Seb. I had but coarse cheere.
King. Thou couldst nere fare better:Religious houses are those hyves where BeesMake honey for mens soules. I tell thee, Boy,A Fryery is a Cube which strongly stands,Fashioned by men, supported by heavens hands:Orders of holy Priest-hood are as high,I'th eyes of Angels, as a Kings dignity.Both these unto a Crowne give the full weight,And both are thine: you that our Contract know,See how I scale it with this Marriage;My blessing and Spaines kingdome both be thine.
Omnes. Long liveSebastian!
Onae. Doff that Fryers course gray, And since hee's crown'd a king, clothe him like one.
King. Oh no; those are right Soveraigne Ornaments:Had I been cloth'd so I had never fill'dSpaine's Chronicle with my blacke Calumny.My worke is almost finish'd: where's my Queene?
Queen. Heere, peece-meale torne by Furies.
King.Onaelia!Your hand,Paulina, too;Onaelia, yours:This hand (the pledge of my twice broken faith),By you usurp'd, is her Inheritance.My love is turn'd, see, as my fate is turn'd:Thus they to day laugh, yesterday which mourn'd:I pardon thee my death. Let her be sentBacke into Florence with a trebled dowry.Death comes: oh, now I see what late I fear'd;A Contract broke, tho piec'd up ne're so well,Heaven sees, earth suffers, but it ends in hell.(Moritur.)
Onae. Oh, I could dye with him!
Queen. Since the bright spheare I mov'd in falls, alas, what make I here? [Exit.
Med. The hammers of blacke mischiefe now cease beating,Yet some irons still are heating. You, Sir Bridegroome,(Set all this while up as a marke to shoot at)We here discharge you of your bed fellow:She loves no Barbars washing.
Cock. My Balls are sav'd then.
Med. Be it your charge, so please you, reverend Sir,To see the late Queene safely sent to Florence:My NeeceOnaelia, and that trusty Souldier,We doe appoint to guard the infant King.Other distractions Time must reconcile;The State is poyson'd like a Crocodile.
[Exeunt.
[1] The title, I suppose, of "Cuckold."
[2] Tacitus in a few words gives a most masterly description of Poppea: —"Huic mulieri cuncta alia fuere praeter honestum animum: quippe mater eius, aetatis suae feminas pulchritudine supergressa, gloriam pariter et formam dederat: opes claritudini generis sufficiebant: sermo comis, nec absurdum ingenium: modestiam praeferre et lascivia uti: rarus in publicum egressus, idque velata parte oris, ne satiaret aspectum, vel quia sic decebat. Famae numquam pepercit, maritos et adulteros non distinguens, neque affectui suo aut alieno obnoxia: unde utilitas ostenderetur, illuc libidinem transtulit."—Ann. XIII. 45.
[3] 4to. Why? Is he rais'd.
[4] Cf. Dion Cassius, [Greek: X G] 20.
[5] 4to. cleare th'ayre.
[6] "Push" and "pish" are used indifferently by Elizabethan writers.
[7] Cf. Verg. Aen. vi. 805-6:—
"Nec qui pampineis victor iuga flectit habenis,Liber, agens celso Nysae de vertice tigres."
[8] 4to. Turpuus. (Vid. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 20.)
[9] Tacitus (Ann. xvi. 14) mentions an astrologer of this name, who was banished by Nero.
[10] Vid. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 25.
[11] 4tos.Servinus.
[12] Tacit. Ann. xv. 49.
[13] By those "wicked armes" is meant, I suppose, the struggle between Caesar and Pompey. Posterity will think the horrors of civil war compensated by the pleasure of reading Lucan's epic!
[14] 4tos. Ciria.
[15] 4tos. beeds.
[16] 4tos. begins.
[17] A certain Volusius Proculus was one of the infamous agents in the murder of Agrippina, and afterwards betrayed the fearless woman Epicharis who confided to him the secret of Piso's conspiracy; but no one of this name was executed by Nero.
