This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;" and the crisping-pins :" and, in The Devil's Charter, 1607, to wimple is used as a verb: "Here, I perceive a little rivelling "Above my forehead, but I wimple it, Steevens. 6 This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;] The old reading is-This signior Junio's, &c. Steevens. It was some time ago ingeniously hinted to me, (and I readily came into the opinion) that as there was a contrast of terms in giant-dwarf, so, probably, there should be in the word imme. diately preceding them; and therefore that we should restore: This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid. i. e. this old young man. And there is, indeed, afterwards, in this play, a description of Cupid which sorts very aptly with such an emendation: "That was the way to make his godhead wax, "For he hath been five thousand years a boy." The conjecture is exquisitely well imagined, and ought by all means to be embraced, unless there is reason to think, that, in the former reading, there is an allusion to some tale, or character in an old play. I have not, on this account, ventured to disturb the text, because there seems to me some reason to suspect, that our author is here alluding to Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca. In that tragedy there is a character of one Junius, a Roman captain, who falls in love to distraction with one of Bonduca's daughters; and becomes an arrant whining slave to this passion. He is afterwards cured of his infirmity, and is as absolute a tyrant against the sex. Now, with regard to these two extremes, Cupid might very probably be styled Junius's giant-dwarf: a giant in his eye, while the dotage was upon him; but shrunk into a dwarf, so soon as he had got the better of it, Theobald, Mr. Upton has made a very ingenious conjecture on this passage. He reads: "This signior Julio's giant-dwarf—‚” Shakspeare, says he, intended to compliment Julio Romano, who drew Cupid in the character of a giant-dwarf. Dr. Warburton thinks, that by Junio is meant youth in general. Johnson. There is no reason to suppose that Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca was written so early as the year 1598, when this play appeared. Even if it was then published, the supposed allusion to the character of Junius is forced and improbable; and who, in support of Upton's conjecture will ascertain, that Julio Romano ever drew Cupid as a giant-dwarf? Shakspeare, in K. Richard III, Act IV, sc. iv, uses signory for seniority; and Stowe's Chronicle, p. 149, edit. 1614, speaks of Edward the signior, i. e. the elder. I can therefore suppose that signior here means senior, and not the Italian title of honour. Thus, in the first folio, at the end of The Comedy of Errors: The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, 8 Of trotting paritors, O my little heart!- "S. Dro. Not I, sir; you are my elder. "E. Dro. That's a question: how shall we try it? In the exaggeration of poetry we might call Cupid a giantdwarf; but how a giant-dwarf should be represented in painting, I cannot well conceive. M. Mason. If the old copies had exhibited Junior, I should have had no doubt that the second word in the line was only the old spelling of senior, as in a former passage, [Act I, sc. ii,] and in one in The Comedy of Errors quoted by Mr. Tollet; but as the text appears both in the quarto, 1598, and the folio, Cupid is not himself called signior, or senior Junio, but a giant-dwarf to [that is, attending upon] signior Junio, and therefore we must endeavour to explain the words as they stand. In both these copies Junio's is printed in Italicks as a proper name. For the reasons already mentioned, I suppose signior here to have been the Italian title of honour, and Cupid to be described as uniting in his person the characters of both a giant, and a dwarf; a giant on account of his power over mankind, and a dwarf on account of his size; [So, afterwards: "Of his (Cupid's) almighty, dreadful, little might."] and as attending in this double capacity on youth, (personified under the name of Signior Junio) the age in which the passion of love has most dominion over the heart. In characterizing youth by the name of Junio, our author may be countenanced by Ovid, who ascribes to the month of June a similar etymology: "Funius a juvenum nomine dictus adest." Malone. I have not the smallest doubt that senior-junior is the true reading. Love among our ancient English poets, (as Dr. Farmer has observed on such another occasion) is always characterized by contrarieties. Steevens. 7 Dread prince of plackets,] A placket is a petticoat. Douce. 8 Of trotting paritors,] An apparitor, or paritor, is an officer of the Bishop's court, who carries out citations; as citations are most frequently issued for fornication, the paritor is put under Cupid's government. Johnson. 9 And I to be a corporal of his field,] Corporals of the field are mentioned in Carew's Survey of Cornwall, and Raleigh speaks of them twice, Vol. I, p. 103, Vol. II, p. 367, edit. 1751. Tollet. Giles Clayton, in his Martial Discipline, 1591, has a chapter on the office and duty of a corporal of the field. In one of Drake's Voyages, it appears that the captains Morgan and Sampson, by And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!1 this name, “had commandement over the rest of the land-captaines." Brookesby tells us, that " Mr. Dodwell's father was in an office then known by the name of corporal of the field, which he said was equal to that of a captain of horse." Farmer. It appears from Lord Stafford's Letters, Vol. II, p. 199, that a corporal of the field was employed as an aid-de-camp is now, "in taking and carrying too and fro the directions of the general, or other the higher officers of the field." Tyrwhitt. 