the foul fiend.-Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by." [Storm still continues. So that, after all, this matter is enwrapped in much and painful uncertainty. AMNER. 5thy pen from lenders' books,] So, in All Fools, a comedy, by Chapman, 1605: 6 "If I but write my name in mercers' books, "I am as sure to have at six months end "A rascal at my elbow with his mace," &c. STEEVENS. Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by.] The quartos read-the cold wind; hay, no on ny, Dolphin my boy, my boy, cease, let him trot by. The folio-the cold wind: sayes suum, mun, nonny, Dolphin my boy, boy Sessey, let him trot by. The text is formed from the two copies. I have printed Sessa, instead of Sessey, because the same cant word occurs in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew: "Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide: Sessa." Malone. Hey no nonny is the burthen of a ballad in The Two Noble Kinsmen, (said to be written by Shakspeare, in conjunction with Fletcher,) and was probably common to many others. The folio introduces it into one of Ophelia's songs: 66 Dolphin, my boy, my boy, "It seemeth not that such a foe "From me or you would fly.' This is a stanza from a very old ballad written on some battle fought in France, during which the King, unwilling to put the suspected valour of his son the Dauphin, i. e. Dolphin, (so called and spelt at those times,) to the trial, is represented as desirous to restrain him from any attempt to establish an opinion of his courage on an adversary who wears the least appearance of strength; and at last assists in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Therefore, as different champions are supposed to cross the field, the King always discovers some objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats these two lines as every fresh personage is introduced: Dolphin, my boy, my boy, &c. The song I have never seen, but had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to repeat part of it, and died before I could have supposed the discovery would have been of the least importance to me.-As for the words, says suum, mun, LEAR. Why, thou were better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity of the skies.-Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume:Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated!-Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton here."― [Tearing off his Clothes. FOOL. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in.-Now a little fire in a they are only to be found in the first folio, and were probably added by the players, who, together with the compositors, were likely enough to corrupt what they did not understand, or to add more of their own to what they already concluded to be nonsense. STEEVENS. Cokes cries out, in Bartholomew Fair: "God's my life!-He shall be Dauphin my boy!" FARMER. It is observable that the two songs to which Mr. Steevens refers for the burden of Hey no nonny, are both sung by girls distracted from disappointed love. The meaning of the burden may be inferred from what follows--Drayton's Shepherd's Garland, 1593, 4to: "Who ever heard thy pipe and pleasing vaine, "That doth not muse.' Again, in White's Wit of a Woman: " these dauncers sometimes do teach them trickes above trenchmore, yea and sometimes such lavoltas, that they mount so high, that you may see their hey nony, nony, nony, no." HENLEY. 7 Come; unbutton here.] quartos reads-Come on, be true. Thus the folio. One of the unbutton here.] These words are probably only a marginal direction to the player crept into the text. HARRIS. a naughty night to swim in.] So, Tusser, chap. xlii. fol. 93: "Ground grauellie, sandie, and mixed with claie, 9 wild field were like an old lecher's heart; a small spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire. EDG. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet:' he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he Naughty signifies bad, unfit, improper. This epithet which, as it stands here, excites a smile, in the age of Shakspeare was employed on serious occasions. The merriment of the Fool, therefore, depended on his general image, and not on the quaintness of its auxiliary. STEEVENS. 9 — an old lecher's heart;] This image appears to have been imitated by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Humorous Lieutenant: 1 "Is like the glow-worm's light the apes so wonder❜d at ; Flibbertigibbet:] We are not much acquainted with this fiend. Latimer, in his Sermons, mentions him; and Heywood, among his sixte hundred of Epigrams, edit. 1576, has the following, Of calling one Flebergibet: "Thou Flebergibet, Flebergibet, thou wretch! "Wottest thou whereto last part of that word doth stretch? STEEVENS. "Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, were four devils of the round or morrice..... These four had forty assistants under them, as themselves doe confesse." Harsnet, p. 49. PERCY. 2 he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock;] It is an old tradition that spirits were relieved from the confinement in which they were held during the day, at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of day, and were permitted to wander at large till the first cock-crowing. Hence, in The Tempest, they are said to "rejoice to hear the solemn curfew." See Hamlet, Act I. sc. i: and at his [the cock's] warning, "Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, "The extravagant and erring spirit hies "To his confine." 3 gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Saint Withold footed thrice the wold; And her troth plight, And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee !* Again, sc. v: "I am thy father's spirit, "Doom'd for a certain time to walk the night, See Vol. IV. p. 39, n. 4. ·web and the pin,] STEEvens. MALONE. Diseases of the eye. JOHNSON. So, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609. One of the characters is giving a ludicrous description of a lady's face, and when he comes to her eyes he says, a pin and web argent, in hair du roy." STEEVENS. • Saint Withold footed thrice the wold; He met the night-mare, and her nine-fold; And her troth plight, And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee !] We should read it thus: Saint Withold footed thrice the wold, He met the night-mare, and her name told, And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee right. i. e. Saint Withold traversing the wold or downs, met the nightmare; who having told her name, he obliged her to alight from those persons whom she rides, and plight her troth to do no more mischief. This is taken from a story of him in his legend. Hence he was invoked as the patron saint against that distemper. And these verses were no other than a popular charm, or nightspell against the Epialtes. The last line is the formal execration or apostrophe of the speaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i. e. depart forthwith. Bedlams, gipsies, and such like vagabonds, used to sell these kinds of spells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various disorders, KENT. How fares your grace? and addressed to various saints. We have another of them in the Monsieur Thomas of Fletcher, which he expressly calls a nightspell, and is in these words: "Saint George, Saint George, our lady's knight, "He her beat and her bound; "Until to him her troth she plight, "She would not stir from him that night." WARBURTON. This is likewise one of the "magical cures" for the incubus, quoted, with little variation, by Reginald Scott in his Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584. STEEVENS. In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be noted. "Swithalde footed thrice the olde anelthu night moore and her nine fold bid her, O light and her troth plight and arint thee, with arint thee." JOHNSON. Her nine fold seems to be put (for the sake of the rhyme) instead of her nine foals. I cannot find this adventure in the common legends of St. Vitalis, who, I suppose, is here called St. Withold. TYRWHITT. Shakspeare might have met with St. Withold in the old spu rious play of King John, where this saint is invoked by a Franciscan friar. The wold I suppose to be the true reading. So, in The Coventry Collection of Mysteries, Mus. Brit. Vesp. D. viii. p. 23, Herod says to one of his officers: "Seyward bolde, walke thou on wolde, "And wysely behold all abowte," &c. Dr. Hill's reading, the cold, (mentioned in the next note,) is the reading of Mr. Tate in his alteration of this play in 1681. Lest the reader should suppose the compound-night-mare, has any reference to horse-flesh, it may be observed that maɲa, Saxon, signifies an incubus. See Keysler, Antiquitat. sel. Septentrion. p. 497, edit. 1720. STEEVENS. It is pleasant to see the various readings of this passage. In a book called the Actor, which has been ascribed to Dr. Hill, it is quoted" Swithin footed thrice the cold." Mr. Colman has it in his alteration of Lear "Swithin footed thrice the world.” The ancient reading is the olds: which is pompously cor rected by Mr. Theobald, with the help of his friend Mr. Bishop, to the wolds: in fact it is the same word. Spelman writes, |
