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Well, now can I make any Ioane a Lady,
Good den Sir Richard, Godamercy fellow,

194. Lady,] Lady; Ff, Rowe. lady. Pope,+, Knt, Ktly, Cam.+, Fleay. lady: Cap. et cet.

195-215. Mnemonic Warb.

195. Good den] Good denne F2F3. Good denne, F. Good-denn Rowe. Good-den Pope,+, Cap. Good den, Var. '73 et cet.

Richard,] Robert Johns. Rich

195

ard! Cam.+, Ktly. Richard. Coll. Huds. Sta. Wh. i, Del. Fleay.

195. Godamercy fellow,] Godamercy fellow, Pope,+, Knt, Coll. ii, iii, Hal. Sta. -God-a-mercy, fellow!'Wh. Ktly, Cam.+, Huds. ii. God-amercy, fellow; Fle. God-a-mercy, fellow, Cap. et cet.

ABBOTT (§87) says: 'A was frequently inserted before a numeral adjective for the purpose of indicating that the objects enumerated are regarded collectively as one. ... The a in "a many men" is perhaps thus to be explained.' Abbott quotes from this play, 'A many thousand warlike French,' IV, ii, 209, and, as a still more curious example, the present passage, adding: 'Some explain "a many" by reference to the old noun "many," "a many men," for "a many (of) men." And the word is thus used: "A many of our bodies," Henry V: IV, iii, 95.'—[Abbott does not, I think, intend this as an explanation of the line under discussion; the use of the singular after the second 'many' precludes this. The lack of examples seems to point to this repetition being here used merely for emphasis; and that it is not a peculiar construction.-ED.]

194. Well, now can I make] DAVIES (Dram. Miscell., i, 16) tells an odd anecdote in regard to Spranger Barry's first appearance as the Bastard: 'It was a matter of astonishment to every spectator that Barry, with the superior advantage of a fine person, should make so little of the Bastard. He seemed in that part to be quite out of his road: all the humour, gaiety, ease and gallantry of Falconbridge were lost in Barry.... On his endeavoring to repeat the following words in the First Act of the play, 'Well, now can I make any Joan a lady,' he was so embarrassed in the delivery of this single line that, not being able to repeat the words, he was forced to quit the stage, amidst the general applauses of the audience, who saw and felt his uneasiness. But, what is still more surprising, after going off and returning three several times, with the same kind encouragement of the spectators, he was forced to give it up; and I believe he did not recover himself till he was relieved by the entrance of Lady Falconbridge.'

194. any Ioane] That is, any peasant girl; Joan was as common a name for a woman as Jack was for a man.-WRIGHT Compares: 'Some men must love my lady and some Joan.'-Love's Labour's, III, i, 207.-ED.

195. Good den] That is, Good e'en, good even; for examples, see Shakespeare passim.

195. Sir Richard] STEEVENS: In Act IV, [scene iii, 1. 45] Salisbury calls him Sir Richard and the King has just knighted him by that name. The modern editors arbitrarily read, sir Robert. Faulconbridge is now entertaining himself with ideas of greatness, suggested by his recent knighthood.-'Good den, sir Richard,' he supposes to be the salutation of a vassal; 'God-a-mercy, fellow,' his own supercilious reply to it. [The only editor, ancient or modern, whose text reads 'sir Robert' is Dr Johnson, later Steevens's colleague in editing the Variorum of 1773. It is doubtless a typographical error; but Steevens was quite well aware that

196

198

And if his name be George, Ile call him Peter; For new made honor doth forget mens names: 'Tis two refpectiue, and too fociable

196. Ile] ile F2. I'le F.

197. new made] new-made Pope et seq. 198. two] Fr.

198. too fociable] unsociable Pope, Theob. Han. Warb. Johns. insociable Mason. too sociable. Coll. MS.

Johnson printed from Theobald's second edition, and without examining that text was thus, perhaps, misled. Steevens did not correct this mistake in any subsequent edition.-ED.]

198. respectiue] CRAIGIE (N. E. D., s. v. 2.): Of conduct, etc. Marked by regardful care or attention; heedful. Now rare; 1598 R. Haydocke tr. Lomazzo II, 65: 'To be very pleasant, but with such respective moderation, that their laughter exceed not.'

