66. SWEET AND TWENTY. Twelfth Night.-Act II. Sc. 3. O mistress mine, where are you roaming? Every wise man's son doth know. What is love? 'Tis not hereafter; 10 In delay there lies no plenty; 1. Roaming: Roam is usually taken from the sb. Roamer, It. Romeo, O. Fr. Romier, i. e. one who makes a pilgrimage to Rome; just as canter is supposed to have originated in the jog-trot of the Canterbury pilgrims, and saunter to have come from Sainte Terre. Mr. Wedgwood, however, inclines towards Ger. raum, Eng. room, like Lat. spatiari from spatium. 5. Journeys: a journey, Fr. journée, is properly a day's work, so that the phrase "a day's journey" is pleonastic. A journeyman is one who works by the day. Ben Jonson. 1573-1637. (History, p. 87.) CATILINE soliloquises. It is decreed: nor shall thy fate, O Rome, But by attempting greater; and I feel A spirit within me chides my sluggish hands, 10 And says they have been innocent too long. 25 That she hath teem'd with, since she first knew Mars. 12. Honours: the modern fashion of omitting the u in honour, labour, favour, &c., rests on a misconception. These words are not taken direct from the Latin; they come to us from the French; and accordingly the u, as preserving the history of each word, should be retained. 14. Name, Fr. nom, It. nome, Lat. nomen, is, properly speaking, that by which a person or thing is known (Lat. noscere, Gk. γνῶναι). 19. Step-dame: strictly speaking, the prefix step is only applicable in the case of children. It is steop, bereft of; and so a step-son means a son who has lost a parent; but once its origin was forgotten, it was extended to the new connections as well. The words grand-son, granddaughter, &c., owe their existence to the inverse process. 25. Teemed with: to teem, O. E. téman, originally meant to bring forth (abundantly). 68. HYMN TO DIANA. From CYNTHIA'S REVELS.-Act V. Sc. 3. HESPERUS sings. Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep : 3. Chair: fr. Lat. cathedra, a pulpit, seat, through Prov. cadeira, O. Fr. chayere. Chaise is another form of the same word, s and r being interchangeable letters, as in lorn, fr. lose, rear, raise, &c. 5 10 Hesperus entreats thy light, Earth, let not thy envious shade Dare itself to interpose; Lay thy bow of pearl apart, And thy crystal shining quiver; 15 Give unto the flying hart Space to breathe, how short soever : Thou that makest a day of night, Goddess excellently bright. 6. Excellently: there was once a much stronger notion of pre-eminence, or superiority, in this word than now exists. 69. EPITAPH ON MARY, COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE. From UNDERWOODS. Jonson collected all his miscellaneous non-dramatic poems into three groups, which he severally called "Epigrams," "The Forest," and "Underwoods." The second of these names he took from the ancients, who called "that kind of body Sylva or "Yan, in which there were works of divers nature and matter congested;" and following the same analogy he termed the third group, being "lesser poems, of later growth," Underwoods. Underneath this sable hearse Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother; 1. Hearse, fr. Fr. herse, L. L. hercia, a harrow, means funeral obsequies in Spenser, being a name given to a triangular framework of iron for holding candles at funerals. Then it came to be applied to the monument placed over the body-in which sense it is used here, and by Spenser and Milton. 70. CHARACTER OF SHAKESPEARE. From TIMBER.* *This is another specimen of the poet's love of whimsical nomenclature. "Timber" was the name he gave to those essay-like observations in prose on men and things, which are better known by the second title of Discoveries. He seemed to look upon them merely as material for some more ambitious work. In the following passage Jonson evidently refers to the players, Heminge and Condell, who, in their preface to the first complete edition of Shakespeare's Works (1623), stated that they had "scarce received from him a blot in his papers." I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, Would he had blotted a thousand. Which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted: and to justify mine own candour: for I loved the man, and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was (indeed) honest, and of an open and free nature; had an excellent phantasy; 2 brave notions, and gentle 3 expressions; wherein he flowed with that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped : Sufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so too. Many times he fell into those things could not escape laughter as when he said in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to him, Cæsar, thou dost me wrong." He replied, "Cæsar did never wrong but with just cause," ,"4 and such like; which were ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned. 1. Their ignorance, who...: the antecedent to who is implied, as often in the language of the time, in their, equivalent to of them. 2. Phantasy, Gk. pavraoía, the older form of the word fancy. 3. Gentle, i. e. such as became a wellbred person, or gentleman. 4. It is somewhat strange that this line is no longer to be found in Shakespeare's works; the nearest resemblance to it being in Julius Cæsar, iii. 1: "Know Cæsar doth not wrong; nor without cause Will he be satisfied." It is very probable, however, that the passage once stood as Jonson quotes. 71. Beaumont, 1586-1616, and Fletcher, 1576–1625. (History, p. 90.) From THE FAITHFUL SHEPHERDESS. CLORIN, a Shepherdess, watching by the Grave of her Lover, speaks. Clor. Hail, holy earth, whose cold arms do embrace Of love all sports, delights, and jolly games, Since thou art far away, by whose dear side And hanging script of finest cordevan! But thou art gone, and these are gone with thee, Dwell by thy grave, forgetting all those joys 8. Jolly, O. Fr. joli, It. giulivo, is not derived from jovialis, but from O. N. jol (Eng. yule), a Christmas festivity (Diez). | 11. Coronals, garlands (of flowers). 21. Cordevan, leather of Cordova, once spelt cordewayne. A cordwainer (cordouanier) is properly a worker in Cordovan leather. |