ARM. By the north pole, I do challenge thee. 2 COST. I will not fight with a pole, like a northern man; I'll flash; I'll do it by the fword:- I pray you, let me borrow my arms' again. DUM. Room for the incenfed worthies. DUM. Moft refolute Pompey! MOTH. Mafler, let me take you a button-hole lower. Do you not fee, Pompey is uncaling for the combat? What mean you? you will lofe your reputation. ARM. Gentlemen, and foldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my my fhirt. DUM. You may not deny it; Pompey hath made the challenge. ARM. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. ARM. The naked truth of it is, I have no fhirt; I go woolward for penance. BOYET. True, and it was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen: fince when, I'll be fworn, he like a northern man;] Vir Borealis, a clown. See Glossary to Urry's Chaucer. FARMER. 3 my arms The weapons and armour which he wore in the character of Pompey. JOHNSON. it was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen: &c.] This may poffibly allude to a flory well known in our author's time, to this effect. A Spaniard at Rome falling in a duel, as he lay expiring, an intimate friend, by chance, came by, and offered him his best fervices. The dying man told him he had but one request to make him, but conjured him, by the memory of their past friendship, pundually to comply with it, which was not to fuffer him to be fiript, but to bury him as he lay, in the habit he then had on. When this was promifed, the Spaniard clofed his eyes, and expired with great compofure and refignation. But his friend's curiofity prevailing over his good faith, he had him ftript, and found, to his great furprife, that he was without a fhirt. WARBURTON. wore none, but a difh-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that 'a wears next his heart, for a favour. Boyet. True, and it was erjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen: &c.] This is a plain reference to the following story in Stowe's Annals, p. 98. (in the time of Edward the Confeffor.) 66 Next after this (king Edward's firft cure of the king's evil) mine authors affirm, that a certain man, named Vifunius Spileorne, the fon of Ulmore of Nutgarhall, who, when he hewed timber in the wood of Brutheullena, laying him down to fleep after his fore labour, the blood and humours of his head fo congealed about his eyes, that he was thereof blind, for the space of nineteen years; but then (as he had been moved in his fleep) he went woolward and bare-footed to many churches, in every of them to pray to God for help in his blindnefs. DR. GREY. The fame cuftom is alluded to in an old collection of Satyres, Epigrams, &c. "And when his fhirt's a washing, then he must "That worth two fhirts his laundrefs fhould him fee." Again, in A Mery Gefte of Robyn Hoode, bl. 1. no date: "Barefoot, woolward have I hight, Again, in Powell's Hiftory of Wales, 1584: "The Angles and with a great number of lay-brethren, &c. who were come bare-footed and woolward to crave mercy, &c. STEEVENS. In Lodge's Incarnate Devils, 1596, we have the character of a Swashbuckler: "His common courfe is to go always untruft; except when his fhirt is a wafhing, and then he goes woolward. FARMER. Woolward- I have no fhirt: I go woolward for penance." The learned Dr. Grey, whofe accurate knowledge of our old historians has often thrown much light on Shakspeare, supposes that this paffage is a plain reference to a flory in Stowe's Annals, p. 98. But where is the connection or refemblance between this monkish tale and the paffage before us? There is nothing in the ftory, as here related by Stowe, that would even put us in mind of this dialogue between Boyet and Armado, except the fingular expreffion go woolward; which, at the fame time is not explained by the an notator, nor illuftrated by his quotation. To go woolward, I believe, was a phrafe appropriated to pilgrims and penitentiaries. In this fenfe it seems to be used in Pierce Plowman's Vifions, Paff. xviii. fol. 96. b. edit. 1550: Enter MERCADE. MER. God fave you, madam! PRIN. Welcome, Mercade; But that thou interrupt'ft our merriment. MER. I am forry, madam; for the news I bring, Is heavy in my tongue. The king your father PRIN. Dead, for my life. MER. Even fo; my tale is told. BIRON. Worthies, away; the fcene begins to cloud. ARM. For mine own part, I breathe free breath: I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of difcretion, and I will right myfelf like a foldier. [Exeunt Worthies. Wolward and wetfhod went I forth after "As a rechlefs reuke, that of no wo retcheth, Skinner derives woolward from the Saxon wol, plague, fecondarily any great diftrefs, and weard, toward. Thus, fays he, it fignifies, in magno difcrimine & expectatione magni mali conftitutus.' I rather think it fhould be written woolward, and that it means cloathed in wool, and not in linen. This appears, not only from Shakspeare's context, but more particularly from a hiftorian who relates the legend before cited, and whose words Stowe has evidently tranflated. This is Ailred abbot of Rievaulx, who fays, that our blind man was admonished," Ecclefias numero o&oginta nudis pedibus & abfque linteis circumire." Dec. Scriptor. 