Part 3

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 from the quotation that it was actually worth _ten-pence_, it becomes necessary to state that at that time, viz. in 1550, the tester was worth _twelve-pence_. It is presumed that no accurate account of this piece of coin has been hitherto given; and therefore the following attempt, which has been attended with no small labour, may not be unacceptable.

The term, variously written, _teston_, _tester_, _testern_, and, in _Twelfth night_, _testril_, is from the French _teston_, and so called from the king's head, which first appeared on this coin in the reign of Louis XII. A. D. 1513, though the Italians seem previously to have had a coin of the same denomination. In our own country the name was first applied to the English shilling (originally coined by Henry the Seventh) at the beginning of the reign of Henry the Eighth, probably because it resembled in value the French coin above described; so that _shilling_ and _teston_ were at that time synonymous terms. Although the teston underwent several reductions in value, it appears to have been worth twelve-pence at the beginning of Edward the Sixth's reign, from three several proclamations in his second and third years for calling in, and at length annihilating, this coin, on account of the forgeries that had been committed; Sir William Sharington having falsified it to the amount of 12,000_l._, for which by an express act of parliament he was attainted of treason. In the above proclamations the testons are specifically described as "pieces of xiid commonly called testons;" and in the last of them, the possessors are allowed twelve-pence apiece on bringing them to the mint. Sir Henry Spelman, who has asserted in his glossary that the teston was reduced to nine-pence in the _first_ year of King Edward, must be mistaken. Stowe more correctly informs us that on the 9th of July 1551 (the _fifth_ year of the King's reign), the base shillings of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. were called down to _nine_-pence, and on the 17th of August following to _six_-pence. He afterwards, under the year 1559, cites a proclamation for reducing it still lower, viz. to fourpence halfpenny. We must conclude that it again rose in value as the coin became improved; for it appears from _Twelfth night_, Act II. Scene 3, that it was in Shakspeare's time the same as the six-pence, and it has probably continued ever since as another name for that coin.

SCENE 2. Page 185.

JUL. I see you have a _month's mind_ to them.

There is a great deal of quotation given in the notes, but nothing after all that amounts to an explanation of the term. It alludes to the mind or _remembrance_ days of our Popish ancestors. Persons in their wills often directed that in a _month_, or any other specific time, from the day of their decease, some solemn office for the repose of their souls, as a mass or dirge, should be performed in the parish church, with a suitable charity or benevolence on the occasion. Polydore Vergil has shown that the custom is of Roman origin; and he seems to speak of the month's mind as a ceremony peculiar to the English. _De rer. invent._ lib. vi. c. 10.

ACT II.

SCENE 2. Page 201.

JUL. Keep this remembrance for thy Julia's sake.

[_giving a ring._

PRO. Why then we'll make exchange; here, take you this.

JUL. And seal the bargain with a holy kiss.

This was the mode of plighting troth between lovers in private. It was sometimes done in the church with great solemnity, and the service on this occasion is preserved in some of the old rituals. To the latter ceremony the priest alludes in _Twelfth night_, Act V. Scene 1.

"A contract of eternal bond of love Confirm'd by mutual joinder of your hands, Attested by the holy close of lips, Strengthen'd by interchangement of your rings, &c."

SCENE 4. Page 210.

SIL. That you are welcome?

PRO. ... _No_; that you are worthless.

Dr. Johnson has here inserted the particle _no_, "to fill up the _measure_;" but the measure is not defective though the harmony is. Mr. Steevens, disputing the suggestion of a brother critic, that _worthless_ might have been designed as a trisyllable, asks whether _worthless_ in the preceding speech of Sylvia is a trisyllable? Certainly not; but he should have remembered the want of uniformity of metre in many words among the poets of this period. Thus in p. 223, lines 8 and 9, the word _fire_ is alternately used as a monosyllable and dissyllable; and where the quantity is complete, as in the present instance, the harmony is often left to shift for itself.

ACT III.

SCENE 1. Page 232.

DUKE. Why Phaeton, (for thou _art_ Merop's son)

It is far more likely that Shakspeare found this at the end of the first book of Golding's _Ovid's metamorphosis_, than in the authorities referred to in Mr. Steevens's note.

SCENE 1. Page 239.

