book 4.

"Dame rainbow down therefore with safron wings of dropping showres. Whose face a thousand sundry hewes against the sunne devoures, From heaven descending came----"

SCENE 1. Page 131.

ARI. ... so I charm'd their ears, That calf-like, they my lowing follow'd through Tooth'd briers, sharp furzes, pricking goss and thorns Which enter'd their frail skins.

Dr. Johnson has introduced a passage from Drayton's _Nymphidia_, as resembling the above description. It is still more like an incident in the well known story of the _friar and the boy_.

"Jacke toke his pype and began to blowe Then the frere, as I trowe, Began to daunce soone; The breres scratched hym in the face And in many another place That the blode brast out, He daunced among thornes thycke In many places they dyde hym prycke, &c."

SCENE 1. Page 136.

CAL. And all be turn'd to _barnacles_, or apes.

Mr. Collins's note, it is presumed, will not be thought worth retaining in any future edition. His account of the barnacle is extremely confused and imperfect. He makes Gerarde responsible for an opinion not his own; he substitutes the name of Holinshed for that of Harrison, whose statement is not so ridiculous as Mr. Collins would make it, and who might certainly have seen the feathers of the barnacles hanging out of the shells, as the _fish barnacle_ or _Lepas anatifera_ is undoubtedly furnished with a _feathered_ beard. The real absurdity was the credulity of Gerarde and Harrison in supposing that the barnacle goose was really produced from the shell of the fish. Dr. Bullein not only believed this himself, but bestows the epithets, _ignorant_ and _incredulous_ on those who did not; and in the same breath he maintains that crystal is nothing more than ice. See his _Bulwarke of defence_, &c. 1562, Folio, fo. 12. Caliban's barnacle is the _clakis_ or tree-goose. Every kind of information on the subject may be found in the _Physica curiosa_ of Gaspar Schot the Jesuit, who with great industry has collected from a multitude of authors whatever they had written concerning it. See lib. ix. c. 22. The works of Pennant and Bewick will supply every deficiency with respect to _rational_ knowledge.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 140.

PRO. Ye _elves_ of hills----

The different species of the fairy tribe are called in the Northern languages _ælfen_, _elfen_, and _alpen_, words of remote and uncertain etymology. The Greek ολβιος, _felix_, is not so plausible an original as the Teutonic _helfen_, _juvare_; because many of these supernatural beings were supposed to be of a mischievous nature, but all of them might very properly be invoked to assist mankind. Some of the northern nations regarded them as the souls of men who in this world had given themselves up to corporeal pleasures, and trespasses against human laws. It was conceived therefore that they were doomed to wander for a certain time about the earth, and to be bound in a kind of servitude to mortals. One of their occupations was that of protecting horses in the stable. See Olaus Magnus _de gentibus septentrionalibus_, lib. iii. cap. xi. It is probable that our fairy system is originally derived from the Fates, Fauns, Nymphs, Dryads, Deæ matres, &c., of the ancients, in like manner as other Pagan superstitions were corruptedly retained after the promulgation of Christianity. The general stock might have been augmented and improved by means of the crusades and other causes of intercourse with the nations of the East.

SCENE 1. Page 141.

PRO. ... you demy-puppets, that By moonshine do the _green-sour_ ringlets make, Whereof the ewe not bites----

_Green sour_, if the genuine reading, should be given, as in the first folio, without a hyphen; for such a _compound_ epithet will not elsewhere be easily discovered. Though a real or supposed acidity in this kind of grass will certainly warrant the use of _sour_, it is not improbable that Shakspeare might have written _greensward_, i. e. the green surface of the ground, from the Saxon ꞅƿeaꞃꝺ, skin.

SCENE 1. Page 158.

PRO. His mother was a witch; and one so strong _That could control the moon_.

So in a former scene, Gonzalo had said, "You are gentlemen of brave mettle; you would _lift the moon out of her sphere_, &c." In Adlington's translation of _Apuleius_ 1596, 4to, a book well known to Shakspeare, a marginal note says, "Witches in old time were supposed to be of such power that they could pul downe _the moone by their inchauntment_." In Fleminge's _Virgil's Bucolics_ is this line, "Charms able are from heaven high to fetch the moone adowne;" and see Scot's _Discoverie of witchcraft_ 1584, 4to, pp. 174, 226, 227, 250.

But all the above authorities are from the ancients, the system of modern witchcraft not affording any similar instances of its power. The Jesuit Delrio is willing to put up with any notice of this superstition among heathen writers, but is extremely indignant to find it mentioned by a Christian; contending that it exclusively belongs to the ancients. _Disquis. magic._ lib. ii. quæst. xi. The following classical references may not be unacceptable. The earliest on the list will be that in Aristophanes's _Clouds_, where Strepsiades proposes the hiring of a Thessalian witch to bring down the moon and shut her in a box that he might thus evade paying his debts by the month.

"Quæ sidera excantata voce Thessalâ _Lunamque cœlo deripit_."

Horat. _epod._ v.

"_Deripere lunam_ vocibus possum meis."

Horat. _epod._ xvii.

"Et jam _luna negat toties descendere cœlo_."

Propert. II. _el._ 28.

"Cantus et _é curru lunam deducere_ tentat Et faceret, si non ære repuisa sonent."

Tibull. I. _el._ 8. and see _el._ 2.

... "_Phœbeque serena_ Non aliter diris verborum obsessa venenis Palluit, et nigris, terrenisque ignibus arsit, Et patitur tantos _cantu depressa_ labores Donec suppositas propior despumet in herbas."[2]

Lucan vi.

"Mater erat Mycale; quam _deduxisse canendo_ Sæpe reluctanti constabat _cornua lunæ_."

Ovid. _Metam._ I. xii.

"Illa reluctantem _curru deducere lunam_ Nititur"

Ovid. _epist._ vi.

"Sic _te_ regentem frena nocturni ætheris _Detrahere_ nunquam _Thessali cantus_ queant."

Senec. _Hippolyt._ Act. 2.

"Mulieres etiam lunam deducunt."

Petron. Hadrianid. 468.

In the same author the witch Enothea, describing her power, says, "_Lunæ descendit imago, carminibus deducta meis._" p. 489.

It is said that Menanda wrote a play called _the Thessalian_, in which were contained the several incantations used by witches to draw the moon from the heavens.

So when the moon was eclipsed, the Romans supposed it was from the influence of magical charms; to counteract which, as well as those already enumerated, they had recourse to the sound of brazen implements of all kinds. Juvenal alludes to this practice when he describes his talkative woman.

"... Jam nemo tubas, nemo æra fatiget, Una laboranti _poterit succurrere lunæ_."

_Sat._ vi. 441.

And see particularly Macrob. _Saturna._ l. v. c. 19. It is not improbable that the rattling of the sistrum by the priests of Isis, or the moon, may be in some way or other connected with this practice, or have even been its origin.

In proportion to the advance of science, it will, no doubt, be found that the Greeks and Romans borrowed more than is commonly imagined from the nations of the East, where the present practice seems to have been universal. Thus the Chinese believe that during eclipses of the sun and moon these celestial bodies are attacked by a great serpent, to drive away which they strike their gongs or brazen drums; the Turks and even some of the American Indians entertain the same opinion. This is perhaps a solution of the common subject on Chinese porcelain, of a dragon pursuing a ball of fire, the symbol of the sun. The Hindoos suppose that a serpent, born from the head of a giant slain by Vishnu, is permitted by that deity to attack the sun. Krishna the Hindoo sun is sometimes represented combating this monster, whence the Greek story of Apollo and the serpent Python may have been derived.

THE FOOL.

The character of Trinculo, who in the _dramatis personæ_ is called a _jester_, is not very well discriminated in the course of the play itself. As he is only associated with Caliban and the drunken butler, there was no opportunity of exhibiting him in the legitimate character of a professed fool; but at the conclusion of the play it appears that he was in the service of the king of Naples as well as Stephano. On this account therefore, and for the reasons already offered in page 20, he must be regarded as an allowed domestic buffoon, and should be habited on the stage in the usual manner.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See Malone's _Shaksp._ vol. i. part i. p. 379.

[2] The last line is a good comment on the "lunam despumari" of Apuleius speaking of the effects of magical mutterings.

TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Page 170.

PRO. For I will be thy _beadsman_, Valentine.

A beadsman is one who offers up prayers to heaven for the welfare of another. Many of the ancient petitions to great men were addressed to them by their "poor daily orators and beadsmen." _To count one's beads_, means, in the Romish church, to offer up as many prayers to God and the Virgin Mary as the priest or some voluntary penance or obligation shall have enjoined; and that no mistake may happen in the number, they are reckoned by means of certain balls strung in a kind of chaplet, and hence in the English language termed _beads_, from the Saxon beaꝺ, a prayer. There is much difference of opinion among ecclesiastical writers as to the origin of this practice. Some ascribe its invention to Peter the hermit in the eleventh century, others to Venerable Bede, misled probably by the affinity of the name. Monsieur Fleury more rationally conceives it to be not older than the eleventh century; but the probability is, that it was imported into Europe by the crusaders, who found it among the Mahometans. The latter use it wherever their religion has been planted, and there is even reason for supposing that it originated among the natives of Hindostan. These chaplets made of beads are called _rosaries_ when they are used in prayers to the Virgin. The term _bead_, as applied to the materials of which necklaces, &c. are made, seems therefore to have been borrowed from the chaplet of rosaries in question.

SCENE 1. Page 171.

PRO. Over the boots? Nay, _give me not the boots_.

An allusion, as it is supposed, to the diabolical torture of the boot. Not a great while before this play was written, it had been inflicted in the presence of King James on one Dr. Fian, a supposed wizard, who was charged with raising the storms that the King encountered in his return from Denmark. In the very curious pamphlet which contains the account of this transaction it is stated that "hee was with all convenient speed, by commandement, convaied againe to the _torment of the bootes_, wherein he continued a long time, and did abide so many blowes in them, that his legges were crushte and beaten togeather as small as might bee, and the bones and flesh so brused, that the bloud and marrowe spouted forth in great abundance, whereby they were made unserviceable for ever." The unfortunate man was afterwards burned. But the above instrument of torture was not, as suggested in one of the notes on this occasion, "used only in Scotland;" it was known in France, and in all probability imported from that country. The following representation of it is copied from Millæus's _Praxis criminis persequendi_, Paris, 1541, folio. This instrument of torture continued to be used in Scotland so late as the end of the 17th century. See _A hind let loose_, 1687, 8vo, pp. 186, 198, in the frontispiece to which work there is an indistinct representation of the boot. It is said to have been imported from Russia by a Scotchman. See Maclaurin's _Arguments in remarkable cases_, 4to, p. xxxvii.

[Illustration]

SCENE 1. Page 171.

VAL. ... To be In love, where scorn is bought with groans: coy looks, With heart-sore sighs; one fading moment's mirth, With twenty watchful, weary, tedious nights: If haply won, perhaps a hapless gain; If lost, why then a grievous labour won; However, but a folly bought with wit, Or else a wit by folly vanquished.

