CLOWN. Have I not told thee, how I was cozen'd by the way, and loft all my money? AUT. And, indeed, fir, there are cozeners abroad; therefore it behoves men to be wary. CLOWN. Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lofe nothing here. Aur. I hope fo, fir; for I have about me many parcels of charge. In a marginal note it is obferved that tawdries are a kind of necklaces worn by country wenches. Again, in the fourth fong: 9 66 not the fmalleft beck, "But with white pebbles makes her tawdries for her neck." STEEVENS. — a pair of fweet gloves.] Sweet, or perfumed gloves, are frequently mentioned by Shak fpeare, and were very fashionable in the age of Elizabeth, and long afterwards. Thus Autolycus, in the fong just preceding this paffage, offers to fale: "Gloves as fweet as damask rofes." Stowe's Continuator, Edmund Howes, informs us, that the Englifh could not " make any coftly wash or perfume, until about the fourteenth or fifteenth of the queene [Elizabeth,] the right honourable Edward Vere earle of Oxford came from Italy, and brought with him gloves, fweet bagges, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant thinges: and that yeare the queene had a pay re of perfumed gloves trimmed onlie with foure tuftes, or rofes, of cullered filke. The queene took fuch pleasure in thofe gloves, that fhee was pictured with thofe gloves upon her hands and for many yeers after it was called the erle of Oxfordes perfume." Stowe's Annals by Howes, edit. 1614, p. 868. col. 2. In the computus of the burfars of Trinity college, Oxford, for the year 1631, the following article occurs: " Solut. pro fumigandis chirothecis." Gloves makes a conftant and confiderable article of expence in the earlier accompt-books of the college here mentioned; and without doubt in thofe of many other focieties. They were annually given (a custom still fubfifting) to the college-tenants, and often prefented to guests of diftinction. But it appears (at leaft, from accompts of the faid college in preceding years) that the practice of perfuming gloves for this purpofe was fallen into difufe foon after the reign of Charles the First. T. WARTON. CLOWN. What haft here? ballads? MOP. Pray now, buy fome: I love a ballad in print, a'-life; for then we are fure they are true. 2 Aur. Here's one, to a very doleful tune, How a ufurer's wife was brought to bed of twenty money-bags at a burden; and how the long'd to eat adders' heads, and toads carbonado'd. MOP. Is it true, think you? Aur. Very true; and but a month old. Aur. Here's the midwife's name to't, one miftrefs Taleporter; and five or fix honeft wives' that were prefent: Why fhould I carry lies abroad?' Mop. 'Pray you now, buy it. CLOWN. Come on, lay it by: And let's first see more ballads; we'll buy the other things anon. 2 I love a ballad in print, a'-life;] Theobald reads, as it has been hitherto printed,or a life. The text, however, is right; only it fhould be printed thus:a'-life. So, it is in Ben Jonfon: thou lovft a'-life It is the abbreviation, I fuppofe, of-at life; as a'-work is, of t work. TYRWHITT. This reftoration is certainly proper. So, in The Ifle of Gulls 1606: "Now in good deed I love them a'-life too." Again, in a Trick to catch the Old One, 1619: "I love that fport a'-life, i'faith." A-life is the reading of the eldest copies of The Winter's Tale, viz. fol. 1623, and 1632. STEEVENS. 3 -Why Should I carry lies abroad?] Perhaps Shakspeare remembered the following lines, which are found in Golding's Tranflation of Ovid, 1587, in the fame page in which he read the ftory of Baucis and Philemon, to which he has alluded in Much ado about Nothing. They conclude the tale : "Thefe things did ancient men report of credite very good, For why, there was no cause that they should lie. As I there food," &c. MALONE. Aur. Here's another ballad, Of a fifh,' that appear'd upon the coaft, on Wednesday the fourfcore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and fung this ballad against the hard hearts of maids: it was thought, fhe was a woman, and was turn'd into a cold fish, for fhe would not