_Enter_ ILFORD _with_ SCARBOROW'S SISTER.
ILF. Ho, sirrah, who would have thought it? I perceive now a woman may
be a maid, be married, and lose her maidenhead, and all in half an hour.
And how dost like me now, wench?
SIS. As doth befit your servant and your wife,
That owe you love and duty all my life.
ILF. And there shall be no love lost, nor service neither; I'll do thee
service at board, and thou shalt do me service a-bed: now must I, as
young married men use to do, kiss my portion out of my young wife. Thou
art my sweet rogue, my lamb, my pigsny, my playfellow, my pretty-pretty
anything. Come, a buss, prythee, so 'tis my kind heart; and wots thou
what now?
SIS. Not till you tell me, sir.
ILF. I have got thee with child in my conscience, and, like a kind
husband, methinks I breed it for thee. For I am already sick at my
stomach, and long extremely. Now must thou be my helpful physician, and
provide for me.
SIS. Even to my blood,
What's mine is yours, to gain your peace or good.
ILF. What a kind soul is this! Could a man have found a greater content
in a wife, if he should have sought through the world for her? Prythee,
heart, as I said, I long, and in good troth I do, and methinks thy first
child will be born without a nose, if I lose my longing: 'tis but for a
trifle too; yet methinks it will do me no good, unless thou effect it
for me. I could take thy keys myself, go into thy closet, and read over
the deeds and evidences of thy land, and in reading over them, rejoice I
had such blessed fortune to have so fair a wife with so much endowment,
and then open thy chests, and survey thy plate, jewels, treasure; but a
pox on't, all will do me no good, unless thou effect it for me.
SIS. Sir, I will show you all the wealth I have
Of coin, of jewels, and possessions.
ILF. Good gentle heart, I'll give thee another buss for that: for that,
give thee a new gown to-morrow morning by this hand; do thou but dream
what stuff and what fashion thou wilt have it on to-night.
SIS. The land I can endow you with's my Love:
The riches I possess for you is Love,
A treasure greater than is land or gold,
It cannot be forfeit, and it shall ne'er be sold.
ILF. Love, I know that; and I'll answer thee love for love in abundance:
but come, prythee, come, let's see these deeds and evidences--this
money, plate, and jewels. Wilt have thy child born without a nose? if
thou be'st so careless, spare not: why, my little frappet, you, I heard
thy uncles talk of thy riches, that thou hadst hundreds a year, several
lordships, manors, houses, thousands of pounds in your great chest;
jewels, plate, and rings in your little box.
SIS. And for that riches you did marry me?
ILF. Troth, I did, as nowadays bachelors do: swear I lov'd thee, but
indeed married thee for thy wealth.
SIS. Sir, I beseech you say not your oaths were such,
So like false coin being put unto the touch;
Who bear a flourish in the outward show
Of a true stamp, but truly[416] are not so.
You swore me love, I gave the like to you:
Then as a ship, being wedded to the sea,
Does either sail or sink, even so must I,
You being the haven, to which my hopes must fly.
ILF. True, chuck, I am thy haven, and harbour too,
And like a ship I took thee, who brings home treasure
As thou to me the merchant-venturer.
SIS. What riches I am ballast with are yours.
ILF. That's kindly said now.
SIS. If but with sand, as I am but with earth,
Being your right, of right you must receive me:
I have no other lading but my love,
Which in abundance I will render you.
If other freight you do expect my store,
I'll pay you tears: my riches are no more.
ILF. How's this? how's this? I hope you do but jest.
SIS. I am sister to decayed Scarborow.
ILF. Ha!
SIS. Whose substance your enticements did consume.
ILF. Worse than an ague.
SIS. Which as you did believe, so they supposed.
'Twas fitter for yourself than for another
To keep the sister, had undone the brother.
ILF. I am gulled, by this hand. An old coneycatcher, and beguiled! where
the pox now are my two coaches, choice of houses, several suits, a
plague on them, and I know not what! Do you hear, puppet, do you think
you shall not be damned for this, to cosen a gentleman of his hopes, and
compel yourself into matrimony with a man, whether he will or no with
you? I have made a fair match, i'faith: will any man buy my commodity
out of my hand? As God save me, he shall have her for half the money she
cost me.
_Enter_ WENTLOE _and_ BARTLEY.
WEN. O, have we met you, sir?
BAR. What, turned micher, steal a wife, and not make your old friends
acquainted with it?
ILF. A pox on her, I would you had her!
WEN. Well, God give you joy! we can hear of your good fortune, now 'tis
done, though we could not be acquainted with it aforehand.
BAR. As that you have two thousand pounds a year.
WEN. Two or three manor-houses.
BAR. A wife, fair, rich, and virtuous.
ILF. Pretty, i'faith, very pretty.
WEN. Store of gold.
BAR. Plate in abundance.
ILF. Better, better, better.
WEN. And so many oxen, that their horns are able to store all the
cuckolds in your country.
ILF. Do not make me mad, good gentlemen, do not make me mad: I could be
made a cuckold with more patience, than endure this.
WEN. Foh! we shall have you turn proud now, grow respectless of your
ancient acquaintance. Why, Butler told us of it, who was the maker of
the match for you.
ILF. A pox of his furtherance! gentlemen, as you are Christians, vex me
no more. That I am married, I confess; a plague of the fates, that
wedding and hanging comes by destiny; but for the riches she has
brought, bear witness how I'll reward her. [_Kicks her_.
SIS. Sir!
ILF. Whore, ay, and jade. Witch! Ill-faced, stinking-breath,
crooked-nose, worse than the devil--and a plague on thee that ever
I saw thee!
BAR. A comedy, a comedy!
WEN. What's the meaning of all this? is this the masque after thy
marriage!
ILF. O gentlemen, I am undone, I am undone, for I am married! I,
that could not abide a woman, but to make her a whore, hated all
she-creatures, fair and poor; swore I would never marry but to one
that was rich, and to be thus coney-catched! Who do you think this
is, gentlemen?
WEN. Why, your wife; who should it be else?
ILF. That's my misfortune; that marrying her in hope she was rich,
she proves to be the beggarly sister to the more beggarly Scarborow.
BAR. How?
WEN. Ha, ha, ha!
ILF. Ay, you may laugh, but she shall cry as well as I for't.
BAR. Nay, do not weep.
WEN. He does but counterfeit now to delude us. He has all her portion
of land, coin, plate, jewels, and now dissembles thus, lest we should
borrow some money of him.
ILF. And you be kind, gentlemen, lend me some; for, having paid the
priest, I have not so much left in the world as will hire me a horse to
carry me away from her.
BAR. But art thou thus gulled, i'faith?
ILF. Are you sure you have eyes in your head?
WEN. Why, then, [it is] by her brother's setting on, in my conscience;
who knowing thee now to have somewhat to take to by the death of thy
father, and that he hath spent her portion and his own possessions,
hath laid this plot for thee to marry her, and so he to be rid of her
himself.
ILF. Nay, that's without question; but I'll be revenged of 'em both.
For you, minx:--nay, 'sfoot, give 'em me, or I'll kick else.
SIS. Good, sweet.
ILF. Sweet with a pox! you stink in my nose, give me your jewels: nay,
bracelets too.
SIS. O me most miserable!
ILF. Out of my sight, ay, and out of my doors: for now what's within
this house is mine; and for your brother,
He made this match in hope to do you good,
And I wear this, the[417] which shall draw his blood.
WEN. A brave resolution.
BAR. In which we'll second thee.
[_Exit with_ WENTLOE.
ILF. Away, whore! out of my doors, whore!
[_Exit_.
SIS. O grief, that poverty should have that power to tear
Men from themselves, though they wed, bed, and swear.
_Enter_ THOMAS _and_ JOHN SCARBOROW _with_ BUTLER.
THOM. How now, sister?
SIS. Undone, undone!
BUT. Why, mistress, how is't? how is't?
SIS. My husband has forsook me.
BUT. O perjury!
SIS. Has ta'en my jewels and my bracelets from me.
THOM. Vengeance, I played the thief for the money that bought 'em.
SIS. Left me distressed, and thrust me forth o' doors.
THOM. Damnation on him! I will hear no more.
But for his wrong revenge me on my brother,
Degenerate, and was the curse of all,
He spent our portion, and I'll see his fall.
JOHN. O, but, brother--
THOM. Persuade me not.
All hopes are shipwreck'd, misery comes on,
The comfort we did look from him is frustrate,
All means, all maintenance, but grief is gone;
And all shall end by his destruction. [_Exit_.
JOHN. I'll follow, and prevent what in this heat may happen:
His want makes sharp his sword; too great's the ill,
If that one brother should another kill. [_Exit_.
BUT. And what will you do, mistress?
SIS. I'll sit me down, sigh loud instead of words,
And wound myself with grief as they with swords.
And for the sustenance that I should eat,
I'll feed on grief, 'tis woe's best-relish'd meat.
BUT. Good heart, I pity you,
You shall not be so cruel to yourself,
I have the poor serving-man's allowance:
Twelve pence a day, to buy me sustenance;
One meal a day I'll eat, the t'other fast,
To give your wants relief. And, mistress,
Be this some comfort to your miseries,
I'll have thin cheeks, ere you shall have wet eyes.
[_Exeunt_.
_Enter_ SCARBOROW.
SCAR. What is a prodigal? Faith, like a brush,
That wears himself to furbish[418] others' clothes,
And, having worn his heart even to the stump,
He's thrown away like a deformed lump.
O, such am I: I have spent all the wealth
My ancestors did purchase, made others brave
In shape and riches, and myself a knave.
For though my wealth rais'd some to paint their door,
'Tis shut against me saying I am but poor:
Nay, even the greatest arm, whose hand hath grac'd
My presence to the eye of majesty, shrinks back,
His fingers clutch, and like to lead,
They are heavy to raise up my state, being dead.
By which I find spendthrifts (and such am I)
Like strumpets flourish, but are foul within,
And they (like snakes) know when to cast their skin.
_Enter_ THOMAS SCARBOROW.
THOM. Turn, draw, and die; I come to kill thee.
SCAR. What's he that speaks like sickness? O, is't you?
Sleep still, you cannot move me: fare you well.
THOM. Think not my fury slakes so, or my blood
Can cool itself to temper by refusal:
Turn, or thou diest.
SCAR. Away.
THOM. I do not wish to kill thee like a slave,
That taps men in their cups, and broach[es] their hearts,
Ere with a warning-piece they have wak'd their ears;
I would not like to powder shoot thee down
To a flat grave, ere thou hast thought to frown:
I am no coward, but in manly terms
And fairest oppositions vow to kill thee.
SCAR. From whence proceeds this heat?
THOM. From sparkles bred
By thee, that like a villain--
SCAR. Ha!
THOM. I'll hollow it
In thine ears, till thy soul quake to hear it,
That like a villain hast undone thy brothers.
SCAR. Would thou wert not so near me! yet, farewell.
THOM. By Nature and her laws make[419] us akin--
As near as are these hands, or sin to sin--
Draw and defend thyself, or I'll forget
Thou art a man.
SCAR. Would thou wert not my brother!
THOM. I disclaim thee[420].
SCAR. Are we not offspring of one parent, wretch?
THOM. I do forget it; pardon me the dead,
I should deny the pains you bid for me.
My blood grows hot for vengeance, thou hast spent
My life's revenues, that our parents purchas'd.
SCAR. O, do not rack me with remembrance on't.
THOM. Thou hast made my life a beggar in this world,
And I will make thee bankrupt of thy breath:
Thou hast been so bad, the best that I can give[421].
Thou art a devil: not with men to live.
SCAR. Then take a devil's payment
_Here they make a pass one upon another, when at Scarborow's
back come in_ ILFORD, WENTLOE, _and_ BARTLEY.
ILF. He's here; draw, gentlemen.
WEN., BART. Die, Scarborow.
SCAR. Girt round with death!
THOM. How, set upon by three! 'Sfoot, fear not, brother; you cowards,
three to one! slaves, worse than fencers that wear long weapons. You
shall be fought withal, you shall be fought withal.
[_Here the brothers join, drive the rest out, and return_.
SCAR. Brother, I thank you, for you now have been
A patron of my life. Forget the sin,
I pray you, which my loose and wasteful hours
Hath made against your fortunes; I repent 'em,
And wish I could new-joint and strength your hopes,
Though with indifferent ruin of mine own.
I have a many sins, the thought of which
Like finest[422] needles prick me to the soul,
But find your wrongs to have the sharpest point.
If penitence your losses might repair,
You should be rich in wealth, and I in care.
