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lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one, that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured the Turk False of heart, light of ear,2 bloody of hand; Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness,3 dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor

What a poxe do I here? I will stay no longer amongst a company of rascal priests, but goe to the court, and brave it amongst my fellows, the noblemen there assembled." Harsenet's Declaration, &c. 1603.

"shortly after they [the seven spirits] were all cast forth, and in such manner as Ma. Edmunds directed them, which was, that every devil should depart in some certaine forme representing either a beast or some other creature, that had the resemblance of that sinne whereof he was the chief author: whereupon the spirit of pride departed in the forme of a peacock; the spirit of sloth in the likeness of an asse; the spirit of envie in the similitude of a dog; the spirit of gluttony in the forme of a wolfe, and the other devils had also in their departure their particular likenesses agreeable to their naMalone.

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1 wore gloves in my cap,] i. e. His mistress's favours: which was the fashion of that time. So, in the play called Campaspe: “Thy men turned to women, thy soldiers to lovers, gloves worn in velvet caps, instead of plumes in graven helmets." Warburton.

It was anciently the custom to wear gloves in the hat on three distinc occasions, viz. as the favour of a mistress the memorial of a friend, and as a mark to be challenged by an enemy. Prince Henry boasts that he will pluck a glove from the commonest creature, and fix it in his helmet; and Tucca says to Sir Quintilian, in Decker's Satiromastix: 66- Thou shalt wear her glove in thy worshipful hat, like to a leather brooch:" and Pandora in Lyly's Waman in the Moon, 1597: ·

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he that first presents me with his head,

"Shall wear my glove in favour of the deed."

Portia, in her assumed character, asks Bassanio for his gloves, which she says she will wear for his sake: and King Henry V gives the pretended glove of Alençon to Fluellen, which afterwards occasions his quarrel with the English soldier. Steevens.

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light of ear,] Credulous of evil, ready to receive malicious reports. Johnson.

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Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness. &c.] The Jesuits pretended to cast the seven deadly sins out of Mainy in the shape of those animals that represented them; and before each was cast out, Mainy by gestures acted that particular sin; curling his hair to show pride, vomiting for gluttony, gaping and snoring for sloth, &c.Harsenet's book, pp. 279, 280, &c. To this probably our author alludes. Steevens

the rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to women: Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets,* thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by. [Storm still continues.

4 thy hand out of plackets,] It appeareth from the following passage in Any Thing for a quiet Life, a silly comedy, that placket doth not signify the petticoat in general, but only the aperture therein: " between which is discovered the open part which is now called the placket." Bailey in his Dictionary, giveth the same account of the word.

Yet peradventure, our poet hath some deeper meaning in The Winter's Tale, where Autolycus saith- You might have pinched a placket, it was senseless"-and, now I bethink me, Sir Thomas Urquart, knight, in his translation of that wicked varlet Rabelais styleth the instrument wherewith Garagantua played at carnal tennis, his "placket-racket." See that work, Vol. I, p. 184, edit. 1750.

Impartiality nevertheless compelleth me to observe, that Master Coles in his Dictionary hath rendered placket by sinus muliebris: and a pleasant commentator who signeth himself T. C. hath also produced instances in favour of that signification; for, saith he,-but hear we his own words: "Peradventure a placket signified neither a petticoat nor any part of one; but a stomacher" See the word Torace in Florio's Italian Dict. 1598. " The brest or bulke of a man. -Also a placket or stomacher."-The word seems to be used in the same sense in The Wandering Whores, &c. a comedy, 1663: “If I meet a cull in Morefields, I can give him leave to dive in my placket."

So that, after all, this matter is enwrapped in much and painful uncertainty. Amner.

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thy pen from lenders' books,] So, in All Fools, a comedy, by Chapman, 1605:

"If I but write my name in mercers' books,

"I am as sure to have at six months end

"A rascal at my elbow with his mace," &c. Steevens.

6 Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by.] The quartos read-the cold wind; hay, no on ny, Dolphin my boy, my boy, cease, let him trot by. The folio-the cold wind: sayes suum, mun, nonay, Dolphin my boy, boy Sessey, let him trot by. The text is formed from the two copies. I have printed Sessa, instead of Sessey, because the same cant word occurs in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew: " Therefore, paucas palla

bris; let the world slide. Sessa." Malone.

Hey no nonny is the burthen of a ballad in The Two Noble Kinsmen, (said to be written by Shakspeare, in conjunction with Fletcher,) and was probably common to many others. The folio introduces it into one of Ophelia's songs:

Lear. Why, thou were better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies. -Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume :-Ha! here 's three of us are sophisticated!-Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings :-Come; unbutton here.7[Tearing off his Clothes.

Dolphin, my boy, my boy,
"Cease, let him trot by;

"It seemeth not that such a foe

"From me or you would fly."

This is a stanza from a very old ballad written on some battle Fought in France, during which the King, unwilling to put the suspected valour of his son the Dauphin, i. e. Dolphin, (so called and spelt at those times) to the trial, is represented as desirous to restrain him from any attempt to establish an opinion of his courage on an adversary who wears the least appearance of strength; and at last assists in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Therefore, as different champions are supposed to cross the field, the King always discovers some objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats these two lines as every fresh personage is introduced:

Dolphin, my boy, my boy, &c.