Thus explained by Dr. Johnson. "This love will end in a _foolish action_, to produce which you are long to spend your _wit_, or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered by the folly of love;" an explanation that is in part very questionable. The poet simply means that love itself is sometimes a foolish object dearly attained in exchange for reason; at others the human judgment subdued by folly. He is speaking of love abstractedly, and not alluding to that of Proteus.

SCENE 1. Page 178.

SPEED. I thank you, you have _testern'd_ me.

Mr. Holt White's information from a passage in Latimer's sermons, that the tester was then worth _more_ than _six-pence_, is so far correct; but as an inference might be drawn from the quotation that it was actually worth _ten-pence_, it becomes necessary to state that at that time, viz. in 1550, the tester was worth _twelve-pence_. It is presumed that no accurate account of this piece of coin has been hitherto given; and therefore the following attempt, which has been attended with no small labour, may not be unacceptable.

The term, variously written, _teston_, _tester_, _testern_, and, in _Twelfth night_, _testril_, is from the French _teston_, and so called from the king's head, which first appeared on this coin in the reign of Louis XII. A. D. 1513, though the Italians seem previously to have had a coin of the same denomination. In our own country the name was first applied to the English shilling (originally coined by Henry the Seventh) at the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth, probably because it resembled in value the French coin above described; so that _shilling_ and _teston_ were at that time synonymous terms. Although the teston underwent several reductions in value, it appears to have been worth twelve-pence at the beginning of Edward the Sixth's reign, from three several proclamations in his second and third years for calling in, and at length annihilating, this coin, on account of the forgeries that had been committed; Sir William Sharington having falsified it to the amount of 12,000_l._, for which by an express act of parliament he was attainted of treason. In the above proclamations the testons are specifically described as "pieces of xiid commonly called testons;" and in the last of them, the possessors are allowed twelve-pence apiece on bringing them to the mint. Sir Henry Spelman, who has asserted in his glossary that the teston was reduced to nine-pence in the _first_ year of King Edward, must be mistaken. Stowe more correctly informs us that on the 9th of July 1551 (the _fifth_ year of the King's reign), the base shillings of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. were called down to _nine_-pence, and on the 17th of August following to _six_-pence. He afterwards, under the year 1559, cites a proclamation for reducing it still lower, viz. to fourpence halfpenny. We must conclude that it again rose in value as the coin became improved; for it appears from _Twelfth night_, Act II. Scene 3, that it was in Shakspeare's time the same as the six-pence, and it has probably continued ever since as another name for that coin.

SCENE 2. Page 185.

JUL. I see you have a _month's mind_ to them.

There is a great deal of quotation given in the notes, but nothing after all that amounts to an explanation of the term. It alludes to the mind or _remembrance_ days of our Popish ancestors. Persons in their wills often directed that in a _month_, or any other specific time, from the day of their decease, some solemn office for the repose of their souls, as a mass or dirge, should be performed in the parish church, with a suitable charity or benevolence on the occasion. Polydore Vergil has shown that the custom is of Roman origin; and he seems to speak of the month's mind as a ceremony peculiar to the English. _De rer. invent._ lib. vi. c. 10.

ACT II.

SCENE 2. Page 201.

JUL. Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake.

[_giving a ring._

PRO. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this.

JUL. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.

This was the mode of plighting troth between lovers in private. It was sometimes done in the church with great solemnity, and the service on this occasion is preserved in some of the old rituals. To the latter ceremony the priest alludes in _Twelfth night_, Act V. Scene 1.

"A contract of eternal bond of love Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, Attested by the holy close of lips, Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings, &c."

SCENE 4. Page 210.

SIL. That you are welcome?

PRO. ... _No_; that you are worthless.

Dr. Johnson has here inserted the particle _no_, "to fill up the _measure_;" but the measure is not defective though the harmony is. Mr. Steevens, disputing the suggestion of a brother critic, that _worthless_ might have been designed as a trisyllable, asks whether _worthless_ in the preceding speech of Sylvia is a trisyllable? Certainly not; but he should have remembered the want of uniformity of metre in many words among the poets of this period. Thus in p. 223, lines 8 and 9, the word _fire_ is alternately used as a monosyllable and dissyllable; and where the quantity is complete, as in the present instance, the harmony is often left to shift for itself.

ACT III.

SCENE 1. Page 232.

DUKE. Why Phaeton, (for thou _art_ Merop's son)

It is far more likely that Shakspeare found this at the end of the first book of Golding's _Ovid's metamorphosis_, than in the authorities referred to in Mr. Steevens's note.

SCENE 1. Page 239.

LAUN. There; and _Saint Nicholas_ be thy speed.

The true reason why this Saint was chosen to be the patron of Scholars may be gathered from the following story in his life, composed in French verse by _Maitre Wace_, chaplain to Henry the Second, remaining in manuscript but never printed. It appears from a passage in Ordericus Vitalis, p. 598, that the metrical legends of Saints were sung by the Norman minstrels to the common people.

"Treis clers aloent a escole, Nen frai mie longe parole; Lor ostes par nuit les oscieit, Les cors musca, la ...[3]prenoit Saint Nicolas par Deu le sout, Sempris fut la si cum Deu plut, Les clers al oste demanda, Nes peut muscier einz lui mustra. Seint Nicolas par sa priere Les ames mist el cors ariere. Por ceo qe as clers fist tiel honor Font li clerc feste a icel jor."

That is, "Three scholars were on their way to school, (I shall not make a long story of it,) their host murdered them in the night, and hid their bodies; their ... he reserved. Saint Nicholas was informed of it by God Almighty, and according to his pleasure went to the place. He demanded the scholars of the host, who was not able to conceal them, and therefore showed them to him. Saint Nicholas, by his prayers, restored the souls to their bodies. Because he conferred such honour on scholars, they at this day celebrate a festival."

It is remarkable, that although the above story explains the common representation of the Saint, with three children in a tub, it is not to be found in that grand repertory of Monkish lies, _The Golden Legend_. It occurs, however, in an Italian life of Saint Nicholas, printed in 1645, whence it is extracted into the Gentleman's Magazine for 1777, p. 158. There is a note by Mr. Whalley on _Saint Nicholas's clerks_, as applied to _highwaymen_, in King Henry the Fourth, part the first, vol. viii. p. 418, which, though erroneously conceived, would have been more properly introduced on the present occasion. Standing where it does, the worthy author is made responsible for having converted the parish clerks of London into a nest of thieves, which he certainly never intended. Those respectable persons, finding that scholars, more usually termed clerks, had placed themselves under the patronage of Saint Nicholas, conceived that _clerks_ of any kind might have the same right, and accordingly took this saint as _their_ patron; much in the same way as the wool-combers did Saint Blaise, who was martyred with an instrument resembling a curry-_comb_, the nail-makers Saint _Clou_, and the booksellers Saint John Port-_Latin_.

SCENE 2. Page 246.

PRO. Especially against his _very_ friend.

Mr. Steevens explains _very_ to be _immediate_. Is it not rather _true, verus_? Thus Massinger calls one of his plays _A_ very _woman_. See likewise the beginning of the Nicene creed.

ACT IV.

SCENE 2. Page 257.

HOST. ... the musick _likes_ you not.

i. e. _pleases_, in which sense it is used by Chaucer. This is the genuine Saxon meaning of the word, however it might have been corrupted in early times from its Latin original _licet_. In the next speech Julietta plays upon the word.

SCENE 2. Page 258.

SIL. What is your will?

PRO. That I may compass yours.

SIL. You have your wish; my will is even this;--

On which Dr. Johnson observes, "The word _will_ is here ambiguous. He wishes to _gain_ her _will_; she tells him, if he wants her _will_ he has it." The learned critic seems to have mistaken the sense of the word _compass_, when he says it means _to gain_. If it did, his remark would be just. But to _compass_ in this place signifies, to _perform_, _accomplish_, _take measures for doing a thing_. Thus in _Twelfth night_, Act I. Scene 2, "that were hard to _compass_;" and in _1 Hen._ VI. Act V. Scene 5, "You judge it impossible to _compass_ wonders." Accordingly Sylvia proceeds to instruct Proteus _how_ he may perform her will. _Wish_ and _will_ are here used, as in many other places, though inaccurately, as synonymous. If however Shakspeare really designed to make Proteus say that he was desirous of _gaining_ Sylvia's good will, she must be supposed, in her reply, purposely to mistake his meaning.

SCENE 2. Page 260.

SIL. But since your falshood shall _become_ you well To worship shadows, and adore false shapes.

Dr. Johnson objects to the sense of this passage, and the other commentators offer conjectural interpretations; yet surely nothing is more clear than the sense, and even the grammar may be defended. It is simply, "since your falsehood shall _adapt or render you fit_ to worship shadows." _Become_ here answers to the Latin _convenire_, and is used according to its genuine Saxon meaning.

SCENE 2. Page 260.

HOST. By my HALLIDOM, I was fast asleep.

This Mr. Ritson explains, _by my holy doom_, or _sentence at the resurrection_, from the Saxon halɩᵹꝺom; but the word does not appear to have had such a meaning. It rather signifies holiness or honesty. It likewise denoted a sacrament, a sanctuary, relics of saints, or anything holy. It seems in later times to have been corrupted into _holidame_, as if it expressed the holy virgin. Thus we have _so help me God and hollidame_. See Bullein's _Book of the use of sicke men_, 1579, in folio, fo. 2 b.

SCENE 4. Page 270.

JUL. But since she did neglect her looking-glass, And threw her _sun-expelling mask_ away.

It was the fashion at this time for the ladies to wear masks, which are thus described by the puritanical Stubs in his _Anatomie of abuses_, 1595, 4to, p. 59. "When they use to ride abroad they have _masks and visors made of velvet_ wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they looke. So that if a man that knew not their guise before, should chaunce to meet one of them, he would think he met a monster or a Devil, for face he can shew (see) none, but two broad holes against their eyes, with glasses in them." More will be said on the subject of this mode of disguising the female face in a remark on _The merry wives of Windsor_, Act IV. Scene 2.

SCENE 4. Page 271.

JUL. ... 'twas Ariadne, passioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight.

A note is here inserted, "not" says its learned and classical author, "on the business of Shakspeare," but to introduce a conjecture relating to one of Guido's paintings commonly supposed to represent Ariadne as deserted by Theseus and courted by Bacchus, but which he conceives to have been intended for Bacchus's desertion of this lady for an Indian captive. An attentive examination of the print from Guido's picture will, it is presumed, incline any one to hesitate much before he shall decide on having discerned any traces of an Indian princess; and this supposed character may rather turn out to be Venus introducing the amorous Deity, attended by his followers, to Ariadne, forlorn and abandoned by Theseus in the isle of Chios, according to Ovid, or Naxos according to Lactantius. Nor is the female who accompanies Bacchus "hanging on his arm," as stated by the critic. It is impossible likewise to perceive in this figure the modest looks or demeanour of a female captive, or in the supposed Bacchus the character of a lover, insulting, according to Ovid's description, his former mistress by displaying the beauties of another. Boccaccio has very comically accounted for Ariadne's desertion by Theseus, and her subsequent transfer to Bacchus. He supposes the lady to have been too fond of the juice of the grape, and that on her continuing to indulge this propensity, she was therefore called the wife of Bacchus. See _Geneal. deor._ lib. xi. c. 29.

