LORD. With all my heart. This fellow I remember, Since once he play'd a farmer's eldest fon;'Twas where you woo'd the gentlewoman fo well: I have forgot your name; but, fure, that part Was aptly fitted, and naturally perform❜d. I PLAY. I think, 'twas Soto' that your honour means. LORD. 'Tis very true;-thou didst it excellent.Well, you are come to me in happy time; The rather for I have some sport in hand, Wherein your cunning can affift me much. 9 I think, 'tavas Soto-] I take our author here to be paying a compliment to Beaumont and Fletcher's Women Pleafed, in which comedy there is the character of Soto, who is a farmer's fon, and a very facetious ferving-man. Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope prefix the name of Sim to the line here spoken; but the first folio has it Sincklo; which, no doubt, was the name of one of the players here introduced, and who had played the part of Soto with applause. THEOBALD. As the old copy prefixes the name of Sinckle to this line, why fhould we difplace it? Sineklo is a name elsewhere used by Shakfpeare. In one of the parts of King Henry VI. Humphrey and Sincklo enter with their bows, as forefters. With this obfervation I was favoured by a learned lady, and have replaced the old reading. STEEVENS. It is true that Soto, in the play of Women Pleased, is a farmer's eldeft fon, but he does not wooe any gentlewoman; fo that it may be doubted, whether that be the character alluded to. There can be little doubt that Sincklo was the name of one of the players, which has crept in, both here and in the Third Part of Henry VI. inftead of the name of the perfon represented. Again, at the conclufion of the Second Part of King Henry IV: "Enter Sincklo and three or four officers." See the quarto 1600. TYRWHITT. If Soto were the character alluded to, the compliment would be to the person who played the part, not to the author. M. MASON. Sincklo or Sinkler, was certainly an actor in the fame company with Shakspeare, &c.-He is introduced together with Burbage, Condell, Lowin, &c. in the Induction to Marston's Malcontent, 1604, and was alfo a performer in the entertainment entitled The Seven Deadlie Sinns. MALONE. There is a lord will hear you play to-night: you, firs, If you should smile, he grows impatient. 1 PLAY. Fear not, my lord; we can contain our felves, Were he the veriest antick in the world.* in the world.] Here follows another infertion made by Mr. Pope from the old play. These words are not in the folio, 1623. I have therefore degraded them, as we have no proof that the first sketch of the piece was written by Shakspeare: "San. [to the other.] Go, get a difhclout to make cleane your fhooes, and Ile fpeak for the properties.* [Exit Player. "My lord, we must have a fhoulder of mutton for a propertie, and a little vinegre to make our diuell rore.+" The boulder of mutton might indeed be neceffary afterwards for the dinner of Petruchio, but there is no devil in this piece, or in the original on which Shakspeare form'd it; neither was it yet determined what comedy fhould be reprefented. STEEVENS. Property] in the language of a playhouse, is every implement necessary to the exhibition. JOHNSON. ta little vinegre to make our diuell rore.] When the acting the myfteries of the Old and New Teftament was in vogue, at the representation of the myftery of the Paffion, Judas and the devil made a part: And the devil, wherever he came, was always to fuffer fome difgrace, to make the people laugh: as here, the buffoonery was to apply the gall and vinegar to make him roar. And the Paffion being that, of all the mysteries, which was most frequently reprefented, vinegar became at length the ftanding implement to torment the devil; and was ufed for this purpofe even after the mysteries ceafed, and the moralities came in vogue; where the devil continued to have a confiderable part-The mention of it here, was to ridicule fo abfurd a circumftance in thefe old farces. WARBURTON. All that Dr. Warburton has faid relative to Judas and the vinegar, wants confirmation. I have met with no fuch circumftances in any mysteries, whether in MS. or in print; and yet both the Chefler and Coventry collections are preferved in the British Mufeum. See MS. Harl. 2013, and Cotton MS. Vespafan D. viii. Perhaps, however, fome entertainments of a farcical kind might have been introduced between the acts. Between the divifions of one of the Chefter Myfte ries, I met with this marginal direction: Here the Boy and Pig; and perhaps the devil in the intervals of this first comedy of The Taming of the Shrew, might LORD. Go, firrah, take them to the buttery, And give them friendly welcome every one; Let them want nothing that my house affords.