199. your conuersion] STEEVENS: [The Folio reading] may be right. It seems to mean, his late change of condition from a private gentleman to a knight.-[As may be seen in the Text. Notes Steevens was not fully convinced of the correctness of the Folio until his own edition in 1793.-ED.]-MALONE: Mr Pope, without necessity, reads for your conversing. Our author has here, I think, used a license of phraseology that he often takes. The Bastard has just said that 'new-made honour doth forget men's names'; and he proceeds as if he had said, 'does not remember men's names.' To remember the name of an inferior, he adds, has too much of the respect which is paid to superiors, and of the friendly familiarity of equals, for your conversion,-for your present condition, now converted from the situation of a common man to the rank of a knight. [KNIGHT and R. G. WHITE also thus interpret that 'forget' is here equivalent to not to remember, without reference, however, to Malone's note.-ED.]-WALKER (Crit., ii, 43) quotes this passage as an example of the 'abstract for the concrete (understanding "conversion" in the sense of change); though this latter seems harsh.' [See also I, ii, 257, 258.]— COLLIER, whose MS. corrector places a period after 'sociable,' l. 198, and here reads diversion instead of 'conversion,' thus interprets: 'It was common to entertain "picked men of countries," for the diversion of the company at the tables of the higher orders, and this may be what the Bastard is referring to in the last two lines, while the sense of the first two is completed at "sociable." We are, nevertheless, disposed to adhere to the old reading.'—SINGER (Sh. Vindicated, p. 83), commenting on this correction, says: "The punctuation in the First Folio is entirely against this innovation, which may have been probably suggested by Pope, who took the same erroneous view of the passage and read "for your conversing." Malone's view of the old authentic reading is quite satisfactory.'-[The sting contained in this consists, of course, in the hint that a modern editor suggested the change to the unknown corrector. Collier frequently remarks that Theobald and Pope have been anticipated by some of the suggested readings of his MS. corrector; Singer is, however, here comparatively mild, in fact, many of his comments unfortunately manifest quite as much of a spirit of Vindictiveness to Collier as a Vindication of Shakespeare.-ED.]-KNIGHT (Stratford Sh., i, 255): And so this feeble platitude of the diverting traveller is to supersede the Shakespearean satire, that when there is a 'conversion'-a change of condition in a man-to remember names is too respective, and too sociable, for new-made honour.-HALLIWELL: The probability is that 'conversion' is an archaic term used in the sense of conversation.

For your conuerfion, now your traueller,
Hee and his tooth-picke at my worships meffe,

199. For your conuerfion,] For conversation. Lloyd.

conuerfion, conversing. Pope,+,

Var. '78, '85.

200

convertion. Hal. (mis

print?). conversion. Cap. et cet. diversion Coll. MS.

So, in Englishmen for my Money, ‘Impudent villaine, and lascivious girles, I have ore-heard your vild conversions,' [I, i; Hazlitt-Dods., x, p. 477].—MURRAY (N. E. D., s. v. Conversion, I. 5. Rhet.) quotes Huloet, 1552: 'Conuersion, or speakynge one to another,' and Wilson, Rhetoric, 107b: 'Conversion is an ofte repeatyng of the laste worde, and is contrarie to that whiche went before.' This, among the several senses of 'conversion' given by Murray, is the nearest to that of conversation.FLEAY: Should there not be a period at 'sociable,' and in that case may not 'conversion' mean conversation, as converse does now? Mr P. A. Daniel thinks we should read convertant, one returned from travel. [Though Fleay does not refer to Collier's MS. correction, it is, perhaps, unjust to decide that he was quite unaware that he was anticipated in this conjectural punctuation. Daniel's suggestion is not among his Conjectural Emendations published in 1870; but as Fleay acknowledges in his Preface, and in the Appendix to his edition, indebtedness to Daniel for suggestions and help in the preparation of the text of the Troublesome Raigne, it is reasonable to suppose that this conjectural reading is contained in a separate communication.-ED.]-WRIGHT: That is, for one who has undergone such a change of rank as you have. It may be that 'your' is used in the colloquial indefinite sense of that which is familiar to everyone; just as in the next sentence 'your traveller,' and as Bottom says (Mid. N. Dream, IV, i, 36): 'I could munch your good dry oats.' It does not appear certain that in the passage [quoted by Halliwell] 'conversion' is intended to be equivalent to conversation. [The context shows, I think, that 'vile conversions' may be understood in the sense of wicked changes of conditions or thoughts, more fitly than as conversations.-ED.]