SCENE 4. Page 274.

JUL. Her eyes are _grey as glass_.

This was in old times the favourite colour of the eyes in both sexes:

"His eyen are _gray_ as any _glasse_."

_Romance of Sir Isenbras._

"Her eyen gray as glas."

_Romance of Libeaus desconus._

"Les iex _vairs_ et rians com un faucon."

_Roman de Guerin de Montglaive. MS._

And to come nearer to Shakspeare's time:--In the interlude of _Marie Magdalene_, a song in praise of her says, "your eyes as _gray_ as glasse and right amiable." The French term _ver_ or _vair_ has induced some of their antiquaries to suppose that it meant _green_; but it has been very satisfactorily shown to signify in general the colour still called by heralds _vair_. It is certain however that the French romances and other authorities allude occasionally to _green_ eyes.

SCENE 4. Page 274.

JUL. My substance should be _statue_ in thy stead.

In confirmation of Mr. M. Mason's note, it may be observed that in the comedy of _Cornelianum dolium_, Act I. Scene 5, _statua_ is twice used for a picture. They were synonymous terms, and sometimes a statue was called a picture. Thus Stowe, speaking of Elizabeth's funeral, says that when the people beheld "her _statue or picture_ lying upon the coffin" there was a general sighing, &c. _Annals_, p. 815, edit. 1631. In the glossary to Speght's _Chaucer_, 1598, _statue_ is explained _picture_; and in one of the inventories of King Henry the Eighth's furniture at Greenwich, several _pictures of earth_ are mentioned. These were busts in _terra cotta_ like those still remaining in Wolsey's palace at Hampton Court.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 276.

EGL. That Silvia _at Patrick's cell_ should meet me.

The old copy reads "at _friar_ Patrick's cell," which Mr. Steevens calls a redundance, justifying his alteration by a passage in the next scene, where "At Patrick's cell" occurs. But the old reading is right, and should not have been disturbed, there being no redundance when it is judiciously read. Silvia is often used as a dissyllable, and must here be read elliptically. Besides, we had "_friar_ Patrick's cell" before in p. 263.

SCENE 4. Page 280.

VAL. And to the nightingale's complaining notes Tune my distresses, and _record_ my woes.

It has been already observed that this term refers to the _singing of birds_. It should have been added that it was formed from the _recorder_, a sort of flute by which they were taught to sing.

SCENE 4. Page 286.

JUL. How oft hast thou with perjury _cleft_ the root?

The speech had been begun with a metaphor from archery, and is here continued in the same strain. _To cleave the pin_, was to break the nail which attached the mark to the butt.

SCENE 4. Page 290.

Mr. Ritson's reply to Mr. Tyrwhitt.

However ingenious and even just the system in this reply may be, it is evident that Shakspeare was not governed by it; but, on the contrary, that he _has_ taken the liberties pointed out by Mr. Tyrwhitt. The proof is, 1. From the circumstance that none of Shakspeare's contemporaries have used similar words in such a protracted form. 2. Because he has used other words in the same manner which are not reducible to Mr. Ritson's system; such as _country_, _assembly_, &c. He never troubled himself about establishing a canon of which he was, in all likelihood, altogether ignorant; but occasionally took such liberties as his verses required. This is clearly manifested by his various use, in many instances, of the selfsame words.

THE CLOWNS.

The character of Speed is that of a shrewd witty servant. Launce is something different, exhibiting a mixture of archness and rustic simplicity. There is no allusion to dress, nor any other circumstance, that marks either of them as the domestic fool or jester.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] A word defaced in the manuscript.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Page 309.

SLEN. She has brown hair, and _speaks small like a woman_.

It may be doubted whether the _real humour_ of this speech has been pointed out. Does it not consist in Slender's characterizing Ann Page by a property belonging to himself, and which renders him ridiculous? The audience would naturally smile at hearing him deliver the speech in an effeminate tone of voice.

SCENE 1. Page 314.

FAL. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter.

This has the appearance of a fragment of some old ballad.

SCENE 1. Page 317.

PIST. He hears with ears.

EVA. The tevil and his tarn! what phrase is this, _he hears with ear_? Why it is affectations.

If, according to Mr. Henderson, Sir Hugh be justified in his censure of this phrase as a pleonasm, we must also censure the parson in his turn for having forgot that the common prayer would have furnished an example of Pistol's language. See also _Jerem._ xxvi. 11.

SCENE 1. Page 317.

SLEN. Seven groats in _mill-sixpences_, and two _Edward shovel-boards_ that cost me two shillings and twopence apiece.

These sixpences were coined in 1561, and are the first milled money used in this kingdom. The invention is due to the French, and was introduced here by a native of France, who misapplied his talents by private coining, and suffered the penalty of the law. That seven groats could be lost in sixpences must be placed to the account of Master Slender's simplicity of wit.

With respect to the _Edward shovel-boards_:--Mr. Malone's inference from the reading in the old quarto that "Slender means the broad _shilling_ of _one of our kings_," is sufficiently maintained by the other notes; but that it was the shilling of _Edward the Sixth_ there is no doubt, no _other_ Edward having coined such a piece of money. It still remains to explain how these shillings could have cost Master Slender two and twopence apiece; because, if Dr. Farmer's quotation from Folkes had gone far enough, it would have appeared that the thick shillings mentioned by that writer were _pattern-pieces_, even originally of great rarity, and never in circulation. Folkes could have seen very few of such pieces, and it would be extremely difficult at present to find a single one; whereas the common shillings of Edward the Sixth remain in great numbers. We must suppose then that the shillings purchased of the miller had been hoarded by him, and were in high preservation, and heavier than those which had been worn in circulation. These would consequently be of greater importance to a nice player at the game of shovel-board, and induce him, especially if an opulent man, to procure them at a price far beyond their original value.

SCENE 1. Page 321.

BARD. ... And so conclusions _pass'd the careires_.

We are told that this is a technical term in the _manege_; but no explanation is given. It was the same as _running a career_, or galloping a horse violently backwards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end of the career; "which career the more seldom it be used and with the lesse fury, the better mouth shall your horse have," says Master Blundeville in his _Arte of ryding_, b. l. 4to, where there is a whole chapter on the subject, as well as in "_The art of riding_," translated by Thomas Bedingfield from the Italian of Claudio Corte, 1584, 4to.

SCENE 1. Page 325.

SLEN. I hope upon familiarity will grow more contempt.

This is no more than a perversion of the common proverb, _Familiarity breeds contempt_. Slender's school learning had furnished him on the occasion. The phrase is still used in copy-books for children.

SCENE 1. Page 327.

SLEN. I bruis'd my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a _master of fence_.

"_Master of defence_, on the present occasion, does not simply mean a professor of the art of fencing, but a person who had taken his _master's degree_ in it," says Mr. Steevens, whose readers are under great obligations to him for pointing out one of the greatest curiosities extant on the ancient science of defence, in support of his position. Yet it may be doubted whether the expression _master of defence_ does not very often, and even on the present occasion, signify merely a _professor of the art_. Numerous authorities might be adduced on this side of the question, but perhaps a single one that is apposite may suffice. In Eden's _History of travayle_, 1577, 4to, speaking of Calecut in the East Indies, he says, "they have in the citie certayne _maisters of fence_ that teach them how to use the swoord, &c." The original Latin from which Eden translates has _lanista_. Now it is not to be presumed that the last-mentioned _maisters of fence_ had taken any degree. It must be owned that the evidence of the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens goes very far to show that none were allowed to practise as professors who had not taken a degree in some fencing school; an honour once conferred by king Edward the Sixth, and generally granted, though not till after many years' experience, by one who was himself a _master_. Yet a person who had only a _provost's_ degree might be allowed to teach, and _he_ would be termed a _master of defence_.

SCENE 3. Page 330.

HOST. What says my _bully-rook_?

Messrs. Steevens and Whalley maintain that the above term (a cant one) derives its origin from the _rook_ in the game of chess; but it is very improbable that that noble game, never the amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on this occasion. It means _a hectoring, cheating sharper_, as appears from _A new dictionary of the terms of the canting crew_, no date, 12mo, and from the lines prefixed to _The compleat gamester_, 1680, 12mo, in both which places it is spelt _bully-rock_. Nor is Mr. Whalley correct in stating that _rock_ and not _rook_ is the _true_ name of the chess piece, if he mean that it is equivalent to the Latin _rupes_.

SCENE 3. Page 333.

PIST. O base _Gongarian_ wight!

It is already shown that this is the same as _Hungarian_. It simply means a _gipsy_. The parts of Europe in which it is supposed that the gipsies originally appeared were Hungary and Bohemia. In Act IV. Scene 5, of this play, the host in the like cant language calls Simple a _Bohemian Tartar_; and Munster in his _Cosmography_ informs us that the Germans denominated the _gipsies Tartars_.

SCENE 3. Page 333.

FAL. I am glad I am so acquit of this _tinder box_.

There is a great deal of humour in this appellation. Falstaff alludes to Pistol's rubicund nose, which, like the above utensil, carried fire in it.

SCENE 3. Page 333.

PIST. Young ravens must have food.

Either Shakspeare or the adage, if it be one, has borrowed from scripture. See _Psalm_ cxlvii. 9. or _Job_ xxxviii. 41.

SCENE 3. Page 337. Note 4.

To the instances adduced by Mr. Steevens in this note, of particular phrases in old theatrical characters, may be added that of Murley in _Sir John Oldcastle_, who is continually prefacing his speeches with "fye paltry, paltry, in and out, to and fro upon occasion." This practice has been revived in our modern comedies.

SCENE 4. Page 347.

CAIUS. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: come take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

It was the custom, in Shakspeare's time, for physicians to be attended by their servants when visiting their patients. This appears from the _second part_ of Stubs's _Anatomie of abuses_, sign. H. 4 b., where, speaking of physicians, he says, "For now they ruffle it out in silckes and velvets, with _their men attending upon them_, whereas many a poor man (God wot) smarteth for it." Servants also carried their masters' rapiers: "Yf a man can place a dysh, fyll a boule and _carrie his maister's rapier_, what more is or can be required at his handes?"--Markham's _Health to the gentlemanly profession of a serving-man_, sign. F. 3.

ACT II.

SCENE 1. Page 357.

MRS. FORD. ... to the tune of _Green sleeves_.

