and giving odour," rests upon the mind, and the comparison becomes an indirect one between the harmony of the dying fall and the odour of the breeze that had passed over a bank of violets. Bacon has a beautiful inversion of this simile, in which the comparison between fragrance and music is not between the objects themselves, but with the similar mode in which music and fragrance are received by the senses, with intervals. "And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warbling of music) than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for delight," &c. (Of Gardens.) Milton had probably the passage of the text in view when he wrote, "Now gentle gales, Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole The image in Milton, as well as in Shakspere, combines the notion of sound as well as fragrance. In Shakspere "the sound that breathes"-the soft murmur of the breeze playing amidst beds of flowers-is put first, because of its relation to the "dying fall" of the exquisite harmony; but in Milton the "perfumes" of the "gentle gales" are more prominent than "the whisper,"because the image is complete in itself, unconnected with what precedes. Upon the whole, we should feel inclined not to disturb the usual reading of south were it not for the circumstance that Shakspere has nowhere else made the south an odour-breathing wind; his other representations are directly contrary. In 'As You Like It,' Rosalind says, "You foolish shepherd, wherefore do you follow her Like foggy south, puffing with wind and rain?" In 'Romeo and Juliet' we have the "dew-dropping south." In 'Cymbeline,' "The south-fog rot him." 3 SCENE I. "And my desires, like fell and cruel hounds, E'er since pursue me." The story of Acteon, which Bacon interprets as a warning not to pry into the secrets of the great, receives in the passage before us a much more natural and beautiful explanation. In Whitney's 'Emblems,' published in 1586, the fable was somewhat similarly applied : "Those who do pursue And as his hounds, so their affections base But in Daniel's Fifth Sonnet, published in 1594, we find the thought, and almost the expression, of the text: "Whilst youth and error led my wand'ring mind, 5 SCENE III.-"Till his brains turn o' the toe like a parish-top." "He sleeps like a town top" is an old proverbial saying. Fletcher, in the 'Night Walker,' has "And dances like a town-top, and reels and hobbles." In the passage before us we find that the towntop and the parish-top were one and the same. The custom which existed in the time of Elizabeth, and probably long before, of a large top being provided for the amusement of the peasants in frosty weather, presents a curious illustration of the mitigating influences of social kindness in an age of penal legislation. Whilst "poor Tom" was "whipped from tithing | They dare challenge for to throw the sledge; At shove great, 'venter-point, at cross-and-pile; At leaping over a Christmas bonfire, Or at the drawing dame out o' the mire;' SCENE III.-" Wherefore are these things hid? - wherefore have these gifts a curtain before them? are they like to take dust, like mistress Mall's picture?" In a subsequent scene of this comedy Olivia says, "but we will draw the curtain, and show you the picture." It was a common practice to cover up pictures with curtains. Jack of Newbury is recorded to have had in a fair large parlour which was wainscoted round about, "fifteen fair pictures hanging, which were covered with curtains of green silk fringed with gold, which he would often show to his friends and servants." Jack of Newbury was a staid and wealthy burgher, and was little likely to have had pictures in his possession not fit to be uncurtained. Mistress Mall's picture, however, was probably not of the most correct class, and was therefore seldom exposed to view, for the alleged reason of being "like to take dust." This lady was more honoured in her generation, and passed through a long life with more uniform success (with the exception of a little occasional prison and penance), than any other such heroine upon record. She is here noticed by Shakspere; Middleton and Dekkar made her the subject of a comedy; and play-wrights and epigrammatists mention her for half a century. Her familiar name was Moll Cutpurse; the name she received from her parents, Mary Frith. There is a letter in the British Museum, dated February 11, 1612, which gives an amusing account of her doing penance at Paul's Cross: "This last Sunday Moll Cutpurse, a notorious baggage that used to go in man's apparel, and challenged the field of diverse gallants, was brought to the same place (Paul's Cross), where she wept bitterly, and seemed very penitent; but it is since doubted she was maudlin drunk, being discovered to have tippled off three quarts of sack before she came to her penance. She had the daintiest preacher or ghostly father that ever I saw in the pulpit, one Radcliffe, of Brazenose College in Oxford, a likelier man to have led the revels in some inn of court than to be where he was. But the best is, he did extreme badly, and so wearied the audience that the best part went away, and the rest tarried rather to hear Moll Cutpurse than him." Butler has sung her praise: "A bold virago stout and tall As Joan of France, or English Mall." It is difficult to say whether Butler meant to depreciate Joan of France or exalt English Mall by this association. But, with his strong political feelings, he could not speak very disparagingly of "Mistress Mall," for she robbed General Fairfax upon Hounslow Heath, and left twenty pounds by her will for the conduit to run with wine when Charles II. was restored. In the title page to Middleton and Dekkar's play there is a portrait of this Amazon, which is copied in the preceding page. 7 SCENE III.-" Why dost thou not go to church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto? sint-a-pace." Galliard, a lively dance. "A lighter and more stirring kind of dancing than the pavan," says Morley, a contemporary of Shakspere, who adds:-"The Italians make their galliards plain, and frame ditties to them, which, in their mascaradoes they sing and dance, and manie times without any instruments." Coranto (courante), a quick dance, as the word indicates, and for two persons, according to Mersenne (Harmonie Universelle, 1686). Morley describes it as, "traversing and running, as our country-dance, but hath twice as much in a strain." Sink-a-pace, i. e,, cinque pace, "the name of a dance," says Sir John Hawkins, "the measures whereof are regulated by the number five." In an old Italian work, 'Il Ballerino' (1581), this dance is described as consisting of four steps and a cadence; and, according to Sir John Davis, in his poem on Dancing— "Five was the number of the music's feet, Which still the dance did with fire paces meet." SCENE V.