Clement's-inn, I was then sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,)3 there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would 2 I remember at Mile-end green, (when I lay at Clement's-inn,] "When I lay,” here signifies, when I lodged or lived. So, Leland: "An old manor place where in tymes paste sum of the Moulbrays lay for a starte;" i. e. lived for a time, or sometimes. Itin. Vol. I, fol. 119. T. Warton. Again, in Marston's What you will, a comedy, 1607: 3- I was then sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,) The story of Sir Dagonet is to be found in La Morte d'Arthure, an old romance much celebrated in our author's time, or a little before it. "When papistry (says Ascham, in his Schoolmaster,) as a standing pool, overflowed all England, few books were read in our tongue, saving certaine books of chivalry, as they said, for pastime and pleasure; which books, as some say, were made in monasteries by idle monks. As one for example La Mort d'Arthure." In this romance Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's fool. Shakspeare would not have shown his justice capable of representing any higher character. Johnson. Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's 'squire; but does he mean that he acted Sir Dagonet at Mile-end Green, or at Clement's-inn? By the application of a parenthesis only, the passage will be cleared from ambiguity, and the sense I would assign will appear to be just. I remember at Mile-end Green (when I lay at Clement's-inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show) there was, &c. That is: "I remember when I was a very young man at Clement's-inn, and not fit to act any higher part than Sir Dagonet in the interludes which we used to play in the society, that among the soldiers who were exercised at Mile-end Green, there was," &c. The performance of this part of Sir Dagonet was another of Shallow's feats at Clement's-inn, on which he delights to expatiate; a circumstance, in the mean time, quite foreign to the purpose of what he is saying, but introduced, on that account, to heighten the ridicule of his character. Just as he had told Silence, a little before, that he saw Scogan's head broke by Falstaff at the court-gate, "and the very same day, I did fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-inn." Not to mention the satire implied in making Shallow act Sir Dagonet, Dagone who was King Arthur's fool. Arthur's show, here supposed to have been presented at Clement's-inn, was probably an interlude, or masque, which actually existed, and was very popular in Shakspeare's age: and seems to have been compiled from Mallory's Morte Arthur, or the History of King Arthur, then recently published, and the favourite and most fashionable romance. T. Warton. A passage in a forgotten book, which has been obligingly communicated to me by the Reverend Mr. Bowle, induces me to manage you his piece thus: and 'a would about, and think that the words before us have hitherto been misunderstood; that Arthur's Show was not an interlude, but an EXHIBITION OF ARCHERY; and that Shallow represented Sir Dagonet, not at Clement's Inn, but at Mile-end Green. Instead therefore of placing the words "I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show," in a parenthesis, (as recommended very properly by Mr. Warton on his hypothesis) I have included in a parenthesis the words "when I lay at Clement's Inn." And thus the meaning is, I remember, when I was student and resided at Clement's Inn, that on a certain exhibition-day at Mile-end Green, when I was Sir Dagonet, &c. "A society of men, (I now use the words of Mr. Bowle) styling themselves ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS, existed in our poet's time. Richard Mulcaster, Master of St. Paul's School, in his Positions concerning the training up of Children, twice printed in London, 1581 and 1587, in 4to. (my copy wants the title) ch. xxvi, in praising of Archerie as a principal exercise to the preservation of health, says how can I but prayse them, who professe it thoroughly, and maintain it nobly, the friendly and frank fellowship of Prince ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS, in and about the citie of London? which if I had sacred to silence, would not my good friend in the citie, Maister Hewgh Offly, and the same my noble fellow in that order, SYR Launcelet, at our next meeting have given me a soure nodde, being the chief furtherer of the fact which I commend, and the famousest knight of the fellowship which I am of? Nay, would not even Prince ARTHUR himselfe, Maister Thomas Smith, and the whole table of those well-known knights, and most active archers, have laid in their challenge against their fellow-knight, if speaking of their pastime I should have spared their names?" This quotation (adds Mr. Bowle) rescues three of them from oblivion; and it is not to be presumed that the whole table of these well-known knights, most probably pretty numerous, could escape the knowledge of Shakspeare.Maister Hewgh Offly was sheriff of London in 1588." The passage above quoted places Shallow's words in so clear a light that they leave me little to add upon the subject. We see that though he is apt enough to introduce frivolous and foreign circumstances, the mention of Sir Dagonet here is not of that nature, Mile-end Green being probably the place where ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS displayed their skill in archery, or in other words, where ARTHUR'S SHOw was exhibited. Whether this fellowship existed in the reign of Henry IV, is very unnecessary to enquire. We see in almost every one of his plays how little scrupulous Shakspeare was in ascribing the customs of his own time to preceding ages. It may perhaps be objected, that the "little quiver fellow," afterwards mentioned, is not described as an archer, but as managing a piece, but various exercises might have been practised at the same time at Mile-end Green. If, however, this objection about, and come you in, and come you in: rah, tah, tah, would 'a say; bounce, would 'a say; and away again would 'a go, and again would 'a come:-I shall never see such a fellow. Fal. These fellows will do well, master Shallow. - God keep you, master Silence; I will not use many words with you:-Fare you well, gentlemen both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-night.-Bardolph, give the soldiers coats. Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and prosper your affairs, and send us peace! As you return, visit my house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court. Fal. I would you would, master Shallow. