Chapter XX: Act III: SCENE 1. Page 97

VIO. Dost thou live by thy _tabor_?

This instrument is found in the hands of fools long before the time of Shakspeare. With respect to _the sign of the tabor_ mentioned in the notes, it might, as stated, have been _the designation of a musick shop_; but that it was _the sign of an eating-house kept by Tarleton_ is a mistake into which a learned commentator has been inadvertently betrayed. It appears from Tarleton's _Jests_, 1611, 4to, that he kept a tavern in Gracious [Gracechurch] street, at the sign of the _Saba_. This is the person who in our _modern_ bibles is called the _queen of Sheba_, and the sign has been corrupted into that of the _bell-savage_, as may be gathered from the inedited metrical _romance of Alexander_, supposed to have been written at the beginning of the fourteenth century by Adam Davie, who, in describing the countries visited by his hero, mentions that of _Macropy_ (the _Macropii_ of Pliny), and adds,

"In heore[4] lond is a cité
On of the noblest in Christianté[5];
Hit hotith[6] _Sabba_ in langage.
Thennes cam _Sibely savage_,
Of al theo world theo fairest quene,
To Jerusalem, Salamon to seone[7]
For hire fairhed[8], and for hire love,
Salamon forsok his God above."

_Sibely savage_, as a proper name, is another perversion of _si belle sauvage_; and though the lady was supposed to have come from the remotest parts of Africa, and might have been as black as a Negro, we are not now to dispute the superlative beauty of the mistress of Salomon, here converted into a Savage. It must be admitted that the queen of Sheba was as well adapted to a sign as the wise men of the East, afterwards metamorphosed into the three kings of Cologne.

Mr. Pegge, in his _Anecdotes of the English language_, p. 291, informs us that a friend had seen a lease of the Bell Savage inn to _Isabella Savage_; "which," says he, "overthrows the conjectures about a bell and a savage, _la belle sauvage_, &c." It is probable that the learned writer's friend was in some way or other deceived. The date of the instrument is not mentioned; and if the above name really appeared in the lease, it might have been an accidental circumstance at a period not very distant. Mr. Pegge was likewise not aware that the same sign, corrupted in like manner, was used on the continent.

SCENE 2. Page 109.

SIR TO. Go write it in a martial hand; be _curst_ and _brief_.

Of the latter sentence Dr. Johnson has not given the exact explanation. It alludes to the proverb, "A curst _cur_ must be tied _short_."

SCENE 4. Page 120.

SIR TO. What, man! defy the Devil: consider, he's an _enemy_ to
mankind.

It was very much the practice with old writers, both French and English, to call the Devil, _the enemy_, by way of pre-eminence, founded perhaps on the words of Christ in _Luke_ x. 19. Thus at the beginning of the _Roman de Merlin, MS._ "Mult fu iriez _li anemis_ quant nre sires ot este en anfer;" and see other examples in Barbasan's glossary to the _Ordene de chevalerie_, 1759, 12mo, in v. _Anemi_. The cause of the Devil's wrath in the above instance, was the liberation of Adam, Noah, and many other saints and patriarchs from the purgatorial torments which they had endured. In a most curious description of hell in _Examples howe mortall synne maketh the synners inobedyentes to have many paynes and doloures within the fyre of hell_, b. l. no date, 12mo, the Devil is thus referred to: "Come than after me, and I shal shewe unto the _the ryght cursed enemye_ of humayne lygnage." And again, "About _the enemy_ there were so many devyls and of cursed and myserable soules that no man myght beleve that of all the worlde from the begynnynge myght be yssued and brought forth so many soules." Sometimes he was called the _enemy of hell_, as in Larke's _Boke of wisdome_, b. l. no date, 12mo, where it is said that "_the enemye of hell_ ought to be doubted of every wise man." This note may serve also in further explanation of the line in _Macbeth_, Act III. Scene 1,

"Given to the common _enemy_ of man."

It is remarkable that the Devil should be likewise called _the enemy of mankind_ in the East. See Gladwin's _Persian moon-shee_, part ii. p. 23.

SCENE 4. Page 120.

FAB. Carry his water to _the wise woman_.

Here may be a direct allusion to one of the two ladies of this description mentioned in the following passage from Heywood's play of _The wise woman of Hogsdon_; "You have heard of _Mother Notingham_, who for her time was prettily well skill'd in _casting of waters_: and after her, _Mother Bombye_." The latter is sometimes alluded to by Gerarde the Herbalist, who, speaking of the properties of vervain, says, "you must observe _mother Bumbies_ rules to take just so many knots or sprigs, and no more, least it fall out so that it do you no good, if you catch no harme by it." _Historie of plants_, p. 581.

