have been sharp and fententious; pleafant without fcurrility, witty without affection," audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without herefy. I did converfe this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado. Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too picked,9 too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. 3 I know not well what degree of refpect Shakspeare intends to obtain for this vicar, but he has here put into his mouth a finished reprefentation of colloquial excellence. It is very difficult to add any thing to his character of the school-mafter's table-talk, and perhaps all the precepts of Caftiglione will fcarcely be found to comprehend a rule for converfation fo juftly delineated, fo widely dilated, and fo nicely limited. It may be proper just to note, that reason here, and in many other places, fignifies difcourfe; and that audacious is ufed in a good fenfe for fpirited, animated, confident. Opinion is the fame with obftinacy or opiniatreté. JOHNSON. Audacious was not always ufed by our ancient writers in a bad fenfe. It no more here, and in the following inftance from Ben Jonfon's means Silent Woman, than liberal or commendable boldness : -the that fhall be my wife, must be accomplished with courtly and audacious ornaments." STEEVENS. i. e. without affectation. STEEVENS. 7 Chaucer, Skelton, and Spenfer, are frequent in their use of this phrafe. Ben Jonfon has it likewife. STEEVENS. The ufe of the word thrafonical is no argument that the author had read Terence. It was introduced to our language long before Shakspeare's time. FARMER. 9 To have the beard piqued or fhorn fo as to end in a point, was, in our author's time, a mark of a traveller affecting foreign fashions. JOHNSON. Piqued may allude to the length of the fhoes then worn. Bulwer, in his Artificial Changeling, fays:-" We weare our forked thoes almoft as long again as our feete, not a little to the hindrance of the action of the foote; and not only fo, but they prove an impediment to reverential devotion, for our bootes and fhooes are fo long fnouted, that we can hardly kneele in God's houfe." STEEVENS. I believe picked (for fo it should be written) fignifies nicely dreft in general, without reference to any particular fashion of drefs. It is a metaphor taken from birds, who dress themselves by picking out or pruning, their Nath. A moft fingular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the ftaple of his argument. I abbor fuch fanatical phantasm, such infociable and point-devife companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as to fpeak, dout, fine, when he fhould fay, doubt; det, when he fhould pronounce, debt; d,'e, b, t; not, d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbour, vacatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, ne: l'his is abhominable,3 (which he would call abominable,) it infinuateth me of infanie; 4 Ne intelligis domine? to make fran. tick, lunatick. Nath. their broken or fuperfluous feathers. So Chaucer ufes the word, in his defcription of Damian dreffing himself, Cant. Tales, ver. 9885: "He kembeth him, he broineth him and piketh." And Shakspeare in this very play, ufes the correfponding word pruning for dreffing, Act. IV. fc. iii: ❝or spend a minute's time "In pruning me——” The fubitantive pickedness is ufed by Ben Jonfon for nicety in drefs. Discoveries, Vol. VII. Whalley's edit. p. 116: "--too much pickednefs is not manly." TYRWHITT. 2 A French expreffion for the utmoft, or finical exactness. STEEVENS. 3 He has here well imitated the language of the most redoubtable pedants of that time. On fuch fort of occafions, Jofeph Scaliger ufed to break out, "Abominor, execror. Afinitas mera eft, impietas," &c. and calls his adverfary," Lutum ftercore maceratum, dæmoniacum recrementum infcitiæ, fterquilinium, ftercus diaboli, fearabæum, larvam, pecus poftremum beftiarum, infame propudium, xá apua." WARBURTON. Shakspeare knew nothing of this language; and the refemblance which Dr. Warburton finde, if it deferves that title, is quite accidental. It is far more probable, that he means to ridicule the foppifh manner of fpeak. ing, and affected pronunciation, introduced at court by Lyly and his imitators. STEEVENS. 4 In former editions, it infinuateth me of infamie: Ne intelligis domine? to make frantick, lunatick. Nath. Laus Deo, bone intelligo. Hol. Bome, boon for boon Prifcian; a little fcratch, 'twill ferve.] Why should infamy be explained by making frantick, lunatick? It is plain and obvious that the poet intended the pedant fhould coin an uncouth affected word here, infanie, from infania of the Latins. Then, what a piece of unintelligible jargon have thefe learned criticks given us for Latin? I think, I may venture to affirm, I have restored the paffage to its true purity. Nath. Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo. Hol. Bone ?. 'twill ferve. -bone, for benè: Prifcian a little fcratch'd; Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD. Nath. Videfne quis venit? Hol. Video, gaudeo. Arm. Chirra! Hol. Quare Chirra, not firrah? Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd. [To MOTH, Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and ftolen the fcraps. [To COSTARD afide. Coft. O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words! I marvel, thy mafter hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as bonorificabilitudinitatibus: 6 thou art easier fwallowed than a flap-dragon,? Moth. Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo. The curate, addreffing with complaifance his brother pedant, fays, bone, to him, as we frequently in Terence find bone vir; but the pedant, thinking he had miftaken the adverb, thus defcants on it. Bone?