How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.4 Pro. Over the boots? nay, give me not the boots.5 4- some shallow story of deep love, How young Leander cross'd the Hellespont.] The poem of Mu- Since this note was written, I have seen the edition of Marlowe's 5 - nay, give me not the boots.] oots.] A proverbial expression, though now disused, signifying, don't make a laughing stock of me; don't play with me. The French have a phrase, Bailler foin en corne; which Cotgrave thus interprets, To give one the boots; to sell him a bargain. Theobald. Perhaps this expression took its origin from a sport the countrypeople in Warwickshire use at their harvest-home, where one sits as judge, to try misdemeanors committed in harvest, and the punishment for the men is, to be laid on a bench, and slapped on the breech with a pair of boots. This they call giving them the boots. I meet with the same expression in the old comedy, called Mother Bombie, by Lyly: "What do you give mee the boots?" Again, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, a' comedy, 1618: Nor your fat bacon can carry it away, if you offer us Val. No, I'll ne Pro. Val. In love, where s With heart-sore With twenty wa If haply won, p Val. Love i " : the boots." The boots, however, were an ancient engine of torture. In March 1580 and in another letter March 10 1500. “ that To, I'll not; for it boots thee not. where scorn is bought with groans; coy looks, - So, by your circumstance, you call me fool. inks, should not be chronicled for wise. Dits in the finest wits of all. el. And writers say, As the most forward bud n so, by love, the young and tender wit wherefore waste I time to counsel thee, Laird of Whittingham had the boots, but without torment, fess'd," &c. Steevens. The boot was an instrument of torture, used only in Scotland. shop Burnet, in The History of his own Times, Vol. I. 332, edit. 54, mentions one Maccael, a preacher, who, being suspected treasonable practices, underwent the punishment, so late as 66. "-He was put to the torture, which, in Scotland, they Il the boots, for they put a pair of iron boots close on the leg, ad drive wedges between these and the leg. The common torare was only to drive these in the calf of the leg: but I have een told they were sometimes driven upon the shin bone." Reed. 6 However, but a folly, &c.] This love will end in a foolish acion, to produce which, you are long to spend your wit, or it will end in the loss of your wit, which will be overpowered, by the Folly of love. Johnson. The eating canker dwells,] So, in our author's 17th Sonnet: "For canker vice, the sweetest buds doth love." Malone. That art a votary to fond desire? At Milan, let me hear from thee, by letters, Pro. But now Speed. Twenty And I have play' Pro. Indeed a An if the shepher Speed. You co then, an Pro. I do. [Exit. VAL. Pro. True; Speed. Nay, Pro. It shall Pro. All happiness bechance to thee, in Milan! Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love: 9 Made wit with musing weak,] For made read make. Thou Julia, hast made me war with good counsel, and make wit weak with musing. Johnson. Surely there is no need of emendation. It is Julia, who "has already m made wit weak with musing," " &c. Steevens. 1 This whole scene, like many others in these plays, (some of which, I believe, were written by Shakspeare, and others interpolated by the players) is composed of the lowest and most trifling conceits, to be accounted for only from the gross taste of the age he lived in; Populo ut placerent. I wish I had authority to leave them out; but I have done all I could, set a mark of reprobation upon them throughout this edition. Pope. That this, like many other scenes, is mean and vulgar, will be universally allowed; but that it was interpolated by the players, Speed. The sheep the she master seeks r Pro. The s shepherd for f followest thy thee: therefo Speed. Suc Pro. But d Speed. Ay her, a laced a lost mutto 21, a lost Speed calls h and because does he call called muttor sion must, b his Englishputain, fille sage of Ra phees migno laced mutt sort of sta Nash, in of Gabrie But now he parted hence, to embark for Milan. Twenty to one, then, he is shipp'd already; ave play'd the sheep, in losing him. Indeed a sheep doth