Bel's priests in the old church window; fometime, like the fhaven Hercules' in the fmirch'd wormeaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy as his club? CON. All this I fee; and fee, that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man: But art not thou thyself giddy with the fafhion too, that thou haft fhifted out of thy tale into telling me of the fashion? 4- like god Bel's priests ] Alluding to fome aukward representation of the ftory of Bel and the Dragon, as related in the Apocrypha. STEEVENS. - sometime, like the Shaven Hercules, &c.] By the shaven Hercules is meant Sampfon, the ufual fubject of old tapeftry. In this ridicule on the fafhion, the poet has not unartfully given a ftroke at the barbarous workmanship of the common tapestry hangings, then fo much in use. The fame kind of raillery Cervantes has employed on the like occafion, when he brings his knight and 'fquire to an inn, where they found the flory of Dido and Æneas represented in bad tapestry. On Sancho's feeing the tears fall from the eyes of the forfaken queen as big as walnuts, he hopes that when their atchievements became the general fubje& for these forts of works, that fortune will fend them a better artist. - What authorised the poet to give this name to Sampfon was the folly of certain Chriftian mythologifts, who pretend that the Grecian Hercules was the Jewish Sampfon. The retenue of our author is to be commended: The fober audience of that time would have been offended with the mention of a venerable name on fo light an occafion. Shakspeare is indeed fometimes licentious in thefe matters: But to do him juftice, he generally feems to have a sense of religion, and to be under its influence. What Pedro fays of Benedick, in this comedy, may be well enough applied to him: The man doth fear God, however it feems not to be in him by fome large jefts he will make. WARBURTON. I believe that Shakspeare knew nothing of these Chriftian mythologists, and by the Shaven Hercules meant only Hercules when Shaved to make him look like a woman, while he remained in the fervice of Omphale, his Lydian miflrefs. Had the fhaven Hercules been meant to reprefent Sampfon, he would probably have been equipped with a jaw bone inftead of a club. STEEVENS. ・fmirch'd] Smirch'd is foiled, obfcured. So, in As you Like it, A& I. fc. iii: STEEVENS. And with a kind of umber Smirch my face." BORA. Not fo neither: but know, that I have tonight wooed Margaret, the lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the name of Hero; fhe leans me out at her miftrefs' chamber window, bids me a thousand times good night,-I tell this tale vilely :-Ifhould firft tell thee, how the prince, Claudio, and my mafter, planted, and placed, and poffeffed by my mafter Don John, faw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter. CON. And thought they, Margaret was Hero? BORA. Two of them did, the prince and Claudio; but the devil my mafter knew fhe was Margaret; and partly by his oaths, which firft poffeffed them, partly by the dark night, which did deceive them, but chiefly by my villainy, which did confirm any flander that Don John had made, away went Claudio enraged; swore he would meet her as he was appointed, next morning at the temple, and there, before the whole congregation, shame her with what he faw over-night, and fend her home again without a hufband.' 1 WATCH. We charge you in the prince's name, fland. 2 WATCH. Call up the right mafter conftable: We have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth. 1 WATCH. And one Deformed is one of them; I know him, he wears a lock. CON. Mafters, mafters, 7 wears a lock.] So, in The Return from Parnaffus, 1606: See Dr. Warburton's note, A& V. fc. i. STEEVENS. 2 WATCH. You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you. CON. Mafters, 1 WATCH. Never speak; we charge you, let us abey you to go with us. BORA. We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken up of thefe men's bill's. CON. A commodity in queftion," I warrant you. Come, we'll obey you. SCENE IV. A Room in LEONATO's Houfe. [Exeunt, Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA. HERO. Good Urfula, wake my coufin Beatrice, and defire her to rife. URS. I will, lady. Watch. You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you. Con. Mafters never fpeak, we charge you, let us obey you to go with us. The regulation which I have made in this laft fpeech, though against the authority of all the printed copies, I flatter myself, carries its proof with it. Conrade and Borachio are not defigned to talk abfurd nonsense. It is evident therefore, that Conrade is attempting his own juftification; but is interrupted in it by the impertinence of the men in office. THEOBALD, 8 a goodly commodity, being taken up of thefe men's bills. ] Here is a cluster of conceits. Commodity was formerly as now, the ufual term for an article of merchandise. To take up, befides