Bourne, in his Antiquities of the Common People, observes, that "it is a ceremony never omitted among the vulgar, to draw lots, which they term Valentines, on the eve before Valentineday. The names of a select number of one sex are by an equal number of the other put into some vessel; and after that every one draws a name, which for the present is called their Valentine, and is also looked upon as a good omen of their being man and wife afterwards." Mr. Brand adds, that he has " searched the legend of St. Valentine, but thinks there is no occurrence in his life, that could give rise to this ceremony." MALONE. Vulgaria this "Valantynes be put and shocked in a close vessell, as is a cappe. Valantiniana conjiciuntur in cistellum." Hormanni, 4to. 1530, signat. iiii. 4, b. Mr. Douce says, practice is derived from the Lupercal games, celebrated in February, in honor of Pan and Juno at Rome, when the names of young women were put into a box, and drawn by the men." Illustr. II. 252. (27) By Gis] This is agreed to be an abbreviation or corruption of the name of Jesus. Mr. Steevens cites See me, and see me not, 1618: "By Gisse I swear, were I so fairly wed." We shall add, "Great lordes cherish them (fooles) by jysse a little better than they are wont to doo these frouning philosophers." Sir Tho. Chaloner's Erasmus's Praise of Folie, 4to. 1549, signat. G 2. b., and see Douce's Illustr. II. 260. (28) by Saint Charity] Saint Charity is a known saint among the Roman Catholicks. Spenser mentions her, Eclog. V. "Ah, dear lord, and sweet Saint Charity!" 255. Again, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "Therefore, sweet master, for Saint Charity." Again, in A lytell Geste of Robyn Hode : "Lete me go, then sayd the sheryf, In the scene between the Bastard Faulconbridge and the friars and nunne, in the First Part of The troublesome Raigne of King John, 1779, p. 256: "the nunne swears by Gis, and the friers pray to Saint Withold, and adjure him by Saint Charitie to hear them." BLACKSTONE. (29) By cock] This also is a corruption of the sacred name. See M. W. of W. I. 1. Page, and II H. IV. Shal. V. 1. (30) we have done but greenly] Like novices. Green is unripe, immature. Greenhorn is a familiar term, applied to those who, raw and inexperienced in the commerce of the world, are 65 overreached. Thus Ophelia is called by her father a green girl, unsifted," &c. I. 3. "Youthe withouten grenehed or folie." Man of Lawe's tale Tyrw. Chauc. C. T. v. 4583. (31) In hugger-mugger to inter him] From Greene's Groundwork of Coneycatching, 1592, Mr. Steevens says, it appears, "that to hugger was to lurk about ;" and from North's Plutarch he produces the word in the text used under similar circumstances: "Antonius, thinking that his body should be honourably buried, and not in hugger-mugger." "Dinascoso, secretly, hiddenly, in hugger-mugger." Florio's Italian Dict. 1598. MALONE. In the Revenger's Tragædie, 4to. 1608, signat. H. 4. we have, "How quaintly he died like a politician in hugger-mugger." "Have brought it so much to knowledge, that it may be a marvell howe it should be kept in hugger-mugger." Arth. Golding's Jul. Solinus, 4to. 1587, Ch. 12. In tantum notitiæ obtulit, ut tacere de eo magis mirum sit. "If shoting fault at any time, it hydes it not, it lurkes not in corners and huddermother.” Ascham's Toxophilus, 4to. 1589, fo. 5, b. "If we do nothynge besyde the lawe, it shal be done moche better in open court, and in the face of all the worlde, thanne in hugger-mugger." Rich. Taverner's Garden of Wysdom, 12mo. 1539, signat. C 4, b. "By subtill means, by craft and divelish guile Studley's Seneca's Hippolytus, 4to. 1581, fo. 58. Astu doloque tegere, A. I. sc. 2. "And there in hucker-mucker hyde "Thy idalle God, thy goulde." Drant's Hor. 4to. 1566, signat. A. iii. Furtim defossa timidum deponere terra. Sat. I. 1. 42. And see Lichefield's Castaneda's Conq. of the East India, 4to, 1582, fo. 86, b. From the above it appears, that it was not without reason that Dr. Johnson, in restoring this word, has said, "that the words now replaced are better, I do not undertake to prove; it is sufficient they are Shakespeare's: if phraseology is to be changed, as words grow uncouth by disuse or gross by vulgarity, the history of every language will be lost; we shall no longer have the words of any author, and, as these alterations will be often unskilfully made, we shall in time have very little of his meaning." This is a doctrine that cannot be too strongly inculcated, and hardly too often repeated. (32) Feeds on his wonder] The folios read "keeps;" probably an error arising from this word following in the same line. The quartos give " Feed on this wonder.” (33) a murdering piece] "A case-shot is any kinde of small bullets, nailes, old iron, or the like, to put into the case, to shoot out of the ordnances or murderers." Smith's Sea Grammar, 1627. "And, like a murdering piece, aims not at one, B. and Fl. Double Marriage. STEEVENS. Mr. Ritson cites Sir T. Roe's Voiage to the E. Indies, at the end of Della Valle's Travels, 1665 : 66 the East India company had a very little pinnace... mann'd she was with ten men, and had only one small murdering-piece within her." Probably it was never charged with a single ball, but always with shot, pieces of old iron, &c. (34) my Switzers] The guards attendant on Kings are called Switzers, without any regard to the country where the scene lies. "Some place of gain, as clerk to the great band "Of marrow-bones, that the