Clown. Would you have a love-fong, or a fong of good life? Sir To. A love-fong, a love-fong. Sir And. Ay, ay; I care not for good life. SON G. Clown. O miftrefs mine, where are you roaming? Every wife man's fon doth know. Sir And. Excellent good, i'faith! Clown. What is love? 'tis not hereafter; In delay there lies no plenty; Then come kiss me, fweet and twenty, 5 — of good life?] I do not suppose that by a song of good life, the Clown means a fong of a moral turn; though fir Andrew answers to it in that fignification. Good life, I believe, is harmless mirth or jollity. It may be a Gallicifm: we call a jolly fellow a bon vivant. STEEV. From the oppofition of the words in the Clown's question, I incline to think that good life is here ufed in its ufual acceptation. In the Merry Wives of Windfor thefe words are used for a virtuous character: "Defend your reputation, or farewell to your good life for ever." MALONE. 6 In delay there lies no plenty ;] Delay is certainly right. No man will ever be worth much, who delays the advantages offered by the prefent hour, in hopes that the future will offer more. So, in King Richard III. A&t IV. fc. iii: "Delay leads impotent and fnail-pac'd beggary." STEEVENS. 7 Then come kifs me, fweet and twenty,] In fome counties fruset and twenty, whatever be the meaning, is a phrase of endearment. JOHNSON. So, in Wit of a Woman, 1604: "Sweet and twenty: all fweet and fweet." STEEVENS. Again, in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1632: 1 "God ye good night, and twenty, fir." Again, in the Merry Wives of Windfor: D 2 "Good even, and twenty." MALONE. Sir Sir And. A mellifluous voice, as I am true knight. Sir And. Very fweet and contagious, i'faith. 8 Sir To. To hear by the nofe, it is dulcet in contagion. But fhall we make the welkin dance & indeed ? Shall we rouze the night-owl in a catch, that will draw three fouls out of one weaver?? fhall we do that? Sir And. An you love me, let's do't: I am dog at a catch. Clown. By'r lady, fir, and fome dogs will catch well. Sir And. Most certain : let our catch be, Thou knave. Clown. Hold thy peace, thou knave, knight? I fhall be constrain'd in't to call thee knave, knight'. Sir And. 'Tis not the first time I have constrain'd one to call me knave. Begin, fool; it begins, Hold thy peace. 8 - make the welkin dance-] That is, drink till the sky feems to turn round. JOHNSON. 9-draw three fouls out of one weaver?] Our author reprefents weavers as much given to harmony in his time. I have fhewn the cause of it elsewhere. [See K. Henry IV. A&t II. fc. iv.] This expreffion of the power of mufick is familiar with our author. Much ado about Nothing: "Now is his foul ravifhed. Is it not strange that fheep's-guts fhould hale fouls out of men's bodies?" Why he fays, three fouls, is, because he is speaking of a catch in three parts. And the peripatetic philofophy, then in vogue, very liberally gave every man three fouls: the vegetative or plaftick, the animal, and the rational. To this, too, Jonfon alludes, in his Poetafter: "What, will I turn hark upon my friends? or my friends' friends? I fcorn it with my three fouls." WARBURTON. In a popular book of the time, Carew's tranflation of Huarte's Trial of Wits, 1594, there is a curious chapter concerning the three fouls, vegetative, fenfitive, and reasonable." FARMER. I doubt whether our author intended any allufion to this divifion of fouls. In the Tempeft we have-" trebles thee o'er;" i. c. makes thee thrice as great as thou wert before. In the fame manner, I believe, he here only means to defcribe fir Toby's catch as fo harmonious, that it would hale the foul out of a weaver (the warmest lover of a fong) thrice over; or in other words, give him thrice more delight than it would give 'another man. Dr. Warburton's fuppofition that there is an allusion to the catch being in three parts, appears to me one of his unfounded refinements. MALONE. 1- to call thee knave, knight.] The catch above mentioned to be fung by fir Toby, fir Andrew, and the Clown, from the hints given of it, appears to be fo contrived as that each of the fingers calls the other knave. SIR JOHN HAWKINS. Clown. Clown. I fhall never begin, if I hold my peace. Enter MARIA. Mar. What a catterwauling do you keep here? If my lady have not call'd up her fteward, Malvolio, and bid him turn you out of doors, never trust me. Sir To. My lady's a Cataian3, we are politicians; Malvolio's a Peg-a-Ramsey, and Three merry men be we 5. Am not I confanguineous? am I not of her blood? 2 They fing a catch.] We are informed by Sir John Hawkins that this catch, beginning Hold thy peace, together with the musical notes, is preferved in a book, entitled DEUTEROMELIA, printed in 16c9. MALONE. 3-a Cataian,] Mr. Steevens obferves, that it is in vain to feek the precife meaning of this term of reproach. The different opinions of the commentators concerning its import may be found in Vol. I. p. 225, n. I. Whatever was the origin of the expreffion, it probably was used, in process of time, as a vague term of reproach, without any determi nate meaning. MALONE. 4-Peg a-Ramfey,] In Durfey's Pills to purge Melancholy is a very obfcene old fong, entitled Peg-a-Ramfey. See allo Ward's Lives of the Profeffors of Gresham College, p. 207. PERCY. Nath mentions Peg of Ramsey among feveral other ballads. It appears from the fame author, that it was likewife a dance performed to the mufick of a fong of that name. STEEVENS. 