Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, 4 Spanish blades,] A sword is called a toledo, from the excellence of the Toletan steel. So Grotius: Gladius Toletanus. "Unda Tagi non est uno celebranda metallo; JOHNSON. The quarto 1597, instead of Spanish blades, reads countermines. STEEVENS. In the passage quoted from Grotius, alio has been constantly printed instead of uno, which makes it nonsense; the whole point of the couplet depending on that word. I have corrected it from the original. MALONE. 5 Of healths five fathom deep;] So, in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: " -troth, sir, my master and sir Goslin are guzzling; they are dabbling together fathom deep. The knight has drunk so much health to the gentleman yonder, on his knees, that he hath almost lost the use of his legs.' MALONE. • And bakes the elf-locks &c.] This was a common superstition; and seems to have had its rise from the horrid disease called the Plica Polonica. WARBURTON. So, in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632: 7 "And when I shook these locks, now knotted all, when maids &c.] So, in Drayton's Nimphidia: "And Mab, his merry queen, by night "Bestrides young folks that lie upright, So, in Gervase of Tilbury, Dec. I. c. 17: "Vidimus quosdam dæmones tanto zelo mulieres amare, quod ad inaudita prorumpunt ludibria, et cum ad concubitum earum accedunt, mira mole eas opprimunt, nec ab aliis videntur.” STEEVENS. That presses them, and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage.3 This, this is she ROM. Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace; Thou talk'st of nothing. MER. True, I talk of dreams; Which are the children of an idle brain, Begot of nothing but vain fantasy; Which is as thin of substance as the air; And more inconstant than the wind, who wooes Even now the frozen bosom of the north, And, being anger'd, puffs away from thence," Turning his face' to the dew-dropping south. BEN. This wind, you talk of, blows us from ourselves; Supper is done, and we shall come too late. With this night's revels; and expire the term 8 sc. ii: of good carriage.] So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act I. let them be men of good repute and carriage. "Moth. Sampson, master; he was a man of good carriage; great carriage; for he carried the town-gates," &c. 9 1 STEEVENS. -from thence,] The quarto 1597 reads-in haste. STEEVENS. -his face-] So the quarto 1597. The other ancient copies have side. MALONE. 2 and expire the term Of a despised life,] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "An expir'd date, cancell'd ere well begun." MALONE. Again, in Hubbard's Tale: "When as time flying with wings swift, Expired had the term" &c. By some vile forfeit of untimely death: BEN. Strike, drum.4 [Exeunt. SCENE V.5 A Hall in Capulet's House. Musicians waiting. Enter Servants. 1 SERV. Where's Potpan, that he helps not to take away? he shift a trencher! he scrape a trencher! Again, in Chapman's version of the eleventh Iliad: "Draw some breath, not expire it all;-." STEEvens. 3 Direct my sail!] I have restored this reading from the elder quarto, as being more congruous to the metaphor in the preceding line. Suit is the reading of the folio. STEEvens. Suit is the corrupt reading of the quarto 1599, from which it got into all the subsequent copies. MALONE. Direct my suit!] Guide the sequel of the adventure. JOHNSON. * Strike, drum.] Here the folio adds: They march about the stage, and serving men come forth with their napkins. 5 STEEVENS. Scene V.] This scene is added since the first copy. STEEVENS. 6 he shift a trencher! &c.] Trenchers were still used by persons of good fashion in our author's time. In the Houshold Book of the Earls of Northumberland, compiled at the beginning of the same century, it appears that they were common to the tables of the first nobility. PERCY. To shift a trencher was technical. So, in The Miseries of Enforst Marriage, 1608, Sig. E 3: "-learne more manners, stand at your brothers backe, as to shift a trencher neately" &c. REED. 2 SERV. When good manners shall lie all in one or two men's hands, and they unwashed too, 'tis a foul thing. 