Enter SKOGAN and SKELTON, in like habits as they lived. Skog. Seemeth we are call'd of a moral intent, If the words that are spoken as well now be meant. Johp. That, master Skogan, I dare you ensure. Skog. Then, son, our acquaintance is like to endure. Mere. A pretty game! like Crambo; master Skogan, Give me thy hand: thou art very lean, methinks, Is't living by thy wits? Skog. If it had been that, My worshipful son, thou hadst ne'er been so fat. "Enter Skogan and Skelton in like habits as they lived.] i. e. in the dress they wore while they were alive. This puts an end to the grave difficulties and graver doubts of M. Mason, Steevens, and Malone, as to the exclamation of Hamlet, "My father, in like habit as he lived," meaning, in the clothes which he usually wore. The idea of Steevens, that a ghost who once puts on armour, can never exchange it afterwards for any thing more light and comfortable, is very good. In the lines which follow, Jonson imitates the language of Skogan and Skelton. The former (Henry Skogan) lived in the time of Henry IV. and, as Stowe says, sent a ballad to the young prince (Shakspeare's Hal) and his brothers, "while they were at supper in the Vintry, amongst the merchants." This is the ballad-royal of which our poet speaks: it was not very well timed, it must be allowed; and if we may judge from the opening stanza, moral as it is, it was not much better tuned : 66 My noble sonnes and eke my Lords deare, I your father called unworthily, Send unto you this ballad following here, Written with mine owne hand full rudely." I have no knowledge of his "disguises." If moral Skogan (for this was his usual appellation) wrote any things of this nature, they were probably religious pieces, Mysteries and Moralities. Here's a gen Johp. He tells you true, sir. tleman, My pair of crafty clerks, of that high caract, Who not content with the wit of his own times, Is curious to know yours, and what hath been. Mere. Or is, or shall be. Johp. Note his latitude. Et gentilissimus ! Johp. The question-issimus Is, should he ask a sight now, for his life; Skel. An Howleglass To come to pass On his father's ass; There never was, And glass at his wrist. Skog. Except the four knaves entertain'd for the guards Of the kings and the queens that triumph in the cards. Johp. Ay, that were a sight and a half, I confess, To see 'em come skipping in, all at a mess! Skel. With Elinor Rumming, Like a roast pig's ear Skog. Or, what do you say to Ruffian Fitz-Ale ? Johp. An excellent sight, if he be not too stale. But then we can mix him with modern Vapors, The child of tobacco, his pipes, and his papers. • With Elinor Rumming, To make up the mumming, &c.] These are Skelton's own verses in his ballad on Eleanor Rumming, the old ale-wife. WHAL. Jonson was evidently fond of Skelton, and frequently imitates his short titupping style, which is not his best. I know Skelton only by the modern edition of his works, dated 1736. But from this stupid publication I can easily discover that he was no ordinary man. Why Warton and the writers of his school rail at him so vehemently, I know not; he was perhaps the best scholar of his day, and displays, on many occasions, strong powers of description, and a vein of poetry that shines through all the rubbish which ignorance has spread over it. He flew at high game, and therefore occasionally called in the aid of vulgar ribaldry to mask the direct attack of his satire. This was seen centuries ago, and yet we are now instituting a process against him for rudeness and indelicacy!" By what means," says Grange, (who wrote about the beginning of Elizabeth's reign,) could Skelton, that laureat poet, have uttered his mind so well at large, as thorowe his cloke of mery conceytes, as in his Speake Parrot, Ware the Hawke, The Tunning of Elinor Rumming, Why come ye not to the Court, &c. Yet what greater sense or better matter can be, than is in this ragged rhyme contayned? Or who would have hearde his fault so playnely told him, if not in such gibyng sorte?" The Golden Aphroditis. Mere. You talk'd of Elinor Rumming, I had rather See Ellen of Troy. Johp. Her you shall see: Skel. That Mary Ambree With doctor Rat. 7 As the ballad doth vaunt.] The ballad, of which the first stanza follows, is re-published in Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 218. "When captains courageous, whom death colde not daunte, Did march to the siege of the cittye of Gaunte, They mustred their souldiers by two and by three, 8 Or Westminster Meg.] There is a penny story-book of this tremendous virago, who performed many wonderful exploits about the time that Jack the Giant-killer flourished. She was buried, as all the world knows, in the cloisters of Westminster abbey, where a huge stone is still pointed out to the Whitsuntide visitors as her grave-stone. Johp. Ay, that! that! that! To fill the hall. The ANTIMASQUE follows, Consisting of these twelve persons, HowLEGLASS, the four KNAVES, two RUFFIANS, (FITZ-ALE and VAPOR,) ELINOR RUMMING, MARY AMBREE, LONG MEG of Westminster, Toм THUMB, and doctor RAT. They DANCE, and withdraw. Mere. What, are they vanish'd! where is skipping Skelton? Or moral Skogan? I do like their shew, And would have thank'd them, being the first grace The company of the Rosy-cross hath done me. Johp. The company o' the Rosy-cross, you widgeon! The company of [the] players. Go, you are, grease, See who has gull'd you, and make one. [Exit Merefool. Great king, 9 The company of [the] players.] Professional actors, as has been already observed, were sometimes employed in the Antimasques, more especially where they were of a very grotesque and ridiculous nature. |