Part 6

[10] [See Warton’s “H.E.P.” by Hazlitt, iv., 214. Warton is very positive in asserting that the first edition was not in 1571, but in 1570, yet no such edition is at present known. The play, however, having been licensed in 1567 (Collier’s “Extr. from Stat. Reg.” i., 166), it is extremely probable that it was published even before 1570.]

[11] A specimen of the elegy on Edwards by Turbervile printed in the editions of his poems in 1567 and 1570, is here subjoined:

“Epitaph on Maister Edwards, sometime Maister of the Children of the Chappell, and Gentleman of Lyncolnes Inne of Court--

“Ye Learned Muses nine, and sacred Sisters all, Now lay your cheereful Cithrons downe and to lamenting fall. Rent off those garlandes greene, doe laurel leaves away, Remove the myrtill from your browes, and stint on strings to play; For he that led the daunce, the chiefest of your traine, I meane the man that Edwards height, by cruell death is slaine. Ye courtyers chaunge your cheere, lament in wailfull wise, For now your Orpheus hath resignd, in clay his Carcas lies. O ruth, he is bereft, that whilst he liued heere, For Poet’s Pen and passing Wit, could haue no Englishe Peere. His vaine in Verse was such, so stately eke his stile, His feate in forging sugred Songs with cleane and curious file; As all the learned Greekes and Romaines would repine, If they did live againe, to vewe his Verse with scornefull eine.”

[12] Nature.

[13] _Authours_, first edition.

[14] _Spake_, second edition.

[15] Although it is obvious that great pains were taken by Mr Reed and others (to say nothing of Dodsley) in the collation of this dramatic piece, yet they left it in a very imperfect state. In the course of it not less than fifty important variations and errors have been detected, consisting of words omitted, and words accidentally inserted, independently of errors of the press, for which of course an editor was not responsible. It is hoped that it will be now found more uniformly correct, although the editor can scarcely flatter himself that the reprint may not be still found defective.--_Collier._

[16] _Philosophie_, both editions. The alteration by Mr Dodsley. [But Dodsley does not seem to have perceived that by the change he converted the text into nonsense. The original reads--

“Lovers of wisdom are termed philosophie.”

The emendation introduced was suggested by Mr Collier, who remarks:] “In the next line the author expressly speaks of _lovyng of wisdom_, as if intending to employ the words he had used before.”

[17] [Scurrility.]

[18] _Great_, second edition.

[19] Omitted in second edition.

[20] _The_, second edition.

[21] Omitted in second edition.

[22] [The original has _consultat_.]

[23] A _Fletcher_ is a maker of arrows, from _fleche_ an arrow, Fr. The _Fletcher’s_ Company had several charters granted to them, though at present, I believe, they have only a nominal existence. Aristippus means to say, that he differs as much in disposition from _Carisophus_, as Jack the _arrowsmith_ varies in quality from a _bolt_ or _arrow_ of his own making.--_S._

[24] So, in [Fulwell’s] “Leke [will] to Leke, quoth the Devil to the Collier” [1568]:

“There thou mayst be called a knave in grane, And where knaves be scant thou mayst go for twayne.”

See a note on “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” vol. i., edition 1778, p. 176.--_S._

[25] _i.e.,_ If he were hanged for it, he could not tell one tale without telling two lies. Yet Mr Collier would change _where_ to _were he_.

[26] This whole line is omitted in the later of the two old copies, and as Mr Reed and his friend remarked in their notes sometimes even the variation of letters, it is singular that they should have passed over this circumstance without observation.--_Collier._

[27] _Meane_, second edition.

[28] Ed. 1571 has _patron_.

[29] This was proverbial. See [Hazlitt’s] “Collection of Proverbs,” p. 291.

[30] A proverbial expression often found in ancient writers. Heywood has it: “Happy man, happy _dole_.” See Dyce’s Glossary to his second edition of Shakespeare, p. 201. _Dole_, Mr Steevens observes (Notes to “The Taming of the Shrew,” act i., sc. 1), is any thing dealt out or distributed, though its original meaning was the provision given away at the doors of great men’s houses. It is generally written _be his dole_, though Ray, p. 116, gives it as in the second 4to _by_ his dole. Shakespeare also uses the phrase in “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

Again, in “Hudibras,” p. 1, c. 3, l. 637--

“Let us that are unhurt and whole, Fall on, and _happy man be’s dole_.”

[31] _He_, first edition.

[32] _Bosome_, second edition.