Lilly's comedy of _Mother Bombie_ is well known. The several occupations of these impostors are thus described in the above play by Heywood: "Let me see how many trades have I to live by: First, I am _a wise-woman_, and a fortuneteller, and under that I deale in physicke and forespeaking, in palmistry, and recovering of things lost. Next, I undertake to cure madd folkes. Then I keepe gentlewomen lodgers, to furnish such chambers as I let out by the night: Then I am provided for bringing young wenches to bed; and, for a need, you see I can play the match-maker. Shee that is but one, and professeth so many, may well be tearmed _a wise-woman_, if there bee any." Such another character was _Julian of Brentford_, mentioned in the _Merry wives of Windsor_. These persons were sometimes called _cunning_ and _looming_ women.

SCENE 4. Page 121.

SIR TO. Come, we'll have him in a _dark room_, and bound. My niece
is already in the belief that he is _mad_.

The reason for putting Malvolio into a _dark room_ was to make _him_ believe that he was _mad_; for a _madhouse_ seems formerly to have been called a _dark-house_. In the next act Malvolio says, "Good Sir Topas, do not think I am _mad_, they have laid me here in _hideous darkness_." And again, "I say this _house is dark_." In Act V. he asks, "Why have you suffer'd me to be imprison'd, kept in _a dark-house_?" In _As you like it_, Act III. Scene 1, Rosalind says that "love is a _madness_, and deserves as well _a dark-house_ and a whip, as madmen do." Edward Blount, in the second dedication to his _Hospitall of incurable fooles_, 1600, 4to, a translation from the Italian, requests of the person whom he addresses to take on him the office of patron or treasurer to the hospital; and that if any desperate censurer shall stab him for assigning his office or place, he presently take him into _the dark ward_: and in the same work, certain idle fools are consigned to the _darksome guesthouse of their madness_.

SCENE 4. Page 124.

OLI. I have said too much unto a heart of stone, and laid mine
honour too unchary _on't_.

This is the reading of the old copy, which has been unnecessarily disturbed at Theobald's suggestion by substituting _out_. It might be urged that _laying honour out_ is but an awkward phrase. The old text simply means, I have _placed_ my honour too incautiously _upon_ a heart of stone. The preceding note had shown that adjectives are often used adverbially by Shakspeare.

SCENE 4. Page 127.

SIR TO. He is a knight, dubb'd with _unhack'd rapier_, and on
_carpet_ consideration.

The original word is _unhatch'd_, and if any alteration be admitted it should be _an hatch'd_, for the first reason assigned in Mr. Malone's ingenious note. Sir Toby says that his brother knight was no hero dubbed in the field of battle, but a carpet knight made at home in time of peace with a sword of ceremony richly _gilt or engraved_. In _Don Quixote_, the damsel whom Sancho finds wandering in the streets of Barataria disguised as a man, is furnished with "a very faire _hatched_ dagger," chap. 49 of Shelton's translation. In _The tragical history of Jetzer_, 1683, 18mo, mention is made of "a sword richly _hatcht_ with silver." Thus much in support of the above slight alteration of the old reading. The second conjecture of Mr. Malone, that _unhatcht_ might have been used in the sense of _unhack'd_, deserves much attention; but there was no necessity for introducing the latter word into the text. To _hatch_ a sword has been thought to signify to _engrave_ it; but it appears from Holme's _Academy of armory_, B. iii. p. 91, that "_hatching_, is _to silver or gild_ the hilt and pomell of a sword or hanger."

With respect to _carpet_ knights, they were sometimes called knights of the _green cloth_. For this information we are also indebted to Holme, who, in his above cited work, B. iii. p. 57, informs us that "all such as have studied law, physic, or any other arts and sciences whereby they have become famous and serviceable to the court, city, or state, and thereby have merited honour, worship, or dignity, from the sovereign and fountain of honour; if it be the King's pleasure to knight any such persons, seeing they are not knighted as soldiers, they are not therefore to use the horseman's title or spurs; they are only termed simply _miles et milites, knights of the carpet or knights of the green cloth_, to distinguish them from knights that are dubbed as soldiers in the field; though in these our days they are created or dubbed with the like ceremony as the others are, by the stroak of a naked sword upon their shoulder, with the words, _Rise up Sir T. A. knight_."

ACT IV.

SCENE 1. Page 136.

CLO. I am afraid this great _lubber the world_ will prove a cockney.

A typographical corruption seems to have crept into this place from similitude of sound; but a very slight alteration will restore the sense. The clown is speaking of _vent_ as an affected word; and we should therefore read "this great _lubberly word_ will prove a cockney," i. e. will turn out to be cockney language.

SCENE 2. Page 140.

CLO. For as _the old hermit of Prague_----

Not the celebrated heresiarch Jerome of Prague, but another of that name born likewise at Prague, and called _the hermit of Camaldoli_ in Tuscany.

SCENE 2. Page 141.

CLO. Say'st thou that _house_ is dark?

This Mr. Malone conceives to be _a pompous appellation for the small room_ in which Malvolio was confined; but it seems to be merely the designation of a madhouse. See the preceding note on Act III. Scene 4, p. 121.