ARM. A most fine figure! MOTH. To prove you a cypher. [Afide. known, and, perhaps, deferves not to be remembered. From the next lines, however, to those last quoted, it should seem as if they had died abroad : 66 Both which Being, beyond fea, burned for one witch, "Their fpirits tranfmigrated to a cat.' Among the entries at Stationers' Hall is the following; Nov. 14, 1595: "A ballad fhewing the strange qualities of a young nagg called Morocco." Among other exploits of this celebrated beast, it is said that he went up to the top of St. Paul's; and the fame circumstance is likewife mentioned in The Guls Horn-booke, a fatirical pamphlet by Decker, 1609 : "-From hence you may defcend to talk about the horse that went up, and strive, if you can, to know his keeper; take the day of the month, and the number of the steppes, and fuffer yourself to believe verily that it was not a horfe, but fomething else in the likeness of one." Again, in Chreftoloros, or Seven Bookes of Epigrames, written by T. B. [Thomas Baftard] 1598, Lib. III. ep. 17: "Of Bankes's Horfe. "Bankes hath a horse of wondrous qualitie, "For he can fight, and piffe, and dance, and lie, STEEVENS. In 1595, was published a pamphlet entitled, Maroccus Extaticus, or Banks's bay Horfe in a Trance. A Difcourfe fet downe in a merry Dialogue between Bankes and his Beaft: anatomizing fome Abufes and bad Trickes of this Age, 4to. ; prefixed to which, was a print of the horse standing on his hind legs with a stick in his mouth, his master with a stick in his hand and a pair of dice on the ground. Ben Jonfon hints at the unfortunate catastrophe of both man and horse, which I find happened at Rome, where to the difgrace of the age, of the country, and of humanity, they were burnt by order of the pope, for magicians. See Don Zara del Fogo, 12mo. 1660. p. 114. REED. The following representation of Bankes and his Horse, is a fac-fimile from a rude wooden frontispiece to the pamphlet mentioned by Mr. Reed. ARM. I will hereupon confefs, I am in love: and, as it is bafe for a foldier to love, fo am I in love with a bafe wench. If drawing my fword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take defire prifoner, and ranfom him to any French courtier for a new devised courtesy. I think fcorn to figh; methinks, I fhould out-fwear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: What great men have been in love? MOTH. Hercules, mafter. ARM. Moft fweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name more; and, fweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage. MOTH. Sampfon, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the towngates on his back, like a porter: and he was in love. ARM. O well-knit Sampfon! ftrong-jointed Sampfon! I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too,Who was Sampfon's love, my dear Moth? MOTH. A woman, master. ARM. Of what complexion? MOTH. Of all the four, or the three, or the two; or one of the four. ARM. Tell me precifely of what complexion? ARM. Is that one of the four complexions? $00. ARM. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers :8 but to have a love of that colour, methinks, Sampfon had small reafon for it. He, furely, affected her for her wit. * Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers :] I do not know whether our author alludes to "the rare green eye," which in his time feems to have been thought a beauty, or to that frequent attendant on love, jealousy, to which in The Merchant of Venice, and in Othello, he has applied the epithet green-ey'd. MALONE. Perhaps Armado neither alludes to green eyes, nor to jealousy; but to the willow, the fuppofed ornament of unsuccessful lovers: "Sing, all a green willow fhall be my garland," is the burden of an ancient ditty preferved in The Gallery of gorgious Inventions, &c. 4to. 1578. STEEVENS. MOTH. It was fo, fir; for fhe had a green wit. ARM. My love is most immaculate white and red. MOTH. Moft maculate thoughts, mafter, are masked under fuch colours. ARM. Define, define, well-educated infant. MOTH. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, affift me! ARM. Sweet invocation of a child; moft pretty, and pathetical! MOTH. If the be made of white and red, For ftill her cheeks poffefs the fame, A dangerous rhyme, mafter, against the reafon of white and red. ARM. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar ?3 9 Moft maculate thoughts,] So, the firft quarto, 1598. The folio has immaculate. To avoid fuch notes for the future, it may be proper to apprize the reader, that where the reading of the text does not correspond with the folio, without any reafon being affigned for the deviation, it is always warranted by the authority of the first quarto, MALOne. For blushing-] The original copy has-blush in. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 2 Which native he doth owe.] i. e. of which fhe is naturally poffeffed. To owe is to poffefs. So, in Macbeth: 3 the difpofition that I owe." STEEVENS. the King and the Beggar ?] See Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 4th edit. Vol. I. p. 198. STEEVENS. MOTH. The world was very guilty of fuch a ballad fome three ages fince: but, I think, now 'tis not to be found; or, if it were, it would neither ferve for the writing, nor the tune. ARM. I will have the fubject newly writ o'er, that I may example my digreffion + by fome mighty precedent. Boy, I do love that country girl, that I took in the park with the rational hind Coftard ;5 fhe deferves well. MOTH. To be whipped; and yet a better love than my mafter. [Afide. ARM. Sing, boy; my fpirit grows heavy in love. MOTH. And that's great marvel, loving a light wench. ARM. I fay, fing. MOTH. Forbear till this company be past. 4 my digreffion-] Digreffion on this occafion fignifies the act of going out of the right way, tranfgreffion. So, in Romeo and Juliet: 66 Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, "Digreffing from the valour of a man.” Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: S my digreffion is fo vile, so base, STEEVENS. "That it will live engraven on my face." MALONE. the rational hind Coftard;] Perhaps we should read— the irrational hind, &c. TYRWHITT. The rational hind, perhaps, means only the reafoning brute, the animal with some share of reafon. STEEVENS. I have always read irrational hind; if hind be taken in its beftial fenfe, Armado makes Coftard a female. FARMER. Shakspeare uses it in its beftial fenfe in Julius Cæfar, A& I, fc. iii. and as of the masculine gender: "He were no lion, were not Romans hinds." Again, in King Henry IV. P. I. fc. iii: "you are a fhallow. cowardly hind, and you lie." STEEVENS. |