MRS. PAGE. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour: What is it?-dispense with trifles;what is it? MRS. FORD. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or so, I could be knighted. MRS. PAGE. What?-thou liest !-Sir Alice Ford! ——These knights will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry *. 4 What?-thou liest !-Sir Alice Ford!-These knights will HACK and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.] I read thus-These knights we'll hack, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. The punishment of a recreant, or undeserving knight, was to hack off his spurs: the meaning therefore is it is not worth the while of a gentlewoman to be made a knight, for we'll degrade all these knights in a little time, by the usual form of hacking off their spurs, and thou, if thou art knighted, shalt be hacked with the rest. JOHNSON. Sir T. Hanmer says, to hack, means to turn hackney, or prostitute. I suppose he means- -These knights will degrade themselves, so that she will acquire no honour by being connected with . them. It is not, however, impossible that Shakspeare meant by"these knights will hack"-these knights will soon become hackneyed characters. So many knights were made about the time this play was amplified (for the passage is neither in the copy 1602, nor 1619,) that such a stroke of satire might not have been unjustly thrown in. In Hans Beer Pot's Invisible Comedy, 1618, is a long piece of ridicule on the same occurrence : "Twas strange to see what knighthood once would do: "To gain this honour and this dignity. "But now, alas! 'tis grown ridiculous, STEEVENS. "Since bought with money, sold for basest prize, "That some refuse it who are counted wise." These knights will hack (that is, become cheap or vulgar,) and therefore she advises her friend not to sully her gentry by becoming one. The whole of this discourse about knighthood is added since the first edition of this play [in 1602]; and therefore I suspect this is an oblique reflection on the prodigality of James I. in bestowing these honours, and erecting in 1611 a new order of knighthood, called Baronets; which few of the ancient gentry would condescend to accept. See Sir Henry Spelman's epigram on them, Gloss. p. 76, which ends thus : 5 MRS. FORD. We burn day-light':-here, read, read ;-perceive how I might be knighted.-I shall think the worse of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: And yet dum cauponare recusant Ex vera geniti nobilitate viri; Interea e caulis hic prorepit, ille tabernis Et modo fit dominus, qui modo servus erat." See another stroke at them in Othello, Act III. Sc. IV. BLACKSTONE. Sir W. Blackstone supposes that the order of Baronets (created in 1611) was likewise alluded to. But it appears to me highly probable that our author amplified the play before us at an earlier period. See An Attempt to Ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays. 66 Between the time of King James's arrival at Berwick in April, 1603, and the 2d of May, he made two hundred and thirty-seven knights; and in the July following between three and four hundred. It is probable that the play before us was enlarged in that or the subsequent year, when this stroke of satire must have been highly relished by the audience. For a specimen of the contemptuous manner in which these knights were mentioned, see B. Rich's My Ladies Looking Glasse, 4to. 1616, but written about 1608, p. 66: Knighthood was wont to be the reward of virtue, but now a common prey to the betrayers of virtue; and we shall sooner meet Sir Dinadine or Sir Dagenet [the one a cornet knight, the other King Arthur's foole-marginal note] at another man's table, than with Sir Tristram de Lionis, or Sir Lancelot de Lake in the field. Knights in former ages have been assistant unto princes, and were the staires of the commonwealth; but now they live by begging from the prince, and are a burthen to the commonwealth." MALONE. 5 We burn day-light :] i. e. we have more proof than we want. The same proverbial phrase occurs in The Spanish Tragedy: "Hier. Light me your torches." 66 Pedro. Then we burn day light." Again, in Romeo and Juliet, Mercutio uses the same expression, and then explains it: "We waste our lights in vain like lamps by day." STEEVENS. I think, the meaning rather is, we are wasting time in idle talk, when we ought to read the letter; resembling those who waste candles by burning them in the day-time. MALONE. 