NOTES TO ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

ACT I.

1 In mourning. The old stage direction was 'all in black.'

2 A fistula, my lord. In this disease of the king, Shakespeare followed his authority, Painter's Palace of Pleasure. Painter says: She heard by report that the French king had a swelling upon his breast, which by reason of ill cure was grown to be a fistula, which did put him to marvellous pain and grief.'

3 Virtuous qualities—that is, qualities of good-breeding and education. 4 There shall your master, &c. To connect this speech with the context, Hanmer proposed to make Helena begin by saying: 'You're for the court: There shall your master,' &c. Something seems to have dropped

out.

5 Senoys-the Sanesi, as they are termed by Boccaccio. Painter calls them Senois. They were the people of a small republic, of which the capital was Sienna. The Florentines were at perpetual variance with them.-STEEVENS.

6 A clown, in Shakespeare, is commonly taken for a licensed jester, or domestic fool. We are not to wonder that we find this character often in his plays, since fools were at that time maintained in all great families, to keep up merriment in the house. In the picture of Sir Thomas More's family, by Hans Holbein, the only servant represented is Patison the fool. This is a proof of the familiarity to which they were admitted, not by the great only, but the wise.-JOHNSON.

7 To go to the world. This phrase has already occurred: it signifies to be married.

8 Service is no heritage-a proverbial expression.

9 The next way-the nearest way.

10 Though honesty be no Puritan, &c. This is an allusion-violently enough forced in,' as Johnson says-to the aversion of the Puritans to a surplice, with, perhaps, an insinuation that the modest purity of the surplice was sometimes a cover for pride.' The old dramatists have

frequent allusions to this aversion of the Puritans, and to their preference for the Geneva or black gown.

11 The words, 'Diana, no,' were first inserted by Theobald. The folio has only 'Queen of Virgins.'

12 Sithence-since.

13 Captious is supposed by Farmer to be a contraction for capacious.

ACT II.

1 Higher Italy. That part of Italy on the Adriatic was so called by old geographers.

2 Those bated. According to Johnson, to abate is used by Shakespeare in the original sense of abatre, to depress, to sink, to deject, to subdue.

3 Across. This word is used when any pass of wit miscarries, and is derived from a false stroke, or striking across, in the exercise of breaking spears while chivalry was in vogue.

4 And make you dance canary-the favourite dance from the Canaries, often alluded to by Shakespeare.

5 I am Cressid's uncle-I am like Pandarus. See Troilus and Cressida. 6 A morris for May-day. The morris-dance (derived originally from the Moors) said to have been introduced into England at a very early period. It made a considerable figure in the parish-festivals in the reigns of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. In Leicester's magnificent entertainment of Queen Elizabeth at Kenilworth, there was 'a lively morris-dance according to the ancient manner; six dancers, Maid Marian, and the Fool.' Douce-who has a long dissertation on the morris-dance-says that the several characters which seem in more ancient times to have composed the May game and morris were the following: Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian (the queen or lady of the May), the fool, the piper, and several morris-dancers, habited, as appears, in various modes; afterwards a hobby-horse and dragon were added. The dancers had bells round their legs, and were gaily decorated with scarfs, ribbons, and laces. Even in the reign of Elizabeth, the Puritans were powerful enough to put down the May-games; King James restored Maid Marian and the hobby-horse in his Book of Sports. They were once more deposed during the Commonwealth, but on the restoration of Charles II. they had a partial revival.

70, sir. The original has 'O Lord, sir;' and the repetition of this expletive is designed to ridicule a foolish exclamation then in vogue among people of quality.

8 They say, miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons, to make modern and familiar things supernatural and causeless.

Shakespeare, inspired, as it might seem, with all knowledge, here uses the word 'causeless' in its strict philosophical sense; cause being truly predicable only of phenomena, that is, things natural, and not of noumena, or things supernatural.-COLERIDGE.

9 Dolphin—the Dauphin of France-heir-apparent of the throne. His title is so translated in old books.

10 Facinorous-wicked. The folio has fascinorious.

11 Lustic-lusty, cheerful.

12 But one-except one.

13 Bay curtal-a bay, docked horse.

14 Ames-ace-the lowest chance of the dice.

15 Do all they deny her? None of them have yet denied her, or deny her afterwards, but Bertram. The scene must be so regulated that Lafeu and Parolles talk at a distance, where they may see what passes between Helena and the lords, but not hear it, so that they know not by whom the refusal is made.-JOHNSON.

16 'Tis only title thou disdain'st in her; that is, the want of title.

