Part 5

Line 281. _Shift_ originally meant simply change, substitution of one thing for another. Cf. _Timon of Athens_, i. 1, 84--"Fortune, in her shift and change of mood." Wotton writes--"My going to Oxford was not merely for shift of air." From this arose the later sense of a change of clothing, in which the word is here used; and which has now become further limited, _shift_ amongst the lower classes being equivalent to an under-garment.

Line 282. _Cantle._--A corner, angle, small point. Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ iii. 1, 100; _Antony and Cleopatra_, iii. 10, 6. See also under _cantle_ in N. E. D.

Line 283. _Portmantle._--The older and commoner form of _portmanteau_, occurring, for example, in Howell's _Familiar Letters_ (1623). Early instances of _portmanteau_ are, however, to be found.

Line 296. _Ile bee a diar,_ etc.--The joke is on the double meaning of _diar_; there seems to be no special significance in the choice of the colour orange-tawny.

Line 300. _Codshead_ = stupid-head, foolish fellow. Cf. in 1607, Drewill's _Arraignm_. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) iii. 56:--"Lloyd (threatning he) woulde trye acquaintance with the other codsheade." Also, in 1594, Carew Huarte's _Exam. Wits_, i. (1596), 2:--"His (Cicero's) sonne ... prooued but a cods-head."

Line 301. _O eyes, noe eyes._--The common tag from Hieronymo, in Kyd's _Spanish Tragedy_, Act iii.:

"O eyes! No eyes, but fountains fraught with tears; O life! No life, but lively form of death."

The line was a frequent subject of ridicule amongst contemporary writers; cf. _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 5, 58, etc.

Line 316. _Fennell._--Foeniculum vulgare, considered as an inflammatory herb, and used as an emblem of flattery. Cf. _Hamlet_, iv. 5, 180.

Line 320. _Thou._--MS. has _though_.

Line 327. _Weasand._--This word is generally used as a noun, and itself means wind-pipe. Cf. _Tempest_, iii. 2, 99.

Line 328. _Thy face more faire, etc._--According to some legends, Gorgon or Medusa was a beautiful maiden before Athenè, in anger, changed her hair into serpents, thereby rendering her so hideous that all who saw her became petrified. Possibly, however, the allusion here is merely facetious.

Line 329. _Dishevells._--Spreads in disorder (an intransitive use). "Their hair, curling, dishevels about their shoulders." (Sir T. Herbert.)

Line 330. _Queene of devills._--Probably Persephone, the wife of Pluto, who ruled amongst the shades of the departed.

Line 332. _Mavors_ or _Mavers_ is the form from which _Mars_ is contracted.

Line 337. _Silenus for streight backe._--Silenus is usually depicted as a fat, jovial old man, intoxicated and requiring support. The comparison is of course ironical.

Line 339. _Rine_ = rind or bark. The O. E. form was rinde; but for a similar omission of _d_ in the literary language cf. _lime_ (O. E. linde) and _lawn_ (M. E. launde).

Line 342. _Whose nose, etc._--Cf. _Midsummer Night's Dream_, v. 338. A similar jest occurs in Peele's "Old Wives' Tale": "Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne."

Line 345. _Thy._--MS. has _they_.

Line 360. _Cruell_, _huge_, are the epithets properly belonging to _elephant_; _changing_, _small_, to _chameleon_. See Introduction.

Line 396. _Ile beare thee light._--If this expression be an idiom, I can find no other instance of it; cf., however, the analogous phrase "to bear hard," _i.e._ to take ill (_Julius Cæsar_, ii. 1, 215; 1 _Henry IV._ i. 3, 270). The punning character of the passage makes it difficult to determine what exact meaning Florida wishes to convey. A not improbable sense would be obtained by supplying a comma after _thee_, and thus turning _light_ into a nominative of address.

Line 397. _Lurden_, a clown, sluggard, ill-bred person (Halliwell).

"And seyde, lurden, what doyst thou here? Thou art a thefe, or thefys fere."

(MS. _Cantab_, Ff. ii. 38, f. 240.)

The word occurs in _Piers Plowman_.

Line 399. _O Oedipus I am not, I am Davus._--A quotation from Terence, _Andria_, i. 2, 23: "Davus sum, non Oedipus."

Line 400. _Master Davis._--Evidently an intentional anglicizing of the classical name.

Line 406. _Vastitye._--So MS., possibly for _vastilye_.

Line 408. _As true as Helen, etc._--Cf. the professions of Pyramus and Thisbe (where, however, no irony is intended), _Midsummer Night's Dream_, v. 1, 200-203.

Line 413. _Loves._--So MS. for _love_.

