upon which he makes this observation: "In singing the Bound is originally produced by the action of the lungs, which are so essential an organ in this respect, that to have a good breast was formerly a common periphrasis to denote a good singer. The Italians make use of the terms Voce di Petto and Voce di Testa to signify two kinds of voice, of which the first is the best. In Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night,' after the clown is asked to sing, Sir Andrew Aguecheek says—
'By my troth, the fool hath an excellent breast'
And in the statutes of Stoke College, in Suffolk, founded by Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, is a provision in these words: 'Of which said queristers, after their breasts are changed (i.e., their voices broke), we will the most apt of wit and capacity be holpen with exhibitions of forty shillings,'" &c.
See also the notes of Mr Warton and Mr Steevens to "Twelfth Night," A. 2,
S. 3.
Again, in Middleton's "More Dissemblers besides Women," A. 1, S. 3 (Dyce's edit, iii., 575), Dondolo, after a song by his page, says, "Oh rich, ravishing, rare, and inticing. Well, go thy ways, for as sweet a brested page as ever lay at his master's feet in a truckle-bed." And in the same writer's "Women beware Women," A. 3, S. 2—
Duke. "Yea the voice too, sir?"
Fab. "Ay, and a sweet breast too, my lord, I hope,
Or I have cast away my money wisely."
—Dyce's edit, iv., 583.
Yet in the very next line of the text the Pedlar seems to take a distinction between the breast and the voice, which induces the Apothecary to observe—
"That answere sheweth you a ryght syngynge man."—Collier.
427. Wyt, 1st edit.
428. Wyll, 1st edit.