And lady marquiss Dorset; Will these please you? Gar. And brother-love, I do it. With a true heart, And let heaven Witness, how dear I hold this confirmation. K. Hen. Good man, those joyful tears show thy true heart.5 The common voice, I see, is verify'd Of thee, which says thus, Do my lord of Canterbury To have this young one made a christian. So I grow stronger, you more honour gain. [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Palace Yard. Voise and Tumult within. Enter Porter, and his Man. Port. You'll leave your noise anon, ye rascals: Do you take the court for Paris-garden?6 ye rude slaves, leave your gaping.7 ver, he is here accurate; for we know that certain pieces of plate were, on some occasions, then bestowed; Hall, who has written a minute account of the christening of Elizabeth, informing us, that the gifts presented by her sponsors were a standing cup of gold, and six gilt bowls, with covers. Chron. Hen. VIII, fol 218. Malone. 5- thy true heart.] Old copy-hearts. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone. -Paris-garden?] The bear-garden of that time. Johnson. This celebrated bear-garden on the Bankside was so called from Robert de Paris, who had a house and garden there in the time of King Richard II, Rot. claus. 16 R. II, dors. ii. Blount's GLOSSOGRAPH. Malone So, in Sir W. D'Avenant's News from Plimouth: 66 do vou take this mansion for Pict-hatch? Again, in Ben Jonson's Execration on Vulcan: "And cried, it was a threatning to the bears, The Globe theatre, in which Shakspeare was a performer, stood [Within.] Good master porter, I belong to the larder. Port. Belong to the gallows, and be hanged, you rogue: Is this a place to roar in?-Fetch me a dozen crab-tree staves, and strong ones; these are but switches to them.-I'll scratch your heads: You must be seeing christenings? Do you look for ale and cakes here, you rude rascals? Man. Pray, sir, be patient; 'tis as muca impossible (Unless we sweep them from the door with cannons) To scatter them, as 'tis to make them sleep On May-day morning; which will never be: on the southern side of the river Thames, and was contiguous to this noted place of tumult and disorder. St. Mary Overy's church is not far from London Bridge, and almost opposite to Fishmonger's Hall. Winchester House was over against Cole Harbour. Paris garden was in a line with Bridewell, and the. Globe playhouse faced Blackfriars, Fleet-ditch, or St. Paul's. It was an hexagonal building of stone or brick. Its roof was of rushes, with a flag on the top. See a south view of London, (as it appeared in 1599,) published by T. Wood, in Bishop's Court, in Chancery Lane, in 1771. Steevens. 7 gaping.] i. e. shouting or roaring; a sense which this word has now almost lost. Littleton, in his Dictionary, has however given it in its present signification as follows: “To gape or bawl, vociferor." So, in Roscommon's Essay on translated Verse, as quo. ted in Dr. Johnson's Dictionary: "That noisy, nauseous, gaping fool was he." Reed. Such being one of the ancient senses of the verb-to gape, perhaps the "gaping pig" mentioned by Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, has hitherto been misinterpreted. Steevens. 8 Pray, sir, be patient;] Part of this scene in the old copy is printed as verse, and part as prose. Perhaps the whole, with the occasional addition and omission of a few harmless syllables, might be reduced into a loose kind of metre; but as I know not what advantage would be gained by making the experiment, I have left the whole as I found it. Steevens. 9 On May-day morning;] It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a maying on the first of May. It is on record that King Henry VIII and Queen Katharine partook of this diversion. See Vol. II, p. 345, n. 3. Steevens. Stowe says, that, “in the month of May, namely, on May-day in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walk into the sweet meadows and green woods; there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the noise [i. e. concert] of birds, praising God in their kind." See also Brand's Observations on popular Antiquities, 8vo. 1777, p. 255. Reed. We may as well push against Paul's, as stir them. Man. Alas, I know not; How gets the tide in? Port. You did nothing, sir. Man. I am not Sampson, nor sir Guy, nor Colbrand, to mow them down before me: but, if I spared any, that had a head to hit, either young or old, he or she, cuckold or cuckold-maker, let me never hope to see a chine again; and that I would not for a cow, God save her. [Within.] Do you year, master Porter? Port. I shall be with you presently, good master puppy.-Keep the door close, sirrah. Man. What would you have me do? Port. What should you do, but knock them down by the dozens? Is this Moorfields to muster in?2 or have we some strange Indian3 with the great tool come to court, the women so besiege us? Bless me, what a fry of fornication is at door! On my christian conscience, this one christening will beget a thousand; here will be father, godfather, and all together. Man. The spoons will be the bigger, sir. There is a fellow somewhat near the door, he should be a brazier by his face, for, o' my conscience, twenty of the dogdays now reign in 's nose; all that stand about him are 1 sir Guy, nor Colbrand,] Of Guy of Warwick every one has heard. Colbrand was the Danish giant, whom Guy subdued at Winchester. Their combat is very elaborately described by Drayton, in his Polyolbion. Johnson. 