With danger; o'er our heads, with sail-stretch'd wings, Cleon. When arrives he? Archid. The braveries [Shouts within ; then a flourish of trumpets. Archid. Which confirms Cleon. I'll lock up Corinth Have vimble fingers, and I fear them more, Being within our walls, than those of Carthage; They are far off, o'er our heads, with sail-stretch'd wings, Destruction hovers, &c.] See Vol. I. p. 141. 8 Archid. The braveries Of Syracusa, &c.] i. e. the young nobility, the gay and fashionable gallants of the city. Thus Clerimont, in his description of Sir Amorous La-Foole, observes that she is one of the braveries, though he be none of the wits.” The Silent Woman. 7 Archid. And, ladies, be it your care To welcome him and his followers with all duty: For rest resolved, their hands and swords must keep you In that full height of happiness you live; A dreadful change else follows. [Exeunt Archidamus, Cleon, and Diphilus. Olymp. We are instructed. Coris. I'll kiss him for the honour of my country, With any she in Corinth.' Olymp. Were he a courtier, I've sweatmeat in my closet shall content him, Be his palate ne'er so curious. Coris. And, if need be, I have a couch and a banqueting-house in my orchard, Where many a man of honour' has not scorn'd Te spend an afternoon. Olymp. These men of war, , Coris. I'll kiss him for the honour of my country, With any she in Corinth.] The reputation of the Corinthian ladies stood high among the ancients for gallantry; and to this Corisca alludes. 1 Coris. And if need be, I have a couch and a banqueting-house in my orchard, Where many a man of honour &c.] Our old plays are full of allusions to these garden-houses, which appear to have been often abused to the purposes of debauchery. A very homely passage from Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 1599, will make all this plain: “In the suberbes of the citie, they (the women) have gardens either paled or walled round about very high, with their harbers and bowers fit for the purpose ; and lest they might be espied in these open places, they have their banqueting-houses, with galleries, turrets, and what not, therein sumptuously erected; wherein they may, and doubtless do, many of them, play the filthy persons." See too, the City Madam. I need not observe that the poet, like his contemporaries, gives the customs, &c. of his native land to his foreign scene. He speaks, indeed, of Syracuse; but he thinks only of London, See p. 34. ; As I have heard, know not to court a lady. wards; stomachs, Fall roundly to it. Coris. 'Troth, I like them the better : Olymp. We may commend guage, His singing, dancing, riding of great horses, The wearing of his clothes, his fair complexion; Take presents from him, and extol his bounty: Yet, though he observe, and waste his estate upon us, If he be staunch,' and bid not for the stock 2 and waste his state upon us,] Every where the modern editors print this word with the mark of elision, as if it were contracted from estate: but it is not so: state is the genuine word, and is used by all our old poets, and by Massinger himself, in many hundred places, where we should now write and print estate. I may incidentally observe here, that many terms which are now used with a mark of elision, and supposed to have suffered an aphæresis, are really and substantially per. fect. In some cases, the Saxon prefix has been corrupted into a component part of the word, and in others, prepositions have been added in the progress of refinement, for the sake of eu. phony, or metre; but, generally speaking, the simple term is the complete one. 3 If he be staunch, &c.] I don't think that staunch can be That we were born to traffic with; the truth is, We care not for his company. Coris. Musing, Cleora? sense in this passage ; we should probably read starch'd, that is precise, formal. M. Mason. This is a singular conjecture. Let the reader peruse again Olympia's description, which is that of a complete gentleman; and then say what there is of starched, formal, or precise, in it. Staunch is as good a word as she could have chosen, and is here used in its proper sense for steady, firm, full of integrity : and her meaning is, “ if, with all the accomplishments of a fine gen. tleman, be possesses the fixed principles of a man of honour, and does not attempt to debauch us, he is not for our purpose.' When I wrote this, I had not seen the appendix which is subjoined to some copies of the last edition. Mr.M.Mason has there revised his note, and given his more mature thoughts on the subject : 66 On the first consideration of this passage, I did not apprehend that the word staunch could import any meaning that would render it intelligible, and I therefore amended the passage by reading starch'd instead of staunch ; but I have since found a similar acceptation of that word in Jonson's Silent Woman, where Truewit says: 'If your mistress love valour, talk of your sword, and be frequent in the mention of quarrels, though you be staunch in fighting.' This is one of the many instances that may be produced to prove how necessary it is for the editor of any ancient dramatic writer, to read with attention the other dramatic productions of the time.” I participate in Mr. M. Mason's self-congratulations on this important discovery, and will venture to suggest another, still more important, which appears to have eluded his researches : it is simply the necessity for the editor of any ancient dra. matic writer to read with attention that dramatic writer himself.” But what, after all, does Mr. M. Mason imagine that he has found out? and what is the sense which he would finally affix to staunch? these are trifles which he has omitted to mention. I can discover nothing from his long note, but that he misunderstands Jonson now, as he misunderstood Massinger before. Each of these great poets uses the word in its proper and ordinary sense : “ Though you be staunch in fighting,” says Truewit, (i. e. really brave, and consequently not prone to boasting,) “yet, to please your mistress, you must talk of your sword,” &c. As I have heard, know not to court a lady. They cannot praise our dressings, kiss our hands, Usher us to our litters, tell love-stories, Commend our feet and legs, and so search upwards; A sweet becoming boldness! they are rough, Boisterous, and saucy, and at the first sight Ruffle and touze us, and, as they find their stomachs, Fall roundly to it. Coris. "Troth, I like them the better: Olymp. We may commend A gentleman's modesty, manners, and fine lan-guage, His singing, dancing, riding of great horses, The wearing of his clothes, his fair complexion; Take presents from him, and extol his bounty: Yet, though he observe, and waste his estate upon us, 2 If he be staunch,3 and bid not for the stock and waste his state upon us,] Every where the modern editors print this word with the mark of elision, as if it were contracted from estate: but it is not so: state is the genuine word, and is used by all our old poets, and by Massinger himself, in many hundred places, where we should now write and print estate. I may incidentally observe here, that many terms which are now used with a mark of elision, and supposed to have suffered an apheresis, are really and substantially perfect. In some cases, the Saxon prefix has been corrupted into a component part of the word, and in others, prepositions have been added in the progress of refinement, for the sake of euphony, or metre ; but, generally speaking, the simple term is the complete one. 3 If he be staunch, &c.] I don't think that staunch can be |