In this unquestionably corrupt passage we have adopted the reading of the modern editors. The quartos give this line: "As "Or (70) of a most select and generous, cheefe in that." To thine ownself be true, And it must follow, as the night the day,] 'Tis part of Burnet's character of Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, "that he was true to nothing, for he was not true to himself." Hist. of his own Times, fo. I. 100. Shakespeare says, "That followed it, as gentle day "Doth follow night." Sonn. 145. (71) Farewell; my blessing season this in thee] i. e. give a relish to, quicken, it. These golden precepts, suited indeed to the occasion, and the rank of the person that delivers them, very ill accord with the character he supports, and the measure of intellect allotted to him in almost every other part of this play; in which he appears to be, as Hamlet II. 2, III. 2, and III. 4, describes him, a " tedious old fool," "a wretched rash fool," "a foolish prating knave." At the same time, that in this view we insist upon his tiresome expostulation with the king and queen in II. 2, we must also observe that our author puts into his mouth, in his conversation with Reynaldo, II. 1, the very words of Shallow to Bardolph, "Well said, and it is well said, &c." II. H. IV. III. 2. See also the note at the end of the fragment of the play in II. 2. Haml. (72) The time invites you] " I go, and it is done: the bell invites me." Macb. II. 1. Macb. "The time inviting thee." Cymb. III. 4. Imog. (73) Tender yourself more dearly] Tender was anciently used as much in the sense of regard or respect, as it was in that of offer. "And because eche like thing tendreth his like." Pref. to Drant's Horace, 4to. 1566. Mr. Malone instances Lyly's Maydes Metamorphosis, 1601. if you account us for the same "That tender thee, and love Apollo's name." This word is presently used in another sense, that of make or render: "You'll tender me a fool:" i. e. "hold or esteem.' Johnson. (74) Roaming it thus] Ranging so far, becoming so wildly excursive, and running into so many senses of the word, tender. Of roam our dictionary makers can give no account. Dr. Johnson pilgrimages to Rome for the etymology of it. It may, however, be of the same root with room; which Mr. Tooke says, in his Divers. of Purl. II. 260, is derived from, and is the past participle of, a Saxon verb, signifying dilatare, amplificare, extendere; and imports space or extent, as dilatum, extended. To roam, then, may be to extend, spread about, expatiate. Puttenham, in his Arte of Eng. Poesie, 4to. 1589, p. 171, in the third person writes it "romes," and, p. 229, romer. See Chaucer. The quartos read “ wrong it thus." (75) Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers] Bawds or pimps. Gloss. to Gawin Douglass's Virgil. "This bawd, this broker," &c. K. John. “Know, vows are ever brokers to defiling." Lover's Com. Procurers. See All's Well, &c. III. 5. Widow. MALONE. (76) Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds] Like the protestations of solemn contracts entered into with all the formalities and ceremonies of religion. Adam tells Orlando, in As you, &c. "Thy virtues, gentle master, "Are sanctified and holy traitors to you." II. 3. Adam. (77) an eager air] Sharp, aigre, Fr. "And curd, like eager droppings, into milk." Sc. 5. (78) held his wont to walk] MALONE. "Obsoletus, unwonte." Ortus vocabulor, 4to. 1514. The noun as well as the participle has been transmitted to us; and it appears that in early times the verb was in more popular use also. 66 "No wonder though she be astoned, Chauc. 8vo. Tyrwh. II. 15. (79) The king doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, The triumph of his pledge] Upspring, associated with swaggering," may have the familiar sense of " upstart," assigned to it by Dr. Johnson: but Mr. Steevens having shewn, from Chapman's Alphonsus, that upspring was a German dance (at least a figure in their dances) "We Germans have no changes in our dances; "An almain and an upspring, that is all," the term seems, like upsy freeze, to be connected with the musical accompaniments and riotous gesticulations of a northern or German debauch. The language of Lodge's Wit's Miserie, 4to. 1596, p. 20, seems to countenance this idea: "Dance, leap, sing, drink; upsefrize." "For Upsefreese he drunke from four to nine, "So as each sense was steeped well in wine: "Grew extreame sicke with hugging Bacchus' shrine." A new Spring shadowed in sundrie pithie Poems by Musophilus, 4to. 1619, signat. 1. b. where Upsefreese is the name given to the Frier. Of rouse, noticed before, I. 2, King, and Rhenish wine, each of which are also mentioned here, we may further instance; "Sparring out his legges, yea and distending all his entralls, like a bladder, for the grand carowse." Tho. Thompson's Diet for a Drunkard. Sermon, 4to. 1612, p. 63. "They found that Helicon still had "That virtue it did anciently retaine, "When Orpheus, Linus, and th' Ascrean swaine, "To last," &c. Drayton's Muses Elysium. Nympha ll III. 4to. 1630, p. 25. What was the royal practise in Denmark near the time at which this play was written, may be seen in Howell's Letters: "I made a Latin speech to the King of Denmark" (Christian IV. who acceded in 1588, and died 1649, uncle of Anne, Queen of King James), "on the embassy of my Lord of Leicester, who attended him at Rheynsburg, in Holsteinland. The King feasted my Lord once, and it lasted from eleven of the clock till towards the evening; during which time the King began thirty-five healths; the first to the Emperor, the second to his Nephew of England; and so went over all the kings and queens of Christendom, but be never remembered the Prince Palsgrave's health, or his Niece's, all the while. The King was taken away at last in his chair, but my Lord of Leicester bore up stoutly all the while; so that when there came two of the king's guard to take him by the arms, as he was going down the stairs, my lord shook them off, and went alone. The next morning I went to court for some dispatches; but the king was gone a hunting at break of day; but going to some other of his officers, their servants told me, without any appearance of shame, that their masters were drunk over-night; and so it would be late before they would rise." Hamburgh, October, 1632, 8vo. 1726. Sect. VI. 2, p. 236. 