THOM. I do believe you, sir: but I must tell you,
Evils the which are 'gainst another done,
Repentance makes no satisfaction
To him that feels the smart. Our father, sir,
Left in your trust my portion: you have spent it,
And suffered me (whilst you in riot's house--
A drunken tavern--spill'd my maintenance,
Perhaps upon the ground with o'erflown cups;)
Like birds in hardest winter half-starv'd, to fly
And pick up any food, lest I should die.
SCAR. I pr'ythee, let us be at peace together.
THOM. At peace for what? For spending my inheritance?
By yonder sun that every soul has life by,
As sure as thou hast life, I'll fight with thee.
SCAR. I'll not be mov'd unto't.
THOM. I'll kill thee then, wert thou now clasp'd
Within thy mother, wife, or children's arms.
SCAR. Would'st, homicide? art so degenerate?
Then let my blood grow hot.
THOM. For it shall cool.
SCAR. To kill rather than be kill'd is manhood's rule.
_Enter_ JOHN SCARBOROW.
JOHN. Stay, let not your wraths meet.
THOM. Heart! what mak'st thou here?
JOHN. Say, who are you, or you? are you not one,
That scarce can make a fit distinction
Betwixt each other? Are you not brothers?
THOM. I renounce him.
SCAR. Shalt not need.
THOM. Give way.
SCAR. Have at thee!
JOHN. Who stirs? which of you both hath strength within his arm
To wound his own breast? who's so desperate
To damn himself by killing of himself?
Are you not both one flesh?
THOM. Heart! give me way.
SCAR. Be not a bar betwixt us, or by my sword
I'll[423] mete thy grave out.
JOHN. O, do: for God's sake, do;
'Tis happy death, if I may die, and you
Not murder one another. O, do but hearken:
When do the sun and moon, born in one frame,
Contend, but they breed earthquakes in men's hearts?
When any star prodigiously appears,
Tells it not fall of kings or fatal years?
And then, if brothers fight, what may men think?
Sin grows so high, 'tis time the world should sink.
SCAR. My heart grows cool again; I wish it not.
THOM. Stop not my fury, or by my life I swear.
I will reveal the robbery we have done,
And take revenge on thee,
That hinders me to take revenge on him.
JOHN. I yield to that; but ne'er consent to this,
I shall then die, as mine own sin affords,
Fall by the law, not by my brothers' swords.
THOM. Then, by that light that guides me here, I vow,
I'll straight to Sir John Harcop, and make known
We were the two that robb'd him.
JOHN. Prythee, do.
THOM. Sin has his shame, and thou shalt have thy due.
[_Exit_.
JOHN. Thus have I shown the nature of a brother,
Though you have proved unnatural to me.
He's gone in heat to publish out the theft,
Which want and your unkindness forc'd us to:
If now I die, that death and public shame
Is a corsive to your soul, blot to your name.
[_Exit_.
SCAR. O, 'tis too true, there's not a thought I think,
But must partake thy grief, and drink
A relish of thy sorrow and misfortune.
With weight of others' tears I am o'erborne,
That scarce am Atlas to hold up mine own,
And all too good for me. A happy creature
In my cradle, and I have made myself
The common curse of mankind by my life;
Undone my brothers, made them thieves for bread,
And begot pretty children to live beggars.
O conscience, how thou art stung to think upon't!
My brothers unto shame must yield their blood:
My babes at others' stirrups beg their food,
Or else turn thieves too, and be chok'd for it,
Die a dog's death, be perch'd upon a tree;
Hang'd betwixt heaven and earth, as fit for neither.
The curse of heaven that's due to reprobates
Descends upon my brothers and my children,
And I am parent to it--ay, I am parent to it.
_Enter_ BUTLER.
BUT. Where are you, sir?
SCAR. Why star'st thou, what's thy haste?
BUT. Here's fellows swarm like flies to speak with you.
SCAR. What are they?
BUT. Snakes, I think, sir; for they come with stings in their mouths,
and their tongues are turn'd to teeth too: they claw villainously, they
have ate up your honest name and honourable reputation by railing
against you: and now they come to devour your possessions.
SCAR. In plainer evargy,[424] what are they? speak.
BUT. Mantichoras,[425] monstrous beasts, enemies to mankind, that have
double rows of teeth in their mouths. They are usurers, they come
yawning for money, and the sheriff with them is come to serve an extent
upon your land, and then seize on your body by force of execution: they
have begirt the house round.
SCAR. So that the roof our ancestors did build
For their sons' comfort, and their wives for charity,
I dare not to look out at.
BUT. Besides, sir, here's your poor children--
SCAR. Poor children they are indeed.
BUT. Come with fire and water, tears in their eyes and burning grief in
their hearts, and desire to speak with you.
SCAR. Heap sorrow upon sorrow! tell me, are
My brothers gone to execution
For what I did? for every heinous sin
Sits on his soul, by whom it did begin.
And so did theirs by me. Tell me withal,
My children carry moisture in their eyes,
Whose speaking drops say, father, thus must we
Ask our relief, or die with infamy,
For you have made us beggars. Yet when thy tale has kill'd me,
To give my passage comfort from this stage,
Say all was done by enforc'd marriage:
My grave will then be welcome.
BUT. What shall we do, sir?
SCAR. Do as the devil does, hate (panther-like) mankind![426]
And yet I lie; for devils sinners love,
When men hate men, though good like some above.
_Enter_ SCARBOROW'S _wife_ KATHERINE, _with two Children_.
BUT. Your wife's come in, sir.
SCAR. Thou li'st, I have not a wife. None can be call'd
True man and wife, but those whom heaven install'd,
Say--
KATH. O my dear husband!
SCAR. You are very welcome. Peace: we'll have compliment.
Who are you, gentlewoman?
KATH. Sir, your distressed wife, and these your children,
SCAR. Mine! Where, how, begot?
Prove me by certain instance that's divine,
That I should call them lawful, or thee mine.
KATH. Were we not married, sir?
SCAR. No; though we heard the words of ceremony,
But had hands knit, as felons that wear fetters
Forc'd upon them. For tell me, woman,
Did e'er my love with sighs entreat thee mine?
Did ever I in willing conference
Speak words, made half with tears, that I did love thee?
Or was I ever but glad to see thee, as all lovers are?
No, no, thou know'st I was not.
KATH. O me!
BUT. The more's the pity.
SCAR. But when I came to church, I did there stand,
As water, whose forc'd breach[427] had drown'd my land.
Are you my wife, or these my children?
Why, 'tis impossible; for like the skies
Without the sun's light, so look all your eyes;
Dark, cloudy, thick, and full of heaviness;
Within my country there was hope to see
Me and my issue to be like our fathers,
Upholders of our country all our life,
Which should have been if I had wed a wife:
Where now,
As dropping leaves in autumn you look all,
And I, that should uphold you, like to fall.
KATH. 'Twas nor shall be my fault, heaven bear me witness.
SCAR. Thou liest, strumpet, thou liest!
BUT. O sir!
SCAR. Peace, saucy Jack! strumpet, I say thou liest,
For wife of mine thou art not, and these thy bastards
Whom I begot of thee with this unrest,
That bastards born are born not to be blest.
KATH. On me pour all your wrath, but not on them.
SCAR. On thee and them, for 'tis the end of lust
To scourge itself, heaven lingering to be just:
Harlot!
KATH. Husband!
SCAR. Bastards!
CHIL. Father!
BUT. What heart not pities this?
SCAR. Even in your cradle, you were accurs'd of heaven,
Thou an adultress in my married arms.
And they that made the match, bawds to thy lust:
Ay, now you hang the head; shouldst have done so before,
Then these had not been bastards, thou a whore.
BUT. I can brook't no longer: sir, you do not well in this.
SCAR. Ha, slave!
BUT. 'Tis not the aim of gentry to bring forth
Such harsh unrelish'd fruit unto their wines[428],
And to their pretty--pretty children by my troth.
SCAR. How, rascal!
BUT. Sir, I must tell you, your progenitors,
Two of the which these years were servant to,
Had not such mists before their understanding,
Thus to behave themselves.
SCAR. And you'll control me, sir!
BUT. Ay, I will.
SCAR. You rogue!
BUT. Ay, 'tis I will tell 'tis ungently done
Thus to defame your wife, abuse your children:
Wrong them, you wrong yourself; are they not yours?
SCAR. Pretty--pretty impudence, in faith.
BUT. Her whom you are bound to love, to rail against!
Those whom you are bound to keep, to spurn like dogs!
And you were not my master, I would tell you--
SCAR. What, slave? [_Draws_.
BUT. Put up your bird-spit, tut, I fear it not;
In doing deeds so base, so vile as these,
'Tis but a kna, kna, kna--
SCAR. Rogue!
BUT. Tut, howsoever, 'tis a dishonest part,
And in defence of these I throw off duty.
KATH. Good butler.
BUT. Peace, honest mistress, I will say you are wrong'd,
Prove it upon him, even in his blood, his bones,
His guts, his maw, his throat, his entrails.
SCAR. You runagate of threescore!
BUT. 'Tis better than a knave of three-and-twenty.
SCAR. Patience be my buckler!
As not to file[429] my hands in villain's blood;
You knave, slave, trencher-groom!
Who is your master?
BUT. You, if you were a master.
SCAR. Off with your coat then, get you forth a-doors.
BUT. My coat, sir?
SCAR. Ay, your coat, slave.
BUT. 'Sfoot, when you ha't, 'tis but a threadbare coat,
And there 'tis for you: know that I scorn
To wear his livery is so worthy born,
And live[s] so base a life; old as I am,
I'll rather be a beggar than your man,
And there's your service for you. [_Exit_.
SCAR. Away, out of my door: away!
So, now your champion's gone, minx, thou hadst better
Have gone quick unto thy grave--
KATH. O me! that am no cause of it.
SCAR. Than have suborn'd that slave to lift his hand against me.
KATH. O me! what shall become of me?
SCAR. I'll teach you tricks for this: have you a companion?
_Enter_ BUTLER.
BUT. My heart not suffers me to leave my honest mistress and her pretty
children.
SCAR. I'll mark thee for a strumpet, and thy bastards--
BUT. What will you do to them, sir?
SCAR. The devil in thy shape come back again?
BUT. No, but an honest servant, sir, will take this coat,
And wear it with this sword to safeguard these,
And pity them, and I am woe for you[430], too;
But will not suffer
The husband, viper-like, to prey on them
That love him and have cherish'd him, as these
And they have you.
SCAR. Slave!
BUT. I will outhumour you, [I will]
Fight with you and lose my life, ere[431] these
Shall taste your wrong, whom you are bound to love.
SCAR. Out of my doors, slave!
BUT. I will not, but will stay and wear this coat,
And do you service whether you will or no.
I'll wear this sword, too, and be champion
To fight for her, in spite of any man.
SCAR. You shall: you shall be my master, sir.
BUT. No, I desire it not,
I'll pay you duty, even upon my knee,
But lose my life, ere these oppress'd I'll see.
SCAR. Yes, goodman slave, you shall be master,
Lie with my wife, and get more bastards; do, do, do.
KATH. O me!
SCAR. Turns the world upside down,
That men o'erbear their masters? it does, it does.
For even as Judas sold his master Christ,
Men buy and sell their wives at highest price,
What will you give me? what will you give me?
What will you give me? [_Exit_.
BUT. O mistress, my soul weeps, though mine eyes be dry,
To see his fall and your adversity;
Some means I have left, which I'll relieve you with.
Into your chamber, and if comfort be akin
To such great grief, comfort your children.
KATH. I thank thee, butler; heaven, when he please,
Send death unto the troubled--a blest ease.
[_Exit with children_.
BUT. In troth I know not, if it be good or ill,
That with this endless toil I labour thus:
'Tis but the old time's ancient conscience
That would do no man hurt, that makes me do't:
If it be sin, that I do pity these,
If it be sin, I have relieved his brothers,
Have played the thief with them to get their food,
And made a luckless marriage for his sister,
Intended for her good, heaven pardon me.
But if so, I am sure they are great sinners,
That made this match, and were unhappy[432] men;
For they caus'd all, and may heaven pardon them.
_Enter_ SIR WILLIAM SCARBOROW.
SIR WIL. Who's within here?
BUT. Sir William, kindly welcome.
SIR WIL. Where is my kinsman Scarborow?
BUT. Sooth, he's within, sir, but not very well.
SIR WIL. His sickness?
BUT. The hell of sickness; troubled in his mind.
SIR WIL. I guess the cause of it,
But cannot now intend to visit him.
Great business for my sovereign hastes me hence;
Only this letter from his lord and guardian to him,
Whose inside, I do guess, tends to his good;
At my return I'll see him: so farewell. [_Exit_.
