I have forgot your name; but, fure, that part 1 PLAY. I think, 'twas Soto' that your honour means. LORD. 'Tis very true;-thou didft it excellent.Well, you are come to me in happy time; The rather for I have fome sport in hand, Wherein your cunning can affift me much. There is a lord will hear you play to-night: "I think, 'twas Soto-] I take our author here to be paying a compliment to Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Pleafed, in which comedy there is the character of Soto, who is a farmer's fon, and a very facetious ferving-man. Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope prefix the name of Sim to the line here spoken; but the first folio has it Sincklo; which, no doubt, was the name of one of the players here introduced, and who had played the part of Soto with applaufe. THEOBALD. As the old copy prefixes the name of Sincklo to this line, why fhould we difplace it? Sincklo is a name elsewhere used by Shakfpeare. In one of the parts of King Henry VI. Humphrey and Sincklo enter with their bows, as forefters. With this observation I was favoured by a learned lady, and have replaced the old reading. STEEVENS. It is true that Soto, in the play of Woman Pleased, is a farmer's eldeft fon, but he does not wooe any gentlewoman; fo that it may be doubted, whether that be the character alluded to. There can be little doubt that Sincklo was the name of one of the players, which has crept in, both here and in The Third Part of Henry VI. inftead of the name of the perfon reprefented. Again, at the conclufion of The Second Part of K. Henry-IV: "Enter Sincklo and three or four officers." See the quarto, 1600. TYRWHITT. If Soto were the character alluded to, the compliment would be to the person who played the part, not to the author. M. MASON. Sincklo or Sinkler, was certainly an actor in the fame company with Shakspeare, &c.-He is introduced together with Burbage, Condell, Lowin, &c. in the Induction to Marfton's Malcontent, 1604, and was also a performer in the entertainment entitled The Seven Deadlie Sinns. MALONE. But I am doubtful of your modefties; If you, firs, you fhould fmile, he grows impatient. 1 PLAY. Fear not, my lord; we can contain our felves, Were he the yerieft antick in the world, 8 in the world.] Here follows another insertion made by Mr. Pope from the old play. These words are not in the folio, 1623. I have therefore degraded them, as we have no proof that the first sketch of the piece was written by Shakspeare: "San. [to the other.] Go, get a difhclout to make cleane your fhooes, and Ile speak for the properties.* [Exit Player. "My lord, we must have a shoulder of mutton for a propertie, and a little vinegre to make our diuell rore."† The Shoulder of mutton might indeed be neceffary afterwards for the dinner of Petruchio, but there is no devil in this piece, or in the original on which Shakspeare formed it; neither was it yet determined what comedy should be reprefented. STEEVENS, Property] in the language of a playhouse, is every implement neceffary to the exhibition. JOHNSON, + ------ a little vinegre to make our diuell rore.] When the acting the myfteries of the Old and New Teftament was in vogue, at the representation of the mystery of the Paffion, Judas and the Devil made a part. And the Devil, wherever he came, was always to fuffer fome difgrace, to make the people laugh: as here, the buffoonery was to apply the gall and vinegar to make him roar. And the Paffion being that, of all the myfteries, which was moft frequently reprefented, vinegar became at length the standing implement to torment the Devil; and was used for this purpose even after the mysteries ceafed, and the moralities came in vogue; where the Devil continued to have a confiderable part. The mention of it here, was to ridicule fo abfurd a circumftance in thefe old farces. WARBURTON, All that Dr. Warburton has faid relative to Judas and the vinegar, wants confirmation. I have met with no fuch circumftances in any myfteries, whether in MS. or in print; and yet both the Chester and Coventry collections are preserved in the British Museum. See MS. Harl. 2013, and Cotton MS. Vefpafian D. viii. Perhaps, however, fome entertainments of a farcical kind might have been introduced between the Acts. Between the divifions of one of the Chester Mysteries, I meet with this marginal direction: Here the Boy and Pig; and perhaps the Devil in the intervals of this first comedy of The Taming of the LORD. Go, firrah, take them to the buttery, 9 take them to the buttery,] Mr. Pope had probably these words in his thoughts, when he wrote the following paffage of his preface: " the top of the profeffion were then mere players, not gentlemen of the ftage; they were led into the buttery by the fteward, not placed at the lord's table, or the lady's toilette." But he feems not to have observed, that the players here introduced are strollers; and there is no reason to suppose that our author, Heminge, Burbage, Condell, &c. who were licensed by King James, were treated in this manner. MALONE. Shrew, might