16-in a sink-a-pace.] i. e. a cinque-pace; the name of a dance, the measures whereof are regulated by the number five. The word occurs elsewhere in our author. SIR J. HAWKINS. -a flame-colour'd stock.] The old copy reads a dam'd colour'd stock. Stockings were, in Shak speare's time, called stocks. 12 STEEVENS. —a woman's part.] That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were then personated by boys. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. 13 A good lenten answer :] A lean, or, as we now call it, a dry answer. 14 —no better than the fools' zanies.] In the representation of a fool, we always see a stick or bauble in his hand, with a cap and bell like his own. It seems to be his designation, as the caduceus was that of Mercury. This is called a zany. 15 —stand at your door like a sheriff's post,] It was the custom for that officer to have large posts set up at his door,as an indication of his office. The original of which was, that the king's proclamations, and other public acts, might be affixed thereon by way of pub lication. So Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, put off To the lord Chancellor's tomb, or the Shrives posts. 10 And leave the world no copy.] How much more elegantly is this thought expressed by Shakspeare, than by Beaumont and Fletcher in their Philaster! I grieve such virtue should be laid in earth STEEVENS. 17 With groans that thunder love, with sighs of fire.] This line is worthy of Dryden's Almanzor, and is said in mockery of amorous hyperboles. STEEVENS. 18 The county's man :-] i. e. the count's man. This genitive to count is not unfrequent in Shakspeare. 19 her eyes had lost her tongue,] We say a man loses his company when they go one way and he goes another. So Olivia's tongue lost her eyes; her tongue was talking of the Duke and her eyes gazing on his messenger. 20 How easy is it, for the proper-false JOHNSON. In women's waxen hearts to set their forms !] Viola has been condemning those who disguise themselves, because Olivia had fallen in love with a specious appearance. How easy is it, she adds, for those who are proper (i. e. fair in their appearance) and false (i. e. deceitful) to make an impression on the hearts of women! STEEVENS. 21 How will this fadge?] To fadge is to suit, to fit. I did impeticos thy gratillity ;] This, Sir T. Hanmer tells us, is the same with impocket thy gratuity. . He is undoubtedly right; but we must read, I did impeticoat thy gratuity. The fools were kept in long coats, to which the allusion is made. There is yet much in this dialogue which I do not understand. JOHNSON. I believe Sir T. Hanmer's word impocket should be preferred to Dr. Johnson's impeticoat. The Clown did not always wear peticoats. 23-that will draw three souls out of one weaver?] Our author represents weavers as much given to har mony in his time. This expression of the power of music is familiar with him. So, "Is it not strange that sheep's-guts should hale men's souls out of their bodies?" Why he says three souls, is because he is speaking of a catch in three parts. And the peripatetic philosophy, then in vogue, very liberally gave every man three souls; the vegetative or plastic, the animal, and the rational. To this, too, Jonson alludes in his Poetaster; What, will I turn shark upon my friends? or my friends friends? I scorn it with my three souls." By the mention of these three, therefore, we may suppose it was Shakspeare's purpose to hint to us those surprizing effects of music, which the ancients speak of when they tell us of Amphion, who moved stones and trees; Orpheus and Arion, who tamed savage beasts; and Timotheus, who governed, as he pleased, the passions of his human auditors. So noble an observation has our author conveyed in the ribaldry of this buffoon character. WARBURTON. 24 Peg-a-Ramsey,] Nash mentions Peg of Ramsey. amongst several other ballads. In Durfey's Pills to purge Melancholy is a very obscene old song, entitled Peg-a-Ramsey, mentioned by Dr. Percy. 25-your coziers' catches-] Cozier is a taylor, from coudre, to sew, participle cousu, Fr. JOHNSON. 26 Sneck up!] So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, "Let thy father go sneck up, he shall never come between a pair of sheets with me again whilst he lives." STEEVENS. 27-there shall be no more cakes and ale?] It was the custom on holidays or saints days to make cakes in honour of the day. The Puritans called this, superstition, and in the next page Maria says, that Malvolio is sometimes a kind of Puritan. See Quarlous's account of Rabbi Busy. Act i. sc. 3. Ben. Jonson's Barthelmew Fair. DR. LETHERLAND. 28 - rub your chain with crums:] Stewards anciently wore a chain as a mark of superiority over other servants. So in Webster's Dutchess of Malfy, 1623, "Yes, and the chippings of the buttery fly after him. to scower his gold chain." STEEVENS. 29-Penthesilea.] Penthesilea was a queen of the Amazons slain by Achilles. 30 Let still the woman take An elder than herself;] 'Live and learn,' says the proverb. No speech in all Shakspeare's writings is more importantly true than this of the Duke. Yet the poet, when a mere boy, married a woman seven years older than himself. 31 thy mind is a very opal!] The opal is a precious stone which frequently appears to change its colour, as it is view'd in a different light. The Clown tells the Duke that his mind is as changeable as this gem, because he sent for him but a few minutes before, and now begs leave to leave him. 32 I am all the daughters of my father's house, And all the brothers too;- -] This was the ; most artful answer that could be given. The question was of such a nature, that to have declined the appearance of a direct answer, must have raised suspicion. This has the appearance of a direct answer, that the sister died of her love; she (who passed for a man) saying, she was all the daughters of her father's house. But the Oxford editor, a great enemy, as should seem, to all equivocation, obliges her to answer thus, She's all the daughters of my father's house, And I am all the sons But if the editor should be asked now, how the Duke came to take this for an answer to his question, to be sure the editor can tell us. WARBURTON. 33 nettle of India?] The poet must here mean a zoophyte, called the Urtica marina, abounding in the Indian seas. "Quæ tacta totius corporis pruritum quendam ex"citat, unde nomen urticæ est sortita.” Wolfgan, Hist. Animal. "Urtica marinæ omnes pruritum quendam movent, "et acrimoniâ suâ venerem extinctam et sopitam ex"citant." Johnston's Hist. Nat. de Exang. Aquat. p. 56. STEEVENS. 34 the lady of the strachy] We should read Trachy, i. e. Thrace; for so the old English writers called it. Mandeville says, "As Trachye and Macedoigne of the which Alisandre was kyng." WARBURTON. What we should read it is hard to say. Here is an allusion to some old story which I have not yet discovered. JOHNSON. |