Part 37
CAR. Nephew, prepare thyself With meekness and thanksgiving to receive Thy reverend fortune: amongst all the lords, Her close affection now makes choice of thee. LAC. Alas, I’m not to learn to know that now! Where could she make choice here, if I were missing? 'Twould trouble the whole state, and puzzle 'em all, To find out such another. CAR. ’Tis high time, madam, If your grace please, to make election now: Behold, they’re all assembled. DUCH. What election? You speak things strange to me, sir. CAR. How, good madam? DUCH. Give me your meaning plainly, like a father; You’re too religious, sir, to deal in riddles. CAR. Is there a plainer way than leads to marriage, madam, And the man set before you? DUCH. O blasphèmy To sanctimonious faith! comes it from you, sir? An ill example! know you what you speak, Or who you are? is not my vow in place? How dare you be so bold, sir? Say a woman Were tempt with a temptation, must you presently Take all th’ advantage on’t? CAR. Is this in earnest, madam? DUCH. Heaven pardon you! if you do not think so, sir. You’ve much to answer for: but I will leave you; Return I humbly now from whence I fell. All you bless’d powers that register the vows Of virgins and chaste matrons, look on me With eyes of mercy, seal forgiveness to me By signs of inward peace! and to be surer That I will never fail your good hopes of me, I bind myself more strictly; all my riches I’ll speedily commend to holy uses, This temple[993] unto some religious sanctuary, Where all my time to come I will allow For fruitful thoughts; so knit I up my vow. LAC. This ['t]is to hawk at eagles: pox of pride! It lays a man i’ th’ mire still, like a jade That has too many tricks, and ne’er a good one. I must gape high! I’m in a sweet case now! I was sure of one, and now I’ve lost her too. [_Aside._ DUCH. I know, my lord, all that great studious care Is for your kinsman; he’s provided for According to his merits. CAR. How’s that, good madam? DUCH. Upon the firmness of my faith, it’s true, sir:
_Enter Page[994] in a female dress._
See, here’s the gentlewoman; the match was made Near forty weeks ago: he knows the time, sir, Better than I can tell him, and the poor gentlewoman Better than he; But being religious, sir, and fearing you, He durst not own her for his wife till now; Only contracted with her in man’s apparel, For the more modesty, because he was bashful, And never could endure the sight of woman, For fear that you should see her: this was he Chose for my love, this page preferr’d to me. LAC. I’m paid with mine own money. [_Aside._ CAR. Dare hypocrisy, For fear of vengeance, sit so close to virtue? Steal’st thou a holy vestment from religion To clothe forbidden lust with? th’ open villain[995] Goes before thee to mercy, and his penitency Is bless’d with a more sweet and quick return. I utterly disclaim all blood in thee; I’ll sooner make a parricide my heir Than such a monster.—O, forgive me, madam! The apprehension of the wrong to you Has a sin’s weight at it. I forget all charity When I but think upon him. DUCH. Nay, my lord, At our request, since we are pleas’d to pardon, And send remission to all former errors, Which conscionable justice now sets right, From you we expect patience; has had punishment Enough in his false hopes; trust me he has, sir; They have requited his dissembling largely: And to erect your falling goodness to him, We’ll begin first ourself; ten thousand ducats The gentlewoman shall bring out of our treasure To make her dowry. CAR. None has the true way Of overcoming anger with meek virtue, Like your compassionate grace.
LAC. Curse of this fortune! this ’tis to meddle with taking stuff, whose belly cannot be confined in a waistband. [_Aside._]—Pray, what have you done with the breeches? we shall have need of 'em shortly, and[996] we get children so fast; they are too good to be cast away. My son and heir need not scorn to wear what his mother has left off. I had my fortune told me by a gipsy seven years ago; she said then I should be the spoil of many a maid, and at seven years’ end marry a quean for my labour, which falls out wicked and true. DUCH. We all have faults; look not so much on his: Who lives i’ th’ world that never did amiss?— For you, Aurelia, I commend your choice, You’ve one after our heart; and though your father Be not in presence, we’ll assure his voice; Doubt not his liking, his o’erjoying rather.— You, sir, embrace your own, ’tis your full due; No page serves me more that once dwells with you. O, they that search out man’s intents shall find There’s more dissemblers than of womankind.[997] [_Exeunt omnes._
END OF VOL. III.
LONDON: PRINTED BY LEVEY, ROBSON, AND FRANKLYN, 46 St. Martin’s Lane.
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# 1:
Of the ed. of 1605, I have met with no other copy except that in my own possession, which formerly belonged to Mr. Heber.
