hare; hence metaphorically used of
a wily, cautious person (Halliwell).
Line 478. _Hollowe in the hind doggs._--Turberville, describing the
hunting of hares, writes,--"One of the huntesmen shall take charge to
rate & beate on _such doggs as bide plodding behinde_; and the other
shall make them seeke and cast about."
Line 518. _Slidd_, God's lid, a mean oath. See _Merry Wives of Windsor_,
iii. 4, 24; _Twelfth Night_, iii. 4, 427; _Every Man in his Humour_, i.
1, 56.
Line 537. _Patch._--A term of contempt, generally supposed to have been
first applied to professional fools, by reason of their parti-coloured
dress. See _Tempest_, iii. 2, 71; _Comedy of Errors_, iii. 1, 32, 36.
Line 556. _Malaparte_, forward, saucy. See _Twelfth Night_, iv. 1, 47,
and 3 _Henry VI._ v. 5, 32.
Line 569. _Scall scabbe._--A scall = a scab; scald = scabby. See _Merry
Wives of Windsor_, iii. 1, 123; _Twelfth Night_, ii. 5, 82; _Troilus and
Cressida_, ii. 1, 31.
Line 571. _Groome._--In M. E. this word meant simply boy, youth; hence
(at a later period) serving-lad. See _Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2, 215,
and _Titus Andronicus_, iv. 2, 164.
Line 573. _Bange_, beat. Cf. _Othello_, ii. 1, 21, and _Julius Cæsar_,
iii. 3, 20.
Line 575. _Kee pickpurse._--This expression seems to be a quotation from
1 _Henry IV._ ii. 1, 53:
"_Gads._ What, ho! Chamberlain!
_Cham. (within)._ At hand, quoth pick-purse."
I am told that the colloquial use of _kee_, or _quy_, for _quoth_, is
frequent in certain parts of Scotland; but I can find no literary
example of the form, and it is hard to account for its presence in this
passage. The scribal substitution of _quy_ for the abbreviated _quoth_
might easily occur, the thorn-letter being erroneously transcribed by
_y_, as in _the_; but this cannot have given rise to any M. E. phonetic
change such as the spelling _kee_ certainly implies.
Line 587. _Spurrgald._--Cf. _Richard II._ v. 5, 94.
Line 588. _Jolthead_, blockhead, dunce. See _Two Gentlemen of Verona_,
iii. 1, 290,--"Fie on thee, jolt-head! Thou canst not read." Also
_Taming of the Shrew_, iv. 1, 169.
Line 590. _Rooke_ = cheat or sharper, and is used as a general term of
contempt. See _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 5, 89,--"Hang him, rook!"
The host of the Garter frequently addresses his familiars as
"bully-rook." See _Merry Wives of Windsor_, i. 3, 2; ii. 1, 200, 207,
213.
Line 611. _Forfeiture._--Properly, something lost on engagement, or in
consequence of the breach of an obligation. Cf. _Merchant of Venice_, i.
3, 165; iv. 1, 24, 122. Here the word is used in a modified and more
general sense.
Line 641. _Ast._--Cf., in 1592, G. Harvey's _Pierces Superer_, 57,--"He
... bourdeth, girdeth, asseth, the excellentest writers."
Line 644. _Scindifer._--So MS., possibly for _scimitar_.
Line 649. _Whineard_, a sword or hanger (Halliwell):--
"His cloake grew large and sid
And a faire whinniard by his side."
(_Cobler of Canterburie_, 1608, sig. E, ii.)
Line 658. _Stingian._--So MS. for _Stygian_.
Line 668. _Lovd._--So MS., possibly for _livd_.
Line 670. _Vild._--So MS. for _vile_ or _wild_.
Lines 677, 678. _Christall_ and _cherrye_ reversed.
Line 683. _Headye_, rash, impetuous. See 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 3, 58, and
_Henry V._ i. 1, 34.
Line 686. _Dicker._--Ten of any commodity, as ten hides of leather, ten
bars of iron, etc. This word comes from the late Latin _dicra_ (_dicora,
decora, dacra, dacrum_), classical Latin _decuria_, meaning ten hides,
occasionally ten of other things. "Also that no maner foreyn sille no
lether in the seid cite, but it be in the yelde halle of the same,
paying for the custom of every _dyker_ i.d." (_English Guilds_, ed. by
Toulmin Smith, p. 384). For the wide use of the word in Western and
Northern Europe, cf. O. Norse _dekr_, ten hides, M. H. G. _decker_, ten
of anything, especially hides. Modern German _decker_ = ten hides.
Line 688. _How_ here = however, as in _Venus and Adonis_, 79; 1 _Henry
IV._ v. 2, 12; and _Much Ado about Nothing_, iii. 1, 60.
Line 703. _Seas._--MS. has _sea_.
Line 711. _Pinke._--A word found in the northern dialects for "to peep
slyly." Cf. the adjective _pink_, winking, half-shut; "Plumpy Bacchus
with pink eyne" (_Antony and Cleopatra_, ii. 7, 121).
Line 734. _My grandam ... earth._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ iii. 1, 34.
