Part 17
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 in _The booke of honor and armes_, 1594, 4to, book iii. In Morgan's _Sphere of gentry_, the silly author has gravely stated that _Jesus Christ_ was a _gentleman_ and bore arms. Of the latter assertion he has given no proof, though he might have adduced a sort of armorial bearing made up from the implements of the passion, and often exhibited as such in some of the _horæ_ and other service books of the church, before the reformation. Such a coat of arms was likewise used as a stamp on the covers of old books, with the motto REDEMPTORIS MUNDI ARMA. _Gentle gentlemen_ is an alliteration that is very frequent in writers of the age of Shakspeare. In the preface to Gerard Leigh's _Accedence of armorie_, 1597, 4to, three sorts of _ungentiles_ are described, "the first whereof are _gentle ungentle_. Such be they as wil rather sweare armes then beare armes. Who of negligence stop mustard pots with their fathers pedegrees, or otherwise abuse them. The second sort are _ungentle gentlemen_, who being enhaunced to honor by their fathers, on whom (though it were to their owne worship) yet can they not keepe so much money from the dice, as to make worshipful obsequies for their sad fathers with any point of armory. The third sort, and worst of all, are neither _gentle ungentle_, or _ungentle gentile_, but verie stubble curs, and be neither doers, sufferers, or wel speakers of honors tokens."
SCENE 2. Page 42.
CAM. I am appointed _him_ to murder you.
"_i. e._" says Mr. Steevens, "I am the person appointed to murder you." This is certainly the meaning, but the grammatical construction is, "I am appointed the person to murder you." The lines quoted from _King Henry VI._ are ungrammatical, and not, as is conceived, an exemplification of the foregoing passage.
SCENE 2. Page 42.
POL. ... and my name _Be yok'd with his that did betray the best_.
Mr. Henderson's conjecture that Judas is here meant is certainly well founded. A clause in the sentence against excommunicated persons was, "let them _have part with Judas that betrayed Christ_. Amen;" and this is here imitated.
ACT II.
SCENE 3. Page 73.
LEON. And _lozel_, thou art worthy to be hang'd.
The derivation of _lozel_ cited from Verstegan is arbitrary, and deduced from a mere resemblance of sound. The word has been apparently corrupted from the Saxon _lorel_, used by Chaucer for a worthless fellow. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's glossary. The corruption may have originated in the similitude of the letters _r_ and _z_ in ancient manuscripts.
ACT III.
SCENE 2. Page 82.
HER. ... since he came, With what encounter so uncurrent I Have strain'd to appear thus.
Dr. Johnson, not understanding these lines, "with the licence of all editors," pronounces them unintelligible. However strange the language may appear in the mouth of a lady, there is hardly a doubt that it is a metaphor taken from tilting. Hermione means to say, _I appeal to your own conscience whether since Polixenes came, I have made any violent or irregular encounter unlike that of a fair courser_; or, in plainer terms, _whether I have deviated from the paths of honour and_ forcibly _obtruded myself on this tribunal_. Those who made an encounter at justs were called _runners_; and were said, occasionally, to _run foul_. This may serve to explain what is meant by _uncurrent_.
ACT IV.
SCENE 2. Page 107.
AUT. When daffodils begin to peer, &c.
Mr. Steevens, to give himself an opportunity of introducing a neat retort on an attack which his favourite author had sustained, has quoted a remark by Dr. Burney that Autolycus "is the _true ancient minstrel_, as described in the old fabliaux." With great deference to this learned and elegant writer, the observation is inaccurate. Autolycus has nothing in common with the character of a minstrel but the singing of a song or two. He is a mere _rogue_, assuming various shapes, and is specifically called so in the _dramatis personæ_; but it will not surely be contended that all rogues were minstrels, because a cruel and illiberal statute has made all minstrels rogues. It is true that Autolycus declares he had been an _ape-bearer_; but this was no part of the minstrel profession in Shakspeare's time, though it had been so formerly. As this circumstance however has not been noticed, or at least very slightly, by any of the writers on the subject of the ancient minstrels, it may be worth while to exhibit the following curious story from the second book of _The dialogues of Saint Gregory_, who lived in the sixth century. At the celebration of the feast of Saint Proculus the martyr, a nobleman named Fortunatus having prevailed on Bishop Boniface to eat with him after celebrating the service of the day, it happened that before the holy prelate had pronounced the usual benediction at table, _a minstrel leading an ape and playing on a cymbal_ arrived. This very much discomposed the good bishop, who exclaimed, Alas! alas! the wretched man is dead; behold, I have not yet opened my lips to praise God, and he is here with his ape and playing on his instrument. He then desired the servants to carry some victuals to the unhappy man, which when he had eaten, a stone fell from the house top and killed him.
