LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST

NINE WORTHIES.

None so fit as to present the Nine Worthies.

V, 1, 130.

Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies.

V, 1, 110.

The original Nine Worthies were composed of three Jews, Joshua, David and Judas Maccabæus; three Pagans, Hector, Alexander and Julius Cæsar and three Christians, King Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godfrey of Bouillon. But these original Worthies were not always strictly adhered to; the number remained the same, but other names were substituted in place of those above named.

Nashe, the Elizabethan dramatist and pamphlet writer, remarks in one of his prose works, entitled, The Unfortunate Traveller, or the Life of Jack Wilton, a book dedicated to Lord Southampton, Shakespeare’s patron, to whom he dedicated Venus and Adonis and Lucrece: “To Charles the Fifth, then Emperor, they reported how he shewed the Nine Worthies, David, Solomon, Gideon, and the rest in that similitude and likeness that they lived upon earth.” Shakespeare introduces Hercules and Pompey without any authority; thus it would appear that any author might choose his own Worthies, totally ignoring historical precedence. These Worthies formed part of a pageant, a form of entertainment given by our ancestors at Christmas time and on other festive occasions. In some instances, speaking parts were allotted to the performers. Fortunately, a genuine specimen has been preserved in a manuscript of the time of Edward IV, in which the first named Worthies all appear. The text of these pageants were in most parts composed by ignorant people, and were not considered worth preserving. Shakespeare’s pageant is a parody on this kind of entertainment, similar to that of the Athenian mechanics in their play of Pyramus and Thisbe in “Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Shakespeare seems to have taken infinite delight in parodying these monstrous entertainments.

ACTORS. PART. WORTHIES.

By Jove, I always took three three’s for nine.

O Lord, sir! it is a pity you should get your living by reckoning, sir.

How much is it?

O Lord, sir! the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will show where until it doth amount; for mine own part I am, as they say, but to perfect one man in one poor man, Pompey the Great, sir.

Art thou one of the Worthies?

It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompey the Great; for mine own part, I know not the degree of Worthy, but I am to stand for him.

V, 2, 501.

AUDIENCE. ENTER. EXIT. HISS.

HOL.

Shall I have audience? He shall present Hercules in minority; his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake. And I will have an apology for that purpose.

MOTH.

An excellent device, so that if any of the audience hiss, you may cry “Well done, Hercules; now thou crushest the snake!”

COMEDY.

Here was a consent,

Knowing aforehand of our merriment,

To dash it like a Christmas comedy.

V, II, 462.

The figurative meaning of the word dash is to destroy, frustrate, spoil; in this instance it would rather signify throwing cold water upon it. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was the usual word for the rejection of a Bill in Parliament.

As the cry of yea or no is bigger, so the Bill is allowed or dashed.

Sir T. Smith, Commonwealth of England, 1633.

The word is now obsolete except in the phrase: To dash one’s hopes or spirits.

ZANY.

Some carry tale, some please man, some slight Zany.

To make my lady laugh.

VII, 463.

EXIT.

ERGO.

I come with this apology.

Keep some state in thy exit and vanish.

EPILOGUE.

It is an epilogue or discourse to make plain some obscure precedence.

III, I, 76.

MASKS. REVELS.

Revels, dances, masks and merry hours

Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.

IV, 3, 379.

The latter quotation is interesting on account of its having been quoted in an extremely valuable anthology in the last year of the sixteenth century. This publication being of such extreme interest I shall transcribe the title page in full.

ENGLANDS

PARNASSUS

The choysest Flowers of our Moderne Poets with their Poetical comparisons, Descriptions of Beauties, Personages, Castles, Pallaces, Mountaines, Groves, Seas, Springs, Rivers, &c.

Whereunto are annexed other various discourses, both pleasant and profitable.

(Printer’s Device)

Imprinted for N. L. C. B.
and T. H. 1600.

The initials N. L. stand for Nicholas Ling, one of the publishers of the famous piratical “Hamlet” quarto, 1603, also the corrected editions of 1604 and 1605.

There are 2,350 quotations in this Anthology, of which 95 are taken from Shakespeare, 30 from the plays and 65 from the poems. The above is numbered 1,292, under the heading:

PLEASURE

Revels, dances, masks and merry howers,

Forerun faire love strowing her way with flowers.

W. Sha.

Although not a rare book, it is of priceless value to the Elizabethan student. Extracts from extant plays being assigned to their proper authors, notwithstanding that the plays in which they appeared were printed anonymously.

Sometimes the editor goes astray and assigns the wrong name to an author; in this work there are 130 such attributions. This important book has been splendidly edited in recent years by Mr. Charles Crawford, who must have spent laborious hours in tracing the different extracts and allotting them to their rightful owners. Every lover of Elizabethan poetry should possess this book, which can be purchased for quite a moderate sum. I should mention that in a dedication to Sir Thomas Mounson the writer signs himself “R. A.” Farmer, the Shakesperean scholar of the eighteenth century, saw a copy with the name Robert Allot printed at length, and ever since, this author has always been considered the editor of this Anthology.

PLAY.

I will play three myself (three characters).

V, 1, 150.

Our wrong doth not end like an old play;

Jack hath not Jill.

V, 2, 884.

A twelvemonth and a day, and then ’twill end,

That’s too long for a play.

V, 2, 883.

PROLOGUE. SHOWS.

Their shallow shows and prologues vilely penned.

V, 2, 305.

SCENE.

Worthies away! the scene begins to cloud.

V, 2, 730.

Of these four Worthies, in their first show thrive,

These four will change habits.

V, 2, 541.

There is five in the first show.

V, 2, 543.

It should have followed in the end of our show.

V, 2, 898.

The King would have me present the Princess with some delightful ostentation or show a pageant or antic or firework.

V, I, 115.

WORTHY. (NINE WORTHIES.)

He is not quantity enough for that Worthy’s thumb.

V, I, 138.

For the rest of the Worthies? I will play three myself.

V, I, 149.

I will play on the tabor to the Worthies.

V, I, 161.

They would know whether the three Worthies should come in.

V, 2, 486.

I know not the degree of a Worthy but I stand for him.

V, 2, 508.

Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies.

V, 2, 537.

My hat to a halfpenny Pompey proves the best Worthy.

V, 2, 504.

He will be the ninth Worthy.

V, 2, 582.

There a Worthie’s acoming.

V, 2, 588.

Room for the insensed Worthies.

V, 2, 703.

Worthies away the scene begins to cloud.

V, 2, 730.

MASKS. VIZARD.

You have a double tongue within your mask

An would afford my speechless vizard half.

V, 2, 242.

HOBBY-HORSE.

But O, but O—the Hobby-horse is forgot.

III, I, 30.