A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Viii Part 104

--Milton's "Comus."

There are several kinds of moly, and one of them distinguished among horticulturists as Homer's moly. Sir T. Brown thus quaintly renders two lines in the "Odyssey" relating to it--

"The G.o.ds it _Moly_ call whose root to dig away Is dangerous unto man, but G.o.ds they all things may."

[270] [Displeased.]

[271] [Old copy, _whindling_. See Halliwell, _v. Whimlen_. There is also _windilling_; but the word is one of those terms of contempt used by early writers rather loosely.]

[272] These two lines are taken, with a slight change, from the ballad of "The Jolly Finder of Wakefield." See Ritson's "Robin Hood," ii. 16--

"In Wakefleld there lives a jolly pinder, In Wakefield all on a green," &c.

[273] [Old copy, _monuments_.]

[274] Ritson ("Notes and Ill.u.s.trations to Robin Hood," i. 62) observes correctly that Fitzwater confounds one man with another, and that Harold Harefoot was the son and successor of Canute the Great.

[275] [Old copy, _them_.]

[276] "_In_ a trice" is the usual expression. See a variety of instances collected by Mr Todd in his Dictionary, but none of them have it "_with_ a trice," as in this place. The old copy prints the ordinary abbreviation for _with_, which may have been misread by the printer.

[_With_ is no doubt wrong, and has been altered.]

[277] The scenes are marked, though incorrectly, in the old copy thus far; but the rest of the play is only divided by the _exits_ or entrances of the characters.

[278] Jenny, a country wench, uses the old word _straw'd_; but when the author speaks afterwards in the stage direction, he describes Marian as "_strewing_ flowers." Shakespeare has _o'er-strawed_ in "Venus and Adonis," perhaps for the sake of the rhyme.

[279] [i.e., Over.]

[280] [Old copy, _of_.]

[281] Formerly considered an antidote for poison. Sir Thomas Brown was not prepared to contradict it: he says, that "Lapis Lasuli hath in it a purgative faculty, we know: that _Bezoar is antidotal_, Lapis Judaicus diuretical, Coral antipileptical, we will not deny."--"Vulgar Errors,"

edit. 1658, p. 104. He also (p. 205) calls it the _Bezoar nut_, "for, being broken, it discovereth a kernel of a leguminous smell and taste, bitter, like a lupine, and will swell and sprout if set in the ground."

Harts-horn shavings were also considered a preservative against poison.

[282] [From what follows presently it may be inferred that the king temporarily retires, although his exit or withdrawal is not marked.]

[283] The old word for _convent_: Covent-Garden, therefore, is still properly called.

[284] The _grate_ of a vintner was no doubt what is often termed in old writers the _red lattice, lettice_, or _chequers_, painted at the doors of vintners, and still preserved at almost every public-house. See note 24 to "The Miseries of Enforced Marriage."

[285] The 4to reads--

"In the highway That joineth to the _power_."

[286] Robin Hood advises his uncle to insist upon his plea of _privilegium clericale_, or benefit of clergy--

"Stand to your clergy, uncle; save your life."

"Originally the law was held that no man should be admitted to the privilege of clergy, but such as had the _habitum et tonsuram clericalem_. But in process of time a much wider and more comprehensive criterion was established; every one that could read (a mark of great learning in those days of ignorance and her sister superst.i.tion) being accounted a clerk or _clericus_, and allowed the benefit of clerks.h.i.+p, though neither initiated in holy orders, nor trimmed with the clerical tonsure."--Blackstone's "Com.," iv. b. iv, ch. 28. We have already seen that the king and n.o.bles in this play called in the aid of Friar Tuck to read the inscription on the stag's collar, though the king could ascertain that it was in Saxon characters.

[287] This account of the death of Robin Hood varies from all the popular narratives and ballads. The MS. Sloan, 715, nu. 7, f. 157, agrees with the ballad in Ritson, ii. 183, that he was treacherously bled to death by the Prioress of Kirksley.

[288] The first act has already occupied too much s.p.a.ce, but it was difficult to divide it: in fact, as Friar Tuck says, it is a "short play," complete in itself. What follows is an induction to the rest of the story, the Friar continuing on the stage after the others have gone out.

[289] The 4to. reads thus--

"Apollo's _master doone_ I invocate,"

but probably we ought to read--

"Apollo's _masterdom_ I invocate,"

and the text has been altered accordingly. _Masterdom_ means _power, rule_; to invocate Apollo's masterdom is therefore to invocate Apollo's power to a.s.sist the Friar in his undertaking.

[290] _Enter in black_ is the whole of the stage direction, and those who enter are afterwards designated by the letters _Cho_. Perhaps the princ.i.p.al performers arrive attired in black, and are mentioned as _Chorus_, one speaking for the rest. _Cho_. may, however, be a misprint for _Chester_, who was sent in to "attire him."

[291] [In the new edit. of Nares the present pa.s.sage is cited for _ill-part_, which is queried to mean _ill-conditioned_. Perhaps it is equivalent to _malapert_.]

[292] [Old copy, _de Brun_.] "John married Isabel, the daughter and heiress of the Earl of Angoulesme, who was before affianced to _Hugh le Brun_, Earl of March (a peer of great estate and excellence in France), by the consent of King Richard, in whose custody she then was."

--Daniel's "History of England."

[293] [Old copy, _lose_.]

[294] _Led by the F.K. and L_. means, as afterwards appears, the _French king_, and _Lord_ Hugh le Brun, Earl of North March.

[295] The entrance of Bonville is omitted in the 4to.

[296] These _Lords_, as we afterwards find, are old Aubrey de Vere, Hubert, and Mowbray.

[297] [Old copy, _troops_.]

[298] [Old copy, _triumphs_.]

[299] Lodge was in the habit of using the adjective for the substantive, especially _fair_ for _fairness_; one example is enough--

"Some, well I wot, and of that sum full many, Wisht or my _faire_ or their desire were lesse."

--_Scilla's Metamorphosis_, 1589.

See also note to "The Wounds of Civil War" (vol. vii. p. 118).

Shakespeare may be cited in many places besides the following--

"My decayed _fair_ A sunny look of his would soon repair."

--_Comedy of Errors_, act ii. sc. 1.

See Steevens's note on the above pa.s.sage.

[300] The King calls him in the old copy _good Oxford_, but Oxford is not present, and from what follows we see that the command was given to Salisbury. The same mistake is again made by Hubert in this scene.

Salisbury must be p.r.o.nounced _Sal'sb'ry_.