Part 4

[_Nar._] Thy frend I am, O doe not mee destroye; Thou dost putt out thy hand as I doe mine, [710] And thou dost pinke vpon mee with thine eyen, Smile as I smile; besides I tooke good keepe, And saw thee eke shedd teares when I did weepe, And by thy lippes moving, well I doe suppose Woordes thou dost speake, may well come to our nose; For to oure eares I am sure they never passe, Which makes me to crye out, alas!

_Ecc._ Alas!

[_Nar._] O delicate pretty youth, Pretty youth; [720] Take on my woes pittye, youthe! Pittye, youthe! O sweetest boy, pray love mee! [F. 67v rev.] Pray love mee! Or els I dye for thee, I dye for thee!

[_Nar._] Colour is gone & bloud in face is thinne, And I am naught left now but bone & skinne; I dye; but though I dye it shall come to passe, Certes it shall, that I which whilome was [730] The flower of youth, shalbee made flower againe. I dye; farewell, O boy belov'd in vaine.

[_Ecc._] O boy belov'd in vaine. [NARCISSUS _risinge vp againe._ And so I died & sunke into my grandam, Surnamde old earth: lett not your iudgments randome, For if you take mee for Narcissus y'are very sillye, I desire you to take mee for a daffa downe dillye; For so I rose, & so I am in trothe, As may appeare by the flower in my mouthe.

_Ecc._ Now auditors of intelligence quicke, [740] I pray you suppose that Eccho is sicke; Sicke at the hart, for you must thinke, For lacke of love shee could nor eate nor drinke; Soe that of her nothinge remainde but bone, And that they say was turn'd into a stone. Onely her voice was left, as by good happe [F. 67r rev.] You may perceive if you imparte a clappe. [_Exit._

_Enter the_ Porter _as Epilogue_.

Are those the ladds that would doe the deede? They may bee gone, & God bee their speede; Ile take vpp their buckett, but I sweare by the water, [750] I have seene a farre better play at the theater. Ile shutt them out of doores, 'tis no matter for their larges; Thinke you well of my service, & Ile beare the charges. If there bee any that expecte some dances, 'Tis I must perform it, for my name is Frances.

FINIS.

APPENDIX.

I.

_A speech made for the foresaid porter, who [F. 84r rev.] pronounc't it in the hall before most of the house and Master Præsident, that had sconc't him 10 groates for lettinge the fidlers into the hall at Christmas._

Ille ego qui quondam, I am hee that in ould season have made Lilly leape out of his skinne, & with a muster of sentences out of his syntaxis have besieged the eares of the audience in the behalfe of the wretched. But alas!--Mihi isthic nec seritur nec metitur; it is to mee neither a sorrye turne nor a merrye turne. I have sifted out for other mens sakes the flower of my fancye, that I have left nothing but the branne in my braine. And yet who is there amongst them that in the depth of my distresse will speake for the poore porter, who meltes [10] the muses into mourninge or turnes Parnassus into plaintes, Hellicon into heavines, Apollo into an apollogie, for my sake? My learninge goeth not beyond Lillye, nor my reading beyond my rules, yet have I for them so canvast their concavitye that I have opened their entraills, so dived into the depth of them that I have manifested their marrowe, soe pried into their profunditye that I have plac't the verye pith of them before you. And, alas that I should [F. 83v rev.] now speake for my selfe, what remaines for mee but the rinde & the barke, when I have given the roote & [20] the bodye to others? What remaines for mee but the shell, when I have given others the substaunce, what remaines for mee but the curdes, when I have given others the creame? Yea, what is left for mee but the paringes, when I have given others the peares? But I therin made knowen my valour, for you knowe, Aliorum vitia cernere oblivisci suorum, to supplye other mens wants & to forgett his owne, proprium est stultitiæ, is the parte of a stoute man; since then I must speake for my selfe, Stat mihi casus renovare omnes; you shall [30] heare the whole cause, case, and the course of it.

