Imatges de pàgina
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"I had like t' have been

“Abus'd i' the business, had the slip slur'd on

me,

"A counterfeit." Magnetich Lady, act iii. sc. 6. Other instances may be seen in his edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, Vol. V. p. 396.

401. then is my pump well flower'd.] Here is a、 vein of wit too thin to be easily found. The fundamental idea is, that Romeo wore pinked pumps, that is, punched with holes in figures. JOHNSON.

See the shoes of the morris-dancers in the plate at the conclusion of the first part of King Henry IV. with Mr. Tollet's remarks annexed to it.

It was the custom to wear ribbands in the shoes formed into the shape of roses, or of any other flowers. So Middleton, in the Masque, by the Gent. of Gray's-Inn, 1614: "Every masker's pump was fastened with a flower suitable to his cap." STELVENS.

418. good goose, bite not.] Is a proverbial expression, to be found in Ray's Collection; and is used in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599.

419. -a very bitter sweeting;

STEEVENS.

-] A bitter sweet

ing is an apple of that name. So, in Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600:

--as well crabs as sweetings for his summer fruits."

Again, in Fair Em, 1631:

"what, in displeasure gone!

" And left me such a bitter sweet to gnaw upon ?”

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Again, in Gower, De Confessione Amantis, Lib. VIII.

fol. 174. b.

"For all such tyme of love is lore,

"And like unto the bitter swete,

"For though it thinke a man fyrst swete

"He shall well felen at laste

"That it is sower," &c.

422.

STEEVENS.

—a wit of cheverel,-] Cheverel is soft leather

for gloves.

JOHNSON.

So, in the Two Maids of Moreclacke, 1609:

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Drawing on love's white hand a glove of warmth,

"Not cheveril stretching to such prophanation.” From Chevreau, a Kid, Fr.

Cheveril is from chevreuil, a roebuck.

STEEVENS.

MUSGRAVE.

431. —to hide his bauble in a hole.] It has been already observed by Sir J. Hawkins, in a note on All's Well that Ends Well, that a bauble was one of the accoutrements of a licensed fool or jester. STEEVENS.

434. against the hair.] A contrepoil: Fr. An expression equivalent to one which we now use— "against the grain." STEEVENS,

446. My fan, Peter.] The business of Peter carrying the Nurse's fan, seems ridiculous according to modern manners; but I find such was formerly the practice. In an old pamphlet called The Serving-man's Comfort, 1598, we are informed, "The mistress must have one to carry her cloake and hood, another her fanne."

FARMER.

Again, in Love's Labour's Lost:

"To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her

fan.”

Again, in Every Man out of his Humour: "If any lady, &c. wants an upright gentleman in the nature of a gentleman usher, &c. who can hide his face with her fan," &c. STEEVENS.

450. God ye good den,-] i. e. God give you a good even. The first of these contractions is common among the ancient comick writers. So, in R. Brome's Northern Lass, 1633:

"God you good even, sir.”

STEEVENS.

452. -the hand of the dial-] In the Puritan Widow, 1605, which has been attributed to our au thor, is a similar expression: "the feskewe of the diale is upon the chrisse-crosse of noon?"

STEEVENS.

454. -are you, &c.] Perhaps the poet wrote, Nurse. Out upon you! what a man you are! Romeo. One, lady, that God made, himself to mar. S. D. Y.

472. No hare, sir ;- -] Mercutio having roared out, So, ho! the cry of the sportsmen when they start a hare; Romeo asks what he has found. And Mercutio answers, No hare, &c. The rest is a series of quibbles unworthy of explanation, which he who does not understand, needs not lament his ignorance.

JOHNSON.

475. An old hare hoar,] Hoar or hoary, is often used for mouldy, as things grow white from mould

ing. So, in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil, -as hoary as Dutch butter." STEEVENS.

1595: 484.

song.

486.

lady, lady, lady.] The burthen of an old STEEVENS.

what saucy merchant was this? &c.] The term merchant, which was, and even now is, frequently applied to the lowest sort of dealers, seems anciently to have been used on these familiar occasions in contradistinction to gentleman; signifying that the person shewed by his behaviour he was a low fellow. The term chap, i. e. chapman, a word of the same import with merchant in its less respectable sense, is still in common use among the vulgar, as a general denomination for any person of whom they mean to speak with freedom or disrespect. STEEVENS.

487. of his ropery?] Ropery was anciently used in the same sense as roguery is now. So, in the Three Ladies of London, ́ 1584 :

"Thou art very pleasant and full of thy roperye." Rope tricks are mentioned in another place.

495.

STEEVENS.

-none of his skains-mates :-) -] A skein or shain was either a knife or a short dagger. By skainsmates the nurse means, none of his loose companions who frequent the fencing-school with him, where we may suppose the exercise of this weapon was taught. STEEVENS.

520. —protest;] Whether the repetition of this word conveyed any idea peculiarly comick to Shakspere's audience, is not at present to be determined.

The

The use of it, however, is ridiculed in the old comedy of Sir Giles Goosecap, 1606:

"There is not the best duke's son in France dares say, I protest, till he be one-and-thirty years old at least; for the inheritance of that word is not to be possessed before." STEEVENS.

525. Here is for thy pains.] So, in The Tragi cal Hystory of Romeus and Juliet, 1562:

"Then he vi. crowns of gold out of his pocket

drew,

and so adieu."

"And gave them her-a slight reward, quoth he; MALONE. 531. —like a tackled stair,] Like stairs of rope in

the tackle of a ship.

JOHNSON. 532. -top. gallant of my joy] The top-gallant is the highest extremity of the mast of a ship.

This expression is common to many writers; among the rest, to Markham, in his English Arcadia, 1607: "beholding in the high top-gallant of his STEEVENS.

valour."

541. Well, sir; my mistress is the sweetest ladyLord, lord! when 'twas a little prating thing,-] So, in the poem:

“And how she gave her suck in youth, she leaveth not to tell.

"A pretty babe, quoth she, it was, when it was

young,

"Lord, how it could full prettily have prated

with its tongue," &c.

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