SCENE II. A Bedchamber in the Lord's Houfe. SLY is difcovered' in a rich night gown, with Attendants; fome with apparel, others with bason, ewer, and other appurtenances. Enter Lord, drefs'd like a Servant. SLY. For God's fake, a pot of fmall ale.3 I SERV. Will't please your lordship drink a cup of fack? 6 A Bedchamber, &c.] From the original stage-direction in the firft folio it appears that Sly and the other perfons mentioned in the Induction, were intended to be exhibited here, and during the representation of the comedy, in a balcony above the stage. The direction here is" Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants, &c." So afterwards at the end of this fcene-" The Presenters above Speak." See the Account of our old Theatres, Vol. II. MALONE. 7 Sly is difcovered, &c.] Thus in the original play : "Enter two with a table and a banquet on it, and two other, with Slie afleepe in a chaire, richlie apparelled, and the mufick plaieng. "One. So, firha, now go call my lord; "And tell him all things are ready as he will'd it. "Another. Set thou fome wine upon the boord, "And then Ile go fetch my lord presently. "Enter the Lord and his men. "Lord. How now, what is all things readie? "One. Yea, my lord. "Lord. Then found the muficke, and Ile wake him strait, "And fee you doe as earft I gave in charge. "My lord, my lord, (he fleeps foundly,) my lord. "Slie. Tapfter, give's a little fmall ale: heigh ho. "Lord. Heere's wine, my lord, the pureft of the grape. "Slie. For which lord? "Lord. For your honor, my lord. [Exit. "Slie. Who I, am I a lord?--Iefus, what fine apparell have I got! "Lord. More richer far your honour hath to weare, "And if it please you, I will fetch them straight. 2 SERV. Will't please your honour taste of these conferves? 3 SERV. What raiment will your honour wear today? SLY. I am Chriftophero Sly'; call not me-honour, nor lordship: I ne'er drank fack in my life; and if you give me any conferves, give me conferves of beef: Ne'er afk me what raiment I'll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more fhoes than feet; nay, fometimes, more feet than fhoes, or fuch fhoes as my toes look through the overleather. LORD. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! O, that a mighty man, of fuch defcent, SLY. What, would you make me mad? Am not I Christopher Sly, old Sly's fon of Burton-heath;" "Wil. And if your honour please to ride abroad, "Ile fetch your luftie fteedes more fwift of pace "Then winged Pegafus in all his pride, "That ran fo fwifilie over Perfian plaines. "Tom. And if your honour please to hunt the deere, "Your hounds ftands readie cuppled at the doore, "Who in running will oretake the row, 8 "And make the long-breathde tygre broken-winded." STEEVENS. -fmall ale.] This beverage is mentioned in the accounts of the Stationers' Company in the year 1558: "For a ftande of fmall ale;" I fuppofe it was what we now call small beer, no mention of that liquor being made on the fame books, though duble bere, and duble duble ale, are frequently recorded. STEEVENS. It appears from The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher, A&t IV. fc. ii. that fingle beer and small beer were fynonymous terms. 9 MALONE. of Burton-heath; -Marian Hacket, the fat ale-wife of Wincot,] I fufpect we should read-Barton-heath. Barton and Woodmancot, or, as it is vulgarly pronounced, Woncot, are both of them in Gloucestershire, near the refidence of Shakspeare's old by birth a pedler, by education a card-maker, by tranfmutation a bear-herd, and now by prefent profeffion a tinker? Afk Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot, if she know me not: if fhe fay I am not fourteen pence on the score for fheer ale, fcore me up for the lying'ft knave in Christendom. What, I am not beftraught: Here's enemy, Juftice Shallow. Very probably too, this fat ale-wife might be a real character. STEEVENS. Wilnecotte is a village in Warwickshire, with which Shakspeare was well acquainted, near Stratford. The houfe kept by our genial hoftefs, ftill remains, but is at prefent a mill. The meaneft hovel to which Shakspeare has an allufion, interefts curiofity, and acquires an importance: at least, it becomes the object of a poetical antiquarian's inquiries. T. WARTON. Burton Dorfet is a village in Warwickshire. RITSON. There is likewife a village in Warwickshire called Burton Haftings. Among Sir A. Cockayn's poems (as Dr. Farmer and Mr. Steevens have obferved) there is an epigram on Sly and his ale, addreffed to Mr. Clement Fisher of Wincot. The text is undoubtedly right. There is a village in Warwickshire called Barton on the Heath, where Mr. Dover, the founder of the Cotswold games, lived. MALONE. I am not beftraught:] I once thought that if our poet did not defign to put a corrupted word into the mouth of the Tinker, we ought to read-diftraught, i. e. diftracted. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "Ŏ, if I wake, fhall I not be diftraught," &c. For there is no verb extant from which the participle bestraught can be formed. In Albion's England, however, by Warner, 1602, I meet with the word as fpelt by Shakspeare: "Now teares had drowned further fpeech, till fhe as one beftrought "Did crie," &c. Again, in the old Song, beginning, "When griping grief," &c. No. 53. Paradyfe of dainty Deuifes, edit. 1576: Be-fraughted heads relyef hath founde.' Again, in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the 4th Book of Virgil's Aneid: "Well near beftraught, upftart his heare for dread." STEEVENS. I SERV. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn. 2 SERV. O, this it is that makes your fervants droop. LORD. Hence comes it that your kindred fhun your house, As beaten hence by your strange lunacy. Wilt thou have mufick? hark! Apollo plays, [Mufick. And twenty caged nightingales do fing: Say, thou wilt walk; we will beftrew the ground: Above the morning lark: Or wilt thou hunt? Thy hounds fhall make the welkin answer them, And fetch fhrill echoes from the hollow earth. I SERV. Say, thou wilt courfe; thy greyhounds are as swift As breathed ftags, ay, fleeter than the roe. 2 SERV. Doft thou love pictures? we will fetch thee straight Adonis, painted by a running brook; And Cytherea all in fedges hid; Beftraught feems to have been fynonymous to distraught or dif tracted. See Mintheu's DICT. 1617: "Beftra&t, a Lat. distractus mente. Vi. Mad and Bedlam." MALONE. Which feem to move and wanton with her breath, Even as the waving fedges play with wind. LORD. We'll fhow thee Io, as fhe was a maid; And how she was beguiled and furpris'd, As lively painted as the deed was done. 3 SERV. Or Daphne, roaming through a thorny wood; Scratching her legs, that one shall fwear fhe bleeds: And at that fight fhall fad Apollo weep, So workmanly the blood and tears are drawn. LORD. Thou art a lord, and nothing but a lord: Thou hast a lady far more beautiful Than any woman in this waning age. I SERV. And, till the tears, that she hath fhed Like envious floods, o'er-ran her lovely face, And yet she is inferior to none. Sır. Am I a lord? and have I fuch a lady? I fmell fweet favours, and I feel foft things:- And not a tinker, nor Chriftophero Sly.- 2 SERV. Will't please your mightiness to wash your hands? [Servants prefent an ewer, bafon, and napkin. O, how we joy to fee your wit restor❜d! O, that once more you knew but what you are! you flept. SLr. These fifteen years! by my fay, a goodly nap. But did I never fpeak of all that time? |