Enter a Nurse, with a Black-a-moor Child in her NUR. Arms. Good morrow, lords: O, tell me, did you see Aaron the Moor. AAR. Well, more, or less, or ne'er a whit at all, Here Aaron is; and what with Aaron now? NUR. O gentle Aaron, we are all undone! Now help, or woe betide thee evermore! AAR. Why, what a caterwauling dost thou keep? What dost thou wrap and fumble in thine arms? NUR. O, that which I would hide from heaven's eye, Our empress' shame, and stately Rome's disgrace;She is deliver'd, lords, she is deliver'd. AAR. To whom? NUR. AAR. I mean, she's brought to bed. Well, God Give her good rest! What hath he sent her? NUR. A devil. AAR. Why, then she's the devil's dam; a joyful issue. NUR. Ajoyless, dismal, black, and sorrowful issue: Here is the babe, as loathsome as a toad Amongst the fairest breeders of our clime. The empress sends it thee, thy stamp, thy seal, And bids thee christen it with thy dagger's point. AAR. Out, out, you whore! is black so base a hue? "Out, out,] The second interjection, which is wanting in the old copies, I have inserted for the sake of metre. STEEVENS. Sweet blowse, you are a beauteous blossom, sure. DEM. Villain, what hast thou done? AAR. Canst not undo.2 CHI. Done! that which thou' Thou hast undone3 our mother. AAR. Villain, I have done thy mother.* DEM. And therein, hellish dog, thou hast undone. Woe to her chance, and damn'd her loathed choice! Accurs'd the offspring of so foul a fiend! CHI. It shall not live. AAR. It shall not die.5 NUR. Aaron, it must: the mother wills it so. AAR. What, must it, nurse? then let no man but I, Do execution on my flesh and blood. Out, out, you whore !] The edition 1600 reads,-Zounds, ye whore. TODD. 1 Done! that which thou-] Done! which is wanting in the old copies, was very properly added, for the sake of measure, by Mr. Capell. STEEVENS. 2 Done! that which thou Canst not undo.] The edition 1600 reads: Dem. Villaine, what hast thou done? TODD. › Thou hast undone-] Edition 1600 reads:-thou hast undone her. TODD. ▲ Villain, I have done thy mother.] To do is here used obscenely. So, in Taylor the Water Poet's character of a Prosti tute: "She's facile fieri; (quickly wonne,) "Or, const'ring truly, easy to be done." COLLINS. See Vol. VI. p. 203, n. 5. REED. It shall not die.] We may suppose that the measure here was originally perfect and stood thus: I say, it shall not die. STEEVEns. DEM. I'll broach the tadpole on my rapier's point; Nurse, give it me; my sword shall soon despatch it. AAR. Sooner this sword shall plow thy bowels up. [Takes the Child from the Nurse, and draws. Stay, murderous villains! will you kill ther? Now, by the burning tapers of the sky, your bro That shone so brightly when this boy was got, With all his threat'ning band of Typhon's brood, Shall seize this prey out of his father's hands. What, what; ye sanguine, shallow-hearted boys! Ye white-lim'd walls!" ye alehouse painted signs! Coal-black is better than another hue, "I'll broach the tadpole-] A broach is a spit. I'll spit the tadpole. JOHNSON. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "I'll broach thee on my steel." Again, in Greene's Pleasant Discovery of the Cosenage of Colliers, 1592: "-with that she caught a spit in her hand, and swore if he offered to stirre, she should therewith broach him." COLLINS. Ye white-lim'd walls!] The old copies have-white limb'd. The word intended, I think, was—white limn'd. Mr. Pope and the subsequent editors read-white-lim'd. MALONE. I read-lim'd, because I never found the term-limn'd, employed to describe white-washing, and because in A MidsummerNight's Dream, we have— "This man with lime and rough-cast, doth present "Wall." A layer-on of white-wash is not a limner. Limning comprehends the idea of delineation. STEEVens. In that it scorns to bear another hue:8 Can never turn a swan's black legs to white, DEM. Wilt thou betray thy noble mistress thus? AAR. My mistress is my mistress; this, myself; The vigour, and the picture of my youth: This, before all the world, do I prefer; This, maugre all the world, will I keep safe, Or some of you shall smoke for it in Rome. DEM. By this our mother is for ever sham'd. CHI. Rome will despise her for this foul escape." NUR. The emperor, in his rage, will doom her death. CHI. I blush to think upon this ignomy.' AAR. Why, there's the privilege your beauty bears: Fye, treacherous hue! that will betray with blush ing The close enacts and counsels of the heart!2 • In that it scorns to bear another hue:] Thus both the quarto and the folio. Some modern editions had seems instead of scorns, which was restored by Dr. Johnson. MALONE. Scorns should undoubtedly be inserted in the text. TYRWHITT. for this foul escape.] This foul illegitimate child. MALONE. So, in King John: "No scape of nature." STEEVEns. 1ignomy.] i. e. ignominy. See Vol. XI. p. 426, n. 9. MALONE. The close enacts and counsels of the heart!] So, in Othello: "They are close denotements working from the heart,-." MALONE. Here's a young lad fram'd of another leer :3 NUR. Aaron, what shall I say unto the empress? AAR. Then sit we down, and let us all consult. My son and I will have the wind of you: Keep there: Now talk at pleasure of your safety. [They sit on the Ground. DEM. How many women saw this child of his? AAR. Why, so, brave lords; When we all join in league, I am a lamb: but if you brave the Moor, 3 another leer:] Leer is complexion, or hue. So, in As you like it: " ―a Rosalind of better leer than you." See Mr. Tollet's note on Act IV. sc. i. In the notes on the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. Vol. IV. p. 320, lere is supposed to mean skin. So, in Isumbras, MS. Cott. Cal. 11. fol. 139: "His lady is white as wales bone, "Here lere brygte to se upon, "So faire as blosme on tre." Again, in the ancient metrical romance of the Sowdon of Babyloyne, MS: "Tho spake Roulande with hevy cheere "Woordes lamentable, "When he saugh the ladies so whyte of lere that womb,] Edition 1600-your womb. ToDd. |