Within a noose, for laundring gold and barbing it. Dol. Snatches Face's sword.] You'll bring your head within a cockscomb, will you? And you, sir with your menstrue [dashes Subtle's vial out of his hand.]-gather it up. 'Sdeath, you abominable pair of stinkards, Leave off your barking, and grow one again, Or, by the light that shines, I'll cut your throats. I'll not be made a prey unto the marshal For ne'er a snarling dog-belt of you both. Have you together cozoned all this while, And all the world, and shall it now be said, You've made most courteous shift to cozen yourselves? You will accuse him! you will "bring him in [to Face. Within the statute!" Who shall take your word? A whoreson, upstart, apocryphal captain, Whom not a Puritan in Blackfriers will trust So much as for a feather 5 and you, too, [to Subtle. Will give the cause, forsooth! you will insult, And claim a primacy in the divisions! Away, this brach !] "A mannerly name for a b-h," as the old book on sports says. See Massinger, vol. i. 210. ૩ I'll bring thee, rogue, within The statute of sorcery, &c.] By this statute, which Face has very accurately dated, all witchcraft and sorcery was dechred to be felony withfamous statute 1 Jac. I. c 12. out benefit of clergy. This was confirmed by the For landring gold and barbing it.] To launder gold is probably to wash it in aqua regia; a practice, it is to be feared, (while gold was), not uncommon. This verb is not found in our dictionaries; thoughit is as regularly formed as the substantive, (laundress,) and seems altogether as necessary. Laundring occurs in Slakspeare; or in "one deformed that goes up and down under his name." "Laundring the silken figures in the brine That seasoned woe had pelletted in tears!" A Lover's Complaint. 5 Whom not a Puritan in Blackfriers will trust So much as for a feather:] Blackfriars was celebrated for the residence of Puritans at this time; the principal dealers in feathers and other vanities of the age! This is noted by many of our old dramatists; but see vol. i. p. 236 b. He ever murmurs, and objects his pains, And says, the weight of all lies upon him. Sub. Why, so it does. Dol. How does it? do not we Sustain our parts? Sub. Yes, but they are not equal. we go make A sort of sober, scurvy, precise neighbours, Dol. Why, if your part exceed to-day, I That scarce have smiled twice since the hope Ours may to-morrow match it. Sub. Ay, they may. Dol. May, murmuring mastiff! ay, and do. Death on me! Help me to throttle him. [Seizes Sub. by the throat. Sub. Dorothy! Mistress Dorothy! 'Ods precious, I'll do anything. What do you mean? Dol. Because o' your fermentation and cibation ?1 Sub. Not I, by heaven- -help me. [To Face. Sub. Would I were hanged then! I'll conform myself. Dol. Will you, sir? do so then, and quickly: swear. 1 Because of your fermentation and cibation?] I trust that the reader will not expect me to explain all the technical terms of this art. An adept himself perhaps would be puzzled by some of them; and I am a mere tyro. Fermentation is the sixth process in alchemy, and means the mutation of any substance into the nature of the ferment, after its primary qualities have been destroyed. Cibation (the seventh process) is feeding the matter in preparation with fresh substances, to supply the waste of evaporation, &c. Sol and Luna, with which Mistress Doro thea reproaches Subtle just below, are gold and silver; for in the cant of alchemy, nothing goes by its right name. 2 Since the king came in,] James succeeded to the throne in 1603, and this was written in 1610. king came in,2 you, as a couple of rogues, to lose your ears in the pillory." • Ere we contribute a new crewel garter To his most worsted worship.] Dol grows Crewel, a word which frequently occurs in our quite facetious at "Don Provost's" expense. old poets, and seldom without suggesting a pun, as here, means a finer kind of yarn, of which "His most trimmings were occasionally made. worsted worship," in the present exaitation of Dorothy's mind, is perhaps his most baffled worship. Not the worst quibble in these volumes. Spoken like Claridiana,] The heroine of that interminable romance, the Mirror of Knighthood, who, after a world of turmoil and fighting, espouses the knight of the sun, the darling of "the fair Lindabrides," so often mentioned by our poet. Dol Singular: the longest cut at night, [Bell rings without. Sub. Who's that? one rings. To the window, Dol: [Exit Dol.]