1079. When, &c.] The first lines of this song that were transposed, have been replaced by Mr. Theobald. JOHNSON. 1081. -Cuchow-buds- -] Gerard in his Herbal, 1597, says, that the flos cuculi cardamine, &c. are called "in English, cuckoo-flowers, in Norfolk Canterbury-bells, and at Namptwich in Cheshire ladiesmocks." Shakspere, however, might not have been sufficiently skilled in botany to be aware of this particular. Mr. Tollet has observed, that Lyte in his Herbal, 1578 and 1579, remarks, that cowslips are, in French, of some called coquu, prime vere, and brayes de coquu. This he thinks will sufficiently account for our au thor's cuckoo-buds, by which he supposes cowslip-buds to be meant; and further directs the reader to Cotgrave's Dictionary, under the articles-Cocu, and herbe a coqu. STEEVENS. Cuckow-buds must be wrong. I believe cowslip-buds the true reading. FARMER. Mr. Whalley, the learned editor of Ben Jonson's works, many years ago proposed to read crocus buds, The cuckow flower, he observed, could not be called yellow, it rather approaching to the colour of white, by which epithet Cowley, who was himself no mean botanist, has distinguished it; Albaque cardamine, &c. MALONE. STEEVENS. Crocus buds is a phrase unknown to naturalists and gardeners. 1195. doth keel the pot.] This word is yet used used in Ireland, and signifies to scum the pot. GOLDSMITH. So, in Marston's What you Will, 1607:-" Faith, Doricus, thy brain boils, keel it, keel it, or all the fat's in the fire." STEEVENS. To keel the pot is certainly to cool it, but in a particular manner; it is to stir the pottage with the ladle, to prevent the boiling over. FARMER. To keel signifies to cool in general, without any reference to the kitchen. So, in Gower De Confessione Amantis, Lib. V. fol. 121. "The cote he found, and eke he feleth "The mace, and than his herte keleth Again, fol. 131. "With water on his finger ende "Thyne hote tonge to kele." Mr. Lambe observes, in his notes on the ancient metrical History of the Battle of Flodden, that it is a common thing in the North" for a maid servant to take out of a boiling pot a wheen, i. e. a small quan-, tity, viz. a porringer or two of broth, and then to fill. up the pot with cold water. The broth thus taken put is called the keeling wheen. In this manner greasy Joan keeled the pot." "Gie me beer, and gie me grots, "And lumps of beef to swum abeen; STEEVENS. 1107. the parson's saw,] Saw seems anciently to have meant, not as at present, a proverb, a sentence, but the whole tenor of any instructive discourse. So, in the fourth chapter of the first book of the Tragedies of John Bochas, translated by Lidgate: "These old poetes in their sawes swete "Full covertly in their verses do fayne," &c. 1110. STEEVENS. When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,] So, in Midsummer-Night's Dream: "And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl, "In very likeness of a roasted crab." Again, in Like will to Like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, 1587: "Now a crab in the fire were worth a good groat: "That I might quaffe with my captain Tom Toss-pot." Again, in Summer's last Will and Testament, 1600: "Sitting in a corner turning crabs, "Or coughing o'er a warmed pot of ale.” · STEEVENS. ACT ACTI. Page 11. Line 171. THIS child of fancy, that Armado hight, &c.] This, as I have shewn in the note in its place, relates to the stories in the books of chivalry. A few words, therefore, concerning their origin and nature, may not be unacceptable to the reader. As I do not know of any writer who has given any tolerable account of this matter; and especially as Monsieur Huet, the bishop of Avranches, who wrote a formal treatise of the Origin of Romances, has said little or nothing of these in that superficial work. For having brought down the account of Romances to the later Greeks, and entered upon those composed by the barbarous western writers, which have now the name of Romances almost appropriated to them, he puts the change upon his reader, and instead of giving us an account of these books of chivalry, one of the most curious and interesting parts of the subject he promised to treat of, he contents himself with a long account of the poems of the provincial writers, called likewise romances; and so, under the equivoque of a common term, drops his proper subject, and entertains us with another, that had no relation to it more than in the name. The Spaniards were, of all others, the fondest of these fables, as suiting best their extravagant turn to gallantry and bravery; which in time grew so exces sive, as to need all the efficacy of Cervantes's incomparable satire to bring them back to their senses. The French suffered an easier cure from their doctor Rabelais, who enough discredited the books of chivalry, by only using the extravagant stories of its giants, &c. as a cover for another kind of satire against the refined politicks of his countrymen; of which they were as much possessed, as the Spaniards of their romantick bravery. A bravery our Shakspere makes their characteristick, in this description of a Spanish gentleman: "A man of compliments, whom right and wrong "In high-born words, the worth of many a knight, The sense of which is to this effect: This gentleman, says the speaker, shall relate to us the celebrated stories recorded in the old romances, and in their very style. Why he says, from tawny Spain, is because these romances, being of the Spanish original, the heroes and the scene were generally of that country. He says, lost in the world's debate, because the subject of those romances were the crusades of the European Christians against the Saracens of Asia and Africa. Indeed, the wars of the Christians against the Pagans were the general subject of the romances of chivalry. They all seem to have had their ground, work |