and he derives it from the Anglo-Saxon bred, which is usually translated fraus. The ordinary sense is that which Palsgrave gives in his Dictionary, 1530, 'hastynesse of mynde.' For this reference I have to thank the Rev. A. Dyce, and it accords with the sense given in Sir F. Madden's Glossary to Syr Gawayne.' At a braid,' or on a sudden, is a not unusual expression; the meaning of Diana might, therefore, possibly be, that Frenchmen are so hasty and sudden; but this is hardly consistent with what she has previously said of them." COLLIER. "Braid-crafty, according to Steevens. Horne Tooke has a curious notion that the word here means brayed—as a fool is said to be in a mortar. Mr. Richardson, in his Dictionary, considers that in this passage it bears the sense of violent." KNIGHT. The remark of Richardson (imperfectly quoted by Mr. Knight) is" The word appears to refer to the suddenness and violence with which Bertram had wooed her:" and, no doubt, there is suddenness and violence implied by the word, but not, I apprehend, in the sense which Richardson supposes. Braid seems to be equivalent here to violent in desire, lustful;' Diana alluding to that licentiousness in Bertram, with which his countrymen have been often charged; Cholmeley. If 'a take my wife, 'a shall finde her meate. If these hott Frenchemen needsly will haue sporte, They should in kindnesse yet deffraye the charge." Sir Thomas More, a play,—MS. Harl. 7368, fol. 5. ACT V. SCENE 3.-C. p. 304; K. p. 433. "Which better than the first, O, dear heaven, bless! Mr. Collier ought to have retained (with Mr. Knight) the reading of the first folio, "cesse," on account of the rhyme. TWELFTH-NIGHT. [Vol. iii. COLLIER; vol. iii. KNIGHT.] ACT I. SCENE 5.-C. p. 340. I protest, I take these wise men, that crow so at these set kind of fools, no better than the fools' zanies." "Douce says, that 'fools' zanies' in the text means 'fools' baubles,' which had upon the top of them the head of a fool." COLLier. Douce's explanation is strangely wrong. "The fools' zanies" is equivalent to the buffoons, or mimics, of the fools.' Zany, both as a substantive and verb, is commonly used in that sense by our early writers; "Most worthy man, with thee it is euen thus, As men take Dottrels, so hast thou ta'n vs; Thou art the Fowler, and doest shew vs shapes, And we are all thy Zanies, thy true Apes." Verses on Coryate by Drayton, in the Odcombian Laughes them to scorne, as man doth busie apes Marston's Antonios Reuenge, 1602, sig. G 2. "The word 'stoop,' says Reed, is derived from the Belgic, and is equivalent to a measure of two quarts." COLLIER. "Stoop," which means here 'cup,' is a word applied to vessels of various kinds and sizes. Could Reed or Mr. Collier suppose that when Sir Toby calls out in his niece's house for a stoop of wine," he expects two quarts to be brought to him? 66 or that the "stoops of wine," which the King in Hamlet (act v. sc. 2) orders to be set upon the table, contain that measure exactly? SCENE 2.-C. p. 353. I sent thee sixpence for thy lemon: hadst it?" "The word is spelt "lemon" in the old copies, and the meaning may only be, that Sir Andrew sent the Clown sixpence in return for, or to buy a lemon. On the other hand, Sir Andrew may have sent the sixpence to the Clown's mistress or sweet-heart," &c. COLLIEr. "Lemon"!! The obvious correction "leman," i. e. sweetheart, was first made by Theobald: nor did any of his successors, except Mr. Collier, ever dream of retaining the error of the old eds. SCENE 3.-C. p. 358. "if I do not gull him into a nayword, and make him a common recreation, do not think I have wit enough to lie straight in my bed." "i. e. a byeword, says Steevens. Lexicographers quote no other instances of its use, but from Shakespeare. In the old copies it is printed an ayword,' and perhaps that is the true reading, the meaning being an everlasting word:' 'ay' is ever. In 'The Merry Wives of Windsor,' however, it stands 'nayword' in the folios." COLLIER. The explanation of Steevens is right. