Schliesslich gab Herr Giovanoly den Anfang einer Biographie Molière's nach den Documenten, die jüngst Eudox Soulié in seinen Recherches sur la vie de Molière et de sa famille aus den Archiven der Notaires de Paris beigebracht hat. Mit juridischen Beweismitteln können jetzt die äusseren Lebensumstände, unter denen der grosse Dichter erwuchs, festgestellt werden, von dem Trauungsacte seines Vaters an bis zu seinem eigenen Testamente. Der Vortragende führte das Leben Molière's vorläufig bis zu seinen ehelichen Verhältnissen, wobei er auf unwiderlegliche Weise ihn von dem schmählichen Verdachte reinigte, dass er Armande Béjart, die Tochter seiner früheren Geliebten, geheirathet habe. Auf die gesellschaftlichen und theatralischen Zustände der Zeit wurde manches aufhellende Streiflicht geworfen.

Schliesslich legte der Vorsitzende die nachstehenden von Herrn Rushton in Liverpool eingesandten Bemerkungen über Shakspeare vor.

Shakspeare Illustrated by old Authors.

I will try to illustrate and explain many obscure passages and words and expressions of doubtful meaning in the Works of Shakspeare, by extracts from old authors. Sometimes I will give my own explanations and offer suggestions for the consideration of the reader, but when I think the extracts themselves sufficiently illustrate and explain the passages selected and the words and expressions therein contained, I will make no comment. „A good Falconer will always keep his Hawk high lusty, and yet so that she may be always in a condition to fly best. Also he must keep his Hawk clean, and her Feathers whole: and if a Feather be broken or bruised, be must presently imp it;

Northumberland.

If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,

Imp out our drooping country's broken wing,
Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,

Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt,
And make high majesty look like itself,
Away, with me, in post to Ravenspurg :
But, if you faint, as fearing to do so,

Stay, and be secret, and myself will go.

Richard II. Act 2 Scene 1.

and to that end he must have his Imping-needles, his Semoud, with other instruments always in readiness." (The gentleman's Recreation in Four Parts viz. Hunting, Hawking, Fowling, Fishing collected from ancient and modern authors forrein and domestick, and rectified by the experience of the most skilful artists of these times. London 1674). To imp, in Falconry, is to insert a feather into the wing of a hawk in the place of one that is broken; and to this art Northumberland probably alludes.

Cleopatra.

Though age from folly could not give me freedom,
It does from childishness: Can Fulvia die?

She's dead, my queen:

Antony.

Look here, and, at thy sovereign leisure, read

The garboils she awaked; at the last, best:
See, when and where she died.

Antony and Cleopatra Act 1 Scene 3.

Many Garboyles passed through his fancy before he could be persuaded Zelmane was other than a woman. (The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia. Written by Sir Philip Sidney Knight London 1627. Lib. V. Page 482.)

Enobarbus.

'Would we had all such wives, that the men might go to wars with the women!

Antony.

So much uncurable, her garboils, Cæsar,
Made out of her impatience, (which not wanted
Shrewdness of policy too;) I grieving grant,
Did you too much disquiet: for that, you must
But say, I could not help it.

Antony and Cleopatra Act 2 Scene 2.

The shepheards finding no place for them in these garboils, to which their quiet hearts (whose highest ambition was in keeping themselves up in goodnesse) had at all any aptnesse, retired themselves from among the clamorous multitude. (Arcadia Lib. IV Page 438.)

Where's Bardolph ?

Falstaff.

Page.

He's gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse.

Falstaff.

I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.

2. Henry IV. Act 1 Scene 2.

„He that marries a wife out of a suspected inne or alehouse, buyes a horse in Smithfield, and hires a servant in Pauls, as the diverbe is; shall likely have a jude to his horse, a knave for his man, an arrant honest woman to his wife." Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy Part 3. Sec. 3. Mem. 4. Subs. 2.

„Our meats and our sports (much of them) have relation to churchworks. The coffin of our christmas pies, in shape long, is in imitation of the cratch;

Petrucio.

Why, thou say'st true; it is a paltry cap,
A custard-coffin, a bauble, a silken pie:
I love thee well, in that thou lik'st it not.

Titus.

Act 4 Scene 3.

You know, your mother means to feast with me,
And calls herself, Revenge, and thinks me mad,
Hark, villains; I will grind your bones to dust,
And with your blood and it, I'll make a paste;
And of the paste a coffin I will rear,
And make two pasties of your shameful heads.

Titus Andronicus Act 5 Scene 2.

our choosing kings and queens on twelfth-night, hath reference to the three

kings. So likewise our eating of fritters, whipping of tops, roasting of herrings, jack of lents, etc.

Falstaff.

See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent, when 'tis upon ill employment! Merry Wives Act 5 Scene 5.

Robin.

My master, Sir John, is come in at your back-door, mistress Ford; and requests your company.

Mrs. Page.

You little Jack-a-lent, have you been true to us?

Merry Wives Act 3 Scene 3. they were all in imitation of church-works, emblems of martyrdom. Our tansies at Easter have reference to the bitter herbs; though at the same time 'twas always the fashion, for a man to have a gammon of bacon, to shew himself to be no Jew. (Selden Table Talk. Christmas)

Bertram.

