ACT II. neck, and yet the lewd letherand lurdon went forth, and met seven acres of land betwixt Dover and Quicksand, and he brought an acre in his recke [hand-basket] from the Tower of London unto the Tower of Babilon; and, as he went by the way, he had a foul fall, and he fell down at the castle of Dover into a gruel pot, and brake both his shins. Thereof came tripping to the king of Hongre, that all people which might not lightly come to the Plain of Salisbury, but the fox and the grey convent, should pray for all the old shoe-soles that ben roasted in the king's dish on Saturday." (3) SCENE III.-Let our catch be, Thou knave.] In this catch, the notes of which we append, the fun consists in the parts being so contrived that each singer in turn calls his fellow knave. (1) SCENE III.-Did you never see the picture of we three ?] The Clown roguishly refers to a once common sign, which represented two fools drinking, with an inscription beneath of “We three loggerheads be." " Plain home-spun stuffe shall now proceed from me, TAYLOR's Farewell to the Tower-Botlles, 1622. There is a marginal note to this passage, -"The picture of two fooles and the third looking on, I doe fitly compare with the two black bottles and myselfe.” (2) SCENE III.-In sooth, thou wast in very gracious fooling last night, when thou spok'st of Pigrogromitus, of the Vapians passing the equinoctial of Queubús.] Sir Andrew's commendation calls to mind one of the most characteristic accomplishments of the wittiest domestic jesters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We say the wittiest, for, without distributing the Clowns of the period according to the careful classification adopted by Mr. Douce, it is evident that, in the Fool's calling, as in others, there were various degrees, and that the first-class jester of a royal or noble family ranked as much above his brother clown of the common sort, as the leading histrion of a London theatre tops the poor varlet who struts and frets his hour upon the stage at a country fair; “I marvel,” says Malvolio, “that your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal ; I saw him put down the other day with an ordinary fool, that has no more brains than a stone.” All clowns were capable, more or less, of the biting sarcasms and coarse practical merriment which their vocation licensed; but few, probably, had sufficient information, not to say learning, to garnish their discourse with the mock erudition and the snatches of axiomatical philosophy exhibited by the jesters of “ Twelfth Night” and “Aš You Like It ;" and from them any reasoning admitting a sensible interpretation must not, of course, be looked for; though something may be traced in them which bears a close affinity to the fantastic extravagance and wild conceits of Rabelais. The source, however, of their sham sententiousness is of an earlier date than the romance of the great French satirist. The first known edition of that work is dated 1532; but in the library of M. de Bure were found two more ancient though undated books, entitled “Les Chroniques de Gargantua,” which have much of this peculiar humour. The history of Gargantua, as an enormous giant, was well known too in England during the sixteenth century, though the romance relating to him contains nothing of the amusing rhodomontade indulged in by Rabelais and the humorists in question. A remote resemblance to it may be detected in some parts of the poems of Robert Longland, “The Vision and Creed of Pierce Ploughman;" and there is extant a genuine specimen of the excellent fooling" for which the clowns of Shakespeare stand unrivalled, in the form of a mock sermon, in a manuscript of the fifteenth century, preserved in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, which, with other burlesques of the same date, was printed in 1811 by Mr. T. Wright, in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, Vol. I. pp. 82–84. One extract from this effusion, with the orthography partly modernised, will convey no very imperfect notion of the clown's “gracious fooling” with Sir Toby and his companion knight :-“Why hopest thou not, for sooth, that there stood once a cook, on St. Paul steeple top, and drew up the strapuls of his breech? How provest thou that? By all the four doctors of Wynebere hylles; that is to say, Vertas, Gadatryme, Trumpas, and Dadyl Trymsert; the which four doctors say, that there was once an old wife had a cook to her son; and he looked out of an old dove-cote, and warned and charged that no man should be so hardy neither to ride nor to go on St. Paul steeple top but if he rode on a three-footed stcol, or else that he brought with him a warrant of his (4) SCENE III.-Malvolio's a Peg a-Ramsey.) The words of the old ballad of Peg-a-Ramsey are lost, but Mr. Chappell informs us that “ there are two tunes under the name, and both as old as Shakespeare's time. The first is called Peg-a-Ramsey in William Ballet's Lute Book, and is given by Sir John Hawkins as the tune quoted in the text. (See the Variorum edition.) · Little Pegge of Ramsie' is one of the tunes in a manuscript by Dr. Bull, which formed a part of Dr. Pepusch's, and afterwards of Dr. Kitchener's library.” (5) SCENE III.