[33] Original, _outwery_.

[34] _Seeketh_, second edition.

[35] _Grace_, second edition.

[36] _Quietly_, first edition.

[37] [i.e., So near _are they_.]

[38] To _contrive_ in this place signifies to wear away, to spend, from _contero_, Lat. So in Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew,” act i., sc. 2--

“Please you we many _contrive_ this afternoon?”

Totum hunc _contrivi_ diem.--_S._ See also the Notes of Dr Warburton and Dr Johnson on the above line in Shakespeare.

[39] Taunts or sarcasms. See Johnson.--_N._

[40] _Plain-song_ is _planus cantus_, uniform modulation. _Descant_ is musical paraphrase. See a Note on “The Midsummer Night’s Dream,” vol. iii., p. 63; and another on “King Richard III.” vol. vii., p. 6, edit. 1778.--_S._

[41] Spenser has this word which, as Dr Johnson observes, appears to be the same as _winch_. It should seem to be expressive of some slight degree of pain, and in this instance to mean the same as if the speaker had said, I care not a _fillip_.--_S._

[42] Dionysius the tyrant is said to have punished with death one of his subjects for dreaming he had killed him. This was hardly more iniquitous than the execution of the gentleman, who having a white deer in his park, which was killed by Edward the Fourth, wished the deer, horns and all, in the belly of him that counselled the king to kill it, _whereas in truth no man counselled the king to it_: or than the attainder and execution of Algernon Sydney, on the evidence of private and unpublished papers, without any proof, or even a suggestion, of their intended publication.”--_Principles of Penal Law_, c. 11.

[43] _With crueltie_, second edition.

[44] _Through_, both editions. The alteration by Mr Dodsley.

[45] _Is lyke unto a stage_, second edition.

[46] This sentence stands in the old copies, _Omnis solum fortis patria_.--_Collier._ [But Mr Collier printed _patriæ_.

[47] See [Hazlitt’s] “Proverbs,” p. [336.]

[48] The _seat_ means _the situation_. See, in Dr Johnson’s Dictionary, instances of it from Raleigh, Hayward, Bacon, and B. Jonson.--_N._

So Duncan, in “Macbeth,” says--

“This castle hath a pleasant _seat_.”

[49] This quotation is given as follows in both the old copies--

“_Dic mihi musa virum captæ post tempora Trojæ, Multorum homines mores qui vidit et urbes._”

Query--Was it meant by the author that Damon should misquote?--_Collier._ [Surely not.]

[50] _This is he_, &c., first edition.

[51] _i.e._, Plentiful suppers, luxurious couches, and the king’s purse full of gold at command. [In the original this is printed so as to be absolute nonsense.]

Aristippus was not intended for a blunderer.--_S._

[52] _Tyoe_, first edition.

[53] A cant term for be silent; _mum_ and _budget_ are the words made use of by Slender and Ann Page in “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

[54] [To make up his plunder or prize-money. From the old French _bouge_.]

[55] The first edition reads--

“I wyll lay _one mouth_ for you to Dionysius,” &c.,

which was altered in the second edition as it stands in the text.--_Collier._

[56] A proverbial expression, of which it is difficult to give a satisfactory explanation, though the meaning of it is sufficiently obvious. A gentleman, who formerly wrote in _The Gentleman’s Magazine_ under a feigned name, supposes the word _cat_ should be changed to _cate_; “an old word for a _cake_ or other _aumalette_, which being usually _fried_, and consequently _turn’d in the pan_, does therefore very aptly express the changing of sides in politics or religion, or, as we otherwise say, _the turning one’s coat_. _Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1754, p. 66. Another writer, however, gives the following [very absurd] explanation of it:-- “_Capitan_, to turn _capitan_, from a people called _Catipani_, in _Calabria_ and _Apulia_, who got an ill name by reason of their perfidy; very falsely by us called _Cat in pan_.”--_Ibid._ p. 172.

[57] _Should_, second edition.

[58] _Commodity_ is interest. So in the former part of this play, p. 198--

“They would honour friendship, and not _for commodity_.”

and see “King John,” act ii., sc. 2--

“_Commodity_, the bias of the world.”

[59] [A rare word in this sense; for it appears to stand for _blab_.]

[60] [Original reads _tunes_. The emendation was first suggested by Mr Collier.]

