Am I or that, or this, for what he'll utter, That will speak any thing?

KING. She hath that ring of yours. BER. I think, she has: certain it is, I lik'd her, And boarded her i' the wanton way of youth: She knew her distance, and did angle for me, Madding my eagerness with her restraint, As all impediments in fancy's course Are motives of more fancy; and, in fine, Her infinite cunning with her modern grace, Subdued me to her rate; she got the ring, And I had that, which any inferior might At market-price have bought.

DIA.
I must be patient;
You, that turn'd off a first so noble wife,
May justly diet me. I pray you yet,
(Since you lack virtue, I will lose a husband,)
Send for your ring, I will return it home,
And give me mine again.

BER.
I have it not.
KING. What ring was yours, I pray you?
DIA.
Sir, much like
[of late.

The same upon your finger.

KING. Know you this ring? this ring was his
DIA. And this was it I gave him, being a-bed.
KING. The story then goes false, you threw it
him

Ay, my lord.

KING. Tell me, sirrah, but, tell me true, I charge you,

Not fearing the displeasure of your master, (Which, on your just proceeding, I'll keep off,) By him, and by this woman here, what know you? PAR. So please your majesty, my master hath been an honourable gentleman; tricks he hath had in him, which gentlemen have.

KING. Come, come, to the purpose: did he love this woman?

PAR. 'Faith, sir, he did love her; but how!
KING. How, I pray you?
[a woman.
PAR. He did love her, sir, as a gentleman loves
KING. How is that?

PAR. He loved her, sir, and loved her not.
KING. As thou art a knave, and no knave:

what an equivocal companion is this?

:

a Her infinite cunning with her modern grace,—] The old copy reads, "Her insuite comming," &c. The extremely happy emendation in the text was first suggested by the late Mr. Sidney Walker, and has since been found among the annotations of Mr. Collier's "Old Corrector."

PAR. I am a poor man, and at your majesty's command.

LAF. He's a good drum, my lord, but a naughty

orator.

DIA. Do you know, he promised me marriage? PAR. 'Faith, I know more than I'll speak. KING. But wilt thou not speak all thou know'st? PAR. Yes, so please your majesty; I did go between them, as I said; but more than that, he loved her for, indeed, he was mad for her, and talked of Satan, and of limbo, and of furies, and I know not what: yet I was in that credit with them at that time, that I knew of their going to bed, and of other motions, as, promising her marriage, and things that would derive me ill-will to speak of, therefore I will not speak what I know.

KING. Thou hast spoken all already, unless thou canst say they are married. But thou art too fine" in thy evidence; therefore stand aside.This ring, you say, was yours?

DIA.
Ay, my good lord.
KING. Where did you buy it? or who gave it

you?

DIA. It was not given me, nor I did not buy it.
KING. Who lent it you?
DIA.
It was not lent me neither.
KING. Where did you find it then?
DIA.

I found it not.

KING. She does abuse our ears; to prison with her.

sir;

DIA. Good mother, fetch my bail.-Stay, royal [Exit Widow. The jeweller, that owes the ring, is sent for, And he shall surety me. But for this lord, Who hath abus'd me, as he knows himself, Though yet he never harm'd me, here I quit him: He knows himself my bed he hath defil'd; And at that time he got his wife with child: Dead though she be, she feels her young one kick; So there's my riddle, One that's dead is quick, And now behold the meaning.

BER. If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly,

I'll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.

HEL. If it appear not plain, and prove untrue, Deadly divorce step between me and you !— O, my dear mother, do I see you living?

LAF. Mine eyes smell onions, I shall weep

anon:

Good Tom Drum, [To PAROLLES.] lend me a handkerchief: So, I thank thee; wait on me home, I'll make sport with thee. Let thy courtesies alone, they are scurvy ones. [know, KING. Let us from point to point this story To make the even truth in pleasure flow::If thou be'st yet a fresh uncropped flower,

[TO DIANA. Choose thou thy husband, and I'll pay thy dower; For I can guess, that by thy honest aid, Thou kept'st a wife herself, thyself a maid.Of that, and all the progress, more and less, Resolvedly, more leisure shall express : All yet seems well, and, if it end so meet, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet. [Flourish.

(Advancing.)

