.X. To folemnize this day, the glorious fun Stays in his course, and plays the alchemift; -47. Turning, with fplendor of his precious eye, The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold: The yearly course, that brings this day about, Shall never see it but a holyday.* CONST. A wicked day,' and not a holyday! [Rifing. This phrase was hardly more ancient than the custom which it defcribes. STEEVENS. To folemnize this day, &c.] From this paffage Rowe feems to have borrowed the first lines of his Fair Penitent. JOHNSON. The firft lines of Rowe's tragedy "Let this aufpicious day be ever facred," &c. are apparently taken from Dryden's Verfion of the fecond Satire of Perfius: "Let this aufpicious morning be expreft," &c. STEEVENS. 9 — and plays the alchemift;] Milton has borrowed this thought: when with one virtuous touch "Th' arch-chemic fun," &c. Paradife Loft, B. III. STEEVENS.' So, in our author's 33d Sonnet: "Gilding pale ftreams with heavenly alchymy." MALONE. Shall never fee it but a bolyday.] So, in The Famous Hiftorie of George Lord Fauconbridge, 1616: This joyful day of their arrival [that of Richard I. and his miftrefs, Clarabel,] was by the king and his counsell canonized for a holy-day." MALONE. A wicked day, &c.] There is a paffage in The Honeft Whore, by Decker, 1604, fo much refembling the prefent, that I cannot forbear quoting it: "Curft be that day for ever, that robb'd her "Of breath, and me of blifs! henceforth let it stand "Mark'd with a marginal finger, to be chofen By thieves, by villains, and black murderers, "As the best day for them to labour in. "If henceforth this adulterous bawdy world "On Monday let them be delivered," &c. HENDERSON. What hath this day deferv'd? what hath it done; 4 -high tides,] i. e. folemn feafons, times to be observed above others. STEEVENS. 5 Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week;] In allufion (as Mr. Upton has obferved) to Job iii. 3: "Let the day perish," &c. and v. 6: " Let it not be joined to the days of the year, let it not come into the number of the months." MALONE. In The Fair Penitent, the imprecation of Califta on the night that betrayed her to Lothario, is chiefly borrowed from this and fubiequent verfes in the fame chapter of job. STEEVENS. 6 prodigiously be cross'd:] i. e. be difappointed by the production of a prodigy, a monfter. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Nor mark prodigious, fuch as are "Despised in nativity," STEEVENS, ↑ But on this day, &c.] That is, except on this day. JOHNSON. In the ancient almanacks (feveral of which I have in my poffeffion) the days fupposed to be favourable or unfavourable to bargains, are diftinguished among a number of other particulars of the like importance. This circumftance is alluded to in Webster's Duchefs of Malfy, 1623: By the almanac, I think "To choose good days and fhun the critical." Again, in The Elder Brother of Beaumont and Fletcher: "Which thou art daily poring in, to pick out Days of iniquity to cozen fools in." STEEVENS. K. PHI. By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause To curfe the fair proceedings of this day: Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty? CONST. You have beguil'd me with counterfeit, Refembling majefty; which, being touch'd, and tried," Proves valueless: You are forfworn, forfworn; You came in arms to fpill mine enemies' blood, But now in arms you ftrengthen it with yours: The grappling vigour and rough frown of war, Is cold in amity and painted peace, And our oppreffion hath made up this league:Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd kings! A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens! AUST. Lady Conftance, peace. * You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit, Refembling majefty; i. e. a falfe coin. A counterfeit formerly fignified alfo a portrait.-A reprefentation of the king being usually impreffed on his coin, the word feems to be here used equivocally. MALONE. 9 Refembling majefty; which, being touch'd, and tried,] Being touch'd-fignifies, having the touchstone applied to it. The two laft words-and tried, which create a redundancy of measure, fhould, as Mr. Ritfon obferves, be omitted. STEEVENS. 2 You came in arms to Spill mine enemies' blood, But now in arms you ftrengthen it with yours.] I am afraid here is a clinch intended. You came in war to deftroy my enemies, but now you ftrengthen them in embraces. JOHNSON. 