Line 413. _I am ore shooes in it._--Cf. _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, i. 1, 23:

"That's a deep story of a deeper love, For he was more than over shoes in love."

Line 414. _Mountenance_, quantity, amount. The translation of the _Romaunt of the Rose_, attributed to Chaucer, has--"The mountenance of two fynger hight."

Line 422. _Never ioyd it since._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 1, 13: "Poor fellow, never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him."

Line 426. _Pay_ = beat (still used dialectically):

"They with a foxe tale him soundly did pay."

(_The King and a poore Northerne Man_, 1640.)

Line 440. _Scummer._--The meanings of this word appear to be either various or obscure. Halliwell gives "_Scummer_, wonder; Somerset." In Elworthy's _West Somersetshire Wordbook_ the definitions stand thus: (1) row, disturbance; (2) confusion, upset; (3) mess, dirty muddle. Wright, in his _Provincial Dictionary_, gives the meaning as ordure, without referring the word to any special locality. Obviously, this _scummer_ is not to be confounded with M. E. _scumer_, a rover or pirate.

Line 441. _Surquedry_, presumption, arrogance, conceit. Chaucer has--"Presumpcion is he whan a man taketh an emprise that him ought not to do, or ellis he may it not do & that is called surquidrie" (_Parson's Tale_, Corpus MS.).

Line 441. _Shooing-horne._--Metaphorically, anything which helps to draw something else on: a tool. Cf. _Troilus and Cressida_, v. 1, 61: "A thrifty shoeing-horn in a chain, hanging at his brother's leg." The expression "shoeing horn of surquedry" is thus equivalent to "chosen implement of personified arrogance."

Line 442. _Casting topp_, a peg-top. See W. Coles (1657), _Adam in Eden_, 169--"The fruit is in forme like a casting-top."

Line 443. _Stopple._--The older form of stopper. Cotgrave has--"Tampon, a bung or stopple."

Line 446. _Vpp leave._--So MS. for _vpp heave_, possibly by confusion with _vpp lift_.

Line 453. _Corneagle._--I can find no instances whatever of this very puzzling word; neither does it seem to be closely analogous to any known form. Can _corneagle_ be a corrupt spelling of _co-niggle_, to niggle both (our hearts) together? _Niggle_ was used formerly for deceive, steal (still in the dialects), make sport of, mock; but is not, to my knowledge, compounded elsewhere with this prefix. Or is "harts corneagle" a substitution for "harts' core niggle"? (Heart's core occurs in _Hamlet_.) Both explanations have been suggested to me only as a last resource, and are too far-fetched to be at all convincing. Moreover, the context seems to require the sense of pursue, persecute, rather than of deceive.

Line 464. _Tales of tubbes._--A characteristic rendering into Elizabethan English of Ovid's "Illa Deam longo prudens sermone tenebat." The earliest instances of the expression "tales of tubs" seem to occur about the middle of the sixteenth century.

_Notes and Queries_, series v. vol. xi. p. 505, quotes amongst "curious phrases in 1580"--"To heare some Gospel of a distaffe and tale of a tubbe" (_Beehive of the Romish Church_, fo. 275b). See also Holland's "Plutarch," p. 644, and (for further references) Dodsley-Hazlitt's _Old Plays_, ii. 335.

Line 475. _Quatte._--A corruption of _squat_, sometimes used substantively for the sitting of a hare:

"Procure a little sport And then be put to the dead quat."

(_White Devil_, 4to, H.)

That the word in this sense was not general may be gathered from the fact that George Turberville, in his full description of the various methods of hunting the hare (_Noble Art of Venerie_, 1575), makes no use of it, but speaks constantly of the hare's form. _Quat_ for _squat_ (non-substantival) is still frequent in some of the dialects, and is the word specially used of a hare or other game when flattening itself on the earth to escape observation. In West Somersetshire it is used in connection with the verb to go--"The hare went quat" (Elworthy). This is the modern use most nearly approximating to that of the present passage.

Line 476. _Watt_, the old name for a hare; hence metaphorically used of a wily, cautious person (Halliwell).

Line 478. _Hollowe in the hind doggs._--Turberville, describing the hunting of hares, writes,--"One of the huntesmen shall take charge to rate & beate on _such doggs as bide plodding behinde_; and the other shall make them seeke and cast about."

Line 518. _Slidd_, God's lid, a mean oath. See _Merry Wives of Windsor_, iii. 4, 24; _Twelfth Night_, iii. 4, 427; _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 1, 56.

Line 537. _Patch._--A term of contempt, generally supposed to have been first applied to professional fools, by reason of their parti-coloured dress. See _Tempest_, iii. 2, 71; _Comedy of Errors_, iii. 1, 32, 36.

