Imatges de pàgina
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1. CIT. Well, I'll hear it, fir: yet you must not think to fob off our difgrace with a tale: but, an't please you, deliver.

MEN. There was a time, when all the body's members

Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :-
That only like a gulf it did remain

I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never bearing
Like labour with the reft; where the other inftru-
ments 3

Hyftorie of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. a play publifhed in 1599:

"The hugie heapes of cares that lodged in my minde,
Are kaled from their neftling-place, and pleafures paf-
fage find."

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, already quoted:

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Cut off his beard.

Fye, fye; idle, idle; he's no Frenchman, to fret at the lofs of a little feal'd hair." In the North they fay fcale the corn, i. e. fcatter it: fcale the muck well, i. e. fpread the dung well. The two foregoing inftances are taken from Mr. Lambe's notes on the old metrical history of Fladdon Field.

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Again, Holinfbed, Vol. II. p. 499, fpeaking of the retreat of the Welchmen during the abfence of Richard II. fays: "they would no longer abide, but fealed and departed away." So again, P. 530: whereupon their troops fcaled, and fled their waies. In the learned Ruddiman's Gloffary to Gawin Douglas's Tranflation of Virgil, the following account of the word is given. Skail, fkale, to fcatter, to spread, perhaps from the Fr. efcheveler, Ital. fcapigliare, crines paffos, feu fparfos habere. All from the Latin capillus. Thus efcheveler, fchevel, fkail; but of a more general fignification. See Vol. IV. p. 292, n. 2. STEEVENS. Theobald reads-ftale it. MALONE.

difgrace with a tale:] Difgraces are hardships, injuries. JOHNSON.

3 where the other inftruments -] Where for whereas.

JOHNSON.

We meet with the fame expreffion in The Winter's Tale, Vol.

VII. p. 59, n. 6:

"As you feel, doing thus, and fee withal
"The inftruments that feel." MALONE.

Did fee, and hear, devife, inftruct, walk, feel,
And, mutually participate, did minister
Unto the appetite and affection common
Of the whole body. The belly answered,--

1. CIT. Well, fir, what answer made the belly? MEN. Sir, I fhall tell you. With a kind of smile, Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus, (For, look you, I may make the belly fmile," As well as fpeak,) it tauntingly reply'd

To the difcontented members, the mutinous parts
That envy'd his receipt; even fo moft fitly"
As you malign our fenators, for that

They are not fuch as you.

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1. CIT. Your belly's answer: What! The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye, The counfellor heart, the arm our foldier, Our steed the leg, the tongue our trumpeter, With other muniments and petty helps In this our fabrick, if that they

ΜΕΝ.

What then?—

-participate,] Here means participant, or participating.

MALONE.

Which ne'er came from the lungs,] With a fmile not indicating pleafure, but contempt. JOHNSON.

6 I may make the belly fmile,]

make the belly fmile,]" And fo the belly, all this notwithstanding, laughed at their folly, and fayed," &c. North's Tranflation of Plutarch, p. 240, edit. 1579. MALONE.

7 -even so most fitly —] i. e. exactly. WARBURTON.

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8 They are not fuch as you.] I fuppofe we should read-They are not as you. So, in St. Luke, xviii. 11. "God, I thank thee, I am not as this publican." The pronoun-fuch, only disorders the meafure. STEEVENS.

9 The counsellor heart,] The heart was anciently esteemed the feat of prudence. Homo cordatus is a prudent man. JOHNSON. The heart was confidered by Shakspeare as the feat of the underflanding. See the next note. MALONE.

'Fore me, this fellow fpeaks!-what then? what

then?

1. CIT. Should by the cormorant belly be re

ftrain'd,

Who is the fink o' the body,

ΜΕΝ.

Well, what then?

1. CIT. The former agents, if they did com

plain,

What could the belly answer?

I will tell you;

MEN. If you'll beftow a small (of what you have little,) Patience, a while, you'll hear the belly's answer. I. CIT. You are long about it.

MEN.