Sub nocte silenti, (i) in nocte vel paulo ante noctem, cum spectatur in ignibus aurum; when you might have seene gold in the fier, the fier shin'de so like gold, Ecce per opaca locorum, came the fidlers creeping alonge, densa subter testudine casus, their instruments vnder their arms, in their cases, & at lenghe, Itum est in viscera terræ, broke open into the harte of the hall; neither when they were there could they bee content to [F. 83r rev.] warme their fingers by the fier and bee gone, though I [40] would have persuaded them thereto, but Iuvat vsque morari et conferre gradum; they would needes staye & the youth daunce; but oh to see, woe to see, that pleasure is but a pinch and felicitye but a phillippe; when as Juvat ire per altum, some were cutting capers aloft in the ayre, canit similiter huic, and they likewise with their minstrelsey fitting it to their footing, all on a suddaine, Subito I may say to them, but Repente to mee, their sporte was spoild, their musicke marrd, their dauncinge dasht with a vox hominem sonat, with a voyce, [50] with an awefull voice, Hæccine fieri flagitia; ar these the fruites of the fires; statur a me, (i) sto, statur ab illis, (i) stant; they that even now scrap't so fast with their stickes fell now to scraping faster with their leggs; their fum fum was turn'd to mum mum, and their pleasaunt melodye to most pittifull making of faces; but when they look't that their fiddles should have flyen about their eares, their calveskin cases about their calveshead pates, as the sunne shines brightest through a shower, so did softnes in the midst of severitye: [F. 82v rev.] there was noe more [60] said to them but, Teque his ait eripe flammis; they were best, since they had made many mens heeles warme with shakinge, to coole their owne by quaking without doore. But the more mercy was shewed before, the lesse was left for mee. Had I beene dealt with soe mercifullye, I had not neede to have come with this exclamation, or had it beene but gratia ab officio, but a groat out of mine office, I should not have stonied the stones nor rented the rockes with my dolorous outcryes.

But when it shall come to denarii dicti quod denos, [70] when tenn groats shall make a muster togeather and sitte heavy on my head, actum est ilicet, the porter periit. O weathercoke of wretchednes that I am, seated on the may-pole of misfortune; whither shall I turne, or to whome shall I looke for releife? Shall I speake to my minstrells for my money? Why, they have allready forsaken mee, to the verifieng of the ould proverbe; Quantum quisque sua nummorum servat in arc[=a], tantum habet et fidei; as long as a man hath money in his purse, so long hee shall have the fidlers. What is to bee looked [80] for of them that will doe nothing without pay, and hard-mony for their harmonye? Shall I speake to my frends? Why: nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes. [F. 43r rev.] Oh, then, lett mee runne to the speare of Achilles (recorded by auncient philosophers) which first hurt mee and last can heale mee: lett my penitencye find pittye, and my confession move compassion; if you will live according to rule, ever after penitet, tædet, lett miseret, miserescit succeede.

That they came in, it was a fault of oversight in not overseeing my office: if any should slinke by Cerberus [90] out of hell, it weare a thing to bee wondred at, & yet wee see there doth, ther are so many spirritts walking. If any should steale by Janus into heaven, it weare much woorthy of marvaile, and yet wee see there doth, there are soe many of Jupiters lemmans: if anye should skippe in or out by mee it is not to bee admired: for why? Cerberus the porter of hell hath 3 heads, Janus hath two, & I your poore colledg porter have but one. That they weare not putt out of the colledge when they weare in, it was a fault; but a fault of curtesie; for who could [100] find in his hart, when hee seeth a man accompanied with musicke, musis comitantibus, to bidd him, Ibis Homere foras, gett you home for an asse?

But though my breast (I must confesse) weare then somewhat [F. 42v rev.] moved with their melodye, yet heerafter my breast shall bee marble when they warble: Nemo sibi Mimos accipere debet favori, I will never lett in minstrells againe vpon favour; for your selves I can say no more but profit; & when (after this Christmas cheere is ended) you fall againe to your studdies, I could wish that [110] Hippocrene may bee Hippocrise, the muses Muskadine, & the Pierides pies every day for your sakes; and as for my tenn groates, if it will please you to remitte it, I will give you decies decem mille gratiarum. Dixi.

II.

_A speech delivered by Francis Clarke to the Ladie Keneda._ [F. 46r rev.]

Noble ladye, give him leave that hath beene so bolde as to take leave, to speake before your ladyshipp, and out of the prognosticks, not of profound pond or deepe dale, but out of the candlesticke of mine owne observation, to give your ladyshipp some lightning of a great thunder that will happen in the morning.

