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Let them want nothing that my house affords.

[To a Serv.

[Exeunt Serv. and Players. Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page, And see him dress'd in all suits like a lady: That done, conduct him to the drunkard's chamber, And call him-madam, do him obeisance. Tell him from me, (as he will win my love) He bear himself with honourable action, Such as he hath observ'd in noble ladies Unto their lords, by them accomplished: Such duty to the drunkard let him do, With soft low tongue, and lowly courtesy; And say,-What is 't your honour will command, Wherein your lady, and your humble wife, May show her duty, and make known her love? And then-with kind embracements, tempting kisses, And with declining head into his bosom,—

Bid him shed tears, as being overjoy'd

To see her noble lord restor❜d to health,

Who, for twice seven years, hath esteemed him

No better than a poor and loathsome beggar:2

Every Man in his Humour, the greatest indulgence our histrionic leaders could have expected, would have been "a trencher and a napkin in the buttery." Steevens.

1 With soft low tongue,] So, in King Lear:

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Her voice was ever soft,

"Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman."

"Malone.

2 Who, for twice seven years, &c.] In former editions: Who for this seven years hath esteemed him

No better than a poor and loathsome beggar.

I have ventured to alter a word here, against the authority of the printed copies; and hope, I shall be justified in it by two subsequent passages. That the poet designed the tinker's supposed lunacy should be of fourteen years standing at least, is evident upon two parallel passages in the play to that purpose. Theobald. The remark is just, but perhaps the alteration may be thought unnecessary by those who recollect that our author rarely reckons time with any great correctness. Both Falstaff and Orlando forget the true hour of their appointments. Steevens.

In both these passages the term mentioned is fifteen, not fourteen years. The servants may well be supposed to forget the precise period dictated to them by their master, or, as is the custom of such persons, to aggravate what they have heard. There is, therefore, in my opinion, no need of change. Malone.

And if the boy have not a woman's gift,
To rain a shower of commanded tears,
An onion3 will do well for such a shift;
Which in a napkin being close convey'd,
Shall in despite enforce a watery eye.

See this despatch'd with all the haste thou canst;
Anon I'll give thee more instructions.—

I know, the boy will well usurp the grace,
Voice, gait, and action of a gentlewoman:

[Exit Serv.

I long to hear him call the drunkard, husband;

And how my men will stay themselves from laughter,
When they do homage to this simple peasant.
I'll in to counsel them: haply, my presencę
May well abate the over-merry spleen,

Which otherwise would grow into extremes.

SCENE II.

A Bedchamber in the Lord's House.

[Exeunt.

Sly is discovered in a rich night gown, with Attendants; some with apparel, others with bason, ewer, and other appurtenances. Enter Lord, dressed like a Servant. Sly. For God's sake a pot of small ale.

-We

hath esteemed him-] This is an error of the press:—

should read himself, instead of him. M. Mason.

Him is used instead of himself, as you is used for yourselves in Macbeth:

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Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time.” i. e. acquaint yourselves.

Again, in Ovid's Banquet of Sence, by Chapman, 1595:

"Sweet touch, the engine that love's bow doth bend,

"The sence wherewith he feeles him deified." Steevens. 3 An onion-] It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient used by the actors of interludes. Johnson.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "The tears live in an onion that should water this sorrow." Steevens.

4 A Bedchamber &c.] From the original stage direction in the first folio it appears that Sly and the other persons mentioned in the Induction, were intended to be exhibited here, and during the representation of the comedy, in a balcony above the stage. The direction here is-Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants, &c. So afterwards, at the end of this scene-The Presenters above speak. Malone.

5 Sly is discovered &c.] Thus in the original play:

1 Serv. Will 't please your lordship drink a cup of sack? 2 Serv. Will 't please your honour taste of these con

serves?

3 Serv. What raiment will your honour wear to-day? Sly. I am Christophero Sly; call not me-honour, nor lordship: I never drank sack in my life, and if you give me any conserves, give me conserves of beef: Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more shoes than feet; nay, sometimes, more

"Enter two with a table and a banquet on it, and two other, with Slie asleepe in a chaire, richlie apparelled, and the musick plai

eng.

"One. So, sirha, now go call my lord;

"And tell him all things are ready as he will'd it.

"Another. Set thou some wine upon the boord,

"And then Ile go fetch my lord presently.

"Enter the Lord and his men.

"Lord. How now, what is all things readie?

"One. Yea, my lord.

[Exit.

"Lord. Then sound the musicke, and Ile wake him strait, "And see you doe as earst I gave in charge.

"My lord, my lord, (he sleeps soundly) my lord.

"Slie. Tapster, give 's a little small ale: heigh ho.

"Lord. Heere 's wine, my lord, the purest of the grape. "Slie. For which lord?

