Again, in the first scene of the fifth act of this play of Troilus and Cressida. 66 -thou tassel of a prodigal's purse, thou!" STEEVENS. 620. Now, Hector, I have fed mine eyes on thee;] The hint for this scene of altercation between Achilles and Hector, is taken from Lydgate. STEEVENS. 622. And quoted joint by joint.] To quote is to observe. 657. the general state, I fear, STEEVENS. Can scarce entreat you to be odd with him.] i. e. I am aware that the Greeks will not wish you to meet him singly; insinuating that it would be bad policy in them to desire the man who had the greatest repu tation for valour, to run such a hazard of being foiled. STEEVENS. 667. convive -] To convive is to feast. This word is not peculiar to Shakspere. I find it several times used in the History of Helyas Knight of the Swanne, bl. let. no date. STEEVENS. 670. Beat loud the tabourines,quarto and the latter editions have, To taste your bounties. -] For this the The reading which I have given from the folio, seems chosen at the revision, to avoid the repetition of the word bounties. Tabourines are small drums. again in Antony and Cleopatra. JOHNSON. The word occurs STEEVENS. ACT ACT V. Line 6. THOU crusty batch of nature,—] · Batch i is any thing baked. JOHNSON. Batch does not signify any thing baked, but all that is baked at one time, without heating the oven afresh. So, Ben Jonson, in his Catiline: "Except he were of the same meal and batch.” Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612: " "The best is, there are but two batches of people moulded in this world." Again, in Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600 “Hast thou made a good batch? I pray thee give me a new loaf." Again, in Every Man in his Humour: Is all the rest of this batch ?" Thersites had STREVENS already been called cobloaf. 12. The surgeon's box,-] In this answer Thersites only quibbles upon the word tent. HANMER. 17. Male varlet,- -] Hanmer reads, male har. lot, plausibly enough, except that it seems too plain to require the explanation which Patroclus demands. JOHNSON This expression is met with in Decker's Honest Whore: "This a male varlet, sure, my lord!" FARMER. 20. cold palsies,-] This catalogue of loathsome maladies ends in the folio at cold palsies. This passage, as it stands, is in the quarto: the retrenchment was, in my opinion, judicious. It may be remarked, though it proves nothing, that, of the few alterations made by Milton in the second edition of his wonderful poem, one was, an enlargement of the enumeration of diseases. 29. JOHNSON. —you ruinous, &c.] Patroclus reproaches Thersites with deformity, with having one part crowded into another. JOHNSON. The same idea occurs in the Second Part of King Henry IV: "Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form." 31. STEEVENS. -thou idle immaterial skein of sleeve silk,—] All the terms used by Thersites of Patroclus, are emblematically expressive of flexibility, compliance, and mean officiousness. JOHNSON. 36. Out, gall!] Hanmer reads nut-gall, which answers well enough to finch-egg; it has already appeared, that our author thought the nut-gall the bitter gall. He is called nut, from the conglobation of his form; but both the copies read, Out, gall! JOHNSON. 37. Finch-egg!] Of this reproach I do not know the exact meaning. I suppose he means to call him singing bird, as implying an useless favourite; and yet more, something more worthless, a singing bird in the egg, or generally, a slight thing easily crushed. JOHNSON. A finch's egg is remarkably gaudy; but of such terms of reproach it is difficult to pronounce the true signification. STEEVENS. 41. A token from her daughter, &c.] This is a circumstance taken from the story book of the three destructions of Troy. HANMER. 54. -And the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, his brother, the bull, the primitive statue, and oblique memorial of cuckolds ;] The author of The Revisal observes, that "the memorial is called oblique, because it was only indirectly such, upon the common supposition, that both bulls and cuckolds were furnished with horns." STEEVENS. May we not rather suppose, that Shakspere, who is so frequently licentious in his language, means nothing more by this epithet than horned, the bull's horns being crooked or oblique ? MALONE. 59. forced with wit, -] Stuffed with wit. A term of cookery.-In this speech I do not well understand what is meant by loving quails. JOHNSON. By loving quails the poet may mean, loving the company of harlots. A quail is remarkably salacious. Mr. Upton says that Xenophon, in his memoirs of Socrates, has taken notice of this quality in the bird. A similar allusion occurs in The Hollander, a comedy, by Glapthorne, 1640: "the hot desire of quails, σε Το yours STEEVENS. In old French caille was synonymous to fille de joie. In the Dict. Comique par le Roux, under the article caille are these words: "Chaud comme une caille "Caille coiffée femmes." Sobriquet qu'on donne aux Signifie femme eveillè amoureuse." So, in Rabelais : -“Cailles coiffées mignonnent chantans,”—which Motteux has thus rendered (probably from the old translation) coated quails and laced mutton, waggishly MALONE. singing. 68. spirits and fires!] This Thersites speaks upon the first sight of the distant lights. JOHNSON. 100. -he will spend his mouth, and promise, like Brabler the hound ;- -] If a hound gives his mouth, and is not upon the scent of the game, he is by sportsmen called a babler, or brabler. The proverb says, Brabling curs never want sore ears. ANON. 106. they say, he keeps a Trojan drab.} This character of Diomed is likewise taken from Lydgate. STEEVENS. 122. French. her cliff;] That is, her key. Clef, JOHNSON. Cliff, i. e. a mark in musick at the beginning of the lines of a song; and is the indication of the pitch, and bespeaks what kind of voice-as base, tenour, or treble, it is proper for.. Sir J. HAWKINS. So, in The Chances, by Beaumont and Fletcher, where Antonio, employing musical terms, says: Will none but my C. cliff serve your turn?" |