very often stray, e shepherd be awhile away. - You conclude that my master is a shepherd then, and I a sheep? I do. . Why then my horns are his horns, whether I wake or sleep. A silly answer, and fitting well a sheep. d. This proves me still a sheep. True; and thy master a shepherd. d. Nay, that I can deny by a circumstance. It shall go hard, but I'll prove it by another. ed. The shepherd seeks the sheep, and not the the shepherd; but I seek my master, and my seeks not me: therefore, I am no sheep. . The sheep for fodder follow the shepherd, the erd for food follows not the sheep; thou for wages est thy master, thy master for wages follows not therefore, thou art a sheep. eed. Such another proof will make me cry baa. 0. But dost thou hear? gav'st thou my letter to Julia? eed. Ay, sir: I, a lost mutton, gave your letter to a laced mutton ;2 and she, a laced mutton, gave me, t mutton, nothing for my labour. , a lost mutton, gave your letter to her, a laced mutton;] ed calls himself a lost mutton, because he had lost his master, because Proteus had been proving him a sheep. But why he call the lady a laced mutton? Wenchers are, to this day, ed mutton mongers; and consequently the object of their pasmust, by the metaphor, be the mutton. And Cotgrave, in English-French Dictionary, explains laced mutton, Une garse, in, fille de joye. And Mr. Motteux has rendered this pase of Rabelais, in the prologue of his fourth book, Cailles coies mignonnement chantans, in this manner; Coated quails and ed mutton, waggishly singing. So, that laced mutton has been a t of standard phrase for girls of pleasure. Theobald. Nash, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1595, speaking Gabriel Harvey's incontinence, says: "he would not stick to toll rotten lac'd mutton." So, in the comedy of The Shoemaker's liday, or the Gentle Craft, 1610: "Why here's good lac'd mutton, as I promis'd you." Pro. Here's too small a pasture for such a store of muttons. Speed. If the ground be overcharged, you were best stick her. Pro. Nay, in that you are astray; 3 'twere best pound you. Speed. Nay, sir, less than a pound shall serve me for carrying your letter. Pro. You mistake: I mean the pound, a pinfold. Speed. From a pound to a pin? fold it over and over, 'Tis threefold too little for carrying a letter to your lover. Pro. But what said she? did she nod? [SPEED nods. Speed. I. Pro. Nod, I? why, that's noddy.5 Again, in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578: "And I smelt he lov'd lac'd mutton well." Again, Heywood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, speaking of Cupid, says, he is the "Hero of hie-hoes, admiral of ay-mes, and monsieur of mutton lac'd." Steevens. A laced mutton was, in our author's time, so established a term for a courtezan, that a street in Clerkenwell, which was much frequented by women of the town, was then called Mutton Lane. It seems to have been a phrase of the same kind as the French expression-caille coifée, and might be rendered in that language mouton en corset. This appellation appears to have been as old as the time of King Henry III. "Item sequitur gravis pœna corporalis, sed sine amissione vitæ, vel membrorum, si raptus fit de concubiná legitimâ, vel aliâ quæstum faciente, sine delectu personarum: has quidem oves debet rex tueri pro pace suâ." Bracton, de Legibus, lib. ii. Malone. 3 Nay, in that you are astray;] For the reason Proteus gives, Dr. Thirlby advises that we should read, a stray, i. e. a stray sheep; which continues Proteus's banter upon Speed. Theobald. From the word astray here, and lost mutton above, it is obvious that the double reference was to the first sentence of the General Confession in the Prayer-book. Henley. 4 - did she nod?] These words were supplied by Theobald, to introduce what follows. Steevens. In Speed's answer, the old spelling of the affirmative particle has been retained; otherwise the conceit of Proteus (such as it is) would be unintelligible. Malone. 5 - why, that's noddy.] Noddy was a game at cards. So, in The Inner Temple Mask, by Middleton, 1619: "I leave them wholly (says Christmas) to my eldest son Noddy, whom, during his minority, I commit to the custody of a a pair pair of knaves, and one and thirty." mind ed t T hard |