199. now your traueller] JOHNSON: It is said, in All's Well, that 'a traveller is a good thing after dinner.' In that age of newly excited curiosity one of the entertainments at great tables seems to have been the discourse of a traveller.WRIGHT points out that the quotation to which Johnson refers is as follows: 'A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner.'-—II, v, 30. Johnson evidently trusted to his memory.-STEEVENS likewise quotes from The Partyng of Frendes, a Copy of Verses subjoined to Churchyard's Praise and Reporte of Maister Martyne Forboisher's Voyage to Meta Incognita, &c., 1578: '—and all the parish throw at church or market in some sort, will talke of trav'lar now.' [Steevens's faculty of supplying an apt quotation is remarkable, but this is not a happy instance of it; the last words here evidently mean that everyone is talking about the traveller, not that the traveller is discoursing of his adventures.-STAUNTON quotes, more oppositely, from Edward II: 'Gav. What art thou? Man. A traveller. Gav. Let me see-thou wouldst do well To wait at my trencher, and tell me lies at dinner time.'-I, i.—ED.]

200. Hee and his tooth-picke] JOHNSON: It has been already remarked that to pick the tooth, and wear a piqued beard, were, in that time, marks of a man's affecting foreign fashions. [The remarks to which Johnson refers may be found in his own edition, vol. ii, pp. 181 and 325; or in Variorum 1821, vol. iv, p. 394; and vol. xiv, p. 395.-ED.]-STEEVENS: Among Gascoigne's poems I find one entitled:

201

And when my knightly ftomacke is fuffis'd,
Why then I fucke my teeth, and catechize
My picked man of Countries: my deare fir,

201. And] And Neils.

203. picked] piked Pope, Han. Warb. Johns. Cap. Varr. Ran. picqued Theob. picked Dyce, Sta. Fle. Huds. ii, Words. Dono.

203

203. Countries: my...] Ff, Rowe. countries.-'My:... Wh. i, Ktly, Neils. countries: 'My... Sta. Cam.+, Fleay, Huds. ii. countries, my... Pope et

cet.

Councell given to Maister Bartholomew Withipoll, a little before his latter Journey to Geane, 1572. The following lines may, perhaps, be acceptable to the reader who is curious enough to enquire about the fashionable follies imported in that age: 'Now, Sir, if I shall see your mastership

Come home disguis'd, and clad in quaint array:

As with a pike-tooth byting on your lippe

Your brave mustachios turned the Turkie way,' [ed. Cunliffe, i, 346]. Again in Jonson: Cynthia's Revels: 'A traveller, one so made out of the mixture and shreds of forms, that himself is truly deformed. He walks most commonly with a clove or pick-tooth in his mouth.' [II, i; ed. Gifford, p. 264. Steevens gives two other passages wherein the tooth-pick is mentioned as the distinctive mark of the traveller, and MALONE quotes from Overbury's Characters (Article, an Affected Traveller): 'his tooth-pick is a main part of his behaviour.'-ED.]—RALEIGH (p. 58): In this age of cheap printed information we are too apt to forget how large a part of his knowledge Shakespeare must have gathered in talk. Books were licensed and guarded; but in talk there was free trade. He must often have listened to tales, like those told by Othello, of the wonders of the New World. He must often have seen the affected traveller, described in King John, dallying with his tooth-pick at a great man's table, full of elaborate compliment. The knowledge that he gained from such talk, if it was sometimes remote and curious, was neither systematic nor accurate; and this is the knowledge reflected in the plays.

200. at my worships messe] MALONE: This means, at that part of the table where I, as a knight, shall be placed. 'Your worship' was the regular address to a knight or esquire in our author's time, as 'your honour' was to a lord. ['Your worship' appears to have been the commonest form of address from an inferior to a superior. Notice, for example, its indiscriminate use throughout Merry Wives. Slender and Shallow are thus uniformly addressed, and also Fenton by Mistress Quickly. ED.]-WRIGHT: A mess was properly a party of four, as at the Inns of Court still, and Nares (Gloss.) says that at great dinners the guests were always arranged in fours.—Rev. JOHN HUNTER, doubtless on the ground that this sentence lacks a verb, interprets this as meaning: 'He and his tooth-pick mess at my worships house, or table.' [This is, I think, untenable, as MURRAY (N. E. D.) does not record any use of the word in this sense prior to 1700.-ED.]-MOORE-SMITH: I incline to think that after 'messe' a line has dropped out of the text.

