"Fleshed to the presse Sung to the wheele, and sung unto the payle, Hall's Virgidem. 1597. Steevens says, the wheel may mean no more than the burthen of the song, which she had just repeated, and as such was formerly used and cites from memory a quarto M. S. before Shakespeare's time. : "The song was accounted a good one, though it was not moche graced by the wheele, which in no wise accorded with the subject matter thereof." (43) Rosemary, that's for remembrance] Rosemary, conceived to have the power of strengthening the memory, and prescribed in old medical books for that purpose, was an emblem of remembrance, and of the affection of lovers; and thence, probably, was worn at weddings, as it also was at funerals. "There's rosemarie; the Arabians justifie "It comforteth the braine and memorie." Chester's Dialogue betw. Nature and the Phonix, 1601. "Rosemary is for remembrance "Betweene us daie and night; Wishing that I might alwaies have "You present in my sight." Handful of delites, &c. 16mo. 1584, in a "Nosegaie alwaies sweet for lovers to send for tokens of love." "Shee hath given thee a nosegay of flowers, wherein, as a top-gallant for all the rest, is set in rosemary for remembrance." Greene's Never too late, 1616. "Will I be wed this morning, "Thou shalt not be there, nor once be graced with I meet few but are stuck with rosemary; every one asked me, who was to be married." Noble Spanish Soldier, 1634. "What is here to do? wine and cakes, and rosemary and nosegaies? what, a wedding ?" The Wit of a Woman, 1604. STEEVENS and MALONE. We shall add," My mother hath stolne a whole pecke of flower for a bride cake, and our man hath sworne he will steale a brave Rosemary Bush, and I have spoken for ale that will make a cat speake." Nich. Breton's Poste, &c. 4to. 1637. "The bride-laces, that I give at my wedding, will serve to tye rosemary to." The Honest Whore, sign. K 3, b. and see II. H. IV. II. 3. Lady Percy. And see to rain upon remembrance Rosemary and Romeo." Ro. and Jul. II. 4. Nurse. (44) pansies, that's for thoughts] "Since I have lincked myself in marriage, I have never bin without pensees nor soucy." The marginal note says, "Penseez is a little flower, called in English heart's ease, or pansies. Pensees in Fr. signifieth thoughtes. Soucy signifieth in English, care." Pet. Erondelle's Fr. Garden, 12mo. 1605, sign. N 7, b. Steevens cites Chapman's All Fools, 1605: "What flowers are these? "The pansie this. "O, that's for lovers' thoughts!" (45) There's fennel for you, and columbines] This seems to be an address to the king; although the application to him of the latter of the two things offered, is not obvious. cites Turberville's Epitaphs, p. 42 : Steevens Malone, Florio's Ital. Dict. 1598. "Dare finocchio, to give fennel,-to flatter, to dissemble." And Holt White, Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, B. I. Song ii. 1613: "The columbine in tawny often taken, "Is then ascribed to such as are forsaken." (46) there's rue for you; and here's some for me :-we may call it herb-grace o'Sundays] Malone tells us, that under the word ruta, in Florio's Ital., and Rue, in Cotgrave's Fr. Dict., it is interpreted herb of grace. When Ophelia, presenting it to the queen, reserves some for herself, she certainly means to infer, that they were both visited by Ruth, or Sorrow; as the words are in terms associated in Rich. II.: and as contrition or sorrow is a sign of grace, it may thence have been called herb of grace, and in the passage referred to, it is called sour herb of grace. Rue, sour herb of grace, She adds, we may call it herb of grace o'Sundays;" i. e. as is conceived on festivals, as being a holiday or softer name. Steevens also says, "herb of grace is one of the titles which Tucca gives to William Rufus, in Decker's Satiromastix. I suppose the first syllable of the surname Rufus introduced the quibble." In Doctor Do-good's Directions, an ancient ballad, is the same allusion : "If a man have light fingers that he cannot charme. "Which will pick men's pockets, and do such like harme, "He must be let blood, in a scarfe weare his arme, "And drink the herb grace in a posset luke-warme." Mr. Todd cites Jer. Taylor's Diss. from Popery, c. II. s. 10. "They (the Romish exorcists) are to try the devil by holy water, incense, sulphur, rue; which from thence, as we suppose, came to be called herb of grace." In his edition 8vo. 1821. XXI. 389, Malone quotes a letter from Alleyn, the player, to his wife in 1593; in which he understands this word in the sense of wormwood." Keepe your house fayr and clean, and every evening throw water before your dore, and in your back syd, and have in your windowes good store of rue and herbe of grace, and withall the grace of God, which must be obtaynd by prayers: and, so doing, you shall escape the plague; of which, there then died in London and its liberties 10,675." (47) you may wear your rue with a difference] The slightest variation in the bearings, their position or colour, constituted a different coat in heraldry; and between the ruth and wretchedness