Another ballad with this title, and which has an equally good claim to be the one alluded to as those already quoted, may be seen in Mr. Ellis's elegant _Specimens of the early English poets_, vol. iii. p. 327, edit. 1801.

SCENE 1. Page 358.

MRS. PAGE. ... for sure, unless he knew some _strain_ in me that I know not myself----

The note seem to have wrested from this word its plain and obvious meaning of _turn_, _humour_, _tendency_, in which it is often used by Shakspeare.

SCENE 1. Page 359.

PIST. Hope is a _curtail dog_ in some affairs.

A curtail or curtal dog is placed by Howel in the vocabulary at the end of his _Dictionary of four languages_ among hunting-dogs, and is defined to be _a dog without a tail good for any service_. Yet we are not to suppose that the word uniformly signifies an animal with its tail cut off. It is in fact derived from _tailler court_, and applied to _any_ animals that are defective, man not excepted. Thus in Greene's _Quip for an upstart courtier_, a collier is made to say, "I am made a _curtall_: for the pillory hath eaten off both my _eares_," sign. E. 2. Nashe, in his _Prayse of the red herring_, speaks of the "_curtaild skinclipping pagans_." fo. 20. Dr. Stukeley, in a manuscript note in his copy of Robin Hood's garland, states that "the _curtal_ fryer of Fountain's abby is _Cordelier_, from the cord or rope which they wore round their wast, to whip themselves with. They were of the Franciscan order." But this is a mistake; and the opinion of Staveley much more probable, who, in chap. xxv. of his _Romish horseleech_, says, that in some countries where the Franciscan friars, conformably to the injunction of their founder, wore short habits, the order was presently contemned and derided, and men called them _curtailed friars_.

SCENE 2. Page 360.

FORD. Love my wife?

PIST. With _liver burning hot_.

It is here observed by Mr. Steevens, and elsewhere by Dr. Johnson, that the liver was anciently supposed to be the inspirer of amorous passions, and the seat of love. In conformity with this opinion, we are told in the English translation of Bartholomæus _De proprietatibus rerum_, lib. v. cap. 39, that "the lyver is the place of voluptuousnesse and lyking of the flesh;" and again, "the liver is a member, _hot_, &c." There is some reason for thinking that the idea was borrowed from the Arabian physicians, or at least adopted by them; for in the _Turkish tales_, an amorous tailor is made to address his wife by the titles of "thou _corner of my liver_, and soul of my life!" and in another place the king of Syria, who had sustained a temporary privation of his mistress, is said to have had "his liver, which had been _burnt up_ by the loss of her, cooled and refreshed at the sight of her." In _Twelfth night_, Fabian, speaking of Olivia's supposed letter to Malvolio, says, "This wins him, _liver and all_."

SCENE 2. Page 367, 368.

PAGE. I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his _rapier_.

SHAL. In these times you stand on distance, your passes stoccadoes and I know not what. I have seen the time with my long sword I would have made you four tall fellows skip like rats.

The notes on these speeches are at variance on a supposed anachronism committed by Shakspeare in introducing the _rapier_ in the time of Henry the Fourth. The same weapon is likewise found in _Richard II._ Act IV. Scene 1, where the controversy is renewed; and therefore it will be proper in considering this question to state the evidence and arguments in both places. It is maintained on one side that the _rapier_ was not used in England before the reign of Elizabeth; and in support of this opinion a passage from Carleton's _Thankful remembrance of God's mercy_ is offered; which, being only a second-hand and inaccurate statement from Darcie's _Annals of Elizabeth_, is not deserving of further notice. Darcie himself informs us that one Rowland York (who appears to have betrayed Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587) was the _first_ that brought into England "that wicked and pernicious fashion to fight in the fields in duels with _a rapier called a tucke_ onely for the thrust, &c." On this passage it may be remarked, that the _rapier_ is not _generally_ spoken of, but only a particular sort, the _tucke for the thrust_. On the same side Stowe is next cited, who mentions that the mode of fighting with the sword and buckler was frequent with all men till that of _the rapier and dagger_ took place, when _suddenly the general quarrel of fighting abated_, which began about the 20th of Elizabeth (1578). Now here the date seems rather applicable to the cessation of the very popular combats with sword and buckler, and the substitution only, and, as it will presently appear, the revival of the rapier and dagger, as a more limited manner of fighting, from its superior danger. There is another passage in Stowe, p. 869, which not being already cited, and throwing some light on the nature of the rapier, may deserve notice. The historian relates that "Shortly after (referring to the 12th or 13th year of Elizabeth) began _long tucks_ and _long rapiers_, and he was held the greatest gallant that had the deepest ruffe and longest rapier: the offence to the eye of the one, and the hurt unto the life of the subject that came by the other, caused her majesty to make proclamation against them both, and to place selected grave citizens at every gate to cut the ruffes, and breake the rapiers points of all passengers that exceeded a yeard in length of their rapiers, and a nayle of a yeard in depth of their ruffes." But this is likewise no evidence in favour of the _general_ introduction of the _rapier_ in the reign of Elizabeth, as Stowe merely refers to the _long foining or thrusting rapier_. The last quotation on this side of the question is from Bulleine's _Dialogue between soarnesse and chirurgi_, 1579, where the _long foining rapier_ is also mentioned as "a _new_ kind of instrument to let blood withall."

On the opposite side, Mr. Ritson produces a quotation from Nashe's _Life of Jacke Wilton_, who lived in the reign of Henry the Eighth, to show that _rapiers_ were used at that period. This sort of evidence might appear, on a first view, inadmissible, on the ground that Nashe had committed an error, very common with Shakspeare, in ascribing a custom of his own time to a preceding one, if it were not supported by the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens in vol. iii. p. 327, in which, but not in the quotation from it, it appears that the _rapier_ actually was in use in the time of Henry the Eighth; and therefore it is impossible to decide that this weapon, which, with its name, we received from the French, might not have been known as early as the reign of Henry the Fourth, or even of Richard the Second. Shallow's ridicule of _passes and stoccadoes_ seems more objectionable, and may possibly deserve the appellation of anachronism. It is not a little remarkable that the _rapier_ was an article of exportation from this country in Cromwell's time. See _Oliverian acts_, A.D. 1657.

SCENE 1. Page 369.

FORD. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on _his_ wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off _my_ opinion so easily: she was in his company, &c.

This speech is surely not so obscure as the notes seem to consider it. Ford says that _Page_ makes a firm stand with respect to, or on the question of, _his_ wife's frailty. What follows better deserves explanation, because the grammatical construction of the last sentence is, that _Page's_ wife was in Falstaff's company; whereas Ford means to say, "I cannot put off _my_ opinion, i. e. of _my own wife_, so easily; as _she_ was in Falstaff's company," &c. The emphasis should be laid on the words _his_ and _my_, and then the whole will be far more intelligible.

SCENE 2. Page 375.

FAL. Your _cat-a-mountain_ looks.

A term borrowed from the Spaniards, who call the wild cat _gato-montes_.

SCENE 2. Page 375.

FAL. Your _red lattice_ phrases.

Mr. Steevens, speaking of this external mark of an alehouse, says, "Hence the present chequers." But in reality the _lattice_ is the younger of the two, as the reference in the note to the Pompeii plate in _Archæologia_ demonstrates. Although the Romans were not acquainted with the game of chess, they certainly were with such a one as required a board with squares; and in all probability this sign of a house of entertainment where table games were played, has been handed down to us from the ancients. The resemblance of _lattice_ work, or _laths_ crossing each other, to a chess or backgammon board, might induce some ignorant painters to exhibit the former; but the _chequers_ have once more reassumed their station. Nor was _red_ always the colour; for, in the cant language of jolly fellows, a red or _blue_ lattice was termed _a free school for all comers_. See Heywood's _Philocothonista_, 1635, 4to.

SCENE 2. Page 376.

QUICK. There is one mistress Ford, sir:--I pray come a little nearer this ways:--I myself dwell with master Doctor Caius.

FAL. Well, on: mistress Ford, you say----

Is it not more natural that Falstaff should, in this first instance, repeat the dame's own words, and say, "Well, one mistress Ford, you say."

SCENE 2. Page 389.

FORD. ... an Irishman with my _aqua vitæ_ bottle----

_Irish aqua vitæ_ was certainly _usquebaugh_, and not _brandy_, as Mr. Malone has observed; but Ford is here speaking of _English aqua vitæ_, which was very different from the other so called from the Irish words _uisge_, aqua, and _beatha_, vita. That the curious reader may judge for himself, and at the same time be furnished with the means of indulging any wish that he may have for tasting the respective sorts in their genuine form, the following receipts for making them are subjoined:--The first is from a manuscript monkish common-place book, written about the reign of Henry the Sixth. "For to make water of lyff, that ys clepyd aqua vitæ. Take and fylle thy violle fulle of lyes of stronge vine, and put therto these powdrys. First powder of canel, powder of clowes, powdyr of gyngevir, powdyr of notemugys, powder of galyngale and powdyr of quibibis, poudyr of greyn de parys, poudyr of longe pepyr, powdyr of blacke pepir, carewey, cirmowitteyn, comyn, fenyl, smallache, persile, sawge, myntys, rewe, calamente, origaun, one ounce or more or lesse as ye lykyth; stampe hem a lytill for it will be bettyr, and put hem to these powdrys, than set thy glas on the fyre set on the hovel and kepe it wel that the eyre come not owte and set ther undyr a viole and kepe the watyr." The next is from _Cogan's Haven of health_, 1612, 4to, chap. 222. "To make aqua vitæ. Take of strong ale, or strong wine, or the lees of strong wine and ale together, a gallon or two as you please, and take half a pound or more of good liquorice, and as much annise seedes; scrape off the bark from the liquorice, and cut it into thin slices, and punne the annise grosse, and steepe altogether close covered twelve houres, then distill it with a limbecke or serpentine. And of every gallon of the liquor you may draw a quart of reasonable good _aqua vitæ_, that is of two galons two quarts. But see that your fire be temperate, and that the heade of your limbecke bee kept colde continually with fresh water, and that the bottome of your limbecke bee fast luted with rye dough, that no ayre issue out. The best ale to make _aqua vitæ_ of, is to be made of wheate malte, and the next of cleane barley malte, and the best wine for that purpose is sacke." The last is a receipt for making "Usquebath, or Irish aqua vitæ. To every gallon of good aqua composita, put two ounces of chosen liquorice bruised and cut into small peeces, but first cleansed from all his filth, and two ounces of annis seedes that are cleane and bruised; let them macerate five or six days in a wodden vessell, stopping the same close, and then draw off as much as will runne cleere, dissolving in that cleere aqua vitæ five or sixe spoonefulls of the best malassoes you can get: Spanish cute if you can get it, is thought better than malassoes: then put this into another vessell, and after three or foure dayes (the more the better) when the liquor hath fined itselfe, you maie use the same: some adde dates and raisins of the sun to this receipt; those grounds which remaine you maie redistill and make more aqua composita of them, and of that aqua composita you maie make more _usquebath_."--Plat's _Delightes for ladies_, 1611, 24to. It is to be observed, that _aqua composita_ is wine of any kind distilled with spices and sweet herbs. _Brandy_, or _burnt_ wine, seems first to occur in Skinner's _Etymologicon_, 1671, under the name of _Brandewin_, from the Dutch or German, and soon after in its present form; yet _aqua vitæ_ was continued a long while afterwards.