-- Three merry men be we.] This song is mentioned in Peele's “Old Wives' Tale," 1595. Anticke, Frolicke, and Fantasticke, three adventurers, are lost in a wood in the night, and Anticke says, “Let us rehearse the old proverb : "Three merrie men, and three merrie men, And three merrie men be wee; And Jacke sleeps in the tree." The burden being a jovial and popular one, is continually quoted by the old play-wrights. For the tune the reader is referred to Chappell's Popular Music of the Olden Time, Vol. I. p. 216. (6) SCENE III.—There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady!] Of this long and wearisome ballad we have already given a sufficient sample (Vol. I. p. 217) in illustration of the familiar burden, * lady, lady." In a broadside preserved in the Roxburghe collection, it is headed, “ An excellent Ballad, Intituled, The constancy of Susanna. To an excellent new tune." A “ballette of the godly con. stante wyse Susanna," was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company so early as 1562-3, and a play on the same subject was printed in 1578. (7) SCENE III.—Farcwell, dear heart, since I must need: be gone.) The ballad referred to in the note at p. 247, is printed by Percy, (Reliques, i. 205,) from an ancient miscellany, entitled "The golden Garland of princely delights." (8) SCENE IV. Sad true lover ne'er find my grave, To weep there!] On comparing the Duke's description of that “antique song" he heard last night, with this ballad, the difference is so striking, as to beget suspicion that the latter was an interpolation and not the original song intended by the poet. It appears, indeed, to have been the privilege of the singer formerly, whenever the business of the scene required a song, to introduce one of his own choice; hence we frequently find in our old dramas, instead of the words of a ballad, merely a stage direction, “A Song,” or “He sings.” (9) SCENE V.-0, for a stone-bow, to hit him in the eye l] "A stone-bow was a cross-bow made for propelling stones, or rather bullets, merely in contradistinction to a bow that ACT III. shot arrows. 'Litle more then a yeare after I maried, 1 and my wife being at Skreenes with my father, (the plague being soe in London, and my building not finished, I had exercised my-selfe with a stone-bow and a spar-hawko at the bush'-Autobiography of SIR JOHN BRAMSTON, p. 108.”-HALLIWELL. (10) SCENE V:-1,0, A, I, doth sway my life.] Fustian riddles of this kind were not uncommon in Shakespeare's time, and several examples are quoted by Mr. Halliwell. Thus, in the “Squyr of Lowe Degre In the myddes of your sheld ther shal be set (1) SCENE I.--Enter Clown with a tabor.]. The tabor was a favourite instrument with the professional fools. Most people are familiar with the print prefixed to Tarlton's Jests, 1611, in which that famous comedian is represented playing on a pipe and beating a small drum or tabor. Mr. Knight, in his “ Pictorial Shakspere,” has given an earlier portrait of Tarlton, (the original, apparently, of that attached to the “Jests,”) which is taken from the Harleian MS. No. 3885. It is to this representation, probably, that allusion is made in "The pleasant and Stately Morall of the three Lordes and three Ladies of London." By Robert Wilson, 1590. The dialogue is between Wil, Wit, Wealth (pages of the three Lords), anil Simplicitie (“a poore Free man of London"). Simplicitie. "This is Tarlton's picture. Didst thou neuer know Tarlton?" Wil. “No: what was that Tarlton? I neuer knew him." Simplicitie. “What was he? A prentice in his youth of this honourable city, God be with him. When he was young, he was Jeaning to the trade that my wife vseth nowe, and I haue vsed, vide lice shirt, water bearing. I wis he hath tost a tankard in Cornehil er nowe: If thou knewst him not, I will not call thee ingram; but if thou knewest not him, thou knewest nobody. I warrant, her's two crackropes knew him." Wit. "I dwelt with him." Simplicitie. “Didst thou? now giue me thy hand : I loue thee the better." Wit. “And I, too, sometime." Wit dwelt with him, indeed, as appeared by his rime, and served him well; and Wil was with him now and then. But soft : thy name is Wealth: I think in earnest he was litle acquainted with thee. 0, it was a fine fellow, as ere was borne: There will neuer come his like while the earth can corne. O, passing fine Tarlton! I would thou hadst liued yet." Wealth. “He might haue some, but thou showest small wit. free. hart sore." adopted that of “ Eastward, ho!” for one jointly written by them a few years afterwards. (3) SCENE II.-A Brownist.] The Brownists were a sect who derived their name from Robert Browne, a gentleman of good family, and who had been educated at Cambridge. He separated from the Church, and gave great offence about 1580 by maintaining that her discipline was Popish and Antichristian, and her ministers not rightly ordained. Strype, in his life of Whitgift, relates, however, that in the year 1589 he "went off from the separation, and came into the communion of the Church." (4) SCENE II.