Lear. Haft thou given all to thy two daughters"? And art thou come to this? 8 Edg. Who gives any thing to poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame, through ford and whirlpool, over bog and quagmire; that hath laid knives under his pillow, and halters in his pew; fet ratfbane by his porridge; made him proud of heart, to ride on a bay trotting horfe over four-inch'd bridges, to courfe his own fhadow for a traitor :-? Blefs thy five wits! Tom's . a-cold. Haft thou given all to thy two daughters ?] Thus the quartos. The folio reads, Didft thou give all to thy daughters? STEEVENS. 7-led through fire and through flame,-] Alluding to the ignis fatuus, fuppofed to be lights kindled by mischievous beings to lead travellers into deftruction. JOHNSON. 8 laid knives under his pillow, -] He recounts the temptations by which he was prompted to fuicide; the opportunities of destroying himself, which often occurred to him in his melancholy moods. JOHNSON. Shakspeare found this charge against the fiend, with many others of the fame nature, in Harfenet's Declaration, and has ufed the very words of it. The book was printed in 1603. See Dr. Warburton's note, A&t IV. fc. i. Infernal fpirits are always reprefented as urging the wretched to felf-deftruction. So, in Dr. Fauftus, 1604: "Swords, poifons, halters, and envenom'd fteel, "Are laid before me to dispatch myself." STEEVENS. -blefs thy five wits.] So the five fenfes were called by our old writers. Thus in the very ancient interlude of The Fyve Elements, one of the characters is Senfual Appetite, who with great fimplicity thus introduces himself to the audience; I am callyd fenfual apetyte, "I comforte the wyttys five; Sig. B. iij. PERCY. So again, in Every Man, a Morality: Every man, thou arte made, thou haft thy wyttes fyve." Again, in Hycke Scorner : I have fpent amys my wittes."2 a-cold.-O, do de, do de, do de.-Blefs thee from whirlwinds, ftar-blafting, and 'taking! Do poor Tom fome charity, whom the foul fiend vexes :There could I have him now,-and there,-and there, and there again, and there. [Storm ftill. Lear. What, have his daughters brought him to this pafs? Could't thou fave nothing? Didft thou give them all? Fool. Nay, he referv'd a blanket, elfe we had been all shamed. Lear. Now, all the plagues that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults, light on thy daughters! Kent. He hath no daughters, fir. Lear. Death, traitor! nothing could have fubdu'd nature To fuch a lownefs, but his unkind daughters.--- Should have thus little mercy on their flesh? Edg. Again, in the Interlude of the Four Elements, by John Raftell, 1519: "Brute beftis have memory and their wyttes five." Again, in the first book of Gower De Confeffione Amantis: "As touchende of my wittes five.' STEEVENS. Shakspeare, however, in his 141ft Sonnet feems to have confidered the five wits, as distinct from the fenfes : "But my five wits, nor my five fenfes can "Diffuade one foolish heart from ferving thee." MALONE. —taking !—] To take is to blast, or strike with malignant influence: -strike her young bones, Ye taking airs, with lameness. JOHNSON. -pelican daughters.] The young pelican is fabled to fuck the mother's blood. JOHNSON. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1630, fecond part: Shall a filly bird pick her own breaft to nourish her young qnes the pelican does it, and shall not I?" Kk 4 Again, Edg. Pillicock fat on pillicock-hill ;Halloo, halloo, loo, loo! Fool. This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen. Edg. Take heed o' the foul fiend: Obey thy parents; keep thy word juftly; fwear not; commit not with man's fworn fpoufe; fet not thy fweet heart on proud array:-Tom's a-cold. Lear. What haft thou been? 4 Edg. A ferving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curl'd my hair, wore gloves in my cap, ferv'd the luft of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her: fwore as many oaths as I fpake Again, in Love in a Maze, 1632: "The pelican loves not her young fo well "That digs upon her breaft a hundred fprings." STEEVENS. 3 Commit not, &c.] The word commit is used in this fenfe by Middleton, in Women beware Women: His weight is deadly who commits with ftrumpets." STEEVENS. wore gloves in my cap,-] i. e. His miftrefs's favours: which was the fashion of that time. So in the play called Campajpe: " Thy men turned to women, thy foldiers to lovers, gloves worn in velvet caps, instead of plumes in graven helmets." WARBURTON. It was anciently the custom to wear gloves in the hat on three diftinct occafions, viz. as the favour of a mistress, the memorial of a friend, and as a mark to be challenged by an enemy. Prince Henry boafts that he will pluck a glove from the commonest creature, and fix it in his helmet; and Tucca fays to fir Quintilian, in Decker's Satiromaftix: -Thou shalt wear her glove in