2 Moorfields to muster in?] The train-bands of the city were exercised in Moorfields. Johnson. 3some strange Indian-] To what circumstance this refers, perhaps, cannot now be exactly known. A similar one occurs in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: "You shall see the strange nature of an outlandish beast lately brought from the land of Cataia." Again, in The Two Noble Kinsmen, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "The Bavian with long tail and eke long TooL." Collins. he should be a brazier by his face,] A brazier signifies a man that manufactures brass, and a reservoir for charcoal occasionally heated to convey warmth. Both these senses are understood. Johnson. under the line, they need no other penance: That firedrake did I hit three times on the head, and three times was his nose discharged against me; he stands there, like a mortar-piece, to blow us. There was a haberdasher's wife of small wit' near him, that railed upon me till her pink'd porringer fell off her head, for 8 5 That fire-drake-] A fire-drake is both a serpent, anciently called a brenning-drake, or dipsas, and a name formerly given to a Will o' the Wisp, or ignis fatuus. So, in Drayton's Nyphidia: "By the hissing of the snake, "The rustling of the fire-drake." Again, in Casar and Pompey, a tragedy, by Chapman, 1607: "So have I seene a fire-drake glide along "Before a dying man, to point his grave, "And in it stick and hide" Again, in Albertus Wallenstein, 1640: "Your wild irregular lust, which like those fire-drakes A fire-drake was likewise an artificial firework. So, in Your Five Gallants, by Middleton, 1608: but like fire-drakes, "Mounted a little, gave a crack, and fell." Steevens. A fire-drake is thus described by Bullokar, in his Expositor, 8vo. 1616: "Firedrake. A fire sometimes seen flying in the night, like a dragon. Common people think it a spirit that keepeth some treasure hid; but philosophers affirme it to be a great unequal exhalation, inflamed betweene two clouds, the one hot, the other cold, which is the reason that it also smoketh; the middle part whereof, according to the proportion of the hot cloud, being greater than the rest, maketh it seeme like a bellie, and both ends like unto a head and taile." Malone. 6— to blow us ] Read-to blow us up. M. Mason. the cannon, "When it hath blown his ranks into the air —." In another of our author's plays (if my memory does not deceive me) we have "- and blow them to the moon." Steevens. 7 There was a haberdasher's wife of small wit-] Ben Jonson, whose hand Dr. Farmer thinks may be traced in different parts of this play, uses this expression in his Induction to The Magnetick Lady: "And all haberdashers of small wit, I presume." 8 Malone. till her pink'd porringer fell off her head,] Her pink'd porringer is her pink'd cap, which looked as if it had been moulded on a porringer. So, in The Taming of the Shrew: "Hab. Here is the cap your worship did bespeak. 65 'Pet. Why this was moulded on a porringer." Malone. kindling such a combustion in the state. I miss'd the meteor once, and hit that woman, who cried out, clubs !1 when I might see from far some forty truncheoneers draw to her succour, which were the hope of the Strand,2 where she was quartered. They fell on; I made good my place; at length they came to the broomstaff with me,3 I defied them still; when suddenly a file of boys behind them, loose shot, delivered such a shower of pebbles, that I was fain to draw mine honour in, and let them win the work:5 The devil was amongst them, I think, surely. Port. These are the youths that thunder at a playhouse, and fight for bitten apples; that no audience, 9 11 the meteor—] The fire-drake, the brazier. Johnson. who cried out, clubs!] Clubs! was the outcry for assistance, upon any quarrel or tumult in the streets. So, in The Renegado: "In London among the clubs, up went his heels Again, in Greene's Tu Quoque: 66 ·Go, y' are a prating jack; "Nor is 't your hopes of crying out for clubs, "Can save you from my chastisement." Whalley. So, in the third Act of The Puritan, when Oath and Skirmish are going to fight, Simon cries, "Clubs, clubs!" and Aaron does the like in Titus Andronicus, when Chiron and Demetrius are about to quarrel. Nor did this practice obtain merely amongst the lower class of people for in The First Part of Henry VI, when the Mayor of London endeavours to interpose between the factions of the Duke of Glocester, and the Cardinal of Winchester, he says: 2 "I'll call for clubs, if you will not away." M. Mason. the hope of the Strand,] Sir T. Hanmer reads-the forlorn hope. Johnson. 3to the broomstaff with me,] The old copy has-to me. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Malone. 4 loose shot,] i. e. loose or random shooters. See Vol. IX, p. 104, n. 9. Malone. 5 the work:] A term of fortification. Steevens. 6— that thunder at a play-house, and fight for bitten apples;] The prices of seats for the vulgar in our ancient theatres were so very low, that we cannot wonder if they were filled with the tumultuous company described by Shakspeare in this scene. So, in The Gul's Hornbook, by Decker, 1609: "Your groundling and gallery commoner buys his sport by the penny." |