Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners:: with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance. — John Shaqi
Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners:: with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.Douce, Francis
History
Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners:: with Dissertations on the Clowns and Fools of Shakspeare; on a Collection of Popular Tales Entitled Gesta Romanorum; and on the English Morris dance.
Douce, Francis
Clowns -- England -- History -- 16th century; Clowns in literature; Exempla in literature; Fools and jesters -- England -- History -- 16th century; Fools and jesters in literature; Gesta Romanorum; Manners and customs in literature; Morris dance; Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Characters -- Clow
This is either a proverbial saying now lost, or borrowed from one of
the following, "What cannot be altered must be borne not blamed;" "What
cannot be cured must be endured."
TWELFTH NIGHT.
ACT I.
SCENE 1. Page 8.
DUKE. How will she love, when the rich _golden shaft_
Hath kill'd the flock of all affections else
That live in her.
This _golden shaft_ was supplied either from a description of Cupid
in Sidney's _Arcadia_, book ii., or from Ovid's _Metamorphoses_,
translated by Golding, 4to, fo. 8, where, speaking of Cupid's arrows,
he says,
"_That causeth love_ is all of _golde_ with point full sharp and
bright.
That chaseth love, is blunt, whose steele with leaden head is dight."
Milton seems to have forgotten that Love had only _one_ shaft of
_gold_. See _Parad. Lost_, iv. 1. 763.
SCENE 2. Page 11.
CAP. ... she hath abjur'd the company
And sight of men.
This necessary and justifiable change in the _ordo verborum_ from the
reading in the old copy, and to which Mr. Steevens lays claim, had been
already made by Sir Thomas Hanmer.
SCENE 3. Page 21.
SIR TO. ... Wherefore have these gifts a _curtain_ before them? are
they like to take dust, like mistress Mall's picture?
Mr. Malone's conjecture that curtains were at this time frequently
hung before pictures of value, is further supported in Scene 5 of this
Act, where Olivia, in unveiling her face, mentions the practice. In
Deloney's _Pleasant history of Jack of Newbery_, printed before 1597,
it is recorded that "in a faire large parlour, which was wainscotted
round about, Jacke of Newbery had fifteene faire pictures hanging,
_which were covered with curtaines of greene silke_, frienged with
gold, which he would often shew to his friends and servants."
SCENE 3. Page 23.
SIR AND. Taurus? that's _sides and heart_.
SIR TO. No, sir, it is _legs and thighs_.
Both the knights are wrong in their astrology, according to the
almanacs of the time, which make Taurus govern _the neck and throat_.
Their ignorance is perhaps intentional.
SCENE 5. Page 31.
SIR TO. ... How now, _sot_?
There is great humour in this ambiguous word, which applies equally to
the fool and the knight himself, in his _drunken condition_.
ACT II.
SCENE 3. Page 51.
CLOWN. How now, my hearts? Did you never see _the picture of we
three_?
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