Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

ILLUSTRATIVE COMMENTS.

ACT I.

(1) SCENE I.

brave conquerors! -for so you are, That war against your own affections,

And the huge army of the world's desires.]

There is a passage in "The Hystorie of Hamblet, Prince of Denmarke," (London, 1608,) which strikingly resembles the above both in thought and expression. It is there said that Hamlet "in all his honorable actions made himselfe worthy of perpetuall memorie, if one onely spotte had not blemished and darkened a good part of his prayses. For that the greatest victorie that a man can obtaine is to make himselfe victorious and lord over his owne affections, and that restraineth the unbridled desires of his concu piscence;" see Mr. Collier's reprint in Shakespeare's Library," vol. i. P. 180.

[ocr errors]

(2) SCENE I.-A high hope for a low heaven.] Upon maturer consideration, I am disposed to believe the low heaven, and the god from whom Biron expected high words, refer to the Stage Heaven, and its hectoring Jupiter, whose lofty, huff-cap style was a favourite topic for ridicule. "If Jove speak English, in a thundering cloud, Thwick, thwack,' and' riff-raff,' roars he out aloud." HALL'S Satires, Book 1. Sat. VI.

[ocr errors]

See an interesting and suggestive article on the Heaven of the old theatres in "A Specimen of a Commentary on Shakspeare," by W. Whiter, 1794, pp. 153–166.

(3) SCENE II.-You are a gentleman, and a gamester.] Of the extent to which the practice of gambling was carried in Shakespeare's time, we have abundant testimony in the literature of that period. There are few plays or books of any description, illustrative of the social habits of the people, which have not some allusion to this prevalent vice. According to Drake, it "had become almost universal in the days of Elizabeth; and," he remarks, "if we may credit George Whetstone,* had reached a prodigious degree of excess. Speaking of the licentiousness of the stage previous to the appearance of Shakspeare, he adds:-But, there are in the bowels of this famous citie, farre more daungerous playes, & little reprehended: that wicked playes of the dice, first invented by the devyll, (as Cornelius Agrippa wryteth) & frequented by unhappy men: the detestable roote, upon which a thousand villanies growe.

"The nurses of thease (worse than heathnysh) hellish exercises are places called ordinary tables: of which there are in London more in nomber, to honor the devyll, then churches to serve the living God.-P. 24.

"I costantly determine to crosse the streets where these vile houses (ordinaries) are planted, to blesse me from the enticements of the, which in very deed are

* See the second part of his work, "The Enemie to Unthryftinesse" (1586), entitled, "An Addition or Touchstone for the times; exposing the dangerous Mischiefes, that the dyeing Howses (commonly called) Ordinarie Tables, and other (like) Sanctuaries of Iniquitie do dayly breede within the Bowelles of the famous Citie of London, by George Whetstone, Gent."

many, and the more dangerous, in that they please with a vain hope of gain. Insomuch on a time, I heard a distemperate dicer solemnly sweare that he faithfully beleeved, that dice were first made of the bones of a witch, & cards of her skin, in which there hath ever sithence remained an inchantment, yt whosoever once taketh delight in either, he shall never have power utterly to leave them; for quoth he, I a hundred times vowed to leave both, yet have not the grace to forsake either.'-P. 32.

"No opportunity for the practice of this ruinous habit seems to have been omitted, and we find the modern mode of gambling, by taking the odds, to have been fully established towards the latter end of the sixteenth century; for Gilbert Talbot, writing to his father, the Earl of Shrewsbury, on May the 15th, 1579, after informing His Lordship that the matter of the Queen's marriage with Monsieur is growne very colde,' subjoins, and yet I know a man may take a thousande pounds, in this towne, to be bounde to pay doble so muche when Mons cũmethe into Inglande, and treble so muche when he marryethe the Q. Matie, and if he nether doe the one nor the other, to gayne the thousande poundes cleare.'"