[18] Quy. How! bruised, &c.
[19] Quy. Say that I had no skill!—If the reading of the 4tos. is right the meaning must be, "As for his saying that I had no skill."
[20] A copy of the 1633 4to. gives "shoulder-eac't," which is hardly less intelligible than the reading in the text. Everybody knows that Pelops received an ivory shoulder for the one that was consumed; but the word "shoulder-packt" conveys no meaning. "Shoulder-pieced," i.e., "fitted with an (ivory) shoulder," would be a shade more intelligible; but it is a very ugly compound.
[21] Dion Cassius ([Greek: XB]. 14. ed. Bekker) reports this brutal gibe of Nero's; Rubellius Plautus was the luckless victim:—[Greek: "ho de dae Neron kai gelota kai skommata, ta ton syngenon kaka hepoieito ton goun Plauton apokteinas, hepeita taen kephalaen autou prosenechtheisan oi idon, 'ouk haedein,' hephae 'oti megalaen rina eichen,' osper pheisamenos an autou ei touto proaepistato."]
[22] Persius' tutor, immortalised in his pupil's Fifth Satire.
[23] Quy. with.
[24]Machlaean—a word coined from [Greek: machlos] (sc. libidinosus).
[25] Partly a translation from Persius, Sat. I. 11. 99-102:—
"Torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis,Et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superboBassaris, et lyncem Maenas flexura corymbisEuion ingeminat: reparabilis assonat Echo";
which lines are supposed to be a parody of some verses of Nero. Persius' comment—
"summa delumbe saliva Hoc natat: in labris et in udo est Maenas et Attis; Nec pluteum caedit, nec demorsos sapit ungues"—
agrees with the judgment of Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 16). Suetonius (Vit. Ner. 52), who had seen some of Nero's MSS., speaks of the extreme care that had been given to correction; and the few verses preserved by Seneca make against the estimate of Tacitus and Persius.
[26] 4tos. Ennion.
[27] Vid. Dion Cassius [Greek: XB]. 29.
[28] 4tos. conductors.
[29] 4tos. again.
[30] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 48.
[31] The 4to. points the passage thus:—
"The thing determinde on our meeting now,Is of the meanes, and place, due circumstance,As to the doing of things t'is requir'd,So done, it names the action."
The words "t'is requir'd … action," I take to mean, "The assassination must be accomplished in such a way as to appear an act of patriotism and make the actors famous."
[32] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 52
[33] Cf. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 49:—"Mirum et vel praecipue notabile inter haec fuerit, nihil eum patientius quam maledicta et convitia hominum tulisse, neque in ullos lemorem quam qui se dictis aut carminibus lucessissent exstitisse. Multa Graece Latineque proscripta aut vulgata sunt, sicut illa:—
* * * * *Roma domus fiet: Veios migrate Quirites, Si non et Veios occupat ista domus."
[34] 4tos.Servi.
[35] 4tos. Servinus.
[36] Cf. Tac. Ann. xvi. 5; and Sueton. Vit Ner. 23.
[37] 4to. time.
[38] Cf. Sueton. Vit. Ner. 23. "Itaque et enixae quaedam in spectaculis dicuntur, et multi taedio audiendi laudandique, clausis oppidorum portis, aut furtim desiluisse de muro aut morte simulata funere elati."
[39] 4tos. And.
[40] The 4tos. give "Agrippa," which is nonsense. By a slip of the tongue, Nero was going to say "Agrippina's death," when he hastily corrected himself. Tacitus and Suetonius tell us that Nero was always haunted with the memory of his murdered mother.
[41] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xvi. 5. "Ferebantque Vespasianum, tamquam somno conniveret, a Phoebo liberto increpitum aegreque meliorum precibus obtectum, mox imminentem perniciem maiore fato effugisse."
[42] 4tos.Ile.
[43] 4to. 1624. innocents.
[44] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xvi. 4.
[45] 4to. I'd.
