I in SLEN. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow fays: pray you, pardon me; he's a juftice of peace his country, fimple though I stand here. EVA. But that is not the queftion; the queftion is concerning your marriage. SHAL Ay, there's the point, fir. EVA. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to miftrefs Anne Page. SLEN. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands. EVA. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mouth; 7-Therefore, precifely, can you carry your good will to the maid? SHAL. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her? SLEN. I hope, fir,-I will do, as it shall become one that would do reafon. EVA. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must -the lips is parcel of the mouth ;] Thus the old copies. The modern editors read- parcel of the mind." To be parcel of any thing, is an expreffion that often occurs in the old plays. So, in Decker's Satiromaftix: "And make damnation parcel of your oath." Again, in Tamburlaine, 1590: "To make it parcel of my empery." This paffage, however, might have been defigned as a ridicule on another, in John Lyly's Miḍas, 1592: "Pet. What lips hath fhe? "Li. Tufh! Lips are no part of the head, only made for a double-leaf door for the mouth." STEEVENS. "Part, The word parcel, in this place, feems to be used in the fame fense as it was both formerly and at prefent in conveyances. parcel, or member of any cftate," are formal words ftill to be found in various deeds. REED, fpeak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her. SHAL. That you muft: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her? SLEN. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your requeft, coufin, in any reason. SHAL. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, fweet coz; what I do, is to pleafure you, coz: Can you love the maid? SLEN. I will marry her, fir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely. EVA. It is a fery discretion answer; fave, the faul' is in the 'ort diffolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely;-his meaning is good. SHAL. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. SLEN. Ay, or else I would I might be hang'd, la. 8 I hope upon familiarity will grow more contempt: ]. The old copy reads-content. STEEVENS. Certainly, the editors in their fagacity have murdered a jeft here. It is defigned, no doubt, that Slender fhould fay decrease, inftead of increase; and diffolved and diffolutely, inftead of refolved and refolutely but to make him fay, on the prefent occafion, that upon familiarity will grow more content, instead of contempt, is difarming the fentiment of all its falt and humour, and disappoint. ing the audience of a reasonable cause for laughter. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be fupported by the fame intentional blunder in Love's Labour's Loft: ' Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me." STEEVENS. Re-enter ANNE PAGE. SHAL. Here comes fair miftrefs Anne :--Would I were young, for your fake, miflrefs Anne! ANNE. The dinner is on the table; my father defires your worfhips' company. SHAL. I will wait on him, fair miftrefs Anne. EVA. Od's pleffed will! I will not be absence at the grace. [Exeunt SHALLOW and Sir H. EVANS. ANNE. Will't please your worship to come in, fir? SLEN. No, I thank you, forfooth, heartily; I am very well. ANNE. The dinner attends you, fir. 9 SLEN. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forfooth-Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow: [Exit SIMPLE.] A juftice of peace fometime may be beholden to his friend for a man:-I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born. ANNE. I may not go in without your worship: they will not fit, till you come. 9 Anne. The dinner attends you, fir. Slen. Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow:] This paffage fhews that it was formerly the cuftom in England, as it is now in France, for perfons to be attended at dinner by their own fervants, wherever they dinéd.. M. MASON. 2 I keep but three men and a boy yet,] As great a fool as the poet has made Slender, it appears, by his boafting of his wealth, his breeding and his courage, that he knew how to win a woman. This is a fine inftance of Shakspeare's knowledge of nature. WARBURTON. SLEN. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did. ANNE. I pray you, fir, walk in. SLEN. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my fhin the other day with playing at fword and dagger with a master of fence,' three veneys for a difh of ftew'd prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the fmell of hot meat fince. Why do your dogs bark fo? be there bears i' the town? For 3 --a mafter of fence,] Master of defence, on this occafion, does not fimply mean a profeffor of the art of fencing, but a perfon who had taken his master's degree in it. I learn from one of the Sloanian MSS. (now in the British Mufeum, No. 2530, xxvi. D.) which feems to be the fragment of a regifter formerly belonging to fome of our fchools where the Noble Science of Defence," was taught from the year 1568 to 1583, that in this art there were three degrees, viz. a Master's, a Provost's, and a Scholar's. each of these a prize was played, as exercifes are kept in univerfities for fimilar purpofes. The weapons they used were the axe, the pike, rapier and target, rapier and cloke, two fwords, the twohand fword, the baftard fword, the dagger and staff, the fword and buckler, the rapier and dagger, &c. The places where they exercifed were commonly theatres, halls, or other enclosures sufficient to contain a number of fpectators; as Ely-Place in Holborn, the Bell Savage on Ludgate-Hill, the Curtain in Hollywell, the Gray Friars within Newgate, Hampton Court, the Bull in Bishopfgate-Street, the Clink, Duke's Place, Salisbury-Court, Bridewell, the Artillery garden, &c. &c. &c. Among those who distinguished themselves in this science, I find Tarlion the Comedian, who was allowed a mafter" the 23d of October, 1587 [I fuppose, either as grand compounder, or by mandamus], he being nary grome of her majeflies chamber," and Robert Greene, who plaide his maifter's prize at Leadenhall with three weapons," &c. The book from which thefe extracts are made, is a fingular curiofity, as it contains the oaths, cuftoms, regulations, prizes, fummonfes, &c. of this once fashionable fociety. K. Henry VIII. K. Edward VI. Philip and Mary, and queen Elizabeth, were fre quent fpe&ators of their skill and activity. STEEVENS. 66 ordi three veneys for a difh, &c.] i. e. three venues, French. Three different fet-to's, bouts, (or hits, as Mr. Malone, perhaps ANNE. I think, there are, fir; I heard them talk'd of. SLEN. I love the fport well; but I fhall as foon quarrel at it, as any man in England:-You are afraid, if you fee the bear loofe, are you not? ANNE. Ay, indeed, fir. SLEN. That's meat and drink to me now:' I have feen Sackerfon loose, twenty times; and So, in our more properly, explains the word,) a technical term. author's Love's Labour's Loft: a quick venew of wit." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Philafter:- "thou wouldst be loth to play half a dozen venies at Wafters with a good fellow for a broken head." Again, in The Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609: "This was a pafs, 'twas fencer's play, and for the after veny, let me ufe my fkill.' So, in The Famous Hiftory, &c. of Capt. Tho. Stuckely, 1605': " for forfeits and venneys given upon a wager at the ninth button of your doublet." Again, in the MSS. mentioned in the preceding note, "and at any prize whether it be maifter's prize, &c. whofoever doth play agaynfte the prizer, and doth ftrike his blowe and clofe with all, fo that the prizer cannot ftrike his blowe after agayne, fhall wynne no game for any veneye fo given, althoughe it hold breake the prizer's head." STEEVENS. That's meat and drink to me now:] Dekkar has this proverbial phrafe in his Satiromaflix: "Yes faith, 'tis meat and drink to me.” WHALLEY. 6 -Sackerfon] Seckerfon is likewife the name of a bear in the old comedy of Sir Giles Goofecap. STEEVENS. Sackerfon, or Sacarfon, was the name of a bear that was exhibited in our author's time at Paris-Garden in Southwark. See an old collection of Epigrams [by Sir John Davies] printed at Middlebourg (without date, but in or before 1598:) 66 Publius, a ftudent of the common law, Sacarfon probably had his name from his keeper. So, in the once." MALONE. |