Have brought about their annual reckoning. Change not your offer, made in heat of blood; Come challenge, challenge me by these deserts, For the remembrance of my father's death. King. If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, The sudden hand of death close up mine eye! Hence ever, then, my heart is in thy breast. Biron. And what to me, my love, and what to me? Ros. You must be purgéd too, your sins are rank; You are attaint with faults and perjury: A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, Dum. But what to me, my love? but what to me? Kath. A wife!-A beard, fair health, and honesty ; With threefold love I wish you all these three. Dum. O, shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife? Kath. Not so, my lord:-a twelvemonth and a day I'll mark no words that smooth-faced wooers say: Come when the king doth to my lady come, Then, if I have much love, I'll give you some. Dum. I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then. Kath. Yet swear not, least you be forsworn again. Long. What says Maria? Mar. At the twelvemonth's end, I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend. Long. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long. Mar. The liker you; few taller are so young. Biron. Studies my lady? Mistress look on me, Behold the window of my heart, mine eye, What humble suit attends thy answer there: Impose some service on me for thy love. Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Birón, Before I saw you: and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Full of comparisons and wounding flouts; Which you on all estates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit: To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, And therewithal to win me, if you please It cannot be; it is impossible: Ros. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit, Whose influence is begot of that loose grace Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Biron. A twelvemonth? Well, befal what will befal, I'll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. Prin. Ay, sweet my lord; and so I take my [To the KING. leave. King. No, madam; we will bring you on your Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me, Prin. Was not that Hector? Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave: I am a votary; I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years. But, most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled, in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? it should have followed in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly; we will do so. Arm. Holla! approach. Enter HOLOFERNES, NATHANIEL, MOTH, CosTARD, and others. This side is Hiems, winter; this Ver, the spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin. SONG. SPRING. When daisies pied, and violets blue, Do paint the meadows with delight; Cuckoo, cuckoo ;-O word of fear, When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks; Cuckoo, cuckoo ;-O word of fear, WINTER. When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And milk comes frozen home in pail; Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note, And coughing drowns the parson's saw, Tu-whit, to-who, a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot. Arm. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You that way; we this way. [Exeunt. his ear; would tell the just number of pence in any piece of silver coin newly shewed him by his master," &c. Many of his remarkable pranks are mentioned by contemporary writers. The fate of man and horse is not known with certainty; but it is supposed that they were both burnt at. Rome as magicians. "Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers."-Act I., Scene 2. I do not know whether our author alludes to "the rare green eye" which in his time seems to have been thought a beauty, or to that frequent attendant on love, jealousy, to which, in the "MERCHANT OF VENICE," and in "OTHELLO," he has applied the epithet green-eyed.-MALONE. Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, Not uttered by base sale of chapmen's tongues.” Act II., Scene 1. "Chapman" here seems to signify the seller, not, as now commonly, the buyer. The meaning is, that the estimation of beauty depends not on the uttering or proclamation of the seller, but on the eye of the buyer. There is a similar thought in Shakspere's 102nd Sonnet: "That love is merchandised whose rich esteeming "MAR. My lips are no common, though several they be. BOYET. Belonging to whom? MAR. To my fortunes and me."-Act II., Scene 1. This is a play upon the word several, which, besides its ordinary signification of separate or distinct, likewise signifies, in unenclosed lands, a certain portion of ground appropriated to either corn or meadow, adjoining the common field. An extract from Bacon's "AFOTHEGMS" (1625), will illustrate the point:-" There was a lord that was lean of visage, but immediately after his marriage he grew fat. One said to him, Your lordship doth contrary to other married men; for they first wax lean, and you wax fat.' Sir Walter Raleigh stood by, and said, Why there is no beast that, if you take him from the common, and put him into the several, but he will wax fat.'" The word several in the text, is probably used in the sense of more than one. No explanation that we have previously seen removes the ambiguity arising from the phrase "no common, though