-If thou thou'st him some thrice, it shall not be amiss.] Theobald's conjecture that this passage was levelled at the Attorney-General Coke for his thouing Sir Walter Raleigh is at once put out of court since “Twelfth Night” is discovered to have been acted nearly two years before Sir Walter's trial took place. But if Theobald were ignorant of the fact, subsequent editors who have adopted his supposition ought to have known that to thou any body was once thought a direct mark of insult, as might be shown by a hundred examples. Mr. Singer has adduced one pertinent illustration from "The Enimie of Idlenesse, by William Fulwood, 1568 : "A merchaunt having many servantes, to his chiefest may speake or wryte by this terme you : but to them whome he lesse esteemeth, and are more subject to correction, he may use thys termo thou.” The following, from the “Galateo of Maister John Della Casa, Archebishop of Beneventa,” 4to. Lond. 1576, pp. 45-6, is even still more to the purpose : “ Many times it chaunceth that men come to daggers drawing, even for this occasion alone, that one man hath not done the other, that worship and honour uppon the way, that he ought. For to sayo a trueth, the power of custome is great and of much force, and would be taken for a lawe, in these cases. And that is the cause we say: You : to every one, that is not a man of very base calling, and in suche kinde of speach wee yealde such a one, no maner of courtesie of our owne. But if wee say: Thou: to suche a one, then wee disgrace him and offer him outrage and wronge : and by suche speach, seeme to make no better reconing of him, then of a knave and a clowne. * * * * So that it behoves us, hedefully to marke the doings and speache, wherewith daily practise and custome, wonteth to receave, salute, and name in our owne country, all sortes and kinds of people, and in all our familiar communication with inen, let us use the same. And notwithstanding the Admerall (as, peradventure, the maner of his time was such) in his talke with Peter the king of Aragon, did many times Thou him: Let us yet saye to our King, Your majestie : and your highnes : as well in speache as in writing.” " # Bocc. Novel. 6. Gior. 5. Soon flees, spent so, while each irreguler haire This forenoones task pe: form'd, his way he takes, ACT IV. (1) SCENE II.-Clear-stories.] The clear-stories are the A Robyn, -Jolly Robyn, npper story or row of windows in a church, hall, or other Tell me how thy leman doeth,-And thou shalt knowe of myn. erection, rising clear above the adjoining parts of the building, adopted as a means of obtaining an increase of My lady is unkyinde, perde.-Alack! why is she so? light. “Whereupon a iij thousand werkmen was werkynge She loveth an other better than me:-And yet she inj monethes to make it so grete in quantyté, so statly, will say, no. and all with clere-story lyghtys, lyk a lantorne, the roffis RESPONSE. I fynde no such doubleness :-I fynde women true. garnyshed with sarsnettys and buddys of golde, and My lady loveth me dowtles,-And will change for no newe. borderyd over all the aras over longe to dysturbe the LE PLAINTIF. Thou art happy while that doeth last;—But I say, rychnes therof.”—ARNOLD's Chronicle. as I fynde, That woman's love is but a blast,-And torneth (2) SCENE II. with the wynde. RESPONSE. But if thou wilt avoyde thy harme,–Lerne this Hey Robin, jolly Robin, lesson of me, Tell me how thy lady does /] At others fieres thy selfe to warme,-And let them “The original of this song is preserved in a MS. con warme with the. LE PLAINTIF. Suche folkes can take no harme by love,-That taining poems by Sir Thomas Wyatt, and is entitled "The can abide their torn, careful Lover complaineth, and the happy Lover coun But I, alas, can no way prove-In love but lake selleth:' and morn."—HALLIWELL. ACT V. (1) SCENE I. “Soon after this they spake of sondry things As fill to purpose of this aventure, And playing enterchaungeden her rings of which I can not tellen no scripture." Kill what I love ?] This relates, perhaps, as Theobald suggested, to a story When espousals took place at church, rings were also found in the Æthiopics of Heliodorus. The Egyptian interchanged. According to the ritual of the Greek thief was Thyamis, a native of Memphis, and the chief of a church, the priest first placed the rings on the fingers of band of robbers. Theagenes and Chariclea falling into the parties who afterwards exchanged them. Sometimes their hands, Thyamis fell desperately in love with the lady, the man only gave a ring. * and would have married her. Soon after, a strong body of II. The kiss that was mutually given. When this robbers coming down upon the band of Thyamis, he was ceremony took place at church, the lady of course withunder such apprehensions for his beloved that he had her drew the veil which was usually worn on the occasion; shut up in a cave with his treasure. It was customary for those barbarians, “when they despaired of their own when in private, the drinking of healths generally followed. III. The joining of hands. This is often alluded to by safety, first to make away with those whom they held Sltakspeare himself. dear," and desired for companions in the next life. Thya- IV. The testimony of witnesses. That of the priest mis, therefore, benetted round with his enemies, raging with love, jealousy, and anger, betook himself to his cave; alone was generally sufficient, though we often find many and calling aloud in the Egyptian tongue, so soon as he other persons attending the ceremony. The words 'there before him,' and 'he shall conceal it,' in Olivia's speech, heard himself answered towards the mouth of the cave by sufficiently demonstrate that betrothing and not marriage a Grecian, making to the speaker by the direction of the is intended; for in the latter the presence of the priest voice, he caught her by the hair with his left hand, and alone would not have sufficed. In later times, espousals in (supposing her to be Chariclea) with his right hand plunged the church were often prohibited in France, because his sword into her breast. instances frequently occurred where the parties, relying (2) SCENE I. on the testimony of the priest, scrupled not to live A contract of eternal bond of love, together as man and wife; which gave rise to much Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, scandal and disorder."