of guilt, and the ruth and sorrows of misfortune, it would be no difficult matter to distinguish. "If he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse." M. ado &c. I. 1. Beatr. (48) There's a daisy] Greene, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, has explained the significance of this flower: ". - Next them grew the DISSEMBLING DAISIE, to warne such light-of-love wenches not to trust every faire promise that such amorous bachelors make them." HENLEY. (49) For bonny sweet Robin is all my joy] Part of an old song. "I can sing the broom "And bonny Robin." Two Noble Kinsmen, IV. 1. In the books of the Stationers' Company, 26 April, 1594, see "A ballad; A doleful adewe to the last Erle of Darbie, to the tune of Bonny sweet Robin." STEEVENS. The "Courtly new ballad of the princely wooing of the faire maid of London, by King Edward," is also "to the tune of Bonny sweet Robin." RITSON. (50) His beard as circumstances in the white as snow, &c.] This, and several character of Ophelia, seem to have been ridiculed in Jonson, Chapman, and Marston. Eastward Hoe. 1605. A. III. (51) I must common with your grief] i. e. " confer, have some discussion or argument with." Commune is the reading of the quartos and the folio of 1632: but, as Steevens observes, this word, pronounced as anciently spelt, is still in frequent provincial use. See Settle's Last Voyage of Captaine Frobisher, 12mo. bl. 1. 1577: "Our Generall repayred with the ship boat to common or sign with them." And Hollinshed's Jack Cade's insurrection: " - to whome were sent from the king the archbishop &c. to common with him of his griefs and requests." (52) No trophy, sword, nor hatchment, o'er his bones] Not only the sword, but the helmet, gauntlet, spurs, and tabard (i. e. a coat whereon the armorial ensigns were anciently depicted, from whence the term coat of armour,) are hung over the grave of every knight. SIR J. HAWKINS. (53) No noble rite, nor formal ostentation,— Cry to be heard] i. e. "all these multiplied incitements are things which cry, &c." Ostentation or ostent seem to have been terms which fashion had in some sort appropriated to funeral pomp or the shew of heavy and deep depression. "Triumphant Jove, now full of griefe ostent Heywood's Britaine's Troy, p. 82. "A poem is the richest monument "And only lives, when marble tombes decay- "Where stands thy monument and grave this day?" Ib. p. 171. M. ado &c. IV. 1. Friar. "Maintain a mourning ostentation." (54) let the great axe fall] i. e. the axe" that is to be laid to the root." (55) Would, like the spring that turneth wood to stone, Convert his gyves to graces] i. e. would, by a process like that with which wood is turned into stone by the action of a petrifying well, convert the iron fetters that load and encumber him, into elegant and graceful ornaments: Mercurii talaria. Reed refers to such a spring, called the dropping well, in Camden, edit. 1590, p. 564: "Sub quo fons est in quem ex impendentibus rupibus aquæ guttatim distillant, unde DROPPING WELL vocant, in quem quicquid ligni immittitur, lapideo cortice brevi obduci & lapidescere observatum est.” (56) Too lightly timber'd for so loud a wind] "Weake bowes and lighte shaftes, cannot stand in a roughe winde." Ascham's Toxophilus, 1589, p. 57. STEEVENS. (57) let our beard be shook with danger] "Idcirco stolidam præbet tibi vellere barbam Jupiter?" Persius, Sat. ii. STEEVENS. (58) As checking at his voyage] i. e. "holding back, hesitating about." It is a term of falconry. Steevens quotes Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606: “—For who knows not, quoth she, that this hawk, which comes now so fair to the fist, may tomorrow check at the lure?" Steevens's quartos for checking at read liking not but Malone states, that the quarto of 1604 reads "As the king at his voyage. (59) Sir, this report] Two lines above, where this extract from the quartos begins, this word, Sir, finishes the sentence; and the folios read, (60) "If one could match you, sir,—this report of his." love is begun by time; And that I see, in passages of proof, Time qualifies the spark and fire of it.] i. e. the operation of time, whose slow and gradual progress is necessary to ripen a genuine and legitimate passion, has, as experience shows in conclusive instances, a powerful influence in producing its decay, as well as in giving it birth. Of the dignity and constancy of this passion, our author, when not sustaining a character, speaks in clearer language, in more earnest terms, and in a higher strain of poetry, Sonn. CXVI. "Love's not Time's Foole; tho' rosie lips and cheeks 4to. 1609. (61) For goodness, growing to a plurisy] i. e. " superfluity, excess." The dramatic writers of that time frequently call a fulness of blood a plurisy, as if it came, not from λɛʊpà, but from plus, pluris. WARBURTON. Against the blood, or plurisie of blood. The disease of blood is, some young horses will feed, and being fat will increase blood, and so grow to a plurisie, and die thereof if he have not soon help." Mascal on Cattle, 1662, p. 187. TOLLET. |