SCENE 3. Page 395.

HOST. _Cry'd game_, said I well?

The evidence, and indeed the sense, in favour of the phrase to _cry aim_, preponderates so greatly, that one cannot hesitate in discarding the nonsensical expression of _cry'd game_, which derives not the least support from any of Mr. Steevens's quotations. The probability is very great that there was an error of the press, and that the words should have been printed according to the orthography of the time, "Cry'd I _ayme_, said I well?" A _g_ might easily have crept in instead of a _y_.

ACT III.

SCENE 1. Page 398.

SIM. Marry, sir, the _city-ward_----

"The old editions read _pittie-ward_, the modern editors _pitty-wary_," says Mr. Steevens, who in this edition has abandoned the best part of a former note where he had proposed to read _petty-ward_, which is the right word, and of the same import as the old one. That such a word formerly existed is demonstrable from its still remaining as a proper name, and near Wimbledon is a wood so called, probably from the owner. Mr. Steevens mistakes in supposing _ward_ to mean _towards_ in this instance, where it is put for the division of a city; nor does his quotation from William of Worcester assist him. The _via de Petty_ and the _Pyttey gate_ might be named after the hundred of Pyttey in Somersetshire. In Lyne's Map of Cambridge, 1574, we find the _petticurie_.

SCENE 1. Page 399.

EVANS. I will knog his _urinals_ about his knave's costard----

This utensil was the usual concomitant of physicians in former times, as appears from most of the frontispieces to old medical books and other ancient prints.

SCENE 2. Page 410.

HOST. ... he smells April and May.

The same as if he had said he smells of _youth and courtship_, symbolized by these months, the former of which in old calendars is described in these lines:

"The next vi yere maketh foure and twenty, And fygured is to joly Apryll; That tyme of pleasures man hath moost plenty Fresshe and lovyng his lustes to fulfyll----"

and the latter in the following:

"As in the month of Maye all thyng is in myght, So at xxx yeres man is in chyef lykyng; Pleasaunt and lusty, to every mannes syght, In beaute and strength to women pleasyng."

SCENE 2. Page 412.

HOST. I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink _canary_ with him.

FORD. I think I shall drink-in _pipe-wine_ first with him; I'll make him dance.

It may be doubted whether the exact meaning of this cluster of puns has already been given. Mr. Tyrwhitt says he cannot understand the phrase _to drink in pipe-wine_, and suggests that Shakspeare might have written _horn-pipe wine_. Now Ford terms canary _pipe-wine_, both because the _canary_ dance is performed to a tabor and _pipe_, and because the canary _bird_ is said to _pipe_ his tunes. Ford is speaking of Falstaff, not of Page, as Mr. Tyrwhitt's note implies when it refers to horns. He says he will make him pipe and dance too.

SCENE 3. Page 414.

MRS. FORD. How now, my _eyas-musket_?

There was no reason for disturbing the etymology of this word given by Dr. Warburton, by substituting that of Dame Juliana Bernes, which for ingenuity and veracity may be well classed with many of those in _Isidore of Seville_, or _The golden legend_. Take an example from the latter. "Felix is sayd of _fero fers_, that is to saye, to bere, and of this word _lis_, _litis_, whiche is as moche to say as stryfe, for he bare stryfe for the fayth of our lorde." Turberville tells us that "the first name and terme that they bestowe on a falcon is an _eyesse_, and this name doth laste as long as she is in the eyrie and for that she is taken from the _eyrie_." This is almost as bad as the lady abbess's account. _Eyrie_ is simply the nest or _eggery_, and has no connexion with the name of the bird. _Eyas_ or _nias_, is a term borrowed from the French _niais_, which means any young bird in the nest, _avis in nido_. It is the first of five several names by which a falcon is called during its first year. The best account of this bird is in _La fauconnerie de Charles d'Arcussa de Capre, seigneur d'Esparron_, 1643, 4to. A _musket_ is a sparrow-hawk, and is derived from the French _mouchet_, and the latter probably from _musca_, on account of its diminutive form. The humour therefore lies in comparing the page to a young male sparrow-hawk, an emblem of his tender years and activity.

ACT IV.

SCENE 2. Page 448.

MRS. FORD. ... and her _muffler_ too.

It would oppress the reader by citing authorities to prove that the muffler was a contrivance of various kinds to conceal a part of the face, and that even a _mask_ was occasionally so denominated. From an examination of several ancient prints and paintings, it appears that when the muffler was made of linen, it only covered the lower part of the face; such it was in the present instance, for the old woman of Brentford would not want to conceal her eyes. It is otherwise in _King Henry V._ Act III. Scene 1, where Fortune's _blindness_ is described, and there a linen bandage would be meant, but perhaps not very correctly called a muffler. The term is connected with the old French _musser_ or _muçer_, to hide, or with _amuseler_, to cover the _museau_ or _mufle_, a word which has been indiscriminately used for the mouth, nose, and even the whole of the face; hence our _muzzle_. It was enacted by a Scotish statute in 1457, that "na woman cum to kirk, nor mercat, with her face _mussaled_ or covered that scho may not be kend." Notwithstanding this interposition of the legislature, says Mr. Warton, the ladies of Scotland continued _muzzled_ during three reigns; and he cites Sir David Lyndsay's poem _In contemptioun of syde taillis_, in which the author advises the king to issue a proclamation that the women should show their faces as they did in France. _Hist. of Eng. poetry_, ii. 324.

The annexed cuts exhibit different sorts of mufflers. The first and third figures are copied from Jost Amman's _Theatrum mulierum_, Francof. 1586, 4to; the second, from Speed's Map of England, is the _costume_ of an English countrywoman in the reign of James I.; the fourth is from an old German print; and the others from Weigel's _Habitus præcipuorum populorum_, Nuremb. 1577, folio; a work which, for the beauty of the wood-cuts, has never been surpassed.

[Illustration]

In the reign of Charles I. the ladies wore masks which covered the eye-brows and nose, holes being left for the eyes. Sometimes, but not always, the mouth was covered, and the chin guarded with a sort of muffler then called a _chin-cloth_; these were chiefly used to keep off the sun. See Hollar's print of _Winter_. The velvet masks probably came from France, as they are mentioned in the _Book of values of merchandize imported_, under the administration of Oliver Cromwell. There was another sort called _visard masks_, that covered all the face, having holes only for the eyes, a case for the nose, and a slit for the mouth. They were easily disengaged, being held in the teeth by means of a round bead fastened in the inside. These masks were usually made of leather, covered with black velvet. Randle Holme, from whose _Academy of armory_, book iii. c. 5, their description is extracted, adds, that the devil invented them, and that none about court except w----s, bawds, and the devil's imps, used them, being ashamed to show their faces.

SCENE 2. Page 450.

PAGE. Why this _passes_!----

The word had been already explained by Warburton in p. 329. Page, astonished at Ford's conduct, says it _exceeds every thing_. Such is the sense in the New Testament, "the love of Christ, which _passeth_ knowledge," _Ephes._ iii. 19. The French often use _passer_ in the same manner; and in _Hamlet_ we have this expression, "I have that within which _passeth_ show."

SCENE 2. Page 452.

FORD. ... his wife's _leman_.

Mr. Steevens derives it from the Dutch, a language whence we have borrowed few, if any words. The term is of Saxon origin, and _leveman_ can be traced to an Anglo-Norman period. This was afterwards contracted into _leman_. The etymology is perhaps from leoꝼe, amabilis, and man, homo. The latter in Saxon denoted both man and woman; so that _leman_ was formerly applied to both sexes as a _person beloved_.

SCENE 2. Page 455.

MRS. PAGE. ... in the way of _waste_----

This expression is from the same _law_ manufactory referred to by Mr. Ritson in the preceding note. The incident in the present scene, of Falstaff's threshing in the habit of a woman, might have been suggested by the story of the beaten and contented cuckold in Boccaccio's _Decameron_, day 7. ver. 7.

SCENE 5. Page 466.

SIMP. Pray you, sir, was't not the _wise woman of Brentford_?

Mr. Steevens cites _Judges_ v. 29, on this occasion: but the _wise ladies_ there were of a very different character from the old woman of Brentford, even according to the Hebrew text: see the Vulgate and Septuagint versions, where the expression is still more remote. The subject of these wise women will be resumed in a note on _Twelfth night_, Act III. Scene 4.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 475.

FAL. Hold up your head, and _mince_.

The word is properly explained by Mr. Steevens. Thus in _Isaiah_ iii. 16, "walking and _mincing_ as they go." Wicliffe has "with their feet in curious goyng;" and Tindale, "tryppyng so nicely with their feet." _To mince_ is likewise to walk in a stately, or, as Littelton expresses it, _Junonian_ step.

SCENE 2. Page 477.

SLEN. I come to her in white, and cry _mum_, she cries, _budget_.

The word _mumbudget_, here divided, is used by Nashe in his _Have with you to Saffron Walden_, where, speaking of Gabriel Harvey, he says, "no villaine, no atheist, no murderer, but hee hath likened me too, for no other reason in the earth, but because I would not let him go beyond me, or _be won to put my finger in my mouth and crie mumbudget_ when he had baffuld mee in print throughout England." To _play mumbudget_, is rendered _demeurer court, ne sonner mot_, in Sherwood's _English and French dictionary_, 1632, folio. _Mumchance_ is silence; and a _mummery_ was a silent masquerade. _Mumbudget_ may be _silence in a budget_, a something _closed_ or stopped up, Fr. _bouché_.

SCENE 4. Page 479.

MRS. PAGE.... hard by _Herne's oak_----

The tree in Windsor forest referred to in Mr. Steevens's note, was said, on newspaper authority in 1795, to have been cut down by his majesty's order, on account of its being totally decayed.

SCENE 5. Page 490.

PIST. _Vile_ worm!

Old copy _vild_, which Mr. Malone shows to have been the _old_ pronunciation. It may be added that it is likewise the _modern_ in some of the provinces.

SCENE 5. Page 492.

[_Stage direction._] "During this song, the fairies _pinch_ Falstaff."

In the old collection of songs already cited in p. 7, there is one entitled "The fayries daunce," which bearing some resemblance to that by Shakspeare, may be entitled to the reader's notice:

"Dare you haunt our hallowed greene? None but fayries here are seene. Downe and sleepe, Wake and weepe, Pinch him black, and pinch him blew, That seekes to steale a lover true. When you come to heare us sing, Or to tread our fayrie ring, Pinch him black, and pinch him blew, O thus our nayles shall handle you."