[ocr errors]

(4) SCENE II.-The dancing horse will tell you.] This famous quadruped and his exploits are often referred to by the old writers. He was called Marocco, but is usually mentioned as "Bankes's horse," from the name of his owner, and appears to have been an animal of wonderful aptitude and docility. His first exhibition is said to have been in 1589; and Sir Kenelm Digby observes, that he "would restore a glove to the due owner, after the master had whispered the man's name in his ear; would tell the just number of pence in any piece of silver coin, newly showed him by his master," &c.-A Treatise on Bodies, c. xxxviii. p. 393.

if

His most celebrated performance was the ascent to the top of St. Paul's, in 1600, an exploit referred to in Decker's "Gull's Horn-Booke," 1609 :-"from hence you may descend to talk about the horse that went up; and strive you can to know his keeper;" &c. And also in the Blacke Booke, by Middleton, 1604 :-"May not the devil, pray you, walk in Paul's, as well as the horse go a' top of Paul's, for I am sure I was not far from his keeper." In a rare quarto, called "Tarlton's Jests," &c. published in 1611, we are told,-"There was one Banks (in the time of Tarlton), who served the Earle of Essex, and had a horse of strange qualities; and being at the Crosse-keyes in Gracious street, getting money with him, as he was mightily resorted to; Tarlton, then (with his fellowes) playing at the Bell by, came into the Crosse-keyes (amongst many people) to see fashions; which Banks perceiving, (to make the people laugh,) saies, 'Signor,' (to his horse,) ' go fetch me the veryest foole in the company.' The jade comes immediately, and with his mouth drawes Tarlton forth. Tarlton (with merry words) said nothing but God a mercy, horse!' In the end, Tarlton, seeing the people laugh so, was angry inwardly, and said, Sir, had I power of your horse, as you have, I would do more than that.' 'Whate'er it be,' said Banks (to please

master in the

master in the Then,

him), I will charge him to do it.' 'Then,' saies Tarlton, 'charge him to bring me the veriest company.' 'He shall,' (saies Banks.) 'Signor,' (saies he,) 'bring master Tarlton here, the veriest company.' The horse leades his master to him. God a mercy, horse, indeed!' saies Tarlton. The people had much ado to keep peace; but Banks and Tarlton had like to have squared, and the horse by to give aim. But ever after it was a by-word thorow London, God a mercy, horse!' and is to this day."

In 1601 he was exhibited at the Golden Lion, Rue Saint Jaques, in Paris; and in the notes to a French translation of the "Golden Ass" of Apuleius, by Jean de Montlyard, Sieur de Melleray, first pointed out by Douce, he is described as a middle-sized bay English gelding, about fourteen years old. This work furnishes a very good account of his tricks, which seem to have been much of the same description as those practised by the learned pigs, dogs, and horses of our own time. While in France, poor Bankes and his curtail ran a narrow escape of being sacrificed as magicians,-a fate it has been feared, from a passage in Ben Jonson's 134th Epigram, and a note in the mock-romance of "Don Zara del Fogo," 1660, which really did befal them not long afterwards in Rome.

(5) SCENE II.-Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the beggar?] Two versions of this once popular ditty have come down to us. The elder is probably that printed in "Percy's Reliques," vol. i. p. 183, ed. 1767, from Richard Johnson's "Crown garland of Goulden Roses," 1612, and intituled, "A Song of a Beggar and a King." Whether this was the original of which Moth declares "The world was very guilty some three ages since," it is not easy to determine. It begins :

"I read that once in Affrica,
A princely wight did raine,
Who had to name Cophetua,
As poets they did faine.

From nature's laws he did decline,
For sure he was not of my mind,
He cared not for women-kinde,
But did them all disdaine.
But marke what hapned on a day,

As he out of his window lay

He saw a beggar all in gray,

The which did cause his paine."

The second stanza is memorable, from Mercutio's quoting the opening line :

"Young Abraham Cupid, he that shot so trim,
When King Cophetua lov'd the beggar maid."
Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Sc. 1.

"The blinded boy that shootes so trim
From heaven downe did hie:

He drew a dart and shot at him

In place where he did lye;

Which soone did pierse him to the quicke,

And when he felt the arrow pricke,

Which in his tender heart did sticke,

He looketh as he would dye.

What sudden chance is this, quoth he,

That I to love must subject be,

Which never thereto would agree,

But still did it defie?"