3 Wear out the day-] Old copy-days. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. Set armed difcord, &c.] Shakspeare makes this bitter curfe effectual. JOHNSON. CONST. War! war! no peace! peace is to me a war. O Lymoges! O Auftria! thou doft fhame That bloody fpoil: Thou flave, thou wretch, thou coward; Thou little valiant, great in villainy! Thou ever strong upon the stronger fide! And footh'ft up greatness. What a fool art thou, 4 O Lymoges! O Auftria!] The propriety of impropriety of thefe titles, which every editor has fuffered to pafs unnoted, deferves a little confideration. Shakspeare has, on this occafion, followed the old play, which at once furnished him with the character of alconbridge, and afcribed the death of Richard I. to the duke of Auftria. In the perfon of Austria, he has conjoined the two well-known enemies of Coeur-de-lion. Leopold, duke of Auftria, threw him into prifon, in a former expedition; [in 1193] but the caftle of Chaluz, before which he fell, [in 1199] belonged to Vidomar, viscount of Limoges; and the archer who pierced his fhoulder with an arrow (of which wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. The editors feem hitherto to have understood Lymoges as being an appendage to the title of Auftria, and therefore enquired no further about it. Holinfhed fays on this occafion: "The fame yere, Phillip, baftard fonne to king Richard, to whom his father had given the caftell and honor of Coinacke, killed the viscount of Limoges, in revenge of his father's death," &c. Auftria, in the old play [printed in 1591] is called Lymoges, the Auftrich duke. With this note, I was favoured by a gentleman to whom I have yet more confiderable obligations in regard to Shakspeare. His extenfive knowledge of hiftory and manners, has frequently fupplied me with apt and neceffary illuftrations, at the fame time that his judgement has corrected my errors; yet fuch has been his conftant folicitude to remain concealed, that I know not but I may give offence while I indulge my own vanity in affixing to this note the name of my friend HENRY BLAKE, Efq. STEEVENS. र्च Been fworn my foldier? bidding me depend Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for fhame,' doff it for fhame,] To doff is to de off, to put off. So, in Fuimus Troes, 1633: "Sorrow must doff her fable weeds." STEEVENS. * And hang a_calf's-fkin on thofe recreant limbs.] When fools were kept for diverfion in great families, they were distinguished by a calf's-fkin coat, which had the buttons down the back; and this they wore that they might be known for fools, and efcape the refen ment of those whom they provoked with their waggeries. In a little penny book, intitled The Birth, Life, and Death of John Franks, with the Pranks he played though a meer Fool, mention is made in feveral places of a calf's-fkin. In chap. x. of this book, Jack is faid to have made his appearance at his lord's table, having then a new calf-fkin, red and white fpotted. This fact will explain the farcafm of Conftance and Faulconbridge, who mean to call Auftria a fool. SIR J. HAWKINS. I may add, that the cuftom is ftill preferved in Ireland; and the fool in any of the legends which the mummers act at Christmas, always appears in a calf's or cow's fkin. In the prologue to Wily Beguiled, are the two following paffages: "I'll make him do penance upon the stage in a calf's-skin.” Again: "His calf's-fkin jefts from hence are clean exil'd." Again, in the play : "I'll come wrapp'd in a calf's-skin, and cry bo, bo." Again: I'll wrap me in a roufing calf-fkin fuit, and come like fome Hobgoblin.""I mean my Christmas calf's-fkin fuit." STERVENS. It does not appear that Conftance means to call Auftria a fool, as Sir John Hawkins would have it; but the certainly means to call him coward, and to tell him that a calf's-fkin would fuit his recreant limbs better than a lion's. They ftill fay of a daftardly perfon that he is a calf-hearted fellows; and a run-away school boy is ufually called a great calf. RITSON. The speaker in the play [Wily Beguiled] is Robin Goodfellow. Perhaps, as has been fuggefted, Conftance, by cloathing Auftria in a calf's-fkin, means only to infinuate that he is a coward. The word recreant feems to favour fuch a fuppofition. MALONE. |