Part 3
_We saw Samson bear the town-gates on his neck from the lower to the upper stage, with that life and admirable accord, that it shall never be equalled, unless the whole new livery of porters set [to] their shoulders_] Middleton seems to have had in his recollection a passage of Shakespeare’s _Love’s Labour’s Lost_: “Sampson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the town-gates on his back, like a porter.” Act i. sc. 2.
Vol. ii. p. 148, l. 28.
_familiar_] i. e. attendant demon.
Vol. ii. p. 178, l. 21.
_Europa’s sea-form_] Probably “sea-form” is used in the sense of sea- seat,—the bull on which she sat.
Vol. ii. p. 194, l. 8.
_play Ambidexter_] I was wrong, I believe, in saying that this expression has an allusion to Preston’s _Cambises_: it is by no means uncommon.
--------------
YOUR FIVE GALLANTS.
Vol. ii. p. 255, l. 16.
“_Hist!_ a supply.”
Read, with old ed.,
“_Pist!_ a supply.”
See notes, vol. ii. pp. 460, 468.
Vol. ii. p. 264, l. 20.
_E’en where his fear lies most, there will I meet him._
After this line insert “_Exit_;” and in the note, for “and thrown a scarf over his face (see what follows), the audience,” &c., read “and having made his exit at one door, had re-entered at the other with a scarf thrown over his face, the audience,” &c.
Vol. ii. p. 268, l. 27.
“Master, _hist_, master!”
Read, with old ed.,
“Master, _pist_, master!”
See notes, vol. ii. pp. 460, 468.
Vol. ii. p. 290, l. 7.
PUR. _Thy father gave the ram’s head, boy?_ BOY. _No, you’re deceived; my mother gave that, sir._
The boy means that she made his father a cuckold: compare Dekker’s _Owles Almanacke_, 1618; “Men whose wiues haue light heeles, are called _Ramme-headed Cuckolds_,” p. 10.
--------------
A MAD WORLD, MY MASTERS.
Vol. ii. p. 333, l. 25.
_the glory of his complement_] I doubt if Steevens’s explanation of this passage be the right one, or if _complement_ mean here any thing more than courtly address.
Vol. ii. p. 369, note 812.
Steevens’s remark, cited here by Reed, that a horse was sometimes denominated a _footcloth_, is certainly wrong. “Sir Bounteous,” observes Nares (_Gloss._ in v.), “is said to [be] alight[ed] from his _footcloth_, as one might say, alighted from his saddle.”
--------------
THE ROARING GIRL.
Vol. ii. p. 466, last line.
_the high German’s size_] This person is probably alluded to in the following passage of Dekker’s _Newes from Hell_, &c. 1606: “As for Rapier and dagger, the Germane may be his journeyman.” Sig. B. See also Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Knight of the Burning Pestle_—_Works_, vol. i. p. 215, ed. Weber; and Shirley’s _Opportunity_—_Works_, vol. iii. p. 407, where Gifford observes, that “he seems to have been ‘a master of fence,’ or common challenger.”
Vol. ii. p. 511, l. 27.
“’Twas like a _sigh_ of his.”
Since writing the note on this passage, I have met with the following lines in _The Travailes of the Three English Brothers_, _&c._ (by Day, W. Rowley, and Wilkins), 1607;
“Pray Turke, let thy heart _sigth_ and thine eyes weepe.” Sig. B 3. “To whose continuall kneelings, teares, and _sighthes_.” Sig. B 4.
Vol. ii. p. 530, note 1134.
I am told that a gentleman in London possesses an edition of the _Life of Long Meg of Westminster_, printed in 1582.
Vol. ii. p. 541, l. 1.
“Peck, pennam, _lay_, or popler.”
I ought to have substituted “lap” for “lay,” as Reed (see note) suggests.
--------------
THE HONEST WHORE.
Vol. iii. p. 9, l. 16.
_Curs’d be that day for ever_, &c.] In a note on Shakespeare’s _King John_, act iii. sc. 1, Henderson has pointed out the resemblance between this speech of Hippolito and that of Constance which begins,
“A wicked day, and not a holy day!” &c.
Vol. iii. p. 42, l. 20.