There are in all ten stanzas, of which that descriptive of the wedding of the king with "Penelophon" is, perhaps, the best :

"And when the wedding day was come

The king commanded strait

The noblemen, both all and some,

Upon the queene to wait.

And she behav'd herself that day
As if she had never walk't the way;
She had forgot her gowne of gray,
Which she did weare of late.
The proverbe old is come to passe,
The priest when he begins his masse,
Forgets that ever clerke he was;
He knowth not his estate."

[blocks in formation]

ACT II.

In the "Rape of Lucrece" we have the same metaphor:-
"But she, that never cop'd with stranger eyes,
Could pick no meaning from their parling looks,
Nor read the subtle shining secrecies

Writ in the glassy margent of such books."

Shakespeare was evidently fond of resembling the face to a book, and having once arrived at this similitude, the comparison, however odd, of the eyes to the margin, wherein of old the commentary on the text was printed,

is not altogether unnatural. The following passage, which presents both the primary and subordinate metaphor, is the best example he has given us of this peculiar association of ideas:

"What say you? can you love the gentleman?
This night you shall behold him at our feast;
Read o'er the volume of young Paris' face,
And find delight writ there with beauty's pen;
Examine every married lineament,

And see how one another lends content;
And what obscur'd in this fair volume lies,
Find written in the margent of his eyes."
Romeo and Juliet, Act I. Sc. 3.

(1) SCENE I.-Concolinel,

ACT III.

[Singing.]

This might have been the beginning, or the title of some pastorale, usually sung here by the actor who represented Moth.

Steevens has cited several passages to show that the songs introduced in the old Plays were frequently left to the taste of the singer. From among the instances he has produced, the following are sufficiently deeisive :

"In Marston's "Dutch Courtesan," 1605 :-" Cantat Gallice." But no song is set down. In the same Play, Act V. :"Cantat saltatque cum Cithara."

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

(2) SCENE I.-Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?] Marston, in his "Malcontent," describes this dance, but in a way that is quite unintelligible. It appears to have been performed by several persons joined hand to hand in a circle, and to have been the opening dance of a ball. Douce quotes the following account of "Le branle du bouquet," from "Deux dialogues du nouveau langage François, Italianizé," &c. Anvers, 1579, 24mo:"Un des gentil-hommes et une des dames, estans les premiers en la danse, laissent les autres (qui cependant continuent la danse) et se mettans dedans la dicte compagnie, vont baisans par ordre toutes les personnes qui y sont: à sçavoir le gentil-homme les dames, et la dame les gentilshommes. Puis ayans achevé leurs baisemens, au lieu qu'ils estoyent les premiers en la danse, se mettent les derniers. Et ceste façon de faire se continue par le gentilhomme et la dame qui sont les plus prochains, jusques à ce qu'on vienne aux derniers."-P. 385.

In Thoinot Arbeau's curious treatise on dancing, intituled "Orchesographie," Lengres, 1588, 4to, there is a Scottish brawl, the music of which is given in Douce's "Illustrations of Shakspeare," Vol. I. p. 219.

(3) SCENE I.-By my penny of observation, &c.] Penny, in days of yore, was used metaphorically to signify money, or means generally. In vol. i. p. 400, of the celebrated "Roxburgh Collection of Ballads," in the British Museum, is an old ballad,-"There's nothing to be had without Money;" the burden of which is, "But God a mercy penny." It is much too long to quote in full; but a few of the stanzas may be amusing to those who are not familiar with the quaint old lays which solaced and delighted our forefathers:

"1. You gallants, and you swaggering blades,
Give ear unto my ditty;

I am a boon companion known

In country, town, or city;

I always lov'd to wear good clothes,

And ever scorned to take blows;

I am belov'd of all me know,
But God a mercy penny.

2. My father was a man well known,
That us'd to hoard up money;
His bags of gold, he said, to him
More sweeter were than honey.
But I, his son, will let it fly
In tavern, or in ordinary;
I am beloved in company,

But God a mercy penny.

8. Bear garden, when I do frequent,
Or the Globe on the Bankside,
They afford to me most rare content
As I full oft have tried.