thy worshipful hat, like to a leather brooch :" and Pandora in Lylly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: -he that firft prefents me with his head, "Shall wear my glove in favour of the deed." Portia, in her affumed character, afks Baffanio for his gloves, which fhe fays fhe will wear for his fake: and King Henry V. gives the pretended glove of Alençon to Fluellen, which afterwards occafions his quarrel with the English foldier. See Vol. V. p. 248. STEEVENS, words, 5 6 words, and broke them in the fweet face of heaven: one, that flept in the contriving of luft, and wak'd to do it: Wine lov'd I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramour'd the Turk: Falfe of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; Hog in floth, fox in ftealth, wolf in greedinefs, dog in madness, lion in prey. Let not the creaking of fhoes, nor the ruftling of filks, betray thy poor heart to women: Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend. Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: 9 Says fuum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, boy, Seffy; let him trot by. [Storm ftill. Lear.. 5 light of ear,-] i. e. Credulous. WARBURTON. Not merely credulous, but credulous of evil, ready to receive. malicious reports. JOHNSON. 6Hog in floth, fox in fiealth, wolf in greediness, &c.] The Jefuits pretended to caft the feven deadly fins out of Mainy in the fhape of thofe animals that reprefented them; and before ́each was caft out, Mainy by geftures acted that particular fin; curling his hair to fhew pride, vomiting for gluttony, gaping and fnoring for floth, &c.-Harfnet's book, pp. 279, 280, &c. To this probably our author alludes. STEEVENS. 7thy band out of plackets.] It appeareth from the following paffage in Any Thing for a quiet Life, a filly comedy, that placket doth not fignify the petticoat in general, but only the aperture therein: "between which is difcovered the open part which is now called the placket." Bayly in his Dictionary, giveth the fame account of the word, Yet peradventure, our poet hath fome deeper meaning in the Winter's Tale, where Autolycus faith-"You might have pinch'd a placket, it was fenfelefs." AMNER. 8 Thy pen from lenders' books.] So, in All Fools, a comedy by Chapman, 1605: 9 "If I but write my name in mercers' books, "A rafcal at my elbow with his mace, &c." STEEVENS. Says fuum, mun, nonny, &c.] Of this paffage I can make nothing. I believe it corrupt; for wildness, not nonfenfe, is the effect of a difordered imagination. The quarto reads, Lear. Why thou were better in thy grave, than to anfwer with thy uncover'd body this extremity of the fkies.-Is man no more than this? Confider him well: Thou oweft the worm no filk, the beast no reads, hay no on ny, dolphins, my boy, ceafe, let him trot by. Of interpreting this there is not much hope or much need. But any thing may be tried. The madman, now counterfeiting a proud fit, fuppofes him felf met on the road by fome one that difputes the way, and cries Hey!-No-but altering his mind, condefcends to let him país, and calls to his boy Dolphin (Rodolph) not to contend with him. On-Dolphin, my boy, cease. Let him trot by. JOHNSON. The reading of the quarto is right. Hey no nonny is the burthen of a ballad in The Two Noble Kinfinen (faid to be written by Shakspeare in conjunction with Fletcher) and was probably common to many others. The folio introduces it into one of Ophelia's fongs: Dolphin, my boy, my boy, Ceafe, let him trot by; It feemeth not that fuch a foc From me or you would fly. This is a ftanza from a very old ballad written on fome battle fought in France, during which the king, unwilling to put the fufpected valour of his fon the Dauphin, i. e. Dolphin (fo called and fpelt at thofe times) to the trial, is reprefented as defirous to restrain him from any attempt to establish an opinion of his courage on an adverfary who wears the leaf appearance of ftrength; and at laft affifts in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Therefore as different champions are fuppofed croffing the field, the king always difcovers fome objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats thefe two lines as every fresh perfonage is introduced. Dolphin, my boy, my boy, &c. The fong I have never feen, but had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to repeat part of it, and died before I could have fuppofed the difcovery would have been of the leaft importance to me. -As for the words, fays fuum, mun, they are only to be found in the firft folio, and were probably added by the players, who, together with the compofitors, were likely enough to corrupt what they did not understand, or to add more of their own to what they already concluded to be nonfenfe. STEEVENS. Cokes cries out in Bartholomew Fair: "God's my life!-He shall be Dauphin my boy !" FARMER. hide |