[46] 4to. 1624. Aegamemnon.
[47] This magnificent speech is quoted in Charles Lamb'sSpecimens.
[48] 4tos. I'd.
[49] "Nec quisquam defendere audebat, crebris multorum minis restinguere prohibentium, et quia alii palam faces iaciebant atque esse sibi auctorem vociferabantur, sive ut raptus licentius exercerent, seu jussu."—Tac. Ann. xv. 37.
[50] The simile is from Vergil, Aen. ii. 304-308—
"In segetem veluti quum flamma furentibus AustrisIncidit; aut rapidus montano flumine torrensSternit agros, sternit sata laeta boumque labores,Praecipitesque trahit silvas: stupet inscius altoAccipiens sonitum saxi de vertice pastor."
[51] The author may have had in his mind a passage in Dion Cassius' description of the fire:—[Greek: thorybos te oun exaisios pantachou pantas katelambanen, kai dietrichon ohi men tae ohi de tae hosper emplaektoi, kai allois tines epamynontes epynthanonto ta oikoi kaiomena kai heteroi prin kai akousai hoti ton spheteron ti empepraestai,
emanthanon, hoti apololen. XB. 16].
[52] 4tos.Cannos.
[53] 4tos.Allius.
[54] The 4tos. give "thee gets." I feel confident that my emendation restores the true reading.
[55] The reading of the 4tos. is the, "The most condemned," &c. A tribe named the "Moschi" (of whom mention is made in Herodotus) dwelt a little to the south of the Colchians.
[56] So the 4tos. "Low hate" is nonsense. "Longand native hate" would be spiritless; while "bow and arrow laidapart" involves far too violent a change. I reluctantly give the passage up.
[57] I suppose that the sentence is left unfinished; but perhaps it is more likely that the text is corrupt.
[58] Quy. I now command theSouldiery i'the Citie.
[59] Sc. descendants. Vid. Nares, s.v.
[60] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 53.
[61] 4tos. losse.
[62] 4tos. soft.
[63] Quy. they.—The passage, despite its obscurity of expression, seems to me intelligible; but I dare not venture to paraphrase it.
[64] 4tos. are we.
[65] "Call me cut" meant commonly nothing more than Falstaff's "call me horse"; but as applied to Sporus the term "cutt-boy" was literally correct. For what follows in the text cf. Sueton. Vit. Ner. cap. 28.
[66] 4to. Subius, Flavius.
[67] Quy. "I, [sc. aye] to himselfe; 'twould make the matter cleare," &c.
[68] 4tos.Gallii. Our author is imitating Juvenal (Sat. x. ll. 99-102):—
"Huius qui trahitur praetextam sumere mavis,An Fidenarum Gabiorumque esse potestasEt de mensura ius dicere, vasa minoraFrangere, pannosus vacuis Aedilis Ulubris?"
[69] Cf. Tacitus, Annals, xv. 59.
[70] 4tos. refuge.
[71] Quy.Euphrates.
[72] According to Tacitus, Piso retired to his house and there opened his veins. Vid. Ann. xv. 59.
[73] Cf. Shakespeare, "Make mad the guilty and appal the free." Hamlet, II. 2.
[74] So the 4tos; but Quy.
"The Emperour's much pleas'dThatsome have namedSeneca."
[75] Cf. Tacitus, Ann. xv. 45; Sueton. Vit. Ner. 32.
[76] In Tacitus' account (Ann. xv. 67) the climax is curious:— "'Oderam te,' inquit; 'nec quisquam tibi fidelior militum fuit dum amari meruisti: odisse coepi, postquam parricida matris et uxoris, auriga et histrio et incendiarius extitisti.'"
[77] The verses would run better thus:—
"A feeling one;Tigellinus, bee't thy charge,And let me see thee witty in't.
Tigell. Come, sirrah;Weele see." &c.
[78] Quy. was oreheard to say.
[79] 4tos. your.
[80] Quy. even skies.
