1 I feek to heal it only by his wealth: FENT. No, heaven fo fpeed me in my time to come! That now I aim at. ANNE. Gentle mafter Fenton, Yet feek my father's love; ftill feek it, fir: Cannot attain it, why then,-Hark you hither. Enter SHALLOW, SLENDER, and Mrs. QUICKLY. SHAL. Break their talk, miftrefs Quickly; my kinfman shall speak for himself. SLEN. I'll make a fhaft or a bolt on't: slid, 'tis but venturing. father's wealth-] Some light may be given to those who fhall endeavour to calculate the increase of English wealth, by obferving, that Latymer, in the time of Edward VI. mentions it as a proof of his father's profperity, That thaugh but a yeomen, be gave his daughters five pounds each for her portion. At the latter end of Elizabeth, feven hundred pounds were fuch a temptation to courtship, as made all other motives fufpected. Congreve makes twelve thousand pounds more than a counterbalance to the affectation of Belinda. No poet will now fly his favourite character at lefs than fifty thoufand. JOHNSON. I'll make a fhaft or a bolt on't:] To make a bolt or a shaft of a thing is enumerated by Ray, amongst others, in his collection of proverbial phrafes. Ray's Proverbs, p. 179, Edit. 1742. REED. SHAL. Be not dismay'd. SLEN. No, the shall not dismay me: I care not for that, but that I am afeard. QUICK. Hark ye; master Slender would speak a word with you. ANNE. I come to him.-This is my father's choice. O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults Looks handfome in three hundred pounds a year! [Afide. QUICK. And how does good master Fenton? Pray you, a word with you. SHAL. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadft a father! SLEN. I had a father, mistress Anne ;-my uncle can tell you good jefts of him :-Pray you, uncle, tell mistress Anne the jeft, how my father ftole two geefe out of a pen, good uncle. SHAL. Miftrefs Anne, my cousin loves you. SLEN. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in Glocestershire. SHAL. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. SLEN. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail,' under the degree of a 'fquire. The aft was fuch an arrow as skilful archers employed. The bolt in this proverb means, I think, the fool's bolt. MALONE. A Shaft was a general term for an arrow. A bolt was a thick fhort one, with a knob at the end of it. It was only employed to fhoot birds with, and was commonly called a " bird-bolt." The word occurs again in Much ado about Nothing, Love's Labour's Loft, and Twelfth Night. STEEVENS. 3 come cut and long-tail,] i. e. come poor, or rich, to offer himself as my rival. The following is faid to be the origin of the phrafe. According to the foreft laws, the dog of a man, who had no right to the privilege of chace, was obliged to cut, or law his dog among other modes of difabling him, by depriving him of his tail. A dog fo cut was called a cut, or curt-tail, and by contrac SHAL. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure. tion cur. Cut and long-tail therefore fignified the dog of a clown, and the dog of a gentleman. Again, in The first part of the Eighth liberal Science, entitled An Adulandi, c. devised and compiled by Ulpian Fulwel, 1576:— "—yea, even their very dogs, Rug, Rig, and Rifbie, yea, cat and long-taile, they fhall be welcome." STEEVENS. come cut and long-tail,] I can fee no meaning in this phrafe. Slender promifes to make his mistress a gentlewoman, and probably means to fay, he will deck her in a gown of the court-cut, and with a long train or tail. In the comedy of Eaftard He, is this paffage : "The one must be ladyfied forfooth, and be attired juft to the court cut and long tayle;" which feems to justify our reading-Court cut and long tail. SIR J. HAWKINS. -come cut and long-tail,] This phrafe is often found in old plays, and feldom, if ever, with any variation. The change therefore propofed by Sir John Hawkins cannot be received, without great violence to the text. Whenever the words occur, they always bear the fame meaning, and that meaning is obvious enough without any explanation. The origin of the phrafe may however admit of fome difpute, and it is by no means certain that the account of it, here adopted by Mr. Steevens from Dr. Johnfon, is well-founded. That there ever exifted fuch a mode of