BUT. _Whose inside, I do guess, turns to his good_.
He shall not see it now, then; for men's minds,
Perplex'd like his, are like land-troubling-winds,
Who have no gracious temper.
_Enter_ JOHN SCARBOROW.
JOHN. O butler!
BUT. What's the fright now?
JOHN. Help, straight, or on the tree of shame
We both shall perish for the robbery.
BUT. What, is't reveal'd, man?
JOHN. Not yet, good butler: only my brother Thomas,
In spleen to me that would not suffer him
To kill our elder brother had undone us,
Is riding now to Sir John Harcop straight,
To disclose it.
BUT. Heart! who would rob with sucklings?
Where did you leave him?
JOHN. Now taking horse to ride to Yorkshire.
BUT. I'll stay his journey, lest I meet a hanging.
[_Exeunt_.
_Enter_ SCARBOROW.
SCAR. I'll parley with the devil: ay, I will,
He gives his counsel freely, and the cause
He for his clients pleads goes always with them:
He in my cause shall deal then; and I'll ask him
Whether a cormorant may have stuff'd chests,
And see his brother starve? why, he'll say, ay[433],
The less they give, the more I gain thereby;
_Enter_ BUTLER.
Their souls, their souls, their souls.
How now, master? nay, you are my master;
Is my wife's sheets warm? does she kiss well?
BUT. Good sir.
SCAR. Foh! make't not strange, for in these days,
There's many men lie in their masters' sheets,
And so may you in mine, and yet--your business, sir?
BUT. There's one in civil habit, sir, would speak with you.
SCAR. In civil habit?
BUT. He is of seemly rank, sir, and calls himself
By the name of Doctor Baxter of Oxford.
SCAR. That man undid me; he did blossoms blow,
Whose fruit proved poison, though 'twas good in show:
With him I'll parley, and disrobe my thoughts
Of this wild frenzy that becomes me not.
A table, candles, stools, and all things fit,
I know he comes to chide me, and I'll hear him:
With our sad conference we will call up tears,
Teach doctors rules, instruct succeeding years:
Usher him in:
Heaven spare a drop from thence, where's bounteous throng:
Give patience to my soul, inflame my tongue.
_Enter_ DOCTOR.
DOC. Good Master Scarborow.
SCAR. You are most kindly welcome, sooth, ye are.
DOC. I have important business to deliver you.
SCAR. And I have leisure to attend your hearing.
DOC. Sir, you know I married you.
SCAR. I know you did, sir.
DOC. At which you promis'd both to God and men,
Your life unto your spouse should be like snow,
That falls to comfort, not to overthrow:
And love unto your issue should be like
The dew of heaven, that hurts not, though it strike:
When heaven and men did witness and record
'Twas an eternal oath, no idle word:
Heaven, being pleased therewith, bless'd you with children,
And at heaven's blessings all good men rejoice.
So that God's chair and footstool, heaven and earth,
Made offering at your nuptials as a knot
To mind you of your vow; O, break it not.
SCAR. 'Tis very true[434].
DOC. Now, sir, from this your oath and band[435],
Faith's pledge and seal of conscience you have run,
Broken all contracts, and the forfeiture
Justice hath now in suit against your soul:
Angels are made the jurors, who are witnesses
Unto the oath you took, and God himself,
Maker of marriage, he that seal'd the deed,
As a firm lease unto you during life,
Sits now as judge of your transgression:
The world informs against you with this voice:
If such sins reign, what mortals can rejoice?
SCAR. What then ensues to me?
DOC. A heavy doom, whose execution's
Now serv'd upon your conscience, that ever
You shall feel plagues, whom time shall not dissever;
As in a map your eyes see all your life,
Bad words, worse deeds, false oaths, and all the injuries,
You have done unto your soul: then comes your wife,
Full of woe's drops, and yet as full of pity,
Who though she speaks not, yet her eyes are swords[436],
That cut your heart-strings: and then your children--
SCAR. O, O, O!
DOC. Who, what they cannot say, talk in their looks;
You have made us up, but as misfortune's books,
Whom other men may read in, when presently,
Task'd by yourself, you are not, like a thief,
Astonied, being accus'd, but scorch'd with grief.
SCAR. I, I, I.
DOC. Here stand your wife's tears.
SCAR. Where?
DOC. And you fry for them: here lie your children's wants.
SCAR. Here?
DOC. For which you pine, in conscience burn,
And wish you had been better, or ne'er born.
SCAR. Does all this happen to a wretch like me?
DOC. Both this and worse; your soul eternally
Shall live in torment, though the body die.
SCAR. I shall have need of drink then: Butler!
DOC. Nay, all your sins are on your children laid,
For the offences that the father made.
SCAR. Are they, sir?
DOC. Be sure they are.
_Enter_ BUTLER.
SCAR. Butler!
BUT. Sir.
SCAR. Go fetch my wife and children hither.
BUT. I will, sir.
SCAR. I'll read a lecture[437] to the doctor too,
He's a divine? ay, he's a divine. [_Aside_.]
BUT. I see his mind is troubled, and have made bold with duty to read a
letter tending to his good; have made his brothers friends: both which
I will conceal till better temper. He sends me for his wife and children;
shall I fetch them? [_Aside_.
SCAR. He's a divine, and this divine did marry me:
That's good, that's good. [_Aside_.
DOC. Master Scarborow.
SCAR. I'll be with you straight, sir.
BUT. I will obey him,
If anything doth happen that is ill,
Heaven bear me record, 'tis 'gainst my will. [_Exit_.
SCAR. And this divine did marry me,
Whose tongue should be the key to open truth,
As God's ambassador. Deliver, deliver, deliver. [_Aside_.
DOC. Master Scarborow.
SCAR. I'll be with you straight, sir:
Salvation to afflicted consciences,
And not give torment to contented minds,
Who should be lamps to comfort out our way,
And not like firedrakes[438] to lead men astray,
Ay, I'll be with you straight, sir.
_Enter_ BUTLER, [_with Wife and Children_].
BUT. Here's your wife and children, sir.
SCAR. Give way, then,
I have my lesson perfect; leave us here.
BUT. Yes, I will go, but I will be so near,
To hinder the mishap, the which I fear.
[_Exit_ BUTLER.
SCAR. Now, sir, you know this gentlewoman?
DOC. Kind Mistress Scarborow.
SCAR. Nay, pray you keep your seat, for you shall hear
The same affliction you have taught me fear,
Due to yourself.
DOC. To me, sir?
SCAR. To you, sir.
You match'd me to this gentlewoman?
DOC. I know I did, sir.
SCAR. And you will say she is my wife then.
DOC. I have reason, sir, because I married you.
SCAR. O, that such tongues should have the time to lie,
Who teach men how to live, and how to die;
Did not you know my soul had given my faith,
In contract to another? and yet you
Would join this loom unto unlawful twists.
DOC. Sir?
SCAR. But, sir,
You that can see a mote within my eye,
And with a cassock blind your own defects,
I'll teach you this: 'tis better to do ill,
That's never known to us, than of self-will.
Stand these[439], all these, in thy seducing eye,
As scorning life, make them be glad to die.
DOC. Master Scarborow--
SCAR. Here will I write that they, which marry wives,
Unlawful live with strumpets all their lives.
Here will I seal the children that are born,
From wombs unconsecrate, even when their soul
Has her infusion, it registers they are foul,
And shrinks to dwell with them, and in my close
I'll show the world, that such abortive men
Knit hands without free tongues, look red like them
Stand you and you to acts most tragical:
Heaven has dry eyes, when sin makes sinners fall.
DOC. Help, Master Scarborow.
CHIL. Father.
KATH. Husband.
SCAR. These for thy act should die, she for my Clare,
Whose wounds stare thus upon me for revenge.
These to be rid from misery, this from sin,
And thou thyself shalt have a push amongst them,
That made heaven's word a pack-horse to thy tongue,
Quot'st Scripture to make evil shine like good!
And as I send you thus with worms to dwell,
Angels applaud it as a deed done well.
_Enter_ BUTLER.
DOC. Stay him, stay him.
BUT. What will you do, sir?
SCAR. Make fat worms of stinking carcases.
What hast thou to do with it?
_Enter_ ILFORD _and his Wife, the two Brothers,
and_ SIR WILLIAM SCARBOROW.
BUT. Look, who are here, sir?
SCAR. Injurious villain! that prevent'st me still.
BUT. They are your brothers and alliance, sir.
SCAR. They are like full ordnance then who, once discharg'd,
Afar off give a warning to my soul,
That I have done them wrong.
SIR WIL. Kinsman.
BRO. AND SIS. Brother.
KATH. Husband.
CHIL. Father.
SCAR. Hark, how their words like bullets shoot me thorough,
And tell me I have undone them: this side might say,
We are in want, and you are the cause of it;
This points at me, y'are shame unto your house:
This tongue says nothing, but her looks do tell
She's married, but as those that live in hell:
Whereby all eyes are but misfortune's pipe,
Fill'd full of woe by me: this feels the stripe.
BUT. Yet look, sir,
Here's your brothers hand in hand, whom I have knit so.
SIS. And look, sir, here's my husband's hand in mine,
And I rejoice in him, and he in me.
SIR WIL. I say, cos, what is pass'd is the way to bliss,
For they know best to mend, that know amiss.
KATH. We kneel: forget, and say if you but love us,
You gave us grief for future happiness.
SCAR. What's all this to my conscience?
BUT. Ease, promise of succeeding joy to you;
Read but this letter.
SIR WIL. Which tells you that your lord and guardian's dead.
BUT. Which tells you that he knew he did you wrong,
Was griev'd for't, and for satisfaction
Hath given you double of the wealth you had.
BRO. Increas'd our portions.
WIFE. Given me a dowry too.
BUT. And that he knew,
Your sin was his, the punishment his due.
SCAR. All this is here:
Is heaven so gracious to sinners then?
BUT. Heaven is, and has his gracious eyes,
To give men life, not life-entrapping spies.
SCAR. Your hand--yours--yours--to my soul: to you a kiss;
In troth I am sorry I have stray'd amiss;
To whom shall I be thankful? all silent?
None speak? whist! why then to God,
That gives men comfort as he gives his rod;
Your portions I'll see paid, and I will love you,
You three I'll live withal, my soul shall love you!
You are an honest servant, sooth you are;
To whom? I, these, and all must pay amends;
But you I will admonish in cool terms,
Let not promotion's hope be as a string,
To tie your tongue, or let it loose to sting.
DOC. From hence it shall not, sir.
SCAR. Then husbands thus shall nourish with their wives.
[_Kiss_.
ILF. As thou and I will, wench.
SCAR. Brothers in brotherly love thus link together
[_Embrace_.
Children and servants pay their duty thus.
[_Bow and kneel_.
And are all pleas'd?
ALL. We are.
SCAR. Then, if all these be so,
I am new-wed, so ends all marriage woe;
And, in your eyes so lovingly being wed,
We hope your hands will bring us to our bed.
FINIS.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Baldwin's "Old English Drama," 2 vols. 12mo.
[2] From the similarity of the names, it seems the author originally
intended to make Young Lusam the son of Old Lusam and brother of
Mistress Arthur, but afterwards changed his intention: in page 13 the
latter calls him a stranger to her, although he is the intimate friend
of her husband.
[3] [Old copy, _walk_.]
[4] Busk-point, the lace with its tag which secured the end of the busk,
a piece of wood or whalebone worn by women in front of the stays to keep
them straight.
[5] [Old copies, _Study_.]
[6] [Old copy, _watch_.]
[7] [Old copies, _dream_.]
[8] [All Fuller's speeches must be supposed to be _Asides_.]
[9] [Old copies give this line to Fuller.]
[10] Old copies, _she_.
[11] Old copies, _bene_; but the schoolmaster is made to blunder, so
that _bene_ may, after all, be what the author wrote.
[12] The rod, made of a willow-wand.
[13] Old copy, _how_.
[14] [Old copies, _laid_.]
[15] [A quotation.]
[16] _Christ-cross_, the alphabet.
[17] [The sense appears to be, for this not being perfect poison, as his
(the pedant's) meaning is to poison himself, some covetous slave will
sell him real poison.]
[18] [Old copies, _seem'd_.]
[19] [Old copies, _First_.]
[20] [Massinger, in his "City Madam," 1658, uses this word in the sense
of _above the law_. Perhaps Young Arthur may intend to distinguish
between a civil and religious contract.]
[21] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 90.]
[22] [i.e., The _hoar_-frost.]
[23] [Old copy, _flies upon_.]
[24] [This line has been seriously corrupted, and it might be impossible
to restore the true reading. The old copies have: _Ask, he knew me, a
means_, &c.]