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exeunt BARD. Recruits, &c.] As I return, I will fetch off these justices: I do see the bottom of justice Shallow. Lord, lord, how subject we old men are to this vice of lying! This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done about Turnbull-street;5 and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement'sinn, like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when he was naked, he was, for all the world, like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with should appear to the reader of any weight, by extending the parenthesis to the words" Arthur's Show," it is obviated; for Shallow might have resided at Clement's Inn, and displayed his feats of archery in Arthur's show elsewhere, not on the day here alluded to. The meaning will then be, I remember when I resided at Clement's Inn, and in the exhibition of archery made by Arthur's knights I used to represent Sir Dagonet, that among the soldiers exercised at Mile-end Green, there was, &c. Malone. a little quiver fellow,] Quiver is nimble, active, &c. "There is a maner fishe that hyght mugill, which is full quiver and swifte." Bartholomeus, 1535, bl. l. Henderson. 5 - about Turnbull-street;) In an old comedy called RamAlley, or Merry Tricks, this street is mentioned again: "You swaggering, cheating, Turnbull-street rogue." Turnbull or Turnmill-street, is near Cow-cross, West-Smithfield. Steevens. a knife: he was so forlorn, that his dimensions to any thick sight were invisible: he was the very Genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey, and the whores called him-mandrake:7 he came ever in the rear-ward of the fashion; and sung those tunes to the over-scutched huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware 6 were invisible:] The old copies read, by an apparent error of the press, invincible. Mr. Rowe introduced the necessary change. Steevens. were invincible:] That is, could not be master'd by any thick sight. Mr. Rowe and the other modern editors read, I think, without necessity, invisible. Malone. Invincible cannot possibly be the true reading, invincible to, not being English; for who ever wrote or said-not be conquered to? Invincible by is the usual phrase; though Shakspeare in Much Ado about Nothing, makes Don Pedro say, "I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection;" a sufficient proof that he would not have written “invincible to a thick sight." Steevens. 7 - called him mandrake:] In the age of Shakspeare, (as I learn from Thomas Lupton's Third Booke of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1.) it was customary "to make counterfeat mandrag, which is sold by deceyuers for much money." Out of the great double root of briony (by means of a process not worth transcribing) they produced the kind of priapic idol to which Shallow has been compared. Steevens. Bullein, in his Bullwark of Defence against all Sicknesse, &c. fol. 1597, p. 41, speaking of mandrake, says: "-this hearbe is called also anthropomorphos, because it beareth the image of a man; and that is false. For no herbe hath the shape of a man or woman; no truly, it is not naturall of his owne growing: but by the crafty invention of some false men it is done by arte."-" My friend Marcellus, the description of this mandrake, as I have sayd, was nothing but the imposterous subtility of wicked people. Perhaps of fryers or supersticious monkes whych have wrytten thereof at length; but as for Dioscorides, Galen, and Plinie, &c. they have not wrytten thereof so largely as for to have head, armes, fyngers," &c. Reed. See a former scene of this play, p. 20, n. 8; and Sir Thomas Brown's Vulgar Errors, p. 72, edit. 1616. Malone. 8 - over-scutched -) That is, whipt, carted. Pope. I rather think that the word means dirty or grimed. The word huswives agrees better with this sense. Shallow crept into mean houses, and boasted his accomplishments to dirty women. Johnson. Ray, among his north country words, says that an over-switched huswife is a strumpet. Over-scutched has undoubtedly the meaning which Mr. Pope has affixed to it. Over-scutched is the same as -they were his fancies, or his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger1 become a squire; and talks as fa over-scotched. A scutch or scotch is a cut or lash with a rod or whip. Steevens. The following passage in Maroccus Extaticus, or Bankes' Bay Horse in a Traunce, 4to. 1595, inclines me to believe that this word is used in a wanton sense: "The leacherous landlord hath his wench at his commandment, and is content to take ware for his money; his private scutcherie hurts not the common-wealth farther than that his whoore shall have a house rent-free." Malone. Now I bethink me, the pleasant Esquire aforesaid may have reason on the side of his enucleation; for is not the name of a procuress-Mrs. Overdone, in Measure for Measure? and hath not that festive varlet sir John Falstaff talked of his "white doe with a black scut?" Amner. 9-fancies, or his good-nights.] Fancies and Good-night were the titles of little poems. One of Gascoigne's Good-nights is published among his Flowers. Steevens. 1 And now is this Vice's dagger-] By Vice here the poet means that droll character in the old plays (which I have several times mentioned in the course of these notes) equipped with ass's ears and a wooden dagger. It was very satirical in Falstaff to compare Shallow's activity and impertinence to such a machine as a wooden dagger in the hands and management of a buffoon. Theobald. Vice was the name given to a droll figure, heretofore much shown upon our stage, and brought in to play the fool and make sport for the populace. His dress was always a long jerkin, a fool's cap with ass's ears, and a thin wooden dagger, such as is still retained in the modern figures of Harlequin and Scaramouch. Minshieu, and others of our more modern criticks, strain hard to find out the etymology of the word, and fetch it from the Greek: probably we need look no further for it than the old French word Vis, which signified the same as Visage does now. From this in part came Visdase, a word common among them for a fool, which Menage says is but a corruption from Vis d'asne, the face or head of an ass. It may be imagined therefore that Visdase or Vis d'asne, was the name first given to this foolish theatrical figure, and that by vulgar use it was shortened to plain Vis or Vice. Hanmer. The word Vice is an abbreviation of Device; for in our old dramatick shows, where he was first exhibited, he was nothing more than an artificial figure, a puppet moved by machinery, and then originally called a Device or Vice. In these representations he was a constant and the most popular character, afterwards adopted into the early comedy. The smith's machine called a vice, is an abbreviation of the same sort. - Hamlet calls his uncle "a vice of kings," a fantastick and factitious image of ma |