TIMON OF ATHENS. "In a wide sea of wax."-Act I. Sc. 1. Anciently, they wrote upon waxen tables with an iron style.-HANMER. "Methinks they should invite them without knives." Act I. Sc. 2. It was the custom in our author's time for every guest to bring his own knife, which he occasionally whetted on a stone that hung behind the door. One of these whetstones may be seen in Parkinson's Museum. They were strangers, at that period, to the use of forks.—RITSON. "So soon as dinner's done we'll forth again." Act II. Sc. 2. It may here be noticed, that in Shakspeare's day, it was usual to hunt as well after dinner, as before. Thus, in Laneham's Account of the Entertainment at Kenelworth Castle, we find that queen Elizabeth always, while there, hunted in the afternoon. "Monday was hot, and therefore her highness kept in till five o' clock in the evening, what time it pleased her to ryd forth into the chase; to hant the harte of fors; which found anone, and after sore chased, &c."- REED. "I dreamt of a silver bason and ewer to-night." Act III. Sc. 1. A basin and ewer were things of importance formerly. They were usually of silver, and probably very costly workmanship was bestowed upon them, as they were exhibited to the guests before and after dinner, it being the fashion to wash at both those times. In The Returne from Parnassus, CORIOLANUS. " "Brows bound with oak."—Act I. Sc. 3. The crown given by the Romans to him who saved the life of a citizen, which was accounted more honourable than any other, was composed of pak leaves.—JOHNSON. "Those centuries."-Act I. Sc. 7. Centuries were companies, each consisting of a undred men.-STEEVENS. Towards the napes of your necks."-Act II. Sc. 1. In allusion to the fable, which says, that very man has a bag hanging before him in which e puts his neighbour's faults, and another behind im, in which he stows his own.-JOHNSON. "The kitchen malkin.”—Act II. Sc. 1. clouts for the use of sweeping ovens; thence a frightful figure of clouts dressed up; thence a dirty wench. HANMER. "The breath of garlick-eaters.”—Act IV. Sc. 6. To smell of garlick was once such a brand of vulgarity, that garlick was a food forbidden to an ancient order of Spanish knights, mentioned by Guevara.-JOHNSON. "As is the osprey."-Act IV. Sc. 7. The osprey is a rare, large, blackish hawk, with a long neck and blue legs. It commonly feeds on fish.-STEEVENS. "To have a temple built you."—Act V. Sc. 3. Plutarch informs us, that a temple dedicated to the Fortune of the Ladies, was built on this occasion A maukin, or malkin, is a kind of mop made of by order of the senate.-STEEVENS. JULIUS CÆSAR. That unicorns may be betrayed with trees, Act II. Sc. 1. Unicorns are said to have been taken by one, ■o, running behind a tree, eluded the violent push e animal was making at him, so that his horn ent its force on the trunk, and stuck fast, detain- the beast till he was despatched by the hunter. ars were surprised by means of a mirror, which y would gaze on, affording their pursuers an optunity of taking a surer aim. Elephants were uced into pitfalls, lightly covered with hurdles and turf, on which a proper bait to tempt them was "When beggars die, there are no comets seen; This might have been suggested by what Suetonius says of the blazing star, which appeared for seven days together, during the celebration of games instituted by Augustus in honour of Julius. The common people believed that the comet indicated his reception among the gods.-DOUCE. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA. "Like the courser's hair.”—Act I. Sc. 2. Holinshed says "a horse haire laid in a full pale of the like water will in a short time stirre and become a living creature. But sith the certaintie of these things is rather proved by few.”—STEEVENS. "Gilded puddle.”—Act I. Sc. 4. There is frequently observable on the surface of stagnant pools, that have remained long undisturbed, a reddish gold coloured slime: to this appearance the poet here refers.-HENLEY. “Mandragora.”—Act I. Sc. 5. Gerard, in his Herbal, says of the mandragoras: "Dioscorides dothe particularly set downe many faculties hereof, of which notwithstanding there be none proper unto it, save those that depend upon the drowsie and sleeping power thereof."-PERCY. "That great medicine hath With his tinct gilded thee."-Act I. So. 5. Alluding to the philosopher's stone, which, by its touch, converts base metal into gold. The alchemists call the matter, whatever it be, by which they perform transmutation, a medicine.-JOHNSON. “I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail Rich pearls upon thee."-Act II. Sc. 5. It is an eastern ceremony, at the coronation of their kings, to powder them with gold-dust and seed pearl.