King. [Reads.] Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's God, and body's fostering patron. Cost. Not a word of Costard yet. King. So it is, Cost. It may be so; but if he say it is so, he is, in telling true, but so. King. Peace! Cost. Be to me and every man that dares not fight. King. No words! 220 225 Cost. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King. So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the 230 222. true, but so] true: but so Qq, Ff; true, but so so Hanmer. 216. welkin] sky. See Iv. ii. 5. vicegerent] seems to have been a term affected by Philip of Spain. Greene in The Spanish Masquerado, 1589 (Grosart, v. 245, 281), refers twice to his "Vicegerentes of his Indies." Captain General of the Ocean" was another of his titles. In the transferred sense here it is used by Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, ii. 104: "The Devill himselfe, whose Vice-gerent... he showes himselfe to be" (1583). 217. dominator] lord, ruler. The word occurs again in Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 31, in an astrological sense. The only example of the word prior to Shakespeare, in the New Eng. Dict., is from Mirrour Saluacioun (circa 1450), applied to the Deity. Shakespeare is likely to have met it in Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie; chap. xvi. is headed "In what forme of Poesie the great Princes and dominators of the world were honored. 221. It may be so; but if he say it is so] This recalls the jingle in Much Ado About Nothing, 1. i. 219: "Like the old tale, my lord; it is not so, nor 'twas not so, but indeed God forbid it should be so." 222. but so] indifferent, not worth much. Equivalent to our "but so so," which occurs frequently in Shakespeare. The phrase "no more but so" was a favourite with Marlowe. 229. as I am a gentleman] frequent in Shakespeare. It occurs twice in The Merry Wives of Windsor. the 230-235. The time when place where] For "the manner what," see above, line 200. An early example of this classical mode of speech is in Gabriel Harvey's celebrated Judgement of Earthquakes (Grosart, i. 63), 1580: "We are to judge of as advisedly and providently, as possibly we can, by the consideration and comparison of circumstances, the tyme when: the place where: the qualities and dispositions of the persons, amongst whom such." Compare Wilson's Art of Rhetorique (1553): "Seven circumstances whiche are to be considered in diverse matters. Who, what, and where, by what helpe and by whose: Why how and when, doe many thinges disclose (1562 ed. fol. 9); and Dekker, The Belman of London (Grosart, iii. 83): "The first question hee demanded was, if he were stalled to the Rogue or no? The poore Hungarian answered, Yes, He was: then was he asked by Whom he was stalled, and Where, and in What manner of complement it was done." At the very end of the Arcadia there is another example. See also The Troublesome Raigne of King John (Shakes. Lib. ed. Hazlitt, p. 315), and The Schoole of Salerne, edited by Sir A. Cooke, 1830, p. 135. sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and Cost. Me? King, that unlettered small-knowing soul, 241. minnow] minion Johnson conj. me?] Ff, Qq, Globe; Me. . . . Me. ... 235. where]" when, where and how " occurs in Romeo and Juliet, 11. iii. 61, and in Richard II. III. iv. 79. 236. preposterous] entirely out of place, highly improper. Compare Nashe, Pasquils Returne (Grosart, i. 121), 1589: "A preposterous Humour noted in the Ecclesiasticall Histories." See Othello, Arden ed. p. 33. 237. ebon-coloured] Compare Greene, Tullies Love (Grosart, vii. 146), 1589: "Hir eyes like Ariadnes sparkling Starres Shone frome the Ebon Arches of hir browes." 239. north-north-east and] The points of the compass were very carefully attended to in the early "ordering of gardens." 240. curious-knotted garden] labyrinths and intricate patterns amongst the flower-beds were the glory of early gardeners. See Gervase Markham's Countrie Farme (Maison Rustique trans.), 1616, or H. Dethick, Gardeners' Labyrinth, 1577, for illustrations. See Sir Thos. Browne's Cyrus' Garden. Bacon, Essay of Gardens, writes: "for the Making of Knots, or Figures, with Diuers Coloured Earths... they be but Toyes: You may see as good sights, many times in Tarts" (1625). And compare Shirley, Gentleman of Venice, 1. ii. :— "When I am digging, he is cutting unicorns, And lions in some hedge, or else devising New knots upon the ground, drawing out crowns, Me? 242, 244, 246. Me? me. Hanmer, Steevens, Craig. And the duke's arms, castles and cannons in them: Here gallies, there a ship giving a broadside: Here out of turf he carves a senator With all his robes, making a speech to Time That grows hard by, and twenty curiosities, I think he means to embroider all the garden.' Chapter iii. in Parkinson's Paridisi in Sole Paradisus (1629) is devoted to this subject in The Ordering of Gardens. "Knot" and "flower-knot are still in use in Derry dialect. 240. low-spirited] base. Armado corrects here the modern use. 241. minnow] Compare Coriolanus, III. i. 89. A contemptible little person, a shrimp. Nashe, speaking of Gabriel Harvey, says: "Let him denie that there was another Shewe made of the little Minnow his brother. Whereupon Dicke came and broke the Colledge glasse windows" (Have With You to Saffron Walden [Grosart, iii. 118], 1596). Steevens refers to this passage. The parallel in Coriolanus is hardly good, since "minnows" there is merely a part of the Triton appellation, which may have been suggested by one of the spectacles presented to Elizabeth at Kenilworth in 1575. See Laneham's Letter. 243. unlettered] illiterate, ignorant. See Sonnet lxxxv. 