SCENE 2. Page 109.
AUT. The lark that _tirra-lirra_ chants.
The tire-lire was not, it seems, peculiar to the lark. In Skelton's _Colin Cloute_ we have,
"... howe Cupide shaked His darte and bente hys bowe, For to shote a _crowe_, At her _tyrly tyrlowe_."
And in one of the Coventry pageants there is the following old song sung by the shepherds at the birth of Christ, which is further remarkable for its use of the very uncommon word _endenes_, from the Saxon enꝺenehꞅꞇ, _the last_.
"As I out rode this endenes night, Of three joli shepherds I sawe a syght, And all aboute there fold a stare shone bright: They sang _terli terlow_, So mereli the sheppards there pipes can blow."
SCENE 2. Page 111.
AUT. My father named me Autolycus, &c.
It is necessary on this occasion to lay before the reader Dr. Warburton's own words. "Mr. Theobald says, _the allusion is unquestionably to Ovid_. He is mistaken. Not only the allusion, but the whole speech is taken from Lucian, who appears to have been one of our poet's favourite authors, as may be collected from several places of his works. It is from _his discourse on judicial astrology_, where Autolycus talks much in the same manner, &c."
Now if any one will take the trouble of comparing what Ovid and Lucian have respectively said concerning Autolycus, he will, it is presumed, be altogether disposed to give the preference to Theobald's opinion. Dr. Warburton must have been exclusively fortunate in discovering that _the whole speech is taken from Lucian_; that he was _one of our poet's favourite authors_; and that, in the _dialogue_ alluded to, _Autolycus talks much in the same manner_. He must have used some edition of Lucian's works vastly preferable to those which now remain. The reader will be pleased to consult the eleventh book of Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, in the translation (if he have it) by Golding.
SCENE 2. Page 113.
CLOWN. ... _three-man_ songmen all.
"They have also _Cornish three-mens_ songs, cunningly contrived for the ditty, and pleasantly for the note." Carew's _Survey of Cornwall_, fo. 72.
SCENE 2. Page 113.
CLOWN. ... but one Puritan amongst them, and he sings psalms to hornpipes.
An allusion to a practice, common at this time among the Puritans, of burlesquing the _plein chant_ of the Papists, by adapting vulgar and ludicrous music to psalms and pious compositions.
SCENE 3. Page 123.
PER. For you there's _rosemary_, and rue; _Grace_ and _remembrance_ be to you both.
The following lines are from a song entitled, _A nosegaie alwaies sweet for lovers to send for tokens of love at newyere's tide, or for fairings, as they in their minds shall be disposed to write_, printed in Robinson's _Handefull of pleasant delites_, 1584, 16mo:--
"Rosemarie is for remembrance, Betweene us daie and night, Wishing that I might alwaies have You present in my sight."
This plant, as being thought to strengthen the memory, was therefore _given to friends_, as in the present instance. See Parkinson's _Flower garden_, p. 426. Thus Ophelia says to her brother, "There's rosemary; that's for remembrance, _pray you, love, remember_." The reason for calling rue _herb of grace_ is best explained in the notes on a subsequent speech of Ophelia. See vol. xv. p. 276.
SCENE 3. Page 124.
PER. ... and streak'd gilliflowers, Which some call nature's bastards: of that kind Our rustick garden's barren; and I care not To get slips of them.
POL. Wherefore, gentle maiden, Do you neglect them?
PER. For I have heard it said, There is an art which in their piedness, shares With great creating nature.
The solution of the riddle in these lines that has embarrassed Mr. Steevens is probably this: the gilly-flower or carnation is streaked, as every one knows, with white and red. In this respect it is a proper emblem of a _painted_ or immodest woman, and therefore Perdita declines to meddle with it. She connects the gardener's _art_ of varying the colours of the above flowers with the art of painting the face, a fashion very prevalent in Shakspeare's time. This conclusion is justified by what she says in her next speech but one.
SCENE 3. Page 126.