-Warburton. brought to Cesar, upon Apollodorus backe.” NORTH'S PLUTARCH, 1579. "The goddess Isis.”—Act III. Se. &. that time (but al other times els, when she care "Now for Cleopatra, she did not only weare t abroad) the apparell of the goddesse Isis, and s gaue audience vnto all her subjects, as a new Isis NORTH'S PLUTARCH, "Whom leprosy o'ertake.”—Act III. Sc.8. Pliny, who says, the white leprosy, or elephantis sis, was not seen in Italy before the time of Pony turall to the Egyptians; but looke when any of the the Great, adds, it is "a peculiar maladie, and se kings fell into it, woe worth the subjects and por people: for then were the tubs and bathing vessel wherein they sate in the baine, filled with mess blond for their cure."-REED. "It was a king's.”—Act IV. Se. 8. "Then came Antony again to the palace gready boasting of this victory, and sweetly kissed Cleefight, recommending one of his men of arms uni her, that had valiantly fought in this skirmish. Cler patra, to reward his manliness, gave him an armost and head-piece of clean gold."-NORTH'S PL patra, armed as he was when be came from the TARCH. "The pretty worm of Nile.”—Act V. Sc. 2 Worm is the Teutonick word for serpent; we have the blind worm and slow-worm still in our lan guage, and the Norwegians call an enormous magster, sometimes seen in the Northern ocean, the sea-worm.-JOHNSON. CYMBELINE. Tenantius was the father of Cymbeline, and nephew of Cassibelan, being the younger son of his elder brother Lud, king of the southern part of Britain; on whose death, Cassibelan was admitted king. Cassibelan repulsed the Romans on their first attack, but being vanquished by Julius Cæsar, he agreed to pay an annual tribute to Rome. After his decease, Tenantius was established on the throne. According to some writers, he quietly paid the tribute, others say he refused it, and warred with the Romans. Shakspeare supposes the latter to be true, and follows Holinshed, from whom he got the name of Sicilius. Leonatus is a name which occurs in Sydney's Arcadia.-MALONE. "All sworn and honourable.”-Act II. Sc. 4. It was anciently the custom for the attendants on our nobility, and other great personages, (as it is TITUS ANDRONICUS. "Ay, come, Semiramis."-Act II. Sc. 3. "Queen Semiramis loved a great horse that she had, so farre forth, that she was coutent he should doe his kind with her."-PLINY'S NAT. HIST. "A precious ring."-Act II. Sc. 4. There is supposed to be a gem called a carbuncle, which emits not reflected, but native light. Boyle believed in its existence.-JOHNSON. "As far from help as limbo is from bliss. Act III. Sc. 1. The limbus patrum, as it was called, is a place that the schoolmen fancied to be in the vicinity of hell, where the souls of the patriarchs, and of those good men who died before our Saviour's resurrec tion, were detained. “Honey-stalks to sheep."—Act IV. Sc. 4. Honey-stalks are clover-flowers, which contain a eet juice. It is common for cattle to overcharge mselves with clover, and die.-JOHNSON. "Bring down the devil."-Act V. Sc. 1. It appears from these words, that the audience ere amused with part of the apparatus of an exetion, and that Aaron was mounted on a ladder, as ady to be turned off.-STEEVENS. "Eating the flesh that she herself hath bred." Act V. Sc. 3. The additions made by Ravenscroft to this scene, e so much of a piece with it, that we cannot omit ewing the reader how he continues the speech be and hands of Chiron and Demetrius hanging up against the wall; their bodies in chains in bloody linen."-STEEVENS. "Some stay to see him fasten'd in the earth.” Act V. Sc. 3. That justice and cookery may go hand in hand to the conclusion of this play, in Ravenscroft's alteration of it, Aaron is at once racked and roasted on the stage. We have already given specimens of the changes made in this piece by Ravenscroft, who revised it successfully in the year 1687; and may add, that when the empress stabs her child, he has supplied the Moor with the following lines: "She has outdone me, ev'n in mine own art, PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE. That the reader may know through how many reions the scene of this drama is dispersed, it is neessary to observe, that Antioch was the metropolis f Syria; Tyre, a city of Phoenicia in Asia; Tarsus, he metropolis of Cicilia, a country of Asia-minor; Mitylene, the capital of Lesbos, an island in the Egean sea; and Ephesus, the capital of Ionia, a ountry of the Lesser Asia.-STEEVENS. When I saw the porpus, how he bounded and "tumbled."-Act II. Sc. I. Captain Cook, in his second voyage to the South Seas, mentions the playing of porpusses round the ship as a certain sign of a violent gale of wind. MASON. "A pair of bases."