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ABM. I have promised to ftudy three years with

the duke.

MOTH. You may do it in an hour, fir.
ARM. Impoffible.

MOTH. How many is one thrice told?

ARM. I am ill at reckoning, it fitteth the fpirit of a tapfter.

7

MOTH. You are a gentleman, and a gamefter, fir. ARM. I confefs both; they are both the varnish of a complete man.

MOTH. Then, I am fure, you know how much the grols fum of deuce-ace amounts to.

ARM. It doth amount to one more than two. MOTH. Which the bafe vulgar do call, three. ARM. True.

MOTH. Why, fir, is this fuch a piece of study? Now here is three ftudied, ere you'll thrice wink: and how eafy it is to put years to the word three, and study three years in two words, the dancing horfe will tell you.

7 I am ill at reckoning, it filleth the Spirit of a tapfter.] Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "A tapfter's arithmetick may foon bring his particulars therein to a total. *STEEVENS.

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Moth. And how easy it is to put years to the word three, and Audy three years in two words, the dancing horfe will tell you.] Bankes's horfe, which play'd many remarkable pranks. Sir Walter Raleigh (Hiftory of the World, firft. Part, p. 173.) fays, "If Banks had lived in older times, he would have fhamed all the inchanters in the world: for whofoever was most famous among them, could never mafter, or inftru&t any beaft as he did his horfe.' And fir Kenelm Digby (A Treatife on Bodies, ch. xxxviii. p. 393.) obferyes: That his horfe would reftore a glove to the due owner. after the mafter had whispered the man's name in his ear; would tell the juft number of pence in any piece of filver coin, newly fhowed him by his mafter; and even obey prefently his command, in difcharging himself of his excrements, whenfoever he had bade him." DR. GREY.

ARM. A moft fine figure!

MOTH. To prove you a cypher.

[Afide.

Bankes's horfe is alluded to by many writers contemporary with Shakspeare; among the reft, by Ben Jonfon, in Every Man out of his Humour: "Hee keeps more ado with this monfter; than ever Bankes did with his horfe.

Again, in Hall's Satires, Lib. IV. fat. ii:

"More than who vies his pence to view fome tricke
"Offtrange Morocco's dumbe arithmeticke."

Again, in Ben Jonfon's 134th Epigram:

Old Banks the jugler, our Pythagoras,

"Grave tutor to the learned horfe," &c.

The fate of this man and his very docile animal, is not exa&ly known, and, perhaps, deferves not to be remembered.

From the

next lines, however, to thofe laft quoted, it should feem as if they had died abroad:

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Both which

Being, beyond fea, burned for one witch, "Their spirits tranfmigrated to a cat."

Among the entries at Stationer's-Hall is the following,; Nov. 14. 1595. A ballad fhewing the ftrange qualities of a young nagg

called Morocco."

Among other exploits of this celebrated beaft, it is faid that he went up to the top of St. Paul's; and the fame circumftance is likewife mentioned in The Guls Horn-booke, a fatirical pamphlet by Decker, 1609: "From hence you may defcend to talk about the horfe that went up, and ftrive, if you can, to know his keeper; take the day of the month, and the number of the fteppes, and fuffer yourself to believe verily that it was not a horfe, but fomething elfe in the likeness of one.

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Again, in Chreftoloros, or Seven Bookes of Epigrames, written by T. B. [Thomas Baftard] 1598, Lib. III. ep. 17:

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Of Bankes's Horfe.

"Bankes hath a horfe of wondrous qualitie,

For he can fight, and piffe, and dance, and lie,
"And finde your purfe, and tell what coyue ye have:
But Bankes who taught your horfe to fmell a knave?”
STEEVENS.

In 1595, was published a pamphlet intitled, Maroccus Extaticus, or Banks's bay Horfe in a Trance. A difcourfe fet downe in a merry dialogue between Bankes and his beast: anatomizing fome abuses and bad trickes of this age, 4to; prefixed to which, was a print of the horfe ftanding on his hind legs with a flick in his mouth, his master with a flick in his hand and a pair of dice on the ground. Ben Jonfon hints at the unfortunate catastrophe of both man and horse,

ARM. I will hereupon confefs, I am in love: and, as it is base for a foldier to love, fo I am in love with a base wench. If drawing my fword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take defire priwhich I find happened at Rome, where to the difgrace of the age, of the country, and of humanity, they were burnt by order of the pope, for magicians. See Don Zara del Fogo, 12mo. 1660. p. 114.

REED.

The following reprefentation of Bankes and his Horse, is a facfimile from a rude wooden frontifpiece to the pamphlet mentioned by Mr. Reed.

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foner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new devis'd court'fy. I think fcorn to figh; methinks, I fhould out-fwear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: What great men have been in love? MOTH. Hercules, mafter.

ARM. Moft fweet Hercules!-More authority. dear boy, name more; and, fweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage.

MOTH. Sampfon, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the towngates on his back, like a porter: and he was in love.

ARM. O well-knit Sampfon! ftrong- jointed Sampfon! I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too. Who was Sampfon's love, my dear Moth? MOTH. A woman, master.

ARM. Of what complexion?

MOTH. Of all the four, or the three, or the two; or one of the four.

ARM. Tell me precifely of what complexion? MOTH. Of the fea-water green, sir.

ARM. Is that one of the four complexions? MOTн. As I have read, fir; and the beft of them

too.

ARM. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers: "

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• Green indeed is the colour of lovers:] I do not know whether our author alludes to "the rare green eye, which in his time feems to have been thought a beauty, or to that frequent attendant on love, jealousy, to which in The Merchant of Venice, and in Othello, he has applied the epithet green-ey'd. MALONE.

Perhaps Armado neither alludes to green eyes, nor to jealoufy; but to the willow, the supposed ornament of unsuccessful lovers: Sing, all a green willow fhall be my garland,

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is the burden of an ancient ditty preferved in The Gallery of Gorgious Inventions, &c. 4to. 1578. STEEVENS,

but to have a love of that colour, methinks, Sampfon had small reason for it. He, furely, affected her for her wit.

MOTH. It was fo, fir; for fhe had a green wit. ARM. My love is moft immaculate white and red. MOTH. Moft maculate thoughts, mafter, are mafk'd under fuch colours.

2

ARM. Define, define, well-educated infant. MOTH. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, affift me!

ARM. Sweet invocation of a child; moft pretty, and pathetical!

MOTH. If the be made of white and red,
Her faults will n'er be known;

For blufhing cheeks by faults are bred,
And fears by pale-white shown:
Then, if the fear, or be to blame,

By this you shall not know;

For ftill her checks poffefs the fame,
Which native fhe doth owe.

A dangerous rhime, mafter, against the reafon of white and red.

ARM. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?

2 Mo maculate thoughts, ] So the firft quarto, 1598. The folio has immaculate. To avoid fuch notes for the future, it may be proper to apprize the reader, that where the reading of the text does not correfpond with the folio, without any reason being affigned for the deviation, it is always warranted by the authority of the firft quarto. MALONE.

3 For blushing-] The original copy has-blush in. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 4 Which native fhe doth owe.] i. e. of which he is naturally poffeffed. To owe is to poffefs. So, in Macbeth:

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the difpofition that I owe. STEEVENS. the King and the Beggar?] See Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, in three vols. STEEVENS,

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