SCENE 5. Page 500.

PAGE. What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd.

This is either a proverbial saying now lost, or borrowed from one of the following, "What cannot be altered must be borne not blamed;" "What cannot be cured must be endured."

TWELFTH NIGHT.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Page 8.

DUKE. How will she love, when the rich _golden shaft_ Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else That live in her.

This _golden shaft_ was supplied either from a description of Cupid in Sidney's _Arcadia_, book ii., or from Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, translated by Golding, 4to, fo. 8, where, speaking of Cupid's arrows, he says,

"_That causeth love_ is all of _golde_ with point full sharp and bright. That chaseth love, is blunt, whose steele with leaden head is dight."

Milton seems to have forgotten that Love had only _one_ shaft of _gold_. See _Parad. Lost_, iv. 1. 763.

SCENE 2. Page 11.

CAP. ... she hath abjur'd the company And sight of men.

This necessary and justifiable change in the _ordo verborum_ from the reading in the old copy, and to which Mr. Steevens lays claim, had been already made by Sir Thomas Hanmer.

SCENE 3. Page 21.

SIR TO. ... Wherefore have these gifts a _curtain_ before them? are they like to take dust, like mistress Mall's picture?

Mr. Malone's conjecture that curtains were at this time frequently hung before pictures of value, is further supported in Scene 5 of this Act, where Olivia, in unveiling her face, mentions the practice. In Deloney's _Pleasant history of Jack of Newbery_, printed before 1597, it is recorded that "in a faire large parlour, which was wainscotted round about, Jacke of Newbery had fifteene faire pictures hanging, _which were covered with curtaines of greene silke_, frienged with gold, which he would often shew to his friends and servants."

SCENE 3. Page 23.

SIR AND. Taurus? that's _sides and heart_.

SIR TO. No, sir, it is _legs and thighs_.

Both the knights are wrong in their astrology, according to the almanacs of the time, which make Taurus govern _the neck and throat_. Their ignorance is perhaps intentional.

SCENE 5. Page 31.

SIR TO. ... How now, _sot_?

There is great humour in this ambiguous word, which applies equally to the fool and the knight himself, in his _drunken condition_.

ACT II.

SCENE 3. Page 51.

CLOWN. How now, my hearts? Did you never see _the picture of we three_?

The original picture, or sign as it sometimes was, seems to have been two _fools_. Thus in Shirley's _Bird in cage_, Morello, who counterfeits a _fool_, says, "_We be three of old_, without exception to your lordship, only with this difference, I am the wisest fool." In Day's comedy of _Law tricks_, 1608, Jul. says, "appoint the place prest." To which Em. answers, "At the _three fools_." Sometimes, as Mr. Henley has stated, it was two asses. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Queen of Corinth_, Act III. Scene 1,

"NEAN. He is another _ass_, he says, I believe him.

UNCLE. _We be three_, heroical prince.

NEAN. Nay then we must have the _picture_ of 'em, and the word _nos sumus_."

SCENE 3. Page. 53.

CLO. I did impeticos thy gratility.

This is undoubtedly the true reading, for the reason assigned by Mr. Malone. From the discordant notes on the passage, a question has arisen whether the fool means to say that he had put the six-pence into his own petticoats, or given it to his petticoat companion, his _leman_. Mr. Steevens has observed that "petticoats were not _always_ a part of the dress of fools, though they were of idiots;" and on this assertion, coupled with another by Dr. Johnson, that "fools were kept in long coats to which the allusion is made," Mr. Ritson maintains that "it is a very gross mistake to imagine that this character (_i. e._ our clown's) was habited like an _idiot_." Now it is very certain, that although the idiot fools were generally dressed in petticoats, the allowed fool was occasionally habited in like manner, as is shown more at large in another part of this volume; which circumstance, though it may strengthen the opinion that the clown has alluded to his own dress, by no means decides the above question, which remains very equally balanced.

SCENE 3. Page 63.

SIR TO. Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall beno more _cakes and ale_?

The holiday cakes referred to in Mr. Letherland's note were the yule or Christmas cakes; those on the lying-in of the Virgin; cross-buns, and twelfth cakes. Mr. Lysons, in his account of Twickenham, mentions an ancient custom of dividing two great cakes in the church on Easter-day among the young people. This was regarded as a superstitious relic; and it was ordered by the parliament in 1645, that the parishioners should forbear that custom, and instead thereof buy loaves of bread for the poor of the parish.

SCENE 4. Page 70.

DUKE. And the _free_ maids that weave their threads with bones.

The private memoirs of Peter the wild boy, if they could be disclosed, would afford the best comment on the above disputed epithet, as applied to the _websters_ in question.

SCENE 4. Page 71.

CLO. And in _sad cypress_ let me be laid.

Mr. Steevens has in this edition cancelled a brother commentator's note, which ought on every account to have been retained, and has himself attempted to show that a _shroud_ and not a _coffin_ of cypress or cyprus is intended. It is no easy matter, from the ambiguity of the word, to decide the question. The cypress tree was used by the ancients for funeral purposes, and dedicated to Pluto. As it was not liable to perish from rottenness, it appears to have been used for coffins. See Mr. Gough's Introduction to _Sepulchral monuments_, p. lxvi. In Quarles's _Argalus and Parthenia_, book iii., a knight is introduced, whose

"... horse was black as jet, His furniture was round about beset With branches, slipt from the _sad cypresse tree_."

In further behalf of the wood, it may be worth remarking that the expression _laid_ seems more applicable to a coffin than to a shroud, in which a party may with greater propriety be said to be _wrapped_; and also that the shroud is afterwards expressly mentioned by itself. It is nevertheless very certain that the fine linen called Cyprus, perhaps from being originally manufactured in the island of that name, was used for shrouds. In the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary's, Cambridge, mention is made of _a sypyrs kyrcher belonging to the cross_. In this instance there being the figure of a dead body on the cross, the cyprus was designed as a shroud.

SCENE 5. Page 88.

MAL. By my life, this is my lady's hand: these be her very C's, her U's, and her T's, and thus makes she her great P's.

Mr. Ritson having with great probability supplied the _whole_ direction of the letter, there seems to be no foundation left for Blackstone's conjecture. Malvolio had no motive for any _coarse_ allusion. With respect to the instance of the letter in _All's well that ends well_ not being recited literally by Helen, it must be recollected that there was no reason for making her do so, as she talks in _blank verse_; and it would therefore have been improper that she should have given more than the _substance_ of the letter.

SCENE 5. Page 93.

MAL. ... and wish'd to see thee _cross-gartered_.

Of this fashion but few vestiges remain; a circumstance the more remarkable, as it must have been at one time extremely common among the beaux in Elizabeth's reign. In the English edition of Junius's _Nomenclator_, 1585, 12mo, mention is made of "hose garters, going _acrosse_, or over-thwart, both above and below the knee." In the old comedy of _The two angrie women of Abingdon_, 1599, 4to, a _serving-man_ is thus described:

"... hee's a fine neate fellow, A spruce slave, I warrant ye, he'ele have His cruell _garters crosse about the knee_."

SCENE 5. Page 94.

MAL. I will be _point-de-vice_ [_device_].

As the instances of this expression are of rare occurrence, those which follow are offered as likely to be useful to the author of any future work that may resemble the well-planned, but unfinished glossary of _obsolete and provincial words_ by the late Dr. Boucher. In the interlude of _The nature of the four elements_, Sensuality, one of the _dramatis personæ_, promises a banquet

"Of metys that be most delycate, Which shall be in a chamber feyre Replete with sote and fragrāt eyre Prepared _poynt-deryse_."

In _Newes from the North_, 1579, 4to, mention is made of "costly banqueting houses, galleries, bowling-allees, straunge toies of _point-devise_ and woorkmanship," sign. G. In an old and very rare satirical poem against married ladies, entitled, _The proude wyves paternoster that wold go gaye, and undyd her husbande and went her waye_, 1560, 4to, one of the gossips recommends her companion to wear

"Rybandes of sylke that be full longe and large, With tryangles _trymly made poyntdevyse_."

Some further account of this piece may not be unacceptable. It is described in Laneham's _Letter from Killingworth_ as forming part of Captain Cox the mason's curious library. In the appendix to Baker's _Biographia dramatica_, p. 433, a play under the same title is mentioned as entered on the Stationers' books in 1559; but from the correspondence in the date, it was, most likely, the present work, which cannot be regarded as a dramatic one. It describes the hypocritical behaviour of women at church, who, instead of attending to their devotions, are more anxious to show their gay apparel. One of these, observing a neighbour much better clothed than herself, begins her _paternoster_, wherein she complains of her husband's restrictions, and prays that she may be enabled to dress as gaily as the rest of her acquaintance. She afterwards enters into conversation with a female gossip, by whose mischievous instigation she is seduced to rebel against her husband's authority. In consequence of this, the poor man is first entreated, next threatened, and finally ruined. The author of this poem is not the first who has irreligiously made use of the present vehicle of his satire. One of the old Norman minstrels had preceded him in _The usurer's paternoster_, which Mons. Le Grand has inserted among his entertaining _fabliaux_, and at the same time described some other similar compositions.