[81] Quy. I'the firmament.
[82] 4tos. loath by.
[83] Martial, in a clever but coarse epigram (lib. xi. 56), ridicules the Stoic's contempt of death:—
"Hanc tibi virtutem fracta facit urceus ansa,Et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus,Et teges et cimex et nudi sponda grabati,Et brevis atque eadem nocte dieque toga.O quam magnus homo es, qui faece rubentis acetiEt stipula et nigro pane carere potes.* * * * *Rebus in angustis facile est contemnere vitam:Fortiter ille facit qui miser esse potest."
[84] Cf. Juv. Sat. v. 36, 37:—
"Quale coronati Thrasea Helvidiusque bibebant,Brutorum et Cassi natalibus."
The younger Pliny (Ep. iii. 7) relates that Eilius Italicus religiously observed Vergil's birthday.
[85] The 4tos. punctuate thus:—
"Here faireEnanthe, whose plumpe ruddy cheekeExceeds the grape, it makes this; here my geyrle."
Petronius is speaking hurriedly. He begins to answerEnanthe'squestion: "it makes this" (i.e. "means this"), he says, but breaks off his explanation, and pledges his mistress.
[86] 4tos. walles.
[87] 4tos. Ith.
[88] "Non cuivis homini contingit adire Corinthum." Horat. Epist. i. 17, 36 ([Greek: ou pantos andros es Korinthon esth' ho plous]).
[89] Quy. Th'oldAnicean(sc. Anacreon).
[90] A paraphrase of Horace's well-known lines:
"Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placensUxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum,Te, praeter invisas cupressos,Ulla brevem dominum sequeter."
—Odes, ii. 14, ll. 21-29.
[91] 4to. your.
[92] 4tos. thy.
[93] Cf. Horace, Od. i. 12, ll. 37, 38:—
"Regulum, et Scaurosanimaeque magnaeProdigumPaulum."
[94] Vid. Tacitus, Ann. xi. 11; Sueton. Vit. Ner. 6.
[95] 4tos. have.
[96] 4tos. night.
[97] The punning on the fairies' names recalls Bottom's pleasantries (M.N.D. iii. 1), and the resemblance is certainly too close to be accidental.
[98] "Uncoth" here = wild, unfrequented; Cf.As You Like It, ii. 6, "If thisuncouthforest yield anything savage," &c.
[99] A "Hunts up" was a hunting song, a réveillée, to rouse the hunters. An example of a "Hunts up" may be found, set to music by J. Bennet, in a collection of Ravenscroft, 1614.
[100] Quy. "kind;" but our author is not very particular about his rhymes.
[101] "Rascal" was the regular name for a lean deer (As You like It, iii. 3, &c.).
[102] The whole scene is printed as verse in the 4to.
[103] This very uncommon word (French: légèreté) occurs inHenry V. (iv. i. l. 23).
[104] More commonly written "cote," a cottage.
[105] To "draw dry foot" meant to follow by the scent. (Com. of Errors, iv. 2.)
[106] No doubt the writer had in his mind the description of "Morpheus house" in theFaerie Queene(Book i., Canto I).
[107] "Whisht" (more commonly "whist") = hushed, stilled. Cf. Milton,Ode on the Nativity:—
"The winds with wonderwhistSmoothly the waters kist."
[108] "Plancher" (Fr. planche) = a plank. Cf.Arden of Feversham, I. i. "Whilst on theplancherspants his weary body," Shakespeare (Measure for Measure, iv. 1) has "aplanchedgate."
[109] "Incontinent" = immediately. The expression is very common (Richard II., v. 6, &c.).
[110] These verses and Frisco's "Can you blow the little horne"? are evidently fragments of Old Ballads—to be recovered, let us hope, hereafter.
