Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

COST. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is,

in telling true, but so, so."

KING. Peace.

COST. -be to me, and every man that dares not fight!

KING. No words.

COST.

of other men's secrets, I beseech you.

KING. So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper. So much for the time when: Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: But to the place, where,-It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden: There did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,

5

6

but so, so.] The second so was added by Sir T. Hanmer, and adopted by the subsequent editors. MALONE.

6 curious-knotted garden :] Ancient gardens abounded with figures of which the lines intersected each other in many directions. Thus, in King Richard II:

"Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,

"Her knots disorder'd," &c.

In Thomas Hill's Profitable Art of Gardening, &c. 4to. bl. 1. 1579, is the delineation of "a proper knot for a garden, whereas is spare roume enough, the which may be set with Time, or Isop, at the discretion of the Gardener." In Henry Dethicke's Gar

COST. Me.

KING. that unletter'd small-knowing soul,

COST. Me.

KING. that shallow vassal,

COST. Still me.

KING. which, as I remember, hight Costard, COST. O me!

KING. Sorted and consorted, contrary to thy established proclaimed edict and continent canon, with-with,-O with-but with this I passion to say wherewith.

COST. With a wench.

KING. with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I (as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have sent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation.

DULL. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull.

dener's Labyrinth, bl. 1. 4to. 1586, are other examples of "proper knots deuised for gardens." STeevens.

7

base minnow of thy mirth,] The base minnow of thy mirth, is the contemptible little object that contributes to thy entertainment. Shakspeare makes Coriolanus characterize the tribunitian insolence of Sicinius, under the same figure:

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: "Let him denie that there was another shewe made of the little minnow his brother," &c.

8

STEEVENS.

with-with-] The old copy reads-which with. The correction is Mr. Theobald's. MALONE.

KING. For Jaquenetta, (so is the weaker vessel called, which I apprehended with the aforesaid swain,) I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heartburning heat of duty,

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.

BIRON. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard.

KING. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to this?

COST. Sir, I confess the wench,

KING. Did you hear the proclamation?

COST. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it,'

KING. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

COST, I was taken with none, sir, I was taken with a damosel.

KING. Well, it was proclaimed damosel.

COST. This was no damosel neither, sir; she was a virgin.

KING. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed, virgin.

COST. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.

9

vessel of thy law's fury;] This seems to be a phrase adopted from scripture. See Epist. to the Romans, ix. 22: 66 the vessel of wrath." Mr. M. Mason would read-vassal instead of vessel. STEEVENS.

-

'I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.] So Falstaff, in The Second Part of King Henry IV: 66 it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal." STEEVENS.

KING. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. COST. This maid will serve my turn, sir.

KING. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence; You shall fast a week with bran and water.

COST. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

KING. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.My lord Biron see him deliver'd o'er.

And go we, lords, to put in practice that
Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.-

[Exeunt King, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN. BIRON. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.— Sirrah, come on.

COST. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore, Welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again, and till then, Sit thee down, sorrow! [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the same.

Armado's House.

Enter ARMADO and MOTH.

ARM. Boy, what sign is it, when a man of great spirit grows melancholy?

MOTH. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. ARM. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.2

2dear imp.] Imp was anciently a term of dignity. Lord Cromwell, in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his

MOTH. No, no; O lord, sir, no.

ARM. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender juvenal ?13

MOTH. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough senior.

ARM. Why tough senior? why tough senior? MOTH. Why, tender juvenal? why tender juvenal?

ARM. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton, appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.

MOTH. And I, tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time, which we may name tough.

son.

It is now used only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in our author's time it was ambiguous, in which state it suits well with this dialogue. JOHNSON.

Pistol salutes King Henry V. by the same title.

STEEVENS.

The word literally means a graff, slip, scion, or sucker: and by metonymy comes to be used for a boy or child. The imp, his son, is no more than his infant son. It is now set apart to signify young fiends; as the devil and his imps.

Dr. Johnson was mistaken in supposing this a word of dignity. It occurs in The History of Celestina the Faire, 1596; "the gentleman had three sonnes, very ungracious impes, and of a wicked nature." RITSON.

3

my tender juvenal?] Juvenal is youth. So, in The Noble Stranger, 1640:

"Oh, I could hug thee for this, my jovial juvinell.” STEEVENS.

tough senior, as an appertinent title to your old time,] Here and in two speeches above the old copies have signior, which appears to have been the old spelling of senior. So, in the last scene of The Comedy of Errors, edit. 1623: "We will draw cuts for the signior; till then, lead thou first." In that play the spelling has been corrected properly by the modern editors, who yet, I know not why, have retained the old spelling in the passage before us. MALONE.

« ПредишнаНапред »