The king's a beggar, now the play is done : All is well ended, if this suit be won, That you express content; which we will pay, With strife to please you, day exceeding day: Ours be your patience then, and yours our parts, Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts.

[Exeunt.

(1) SCENE I.-To whom I am now in ward.] The heirs of great fortunes, from the feudal ages down to as late as the middle of the seventeenth century, were, both in this country and in parts of France, under the wardship of the sovereign.

(2) SCENE III.-Clown.] "The practice of retaining fools," Douce observes, "can be traced in very remote times throughout almost all civilized and even among some barbarous nations. With respect to the antiquity of this custom in our own country, there is reason to suppose that it existed even during the period of our Saxon history; but we are quite certain of the fact in the reign of William the Conqueror. ***The accounts of the household expenses of our sovereigns contain many payments and rewards to fools both foreign and domestic, the motives for which do not appear, but might perhaps have been some witty speech or comic action that had pleased the donors. Some of these payments are annual gifts at Christmas. Dr. Fuller, speaking of the court jester, whom, he says, some count a necessary evil, remarks, in his usual quaint manner, that it is an office which none but he that hath wit can perform, and none but he that wants it will perform. **

"The sort of entertainment that fools were expected to afford, may be collected, in great variety, from our old plays, and particularly from those of Shakspeare; but perhaps no better idea can be formed of their general mode of conduct than from the following passage in a singular tract by Lodge, entitled Wit's Miserie, 1599, 4to:- Immoderate and disordinate joy became incorporate in the bodie of a jeaster; this fellow in person is comely, in apparell courtly, but in behaviour a very ape, and no man; his studie is to coine bitter jeasts, or to shew antique motions, or to sing baudie sonnets and ballads give him a little wine in his head, he is continually flearing and making of mouthes: he laughs intemperately at every little occasion, and dances about the house, leaps over tables, out-skips mens heads, trips up his companions heeles, burns sack with a candle, and hath all the feats of a lord of misrule in the countrie: feed him in his humor, you shall have his heart, in meere kindness he will hug you in his armes, kisse you on the cheeke, and rapping out an horrible oth, crie Gods soule Tum, I love you, you know my poore heart, come to my chamber for a pipe of tabacco, there lives not a man in this world that I more honor. In these ceremonies you shall know his courting, and it is a speciall mark of him at the table, he sits and makes faces: keep not this fellow company, for in jugling with him, your wardropes shall be wasted, your credits crackt, your crownes consumed, and time (the most precious riches of the world) utterly lost.' This is the picture of a real hireling or artificial fool." The reader desirous of further information on the duties of the domestic jester will find them pleasantly illustrated in a curious and valuable tract, called Armin's "Nest of Ninnies," 1608; of which a reprint has been made, from the only known copy, for the Shakespeare Society.

(3) SCENE III-A prophet I, madam.] "It is a supposition, which has run through all ages and people, that natural fools have something in them of divinity; on which account they were esteemed sacred. Travellers tell us in what esteem the Turks now hold them; nor had they less honour paid them heretofore in France, as appears from the old word bênet, for a natural fool.”— WARBURTON.

(4) SCENE III.-One good woman in ten, madam; which is a purifying o' the song.] As Warburton suggested, it is probable the second stanza of the old ballad, which related to the ten remaining sons of Priam, ran :—

"If one be bad amongst nine good,

There's but one bad in ten."

The Countess objects, therefore, that in singing-"One good in ten," the Clown corrupts the song; whereupon he rejoins that inasmuch as the text says nothing whatever about good women, his emendation of "One good woman in ten in reality renders it more complimentary.

(5) SCENE III.-Though honesty be no puritan, &c. &c.] A correspondent in Knight's "Pictorial Shakspere' remarks: "This passage refers to the sour objection of the puritans to the use of the surplice in divine service, for which they wished to substitute the black Geneva gown. At this time the controversy with the puritans raged violently. Hooker's fifth book of Ecclesiastical Polity,' which, in the 29th Chapter, discusses this matter at length, was published in 1597. But the question itself is much older-as old as the Reformation, when it was agitated between the British and continental reformers. During the reign of Mary it troubled Frankfort, and on the accession of Elizabeth it was brought back to England, under the patronage of Archbishop Grindal, whose resi dence in Germany, during his exile in Mary's reign, had disposed him to Genevan theology. The dispute about ecclesiastical vestments may seem a trifle, but it was at this period made the ground upon which to try the first principles of Church authority a point in itself unimportant becomes vital when so large a question is made to turn upon it. Hence its prominency in the controversial writings of Shakspere's time; and few among his audience would be likely to miss an allusion to a subject fiercely debated at Paul's Cross and elsewhere."