-Act II. Sc. 1. What bases mean is quite uncertain, but from a passage in Sydney's Arcadia we may suppose they were a kind of breeches. "His bases (which he ware so long as they almost came to his ankles) were embrodiered onley with blacke wormes, which seemed to crawle up and downe, as readie alreadie to devour him."-STEEVENS. "Tillthe ship be cleared of the dead.”—Act III. Sc. 1. There was an ancient superstition, that a ship at sea would sink if a corpse remained on board. So in Fuller's Historie of the Holy Warre:-" His body was carried into France, there to be buried, and was most miserably tossed; it being observed, that the sea cannot digest the crudity of a dead corpse, being a due debt to be interred where it dieth; and a ship cannot abide to be made a bier of." STEEVENS. "These roguing thieves serve the great pirate Valdes." STEEVENS. great galleon of Andalusia. His ship being disabled, he was taken by Sir Francis Drake, on the 22d of July, 1588, and sent to Dartmouth. The making one of this Spaniard's ancestors a pirate, was probably relished by the audience in those days.-MALONE. "To keep our door hatched."—Act IV. Sc. 2. The doors or hatches of brothels seem to have had some distinguishing mark. So in Cupid's Whirligig, 1607: "Set some picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profess to keep à bawdy-house." "And cry, he that will give most, shall have her The prices of first and second prostitution were exactly settled; so in an old prose romance :-"Go thou and make a crye through the citie, that of all men that shall enhabyte with her carnally, the fyrst shall give me a pounde of golde, and after that echone a peny of golde."-STEEVENS. "I have drawn her picture with my voice." It was formerly the custom at Naples to hang up the pictures of celebrated courtesans in the public parts of the town, to serve as directions where they lived.-MASON. "Crack the glass of her virginity, and make the rest malleable."-Act IV. Sc. 6. A skilful workman, who had discovered the art of making glass malleable, carried a specimen of it to Tiberius, who asked him if he alone was in possesAct IV. Sc. 2.sion of the secret. He replied in the affirmative; on which the tyrant ordered his head to be struck off instantly, lest the invention should injure the workers in precious metals.-DION CASSIUS. The Spanish Armada probably furnished the auDon Pedro de Valdes was an thor with this name. admiral in that fleet, and had the command of the KING LEAR. "And to eat no fish."-Act I. Sc. 4. In Elizabeth's time, the papists were thought, and with reason, enemies to the government. Hence the proverbial expression of, he's an honest man, and eats no fish, to signify he's a friend to the government, and a protestant; the eating of fish being considered such a badge of popery, that when it was enjoined by parliament to encourage the fishtowns, it was held proper to declare the reason, hence it was called Cecil's fast.-WARBURTON. "Stocks brought out."-Act II. Sc. 2. This was not the first time of introducing stocks on the stage. In Hick Scorner, which was printed early in the reign of Henry VIII., Pity is put into them, and left there till he is freed by Perseverance and Contemplacyon.-STEEVENS. "Of Bedlam beggars."-Act II. Sc. 3. In the Bell-man of London, by Decker, 1640, is an account of one of these characters, under the "He sweares he hath name of an Abraham Man. "Peace, Smolkin, peace.”—Act III. Sc. 4. The demons here mentioned by Edgar, were the popular fiends of the poet's age, and were w known among the superstitious of every das Even the learned and noble fell into the same g velling delusion; King James was a staunch be liever, not merely in their existence, but in the every day agency which was ascribed to them i the vulgar. Shakespeare has made Edgar, is is feigned madness, allude to an imposture of sme English Jesuits. The trick was in substance a been in Bedlam, and will talke frantickly of pur-follows:- While the Spaniards were preparing ther pose: you see pinnes stuck in sundry places of his armada against England, the Jesuits were basi a naked flesh; especially in his armes, which paine he promote it, by making converts: one method they gladly puts himself to, only to make you believe he employed was to dispossess pretended demoniacs by which artifice they made several hundred rais out of his wits. He calls himself by the name of Poore Tom, and coming near any body crys out, verts among the common people. The princip scene of this farce was laid in the family of t Poore Tom is a-cold; of these Abraham Men, some be exceeding merry, and doe nothing but sing Peckham, a catholic; where Marwood, (a servar of Anthony Babington, who was afterwards exsongs fashioned out of their own braines: some will dance, some will doe nothing but either laugh ecuted for treason,) Trayford, an attendant on Peckor weepe; others are dogged, and so sullen both ham, and three chumber-maids, in that family, a in looke and speech, that spying but a small cominto the priest's hands to be cured; but the dacpany in a house, they boldly and bluntly enter, compline of the patients was so long and severe, and the priests were so elate and careless with success. pelling the servants, through fear, to give them what they demand."