minute particles discernible in a stream of sunshinë that breaks into a darkened room. HENLEY. 262. Cry holla to thy tongue.] Holla was a term of the manege, by which the rider restrained and stopp'd his horse. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis, 1593: "What recketh he his rider's angry stir, "His flattering holla, or his stand I say? The word is again used in Othello, in the same sense as here: "Holla! stand there.” 264. and hart. MALONE. my heart.] A quibble between heart STEEVENS. 291. -but I answer you right painted cloth,] This alludes to the fashion in old tapestry hangings, of mottos and moral sentences from the mouths of the figures worked or printed in them. The poet again hints at this custom in his poem, called, Tarquin and Lucrece: "Who fears a sentence, or an old man's saw, "Shall, by a painted cloth, be kept in awe." THEOBALD. The same allusion is common to many of our old plays. So, in a Match at Midnight, 1633 : "There's a witty posy for you. "No, no; I'll have one shall favour of a saw."Why then 'twill smell of the painted cloth.” Again, in the Muse's Looking-Glass, by Randolph, 1638: "Then for the painting, I bethink myself "That I have seen in Mother Redcap's hall "In painted cloth the story of the prodigal." From From this last quotation we may suppose that the rooms in publick-houses were usually hung with what Falstaff calls water-work. On these hangings, perhaps, moral sentences were depicted as issuing from the mouths of the different characters represented. Again, in Sir Thomas More's English Works, printed by Rastell, 1557: "Mayster Thomas More in hys youth devysed in hys father's house in London, a goodly hangyng of fyne paynted clothe, with nine pageauntes, and verses over every of those pageauntes; which verses expressed and declared what the ymages in those pageauntes represented: and also in those pageauntes were paynted the thynges that the verses over them dyd (in effecte) declare." Of the present phraseology there is an instance in King John: "He speaks plain cannon fire, and bounce, and smoke.” STEEVENS. This singular phrase may likewise be justified by another of the same kind in K. Henry V : "I speak to thee plain soldier.” Again, in Twelfth-Night: "He speaks nothing but madman.” There is no need of Sir T. Hanmer's alteration: "I answer you right in the style of painted cloth.” We had before in this play: "It is the right butterwoman's rate at market." MALONE. Sir T. Hanmer reads, I answer you right, in the style of the painted cloth. Something seems wanting, and I know not what can be proposed better. I answer you you right painted cloth, may mean, I give you a true painted cloth answer; as we say, she talks right Billingsgate: that is, exactly such language as is used at Billingsgate. JOHNSON. 356. -remov'd] i. e. lonely. 359. -in-land man ;] İs used in this play for one civilized, in opposition to the rustick of the priest. So, Orlando before-Yet am I in-land bred, and know JOHNSON. some nurture. See catch-word Alphabet. 385. eyes. 386. -a blue eye,] i. e. a blueness about the STEEVENS. an unquestionable spirit.] That is, unwilling to be conversed with. CHAMIER. See Unquestionable, catch-word Alphabet. 390. Then your hose should be ungarter'd, &c.] These seem to have been the established and characteristical marks by which the votaries of love were denoted in the time of Shakspere. So, in the Fair Maid of the Exchange, by Heywood, 1637: "Shall I, that have jested at love's sighs, now raise whirlwinds! Shall I, that have flouted ah me's once a quarter, now practise ah me's every minute? Shall I defy hat-bands, and tread garters and shoe-strings under my feet? Shall I fall to falling bands, and be a ruffian no longer? I must; I am now liegeman to Cupid, and have read all these informations in the book of his statutes." Again, in A pleasant Comedy how to chuse a good Wife from a bad, 1608: -I was once like thee "A sigher, melancholy humorist, MALONE. 391. -point device] i. e. exact, drest with finical nicety. See catch-word Alphabet. STEEVENS. Point devise is a term in heraldry. 429. -to a living humour of madness;] The sense requires us to read loving for living. 448. Doth my simple feature content you?] says the Clown to Audrey. "Your features, replies the wench. Lord warrant us, what features ?" I doubt not, this should be your feature! Lord warrant us, what's feature? FARMER. Feat and feature, perhaps had anciently the same meaning. The Clown asks, if the features of his face content her, she takes the word in another sense, i. e. feats, deeds, and in her reply seems to mean, what feats, i. e. what have you done yet? The courtship of Audrey and her gallant had not proceeded further, as Sir William Witwood says, than a little mouthglew; but she supposes him to be talking of something which as yet he had not performed. STEEVENS. 458. -it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room;] Nothing was ever wrote in higher humour than this simile. A great reckoning, in a little room, implies that the entertainment was mean, and the bill extravagant. WARBURTON, 464. and what they swear in poetry, &c.] This sentence seems perplexed and inconsequent, perhaps it were better read thus, What they swear as lovers they may be said to feign as poets. JOHNSON. : 476. A material fool!] A fool with matter in him; a fool stocked with notions. JOHNSON. See Material before, in catch-word Alphabet. I rather believe foul to be put for the rustick pronunciation of full. Audrey, supposing the Clown to have spoken of her as a full slut, says, naturally enough, I am not a slut, though, I thank the gods, I am foul, i. e. full. She was more likely to thank the gods for a belly-full, than for her being coy or frowning. TYRWHITT. -we In confirmation of Mr. Tyrwhitt's conjecture, it Emay be observed, that in the song at the end of Love's Labour Lost, instead of "where ways be foul,"have in the first quarto of 1598—“ where ways be full." In that and other old English books many words seem to have been spelt by the ear. MALONE. Audrey says, she is not fair (i.e. handsome), and therefore prays the gods to make her honest. The Clown tells her that to cast honesty away upon a foul slut (i. e. an ill-favoured dirty creature), is to put meat in an unclean dish. She replies, she is no slut (no dirty drab) though in her great simplicity, she thanks the gods for her foulness (homelyness) i. e. for being as she is. Well, adds he, praised be the gods for thy foulness, sluttishness may come hereafter. REMARKS, 49 |