cited is to be found in M. Paris. This writer does indeed speak of the quintain under the year 1253, but in very different words. Eodem tempore juvenes Londinenfes ftatuto pavone pro bravio ad Stadium quod quintena vulgariter dicitur, vires proprias & equorum curfus funt experti. He then proceeds to ftate that fome of the King's pages, and others belonging to the houfhold, being offended at these sports, abused the Londoners with foul language, calling them fcurvy clowns and greafy rascals, and ventured to difpute the prize with them; the confequence of which was, that the Londoners received them very briskly, and fo belaboured their backs with the broken lances, that they were either put to flight, or tumbled from their horses and moft terribly bruifed. They afterwards went before the King, the tears still trickling from their eyes, and complained of their treatment, beseeching that he would not fuffer fo great an offence to remain unpunifhed; and the King, with his ufual fpirit of revenge, extorted from the citizens a very large fine. So far M. Paris; but Mr. Malone has through some mistake cited Robertus Monachus, who wrote before M. Paris, and has left an extremely curious account of the Crusades. He is describing the arrival of fome meifengers from Babylon, who, upon entering the Chriftian camp, find to their great astonishment (for they had heard that the Chriftians were perishing with fear and hunger) the tents curiously ornamented, and the young men practifing themselves and their horfes in tilting against shields hung upon poles. In the oldeft edition of this writer, instead of" quintane ludus," it is "ludus equeftris." However, this is certainly not the quintain that is here wanted, and therefore Mr. Malone has substituted another, copied indeed from a contemporary writer, but ftill not illuftrative of the paffage in queftion. I fhall beg leave then to prefent the reader with fome others, from which it will appear, that the quintain was a military exercise in Shakspeare's time, and not a mere rustie fport, as Mr. Malone imagines. No. 1, is copied from an initial letter in an Italian book, printed in 1560. Here is the figure of a man placed upon the trunk of a tree, holding in one hand a fhield, in the other a bag of fand. No. 2, is the Saracen quintain from Pluvinel, inftruction du Roi Louis XIII. dans l'exercife de monter à cheval. This fort of quintain, according to Meneftrier, was invented by the Germans, who, from their frequent wars with the Turks, accustomed their foldiers to point their lances against the figure of their enemy. The fkill confifted in fhivering the lance to pieces, by ftriking it against the head of the man, for if it touched the fhield, the figure turned round and generally ftruck the horseman a violent blow with his fword. No. 3, is the Flemish quintain, copied from a print after Wouvermans; it is called La bague Flamande, from the ring which the figure holds in his left hand; and here the object was to take away ring with the point of the lance, for if it ftruck any other part, the man turned round and hit the rider with his fand-bag. This is a mixture of the quintain and running at the ring, which two fports have been fome how or other in like manner confounded by the Italians, who fometimes exprefs the running at the ring by correre alla quintana. The principle of all these was the the fame, viz. to avoid the blow of the fword or fand-bag, by striking the quintain in a particular place. It might have been expected that fome inftance had been given of the use of these quintains in England; and for want of it an objection may be taken to this method of illuftrating the prefent fubject: but let it be remembered, that Shakspeare has indifcriminately blended the ufages of all nations; that he has oftentimes availed himself of hearfay evidence; and again, that as our manners and cuftoms have at all times been borrowed from the French and other nations, there is every reafon to infer that this fpecies of the quintain had found its way into England. It is hardly needful to add, that a knowledge of very many of our ancient sports and domestic employments is not now to be attained. Hiftorians have contented themselves to record the vices of kings and princes, and the minutiæ of battles and fieges; and, with very few exceptions, they have considered the difcuffion of private manners (a theme perhaps equally interefting to pofterity) as beneath their notice, and of little or no importance. As a military sport or exercise, the use of the quintain is very ancient, and may be traced even among the Romans. It is mentioned in Juftinian's Code, Lib. III. tit. 43; and its moft probable etymology is from " Quintus," the name of its inventor. In the days of chivalry it was the fubftitute or rehearsal of tilts and tournaments, and was at length adopted, though in a ruder way, by the common people, becoming amongst them a very favourite amusement. Many inftances occur of its use in feveral parts of France, particularly as a feignorial right exacted from millers, watermen, new-married men, and others; when the party was obliged, under fome penalty, to run at the quintain upon Whitfunday and other particular times, at the lord's caftle, for his diverfion. Sometimes it was practifed upon the water, and then the quintain was either placed in a boat, or erected in the middle of the river. Something of this kind is described from Fitzftephen by Stowe in his Survey, p. 143, edit. 1618, 4to. and still continues to be practifed upon the Seine at Paris. Froiffart mentions, that the fhield quintain was used in Ireland in the reign of Richard II. In Wales it is ftill practifed at weddings, and at the village of Offham, near Town Malling in Kent, there is now ftanding a quintain, resembling that copied from Stowe, oppofite the dwelling-houfe of a family that is obliged under fome tenure to fupport it; but I do not find that any use has been ever made of it within the recollection of the inhabitants. "I am Shakspeare then has moft probably alluded to that fort of quintain which resembled the human figure; and if this be the cafe, the speech of Orlando may be thus explained : unable to thank you; for, furprized and fubdued by love, my intellectual powers, which are my better parts, fail me; and I refemble the quintain, whose human or active part being thrown down, there remains nothing but the lifeless trunk or block which once upheld it." Or, if better parts do not refer to the quintain, "that which here ftands up" means the human part of the quintain, which may be alfo not unaptly called a lifeless block. DOUCE. |