5 - Three merry men &c.] Three merry men be we, is likewife a fragment of fome old fong, which I find repeated in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607, and by B. and Fletcher in The Knight of the Burning Peftle: "Three merry men "And three merry men "And three merry men be we." STEEVENS. Three merry men be we, may, perhaps, have been taken originally from the fong of Robin Hood and the Tanner. Old Ballads, Vol. I. p. 89: "Then Robin Hood took them by the hands, "With a bey &c. "And danced about the oak-tree; "For three merry men, and three merry men, "And three merry men we be." TYRWHITT. But perhaps the following in the Old Wives Tale, by George Peele, 1595, may have been the original. Antiche, one of the characters, Lays, "let us rehearse the old proverb, "Three merrie men, and three merrie men, "And three merrie men be wee; "I in the wood, and thou on the ground, "And Jack fleepes in the tree." STEEVENS. D 3 Tilly-valley, Tilly-valley, lady! There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady! [Singing. Clown, Befhrew me, the knight's in admirable fooling. Sir And. Ay, he does well enough, if he be difpofed, and fo do I too; he does it with a better grace, but I do it more natural. Sir To. O, the twelfth day of December,- [Singing. Mar. For the love o'God, peace. Enter MALVOLIO. Mal. My mafters, are you mad? or what are you? Have you no wit, manners, nor honefty, but to gabble like tinkers at this time of night? Do ye make an alehoufe of my lady's houfe, that ye fqueak out your coziers' catches without any mitigation or remorfe of voice? Is there no respect of place, perfons, nor time, in you? Mal. 6 Tilly-valley, lady! There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady !] The ballad of SUSANNA, from whence this line [There dwelt &c.] is taken, was licensed by T. Colwell, in 1562, under the title of "The goodly and conftant wyfe Sufanna." There is likewise a play on this fubje&t. T. WARTON. Tilly-valley was an interjection of contempt which Sir Thomas More's lady is recorded to have had very often in her mouth. JOHNSON. Tilly-valley is used as an interjection of contempt in the old play of Sir John Oldcastle, and is likewife a character in a comedy, entitled Lady Alimony. STEEVENS. Maria's ufe of the word lady brings the ballad to fir Toby's remembrance Lady, lady, is the burthen, and should be printed as fuch. My very ingenious friend, Dr. Percy, has given a ftanza of it in his Reliques of Ancient Poetry, Vol. I. p. 204. Juft the fame may be faid, where Mercutio applies it, in Romeo and Juliet, A&t II. fc. iv. FARMER, The oldest fong that I have feen with this burthen is in the old Mo. rality, entitled The Trial of Treafure, quarto, 1567. The following is one of the ftanzas: "My dere lady." 7 → coziers' catches-] A cozier is a taylor, from coudre to few, part. coufu, French. JOHNSON. Our Sir To. We did keep time, fir, in our catches. Sneck up! Mal. Sir Toby, I must be round with you. My lady bade me tell you, that, though the harbours you as her kinfman, fhe's nothing ally'd to your diforders. If you can separate yourself and your mifdemeanors, you are welcome to the houfe; if not, an it would please you to take leave of her, fhe is very willing to bid you farewel. Sir To. Farewel, dear heart, fince I must needs be gone. Mal. Nay, good fir Toby. Clown. His eyes do fhew his days are almost done. Mal. Is't even fo? Sir To. But I will never die. Clown. Sir Toby, there you lie. Mal. This is much credit to you. Clown. What an if you do? [Singing. Our author has again alluded to their love of vocal harmony in King Henry IV. P. I. Lady. I will not fing. Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreaft teacher." A cozier, it appears from Minfhieu, fignified a botcher, or mender of old clothes, and alfo a cobler. Here it means the former. MALONE. 8 Sneck up!] Of this cant phrafe it is not eafy to ascertain the meaning. It occurs in many of the old comedies. From the manner in which it is used in all of them, it feems to have been fynonymous to the modern expreffion, Go and bang yourself. MALONE. The modern editors feem to have regarded this unintelligible expreffion as the defignation of a biccup. It is however used in B. and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Peftle, as it should seem, on another occafion: "let thy father go neck up, he shall never come between a pair of fheets with me again while he lives." Again, in the fame play: " Give him his money, George, and let him go fneck up." Again, in Wily Beguiled: "An if my mistress would be ruled by him, Sophos might go fnick up." Again, in The tro Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "if they be not, let them go fnick up." Again, in Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, 1631, Blunt Mafter Conftable, 1602, &c. Perhaps in the two former of these inftances, the words may be corrupted. In K. Henry IV. P. I. Falftaff fays, "The prince is a Jack, a Sneak-cup." i. e. one who takes his glafs in a sneaking manner. I think we might fafely read sneak-cup, at least, in fir Toby's reply to Malvolio. I should not however omit to mention that fneck the door is a north country expreffion for latch the door. STEEVENS. 9 Farewel, dear beart, &c.] This entire fong, with fome variations, is published by Dr. Percy, in the first volume of his Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. STEEVENS. D 4 Sir |