“CAS. Please you be here, my lord? [_Offers tobacco._”
This appears to have been the customary expression on such an occasion: in _Wine, Beere, Ale, and Tobacco, Contending for Superiority, a Dialogue_, we read,
“_Enter Tobaco._
_Tobaco._ Be your leaue gentlemen—wilt _please you be here_, sir?”
Sig. C 4. ed. 1630.
Vol. iii. p. 60, last line.
_ningle_] I have observed, in my note, that all the eds. except that of 1605 have “mingle.” Nares (who had not seen that rare edition), citing this passage, gives _Mingle_ in his _Gloss._ as a legitimate word; but I do not recollect to have met with such a form.
Vol. iii. p. 80, l. 26.
_turn Turk_] “Was,” says Gifford, “a figurative expression for a change of condition, or opinion.” Note on Massinger’s _Works_, vol. ii. p. 222, ed. 1813.
Vol. iii. p. 83, l. 9.
_orangado_] Should be “oringado” or “eringado:” _oringo_ was an old form of _eringo_.
Vol. iii. p. 91, l. 7.
“_A sister’s thread_, i’faith, had been enough.”
In Ford’s _Lady’s Trial_ is the same expression:
“A flake, no bigger than _a sister’s thread_,”
which Gifford too hastily altered to “a _spider’s_ thread,” _Works_, vol. ii. p. 306.—That “sister’s” is not a misprint, there can be no doubt: it seems to be a form of _sewster’s_.
“At euery twisted _thrid_ my rock let fly Unto the _sewster_.”
B. Jonson’s _Sad Shepherd_—_Works_, vol. vi. p. 282, ed. Giff.
Vol. iii. p. 108, l. 25.
_We see you, old man, for all you dance in a net_] An allusion to the proverbial saying, “You dance in a net, and think nobody sees you.” Ray’s _Proverbs_, p. 5, ed. 1768.
Vol. iii. p. 115, l. 21.
_Bow a little_] i. e. bend your hand a little: so in _The Spanish Gipsy_, Alvarez, while telling the fortune of Louis, says to him, “Bend your hand thus:” see vol. iv. p. 149.
--------------
THE SECOND PART OF THE HONEST WHORE.
Vol. iii. p. 152, l. 12.
_I’ll fly high, wench, hang toss!_] In this passage, says Gifford, “_toss_ is used in a way that would induce one to think it meant low play, or a hazard of petty sums.” Note on Massinger’s _Works_, vol. iii. p. 160, ed. 1813.
Vol. iii. p. 197, l. 9.
_a cob_] “A [silver] _Cob_ of Ireland, or a Peece of Eight, is worth four shilling eight pence. It is a Spanish Coin, not round but cornered, or nuke shotten, and passith according to its weight for more or less.” R. Holme’s _Ac. of Armory_, b. iii. c. ii. p. 30.
Vol. iii. p. 199, l. 3.
_Must I be fed with chippings? you’re best get a clapdish, and say you’re proctor to some spittle-house_] “It was once,” says Gifford, “the practice for beadles and other inferior parish officers, to go from door to door with a clap-dish, soliciting charity for those unhappy sufferers, who are now better relieved by voluntary subscriptions.” Note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 44.
Vol. iii. p. 200, l. 3.
_old Cole_] Is the name of the sculler in the puppet-show of _Hero and Leander_, introduced into B. Jonson’s _Bartholomew Fair_, act v. sc. 3: see _Works_, vol. iv. p. 509 (note), and p. 520, ed. Gifford.
--------------
THE WIDOW.
Vol. iii. p. 354, l. 3.
_improv’d_] Is right; meaning, as it frequently does, proved.
Vol. iii. p. 373, l. 22.
_And they’re both well provided for, they’re i’ th’ hospital_] “_Hospital_” ought to have been printed with a capital letter: for though the scene of the play is laid in Italy, yet the allusion (as Gifford observes, note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p 41), is to Christ’s Hospital, whither, when it was first established, the foundlings taken up in the city were sent for maintenance and education.
Vol. iii. p. 383, l. 19.
_Come, my dainty doxies?_] I neglected to notice that this song is found entire in our author’s _More Dissemblers besides Women_: see p. 606 of the same volume.
--------------
A FAIR QUARREL.