- pray heaven, The master do not trouble us this quarter. Face. O, fear not him. While there dies one a week O' the plague, he's safe, from thinking to- Beside, he's busy at his hop-yards now; As you shall have sufficient time to quit it: This strange note Whalley found in Upton, and continued as it stands here in his corrected copy. That Upton knew his own meaning is highly probable (though I will not affirm it), but that he knew his author's I cannot possibly believe. A "quodling" is not a whitlow, neither is a "puffin" a shortness of breath. " mer." Mr. Weber is always positive in proportion to his want of knowledge. The "codling of Shakspeare is perfectly distinct from the "hot codlings" of Ford, which, as any one but his editor would have discovered, are not apples but young peas; which under this name were cried, ready dressed, about the streets of London. With respect to the quodling of the text, to which it is more than time to return, and which has been so often and so ridiculously quoted to confirm what Shakspeare never meant, it is neither an apple nor a pea, but a sportive appellation for a young quill-driver, derived from the quods and quids of legal phraseology, which have given so many other cant terms to the language. Dapper was dressed as youths of his grave profession usually were in Jorson's time, in a band and gown. Hence Dorothy's knowledge of his occupation, and Face's instant recognition of her description. In Twelfth Night, Malvolio says-"As a squash before 'tis a peascod, or a codling when 'tis almost an apple." On which Steevens observes, that a codling anciently meant an immature apple; and produces this passage of Jonson to confum it. An apple, though immature, is still, I presume, an apple, which the codling of Shakspeare is not, unless almost have the same meaning as altogether. The fact is, that Steevens spoke by guess, and was not lucky. Codling (a mere diminutive of cod) is not necessarily restricted to this or that it means an involucrum or kell, and was used by our old writers for that early state of vegetation when the fruit, after shaking off the blossom, began to assume a globular and determinate form. This is what Shakspeare means. "I have seen Summer go up and down with hot codlings," says a character in the Sun's Darling. This," exclaims the editor of Ford, "plainly proves the asser- And I had lent my watch last night, &c.] tion of Steevens that codlings are immature This little burst of vanity is pleasant and chaapples, as none but such could be had in sum-racteristic. Watches at this time were scarce In Holborn, at the Dagger.] Jonson is attentive to the decorum of his scene in the minutest point. The Dagger is not mentioned at random: it was an ordinary or gamblinghouse of the lowest and most disreputable kind; and sufficiently points out the views and connexions of Dapper. It occurs again in the last act. 3 A familiar.] i.e., an attendant spirit or demon; such as witches always carried about them. That dines to-day at the sheriff's, and so Falling so lately.1 Dap. Read! he was an ass, Face. Faith, he does make the matter, If I discover. sir, so dainty, I know not what to say. Dap. Not so, good captain. Face. Would I were fairly rid of it, believe me. Dap. Nay, now you grieve me, sir. Why I dare assure you, I'll not be ungrateful. the law But Is such a thing--and then he says, Read's matter and dear, and seem to have conferred some kind What do you think of me, That I am a chiaus ? Face. What's that?2 As one would say, do you think I am a Face. I'll tell the doctor so. Face. Come, noble doctor, pray thee This is the gentleman, and he is no chiaus. Sub. Captain, I have returned you all my answer. from the Porte on special occasions; for the Turk at that time kept no leiger ambassadors in any part of Europe. Dapper uses the term for a cheat or swindler, in consequence of a circumstance which took place a short time before this comedy appeared. In 1609, Sir Robert Shirley sent a messenger or chiaus (as our old writers call him), to this country as his agent from the Grand Signior, and the Sophy, to transact some Preparatory business. Sir Robert followed him at his leisure as ambassador from both those princes; but before he reached England his "Pet. Ne'er a watch! 