"Lord. For your honour, my lord.

"Slie. Who I, am I a lord?-Iesus, what fine apparell have I got!

"Lord. More richer far your honour hath to weare, "And if it please you, I will fetch them straight. "Wil. And if your honour please to ride abroad, "Ile fetch your lustie steedes more swift of pace "Then winged Pegasus in all his pride,

"That ran so swiftlie over Persian plaines.

"Tom. And if your honour please to hunt the deere, "Your hounds stands readie cuppled at the doore,

"Who in running will oretake the row,

"And make the long-breathde tygre broken-winded." Steevens. 6 small ale.] This beverage is mentioned in the accounts of the Stationers' Company in the year 1558: "For a stande of small ale," I suppose it was what we now call small beer, no mention of that liquor being made on the same books, though duble bere, and duble duble ale, are frequently recorded. Steevens. It appears from The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Act IV, sc. ii, that single beer and small beer were synonymous terms.

VOL. VI.

Malone.

feet than shoes, or such shoes as my toes look through the overleather.

Lord. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! O, that a mighty man, of such descent,

Of such possessions, and so high esteem,
Should be infused with so foul a spirit!

Sly. What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly, old Sly's son of Burton-heath; by birth a pedler, by education a card-maker, by transmutation a bear-herd, and now by present profession a tinker? Ask Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for sheer ale, score me up for the lyingest knave in Christendom. What, I am not bestraught: Here's

8

7 of Burton-heath; Marian Hacket the fat ale-wife of Wincot,] I suspect we should read-Barton-heath. Barton and Woodmancot, or, as it is vulgarly pronounced, Woncot, are both of them in Gloucestershire, near the residence of Shakspeare's old enemy, Justice Shallow. Very probably too, this fat ale-wife might be a real character. Steevens.

Wilnecotte is a village in Warwickshire, with which Shakspeare was well acquainted, near Stratford. The house kept by our genial hostess, still remains, but is at present a mill. The meanest hovel to which Shakspeare has an allusion, interests curiosity, and acquires an importance: at least, it becomes the object of a poetical antiquarian's inquiries. T. Warton.

Burton Dorset is a village in Warwickshire. Ritson.

There is likewise a village in Warwickshire called Burton Hastings.

Among Sir A. Cockayn's Poems (as Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens have observed) there is an epigram on Sly and his ale, addressed to Mr. Clement Fisher of Wincot.

The text is undoubtedly right.

There is a village in Warwickshire called Barton on the Heath, where Mr. Dover, the founder of the Cotswold games, lived.

Malone.

8 I am not bestraught:] I once thought that if our poet did not design to put a corrupted word into the mouth of the Tinker, we ought to read-distraught, i. e. distracted. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"O, if I wake, shall I not be distraught," &c.

For there is no verb extant from which the participle bestraught can be formed. In Albion's England, however, by Warner, 1602, I meet with the word as spelt by Shakspeare:

"Now teares had drowned further speech, till she as one bestrought

"Did crie." &c. Steevens.

1 Serv. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn. 2 Serv. O, this it is that makes your servants droop. Lord. Hence comes it that your kindred shun your house,

As beaten hence by your strange lunacy.

O, noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth;

Call home thy ancient thoughts from banishment,
And banish hence these abject lowly dreams:

Look how thy servants do attend on thee,

Each in his office ready at thy beck.

Wilt thou have musick? hark! Apollo plays, [Musick.

And twenty caged nightingales do sing:

Or wilt thou sleep? we'll have thee to a couch,
Softer and sweeter than the lustful bed

On purpose trimm'd up for Semiramis.

Say, thou wilt walk; we will bestrew the ground:
Or wilt thou ride? thy horses shall be trapp'd,
Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
Dost thou love hawking? thou hast hawks will soar
Above the morning lark: Or wilt thou hunt?
Thy hounds shall make the welkin answer them,
And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

1 Serv. Say, thou wilt course; thy greyhounds are as swift

As breathed stags, ay, fleeter than the roe.

2 Serv. Dost thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight

Adonis, painted by a running brook:

And Cytherea all in sedges hid;

Which seem to move and wanton with her breath,

Even as the waving sedges play with wind.

Lord. We'll show thee Io, as she was a maid;

And how she was beguiled and surpris'd,

As lively painted as the deed was done.

3 Serv. Or Daphne, roaming through a thorny wood; Scratching her legs that one shall swear she bleeds: And at that sight shall sad Apollo weep,

So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn.

Lord. Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord:

Bestraught seems to have been synonymous to distraught or distracted. See Minshieu's Dict. 1617: " Bestract, a Lat. distrac tus mente. Vi. Mad and Bedlam." Malone.

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