A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 12Dodsley, Robert
General
A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 12
Dodsley, Robert
English drama
[167] Pick as a hawk does his feathers.--_T._
[168] Worthy.--_T._
[169] Named.--_T._
[170] ["Both aces, the lowest throw upon the dice."--Dyce's
"Shakespeare Glossary," 1868.]
[171] High men and low men are false dice. See Florio's "Dictionary,"
1598, _v._ Pise. These terms so very oft occur in our ancient dramatic
writers, that to quote examples would be endless.
[172] The epithet _black_ does not agree with Sir Kenelm Digby's
"Discourse touching the Cure of Wounds by the Power of Sympathy," 4th
edition, 1664, p. 104: "I told her sundry stories upon this subject;
as that of the Queen of Ethiopia, who was delivered of a white boy;
which was attributed to a picture of the Blessed Virgin, which she had
always near the tester of her bed, whereunto she bore great devotion. I
urged another, of a woman who was brought to bed of a child all hairy,
because of a portrait of St John the Baptist in the wilderness, where
he wore a coat of camel's hair."
Perhaps the original reading is the true one, and the corruption lies
in the former line. I would read--
"It works upon that which is not as yet:
The little Ethiop infant _would have_ been
_Black_ in his cradle, had he not been first
White in the mother's strong imagination."
The compositor's eye might have caught _had not_ from the following
line--a very common accident. Without this emendation we have too much
of _not_ and _had not_ in the course of three verses.--_Steevens's
note_ (_altered_.) [Cartwright and Digby probably derived the story of
the Ethiop mother and her white offspring from a common source; but
Digby's work was not published till several years after Cartwright's
death.]
[173] See Sir Kenelm Digby's "Discourse," p. 6.
[174] [Old copy, _who_. Mr Collier's correction.]
[175] From Bishop Corbet's "Iter Boreale," this town appears to have
been inhabited chiefly by Puritans. Mr Dodd, mentioned in act iv. sc.
3, was minister there.
ACT III, SCENE I.
MOTH. Harrow,[176] alas! I swelt[177] here as I go;
Brenning[178] in fire of little Cupido.
I no where hoart yfeel but on mine head.
Huh, huh, huh, so; ycapred very wele.
I am thine leek, thou Chaucer eloquent;
Mine head is white, but, O, mine taile is green.
This is the palyes, where mine lady wendeth.
_Saint Francis[179] and Saint Benedight,_
_Blesse this house from wicked wight;_
_From the night-mare and the goblin,_
_That is hight Good-fellow Robin;_
_Keep it from all evil spirits,_
_Fairies, weazels, rats, and ferrets:_
_From curfew-time_
_To the next prime._
Come forth, mine duck, mine bride, mine honeycomb;
Come forth, mine cinnamon.
_Enter_ MISTRESS POTLUCK.
POT. Who is't that calls?
MOTH. A knight most gent.
POT. What is your pleasure, sir?
MOTH. Thou art mine pleasure, by dame Venus brent;
So fresh thou art, and therewith so lycand.[180]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account