1 And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!] The conceit seems to be very forced and remote, however it be understood. The notion is not that the hoop wears colours, but that the colours are worn as a tumbler carries his hoop, hanging on one shoulder and falling under the opposite arm. Johnson. It was once a mark of gallantry to wear a lady's colours. So, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson: "-dispatches his lacquey to her chamber early, to know what her colours are for the day, with purpose to apply his wear that day accordingly," &c. Again, in Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella: "Because I breathe not love to every one, "Nor doe not use set colours for to weare," &c. I am informed by a lady who remembers morris-dancing, that the character who tumbled, always carried his hoop dressed out with ribbands, and in the position described by Dr. Johnson. Steevens. Tumblers' hoops are to this day bound round with ribbands of various colours. Harris. 2 What? I! I love !] A second what had been supplied by the editors. I should like better to read-What? I! I love! Tyrwhitt. Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation is supported by the first line of the present speech: 3 "And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip-." Sir T. Hanmer supplied the metre by repeating the word What. Malone. like a German clock, Still a repairing;] The same allusion occurs in Westward-Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607 :-" no German clock, no mathematical engine whatsoever, requires so much reparation," &c. Again, in A mad World my Masters, 1608: 66 she consists of a hundred pieces, "Much like your German clock, and near allied: "Besides a greater fault, but too well known, "They'll strike to ten, when they should stop at one." And never going aright, being a watch, With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes; Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan;4 ACT IV.... SCENE I. Another part of the same. Enter the Princess, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Forester, Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard Against the steep uprising of the hill? Ben Jonson has the same thought in his Silent Woman, and Beaumont and Fletcher in Wit without Money. To the inartificial construction of these first pieces of mechanism executed in Germany, we may suppose Shakspeare alludes. The clock at Hampton Court, which was set up in 1540, (as appears from the inscription affixed to it) is said to be the first ever fabricated in England. See, however, Letters of The Paston Family, Vol. II, 2d edit. p. 31. Steevens. I have heard a French proverb that compares any thing that is intricate and out of order, to the coq de Strasburg that belongs to the machinery of the town-clock. S. W. 4 sue, and groan;] And, which is not in either of the authentic copies of this play, the quarto, 1598, and the folio, 1623, was added, to supply the metre, by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 5 Some men must love my lady, and some Foan.] To this line Mr. Theobald extends his second Act, not injudiciously, but without sufficient authority, Johnson, Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Prin. Whoe'er he was, he show'd a mounting mind. Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch; On Saturday we will return to France.Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush, That we must stand and play the murderer in?6 For. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot. Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st, the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say, O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe! For. Yes, madam, fair. Prin. no? Nay, never paint me now; Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. Here, good my glass, take this for telling true; [Giving him money. Fair payment for foul words is more than due. That we must stand and play the murderer in?] How familiar this amusement once was to ladies of quality, may be known from a letter addressed by Lord Wharton to the Earl of Shrewsbury, dated from Alnewik, Aug. 14, 1555: "I besiche yo.r Lordeshipp to tayke some sporte of my litell grounde there, and to comaund the same even as yo.r Lordeshippes owne. My ladye may shote with her crosbowe," &c. Lodge's Illustrations of British History, &c. Vol. I, p. 203. Again, in a letter from Sir Francis Leake to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Vol. III, p. 295: "Yo.r Lordeshype hath sente me a verie greatte and fatte stagge, the wellcomer beynge stryken by yo.r ryght honourable Ladie's hande, &c.-My balde bucke lyves styll to wayte upon yo.r L. and my Ladie 's comyng hyther, w.ch I expect whensoever shall pleas yow to apointe; onelé thys, thatt my Ladie doe nott hytt hym throgh the nose, for marryng hys whyte face; howbeitt I knoe her Ladishipp takes pitie of my buckes, sence the last tyme yt pleased her to take the travell to shote att them," &c. Dated July, 1605. Steevens. 7 Here, good my glass,] To understand how the princess has her glass so ready at hand in a casual conversation, it must be remembered that in those days it was the fashion among the French ladies to wear a looking-glass, as Mr. Bayle coarsely represents it, on their bellies; that is, to have a small mirrour set in gold hanging at their girdle, by which they occasionally viewed their faces or adjusted their hair. Johnson. |