ACT I.
Scene 1. Page 181.
King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs.
It was the fashion in Shakspeare's time, and had been so from the thirteenth century, to ornament the tombs of eminent persons with figures and inscriptions on plates of brass: to these the allusion seems rather to be made, than to monuments that were entirely of brass, such being of very rare occurrence.
Scene 1. Page 182.
Long. Fat paunches have lean pates.
From the Latin pinguis venter non gignit sensum tenuem. See Ray's Proverbs. The rest of Longaville's speech, "and dainty bits," &c. merely repeats the same sentiment for the sake of a rhime.
Scene 1. Page 183.
Biron. If study's gain be thus, and this be so.
Mr. Ritson would read, If study's gain be this. There is no occasion for any change. Thus means after this manner; but the poet would not write this, in order to avoid a cacophony.
Scene 1. Page 191.
King. This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our studies shall relate,
In high-horn words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
The context seems to indicate that child of fancy is here used precisely in the sense in which Milton applied it to Shakspeare, from whom he probably borrowed it. The meaning of this controverted speech may be as follows: "this child of invention shall relate to us, in his bombastic language, the worthy deeds of many a Spanish knight which are now forgotten amidst those topics that engage the attention of mankind." The expression tawny Spain may refer to the Moors in that country; for although they had been expelled from thence almost a century before the time of Shakspeare, it was allowable on the present occasion to refer to the period when they flourished in Spain; or he might only copy what he found in the original story of the play.
Scene 2. Page 198.
Arm. Why, sadness is one and the self same thing, dear imp.
This word, which is well explained by Mr. Ritson, was often, as in the present instance, used to pages. Thus Urquhart in his Discovery of a jewel, &c. p. 133, calls a person of this description "a hopeful youth and tender imp of great expectation."
Scene 2. Page 200.
Moth ... the dancing horse will tell you.
The best account of Banks and his famous horse Morocco is to be found in the notes to a French translation of Apuleius's Golden ass by Jean de Montlyard, Sieur de Melleray, counsellor to the Prince of Condé. This work was first printed in 1602, 8vo, and several times afterwards. The author himself had seen the horse, whose master he calls a Scotishman, at Paris, where he was exhibited in 1601, at the Golden Lion, Rue Saint Jaques. He is described as a middle-sized bay English gelding, about 14 years old. A few quotations from the work itself may not be unacceptable. "Son maistre l'appelle Moraco.... Nous avons vu son maistre l'interroger combien de francs vaut l'escu: et luy, donner trois fois du pied en terre. Mais chose plus estrange, parce que l'escu d'or sol et de poids vaut encor maintenant au mois de Mars 1601, plus que trois francs: l'Escossois luy demanda combien de sols valoit cest escu outre les trois francs; et Moraco frappa quatre coups, pour denoter les quatre sols que vaut lescu de surcroist." In which remark the counsellor shows himself less sagacious than the horse he is describing. He proceeds: "Après un infinité de tours de passe-passe, il luy fait danser les Canaries avec beaucoup d'art et de dexterité." The rest of the numerous tricks performed by this animal are much the same as those practised by the horses educated under the ingenious Mr. Astley. We also learn from this French work, that the magistrates, conceiving that all this could not be done without the aid of magic, had some time before imprisoned the master, and put the horse under sequestration; but having since discovered that every thing was effected by mere art and the making of signs, they had liberated the parties and permitted an exhibition. The Scotchman had undertaken to teach any horse the same tricks in a twelvemonth. It is said that both the horse and his master were afterwards burned at Rome as magicians; nor is this the only instance of the kind. In a little book entitled Le diable bossu, Nancy, 1708, 18mo, there is an obscure allusion to an English horse, whose master had taught him to know the cards, and which was burned alive at Lisbon in 1707; and Mr. Granger, in his Biographical history of England, vol. iii. p. 164, edit. 1779, has informed us that within his remembrance a horse which had been taught to perform several tricks was, with his owner, put into the Inquisition. The author of the life of Mal Cutpurse, 1662, 12mo, mentions her "fellow humourist Banks the vintner in Cheapside, who taught his horse to dance and shooed him with silver." In the eighth book of Markham's Cavalarice or the English horseman, 1607, 4to, there is a chapter "how a horse may be taught to doe and tricke done by Bankes his curtall." It is extremely curious, and towards the end throws light upon the second line of Bastard's epigram quoted by Mr. Steevens.
Scene 2. Page 203.
Arm. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers.
Green eyes, jealousy, and the willow, have been mentioned as the subjects of this allusion; but it is, perhaps, to melancholy, the frequent concomitant of love. Thus in Twelfth night, "And with a green and yellow melancholy;" certainly in that instance, the effect of love.
Scene 2. Page 206.
Dull. She is allowed for the day-woman.
See more on the word dey in Mr. Tyrwhitt's edition of The Canterbury tales, iii. 287, who supposes that a dey originally meant a day labourer, however it came afterwards to be applied to the dairy: yet this conjecture must give way to Dr. Johnson's statement that day is an old word for milk. The doctor has not indeed produced any authority, and the original Saxon word seems lost; but in the Swedish language, which bears the greatest affinity to our own of any other, as far as regards the Teutonic part of it, dia signifies to milk, and deie, in Polish, the same. Die, in Danish, is the breast. The nearest Saxon word that remains is diende, sucklings; and there can be no doubt that we have the term in question from some of our northern ancestors. The dey or dairy maid is mentioned in the old statutes that relate to working people; and in that of 12 Ric. II. the annual wages of this person are settled at six shillings.