The song I have never seen, but had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to repeat part of it, and died before I could have supposed the discovery would have been of the least importance to me.As for the words, says suum, mun, they are only to be found in the first folio, and were probably added by the players, who, together with the compositors, were likely enough to corrupt what they did not understand, or to add more of their own to what they already concluded to be nonsense. Steevens.

Cokes cries out, in Bartholomew Fair:

"God's my life!-He shall be Dauphin my boy!" Farmer. It is observable that the two songs to which Mr. Steevens refers for the burden of Hey no nonny, are both sung by girls distracted from disappointed love. The meaning of the burden may be inferred from what follows-Drayton's Shepherd's Garland, 1593, 4to:

"Who ever heard thy pipe and pleasing vaine,

"And doth but heare this scurrill minstralcy,

"These noninos of filthie ribauldry,

"That doth not muse.

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Again, in White's Wit of a Woman: “ —

these dauncers some

times do teach them trickes above trenchmore, yea and sometimes such lavoltas, that they mount so high, that you may see their hey nony, nony, nony, no." Henley.

7 Come; unbutton here.] Thus the folio. One of the quartos reads -Come on, be true. Steevens.

Fool. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.8-Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire.

Edg. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock;1 he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth.

a naughty night to swim in.] So, Tusser, chap. xlii, fol. 93: "Ground grauellie, sandie, and mixed with claie,

"Is naughtie for hops anie manner of waie."

Naughty signifies bad, unfit, improper. This epithet which, as it stands here, excites a smile, in the age of Shakspeare was employed. on serious occasions. The merriment of the Fool, therefore, depended on his general image, and not on the quaintness of its auxiliary. Steevens. Flibbertigibbet:] We are not much acquainted with this fiend. Latimer, in his Sermons, mentions him; and Heywood, among his sixte hundred of Epigrams, edit. 1576, has the following, of calling one Flebergibet:

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"Thou Flebergibet, Flebergibet, thou wretch!

"Wottest thou whereto last part of that word doth stretch? "Leave that word, or I'le baste thee with a libet ;

"Of all woords I hate woords that end with gibet." Steevens. "Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, were four devils of the round or morrice . . . . .These four ad forty assistants under them, as themselves doe confesse.” Harsenet, p. 49. Percy. he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock;] It is an old tradition that spirits were relieved from the confinement in which they were held during the day, at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of day, and were permitted to wander at large till the first cockcrowing. Hence, in The Tempest, they are said to "rejoice to hear the solemn curfew." See Hamlet, Act I, sc. i:

and at his [the cock's] warning,

"Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
"The extravagant and erring spirit hies
"To his confine."

Again, sc. v:

"I am thy father's spirit,

"Doom'd for a certain time to walk the night,

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And for the day confin'd to fast in fires,

See Vol. II, p. 35, n. 2. Steevens.

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web and the pin,] Diseases of the eye. Johnson.

So, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609. One of the characters is giving a ludicrous description of a lady's face, and when he comes to her eyes he says, "a pin and web argent, in hair du roy." Steevens.

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Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;

He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;
Bid her alight,

And her troth plight,

And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee !

3 Saint Withold footed thrice the wold;

He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold;

Bid her alight,

And her truth plight,

And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!] We should read it thus:

Saint Withold footed thrice the wold,

He met the night-mare, and her name told,

Bid her alight, and her troth plight,

And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee right.

i. e. Saint Withold traversing the wold or downs, met the night-mare; who having told her name, he obliged he: to alight from those persons whom she rides, and plight her troth to do no more mischief. This is taken from a story of him in his legend. Hence he was invoked as the patron saint against that distemper. And these verses were no other than a popular charm, or night-spell against the Epialtes. The last line is the formal execration or apostrophe of the speaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i.e. depart forthwith. Bedlams, gipsies, and such like vagabonds, used to sell these kinds of spells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various disorders, and addressed to various saints. Warburton.

In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be noted. "Swithalde footed thrice the olde anelthu night moore and her nine fold bid her, O light and her troth plight and arint thee, with arint thee." Johnson.

Her nine fold scems to be put (for the sake of the rhyme) instead of her nine foals. I cannot find this adventure in the common legend of St. Vitalis, who, I suppose, is here called St. Withold. Tyrwhitt.

Shakspeare might have met with St. Withold in the old spuricus play of King John, where this saint is invoked by a Franciscan friar. The wold I suppose to be the true reading. So, in The Coventry Collection of Mysteries, Mus. Brit. Vesp. D viii, p. 23, Herod says to one of his officers:

"Sevward bolde, walke thou on wolde,

"And wysely behold all abowte," &c.

Dr. Hill's reading, the cold, (mentioned in the next note) is the reading of Mr. Tate in his alteration of this play in 1681.

Lest the reader should suppose the compound-night-mare, hasany reference to horse-flesh, it may be observed that mapa, Saxon, signifies an incubus. See Keysler, Antiquitat. sel. Septentrion. p. 497, edit. 1720. Steevens.

It is pleasant to see the various readings of this passage. In a book called the Actor, which has been ascribed to Dr. Hill, it is quoted "Swithin footed thrice the cold." Mr. Colman has it in his alteration of Lear

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