Tom's a-cold.-O, do de, do de, do de.-Bless thee from whirlwinds, star-blasting, and taking! Do poor Tom some charity, whom the foul fiend vexes: There could I have him now, and there,-and there, and there again, and there. [Storm continues. LEAR. What, have his daughters brought him to this pass? Could'st thou save nothing? Did'st thou give them all? FOOL. Nay, he reserved a blanket, else 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, sir. LEAR. Death, traitor! nothing could have subdu'd nature To such a lowness, but his unkind daughters.- "But my five wits, nor my five senses can "Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee." MALONE. See Much Ado About Nothing, vol. vii. p. 11, n. 6. BOSWELL. taking?] To take is to blast, or strike with malignant in 4 fluence: 6 66 strike her young bones, "Ye taking airs, with lameness!" JOHNSON. Now, all the PLAGUES that in the pendulous air Hang fated o'er men's faults,] So, in Timon of Athens: "Will o'er some high-viced city hang his poison "In the sick air." BOSWELL. - pelican daughters.] The young pelican is fabled to suck the mother's blood. JOHNSON. So, in Decker's Honest Whore, 1630, second part : EDG. Pillicock sat Halloo, halloo, loo, loo! pillicock's-hill ; 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 justly; swear not; commit not with man's sworn spouse; set not thy sweet heart on proud array: Tom's a-cold. 8 LEAR. What hast thou been? EDG. A serving-man, proud in heart and mind; that curled my hair"; wore gloves in my cap', served "Shall a silly bird pick her own breast to nourish her young ones? the pelican does it, and shall not I?" Again, in Love in a Maze, 1632: "The pelican loves not her young so well "That digs upon her breast a hundred springs." STEEVENS. 6 PILLICOCK Sat, &c.] I once thought this a word of Shakspeare's formation; but the reader may find it explained in Minsheu's Dict. p. 365, Article 3299-2.-Killico is one of the devils mentioned in Harsenet's Declaration. The folio reads-Pillicockhill. I have followed the quartos. MALONE. The inquisitive reader may also find an explanation of this word in a note annexed to Sir Thomas Urquart's translation of Rabelais, vol. i. b. i. ch. ii. p. 184, edit. 1750. STEEVENS. 7 keep thy wORD justly ;] Both the quartos, and the folio, have words. The correction was made in the second folio. 8 MALONE. COMMIT not, &c.] The word commit is used in this sense by Middleton, in Women beware Women: 9 "His weight is deadly who commits with strumpets." STEEVENS. PROUD in heart and mind; that CURLED MY HAIR, &c.] "Then Ma. Mainy, by the instigation of the first of the seaven [spirits], began to set his hands unto his side, curled his hair, and used such gestures, as Ma. Edmunds [the exorcist] presently affirmed that that spirit was Pride. Herewith he began to curse and banne, saying, What a poxe do I here? I will stay no longer among a company of rascal priests, but go to the court, and brave it amongst my fellows, the noblemen there assembled." Harsnet's Declaration, &c. 1603. shortly after they [the seven spirits] were all cast forth, the lust of my mistress's heart, and did the act of darkness with her; swore as many oaths as I spake words, and broke them in the sweet face of heaven: one, that slept in the contriving of lust, and waked to do it: Wine loved I deeply; dice dearly; and in woman, out-paramoured the Turk: False of heart, light of ear, bloody of hand; Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness 3, dog in madness, lion 3 and in such manner as Ma. Edmunds directed them, which was, that every devil should depart in some certaine forme representing either a beast or some other creature, that had the resemblance of that sinne whereof he was the chief author: whereupon the spirit of pride departed in the forme of a peacock; the spirit of sloth in the likeness of an asse; the spirit of envie in the similitude of a dog; the spirit of gluttony in the form of a wolfe; and the other devils had also in their departure their particular likenesses agreeable to their natures." MALONE. -wore gloves in my cap.] i. e. His mistress's favours: which was the fashion of that time. So, in the play called Campaspe: "Thy men turned to women, thy soldiers 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 distinct occasions, viz. as the favour of a mistress, the memorial of a friend, and as a mark to be challenged by an enemy. Prince Henry boasts that he will pluck a glove from the commonest creature, and fix it in his helmet; and Tucca says to Sir Quintilian, in Decker's Satiromastix: “ -Thou shalt wear her glove in thy worshipful hat, like to a leather brooch: " and Pandora in Lyly's Woman in the Moon, 1597: 66 he that first presents me with his head, "Shall wear my glove in favour of the deed." Portia, in her assumed character, asks Bassanio for his gloves, which she says she will wear for his sake and King Henry V. gives the pretended glove of Alençon to Fluellen, which afterwards occasions his quarrel with the English soldier. STEEVENS. 