you: 6: you'll have coursers for cousins, and gennets for germans'. 6 BRA. What profane wretch art thou? your NEPHEWS neigh to you:] Nephew, in this instance, has the power of the Latin word nepos, and signifies a grandson, or any lineal descendant, however remote. So, A. of Wyntown, in his Cronykil, b. viii. ch. iii. v. 119: 66 66 And all the sons of these five brethren reign'd By due success, and all their nephews late, "Even thrice eleven descents the crown obtain'd." Again, in Chapman's version of the Odyssey, b. xxiv. Laertes says of Telemachus his grandson: 66 to behold my son "And nephew close in such contention." Sir W. Dugdale very often employs the word in this sense: and without it, it would not be very easy to show how Brabantio could have nephews by the marriage of his daughter. Ben Jonson likewise uses it with the same meaning. The alliteration in this passage caused Shakspeare to have recourse to it. See Richard III. Act IV. Sc. I. MALONE. STEEVENS. In Junius's Nomenclature by Higgins, 1585, nepos has no other explanation than nephew, e filio filiâve natus. The word grandson never occurs in Shakspeare. BoswELL. 7 GENNETS for germans,] A jennet is a Spanish horse. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: 66 66 there stays within my tent A winged jennet." STEEVENS. * What PROFANE wretch art thou?] That is, what wretch of gross and licentious language? In that sense Shakspeare often uses the word profane. JOHNSON. It is so used by other writers of the same age: "How far off dwells the house-surgeon? You are a profane fellow, i'faith." Again, in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub: "By the sly justice, and his clerk profane." " James Howell, in a dialogue prefixed to his edition of Cotgrave's Dictionary, in 1673, has the following sentence: "J'aimerois mieux estre trop ceremonieux, que trop prophane : which he thus also anglicises-"I had rather be too ceremonious, than too prophane." STEEVENS.. * LAGO. I am one, sir, that comes to tell you, your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs 9. BRA. Thou art a villain. LAGO. You are a senator. BRA. This thou shalt answer; I know thee, Ro derigo. ROD. Sir, I will answer any thing. But I beseech you, [If't be your pleasure', and most wise consent, (As partly, I find, it is,) that your fair daughter, At this odd-even and dull watch o'the night 2, * First folio, come. 9 — your daughter and the Moor are now making the BEAST WITH TWO BACKS.] This is an ancient proverbial expression in the French language, whence Shakspeare probably borrowed it; for in the Dictionnaire des Proverbes Françoises, par G. D. B. Brusselles, 1710, 12mo. I find the following article: "Faire la bête a deux dos," pour dire, faire l'amour." PERCY. In the Dictionnaire Comique, par le Roux, 1750, this phrase is more particularly explained under the article Bete: "Faire la bete a deux dos.-Maniere de parler qui signifie etre couché avec une femme; faire le deduit." "Et faisoient tous deux souvent ensemble la bete a deux dos joyeusement." Rabelais, liv. i. There was a translation of Rabelais published in the time of Shakspeare. MALONE. [Ift be your pleasure, &c.] The lines printed in crotchets are not in the first edition, but in the folio of 1623. JOHNSON. 2 At this ODD EVEN and dull watch o'the night,] The even of night is midnight, the time when night is divided into even parts. JOHNSON. Odd is here ambiguously used, as it signifies strange, uncouth, or unwonted; and as it is opposed to even. But this expression, however explained, is very harsh. STEEVENS. This odd even is simply the interval between twelve at night and one in the morning. HENLEY. By this singular expression,-" this odd-even of the night," our poet appears to have meant, that it was just approaching to, or just past, that it was doubtful whether at that moment it stood at the point of midnight, or at some other less equal division of the Transported-with no worse nor better guard, 4 I thus would play and trifle with your reverence: Your daughter,—if you have not given her leave,— twenty-four-hours; which a few minutes either before or after midnight would be. So, in Macbeth: 66 What is the night? Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is which." Shakspeare was probably thinking of his boyish school play, odd or even. MALONE. 66 Surely, almost at odds with morning" signifies, almost entering into conflict with it. Thus, in Timon of Athens: "Tis honour, with most lands to be at odds —.”. In King Henry VI. Part III. we find an idea similar to that in Macbeth: like the morning's war, "When dying clouds contend with growing light." STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens's explanation perfectly agrees with mine, except that he has taken no notice of the close of my quotation from Macbeth, which is which, produced for the purpose of confirming what I had said of the time being doubtful. MALONE. 3 and your ALLOWANCE,] i. e. done with your approbation, So, in Troilus and Cressida: 66 A stirring dwarf we do allowance give "Before a sleeping giant!" Again, in King Lear: 66 If your sweet sway "Allow obedience." MALONE. That, FROM the sense of all civility,] That is, in opposition to, or departing from, the sense of all civility. So, in TwelfthNight: "But this is from my commission-." Again, in The Mayor of Queenborough, by Middleton, 1661: 66 But this is from my business.' MALONE. I say again, hath made a gross revolt; 5 In an extravagant and wheeling stranger 6, Let loose on me the justice of the state BRA. Strike on the tinder, ho! LAGO. : [Exit, from above. Farewell; for I must leave you: It seems not meet, nor wholesome to my place, To be produc'd (as, if I stay, I shall,) 8 Against the Moor: For, I do know, the state,— However this may gall him with some check 9, 5 In an EXTRAVAGANT -] Extravagant is here used in its Latin signification, for wandering. Thus, in Hamlet: "The extravagant, and erring spirit." STEEVENS. This use of the word is not peculiar to Shakspeare. It is found in Sir Henry Wotton's Paralell, &c. "These two accidents precisely true, and known to few, I have reported as not altogether extravagant from my purpose.' MALONE. 6 Tying her duty, beauty, wit, and fortunes, IN an extravagant and wheeling stranger,] Thus the old copies, for which the modern editors, following Mr. Pope, have substituted-To an extravagant, &c. In King Lear, we find"And hold our lives in mercy; (not at mercy;) in The Winter's Tale" he was torn to pieces with a bear," not "by a bear; " and in Hamlet: "To let this canker of our nature come "In further evil." So, in the next scene, we have " in your part," not on your part." We might substitute modern for ancient phraseology in all these passage with as much propriety as in the present. MALONE. 7 For THUS DELUDING YOU.] The first quarto reads, -For this delusion. STEEVENS. 8 To be PRODUC'D-] The folio reads,-producted. STEEVENS. Some CHECK,] Some rebuke. JOHNSON. 9 Cannot with safety cast him'; for he's embark'd With such loud reason to the Cyprus' wars, (Which even now stand in act,) that, for their souls, Another of his fathom they have none, I must show out a flag and sign of love, find him, 2 Lead to the Sagittary the raised search; And there will I be with him. So, farewell. [Exit. Enter, below, BRABANTIO, and Servants with BRA. It is too true an evil: gone she is ; *Old copies, stands. CAST him;] That is, dismiss him; reject him. We still say, a cast coat, and a cast serving-man. JOHNSON. 2 the SAGITTARY-] Thus the folio. The quarto, 1622, reads, the Sagittar. I have chosen the unclipped reading. STEEVENS. 3 And what's to come of my DESPISED time,] Despised time, is time of no value; time in which— "There's nothing serious in mortality, "The wine of life is drawn, and the mere dregs "Are left this vault to brag of." Macbeth. JOHNSON. Again, in Romeo and Juliet: expire the term "Of a despised life clos'd in my breast." As the quotation in the preceding note belongs to our steady moralist, Dr. Johnson, it could not have been more uncharacteristically vitiated, than by the compositor, in Mr. Malone's edition, [1790] where it appears thus: "There's nothing serious in morality." STEEVENS. "Veniam petimusque damusque vicissim." BoswELL. |