[111] These four lines are from the old ballad ofFortune my foe, which will be found printed entire in theBagford Ballads(Ed. J.W. Ebsworth, part iv. pp. 962-3); the music is given in Mr. W. Chappell'sPopular Music of the Olden Time, I. 162. Mr. Ebsworth writes me:— "I have ascertained (assuredly) that what I at first thought to be a reference to 'Fortune my foe' in the Stationers' Registers, 1565-66, entered to John Charlewood (Arber's Transcripts, l. 310), as 'of one complaining of ye mutabilitie of Fortune' isnot'Fortune my foe,' but one of Lempill's ballads, printed by R. Lekpriwicke (sic), and still extant in the Huth Collections—the true title being 'Ane Complaint vpon Fortoun;' beginning 'Inconstant world, fragill and friuolus.'"
[112] Nares quotes from Chapman'sMay Day, "Lord, how you roll in yourrope-ripeterms." Minshew explains the word as "one ripe for a rope, or for whom the gallows groans." I find the expression "to rowle in their ropripe termes" in William Bullein's rare and curious "Dialogue both pleasaunt and pietiful," 1573, p. 116.
[113] A very common term for a pimp.
[114] "Bale of dice"—a pair of dice; the expression occurs in theNew Inn, I. 3, &c.
[115] This song is set to music in an old collection by Ravenscroft, 1614.
[116] More usually written "mammets," i.e., puppets (Rom. & Jul. iii. 5; though, no doubt, inHen. IV., ii. 3, Gifford was right in connecting the word with Lat. mamma).
[117] Cf. Drayton'sFairy Wedding:—
"Besides he's deft and wondrous airy,And of the noblest of the fairy!Chiefe of the Crickets of much fameIn fairy a most ancient name."
So inMerry Wives, v. 5, l. 47.
[118] Quy. What kind o' God, &c.
[119] "There is a kind of crab-tree also orwildingthat in like manner beareth twice a yeare." Holland's Plinie, b. xvi.
[120] "Assoyle" usually =absolve; hereresolve, explain.
[121] The italics are my own, as I suppose that the four lines were intended to be sung.
[122] 4to. It is, it is not, &c.
[123] The sense of "fine, rare," rather than that of "frequent, abundant" (as Nares explains), would seem to suit the passages in Shakespeare and elsewhere where the word is used colloquially.
[124] "Sib" = akin. Possibly the word still lingers in the North Country: Sir Walter Scott uses it in theAntiquary, &c.
[125] "Wonning" sc. dwelling (Germ. wohnen). Spenser frequently uses the word.
[126] A Spenserian passage (as Mr. Collier has pointed out): vid. F.Q., B. 2. C. xii. 71.
[127] 4to. then.
[128] 4to. And here she woman.
[129] "Caul" = part of a lady's head-dress: "reticulum crinale vel retiolum," Withals' Dictionarie, 1608 (quoted by Nares).
[130] "The battaile. The Combattantes Sir Ambrose Vaux, knight, and Glascott the Bayley of Southwarke: the place the Rule of the Kings Bench."
[131] In some copies the name "John Kirke" is given in full.
[132]Bottom= a ball of worsted. George Herbert in a letter to his mother says: "Happy is he whosebottomis wound up, and laid ready for work in the New Jerusalem." So in theVirgin Martyr(v. 1),—"I, before the Destinies mybottomdid wind up, would flesh myself once more upon some one remarkable above all these."
[133] 4to. your.
[134] Cf. the catalogue of torments in theVirgin Martyr(v. 1).
[135] The 4to prints the passage thus:—
"I have now livd my full time;Tell me, myHenricke, thy brave successe,That my departing souleMay with thy story," &c.
Several times further on I shall have to alter the irregular arrangement of the 4to in order to restore the blank verse; but I shall not think it necessary to note the alteration.
[136] 4to, Horne.
[137] 4to, Aloft.
[138] The 4to gives 'Thefurther,' and in the next line 'Orfurther.'
[139] The whole of this scene is printed as verse in the 4to. I have printed the early part as prose, that the reader's eye may not be vexed by metrical monstrosities.