1 SERV. Away with the joint-stools, remove the court-cupboard, look to the plate:-good thou, 7 They were common even in the time of Charles I. See Vol. IV. p. 92, n. 2. MALONE. They continued common much longer in many publick societies, particularly in colleges and inns of court; and are still retained at Lincoln's-Inn. NICHOLS. 1 On the books of the Stationers' Company, in the year 1554, is the following entry: "Item, payd for x dosyn of trenchers, xxid." STEEVENS. 7 court-cupboard,] I am not very certain that I know the exact signification of court-cupboard. Perhaps it served the purpose of what we call at present the side-board. It is however frequently mentioned in the old plays. So, in A Humorous Day's Mirth, 1599: "-shadow these tables with their white veils, and accomplish the court-cupboard." Again, in Monsieur D'Olive, 1606, by Chapman: "Here shall stand my courtcupboard, with its furniture of plate." Again, in The Roaring Girl, 1611: "Place that in the court-cupboard." Again, in Decker's Honest Whore, 1635: "—they are together on the cupboard of the court, or the court-cupboard." Again, in Chapman's May-Day, 1611: "Court-cupboards planted with flaggons, cans, cups, beakers," &c. Two of these court-cupboards are still in Stationers' Hall. STEEVENS. The use which to this day is made of those cupboards is exactly described in the above-quoted line of Chapman; to display at publick festivals the flaggons, cans, cups, beakers, and other antique silver vessels of the company, some of which (with the names of the donors inscribed on them) are remarkably large. NICHOLS. By "remove the court-cupboard," the speaker means, I think, remove the flaggons, cups, ewers, &c. contained in it. A courtcupboard was not strictly what we now call a side-board, but a recess fitted up with shelves to contain plate, &c. for the use of the table. It was afterwards called a buffet, and continued to be used to the time of Pope: 8 save me a piece of marchpane; and, as thou lovest me, let the porter let in Susan Grindstone, and Nell.-Antony! and Potpan! "The rich buffet well colour'd serpents grace, The side-board was, I apprehend, introduced in the present century. MALONE. A court-cupboard was a moveable; a beufet, a fixture. The former was open, and made of plain oak; the latter had folding doors, and was both painted and gilded on the inside. 8 STEEVENS. save me a piece of marchpane;] Marchpane was a confection made of pistacho-nuts, almonds, and sugar, &c. and in high esteem in Shakspeare's time; as appears from the account of Queen Elizabeth's entertainment in Cambridge. It is said that the University presented Sir William Cecil, their chancellor, with two pair of gloves, a marchpane, and two sugar-loaves. Peck's Desiderata Curiosa, Vol. II. p. 29. GREY. Marchpane was a kind of sweet bread or biscuit; called by some almond-cake. Hermolaus Barbarus terms it mazapanis, vulgarly Martius panis: G. marcepain and massepan: It. marzail pane, maçapan: B. marcepeyn, i. e. massa pura. But, as few understood the meaning of this term, it began to be generally, though corruptly, called massepeyn, marcepeyn, martsepeyn; and in consequence of this mistake of theirs, it soon took the name of martius panis, an appellation transferred afterwards into other languages. See Junius. HAWKINS. Marchpane was a constant article in the deserts of our ancestors. So, in Acolastus, à comedy, 1540: "-seeing that the issue of the table, fruits and cheese, or wafers, hypocras, and marchpanes, or comfytures, be brought in." See Dugdale's Orig. Jurid. p. 133. In the year 1560, I find the following entry on the books of the Stationers' Company: "Item, payd for ix marshe paynes, xxvi s. viii d." Marchpanes were composed of filberts, almonds, pistachoes, pine-kernels, and sugar of roses, with a small proportion of flour. L'Etoile in his description of a magnificent entertainment given at Paris in 1596, says: "les confitures seiches & massepans y estoient si peu espargnez, que les dames & damoiselles estoient contraintes de s'en decharger sur les pages & les laquais, auxquels on les bailloit tous entiers." Our macaroons are only debased and diminutive marchpanes. STEEVENS. |