its common meaning, (to apprehend,) was the phrase for obtaining goods on credit. If a man is thorough with them in honeft taking up, (fays Falstaff,) then they muft ftand upon fecurity." Bill was the term both for a fingle bond, and a halberd. We have the fame conceit in King Henry VI. P. II: “ My lord, When fhall we go to Cheapfide, and take up commodities upon our bills ?" MALONE. trial or examination. A commodity in queftion, i. e. a commodity fubje&t to judicial Thus Hooker: "Whofoever be found guilty, the communion book hath deserved leaft to be called in question for this fault." STREVENS. HERO. And bid her come hither. URS. Well. [Exit URSULA. MARG. Troth, I think, your other rabato' were better. HERO. No, pray thee, good Meg, I'll wear this. MARG. By my troth, it's not fo good; and I warrant, your cousin will say so. HERO. My coufin's a fool, and thou art another; I'll wear none but this. MARG. I like the new tire within excellently, if the hair were a thought browner: and your gown's a moft rare fashion, i'faith. I faw the duchefs of Milan's gown, that they praise fo. HERO. O, that exceeds, they say. MARG. By my troth it's but a night-gown in rabato ] An ornament for the neck, a collar-band or kind of ruff. Fr. Rabat. Menage faith it comes from rabattre, to put back, because it was at firft nothing but the collar of the fhirs or fhift turn'd back towards the fhoulders. T. HAWKINS. This article of drefs is frequently mentioned by our ancient comic writers. So, in the comedy of Law Tricks, &c. 1608: "Broke broad jefts upon her narrow heel, Again, in Decker's Guls Hornbook, 1609: "Your ftiff-necked rebatoes (that have more arches for pride to row under, than can ftand under five London-bridges) durft not then," &c. Again, in Decker's Untruffing the Humorous Poet: "What a miserable thing it is to be a noble bride! There's fuch delays in rifing, in fitting gowns, in pinning rebatoes, in poaking," &c. The first and laft of thefe paffages will likewise serve for an additional explanation of the poking-flicks of feel, mentioned by Autolycus in The Winter's Tale. STEEVENS. 2 if the hair were a thought browner:] i. e. the false hair attached to the cap; for we learn from Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 1595, p. 40, that ladies were not fimplie content with their own haire, but did buy up other haire either of horfes, mares, or any other ftrange beafts, dying it of what collour they lift themselves." STEEVENS, respect of yours: Cloth of gold, and cuts, and laced with filver; fet with pearls, down fleeves, fidefleeves, and skirts round, underborne with a bluish tinfel: but for a fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on't. 2 66 fide-leeve's,] Side-fleeves, I believe, mean long ones. So, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: "As great felfe-love lurketh in a fide-gowne, as in a short armour." Again, in Laneham's Account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainment at KenelworthCaftle, 1575, the minstrel's " gown had fide-leeves down to the midleg," Clement Pafton (See Pafton Letters, Vol. I. p. 145, 2nd edit.) had a fhort blue gown that was made of a fide-gown." i. e. of a long one. Again, in The last Voyage of Captaine Frobisher, by Dionyfe Settle, 12mo. bl. 1. 1577: "They make their apparell with hoodes and tailes, &c. The men have them not so fyde as the women.' Such long fleeves, within my memory, were worn by children, and were called hanging fleeves; a term which is preferved in a line, I think, of Dryden⚫ "And mifs in hanging-sleeves now shakes the dice." Side or fyde in the North of England, and in Scotland, is used for long when applied to a garment, and the word has the fame fignification in the Anglo-Saxon and Danish. Vide Gloffary to Gawaine Douglas's Virgil. To remove an appearance of tautology, as down-fleeves may feem fynonymous with fide-fleeves, a comma must be taken out, and the paffage printed thus "Set with pearls down fleeves, or down th' fleeves.'. The fecond paragraph of this note is copied from the Edinburgh Magazine, for Nov. 1786. STEEVENS. Side-fleeves were certainly long-fleeves, as will appear from the following inftances. Stowe's Chronicle, p. 327, tempore Hen. IV: This time was ufed exceeding pride in garments, gownes with deepe and broad fleeves commonly called poke fleeves, the fervants ware them as well as their masters, which might well have been called the receptacles of the devil, for what they ftole they hid in their fleeves, whereof some hung downe to the feete, and at least to the knees, full of cuts and jagges, whereupon were made these verses: ['i. e. by Tho. Hoccleve. ] "Now hath this land little neede of broomes "Will it up licke be it drie or weete." Again, in Fitzherbert's Book of Husbandry: 66 Theyr cotes be fo Jyde that they be fayne to tucke them up whan they ride, as women do theyr kyrtels whan they go to the market," &c. REED. |