[140] Sharpe i.e. sword. Vid. Halliwell's Dictionary.
[141] 4to. field.
[142] Sir Thomas Browne inVulgar Errors(Book 2, cap. 5) discusses this curious superstition at length:—'And first we hear it in every mouth, and in many good authors read it, that a diamond, which is the hardest of stones, not yielding unto steel, emery, or any thing but its own powder, is yet made soft, or broke by the blood of a goat. Thus much is affirmed by Pliny, Solinus, Albertus, Cyprian, Austin, Isidore, and many Christian writers: alluding herein unto the heart of man, and the precious blood of our Saviour, who was typified by the goat that was slain, and the scape goat in the wilderness: and at the effusion of whose blood, not only the hard hearts of his enemies relented, but the stony rocks and veil of the temple were shattered,' &c.
[143] The expression, to 'carry coals' (i.e. to put up with insults) is too common to need illustration.
[144] 4to. deaths prey. The change restores the metre.
[145] 'Owe' for 'own' is very common in Shakespeare.
[146] The 4to. prints this scene throughout as verse.
[147] 'Larroones,' from Fr.larron(a thief). Cf. Nabbes'Bride, iii. 3. 'Remercie, Monsieur. Voe call a me Cooke now! de greasieLarone!'
[148] Quy. rogues.
[149] Quy. had. There seems to be a reference to Stephen's martyrdom described inThe Acts.
[150] "Black Jack" and "bombard" were names given to wide leathern drinking-vessels.
[151] A term in venery.
[152] A hound's chaps were called "flews".
[153] 'Sparabiles,' nails used by shoemakers. Nares quotes Herrick:
Cob clouts his shoes, and, as the story tells,His thumb-nailes par'd afford him sperrables.'
The word is of uncertain derivation.
[154] 4to. recovering.
[155] 'Champion' is the old form of 'champain.'
[156] 'Diet-bread' was the name given to a sort of sweet seedcake: Vid. Nares' Glossary.
[157] Quy. Oh! what cold, famine, &c.
[158] For an account of the "bezoar nut" and the Unicorn's horn vid. Sir Thomas Browne's "Vulgar Errors," book iii. cap. xxiii.
[159] Vid. Liddell and Scott, s.v. [Greek: hypostasis].
[160] Sc. diaphoretick ([Greek: diaphoraetikos]), causing perspiration.
[161]Rabby Rosesis no doubt a corruption ofAverroes, the famous editor of Aristotle, and author of numerous treatises on theological and medical subjects.
[162] Sir Thomas Browne (Vulgar Errors, I. vii.) quotes from Pierius another strange cure for a scorpion's bite, "to sit upon an ass with one's face towards his tail, for so the pain leaveth the man and passeth into the beast."
[163] "Bandogs" (or, more correctly speaking, "band-dogs")—dogs that had to be kept chained on account of their fierceness.
[164] (4to): men.
[165] 'Carbonardoed'—cut into collops for grilling: a common expression.
[166] 'Rochet.'
"A linen vest, like a surplice, worn by bishops, under their satin robes. The word, it is true, is not obsolete, nor the thing disused, but it is little known."—Nares. ("Lent unto thomas Dowton, the 11 of Aprel 1598, to bye tafitie to macke aRochetfor the beshoppe in earlle good wine, xxiiii s." Henslowe's Diary, ed. Collier, p. 122.)
[167] (4to): by.
[168] The word "portage" occurs in a difficult passage ofPericles, iii. 1,—
"Even at the firstThy loss is more than can thyportagequitWith all thou canst find here."
If there be no corruption in the passage ofPericles, the meaning can only be (as Steevens explained) "thy safe arrival at the port of life." Our author's use of the word "portage" is even more perplexing than Shakespeare's; "Thy portion" would give excellent sense; but, with the passage ofPericlesbefore us, we cannot suppose that there is a printer's error. [InHenry V. 3, i, we find 'portage' for 'port-holes.']
[169] Quy. ever?
