ANT. That's enough. I. ATTEN. Madam, he hath not slept to-night; commanded None fhould come at him. PAUL. Not fo hot, good fir; I come to bring him fleep. 'Tis fuch as you,That creep like fhadows by him, and do figh At each his needlefs heavings,fuch as you Nourish the caufe of his awaking: I Do come with words as med'cinal as true; Honest, as either; to purge him of that humour, That preffes him from fleep. LEON. What noise there, ho? PAUL. No noife, my lord; but needful conference, About fome goffips for your highness. LEON. How? Away with that audacious lady: Antigonus, I charg'd thee, that she should not come about me; I knew, fhe would. ANT. I told her fo, my lord, On your difpleafure's peril, and on mine, LEON. What, canst not rule her? PAUL. From all dishonesty, he can: in this, (Unless he take the course that you have done, Commit me, for committing honour,) truft it, He fhall not rule me. ANT. When she will take the rein, I let her run; PAUL. Lo you now; you hear! Good my liege, I come, And, I beseech you, hear me, who profefs' who profefs-] Old copy-profeffes. STEEVENS. 8 Myfelf your loyal fervant, your phyfician, LEON. Good queen! PAUL. Good queen, my lord, good queen: I fay, good queen; And would by combat make her good, fo were I A man, the worst about you.' LEON. Force her hence. PAUL. Let him, that makes but trifles of his eyes, Firft hand me: on mine own accord, I'll off; But, first, I'll do my errand.-The good queen, For the is good, hath brought you forth a daughter; Here 'tis; commends it to your blessing. [Laying down the child. Out! LEON. A mankind witch! Hence with her, out o' door: 8-in comforting your evils,] Comforting is here ufed in the legal fenfe of comforting and abetting in a criminal action. M. MASON. To comfort, in old language, is to aid and encourage. Evils here mean wicked courfes. MALONE. 9 And would by combat make her good, fo were I A man, the worst about you.] The worst means only the loweft, Were I the meaneft of your fervants, I would yet claim the combat against any accufer. JOHNSON. The worst, (as Mr. M. Mason and Mr. Henley observe,) rather means the weakeft, or the least expert in the use of arms. STEEVENS. Mr. Edwards obferves, that "The worst about you" may mean the weakeft, or leaft warlike. So, a better man, the best man in company, frequently refer to skill in fighting, not to moral goodnefs." I think he is right.. MALONE. 2 A mankind witch!] A mankind woman is yet used in the midland counties, for a woman violent, ferocious, and mischievous. It has the fame fenfe in this paffage. A most intelligencing bawd! PAUL. Not fo: I am as ignorant in that, as you Witches are fuppofed to be mankind, to put off the foftnefs and delicacy of women; therefore fir Hugh, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, fays of a woman fufpected to be a witch, "that he does not like when a woman has a beard." Of this meaning Mr. Theobald has given examples. JOHNSON. So, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "That e'er I fhould be feen to ftrike a woman. Why fhe is mankind, therefore thou may'ft ftrike her." Again, as Dr. Farmer obferves to me, in A. Fraunce's Iviechurch: He is fpeaking of the Golden Age: "Noe man murdring man with teare-flesh pyke or a poll-ax; "Tygers were then tame, fharpe tusked boare was obeif fant; "Stoordy lyons lowted, noe wolf was knowne to be mankinde." So, in M. Frobisher's first voyage for the difcoverie of Cataya, 4to. bl. 1. 1578: p. 48. "He faw mightie deere, that feemed to be mankind, which ranne at him, and hardly he efcaped with his life," &c. STEEVENS. I shall offer an etymology of the adjective mankind, which may perhaps more fully explain it. Dr. Hickes's Anglo-Saxon grammar, p. 119. edit, 1705, obferves: "Saxonicè man est a mein quod Cimbricè eft nocumentum, Francicè eft nefas, fcelus." So that mankind may fignify one of a wicked and pernicious nature, from the Saxon man, mifchief or wickednefs, and from kind, nature. TOLLET. Notwithstanding the many learned notes on this expreffion, I am confident that mankind, in this paffage, means nothing more than mafculine. So, in Maffinger's Guardian; "I keep no mankind fervant in my house, And Jonfon, in one of his Sonnets, fays "Pallas now thee I call on, mankind maid!" The fame phrafe frequently occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher, Thus in Monfieur Thomas, when Sebaftian fees him in womens' clothes, and fuppofes him to be a girl, he says, "A plaguy mankind girl; how my brains totter!" And Gondarino in The Woman-Hater: "Are women grown fo mankind?" In all which places mankind means mafculine. M. MASON. In fo entitling me: and no lefs honeft Than you are mad; which is enough, I'll warrant, As this world goes, to pass for honest. LEON. Traitors! Will you not pufh her out? Give her the baftard:--Thou, dotard, [To ANTIGONUS.] thou art womantir'd,3 unroofted By thy dame Partlet here,-take up the bastard; Take't up, I fay; give't to thy crone.* PAUL. Unvenerable be thy hands, if thou For ever Tak'ft up the princefs, by that forced bafeness' Which he has put upon't! 3 -thou art woman-tir'd,] Woman-tir'd, is peck'd by a woman; hen-pecked. The phrafe is taken from falconry, and is often employed by writers contemporary with Shakspeare.-So, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: "He has given me a bone to tire on." Again, in Decker's Match me in Londen, 1631: the vulture tires Upon the eagle's heart." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "Muft with keen fang tire upon thy flesh." Partlet is the name of the hen in the old story book of Reynard the Fox. STEEVENS. 4 thy crane.] i. e. thy old worn-out woman. A croan is an old toothless theep: thence an old woman. So, in The Malcontent, 1606: "There is an old crone in the court, her name is Maquerelle." Again, in Love's Miftrefs, by T. Heywood, 1636: "Witch and hag, crone and beldam." Again, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "All the gold in Crete cannot get one of you old crones with child." Again, in the ancient enterlude of The Repentance of Marie Magdalene, 1567: "I have knowne painters, that have made old crones, "To appear as pleafant as little prety young Jones." STEEVENS, Urvenerable be thy hands, if thou Tak'ft up the princefs, by that forced bafenefs-] Leontes had ordered Antigonus to take up the baftard; Paulina forbids him to touch the princefs under that appellation, with violence to truth, JOHNSON. Forced is false, uttered LEON. He dreads his wife. PAUL. So, I would, you did; then, 'twere past all doubt, You'd call your children yours. LEON. A neft of traitors! Nor I; nor any, ANT. I am none, by this good light. PAUL. But one, that's here; and that's himself: for he The facred honour of himself, his queen's, His hopeful fon's, his babe's, betrays to flander, Whose sting is sharper than the sword's; and will not 7 (For, as the case now ftands, it is a curfe LEON. A callat, Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her hus band, And now baits me!-That brat is none of mine; Hence with it; and, together with the dam, PAUL. It is yours; And, might we lay the old proverb to your charge, A bafe fon was a common term in our author's time. So, in K. Lear: 6 7 Why brand they us "With bafe? with bajenefs? baftardy?" MALONE. -flander, MALONE. Whofe fting is sharper than the fword's;] Again, in Cymbeline: "Whofe edge is sharper than the fword, whofe tongue "Out-venoms all the worms of Nile." DOUCE. |