# 2:
_Prodigious_] “That is, _portentous_, so deformed as to be taken for a _foretoken of evil_.” REED.
# 3:
_torrent_] Old eds. “torment.”
# 4:
_Aligant_] As our early writers commonly spell the word—i. e. a red wine of Alicant, in the province of Valencia.
# 5:
_byrlady_] i. e. By our lady.
# 6:
_marginal finger_] i. e. the index (☞) on the margins of old books, to direct the reader’s attention to particular passages.
# 7:
_jig-makers_] “i. e. ballad-makers.” REED.
# 8:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 9:
_with a wet finger_] i. e. easily, readily.
# 10:
_clarissimo’s_] i. e. grandee’s.
# 11:
_true house_ ... _no thieves_] _True men_ being a cant term for honest men—in opposition to _thieves_.
# 12:
_do_] Old eds. “does.”
# 13:
_mandrake_] “The root of it is great and white like a radish-root, and is divided into two or more parts, growing sometimes like the legs of a man.” Blount’s _Glossographia_. REED.—According to the old superstitious notions, the mandrake possessed an inferior degree of animal life, &c.
# 14:
_whiblins_] i. e., perhaps, eunuchs, says Nares, _Gloss._ in v.
# 15:
_in print_] “Exactly, perfectly.” REED.
# 16:
_Albertus Magnus_] “i. e. de Secretis Mulierum.” STEEVENS.
# 17:
_Problems_] Old eds. “Emblemes,” which in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_ is rightly altered to _Problems_. An absurd book, called _The Problems of Aristotle, with other Philosophers and Physitions_, &c., was printed at London, in 1595, 1607, &c.
# 18:
_wide a’ th’ bow-hand_] i. e. your arrow has flown a good way from the mark, on the left hand (in which the bow was held).
# 19:
_cut off his beard_] “To cut off the hair of any person was, in our author’s time, a mark of disgrace, and esteemed a very great indignity.” REED.
# 20:
_scald hair_] “i. e. scattered or dispersed hair. Mr. Lambe, in his notes on _Flodden Field_, observes, that the word _scale_ is used in the North in the above-mentioned sense.” REED. Nonsense! _scald_ is scabby—paltry.
# 21:
_brave_] i. e. finely dressed—a quibble.
# 22:
_ingle_] i. e. bosom friend: see note, vol. ii. p. 498.
# 23:
_madcaps_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “old dames.”
# 24:
_one a’ mine aunts_] Ed. 1605, “_one a’_ my naunts.”— _Aunt_ was a cant term for a prostitute, as in the present passage, and more frequently (see vol. ii. p. 21, line 1) for a bawd.
# 25:
_welkin_] i. e. sky.
# 26:
_cony-catch_] i. e. cheat, deceive: see note, vol. i. p. 290.
# 27:
_beg me for a fool_] “Sir William Blackstone, in his _Commentaries_, vol. i. p. 303, says,—‘By the old common law there is a writ _de idiota inquirendo_, to inquire whether a man be an idiot or not; which must be tried by a jury of twelve men: and if they find him _purus idiota_, the profits of his lands, and the custody of his person, may be granted by the king to some subject who has interest enough to obtain them.’ And he observes, that this power, though of late very rarely exerted, is still alluded to in common speech by that usual expression of _begging_ a man for a fool.” REED.
# 28:
_Benedict_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “Benedick.”
# 29:
_near_] Old eds. “meere.”
# 30:
_Softly!—See, doctor, what_, &c.] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “_Softly_ sweet _Doctor: what_,” &c.
# 31:
_rust_] Qy. “crust?”
# 32:
_fond_] i. e. foolish.
# 33:
_the midst_] So the excellent ed. of 1605. Other eds. “_the_ deadst,” which is given in Dodsley’s _Old Plays_, and which, as Nares (_Gloss._ in v.) remarks, is “but awkwardly applied to the height or meridian of feasting, which surely has nothing _dead_ in it.” Perhaps the misprint arose from the compositor’s eye having caught the word _death_ in the next line but two.
# 34:
_alter_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “alterd.”
# 35:
_good knaves_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “God knowes.”
# 36:
_thy_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “the.”
# 37:
_I’d_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “Ile.”
# 38:
_hurts_] Ed. 1605, “hnrts.” Other eds. “haunts.”
# 39:
_goddess in the Cyprian_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “gods _in the_ Coprian.”
# 40:
_her_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “it.”
