Clown. Pr'ythee, bring him in ; and let him approach finging. Per. Forewarn him, that he use no fcurrilous words in his tunes. Clown. You have of thefe pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, fifter. Per. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. Lawn, as white as driven fnow ; Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buy Come, buy, &c.. Clown. tend to the fapport of the ancient reading-sleeve-band. In a poem called The Paynting of a Curtizan, he fays: "Their Smockes are all bewrought about the necke and bande." STEEVENS. The word fleeve-band is likewise used by P. Holland, in his Tranfla tion of Suetonius, 1606, p. 19: "in his apparel he was noted før Angularity, as who used to goe in his fenatour's purple ftudded robe, trimmed with a jagge or frindge at the fleeve-band." MALONE. 8 necklace-amber,] Mr. Warton justly obferves, (Milton's POEMS, octavo, p. 238,) that there should be only a comma after amber. Autolycus is puffing his female wares, and fays that he has got among his other rare articles for ladies, fome necklace-amber, an amber of which necklaces are made, commonly called bead-amber, fit to perfume a lady's chamber. So, in the Taming of the Shrew, A& IV. fc. iii. Petruchio mentions amber-bracelets, beads," &c. MALONE. - poking-fticks of fteel,] These poking-flicks were heated in the fire, and made ufe of to adjust the plaits of ruffs. So, in Middleton's comedy of Blurt Mafter Conftable, 1602: "Your ruff muft ftand in print, and for that purpofe get poking-flicks with fair long handles, left shey fcorch your hands." Stowe informs us, that about the fixteenth yeere Clown. If I were not in love with Mopfa, thou fhould'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves. Mop. I was promised them against the feaft; but they come not too late now. Dor. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars.. Mop. He hath paid you all he promifed you: may be, he has paid you more; which will shame you to give him again. Clown. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets, where they fhould bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole, to whiftle off these fecrets; but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guefts? 'Tis well they are whispering: Clamour your tongues, and not a word more. Mop. I have done. Come, you promised me a tawdry lace 3, and a pair of fweet gloves 4. Clown yeere of the queene [Elizabeth] began the making of fteele pokingBickes, and untill that time all lawndreffes ufed fetting ftickes made of wood or bone." STEEVENS. -kiln-bole,] The mouth of the oven. The word is fpelt in the old copy kill-hole, and I should have fuppofed it an intentional blunder, but that Mrs. Ford in the Merry Wives of Windfor defires Falstaff to "creep into the kiln-bole ;" and there the fame falfe fpelling is found. Mrs. Ford was certainly not intended for a blunderer. MALONE. 2 Clamour your tongues,] The phrafe is taken from ringing. When bells are at the height, in order to ceafe them, the repetition of the ftrokes becomes much quicker than before; this is called clamouring them. WARBURTON. Perhaps the meaning is, Give one grand peal, and then have done. "A good Clam" (as I learn from Mr. Nichols) in fome villages is ufed in this fenfe, fignifying a grand peal of all the bells at once. I fufpect that Dr. Warburton's affertion is a mere gratis di&tum. In a note on Othello, Dr. Johnfon fays, that " to clam a bell is to cover the clapper with felt, which drowns the blow, and hinders the found." If this be so, it affords an easy interpretation of the paffage before us. MALONE. 3-you promised me a tawdry lace,] Tawdry lace is thus described in Skinner, by his friend Dr. Henshawe: Tawdrie lace, aftrigmenta, timbriæ, feu fasciola, emtæ, Nundinis Sæ. Etheldredæ celebratis: Ut P 2 recte Clown. Have I not told thee, how I was cozen'd by the way, and loft all my money? Aut. And, indeed, fir, there are cozeners abroad therefore it behoves men to be wary. Clown. Fear not thou, man, thou shalt lofe nothing here. Aut. I hope fo, fir; for I have about me many parcels of charge. Clown. What haft here? ballads? Mop. Pray now, buy fome: I love a ballad in print, a'-life; for then we are fure they are true. Aut. recte monet Doc. Thomas Henshawe." Etymol. in voce. We find it in Spenfer's Paftorals, Aprill: "And gird in your waft, "For more fineneffe, with a tawdrie lace." T. WARTON. It may be worth while to obferve that these tawdry laces were not the ftrings with which the ladies faften their stays, but were worn about their heads, and their waifts. So, in The Four P's, 1569: "Brooches and rings, and all manner of beads, Again, in Drayton's Polyclbion, fong the second: Of which the Naides and the blew Nereides make "Them tawdries for their necks." In a marginal note it is obferved that sawdries are a kind of necklaces worn by country wenches. STEEVENS. 