The best pastime that they can make
They instantly will undertake,
For my delight and pleasure sake,
But God a mercy penny.

9. In every place whereas I came,
Both I and my sweet penny,
Got entertainment in the same,
And got the love of many;

Both tapsters, cooks, and vintners fine,
With other jovial friends of mine,

Will pledge my health in beer or wine,
But God a mercy penny."

If further proof of this figurative use of penny is required, it may readily be found in our old comedies; but perhaps the following will be sufficient :

"a man may buy it with his penny.”

All Fools, Act IV. Sc. 1. "She had purchased with her penny."

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER's Wit without Money. Act IV. Sc. 3.

(4) SCENE I.-The hobby-horse is forgot.] "The Morris and the May-game of Robin Hood attained their most perfect form," Drake remarks, "when united with the Hobby-horse and the Dragon. Of these, the former was the resemblance of the head and tail of a horse, manufactured in pasteboard, and attached to a person, whose business it was, whilst he seemed to ride gracefully on its back, to imitate the prancings and curvetings of that noble animal, whose supposed feet were concealed by a footcloth reaching to the ground.' Considerable practice, and some little skill, must have been required for the most perfect specimens of this burlesque manege. In "The Vow Breaker" of Sampson, one of these centaurs, enraged with the mayor of the town for being his rival, exclaims,-"Let the mayor play the hobby-horse among his brethren, an he will, I hope our towne-lads cannot want a hobby-horse. Have I practic'd my reines, my careeres, my pranckers, my ambles, my false trotts, my smooth ambles and Canterbury paces, and shall master mayor put me besides the hobby-horse?"

One of the first steps taken by the puritanical zealots of those days, for the suppression of the ancient May-day sports, was to prohibit this popular favourite; and the playwrights and ballad-mongers seem never weary of satirizing his banishment by their ludicrous repining. Shakespeare again refers to it in "Hamlet," Act III. Sc. 2:

"For O, for O, the hobby horse is forgot."

And Ben Jonson, in his "Entertainment for the Queen and Prince at Althorpe :

"But see the hobby-horse is forgot.
Fool, it must be your lot,

To supply his want with faces
And some other buffoon graces."

So, too, Beaumont and Fletcher, in their "Women Pleased," Act IV. Sc. 1:

"Shall the hobby-horse be forgot, then,

The hopeful hobby-horse, shall he lie founder'd?"

And in Greene's "Tu Quoque," 1614:

"The other hobby-horse, I perceive, is not forgotten."

(5) SCENE I.-Like a German clock.] The earliest clocks used in this country came from Germany, and from their cumbrous, inartificial construction were likely to be often out of gear. Weston tells us he heard a French proverb that compared anything intricate and out of order to the coq de Strasburg, that belonged to the machinery of the town clock. The first clock of English manufacture is said to be the one at Hampton Court; which, according to the inscription once attached to it, was set up in 1540. Shakespeare is not singular in comparing a woman, from the elaboration of her toilet, to the complicated mechanism of a German clock. Ben Jonson, in his "Silent Woman," Act IV. Sc. 1. (Gifford's Ed.), has the same simile:

"She takes herself asunder still when she goes to bed, into some twenty boxes; and about next day noon is put together again, like a great German clock."

So, also, Middleton, in "A Mad World, My Masters," 1608:

"What, is she took asunder from her clothes? Being ready she consists of hundred pieces, Much like a German clock, and near ally'd." Thus, too, Decker and Webster in "Westward Hoe !" 1607:

"No German clock, no mathematical engine
Whatsoever, requires such reparation."

ACT IV.

(1) SCENE I.-A Monarcho.] This Monarcho was a crazy Italian, to whom allusion is made by many writers of the age. His mania consisted in believing himself king of the world!

"Sole Monarch of the universal earth."

In "A Brief Discourse of the Spanish State," &c. 4to. 1590, p. 39, the following incident connected with his delusion is recorded:-"The actors were, that Bergamasco (for his phantastick humors) named Monarcho, and two of the Spanish embassadors retinue, who being about foure and twenty years past, in Paules Church in London, contended who was soveraigne of the world; the Monarcho maintained himself to be he, and named their King to be but his viceroy for Spain; the other two with great fury denying it." &c.

