8 And reft your gentle head upon her lap, 501 MORT. With all my heart I'll fit, and hear her fing: By that time will our book,' I think, be drawn. 8 And on your eyelids crown the god of fleep,] The expreffion is fine; intimating, that the god of fleep fhould not only fit on his eyelids, but that he should fit crown'd, that is, pleased and delighted. The fame image (whatever idea it was meant to convey) occurs WARBURTON. in Beaumont and Fletcher's Philafter: 66 who fhall take up his lute, "And touch it till he crown a filent sleep 66 The ir corruptio Mortime dominion Again, i Again, in numeo ana juurer: 66 Upon his brow fhame is afham'd to fit, "For 'tis a throne, where honour may be crown'd Again, in King Henry V: 66 As if allegiance in their bofoms fat, "Crowned with faith and constant loyalty." MALONE. 9 Making fuch difference 'twixt wake and fleep,] She will lull you by her fong into foft tranquillity, in which you fhall be fo near to fleep as to be free from perturbation, and fo much awake as to be fenfible of pleafure; a ftate partaking of fleep and wakefulness, as the twilight of night and day. JOHNSON. our book,] Our paper of conditions. JOHNSON. GLEND. Do fo; And those musicians that fhall play to you, LADY P. Go, ye giddy goofe. GLENDOWER Speaks fome Welsh words, Hor. Now I perceive, the devil understands And 'tis no marvel, he's fo humorous. LADY P. Then should you be nothing but mu- LADY P. Would'ft thou have thy head broken? 3 And those musicians that shall play to you, Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence; Yet ftraight they fhall be here:] The old copies-And—. STEEVENS. Glendower had before boafted that he could call fpirits from the vafty deep; he now pretends to equal power over the spirits of the air. Sit, fays he to Mortimer, and, by my power, you shall have heavenly mufick. The muficians that shall play to you, now hang in the air a thoufand miles from the earth: I will fummon them, and they fhall ftraight be here. "And ftraight" is the reading of the most authentick copies, the quarto 1598, and the folio 1623, and indeed of all the other ancient editions. Mr. Rowe first introduced the reading-Yet ftraight, which all the fubfequent editors have adopted; but the change does not feem abfolutely neceffary. MALONE. LADY P. Then be ftill. Hor. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault.* LADY P. Now God help thee! Hor. To the Welsh lady's bed. Hor. Peace! fhe fings, A Welsh SONG fung by Lady M. Hor. Come, Kate, I'll have your fong too. Hor. Not yours, in good footh! 'Heart, you fwear like a comfit-maker's wife! Not you, in good footh; and, As true as I live; and, As God fhall mend me; and, As fure as day: And giv'ft such farcenet furety for thy oaths, 4 Neither; 'tis a woman's fault.] I do not plainly fee what is a woman's fault. JOHNSON. It is a woman's fault, is spoken ironically. FARMER. This is a proverbial expreffion. I find it in The Birth of Merlin, 1662: Again: "'Tis a woman's fault: p of this bashfulness." "A woman's fault, we are subject to it, fir." Again, in Greene's Planetomachia, 1585:" a woman's faulte, to thruft away that with her little finger, whiche they pull to them with both their hands.” I believe the meaning is this: Hotfpur having declared his refolution neither to have his head broken, nor to fit ftill, flily adds, that fuch is the ufual fault of women; i. e. never to do what they are bid or defired to do. STEEVENS. The whole tenor of Hotfpur's conversation in this scene shows, that the ftillness which he here imputes to women as a fault, was fomething very different from filence; and that an idea was couched under these words, which may be better understood than explained. He is ftill in the Welsh lady's bedchamber. WHITE. 5 As if thou never walk'dft further than Finfbury.] Open walks Swear me, Kate, like a lady, as thou art, and fields near Chifwell-ftreet, London Wall, by Moorgate; the common refort of the citizens, as appears from many of our ancient comedies. I fuppofe the verfe originally (but elliptically) ran thus: As thou ne'er walk'dft further than Finsbury. i. e. as if thou ne'er &c. 6 STEEVENS. -Such proteft of pepper-gingerbread,] i. e. proteftations as common as the letters which children learn from an alphabet of ginger-bread. What we now call Spice ginger-bread was then called pepper ginger-bread. STEEVENS. Such proteftations as are uttered by the makers of gingerbread. MALONE. Hotfpur had juft told his wife that the "wore like a comfitmaker's wife;" fuch protefts therefore of pepper ginger-bread, as "in footh," &c. were to be left to perfons of that clafs. HENLEY. 7 -velvet-guards,] To fuch as have their clothes adorned with fhreds of velvet, which was, I fuppofe, the finery of cockneys. JOHNSON. "The cloaks, doublets, &c. (fays Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abufes) were guarded with velvet guards, or elfe laced with coftly lace." Speaking of women's gowns, he adds: "they must be guarded with great guards of velvet, every guard four or fix fingers broad at the leaft." So, in The Malcontent, 1606: "You are in good cafe fince you came to court; garded, garded: Yes faith, even footmen and bawds wear velvet." Velvet guards appear, however, to have been a city fabion. So, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610: Again: Nay, I myself will wear the courtly grace: "I like this jewel; I'll have his fellow. "How?-you-what fellow it?-gip, velvet-guards!" STEEVENS, LADY P. I will not fing. Hor. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast teacher.8 An the indentures be drawn, I'll To velvet guards means, I believe, to the higher rank of female citizens, the wives of either merchants or wealthy fhopkeepers. It appears from the following paffage in The London Prodigal, 1605, that a guarded gown was the best dress of a city lady in the time of our author: "Frances. But Tom, muft I go as I do now, when I am married? "Civet. No, Franke, [i. e. Frances,] I'll have thee go like a citizen, in a garded gown, and a French hood." Fynes Morifon is ftill more exprefs to the fame point, and furnishes us with the best comment on the words before us. Defcribing the drefs of the various orders of the people of England, he fays, "At public meetings the aldermen of London weere skarlet gownes, and their wives a clofe gown of skarlet, with gardes of black velvet." ITIN. fol. 1617, P. III. p. 179. See Vol. IV. n. 2. MALONE. p. 282, 8 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, &c.] I fuppofe Percy means, that finging is a mean quality, and therefore he excufes his lady. JOHNSON. The next way-is the nearest way. So, in Lingua, &c. 1607: "The quadrature of a circle; the philofopher's ftone; and the next way to the Indies." Tailors feem to have been as remarkable for finging, as weavers, of whose mufical turn Shakspeare has more than once made mention. Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, fpeak of this quality in the former: "Never truft a tailor that does not fing at his work; his mind is on nothing but filching." The honourable Daines Barrington obferves, that "a gold-finch ftill continues to be called a proud tailor, in fome parts of England; (particularly Warwickshire, Shakspeare's native country) which renders this paffage intelligible, that otherwife feems to have no meaning whatsoever." Perhaps this bird is called a proud tailor, becaufe his plumage is varied like a fuit of clothes made out of remnants of different colours, fuch as a tailor might be fuppofed to wear. The fenfe then will be this:-The next thing to finging oneself, is to teach birds to fing, the goldfinch and the robin. I hope the poet meant to inculcate, that finging is a quality deftructive to its poffeffor; and that after a perfon has ruined himfelf by it, he may be reduced to the neceffity of inftructing birds in an art which can render birds alone more valuable. STEEVENS. ᄃ |