LAUN. There; and _Saint Nicholas_ be thy speed.

The true reason why this Saint was chosen to be the patron of Scholars may be gathered from the following story in his life, composed in French verse by _Maitre Wace_, chaplain to Henry the Second, remaining in manuscript but never printed. It appears from a passage in Ordericus Vitalis, p. 598, that the metrical legends of Saints were sung by the Norman minstrels to the common people.

"Treis clers aloent a escole, Nen frai mie longe parole; Lor ostes par nuit les oscieit, Les cors musca, la ...[3]prenoit Saint Nicolas par Deu le sout, Sempris fut la si cum Deu plut, Les clers al oste demanda, Nes peut muscier einz lui mustra. Seint Nicolas par sa priere Les ames mist el cors ariere. Por ceo qe as clers fist tiel honor Font li clerc feste a icel jor."

That is, "Three scholars were on their way to school, (I shall not make a long story of it,) their host murdered them in the night, and hid their bodies; their ... he reserved. Saint Nicholas was informed of it by God Almighty, and according to his pleasure went to the place. He demanded the scholars of the host, who was not able to conceal them, and therefore showed them to him. Saint Nicholas, by his prayers, restored the souls to their bodies. Because he conferred such honour on scholars, they at this day celebrate a festival."

It is remarkable, that although the above story explains the common representation of the Saint, with three children in a tub, it is not to be found in that grand repertory of Monkish lies, _The Golden Legend_. It occurs, however, in an Italian life of Saint Nicholas, printed in 1645, whence it is extracted into the Gentleman's Magazine for 1777, p. 158. There is a note by Mr. Whalley on _Saint Nicholas's clerks_, as applied to _highwaymen_, in King Henry the Fourth, part the first, vol. viii. p. 418, which, though erroneously conceived, would have been more properly introduced on the present occasion. Standing where it does, the worthy author is made responsible for having converted the parish clerks of London into a nest of thieves, which he certainly never intended. Those respectable persons, finding that scholars, more usually termed clerks, had placed themselves under the patronage of Saint Nicholas, conceived that _clerks_ of any kind might have the same right, and accordingly took this saint as _their_ patron; much in the same way as the wool-combers did Saint Blaise, who was martyred with an instrument resembling a curry-_comb_, the nail-makers Saint _Clou_, and the booksellers Saint John Port-_Latin_.

SCENE 2. Page 246.

PRO. Especially against his _very_ friend.

Mr. Steevens explains _very_ to be _immediate_. Is it not rather _true, verus_? Thus Massinger calls one of his plays _A_ very _woman_. See likewise the beginning of the Nicene creed.

ACT IV.

SCENE 2. Page 257.

HOST. ... the musick _likes_ you not.

i. e. _pleases_, in which sense it is used by Chaucer. This is the genuine Saxon meaning of the word, however it might have been corrupted in early times from its Latin original _licet_. In the next speech Julietta plays upon the word.

SCENE 2. Page 258.

SIL. What is your will?

PRO. That I may compass yours.

SIL. You have your wish; my will is even this;--

On which Dr. Johnson observes, "The word _will_ is here ambiguous. He wishes to _gain_ her _will_; she tells him, if he wants her _will_ he has it." The learned critic seems to have mistaken the sense of the word _compass_, when he says it means _to gain_. If it did, his remark would be just. But to _compass_ in this place signifies, to _perform_, _accomplish_, _take measures for doing a thing_. Thus in _Twelfth night_, Act I. Scene 2, "that were hard to _compass_;" and in _1 Hen._ VI. Act V. Scene 5, "You judge it impossible to _compass_ wonders." Accordingly Sylvia proceeds to instruct Proteus _how_ he may perform her will. _Wish_ and _will_ are here used, as in many other places, though inaccurately, as synonymous. If however Shakspeare really designed to make Proteus say that he was desirous of _gaining_ Sylvia's good will, she must be supposed, in her reply, purposely to mistake his meaning.

SCENE 2. Page 260.

SIL. But since your falshood shall _become_ you well To worship shadows, and adore false shapes.

Dr. Johnson objects to the sense of this passage, and the other commentators offer conjectural interpretations; yet surely nothing is more clear than the sense, and even the grammar may be defended. It is simply, "since your falsehood shall _adapt or render you fit_ to worship shadows." _Become_ here answers to the Latin _convenire_, and is used according to its genuine Saxon meaning.

