SANDS. New cuftoms, CHAM. As far as I fee, all the good our English Have got by the late voyage, is but merely A fit or two o'the face; but they are fhrewd ones; For when they hold them, you would swear directly, Their very nofes had been counsellors To Pepin, or Clotharius, they keep state so. SANDS. They have all new legs, and lame ones; one would take it, That never faw them? pace before, the spavin, CHAM. Death! my lord, "mifter artes." Hence the myfteries in Shakspeare fignify those fantaftick manners and fashions of the French, which had operated as Spells or enchantments. HENLEY. 6 A fit or two o'the face ;] A fit of the face feems to be what we now term a grimace, an artificial cast of the counte nance. JOHNSON. Fletcher has more plainly expreffed the fame thought in The Elder Brother: "To vary his face as seamen do their compass." STEEVENS. 7 That never faw them-] Old copy-fee 'em. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. A fpringhalt reign'd among them.] The Stringhalt, or Springhalt, (as the old copy reads,) is a disease incident to horfes, which gives them a convulfive motion in their paces. So, in Muleaffes the Turk, 1610: "by reafon of a general Spring-halt and debility in their hams." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair: "Poor foul, fhe has had a Stringhalt." STEEVENS. Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors, without any neceffity, I think, for A springhalt, read-And springhalt. MALONE. Their clothes are after such a pagan cut too,9 That, fure, they have worn out chriftendom. How now? What news, fir Thomas Lovell ? Lov. Enter Sir THOMAS LOVELL. 'Faith, my lord, I hear of none, but the new proclamation CHAM. What is't for? Lov. The reformation of our travell'd gallants, That fill the court with quarrels, talk, and tailors. CHAM. I am glad, 'tis there; now I would pray our monfieurs To think an English courtier may be wife, Lov. They muft either (For fo run the conditions,) leave these remnants Of fool, and feather,' that they got in France, cut too,] Old copy-cut to't. Corrected in the fourth folio. MALONE. Both the first and fecond folio read-cut too't, fo that for part of this correction we are not indebted to the fourth folio. 1 leave these remnants STEEVENS. Of fool, and feather,] This does not allude to the feathers anciently worn in the hats and caps of our countrymen, (a circumftance to which no ridicule could juftly belong,) but to an effeminate fashion recorded in Greene's Farewell to Folly, 1617: from whence it appears that even young gentlemen carried fans of feathers in their hands: “ -we ftrive to be counted womanish, by keeping of beauty, by curling the hair, by wearing plumes of feathers in our hands, which in wars, our ancestors wore on their heads." Again, in his Quip for an upfart Courtier, 1620: "Then our young courtiers ftrove to exceed one another in With all their honourable points of ignorance, Out of a foreign wisdom,) renouncing clean vertue, not in bravery; they rode not with fannes to ward their faces from the wind," &c. Again, in Lingua, &c. 1607, Phantaftes, who is a male character, is equipped with a fan. STEEVENS. The text may receive illustration from a paffage in Nashe's Life of Iacke Wilton, 1594: " At that time [viz. in the court of King Henry VIII.] I was no common squire, no undertroden torch-bearer, I had my feather in my cap as big as a flag in the foretop, my French doublet gelte in the belly, as though (lyke a pig readie to be fpitted) all my guts had been pluckt out, a paire of fide paned hofe that hung down like two scales filled with Holland cheefes, my long flock that fate close to my dock,-my rapier pendant like a round fticke, &c. my blacke cloake of black cloth, ouerfpreading my backe lyke a thornbacke or an elephantes eare;-and in confummation of my curiofitie, my handes without gloves, all a more French," &c. RITSON. In Rowley's Match at Midnight, A&t I. fc. i. Sim fays: "Yes, yes, the that dwells in Blackfryers, next to the fign of The Fool laughing at a Feather." But Sir Thomas Lovell's is rather an allufion to the feathers which were formerly worn by fools in their caps. See a print on this fubje&t from a painting of Jordaens, engraved by Voert; and again, in the ballad of News and no News: 2 "And feathers wagging in a fool's cap." DOUCE. -fireworks ;] We learn from a French writer quoted in Montfaucon's Monuments de la Monarchie Françoife, Vol. IV. that fome very extraordinary fireworks were played off on the evening of the laft day of the royal interview between Guynes and Ardres. Hence, our "travelled gallants," who were prefent at this exhibition, might have imbibed their fondness for the pyrotechnic art. STEEVENS. 2 blifter'd breeches,] Thus the old copy; i. e. breeches puff'd, fwell'd out like blifters. The modern editors readbolfter'd breeches, which has the fame meaning. STEEVENS. Or pack to their old playfellows: there, I take it, They may, cum privilegio, wear away 4 The lag end of their lewdnefs, and be laugh'd at. SANDS. 'Tis time to give them phyfick, their diseases Are grown fo catching. CHAM. What a lofs our ladies Will have of these trim vanities! Lov. Ay, marry, There will be woe indeed, lords; the fly whorefons Have got a speeding trick to lay down ladies; A French fong, and a fiddle, has no fellow. SANDS. The devil fiddle them! I am glad, they're going; (For, fure, there's no converting of them;) now An honeft country lord, as I am, beaten A long time out of play, may bring his plain-fong, CHAM. Your colt's tooth is not caft yet. SANDS. Nor fhall not, while I have a stump. CHAM. Well faid, lord Sands; No, my lord; Sir Thomas, To the cardinal's; O, 'tis true: Whither were you a going? Lov. Your lordship is a guest too. CHAM. This night he makes a fupper, and a great one, The beauty of this kingdom, I'll affure you. 4 -wear away] Old copy-wee away. Corrected in the fecond folio. MALONE. Lor. That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed, A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us; His dews fall every where. CHAM. No doubt, he's noble; He had a black mouth, that said other of him. SANDS. He may, my lord, he has wherewithal; in him, Sparing would fhow a worse fin than ill doctrine: Men of his way fhould be moft liberal, They are set here for examples. CHAM. True, they are fo; But few now give fo great ones. My barge ftays; 5 Your lordship fhall along :-Come, good fir Thomas, We shall be late elfe: which I would not be, For I was spoke to, with fir Henry Guildford, This night to be comptrollers. : SANDS. İ I am your lordship's. [Exeunt. My barge flays ;] The fpeaker is now in the King's palace at Bridewell, from which he is proceeding by water to York-place, (Cardinal Wolsey's house,) now Whitehall. MALONE. |