Churchyard wrote an epitaph, published in 1580, on this poor crack-brained being; an extract from which, as it contains the best account of him yet discovered, may not be unacceptable :

"THE PHANTASTICALL Monarckes EPITAPHE,
"Though Dant be dedde, and Marrot lies in graue,
And Petrark's sprite bee mounted past our vewe,
Yet some doe liue (that poets humours haue)

To keepe old course with vains of verses newe:
Whose penns are prest to paint out people plaine,
That els a sleepe in silence should remaine:
Come poore old man that boare the Monarks name,
Thyne Epitaphe shall here set forthe thy fame.

Thy climyng mynde aspierd beyonde the starrs,
Thy loftie stile no yearthly titell bore:

Thy witts would seem to see through peace and warrs,
Thy tauntyng tong was pleasant sharpe and sore.
And though thy pride and pompe was somewhat vaine,
The Monarcke had a deepe discoursyng braine :
Alone with freend he could of wonders treate,
In publike place pronounce a sentence greate.

[ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

(4) SCENE III. For when would you, my lord, or you, or you.] In the present speech, as in that of Rosaline (p. 97), we appear to have got both the first sketch and the completed form of the poet's intention, which makes it extremely probable that the 4to. 1598, was composed from his own MS. There can be little doubt that the passage beginning as above, and the one lower down, both enclosed in brackets, commencing

"For where is any author in the world,"

are a portion of the original draft of Biron's address, and were meant by the author to be erased after he corrected and enlarged the play. In a subsequent part of the speech we have the same ideas, and even the same expressions. It has been contended, indeed, that these repetitions were intentional, and the iteration an artifice of rhetoric; but Shakespeare never repeats himself unnecessarily, and it is too much to believe that he would lengthen out an address, already long enough, by conveying the same thoughts in the same language. The words, too, "With ourselves," which in the old copies occur under a line that bears a similar expression, point irresistibly to the conclusion, that the passages indicated were inadvertently left uncancelled, and so got into print with the amended version,

ACT V.

(1) SCENE I. A quick venew of wit.] The meaning of venew, or venue, a term used of old by fencers, was made the subject of a very animated war of words between Steevens and Malone, the former defining it to be a bout, or set-to, and the latter, a hit. Mr. Douce has shown clearly that venue, stoccato, and imbrocato denoted the same thing-a hit, thrust, foin, or touch. See Saviolo's treatise, called "Use of the rapier and dagger," 4to. 1595; Florio's Italian dictionary, 1598; and Howel's "Lexicon tetraglotton," 1660.

(2) SCENE II. To tread a measure with her on the grass.] A measure seems originally to have meant any dance the motions of which kept due touch to music:

"And dancing is a moving all in measure."

Orchestra, by SIR JOHN DAVIES, 1622.

In time, however, it obtained a more precise signification, and was used to denote a movement slow, stately, and sweeping, like the modern minuet, which appears to be of the same character, and its legitimate successor :

"But after these, as men more civil grew,

He did more grave and solemn measures frame
With such fair order and proportion true,
And correspondence ev'ry way the same,
That no fault-finding eye did ever blame."-Orchestra.

The measures, Reed tells us, "were performed at court, and at public entertainments of the societies of law and equity, at their halls, on particular occasions. It was formerly not deemed inconsistent with propriety even for the gravest persons to join in them; and accordingly at the revels which were celebrated at the inns of court, it has not been unusual for the first characters in the law to become performers in treading the measures."

In "Riche his Farewell to Militarie Profession," Lond. 1581, there is a description of the Measure and other popular dances of the period too amusing to be omitted:"Firste for dauncyng, although I like the measures verie well, yet I could never treade them aright, nor to use measure in any thyng that I went aboute, although I desired to performe all thynges by line and by leavell, what so ever I tooke in hande. Our galliardes are so curious, that thei are not for my daunsyng, for thei are so full of trickes and tournes, that he whiche hath no more but the plaine sinquepace is no better accoumpted of then a verie bongler; and for my part thei might assone teache me to make a capricornus, as a capre in the right kinde that it should bee.