SCENE 2. Page 260.

HOST. By my HALLIDOM, I was fast asleep.

This Mr. Ritson explains, _by my holy doom_, or _sentence at the resurrection_, from the Saxon halɩᵹꝺom; but the word does not appear to have had such a meaning. It rather signifies holiness or honesty. It likewise denoted a sacrament, a sanctuary, relics of saints, or anything holy. It seems in later times to have been corrupted into _holidame_, as if it expressed the holy virgin. Thus we have _so help me God and hollidame_. See Bullein's _Book of the use of sicke men_, 1579, in folio, fo. 2 b.

SCENE 4. Page 270.

JUL. But since she did neglect her looking-glass, And threw her _sun-expelling mask_ away.

It was the fashion at this time for the ladies to wear masks, which are thus described by the puritanical Stubs in his _Anatomie of abuses_, 1595, 4to, p. 59. "When they use to ride abroad they have _masks and visors made of velvet_ wherewith they cover all their faces, having holes made in them against their eyes, whereout they looke. So that if a man that knew not their guise before, should chaunce to meet one of them, he would think he met a monster or a Devil, for face he can shew (see) none, but two broad holes against their eyes, with glasses in them." More will be said on the subject of this mode of disguising the female face in a remark on _The merry wives of Windsor_, Act IV. Scene 2.

SCENE 4. Page 271.

JUL. ... 'twas Ariadne, passioning For Theseus' perjury and unjust flight.

A note is here inserted, "not" says its learned and classical author, "on the business of Shakspeare," but to introduce a conjecture relating to one of Guido's paintings commonly supposed to represent Ariadne as deserted by Theseus and courted by Bacchus, but which he conceives to have been intended for Bacchus's desertion of this lady for an Indian captive. An attentive examination of the print from Guido's picture will, it is presumed, incline any one to hesitate much before he shall decide on having discerned any traces of an Indian princess; and this supposed character may rather turn out to be Venus introducing the amorous Deity, attended by his followers, to Ariadne, forlorn and abandoned by Theseus in the isle of Chios, according to Ovid, or Naxos according to Lactantius. Nor is the female who accompanies Bacchus "hanging on his arm," as stated by the critic. It is impossible likewise to perceive in this figure the modest looks or demeanour of a female captive, or in the supposed Bacchus the character of a lover, insulting, according to Ovid's description, his former mistress by displaying the beauties of another. Boccaccio has very comically accounted for Ariadne's desertion by Theseus, and her subsequent transfer to Bacchus. He supposes the lady to have been too fond of the juice of the grape, and that on her continuing to indulge this propensity, she was therefore called the wife of Bacchus. See _Geneal. deor._ lib. xi. c. 29.

SCENE 4. Page 274.

JUL. Her eyes are _grey as glass_.

This was in old times the favourite colour of the eyes in both sexes:

"His eyen are _gray_ as any _glasse_."

_Romance of Sir Isenbras._

"Her eyen gray as glas."

_Romance of Libeaus desconus._

"Les iex _vairs_ et rians com un faucon."

_Roman de Guerin de Montglaive. MS._

And to come nearer to Shakspeare's time:--In the interlude of _Marie Magdalene_, a song in praise of her says, "your eyes as _gray_ as glasse and right amiable." The French term _ver_ or _vair_ has induced some of their antiquaries to suppose that it meant _green_; but it has been very satisfactorily shown to signify in general the colour still called by heralds _vair_. It is certain however that the French romances and other authorities allude occasionally to _green_ eyes.

SCENE 4. Page 274.

JUL. My substance should be _statue_ in thy stead.

In confirmation of Mr. M. Mason's note, it may be observed that in the comedy of _Cornelianum dolium_, Act I. Scene 5, _statua_ is twice used for a picture. They were synonymous terms, and sometimes a statue was called a picture. Thus Stowe, speaking of Elizabeth's funeral, says that when the people beheld "her _statue or picture_ lying upon the coffin" there was a general sighing, &c. _Annals_, p. 815, edit. 1631. In the glossary to Speght's _Chaucer_, 1598, _statue_ is explained _picture_; and in one of the inventories of King Henry the Eighth's furniture at Greenwich, several _pictures of earth_ are mentioned. These were busts in _terra cotta_ like those still remaining in Wolsey's palace at Hampton Court.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. Page 276.

