That die unmarried16, ere they can behold Flo. What? like a corse? Per. No, like a bank, for love to lie and play on; Not like a corse: or if,- not to be buried, But quick, and in mine arms. Come, take your flowers: Methinks, I play as I have seen them do Flo. What you do, Still betters what is done. When you speak, sweet, I'd have you do it ever: when you sing, I'd have you buy and sell so; so give alms; Pray so; and, for the ordering your affairs, To sing them too: When you do dance, I wish you A wave o' the sea, that you might ever do Nothing but that; move still, still so, and own No other function: Each your doing, So singular in each particular, Crowns what you are doing in the present deeds, That all your acts are queens. O Doricles, Per. Your praises are too large: but that your youth, And the true blood, which fairly peeps through it17, 16 Perhaps the true explanation of this passage may be deduced from the subjoined verses in the original edition of Milton's Lycidas which he subsequently omitted, and altered the epithet unwedded to forsaken in the preceding line: 'Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies, Colouring the pale cheek of unenjoy`d love.` Every reader will see that the 'texture and sentiments' are derived from Shakspeare: and it serves as a beautiful illustration of his meaning. 17 Thus Marlow in his Hero and Leander: "Through whose white skin softer than soundest sleep, Do plainly give you out an unstain'd shepherd; Flo. I think, you have As little skill to fear 18, as I have purpose To put you to't. But, come; our dance, I pray: Per. I'll swear for 'em19. Pol. This is the prettiest low-born lass, that ever Ran on the green-sward: nothing she does, or seems, But smacks of something greater than herself; Too noble for this place. Cam. He tells her something, That makes her blood look out: Good sooth, she is Come on, strike up. Clo. Mop. Now, in good time! Clo. Not a word, a word; we stand upon our manners20. Come, strike up. -- [Music. Here a Dance of Shepherds and Shepherdesses. Pol. Pray, good shepherd, what Fair swain is this, which dances with your daughter? He looks like sooth 22: He says, he loves my I think so too; for never gaz'd the moon 18 i. e. you as little know how to fear that I am false, as, &c. 19 Johnson would transfer this speech to the king, and Ritson wonld read 'swear for one.' Mr. Douce has justly observed that no change is necessary. It is no more than a common phrase of acquiescence, like 'I'll warrant you.' 20 i. e. we are now on our good behaviour. 21 A valuable tract of pasturage. 22 Truth. VOL. IV. Upon the water, as he'll stand, and read, As 'twere, my daughter's eyes: and, to be plain, I think, there is not half a kiss to choose, Who loves another best. Pol. She dances featly 23. Shep. So she does any thing; though I report it, That should be silent: if young Doricles Do light upon her, she shall bring him that Enter a Servant. Serv. O master, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he sings several tunes, faster than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes. Clo. He could never come better: he shall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily set down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably. Serv. He hath songs, for man, or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloves 24; he has the prettiest love-songs for maids; so without bawdry, which is strange; with such delicate burdens of dildos and fadings 25; jump her and thump her; and where some stretch-mouth'd rascal would, as it were, mean mischief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to 23 That is dexterously, nimbly. 24 The trade of a milliner was formerly carried on by men exclusively. 25 With a hie dildo dill, and a dildo dee' is the burthen of an old ballad or two. Fading is also another burthen to a ballad found in Shirley's Bird in a Cage; and perhaps to others It is also the name given to an Irish dance, probably from faedan, I whistle, as it was danced to the pipes. The Irish name rinca fada is the long dance, performed by country people on May day. The fading is mentioned by Ben Johnson, and distinguished from the fadow. A very interesting account of the rinca fada is given in Boswell's edition of Malone's Shakspeare at the end of vol. xiv. answer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, slights him, with Whoop, do me no harm, good man 26. Pol. This is a brave fellow. Clo. Believe me, thou talkest of an admirable conceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares 27 ? Serv. He hath ribands of all the colours i'the rainbow; points 28, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the gross; inkles 29, caddisses 30, cambricks, lawns: why, he sings them over, as they were gods or goddesses; you would think, a smock were a she-angel; he so chants to the sleevehand 31, and the work about the square on't 32. Clo. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach singing. Per. Forewarn him, that he use words in his tunes. no scurrilous 26 This was also the burthen of an old ballad. 27 i. e. undamaged wares, true and good. This word has sadly perplexed the commentators, who have all left the reader in the dark as to the true meaning. The quotation by Steevens from Any Thing for a Quiet Life' ought to have led to a right explanation:-She says that you sent ware which is not warrantable, braided ware, and that you give not London measure.' So Marston in his Scourge of Villanie, Sat. v. :— "Tuscus is trade-falne; yet great hopes he'le rise, Hath drawn false lights from pitch-black loveries, And in the prologue to a very carious manuscript collection of satiric tales in verse, entitled 'An Iliade of Metamorphosis, 1600, now in the library of Richard Heber, Esq. M. P. and which are thought to be Marston's: 'Bookes of this nature being once perused Are then cast by, and as brayed ware refused.' Mr. Tollet had before remarked that braided is explained by Bailey faded, or having lost its colour. I am rather surprised that this should have escaped Mr. Nares, because he has quoted one of the passages from Marston, in illustration of another word. See note on All's Well that Ends Well, vol. iil. p. 280. 28 Points, upon which lies the quibble, were laces with tags. 29 A kind of tape. X. 320 30 A kind of ferret or worsted lace. 31 Sleeve-hand, the cuffs, or wristband. 32 The work about the bosom of it. So in Fairfax's Tasso, b. xii. st. 64: 'Her curious square embossed with swelling gold, Clo. You have of these pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, sister. Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. Enter AUTOLYCUS, singing. Lawn, as white as driven snow; Come, buy, &c. Clo. If I were not in love with Mopsa, thou should'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves. Mop. I was promis'd them against the feast; but they come not too late now. Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars. Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you: 33 Amber of which necklaces were made fit to perfume a lady's chamber. 34 These poking-sticks are described by Stubbes in his Anatomie of Abuses, Part ii:-"They be made of yron and steele, and some of brasse, kept as bright as silver, yea, some of silver itselfe; and it is well, if in processe of time, they grow not to be of gold The fashion whereafter they be made, I cannot resemble to any thing so well as to a squirt or a little squibbe, which little children used to squirt water out withal; and when they come to starching and setting of their ruffes, then must this instrument be heated in the fire, the better to stiffen the ruff. Stowe informs us that about the sixteenth yeare of the queene (Elizabeth) began the making of steele poking-sticks, and until that time all lawndresses used setting stickes made of wood or bone.' |