[61] Regale sorta di strumento simile all’organo, maminore.--Baretti _Dizion. Ital. ed Ing._ Bacon distinguishes between _the regal_ and the organ in a manner which shows them to be instruments of the same class. “The sounds that produce tones are ever from such bodies as have their parts and pores equal, as are nightingale _pipes of regals_ or organs.”--_Nat. Hist._ cent, ii., sec. 102. But, notwithstanding these authorities, the appellative _regal_ has given great trouble to the lexicographer, whose sentiments with regard to its signification are collected and brought into one point of view by Sir John Hawkins, in his “History of Music,” vol. ii., p. 448, from whence this note is extracted. See also a note by the Hon. Daines Barrington to “Hamlet,” act iii., sc. 2, in the edition of Shakspeare, 1773, omitted in that of 1778.

[62] _Seeing_, second edit.

[63] _Should_, first edit.

[64] _Now_, first edit.

[65] _Unto_, second edit.

[66] [_Too_, first edit.]

[67] [_What_, both eds.]

[68] Crowd.

[69] “_King_” is omitted in the first edition, and supplied by the second.--_Collier._

[70] _This_, first edition.

[71] [Old editions have, _where opinion simplenesse have_, &c. Simpleness, ignorance--_i.e._, who have deserved mercy, having offended from not knowing better.]

[72] _Thrust_, first edition.

[73] [Old edit., _injurie_.]

[74] _Yeelde speedily_, second edition.

[75] _To pawne_, second edition.

[76] Folly. Thus Spenser, in his Sonnets,

“_Fondess_ it were for any, being free, To covet fetters, though they golden be.”

[77] Old editions read, Take heede: _for life wordly_, &c.

[78] Hinder me.

[79] [I do not understand the allusion. The sense seems to be, I will beat you, come what may--I will put _prudence_ in my purse or pocket.]

[80] [Originals have _colpheg you_.] I believe we should read, _colaphize_--i.e., box or buffet. _Colaphiser_, Fr. See Cotgrave’s “Dictionary.”--_Steevens._

[81] _i.e._, Loose companion. So Spenser--

“Might not be found a ranker _franion_.”

Again--

“A faire _franion_ fit for such a pheere.”--_S._

Again, in “The First Part of King Edward IV.,” sign. C, p. 5: “Hees a _franke franion_, a merrie companion, and loves a wench well.”

[82] See Note to “Gammer Gurton’s Needle,” vol. iii., p. 198.

[83] [_Stephano_ spelled backwards.]

[84] Read Κρητιξω. Vide Erasm. _Adag._ The _Cretans_ were famous for double-dealing. _Cretizare_, however, is a word employ’d by lexicographers, instead of mentiri.--_Steevens_.

[85] Crack-rope was a common term of contempt in old plays.

“You codshed, you _cracke-rope_, you chattering pye.” --_Apius and Virginia_, sign. B.

Again in that very rare play, “The Two Italian Gentlemen”--

“Then let him be led through every streete in the town, That every _crackrope_ may fling rotten egs at the clown.”

--_Collier_. [See also Tarlton’s “Jests,” 1611 (“Old English Jest-Books,” ii., p. 211).]

[86] [Old edition, _which_.]

[87] [Old editions have _monckes_.]

[88] [Old editions have _pantacle_.] I suppose he means to say a _pantofle_--_i.e._, a slipper. Perhaps he begins his attack with a kick.--_S._ The second edition reads--

“Even heere with a _faire_ pantacle I will you disgrace,”

an epithet not found in the oldest copy, and hardly consistent with the supposition that _pantacle_ means _pantofle_.--_Collier_. [Probably, a slap on the face.]

[89] _Geve_, second edition.

[90] More properly _touch-box_. While match-locks, instead of fire-locks, to guns were used, the _touch-box_, at which the match was lighted, was part of the accoutrement of a soldier.

“When she his flask and _touch-box_ set on fire.”

Line of an author, whose name I cannot at this time recollect.--_Steevens_.

[91] A Dottrel is a silly kind of bird which imitates the actions of the fowler, till at last he is taken. If the fowler stretches out a leg, the bird will do so to. So, in Butler’s “Character of a Fantastic (_Remains_, vol. ii., p. 132)”: “He alters his gate with the times, and has not a motion of his body that (_like a Dottrel_) he does not borrow from somebody else.” See also Jonson’s “Devil is an Ass,” iv., 6, and Dyce’s “Beaumont and Fletcher,” iii., 79, and v., 64.

[92] [Original here has _Cobex epi_. Colliers used to be nick-named _Carry-coals_. See Hazlitt’s “Proverbs,” p. 98.]

