CLOWN. Your worship had like to have given. us one, if you had not taken yourself with the manner.9 SHEP. Are you a courtier, an't like you, fir? AUT. Whether it like me, or no, I am a courtier, See'st thou not the air of the court, in thefe enfold- ́ ings? hath not my gait in it, the measure of the court? receives not thy nofe court-odour from me? reflect I not on thy bafenefs, court-contempt? Think'ft thou, for that I infinuate, or toze 3 from 2 with the manner. In the fact. See Vol. VII. p. 193, n. 7. STEEVENS. hath not my gait in it, the measure of the court?] i. e. the ftately tread of courtiers. See Much ado about nothing, Vol. VI. P. 252: 111 the wedding maunerly modeft, as a measure, full of Atate and ancientry." 3 MALONE. - infinuate, or toze--] The firft folio reads at toaze; the fecond-or toaze; Mr. Malone-and toze. To teaze, or toze, is to difentangle wool or flax. Autolycus adopts a phrafeology which he fuppofes to be intelligible to the Clown, who would not have underflood the word infinuate, without fuch a comment on it. STEEVENS. To infinuate, I believe, means here, to cajole, to talk with condefcenfion and humility. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis: "With death the humbly doth infinuate, Tells him of trophies, ftatues, tombs, and ftories, "His vidories, his triumphs, and his glories. The word toaze is used in Meafure for Meafure, in the fame fenfe as here: We'll toaze you joint by joint, But we will know this purpose. To toufe, fays Minfhieu, is, to pull, to tug. MALONE. To infinuate, and to teafe, or toaze, are oppofites. The former fignifies to introduce itself obliquely into a thing, and the latter to get fomething out that was knotted up in it. Milton has ufed each word in its proper fenfe : clofe the ferpent fly "Gave proof unheeded." Par. Loft. B. IV. 1. 347. thee thy business, I am therefore no courtier ? I am courtier, cap-a-pè; and one that will either push on, or pluck back thy bufinefs there: whereupon I command thee to open thy affair. SHEP. My bufinefs, fir, is to the king. CLOWN. Advocate's the court-word for a pheafant; fay, you have none. SHEP. None, fir; I have no pheasant, cock, nor hen. AUT. How blefs'd are we, that are not fimple men! Yet nature might have made me as thefe are; Therefore I'll not difdain. CLOWN. This cannot be but a great courtier. SHEP. His garments are rich, but he wears them not handfomely. CLOWN. He feems to be the more noble in being. fantastical: a great man, I'll warrant; I know, by the picking on's teeth.5 AUT. The fardel there? what's the fardel? Wherefore that box? coarfe complexions, "And cheeks of forry grain, will ferve to ply "The fampler, and to teaze the housewife's wool." Comus, 1. 749. HENLEY. 4 Advocate's the court-word for a pheafant;] As he was a fuitor from the country, the Clown fuppofes his father fhould have brought a prefent of game, and therefore imagines, when Autolycus aiks him what advocate he has, that by the word advocate he means a pheafant. STEEVENS. 5 a great man,--by the picking on's teeth.] It seems, that to pick the teeth was, at this time, a mark of fome pretenfion to greatness or elegance. So, the Baflard, in King John, Ipeaking of the traveller, fays: He and his pick-tooth at my worship's mefs." JOHNSON. SHEP. Sir, there lies fuch fecrets in this fardel, and box, which none muft know but the king; and which he fhall know within this hour, if I may come to the fpeech of him. AUT. The king is not at the palace; he is gone aboard a new fhip to purge melancholy, and air himfelf: For, if thou be'ft capable of things ferious, thou must know, the king is full of grief. SHEP. So 'tis faid, fir; about his fon, that should have married a fhepherd's daughter. AUT. If that fhepherd be not in hand-faft, let him fly; the curfes he fhall have, the tortures he fhall feel, will break the back of man, the heart of monster. CLOWN. Think you fo, fir? AUT. Not he alone fhail fuffer what wit can make heavy, and vengeance bitter; but thofe that are germane