Chapter 17

[217] _The Venetians came nothing near the knee. Venetians_ were a kind of hose, or breeches, adopted from the fashions of Venice.

[218] [First 4to reads, _not agree_.]

[219] [A pun, probably, upon _alms_ and _arms_.]

[220] [Old copy, _tables_.]

[221] [So old copies; but the period named before was _three months_.]

[222] [Old copies, _seeme_.]

[223] See Shakespeare's "Love's Labour's Lost," edit. Collier, ii. 306 and 360; Beaumont and Fletcher's "Monsieur Thomas," edit. Dyce, vii. 364. Thomas Nash, in his "Strange Newes," 1592, sig. D 3, uses _no point_ just in the same way, as a sort of emphatic double negative.--"No point; _ergo_, it were wisely done of goodman Boores son, if he should go to the warres," &c.

[224] [The worst wonder is.]

[225] [Compassionate.]

[226] [Not in first 4to.]

[227] The learned Constable refers, of course, to Love, who has already been on the stage in a vizard at the back of her head: see earlier; _Enter_ LUCRE, _and_ LOVE _with a vizard, behind_.

[228] [Old copies, _sacred_. This was Mr Collier's suggestion.]

[229] [Old copies, _ye_.]

[230] [Alluding to the "Three Ladies of London," 1584.]

[231] [Old copy, _Pompe hath_.]

[232] [Old copy, _place_.]

[233] [The bells attached to the falcon, the _impress of Pleasure_.]

[234] Referring to the chains of gold formerly worn by persons of rank and property.

[235] Alluding to the manner in which ballad-sellers of that day used to expose their goods, by hanging them up in the same way that the three lords had hung up their shields.

[236] [Foolish, maudlin.]

[237] [Except.]

[238] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869, p. 265-6.]

[239] The best, and indeed what may be considered the only, account of Tarlton the actor precedes the edition of his Jests, reprinted for the Shakespeare Society in 1844.

[240] [Videlicet.]

[241] [Ignorant.]

[242] [Alluding to some wood engraving of Tarlton, which Simplicity had in his basket. To the reprint of "Tarlton's Jests," by the Shakespeare Society, are prefixed two wood-cuts, made from a drawing of the time of Elizabeth, and no doubt soon after the death of Tarlton of the plague in 1588.]

[243] [Preferment.]

[244] An ejaculation, apparently equivalent to _God_.

[245] The first purchase made in the day--the ballad which Wit had bought of Simplicity.

[246] Espial. The word occurs again further on.

[247] [Probably a reference is intended to the proverbial expression about Mahomet and the mountain.]

[248] An ambry or aumbry is a pantry or closet. The next line explains the word.

[249] [Old copy, _lent_.]

[250] [Old copy, _might_.]

[251] [Old copy, _might_.]

[252] Old copy, _tormented_.

[253] [Old copy, _unmask'd_.]

[254] Old copy, _our_.

[255] i.e., A pack of cards; the expression was very common; _deck_, five lines lower, was often used for _pack_.

[256] [Old copy, _from_.]

[257] The wimple is generally explained as a covering for the neck, or for the neck and shoulders; but Shakespeare ("Love's Labour's Lost," act iii. se. 1) seems to use it as a covering for the eyes also, when he calls Cupid "This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy." Steevens in his note states that "the wimple was a hood or veil, which fell over the face." The passage in our text, and what follows it, supports this description of the wimple.

[258] This is the only part of female dress mentioned in this speech that seems to require a note. The "vardingale (or farthingale) of vain boast" is peculiarly appropriate, since a farthingale consisted of a very wide, expanded skirt, puffed out to show off the attire, and distort the figure of a lady. In modern times it bears a different name.

[259] [Good-bye.]

[260] [Old copy, _house_; but Simplicity is enumerating the new articles of attire he proposed to purchase.]

[261] [He addresses the audience.]

[262] [Old copy, _auditorie_.]

[263] [Old copy, _proofe it fits of_.]

[264] [Old copy, _a_.]

[265] [Old copy, in the preceding line, _ever_.] This and the following lines afford a note of time, and show that the drama was written and acted during the preparation of the great Armada, and perhaps before its total defeat.

[266] [The old copy reads, _peerlesse, of the rarest price_, which destroys the metre. The writer probably wrote _peerless_, and then, finding it inconvenient as regarded the measure, substituted the other phrase, without striking out the first word, so that the printer inserted both.]

[267] [Old copy, _when_.]

[268] See "Henry IV.," Part I., act ii. sc 1, respecting "burning cressets." In a note, Steevens quotes the above line in explanation of Shakespeare.

[269] [The concluding portion of the speech is supposed to be overheard by Fraud and the others.]

[270] The ordinary cry of the apprentices of London, when they wished to raise their fellows to take their part in any commotion. It is mentioned in many old writers.

[271] A trouchman was an interpreter [literally, a truceman]: "For he that is the Trouchman of a Straungers tongue may well declare his meaning, but yet shall marre the grace of his Tale" (G. Whetstone's "Heptameron," 1582).

[272] [Old copy, _trunke_.]

[273] [This is to be pronounced as a trisyllable.]

[274] [In the old copy this line is printed thus--

"Quid tibi cum domini mox servient miseri nobis; discede."]

[275] [In the old copy this line is divided between Policy and Pomp improperly.]

[276] [Might my advice be heard.]

[277] [Old copy, _wished_.]

[278] [Old copy, _we_.]

