Your praises are too large: but that your youth, And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it 17, Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd; With wisdom I might fear, my Doricles, You woo'd me the false way. Flo. I think, you have As little skill to fear 18. as I have purpose To put you to't.-But, come; our dance, I pray : Per. I'll swear for 'em 19. Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Ran on the green-sward: nothing she does, or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself; Too noble for this place. Cam. He tells her something, That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is of curds and cream. The queen Clo. Come on, strike up, Dor. Mopsa must be your mistress: marry, garlick, To mend her kissing with. Мор. Now, in good time! Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our manners Come, strike up. 20 [Musick. Here a Dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what Fair swain is this, which dances with your daughter? 17 Thus Marlow in his Hero and Leander : 'Through whose white skin softer than soundest sleep, 18 i. e. you as little know how to fear that I am false, as, &c. 19 Johnson would transfer this speech to the king, and Ritson would read 'swear for one." Mr. Douce has justly observed that no change is necessary. It is no more than a common phrase of acquiescence, like 'I'll warrant you.' 20 i. e. we are now on our good behaviour. Shep. They call him Doricles, and he boasts himself To have a worthy feeding 21: but I have it Upon his own report, and I believe it; He looks like sooth 22: He says, he loves my daughter; I think so too; for never gaz'd the moon Who loves another best. Pol. She dances featly 23. Shep. So she does any thing; though I report it, That should be silent: if young Doricles Do light upon her, she shall bring him that Enter a Servant. Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he sings several tunes, faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes. Clo. He could never come better: he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably. Serv. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves; he has the prettiest love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings 25; jump her 21 A valuable tract of pasturage. 23 That is dexterously, nimbly. 22 Truth. 24 The trade of a milliner was formerly carried on by men exclusively. 25 With a hie dildo dill, and a dildo dee' is the burthen of an old ballad or two. Fading is also another burthen to a ballad and thump her; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to answer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, slights him, with Whoop, do me no harm, good man 26 Pol. This is a brave fellow. Clo. Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares 27? Serv. He hath ribands of all the colours i'the rainbow; points 28, more than all the lawyers in found in Shirley's Bird in a Cage; and perhaps to others. It is also the name given to an Irish dance, probably from fædan, I whistle, as it was danced to the pipes. The Irish name rinca fada is the long dance, performed by country people on May day. The fading is mentioned by Ben Johnson, and distinguished from the fadow. A very interesting account of the rinca fada is given in Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakspeare at the end of vol. xiv. 26 This was also the burthen of an old ballad. 27 i. e. undamaged wares, true and good. This word has sadly perplexed the commentators, who have all left the reader in the dark as to the true meaning. The quotation by Steevens from 'Any Thing for a Quiet Life' ought to have led to a right explanation: She says that you sent ware which is not warrantable, braided ware, and that you give not London measure.' ston in his Scourge of Villanie, Sat. v.:— So Mar-' Tuscus is trade-falne; yet great hopes he'le rise, For now he makes no count of perjuries; Hath drawn false lights from pitch-black loveries, Glased his braided ware, cogs, sweares, and lies.' And in the prologue to a very curious manuscript collection of satiric tales in verse, entitled An Iliade of Metamorphosis,' 1600, now in the library of Richard Heber, Esq. M. P. and which are thought to be Marston's : Bookes of this nature being once perused Are then cast by, and as brayed ware refused.' Mr. Tollet had before remarked that braided is explained by Bailey faded, or having lost its colour. I am rather surprised that this should have escaped Mr. Nares, because he has quoted one of the passages from Marston, in illustration of another word. See note on All's Well that Ends Well, vol. iii. p. 290. 28 Points, upon which lies the quibble, were laces with tags. bid Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross; inkles 29, caddisses 30 cambricks, lawns: why, he sings them over, as they were gods or goddesses; you would think, a smock were a she-angel; he so chants to the sleeve-hand 31, and the work about the square on't 32. 31 Clo. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach singing. Per. Forewarn him, that he use no scurrilous words in his tunes. Clo. You have of these pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, sister. Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing. Lawn, as white as driven snow; 29 A kind of tape. 30 A kind of ferret or worsted lace. 31 Sleeve-hand, the cuffs, or wristband. 32 The work about the bosom of it. So in Fairfax's Tasso, b. xii. st. 64: 'Her curious square embossed with swelling gold, 33 Amber of which necklaces were made fit to perfume a lady's chamber. 44 These poking-sticks are described by Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses, Part ii:- They be made of yron and steele, and some of brasse, kept as bright as silver, yea, some of silver itselfe; and it is well, if in processe of time, they grow not to be Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy; Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou should'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves. Mop. I was promis'd them against the feast; but they come not too late now. Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars. Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you: may be, he has paid you more; which will shame you to give him again. Clo. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets, where they should bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole 35, to whistle off these secrets; but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? 'Tis well, they are whispering: Clamour your tongues 36, and not a word more. of gold. The fashion whereafter they be made, I cannot resem ble to any thing so well as to a squirt or a little squibbe, which little children used to squirt water out withal; and when they come to starching and setting of their ruffes, then must this instrument be heated in the fire, the better to stiffen the ruff.' Stowe informs us that about the sixteenth yeare of the queene (Elizabeth) began the making of steele poking-sticks, and until that time all lawndresses used setting stickes made of wood or bone.' 35 The kiln-hole generally means the fireplace for drying malt; still a noted gossiping place. 36 An expression taken from bell-ringing; now contracted to clam. The bells are said to be clammed, when, after a course of rounds or changes, they are all pulled off at once, and give a general clash or clam, by which the peal is concluded. As this clam is succeeded by a silence, it exactly suits the sense of the passage.-NARES. Mr. Gifford thinks with Malone that it is a misprint for charm. |