-STEEVENS. that the plot was discovered on the confession ti the parties, and the contrivers of it deservedy punished. The devils mentioned by Edgar, A those who were made to act in this farce apa the chambermaids, and they were generaly » ridiculously nick-named, that Harsnet has die chapter "On the strange names of their devis, lest, (says he) meeting them otherwise by chase you mistake them for names of tapsters or jugglers." WARBURTON "Then he wears wooden nether-stocks." Act II. Sc. 4. Nether-stocks is the old word for stockings. Breeches being at that time called overstocks. STEEVENS. "Who gives anything to Poor Tom? whom the foul fiend hath led through fire and through flame." Act III. Sc. 4. Edgar's ravings may be explained by reference to a passage in Harsnet's book:-"This Exam further sayeth, that one Alexander, an apothecary, having brought with him from London to Denham, on a time, a new halter, and two blades of knives, did leave the same upon the gallerie floore, in her master's house: a great search was made in the house to know how the said halter and knife-blades came thither, till Ma. Mainy, in his next-fit said, it was reported that the devil lay'd them in the gallerie, that some of those that were possessed might either hang themselves with the halter, or kill themselves with the blades."-MALONE. "Wore gloves in my cap."—Act III. Sc. 4. It was anciently the custom to wear gloves in the hat, on three different occasions, viz: as the favour of a mistress; the memorial of a friend; and as a mark to be challenged by au enemy. A passage or two may be given to prove the usage. In the play called Campaspe: "Thy men turned to women, thy soldiers to lovers, gloves worn in velvet caps, instead of plumes in graven helmets." And in Decker's Satiromastix: " Thou shalt wear her glove in thy worshipful hat, like to a leather brooch."-STEEVENS. "Web and the pin."-Act III. Sc. 4. The Lapland method of cure for "a disease of the eyes called the pin and web, which is an imperfect stage of a cataract," is given by Arcebi, in his travels.-BLAKEWAY. " Hopdance cries in Tom's belly.”—Act III. Sc. & In Harsnet's book, one of the pretended deme niacs deposeth-" that if it anytime she did beli as often times she did by reason that shee B troubled with a wind in her stomacke, the priests would say at such times, that then the spirit bega to rise in her, and that the wind was the deva and, "as she saith, if they heard any croaking in her belly, then they would make a wonderful matter of that."-STEEVENS. "Poor Tom, thy horn is dry."—Act III. Se. & A horn was usually carried about by every Tem of Bedlam, to receive such drink as the charitable might afford him. See A Pleasant Dispute betwe a Coach and a Sedan, 1636. I have observed when a coach is appendant but two or three bundred pounds a yeere, marke it, the dogges are as by the fire: and a Tom-a-Bedlam may sooner est leane as rakes; you may tell all their ribbes lying his horne, than get it filled with small drinke; and for his old alms of bacon there is no hope in the world."-MALONE. "Upon these eyes of thine, I'll set my foot." Act III. Se. 7. In Selimus, Emperor of the Turks, one of the sou of Bajazet pulls out the eyes of an Aga on the stage, and says, "Yes, thou shalt live, but never see that day, Wanting the tapers that should give thee light." Immediately after, his hands are cat off. I1 Marston's Antonio's Revenge, 1602, Piero's tongu is torn out upon the stage. We give these instances of depraved taste, to prove that Shakespeare's drama was not more sanguinary than that of his contemporaries."-STEEVENS and MALONE. L wathom from the top of the impending rocks, as t were in the air."-SMITH'S HISTORY OF WAERFORD, 1774. "That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper." Act IV. Sc. 6. In several counties, to this day, they call a stuffed igure, representing a man, and armed with a bow and arrow, set up to fright the crows from the fruit and corn, a crow-keeper, as well as a scare-crow. THEOBALD. "It were a delicate stratagem, to shoe A troop of horse with felt.”