EGL. That Silvia _at Patrick's cell_ should meet me.

The old copy reads "at _friar_ Patrick's cell," which Mr. Steevens calls a redundance, justifying his alteration by a passage in the next scene, where "At Patrick's cell" occurs. But the old reading is right, and should not have been disturbed, there being no redundance when it is judiciously read. Silvia is often used as a dissyllable, and must here be read elliptically. Besides, we had "_friar_ Patrick's cell" before in p. 263.

SCENE 4. Page 280.

VAL. And to the nightingale's complaining notes Tune my distresses, and _record_ my woes.

It has been already observed that this term refers to the _singing of birds_. It should have been added that it was formed from the _recorder_, a sort of flute by which they were taught to sing.

SCENE 4. Page 286.

JUL. How oft hast thou with perjury _cleft_ the root?

The speech had been begun with a metaphor from archery, and is here continued in the same strain. _To cleave the pin_, was to break the nail which attached the mark to the butt.

SCENE 4. Page 290.

Mr. Ritson's reply to Mr. Tyrwhitt.

However ingenious and even just the system in this reply may be, it is evident that Shakspeare was not governed by it; but, on the contrary, that he _has_ taken the liberties pointed out by Mr. Tyrwhitt. The proof is, 1. From the circumstance that none of Shakspeare's contemporaries have used similar words in such a protracted form. 2. Because he has used other words in the same manner which are not reducible to Mr. Ritson's system; such as _country_, _assembly_, &c. He never troubled himself about establishing a canon of which he was, in all likelihood, altogether ignorant; but occasionally took such liberties as his verses required. This is clearly manifested by his various use, in many instances, of the selfsame words.

THE CLOWNS.

The character of Speed is that of a shrewd witty servant. Launce is something different, exhibiting a mixture of archness and rustic simplicity. There is no allusion to dress, nor any other circumstance, that marks either of them as the domestic fool or jester.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] A word defaced in the manuscript.

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.

ACT I.

SCENE 1. Page 309.

SLEN. She has brown hair, and _speaks small like a woman_.

It may be doubted whether the _real humour_ of this speech has been pointed out. Does it not consist in Slender's characterizing Ann Page by a property belonging to himself, and which renders him ridiculous? The audience would naturally smile at hearing him deliver the speech in an effeminate tone of voice.

SCENE 1. Page 314.

FAL. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter.

This has the appearance of a fragment of some old ballad.

SCENE 1. Page 317.

PIST. He hears with ears.

EVA. The tevil and his tarn! what phrase is this, _he hears with ear_? Why it is affectations.

If, according to Mr. Henderson, Sir Hugh be justified in his censure of this phrase as a pleonasm, we must also censure the parson in his turn for having forgot that the common prayer would have furnished an example of Pistol's language. See also _Jerem._ xxvi. 11.

SCENE 1. Page 317.

SLEN. Seven groats in _mill-sixpences_, and two _Edward shovel-boards_ that cost me two shillings and twopence apiece.

These sixpences were coined in 1561, and are the first milled money used in this kingdom. The invention is due to the French, and was introduced here by a native of France, who misapplied his talents by private coining, and suffered the penalty of the law. That seven groats could be lost in sixpences must be placed to the account of Master Slender's simplicity of wit.

With respect to the _Edward shovel-boards_:--Mr. Malone's inference from the reading in the old quarto that "Slender means the broad _shilling_ of _one of our kings_," is sufficiently maintained by the other notes; but that it was the shilling of _Edward the Sixth_ there is no doubt, no _other_ Edward having coined such a piece of money. It still remains to explain how these shillings could have cost Master Slender two and twopence apiece; because, if Dr. Farmer's quotation from Folkes had gone far enough, it would have appeared that the thick shillings mentioned by that writer were _pattern-pieces_, even originally of great rarity, and never in circulation. Folkes could have seen very few of such pieces, and it would be extremely difficult at present to find a single one; whereas the common shillings of Edward the Sixth remain in great numbers. We must suppose then that the shillings purchased of the miller had been hoarded by him, and were in high preservation, and heavier than those which had been worn in circulation. These would consequently be of greater importance to a nice player at the game of shovel-board, and induce him, especially if an opulent man, to procure them at a price far beyond their original value.