PER. The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun And with him rises weeping.
"So upon occasions past, David found it true that he should not have bene heretofore at any time, and therefore professeth, that, for the time to come, he would be no _marigold-servant of God, to open with the sun, and shut with the dewe_."--Prime's _Consolations of David applied to Queene Elizabeth: in a sermon preached in Oxford the 17 of November_, 1588, 12mo. Lord Howard, in his _Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophecies_, 1583, 4to, says that "_the marie-golde_ dooth close and open with the sunne, &c."
SCENE 3. Page 131.
PER. ... I'll swear for 'em.
Dr. Johnson would transfer this speech to the king, and Mr. Ritson would read "swear for _one_," or at least have some alteration; but in reality no change is necessary. Florizel had just said, "so _turtles_ pair that never mean to part," on which Perdita very naturally observes, "I'll swear for 'em." This is no more than a common phrase of acquiescence, as we likewise say, "I'll _warrant_ you."
SCENE 3. Page 137.
AUT. ... poking-sticks of steel.
To Mr. Steevens's curious note on these implements for stiffening the ruffs formerly worn by persons of both sexes, it may be worth adding that this fashion being carried to a great extremity, became the subject of many satirical prints. One of the oldest was engraved in 1580, by Matthias Quad, and represents the Devil's ruff-shop, he being called the _kragen-setzer_ or _ruff-setter_. A young gallant has brought his mistress to have her ruff set. The Devil is engaged in this operation whilst an assistant is heating fresh poking-sticks in a brasier. Another print of this sort by Galle, is copied from a design by Martin de Vos, and entitled _Diaboli partus superbia_. It has this inscription relating to the _poking-sticks_: "Avec ces fers chauds qu'on vous icy appreste, En enfer puny seras, O layde beste." Other prints represent several monkeys habited in ruffs, and busily employed in poking and starching them, &c.
SCENE 3. Page 138.
CLOWN. _Clamour_ your tongues, and not a word more.
The word is difficult, and, it is feared, likely to afford nothing but conjecture.
Dr. Warburton asserts that the phrase is from ringing; that to clamour bells is to repeat the stroke quicker than before, previously to _ceasing_ them. On the contrary, Dr. Grey maintains that to clamour bells is a _continued_ ringing, and Mr. Malone, with great probability, suspects that what Warburton has said is _gratis dictum_. Dr. Johnson says that "to clam a bell is to cover the clapper with felt, which drowns the blow, and hinders the sound;" and Mr. Nicholls, that _a good clam_ is a peal of all the bells at once. According to the treatise on ringing in _The school of recreation_, 1684, 12mo, "_clamming_ is when each concord strikes together, which being done true, the 8 will strike but as four bells, and make a melodious harmony." The accounts of bell-clamming are therefore so discordant that it seems but fair to give up entirely this sense of the word.
The clown evidently wishes to keep the damsels' tongues from wagging. Now to _clam_, _clem_, or _cleam_ are provincial words, signifying to glue together or fasten with glue, and, metonymically, to starve by contraction. Thus,
"... my entrails Are _clam'd_ with keeping a continual fast."
Massinger's _Roman actor_.
And we still use _clammy_, for sticking together. All the Northern languages have an equivalent term. The Germans have _klemmen_, to tie, and in the old Icelandic we find _klæmman_ in the same sense. Ihre, _Lexicon Suio-Goth_. In Saxon clam, ligamen, clæmɩnᵹ, a stiffening. Somner _Gloss_. Littelton has _to clamm_, or hunger-starve, and Rider to _clamme_, to _stop_. The latter is indeed more to the present purpose than any or all of the others: because by supposing, what is extremely probable, an error of the press, all will be set right. On the other hand, _clamour_ is the reverse of what is required. Thus in _Macbeth_, Act II. Scene 3, we have, "The obscure bird _clamour'd_ the live-long night," and we are not to suppose that Shakspeare could have used the same word in senses so extremely opposite.
SCENE 3. Page 148.
Re-enter servant, with twelve rusticks habited like _satyrs_. They _dance_, and then exeunt.
In the old collection of songs set by Thomas Ravenscroft and others, already quoted in p. 11, there is one called _The satyres daunce_. It is for four voices, and as follows:--
"Round a round, a rounda, keepe your ring To the glorious sunne we sing; Hoe, hoe!