—Act IV. Sc. 6. This "delicate stratagem" had actually been put in practice about fifty years before Shakspeare was born, as we learn from Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VIII.; And now," says that historian, having feasted the ladies royally for divers days, he (Henry) departed from Tournay to Lisle, Oct. 13, 1513; whither he was invited by the Lady Margaret, who caused there a juste to be held in an extraordinary manner; the place being a foreroom, raised high from the ground by many steps, and paved with black square stones, like marble; while the horses, to prevent sliding, were shod with felt or flocks; after which the ladies danced all night."-MALONE. ROMEO AND "We'll not carry coals."-Act I. Sc. 1. One that would carry coals, formerly meant a mean-spirited fellow, who would submit to any indignity without resentment. A passage or two from old plays will abundantly prove this. “Now my ancient being a man of an un-coal carrying spirit.” Chapman's May-Day, 1610. "Here comes one that will carry coals, ergo, will hold my dog." Every Man out of his Humour. "He has had wrong, and if I were he, I would beare no coales." Antonio and Mellida, 1602. JULIET. "Like powder in a skill-less soldier's flask." Act III. Sc. 3. To understand this allusion, it should be remembered, that the ancient English soldiers, using matchlocks, instead of locks with flints as at present, were obliged to carry a lighted match hanging at their belts, very near to the wooden flask in which they kept their powder.-STEEVENS. "Lie thou there."-Act IV. Sc. 3. "I will bite my thumb at them."--Act I. Sc. 1. This mode of quarrelling appears to have been common in our author's time. "What swearing is there, (says Decker, describing the various groups that daily frequented the walks of St. Paul's Church) what shouldering, what justling, what jeering, what byting of thumbs to beget quarrels!" And in King Edward III. 1599: The Dead Term, 1608.- MALONE. It appears from several passages in our old plays, that knives were formerly part of the bride's accoutrements, and every thing behoveful for Juliet's state had been just left with her. So in Decker's Match Me in London, 1631. "Your plantain leaf is excellent for that." Act I. Sc. 2. Tachius tells us, that a toad, before she engages with a spider, will fortify herself with some of this plant; and that if she comes off wounded, she cures herself afterwards with it.-DR. GREY. "Court-cupboard."-Act I. Sc. 5. A court-cupboard was a moveable, a boufet, a fixture. The former was open, and made of plain oak; the latter had folding doors, and was both painted and gilded on the inside.-STEEVENS. "Turn the tables up."-Act I. Sc. 5. It should be observed, that ancient tables we flat leaves, joined by hinges and placed on tressels. When they were to be removed, they were therefore turned up.-STELVENS. "See at my girdle hang my wedding knives." "Here by my side do hang my wedding knives." "And shrieks like mandrakes drawn out of the earth." Act IV. Sc. 3. The mandrake (says Thomas Newton, in his Herball to the Bible, 8vo. 1587) has been idly represented as a creature having life, and engendered under the earth of the seed of some deade person that hath been convicted and put to deathe for some felonie or murther; and that they had the the saide convicted persons were buried." same in such dampishe and funerall places where STEEVENS. "One of our order, to associate me."-Act V. Sc. 2. Each friar has always a companion assigned him by his superior, when he asks leave to go out; and thus they are a check upon each other. HAMLET. "The morning cock crew loud."-Act I. Sc. 2. Bourne, of Newcastle, in his Antiquities of the Common People, informs us," It is a received tradition among the vulgar, that at the time of cockcrowing, the midnight spirits forsake these lower regions, and go to their proper places. Hence it is, (says he, that in country places, where the way of life requires more early labour, they always go cheerfully to work at that time; whereas, if they are called abroad sooner, they imagine every thing hey see a wandering ghost."-FARMER. "They clepe us, drunkards."—Act I. Sc. 4. And well our Englishmen might; for in Elizabeth's time, there was a Dane in London, who is hus mentioned in a collection of characters, enitled Looke to It, for Ile Stab Ye: "You that will drink Reynaldo unto deth, Ind it appears from one of Howell's Letters, dated STEEVENS. Among the other punishments of hell and purgatory, continual hunger and thirst were enumerated. Chaucer says,-" And moreover the misese of bell shall be in defaut of meat and drinke." Nashe, in his Pierce Penniless, has the same idea: " Whether it be a place of horror, stench, and darkness, where men see meat, but can get none, and are ever thirsty." So, likewise, at the conclusion of an ancient pamphlet, called 'The Wyll of the Devyll; "Thou shalt lye in frost and fire |