"For a jeigge my heeles are too heavie: and these braules are so busie, that I love not to beate my braines about them.

"A rounde is too giddie a daunce for my diet; for let the dauncers runne about with as much speede as thei maie, yet are thei never a whit the nier to the ende of their course, unlesse with often tourning thei hap to catch a fall; and so thei ende the daunce with shame, that was begonne but in sporte.

These hornepipes I have hated from my verie youth; and I knowe there are many other that love them as well as I.

"Thus you may perceive that there is no daunce but either I like not of theim, or thei like not of me, so that I can daunce neither."

(3) SCENE II. Well, better wits have worn plain statutecaps.] Johnson opined that the statute-caps alluded to were those worn by members of the Universities. "Lady Rosaline declares that her expectations were disappointed by these courtly students, and that better wits might be found in the common places of education." But in 1571, it was ordered by Statute, that citizens should wear woollen caps on Sundays and holidays, to encourage the trade of cappers; the more probable meaning, therefore, as Steevens suggested, is better wits may be found among the citizens, an interpretation which is well supported by the following quotations: "— though my husband be a citizen, and his cap's made of wool, yet I have wit."-Marston's "Dutch Courtezan," 1605. Tis a law enacted by the common council of statute-caps."-"The Family of Love," 1608. in a bowling alley in a flat cap like a shop-keeper.""Newes from Hell," &c. 1606.

[ocr errors]

(4) SCENE II.-He can carve too and lisp.] Mr. Hunter ("New, Illustrations of Shakespeare," vol. i. p. 215) was the first to point out that the commentators were all wrong in supposing that the word carve here, and the same expression in "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Act I. Sc. 3:

"she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation;" denoted the particular action of carving food at table. "Carving," he remarks, "would seem to mean some form of action which indicated the desire that the person to whom it was addressed should be attentive and propitious." It was reserved for an American critic, Mr. R. G. White, to show by a happy illustration from Sir Thomas Overbury's "Characters," "her wrie little finger

bewraies carving," that the "form of action," acutely surmised by Mr. Hunter, was a sign of recognition made with the little finger, probably when the glass was raised to the mouth. (See "Shakespeare's Scholar," 8vo. New York, 1854, p. xxxiii.)

The following are instances, adduced by Mr. Hunter and
Mr. Dyce, in which the word is used with this meaning:-
"Then did this Queen her wandering coach ascend,
Whose wheels were more inconstant than the wind:
A mighty troop this empress did attend;
There might you Caius Marius carving find
And martial Sylla courting Venus kind."

A description of Fortune from "A Prophecie of
Cadwallader, last King of the Brillaines," by
WILLIAM HERBERT, 4to., 1604.

"her amorous glances are her accusers, her very looks write Sonnets in thy commendations; she carves thee at boord, and cannot sleepe for dreaming on thee in bedde."-DAY's Ile of Guls, 1606, Sig. D.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

(6) SCENE II.-You cannot beg us.] Allusive to a practice formerly prevalent of begging the wardship of idiots and lunatics from the sovereign, who was the legal guardian, in order to gain possession of their property. This odious custom is a source of constant satire to the old dramatists. In illustration of it, there is an amusing story extracted by Douce from the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, No. 6395.

"The Lord North begg'd old Bladwell for a foole (though he could never prove him so), and having him in custodie as a lunaticke, he carried him to a gentleman's house, one day, that was his neighbour. The L. North and the gentleman retir'd awhile to private discourse, and left Bladwell in the dining roome, which was hung with a faire hanging; Bladwell walking up and downe, and viewing the imagerie, spyed a foole at last in the hanging, and without delay drawes his knife, flyes at the foole, cutts him cleane out, and layes him on the floore; my L., and the gentl. coming in againe, and finding the tapestrie thus defac'd, he ask'd Bladwell what he meant by such a rude uncivill act; he answered, Sr be content, I have rather done you a courtesie than a wrong, for if ever my L. N. had seene the foole there, he would have begg'd him, and so you might have lost your whole suite."

(7) SCENE II.-Pageant of the Nine Worthies.] The Nine Worthies, originally comprising Joshua, David,

Γ

« AnteriorContinuar »