A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Vii Part 113

Marston's "What You Will," act ii. sc. 1--

"Think'st thou a libertine, _an ungiv'd_ beast, Scornes not the shackles of thy envious clogs?"

Milton's "Samson Agonistes," l. 1092--

"Dost thou already single me? I thought _Gyves_ and the mill had tam'd thee."

See Dr Newton's note on the last pa.s.sage; and Mr Steevens's note on "First Part of Henry IV.," act iv. sc. 3.

[78] _Amate_ is to daunt or confound. Skinner, in his "Etymologicon,"

explains it thus: "Perterrefacere, Attonitum reddere, Obstupefacere, mente consternare, Consilii inopem reddere." So in "Thule or Vertue's Historic," by Francis Rous, 1598, sig. B--

"At last with violence and open force.

They brake the posternes of the Castle gate, And entred spoyling all without remorce, Nor could old Sobrin now resist his fate, But stiffe with feare ev'n like a senceles corse Whom grisly terror doth so much _amate_, He lyes supine upon his fatall bed.

Expecting ev'ry minute to be dead."

Again, Ibid., sig. D--

"He would forsake his choyse, and change his fate, And leave her quite, and so procure her woe, Faines that a sudden grief doth her _amate_, Wounded with piercing sicknes' Ebon bow."

[79] Astonished. So in "Euphues and his England," p. 102--"Philautus, _astonied_ at this speech," &c. And again, in the "Fable of Jeronimi,"

by G. Gascoigne, p. 209: "When Ferdinando (somewhat _astonied_ with hir strange speech) thus answered." And in "Thieves Falling Out," &c., 1615, by Rob. Greene: "The gentleman, _astonied_ at this strange metamorphosis of his mistress."

[80] _Sprent_ is sprinkled. So in Spenser's "Shepherd's Calendar,"

December--

"My head _besprent_ with h.o.a.ry frost I find."

And Fairfax's "Ta.s.so," cant. xii. st. 101--

"His silver locks with dust he foul _besprent_."

Again in Milton's "Comus," l. 542--

"Of knot gra.s.s dew _besprent_."

[81] Harbour.

[82] Old copy, _hasteth_.

[83] Habiliments, _S.P_.

[84] Unrevenged. [The more correct form would be _unwroken_.] So in Ben Jonson's "Every Man out of his Humour," act ii. sc. 4--

"Would to heaven, In _wreak_ of my misfortunes, I were turn'd To some fair water nymph."

In "Seja.n.u.s his Fall," act iv.--

"Made to speak What they will have to fit their tyrannous _wreak_."

In Ma.s.singer's "Fatal Dowry," act iv. sc. 4--

"But there's a heaven above, from whose just _wreak_ No mists of policy can hide offenders."

In his "Very Woman," act i.

"And our just _wreak_, by force or cunning practice With scorn prevented."

See also Mr Steevens's note on "Coriola.n.u.s," act iv. sc. 5. "Moriamur _in ultae_?"--Virgil's "Aeneid," lib. iv.--_Steevens_.

[85] Sorrow. Again, act v. sc. 3--

"His death, her woe, and her avenging _teen_."

And in Shakespeare's "Venus and Adonis"--

"More I could tell, but more I dare not say, The text is old, the orator too green.

Therefore in sadness now I will away, My face is full of shame, my heart of _teen_."

[86] Old copy, _but h.e.l.l_.

[87] _Untrimmed locks_ are locks dishevelled or undressed. _Trim_, in the language of the times, was frequently used for dress. So in Ma.s.singer's "Emperor of the East," act ii. sc. 1--

"Our Eastern queens, at their full height bow to thee, And are, in their best _trim_, thy foils and shadows."

See also Mr Steevens's note on "King John," act iii. sc. 3.

[88] Alluding to a custom of which mention is made in Genesis, chap.

xxiv. 9--"And the servant put his _hand_ under the _thigh_ of Abraham his master, and _sware_ to him concerning that matter." The same form was likewise observed by Jacob and Joseph when they were dying. Some mystery is supposed to be couched under this practice. The most probable, at least the most decent, supposition is, that it was a token of subjection or homage from a servant to his lord, when the former solemnly promised to perform whatever should be commanded by the latter.--_Steevens_.

[89] The following account of Lodge and his works is very imperfect.

See the Shakespeare Society volume, 1853, containing much fuller particulars.

[90] In the "Epistle of England to her Three Daughters," in Clarke's "Polimanteia," 1595, Lodge is spoken of as belonging to Oxford.

--_Collier_.

[91] Mr Malone ("Shakespeare," by Boswell, iii. 40, note 9) says that it was printed about 1580; but Lodge himself, writing in 1584, speaks of Gosson's "Plays Confuted," as written "about two years since."

[92] "Scilla's Metamorphosis," 1589; "Diogenes in his Singularity,"

1591; and "A Fig for Momus," 1595, are all stated to be by T.L., or Thomas Lodge, of Lincoln's Inn, Gentleman.

[93] A French sonnet by Thomas Lodge is prefixed to Robert Greene's "Spanish Masquerado." He has also some French verses in "Rosalynde."

[94] The lines upon Lodge in "The Return from Parna.s.sus," 1606, would show that it did occur:--

"He that turns over Galen every day, To sit and simper 'Euphues' Legacy,'" &c.

--_Collier_.