But to return to _point-device_:--There was no occasion for separating the two last syllables of this term, as in the quotation from Mr. Steevens's text, nor is it done when it occurs elsewhere in his edition. It has been properly stated that _point-device_ signifies _exact, nicely finical_; but nothing has been offered concerning the etymology, except that we got the expression from the French. It has in fact been supplied from the labours of the needle. _Poinet_ in the French language denotes a _stitch_; _devisé_ any thing _invented_, _disposed_, or _arranged_. _Point-devisé_ was therefore a particular sort of patterned lace worked with the needle; and the term _point-lace_ is still familiar to every female. They had likewise their _point-coupé_, _point-compté_, _dentelle au point devant l'aiguille_, &c., &c. The various kinds of needle-work practised by our indefatigable grandmothers, if enumerated, would astonish even the most industrious of our modern ladies. Many curious books of patterns for lace and all sorts of needle-work were formerly published, some of which are worth pointing out to the curious collector. The earliest on the list is an Italian book under the title of _Esemplario di lavori: dove le tenere fanciulle & altre donne nobile potranno facilmente imparare il modo & ordine di lavorare, cusire, raccamare, & finalmente far tutte quelle gentillezze & lodevili opere, le quali pò fare una donna virtuosa con laco in mano, con li suoi compasse & misure. Vinegia, per Nicolo D'Aristotile detto Zoppino_, MDXXIX. 8vo. The next that occurs was likewise set forth by an Italian, and entitled, _Les singuliers et nouveaux pourtraicts du seigneur Federic de Vinciolo Venitien, pour toutes sortes d'ouvrages de lingerie_. Paris, 1588, 4to. It is dedicated to the queen of France, and had been already twice published. In 1599 a second part came out, which is much more difficult to be met with than the former, and sometimes contains a neat portrait, by Gaultier, of Catherine de Bourbon, the sister of Henry the Fourth. The next is _Nouveaux pourtraicts de point coupé et dantelles en petite moyenne et grande forme, nouvellement inventez et mis en lumiere. Imprimé à Montbeliard_, 1598, 4to. It has an address to the ladies, and a poem exhorting young damsels to be industrious; but the author's name does not appear. Vincentio's work was published in England, and printed by John Wolf, under the title of _New and singular patternes and workes of linnen, serving for paternes to make all sortes of lace, edginges and cut-workes. Newly invented for the profite and contentment of ladies, gentilwomen, and others that are desireous of this art._ 1591, 4to. He seems also to have printed it with a French title. We have then another English book of which this is the title: _Here foloweth certaine Patternes of Cut-workes: newly invented and never published before. Also sundry sortes of spots, as flowers, birdes and fishes, &c. and will fitly serve to be wrought, some with gould, some with silke, and some with crewell in coullers: or otherwise at your pleasure. And never but once published before. Printed by Rich. Shorleyker._ No date, in oblong 4to. And, lastly, another oblong quarto entitled _The needles excellency, a new booke wherin are divers admirable workes wrought with the needle. Newly invented and cut in copper for the pleasure and profit of the industrious._ Printed for James Boler, &c. 1640. Beneath this title is a neat engraving of three ladies in a flower garden, under the names of Wisdom, Industrie, and Follie. Prefixed to the patterns are sundry poems in commendation of the needle, and describing the characters of ladies who have been eminent for their skill in needle-work, among whom are Queen Elizabeth and the Countess of Pembroke. These poems were composed by John Taylor the water poet. It appears that the work had gone through twelve impressions, and yet a copy is now scarcely to be met with. This may be accounted for by supposing that such books were generally cut to pieces, and used by women to work upon or transfer to their samplers. From the dress of a lady and gentleman on one of the patterns in the last mentioned book, it appears to have been originally published in the reign of James the First. All the others are embellished with a multitude of patterns elegantly cut in wood, several of which are eminently conspicuous for their taste and beauty.

It is therefore apparent that the expression _point-devise_ became applicable, in a secondary sense, to whatever was uncommonly exact, or constructed with the nicety and precision of _stitches made or devised by the needle_.

ACT III.

SCENE 1. Page 97.

VIO. Dost thou live by thy _tabor_?

This instrument is found in the hands of fools long before the time of Shakspeare. With respect to _the sign of the tabor_ mentioned in the notes, it might, as stated, have been _the designation of a musick shop_; but that it was _the sign of an eating-house kept by Tarleton_ is a mistake into which a learned commentator has been inadvertently betrayed. It appears from Tarleton's _Jests_, 1611, 4to, that he kept a tavern in Gracious [Gracechurch] street, at the sign of the _Saba_. This is the person who in our _modern_ bibles is called the _queen of Sheba_, and the sign has been corrupted into that of the _bell-savage_, as may be gathered from the inedited metrical _romance of Alexander_, supposed to have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century by Adam Davie, who, in describing the countries visited by his hero, mentions that of _Macropy_ (the _Macropii_ of Pliny), and adds,

"In heore[4] lond is a cité On of the noblest in Christianté[5]; Hit hotith[6] _Sabba_ in langage. Thennes cam _Sibely savage_, Of al theo world theo fairest quene, To Jerusalem, Salamon to seone[7] For hire fairhed[8], and for hire love, Salamon forsok his God above."

_Sibely savage_, as a proper name, is another perversion of _si belle sauvage_; and though the lady was supposed to have come from the remotest parts of Africa, and might have been as black as a Negro, we are not now to dispute the superlative beauty of the mistress of Salomon, here converted into a Savage. It must be admitted that the queen of Sheba was as well adapted to a sign as the wise men of the East, afterwards metamorphosed into the three kings of Cologne.

Mr. Pegge, in his _Anecdotes of the English language_, p. 291, informs us that a friend had seen a lease of the Bell Savage inn to _Isabella Savage_; "which," says he, "overthrows the conjectures about a bell and a savage, _la belle sauvage_, &c." It is probable that the learned writer's friend was in some way or other deceived. The date of the instrument is not mentioned; and if the above name really appeared in the lease, it might have been an accidental circumstance at a period not very distant. Mr. Pegge was likewise not aware that the same sign, corrupted in like manner, was used on the continent.

SCENE 2. Page 109.

SIR TO. Go write it in a martial hand; be _curst_ and _brief_.

Of the latter sentence Dr. Johnson has not given the exact explanation. It alludes to the proverb, "A curst _cur_ must be tied _short_."

SCENE 4. Page 120.

SIR TO. What, man! defy the Devil: consider, he's an _enemy_ to mankind.

It was very much the practice with old writers, both French and English, to call the Devil, _the enemy_, by way of pre-eminence, founded perhaps on the words of Christ in _Luke_ x. 19. Thus at the beginning of the _Roman de Merlin, MS._ "Mult fu iriez _li anemis_ quant nre sires ot este en anfer;" and see other examples in Barbasan's glossary to the _Ordene de chevalerie_, 1759, 12mo, in v. _Anemi_. The cause of the Devil's wrath in the above instance, was the liberation of Adam, Noah, and many other saints and patriarchs from the purgatorial torments which they had endured. In a most curious description of hell in _Examples howe mortall synne maketh the synners inobedyentes to have many paynes and doloures within the fyre of hell_, b. l. no date, 12mo, the Devil is thus referred to: "Come than after me, and I shal shewe unto the _the ryght cursed enemye_ of humayne lygnage." And again, "About _the enemy_ there were so many devyls and of cursed and myserable soules that no man myght beleve that of all the worlde from the begynnynge myght be yssued and brought forth so many soules." Sometimes he was called the _enemy of hell_, as in Larke's _Boke of wisdome_, b. l. no date, 12mo, where it is said that "_the enemye of hell_ ought to be doubted of every wise man." This note may serve also in further explanation of the line in _Macbeth_, Act III. Scene 1,

"Given to the common _enemy_ of man."

It is remarkable that the Devil should be likewise called _the enemy of mankind_ in the East. See Gladwin's _Persian moon-shee_, part ii. p. 23.

SCENE 4. Page 120.

FAB. Carry his water to _the wise woman_.

Here may be a direct allusion to one of the two ladies of this description mentioned in the following passage from Heywood's play of _The wise woman of Hogsdon_; "You have heard of _Mother Notingham_, who for her time was prettily well skill'd in _casting of waters_: and after her, _Mother Bombye_." The latter is sometimes alluded to by Gerarde the Herbalist, who, speaking of the properties of vervain, says, "you must observe _mother Bumbies_ rules to take just so many knots or sprigs, and no more, least it fall out so that it do you no good, if you catch no harme by it." _Historie of plants_, p. 581.

Lilly's comedy of _Mother Bombie_ is well known. The several occupations of these impostors are thus described in the above play by Heywood: "Let me see how many trades have I to live by: First, I am _a wise-woman_, and a fortuneteller, and under that I deale in physicke and forespeaking, in palmistry, and recovering of things lost. Next, I undertake to cure madd folkes. Then I keepe gentlewomen lodgers, to furnish such chambers as I let out by the night: Then I am provided for bringing young wenches to bed; and, for a need, you see I can play the match-maker. Shee that is but one, and professeth so many, may well be tearmed _a wise-woman_, if there bee any." Such another character was _Julian of Brentford_, mentioned in the _Merry wives of Windsor_. These persons were sometimes called _cunning_ and _looming_ women.

SCENE 4. Page 121.

SIR TO. Come, we'll have him in a _dark room_, and bound. My niece is already in the belief that he is _mad_.

The reason for putting Malvolio into a _dark room_ was to make _him_ believe that he was _mad_; for a _madhouse_ seems formerly to have been called a _dark-house_. In the next act Malvolio says, "Good Sir Topas, do not think I am _mad_, they have laid me here in _hideous darkness_." And again, "I say this _house is dark_." In Act V. he asks, "Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, kept in _a dark-house_?" In _As you like it_, Act III. Scene 1, Rosalind says that "love is a _madness_, and deserves as well _a dark-house_ and a whip, as madmen do." Edward Blount, in the second dedication to his _Hospitall of incurable fooles_, 1600, 4to, a translation from the Italian, requests of the person whom he addresses to take on him the office of patron or treasurer to the hospital; and that if any desperate censurer shall stab him for assigning his office or place, he presently take him into _the dark ward_: and in the same work, certain idle fools are consigned to the _darksome guesthouse of their madness_.

SCENE 4. Page 124.

OLI. I have said too much unto a heart of stone, and laid mine honour too unchary _on't_.

This is the reading of the old copy, which has been unnecessarily disturbed at Theobald's suggestion by substituting _out_. It might be urged that _laying honour out_ is but an awkward phrase. The old text simply means, I have _placed_ my honour too incautiously _upon_ a heart of stone. The preceding note had shown that adjectives are often used adverbially by Shakspeare.

SCENE 4. Page 127.

SIR TO. He is a knight, dubb'd with _unhack'd rapier_, and on _carpet_ consideration.

The original word is _unhatch'd_, and if any alteration be admitted it should be _an hatch'd_, for the first reason assigned in Mr. Malone's ingenious note. Sir Toby says that his brother knight was no hero dubbed in the field of battle, but a carpet knight made at home in time of peace with a sword of ceremony richly _gilt or engraved_. In _Don Quixote_, the damsel whom Sancho finds wandering in the streets of Barataria disguised as a man, is furnished with "a very faire _hatched_ dagger," chap. 49 of Shelton's translation. In _The tragical history of Jetzer_, 1683, 18mo, mention is made of "a sword richly _hatcht_ with silver." Thus much in support of the above slight alteration of the old reading. The second conjecture of Mr. Malone, that _unhatcht_ might have been used in the sense of _unhack'd_, deserves much attention; but there was no necessity for introducing the latter word into the text. To _hatch_ a sword has been thought to signify to _engrave_ it; but it appears from Holme's _Academy of armory_, B. iii. p. 91, that "_hatching_, is _to silver or gild_ the hilt and pomell of a sword or hanger."

With respect to _carpet_ knights, they were sometimes called knights of the _green cloth_. For this information we are also indebted to Holme, who, in his above cited work, B. iii. p. 57, informs us that "all such as have studied law, physic, or any other arts and sciences whereby they have become famous and serviceable to the court, city, or state, and thereby have merited honour, worship, or dignity, from the sovereign and fountain of honour; if it be the King's pleasure to knight any such persons, seeing they are not knighted as soldiers, they are not therefore to use the horseman's title or spurs; they are only termed simply _miles et milites, knights of the carpet or knights of the green cloth_, to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed as soldiers in the field; though in these our days they are created or dubbed with the like ceremony as the others are, by the stroak of a naked sword upon their shoulder, with the words, _Rise up Sir T. A. knight_."