[25] [Having, however, been written and acted some years before it was
printed in 1606.]
[26] _Sloughing hotcockles_ is a sport still retained among children.
The diversion is of long standing, having been in use with the ancients.
See Pollux, lib. ix. In the copy it is spelt _slauging_.
[27] Old copy, _which_.
[28] [So in Wybarne's "New Age of Old Names," 1609, p. 12: "But stay, my
friend: Let it be first manifest that my Father left Land, and then we
will rather agree at home, then suffer the Butler's Boxe to winne all."
The phrase occurs again in "Ram Alley," 1611.]
[29] [So the old copy, and rightly. Forne is a contracted form of
_beforne_, a good old English word. Hawkins printed _fore_.]
[30] Query, if this be not a fling at Shakespeare? See "Cymbeline."
--_Hawkins_. [Scarcely, for there are two sons recovered in that play,
and the incident of finding a long-lost child is not an uncommon one
in the drama. We have a daughter thus found in Pericles.--_Ebsworth_.]
[31] [Some of the old copies read _make_.]
[32] Old copy, _furens_.
[33] Old copy, _lanching_.
[34] [Old copies, _is_.]
[35] [It is probably well known that on the early stage vinegar was used
where there was a necessity for representing bloodshed. Compare the
passage in Preston's "Cambyses," iv. 217.]
[36] Old copy, _utensilies_.
[37] Old copy, _sly_.
[38] Old copy, _soure_.
[39] [Old copy, _clear the vsuall_, &c.]
[40] "Belvidere; or, The Garden of the Muses," 8vo, 1600, in which are
quoted sentences out of Spenser, Constable, and the rest, digested under
a commonplace. [Another edition in 1610. It is a book of no value or
interest.]
[41] [Left blank in the old copy. The ostensible editor of "Belvidere"
was John Bodenham, but he is evidently not the person referred to here.]
[42] [Alluding to the device on the title of the volume.]
[43] [Two of the old copies read _swifter_.]
[44] [Some copies read _S.D_.]
[45] As the works of some of the poets here cited are become obscure, it
may not be unacceptable to the reader to see a few specimens of their
several abilities. Constable was esteemed the first sonneteer of his
time, and the following sonnet, prefixed to King James I.'s "Poetical
Exercises" was the most admired--
TO THE KING OF SCOTLAND.
"When others hooded with blind love do fly
Low on the ground with buzzard Cupid's wings,
A heavenly love from love of love thee brings,
And makes thy Muse to mount above the sky:
Young Muses be not wont to fly so high,
Age school'd by time such sober ditties sings,
But thy love flies from love of youthful things,
And so the wings of time doth overfly.
Thus thou disdain'st all worldly wings as slow,
Because thy Muse with angels' wings doth leave
Time's wings behind, and Cupid's wings below;
But take thou heed, lest Fame's wings thee deceive,
With all thy speed from fame thou canst not flee,--
But more thou flees, the more it follows thee."
[46] Lodge was a physician as well as a poet; he was the author of two
plays, and eminent, in his day, for writing elegant odes, pastoral
songs, sonnets, and madrigals. His "Euphues' Golden Legacy" was printed
4to, 1590, from which some suppose Shakespeare took his "As You Like
It." Description of spring by Lodge--
"The earth late choak'd with showers,
Is now array'd in green,
Her bosom springs with flowers,
The air dissolves her teen;
The woods are deck'd with leaves,
And trees are clothed gay,
And Flora, crown'd with sheaves,
With oaken boughs doth play;
The birds upon the trees
Do sing with pleasant voices,
And chant, in their degrees,
Their loves and lucky choices."
[47] Watson was contemporary with, and imitator of, Sir Philip Sydney,
with Daniel, Lodge, Constable, and others, in the pastoral strain of
sonnets, &c. Watson thus describes a beautiful woman--
"Her yellow locks exceed the beaten gold,
Her sparkling eyes in heav'n a place deserve.
Her forehead high and fair, of comely mould;
Her words are music all, of silver sound.
Her wit so sharp, as like can scarce be found:
Each eyebrow hangs, like Iris in the skies,
Her eagle's nose is straight, of stately frame,
On either cheek a rose and lily lies,
Her breath is sweet perfume or holy flame;
Her lips more red than any coral stone,
Her neck more white than aged swans that moan:
Her breast transparent is, like crystal rock,
Her fingers long, fit for Apollo's lute,
Her slipper such, as Momus dare not mock;
Her virtues are so great as make me mute:
What other parts she hath I need not say,
Whose face alone is cause of my decay."
[48] [This passage is a rather important piece of evidence in favour of
the identity of the poet with the physician.]
[49] [Sir] John Davis [author of "Nosce Teipsum," &c.]
[50] Old copy, _sooping_.
[51] Lock and Hudson were the Bavius and Maevius of that time. The
latter gives us this description of fear--
"Fear lendeth wings to aged folk to fly,
And made them mount to places that were high;
Fear made the woful child to wail and weep,
For want of speed on foot and hands to creep."
[Hudson, however, enjoyed some repute in his time, and is known as the
translator from Du Bartas of the "History of Judith," 8vo, 1584. Lock
published in 1597 a volume containing an English version of
"Ecclesiastes" and a series of sonnets.]
[52] John Marston, a bold and nervous writer in Elizabeth's reign: the
work here censured was, no doubt, his "Scourge of Villanie, 3 Books of
Satyrs," 1598.
[53] Marlowe's character is well marked in these lines: he was an
excellent poet, but of abandoned morals, and of the most impious
principles; a complete libertine and an avowed atheist. He lost his life
in a riotous fray; for, detecting his servant with his mistress, he
rushed into the room with a dagger in order to stab him, but the man
warded off the blow by seizing Marlowe's wrist, and turned the dagger
into his own head: he languished some time of the wound he received, and
then died, [in] the year 1593.--_A. Wood_.
[54] [Omitted in some copies.]
[55] [Omitted in some copies.]
[56] Churchyard wrote Jane Shore's Elegy in "Mirror for Magistrates,"
4to, [1574. It is reprinted, with additions, in his "Challenge," 1593.]
[57] Isaac Walton, in his "Life of Hooker," calls Nash a man of a sharp
wit, and the master of a scoffing, satirical, merry pen. His satirical
vein was chiefly exerted in prose; and he is said to have more
effectually discouraged and nonplussed Penry, the most notorious
anti-prelate, Richard Harvey the astrologer, and their adherents, than
all serious writers who attacked them. That he was no mean poet will
appear from the following description of a beautiful woman--
"Stars fall to fetch fresh light from her rich eyes,
Her bright brow drives the sun to clouds beneath,
Her hairs' reflex with red streaks paint the skies,
Sweet morn and evening dew falls from her breath."
[58] Ital. _stocco_, or long rapier.
[59] A tusk.
[60] [Some copies read _turne_.]
[61] [John Danter, the printer. Nash, it will be remembered, was called
by Harvey _Danter's man_, because some of his books came from that
press. See the next scene.]
[62] [A few corrections have been ventured upon in the French and Latin
scraps, as the speaker does not appear to have been intended to blunder.]
[63] [Old copies, _procures_.]
[64] [Old copies, _thanked_.]
[65] [Old copies, _Fly--revengings_.]
[66] [Old copy, _gale_.]
[67] [Old copy, _gracis_.]
[68] [Old copy, _filthy_.]
[69] [Old copies, _seat_.]
[70] [In the old copy the dialogue is as usual given so as to make utter
nonsense, which was apparently not intended.]
[71] [Furor Poeticus apostrophises Apollo, the Muses, &c., who are not
present.]
[72] [Old copy, _Den_.]
[73] [Alluding to the blindness of puppies.]
[74] [Man.]
[75] [Old copy, _skibbered_.]
[76] [i.e., my very mate.]
[77] [In old copy this line is given to Phantasma.]
[78] [i.e., _face_. Old copy, _race_.]
[79] [Rent or distracted. A play is intended on the double meaning of
the word.]
[80] [So in the old copy, being an abbreviation, _rhythmi causâ_, of
Philomusus.]
[81] [Old copy, _Mossy_; but in the margin is printed _Most like_, as if
it was an afterthought, and the correction had been stamped in.]
[82] [Old copy, _playing_.]
[83] _No_ omitted.
[84] [This is the old mythological tradition inverted.]
[85] The bishop's examining chaplain, so called from apposer. In a will
of James I.'s reign, the curate of a parish is to appose the children of
a charity-school. The term _poser_ is still retained in the schools at
[St Paul's,] Winchester and Eton. Two Fellows are annually deputed by
the Society of New College in Oxford and King's College in Cambridge to
appose or try the abilities of the boys who are to be sped to the
fellowships that shall become vacant in the ensuing year.
[86] [The old copy gives this to the next act and scene; but Amoretto
seems to offer the remark in immediate allusion to what has just passed.
After all, the alteration is not very vital, as, although a new act and
scene are marked, Academico and Amoretto probably remain on the stage.]
[87] Good.
[88] [Old copy, _caches_. A _rache_ is a dog that hunts by scent wild
beasts, birds, and even fishes; the female is called a _brache_.]
[89] [See Halliwell's "Dictionary," i. 115.]
[90] [He refers to Amoretto himself.]
[91] [Halliwell, in his "Dictionary," _v. rheum (s.)_, defines it to
mean _spleen, caprice_. He does not cite it as a verb. I suppose the
sense here to be _ruminating_.]
[92] Old copy, _ravished_.
[93] [A play on _personage_ and _parsonage_, which were formerly
interchangeable terms, as both had originally one signification.]
[94] [Queen Elizabeth was born September 7, 1533; not her birthday,
therefore, but her accession (17th November 1558), at the death of her
sister Mary, is referred to by Immerito and Sir Raderic. Elizabeth died
March 24, 1602-3. Inasmuch as there is this special reference in "The
Return from Parnassus" to the Queen's day, and not to King James's day,
we have a certain evidence that the play was written by or before the
end of 1602-3. See also what may be drawn from the reference to the
siege of Ostend, 1601-4, at the close of act iii. sc. 3 _post_
--additional evidence for 1602.--_Ebsworth_.]
[95] [Old copy, _I tooke of_, which seems nonsense.]
[96] [So old copy. Hawkins altered the word unnecessarily to
_thatched_.]
[97] [Bespeaketh. Old copies, _rellish_.]
[98] Old copy, _bites a lip_.
[99] [So in old copy, but should we not read _London?--Ebsworth_.]
[100] [There are three references to Ostend in this play. The town bore
a siege from 1601 to 1604, when it surrendered by capitulation. The
besieged lost 50,000 men, and the Spaniards still more. The expression,
"He is as glad as if he had taken Ostend," surely proves that this play
was written after the beginning of 1601 and the commencement of the
siege. It does not prove it to have been written after 1604, but, I
think, strongly indicates the contrary.--_Ebsworth_. Is it not possible
that the passage was introduced into the play when printed, and was not
in the original MS.?]
[101] [So the old copies. Hawkins altered it to _delicacies_.]
[102] [Poor must be pronounced as a dissyllable.]
[103] [From _marry_ to _terms_ is omitted in one of the Oxford copies
and in Dr Ingleby's.]
[104] [Old copy, _puppet_.]
[105] [One of the copies at Oxford, and Dr Ingleby's, read _nimphs_. Two
others misprint _mips_.]
[106] [Old copy, _wail_.]
[107] Old copy, _and_.
[108] [Both the Oxford copies read _teate_.]
[109] [Both the Oxford copies have _beare_.]
[110] [Some of the copies, _break_.]
[111] To _moot_ is to plead a mock cause; to state a point of law by way
of exercise, a common practice in the inns of court.
[112] Old copy, _facility_.
[113] [Old copy, _high_.]
[114] [A slight departure from Ovid.]
[115] To _come off_ is equivalent to the modern expression to _come
down_, to pay sauce, to pay dearly, &c. In this sense Shakespeare uses
the phrase in "Merry Wives of Windsor," act iv. sc. 6. The host says,
"They [the Germans] shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay, I'll
sauce them. They have had my house a week at command; I have turned away
my other guests. They must come off; I'll sauce them." An eminent critic
says to _come off_ is to go scot-free; and this not suiting the context,
he bids us read, they must _compt off_, i.e., clear their reckoning.
[116] Old copy, _Craboun_.
[117] [Talons.]
[118] _Gramercy_: great thanks, _grand merci_; or I thank ye, _Je vous
remercie_. In this sense it is constantly used by our first writers. A
very great critic pronounces it an obsolete expression of surprise,
contracted from _grant me mercy_; and cites a passage in "Titus
Andronicus" to illustrate his sense of it; but, it is presumed, that
passage, when properly pointed, confirms the original acceptation--
CHIRON. Demetrius, here's the son of Lucius,
He hath some message to deliver us.