Vol. iii. p. 510, l. 11.
_from the six windmills to Islington_] “The third great Field from Moorgate, next to _the six Windmills_.” Stow’s _Survey_, b. iii. p. 70, ed. 1720.
Vol. iii. p. 514, l. 17.
_a quadrangular plumation_] Compare Vigon’s _Workes of Chirurgerie_, &c., 1571, where, treating of “tentes, lyntes, and bolsters” for wounds, he tells us that “some [_bolsters_] _bene quadrate_;” and a little after, “some moreouer vse _bolsters made of fethers_,” fol. cxiii.
--------------
A CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE.
Vol. iv. p. 5, last line.
_board_] The spelling of the old ed. is right—“_bord_,” i. e. size. So in Beaumont and Fletcher’s _Knight of the Burning Pestle_;
“underneath his chin He plants a brazen piece of mighty _bord_.”
## Act iii. sc. 2—_Works_, vol. i. p. 214, ed. Weber.
where, says M. Mason, “_bord_ means rim or circumference.”
Vol. iv. p. 32, l. 4.
_corps_] So the word is used as a plural in _Epigrams and Satyres_, by Richard Middleton, 1608;
“the Tyrants brazen bull Of Agrigentine, which being crammed full Of humane _corps_, did roare with such a maine,” &c. p. 34.
Vol. iv. p. 66, note, read
“11 _Rider’s Dictionary_] _A Dict. Engl. and Lat. and Lat. and Engl._, by John Rider, first printed at Oxford, 1589, was a work once in great repute.”
--------------
THE SPANISH GIPSY.
Vol. iv. p. 145, last line but one.
“this she, trow;”
Read
“this she, trow?”
--------------
A GAME AT CHESS.
Vol. iv. p. 310, l. 1.
_Roch, Main, and Petronill, itch and ague curers_] Compare Taylor the water-poet: “he must be content with his office, as ... Saint Roch with scabbes and scurfes ... Saint Petronella the Ague or any Feuer.” _A Bawd_, p. 93—_Workes_, 1630.
Vol. iv. p. 407, l. 6.
_Epistle to Nicholas the first_, &c.] Since writing the note on these words, I have found in the Κειμηλια _Literaria_ of Colomesius what he calls a confirmation of the absurd story of the six thousand infants’ heads. “Simile quid narratur a Joscelino, in Episcoporum Cantuariensium Vitis, p. 210. editionis Hanovianæ. _Anno 1309_, inquit, _Radulphus Bourn Augustinensis Ecclesiæ Abbas electus, cum ad Papam Avinioni agentem confirmandus accessisset, reversus domum, testatur se vidisse in itinere piscinam in quadam Monialium Abbatia, quæ_ PROVINES _dicebatur; in qua, cum educta aqua luto purgaretur, multa parvulorum ossa, ipsaque corpora adhuc integra reperiebantur. Unde ad criminalia judicia subeunda viginti septem Moniales Parisios ductæ et carceribus mancipatæ fuerunt, de quibus quid actum fuerit, nescivit_.” Col. _Opera_, p. 301, ed. Fabr.
--------------
ANY THING FOR A QUIET LIFE.
Vol. iv. p. 489, l. 25.
_the new prophet, the astrological tailor_] Perhaps Ball, who is thus mentioned by Osborn: “And, if common Fame did not outstrip Truth, King James was by Fear led into this extreme; finding his Son Henry not only averse to any Popish Match, but saluted by the Puritans as one prefigured in the Apocalyps for Rome’s destruction. And to parallel this, one Ball, a Taylor, was inspired with a like Lunacy, tho’ something more chargeable; for not only he, but Ramsay his Majesty’s Watch-maker, put out Money and Clocks, to be paid (but with small Advantage, considering the Improbability) when King James should be crowned in the Pope’s chair.” _Trad. Memor. on the Reign of K. James_—_Works_, vol. ii. p. 153, ed. 1722; see also B. Jonson’s _Works_ by Gifford, vol. v. p. 242.
--------------
WOMEN BEWARE WOMEN.
Vol. iv. p. 520, l. 20.
_To take out_] i. e. to copy—a not uncommon expression in our old writers.
--------------
NO WIT, NO HELP LIKE A WOMAN’S.