# 41:
_a tavern-token_] “During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and from thenceforward to that of Charles the Second, very little brass or copper money was coined by authority. For the convenience of trade, victuallers and other tradesmen, without any restriction, were therefore permitted to coin small money, or _tokens_, as they were called, which were used for change. These _tokens_ were very small pieces, and, probably, at first coined chiefly by tavern-keepers; from whence the expression a _tavern-token_ might have been originally derived.” REED. “That most of them would travel to the _tavern_, may be easily supposed, and hence, perhaps, the name. Their usual value seems to have been a farthing.” Gifford, note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 30.
# 42:
_of all loves_] i. e. for the sake of all love—by all means.
# 43:
_tempted_] So other eds. First ed. “tempred.”
# 44:
_lay_] i. e. wager.
# 45:
_golls_] A cant term for hands—fists, paws.
# 46:
_Gentlemen, what_, &c., _fine cambrics, fine lawns_] Is one speech in old eds., with the prefix “_All Three_.”—_What do you lack?_ was the constant address of shopkeepers to customers: see note, vol. i. p. 447.
# 47:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 48:
_Pax_] See note, vol. ii. p. 24.
# 49:
_companions_] i. e. fellows.
# 50:
_leese_] i. e. lose.
# 51:
_shrow_] i. e. shrew.
# 52:
_I pledge you_] “The following account of the forms prescribed in health-drinking in our author’s time, is taken from _The Irish Hubbub, or the English Hue and Crie_, by Barnaby Rich, 1623, p. 24. He calls it _The Ruffingly Order of drinking Healths used by the Spendalls of this age_. ‘He that beginnes the health hath his prescribed orders: first uncovering his head, hee takes a full cup in his hand, and setting his countenance with a grave aspect, hee craves for audience: silence being once obtained, hee beginnes to breath out the name peradventure of some honourable personage, that is worthy of a better regard, then to have his name polluted at so unfitting a time amongst a company of Drunkards: but his health is drunke to, and he that pledgeth must likewise off with his cap, kisse his fingers, and bowing himselfe in signe of a reverent acceptance; when the Leader sees his follower thus prepared, hee sups up his broath, turnes the bottom of the cup upward, and in ostentation of his dexteritie, gives the cup a phillip to make it cry _Twango_. And thus the first scene is acted. The cup being newly replenished to the breadth of an haire, he that is the pledger must now beginne his part, and thus it goes round throughout the whole company, provided alwayes, by a canon set downe by the Founder, there must be three at the least still uncovered, till the health hath had the full passage: which is no sooner ended, but another begins againe, and hee drinkes an Health to his _Lady of little worth_, or peradventure to his _light-hele’d mistres_.’” REED.
# 53:
_Blurt_] An exclamation of contempt, equal to—a fig for.
# 54:
_on my thumb-nail_] In Nash’s _Pierce Pennilesse_, a marginal note explains the words “drinke _super nagulum_” to be “a deuise of drinking new come out of Fraunce, which is, after a man hath turnd vp the bottome of the cup, to drop it on his naile and make a pearle with that is left, which if it shed and he cannot make stand on, by reason there’s too much, he must drinke againe for his penance.” Sig. F. ed. 1595.
# 55:
_wish_] i. e. desire.
# 56:
_meacock_] “i. e. a timorous, dastardly creature.” REED.
# 57:
_swaddle_] i. e. strap, beat soundly.
# 58:
_goodman Abra’m_] A sort of cant term: Bellafront applies it to Roger at p. 36.
# 59:
_chafing-dish_] “To heat the poking-irons.” REED.
# 60:
_ready_] i. e. dressed: compare vol. ii. pp. 57, 224, and notes.
# 61:
_curls her hair_, &c.] This direction perhaps applies to what Bellafront is to do presently—when Roger holds the glass and candle for her.
# 62:
_poker_] “This instrument, of which mention is frequently made in contemporary writers, is sometimes called _poting stick_, and at others a _poking stick_. It was used to adjust the plaits of ruffs, which were then generally worn by the ladies. Stowe says, that these _poking sticks_ were made of wood or bone until about the 16th year of Queen Elizabeth, when they began to be made of steel,” [that they might be used hot]. REED.
# 63:
_court-cupboard_] A sort of buffet: see note, vol. ii. p. 506.
# 64:
_goodman Abra’m_] See note, p. 32.
# 65:
_of_] Old eds. “if.”
# 66:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 67:
_Marry muff_] An expression of contempt, which frequently occurs in our early writers: compare vol. i. p. 258, and note.
# 68:
_Sings_] “This word has hitherto been printed as part of the text [“_Sing pretty_,” &c.]; but it is clearly a stage-direction, referring to the ballad Bellafront commences.” COLLIER.
# 69:
_fall_] i. e. falling band, which lay flat upon the dress from the neck.