He that weares the flaming rayes, And the imperiall crowne of bayes, Him, with him, with shoutes and songs we praise. Hoe, hoe!
That in his bountee would vouchsafe to grace The humble sylvanes and their shaggy race."
SCENE 3. Page 154.
SHEP. Some hangman must put on my shroud, and lay me _Where no priest shovels in dust_.
i. e. _I must be buried as a common malefactor, out of the pale of consecrated ground, and without the usual rites of the dead_; a whimsical anachronism, when it is considered that the old shepherd was a Pagan, a worshipper of Jupiter and Apollo. But Shakspeare seldom cares about blending the manners of distant ages.
Dr. Farmer has remarked that the _priest's_ office above mentioned might be remembered in Shakspeare's time, which is very probable: the mention of it here is one of the numerous instances of his intimate acquaintance with the ceremonies of the Romish church. Before the introduction of the new form of burial service by Edward the Sixth, it was the custom for the priest to throw earth on the body in the form of a cross, and then to sprinkle it with holy water; but this was not done _in pronouncing_ the words _earth to earth_, according to a learned commentator: that part of the ceremony was postponed till after a psalm had been sung, the body being previously covered up. An antiphone next followed; and then the priest said these words: "I commend thy soul to God the father omnipotent: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust," &c.
ACT V.
SCENE 1. Page 182.
FLO. ... Good my lord, She came from _Libya_.
_Perdita_ is here transformed into a _Moor_; and although this play among others affords the most unequivocal proofs of Shakspeare's want of skill in the science of geography, it is at least possible that an error of the press has substituted _Libya_ for _Lydia_ or _Lycia_.
SCENE 2. Page 194.
CLOWN. _Give me the lie_, do; and try whether I am not now a _gentleman born_.
This is a satire on certain ridiculous punctilios very much in use at this time. Thus in _The booke of honor and armes_, 1590, 4to, "In saying _a gentleman borne_, we meane he must be descended from three degrees of gentry, both on the mother's and father's side." The same work has many particulars relating to the circumstances in which _the giving the lie_ is to be resented. See likewise Vincent Saviolo _On honor and honorable quarrels_, book ii.
THE CLOWN.
He is a mere country booby.
* * * * *
The observation by Dr. Warburton, that _The winter's tale_ with all its absurdities is very entertaining, though stated by Dr. Johnson to be just, must be allowed at the same time to be extremely frigid. In point of fine writing it may be ranked among Shakspeare's best efforts. The absurdities pointed at by Warburton, together with the whimsical anachronisms of Whitson pastorals, Christian burial, an emperor of Russia, and an Italian painter of the fifteenth century, are no real drawbacks on the superlative merits of this charming drama. The character of Perdita will remain for ages unrivalled; for where shall such language be found as she is made to utter?
COMEDY OF ERRORS.
ACT II.
SCENE 1. Page 228.
DRO. E. Will you come _home_? quoth I; my gold, quoth he.
The word _home_, which the metre requires, is said to have been suggested by Capell, but it had been already adopted by Sir Thomas Hanmer.
SCENE 2. Page 234.
ANT. S. If you will jest with me, know my _aspéct_.
Mr. Steevens explains this, _study my countenance_. It seems rather to be an astrological phrase, and to mean, _ascertain whether my aspect be malignant or benign_. He had just before mentioned the sun. Thus in _1 Henry IV._ Act I. Scene 1, "Malevolent to you in all _aspécts_."
SCENE 2. Page 241.
ADR. Thou art an _elm_ my husband, I a _vine_; If aught possess thee from me, it is dross, Usurping Ivy, briar or idle moss.
So in _A midsummer night's dream_, Act IV. Scene 1, "The female _ivy_ so enrings the barky fingers of the _elm_." There is something extremely beautiful in making the vine the lawful spouse of the elm, and the _parasite_ plants here named its _concubines_.
ACT III.
SCENE 1. Page 248.
DRO. S. _Mome_, malthorse, capon, coxcomb, idiot, patch!
Sir J. Hawkins would derive _mome_ from the French _momon_, the challenge at dice made by a mummer or silent person disguised in masquerade. It more probably came to us from one of those similar words that are found in many languages signifying something foolish. _Momar_ is used by Plautus for a fool, whence the French _mommeur_. The Greeks too had μομος and μορμος in the same sense.
SCENE 2. Page 257.
