He and his tooth-pick at my worship's mefs; often takes. The Bastard has just said, that " new-made honour doth forget men's names;" and he proceeds as if he had faid, does not remember men's names.' To remember the name of an inferior, he adds, has too much of the refpect which is paid to fuperiors, and of the focial and friendly familiarity of equals, for your converfion, for your prefent condition, now converted from the fituation of a common man to the rank of a knight. 6 MALONE. Now your traveller,] It is faid in All's well that ends well, that " a traveller is a good thing after dinner." In that age of newly excited curiofity, one of the entertainments at great tables feems to have been the difcourfe of a traveller. JOHNSON. So, in The partyng of Frendes, a Copy of Verfes fubjoined to Tho. Churchyard's Praife and Reporte of Maifter Martyne Forboifher's Voyage to Meta Incognita, &c. 1578: and all the parish throw "At church or market, in fome fort, will talke of trav❜lar now." STEEVENS. He and his tooth-pick-] It has been already remarked, that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man affecting foreign fashions. JOHNSON. Among Gafcoigne's poems I find one entitled, Councell given to Maifter Bartholomer Vithipoll a little before his latter Journey to Geane, 1572. The following lines may perhaps be acceptable to the reader who is curious enough to enquire about the fashionable follies imported in that age: Now, fir, if I fhall fee your mastership "Come home difguis'd, and clad in quaint array;- "Your brave muftachios turn'd the Turkie way; "A coptankt hat made on a Flemish blocke; "A night-gowne cloake down trayling to your toes; "A curtolde flipper, and a fhort filk hofe," &c. Again, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonfon, 1601: • 66 A traveller, one fo made out of the mixture and fhreds of forms, that himself is truly deformed. He walks moft commonly with a clove or pick-tooth in his mouth." So alfo, Fletcher: -You that truft in travel; "You that enhance the daily price of tooth-picks." Again, in Shirley's Grateful Servant, 1630: "I will continue my ftate-pofture, ufe my tooth-pick with difcretion," &c. STEEVENS. And when my knightly stomach is fuffic'd, So, in Sir Thomas Overbury's Characters, 1616 [Article, an Affected Traveller]: "He cenfures all things by countenances and fhrugs, and fpeaks his own language with fhame and lifping; he will choke rather than confefs beere good drink; and his tooth-pick is a main part of his behaviour." MALONE. 8_ at my worship's mefs;] means, at that part of the table where I, as a knight, fhall be placed. See The Winter's Tale, Vol. VII. p. 29, n. 8. Your worship was the regular addrefs to a knight or efquire, in our author's time, as your honour was to a lord." MALONE. 9 My picked man of countries:] The word picked may not refer to the beard, but to the hoes, which were once worn of an immoderate length. To this fashion our author has alluded in King Lear, where the reader will find a more ample explanation. Picked may, however, mean only fpruce in dress. Chaucer fays in one of his prologues: "Fresh and new her geare ypiked was." And in The Merchant's Tale: "He kempeth him, and proineth him, and piketh." In Hyrd's tranflation of Vives's Inftruction of a Chriflian woman, printed in 1591, we meet with "picked and apparelled goodly-goodly and pickedly arrayed.Licurgus, when he would have women of his country to be regarded by their virtue and not their ornaments, banished out of the country by the law, all painting, and commanded out of the town all crafty men of picking and apparelling." Again, in a comedy called All Fools, by Chapman, 1602: ""Tis fuch a picked fellow, not a haire "About his whole bulk, but it ftands in print." Again, in Love's Labour's Loft: "He is too picked, too fpruce," &c. Again, in Greene's Defence of Coney-catching, 1592, in the defcription of a pretended traveller; "There be in England, efpecially about London, certain quaint pickt, and neat companions, attired, &c, alamode de France," &c. 66 If a comma be placed after the word man, "I catechize My picked man, of countries." the paffage will feem to mean, "I catechife my felected man, about the countries through which he travelled." STEEVENS. The laft interpretation of picked, offered by Mr. Steevens, is undoubtedly the true one. So, in Wilfon's Arte of Rhetorique, 1553: "-fuch riot, dicyng, cardyng, pyking," &c. Piked or picked, (for (Thus, leaning on mine elbow, I begin,) 2 And talking of the Alps, and Apennines, It draws toward fupper in conclufion fo. And fits the mounting fpirit, like myself: the word is varioufly fpelt,) in the writings of our author and his contemporaries, generally means, Spruce, affected, effeminate. See alfo Minfheu's Dict. 1617: "To picke or trimme. Vid. Trimme." MALONE. My picked man of countries, is-my travelled fop. HOLT WHITE. 