8 Thus doft thou hear the Nemean lion roar Gainst thee, thou lamb, that ftandeft as his prey; And he from forage will incline to play: PRIN. What plume of feathers is he, that in- What vane? what weather-cock? Did you ever hear better? BOYET. I am much deceived, but I remember the style. PRIN. Elfe your memory is bad, going o'er it' BOYET. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps 4 A phantafm,' a Monarcho; and one that makes sport 8 Thus doft thou hear, &c.] Thefe fix lines appear to be a quotation from fome ridiculous poem of that time. WARBURTON. 9 going o'er it-] A pun upon the word ftile. 2 MUSGRAVE. -erewhile.] Juft now; a little while ago. So Raleigh: "Here lies Habbinol, our shepherd while e'er." JOHNSON. 3 A phantafm,] On the books of the Stationers' Company, Feb. 6, 1608, is entered, " a book called Phantafm, the Italian Taylor and his Boy; made by Mr. Armin, fervant to his majesty." It probably contains the hiftory of Monarcho, of whom Dr. Farmer fpeaks in the following note, to which I have fubjoined two additional inftances. STEEVENS. 4 a Monarcho;] The allufion is to a fantastical character of the time." Popular applaufe (fays Meres) doth nourish fome, neither do they gape after any other thing, but vaine praise and glorie, as in our age Peter Shakerlye of Paules, and Monarcho p. 178. FARMER. that lived about the court.' 22 In Nash's Have with you to Saffron-Walden, &c. 1595, I meet with the fame allufion:" but now he was an infulting monarch To the prince, and his book-mates. PRIN. Thou, fellow, a word: above Monarcho the Italian, that ware crownes in his fhoes, and quite renounced his natural English accents and gestures, and wrefted himself wholly to the Italian puntilios, &c.' But one of the epitaphs written by Thomas Churchyard, and printed in a collection called his Chance, &c. 4to. 1580, will afford the most ample account of this extraordinary character. I do not therefore apologize for the length of the following extract: 86 "The Phantafticall Monarkes Epitaphe. Though Dant be dedde, and Marrot lies in graue, "To keepe old course with vains of verses newe: "Thy climyng mynde afpierd beyonde the ftarrs, "Thy witts would feem to fee through peace 66 and warrs, Thy tauntyng tong was pleasant sharpe and fore. "No matche for fooles, if wifemen were in place, "Of judgement quicke, of comely forme and port. "And well difpofde, if Prince did pleasure take, "On gallant robes his greatest glorie ftood, "Yet garments bare could never daunt his minde: "He feard no ftate, nor caerd for worldly good, "Held eche thyng light as fethers in the winde. And still he faied, the ftrong thrufts weake to wall, "When fword bore fwaie, the Monarke should have all. Who gave thee this letter? COST. I told you; my lord. "The man of might at length fhall Monarke bee, "When ftraungers came in prefence any wheare, Straunge was the talke the Monarke uttred than: A local allufion employed by a poet like Shakspeare, resembles the mortal fteed that drew in the chariot of Achilles. But fhort fervices could be expected from either. STEEVENS. The fucceeding quotations will afford fome further intelligence concerning this fantastick being. "I could ufe an incident for this, which though it may feeme of fmall weight, yet may it have his mifterie with his act, who, being of bafe condition, placed himself (without any perturbation of minde) in the royall feat of Alexander, which the Caldeans prognosticated to portend the death of Alexander. "The actors were, that Bergamafco (for his phantaftick humors) named Monarcho, and two of the Spanish embaffadors retinue, who being about foure and twentie yeares paft, in Paules Church in London, contended who was foveraigne of the world: the Monarchs maintained himself to be he, and named their king to be but his viceroy for Spain: the other two with great fury denying it. At which myself, and fome of good account, now dead, wondred in refpect of the fubject they handled, and that want of judgement we looked not for in the Spaniards. Yet this, moreover, we noted, that notwithstanding the weight of their controverfie they kept in their walk the Spanish turne: which is, that he which goeth at the right hand, fhall at every end of the walke turne in the midft; the which place the Monarcho was loth to yeald (but as they compelled him, though they gave him fometimes that romthe) in refpect of his fuppofed majeftie; but I would this were the worst of their ceremonies; the fame keeping fome decorum concerning equalitie." A briefe Difcourfe of the Spanish State, with a Dialogue annexed, intituled Philobafilis, 4to. 1590. p. 39. The reader will pardon one further notice. heere comes a fouldier, for my life it is a captain Swag: From my lord to my lady. PRIN. To whom shouldst thou give it? COST. From my lord Biron, a good master of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rofaline, lords, away.' Come, Here, fweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another [Exit PRINCESS and Train. day. BOYET. Who is the fuitor?" who is the fuitor? tis even he indeede, I do knowe him by his plume and his scarffe; he looks like a Monarcho of a very cholericke complexion, and as teafty as a goofe that hath young goflings," &c. B. Riche's Faults and Nothing but Faults, p. 12. REED. S Come, lords, away.] Perhaps the Princefs faid rather: Come, ladies, away." 66 The rest of the scene deferves no care. JOHNSON. 6 Who is the fuitor?] The old copies read-" Who is the booter?" but it should be who is the fuitor? and this occafions the quibble. Finely put on," &c. feem only marginal obfervations. FARMER. It appears that fuitor was anciently pronounced footer. So, in The Puritan, 1605: the maid informs her miftress that fome archers are come to wait on her. She supposes them to be fletchers, or arrow-fmiths: Enter the futers, &c. Why do you not see them before you? are not these archers, what do you call them, shooters? Shooters and archers are all one, I hope." STEEVENS. Wherever Shak fpeare ufes words equivocally, as in the prefent inftance, he lays his editor under fome embarrassment. When he told Ben Jonfon he would ftand Godfather to his child," and give him a dozen latten spoons," if we write the word as we have now done, the conceit, fuch as it is, is loft, at least does not at once appear; if we write it Latin, it becomes abfurd. So, in Much ado about nothing, Dogberry fays," if justice cannot tame you, she fhall ne'er weigh more reafons in her balance." If we write the word thus, the conftable's equivoque, poor as it is, is loft, at least to the eye. If we write raisins, (between which word and reafons, Ros. - Shall I teach you to know? : BOYET. Ay, my continent of beauty. Ros. Finely put off! Why, the that bears the bow. BOYET. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry, Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry. Finely put on! Ros. Well then, I am the shooter. BOYET. And who is your deer?' Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself: come near. Finely put on, indeed!— MAR. You ftill wrangle with her, Boyet, and fhe ftrikes at the brow. BorET. But fhe herself is hit lower: Have I hit her now? there was, I believe, no difference at that time of pronunciation,) we write nonfenfe. In the paffage before us an equivoque was certainly intended; the words jhooter and fuitor being (as Mr. Steevens has obferved) pronounced alike in Shakspeare's time. So, in Essays and Characters of a Prifon and Prifiners, by G. M. 1618: "The king's guard are counted the ftrongest archers, but here are better fuitors.' Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, edit. 1623, (owing probably to the tranfcriber's ear having deceived him,)— a grief that fuits "My very heart at root-." inftead of a grief that boots. In Ireland, where, I believe, much of the pronunciation of Queen Elizabeth's age is yet retained, the word fuitor is at this day pronounced by the vulgar as if it were written fhooter. However, I have followed the fpelling of the old copy, as it is fufficiently intelligible. MALONE. And who is your deer?] Our author has the fame play on this word in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Act V. Again, in his Venus and Adonis: "I'll be thy park, and thou shalt be my deer." |