The reason of it is a flatt, slimye, & sulphureous matter exhaled out of the kitchins & enflamed in the highest region of the dripping pannes, which will breed fiery commetts with much lightning and thunder. And [10] the influence of it will so domineere in the cooks heads, that are brought vpp under the torridd zone of the chimney, that few of them will take rest this night, & suffer as few to take rest in the morning. They have sett a little porch before so great an house, and have called their show the flye. Some say because a maide comming to towne with butter was mett by a cooke & by him deceaved in a wood neare adioyning, whose laments the dryades and hamadriades of the place, pittieng, turned her into a butterflie; & ever since the cooks are bound to this [20] anniversary celebration of her metamorphosis; but soft, if the cooks heare that the porridgpott of my mouth [F. 45v rev.] runnes over soe, they will keele it with the ladle of reprehension; therfore I will make hast away, onely asking this boone, which wilbee as good as a bone to the cookes; that your ladyshipps servaunt Monsieur Piers may ride to-morrowe with the fierye fraternitye of his fellowe cookes, & make vpp the worthy companye of the round table, which they are resolvd not to leave till the whole house goe rounde with them. [30]

III.

_A Speech spoken by Francis Clarke in the behalfe of the freshmen._

Ne sævi, magne sacerdos, bee not so severe, great session [F. 44v rev.] holder; lett pittie prevaile over the poenitent, lett thy woords of woormwood goe downe againe into thy throate, & so by consequence into thy belly, but lett not those goe to the place from whence they came, & so by cohærence to the place of exequution: and though these bee, as it is rightly said in the rule, Turba gravis paci placidæque inimica quieti, yet thinke what goes next before, Sis bonus ô felixque tuis: and although I must needes say I am sorry for it that Fertur atrocia flagitia [10] designasse, yet remember what followes immediatlye in the place; Teque ferunt iræ poenituisse tuæ.

Your lordshipp is learned as well as I (it is bootles & I should offer you the bootes), you knowing the Latine to expounde.

I am heere the jaylor, the Janus, the janitor; you are the judge, the justice, the Jupiter, to this miserable companye; yet beare I not two faces under a hoode, neither deale I doubly betweene your lordshipp & the lewde; for though Janus & the jaylor goe together, vt bifrons, [20] custos, yet Bos stands for a barre to distinguish the jaylor from the theefe, vt bifrons, custos, bos, fur.

O that you weare Jupiter, to bee a helping father to these sonnes of sorrow, or I weare Janus indeed, that I might have two tongues to intreate for this pittifull crew. [F. 44r rev.] Looke, O thou flower of favour, thou marigold of mercye and columbine of compassion, looke, O looke on the dolorous dew dropps distilld from the limbecks or loope-holes of their eyes, and plentifully powred on the flower of their faces; O see in these (O thou most exalted [30] eldest sonne of Justice) a lamentable example; consider that homo bulla, honor is but a blast; pittie, O pitty the cause of these hopeles, helples, hartles and indeed half-hanged young men; if they have erred, humanum est, they are men; looke not thou for that of them which you can but expect of gods. Have they spoken against the lawes of your court, why, Dolet dictum imprudenti adolescenti et libero: has their tongue tript, why, Lingua percurrit, it was too quicke for the witt, quicknes is commendable. Pectora percussit, have they fought with [40] your highnes servaunts, have they beene obstinate? Why, they have had their punishment, and toties quoties, went either wett skind or dry beaten to bedd. Quid est quod, in hac caus[=a] defensionis egeat; take pittie (O thou peerles patterne of equity) if on nothing els, yet on their youth.

Some of them are heires, all of good abilitye; I beseech your lordshipp with the rest of the ioynd stooles, I would say the bench, take my foolish iudgment, & lett them fine for it, merce them according to their merritts [50] [F. 43v rev.] and their purses, wee shall all fare the better for it.

As for other punishments (I speake it with weeping teares) they have suffered no small affliction in my keeping; Est locus in carcere quod dungeanum appellatur; there they lay, noctes atque dies, at no great charge, for, Constat parvo fames; but so laded with irons that I made them Livida armis brachia, & now, see, they are come foorth after all, Trepidus morte futura.

O miseresce malis, take pitty on the poore prisners, Patres æquum esse censent nos iam iam; you may very [60] well remember, since yourselfe weare in the same case. Cutt not off for some few slippes those younge plantes of such towardnes; make not mothers weepe, winke at small faultes, rovoke your sentence, lett the common good have their fines, mee have my fees, they have their lives, and all shalbee well pleased. Dixi.

IV.

_A letter composd for Francke Clarke, the porter of [F. 84v rev.] S. John's, who in his brother's behalfe did breake one's head with a blacke staffe._

TO MASTER LAUDE, THEN PROCTOR.