66 Again, in Dr. Muffett's Health's Improvement, republished, as he says, when almost forgotten, by Dr. Bennet, 4to. 1655. Switrigalus, Duke of Lituania, never sat fewer than six hours at dinner, and as many at supper; from whom I think the custome of long sitting was derived to Denmark: for there, I remember, I sat with Frederick King of Denmark, and that most honourable Peregrine, Lord Willoughby of Eresby (when he carried the order of the garter) seven or eight hours together at one meal." p. 294. "Thou dost out drink the youth of Norway at "One that rides post and is stopp'd by a cart." Cotgrave's Treasury, 12mo. 1655, p. 181. In a collection of characters, entitled "Looke to it, for He stab ye," without date, we have "You that will drink Keynaldo unto deth, "The Dane that would carowse out of his boote." Whether from a quotation in Roger Ascham's Letters, with which Mr. Reed furnishes us, we may conjecture what the liquor was that was used so profusely on these occasions, we know not; but he tells us, that "The Emperor of Germany, who had his head in the glass five times as long as any of us, never drank less than a good quart at once of Rhenish wine." Mr. Ritson also instances, "He tooke his rouse with stoopes of Rhennish winc." Marlowe's Tragical Historie of Doctor Faustus. And to the visit in this country of the same monarch, of whom Howell spoke in his letters, Mr. Reed also refers the introduction of drunkenness (he might say that at least) into the court of James I. "From the day the Danish king came, untill this hour, I have been well nigh overwhelmed with carousal and sports of all kinds. The sports began each day in such manner and such sorte, as well nigh persuaded me of Mahomet's paradis We had women, and indeed wine too, of such plenty as woud have astonish'd each sober beholder. I think the Dane hath strangely wrought on our good English nobles; for those, whom I never coud get to taste good liquor, now follow the fashion and wallow in beastly delights. The ladies abandon their sobriety, and are seen to roll about in intoxication. I do often say (but not aloud) that the Danes have again conquered the Britains; for I see no man, or woman either, that can now command himself or herself." Sir John Harington to Mr. Secretary Barlow, 1606. Nuga Antiq. 12mo. 1779. II. 26. Wassail is a jovial feast. See L. L. L. V. 2. Bir. & Macb. I. 7. Lady M. Drains, is draws off in gullies. The use of kettledrums at their wassails is noticed in Cleveland's Fuscara. "Tuning his draughts with drowsy hums, "As Danes carouse by kettle-drums." 8vo. 1682, p. 3. Bray, is harshly sound out. See "braying trumpets." K. John, III. 1. Blanch. "The triumph of his pledge," may be the victory consequent upon the acceptance of the challenge to this "heavy-headed revel," or may be only its pageant and scenic display. Doth all the noble substance often dout, To his own scandal.] In this, the conclusion of the passage in brackets, taken from the quartos, there is doubtless much corruption: in those the two readings are ease and eale: the modern editors, interpreting eale, ill or evil, substitute the word base. Of a, they consider as a misprint for often; and doubt, as nothing more than another way of spelling dout, or extinguish, as we find it in H. V. Dauph. IV. 2; and IV. 7. Laert. And, as appears, they have shewn great skill in the conduct of the business. "To his own scandal," is to its own; i. e. working its own reproach; and such personifications, or changing either of these pronouns ad libitum, were frequent in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. We have the use of the personal pronoun for the neutral, in III. 1. Haml. "Honesty translate beauty into his likeness:" where Mr. Steevens produces a marked instance of it from the Fairy Queen. "Then forth it break; and with his furious blast "Confounds both land and seas, and skies doth overcast." B. III. c. 9. The sentiment above is also employed, as Mr. Malone observes, to point out the leading defect in Hotspur's character: oftentimes it doth present harsh rage, "Defect of manners, want of government, "Loseth men's hearts, and leaves behind a stain 66 Beguiling them of commendation." I. H. IV. Wor. III. 1. (81) Be thou a spirit of health, or goblin damn'd, &c.] "Art thou a god, a man, or else a ghost? "Com'st thou from heaven, where bliss and solace dwell ? Acolastus, 1600. The first known edition of this play is in 1604. See also William and the Werwolf, MS. King's College Libr. Cambridge: "Whether thou be a gode gost in goddis name that speakest, "Or any foul fiend fourmed in this wise, "And if we schul of the hent harme or gode." p. 36. and "What soever thou art y' thus dost com, "Ghoost, hagge, or fende of hell, "I the comaunde by him that lyves "Thy name and case to tell." B. Googe, Egl. IV. STEEVENS. |