Line 556. _Malaparte_, forward, saucy. See _Twelfth Night_, iv. 1, 47, and 3 _Henry VI._ v. 5, 32.

Line 569. _Scall scabbe._--A scall = a scab; scald = scabby. See _Merry Wives of Windsor_, iii. 1, 123; _Twelfth Night_, ii. 5, 82; _Troilus and Cressida_, ii. 1, 31.

Line 571. _Groome._--In M. E. this word meant simply boy, youth; hence (at a later period) serving-lad. See _Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2, 215, and _Titus Andronicus_, iv. 2, 164.

Line 573. _Bange_, beat. Cf. _Othello_, ii. 1, 21, and _Julius Cæsar_, iii. 3, 20.

Line 575. _Kee pickpurse._--This expression seems to be a quotation from 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 1, 53:

"_Gads._ What, ho! Chamberlain!

_Cham. (within)._ At hand, quoth pick-purse."

I am told that the colloquial use of _kee_, or _quy_, for _quoth_, is frequent in certain parts of Scotland; but I can find no literary example of the form, and it is hard to account for its presence in this passage. The scribal substitution of _quy_ for the abbreviated _quoth_ might easily occur, the thorn-letter being erroneously transcribed by _y_, as in _the_; but this cannot have given rise to any M. E. phonetic change such as the spelling _kee_ certainly implies.

Line 587. _Spurrgald._--Cf. _Richard II._ v. 5, 94.

Line 588. _Jolthead_, blockhead, dunce. See _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, iii. 1, 290,--"Fie on thee, jolt-head! Thou canst not read." Also _Taming of the Shrew_, iv. 1, 169.

Line 590. _Rooke_ = cheat or sharper, and is used as a general term of contempt. See _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 5, 89,--"Hang him, rook!" The host of the Garter frequently addresses his familiars as "bully-rook." See _Merry Wives of Windsor_, i. 3, 2; ii. 1, 200, 207, 213.

Line 611. _Forfeiture._--Properly, something lost on engagement, or in consequence of the breach of an obligation. Cf. _Merchant of Venice_, i. 3, 165; iv. 1, 24, 122. Here the word is used in a modified and more general sense.

Line 641. _Ast._--Cf., in 1592, G. Harvey's _Pierces Superer_, 57,--"He ... bourdeth, girdeth, asseth, the excellentest writers."

Line 644. _Scindifer._--So MS., possibly for _scimitar_.

Line 649. _Whineard_, a sword or hanger (Halliwell):--

"His cloake grew large and sid And a faire whinniard by his side."

(_Cobler of Canterburie_, 1608, sig. E, ii.)

Line 658. _Stingian._--So MS. for _Stygian_.

Line 668. _Lovd._--So MS., possibly for _livd_.

Line 670. _Vild._--So MS. for _vile_ or _wild_.

Lines 677, 678. _Christall_ and _cherrye_ reversed.

Line 683. _Headye_, rash, impetuous. See 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 3, 58, and _Henry V._ i. 1, 34.

Line 686. _Dicker._--Ten of any commodity, as ten hides of leather, ten bars of iron, etc. This word comes from the late Latin _dicra_ (_dicora, decora, dacra, dacrum_), classical Latin _decuria_, meaning ten hides, occasionally ten of other things. "Also that no maner foreyn sille no lether in the seid cite, but it be in the yelde halle of the same, paying for the custom of every _dyker_ i.d." (_English Guilds_, ed. by Toulmin Smith, p. 384). For the wide use of the word in Western and Northern Europe, cf. O. Norse _dekr_, ten hides, M. H. G. _decker_, ten of anything, especially hides. Modern German _decker_ = ten hides.

Line 688. _How_ here = however, as in _Venus and Adonis_, 79; 1 _Henry IV._ v. 2, 12; and _Much Ado about Nothing_, iii. 1, 60.

Line 703. _Seas._--MS. has _sea_.

Line 711. _Pinke._--A word found in the northern dialects for "to peep slyly." Cf. the adjective _pink_, winking, half-shut; "Plumpy Bacchus with pink eyne" (_Antony and Cleopatra_, ii. 7, 121).

Line 734. _My grandam ... earth._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ iii. 1, 34.

Line 735. _Randome._--The verb random, to stray wildly, is more frequently found with the original spelling _randon_ (French _randoner_, to run rapidly), which became altered, possibly by analogy with _whilom_ and _seldom_, possibly by a process of change similar to that which converted _ranson_ to _ransom_. Sackville writes:--"Shall leave them free to randon of their will."

NOTES TO THE APPENDIX.

I.

Line 32. (_i_) is here equivalent to _id est_. Lilly gives the examples of lines 52, 53 (in which the same abbreviation here occurs) with the words written in full.