Vol. v. p. 23, l. 30.
_the widow’s notch shall lie open to you_] This passage is, I think, explained by the following line in our author’s _Triumphs of Truth_;
“The very _nooks_ where beldams hide their gold.” p. 229 of the same vol.
Vol. v. p. 77, last line.
“To bid a _slander_ welcome than a truth.”
I did quite right in substituting “_slander_” for “slave.” These words were frequently confounded by the old printers.
“Revenge and Death Like _slander_ [read _slaves_] attend the sword of Calymath.” _The Travailes of The Three English Brothers_ (by Day, W. Rowley, and Wilkins), 1607, sig. C 4.
Vol. v. p. 131, l. 3.
_I from the baker’s ditch_] So in Brome’s _Sparagus Garden_, 1640, “Sheart, Coulter, we be vallen into _the Bakers ditch_.” Sig. K 3. The ancient way of punishing bakers, who did not give full weight, was by the cucking-stool (see Grey’s note on _Hudibras_, P. iii. C. iii. v. 609); qy. is that punishment alluded to in the above passages?
--------------
THE INNER-TEMPLE MASQUE.
Vol. v. p. 148, l. 5.
_Ill May-Day_] i. e. Evil May-day—so called from the rising of the London apprentices against the foreigners, on the first of May, 1517: see _The Story of Ill May-Day, &c._, and the editor’s illustrations, in Evans’s _Old Ballads_, vol. iii. p. 76, ed. 1810.
Vol. v. p. 148, l. 9.
_Midsummer-Eve, that watches warmest_] Perhaps this is an allusion to the setting out of the Midsummer watch: see Herbert’s _Hist. of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of London_, vol. i. p. 196, sqq.
Vol. v. p. 149, note 213.
“i. e. wife.”
Read
“i. e. city-wife.”
--------------
THE TRIUMPHS OF INTEGRITY.
Vol. v. p. 310, l. 1.
“pegmes.”
Read
“pegms.”
--------------
THE BLACK BOOK.
Vol. v. p. 543, l. 15.
_ketlers_] This word occurs in Kemp’s _Nine daies wonder_, 1600; “Those that haue shewne themselues honest men, I wil set before them this Caracter, H. for honesty; before the other Bench-whistlers shal stand K. for _ketlers_ and keistrels, that wil driue a good companion without need in them to contend for his owne.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE OLD LAW.
_The Excellent Comedy, called The Old Law, or A new way to please you._
{ _Phil. Massinger._ _By_ { _Tho. Middleton._ { _William Rowley._
_Acted before the King and Queene at Salisbury House, and at severall other places, with great Applause. Together with an exact and perfect Catalogue of all the Playes, with the Authors Names, and what are Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Pastoralls, Masks, Interludes, more exactly Printed then ever before. London, Printed for Edward Archer, at the signe of the Adam and Eve, in Little Britaine._ 1656. 4to.
Steevens (Malone’s _Shakespeare_, by Boswell, ii. 425.) remarks, that this drama was acted in 1599, founding the statement most probably on a passage in Act iii. Sc. 1., where the Clerk having read from the church-book, “_Agatha, the daughter of Pollux—born in an. 1540_,” adds, “and _now ’tis 99_.” From similar notices in several other old dramas, the periods at which they were first produced have been clearly ascertained; and Gifford (_Introd._ to Massinger, p. lv. 2d ed.) inclines to believe that _The Old Law_ was really first acted in 1599, and that Massinger (who was then only in the fifteenth year of his age) was employed, at a subsequent period, to alter or to add a few scenes to the play. What portion of it was written by Middleton cannot be determined.
The 4to. abounds in the grossest typographical errors. I have followed, except in some trifling particulars, the text of Gifford, who published _The Old Law_ in the ivth vol. of his Massinger.
“There is an exquisiteness of moral sensibility, making one to gush out tears of delight, and a poetical strangeness in all the improbable circumstances of this wild play, which are unlike any thing in the dramas which Massinger wrote alone. The pathos is of a subtler edge. Middleton and Rowley, who assisted in this play, had both of them finer geniuses than their associate.”—LAMB, _Spec. of Engl. Dram. Poets_, p. 453.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.