(6) SCENE III.—

-My father left me some prescriptions
Of rare and prov'd effects.]

The text exhibits a very early and curious instance of the use of the word "Prescription" as a medical formula, for which it was not generally current until the close of the seventeenth century. Previously to that time, the ordinary expression was "Recipe;" but in 1599 Bishop Hall employs both words in connexion, showing that they were to be regarded as synonymous:

"And give a dose for everie disease In Prescripts long, and endless Recipes." Satires, IV. B. 3. Dryden does the same also, in his Thirteenth Epistle, in which he likewise alludes to the custom of preserving such

greater part of the last century, with "Probatum est” attached to the formula, where their virtues had been experienced. Dr. Cæsar Adelmare, who died in 1569, left among his

papers a number of very extraordinary prescriptions, which Sir Hans Sloane copied neatly out, and preserved in his collection of manuscripts.

(1) SCENE I.

-Let higher Italy

(Those 'bated, that inherit but the fall
Of the last monarchy) see that you come
Not to woo honour, but to wed it; &c.]

In 1494, Charles VIII. of France invaded Italy, under pretence of being the legitimate heir to the kingdom of Naples, to which he marched almost without opposition, and, as Sismondi says, ravaged all the country with the violence and force of a hurricane.

Having subsequently entered into a convention with the Florentines, he proceeded to Sienna, which he attempted to secure by establishing in it a French garrison. This city had long been regarded as the most powerful in Tuscany, after Florence, to which it had formerly been subject, as well as to the crown of Naples; but at the period in question the citizens had set up in it an independent government, and had separated themselves from both, and also from their confederacy with the German Emperor. This disruption had produced the most inveterate hatred between the Florentines and the Siennois; and in 1495 began that "braving war," in which "the Florentines and Senoys were by the ears." Finding that the powers of the north of Italy were so much disgusted by the insolence of the French, as to enter into a league against them, because they appeared to consider themselves as masters of the whole peninsula, Charles resolved on returning to France. He accordingly re-crossed the Apennines, October 22, 1495, leaving half his army at Naples, under his relative, Gilbert De Montpensier, as Viceroy.

In this brief outline of the French invasion of Italy, will be found an explanation both of the policy of the king, and of a peculiar expression in the passage cited above. In virtue of the convention already mentioned, the Florentines were about to ask assistance from him, which the Emperor had written to desire they might not have; and Charles accordingly refused to furnish any troops, as king of France. He was willing, however, to permit those young French noblemen who desired to be known as having served in the wars, to enter themselves as gentlemenvolunteers in a neutral foreign service, with either the Florentine or Siennois, the Guelph or the Ghibelline party, in conformity with the practice of the period, which proved so favourable to many soldiers of fortune. But in his parting address to these noblemen, the king excepts those States which had been formed in the barbaric confusion that prevailed upon the dismemberment of the Roman empire, States which literally inherited the spoils only of the "last monarchy," or single government of Italy. In this exception it may be thought that Charles telers especially to the principalities of the north of Italy, which had entered into a coalition against him; but Shakespeare's history in this play, and in others, must not be examined too rigidly.

(2) SCENE I.

--And no sword worn,

But one to dance with.] As it was the fashion in Shakespeare's time for gentlemen to dance with swords on, and the ordinary weapon was liable to impede their motions, rapiers, light and short, were made for the purpose:-"I think wee were as much dread or more of our enemies, when our gentlemen went simply and our serving-men plainely, without cuts or gards, bearing their heavy swordes and buckelers on their thighes, instead of cuts and gardes and light daunsing swordes; and when they rode carrying good speares in theyr hands in stede of white rods, which they carry now more like ladies or gentlewomen than men; all which delicacyes maketh our men cleare effeminate and without strength." STAFFORD's Briefe Conceipt of English Pollicy, 1581, 4to.