SCENE 1. Page 321.

BARD. ... And so conclusions _pass'd the careires_.

We are told that this is a technical term in the _manege_; but no explanation is given. It was the same as _running a career_, or galloping a horse violently backwards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end of the career; "which career the more seldom it be used and with the lesse fury, the better mouth shall your horse have," says Master Blundeville in his _Arte of ryding_, b. l. 4to, where there is a whole chapter on the subject, as well as in "_The art of riding_," translated by Thomas Bedingfield from the Italian of Claudio Corte, 1584, 4to.

SCENE 1. Page 325.

SLEN. I hope upon familiarity will grow more contempt.

This is no more than a perversion of the common proverb, _Familiarity breeds contempt_. Slender's school learning had furnished him on the occasion. The phrase is still used in copy-books for children.

SCENE 1. Page 327.

SLEN. I bruis'd my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a _master of fence_.

"_Master of defence_, on the present occasion, does not simply mean a professor of the art of fencing, but a person who had taken his _master's degree_ in it," says Mr. Steevens, whose readers are under great obligations to him for pointing out one of the greatest curiosities extant on the ancient science of defence, in support of his position. Yet it may be doubted whether the expression _master of defence_ does not very often, and even on the present occasion, signify merely a _professor of the art_. Numerous authorities might be adduced on this side of the question, but perhaps a single one that is apposite may suffice. In Eden's _History of travayle_, 1577, 4to, speaking of Calecut in the East Indies, he says, "they have in the citie certayne _maisters of fence_ that teach them how to use the swoord, &c." The original Latin from which Eden translates has _lanista_. Now it is not to be presumed that the last-mentioned _maisters of fence_ had taken any degree. It must be owned that the evidence of the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens goes very far to show that none were allowed to practise as professors who had not taken a degree in some fencing school; an honour once conferred by king Edward the Sixth, and generally granted, though not till after many years' experience, by one who was himself a _master_. Yet a person who had only a _provost's_ degree might be allowed to teach, and _he_ would be termed a _master of defence_.

SCENE 3. Page 330.

HOST. What says my _bully-rook_?

Messrs. Steevens and Whalley maintain that the above term (a cant one) derives its origin from the _rook_ in the game of chess; but it is very improbable that that noble game, never the amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on this occasion. It means _a hectoring, cheating sharper_, as appears from _A new dictionary of the terms of the canting crew_, no date, 12mo, and from the lines prefixed to _The compleat gamester_, 1680, 12mo, in both which places it is spelt _bully-rock_. Nor is Mr. Whalley correct in stating that _rock_ and not _rook_ is the _true_ name of the chess piece, if he mean that it is equivalent to the Latin _rupes_.

SCENE 3. Page 333.

PIST. O base _Gongarian_ wight!

It is already shown that this is the same as _Hungarian_. It simply means a _gipsy_. The parts of Europe in which it is supposed that the gipsies originally appeared were Hungary and Bohemia. In Act IV. Scene 5, of this play, the host in the like cant language calls Simple a _Bohemian Tartar_; and Munster in his _Cosmography_ informs us that the Germans denominated the _gipsies Tartars_.

SCENE 3. Page 333.

FAL. I am glad I am so acquit of this _tinder box_.

There is a great deal of humour in this appellation. Falstaff alludes to Pistol's rubicund nose, which, like the above utensil, carried fire in it.

SCENE 3. Page 333.

PIST. Young ravens must have food.

Either Shakspeare or the adage, if it be one, has borrowed from scripture. See _Psalm_ cxlvii. 9. or _Job_ xxxviii. 41.

SCENE 3. Page 337. Note 4.

To the instances adduced by Mr. Steevens in this note, of particular phrases in old theatrical characters, may be added that of Murley in _Sir John Oldcastle_, who is continually prefacing his speeches with "fye paltry, paltry, in and out, to and fro upon occasion." This practice has been revived in our modern comedies.

SCENE 4. Page 347.

CAIUS. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: come take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.