Chapter XXXI: Act V: SCENE 1. Page 524

LEON. His _May of youth_, and bloom of _lustyhood_.

An allusion to these lines in the old calendars that describe the state of man:

"As in the month of _Maye_ all thyng is in myght
So at xxx yeres man is in chyef lykyng.
Pleasaunt and _lusty_, to every mannes syght
In beaute and strength, to women pleasyng."

In the _Notbrowne mayde_ we have the expression _lusty May_. Capel's edit. p. 6. Roger Ascham, speaking of young men, says; "It availeth not to see them well taught in yong yeares, and after when they come to _lust and youthfull dayes_, to give them licence to live as they _lust_ themselves." _Scholemaster_, 1571, fo. 13. See a former note in p. 45.

SCENE 1. Page 529.

CLAUD. If he be, [angry] he knows how to turn his girdle.

Mr. Holt White's ingenious note may be supported by the following passage in Carew's _Survey of Cornwall_, 1602, 4to. p. 76: the author is speaking of wrestling. "This hath also his lawes, of taking hold onely above girdle, wearing a girdle to take hold by, playing three pulles, for tryall of the mastery, &c."

SCENE 4. Page 554.

BENE. Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife; there
is no _staff_ more reverend than one _tipp'd with horn_.

In this comparison the prince is the staff, and the question is what sort of a one is here alluded to. Messrs. Steevens, Reed, and Malone, conceive it to be the staff used in the ancient trial by wager of battle; but this seems to have but small claim to be entitled _reverend_. On the contrary, as the combatants were of the meaner class of people, who were not allowed to make use of edged weapons, the higher ranks usually deciding the business by hired champions, it cannot well be maintained that much, if any, reverence belongs to such a staff. It is possible, therefore, that Shakspeare, whose allusions to _archery_ are almost as frequent as they are to cuckoldom, might refer to the _bowstaff_, which was usually tipped with a piece of horn at each end, to make such a notch for the string as would not wear, and at the same time to strengthen the bow, and prevent the extremities from breaking. It is equally possible that the walking-sticks or staves used by _elderly_ people might be intended, which were often headed or _tipped_ with a cross piece of _horn_, or sometimes amber. They seem to have been imitated from the _crutched_ sticks, or _potences_, as they were called, used by the friars, and by them borrowed from the celebrated _tau_ of St. Anthony. Thus in _The Canterbury tales_, the Sompnour describes one of his friars as having "a scrippe and _tipped staf_," and he adds that

"His felaw had _a staf tipped with horn_."

In these instances the epithet _reverend_ is much more appropriate than in the others.

* * * * *

Mrs. Lenox, assuming, with the same inaccuracy as had been manifested in her critique on _Measure for measure_, that Shakspeare borrowed his plot from Ariosto, proceeds to censure him for "poverty of invention, want of judgment, and wild conceits," deducing all her reasoning from false premises. This is certainly but a bad method of _illustrating_ Shakspeare.

MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.