[170] The subst.mouseis sometimes found as an innocent term of endearment, but more often in a wanton sense (like the Lat. passer).
[171] 'Felt locks'—matted locks, commonly called "elf-locks": the various forms "felted," "felter'd" and "feutred" are found.
[172] 'Stavesucre' (said to be a corruption of [Greek: staphis]. and usually written 'Staves-acre') a kind of lark-spur considered efficacious in destroying lice. Cf. Marlowe'sDr. Faustus(i. 4)— 'Stavesacre? that's good to kill vermin; then belike, if I serve you, I shall be lousy.'
[173] Quy. early-rioting.
[174] Ought we to read 'fins'? Webster (Duchess of Malfi, ii. 1) has the expression the 'finsof her eye-lids'; it is found also in theMalcontent(i. 1), The confusion between the 'f' and the long 's' is very common.
[175] Shakespeare uses the verb 'fang' (Timon of Athens, iv. 3) in the sense of 'seize, clutch.'
[176] Varlet—'the serjeant-at-mace to the city counters was so called,' Halliwell (who, however, gives no instance of this use).
[177] 'Trunk-hose' wide breeches stuffed with wool, &c.
[178] I can make nothing of this verse: the obscurity is not at all removed by putting a comma after 'rules.' Doubtless the passage is corrupt.
[179]Our rest we setin pleasing, &c., i.e., we have made up our mind to please. The metaphor is taken from primero (a game, seemingly, not unlike the Yankee 'poker'), where to 'set up rest' meant to stand on one's cards; but the expression was also used in a military sense. Vid: Furness' Variorum Shakesp.,Rom. & Iul., iv. 5.
[180] In Vol. IX. of theTransactions of the Royal Historical Societyis an elaborate paper (since reprinted for private circulation) by the Rev. F.G. Fleay 'On the Actor Lists, 1538-1642.' The learned writer tells us nothing new about Samuel Rowley; but his essay well deserves a careful study.
[181] Quy. afury'sface.
[182] 'Lacrymae'—one of the many allusions to John Dowland's musical work of that name.
[183] 'Laugh and lay down' (more usually written 'lie down') was the name of a game at cards. A prose-tract by 'C.T.,' published in 1605, is entitled 'Laugh and Lie Down: or the World's Folly.' The expression, it need hardly be said, is often used in a wanton sense.
[184] 4to. joyes.
[185] Quy. prove.
[186] Much of this scene is found, almost word for word, in colloquy 4 of John Day'sParliament of Bees.
[187] One of the characters in theNew Innis Fly, 'the Parasite of the Inn'; and in theVirgin Martyr(ii. 2) we also find the word 'fly' used (like Lat. musca) for an inquisitive person. In the text I suspect we should read 'fly-about' for flye-boat.
[188] 'Blacke gard' was the name given to the lowest drudges who rode amongst the pots and pans in royal processions: vid. Gifford'sJonson, II. 169.
[189] The compositor seems to have been dozing: the word 'Vaw' points to the reading 'Vaward,' and probably the passage ran—'this the Vaward, this the Rearward.'
[190] 'Totter'd' i.e. tatter'd. Cf.Richard II. (iii. 3) 'the castle's totter'd battlements' (the reading of the 4to.; the Folios give 'tatter'd'). InKing John(v. 5) I think, with Staunton, that the expression 'tott'ring colours' means 'drooping colours' rather than, as usually explained, 'tattered.'
[191] 'Spurn-point—An old game mentioned in a curious play calledApollo Shroving, 12mo., Lond. 1627, p. 49.' Halliwell.
[192] 'Grandoes'—I find the word so spelt in Heywood'sA Challenge for Beauty—'I, and I assure your Ladiship, ally'de to the best Grandoes ofSpaine.' (Works, v. 18.)
[193] 4to.Albia.
[194] Cornego is telling the Captain to 'duck'—to make his bow—to Onaelia.