'tis the greatest sole-agent had chiaused the Turkish and Persian cism in society that ever I heard of: ne'er a merchants here of 4000l. and taken his flight, watch! Antipodes. Lion. How deeply you conceive of it! Pet. You have not a gentleman, that's a true gentleman, without one."-The Antiquary. 1 And then he says, Read's matter Falling so lately.] In Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xvi. p. 666, we meet with a pardon from James I. to the person here meant, for practising the black art: Simon Read of St. George's, Southwark, professor of physic, who was indicted for the invocation of wicked spirits, in order to find out the name of the person who had stole 377. 10s. from Tobias Matthews of St. Mary Steynings in London." This was in 1608. This Simon Read and one Roger Jenkins stood suit with the College of Physicians in 1602, for practising without a licence, in which they were both cast. -WHAL. That I am a chiaus?-What's that?-The Turk was here.] A chiaus was an envoy sent unconscious perhaps that he had enriched the language with a word of which the etymology would mislead Upton and puzzle Dr. Johnson. This is "the Turk was here" in Dapper's time. Two other chiauses are mentioned by our annalists as visiting us in 1618 and 1625; these, however, were more respectable characters, and are only noticed for the degree of pomp with them. After all, chouse is not so remote from which James and Charles I. respectively received cozen (an old word from the Dan. kosa), but that we may easily believe something very like it had long been familiar to us. The frequent use of the word, however, at this period is undoubtedly owing to the celebrity conferred The word occurs in Shirley, spelt as here: "We upon it by the knavery of Sir Robert's chiaus. are in a fair way to be ridiculous. What think you, madam, chiaused by a scholar!"-Honoria and Mamnion. 1 I would do much, sir, for your love- I neither may, nor can. Face. Tut, do not say so. You deal now with a noble fellow, doctor, One that will thank you richly; and he is no chiaus : Let that, sir, move you. Sub. Pray you, forbear- Four angels here. Sub. You do me wrong, good sir. Face. Doctor, wherein? to tempt you with these spirits? Sub. To tempt my art and love, sir, to my peril. Fore heaven, I scarce can think you are my friend, That so would draw me to apparent danger. Face. I draw you! a horse draw you, and a halter, 1 No cheating Clim o' the Cloughs, or Claribels,] i.e., no ranting heroes of old ballads and romances. Clim of the Clough was a celebrated archer often mentioned in the histories of Robin Hood: "For he brought Adam Bell, and Clim of the Clough, And William a Cloudes-lee, To shoot with our Forester for forty marks, And the Forester beat them all three." Nash uses the word for a roaring bully, drunkard. Sub. Pray you let me speak with you. Dap. His worship calls you, captain. Face. I am sorry e'er embarked myself in such a business. Dap. Nay, good sir; he did call you. Face. Will he take then? Sub. First, hear me- Face. Not a syllable, 'less you take. Sub. Pray you, sir Face. Upon no terms but an assumpsit. Sub. Your humour must be law. [He takes the four angels. Face. Why now, sir, talk. Now I dare hear you with mine honour. So may this gentleman too. [Offering to whisper Face. Face. No whispering. Sub. Fore heaven, you do not apprehend the loss You do yourself in this. Face. Wherein ? for what? Sub. Marry, to be so importunate for one That, when he has it, will undo you all : He'll win up all the money in the town. Face. How! Sub. Yes, and blow up gamester after As they do crackers in a puppet-play. That look as big as five-and-fifty, and flush;] Five-and-fifty, it appears, was the highest number to stand on at the old game of Primero. If a flush accompanied this the hand was irresistible, and swept the table; the holder therefore might well look big on it. 3 Will take his oath o' the Greek Testament,] This is the reading of the quarto, and seems better adapted to the case of Dapper (as Whalley justly observes) than that of the folio 1616, which has the "Greek Xenophon." The alteraa tion is easily accounted for; but appears no longer necessary. |