[93] [Do up, open.]

[94] [For the supply of the court, or _Bouche de la cour_.]

[95] _It was you_, first edition.

[96] _Doth_, second edition].

[97] _i.e._, A cast of that species of hawks that were called _Merlins_.--_Steevens._ He calls them [_merlins_, which he might perhaps have been supposed to pronounce] _Murlons_ on account of their size. _Merlins_ were the smallest species of hawks. Turbervile says, “These _merlyns_ are very much like the haggart falcon in plume, in seare of the foote, in beake and talons. So as there seemeth to be no oddes or difference at al betwixt them save only in the _bignesse_, for she hath like demeanure, like plume, and very like conditions to the falcon, and in hir kind is of like courage, and therefore must be kept as choycely and as daintly as the falcon.” The _merlin_ was chiefly used to fly at small birds; and Latham says, it was particularly appropriated to the service of ladies.

[98] _Father Grimme_, second edition.

[99] [Something seems to have dropped out of the text here to this purport.]

[100] Adopted into the original text from the second edition.--_Collier._

[101] [A play on the similarity between _rug_ and _rogue_.]

[102] _What fault can you see heere?_ second edition.

[103] [Small casks, buckets.]

[104] _i.e._, Robin red breasts. Shakespeare uses _ruddock_ for red breast in “Cymbeline.”--_S._ Again, in Nash’s “Lenten Stuff,” 1599: “He eft soons defined unto me, that the red herring was this old tickle cob, or magister fac totum, that brought in the _red ruddocks_, and the grummel seed as thick as oatmeal, and made Yarmouth for Argent to put down the city of Argentine.”

[105] _Hose at_, second edition.

[106] _Well_, first edition.

[107] [Luscious.]

[108] An intended mistake for _muscadine._--_S._

[109] _Jebit avow mon companion._ Both 4tos.--_S._

[110] _Ihar vow pleadge pety Zawne._ Both 4tos. [_Zawne_ appears to be a loose application of _Zani_ quasi _noodle_, though here, perhaps, the meaning is rather _mimic_.]

[111] _Was_, second edition.

[112] [Interrupt? See Nares, edition 1859, in v.]

[113] _Coppe_, in Chaucer, is used for the top of anything, and here seems intended to signify the head, or, as the common phrase is, a _hair-brained_ fellow.

[114] _Merie_, second edition.

[115] See “Gammer Gurton’s Needle,” vol. iii., p. 189, note.

[116] [See Rimbault’s “Little Book of Songs and Ballads,” 1851, p. 83.]

[117] _Benne_ is the French word for a sack to carry coals. See Cotgrave.

[118] Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton, is among the Proverbs published by Mr Ray. That gentleman adds, “Who this _Bolton_ was I know not, neither is it worth enquiring. One of this name might happen to say, _Bate me an ace_, and, for the coincidence of the first letters of the two words _Bate_ and _Bolton_, it grew to be a proverb. We have many of the like original; as _v.g._ Sup, Simon, &c., Stay, quoth Stringer, &c. There goes a story of Queen Elizabeth, that being presented with a Collection of English Proverbs, and told by the author that it contained all the English Proverbs, nay, replied she, _Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton_: which Proverb being instantly looked for, happened to be wanting in his Collection.” [See Hazlitt’s] “Proverbs,” p. [80.] This story of Queen Elizabeth forms the point of an epigram by H.P. (probably Henry Parrot) in a collection called “The Mastive,” 1615--

“A pamphlet was of proverbs penn’d by Polton Wherein he thought all sorts included were; Until one told him, _Bate m’ an ace, quoth Bolton_: Indeed (said he) that proverb is not there.”

[119] [Sacks of coal, more properly, _benters_, as just above.]

[120] In the former edition, Mr Dodsley had altered this to _pay mee wel_.

[121] [Urine.]

[122] _Aloue_, French is to allow, to approve, to praise. I know of no other word that resembles that in the text. _Alosed_, in Chaucer, is _praised_.--_S._ [Possibly, _Hallo, hallo!_ may be the true reading.]

[123] From the manner in which this expression is used by Sir John Harington, in “The Anatomie of the Metamorphosis of Ajax,” 1596, sig. L, 7, it seems as though it was intended for a sallow hue. “Both of a complexion inclining to the oriental colour of a _Croyden sanguine_.”