—-bone for bene. Prifcian a little fcratched: 'twill ferve. Alluding to the common phrase, Diminuis Prisciani caput, applied to fuch as fpeak falfe Latin. THEOBALD. There seems yet fomething wanting to the integrity of this passage, which Mr. Theobald has in the moft corrupt and difficult places very happily restored. For ne intelligis domine ? to make frantick, lunatick, I read (nonne intelligis, domine ?) to be mad, frantick, lunatick. JOHNSON. Infanie appears to have been a word anciently used. STEEVENS. I fhould rather read-it infinuateth men of infanie." FARMER. 5 i. e. the refufe of words. STEEVENS. The refuse meat of families was put into a basket in our author's time, and given to the poor. So, in Florio's Second Frutes, 1591: "Take away the table, fould up the cloth, and put all those pieces of broken meat into a basket for the foor. MALONE. The refufe meat of great families was formerly fent to the prisons. This laudable cuftom is ftill preferved in the principal public feafts of the metropolis. NICHOLS. 6 This word, whencefoever it comes, is often mentioned as the longest word known. JOHNSON. It occurs likewife in Marfton's Dutch Courtezan, 1604: His difcourfe is like the long word honorificabilitudinitatibus; a great deal of found and no fenfe." STEEVENS. 7 A flap-dragon is a small inflammable substance, which topers in a glass of wine. STEEVINS. Swallow Moth. Peace; the peal begins. Arm. Monfieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook :-What is a, b, fpelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, moft filly fheep, with a horn:-You hear his learning. Hol. Quis, quis, thou confonant? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I. Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i. Math. The fheep: the other two concludes it; o, u. Arm. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit:9 fnip, fnap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit. Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old. Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure? Math. Horns. Hol. Thou difputeft like an infant: go, whip thy gig. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà; A gig of a cuckold's horn! Coft, An I had but one penny in the world, thou fhouldst have it to buy ginger-bread: hold there is the very remune 8 In former editions: The last of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I, Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, I, Moth. The fheep: the other two concludes it; o, u. Is not the laft and the fifib the fame vorvel? Though my correction reftores but a poor conundrum, yet if it reftores the poet's meaning, it is the duty of an editor to trace him in his lowest conceits. By O, U, Moth would mean Oh, you➡i. e. You are the sheep ftill, either way; no matter which of us repeats them. THEOBALD. 9 A venew is the technical term for a bout at the fencing-school. So, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615: STEEVENS. A venue, as has already been obferved, is not a bout at fencing but a bit. "A fweet touch of wit, (fays Armado,) a smart bit.” MALONE. Notwithstanding the pofitivenefs with which my fenfe of the word venue is denied, my quotation fufficiently establishes it; for who ever talked of playing a bit in a fencing-school? STEEVENS. 2 Here again all the editions give us jargon instead of Latin. But Moh would certainly mean-circum circa: i. e. about and about: though it may be defigned he should mistake the terms. THEOBALD. 'VOL. II. ration 1 ration I had of thy mafter, thou half-penny purfe of wit, thou pigeon-egg of difcretion. O, an the heavens were so pleafed, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou haft it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they fay. Hol. O, I fmell falfe Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be fingled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house 3 on the top of the mountain? Hol. Or, mons, the hill. Arm. At your fweet pleasure, for the mountain. Arm. Sir, it is the king's moft fweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princefs at her pavilion, in the pofteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon. Hol. The pofterior of the day, moft generous fir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chofe; fweet and apt, I do affure you, fir, I do affure. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do affure you, very good friend:- For what is inward 4 between us, let it pafs:-I do befeech thee, remember thy courtefy;-I befeech thee apparel thy head: 5-and among other importunate and moft ferious defigns, and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pafs :-for I muft tell thee, it will pleafe his grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his 3 I fuppofe, is the free fchool. STEEVENS. -inward-] i. e. confidential. STEEVENS. 5 I believe the word not was inadvertently omitted by the tranfcriber or compofitor; and that we should read—I do beseech thee, remember got thy courtesyArmado is boafting of the familiarity with which the king treats him, and intimates (" but let that pass,") that when he and his Majefty converfe, the king lays afide all ftate, and makes him wear his hat: "I do befeech thee, (will he fay to me) remember not thy courtesy; do not obferve any ceremony with me; be covered.” These words may, however, bead dreffed by Armado to Holofernes, whom we may fuppofe to have ftood uncovered from refpect to the Spaniard. If this was the poet's intention, they ought to be included in a parenthefis. To whomfoever the words are fuppofed to be addreffed, the emendation appears to me equally neceffary. MALONE. By remember thy courtefy" I fuppofe Armado means—remember that all this time thou art ftanding with thy bat off. STEEVENS. |