392. 50. The fame ftory is told by William of Malmbury, Geft. Reg. Angl. lib. ii. p. 91. edit. 1601. And in Caxton's Legenda Aurea, fol. 307. edit. 1493. By the way it appears, that Stowe's Vifunius Spileorne, fon of Ulmore of Nutgarthall, ought to be Wulwin, furnamed de Spillicote, fon of Wulmar de Lutegarfhelle, now Ludgerfhall: and the wood of Brutheullena is the foreft of Bruelle, now called Brill, in Buckinghamshire. T. WARTON. To this fpeech in the old copy Boj. is prefixed, by which defignation moft of Moth's fpeeches are marked. The name of Boyet is generally printed at length. It feems better fuited to Armado's page than to Boyet, to whom it has been given in the modern editions. MALONE. I have feen the day of wrong through the little hole of difcretion,] This has no meaning. We should read, the day of right, i. c. I KING. How fares your majefty? PRIN. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. KING, Madam, not fo; I do befeech you, ftay. PRIN. Prepare, I fay.-I thank you, gracious lords, For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, Out of a new-fad foul, that you vouchsafe In your rich wisdom, to excuse, or hide, The liberal oppofition of our spirits: If over-boldly we have borne ourselves In the converse of breath, your gentleness 6 have seen that a day will come when I fhall have justice done me, and therefore I prudently reserve myself for that time. WARBURTON. I believe it rather means, I have hitherto looked on the indignities I have received, with the eyes of difcretion, (i. e. not been too forward to resent them) and fhall infift on fuch fatisfaction as will not difgrace my character, which is that of a foldier. To have decided the quarrel in the manner propofed by his antagonist, would have been at once a derogation from the honour of a foldier, and the pride of a Spaniard. "One may fee day at a little hole," is a proverb in Ray's Collec tion: "Day-light will peep through a little hole, in Kelly's. Again, in Churchyard's Charge, 1590. p. 9: "At little hoales the daie is Jeen." STEEVENS. The paffage is faulty; but Warburton has miflaken the meaning of it, and the place in which the error lies. Armado means to fay, in his affected ftyle, that he had difcovered that he was wronged, and was determined to right himself as a foldier;" and this meaning will be clearly exprelled if we read it thus, with a very flight alteration: I have feen the day of wrong, through the little hole of difcretion. M. MASON. 6 liberal 66 66 · Free to excess. So, in The Merchant of Venice: there they show 7 In the converse of breath,] Perhaps converfe may, in this line, mean interchange. JOHNSON. Converfe of breath means no more than converfation "made up of breath, as our author expreffes himself in Othello. Thus allo in The Merchant of Venice: Therefore I fcant this breathing courtesy." STEEVENS. Was guilty of it.-Farewell, worthy lord! KING. The extreme parts of time extremely form All caufes to the purpose of his speed; And often, at his very loofe, decides That which long procefs could not arbitrate: The holy fuit which fain it would convince;2 & A heavy heart bears not an humble tongue:] Thus all the edi. tions; but, furely, without either feufe or truth. None are more humble in fpeech, than they who labour under any oppreffion. The princefs is defiring her grief may apologize for her not expreffing her obligations at large; and my corredion is conformable to that fentiment. Befides, there is an antithefis between heary aud nimble; but between heavy and humble, there is none. THEOBALD. The following paffage in King John, inclines me to difpute the propriety of Mr. Theobald's emendation: แ grief is proud, and makes his owner fout. By humble, the princefs feems to mean obfequiously thankful. So, in The Merchant of Venice: "Shall I bend low, and in a bondman's key STEEVENS. "With bated breath, and whispering humbleness," &c. A heavy heart, fays the princefs, does not admit of that verbal obeifance which is paid by the humble to thofe whom they address. Farewell therefore at once. MALONE. 9 And often, at his very loofe, decides, &c.] At his very loose, may mean, at the moment of his parting, i. e. of his getting loofe, or away from us. So in fome ancient poem, of which I forgot to préserve either the date or title: "Envy difcharging all her pois'nous darts, "The valiant mind is temper'd with that fire, "At her fierce loofe that weakly never parts, "But in defpight doth force her to retire." STEEVENS. which fain it would convince; ] We must read : which fain would it convince; that is, the entreaties of love which would fain over-power grief. |