people call the Switzers? "Men made of beef and sarcenet?" B. and Fl. Noble Gent. III. 1. REED. The reason is, because the Swiss in the time of our poet, as at present, were hired to fight the battles of other nations. So, in Nashe's Christ's Teares over Jerusalem, 4to. 1594: "Law, logicke, and the Switzers, may be hired to fight for any body." MALONE. (35) impitious haste] Swallows up, engulphs not the low lands with more unpitying fury. One of the quartos reads inpitious; another, as does the folio of 1632, reads impetuous.. (36) 0, this is counter, you false Danish dogs] Hounds run counter when they trace the trail backwards. JOHNSON. Puttenham, in describing " an importune and shrewd wife," whom he calls "overthwart Jone," has the verb: "So shrewd she is for God, so cunning and so wise, (37) There's such divinity doth hedge a king, That treason can but peep to what it would, Acts little of his will] Such divinity encompasseth about a king, that treason cannot distinctly see, cannot fully point its aim to its object. However, at first view, we may be led to think, that here either the language sinks under the idea, or in dignity and even in decorum, the conception itself is no way adequate to the oc casion, or the personage made to figure in the drama, this will, in part at least, be found to arise from our not being enough conversant with the phraseology of the day. Without instancing the use of words by different authors, and those treating different subjects, as appears from the word grunt, III. 1. Haml., it will be extremely hazardous to pronounce upon the fashionableness or vulgarity, upon the degree of estimation, in which any word or phrase was formerly had. The word hedge is used by the gravest writers upon the highest subjects: Satan, approaching the Deity, addresses him respecting Job, in these words. "Hast thou not made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?" Job. I. 10.; and in III. 23. Job speaks of himself man, whom (in another sense indeed) God hath hedged in;" as in speaking of the Deity, the word is used in the Lament. of Jeremiah, III. 7. as a (38) life-rend'ring pelican] So, in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date: "Who taught the cok hys watche-howres to observe, Again, in the old play of King Leir, 1605: "I am as kind as is the pelican, "That kils itselfe, to save her young ones lives." It is almost needless to add that this account of the bird is entirely fabulous. STEEVENS. (39) Nature is fine in love: and, where 'tis fine, It sends some precious instance of itself After the thing it loves] Fine, or of an ethereal character and nature-partaking of immortality, of the soul's essence: for, as love is the highest refinement of which our nature is capable; as it detaches us from ourselves, extinguishing that selfishness otherwise inseparable from us, by making the beloved object dearer to us than our own preservation or existence; where it is found in purity and sincerity, its aerial spirit, some effluvia or diviner particles of the flame, some emanations of soul, subtilizing and dissolving their links with the grosser and more material substance of our frame, will (or eagerly we persuade ourselves that they will) fly off, aspire after, make their effort to blend themselves with that to which they are most congenial, and with which, in idea at least, they only can assimilate. This must, of course, take place in a case, where, by an abrupt severance, the soul is suddenly bereft (and whatever other causes might with her co-operate, or be principal, this, from his last interview with Ophelia, would, to Laertes, appear the leading one) of the partner of its being, its other self; for the passion of the soul says, they are One. And here, let it be remembered, that, upon this topic generally, unity is vitality: do away this, and either it is gone, or it assumes a very different denomination. Dr. Johnson may perhaps say, without affectation, that these lines are obscure and affected. They are, in our conception, of a very different character: and so far from being such, and fit, as he says, to be expunged, we think, that these abstractions and this high mood, beyond their intrinsic value, teach us, that what Milton derived from Plato and the Greek philosophy, our author could draw from nature and his own resources alone. The general idea or maxim inculcated in the first part of this sentence, and afterwards so beautifully and philosophically amplified, we find insisted upon in Othello." They say, base men, being in love, have then a Nobility in their natures, more than is native to them." II. 1. Iago. And the term itself is also employed by our author, when speaking of the highest and most exquisite qualities and properties of our nature. And, And, "Spirits are not finely touched, M. for M. I. 1. Duke. "Those that with the fineness of their souls "Love-or some joy too fine, Tr. and Cr. I. 3. Ulyss. "Too subtle-potent, and too sharp in sweetness Ib. III. 2. Troil. And, in the following Sonnet, does he not advance and illustrate his own more particular and philosophical doctrine, contained in the second part of the above sentence? Το "Is it thy wil, thy Image should keepe open "Dost thou desire my slumbers should be broken, "Is it thy spirit, that thou send'st from thee (40) Hey non nonny] This was the burden of an old song. nonny, Mr. Steevens tells us, signifies, among the common people of Norfolk, to "trifle, or play with ;" and he instances the term in Heywood's Wether: |