# 70:
_God’s my pittikins_] A corruption of _God’s my pity_, an expression which Bellafront afterwards makes use of in this scene (p. 40). Shakespeare puts _ods-pittikins_ into the mouth of a lady of very different character: see _Cymbeline_, act iv. sc. 2.
# 71:
_marmoset_] i. e. monkey.
# 72:
_Exit_] Old eds. “Exit _for a candle_.”
# 73:
_another light angel_] Angel was a gold coin worth about 10 shillings. Compare Dekker’s _Satiromastix_, 1602, “I markt, by _this Candle, which is none of God’s Angels_.” Sig. C.
# 74:
_curtal_] i. e. docked horse.
# 75:
_Hippocras_] A beverage composed generally of red wine, but sometimes of white, with spices and sugar,— strained through a woollen bag.
# 76:
_teston_] See note, vol. i. p. 258.
# 77:
_manchet_] i. e. a roll of the finest bread.
# 78:
_the canaries_] A quick and lively dance, frequently mentioned by our early writers: “As to the air itself, it appears, by the example in the Opera of _Dioclesian_ [set to music by Purcell, and containing a dance called the _Canaries_], to be a very sprightly movement of two reprises or strains, with eight bars in each,” &c. Hawkins’s _Hist. of Music_, vol. iv. p. 391—cited by Reed.
# 79:
_scorn’t_] Several eds. “I _scorn’t_.”
# 80:
_of all filthy, dry-fisted knights_] “A moist hand is vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution.” REED.
# 81:
_cony_] i. e. rabbit-skin.
# 82:
_sweet Oliver_] “It may be just worth noticing, that this epithet almost always accompanies the mention of this gentle rival of the mad Orlando in fame.” Gifford’s note on B. Jonson’s _Works_, vol. i. p. 98.
# 83:
_set him beneath the salt_] “This refers to the manner in which our ancestors were seated at their meals. ‘The tables being long,’ says Mr. Whalley, note to _Cynthia’s Revels_, act ii. sc. 2. [sc. 1.] ‘the salt [i. e. salt-cellar—of a very large size] was commonly placed about the middle, and served as a kind of boundary to the different quality of the guests invited. Those of distinction were ranked above; the space below was assigned to the dependents or inferior relations of the master of the house.’” REED.
# 84:
_to_] So some eds. First ed. “of.”
# 85:
_walks off_] i. e. retires behind.
# 86:
_aloof off_] This expression is twice used by Middleton in _Michaelmas Term_ (see vol. i. pp. 427, 469), and its repetition here is a slight confirmation (if any were needed) of the correctness of Henslowe’s statement: vide p. 3.
# 87:
_signors have_] First two eds. “signior.” Others, “signiors.” All, “has.”
# 88:
_little_] Spelt in the first two eds. “litle:” therefore qy. “tilt?”
# 89:
_cony-catch_] See note, p. 16.
# 90:
_mother_] i. e. hysterical passion.
# 91:
_scald_] i. e. paltry: see note, p. 15.
# 92:
_What gentleman_] Here the last editor of Dodsley inserted a stage-direction, “_Enter Hippolito_,” which he says is absolutely necessary: but see note, p. 40.
# 93:
_respectively_] i. e. respectfully: compare vol. i. p. 425.
# 94:
_Beseech you_, &c.] Bellafront, I suppose, having shewn some displeasure at the commendation of Infelice.
# 95:
_the_] Old eds. “my.”
# 96:
_Hippolito, acquaintance_] Old eds. “Hipolitos acquaintance.”
# 97:
_Marry muff_] See note, p. 36.
# 98:
_and_] i. e. if.
# 99:
_sirrah_] Often applied to women: compare vol. ii. p. 491.
# 100:
_you soused gurnet_] “An appellation of contempt very frequently employed in the old comedies.” REED.
# 101:
_shaall_] So spelt in the first two eds., to mark the prolonged emphasis.
# 102:
_in your waistcoat_] i. e. (as Nares rightly explains the passage, _Gloss._ in v.) in that alone, without a gown or upper dress. Low prostitutes were generally so attired, and were hence called _waistcoateers_.
# 103:
_Bastard wine_] In a note, vol. ii. p. 347, I have said that bastard was “a sweet _Spanish_ wine:” “That it was a sweetish wine, there can be no doubt; and that it came from some of the countries which border the Mediterranean, appears equally certain,” observes Henderson; who supposes that it approached to the muscadel wine in flavour, and was made from a _bastard_ species of muscadine grape. _Hist. of Wines_, pp. 290-1.