several." The number two is not commonly spoken of as several; but punsters like poets often seek to "snatch a grace beyond the reach of art." "His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see, Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be." Act II., Scene 1. That is, his tongue being impatiently desirous to see as well as speak. "His face's own margent did quote such amazes, In the old comedies, the songs are frequently omitted. On this occasion, the stage-direction is generally, "Here they sing," or "Cantant" Probably the performer was left to choose his own ditty, and therefore it could not with propriety be exhibited as part of a new performance: Sometimes yet more was left to the discretion of the ancient comedians, as I learn from the following circumstance in "KING EDWARD IV.," Part 2 (1619), "Jockey is led whipping over the stage, speaking some words, but of no importance." Again, in Decker's" HONEST WHORE" (1635), "He places all things in order, singing with the ends of old ballads as he does it."-STEEVENS. "Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?" Act III., Scene 1. The brawl was a stately species of dance, formerly much in vogue. It appears that several persons united hands in a circle, and gave each other continual shakes, the steps changing with the tune. Gray has a pleasant allusion to this courtly exercitation (which was sometimes performed by the highest and gravest characters), in his "Long Story," in which he so graphically describes the ancient seat of the Hattons: "Full oft, within the spacious walls, When he had fifty winters o'er him, "Your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old painting."-Act III., Scene 1. It was a common trick among some of the most indolent of the ancient masters, to place the hands in the bosom or the pockets, or conceal them in some other part of the drapery, to avoid the labour of representing them, or to disguise their own want of skill to employ them with grace and propriety. STEEVENS. "ARM. But O! but 0!MOTH. the hobby-horse is forgot." Act III., Scene 1. In the celebration of May day, besides the sports now used of hanging a pole with garlands, and dancing round it, formerly a boy was dressed up representing Maid Marian; another like a friar; and another rode on a hobby-horse, with bells jingling, and painted streamers. After the Reformation took place, and precisians multiplied, these latter rites were looked upon to savour of paganism; and then Maid Marian, the friar, and the poor hobby-horse, were turned out of the games. Some who were not so wisely precise, but regretted the disuse of the hobby-horse, no doubt satirised this suspicion of idolatory, and archly wrote the epitaph above alluded to. Now Moth, hearing Armado groan ridiculously, and cry out "But O! but O!" humorously pieces out his exclamation with the sequel of this epitaph.-THEOBALD. There is a similar allusion to the hobby-horse in "HAMLET" (act iii., scene 2). See the note on the passage. "Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy." Act III., Scene 1. L'envoy is an old French term for concluding verses, which served either to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some person. "Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought; And he ended the market."-Act III., Scene 1. This is, probably, an allusion to the ungallant Italian proverb, "Three women and a goose make a market." "Sole imperator and great general Of trotting paritors."-Act III., Scene 1. An apparator, or paritor, is an officer of the Bishop's court, who carries out citations. "And I to be a corporal of his field, And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!" It appears from Lord Stafford's Letters, that a corporal of the field was employed as an aide-de-camp is now, "in taking and carrying to and fro the directions of the general, or other higher officers of the field." From other sourecs, however, it seems that the functions of this officer were of a diversified nature. A tumbler's hoop was usually dressed out with coloured ribands. To wear love's colours, means to wear his badge or cognomen, or to be his servant or retainer. "A woman, that is like a German clock, Clock-making is supposed to have had its beginning in Germany, and clocks were no doubt, for a long period, clumsy pieces of machinery. The clock at Hampton Court, which was set up in 1540, is said to have been the first fabricated in England. "The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenele phon.-Act IV., Scene 1. The ballad of King Cophetua may be seen in Percy's "RELIQUES," vol. i. The beggar's name, however, is there given Penelophon. Shakspere on several other occasions alludes to this popular production. "This Armado is a Spaniard that keeps here in court; A phantasm, a Monarcho."-Act IV., Scene 1. Monarcho, or the Monarch, was a term applied to an insane Italian, who is mentioned by various authors of the period. His magnificent delusion consisted in thinking himself monarch of the world." Popular applause (says Meres) doth nourish some, neither do they gape after anything but vain praise and glory: as, in our age. Peter Shakerlye of Pauls, and Monarcho that lived about the court." "BOYET. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor? Act IV., Scene 1. It appears, from various instances cited by the commentators, that the word suitor was in Elizabeth's time pronounced with an h, as we now pronounce the words sure and sugar. Hence the equivoque in the text. Malone observes, on this point, "In Ireland, where I believe much of the pronunciation of Queen Elizabeth's age is yet retained, the word suitor is at this time pronounced as if it were spelt shooter." "Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL." Act IV., Scene 2. The character of Holofernes is supposed to have had particular reference to Florio, the author of a small Italian dictionary, published in 1598, called "A World of Words;" but the point is altogether uncertain. "But, sir, I assure ye it was a buck of the first head." Act IV., Scene 2. In the "RETURN FROM PARNASSUS" (1606), there is an account of the different appellations of deer, at their different ages:-"Now, sir, a buck is the first year, a fawn; the second year, a pricket; the third year, a sorrel; the fourth year, a soare; the fifth, a buck of the first head; the sixth year, a complete buck. Likewise, your hart is the first year, a calf; the second year, a brocket; the third year, a spade; the fourth year, a stag; the sixth year, a hart. A roebuck is the first year, a kid; the second year, a gird; the third year, a hemuse. And these are your special beasts for chace." Sir Nathaniel and Dull differ as to the age of the animal. "Give you good morrow, master person."-Act IV., Scene 2. The word which we now call parson was formerly written person. Blackstone thus accounts for the origin of the term:"A parson, persona ecclesiæ, is one that hath full possession of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parson, persona, because by his person, the church, which is an invisible body, is represented."-COMMENTARIES, b. i. "Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice. Act IV., Scene 2. The allusion here is to Mantuanus, a Carmelite, whose Eclogues were translated before the time of Shakspere, and the Latin printed on the opposite side of the page. In 1567, they were also versified by Turberville. The first Eclogue commences with the passage quoted by Holofernes in the text, "Fauste, precor gelidá," &c. "Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers." Act IV., Scene 3. When perjurers were exposed on the pillory, they wore on the breast papers expressive of their crime. "O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: Guards signify the edges or hems of garments. Slops are the large wide-kneed breeches of the period. "My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Birón. Act IV., Scene 3. Here, and indeed throughout the play, the name of Birón is accented on the second syllable. In the first quarto (1598), and the folio (1623), he is always called Berowne. From the line before us, it appears that in our author's time the name was pronounced Biroon. -MALONE. Mr. Boswell has remarked that this was the mode in which words of this termination were pronounced in English. Mr. Fox always said Touloon, when speaking of Toulon, in the House of Commons. "And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. Act IV., Scene 3. That is, the very top, the height of beauty, or the utmost degree of fairness, becomes the heavens. In heraldry, a crest is a device placed above a coat of arms. In "KING JOHN," there is a similar figurative use of the word: "Your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious."-Act V., Scene 1. I know not well what degree of respect Shakspere intends to obtain for this vicar, but he has here put into his mouth a finished representation of colloquial excellence. It is very difficult to add anything to this character of the schoolmaster's table-talk; and perhaps all the precepts of Castiglione will scarcely be found to comprehend a rule for conversation so justly delineated, so widely dilated, and so nicely limited.-JOHNSON. Reason, in the text, and in many other places, signifies discourse; audacious is used in a good sense, for spirited. animated, confident; opinion is equivalent to obstinacy, or the French opiniâtreté. "This is abhominable (which he would call abominable).” Act V., Scene 1. The word in question is, according to Steevens, always spelt with an h in the old Moralities and other antiquated books. "Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon." A flap-dragon was some small combustible body, set on fire and put afloat in a glass of liquor. It was an act of dexterity in the toper to swallow it without burning his mouth. "Ware pencils!"-Act V., Scene 2. Rosaline here advises Katharine to beware of drawing likenesses, lest she should retaliate. “O, that I knew he were but in by the week!"-Act V., Scene 2. This is probably an expression taken from hiring servants; meaning, "I wish I was sure of his service for any time limited, as if I had hired him." The phrase is common in old plays. "And are apparelled thus, Like Muscovites, or Russians."-Act V., Scene 2. It appears that a masque of Muscovites was not an unusual court recreation. Hall the Chronicler states that, in the first year of Henry VIII., at a banquet made for the foreign ambassadors in the parliament chamber at Westminster, "came the lord Henry Earle of Wiltshire and the lord Fitzwater, in two long gowns of yellow satin, traversed with white satin, and in every bend of white was a bend of crimson satin, after the fashion of Russia or Russland, with furred hats of grey on their heads, either of them having a hatchet in their hands, and boots with pikes turned up." |