AARON. Ay, some mad message from his mad grandfather.
BOY. My lords, with all the humbleness I may,
I greet your honours from Andronicus--
And pray the Roman gods confound you both. [_Aside_.
DEMETRIUS. _Gramercy_, lovely Lucius; what's the news?
BOY. That you are both decipher'd (that's the news)
For villains mark'd with rape. [_Aside_] May it please you,
My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me
The goodliest weapon of his armoury,
To gratify your honourable youth,
The hope of Rome: for so he bid me say;
And so I do, and with his gifts present
Your lordships, that whenever you have need,
You may be armed and appointed well.
And so I leave you both--like bloody villains. [_Aside_.
--Hanmer's 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce's 2d
edit., vi. 326-7.]
[119] "Poetaster," act v. sc. 3. [Gifford's edit. ii. 524-5, and the
note.]
[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call
Studioso. See also _infrá_, p. 198.]
[121] [See Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," edit. Dyce, ix.]
[122] _Sellenger's round_, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance
with the common people.
[123] Old copy reads--
"As you part in _kne_
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _sice kne_," &c.
The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text--
"As your part in _cue_.
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _size cue_," &c.
A pun upon the word _cue_, which is a hint to the actor to proceed in
his part, and has the same sound with the letter _q_, the mark of a
farthing in college buttery-books. To _size_ means to _battle_, or to be
charged in the college accounts for provisions. [A _q_ is so called
because it is the initial letter of _quadrans_, the fourth part of a
penny.]
[124] This seems to be quoted from the first imperfect edition of "The
Spanish Tragedy;" in the later (corrected) impression it runs thus--
"What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,
And chill," &c.
--[v. 54.]
[125] [Old copy points this sentence falsely, and repeats _thing_.]
[126] Old copy, _woe_.
[127] [Old copy, _birds_. Perhaps, however, the poet may have meant
_swans_.]
[128] Old copy, _sooping_.
[129] [I think this is much more likely to be an allusion to
Shakespeare, than the passage in the prologue to which Hawkins
refers.--_Ebsworth_.]
[130] [Old copy, _some_.]
[131] [There were several Greek _literati_ of this name. Amoretto's
page, personating his master, is so nicknamed by the other, who
personates Sir Raderic--unless the passage is corrupt.]
[132] [Old copy, _Irenias_.]
[133] [Old copy, _Nor_.]
[134] [Old copy, _we have_.]
[135] [Old copy, _run_. Mr Ebsworth's correction.]
[136] Old copy, _cluttish_.
[137] Old copy, _trus_.
[138] One of the old copies reads _repay'st_.
[139] Old copy, _seeling_.
[140] This play is not divided into acts.
[141] [Cadiz.]
[142] [Shear-penny.]
[143] [Extortion.]
[144] [Old copies, _waves_.]
[145] [Old copy, _fates to friend_.]
[146] [Old copy, _springold_.]
[147] [Old copy, as before, _springold_.]
[148] [Old copy, _doff off_.]
[149] [Old copy, _wat'ry_.]
[150] [Resound.]
[151] Edit. 1606 has: _Mi Fortunate, ter fortunate Venus_. The 4to of
1623 reads: _Mi Fortunatus, Fortunate Venter_.
[152] [Intend.]
[153] She means to say eloquence, and so it stands in the edition of
1623.
[154] [Robin Goodfellow.]
[155] [See p. 286.]
[156] [This must allude to some real circumstance and person.]
[157] [Attend.]
[158] [Bergen-op-Zoom.]
[159] [Old copy, _our_.]
[160] [Lap, long. See Nares, edit. 1859, _v. Lave-eared_.]
[161] [Old copy, _seas_.]
[162] [Orcus.]
[163] [Worried.]
[164] [An answer to a summons or writ. Old copy, _retourner_.]
[165] [This most rare edition was very kindly lent to me by the Rev.
J.W. Ebsworth, Moldash Vicarage, near Ashford.]
[166] [Cromwell did not die till September 3, 1658, a sufficient reason
for the absence of the allusion which Reed thought singular.]
[167] [i.e., The human body and mind. _Microcosmus_ had been used by
Davies of Hereford in the same sense in the title of a tract printed in
1603, as it was afterwards by Heylin in his "Microcosmus," 1621, and by
Earle in his "Microcosmography," 1628.]
[168] _Skene_ or _skane: gladius, Ensis brevior.--Skinner_. Dekker's
"Belman's Night Walk," sig. F 2: "The bloody Tragedies of all these are
onely acted by the women, who, carrying long knives or _skeanes_ under
their mantles, doe thus play their parts." Again in Warner's "Albion's
England," 1602, p. 129--
"And Ganimaedes we are," quoth one, "and thou a prophet trew:
And hidden _skeines_ from underneath their forged garments drew,
Wherewith the tyrant and his bawds with safe escape they slew."
--See the notes of Mr Steevens and Mr Nichols on "Romeo and Juliet," act
ii. sc. 4.
[169] The edition of 1657 reads, _red buskins drawn with white ribband.
--Collier_.
[170] Musical terms. See notes on "Midsummer's Night's Dream," vol. iii.
p. 63, and "King Richard III." vol. vii. p. 6, edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
[171] A metaphor drawn from music, more particularly that kind of
composition called a _Ground_, with its _Divisions_. Instead of
_relish_, I would propose to read _flourish_.--_S.P_.
[172] Mr Steevens supposes this to be a musical term. See note on
"Richard II." act ii. sc. 1--
"The setting sun and music at the close."
[173] Fr. for whistlings.--_Steevens_.
[174] i.e., Petitionary.--_Steevens_.
[175] [Altered by Mr Collier to _girls_; but _gulls_ is the reading of
1607.]
[176] _Like an ordinary page, gloves, hamper_--so the first edition; but
as the two last words seem only the prompter's memoranda, they are
omitted. They are also found in the last edition.--_Collier_.
[177] Ready.
[178] Graceful. See Mr Malone's note on "Coriolanus," act ii. sc. 1.
[179] [Edits., _blasting_.] I would propose to read the _blushing
childhood_, alluding to the ruddiness of Aurora, the _rosy morn_, as in
act iii. sc. 6--
"Light, the fair grandchild to the glorious sun,
Opening the casements of the _rosy morn_," &c.
--_S. Pegge_.
[180] So in "Hamlet," act i. sc. 1--
"But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
_Walks_ o'er the dew of _yon high eastern hill_."
[181] A _fool's bauble_, in its _literal_ meaning, is the carved
truncheon which the licensed fools or jesters anciently carried in their
hands. See notes on "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 5.
--_Steevens_.
[182] Winstanley has asserted that Oliver Cromwell performed the part of
Tactus at Cambridge: and some who have written the life of that great
man have fixed upon this speech as what first gave him ideas of
sovereignty. The notion is too vague to be depended upon, and too
ridiculous either to establish or refute. It may, however, not be
unnecessary to mention that Cromwell was born in 1599, and the first
edition of this play [was printed in 1607, and the play itself written
much earlier]. If, therefore, the Protector ever did represent this
character, it is more probable to have been at Huntingdon School.
[183] [Old copies, _scarve_, and so the edit. of 1780. Mr Collier
substituted _change_ as the reading of the old copies, which it is not.
See Mr Brae's paper read before the Royal Society of Literature, Jan.
1871, 8vo edit. 1873, p. 23, et seq.]
[184] Edits., _deeds_. Pegge thought that by _deeds_ was intended Tactus
himself; but it is hard to say how this could be made out, as Tactus
cannot be translated _deeds_, though Auditus might be rendered by
metonymy _ears_.
[185] [Edit., _fear'd_.]
[186] In Surphlet's "Discourses on the Diseases of Melancholy," 4to,
1599, p. 102, the case alluded to is set down: "There was also of late a
great lord, _which thought himselfe to be a glasse_, and had not his
imagination troubled, otherwise then in this onely thing, for he could
speake mervailouslie well of any other thing: he used commonly to sit,
and tooke great delight that his friends should come and see him, but so
as that he would desire them, that they would not come neere unto him."
[187] Hitherto misprinted _conclaves_.--_Collier_. [First 4to,
correctly, _concaves_.]
[188] See Surphlet, p. 102.
[189] [An allusion to the myth of the werewolf.]
[190] [This proverb is cited by Heywood. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869,
p. 392.]
[191] [All the editions except 1657, _bidden_, and all have _arms_ for
_harms_.]
[192] Presently, forthwith.
[193] [Edits., _wax_.]
[194] Some of the old copies [including that of 1607] read--
"Here lies the sense that _lying_ gull'd them all."
--_Collier_.
[195] Auditus is here called _Ears_, as Tactus is before called
_Deed_.--_Pegge_. [But see note at p. 349.]
[196] Circles. So in Milton--
"Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel."
--_Steevens_.
[197] [It is _Mendacio_ who speaks.]
[198] Old copies, _Egyptian knights_. Dr Pegge's correction.
[199] [Edits., _I_.]
[200] [Edits., _safe_.]
[201] A pun; for he means _Male aeger_.--_Pegge_.
[202] The [first edit.] gives the passage thus: _brandish no swords but
sweards of bacon_, which is intended for a pun, and though bad enough,
need not be lost.--_Collier_.
[203] _Glaves_ are swords, and sometimes partisans.--_Steevens_.
[204] Lat. for phalanxes.--_Steevens_.
[205] [Edits., _dept_.]
[206] Mars.
[207] See Note 2 to the "First Part of Jeronimo," [v. 349].
[208] [Edits., _kist_. The word _hist_ may be supposed to represent the
whistling sound produced by a sword passing rapidly through the air.]
[209] i.e., Exceeds bounds or belief. See a note on "The Merry Wives
of Windsor," act iv. sc. 2.--_Steevens_.
[210] "_Graecia mendax_
Audet in historia."--_Steevens_.
[211] [His "History," which is divided into nine books, under the names
of the nine Muses.]
[212] i.e., Whispered him. See note to "The Spanish Tragedy," [vi. 10.]
[213] [Peter Martyr's "Decades."]
[214] A luncheon before dinner. The farmers in Essex still use the
word.--_Steevens_.
So in the "Woman-hater," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act i. sc. 3, Count
Valore, describing Lazarillo, says--
"He is none of these
Same Ordinary Eaters, that'll devour
Three breakfasts, as many dinners, and without any
Prejudice to their _Beavers_, drinkings, suppers;
But he hath a more courtly kind of hunger.
And doth hunt more after novelty than plenty."
Baret, in his "Alvearic," 1580, explains _a boever_, a drinking betweene
dinner and supper; and _a boïer_, meate eaten after noone, a collation,
a noone meale.
[215] See Note 19 to "The Ordinary."
[216] [In 1576 Ulpian Fulwell published "The First Part of the Eighth
Liberal Science, Entituled Ars Adulandi."]
[217] This word, which occurs in Ben Jonson and some other writers,
seems to have the same meaning as our _numps_. I am ignorant of its
etymology.--_Steevens_. [Compare Nares, 1859, in _v_.]
[218] i.e., Other requisites towards the fitting out of a character.
See a note on "Love's Labour Lost," vol. ii. p. 385, edit. 1778.
--_Steevens_.
[219] A busk-point was, I believe, the lace of a lady's stays. Minsheu
explains a _buske_ to be a part of dress "made of wood or whalebone, a
plated or quilted thing to keepe the body straight." The word, I am
informed, is still in common use, particularly in the country among the
farmers' daughters and servants, for a piece of wood to preserve the
stays from being bent. _Points_ or laces were worn by both sexes, and
are frequently mentioned in our ancient dramatic writers.
[220] [Edits., _hu, hu_.]
[221] [i.e., Our modern _pet_, darling, a term of endearment.] Dr
Johnson says that it is a word of endearment from _petit_, little. See
notes on "The Taming of the Shrew," act i. sc. 1.
Again, in "The City Madam," by Massinger, act ii. sc. 2--
"You are _pretty peats_, and your great portions
Add much unto your handsomeness."
[222] Shirley, in his "Sisters," ridicules these hyperbolical
compliments in a similar but a better strain--
"Were it not fine
If you should see your mistress without hair,
Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of?
Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt
The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two
Roses inoculated on a lily,
Between a pendant alabaster nose:
Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth
But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's!
Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?"
--_Collier_.
[223] [i.e., Doff it in salutation.]
[224] Alluding to the office of sheriff.
[225] "_Cassock_," says Mr Steevens, "signifies a horseman's loose coat,
and is used in that sense by the writers of the age of Shakespeare. It
likewise appears to have been part of the dress of rusticks." See note
to "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 3.
