NÝм. My humour fhall not cool: I will incenfe Page 3 to deal with poifon; I will poffefs him with yellowness, for the revolt of mien 5 is dangerous : that is my true humour. PIST. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I fecond thee; troop on. [Exeunt. 3 1 will incenfe Page, &c.] So, in K. Henry VIII: "Incens'd the lords of the council, that he is "A moft arch heretic-." In both paffages, to incenfe has the fame meaning as to infit gate. STEEVENS. 4-yellowness,] Yellowness is jealoufy. JOHNSON. So, in Law Tricks, &c. 1608 : "If you have me you must not put on yellows." Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: Flora well, perdie, "Did paint her yellow for her jealoufy." STEEVENS. the revolt of mien-] The revolt of mine is the old reading. Revolt of mien, is change of countenance, one of the effects he has juft been afcribing to jealoufy. STEEVENS. This Mr. Steevens truly observes to be the old reading, and it is authority enough for the revolt of mien in modern orthography. "Know you that fellow that walketh there?-fays Eliot, 1593-he is an alchymift by his mine, and hath multiplied all to moonshine." FARMer. Nym means, I think, to fay, that kind of change in the complexion, which is caused by jealoufy, renders the perfon poffeffed by fuch a paffion dangerous; confequently Ford will be likely to revenge himself on Falstaff, and I fhall be gratified. I believe our author wrote-that revolt, &c. though I have not disturbed the text-ye and yt in the MSS. of his time were easily con founded. MALONE. SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius's Houfe. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY." QUICK. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go to the cafement, and fee if you can fee my mafter, mafter Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abufing of God's patience, and the king's English. RUG. I'll go watch. [Exit RUGBY. QUICK. GO; and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire." An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no telltale, nor no breed-bate: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is fomething peevish that way:9 6 Rugby.] This domeftic of Dr. Caius received his name from a town in Warwickshire. STEEVENS. at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my mafter is in bed. JOHNSON. 8 -no breed-bate :] Bate is an obfolete word, fignifying ftrife, contention. So, in the Countess of Pembroke's Antonius, 1595: "Shall ever civil bate "Gnaw and devour our state?" Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: "We shall not fall at bate, or ftryve for this matter." Stanyhurst, in his tranflation of Virgil, 1582, calls Erinnys a make-bate. STEEVENS. 9 he is fomething peevish that way:] Peevish is foolish. So, in Cymbeline, A&t II: "—he's strange and peevish." STEEVENS. I believe, this is one of dame Quickly's blunders, and that the means precife. MALONE. but nobody but has his fault;-but let that pass. Peter Simple, you fay your name is ? SIM. Ay, for fault of a better. QUICK. And mafter Slender's your mafter? QUICK. Does he not wear a great round beard,' like a glover's paring-knife? SIM. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee face,2 with a little yellow beard; a Cain-coloured beard.3 . I a great round beard, &c.] See a note on K. Henry V. Act III. fc. vi: "And what a beard of the general's cut," &c. 2 MALONE. a little wee face,] Wee, in the northern dialect, fignifies very little. Thus, in the Scottish proverb that apologizes for a little woman's marriage with a big man:- "A wee mouse will creep under a mickle cornftack." COLLINS. So, in Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, a comedy, 1631: "He was nothing fo tall as I; but a little wee man, and somewhat hutch-back'd." Again, in The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600: "Some two miles, and a wee bit, fir." Wee is derived from weenig, Dutch. On the authority of the 4to, 1619, we might be led to read whey-face: -Somewhat of a weakly man, and has as it were a whey-coloured beard." Macbeth calls one of the meffengers whey-face. STEEVENS. Little wee is certainly the right reading; it implies fomething extremely diminutive, and is a very common vulgar idiom in the North. Wee alone, has only the fignification of little. Thus Cleveland: "A Yorkshire wee bit, longer than a mile." The proverb is a mile and a wee bit; i. e. about a league and a half. RITSON. 3 a Cain-colour'd beard.] Cain and Judas, in the tapeftries and pictures of old, were represented with yellow beards. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be countenanced by a parallel expreffion in an old play called Blurt Mafter Constable, or, The Spaniard's Night-Walk, 1602 : VOL. V. E QUICK. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not? 4 SIM. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. over all, "A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard.” Again, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, Bafilifco fays: 66 - where is the eldest son of Priam, I am not, however, certain, but that Abraham may be a corruption of auburn. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, Book IV. Hift. 16. "Harcourt had a light auburn beard, which (like country gentleman) he wore negligently after the oval cut." Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1603: "And let their beards be of Judas his own colour." Again, in A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612: "That's he in the Judas beard." Again, in The Infatiate Countefs, 1613: "I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas." In an age, when but a fmall part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from representations in painting or tapestry. A cane-colour'd beard, however, [the reading of the quarto,] might fignify a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a fickly yellow; for ftraw-colour'd beards are mentioned in A Midfummer Night's Dream. STEEVENS. The words of the quarto,-a whey-colour'd beard, ftrongly favour this reading; for whey and cane are nearly of the fame colour. MALONE. The new edition of Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V. p. 295, afferts, that painters conftantly represented Judas the traytor with a red head. Dr. Plot's Oxfordshire, p. 153, fays the fame. This conceit is thought to have arisen in England, from our ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes. TOLLET. See my quotation in King Henry VIII. A& V. fc. ii. STEEVENS. as tall a man of his hands,] Perhaps this is an allufion to the jockey meafure, fo many hands high, used by grooms when speaking of horses. Tall, in our author's time, fignified not only height of ftature, but ftoutness of body. The ambi guity of the phrase seems intended. PERCY. QUICK. How fay you?-O, I should remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait ? SIM. Yes, indeed, does he. QUICK. Well, heaven fend Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wifh Re-enter RUGBY. RUG. Out, alas! here comes my master. QUICK. We fhall all be fhent: 5 Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts SIMPLE in the clofet.] He will not ftay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I fay!-Go, John, Whatever be the origin of this phrase, it is very ancient, being used by Gower: "A worthie knight was of his honde, De Confeffione Amantis, lib. v. fol. 118. b. The tall man of the old dramatick writers, was a man of a bold, intrepid difpofition, and inclined to quarrel; fuch as is defcribed by Steevens in the fecond scene of the third act of this play. M. MASON. "A tall man of his hands" fometimes meant quick-handed, active; and as Simple is here commending his mafter for his gymnaftick abilities, perhaps the phrafe is here used in that fenfe. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. "Manefco. Nimble or quick-handed; a tall man of his hands." MALONE. s We Shall all be fhent:] i. e. Scolded, roughly treated. So, in the old Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date: 66 I can tell thee one thyng, "In fayth you wyll be shent." Again, in Chapman's verfion of the twenty-third book of Homer's Odyfey: fuch acts ftill were fhent, "As fimply in themselves, as in th' event." STEEVENS. |