4 and a pair of faveet gloves.] Perfumed gloves are frequently mentioned by Shaktpeare, and were very fashionable in the age of Elizabeth and long afterwards. Thus Autolycus, in the fong just preceding this paffage, offers to fale "Gloves as fweet as damask rofes." Stowe's Continuator, Edmund Howes, informs us, that the English could not "make any coftly wash or perfume, until about the fourteenth or fifteenth of the queen [Elizabeth,] the right honourable Edward Vere earle of Oxford came from Italy, and brought with him gloves, fweet bagges, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant thinges and that yeare the queene had a payre of perfumed gloves trimmed onlie with foure tuftes, or rofes, of cullered filke. The queene took fuch pleasure in thofe gloves, that thee was pictured with those gloves upon her hands and for many yeers after it was called the erle of Oxfordes perfume." Stowe's Annals by Howes, edit. 1614, p. 868, col. 2. T. WARTON. 5. I love a ballad in print, a'-life:] Theobald reads, as it has been hitherto printed, or a life. The text, however, is right; only it fhould be printed thus:-a'life: So, it is in B. Jonfon: thou lov't a'-life "Their perfum'd judgment." Aut. Here's one, to a very doleful tune, How a ufurer's wife was brought to bed with twenty money-bags at a burden; and how the long'd to eat adders' heads, and toads carbonado'd. Mop. Is it true, think you? Aut. Very true; and but a month old. Dor. Blefs me from marrying a usurer! Aut. Here's the midwife's name to't, one mistress Taleporter; and five or fix honeft wives that were prefent: Why fhould I carry lies abroad? Mop. Pray you now, buy it. Clown. Come on, lay it by: And let's firft fee more ballads; we'll buy the other things anon. Aut. Here's another ballad, Of a fifh7, that appear'd upon the coaft, on Wednesday the fourfcore of April, forty thousand fathom above water, and fung this ballad This is the abreviation, I fuppofe, of-at life; as a'work is, of at work. TYR WHITT. The restoration is certainly proper. So, in the Ifle of Gulls, 1606: "Now in good deed I love them, a'-life too." A life is the reading of the only ancient copy of the Winters Tale, fol. 1623. STEEVENS. 6 Why should I carry lies abroad ] Perhaps Shakspeare remembered the following lines, which are found in Golding's Translation of Ovid, 1587, in the fame page in which he read the ftory of Baucis and Philemon, to which he has alluded in Much ado about Nothing. They conclude the tale: "These things did ancient men report of credite very good, "For why, there was no cause that they fhould lie. As I there ftood," &c. MALONE. 7—a ballad, Of a fifb,-] Perhaps in later times profe has obtained a triumph over poetry, though in one of its meanest departments; for all dying speeches, confefsions, narratives of murders, executions, &c. feem anciently to have been written in verfe. Whoever was hanged or burnt, a merry or a lamentable ballad (for both epithets are occafionally bestowed on these compofitions) was immediately entered on the books of the Company of Stationers. Thus, in a fubfequent scene of this play: "Such a deal of wonder is broken out within this hour, that ballad-makers cannot be able to exprefs it." STEEVENS. Of a fish that appeared upon the coaft,-it was thought she was a woman,] In 1604 was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company, "A ftrange reporte of a monftrous fifb that appeared in the form of a woman, from her waift upward, feene in the fea." To this it is highly probable that Shakspeare alludes. MALONE. P 3 againft against the hard hearts of maids: it was thought, fhe was a woman, and was turn'd into a cold fish, for fhe would not exchange flesh with one that lov'd her: The ballad is very pitiful, and as true. Dor. Is it true too, think you? Aut. Five juftices' hands at it; and witneffes, more than my pack will hold. Clown. Lay it by too: Another. Aut. This is a merry ballad; but a very pretty one. Aut. Why, this is a paffing merry one; and goes to the tune of, Two maids wooing a man: there's icarce a maid weftward, but the fings it; 'tis in request, I can tell you. Mop. We can both fing it; if thou'lt bear a part, thou fhalt hear; 'tis in three parts. Dor. We had the tune on't a month ago. Aut. I can bear my part; you must know, 'tis my occupation have at it with you. SONG. A. Get you hence, for I must go; Where, it fits not you to know. D. Whither? M. O, whither? D. Whither? M. It becomes thy oath full well, Thou to me thy fecrets tell: D. Me too, let me go thither. M. Or thou go'ft to the grange, or mill: D. If to either, thou doft ill. A. Neither. D. What, neither? A. Neither: D. Thou haft fworn my love to be; M. Thou haft fworn it more to me: Then, whither go'ft? fay, whither? Clown. We'll have this fong out anon by ourfelves: My 8 for fhe would not exchange flesh-] For has here the fignification of because. So, in Othello: "Haply, for I am black." MALONE. father |