# 104:
_poulter’s_] i. e. poulterer’s.
# 105:
_one_] He means Hippolito: _woodcock_ was a cant term for a foolish fellow.
# 106:
_I_] So several eds. Not in first ed.
# 107:
_proper_] i. e. personable.
# 108:
_have_] Old eds. “has.”
# 109:
_Back_] Old eds. “Black.”
# 110:
_ador’d her eyes_] “In a pamphlet attributed to Robert Greene, called _Theeves falling out Truemen come by their goods_, printed in 1615, and probably earlier, there is a story entitled ‘The Conversion of an English Curtezan,’ which, in some points, bears a resemblance to a main incident in this play. Her conversion is wrought by a young man who visits her as in ‘the way of her trade:’ at his request she takes him into a dark loft, under pretence that he cannot bear to commit ‘the act of sin’ in the light; but still the day peeps in through a hole in the roof: on his complaining that it was not quite dark, she replies, that ‘none but God could see them.’ Hence he takes occasion to read her a lecture very similar to that of Hippolito in Dekker. ‘Oh! thou art made beautiful, fair, and well formed, and wilt thou then by thy filthy lust make thy body, which if thou be honest is the temple of God, the habitation of the Devil?’ In one place he says,—‘But suppose while thou art young thou art favoured of thy companions; when thou waxest old, and that thy beauty is faded, then thou shalt be loathed and despised even of them that professed most love unto thee.’ After she has been thoroughly reformed, he marries her.” COLLIER.
# 111:
_O yes_, &c.] An imperfect couplet: see notes, vol. i. p. 424, vol. ii. pp. 7, 307.
# 112:
_mete_] i. e. measure, embrace.
# 113:
_luxurious_] i. e. lascivious.
# 114:
_I_] So ed. 1605. Not in other eds.
# 115:
_dagger’d arms_] See note, vol. ii. p. 99.
# 116:
_What, has he left his weapon here behind him, And gone forgetful? O fit instrument_] Ed. 1605 has only “_His weapon left heere? O fit instrument._”
# 117:
_split my heart upon_] Ed. 1605, “cleaue my bosome on.”
# 118:
_Not speak to me? not bid farewell? a scorn?_] Ed. 1605, “_Not speake to me! not looke! not_ bid farewell!”
# 119:
_walking by_] It must be remembered that the shops in London (and of London only our authors thought) were formerly “open” (see stage-direction, vol. ii. p. 453), and resembled booths or stalls at a fair.
# 120:
_what you lack_] See note, p. 24.
# 121:
_squall_] This word, which seems to be equivalent to wench, is by no means common: Middleton uses it several times (see, for instance, vol. i. p. 431); and its occurrence here is another proof (see note, p. 40) that he was concerned in the composition of the present drama.
# 122:
_chaldrons_] Or _chaudrons_—i. e. particular entrails.
# 123:
_cracked in the ring_] See note, vol. ii. p. 253.
# 124:
_malicholly_] A corruption of _melancholy_.
# 125:
—_when I touch her lip I shall not feel his kisses_]
“Imitated by Shakespeare in _Othello_, act iii. sc. 3.
‘I slept the next night well, was free and merry; _I found not Cassio’s kisses on her lips_.’” REED.
If there be any imitation in the case, I believe it to be on the part of Dekker or Middleton. Malone ultimately assigned the production of _Othello_ to 1604, having ascertained (on what evidence we know not) that it was acted in that year: but if it be imitated in the present passage, it must have been produced at an earlier period: see p. 3.
# 126:
_falling-bands_] Or _falls_: see note, p. 37.
# 127:
_napery_] i. e. linen.
# 128:
_the posts of his gate are a-painting too_] “i. e. he will soon be sheriff. At the door of that officer large posts, on which it was customary to stick proclamations, were always set up.” STEEVENS.
# 129:
_Prentices within_] Old eds. here and afterwards, “_Omnes._”
# 130:
_flat-cap_] The citizens of London, both masters and journeymen, continued to wear flat round caps long after they had ceased to be fashionable, and were hence in derision termed _flat-caps_.
# 131:
_here’s_] So ed. 1605. Other eds. “here.”
# 132:
_likes_] i. e. pleases.
# 133:
_to call coz_] This passage, and what Fustigo says to the same purpose, p. 15, seem to confirm my remark on the word _cousin_, vol. i. p. 499.
# 134:
_ningle_] i. e. bosom friend: see note, vol. ii. p. 498.—So ed. 1605. Other eds. “mingle.”
# 135:
_gules_] i. e. red—an heraldic term.
# 136:
_wish_] i. e. desire.