[124] The 4tos read _Pallarrime_. The razors of Palermo were anciently famous. They are mentioned in more than one of our old plays, and particularly in “The Wounds of Civill War,” by Thomas Lodge, 1594, “Neighbour sharpen the edge tole of your wits upon the whetstone of indiscretion, that your wordes may shine like _the rasers of Palermo_.”--_S_.

[125] He means a _pestilence_ quean.--_S._

[126] _A pestle of porke_--_i.e._, gammon of bacon.--_Minsheu._

[127] _Trimly_, second edition.

[128] [_i.e._, Dionysius, to which Dodsley changed it.]

[129] _Bonns_, both 4tos.

[130] Sometimes called New Queen Street, where there seems to have been the sign of _the three Cranes_. Ben Jonson mentions this place in “The Devil is an Ass,” act. i. sc. 1.

“From thence shoot the bridge child, to _the Cranes of the Vintry_, And see there the gimblets how they make their entry!”

Stow says it was a place of some account for the Costermongers who had warehouses there; and it appears from Dekker’s “Belman of London,” sig. E 2, that the beggars of his time called one of their places of rendezvous by this name. [See Herbert’s edition of Ames, p. 367-8.]

[131] _These_, first edition.

[132] _Vaunted_, second edition.

[133] _Increased is_, old editions.

[134] _Streams_, second edition.

[135] [_None such_, old editions. The meaning seems to be, a perfect friend:--_’tis a world to seek one such_.]

[136] Both the old copies have it “_my_ state to moan,” which may be right, and the substitution [to _thy_, which was made in the earlier editions] should not have been made without notice.--_Collier._

[137] Whether I will or not. See Note 23 to “Grim the Collier of Croydon.”

[138] _i.e._, It _rideth fast_ upon noon. The word is used by Spenser and many of our ancient writers.

[139] With Pithias in his custody, and Stephano, as is evident from the rest of the scene.--_Collier._

[140] Hinder him.

[141] _Doth_, both 4tos.

[142] _Doo_, first edition. The reading of both the old copies in this place is

“_Golden time_ doo wear away.”

If it were worth while to remark the difference between _doo_ and _doos_, it might have been as well not to make the change in the text without notice, although it is probably right.--_Collier._

[143] _i.e._, Thou wilt derive no _credit_ from striking off a head so disadvantageously placed for the purpose of decollation. _Honnetete_, French, anciently signified _fame_ or _reputation_ in the dexterous execution of any undertaking, whether honourable or the contrary. _Honesty_ seems here to be used with the French meaning.--_Steevens._ In this instance the author appears to have had before him the speech which Sir Thomas More made at his execution. Hall, in his “Chronicle,” p. 226, says, “Also the hangman kneled doune to him askyng him forgiuenes of his death (as the maner is), to whom he sayd I forgeue thee, but I promise thee that thou shalt neuer haue _honestie of the strykyng of my head, my necke is so short_.”

[144] The two old copies have it,

“O happie kinges _within_ your courtes,” &c.--_Collier._

[145] _Two to_, second edition.

[146] _No reason_, first edition.

[147] This direction means that Dionysius, Damon, Pithias, and all others go out, excepting Stephano.--_Collier._

[148] [Old copies, _joy_.]

[149] [Freedom.]

APPIUS AND VIRGINIA.

[The reader does not probably require to be told that Chaucer has taken up the story of the “Wicked Judge Appius” in the “Doctor of Physic’s Tale,” and there is a drama by Webster on the same subject, written many years before it was published in 1654, and included in all the editions of that writer’s works.]

THE PLAYERS’ NAMES.[150]

VIRGINIUS. MATER. VIRGINA. HAPHAZARD. MANSIPULUS. MANSIPULA. SUBSERVUS. APPIUS. CONSCIENCE. JUSTICE. CLAUDIUS. RUMOUR. COMFORT. REWARD. DOCTRINA. MEMORY.

MR COLLIER’S PREFACE.

The “Tragical Comedy of Appius and Virginia” deserves especial notice, as probably [one of] our earliest extant dramatic productions publicly represented, the plot of which is derived from history. Sackville’s “Ferrex and Porrex” was acted before the Queen at Whitehall, and Edwards’ “Damon and Pithias” also at Court, while the interlude of “Thersites” merely adopts the name of a historical personage as an indication of character, without reference to any events in which he was concerned. “Appius and Virginia” is besides curious as holding a middle station between the old moralities and historical plays [while it still retains the allegorical character in some degree].