6 men's LIKING :] i. e. men's condition of body. Thus in the book of Job: "Their young ones are in good liking." Fal he would not swear; praised women's modesty: and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have sworn his disposition would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere and keep place together than the hundreth psalm to the tune of Green sleeves. What tempest, I trow, threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at Windsor? How shall I be revenged on him? I think, the best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked fire of lust have melted him staff also, in King Henry IV. says-"I'll repent while I am in some liking." Again, in A Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels, &c. translated out of French, &c. by H. W. [Henry Wotton] 4to. 1578, p. 20: "Your fresh colour and good liking testifieth, that melancholy consumeth not your bodie." STEEVENS. Green sleeves.] This song was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company in September, 1580: "Licensed unto Richard Jones, a newe northerne dittye of the Lady Green sleeves.” Again, "Licensed unto Edward White, a ballad, beinge the Lady Green Sleeves, answered to Jenkyn hir friend." Again, in the same month and year: "Green Sleeves moralized to the Scripture," &c. Again, to Edward White: "Green Sleeves and countenaunce. Again: "A New Northern Song of Green Sleeves, beginning, "The bonniest lass in all the land." Again, in February 1580: "A reprehension against Green Sleeves, by W. Elderton." From a passage in The Loyal Subject, by Beaumont and Fletcher, it should seem that the original was a wanton ditty: "And set our credits to the tune of Greene Sleeves." But whatever the ballad was, it seems to have been very popular. August, 1581, was entered at Stationers' Hall, "A new ballad, entitled: "Greene Sleeves is worn away, "Black sleeves I hold in despite, "But white sleeves is my delight." Mention of the same tune is made again in the fourth act of this play. STEEVENS. in his own grease .-Did you ever hear the like? MRS. PAGE. Letter for letter; but that the name of Page and Ford differs!-To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter: but let thine inherit first; for, I protest, mine never shall. I warrant, he hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for different names, (sure more,) and these are of the second edition: He will print them out of doubt; for he cares not what he puts into the press, when he would put us two. I had rather be a giantess, and lie under mount Pelion 1. Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles, ere one chaste man. MRS. FORD. Why, this is the very same; the very hand, the very words: What doth he think of us ? MRS. PAGE. Nay, I know not: It makes me almost ready to wrangle with mine own honesty. I'll entertain myself like one that I am not acquainted withal; for, sure, unless he know some strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury. 8 melted him in his own grease.] So Chaucer, in his Wif of Bathes Prologue, 6069: "That in his owen grese I made him frie." STEEVENS. 9 - press,] Press is used ambiguously, for a press to print, and a press to squeeze. JOHNSON. I I had rather be a giantess, and lie under mount Pelion.] Mr. Warton judiciously observes, that in consequence of English versions from Greek and Roman authors, an inundation of classical pedantry very soon infected our poetry, and that perpetual allusions to ancient fable were introduced, as in the present instance, without the least regard to propriety; for Mrs. Page was not intended, in any degree, to be a learned or an affected lady. 2 STEEVENS. some STRAIN in me,] Thus the old copies. The modern editors read-" some stain in me," but, I think, unnecessarily. A similar expression occurs in The Winter's Tale : MRS. FORD. Boarding call you it? I'll be sure to keep him above deck. MRS. PAGE. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never to sea again. Let's be revenged on him: let's appoint him a meeting; give him a show of comfort in his suit; and lead him on with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his horses to mine Host of the Garter. 3 MRS. FORD. Nay, I will consent to act any villainy against him, that may not sully the chariness of our honesty 3. O, that my husband saw this letter! it would give eternal food to his jealousy. MRS. PAGE. Why, look, my good man too: he's as am from giving him cause; unmeasurable distance. where he comes; and far from jealousy, as I and that, I hope, is an MRS. FORD. You are the happier woman. MRS. PAGE. Let's consult together against this greasy knight: Come hither. [They retire. Enter FORD, PISTOL, PAGE, and Nyм. FORD. Well, I hope, it be not so. PIST. Hope is a curtail dog' in some affairs: Sir John affects thy wife. "With what encounter so uncurrent have I And again, in Timon : 3 66 May catch a wrench." STEEVens. the CHARINESS of our honesty.] i. e. the caution which ought to attend on it. STEEVENS. 4 O, THAT my husband saw this letter!] Surely Mrs. Ford does not wish to excite the jealousy of which she complains. I think we should read-O, if my husband, &c. and thus the copy, 1619: "O Lord, if my husband should see the letter! i'faith, this would even give edge to his jealousie." STEEVENS. 5 curtail dog-] That is, a dog that misses his game. The tail is counted necessary to the agility of a greyhound. JOHNSON. |