That had a head to hit, either young or old, [Within] Do you hear, master porter ? Port. What should you do, but knock 'em down by the dozens? Is this Moorfields to muster in? or have we some strange Indian with the great tool come to court, the women so besiege us? Bless me, what a fry of fornication (149) Let me ne'er hope to see a chine again; And that I would not for a cow, God save her!] Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads “ Let me ne'er hope to see a queen again; And that I would not for a crown, God save her !" “which," observes a critic in Blackwood's Magazine for Sept. 1853, p. 318, “is certainly entitled to consideration; but it is quite possible that the Porter's Man's language, being that of a clown, may be desigpedly nonsensical.”—Qy. are we to understand that the Porter's Man was "a huge feeder,"— resembling in that respect the Guard, who were notorious for their consumption of beef ? Cowley, in one of his early poems, says, “And chines of beef innumerable send me, The Wish,-Works, vol. iii. p. 44, ed. 1708.1864. “When Collier's Ms. Corrector altered 'chine' to'queen,' he seems to have been confounding in his memory the christening procession of the next scene with the coronation procession of act iv. sc. 1." W. N. LETTSOM.—“The expression, ‘my cow, God save her!' or 'my mare, God save her!' or 'my sow, God bless her!' appears to have been proverbial ; thus, in Greene and Lodge's Looking Glasse for London, 1598, 'my blind mare, God bless her!)" Staunton.—A writer in The Literary Gazette for January 25, 1862, p. 95, says; “The concluding word 'her,' in the altered passage [i.e. the passage as altered by Collier's Ms. Cor. rector), of course refers to queen,' whereas in the ordinary reading it can only refer to cow. Plausible as the alteration seems, its value is entirely annihilated by the fact, for the communication of which we are indebted to a Devonshire correspondent, that a phrase evidently identical with that used by Shakespeare (or Fletcher), in the passage in question, exists and is in use to this day in the South of England. Oh! I would not do that for a cow, save her tail,' may still be heard in the mouths of the vulgar in Devonshire. This coincidence of expression leaves no doubt that the genuine reading is cow,' not crown, and the porter's man was thinking of a chine of beef, an object much dearer to his eyes than a queen." is at door! On my Christian conscience, this one christening will beget a thousand; here will be father, godfather, and all together. Man. The spoons will be the bigger, sir. There is a fellow somewhat near the door,--he should be a brazier by his face, for, o' my conscience, twenty of the dog-days now reign in's nose; all that stand about him are under the line, they need no other penance: that fire-drake did I hit three times on the head, and three times was his nose discharged against me: he stands there, like a mortar-piece, to blow us. There was a haberdasher's wife of small wit near him, that railed upon me, till her pinked porringer fell off her head, for kindling such a combustion in the state. I missed the meteor once, and lit that woman, who cried out “ Clubs !” when I might see from far some forty truncheoners draw to her succour, which were the hope o' the Strand, where she was quartered. They fell on; I made good my place : at length they came to the broomstaff with (160) me; I defied 'em still: when suddenly a file of boys behind 'em, loose shot, delivered such a shower of pebbles, that I was fain to draw mine honour in, and let 'em win the work : the devil was amongst 'em, I think, surely. Port. These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten apples; that no audience, but the Tribulation of Tower-hill, or the Limbs of Limehouse, their dear brothers, are able to endure. I have some of 'em in Limbo Patrum, and there they are like to dance these three days; besides the running banquet of two beadles that is to come. Enter the Lord Chamberlain. Cham. Mercy o' me, what a multitude are here! (150) with] So Pope and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.—The tolio has “to” (an accidental repetition from “ to the broomstufl'"). Great store of room, no doubt, left for the ladies, An't please your honour, As I live, Port. Make way there for the princess ! You great fellow, Stand close up, or I'll make your head ache! Port. You i' the camlet, Get up o' the rail ; I'll pick you o'er the pales else. (151) [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The palace. Enter trumpets, sounding; then two Aldermen, Lord Mayor, Garter, CRANMER, Duke of NORFOLK with his marshal's staff, Duke of (161) You i' the camlet, Get up o' the rail: ru pick you o'er the pales else Mason would read “Get up off the rail,” or “Get off the rail.”—Here the folio has “Ile pecke you,” &c.; but in Coriolanus, act i. sc. I, it has “As I could picke my Lance." Mr. Knight prints, by the advice of a friend, " I'll pick you o'er the pates else, "—which supposes that the intruder "i' the camlet” was furnished with more heads than one.—Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector substitutes “I'll peck you o'er the poll else." In the speeches throughout this scene which now stand as prose there are such traces of metre as might lead us to suspect that the author originally intended them for verse : but that they will not admit of a satisfactory metrical arrangement may be seen in Capell's edition. christening-gifts; then four Noblemen bearing a canopy, under which the Duchess of NORFOLK, godmother, bearing the child richly habited in a mantle, &c., train borne by a Lady; then folloros the Marchioness of DORSET, the other godmother and Ladies. The troop pass once about the stage, and Garter speaks. Gart. Heaven, from thy endless goodness, send prosperous life, long, and ever happy, to the high and mighty princess of England, Elizabeth ! Flourish. Enter King and Train. Cran. [kneeling] And to your royal grace, and the good queen, Thank you, good lord archbishop: Elizabeth. K. Hen. Stand up, lord. [Cranmer rises.The King kisses the Child. Amen. Let me speak, sir, And all that shall succeed: Saba (152) was never her : (162) Saba] Here the name of Solomon's royal guest has been improperly altered to “Sheba.” Compare Marlowe; “Be she as chaste as was Penelope, As wise as Saba, or as beautiful Doctor Faustus,- Works, p. 87, ed. Dyce, 1858. and Peele; “ Diana for her dainty life, Susanna being sad, ed. Dyce, 1861. and William Gager, in a copy of Latin verses addressed to Queen Elizabeth (hitherto, I believe, unpublished); “ Deservit Cassandra tibi ; te Saba salutat," &c. and (as Mr. Grant White observes) both in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate she is called Saba. (163) ways] The folio has “way.”—Corrected in the fourth folio. (In this line Mr. Collier proposes “tread" instead of "read,"_an alteration forbidden by the context,“From her.") |