BAP. Who comes with him? BION. O, fir, his lackey, for all the world caparifon'd like the horfe; with a linen ftock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, garter'd with a red and blue lift; an old hat, and The bumour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather: a 9—ftock] i. e. ftocking. So, in Twelfth Night: "—it [his leg] does indifferent well in a flame-coloured ftock." STEEVENS. an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather:] This was fome ballad or drollery at that time, which the poet here ridicules, by making Petruchio prick it up in his foot-boy's hat for a feather. His fpeakers are perpetually quoting fcraps and ftanzas of old ballads, and often very obfcurely; for, fo well are they adapted to the occafion, that they seem of a piece with the reft. In Shakspeare's time, the kingdom was overrun with thefe doggrel compofitions, and he feems to have borne them a very particular grudge. He frequently ridicules both them and their makers, with excellent humour. In Much ado about Nothing, he makes Benedick fay, "Prove that ever I lofe more blood with love than I get again with drinking, prick out my eyes with a ballad-maker's pen." As the bluntnels of it would make the execution of it extremely painful. And again, in Troilus and Creffida, Pandarus in his diftrefs having repeated a very stupid ftanza from an old ballad, fays, with the higheft humour, "There never was a truer rhyme; let's caft away nothing, for we may live to have need of fuch a verfe, We fee it, we fee it," WARBURTON. I have fome doubts concerning this interpretation. A fancy appears to have been fome ornament worn formerly in the hat. So Peacham, in his Worth of a Penny, defcribing an indigent and discontented foldat," fays, "he walks with his arms folded, his belt without a fword or rapier, that perhaps being somewhere in trouble; a hat without a band, hanging over his eyes; only it wears a weather-beaten fancy for fashion-fake." This lackey therefore did not wear a common fancy in his hat, but fome fantastical ornament, comprizing the humour of forty different fancies. Such, I believe is the meaning. A couplet in one of Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598, may alfo add fupport to my interpretation: "Nor for thy love will I once gnash a bricke, "Or fome pied colours in my bonnet flicke." A fancy, however, meant alfo a love-fong or fonnet, or other poem. So, in Sapho and Phao, 1591; " I muft now fall from monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey. TRA. 'Tis fome odd humour pricks him to this fashion ; Yet often times he goes but mean apparell❜d. BAP. Didft thou not fay, he comes? BION. Who? that Petruchio came? BAP. Ay, that Petruchio came. BION. No, fir; I fay, his horse comes with him on his back. BAP. Why, that's all one. BION. Nay, by faint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many. love to labour, and endeavour with mine oar to get a fare, not with my pen to write a fancy." If the word was ufed here in this fenfe, the meaning is, that the lackey had ftuck forty ballads together, and made fomething like a feather out of them. MALONE. Dr. Warburton might have ftrengthened his fuppofition by obferving, that the Humour of Forty Fancies was probably a collection of those fhort poems which are called Fancies, by Falftaff, in the Second Part of K. Henry IV: “ fung those tunes which he heard the carmen whiftle, and fwore they were his Fancies, his good-nights." Nor is the Humour of Forty Fancies a more extraordinary title to a collection of poems, than the well-known Hundred fundrie Flowers bounde up in one fmall Poefie.-A Paradife of dainty Devifes.-The Arbor of amorous Conceits.-The Gorgeous Gallery of gallant Inventions.-The Foreft of Hiftories.-The Ordinary of Humors, &c. Chance, at fome future period, may establish as a certainty what is now offered as a conjecture. A penny book, containing forty fhort poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt imitation of a plume of feathers for the hat of a humourist's fervant. STEEVENS. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.3 PET. Come, where be thefe gallants? who is at home? BAP. You are welcome, fir. PET. Were it better I fhould rush in thus. 3 Enter Petruchio and Grumio.] Thus, in the original play: "Enter Ferando, bafely attired, and a red cap on his head. "Feran. Good morrow, father: Polidor well met, "You wonder, I know, that I have staide fo long. "Alfon. Yea, marry fonne: we were almoft perfuaded That we fhould fcarce have had our bridegroome heere: But fay, why art thou thus bafely attired? "Feran. Thus richly, father, you should have faide; "For when my wife and I are married once, "Shee's fuch a fhrew, if we fhould once fall out, "And this from them I have made choife to weare. "Before thou go'ft unto the church with us, "To put fome other fute upon thy backe. "Feran. Not for the world," &c. STRIVENS. But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride?How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you frown: And wherefore gaze this goodly company; BAP. Why, fir, you know, this is your weddingday: First were we fad, fearing you would not come; TRA. And tell us, what occafion of import PET. Tedious it were to tell, and harfh to hear: Sufficeth, I am come to keep my word, Though in fome part enforced to digrefs; Which, at more leisure, I will fo excufe As you fhall well be fatisfied withal. But, where is Kate? I ftay too long from her; PET. Not I, believe me; thus I'll vifit her. To me he's married, not unto my clothes: 4- to digress;] To deviate from my promise. JOHNSON. When I should bid good-morrow to my bride, [Exeunt PETRUCHIO, GRUMIO, and BIONDELLO. TRA. He hath fome meaning in his mad attire: We will perfuade him, be it poffible, To put on better ere he go to church. BAP. I'll after him, and fee the event of this. [Exit. TRA. But, fir, to her love' concerneth us to add Her father's liking: Which to bring to pass, As I before imparted to your worship, I am to get a man,-whate'er he be, It skills not much; we'll fit him to our turn, 5 Tra. But, fir, to her love-] Mr. Theobald reads our love. STEEVENS. Our is an injudicious interpolation. The firft folio reads-But, fir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking—which, I think, hould be thus corrected: But fir, to her love concerneth us to add We muft fuppofe, that Lucentio had before informed Tranio in private of his having obtained Bianca's love; and Tranio here refumes the conversation, by obferving, that to her love it concerns them to add her father's confent; and then goes on to propose a scheme for obtaining the latter. TYRWHITT. The nominative cafe to the verb concerneth is here understood. A fimilar licence may be found in Coriolanus: "Remains that in the official marks invested, Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "The beauty that is borne here in the face As I before imparted-] 1, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was added by the editor of the second folio; but with his ufual inaccuracy was inferted in the wrong place. The fecond folio reads: As before I imparted, &c. MALONE. As this paffage is now pointed, where is the inaccuracy of it? or, if there be any, might it not have happened through the careleffness of the compofitor? STEEVENS, |