ANT. S. Less in your knowledge and your grace, you show not, Than _our earth's wonder, more than earth divine_.
This play abounds so much in anachronisms, that there will be no impropriety in supposing the above simile to have been designed as a compliment to the reigning sovereign. Pronounced with emphasis, it would not fail to make a due impression on the audience.
ACT IV.
SCENE 3. Page 280.
DRO. S. What, have you got _the picture of old Adam new apparell'd_?
Here seems to be an allusion to some well-known contemporary painting, perhaps of a sign. "Adam whom God dyd fyrst create, made the fyrst _lether coates_ for himself and his wyfe Eve our old mother, leavyng thereby a patron to al his posterite of that crafte." Polydore Vergil _de rer. invent._ translated by Langley, fo. lxix. Similar instances had before occurred in _the picture of we three_, and _Mistress Mall_.
MACBETH.
ACT I.
SCENE 1. Page 327.
ALL. _Paddock_ calls.
Mr. Steevens has remarked that "in Shakspeare a paddock certainly means a toad." Indeed it _properly_ does everywhere; and when applied to the frog, seems either to have been mistakenly used, or to have signified the _rubeta_ or _rana bufo_, a frog of a venomous kind. The word comes to us from the Saxon Paꝺa, and a toad is still called by a similar term in most of the Teutonic languages. It may be likewise observed that witches have nothing to do with frogs, an animal always regarded as perfectly harmless, though perhaps not more so in reality than the unjustly persecuted toad.
SCENE 2. Page 331.
SOLD. And fortune on his damned _quarrel_ smiling.
The old copy has _quarry_, which Dr. Johnson has changed to _quarrel_, a reading that had already been adopted by Hanmer. Chance may hereafter determine that _quarry_ was an _occasional_ mode of orthography, _euphoniæ gratiâ_, as we find _perrie_ for _perril_. See Howard's _Defensative against the poyson of supposed prophesies_, 1583, 4to, sig. A iij. The word too which expresses a square-headed arrow and a pane of glass is written both _quarry_ and _quarrel_.
SCENE 2. Page 335.
DUN. Dismay'd not this Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo?
SOLD. Yes.
Mr. Steevens, adverting to the apparent defect of metre in the last line, concludes that some word has been omitted in the old copy; and Hanmer reads, _brave_ Macbeth, &c. No other change is necessary than in orthography; for Shakspeare had, no doubt, written _capitaynes_, a common mode of spelling the word in his time; and the fault lay either in the printer or transcriber for the press.
SCENE 2. Page 339.
ROSSE. Till that Bellona's _bridegroom_, lapt in proof.
Shakspeare is here accused of ignorantly making Bellona wife to the _God of war_; but, strictly speaking, this is not the case. He has not called Macbeth, to whom he alludes, the _God of war_; and there seems no great impropriety in _poetically_ supposing that a warlike hero might be _newly married_ to the Goddess of war. Mr. Steevens's objection appears to have been founded on a conclusion that Shakspeare meant to compare Macbeth to Mars, and that of the other learned and ingenious critic, on the impropriety of considering Bellona as a married goddess.
SCENE 3. Page 341.
1. WITCH. _Aroint_ thee witch!
The reference to Hearne's print from an old calendar, in his edition of Fordun, is very appositely introduced by Dr. Johnson in illustration of _aroint_; but his explanation of the print is in many respects erroneous. He is particularly mistaken in supposing it to represent _Saint Patrick visiting hell_; for it is manifestly the very trite subject of Christ delivering souls from purgatory, often painted by Albert Durer and other ancient artists. The Doctor neglected to examine not only the inscription on the print, but Hearne's own account of it; and his eye having accidentally caught the name of Saint Patrick, of whom Hearne had been speaking, his imagination suggested the common story of the visit to purgatory (not hell). There is no doubt that _aroint_ signifies _away_! _run_! and that it is of Saxon origin. The original Saxon verb has not been preserved in any other way, but the glossaries supply _ryne_ for running; and in the old Islandic, _runka_ signifies _to agitate_, _to move_. Mr. Grose is certainly wrong in his explanation of the proverb, "_Rynt_ you witch! quoth Besse Locket to her mother," when he says it means "by your leave, stand handsomely." See his _Provincial glossary_.
SCENE 3. Page 353.
BAN. Or have we eaten of the _insane_ root, That takes the _reason_ prisoner?