[195] Nares quotes from theOwles Almanacke, 1618, p. 6, an allusion to this worthy,—'Since theGerman fencercudgell'd most of our English fencers, now about 5 moneths past.'
[196] It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that 'bastard' was the name of a sweet Spanish wine.
[197] 'Goll'—A cant expression for 'hand': it is found continually in our old writers.
[198] The words 'Some scurvy thing, I warrant' should no doubt be given to Cornego.
[199] The conversation between Onaelia and the Poet very closely resembles, in parts,Character5 of John Day'sParliament of Bees.
[200] 4to lanch.
[201] 'The Hanging Tune' i.e. the tune of 'Fortune my Foe,' to which were usually sung ballads relating to murders. The music of 'Fortune my Foe,' is given in Mr. Chappell's 'Popular Music of the Olden Time'; and the words may be seen in the 'Bayford Ballads' (edited by Mr. Ebsworth, our greatest master of ballad-lore).
[202] Cf. Dekker'sMatch me in London(Dramatic Works, iv. 180)—
'I doe speakeEnglishWhen I'de move pittie; when dissemble,Irish;Dutchwhen I reele; and tho I feed on scalionsIf I should brag Gentility I'de gabble Welch.'
[203] Cf. Day'sParliament of Bees, Character 4.
[204] 'Estridge' is the common form of 'ostrich' among the Elizabethans (I Henry IV., iv. 1, &c).
[205] "Poire d'angoisse.A choke-Peare; or a wild soure Peare." Cotgrave.
[206] 4to. Moble.
[207] Quy. head.
[208] "Prick-song"—"harmony written or pricked down, in opposition to plain-song, where the descant rested with the will of the singer." Chappell'sPopular Music, &c., I. 51.
[209] The keys of the 'virginal' were called 'Jacks.' For a description of the 'virginal' see Mr. Chappell'sPopular Music, &c. I, 103.
[210] 'Coranta' i.e. curranto, news-sheet: Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News' gives us a good notion of the absurdities that used to be circulated.
[211] 'Linstocke' (or, more correctly, 'lint-stock')—a stick for holding a gunner's match.
[212] Toot—to pry into: 'tooter' was formerly the name for a 'tout' (vid. Todd's Johnson).
[213] 'Aphorisme.An Aphorisme (or generall rule in Physicke).' Cotgrave.
[214] 4to. creaking.
[215] Rosemary was used at marriages and funerals.
[216] Day dedicates hisHumour out of Breathto 'Signeor Nobody': 'Signeor No,' the shorter form, is not unfrequently found (e.g.Ile of Guls, p. 59—my reprint). To whatever advantageNomay have appeared on the stage, he certainly is a pitiful object in print.
[217]Baltazar'snotions of Geography are vague. A most interesting account of Bantam, the capital of Java, may be seen in Vol. v. of Hakluyt's 'Collection of early Voyages,' ed. 1812. It occurs in theDescription of a Voyage made by certain Ships of Holland to the East Indies &c. … Translated out of Dutch into English by W.P. London. 1589. 'The towne,' we are told, 'is not built with streetes nor the houses placed in order, but very foule, lying full of filthy water, which men must passe through or leap over for they have no bridges.' For the people—'it is a very lying and theevish kind of people, not in any sort to be trusted.'
[218] The 'magical weed' I take to be hemlock; cf. Ben Jonson'sMasque of Queens—
'And I have been plucking, plants among,Hemlock, henbane, adders-tongueNight-shade, moon-wort, libbard's baneAnd twice, by the dogs, was like to be ta'en.'
[219] The poisoned 'Spanish fig' acquired considerable notoriety among the early Dramatists: cf. Webster,WhiteDevil (p. 30, ed. Dyce, 1857.) 'I do look now for aSpanish figor an Italian salad daily': Dekker. (iv. 213, Pearson) 'Now doe I looke for a fig': whether Pistol's allusion (Henry V, iii. 6) is to the poisoned fig may be doubted.