SANDS. New customs, Though they be never fo ridiculous, Nay, let them be unmanly, yet are follow'd. Their very nofes had been counsellors To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep ftate fo. SANDS. They have all new legs, and lame ones; one would take it, That never faw them pace before, the spavin, fhows, which the mummers of thofe times exhibited in odd fantaftick habits. Myfteries are ufed, by an eafy figure, for thofe that exhibited myfleries; and the fenfe is only, that the travelled Englishmen were metamorphofed, by foreign fashions, into fuch an uncouth appearance, that they looked like mummers in a mystery. JOHNSON. That myfteries is the genuine reading, [Dr. Warburton would read-mockeries] and that it is used in a different fenfe from the one here given, will appear in the following inftance from Drayton's Shepherd's Garland: 66 even fo it fareth now with thee, "And with thefe wifards of thy myfterie." The context of which fhows, that by wifards are meant poets, and by myfterie their poetic skill, which was before called "mister artes." Hence the myfteries in Shakipeare fignify thofe fantaftick manners and fashions of the French, which had operated as Spells or enchantHENLEY. ments. "A fit or two o' the face ;] A fit of the face feems to be what we now term a grimace, an artificial caft of the countenance. JOHNSON. Fletcher has more plainly exprcffed the fame thought in The Elder Brother : 66 - learnt new tongues. "To vary his face as feamen do their compafs." STEEVENS. 8 That never faw them-] Old copy-fee 'em. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. A springhalt reign'd among them.' CHAM. Death! my lord, Their clothes are after fuch a pagan cut too,* That, fure, they have worn out christendom. How now? What news, fir Thomas Lovell? Lov. Enter Sir THOMAS LOVELL. 'Faith, my lord, I hear of none, but the new proclamation CHAM. What is't for? Lov. The reformation of our travell'd gallants, That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors. CHAM. I am glad, 'tis there; now I would pray our monfieurs To think an English courtier may be wife, Lov. They must either (For fo run the conditions,) leave these remnants 9 A fpringhalt reign'd among them.] The fringhalt, or springhalt, (as the old copy reads,) is a disease incident to horfes, which gives them a convulfive motion in their 66 So, in Muleaffes the Turk, 1610; Spring-halt and debility in their hams." paces. Again, in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair: by reafon of a general "Poor foul, fhe has had a ftringhalt." STEEVENS, Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors, without any neceffity, I think, for A fpringhalt, read-And springhalt. MALONE. 2 cut too,] Old copy-cut to't. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE. Both the first and fecond folio read-cut too't, fo that for part of this correction we are not indebted to the fourth folio. STEEVENS. Öf fool, and feather," that they got in France, With all their honourable points of ignorance Pertaining thereunto, (as fights, and fireworks; * leave thefe remnants Of fool, and feather,] This does not allude to the feathers anciently worn in the hats and caps of our countrymen, (a circumftance to which no ridicule could juftly belong,) but to an effeminate fashion recorded in Greene's Farewell to Folly, 16173 from whence it appears that even young gentlemen carried fans of feathers in their hands: we ftrive to be counted womanish, by keeping of beauty, by curling the hair, by wearing plumes of feathers in our hands, which in wars, our ancestors wore on their heads." Again, in his Quip for an upftart Courtier, 1620: "Then our young courtiers ftrove to exceed one another in vertue, not in bravery; they rode not with fannes to ward their faces from the wind," &c. Again, in Lingua, &c. 1607, Phantaftes, who is a male character, is equipped with a fan. STEEVENS. The text may receive illuftration from a paffage in Nafhe's Life of Iacke Wilton, 1594: " At that time [viz. in the court of King Henry VIII. I was no common fquire, no undertroden torchbearer, I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the foretop, my French doublet gelte in the belly, as though (lyke a pig readie to be fpitted) all my guts had been pluckt out, a paire of fide paned hofe that hung down like two fcales filled with Holland cheeses, my long fock that fate clofe to my dock,-my rapier pendant like a round sticke, &c. my blacke cloake of black cloth, ouerfpreading my backe lyke a thornbacke or an elephantes eare;-and in confummation of my curiofitie, my handes without gloves, all a more French," &c. RITSON. In Rowley's Match at Midnight, Act I. fc. i. Sim fays: "Yes, yes, fhe that dwells in Blackfryers next to the fign of the fool laughing at a feather." But Sir Thomas Lovell's is rather an allufion to the feathers which were formerly worn by fools in their caps. See a print on this fubject from a painting of Jordaens, engraved by Voert; and again, in the ballad of News and no News: 2 "And feathers wagging in a fool's cap." Douce. - fireworks;] We learn from a French writer quoted in Montfaucon's Monuments de la Monarchie Françoife, Vol. IV. that fome very extraordinary fireworks were played off on the evening of the last day of the royal interview between Guynes and Ardres. Hence, our " travelled gallants," who were present at this exhibition, might have imbibed their fondness for the pyrotechnic art. STEEVENS. Abusing better men than they can be, Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean 3 Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it, Are grown fo catching. Снам. Will have of these trim vanities! What a lofs our ladies Ay, marry, Lor. SANDS. The devil fiddle them! I am glad, they're (For, fure, there's no converting of them;) now A long time out of play, may bring his plain-fong, CHAM. SANDS. Your colt's tooth is not caft yet. Well faid, lord Sands; No, my lord; Sir Thomas, Nor fhall not, while I have a ftump. Снам. Whither were you a going? 2 blifter'd breeches,] Thus the old copy; i. e. breeches puff'd, fwell'd out like blifters. The modern editors read—bolster'd breeches, which has the fame meaning. STEEVENS. 3 wear away-] Old copy-wee away. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE. Lov. To the cardinal's; Your lordship is a guest too. CHAM. O, 'tis true: This night he makes a fupper, and a great one, Lov. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed, A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us; Снам. SANDS. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal; in him, Sparing would fhow a worse fin than ill doctrine: Снам. SANDS. I am your lordship's. [Exeunt. My barge ftays;] The speaker is now in the king's palace at Bridewell, from which he is proceeding by water to Yorkplace, (Cardinal Wolfey's houfe,) now Whitehall. MALONE. |