EVANDER, _duke of Epire_. CRATILUS, _the executioner_. CREON, _father to_ SIMONIDES. SIMONIDES, } _young courtiers_. CLEANTHES, } LYSANDER, _husband to_ EUGENIA, _and uncle to_ CLEANTHES. LEONIDES, _father to_ CLEANTHES. GNOTHO, _the clown_. _Lawyers._ _Courtiers._ _Dancing-master._ _Butler_, } _Bailiff_, } _Tailor_, } _Coachman_, } _Servants to_ CREON. _Footman_, } _Cook_, } _Clerk._ _Drawer._
ANTIGONA, _wife to_ CREON. HIPPOLITA, _wife to_ CLEANTHES. EUGENIA, _wife to_ LYSANDER, _and mother to_ PARTHENIA. PARTHENIA. AGATHA, _wife to_ GNOTHO. _Old women_, _wives to_ CREON’S _servants_. _Courtezan._
_Fiddlers_, _Servants_, _Guard_, _&c._
SCENE, EPIRE.
THE OLD LAW.
--------------
## ACT I. SCENE I.
_A Room in_ CREON’S _House_.
_Enter_ SIMONIDES _and two_ LAWYERS.
SIM. Is the law firm, sir? FIRST LAW. The law! what more firm, sir, More powerful, forcible, or more permanent? SIM. By my troth, sir, I partly do believe it; conceive, sir, You have indirectly answered my question. I did not doubt the fundamental grounds Of law in general, for the most solid; But this particular law that me concerns, Now, at the present, if that be firm and strong, And powerful, and forcible, and permanent? I am a young man that has an old father. SECOND LAW. Nothing more strong, sir. It is—_Secundum statutum principis, confirmatum cum voce senatus_,[57] _et voce reipublicæ_; nay, _consummatum et exemplificatum_. Is it not in force, When divers have already tasted it, And paid their lives for penalty? SIM. ’Tis true. My father must be next; this day completes Full fourscore years upon him. SECOND LAW. He is[58] here, then, _Sub pœna statuti_: hence I can tell him, Truer than all the physicians in the world, He cannot live out to-morrow; this Is the most certain climacterical year— ’Tis past all danger, for there is[59] no ’scaping it. What age is your mother, sir? SIM. Faith, near her days too; Wants some two of threescore.[60] FIRST LAW. So! she’ll drop away One of these days too: here’s a good age now For those that have old parents and rich inheritance! SIM. And, sir, ’tis profitable for others too: Are there not fellows that lie bedrid in their offices, That younger men would walk lustily in? Churchmen, that even the second infancy Hath silenc’d, yet have[61] spun out their lives so long, That many pregnant and ingenious spirits Have languish’d in their hop’d reversions, And died upon the thought? and, by your leave, sir, Have you not places fill’d up in the law By some grave senators, that you imagine Have held them long enough, and such spirits as you, Were they remov’d, would leap into their dignities? FIRST LAW. _Die quibus in terris, et eris mihi magnus Apollo._[62] SIM. But tell me, faith, your fair opinion: Is’t not a sound and necessary law, This, by the duke enacted? FIRST LAW. Never did Greece, Our ancient seat of brave philosophers, ’Mongst all her _nomothetæ_[63] and lawgivers, Not when she flourish’d in her sevenfold sages, Whose living memory can never die, Produce a law more grave and necessary. SIM. I’m of that mind too. SECOND LAW. I will maintain, sir, Draco’s oligarchy, that the government Of community reduced into few, Fram’d a fair state; Solon’s _chreokopia_,[64] That cut off poor men’s debts to their rich creditors, Was good and charitable, but not full allow’d;[65] His _seisactheia_[66] did reform that error, His honourable senate of Areopagitæ. Lycurgus was more loose, and gave too free And licentious reins unto his discipline; As that a young woman, in her husband’s weakness, Might choose her able friend to propagate; That so the commonwealth might be supplied With hope of lusty spirits. Plato did err, And so did Aristotle, [in] allowing Lewd and luxurious limits to their laws: But now our Epire, our Epire’s Evander, Our noble and wise prince, has hit the law That all our predecessive students Have miss’d, unto their shame.
_Enter_ CLEANTHES.