Line 735. _Randome._--The verb random, to stray wildly, is more
frequently found with the original spelling _randon_ (French _randoner_,
to run rapidly), which became altered, possibly by analogy with _whilom_
and _seldom_, possibly by a process of change similar to that which
converted _ranson_ to _ransom_. Sackville writes:--"Shall leave them
free to randon of their will."
NOTES TO THE APPENDIX.
I.
Line 32. (_i_) is here equivalent to _id est_. Lilly gives the examples
of lines 52, 53 (in which the same abbreviation here occurs) with the
words written in full.
Line 48. _Repente._--A play on the meaning of the English and the form
of the Latin word _repente_ is clearly intended.
Line 70. "Denarii dicti, quod denos æris valebant; quinarii, quod
quinos" (Varro).
Line 93. _Janus_ is frequently, though not invariably, represented in
mythology as guardian of the entrance to heaven; in which capacity he
holds in his right hand a staff, and in his left a key, symbolical of
his office (Ovid, _Fast._ i. 125). The names of Jupiter and Janus were
usually coupled in prayer, as the divinities whose aid it was necessary
to invoke at the beginning of any undertaking. Jupiter gave by augury
the requisite sanction; but it was the part of Janus to confer a
blessing at the outset.
Line 111. _Hippocrise._--A beverage composed of wine, with spices and
sugar, strained through a cloth; said to have been named from
Hippocrates' sleeve, the term given by apothecaries to a strainer
(Halliwell).
Line 111. _Muskadine._--A well-known rich wine.
"And I will have also wyne de Ryne
With new maid clarye, that is good and fyne,
Muscadell, terantyne, and bastard,
With Ypocras and Pyment comyng afterwarde."
(_MS. Rawl._ C. 86.)
Though _muscadell_ is the usual form (for instances see Furnivall, _The
Babees Book_, p. 205), the spelling _muscadine_ occurs in Beaumont and
Fletcher's _Loyal Subject_, iii. 4.
Line 112. _The Pierides pies._--The reference is not to the Muses
themselves (sometimes called Pierides from Pieria, near Olympus), but to
the nine daughters of Pierus, who for attempting to rival the Muses were
changed into birds of the magpie kind. For a full account of the
transformation see Ovid, _Met._ v. 670, etc. There is a play here on the
double meaning of _pie_, namely a bird (Latin pica), and an article of
food.
II.
Line 23.--_Keele_, to cool, from O. E. cêlan, M. E. kelen. See _Love's
Labour's Lost_, v. 2, 930--"While greasy Joan doth keel the pot."
Usually, however, the verb bore the derived sense of "to keep from
boiling over by stirring round." _A Tour to the Caves_, 1781,
gives--"_Keel_, to keep the pot from boiling over." This is evidently
the meaning which should be adopted here.
III.
Line 13. _It is bootles_, etc.--Puns on the different meanings of the
word _boot_ are very common in Elizabethan writers, and the relevant use
of the one frequently entails the irrelevant introduction of the other.
See, for example, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, i. 1, 27, etc.:
"_Pro._ Over the boots? Nay, give me not the boots.
_Val._ No, I will not, for it boots thee not."
And _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 3, 30, etc.:
"_Brai._ Why, you may ha' my master's gelding, to save your longing,
sir.
_Step._ But I ha' no boots, that's the spite on't.
_Brai._ Why, a fine wisp of hay roll'd hard, Master Stephen.
_Step._ No, faith, it's no boot to follow him now."
"Give me not the boots" = "do not make a laughing-stock of me."
Line 48. _Ioynd stooles._--The word joint-stool, meaning a seat made
with joints, a folding-chair, is sometimes spelt _join'd stool_ in old
editions of Shakespeare. The porter's use of this form is probably
intended to convey a jest; _ioynd stooles_ is here equivalent to stooles
joined to one another, and the term is used as a facetious synonym for
_bench_.
IV.
Line 6. _Oulde._--So MS., possibly for _whole_.
Line 19. _A man & noe beast._--An inversion, probably intentional.
Line 22. _Condole my tragedies._--_Condole_ is here used in the now
obsolete transitive sense, and is equivalent to bewail, grieve over,
lament. See (in 1607) Hieron, _Works_, i. 179--"How tender-hearted the
Lord is, and how he doth ... condole our miseries." Cf. also Pistol's
use of the verb, _Henry V._ ii. 1, 133.
Line 24. _Craues._--The substantive crave, = craving, is not in general
use, but appears to be considered rather as a new formation than as an
obsolete word. Thus the earliest of the three examples given in the N.
E. D. dates from 1830--"His crave and his vanity so far deluded him"
(_Fraser's Magazine_, i. 134). This is a clear instance of a previous
use.
The sentence as it stands presents some difficulty, inasmuch as the
porter has made in the course of his speech only two distinct petitions,
namely that he may be forgiven "all delictes and crimes" (l. 10), and
that his black staff may be restored to him (l. 18). Perhaps the
delicate hint concerning "my ladye pecunia," coupled with the appeal to
"the profunditye or abisse" of the President's liberality, is to be
considered as constituting a third.
[Illustration: CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT,
CHANCERY LANE.]
Corrections.
The first line indicates the original, the second the correction:
p. 18:
[F. 72r. rev.]
[F. 72r rev.]
p. 30:
[F. 43r. rev.]
[F. 43r rev.]