6, and again in this play, IV. ii. 148; and Henry V. 1. i. 55. Nashe uses the term in A Wonderfull Cost. Me? King, that shallow vassal,— 245 > Cost. Still me? King, which, as I remember, hight Costard,— Cost. O! me. King, sorted and consorted, contrary to thy established proclaimed edict and continent canon, which with-O! with- 250 but with this I passion to say wherewith,— Cost. With a wench. King, with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him, I, as my everesteemed duty pricks me on, have sent to thee, to receive the 255 meed of punishment by thy sweet grace's officer, Anthony Dull, a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation. Dull. Me, an't shall please you; I am Anthony Dull. King. For Jaquenetta, -so is the weaker vessel called which I apprehended with the aforesaid swain, I keep her as a 260 vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet 250. which] with, Theobald. keep] Qq, Ff 2, 3, 4; keeper F 1. Prognostication (Grosart, ii. 161), 1591: "insomuch that sundrie unlettered fooles should creepe into the ministrie." 260. 254. sweet] omitted in Ff 2, 3, 4. 245. vassal] a country bumpkin, or clown. Collier's "Corrector" would read " vessel " here, which Dyce adopted. Compare Lodge's Euphues Golden Legacie (Shakes. Lib. 1875, p. 21), 1590: "In this humour was Saladyne making his brother Rosader his foote boy as if he had been the sonne of any country vassal." 249. sorted] associated. 250. continent canon] restraining canon; or canon enforcing restraint. This is the usual explanation, or choice of explanations, of Armado's words. But he may mean merely, in his pedantic way, the edict and the law contained therein. Ben Jonson uses the word similarly in Every Man out of his Humour, Induction : "So in every human body, The choler, melancholy flow continually In some part and are not continent." 259. weaker vessel] See 1 Peter iii. 7 for the expression applied to a wife. But the term was proverbial for any woman earlier than the time of this play. Greene has it twice in Mamillia (Grosart, ii. 95, 255), 1583: "They say a woman is the weaker vessel, but sure in my iudgement it is in the strength of her body, and not in the force of her minde"; and "women sure, whom they count the weake vessels, had more neede to be counselled than condemned." Lyly has it also in Euphues (Arber, p. 78): men are alwayes laying baites for women, which are the weaker vessels"; and again, in Sapho and Phao, I. iv. (1584): “I cannot but oftentimes smile to myselfe to heare men call us weaker vessels." 261. vessel] Compare Romans ix. 21, 22, 23 (Steevens). notice, bring her to trial. Thine in all compliments of DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that 265 ever I heard. King. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to this? Cost. Sir, I confess the wench. King. Did you hear the proclamation ? Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it. King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment to be taken with a wench. 270 Cost. I was taken with none, sir: I was taken with a 275 damsel. King. Well, it was proclaimed damsel. Cost. This was no damsel neither, sir: she was a virgin. King. It is so varied too, for it was proclaimed virgin. Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a 280 maid. King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir. King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week with bran and water. Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge. not 285 276. damsel] demsel Q1; damosell Ff, Q 2. ham's Kenilworth (1575): "Well, after 264. Adriano] Qq; Adriana Ff. 277, 278. damsel] Q1; damosel Ff, Q 2. 267. the best for the worst] Compare Dekker's Strange Horse-Race (Grosart, iii. 364) "The Masquers needing any Vizards (their owne visages beeing good enough because bad enough).' But Lyly gives the best parallel: "[Perim danceth] How like you this; doth he well? Diog. The better, the worse" (Campaspe, v. i.). Greene quotes this in Tritameron (Grosart, iii. 88), 1584: "I thinke of lovers as Diogenes did of dancers . . . the better the worse." 276. damsel] a girl. Some commentators preserve the old spelling and make a point of the signification " an unmarried lady of noble birth" (Halliwell). But the word was in ordinary use earlier than this time, as in Lane 279. varied] diversified in language. Compare Sonnet cv. 10, and see this play below, Iv. ii. 9. 285. bran and water] Compare Measure for Measure, Iv. iii. 160; and Nashe, Summer's Last Will (Grosart, vi. 122), 1592, quoted in the Arden edition of Measure for Measure. 286. mutton and porridge] muttonbroth. "Porridge" and "pottage" were used synonymously, the former probably formed in imitation of the latter King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper. These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. Sirrah, come on. 290 Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and 295 therefore welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow! SCENE II.-The Same. Enter ARMADO and MOTH. [Exeunt. Arm. Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit grows melancholy? Moth. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. Arm. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp. 293. Given to Dull in the Collier MS. Scene II. 5 Scene 11.] Capell; Scene III. Pope. Enter Armado...] Enter Armado a Braggart F 2. 3. Moth] Rowe et seq. and throughout scene; Boy. F 1, Q 1. 4, 7, II, etc. Arm(ado)] Qq; Brag., Bra. or Br. Ff. from purée. Cotgrave has "La purée 291. lay] bet. "I take six to one saies the Gripe, I lay it saies the vincent, and so they make a bet" (Greene, second part of Conny-catching [Grosart, x. 84], 1592). On the title-page of the same tract Greene has: "if you reade without laughing, Ile give you my cap for a noble"; and in A Look- 297, 298. sit. . . sorrow] See Iv. iii. 4. Scene 11. 5. imp] primarily a sapling, a young shoot; then a child, especially of noble origin; and, commonly, any child, though now chiefly limited to a "child of the devil." Compare Euphues (Arber, p. 108): "This is therefore to admonish all young Imps and novices in love, not to blow the coales of fancy with desire." |