Who, for twice feven years, hath esteemed him 2 Who, for twice feven years, &c.] In former editions: Who for this feven years hath esteemed him No better than a poor and loathfome beggar. I have ventured to alter a word here, against the authority of the printed copies; and hope, I shall be juftified in it by two fubfequent paffages. That the poet defigned the tinker's fuppofed lunacy fhould be of fourteen years standing at least, is evident upon two parallel paffages in the play to that purpose. THEOBALD. The remark is juft, but perhaps the alteration may be thought unneceffary by those who recollect that our author rarely reckons time with any great correctnefs. Both Falftaff and Orlando forget the true hour of their appointments. STEEVENS. In both these paffages the term mentioned is fifteen, not fourteen years. The fervants may well be fuppofed to forget the precife period dictated to them by their mafter, or, as is the cuftom of fuch perfons, to aggravate what they have heard. There is, therefore, in my opinion, no need of change. MALONE. hath esteemed him-] This is an error of the press :We should read himself, inftead of him. M. MASON. Him is used instead of himself, as you is ufed for yourselves in Macbeth: Acquaint you with the perfect fpy o' the time." i. e. acquaint yourselves. Again, in Ovid's Banquet of Sence, by Chapman, 1595: "Sweet touch, the engine that love's bow doth bend, "The fence wherewith he feeles him deified." STEEVENS. 3 An onion-] It is not unlikely that the onion was an expedient used by the actors of interludes. JOHNSON. So, in Antony and Cleopatra : "The tears live in an onion that should water this forrow." See this despatch'd with all the hafte thou canft; [Exit Servant. I know, the boy will well ufurp the grace, Which otherwife would grow into extremes. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Bedchamber in the Lord's Houfe.4 SLY is difcovered 5 in a rich night gown, with Attendants; fome with apparel, others with bafon, ewer, and other appurtenances. Enter Lord, dreffed like a Servant. SLY. For God's fake, a pot of small ale.6 4 A Bedchamber &c.] From the original stage direction in the firft folio it appears that Sly and the other perfons mentioned in the Induction, were intended to be exhibited here, and during the representation of the comedy, in a balcony above the stage. The direction here is-Enter aloft the drunkard with attendants, &c. So afterwards, at the end of this fcene-The Prefenters above Speak. See the Account of our old Theatres, Vol. II. MALONE. Sly is difcovered &c.] Thus, in the original play: "Enter two with a table and a banquet on it, and two other, with Slie afleepe in a chaire, richlie apparelled, and the mufick plaieng. "One. So, firha, now go call my lord; "And tell him all things are ready as he will'd it. 1 SERV. Will't please your lordship drink a cup of fack? 2 SERV. Will't please your honour taste of these conferves? 3 SERV. What raiment will your honour wear to day? SLY. I am Chriftophero Sly; call not me-honour, "Another. Set thou fome wine upon the boord, "And then Ile go fetch my lord presently. "Enter the Lord and his men. "Lord. How now, what is all things readie? "One. Yea, my lord. [Exit. "Lord. Then found the musicke, and Ile wake him strait, "And fee you doe as earft I gave in charge. 66 My lord, my lord, (he fleeps foundly,) my lord. "Slie. Tapfter, give's a little small ale: heigh ho. "Lord. Heere's wine, my lord, the pureft of the grape. "Slie. For which lord? "Lord. For your honor, my lord. "Slie. Who I, am I a lord?—Iefus, what fine apparell have I got! "Lord. More richer far your honour hath to weare, And if it please you, I will fetch them straight. "Ile fetch your luftie fteedes more swift of pace "That ran fo fwiftlie over Perfian plaines. "Tom. And if your honour please to hunt the deere, "Your hounds ftands readie cuppled at the doore, "Who in running will oretake the row, "And make the long-breathde tygre broken-winded." STEEVENS, 6 -fmall ale.] This beverage is mentioned in the accounts of the Stationers' Company in the year 1558: "For a stande of fmall ale;" I fuppofe it was what we now call Small beer, no mention of that liquor being made on the fame books, though duble bere, and duble duble ale, are frequently recorded. STEEVENS. It appears from The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher, A& IV. fc. ii. that fingle beer and small beer were fynonymous nor lordship: I never drank fack in my life; and if you give me any conferves, give me conferves of beef: Ne'er ask me what raiment I'll wear; for I have no more doublets than backs, no more stockings than legs, nor no more fhoes than feet; nay, fometimes, more feet than fhoes, or fuch fhoes as my toes look through the overleather. LORD. Heaven cease this idle humour in your honour! O, that a mighty man, of fuch defcent, Str. What, would you make me mad? Am not I Chriftopher Sly, old Sly's fon of Burton-heath ;7 by birth a pedler, by education a card-maker, by tranfmutation a bear-herd, and now by prefent pro 7 - of Burton-heath ;-Marian Hacket the fat ale-wife of Wincot,] I fufpect we fhould read-Barton-heath. Barton and Woodmancot, or, as it is vulgarly pronounced, Woncot, are both of them in Gloucestershire, near the refidence of Shakfpeare's old enemy, Juftice Shallow. Very probably too, this fat ale-wife might be a real character. STEEVENS. Wilnecotte is a village in Warwickshire, with which Shakfpeare was well acquainted, near Stratford. The house kept by our genial hoftefs, ftill remains, but is at present a mill. The meaneft hovel to which Shakspeare has an allusion, interests curiofity, and acquires an importance: at leaft, it becomes the object of a poetical antiquarian's inquiries. T. WARTON. Burton Dorfet is a village in Warwickshire. RITSON. There is likewife a village in Warwickshire called Burton Haftings. Among Sir A Cockayn's Poems (as Dr. Farmer and Mr. Stee-. vens have obferved,) there is an epigram on Sly and his ale, addreffed to Mr. Clement Fisher of Wincot. The text is undoubtedly right. There is a village in Warwickshire called Barton on the Heath, where Mr. Dover, the founder of the Cotswold games, lived. MALONE. feffion a tinker? Afk Marian Hacket, the fat alewife of Wincot, if she know me not: if she say I am not fourteen pence on the score for fheer ale, fcore me up for the lyingeft knave in Christendom, What, I am not beftraught: Here's 1 SERV. O, this it is that makes your lady mourn. 2 SERV. O, this it is that makes your fervants droop. LORD. Hence comes it that your kindred fhun your house, As beaten hence by your ftrange lunacy. O, noble lord, bethink thee of thy birth; 8 I am not beftraught :] I once thought that if our poet did not defign to put a corrupted word into the mouth of the Tinker, we ought to read-distraught, i. e. distracted. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "O, if I wake, fhall I not be distraught," &c. For there is no verb extant from which the participle beftraught can be formed. In Albion's England, however, by Warner, 1602, I meet with the word as fpelt by Shakspeare: "Now teares had drowned further fpeech, till fhe as one beftrought "Did crie," &c. Again, in the old fong, beginning: "When griping grief," &c. No. 53. Paradyfe of dainty Deuifes, edit. 1576: 66 Be-ftraughted heads relyef hath founde." Again, in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the 4th Book of Virgil's Eneid: "Well near beftraught, upstart his heare for dread." STEEVENS. Beftraught feems to have been fynonymous to distraught or diftracted. See Minfheu's DICT. 1617: " Beftract, a Lat. |