[226] "A _gimmal_ or _gimbal ring_, Fr. _gemeau_, utr. a Lat. Gemellus,
q.d. Annulus Gemellus, quoniam, sc. duobus aut pluribus orbibus
constat."--_Skinner_.
_Gimmal rings_ are often mentioned in ancient writers.
[227] "Quis nescit primam esse Historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere
audeat; deinde, ne quid veri non audeat."--Cicero "De Orat." lib. ii. 15.
[228] This was called "The Clouds," in which piece Socrates was
represented hanging up in a basket in the air, uttering numberless
chimerical absurdities, and blaspheming, as it was then reputed, the
gods of his country. At the performance of this piece Socrates was
present himself; and "notwithstanding," says his biographer, "the gross
abuse that was offered to his character, he did not show the least signs
of resentment or anger; nay, such was the unparalleled good nature of
this godlike man, that some strangers there, being desirous to see the
original of this scenic picture, he rose up in the middle of the
performance, stood all the rest of the time, and showed himself to the
people; by which well-placed confidence in his own merit and innocence,
reminding them of those virtues and wisdom so opposite to the sophist in
the play, his pretended likeness, he detected the false circumstances,
which were obtruded into his character, and obviated the malicious
designs of the poet who, having brought his play a second time upon the
stage, met with the contempt he justly merited for such a composition."
--Cooper's "Life of Socrates," p. 55.
[229] [Old copies, _page's tongue_; but Mendacio, Lingua's page, is
intended. Perhaps we should read _Tongueship's page_.]
[230] [This is marked in the editions as the opening of a new scene, but
wrongly, as it should seem, as the same persons remain on the stage, and
the conversation is a sequel to what has gone before.]
[231] These were the names of several species of hawks. See an account
of them in the "Treatises on Falconry," particularly those of Turbervile
and Latham.
[232] i.e., Hedgehogs. See a note on Shakespeare's "Tempest," i. 28,
edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
Again, in Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," 1549, sig. Q 2: "That the soule
of Duns woulde a litle leve Sorbone College, and enter into my breast,
be he never so thornie, and fuller of pricles than is any _urcheon_."
[233] Perhaps, instead of _the masks are made so strong_, we ought to
read, _the mesh is made so strong_. It clearly means the _mesh of the
net_, from what is said afterwards.--_Collier_. [But _mask_, in
Halliwell's "Dictionary," is said to be used for _mesh_. What is
intended above is not a _net_, but a network ladder.]
[234] [_Hazard_, the plot of a tennis-court.--Halliwell's "Dictionary."]
[235] This is one of the many phrases in these volumes which, being not
understood, was altered without any authority from the ancient copies.
The former editions read _odd mouthing_; the text, however, is right;
for old, as Mr Steevens observes, was formerly a common augmentative in
colloquial language, and as such is often used by Shakespeare and
others. See notes on the "Second Part of Henry IV." act ii. sc. 4, and
"The Taming of the Shrew," act iii. sc. 2.
Again, in Tarlton's "Newes out of Purgatory," 1630, p. 34: "On Sunday at
Masse there was _old ringing of bells_, and old and yong came to church
to see the new roode."
[236] A sneer at the Utopian Treatises on Government.--_Steevens_.
[237] The latest of the old copies, [and the first edition, have] _wine_
instead of _swine_, which is clearly a misprint, as the _hogs_ of
Olfactus are subsequently again mentioned.--_Collier_.
[238] [Old copies, _he_.]
[239] [A flogging.]
[240] [i.e., A blockhead, a fool.--_Steevens_.]
[241] _Nor I out of Memory's mouth_ is the correct reading, although the
pronoun has been always omitted. Anamnestes is comparing his situation
with that of Mendacio.--_Collier_.
[242] [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 296.]
[243] [Another name of Jupiter.]
[244] [Edits., _belly_.]
[245] Chess.
[246] A favourite game formerly, and apparently one of the oldest in
use. The manner in which it was played will appear from the following
epigram of Sir John Harington, the translator of Ariosto--
_The Story of Marcus's Life at Primero_.
"Fond Marcus ever at _Primero_ playes,
Long winter nights, and as long summer dayes:
And I heard once to idle talke attending
The story of his times and coins mis-spending
At first, he thought himselfe halfe way to heaven,
If in his hand he had but got a sev'n.
His father's death set him so high on flote,
All rests went up upon a sev'n and coate.
But while he drawes from these grey coats and gownes,
The gamesters from his purse drew all his crownes.
And he ne'er ceast to venter all in prime,
Till of his age, quite was consum'd the prime.
Then he more warily his rest regards,
And sets with certainties upon the cards,
On sixe and thirtie, or on sev'n and nine,
If any set his rest, and saith, and mine:
But seed with this, he either gaines or saves,
For either Faustus prime is with three knaves,
Or Marcus never can encounter right,
Yet drew two Ases, and for further spight
Had colour for it with a hopeful draught
But not encountred, it avail'd him naught.
Well, sith encountring, he so faire doth misse,
He sets not, till he nine and fortie is.
And thinking now his rest would sure be doubled,
He lost it by the hand, with which sore troubled,
He joynes now all his stocke unto his stake,
That of his fortune he full proofe may make.
At last both eldest hand and five and fifty,
He thinketh now or never (thrive unthrifty.)
Now for the greatest rest he hath the push:
But Crassus stopt a club, and so was flush:
And thus what with the stop, and with the packe,
Poore Marcus and his rest goes still to wracke.
Now must he seek new spoile to rest his rest,
For here his seeds turne weeds, his rest, unrest.
His land, his plate he pawnes, he sels his leases,
To patch, to borrow, and shift he never ceases.
Till at the last two catch-poles him encounter,
And by arrest, they beare him to the Counter.
Now Marcus may set up all rests securely:
For now he's sure to be encountred surely."
Minsheu thus explains _Primero_:--"_Primero and Primavista_, two games
at cards. Primum et primum visum, that is, first and first seene,
because he that can show such an order of cards first, winnes the game."
[See Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," in _v_.]
[247] See Note 30 to "The Dumb Knight."
[248] [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 318-19.] So in
Dekker's "Belman's Nights-walke," it is alluded to:--"The set at _Maw_
being plaid out."
Henslowe in his Diary mentions a play under the title of "The Maw,"
which probably had reference to the game at cards so called. It was
acted on the 14th December 1594. He also names a play entitled "The
Macke," under date of Feb. 21, 1594-5; but it is doubtful if they were
not the same.--_Collier_.
[249] In the old editions this is given as a part of what is said by
Anamnestes.--_Collier_.
[250] [See Dyce's "Middleton," iii. 106. _There's no ho_, there are no
bounds or restraints with them.--_Reed_. They are not to be restrained
by a call or ho. The expression is common.--_Dyce_.]
[251] Rather Ptolemy.--_Pegge_.
[252] _Latten_, as explained by Dr Johnson, is "Brass; a mixture of
Copper and Caliminaris stone." Mr Theobald, from Monsieur Dacier, says,
"C'est une espece de cuivre de montagne, comme son nom mesme le
temoigne; c'est ce que nous appellons au jourd'huy du _leton_. It is a
sort of mountain copper, as its very name imports, and which we at this
time of day call _latten_." See Mr Theobald's note on "The Merry Wives
of Windsor," act i. sc. 1.
Among the Harleian MSS. is a tract, No. 6395, entitled "Merry Passages
and Jeasts," written in the seventeenth century, [printed by Thoms in
"Anecdotes and Traditions," 1839,] in which is the following story of
Shakespeare, which seems entitled to as much credit as any of the
anecdotes which now pass current about him: "Shake-speare was god-father
to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christning, being in a
deepe study, Jonson came to cheere him up, and ask't him why he was so
melancholy? No, faith, Ben (sayes he) not I, but I have been considering
a great while, what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my
god-child, and I have resolv'd at last; I pr'y thee what, says he? I
faith, Ben, Ile e'en give him a douzen good _Lattin_ spoones, and thou
shall translate them."
[253] _Deft_ is handy, dexterous. So in "Macbeth," act iv. sc. 1--
"Thyself and office _deftly_ show."
See note on "Macbeth," edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
[254] [Concert.]
[255] [Summoners, officers of the old ecclesiastical court.]
[256] [Ignorant of arts.]
[257] A _jangler_, says Baret, is "a jangling fellowe, a babbling
attornie. _Rabula, ae_, mas. gen. [Greek: Dikologos]_ Vn pledoieur
criard, une plaidereau_."
[258] This speech is in six-line stanzas, and _beforn_ should rhyme to
_morn_, as it does in the old copies, which were here abandoned.
--_Collier_.
[259] i.e., "Going. _Gate_, in the Northern Dialect, signifies a way;
so that _agate_ is at or upon the way."--Hay's "Collection of Local
Words," p. 13, edit. 1740.
[260] Here again, as in the passage at p. 354, we have _arms_ for
_harms_. In the old copies this speech of the Herald is printed as
prose.--_Collier_.
[261] A monster feigned to have the head of a lion, the belly of a goat,
and the tail of a dragon.
[262] "If at any time in Rolls and Alphabets of Arms you meet with this
term, you must not apprehend it to be that fowl which in barbarous
Latine they call _Bernicla_, and more properly (from the Greek)
_Chenalopex_--a creature well known in Scotland, yet rarely used in
arms; but an instrument used by farriers to curb and command an unruly
horse, and termed Pastomides."--Gibbons's "Introductio ad Latinam
Blasoniam," 1682, p. 1.
[The allusion here is to the barnacle of popular folk-lore and
superstition, which, from a shell-fish, was transformed into a
goose.--See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," iii. 309.]
[263] [A reference to the belief in prodigies reported from Africa.
"Africa semper aliquid oportet novi."--S. Gosson's "School of Abuse,"
1579. See also Rich's "My Ladies Looking-glass," 1616, sig. B 3.]
[264] [Edits. give this speech to the Herald.]
[265] [The head.]
[266] A celebrated puppet-show often mentioned by writers of the times
by the name of the Motion of Nineveh. See Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew
Fair," act v. sc. 1; "Wit at Several Weapons," act i.; "Every Woman in
her Humour," 1609, sig. H, and "The Cutter of Coleman Street," act v.
sc. 9.
[267] So in "Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 1.
"That strain again; it had a dying _fall_."--_Steevens_.
[268] [Edits., _bitter_.]
[269] [See Dyce's "Beaumont and Fletcher," ii. 225, note.] Theobald
observes in his edition of "Beaumont and Fletcher," that this ballad is
mentioned again in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," and likewise in a
comedy by John Tatham, 1660, called "The Rump, or Mirrour of the Times,"
wherein a Frenchman is introduced at the bonfires made for the burning
of the Rump, and catching hold of Priscilla, will oblige her to dance,
and orders the music to play _Fortune my foe_. Again, in "Tom Essence,"
1677, p. 37.
[270] A dance. Sir John Davies, in his poem called "Orchestra," 1596,
stanza 70, thus describes it--
"Yet is there one, the most delightfull kind,
A loftie jumping, or a leaping round,
Where arme and arme two dauncers are entwind,
And whirle themselues with strict embracements bound,
And still their feet an _anapest_ do sound:
An _anapest_ is all their musicks song,
Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."
71.
"As the victorious twinnes of Laeda and Ioue,
That taught the Spartans dauncing on the sands,
Of swift Eurotas, daunce in heauen aboue,
Knit and vnited with eternall hands,
Among the starres their double image stands,
Where both are carried with an equall pace,
Together iumping in their turning race."
[271] "Or, as it is oftener called, _passa mezzo_, from _passer_ to walk,
and _mezzo_ the middle or half; a slow dance, little differing from the
action of walking. As a Galliard consists of five paces or bars in the
first strain, and is therefore called a Cinque pace; the _passa mezzo_,
which is a diminutive of the Galliard, is just half that number, and
from that peculiarity takes its name."--Sir John Hawkins's "History of
Music," iv. 386. [Compare Dyce's second edition of Shakespeare, iii.
412.]
[272] i.e., St Leger's round. "Sellinger's round was an old country
dance, and was not quite out of knowledge in the last century. Morley
mentions it in his Introduction, p. 118, and Taylor the Water Poet, in
his tract, entitled, 'The World runs on Wheels;' and it is printed in a
'Collection of Country Dances,' published by John Playford in
1679."--Sir John Hawkins's "History of Music," iii. 288, where the notes
are engraved.
[273] See Plinii "Nat. Hist.," lib. v. c. 9.
[274] The author certainly in writing this beautiful passage had Spenser
("Faerie Queene," b. ii. c. 12) in his mind.