-" He says, he'll stand at your door Like a sheriff's post.” We have nothing very certain about the sheriff's posts, except what we find in the allusions of the old dramatists. It is commonly thought that these posts were employed to fix proclamations upon; but we are inclined to believe that they were only tokens of authority, to denote the residence of a magistrate. We learn from several old plays that the posts were set up upon the election of a sheriff or chief magistrate, and that they were ornamented. The following passages are given in a communication to the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. John Adey Repton (Archæologia,' vol. xix. p. 383): "Communis Sensus. Crave my counsell, tell me what maner of man he is? can he entertain a man into his house? can he hold his velvet cap in one hand, and vale his bonnet with the other? knowes he how to become a scarlet gowne? hath he a pairs of fresh posts at his doore? Phantastes. Hee's about some hasty state matters, he talks of postes methinks. Com. S. Can he part a couple of dogges brawling in the streete? why then choose him mayor upon my credit, heele prove a wise officer."-( Lingua,' Act II., Sc. 3-1607.) "I'll love your door the better while I know 't. Widow. A pair of such brothers were fitter for posts without door, indeed to make a show at a new-chosen magistrate's gate, than," &c. "How long should I be, ere I should put off To the lord chancellor's tomb, or to the sheriff's post ?" (Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Widow,' Act II.) Mr. Repton accompanies his paper with two "I hope my acquaintance goes in chains of gold, three and fifty times double; you know who I mean, coz: the posts of his gate are a painting too." (Dekkar's 'Honest Whore.") drawings of posts attached to ancient houses in Norwich, of the date of Henry VIII. and of Elizabeth. We have copied that of the later period, which is well defined by the letters T. P. on one post, and the date 159— on the other. Thomas Pettys, the arms of whose family are in another part of the building,-was mayor of Norwich "If e'er I live to see thee sheriff of London, ACT II. • SCENE L-"If you will not murther me for my love, let me be your servant.” THESE words are uttered by Antonio to Sebastian, whom he has saved from drowning. The commentators offer no explanation of them; but we think that they have a latent meaning, and that they allude to a superstition of which Sir Walter Scott has made such admirable use in 'The Pirate.' Our readers will remember that, when Mordaunt has rescued Cleveland from "the breach of the sea," and is endeavouring to restore the animation of the perishing man, he is thus reproved by Bryce the pedlar: "Are you mad? you, that have lived so long in Zetland, to risk the saving of a drowning man? Wot ye not, if you bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you some capital injury?" Sir Walter Scott has a note upon this passage: "It is remarkable that, in an archipelago where so many persons must be necessarily endangered by the waves, so strange and inhuman a maxim should have engrafted itself upon the minds of a people otherwise kind, moral, and hospitable. But all with whom I have spoken agree that it was almost general in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and was with difficulty weeded out by the sedulous instructions of the clergy and the rigorous injunctions of the proprietors. There is little doubt it had been originally introduced as an excuse for suffering those who attempted to escape from the wreck to perish unassisted, so that, there being no survivor, she might be considered as lawful plunder." It appears to us, however, if we do not mistake the meaning of our text, "if you will not murther me for my love, let me be your servant,” that the superstition was not confined to the Orkneys in the time of Shakspere. Why should Sebastian murder Antonio for his love if this superstition were not alluded to? Indeed, the answer of Sebastian distinctly refers to the office of humanity which Antonio had rendered him, and appears to glance at the superstition as if he perfectly understood what Antonio meant:"If you will not undo what you have done, that is, kill him whom you have recovered, desire it not." The vulgar opinion is here reversed. 10 SCENE III. "How now, my hearts? Did you never see the picture of we three?" Our ancestors had some good practical jokes that never tired by repetition, and this was one of them. "The picture of we three" was a picture, or sign, of Two Fools, upon which was an inscription, we be three, so that the unlucky wight who was tempted to read it supplied "argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever." Beaumont and Fletcher allude to this in the 'Queen of Corinth:' "Nean. He is another ass, he says, I believe. Uncle. We be three, heroical prince. Nean. Nay, then, we must have the picture of 'em, and the word nos sumus." The answer of the Clown in the text to "here comes the fool" is wonderfully adroit. 11 SCENE III.-" Let our catch be, Thou kins. We here give the real notes, putting knave." them into the treble clef, instead of the contratenor. The effect of this catch must have depended wholly on the humour with which it was sung: the same, indeed, may be said of - Sir John Hawkins, in his 'History of Music,' "For three merry men, and three merry men, And three merry men we be." Sir J. Hawkins likewise gives a stanza of an old song, in which the same words changing “men” into "boys"-are introduced. This air, however, is to be found in William | printed from Anthony à Wood's black-letter Ballet's 'Lute Book,' a "highly interesting copy :manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, (D. 1. 21,) which appears not only to be older than Queen Elizabeth's 'Virginal Book,' but to contain a greater number of popular tunes of the time." (Chappell's 'Collection of National English Airs,' ii. 115.) The words, "Three merry men we be," are in the song of Robin Hood and the Tanner,' as re 13 SCENE III.-"There dwelt a man in Babylon, lady, lady.' The burden of "lady, lady," appears to have |