Sir And. An I thought that, I'd forfwear it. I'll ride home to-morrow, fir Toby. Sir To. Pourquoy, my dear knight? Sir And. What is pourquoy? do, or not do? I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues, that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting: O, had I but follow'd the arts! Sir To. Then hadft thou had an excellent head of hair. Sir And. Why, would that have mended my hair? Sir To. Paft question; for thou seest, it will not curl by nature. Sir And. But it becomes me well enough, does't not? Sir To. Excellent; it hangs like flax on a distaff; and I hope to see a housewife take thee between her legs, and fpin it off. Sir And. 'Faith, I'll home to-morrow, Sir Toby: your niece will not be feen; or, if she be, it's four to one fhe'll none of me the count himself, here hard by, wooes her. Sir To. She'll none o'the count; fhe'll not match above her degree, neither in eftate, years, nor wit; I have heard her fwear it. Tut, there's life in't, man. Sir And. I'll stay a month longer. I am a fellow o'the ftrangeft mind i'the world; I delight in mafques and revels fometimes altogether. Sir To. Art thou good at these kick-fhaws, knight? Sir And. As any man in Illyria, whatsoever he be, under the degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare with an old man.5 Sir To. What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight? Sir To. And I can cut the mutton to't. Sir And. And, I think, I have the back-trick, fimply as ftrong as any man in Illyria. Sir 5 This is intended as a fatire on that common vanity of old men, in preferring their own times, and the past generation, to the present. WARBURTON. This ftroke of pretended fatire but ill accords with the character of the foolish knight. Ague-cheek, though willing enough to arrogate to himself fuch experience as is commonly the acquifition of age, is yet careful to exempt his perfon from being compared with its bodily weakness. In fhort, he would fay with Falstaff: “ I am old in nothing but my underftanding." STEEVENS. 6 Sir To. Wherefore are these things hid? wherefore have thefe gifts a curtain before them? are they like to take duft, like miftrefs Mall's picture? why doft thou not go to church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto? My very walk fhould On 6 The real name of the woman whom I fuppofe to have been meant by Sir Toby, was Mary Frith. The appellation by which the was generally known, was Mall Cutpurfe. She was at once an hermaphrodite, a proftitute, a bawd, a bully, a thief, a receiver of ftolen goods, &c. &c. the books of the Stationers' Company, Auguft 1610, is entered-“A Booke called the Madde Prancks of Merry Mall of the Bankfide, with her walks in man's apparel, and to what purpose. Written by John Day.” Middleton and Decker wrote a comedy, of which he is the heroine. In this, they have given a very flattering representation of her, as they obferve in their preface, that it is the excellency of a writer, to leave things better than he finds them." The title of this piece is―The Roaring Girl, or Moll Cut-purse; as it bath been lately acted on the Fortune Stage, by the Prince his Players, 1611. The frontispiece to it contains a full length of her in man's clothes, fimoaking tobacco. A life of this woman was likewife published, 12mo. in 1662, with her portrait before it in a male habit; an ape, a lion, and an eagle by her. As this extraordinary perfonage appears to have partook of both fexes, the curtain which Sir Toby mentions, would not have been unneceffarity drawn before fuch a picture of her as might have been exhibited in an age, of which neither too much delicacy or decency was the characteris tick. STEEVENS. In our author's time, I believe, curtains were frequently hung before pictures of any value MALONE. See a further account of this woman in Dodley's Collection of Oka Plays, edition, 1780, Vol. VI. p. 1. Vol. XII. p. 398. REED. Mary Frith was born in 1584, and died in 1659. In a MS. letter in the British Mufeum, from John Chamberlain to Mr. Carleton, dated Feb. 11, 1611-12, the following account is given of this woman's doing penance: "This laft Sunday Moll Cutpurfe, a notorious baggage that ufed to go in man's apparel, and challenged the field of diverfe gallants, was brought to the fame place [St. Paul's Crofs], where the wept bitterly, and feemed very penitent; but it is fince doubted fhe was maudlin drunk, being discovered to have tippel'd of three quarts of fack, before the came to her penance. She had the daintieft preacher or ghoftly father that ever I saw in the pulpit, one Radcliffe of Brazen-Nofe College in Oxford, a likelier man to have led the revels in fome inn of court, than to be where he was. But the beft is, he did extreme badly, and fo wearied the audience that the best part went away, and the reft tarried