9-like an ABC-book:] An ABC-book, or, as they spoke and wrote it, an abfey-book, is a catechifm. JOHNSON. So, in the ancient Interlude of Youth, bl. 1. no date: "In the A. B. C. of bokes the leaft, "Yt is written, deus charitas eft." Again, in Tho. Nafh's dedication to Greene's Arcadia, 1616: "make a patrimony of In Speech, and more than a younger brother's inheritance of their Abcie." STEEVENS. And fo, ere answer knows what question would, (Saving in dialogue of compliment;] Sir W. Cornwallis's 28th Effay thus ridicules the extravagance of compliment in our poet's days, 1601: "We spend even at his (i. e. a friend's or a stranger's) entrance, a whole volume of words. What a deal of fynamon and ginger is facrificed to diffimulation! O, how blessed do I take mine eyes for prefenting me with this fight! O Signior, the ftar that governs my life in contentment, give me leave to interre myself in your arms!-Not fo, fir, it is too unworthy an inclosure to contain fuch precioufness, &c. &c. This, and a cup of drink, makes the time as fit for a departure as can be." TOLLET. 3 For he is but a baftard to the time, &c.] He is accounted but a mean man in the prefent age, who does not fhew by his dress, his That doth not fmack of obfervation; For it fhall ftrew the footsteps of my rifing.- 6 Enter Lady FAULCONBRIDGE and James Gurney.' O me! it is my mother:-How now, good lady? What brings you here to court so hastily? LADY F. Where is that flave, thy brother? where is he? That holds in chafe mine honour up and down? BAST. My brother Robert? old fir Robert's fon? deportment, and his talk, that he has travelled, and made obfer vations in foreign countries. The old copy in the next line reads— fmoak. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. 4 Which, though] The conftruction will be mended, if inftead of which though, we read this though. JOHNSON. 5 But who comes-] Milton, in his tragedy, introduces Dalilah with fuch an interrogatory exclamation. JOHNSON. 6 — to blow a horn-] He means, that a woman who travelled about like a poft, was likely to horn her husband. JOHNSON. 7-James Gurney.] Our author found this name in perufing the hiftory of King John; who not long before his victory at Mirabeau over the French, headed by young Arthur, feized the lands and caftle of Hugh Gorney, near Butevant in Normandy. MALONE. 8 Colbrand the giant, that same mighty man? LADY F. Sir Robert's fon! Ay, thou unreverend Sir Robert's fon: Why scorn'ft thou at fir Robert? He is fir Robert's fon; and fo art thou. BAST. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave a while? GUR. Good leave, good Philip. BAST. Philip?-fparrow ! —James, 8 Colbrand-] Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of Warwick difcomfited in the prefence of King Athelftan. The combat is very pompously defcribed by Drayton in his Polyolbion. JOHNSON. 9 Good leave, &c.] Good leave means a ready affent. So, in K. Henry VI. Part III. A&t III. fc. ii: "K. Edw. Lords, give us leave: I'll try this widow's wi S. 2 Philip?-Sparrow!] Dr. Grey obferves, that Skelto.. poem to the memory of Philip Sparrow; and Mr. Pope in a short note remarks that a fparrow is called Philip. JOHNSON. Gafcoigne has likewife a poem entitled, The Praife of Phil Sparrow; and in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601, is the following paffage: "The birds fit chirping, chirping, &c. Philip is treading, treading," &c. Again, in The Northern Lafs, 1633: "A bird whofe paftime made me glad, Again, in Magnificence, an ancient Interlude, by Skelton, published by Raftell: "With me in kepynge such a Phylyp Sparowe." STEEVENS. The Bastard means: Philip! Do you take me for a sparrow? The fparrow is called Philip from its note. HAWKINS. cry Phip phip the Sparrowes as they fly." Lyly's Mother Bombie. |