Line 48. _Repente._--A play on the meaning of the English and the form of the Latin word _repente_ is clearly intended.

Line 70. "Denarii dicti, quod denos æris valebant; quinarii, quod quinos" (Varro).

Line 93. _Janus_ is frequently, though not invariably, represented in mythology as guardian of the entrance to heaven; in which capacity he holds in his right hand a staff, and in his left a key, symbolical of his office (Ovid, _Fast._ i. 125). The names of Jupiter and Janus were usually coupled in prayer, as the divinities whose aid it was necessary to invoke at the beginning of any undertaking. Jupiter gave by augury the requisite sanction; but it was the part of Janus to confer a blessing at the outset.

Line 111. _Hippocrise._--A beverage composed of wine, with spices and sugar, strained through a cloth; said to have been named from Hippocrates' sleeve, the term given by apothecaries to a strainer (Halliwell).

Line 111. _Muskadine._--A well-known rich wine.

"And I will have also wyne de Ryne With new maid clarye, that is good and fyne, Muscadell, terantyne, and bastard, With Ypocras and Pyment comyng afterwarde."

(_MS. Rawl._ C. 86.)

Though _muscadell_ is the usual form (for instances see Furnivall, _The Babees Book_, p. 205), the spelling _muscadine_ occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher's _Loyal Subject_, iii. 4.

Line 112. _The Pierides pies._--The reference is not to the Muses themselves (sometimes called Pierides from Pieria, near Olympus), but to the nine daughters of Pierus, who for attempting to rival the Muses were changed into birds of the magpie kind. For a full account of the transformation see Ovid, _Met._ v. 670, etc. There is a play here on the double meaning of _pie_, namely a bird (Latin pica), and an article of food.

II.

Line 23.--_Keele_, to cool, from O. E. cêlan, M. E. kelen. See _Love's Labour's Lost_, v. 2, 930--"While greasy Joan doth keel the pot." Usually, however, the verb bore the derived sense of "to keep from boiling over by stirring round." _A Tour to the Caves_, 1781, gives--"_Keel_, to keep the pot from boiling over." This is evidently the meaning which should be adopted here.

III.

Line 13. _It is bootles_, etc.--Puns on the different meanings of the word _boot_ are very common in Elizabethan writers, and the relevant use of the one frequently entails the irrelevant introduction of the other. See, for example, _Two Gentlemen of Verona_, i. 1, 27, etc.:

"_Pro._ Over the boots? Nay, give me not the boots.

_Val._ No, I will not, for it boots thee not."

And _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 3, 30, etc.:

"_Brai._ Why, you may ha' my master's gelding, to save your longing, sir.

_Step._ But I ha' no boots, that's the spite on't.

_Brai._ Why, a fine wisp of hay roll'd hard, Master Stephen.

_Step._ No, faith, it's no boot to follow him now."

"Give me not the boots" = "do not make a laughing-stock of me."

Line 48. _Ioynd stooles._--The word joint-stool, meaning a seat made with joints, a folding-chair, is sometimes spelt _join'd stool_ in old editions of Shakespeare. The porter's use of this form is probably intended to convey a jest; _ioynd stooles_ is here equivalent to stooles joined to one another, and the term is used as a facetious synonym for _bench_.

IV.

Line 6. _Oulde._--So MS., possibly for _whole_.

Line 19. _A man & noe beast._--An inversion, probably intentional.

Line 22. _Condole my tragedies._--_Condole_ is here used in the now obsolete transitive sense, and is equivalent to bewail, grieve over, lament. See (in 1607) Hieron, _Works_, i. 179--"How tender-hearted the Lord is, and how he doth ... condole our miseries." Cf. also Pistol's use of the verb, _Henry V._ ii. 1, 133.

Line 24. _Craues._--The substantive crave, = craving, is not in general use, but appears to be considered rather as a new formation than as an obsolete word. Thus the earliest of the three examples given in the N. E. D. dates from 1830--"His crave and his vanity so far deluded him" (_Fraser's Magazine_, i. 134). This is a clear instance of a previous use.

The sentence as it stands presents some difficulty, inasmuch as the porter has made in the course of his speech only two distinct petitions, namely that he may be forgiven "all delictes and crimes" (l. 10), and that his black staff may be restored to him (l. 18). Perhaps the delicate hint concerning "my ladye pecunia," coupled with the appeal to "the profunditye or abisse" of the President's liberality, is to be considered as constituting a third.

Corrections.

The first line indicates the original, the second the correction:

p. 18:

[F. 72r. rev.] [F. 72r rev.]

p. 30:

[F. 43r. rev.] [F. 43r rev.]