of our youth in us; we are the fons of women, mafter Page. Page. 'Tis true, mafter Shallow, Shal. It will be found fo, mafter Page. Mafter Doctor Caius, I am come to fetch you home. I am fworn of the peace: you have fhew'd yourself a wife phyfician, and Sir Hugh hath fhewn himself a wife and patient churchman, You must go with me, mafter Doctor. Hoft. Pardon, guest justice.-A word, monfieur mock-water. Caius. Mock vater! vat is dat? Hoft. Mock-water, in our English tongue, is va lour, bully. Caius. By gar, then I have as much mock-vater as de Englishman: fcurvy-jack-dog-prieft! by gar, me vill cut his ears. Hoft. He will clapper-claw thee tightly, bully. Hoft. That is, he will make thee amends. Caius. By gar, me do look, he shall clapper-de-claw me; for, by gar, me vill have it. Hoft. And I will provoke him to't, or let him wag, Caius. Me tank you for dat. Hoft. And moreover, bully-But first, master Gueft, and mafter Page, and eke cavalero Slender, go you through the town to Frogmore. Page. Sir Hugh is there, is he? Hoft. He is there; fee what humour he is in; and I will bring the Doctor about the fields: will it do well? Shal. We will do it. All, Adieu, good mafter Doctor. [Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender, mock-water.] The hoft means, I believe, to reflect on the infpection of urine, which made a confiderable part of practical phyfick in that time; yet I do not well fee the meaning of mock-water. JOHNSON. Caius. By gar, me vill kill de priest; for he speak for a jack-an-ape to Anne Page. Hoft. Let him die: but, firft, fheath thy impatience; throw cold water on thy choler: go about the fields with me through Frogmore; I will bring thee where mistrefs Anne Page is, at a farm-house a feafting; and thou fhalt woo her; 3 cry aim, faid I well? In old editions, Caius. -I will bring thee where Ann Page is, at a farm-house a feafting; and thou shalt woo her, CRY'D GAME, Jaid I well?] Mr. Theobald alters this nonfenfe to try'd game; that is, to nonfenfe of a worfe complexion. Shakespeare wrote and pointed thus, CRY AIM, said I well? i. e. consent to it, approve of it. Have not I made a good propofal? for to cry aim fignifies to confent to, or approve of any thing. So again in this play, p. 255. And to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall CRY AIM, i. e. approve them. And again in King John, A& 2. Scene 2. "It ill becomes this prefence to CRY AIM i. e. to approve of, or encourage them. The phrafe was taken, originally, from archery. When any one had challenged another to shoot at the butts (the perpetual diverfion, as well as exercise, of that time) the ftanders-by ufed to fay one to the other, Cry aim, i. e. accept the challenge. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Fair Maid of the Inn, A&t 5. make the Duke fay, must I cry AIME "To this unheard of infolence". i. e. encourage it, and agree to the request of the duel, which one of his fubjects had infolently demanded against the other.But here it is remarkable, that the fenfeless editors, not know. ing what to make of the phrase, Cry aim, read it thus: -muft 1 cry AI-ME,' as if it was a note of interjection. So again Maffinger, in his Guardian: "I will CRY AIM, and in another room And again, in his Renegado: to play the pander "To the viceroy's loofe embraces, and CRY AIM, But the Oxford editor transforms it to Cock o' the Game; and his improvements of Shakespeare's language abound with these. Q4 modern Caius. By gar, me tank you for dat by gar, I love you; and I fhall procure 'a you de good guest, de earl, de knight, de lords, de gentlemen, my patients. Hoft. For the which I will be thy adversary toward Ann Page: faid I well? Caius. By gar, 'tis good; vell faid. Caius. Come at my heels, Jack Rugby. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. Frogmore. Enter Evans and Simple. EVANS. Pray you now, good master Slender's ferving-man, and friend Simple by your name, which way have you look'd for mafter Caius, that calls himself Doctor of Phyfick? Simp. Marry, Sir, 4 the Pitty-wary, the Park-ward, every way; old Windfor way, and every way but the town way, modern elegancies of speech, fuch as mynbeers, bull-baitings, &c. WARBURTON. We yet fay, in colloquial language, that fuch a one isgame or game to the back. There is furely no need of blaming Theobald's emendation with fuch feverity. Cry'd game might mean, in thofe days—a profejs'd buck, one who was as well known by the report of his galantry, as he could have been by proclamation. STEEVENS. -the Pitty-wary,] The old editions read, the Pittieward, the modern editors the Pitty-wary. There is now no place that answers to either name at Windfor. The author might poffibly have written the City-ward, i, e. towards London, STEEVENS, Eva. I most fehemently defire you, you will also look that way. Simp. I will, Sir. Eva. 'Plefs my foul! how full of cholars I am, 5 By fhallow rivers, to whofe falls [Sings. By By fhallow rivers, &c.] This is part of a beautiful little poem of the author's; which poem, and the answer to it, the reader will not be displeased to find here. The Paffionate Shepherd to his Love. Come live with me, and be my love, The By fhallow'Mercy on me! I have a great difpofitions to cry. Melodious birds fing madrigals. When as I fat in Pabilon ;- -and a thousand vragrant pofies. By fhallow, &c. The shepherds fwains fhall dance and fing, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. If all the world and love were young, Simp. These two poems, which Dr. Warburton gives to Shakespeare, are, by writers nearer that time, difpofed of, one to Marlow, the The conclufion of this and the following poem have furnished Milton with the hint for the last lines both of his Allegro and Penferofo. STEEVENS. |