Volume Vii Part 115 (1/2)

[128] Old copy, metals.

[129] An early instance of an echo of this kind upon the stage is to be found in Peele's ”Arraignment of Paris,” 1584. Mr D'Israeli has an entertaining essay upon them in his ”Curiosities of Literature,” second series. They were carried to a most ridiculous excess afterwards.

[130] The old spelling of _than_ was _then_, and this must be observed here. The echo is supposed to encourage Marius again to take up arms--

”Nought better fits old Marius' mind than war.”

And the reply of the echo is, ”Then war,” or then go to war.

[131] This pa.s.sage is quoted by Mr Steevens in a note on ”Hamlet,”

act v. sc. 1, to show that ”the winter's _flaw_” there spoken of means ”the winter's _blast_.”

[132] Old copy, Distia.

[133] _Dreariment_ is not so frequently met in any of our old writers as Spenser: I do not recollect it in any play before. It requires no explanation.

[134] Old copy, _coffer_.

[135] Old copy, _Marius live_.

[136] _Lozel_ is always used as a term of contempt, and means a worthless fellow.

[137] Old copy, _have_.

[138] Old copy, _And_.

[139] Old copy, _consist_.

[140] We have before had Pedro the Frenchman, or rather the _Gaul_, according to Plutarch (though why he is called by the Spanish name of Pedro, we know not), employed to murder Marius, swearing _Par le sang de Dieu, Notre Dame_, and _Jesu_: and towards the close of the play, where a couple of ludicrous characters are introduced, ”to mollify the vulgar,” the ”_Paul's steeple_ of honour” is talked of. Such anachronisms, however gross, are common to all the dramatists of that day. Shakespeare is notoriously full of them; and all must remember the discussion between Hamlet and his friend regarding the children of Paul's and of the Queen's chapel.

[141] Shakespeare and many other writers of the time use this form of _fetch_: thus in ”Henry V.” act iii. sc. 1--

”On, on, you n.o.ble English, Whose blood is _fet_ from fathers of war-proof.”

[142] _Glozing_ and _flattering_ are synonymous: perhaps to _gloze_, or, as it is sometimes spelt, to _glose_, is the same word as to _gloss_. It is common in Milton in the sense that it bears in the text.

[143] [i.e., Pinky eyne or pink (small) eyes.] See Mr Steevens's note on the song in ”Anthony and Cleopatra,” beginning--

”Come, thou monarch of the vine, Plumpy Bacchus, with _pink_ eyne.”

[144] This incident is founded upon a pa.s.sage in Plutarch's ”Life of Caius Marius,” only in that author the man with the wine discloses where Anthony is concealed to the drawer, of whom he gets the wine, and not to the soldiers.

[145] The meaning of to _a.s.soil_ is to absolve (see note 4 to ”The Adventurers of Five Hours”), from the Latin _absolvere_; but here it signifies to _resolve_ or _remove_ doubts. Thus in a pa.s.sage quoted by Mr Todd--

”For the _a.s.soiling_ of this difficulty, I lay down these three propositions.”--Mede, _Rev. of G.o.d's House_.

The word is frequently to be met with in Spenser in the sense of to discharge, or set free.

[146] In _doly_ season is in melancholy or wintry season: an adjective formed from _dole_, and with the same meaning as _doleful_.

[147] The death of Anthony is thus related in North's Plutarch, ”Life of Marius”--