2 — light of ear,] Credulous of evil, ready to receive malicious reports. JOHNSON. 3- Hog in sloth, fox in stealth, wolf in greediness, &c.] The Jesuits pretended to cast the seven deadly sins out of Mainy in the shape of those animals that represented them; and before each was cast out, Mainy by gestures acted that particular sin; curling his hair to show pride, vomiting for gluttony, gaping and in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, 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: Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by ". [Storm still continues. snoring for sloth, &c.—Harsnet's Book, pp. 279, 280, &c. To this probably our author alludes. STEEVENS. 4thy hand out of PLACKETS,] It appeareth from the following passage in Any Thing for a Quiet Life, a silly comedy, that placket doth not signify the petticoat in general, but only the aperture therein "between which is discovered the open part which is now called the placket." Bayley in his Dictionary, giveth the same account of the word. Yet peradventure, our poet hath some deeper meaning in The Winter's Tale, where Autolycus saith-" you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless: "-and, now I bethink me, sir Thomas Urquart, knight, in his translation of that wicked varlet Rabelais, styleth the instrument wherewith Garagantua played at carnal tennis, his "placket-racket." See that work, vol. i. p. 184, edit. 1750. Impartiality nevertheless compelleth me to observe, that Master Coles in his Dictionary hath rendered placket by sinus muliebris : and a pleasant commentator who signeth himself T. C. hath also produced instances in favour of that signification; for, saith he, -but hear we his own words: "Peradventure a placket signified neither a petticoat nor any part of one; but a stomacher." See the word Torace in Florio's Italian Dict. 1598. "The brest or bulke of a man.-Also a placket or stomacher."-The word seems to be used in the same sense in The Wandering Whores, &c. a comedy, 1663: "If I meet a cull in Morefields, I can give him leave to dive in my placket." So that, after all, this matter is enwrapped in much and painful uncertainty. AMNER. 5thy pen from lenders' books,] So, in All Fools, a comedy, by Chapman, 1605: "If I but write my name in mercers' books, "I am as sure to have at six months end “A rascal at my elbow with his mace," &c. STEEVENS. Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by.] The quartos read-"the cold wind; hay, LEAR. Why, thou were better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity no on ny, Dolphin my boy, my boy, cease, let him trot by." The folio-"the cold wind: sayes suum, mun, nonny, Dolphin my boy, boy Sessey, let him trot by." The text is formed from the two copies. I have printed Sessa, instead of Sessey, because the same cant word occurs in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew: "Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide: Sessa." MALONE. "Hey no nonny " is the burthen of a ballad in The Two Noble Kinsmen, (said 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 songs. 66 Dolphin, my boy, my boy, 66 Cease, let him trot by; "It seemeth not that such a foe "From me or you would fly." This is a stanza from a very old ballad written on some battle fought in France, during which the King, unwilling to put the suspected valour of his son the Dauphin, i. e. Dolphin, (so called and spelt at those times,) to the trial, is represented as desirous to restrain him from any attempt to establish an opinion of his courage on an adversary who wears the least appearance of strength; and at last assists in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Therefore, as different champions are supposed to cross the field, the King always discovers some objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats these two lines as every fresh personage is introduced: "Dolphin, my boy, my boy," &c. The song I have never seen, but had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to repeat part of it, and died before I could have supposed the discovery would have been of the least importance to me.-As for the words, says suum, mun, they are only to be found in the first folio, and were probably added by the players, who, together with the compositors, were likely enough to corrupt what they did not understand, or to add more of their own to what they already concluded to be nonsense. STEEVENS. Coke cries out, in Bartholomew Fair : "God's my life!-He shall be Dauphin my boy!" FARMER. It is observable that the two songs to which Mr. Steevens refers for the burden of "Hey no nonny," are both sung by girls distracted from disappointed love. The meaning of the burden may be inferred from what follows.-Drayton's Shepherd's Garland, 1593, 4to.: |