Go with me to my chamber, and advise me.
I'll send her straight away: To-morrow

I'll to the wars, she to her single sorrow.

Parolles.

Why, these balls bound; there's noise in it.

'Tis hard;

A young man, married, is a man that's marr'd:
Therefore away, and leave her bravely; go:

The king has done you wrong; but, hush! 'tis so.
All's Well Act 2 Scene 3.

Ye have another figure which by his nature we may call the Rebound alluding to the tennis ball which being smitten with the racket reboundes backe againe, where the last figure before played with two wordes somewhat like, this playeth with one word written all alike but carrying divers sences as thus:

The maide that soone married is, soone marred is."

Putt. Arte of Poesie Lib. III. cap. XIX.

So ridiculous, moreover, we are in our attires, and for cost so excessive, that as Hierome said of old, Uno filo villarum insunt pretia, uno lino decies sestertium inseritur: 'tis an ordinary thing to put a thousand okes, and an hundred oxen into a suit of apparel; to wear a whole mannor on his back.

Buckingham.

O, many

Have broke their backs with laying manors on them
For this great journey. What did this vanity,

But minister communication of

A most poor issue?

Henry VIII. Act 2 Scene 1.

What with shooe-ties, hangers, points, caps and feathers, scarfs, bands, cuffs, etc. in a short space their whole patrimonies are consumed. Anat. Melan. Part. 3. Sec. 2. Mem. 3. Subs. 3.

Bardolph.

If my young lord your son have not the day

Maria.

Not so neither; but I am resolved on two points.

That, if one break, the other will hold; or, if both break, your gaskins fall. Twelfth Night Act 1 Scene 5.

Bion.

Why, Petruchio is coming, in a new hat, and an old jerkin; a pair of old breeches, thrice turned; a pair of boots, that have been candle-cases, one buckled, another laced; an old rusty sword ta'en out of the town armoury, with a broken hilt, and chapeless, with two broken points.

Dost thou hear me, Hal?

Taming of The Shrew Act 3 Scene 2.
Falstaff.

Prince Henry.

Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

Falstaff.

Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram, that I told thee of,

He hath ribands of all the colours i' the rainbow; points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross; inkles, caddisses, cambrics, lawns: why, he sings them over, as they were gods or goddesses; you would think, a smock were a sheangel; he so chants to the sleeveshand, and the work about the square on 't. Winter's Tale Act 4 Scene 3.

Good manners. (as Seneca complains) are extinct with wantonness in tricking up themselves men go beyond women;

Mrs. Page.

My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies,
Finely attired in a robe of white.

Page.

That silk will I go buy;

and in that time

Shall master Slender steal my Nan away,

And marry her at Eton.

-

Go, send to Falstaff straight.

Ford.

Nay, I'll to him again in name of Brook;

He'll tell me all his purpose: Sure, be 'll come.

(Aside.)

Merry Wives Act 4 Scene 4.

they wear harlots colours, and do not walk, but jet and dance,

O, peace! Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him; how he jets under his advanced plumes!

Twelfth Night Act 2 Scene 5.

Belarius.

A goodly day not to keep house, with such

Whose roof's as low as ours! Stoop, boys: This gate
Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows you
To morning's holy office. The gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high, that giants may jet through
And keep their impious turbands on, without
Good-morrow to the sun. Hail, thou fair heaven!
We house i' the rock, yet use thee not so hardly
As prouder livers do.

Cymbeline Act 3 Scene 3.

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hic mulier, hæc vir, more like players, butterflies, apes, anticks, then men." Quicquid est boni moris levitate extinguitur, et politura corporis muliebres munditias antecessimus, colores meretricios viri sumimus, tenero et molli gradu suspendimus gradum, non ambulans. Nat. quaest. 7 cap. 31. (Anat. Melan. Part 3 Sec. 2. Mem. 3 Subs. 3.) I think the translation of the Latin words tenero et molli gradu suspendimus gradum, non ambulans," ,,do not walk but jet and dance," gives a correct explanation of the meaning of the word jet as it is used by Shakspeare in these passages. I can further explain the meaning of this word by an extract from Puttenham's arte of Poesie, London 1589, ,,And all singularities or affected parts of a mans behaviour seeme undecent, as for one man to march or jet in the street more stately, or to looke more solempnely, or to go more gayly and in other colours or fashioned garments than another of the same degree and estate." (Arte of Poesie Lib. III. cap. XXIV.)

„An Ordinary is a handsome house, where every day, about the hour of twelve, a good dinner is prepared by way of Ordinary, composed of variety of dishes, in season, well drest, with all other accomodations fit for that purpose; whereby many gentlemen of great estates and good repute, make this place their resort, who after dinner play a while for recreation, both moderately and commonly, without deserving reproof: But here is the mischief, the best wheat will have tares growing amongst it, Rooks and Daws will sometimes be in the company of Pigeons; nor can real gentlemen nowa-days so seclude themselves from the Society of such as are pretendedly so, but that they oftentimes mix company, being much of the same colour and feather, and by the eye undistinguishable.

These Rooks can do little harm in the day time at an Ordinary, being