Worshipfull and woorthy Master Proctor, wheras I, your poore vassaile, in charitye towardes my afflicted brother, have stepped over the shooes of my duetye in participatinge or accommodatinge my blacke staffe to the easinge of his over-charged artickles & members, wherby I have iustlye plucked the oulde house, or rather the maine beame of your indignation, upon my impotent and impudent shoulders, I doe now beseech you upon the knees of my sorrowfullnes and marybones of repentance to forgive mee all delictes & crimes as have beene [10] formerly committed.

And wheras you, contrary to my desertes, have out of the bottomles pitt of your liberalitye restored mee out of the porters lodge of miserye into the tower of fælicitie, by giving that which was due from mee (silly mee) vnto your worshippfull selfe, I meane my ladye pecunia; lett mee intreate you that I may burden the leggs of your liberalitie so much farther, as to deliver mee the afore-said blacke staffe, without which I am a man & noe beast, a wretch & no porter. But wheras it is thus [20] by my most vnfortunate fate, that so woorthy a President [F. 85r rev.] hath seene so vnworthy a present, I cannott but condole my tragedies, committing you to the profunditye or abisse of your liberalitie, & my selfe to the 3 craues of my adversitie. Dixi.

NOTES TO THE PLAY OF "NARCISSUS."

NOTES TO THE PLAY OF "NARCISSUS."

Line 1. _Master and Mistris._--Doubtless the President of S. John's and his wife. The office was held at this time by Ralph Hutchinson, who had been elected to it in 1590, after holding for some years the college living of Charlbury, Oxon. Little seems to be known of Mrs. Hutchinson beyond the fact that after her husband's death in 1606 she placed his effigy in the college chapel.

Line 39. _Rebateth._--To rebate, to blunt or disedge; see _Measure for Measure_, i. 4, 60--"Doth rebate and blunt his natural edge."

Line 55. _Quaffe._--The substantival use of this word is not uncommon in contemporary writings. Cf., in 1579, L. Tomson, Calvin's _Sermons on Timothy, &c.,_ p. 512, col. 2: "Now they thinke that a sermon costeth no more then a quaffe wil them."

Line 78. _Ladds of mettall._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 13.

Line 80._ No vertue extant._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 132, where virtue = bravery, physical courage. The porter's use of the phrase sounds like a quotation.

Line 97. _A the stampe._--Halliwell gives "Stamp, a tune," and quotes from MS. Fairfax, 16, "Songes, stampes, and eke daunces." Cf. also _Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 2, 25.

Line 98. _Windsuckers._--This old name for the kestrel, or wind-hover, is of tolerably frequent occurrence. It is used metaphorically of a person ready to pounce on anything. "There is a certain envious windsucker that hovers up and down" (Chapman).

Line 101. _I pre, sequor._--Literally, "Go before, I follow." The porter supplies a free translation in the words "one of your consorte." Cf. the use of the phrase "to be hail-fellow-well-met with anyone."

Line 109. _Condolent_ here means _expressing sorrow_. For this sense see Wood, Ath. Oxon. (R)--"His vein for ditty and amorous ode was deemed most lofty, condolent, and passionate."

Line 110. _Suffocat._--The porter's substitute for _sufficit_; though, strictly speaking, the _o_ should be long.

Line 111. _I tickle them for a good voice._--Besides the ordinary metaphorical meaning of to flatter, _tickle_ sometimes = to serve one right, to make one pay for a thing. For this sense see 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 489, "I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith;" and cf. _Ibid._ ii. 1, 66. Probably the expression has a similar force here.

Line 114. _Butterd beare._--Ale boiled with lump-sugar, butter, and spice.

Line 122. _Act in conye._--The adjective _incony_, with the apparent sense of fine, delicate, is used twice by Costard in _Love's Labour's Lost_ (iii. 136, iv. 1, 144) and also in Marlowe's _Jew of Malta_, iv. 5--"While I in thy incony lap do tumble." Other examples are rare, and I have not found any instance of an adverbial use. A second, though much less probable interpretation of the passage is suggested by the frequent use of _cony_ as a term of endearment to a woman (cf. Skelton's _Eleanor Rummyng_, 225--"He called me his whytyng, his nobbes, and his conny"). If, however, "act in conye" were equivalent to "act as woman," _i.e._ take a female part, examples of analogous constructions should be forthcoming.

Line 129. _Lovely._--Here used in the sense of loving, tender. Cf. _Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2, 125--"And seal the title with a lovely kiss."

Line 156. _All and some._--An expression meaning everyone, everything, altogether:

"For which the people blisful, _al and somme_, So cryden" ...

(CHAUCER, _Anelida and Arcite_, i. 26.)