(3) SCENE I.

He that of greatest works is finisher,
Oft does them by the weakest minister:
So holy writ in babes hath judgment shown,
When judges have been babes.]

The ordinary explanation of these lines refers them either to those passages in Scripture which set forth the mischiefs incident to a kingdom that is governed by a child, as Ecclesiastes x. 16, and Isaiah iii. 4, 12; or to St. Matthew xi. 25,-"I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes:" and 1 Corinthians i. 27, But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.' It seems probable, however, that the particular allusion is to the four children of the noble families of Israel who were appointed to be brought up for the king's service; Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,-" As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom; therefore stood they before the king:" and Nebuchadnezzar set them "over the affairs of the province of Babylon," Daniel i. 3, 4, 17, 19; iii. 48, 49.

The Hebrew word signifies youths, but the usual translation is children. In Coverdale's version, 1535, they are called "young springalds."

(4) SCENE II.-A morris for May-day.] The Morris, or Morisco dance, is generally supposed to have been derived originally from the Moors, and to have come to us through Spain; where, indeed, according to Douce, it still continues to delight both natives and strangers, under the name of the Fandango. On its first introduction, it was probably a sort of military dance, like that of the Matachins in France and Italy; but subsequently the May games, the games of Robin Hood, the Church and other

Ales," and the Morris dance got inextricably blended together. See Douce's "Illustrations of Shakspeare," under Antient English Morris Dance. Of the appearance and behaviour of the dancers, Stubbes, in his "Anatomie of Abuses," 1595, supplies a lively but no doubt exaggerated picture:-"They bedecke themselves with scarffes, ribbons and laces, hanged all over with golde ringes, precious stones, and other jewels: this done, they tie about cither legge twentie or fortie belles with rich handkerchiefes in their handes, and sometimes laid acrosse over their shoulders and neckes, borrowed for the most part of their pretie Mopsies and loving Bessies, for bussing them in the darke. Thus all things set in order, then have they their hobby-horses, their dragons and other antiques, together with their baudie pipers, and thundering drummers, to strike up the Devil's Daunce withall: then martch this heathen company towards the church and church-yarde, their pypers pyping, their drummers thundering, their stumpes dauncing, their belles jyngling, their handkercheefes fluttering about their heades like madde men, their hobbie-horses, and other monsters skirmishing amongst the throng: and in this sorte they goe to the church, though the minister be at prayer or preaching, dauncing and swinging their handkerchiefes over their heades in the church like devils incarnate, with such a confused noise, that no man can heare his own voyce.'

One of the most curious notices of the morris, as practised in modern times, is given by Waldron, who says that, in the summer of 1783, he saw at Richmond, in Surrey, a company of Morrice-Dancers from Abington, accompanied by a Fool in a motley-jacket, &c. who carried in his hand a staff or truncheon, about two feet long, having a blown-up bladder fastened to one end of it; with

which he either buffeted the crowd, to keep them at a proper distance from the dancers, or played tricks for the spectators' diversion. The Dancers and the Fool were Berkshire husbandmen, taking an annual circuit, collecting money from whoever would give them any; and (I apprehend) had derived the appendage of the bladder from custom immemorial; not from old plays, or the commentaries thereon."

(5) SCENE V.-You have made shift to run into't, boots and spurs and all, like him that leaped into the custard.] One

(1) SCENE V.

of the absurdities practised at the great civic festivals formerly, was for the Lord Mayor's or Sheriff's fool to spring on to the table, and, after uttering some doggerel balderdash, leap bodily into a huge custard; prepared, it may be supposed, for the purpose :—

WID. God save you, pilgrim! Whither are you bound? HEL. To Saint Jaques le grand.

Where do the palmers lodge, I do beseech you?]