[279] [Old copy, _Ne. Fra., Nemo_ being retained by error.]

[280] [The entrance of Diligence is marked here in old copy; but he was already on the stage.]

[281] [Simplicity seems to intend the public-wealth.]

[282] [An intentional (?) error for _buckram_.]

[283] They "slipped aside" on p. 483, and now re-enter. The preceding stage direction ought to be _Exeunt_, because the lords go out as well as Simplicity.

[284] [Committal, prior to trial.]

[285] That is, under the protection of their husbands--a legal phrase, not yet strictly applicable, as the ladies are not to be married to the lords until the next day--

"And even to-morrow is the marriage-day."

[286] [Old copy, _a_.]

[287] [Old copy, _noble_; the emendation was suggested by Mr Collier.]

[288] Old copy, _vetuous_.

[289] There must be some corruption here, or the author was not very anxious to be correct in his classical allusions.

[290] Lies to the king. The word _lese_ is more generally used as a substantive.

[291] [_Jug_ is a leman or mistress. Mr Collier remarks that this passage clears up] the hitherto unexplained exclamation in "King Lear," act. i. sc. 4: "Whoop, Jug, I love thee."--The Tinker's _mail_, mentioned in the preceding line, is his wallet. _Trug_, in the following line, is equivalent to _trull_, and, possibly, is only another form of the same word: Middleton (edit. Dyce ii. 222) has the expression, "a pretty, middlesized _trug_." See also the note, where R. Greene's tract is quoted.

[292] In one copy the text is as we give it, and in another the word is printed _Ideal_, the alteration having been made in the press. Possibly the author had some confused notion about _Ida_; but, if he cared about being correct, the Queen of Love did not "dally with Endymion."

[293] [Thalia.]

[294] [Old copy, _Idea_; a trissyllable is required for the rhythm.]

[295] [Old copy, _kept_.]

[296] [Bond.]

[297] [Old copy, _Abstrauogant_.]

[298] [Old copy, _peely_.]

[299] [Cakes. Old copy, _cats_.]

[300] [A Knight of the Post was a person hired to swear anything--a character often mentioned in old writers.]

[301] Some persons, not merely without reason, but directly against it, treat _vild_ and _vile_, and consequently vildly and _vilely_, as distinct words. _Vild_ and _vildly_ are blunders in old spelling, only to be retained when, as now, we give the words of an author in the very orthography of that date. We profess here to follow the antiquated spelling exactly, that it may be seen how the productions in our volume came originally from the press: but when spelling is modernised, as it is in the ordinary republications of our ancient dramatists, &c., it is just as absurd to print "vile" _vild_, as to print "friend" frend or "enemy" _ennimy_.--_Mr Collier's note in the edition of_ 1851.

[302] Shakespeare has the word "exigent" for _extremity_, and such seems to be its meaning here, and not the legal sense; the Knight says that the good name of his predecessors for housekeeping shall never be brought into extremity by him.

[303] [Wary, aware.]

[304] [Old copy, _Squire_.]

[305] [Old copy, _for fourtie_.]

[306] An early instance of the use of an expression, of frequent occurrence afterwards and down to our own day, equivalent to going without dinner. See Steevens's note to "Richard III." act iv. sc. 4, where many passages are quoted on the point.

[307] [Old copy, _ope_.]

[308] The copy of this play in the British Museum has here "_Scinthin_ maide;" but another, belonging to the Rev. A. Dyce, "_Scythia_ maide," a reading we have followed, and, no doubt, introduced by the old printer as the sheets went through the press.

[309] "Counterfeit" was a very common term for the resemblance of a person: in "Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4, we have "counterfeit presentment;" and in the "Merchant of Venice," act iii. sc. 2, "Fair Portia's counterfeit." In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Wife for a Month," act iv. sc. 5, we meet-with "counterfeits in Arras" for portraits, or figures in tapestry.

[310] [i.e., from or after.]

[311] [i.e., The shoemaker. There is a jest turning upon this in one of the early collections of _facetiae_.]

[312] [Vulcan.]

[313] By "carminger" the cobbler means harbinger, an officer; who preceded the monarch during progresses, to give notice and make preparation.

[314] We print it precisely as in the old copy, but we may presume that here a couplet was intended, as the cobbler's speech begins in rhyme:--

"And we are come to you alone To deliver our petition,"

[315] Roquefort in his "Glossary," i. 196, states that bysse is a sort _d'etoffe de soie_, and the Rev. A. Dyce, "Middleton's Works," v. 558, says that it means "fine linen," while others contend that it is "a delicate blue colour," but sometimes "black or dark grey." The truth may be that it was fine silk of a blue colour, and we now and then meet it coupled with purple--"purple and bis."

[316] [Old copy, _Indian_.]

[317] [Old copy, _calamon_.]

[318] [i.e., he withdraws to the back of the stage, to allow the king to confer first with Osrick, and then comes forward again.]

[319] [Old copy, _Asmoroth_.]

[320] [Old copy, _Asmoroth_.]

[321] [Old copy, _bid_.] _Bid_ may be taken in the sense of invite, a meaning it often bears in old writers; but we are most likely to understand it _bide_ or _abide_, the final _e_ having been omitted, or dropped out in the press. In the next line we have _quit_ again used for _acquit_.

[322] [We must suppose here that Honesty sends out some of the attendants to bring in the Coneycatcher and Farmer, who soon make their re-appearance on the stage.]