[Exeunt Servant and Players. be tormented for the entertainment of the audience; or, according to a custom obferved in fome of our ancient puppet-fhews, might beat his wife with a fhoulder of mutton. In the Preface to Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590, the Printer says: "I have (purpofelie) omitted and left out fome fond and frivolous jeftures, digreffing (and in my poore opinion) farre unmeete for the matter, which I thought might feeme more tedious unto the wife, than any way els to be regarded, though (happly) they have bene of fome vaine conceited fondlings greatly gaped at, what time they were showed upon the stage in their graced deformities nevertheleffe now to be mixtured in print with fuch matter of worth, it would prove a great difgrace," &c. The bladder of vinegar was, however, ufed for other purpofes. I meet with the following stage direction in the old play of Cambyfes, (by T. Preston,) when one of the characters is supposed to die from the wounds he had just received :Here let a fmall bladder of vinegar be prick'd. I fuppofe to counterfeit blood: red-wine vinegar was chiefly used, as appears from the ancient books of cookery. In the ancient Tragedy, or rather Morality, called All for Money, by T. Lupton, 1578, Sin fays: "I knew I would make him foon change his note, "I will make him fing the Black Sanctus, I hold him a groat." Again, a little after. "Here Satan fhall cry and roar.” "Here he roareth and crieth." Of the kind of wit current through these productions, a better specimen can hardly be found than the following: "Satan. Whatever thou wilt have, I will not thee denie. "Sinne. Then give me a piece of thy tayle to make a flappe for a flie. ". For if I had a piece thereof, I do verely believe "The humble bees ftinging fhould never me grieve. "Satan. No, my friend, no, my tayle I cannot spare, "But aske what thou wilt befides, and I will it prepare. "Sinne. Then your nofe I would have to ftop my tayle behind, "For I am combred with collike and letting out of winde: "And if it be too little to make thereof a cafe, "Then I would be fo bold to borrowe your face." Such were the entertainments, of which our maiden queen fat a fpectatress in the earlier part of her reign. STEEVENS. 66 2 take them to the buttery,] Mr. Pope had probably these words in his thoughts, when he wrote the following paffage of his preface: -the top of the profeffion were then mere players, not gentlemen of the ftage; they were led into the buttery by the fteward, not placed at the lord's table, or the lady's toilette." But he feems not to have obferved, that the players here introduced are Strollers; and there is no reafon to fuppofe that our author, Heminge, Burbage, Condell, &c. who were licensed by King James, were treated in this manner. MALONE. Sirrah, go you to Bartholomew my page, [To a Servant. And with declining head into his bofom,- Who, for twice feven years, hath esteemed him 3 With foft low tongue,] So, in King Lear: Her voice was ever foft, "Gentle and low; an excellent thing in woman." MALONE. 4 Who, for twice feven years, &c.] In former editions: I have ventured to alter a word here, against the authority of the printed copies; and hope, I fhall be juftified in it by two fubfequent paffages. That the poet defigned the tinker's fuppofed lunacy fhould be of fourteen years ftanding at least, is evident upon two parallel paffages in the play to that purpose. THEOBALD. The remark is juft, but perhaps the alteration may be thought unneceffary by thofe who recollect that our author rarely reckons time with any great correctnefs. Both Falstaff and Orlando forget the true hour of their appointments. STEEVENS. In both these paffages the term mentioned is fifteen, not fourteen, years. The fervants may well be supposed to forget the precife And if the boy have not a woman's gift, See this despatch'd with all the haste thou canst; [Exit Servant. I know, the boy will well ufurp the grace, Voice, gait, and action of a gentlewoman: I long to hear him call the drunkard, husband; And how my men will stay themselves from laughter, When they do homage to this fimple peafant. I'll in to counsel them: haply, my prefence May well abate the over-merry fpleen, Which otherwife would grow into extremes. [Exeunt. period dictated to them by their mafter, or, as is the cuftom of fuch perfons, to aggravate what they have heard. There is therefore, in my opinion, no need of change. MALONE. -hath efteemed him-] This is an error of the prefs.-We fhould read himself, instead of him. M. MASON. Him is ufed inftead of himself, as you is used for yourselves in Macbeth: Acquaint you with the perfect spy o'the time—.” i. e. acquaint yourselves. Again, in Ovid's Banquet of Sence, by Chapman, 1595: STEEVENS. An onion-] It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient ufed by the actors of interludes. JOHNSON. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "The tears live in an onion that should water this forrow." STEEVENS. |