"The joyous birds shrouded in cheerful shade," &c.
--_Collier_.
[275] Alluding to the fish called the _Sole_, and the musical note
_Sol_.--_Pegge_.
[276] See note [235].
[277] Mixed metal, from the French word _mesler_, to mingle, mix.
[278] [Lightning-bolt.]
[279] [Camphored.]
[280] Plin. "Nat. Hist." lib. xxxvi. c. 16. "Sideritin ob hoc alio
nomine appellant quidam Heracleon: Magnes appellatus est ab inventore
(ut auctor est Nicander) in Ida repertus."--_Pegge_.
[281] So in "The Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1--
"With mirth and _laughter_ let old _wrinkles_ come."
See also the notes of Bishop Warburton and Dr Farmer on "Love's Labour's
Lost," act v. sc. 4.--_Steevens_.
[282] This quotation from Plautus, and that which follows from Terence,
were assigned by Mr Reed to Communis Sensus, when, in fact, they belong
to Comedus. The initials _Com_. in the old copies led to the
error.--_Collier_.
[283] The first lines of the prologue to Plautus's "Menechmi."
[284] See Terence's "Eunuch," act i. sc. 1.
[285] At the universities, where degrees are conferred.
[286] i.e., A porch which has as many spiral windings in it as the
shell of the _periwinkle_, or sea-snail.--_Steevens_.
[287] i.e., Bottles to cast or scatter liquid odours.--_Steevens_.
[288] The custom of censing or dispersing fragrant scents seems formerly
to have been not uncommon. See Ben Jonson's "Every Man out of his
Humour," act ii. sc. 4.
[289] _Pomanders_ were balls of perfume formerly worn by the higher
ranks of people. Dr Gray, in his "Notes on Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 269,
says "that a _pomander_ was a little ball made of perfumes, and worn in
the pocket, or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague."
From the above receipt, it appears they were moulded in different
shapes, and not wholly confined to that of balls; and the like direction
is given in another receipt for making _pomanders_ printed in Markham's
"English Housewife," p. 151, edit. 1631.
[290] _Non bene olet, qui semper bene olet_.
[291] Probably some character notorious in the University of Cambridge
at the time when this play was written or represented.--_Steevens_.
[292] Turquois.
[293] [Sharpen.]
[294] [Edits., _musing_.]
[295] [Primary.]
[296] [The wine so called.]
[297] Finer, more gaudily dressed. So in "Wily Beguiled"--
"Come, nurse, gather:
A crown of roses shall adorn my head,
I'll _prank_ myself with flowers of the prime;
And thus I'll spend away my primrose time."
And in Middleton's "Chast Mayd in Cheapside," 1630 [Dyces "Middleton,"
iv. 59]--
"I hope to see thee, wench, within these few yeeres
Circled with children, _pranking_ up a girl,
And putting jewels in their little eares,
Fine sport, i'faith."
[298] i.e., Whisper, or become silent. As in Nash's "Pierce Penilesse,
his Supplication to the Divell," 1592, p. 15: "But _whist_, these are
the workes of darknesse, and may not be talkt of in the daytime." [The
word is perfectly common.]
[299] While he is speaking, Crapula, from the effects of over-eating,
is continually coughing, which is expressed in the old copies by the
words _tiff toff, tiff toff_, within brackets. Though it might not
be necessary to insert them, their omission ought to be mentioned.
--_Collier_.
[300] i.e., Glutton; one whose paunch is distended by food. See a note
on "King Henry IV., Part I," v. 304, edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
[301] i.e., Whisper.
[302] [Visus fancies himself Polyphemus searching for Outis--i.e.,
Ulysses, who had blinded him.]
[303] [Edits., _Both_.]
[304] [Row.]
[305] [Nearest.]
[306] [Edits., _ambrosian_.]
[307 [Fiddle.]
[308] A voiding knife was a long one used by our indelicate ancestors to
sweep bones, &c., from the table into the _voider_ or basket, in which
broken meat was carried from the table.--_Steevens_.
[309] Reward.
[310] [Edits., _him_.]
[311] [Edits., _sprites_.]
[312] The edition of 1657 reads--
"A greater soldier than the god of _Mars_."
--_Collier_. [The edition of 1607 also has _Mars_.]
[313] i.e., Hamstring him.--_Steevens_.
[314] "_Gulchin, q.d_. a _Gulckin_, i.e., parvus Gulo; _kin_ enim
minuit. Alludit It. _Guccio_, Stultus, hoc autem procul dubio a Teut.
_Geck_, Stultus, ortum ducit."--_Skinner_. Florio explains _Guccio_, a
gull, a sot, a ninnie, a meacock. Ben Jonson uses the word in "The
Poetaster," act iii. sc. 4: "Come, we must have you turn fiddler again,
slave; get a base violin at your back, and march in a tawny coat, with
one sleeve, to Goose-fair; then you'll know us, you'll see us then, you
will _gulch_, you will."
[315] _Bawsin_, in some counties, signifies a _badger_. I think I have
heard the vulgar Irish use it to express bulkiness. Mr Chatterton, in
the "Poems of the Pseudo-Rowley," has it more than once in this sense.
As, _bawsyn olyphantes_, i.e., bulky elephants.--_Steevens_.
[316] [Edits., _weary_. I wish that I could be more confident that
_weird_ is the true word. _Weary_ appears to be wrong, at any rate.]
[317] [Edits., _bedewy_.]
[318] [This and Chanter are the names of dogs. Auditus fancies himself
a huntsman.]
[319] _Counter_ is a term belonging to the chase. [Gascoigne,] in his
"Book of Hunting," 1575, p. 243, says, "When a hounde hunteth backwardes
the same way that the chase is come, then we say he hunteth _counter_.
And if he hunt any other chase than that which he first undertooke, we
say he hunteth _change_." So in "Hamlet," act iv. sc. 5--
"How cheerfully on the false trail they cry!
O, this is _counter_, you false Danish dogs."
See Dr Johnson's note on this passage.
[320] [The author may have had in his mind an anecdote related of Queen
Elizabeth and Sir Edward Dyer. See the "New London Jest Book," p. 346.]
[321] [Flatulent.]
[322] [_Rett_ and _Cater_ appear to be the names of dogs. Edits. print
_ware wing cater_.]
[323] [See note at p. 367.]
[324] Idle, lazy, slothful. Minsheu derives it from the French _lasche_,
desidiosus.
[325] [See a review of, and extracts from, this very curious play in
Fry's "Bibliographical Memoranda," 1816, pp. 345-50.]
[326] Catalogue of the library of John Hutton. Sold at Essex House,
1764, p. 121. The whole title of the tract, which Mr Reed does not
appear to have seen, as he quotes it only from a sale catalogue, is as
follows:--"Three Miseries of Barbary: Plague, Famine, Ciuill warre. With
a relation of the death of Mahamet the late Emperour: and a briefe
report of the now present Wars betweene the three Brothers. Printed by
W.I. for Henry Gosson, and are to be sold in Pater noster rowe, at the
signe of the Sunne." It is without date, and the name of the author,
George Wilkins, is subscribed to a dedication, "To the right worshipfull
the whole Company of Barbary Merchants." The tract is written in an
ambitious style, and the descriptions are often striking; but there is
nothing but the similarity of name to connect it with "The Miseries of
Enforced Marriage."--_Collier_.
[327] [Hazlitt's "Handbook," 1867, p. 656.]
[328] [Not in the old copies.]
[329] "This comedy (as Langbaine improperly calls it) has been a great
part of it revived by Mrs Behn, under the title of 'The Town Fop, or Sir
Timothy Tawdry.'"
[330] These were among the articles of extravagance in which the youth
of the times used to indulge themselves. They are mentioned by Fennor,
in "The Compters Commonwealth," 1617, p. 32: "Thinkes himselfe much
graced (as to be much beholding to them) as to be entertained among
gallants, that were wrapt up in sattin suites, cloakes lined with
velvet, that scorned to weare any other then beaver hats and gold bands,
rich swords and scarfes, silke stockings and gold fringed garters, or
russett bootes and _gilt spurres_; and so compleate cape ape, that he
almost dares take his corporal oath the worst of them is worth (at
least) a thousand a yeare, when heaven knows the best of them all for a
month, nay, sometimes a yeare together, have their pockets worse
furnished then Chandelors boxes, that have nothing but twopences, pence,
halfe pence, and leaden tokens in them."
[331] The following quotation from the "Perfuming of Tobacco, and the
great abuse committed in it," 1611, shows, in opposition to Mr
Gilchrist's conjecture, that _drinking_ tobacco did not mean extracting
the juice by chewing it, but refers to drawing and drinking the smoke of
it. "The smoke of tobacco (the which Dodoneus called rightly Henbane of
Peru) _drunke_ and _drawen_, by a pipe, filleth the membranes
(_meninges_) of the braine, and astonisheth and filleth many persons
with such joy and pleasure, and sweet losse of senses, that they can by
no means be without it." In fact, to _drink_ tobacco was only another
term for smoking it.--_Collier_.
[332] Alluding to the colour of the habits of servants.
[333] i.e., Owns. See note to "Cornelia" [v. 232].
[334] The omission of this stage direction, which is found in the old
copies, rendered what follows it unintelligible. Perhaps _Who list to
have a lubberly load_ is a line in some old ballad.--_Collier_.
[335] [Anthony Munday.]
[336] A custom still observed at weddings.
[337] _Himself_, omitted by Mr Reed, and restored now from the old copy
of 1611.--_Collier_.
[338] [Edits., _pugges_.]
[339] [Edits, read--
"They are _sovereigns_, cordials that preserve our lives."
[340] See Mr Steevens's note on "Othello," act ii. sc. 1. [But compare
Middleton's "Blurt, Master Constable," 1602 ("Works," by Dyce, i. 280).]
[341] [Edits., _his_. Even the passage is now obscure and
unsatisfactory.]
[342] [Separate.] This is obviously quoted from the marriage ceremony:
as Mr Todd has shown, the Dissenters in 1661 did not understand _depart_
in the sense of _separate_, which led to the alteration of the Liturgy,
"till death us _do part_." In the "Salisbury Manual" of 1555 it stands
thus: "I, N, take thee, M, to my wedded wyf, to have and to holde fro
this day forwarde, for better for wors, for richer for poorer, in
sicknesse and in hele, tyl deth us _departe_."--_Collier_.
So in "Every Woman in her Humour," 1609: "And the little God of love, he
shall be her captain: sheele sewe under him _'till death us depart_, and
thereto I plight thee my troth." And Heywood, in his "Wise Woman of
Hogsdon," iii., makes Chastley also quote from the marriage ceremony:
"If every new moone a man might have a new wife, that's every year a
dozen; but this _'till death us depart_ is tedious."
[343] [Edits., _two sentinels_.]
[344] Edits., _them one_.
[345] [Edits., _lives_.]
[346] [Remind.]
[347] [Edits., _know him great_, which could only be made sense by
supposing it to mean, _knowing him rich_, and not a person to be
offended. Scarborow afterwards repudiates the idea of being
_ungrateful_.]
[348] By a misprint the three following lines have been till now given
to Harcop.--_Collier_.
[349] [Edits., _your presence_.]
[350] First edit., _even_.
[351] [Edits., _is_.]
[352] [Edits., _what_.]
[353] That is, acquainted, or informed him. So in "Every Man in his
Humour," act i. sc. 5, Bobadil says, "_Possess_ no gentleman of our
acquaintance with notice of my lodging." And again, in Beaumont and
Fletcher's "Honest Man's Fortune," act ii. sc. 1--
"Sir, I am very well _possess'd_ of it."
[354] Edits. 1629 [and 1637], _honoured_.
[355] First edit., _how_.
[356] [Edits., _they_.]
[357] The word _sir_ was inserted here as if only to spoil the measure.
--_Collier_.
[358] i.e., Amerce.--_Steevens_.
[359] [i.e., the bond.]
[360] [Edits., _pergest_, which Steevens in a note explained _goeth on_,
from Lat. _pergo_; and Nares cites the present passage for the word. I
do not believe that it was ever employed in English, though Shakespeare
uses the original Latin once. _Purgest_ is surely preferable, since
Ilford has been just giving a list of those he has undone.]
[361] [Apparently a play on the double meaning of _talent_ is intended.]
[362] [Bonds.]
[363] In a similar vein of humour, but much more exquisite, Addison,
speaking of Sir Roger de Coverley, says, "He told me some time since
that, upon his courting the perverse widow, he had disposed of an
hundred acres in a diamond ring, which he would have presented her with,
had she thought fit to accept it; and that upon her wedding-day she
should have carried on her head fifty of the tallest oaks upon his
estate. He further informed me that he would have given her a coalpit to
keep her in clean linen; that he would have allowed her the profits of a
windmill for her fans, and have presented her once in three years with
the shearing of his sheep for her under-petticoats."--_Spectator_, No.