be tormented for the entertainment of the audience; or, according to a cuftom observed in fome of our ancient puppet-shews, might beat his wife with a fhoulder of mutton. In the Preface to Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590, the Printer says: "I have (purposelie) omitted and left out fome fond and frivolous jeftures, digreffing (and in my poore opinion) farre unmeete for the matter, which I thought might feeme more tedious unto the wife, than any way els to be regarded, though (happly) they have bene of fome vaine conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what time they were fhowed upon the ftage in their graced deformities: nevertheleffe now to be mixtured in print with fuch matter of worth, it would prove a great disgrace," &c. The bladder of vinegar was, however, used for other purposes. I meet with the following ftage direction in the old play of Cambyses, (by T. Prefton,) when one of the characters is supposed to die from the wounds he had juft received: Here let a small bladder of vinegar be pricked. I fuppofe to counterfeit blood: red-wine vinegar was chiefly used, as appears from the ancient books of cookery. In the ancient Tragedy, or rather Morality, called All for Money, by T. Lupton, 1578, Sin fays. "I knew I would make him foon change his note, " I will make him fing the Black Sanctus, I hold him a groat." Again, a little after : "Here he roareth and crieth." Of the kind of wit current through these productions, a better specimen can hardly be found than the following: "Satan. Whatever thou wilt have, I will not thee denie. "For if I had a piece thereof, I do verely believe "The humble bees ftinging fhould never me grieve. "Satan. No, my friend, no, my tayle I cannot spare, "But afke what thou wilt befides, and I will it prepare. "Sinne. Then your nose I would have to ftop my tayle behind, "For I am combred with collike and letting out of winde : "And if it be too little to make thereof a cafe, "Then I would be fo bold to borrowe your face." Such were the entertainments, of which our maiden Queen fat a fpectatress in the earlier part of her reign. STEEVENS. And give them friendly welcome every one: Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page, [To a Servant. And fee him drefs'd in all fuits like a lady: That done, conduct him to the drunkard's cham ber, And call him-madam, do him obeifance. May show her duty, and make known her love? And then-with kind embracements, tempting kiffes, And with declining head into his bofom,- To fee her noble lord reftor'd to health, At the period when this comedy was written, and for many years after, the profeffion of a player was fcarcely allowed to be reputable. The imagined dignity of those who did not belong to itinerant companies, is, therefore, unworthy confideration. I can as eafily believe that the blundering editors of the first folio were fuffered to lean their hands on Queen Elizabeth's chair of state, as that they were admitted to the table of the Earl of Leicester, or the toilette of Lady Hunfdon. Like Stephen in Every Man in his Humour, the greateft indulgence our hiftrionic leaders could have expected, would have been " a trencher and a napkin in the buttery." STEEVENS. I With foft low tongue,] So, in King Lear: 66 Her voice was ever foft, "Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman." MALONE. Who, for twice feven years, hath esteemed him. Who, for twice feven years, &c.] In former editions: No better than a poor and loathfome beggar. I have ventured to alter a word here, against the authority of the printed copies; and hope, I fhall be justified in it by two fubfequent paffages. That the poet defigned the tinker's fuppofed lunacy fhould be of fourteen years ftanding at least, is evident upon two parallel paffages in the play to that purpose. THEOBALD. The remark is just, but perhaps the alteration may be thought unneceffary by those who recollect that our author rarely reckons time with any great correctnefs. Both Falftaff and Orlando forget the true hour of their appointments. STEEVENS. In both these paffages the term mentioned is fifteen, not fourteen years. The fervants may well be fuppofed to forget the precife period dictated to them by their mafter, or, as is the cuftom of fuch perfons, to aggravate what they have heard. There is, therefore, in my opinion, no need of change. MALONE. hath efteemed him-] This is an error of the press: We should read himself, instead of him. M. MASON. Him is used instead of himself, as you is ufed for yourselves in Macbeth: 66 Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time-.” i. e. acquaint your felves. Again, in Ovid's Banquet of Sence, by Chapman, 1595: "Sweet touch, the engine that love's bow doth bend, "The fence wherewith he feeles him deified." STEEVENS. 3 An onion-] It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient used by the actors of interludes. JOHNSON. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "The tears live in an onion that should water this forrow." STEEVENS. |