صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

THE DEVIL IS AN ASS.

[Vol. v.]

ACT I.

SCENE 2.-P. 20.

"'fore hell, my heart was at my mouth,

"Till I had view'd his shoes well: for those roses
Were big enough to hide a cloven foot."

The present play was first acted in 1616. In Webster's White Devil, which was printed in 1612, we find;

[blocks in formation]

I know him by a great rose he wears on's shoe,

To hide his cloven foot."

Works, i. 132, ed. Dyce.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ACT IV.

SCENE 3.-P. 126.

Madam, this young Wittipol

Would have debauch'd my wife, and made me cuckold

Thorough a casement; he did fly her home

To mine own window; but, I think, I sous'd him,

And ravish'd her away out of his pounces."

All the copies of the folio which I have examined, read sou't, of which I can make nothing but sought or sous'd; and I prefer the latter. Whalley reads fought; but he evidently had not consulted the old copy." GIFFORD.

There can be no doubt that "sou't" is merely the old spelling of "shu'd,"-i. e. ' scared away.' "To shue. To scare or fright away fowls." Jamieson's Et. Dict. of Scot. Lang. "Shu, a term to frighten poultry." Gloss. of Lancashire Words in The Works of Tim Bobbin.

66

ACT V.

SCENE 4.-P. 146.

Thou hast been cheated on, with a false beard,

And a turn'd cloke."

U

There ought to be no point after "on;" for "cheated on" means simply cheated.' The same mode of expression continued till Mrs. Centlivre's time: in her Wonder, Don Felix says to Violante;

'Sdeath, could not you have imposed upon me for this one night? could neither my faithful love, nor the hazard I have run to see you, make me worthy to be cheated on ?" Act ii. sc. 1.

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The name Sir Bevis Bullion contains an evident allusion to Sir Bevis Bulmer, -a well-known personage of those days, who, I believe, was superintendent of the Royal Mines, or at least had some situation connected with them.

Prince, in the "Proemium" to The Worthies of Devon, mentions that that "famous artist," Sir Bevis Bulmer, Kt., by his excellent skill in minerals, extracted a great quantity of silver from the Combe-Martin mines, a portion of which he caused to be made into two cups in 1593, and presented them, inscribed with verses, the one to William Bourchier, Earl of Bath, the other (weighing 137 ounces) to Sir Richard Martin, Lord Mayor of London, "to continue to the said city for ever." pp. 2, 3, ed. 1701.

to

Among the Free Gifts paid out of the Exchequer, we find-in 1603-4 to "Master Bevis Bullmere £100"-in 1607-8 66 Sir Bevis Bulmere £100”—in 1608-9 to 66 Sir Bevis Bulmere £500." Nichols's Prog. of King James, i. 426, ii. 191, 246.- For other notices of Sir Bevis, see Lansdowne MSS., 148 fol. 25,- 156 fol. 419,-162 fols. 138, 142,—169 fol. 166.

SCENE 2.-P. 196.

"P. jun. Fear me not; for since I came
Of mature age, I have had a certain itch
In my right eye, this corner here, do you see?
To do some work, and worthy of a chronicle.”

Jonson, as usual, was thinking of the classics;

*Αλλεται ὀφθαλμός μεν ὁ δεξιός.

Theocr. Idyl. iii. 37.

ACT V.

SCENE 1.-P. 291.

66

our grave governor

Into a subtler air, and is return'd,

As we do hear, grand captain of the jeerers."

"i. e. gone back to his former situation, &c. This is sufficiently harsh." GIFFORD.

Qy. is the word used here in the same sense in which we speak of a candidate being returned member to Parliament ?

THE MAGNETIC LADY.

[Vol. vi.]

P. 123.

Alexander Gill's verses "Uppon Ben Johnson's Magnetick Ladye."

Are printed here with strange inaccuracy: a correct copy of them may be found in Dr. Bliss's ed. of Wood's Ath. Oxon. vol. ii. 598 (where they are attributed to the elder Alex. Gill, -a mistake which Dr. Bliss afterwards rectifies in vol. iii. 44).

« السابقةمتابعة »