202. I sucke my teeth] R. G. WHITE: The travelled man picked his teeth: the home-bred man sucked his. [Rev. JOHN HUNTER makes the same suggestion that 'picked' in the next line is used as a word-play on 'tooth-pick'; but is not this too slight and trivial? See next note.-ED.]

203. picked] MURRAY (N. E. D., s. v. 2.): Adorned, ornate, trimmed; exquisitely

Thus leaning on mine elbow I begin,

I shall befeeeh you; that is question now,
And then comes answer like an Absey booke:
O fir, fayes answer, at your best command,
At your employment, at your feruice fir:
No fir, faies question, I sweet sir at yours,

205. I fhall...now] Misplaced in Sing. ii. to follow 1. 234.

you; that] Ff, Rowe, Fleay. you, -that Pope et cet.

206. Absey booke] F2. Absey-book F3F,, Rowe, Knt, Sing. ii, Coll. ii, iii, Hal. Wh. i, Ktly, Del. a-b-c. book Cap. Abcee-book Dyce, Words. Absey book Cam.+, Fle. A B C-book Pope et cet.

-

205

209

208, 209. fir:...yours,] Sir:-...yours, - Pope,+. sir:-...yours: Var. '78, '85, Ran. Mal. Steev. Varr. Sing. Coll. i, ii, Sta. Huds. sir:...yours. Coll. iii.

209. No fir,] Ff, Pope. No, Sir, Rowe et cet.

I fweet fir] I sweet, Sir, F, Rowe i. I, sweet Sir, Rowe ii. et seq.

fashioned or apparelled, spruce, refined, exquisite, nice, finical, particular, fastidious. [Compare 'He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were.'-Love's Labour's, V, i, 14. The consensus of opinion is in favor of this interpretation of 'picked.' Pope's reading of piked (see Text. Notes) naturally led to his explanation that this refers to the traveller being 'formally bearded' and was also the occasion for Johnson's reference to the traveller's beard in his note on 1. 200. Theobald says: "The Author certainly designed picqued (from the French Verb, se piquer); i. e., touchy, tart, apprehensive, upon his guard.' Theobald in his second edition retains the reading picqued, but does not repeat the above explanation of it.—ED.] 203. picked man of Countries] HEATH (p. 223) suggests that a comma be placed after the word 'man; that is, And catechize the man I have vouchsafed to cull out for my entertainment, concerning the countries he hath seen.'-[Heath's volume appeared in 1765, and in the Variorum of 1773 STEEVENS makes this same suggestion, with but a very slight change in the wording of Heath's explanation. Steevens was, unfortunately, not too punctilious in assigning credit where it was due.-MALONE acclaims Steevens's change and explanation as 'undoubtedly the true one,' which shows, perhaps, that as he did not know of Heath's note Steevens may also have been unaware that he was anticipated.-ED.]-MOBERLY: This is one of the many instances of Shakespeare's truly English contempt for foreign ways. 205. beseech] In my copy of the Folio this word is thus printed; so it appears in Staunton's fac-simile of the Ellesmere Folio, and also in Sidney Lee's fac-simile of the Devonshire Folio, but in the Booth reprint the word is plainly befeech. This trifling deviation from the original seems hardly worth noticing, were it not that even such slight deviations are of the rarest in Booth's scrupulously exact reprint, wherein every battered letter and fault in alignment is accurately reproduced. Mr Charles Wright, the editor, informed a friend, in a letter, that in the preparation of Lionel Booth's reprint he had collated seven copies of the First Folio. It is but just, I think, to give Wright the benefit of the doubt and to believe that the copies which he consulted were printed after this slight change had been corrected by the printers while the pages were in course of printing.—ED.

206. Absey booke] MURRAY (N. E. D., s. v. A B C. 4.): A B C-book, primer, horn-book; an introductory book to any subject, often in catechism or dialogue form. [The present line quoted.]

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