difqualifying dogs by the laws of the foreft, as is here afferted, cannot be acknowledged without evidence, and no authority is quoted to prove that such a custom at any time prevailed. The writers on this fubject are totally filent, as far as they have come to my knowledge. Manwood, who wrote on the Foreft Laws before they were entirely disused, mentions expeditation or cutting off three claws of the fore-foot, as the only manner of lawing dogs; and with his account, the Charter of the Foreft feems to agree. Were I to offer a conjecture, I fhould fuppofe that the phrase originally referred to horfes, which might be denominated cut and long tail, as they were curtailed of this part of their bodies, or allowed to enjoy its full growth; and this might be practifed according to the difference of their value, or the ufes to which they were put. In this view, cut and long tail would include the whole fpecies of horfes good and bad. In fupport of this opinion it may be added, that formerly a cut was a word of reproach in vulgar colloquial abuse, and I believe is never to be found applied to horfes, except to thofe of the worst kind. After all, if any authority can be produced to countenance Dr. Johnson's explanation, I shall be very ready to retract every thing that is here faid. See alfo a note on The Match at Midnight, Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, Vol. VII. p. 424, edit. 1780. REED. ANNE. Good mafter Shallow, let him woo for himself. SHAL. Marry, I thank you for it; thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz: I'll leave you. ANNE. Now, master Slender. SLEN. Now, good mistress Anne. ANNE. What is your will? SLEN. My will? od's heartlings, that's a pretty jeft, indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not fuch a fickly creature, I give heaven praise. ANNE. I mean, mafter Slender, what would you with me? SLEN. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you: Your father, and my uncle, have made motions: if it be my luck, fo; if not, happy man be his dole! They can tell you how things go, better than I can: You may ask your father; here he comes. Enter PAGE, and Mistress PAGE. PAGE. Now, mafter Slender :-Love him, daughter Anne. Why, how now! what does mafter Fenton here? The laft converfation I had the honour to enjoy with Sir William Blackstone, was on this fubject; and by a series of accurate referrences to the whole collection of ancient Forest Laws, he convinced me of our repeated error, expeditation and genufciffion, being the only established and technical modes ever ufed for difabling the canine fpecies. Part of the tails of fpaniels indeed are generally cut off (ornamenti gratia) while they are puppies, fo that (admitting a loofe defcription) every kind of dog is comprehended in the phrafe of cut and long-tail, and every rank of people in the fame expreffion, if metaphorically used. STEEVENS. 4 happy man be bis dole!] A proverbial expreffion. See Ray's collection, p. 116. edit. 1737. STEEVENS. You wrong me, fir, thus ftill to haunt my houfe: PAGE. She is no match for you. FENT. Sir, will you hear me? PAGE. No, good mafter Fenton. Come, master Shallow; come, fon Slender; in:— Knowing my mind, you wrong me, mafter Fenton. [Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. QUICK. Speak to mistress Page. FENT. Good mistress Page, for that I love your daughter In fuch a righteous fashion as I do, Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners, I muft advance the colours of my love,+ And not retire: Let me have your good will. ANNE. Good mother, do not marry me to 'yon fool. MRS. PAGE. I mean it not; I feek you a better hufband. QUICK. That's my mafter, mafter doctor. ANNE. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i'the earth, And bowl'd to death with turnips. MRS. PAGE. Come, trouble not yourfelf: Good mafter Fenton, 4 I must advance the colours of my love,] The fame metaphor occurs in Romeo and Juliet: "And death's pale flag is not advanced there." STEEVENS. be fet quick i the earth, And bowl'd to death with turnips.] This is a common proverb in the fouthern counties. I find almoft the fame expreffion in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair: "Would I had been fet in the ground, all but the head of me, and had my brains bowl'd at." COLLINS. |