exchange flesh * with one that lov'd her: The ballad is very pitiful, and as true. DOR. Is it true too, think you? AUT. Five juftices' hands at it; and witneffes, more than my pack will hold. CLOWN. Lay it by too: Another. Aur. This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty one. MOP. Let's have fome merry ones. Aur. Why, this is a paffing merry one; and goes to the tune of, Two maids wooing a man: there's fcarce a maid weftward, but fhe fings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you. 3a ballad, Of a fish, &c.] Perhaps in later times profe has obtained a triumph over poetry, though in one of its meaneft departments; for all dying fpeeches, confeffions, narratives of murders, executions, &c. feem anciently to have been written in verse. Whoever was hanged or burnt, a merry, or a lamentable ballad (for both epithets are occafionally beftowed on these compofitions,) was immediately entered on the books of the Company of Stationers. Thus, in a fubfequent fcene of this play :- "Such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to exprefs it." STBEVENS. -Of a fifh, that appeared upon the coaft,-it was thought, he was a woman,] In 1604 was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, "A ftrange reporte of a monftrous fish that appeared in the form of a woman, from her waift upward, feene in the fea." To this it is highly probable that Shakspeare alludes. MALONE. See The Tempest, Vol. III. p. 77, n. 3. STEEVENS. for he would not exchange flesh-] i. e. because, REED, So, in Othello: " Haply, for I am black." MALONE. 143 MOP. We can both fing it; if thou❜lt bear a part, thou shalt hear; 'tis in three parts. DOR. We had the tune on't a month ago. Aur. I can bear my part; you must know, 'tis. my occupation: have at it with you. SONG. A. Get you bence, for I must go; D. Whither? M. O, whither? D. Whither? Thou to me thy fecrets tell: D. Me too, let me go thither. M. Or thou go'ft to the grange, or mill: D. If to either, thou doft ill. A. Neither. D. What, neither? A. Neither. D. Thou haft fworn my love to be; M. Thou haft fworn it more to me: Then, whither go'ft? fay, whither? CLOWN. We'll have this fong out anon by ourfelves: My father and the gentlemen are in fad ' talk, and we'll not trouble them: Come, bring away thy pack after me. Wenches, I'll buy for you both :-Pedler, let's have the first choice.-Follow me, girls. $fad] For ferious. JOHNSON. So, in Much ado about nothing:-" hand in hand, in fad conference." STEEVENS. Aur. And you fhall pay well for 'em. [Afide. Will you buy any tape, Any toys for your head, Of the new'ft, and fin'ft, fin't wear-a? Come to the pedler; Money's a medler, That doth utter all men's ware-a." [Exeunt Clown, AUTOLYCUS, DORCAS, and MOPSA.] Enter a Servant. SER. Mafter, there is three carters, three fhepherds, three neat-herds, three fwine-herds, that have 6 That doth utter all men's ware-a.] To utter. or produce. JOHNSON. To bring out, To utter is a legal phrafe often made ufe of in law proceedings and acts of Parliament, and fignifies to vend by retail. From many inftances I fhall felect the first which occurs. Stat. 21 Jac. I. c. 3. declares that the provifions therein contained fhall not prejudice certain letters patent or commiffion granted to a corporation "concerning the licenfing of the keeping of any tavern or taverns, or felling, uttering, or retailing of wines to be drunk or fpent in the manfion-houfe of the party fo felling or uttering the fame." REED. See Minfheu's DICT. 1617: "An utterance, or fale." MALONE. Mafter, there are three carters, three fhepherds, three neat-herds, and three fwine-herds,] Thus all the printed copies hitherto. Now, in two fpeeches after this, thefe are called four threes of herdsmen But could the carters properly be called herdfmen? At least, they have not the final fyllable, herd, in their names; which, I believe, Shakspeare intended all the four threes fhould have. I therefore guefs he wrote:-Mafter, there are three goat-herds, &c. And fo, I think, we take in the four fpecies of cattle ufually tended by berdfmen, THEOBALD. |