SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius's House. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY." QUICK. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go to the casement, and see if you can see my master, master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abusing of God's patience, and the king's English. RUG. I'll go watch. [Exit RUGBY. QUICK. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire." An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no telltale, nor no breed-bate: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that way:" Rugby.] This domestic of Dr. Caius received his name from a town in Warwickshire. 7 STEEVENS. at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my master is in bed. JOHNSON. 8 no breed-bate:] Bate is an obsolete word, signifying strife, contention. So, in the Countess of Pembroke's Antonius, 1595: "Shall ever civil bate "Gnaw and devour our state?" Again, in Acolastus, a comedy, 1540: "We shall not fall at bate, or stryve for this matter." Stanyhurst, in his translation of Virgil, 1582, calls Erinnys a make-bate. STEEVENS. 9 — he is something peevish that way:] Peevish is foolish. So, in Cymbeline, Act II: "he's strange and peevish." STEEVENS. I believe, this is one of dame Quickly's blunders, and that she means precise. MALONE. but nobody but has his fault;-but let that pass. Peter Simple, you say your name is? SIM. Ay, for fault of a better. QUICK. And master Slender's your master? QUICK. Does he not wear a great round beard,' like a glover's paring-knife? SIM. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face,2 with a little yellow beard; a Cain-coloured beard.3 1 a great round beard, &c.] See a note on K. Henry V. Act III. sc. vi: "And what a beard of the general's cut," &c. MALONE. a little wee face,] Wee, in the northern dialect, signifies very little. Thus, in the Scottish proverb that apologizes for a little woman's marriage with a big man:-" A wee mouse will under a mickle cornstack." COLLINS. creep So, in Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, a comedy, 1631: "He was nothing so tall as I; but a little wee man, and somewhat hutch-back'd." Again, in The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600: "Some two miles, and a wee bit, sir.' Wee is derived from weenig, Dutch. On the authority of the 4to, 1619, we might be led to read whey-face: "Somewhat of a weakly man, and has as it were a whey-coloured beard." Macbeth calls one of the messengers whey-face. STEEVENS. Little wee is certainly the right reading; it implies something extremely diminutive, and is a very common vulgar idiom in the North. Wee alone, has only the signification of little. Thus Cleveland: "A Yorkshire wee bit, longer than a mile." The proverb is a mile and a wee bit ; i. e. about a league and a half. RITSON. 3 a Cain-colour'd beard.] Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were represented with yellow beards. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be countenanced by a parallel expression in an old play called Blurt Master Constable, or, The Spaniard's Night-Walk, 1602: VOL. V. E QUICK. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? SIM. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. 66 ---over all, "A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard." Again, in Soliman and Perseda, 1599, Basilisco says: where is the eldest son of Priam, 66 "That Abraham-colour'd Trojan ?" I am not, however, certain, but that Abraham may be a corruption of auburn. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, Book IV. Hist. 16. "Harcourt had a light auburn beard, which (like a country gentleman) he wore negligently after the oval cut." Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1603: "And let their beards be of Judas his own colour." Again, in A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612: "That's he in the Judas beard." Again, in The Insatiate Countess, 1613: "I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas." In an age, when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from representations in painting or tapestry. A cane-colour'd beard, however, [the reading of the quarto,] might signify a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a sickly yellow; for straw-colour'd beards are mentioned in A Midsummer Night's Dream. STEEVENS. The words of the quarto,—a whey-colour'd beard, strongly favour this reading; for whey and cane are nearly of the same colour. Malone. The new edition of Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V. p. 295, asserts, that painters constantly represented Judas the traytor with a red head. Dr. Plot's Oxfordshire, p. 153, says the same. This conceit is thought to have arisen in England, from our ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes. TOLLET. See my quotation in King Henry VIII. Act V. sc. ii. STEEVENS. as tall a man of his hands,] Perhaps this is an allusion to the jockey measure, so many hands high, used by grooms when speaking of horses. Tall, in our author's time, signified not only height of stature, but stoutness of body. The ambiguity of the phrase seems intended. PERCY. QUICK. HOW say you?-O, I should remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? SIM. Yes, indeed, does he. QUICK. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish Re-enter RUGBY. RUG. Out, alas! here comes my master. 5 QUICK. We shall all be shent: Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts SIMPLE in the closet.] He will not stay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I say!-Go, John, Whatever be the origin of this phrase, it is very ancient, being used by Gower: "A worthie knight was of his honde, De Confessione Amantis, lib. v. fol. 118. b. The tall man of the old dramatick writers, was a man of a bold, intrepid disposition, and inclined to quarrel; such as is described by Steevens in the second scene of the third act of this play. M. MASON. "A tall man of his hands" sometimes meant quick-handed, active; and as Simple is here commending his master for his gymnastick abilities, perhaps the phrase is here used in that sense. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. "Manesco. Nimble or quick-handed; a tall man of his hands." Malone. We shall all be shent:] i. e. Scolded, roughly treated. So, in the old Interlude of Nature, bl. I. no date: 66 I can tell thee one thyng, "In fayth you wyll be shent. Again, in Chapman's version of the twenty-third book of Homer's Odyssey: 66 such acts still were shent, "As simply in themselves, as in th' event." STEEVENS. QUICK. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? 4 SIM. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. 66 -over all, "A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard." Again, in Soliman and Perseda, 1599, Basilisco says: where is the eldest son of Priam, 66 "That Abraham-colour'd Trojan ?" I am not, however, certain, but that Abraham may be a corruption of auburn. So, in Reynolds's God's Revenge against Murder, Book IV. Hist. 16. "Harcourt had a light auburn beard, which (like a country gentleman) he wore negligently after the oval cut." Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1603: "And let their beards be of Judas his own colour." Again, in A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612: "That's he in the Judas beard." Again, in The Insatiate Countess, 1613: "I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas." In an age, when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from representations in painting or tapestry. A cane-colour'd beard, however, [the reading of the quarto,] might signify a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a sickly yellow; for straw-colour'd beards are mentioned in A Midsummer Night's Dream. STEEVENS. The words of the quarto,—a whey-colour'd beard, strongly favour this reading; for whey and cane are nearly of the same colour. MALONE. The new edition of Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V. p. 295, asserts, that painters constantly represented Judas the traytor with a red head. Dr. Plot's Oxfordshire, p. 153, says the same. This conceit is thought to have arisen in England, from our ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes. TOLLET. See my quotation in King Henry VIII. Act V. sc. ii. STEEVENS. as tall a man of his hands,] Perhaps this is an allusion to the jockey measure, so many hands high, used by grooms when speaking of horses. Tall, in our author's time, signified not only height of stature, but stoutness of body. The ambiguity of the phrase seems intended. PERCY. |