-DOUCE's Illustrations of ShakAttested by the holy close of lips, speare, I. 109–113. Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings.] (3) SCENE I.-- When that I was and a little tiny boy.), It The ceremony which had taken place between Olivia and is to be regretted, perhaps, that this “nonsensical ditty," as Sebastian, Mr. Douce has conclusively shown, was not an Steevens terms it, has not been long since degraded to the actual marriage, but that which was called espousals, foot-notes. It was evidently one of those jigs, with which namely, a betrothing, affiancing, or promise of future mar- it was the rude custom of the Clown to gratify the groundriage. "Vincent de Beauvais, a writer of the thirteenth lings upon the conclusion of a play. These absurd comcentury, in his Speculum historiale, lib. ix. c. 70, has defined positions, intended only as a vehicle for buffoonery, were espousals to be a contract of future marriage, made either usually improvisations of the singer, tagged to some bý a simple promise, by earnest or security given, by a popular ballad-burden-or the first lines of various songs ring, or by an oath. During the same period, and the strung together in ludicrous juxtaposition, at the end of following centuries, we may trace several other modes of each of which, the performer indulged in hideous grimace, betrothing, some of which it may be worth while to and a grotesque sort of “Jump Jim Crow" dance. Of describe more at large. these “nonsense songs," we had formerly preserved three 1. The interchangement of rings. Thus in Chaucer's or four specimens, but they have unfortunately got Troilus and Creseide, book 3: mislaid. CRITICAL OPINIONS ON TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL. “ The Twelfth Night, or What you Will, unites the entertainment of an intrigue, contrived with great ingenuity, to a rich fund of comic characters and situations, and the beauteous colours of an ethereal poetry. In most of his plays, Shakspeare treats love more as an affair of the imagination than the heart; but here he has taken particular care to remind us that, in his language, the same word, fancy, signified both fancy and love. The love of the music-enraptured Duke for Olivia is not merely a fancy, but an imagination ; Viola appears at first to fall arbitrarily in love with the Duke, whom she serves as a page, although she afterwards touches the tenderest strings of feeling ; the proud Olivia is captivated by the modest and insinuating messenger of the Duke, in whom she is far from suspecting a disguised rival, and at last, by a second deception, takes the brother for the sister. To these, which I might call ideal follies, a contrast is formed by the naked absurdities to which the entertaining tricks of the ludicrous persons of the piece give rise, under the pretext also of love : the silly and profligate knight's awkward courtship of Olivia, and her declaration of love to Viola ; the imagination of the pedantic steward, Malvolio, that his mistress is secretly in love with him, which carries him so far that he is at last shut up as a lunatic, and visited by the clown in the dress of a priest. These scenes are admirably conceived, and as significant as they are laughable. If this were really, as is asserted, Shakspeare's latest work, he must have enjoyed to the last the same youthful elasticity of mind, and have carried with him to the grave the undiminished fulness of his talents.”—SCHLEGEL. “ The serious and the humorous scenes are alike excellent; the former give a very echo to the seat Where love is thron'd,' and are tinted with those romantic hues, which impart to passion the fascinations of fancy, and which stamp the poetry of Shakespeare with a character so transcendently his own, so sweetly wild, so tenderly imaginative. Of this description are the loves of Viola and Orsino, which, though involving a few improbabilities of incident, are told in a manner so true to nature, and in a strain of such melancholy enthusiasm, as instantly put to flight all petty objections, and leave the mind wrapt in a dream of the most delicious sadness. The fourth scene of the second act more particularly breathes the blended emotions of love, of hope, and of despair, opening with a highly interesting description of the soothing effects of music in allaying the pangs of unrequited affection, and in which the attachment of Shakespeare to the simple melodies of the olden time is strongly and beautifully expressed. “From the same source which has given birth to this delightful portion of the drama, appears to spring a large share of that rich and frolic humour which distinguishes its gayer incidents. The delusion of Malvolio, in supposing himself the object of Olivia's desires, and the ludicrous pretension of Sir Andrew Aguecheek to the same lady, fostered as they are by the comic maneuvres of the convivial Sir Toby and the keen-witted Maria, furnish, together with the professional drollery of Feste the jester, an ever-varying fund of pleasantry and mirth ; scenes in which wit and raillery are finely blended with touches of original character, and strokes of poignant satire.”-DRAKE. |
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