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia gives "Nay-word. Nay-word. . . . A bye-word; a laughing-stock." "Malone appositely quotes the following passage, from Chaucer's 'Testament of Creseyde,'" &c. COLLIER. In Chaucer's Testament of Cresseyde,'" &c. KNIGHT. The poem in question was written, not by Chaucer, but by Robert Henryson. “I will construe to them whence you come." Here Mr. Knight properly retains the reading of the old eds., "conster," a form which is repeatedly found in our early writers; We must not conster hereof as you mean." Peele's Arr. of Paris,—Works, i. 24, ed. 1829. "Nor his subtill nature conster, Borne a man, but dyes a monster." Marston's Insatiate Countesse, sig. K. ed. 1613. "And that which you were apt to conster A simple innocence in me," &c. Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster, act ii. sc. 1. Conster me that." Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady, act iii. sc. 1. "Men are so captious the'ile euer conster ill." Heywood's Fayre Maide of the Exchange, sig. B 4, ed. 1625. Doe I want money? let me conster this." Marmyon's Fine Companion, 1633, sig. D 4. See too Butler's Hudibras, p. i. c. iii. 1214. Even Pope writes, "Lord William will conster this Latine, if you send it to Thistleworth." Letter to the Duchess of Hamilton,-Add. to Works, 1776, vol. ii. 2. SCENE 4.-C. p. 392; K. p. 211. “He is knight, dubbed with unhatch'd rapier, and on carpet consideration." An unhatched rapier' is an unhacked rapier, from the Fr. hacher." COLLIER. "The knights of peace," says Mr. Knight ( Illustrations of act iii.' p. 218,) mayors, and justices, and serjeants-at-law, and physicians— grave men who hate a hatched rapier, which has seen service, as bitterly as King James, are called carpet knights, according to Randle Holme, &c." In Shirley's Love in a Maze, act ii. sc. 2, we find; .... "i. e.," says Gifford, "ornamented with a white or silvery beard. This . . . explains the passage in Troilus and Cressida [act i. sc. 3], As venerable Nestor hatch'd in silver,' on which the commentators have wasted so many words. Literally, to hatch is to inlay [originally, I believe, to cut, engrave, mark with lines]; metaphorically, it is to adorn, to beautify, with silver, gold, &c.," [also to colour or stain]. Shirley's Works, ii. 301. That the word hatch was particularly applied to the ornamenting of weapons, might be shewn from many examples besides the following; "Who first shall wound through others armes, his blood appear ing fresh, Shall win this sword, siluerd, and hatcht." καλόν. Chapman's Iliads of Homer, b. xxiii. p. 324. [τόδε φάσγανον ἀργυρόηλον, v. 807.] "Dote on my horse well trapp'd, my sword well hatch'd." Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca, act ii. sc. 2. Hatching, is to silver or gild the hilt and pomell of a sword or hanger :" R. Holme's Ac. of Armory, 1688, b. iii. p. 91. Hatched (as a sword-hilt), reticulatus." Coles's Dict. See too Cotgrave's Dict. in v. hacher. Now, since hatch was a very common technical term for the ornamenting of weapons, is there any probability that Shakespeare would have employed the expression "unhatched rapier” in the sense of 'unhacked rapier?' Surely not. An "unhatched rapier" could only mean an unornamented rapier;' which does not suit the context, for carpet-knights were most likely to have the ceremony performed with a highly-ornamented sword. But, it may be asked, is "unhatched rapier" equivalent to 'a rapier unstained with blood?' The following passages of Beaumont and Fletcher, among many others which might be adduced, will shew distinctly that such an elliptical expression could never have been employed; "Come, sons of honour, True virtue's heirs, thus hatch'd with Britain-blood," &c. |