transmigrate from one animal to another, and relates that in his time she was an Irish rat.' 10 A proverb: 'Friends may meet, but mountains never greet.' 11 Wherein went he?-In what dress went he. 12 Garagantua, the giant of Rabelais, who swallowed five pilgrims and their staves in a salad! 13 Atomies-the old form of the word atoms. 14 Cry holla! to thy tongue. Holla was a term of the manège, by which the rider restrained or stopped his horse. 15 I answer you right painted cloth. An allusion to the mottoes and moral sentences on the old painted cloth with which chambers were sometimes hung in lieu of tapestry. 16 Cony-the rabbit. 17 An unquestionable spirit—averse to conversation. 18 Your having-your possession or estate. 19 Ill-inhabited-ill-lodged. See also Much Ado about Nothing, Act II., Sc. 1. 20 A great reckoning in a little room implies that the entertainment was mean, and the charges extravagant. 21 I am not a slut, though I thank the gods I am foul. Foul here signifies plain or homely. 22 Lean deer are called rascal deer. 23 Priests were formerly distinguished by the title of Sir-equivalent to the academical Dominus. They were often called 'The Pope's Knights.' Those who had taken the degree of M.A. usually prefixed 'Master' to their names, which was considered a higher mark of distinction. 24 God'ild-God yield you, God reward you. 25 Bow-the bent yoke. 26 O sweet Oliver, &c. These are fragments of an old ballad or ballads. 27 Bring us to see this sight. In the folio, Bring us to this sight.' The line being deficient in quantity, Malone substituted 'unto' for 'to.' We prefer the reading of Mr Swynfen Jervis, supported as it is by a similar expression in Henry VI., Part Third, Act II. Sc. 2: To see this sight it irks my very soul' 28 That eyes-that are the frailest and the softest things. In former editions: 'That eyes-that are the frail'st and softest things.' We have ventured, for the sake of harmony, to lengthen this line, believing that Shakespeare never wrote 'frail'st,' which no actor could pronounce so as to be intelligible to the audience. 29 Dead shepherd! now I find thy saw of might— The 'dead shepherd' was the unfortunate Marlowe (killed in 1593), and the 'saw of might' occurs in his paraphrase of the Hero and Leander ascribed to Musæus: Where both deliberate the love is slight: Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?' 1 Leer-look or expression. ACT IV. The foolish chroniclers of that age found it was-Hero of Sestos. Hanmer read coroners instead of chroniclers, and some good critics-as Monck Mason and Singer-concur in the emendation. The technical word found corroborates this view of the text, but no change is absolutely necessary. 3 I will weep for nothing, like Diana in the fountain. Statues, and particularly those of Diana, with water conveyed through them to give the appearance of weeping figures, were anciently a frequent ornament of fountains. 4 Make the doors-make the doors fast; fasten the doors. 5 Whither wilt? a common exclamation-Whither wilt thou? 6 The words, 'Then sing him home,' which we have given as part of the stage-direction, form, in the original folio, the third line of the song. They have no connection, metrical or otherwise, with the text, and in Playford's Musical Companion, 1667, the song is printed without this passage. Collier, Dyce, and other editors, have transferred it to the margin, as in our text. 7 A lioness, with udders all drawn dry, Lay couching, head on ground, with catlike watch, To prey on nothing that doth seem as dead. " 'As thus he lay, a hungry lion came hunting down the edge of the grove for prey, and espying Saladin, began to seize upon him; but seeing he lay still without any motion, he left to touch him, for that lions haté to prey on dead carcases.'-Lodge's Rosalynde. In this description of the meeting of the brothers, Shakespeare has followed Lodge's story with considerable closeness, but adding many exquisite poetical illustrations. 8 To hurtle is to move with impetuosity and tumult. Thus in Julius Cæsar, Act II., Sc. 2: The noise of battle hurtled in the air.' ACT V. 1 All adoration, duty, and obedience, All humbleness, all patience, and impatience, All purity, all trial, all observance. This is the reading of Collier's Old Corrector. The folio ends both the first and third line with 'observance.' Malone proposed substituting 'obedience' in the third line, but it is more appropriate in the first. 2 The last verse of the song, It was a lover and his lass, &c., is printed in the folio as the second. The word ring in the first stanza is also misprinted 'rang.' A MS. copy of the song, of the 17th century, is in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, 30 sir, we quarrel in print, by the book. The 'book' was a treatise of Honour and Honourable Quarrels, by Vincentio Saviola, 1594. The contents of the chapters are: 1. What the reason is that the party unto whom the lie is given ought to become challenger, and of the nature of lies. 2. Of the manner and diversity of lies. 3. Of lies certain. 4. Of conditional lies. 5. Of the lie in general. 6. Of the lie in particular. 7. Of foolish lies. 8. A conclusion touching the wresting or returning back of the lie. Touchstone's happy satire had, therefore, a foundation "in print by the book.' Vincentio Saviola also, like Touchstone, saw 'much virtue in If.' 'Conditional lies,' he says, 'be such as are given conditionally, as if a man should say or write these words-if thou hast said that I have offered my lord abuse, thou liest; or if thou sayest so hereafter, thou shalt lie,' &c. If it be true that 'good wine needs no bush.' The custom of denoting houses of public entertainment by hanging a bush, generally of ivy, over the door, was a very ancient one, and is noticed by Chaucer. In Gascoigne's Glass of Government, 1575, it was said: 'Nowadays, the good wine needeth no ivy garland.' In retired places in France and Germany, roadside taverns are still occasionally indicated by a bush of some kind over the door. "If I were a woman. As the Epilogue is to be spoken by a lady, this expression seems inconsistent, but it is explained by the fact, that until after the restoration of Charles II, female characters were acted by young men. 6 Liked me that I liked. |