rather to hear Moll Cutpurfe than him." MALONE. It is for the fake of correcting a mift ke of Dr. Grey, that I obferve this is the character alluded to in the fecond of the following lines; and not This seems confirmed by the frequent fusions to much a poactive below se 323.324. text & notes-W.T. 313 should be a jig ; I would not fo much as make water, but in a fink-a-pace.7 What doft thou mean? is it a world to hide virtues in? I did think, by the excellent conftitution of thy leg, it was form'd under the ftar of a galliard. Sir And.. Ay, 'tis ftrong, and it does indifferent well in a flame-colour'd stock. Shall we set about some revels ? Sir To. What fhall we do elfe? were we not born under Taurus? Sir And. Taurus; that's fides and heart.8 Sir To. No, fir; it is legs and thighs. Let me see thee caper ha! higher: ha, ha!-excellent! SCENE IV. A Room in the Duke's Palace. [Exeunt Enter VALENTINE, and VIOLA in man's attire. Val. If the duke continue these favours towards you, Cefario, you are like to be much advanced; he hath known you but three days, and afready you are no stranger. Vio. You either fear his humour, or my negligence, that you call in question the continuance of his love: Is he inconftant, fir, in his favours? Val. No, believe me. Enter DUKE, CURIO, and Attendants. Vio. I thank you. Here comes the count. Duke. Who faw Cefario, ho? not Mary Carleton, the German Princefs, as he has very erroneously and unaccountably imagined: "A bold virago ftout and tall, "As Joan of France, or English Mall.” The latter of these lines is borrowed by Swift in his Baucis and Philemon. Hudibras, P. I. ciii. RITSON. 7 i. e. a cinque-pace; the name of a dance, the measures whereof are regulated by the number five. The word occurs elfewhere in our author. SIR J. HAWKINS. 8 Alluding to the medical astrology still preserved in Almanacks, which refers the affections of particular parts of the body, to the predominance of particular conftellations. JOHNSON, VOL. I. P Vio Vio. On your attendance, my lord; here. And tell them, there thy fixed foot fhall grow, Vio. Sure, my noble lord, If fhe be fo abandon'd to her forrow As it is fpoke, she never will admit me. Duke. Be clamorous, and leap all civil bounds, Vio. Say,I do fpeak with her, my lord; What then? Vio. I think not fo, my lord. Duke. Dear lad, believe it; For they fhall yet belie thy happy years, Is not more smooth, and rubious; thy fmall pipe I know, thy conftellation is right apt For this affair-Some four, or five, attend him; : When leaft in company :-Profper well in this, To cali his fortunes thine. Vio. I'll do my best, To woo your lady: yet, [Afide.] a barrful ftrife! 2 [Exeunt. 9 That is, thy proper part in a play would be a woman's. Women were then perfonated by boys. JOHNSON. 2 i. e. a conteft full of impediments. STEEVEN S. SCENE SCENE V. A Room in Olivia's House. Enter MARIA, and CLow N. 3 Mar. Nay, either tell me where thou haft been, or I will not open my lips, fo wide as a briftle may enter, in way of thy excufe: my lady will hang thee for thy abfence. Clo. Let her hang me: he, that is well hang'd in this world, needs to fear no colours,+ Mar. Make that good. Clo. He fhall fee none to fear. Mar. A good lenten anfwer: 5 I can tell thee where that faying was born, of, I fear no colours. Clo. Where, good mistress Mary? Mar. In the wars; and that may you be bold to say in your foolery. Clo. Well, God give them wifdom, that have it; and thofe that are fools, let them use their talents. Mar. Yet you will be hang'd, for being fo long absent: or, to be turn'd away; is not that as good as a hanging to you? Clo. Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage; and, for turning away, let fummer bear it out. P 2 6 Mar. 3 As this is the firft clown who makes his appearance in the plays of our author, it may not be amifs, from a paffage in Tarleton's News out of Purgatory, to point out one of the ancient dreffes appropriated to the character: "I faw one attired in ruffet, with a button'd cap on his head, a bag by his fide, and a ftrong bat in his hand; fo artificially attired for a clowne, as I began to call Tarleton's woonted shape to remembrance." STEEVENS. Such perhaps was the drefs of the Clown in this Comedy, in All's well that ends well, &c. The Clown, however, in Moafure for Measure, (as an anonymous writer has obferved) is only the tapfter of a brothel, and probably was not fo apparelled. MALONE. 4 This expreffion frequently occurs in the old plays. STEEVENS. 5 A lean, or as we now call it, a dry anfwer. JOHNSON. Surely a lenten anfwer, rather means a fhort and Spare one, like the rommons in Lent. So, in Hamlet: "" what lenten entertainment the players fhall receive from you." STEEVENS. This feems to be a pun from the nearnefs in the pronunciation of turning away and turning of whey. 3 I found |