ACT IV.

SCENE 1. Page 136.

CLO. I am afraid this great _lubber the world_ will prove a cockney.

A typographical corruption seems to have crept into this place from similitude of sound; but a very slight alteration will restore the sense. The clown is speaking of _vent_ as an affected word; and we should therefore read "this great _lubberly word_ will prove a cockney," i. e. will turn out to be cockney language.

SCENE 2. Page 140.

CLO. For as _the old hermit of Prague_----

Not the celebrated heresiarch Jerome of Prague, but another of that name born likewise at Prague, and called _the hermit of Camaldoli_ in Tuscany.

SCENE 2. Page 141.

CLO. Say'st thou that _house_ is dark?

This Mr. Malone conceives to be _a pompous appellation for the small room_ in which Malvolio was confined; but it seems to be merely the designation of a madhouse. See the preceding note on Act III. Scene 4, p. 121.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 157.

PRIEST. A contract of eternal bond of love Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, Attested by the holy close of lips, Strengthened by interchangement of your rings; And all the ceremony of this compact Seal'd in my function, by my testimony.

It will be necessary, for the better illustration of these lines, to connect them with what Olivia had said to Sebastian at the end of the preceding act:

"Now go with me, and with this holy man, Into the chantry by: there _before him_ And underneath that consecrated roof _Plight me the full assurance of your faith_; That my most jealous and too doubtful soul May live at peace. He shall conceal it Whiles you are willing it shall come to note; What time we will our _celebration_ keep According to my birth."

Now the whole has been hitherto regarded as relating to _an actual marriage_ that had been solemnized between the parties; whereas it is manifest that nothing more is meant than a _betrothing_, _affiancing_ or _promise of future marriage_, anciently distinguished by the name of _espousals_, a term which was for a long time confounded with _matrimony_, and at length came exclusively to denote it. The form of betrothing at church in this country, has not been handed down to us in any of its ancient ecclesiastical service books; but it is to be remembered that Shakspeare is here making use of foreign materials, and the ceremony is preserved in a few of the French and Italian rituals.

The custom of betrothing appears to have been known in ancient times to almost all the civilized nations among whom marriage was considered as a sacred engagement. Our northern ancestors were well acquainted with it. With them the process was as follows: 1. _Procatio_, or wooing. 2. _Impetratio_, or demanding of the parents or guardian. 3. The conditions of the contract. All these were sealed by joining the right hands, by a certain form of words, and a confirmation before witnesses. The length of the time between espousals and marriage was uncertain, and governed by the convenience of the parties; it generally extended to a few months. Sometimes in cases of necessity, such as the parties living in different countries, and where the interference of proxies had been necessary, the time was protracted to three years. The contract of the affiancing party was called _handsaul_; (whence our _hansel_) of the agreeing party, _handfastening_. See Thorlacius _De borealium veterum matrimonio_, 1785, 4to, pp. 33, 42. Vincent de Beauvais, a writer of the 13th century, in his _Speculum historiale_, lib. ix. c. 70, has defined _espousals_ to be _a contract of future marriage_, made either by a simple promise, by earnest or security given, by a ring, or by an oath. During the same period, and the following centuries, we may trace several other modes of betrothing, some of which it may be worth while to describe more at large.

I. The interchangement of rings.--Thus in Chaucer's _Troilus and Creseide_, book 3.

"Sone after this they spake of sondry things As fill to purpose of this aventure, And playing _enterchaungeden her rings_ Of which I can not tellen no scripture. But well I wot, a broche of gold and assure In which a rubie set was like an herte Creseide him yave, and stacke it on his sherte."

When espousals took place at church, rings were also interchanged. According to the ritual of the Greek church, the priest first placed the rings on the fingers of the parties, who afterwards exchanged them. Sometimes the man only gave a ring. In the life of Saint Leobard, who is said to have flourished about the year 580, written by Gregory of Tours he gives a ring, a kiss, and a pair of shoes to his affianced. The ring and shoes were a symbol of securing the lady's hands and feet in the trammels of conjugal obedience; but the ring of itself was sufficient to confirm the contract. In _The miracles of the Virgin Mary_, compiled in the twelfth century by a French monk, there is a story of a young man who, falling in love with an image of the Virgin, inadvertently placed on one of its fingers a ring which he had received from his mistress, accompanying the gift with the most tender language of respect and affection. A miracle instantly took place, and the ring remained immoveable. The young man, greatly alarmed for the consequences of his rashness, consulted his friends, who advised him by all means to devote himself entirely to the service of the Madonna. His love for his former mistress prevailing over their remonstrances: he married her; but on the wedding night the newly-betrothed lady appeared to him, and urged her claim with so many dreadful menaces that the poor man felt himself compelled to abandon his bride, and that very night to retire privately to a hermitage, where he became a _monk_ for the rest of his life. This story has been translated by Mons. Le Grand in his entertaining collection of _fabliaux_, where the ring is called a _marriage ring_: but this is probably a mistake in the translator, as appears from several copies of the above _Miracles_ that have been consulted. The giving of rings was likewise a _pledge of love_ in cases where no marriage could possibly happen. In The _lay of Equitan_, a married woman and her gallant exchange rings,

"Par lur anels sentresaísirent Lur _fiaunce_ sentreplevirent."

In a romance written by Raimond Vidal, a Provençal poet of the thirteenth century, a knight devotes himself to the service of a lady, who promises him a kiss in a year's time when she shall be married. They ratify the contract by an exchange of rings. Mr. Steevens has on the present occasion introduced a note, wherein a ludicrous superstition is mentioned, in order to prove that "in our ancient _marriage ceremony_, the man received as well as gave a ring." But the passage which he cites from Lupton is wrongly translated from Mizaldus, who only speaks of _the_ marriage ring: and so it is in Scott's _Discovery of witchcraft_, fo. 82. edit. 1584, 4to, where a similar receipt is given. Mr. Steevens was indeed convinced of this by the author of these observations, and in a note on _All's well that ends well_ has retracted his opinion. No instance has occurred where rings were _interchanged_ at a _marriage_.

II. The kiss that was mutually given. When this ceremony took place at church, the lady of course withdrew the veil which was usually worn on the occasion; when in private, the drinking of healths generally followed.

III. The joining of hands. This is often alluded to by Shakspeare himself. See a note in the _Winter's tale_, p. 17, Steevens's edition, 1793.

IV. The testimony of witnesses. That of the priest alone was generally sufficient, though we often find many other persons attending the ceremony. The words "there before him," and "he shall conceal it," in Olivia's speech, sufficiently demonstrate that betrothing and not marriage is intended; for in the latter the presence of the priest alone would not have sufficed. In later times, espousals in the church were often prohibited in France, because instances frequently occurred where the parties, relying on the testimony of the priest, scrupled not to live together as man and wife; which gave rise to much scandal and disorder. Excesses were likewise often committed by the celebration of espousals in taverns and alehouses, and some of the synodal decrees expressly enjoin that the parties shall not get drunk on these occasions.

The ceremony, generally speaking, was performed by the priest demanding of the parties if they had entered into a contract with any other person, or made a vow of chastity or religion; whether they had acted for each other, or for any child they might have had, in the capacity of godfather or godmother, or whether they had committed incontinence with any near relation of the other party; but the latter questions might be dispensed with at the discretion of the priest. Then this oath was administered--"You swear by God and his holy saints herein and by all the saints of Paradise, that you will take this woman whose name is N. to wife within forty days, if holy church will permit." The priest then joined their hands, and said,--"And thus you affiance yourselves;" to which the parties answered,--"Yes, sir." They then received a suitable exhortation on the nature and design of marriage, and an injunction to live piously and chastely until that event should take place. They were not permitted, at least by the church, to reside in the same house, but were nevertheless regarded as man and wife independently of the usual privileges: and this will account for Olivia's calling Cesario "husband;" and when she speaks of "keeping _celebration_ according to her birth," it alludes to _future marriage_. This took place in a reasonable time after betrothing, but was seldom protracted in modern times beyond forty days. So in _Measure for measure_, Claudio calls Julietta his _wife_, and says he got possession of her bed upon a true _contract_. The duke likewise, in addressing Mariana who had been _affianced_ to Angelo, says, "he is your _husband_ on a pre-contract."

Before we quit the subject, it may be necessary to observe that betrothing was not an essential preliminary to marriage, but might be dispensed with. The practice in this respect varied in different times and places. The desuetude of espousals in England seems to have given rise to the action at law for damages on breach of promise of marriage. And thus much may suffice for a general idea of this ancient custom; the legal niceties must be sought for in the works of the civilians.

SCENE 1. Page 159.

SIR TO. Then he's a rogue. After a _passy-measure_, or a _pavin_, I hate a drunken rogue.

Florio, in his Italian dictionary, 1598, has "_passamezzo_, a _passameasure_ in dancing, a cinque pace;" and although the English word is corrupt, the other contributes to show a part, at least, of the figure of this dance, which is said to have consisted in making several steps round the ball-room and then _crossing it in the middle_. Brantôme calls it "le _pazzameno_ d'Italie," and it appears to have been more particularly used by the Venetians. It was much in vogue with us during Shakspeare's time, as well as the _Pavan_; and both were imported either from France, Spain, or Italy. In a book of instructions for the lute, translated from the French by J. Alford, 1568, 4to, there are two _passameze_ tunes printed in letters according to the lute notation.

As to the _Pavan_, there is some doubt whether it originally belongs to Spain or Italy. _Spanish pavans_ are certainly mentioned by Ben Jonson in the _Alchymist_, and by Brantôme in his _Dames illustres_, who adds that he had seen it danced by Francis I. and his sister, the celebrated Margaret of Navarre, and also by Mary Queen of Scots. There is good reason, however, for thinking the term is Italian, and derived from the city of _Padua_, where the dance is said to have been invented. Massa Gallesi, a civilian of the sixteenth century, calls it _saltatio Paduana_. In a catalogue of books that were exposed to sale at Frankfort fair, from 1564 to 1592, the following are mentioned: "Chorearum molliorum collectanea omnis fere generis tripudia complectens, utpote _Padoanas_, _passemezos_, allemandas, galliardas, branles, et id genus alia, tam vivæ voci quam instrumentis musicis accommodata. Antverpiæ, 1583, 4to." "Cantiones _Italicæ_ quas _Paduana_ Itali vocant, quatuor vocum. Venetiis, 1565, 4to." "Sixti Kargen, renovata cythara, hoc est, novi et commodissimi exercendæ cytharæ modi, constantes cantionibus musicis, _passomezo_, _podoanis_, gaillardis, Alemanicis et aliis ejusmodi pulchris exemplis, ad tabulaturam communem redactis. Argentorati, 1575, et Moguntiæ, 1569, folio." In Alford's _Instructions for the lute_, above mentioned, there is a _Paduane_ and a _Pavane_. Randle Holme, in his _Academy of armory_, 1688, folio,