Note me this, good friend; Your most grave belly was deliberate,

Not rafh like his accufers, and thus answer'd.
True is it, my incorporate friends, quoth he,
That I receive the general food at first,
Which you do live upon: and fit it is;
Becaufe I am the flore-boufe, and the shop
Of the whole body: But if you do remember,
I fend it through the rivers of your blood,

Even to the court, the heart,—to the feat o' the brain;ꞌ

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to the feat o' the brain;] feems to me a very languid expreffion. I believe we should read, with the omiffion of a par

ticle:

Even to the court, the heart, to the feat, the brain.

He ufes feat for throne, the royal feat, which the first editors probably not apprehending, corrupted the paffage. It is thus used in Richard II. A&t III. fc. iv :

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Yea, diftaff-women manage rusty bills

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Against thy feat."

It should be obferved too, that one of the Citizens had just before characterised these principal parts of the human fabrick by fimilar metaphors:

"The kingly-crowned head, the vigilant eye,

"The counsellor heart,-. TYRWHITT.

And, through the cranks and offices of man,
The ftrongest nerves, and fmall inferior veins,
From me receive that natural competency

Whereby they live: And though that all at once,
You, my good friends, (this fays the belly,) mark

me,

I have too great refpect for even the conjectures of my respectable and very judicious friend, to fupprefs his note, though it appears to me erroneous. In the prefent inftance I have not the smallest doubt, being clearly of opinion that the text is right. Brain is here used for reafon or understanding. Shakspeare feems to have had Camden as well as Plutarch before him; the former of whom has told a fimilar ftory in his Remains, 1605, and has likewise made the heart the feat of the brain, or understanding: " Hereupon they all agreed to pine away their lafie and publike enemy. One day paffed over, the fecond followed very tedious, but the third day was fo grievous to them, that they called a common counfel. The eyes waxed dimme, the feete could not support the body, the armes waxed lazie, the tongue faltered, and could not lay open the matter. Therefore they all with one accord defired the advice of the heart. There REASON laid open before them," &c. Remains, p. 109. See An Attempt to ascertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I. in which a circumstance is noticed, that fhews our author had read Camden as well as Plutarch.

I agree, however, entirely with Mr. Tyrwhitt, in thinking that feat means here the royal feat, the throne. The feat of the brain, is put in oppofition with the heart, and is defcriptive of it. "I fend it, (fays the belly,) through the blood, even to the royal refidence, the heart, in which the kingly-crowned understanding fits en

throned.

So, in King Henry VI. P. II:

"The rightful heir to England's royal feat."

In like manner in Twelfth Night, our author has erected the throne of love in the heart:

"It gives a very echo to the feat

"Where love is throned."

Again, in Othello:

"Yield up, O love, thy crown and hearted throne." See alfo a paffage in King Henry V. fame fenfe as here; Vol. IX. p. 299,

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where feat is ufed in the MALONE.

n. 9.

Cranks are the meandrous

1. CIT. Ay, fir; well, well.

MEN.

Though all at once cannot

See what I do deliver out to each;

Yet I can make my audit
audit up,
From me do back receive the
And leave me but the bran.

that all flower of all, What say you to't? I. CIT. It was an answer: How apply you this? MEN. The fenators of Rome are this good belly, And you the mutinous members: For examine Their counfels, and their cares; digeft things rightly,

Touching the weal o' the common; you shall find,
No publick benefit, which you receive,

But it proceeds, or comes, from them to you,
And no way from yourselves.-What do you think?
You, the great toe of this affembly?—

1. CIT. I the great toe? Why the great toe?

MEN. For that being one o' the lowest, bafeft, pooreft,

Of this moft wife rebellion, thou go'ft foremoft: Thou rafcal, that art worst in blood, to run Lead'ft first, to win fome vantage.'

Cranks are windings. So, in Venus and Adonis :

"He cranks and croffes, with a thousand doubles."

MALONE.

3 Thou rafcal, that art worft in blood, to run Lead ft firft, to win fome vantage.] I think, we may better read, by an eafy change,

Thou rafcal that art worst in blood, to ruin

Lead'ft firft, to win &c.

Thou that art the meaneft by birth, art the foremost to lead thy fellows to ruin, in hope of fome advantage. The meaning, however, is perhaps only this, Thou that art a hound, or running dog of the loweft breed, lead'ft the pack, when any thing is to be gotten. JOHNSON.

Worft in blood may be the true reading. In King Henry VI. P. I; "If we be English deer, be then in blood,”

i. e. high fpirits, in vigour.

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