By St. James the Great, Shakespeare no doubt signified the apostle so called, whose celebrated shrine was at Compostella, in Spain; and Dr. Johnson rightly observes that Florence was somewhat out of the road in going thither from Rousillon. There was, however, subsequently, another James, of La Marca of Ancona, a Franciscan confessor of the highest eminence for sanctity, who died at the convent of the Holy Trinity, near Naples, in A.D. 1476. He was not beatified until the seventeenth century, nor canonised until 1726; but it is quite possible that his reputation was very great in connexion with Italy, even at the period of this play; and that Shakespeare adopted the name without considering any other distinction. The same disregard of special peculiarities is evinced also in another part of the above passage, which makes palmers and pilgrims synonymous names, as they were generally supposed to be in England in the seventeenth century, when the original distinction was forgotten. There were differences between them; but it may be doubted whether those specified by Somner and Blount rest upon any sufficient authority.

ACT

(1) SCENE III.-Hoodman comes !] An allusion to the sport now known as "Blind Man's Buff," formerly called Hoodman Blind," because the player, who was blinded, had his hood turned round to cover his eyes. Shakespeare refers to this pastime again, in 'Hamlet," Act III. Sc. 4:

"What devil was 't

That thus hath cozen'd you at hoodman blind?"

In

(2) SCENE III-He has led the drum before the English tragedians.] The practice of announcing their arrival by beat of drum is still observed by some itinerant performers, and appears to have been a very old one. Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," 1600, there is a representation of Kemp, attired as a morris-dancer, preceded by a character whom he called Thomas Slye, his taberer; and Dr. Hunter has cited an instance from the annals of Doncaster, where, in 1684, the actors' drum going round the town, a part of the military then stationed there took offence at it, and a serious riot was the consequence.

(3) SCENE III.—Quart d'écu.] "The quart d'écu, or, as it was sometimes written, cardecue," Douce says, was a

66

"He may perchance, in tail of a sheriff's dinner,
Skip with a rhyme o' the table, from New-nothing,
And take his Almain leap into a custard,
Shall make my lady mayoress and her sisters
Laugh all their hoods over their shoulders.'

BEN JONSON." The Devil is an Ass," Act I. Sc. 1.

When pilgrims or crusaders returned from the Holy Land, it was customary for them to carry in their hands, or have bound to their staves, branches of the palm which grows in Syria, as signs of their having completely per formed the journey. They were then called Palmiferi, or Palm-bearers; and on the day following their arrival, when they went to a church to give thanks to God for their safe return, these palms were offered on the altar. Thus it will be perceived that all palmers were pilgrims; but all pilgrims were not palmers, inasmuch as the "signs" of the performance of other pilgrimages were altogether different, and comprised a great variety of their own peculiar emblems.

(2) SCENE VI.-John Drum's entertainment.] To give any one John, or Tom, Drum's entertainment, meant to drive him vi et armis out of your company. It was a very old proverbial saying, the origin of which has never been satisfactorily explained. Holinshed, in speaking of the Mayor of Dublin, says, "His porter or anie other officer, durst not for both his eares give the simplest man that resorted to his house Tom Drum his entertainment, which is, to hale a man in by the head, and thrust him out by both the shoulders."

IV.

French piece of money, first coined in the reign of Henry III. It was the fourth part of the gold crown, and worth fifteen sols. It is a fact not generally known, that many foreign coins were current at this time in England; some English coins were likewise circulated on the Continent. The French crown and its parts passed by weight only." Mr. Halliwell gives an engraving of the quarter ccu, "It copied from the original of the time of Charles IX. is dated 1573, and was struck at the Paris mint, the large letter A beneath the shield being the distinguishing mark The superior workmanship and the purity of metal used for these coins, originated the French proverb, applied to persons of honour and probity, Etre marqué a l'A." In old English books it is almost always called either cardecue, or quardecue. "I compounded with them for a cardakew, which is eighteen pence English."-CORYAT. "The Spanish Royall, piece of foure and eight, On me for my antiquity may waite, The Floren, Guelder, and French Cardecu? To me are upstarts, if records be true."

used there.

TAYLOR'S Workes, 1C3).

(1) SCENE 1.-Enter a Gentleman.] The original has Enter a Gentle Astringer," which is said to mean a gentleman falconer; the term Astringer, derived from ostureus, or austurcus, having been formerly applied to one who kept goshawks. The introduction of such a retainer,

however, appears so utterly uncalled for, and the title “gentle Astringer" is so peculiar, that we may reasonably suspect it to be an error of the press. The folio, 1632, reads, "a gentle Astranger;" that of 1685, **a gentleman, a stranger."