295.
In Wilson's "Discourse uppon Usurye," 1572, the subsequent passage
occurs:--"Thus master merchant, when he hath robbed the poore gentleman
and furnisht him in this manner to get a little apparel upon his back,
girdeth him with this pompe in the tail: Lo, sayethe hee, yonder goeth a
very strong stowt gentleman, for _he cariethe upon his backe a faire
manour, land and all_, and may therefore well be standard-bearer to any
prince Christian or heathen."
[364] [Chicken.]
[365] The place most commonly used for exposing the heads of traitors.
[366] [Edits.--
"O! but what shall I write?
Mine own excuse."
[367] [Edits., _large, full_.]
[368] [Edits., _appearance, and so as they are, I hope we shall be, more
indeer'd, intirely, better, and more feelingly acquainted_.]
[369] [Either whets their appetite, or prostrates them. The speaker
alludes probably to the early forenoon meal then in vogue.]
[370] The line was formerly mispointed, and misprinted thus--
"Then live a strumpet. Better be unborn."
Clare means, that it were better never to have been born than to live a
strumpet.--_Collier_.
[371] Edit. 1611, _would_; and in the next line, _did_.
[372] [Edits., _That_.]
[373] [Edits., _writes_.]
[374] Pitiless, without pity.
[375] [Edits., _her_.]
[376] [This line is assuredly corrupt, but the true reading is a matter
of question.]
[377] [Edits., _and_.]
[378] Their exit is not marked, but as their re-entrance is noticed
afterwards, it is to be presumed that they followed, the old man out.
[379] Perhaps misprinted for _haven_.--_Collier_.
[380] _Example by, &c_.--second and third edits.
[381] [Edits.], _stare_-wearer, which means no doubt _stair_-wearer, or
wearer of the stairs by going up and down them so frequently at call.
--_Collier_.
[382] [Edit. 1607, _ha't for you_.]
[383] "_Red lattice_ at the doors and windows were formerly the external
denotements of an alehouse; hence the present _chequers_." Mr Steevens
observes (note to "Merry Wives of Windsor," act ii. sc. 2) that "perhaps
the reader will express some surprise when he is told that shops with
the sign of the _chequers_, were common among the Romans. See a view of
the left-hand street of Pompeii (No. 9) presented by Sir William
Hamilton (together with several others equally curious) to the Antiquary
Society." [Compare "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 277-8.]
Marston, in the "First Part of Antonio and Mellida," act v., makes
Balurdo say: "No, I am not Sir Jeffrey Balurdo: I am not as well known
by my wit as an _alehouse_ by a _red lattice_."
[384] i.e., Defiles. See note on "Macbeth," edit. 1778, iv. 524.
--_Steevens_.
[385] [See note at p. 470.]
[386] The first edit, reads, _and any man else and he_.
[387] Three different departments of a prison, in which debtors were
confined according to their ability or incapacity to pay for their
accommodations: all three are pretty accurately described by Fennor in
"The Compter's Commonwealth," 1617.
[388] [Edits., _importance_.]
[389] _Sack_ with _sugar_ was formerly a favourite liquor. Although it
is mentioned very often in contemporary writers, it is difficult to
collect from any circumstances what the kind of wine then called _sack_
was understood to be. In the Second Part of "Henry IV.," act iv. sc. 3,
Falstaff speaks of _sherris sack_; and Dr Johnson supposes the fat
knight's admired potation was what we now call _sherry_, which he says
is drunk with sugar. This last assertion is contradicted by Mr Steevens,
who with more truth asserts that _sherry_ is at this time never drunk
with _sugar_, whereas _Rhenish_ frequently is. Dr Warburton seems to be
of opinion that the sweet wine still denominated _sack_ was that so
often mentioned by Falstaff, and the great fondness of the English
nation for _sugar_ rather countenances that idea. Hentzner, p. 88, edit.
1757, speaking of the manners of the English, says, _In potu copiosae
immittunt saccarum_--they put a great deal of sugar in their drink; and
Moryson, in his "Itinerary," 1617, p. 155, mentioning the Scots,
observes, "They drinke pure wines, not with _sugar, as the English_;"
again, p. 152, "But gentlemen garrawse onely in wine, with which many
mixe _sugar_, which I never observed in any other place or kingdome to
be used for that purpose: and because the taste of the English is thus
delighted with sweetnesse, the wines in tavernes (for I speak not of
merchants or gentlemen's cellars) are commonly mixed at the filling
thereof, to make them pleasant." _Sack and sugar_ are mentioned in "Jack
Drum's Entertainment," sig. G 3; "The Shoemaker's Holiday," sig. E;
"Everie Woman in Her Humour," sig. D 4; and "The Wonderful Yeare," 1603.
It appears, however, from the following passage in "The English
Housewife," by Gervase Markham, 1631, p. 162, that there were various
species of _sack_: "Your best _sacke_ are of Seres in Spaine, your
smaller of Galicia and Portugall: your strong _sackes_ are of the
islands of the Canaries and of Malligo, and your Muscadine and Malmseys
are of many parts of Italy, Greece, and some speciall islands." [But see
an elaborate note on sack (vin sec) in Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary,"
in _v_.]
[390] [Edit., _courses_.]
[391] [A room in the inn so called.]
[392] The second edition has it, _my master hopes to ride a cockhorse by
him before he leaves him_.--_Collier_.
[393] _Such is Master Scarborow; such are his company_--edit. 1611.
--_Collier_.
[394] [A room so called.]
[395] [Old copies, _time_.]
[396] See note to "The City Nightcap," act iii.
[397] Move, or stir. _Bouger_, Fr.
[398] I believe an _Epythite_ signifies a beggar--[Greek: epithetaes].--
_Steevens_.
[399] [Alluding to a tapestry representing the story of Susanna.]
[400] [Edits., _father's old man_.]
[401] [Edits., _to_.]
[402] [Booty, earnings.]
[403] This is a corruption of the Italian _corragio_! courage! a
hortatory exclamation. So, in the Epilogue to "Albumazer," 1615--
Two hundred crowns? and twenty pound a year
For three good lives? _cargo_! hai, Trincalo!"
--_Steevens_.
[404] A Fr. G. _Cigue_, utr. a Lat. Cucuta.--_Skinner_.
_Cigue_ f. Hemlocke, Homlocke, hearbe Bennet, Kex.--_Cotgrave_.
[405] _Dry-meat_ is inserted from the copy of 1611.--_Collier_.
[406] _Heir_ and _heiress_ were formerly confounded in the same way as
_prince_ was applied to both male and female. So in Cyril Tourneur's
"Atheist's Tragedy," 1612, we have--
This Castabella is a wealthy _heire_."
--_Collier_.
[407] We must here suppose that butler whispers to Ilford the place
where the lady _lies_ or _lodges_.--_Collier_.
[408] The following extracts from Stubbes's "Anatomie of Abuses," 4to,
1595, p. 57, will show the manners of the English in some particulars
which are alluded to in the course of these volumes: "Other some
(i.e., of the women of England) spend the greatest part of the day _in
sitting at the dore_, to show their braveries, and to make knowne their
beauties, to beholde the passengers by, to view the coast, to see
fashions, and to acquaint themselves with the bravest fellows; for if
not for these causes, I see no other causes why they _should sit at
their dores_, from morning till noon (as many do), from noon to night,
thus vainly spending their golden dayes in filthy idleness and sin.
Againe, other some being weary of that exercise, take occasion (about
urgent affaires you must suppose) to walke into the towne, and least
anything might be gathered, but that they goe about serious matters
indeed, they take their baskets in their hands, or under their arms,
under which pretence pretie conceits are practized, and yet may no man
say black is their eye.
"In the field's and suburbes of the cities they have gardens either
paled or walled round about very high, with their harbers and bowers fit
for the purpose. And least they might be espied in these open places,
they have their banquetting-houses with galleries, turrets, and what
not, therein sumptuously erected: wherein they may (and doubtless do)
many of them play the filthy persons. And for that their gardens are
locked, some of them have three or four keys a piece, whereof one they
keep for themselves, the other their paramours have to goe in before
them, least happily they might be perceived, for then were all the sport
dasht. Then to these gardens they repair, when they list, with a basket
and a boy, where they meeting their sweet harts, receive their wished
desires."
[409] See note to "The Parson's Wedding," iii. 3.
[410] [A woman of loose character. Such was its ordinary acceptation,
yet not its invariable one. See Lovelace's Poems, by Hazlitt, 1864, pp.
xl., xli., and 133, notes.] See note to "King Henry IV., Part II.,"
edit. 1778, v. 522.--_Steevens_.
[411] [Edits., _throw_.]
[412] "Towards the rear of the stage there appears to have been a
balcony or upper stage, the platform of which was probably eight or nine
feet from the ground. I suppose it to have been supported by pillars.
From hence, in many of our old plays, part of the dialogue was spoken;
and in front of it curtains likewise were hung, so as occasionally to
conceal the persons in it from the view of the audience."--Malone's
"History of the Stage." See his edition of "Shakespeare" by Boswell,
iii. 79.
[413] [The two brothers, disguised for the purpose, pretend to be their
sister's uncles, and engage in a conversation about her marriage,
intended to be overheard by Ilford and the others below.]
[414] [Edits., _beyond discourse, she's a paragon for a prince, than a
fit implement for a gentleman; beyond my element_.]
[415] [Edit. 1607] says, _Exit Ilford with his Sister_, but this is
obviously an error: it means with Scarborow's sister.--_Collier_.
[416] _Indeed_, second and third editions.
[417] [Edits., _for_.]
[418] [Edits., _flourish_.]
[419] [i.e., _Which make_.]
[420] _Them_ is the reading of the quarto, 1611, and perhaps Thomas
refers to "nature and her laws," mentioned not very intelligibly, in his
preceding speech.--_Collier_. [The first edit. of 1607 reads rightly
_thee_.]
[421] The grammar and language of this line are alike obscure and
incorrect; but the sense is tolerably clear--"Thou hast been so bad, the
best thing I can say is, &c."
[422] [Edits., _finisht_.]
[423] i.e. Measure it out. Hesperiam metire jacens.--_Virgil_.
--_Steevens_.
[424] i.e., Facility; [Greek: euergos], facilis.--_Steevens_.
[425] "Apud eosdem nasci Ctesias scribit, quam mantichoram appellat,
triplici dentium ordine pectinatim coeuntium, facie et auriculis
hominis, oculis glaucis, colore sanguineo, corpore leonis, cauda
scorpionis modo spicula infigentem: vocis ut si misceatur fistulae et
tubae concentus: velocitatis magnae, humani corporis vel praecipue
appetentem."--C. Plinii "Nat. Hist." lib. viii. c. 21.
[426] The edit. 1611, reads--
"Do as the devil does, hate panther-mankind."--_Collier_.
[427] _All--breath_, edits. 1611 and 1629.
[428] The old copy of 1611 reads, _unto their wives_, and it has been
supposed a misprint for _wines_; but this seems doubtful taking the
whole passage together, and the subsequent reference to the _children.
--Collier_.
[429] i.e., To defile. So in Churchyard's "Challenge," 1593, p. 251--
"Away foule workes, that _fil'd_ my face with blurs!"
Again, "Macbeth," act iii. sc. 1--
"If it be so,
For Banquo's issue have I _fil'd_ my mind."
See also Mr Steevens's note on the last passage.
[430] Sorry for you.
[431] [Edits., _or_, which is merely the old form of _ere_.]
[432] Mischievous, unlucky. So in "All's Well that Ends Well," act i.
sc. 5--
"A shrewd knave and an _unhappy_."
See also Mr Steevens's note on "Henry VIII.," act i. sc. 4.
[433] _I_ formerly was the mode of writing, as well as pronouncing, this
word.
[434] ["The fine effect which is produced through the foregoing scenes
by the idea of the 'Enforced Marriage' hanging on them like the German
notion of Fate, is destroyed by this happy ending."--_MS. note in one of
the former edits_.]
[435] [Bond.]
[436] [So in the ballad of "Auld Robin Gray"--
"My mother did na speak,
But she look'd me in the face," &c.
--_MS. note in one of the former edits_.]
[437] '51 edit. 1607, _letter_.
[438] _Ignes fatui_, Wills o' th' Wisp. See Mr Steevens's Note on "King
Henry VIII.," act v. sc. 3.
[439] [Edits., _And these_. The emendation is conjectured.]