BY SAM. JOHNSON & GEO. STEEVENS, AND THE VARIOUS COMMENTATORS, UPON TAMING of the SHREW, WRITTEN BY WILL. SHAKSPERE. -SIC ITUR AD ASTRA. VIRG. LONDON: Printed for, and under the Direction of, JOHN BELL, British-Library, STRAND, Bookseller to His Royal Highness the PRINCE OF WALES, M DCC LXXXVII, ANNOTATIONS UPON TAMING of the SHREW. INDUCTION. Line 1. I'LL pheese you,-] To pheeze or fease, is to separate a twist into single threads. In the figurative sense it may well enough be taken, like teaze or toze, for to harass, to plague. Perhaps I'll pheese you, may be equivalent to I'll comb your head, a phrase vulgarly used by persons of Sly's character on like occasions. The following explanation of the word is given by Sir Thomas Smith in his book de Sermone Anglico, printed by Robert Stephens, 4to. To feize, means in fila diducere. JOHNSON. Shakspere repeats his use of the word in Troilus and Cressida, where Ajax says he will pheese the pride of Achilles : Aij Achilles and Lovewit in the Alchemist employs it in the same sense. Again, in Puttenham's Art of Poetry, 1589: "Your pride serves you to feaze them all alone." Again, in Stanyhurst's version of the first book of Virgil's Eneid: "We are touz'd, and from Italye feaz'd.” Again, ibid: "Feaze away the droane bees," &c. STEEVENS. 3. -no rogues:] That is, vagrants, no mean fellows, but gentlemen. JOHNSON, One William Sly was a performer in the plays of Shakspere, as appears from the list of comedians prefixed to the folio, 1623. This Sly is likewise mentioned in Heywood's Actor's Vindication, and the Induction to Marston's Malecontent. He was also among those to whom James I. granted a licence to act at the Globe theatre in 1603. STEEVENS. 5. -paucas pallabris;] Sly, as an ignorant fellow, is purposely made to aim at languages out of his knowledge, and knock the words out of joint. The Spaniards say, pocas palabras, i. e. few words: as they do likewise, Cessa, i. e. be quiet. THEOBALD. This is a burlesque on Hieronymo, which Theobald speaks of in the following note. "What new device have they devised now? Pocas pallabras." In the comedy of the Roaring Girl, 1611, a cut-purse makes use of the same words. Again, they appear in The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638, and in some others, but are always appropriated to the lowest characters. STEEVENS. 6. -let the world slide:] This expression is proverbial. It is used in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit without Money: 7. -will you go drink, "And let the world slide, uncle ?" STEEVENS. -you have burst?] To burst and to break were anciently synonymous. Falstaff says-that "John of Gaunt burst Shallow's head for crowding in among the marshal's men. STEEVENS. Burst is still used for broke in the North of England. See Mr. Reed's edition of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. xii. p. 375. 8. Go by, S. Jeronimy, go to thy cold bed, and warm thee.] All the editions have coined a saint here, for Sly to swear by. But the poet had no such intentions. The passage has particular humour in it, and must have been very pleasing at that time of day. But I must clear up a piece of stage history to make it understood. There is a fustian old play, called Hieronymo; or, The Spanish Tragedy; which, I find, was the common but of raillery to all the poets in Shakspere's time; and a passage, that appeared very ridiculous in that play, is here humorously alluded to. Hieronymo, thinking himself injured, applies to the king for justice; but the courtiers, who did not desire his wrongs should be set in a true light, attempt to hinder him from an audience. |