to him, though removed fifty times, fhall all come under the hangman: which though it be great pity, yet it is neceffary. An old fheep-whiftling rogue, a ram-tender, to offer to have his daughter come into grace! Some fay, he fhall be ftoned; but that death is too foft for him, fay 1: Draw our throne into a fheep-cote! all deaths are too few, the sharpest too easy. CLOWN. Has the old man e'er a fon, fir, do you hear, an't like you, fir? AUT. He has a fon, who fhall be flay'd alive; then, 'nointed over with honey, set on the head then, 'nointed over with honey, &c.] A punishment of this fort is recorded in a book which Shakspeare might have feen :— "he caufed a cage of yron to be made, and fet it in the funne: and, after annointing the pore Prince over with hony, forced him 6 of a wafp's neft; then ftand, till he be three quarrers and a dram dead: then recovered again with aqua-vitæ, or fome other hot infufion: then, raw as he is, and in the hotteft day prognoftication proclaims, fhall he be fet against a brick-wall, the fun looking with a fouthward eye upon him; where he is to behold him, with flies blown to death. But what talk we of these traitorly rascals, whose miseries are to be fmil'd, at, their offences being fo capital? Tell me, (for you seem to be honest plain men,) what you have to the king: being fomething gently confidered,' I'll bring you where he is aboard, tender your persons to his presence, whifper him in him in your behalfs; and, if it be in man, befides the king, to effect your fuits, here is man fhall do it. CLOWN. He feems to be of great authority: clofe with him, give him gold; and though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nofe naked to enter into it, where hee long time endured the greatest languor and torment in the worlde, with fwarmes of flies that dayly fed on hym; and in this forte, with paine and famine, ended his miferable life." The Stage of popish Toyes, 1518, p. 33. REED. 6the hottest day prognoftication proclaims,] That is, the hottest day foretold in the almanack. JOHNSON. Almanacks were in Shakspeare's time published under this title. «An Almanack and Prognoftication made for the year of our Lord God, 1595," See Herbert's Typograph. Antiq. II. 1029. MALONE. 7 being fomething gently confidered,] Means, I having a gene tlemanlike confideration given me, i. e. a bribe, will bring you, &c. So, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: 366 ———fure, fir, I'll confider it hereafter if I can. "What, confider me? doft thou think that I am a bribetaker?" Again, in The Isle of Gulls, 1633: "Thou shalt be well confider ed, there's twenty crowns in earneft." STEEVENS. with gold fhow the infide of your purse to the outfide of his hand, and no more ado: Remember, foned, and flay'd alive. SHEP. An't please you, fir, to undertake the bufinefs for us; here is that gold I have: I'll make it as much more; and leave this young man in pawn, till I bring it you. AUT. After I have done what I promised? AUT. Well, give me the moiety:party in this bufinefs? Are you a CLOWN. In fome fort, fir: but though my cafe be a pitiful one, I hope I fhall not be flay'd out of it. AUT. O, that's the cafe of the fhepherd's fon :Hang him, he'll be made an example. CLOWN. Comfort, good comfort: We must to the king, and fhow our ftrange fights: he must know, 'tis none of your daughter, nor my fifter; we are gone elfe. Sir, I will give you as much as this old man does, when the bufinefs if perform'd; and remain, as he fays, your pawn, till it be brought you. AUT. Iwill truft you. Walk before toward the fea-fide; go on the right hand; I will but look upon the hedge, and follow you. CLOWN. We are blefs'd in this man, as I may fay, even blefs'd. SHEP. Let's before, as he bids us: he was provided to do us good. [Exeunt Shepherd and Clown. AUT. If I had a mind to be honest, I fee, fortune would not fuffer me; the drops booties in my mouth. I am courted now with a double occafion; gold, and a means to do the prince my mafter good; |