Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners: with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.

"Selestinus reignid a wyse emperoure in Rome, and he had a faire dowter; and in his tyme ther was a knyᵹte that lovid this dowter, but he thowte in himselfe that he dud al in ve...

From the great celebrity of the _original Gesta_, it could not fail of being known to the English clergy, and accordingly we find that it was used by them in the pulpit as in ot...

CHAP. XLVII.--A law was made that if any child should die, or even be hurt by the negligence of the person to whose care it were committed, such person should suffer death. A kn...

Before we proceed to an examination of the more immediate object of this essay, the English morris, it may be as well to lay before the reader a short description of the _uncorr...

It is so exceedingly clear that the terms _clown_ and _fool_ were used, however improperly, as synonymous by our old writers, that it would be an unnecessary occupation of the r...

LEAR. There thou might'st behold the great image of authority: a dog's obey'd in office.---- Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand: Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine...

The head was frequently shaved in imitation or perhaps ridicule of a monk's crown. This practice is very ancient, and can be traced to the twelfth century. In one instance the h...

In a former note a conclusion was too hastily drawn, concerning the origin of _Cornelius's tub_. It was stated that it took its name from the hero of Randolph's pleasant comedy...

The question whether Shallow represented Sir Dagonet at Mile-end green, or Clement's inn, although it has been maintained on either side with great plausibility, must ever remai...

What Mr. Tollett has termed a _bib_ was in fact no uncommon part of the male dress in the fifteenth century. Some of the contemporary figures of the Beverley minstrels are so ha...

A print of the seven ages of men like those referred to by Messrs. Henley and Steevens may be seen in Comenius's _Orbis pictus_, tit. xxxvii., in which are found _the infant_, _...

We have here in substance the first of the articles exhibited by the lords of the privy council and two of the judges against Wolsey. They had been unfaithfully recorded in some...

It was the custom, in Shakspeare's time, for physicians to be attended by their servants when visiting their patients. This appears from the _second part_ of Stubs's _Anatomie o...

CHAP. LXXVII.--In the castle of an emperor was a fountain, the water of which had the property of curing drunkenness. To this vice, which the emperor particularly detested, one...

Mr. Steevens has refined too much in supposing this word to mean _carnal offences_. It is simply _penalties_. The Duke remits all Lucio's offences except the injury done to the...

_Conclusion_, which formerly signified a trial or _experiment_, is here put for _riddle_, itself a trial of skill. The practice of proposing such riddles, with the penalty for n...

Mr. Holt White's information from a passage in Latimer's sermons, that the tester was then worth _more_ than _six-pence_, is so far correct; but as an inference might be drawn f...

The original word is _unhatch'd_, and if any alteration be admitted it should be _an hatch'd_, for the first reason assigned in Mr. Malone's ingenious note. Sir Toby says that h...

In aid of Mr. Malone's conjecture that sack was so called as being a _dry_ wine, _vin sec_, it may be remarked that the old orthography was _secke_ and not _sack_. Dr. Boorde in...

In the old copy _sleep_. The alteration is by Mr. Steevens, and, as he says, for the sake of _measure_; but that was already complete. The _harmony_ is certainly improved, as th...

Produced by Richard Tonsing, Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by Th...

Shakspeare, who in many instances has proved himself to have been well acquainted with the forms and ceremonies of the Romish church, has, without doubt, on the present occasion...

The incident of Miranda's surprise at the first sight of Ferdinand, and of her falling in love with him, might have been suggested by some lost translation of the 13th tale in t...

But let us now return from this digression to the subject of Hecate or Diana. Under the reign of Hadrian, Saint Taurinus is said to have converted the inhabitants of Evreux in N...

This fine sentiment, which nevertheless contains a very obvious fault in the mode of expressing it, appears to have been suggested by the following lines in Ovid's _Tristia_, li...

Dr. Johnson would read _your person_, and then explain it, "take heed how you pledge your honour, &c. in support of bad advice." The archbishop might indeed pledge his _opinion_...

Among other valuable remarks that have already been made in some notes on this word by Messrs. Steevens and Malone, it has been observed that the _wassel_ bowl was particularly...

The _canary_ was another very favourite dance. In the translation of Leo's _Description of Africa_, by Pory, 1600, folio, there is an additional account of the _Canary islands_,...

Among the preachers who interspersed their sermons with narrations of various kinds, a Carthusian monk of the fifteenth century deserves particular mention. With as much quaintn...

A question having arisen concerning the pronunciation of the French word _bras_ in the time of Shakspeare, it was observed in a former note that some remarks by the Rev. Mr. Bow...

By this team is meant the chariot of the moon, said to be drawn by two horses, the one black, the other white. It is probable that Shakspeare might have consulted some translati...

The tree in Windsor forest referred to in Mr. Steevens's note, was said, on newspaper authority in 1795, to have been cut down by his majesty's order, on account of its being to...

The mark which was used in later times for the _coronis_ has been preserved in the etymologies of Isidore, lib. i. c. 20. It is this, [Illustration]; and in some manuscripts of...

The custom of choosing _Valentines_ is of very long standing, and, like many others of a popular nature, is no more than a corruption of something similar that had prevailed in...

So in Act V. Scene 2, the old shepherd says, "we must be gentle now we are gentlemen." What our ancestors conceived to be the true definition of a gentleman may be seen at large...

Mr. Justice Blackstone, in treating of idiots, has spoken of it; and adds in a note, that the king's power of delegating the custody of them to some subject who has interest eno...

Mr. Theobald explains this "into a thousand pieces of the same bigness," as if Beatrice had torn the letter by rule and compass. Mr. Steevens more properly supposes halfpence to...

In Raymond's _Voyage through Italy_, 1648, 12mo, a work which is said to have been partly written by Dr. Bargrave, prebendary of Canterbury, the following curious account of the...

Among the manuscripts in the Royal Library, now in the British Museum, there is one entitled "_Eupolemia; Archippus and Panoplia_; that ys to say. His good warrfare agenst Satan...

Mr. Steevens conceives that _hemlock_ is the root in question; whilst Mr. Malone, after noticing the trouble which the commentators have given themselves, introduces a quotation...

However unworthy of Shakspeare's pen this drama, as an _entire_ composition, may be considered, many will be of opinion that it contains more that _he might have written_ than e...

[165] Peck's _Memoirs of Milton_, 135. What this writer has added on the subject of the morris dance is not very interesting; but he is certainly mistaken in his explanation of...

Page 96. To the list of imitations, &c. of the story of _Measure for measure_, add the novel of _Waldburgh and Belanca_, in Reynolds's _God's revenge against adultery_. This is...

"I am always running in the way of evil fortune, _like the fool in the play_," says Dr. Johnson. There is certainly no allusion to any _play_. See the note in p. 146.

In the second passage, Mr. Malone remarks that the _beaver_ "is confounded both here and in _Hamlet_ with visor, or used for _helmet_ in general," but that "Shakspeare is not an...

This beautiful sentiment accords very much with the following speech made by Sir James Melvil to the queen of Scots, and printed in his _Memoirs_, p. 149, edit. 1752, 8vo. These...