"Thou who wilt not love, do this; Learne of me what Woman is. Something made of thred and thrumme; A meere botch of all and some."

(HERRICK, _Hesperides_, i. 100.)

Line 160. _Cappes a thrumming._--Cf. _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, iv. 5--

"And let it ne'er be said for shame that we, the youths of London, Lay thrumming of our caps at home, and left our custom undone."

To _thrum_ = to beat in the Suffolk dialect.

Line 167. _Shrimpe._--This use of the word in the sense of child, offspring (or possibly as a term of endearment, "little one") is not common. It was generally employed contemptuously, and meant a dwarfish or stunted creature, as in 1 _Henry VI._ ii. 3, 23. See, however, _Love's Labour's Lost_, v. 2, 594.

Line 193. _Oddes_ here = contention, quarrel. For this sense compare--

"I cannot speak Any beginning to this peevish odds."

(_Othello_, ii. 3, 185.)

and also _Henry V._ ii. 4, 129, and _Timon of Athens_, iv. 3, 42.

Line 195. _Seven yeares I was a woman._--The blindness of Tiresias is most frequently ascribed, either to his having, when a child, revealed the secrets of the gods, or to his having gazed upon Athenè bathing, on which occasion the goddess is said to have deprived him of sight. Another tradition, however (adhered to by Ovid, _Met._ iii. 516, etc.), relates that Tiresias beheld two serpents together; he struck at them, and, happening to kill the female, was himself changed into a woman. Seven years later he again encountered two serpents, but now killed the male, and resumed the shape of man. Zeus and Hera, disputing over the relative happiness of man and woman, referred the matter to Tiresias, as having a practical knowledge of both conditions. He favoured Zeus's assertion that a woman possessed the more enjoyments; whereupon Hera, indignant, blinded him, while Zeus bestowed on him, in compensation, the power of prophecy.

Line 197. _Fold._--The omission of a prefix to suit the exigencies of metre, common enough in verbs such as defend, defile, becomes remarkable when the force of the prefix itself is such as to change entirely the meaning of the verb. Examples of omission in such cases are comparatively rare, but they are not confined to our own language. See Vergil, _Aen._ i. 262--

"Longius et volvens fatorum arcana movebo"--

and cf. also _Aen._ v. 26, and Cicero's _Brutus_, 87.

Line 223. _Catch audacitye._--For the old metaphorical use of catch cf. Wyclif's Bible (1 Tim. vi. 12), "Catche euerlastyng lyf."

Line 227. _Curromanstike_, chiromantic, _i.e._ pertaining to chiromancy; the rhyme being probably responsible for the use of the adjective rather than the noun.

Line 229. _The table_, etc.--"The table-line, or line of fortune, begins under the mount of Mercury, and ends near the index and middle finger.... When lines come from the mount of Venus, and cut the line of life, it denotes the party unfortunate in love and business, and threatens him with some suddain death" (_The True Fortune-teller, or Guide to Knowledge_, 1686).

Line 236. _Sheppbiter._--A malicious, surly fellow; according to Dyce, "a cant term for a thief." See _Twelfth Night_, ii. 5, 6, "The niggardly, rascally sheep-biter."

Line 246. _What._--MS. has the abbreviation w^{th}, usually denoting _with_, but evidently substituted here, by a copyist's error, for w^{t} = _what_.

Line 247. _They can but bring_, etc.--W. Carew Hazlitt (_English Proverbs_, p. 28) quotes from Heywood, 1562--"A man maie well bring a horse to the water, but he can not make him drinke without he will." He also mentions that the proverb is ascribed (probably falsely) to Queen Elizabeth, in the _Philosopher's Banquet_ (1614).

Line 261. _I_ = ay.--Both spellings occur in the MS. For the common use of the capital _I_ in this sense, see Juliet's play upon the word--

"Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'I,' And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice; I am not I, if there be such an I."

(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 2, 45, etc.)

Line 262. _In spight of ... pye._--Alluding to the common belief in the pie, or magpie, as a bird of ill-omen.

Line 266. _Phibbus._--The same spelling as in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, i. 2, 37.

Line 270. _Baskett dagger._--Doubtless a weapon resembling the basket-_sword_, which had a hilt specially designed to protect the hand from injury. Cf. 2 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 141.

Line 275. _Footinge_, step, tread; cf. _Merchant of Venice_, v. 24.

Line 279.--_Late-mouse._--A facetious spelling of Latmus, the "mount of oblivion."