17 For two ordinaries—whilst I sat twice with thee at dinner.-— JOHNSON.

18 Kicky-wicky, altered unnecessarily by Malone and others to kicksywicksy; the phrase, it is believed, being a slang term for a wife. 19 Probable need-may make it appear a necessity.

20 I took this lark for a bunting. The bunting is externally very like the lark, but wants its melodious power of song.

21 Like him that leaped into the custard. At city entertainments, it was customary for the lord mayor's fool or jester to leap into a great custard prepared for the occasion.

22 Owe, here, as commonly in Shakespeare, means own.

ACT II I.

1 Ruff. The tops of the boots, in our ancestors' time, turned down, and hung loosely over the leg. The folding is what the clown means by the ruff. Ben Jonson calls it ruffle, and perhaps it should be so here.— WHALLEY.

2 All the griefs are thine-all the griefs that are thine.

30 you leaden messengers,

That ride upon the violent speed of fire,

Fly with false aim; move the still-peering air,

That sings with piercing.'

Another corrupt, or at least obscure, passage. Malone suggested 'stillpiecing air;' Tyrwhitt, 'rove the still-piecing air.' The Old Corrector reads

the second line, 'That rides upon the volant speed of fire;' and instead of 'move the still-peering air,' he substitutes 'wound the still-piecing air.' 4 We'll strive to bear it, for your worthy sake,

To the extreme edge of hazard.

Milton has a verse resembling this:

'You see our danger on the utmost edge
Of hazard.'

Paradise Regained, Book i.

Mr Collier thinks Milton changed 'extreme' to utmost, because the former sounded ill to his ears with the accent on the first syllable. But the phrase seems a common one, and even if Milton had recollected Shakespeare, his memory may have misled him as to one word.

5 Palmers-pilgrims; called palmers from carrying a bough of palm in their pilgrimages.

6 Mere the truth-merely the truth, the exact truth.

7 And brokes-deals with panders. To broke had at one time this disreputable meaning.

8 A hilding was a paltry, cowardly fellow.

9 If you give him not John Drum's entertainment—to drum him out of the company.

10 Hic jacet-here lies. Parolles, of course, means that he would either recover the lost drum, or die in the attempt.

11 Embossed him. To emboss a deer is to enclose him. Parolles was nearly hunted down.

12 Lose the grounds I work upon; that is, by discovering herself to the count.

13 Important blood. Important, here, as in other scenes of Shakespeare, signifies importunate.

14 The county wears-the count wears.

1

ACT IV

Bajazet's mule; probably a misprint for mute.

2 I see, that men make hopes, in such a case. The folio reads, 'I see that men make rope's in such a scarre.' Rowe proposed, hopes in such affairs;' Malone, 'hopes in such a scene;' the Old Corrector, 'hopes in such a suit;' Mr Staunton, 'hopes in such a snare;' and the Rev. J. Mitford (followed by Mr Dyce), 'hopes in such a case,' which is supported by numerous passages in other plays of Shakespeare.

3 Braid is defined by Palsgrave, in his Dictionary, 1530, 'hastiness of mind.' 4 Usurping his spurs so long—an allusion to the ceremonious degradation of a knight by cutting off his spurs.

5 Cassock signified a horseman's loose coat.

....

6 He has led the drum before the English tragedians; . . . . he had the honour to be the officer at a place there called Mile-end. The strolling actors were accompanied by a drummer, to announce their arrival in town and village. A century and a half later, we find Churchill describe the dramatic Arabs in little better plight, though without the drum :

"The mighty monarch, in theatric sack,
Carries his whole regalia at his back;
His royal consort heads the female band
And leads the heir-apparent in her hand;

The pannier'd ass creeps on with conscious pride

Bearing a future prince on either side.'

Mile-end, 'so called,' says Strype, 'from its distance from the middle parts of London,' was the place where the citizens of London were mustered and trained. Ben Jonson speaks of 'the musters at Mile-end.' 7 Quart d'ecu. The fourth part of the smaller French crown; about eightpence.

8 Why does he ask him of me? This is nature. Every man is, on such occasions, more willing to hear his neighbour's character than his own. -JOHNSON.

9 Still the fine's the crown-an allusion to finis, the end; finis coronat. 10 Herb of grace. Rue was so called.

11 Carbonadoed-scorched, or over-broiled.

ACT V.

1 In the folio, 'Enter a gentle Astringer;' the second folio, 'Enter a gentle Astranger.' According to Steevens, 'Astringer' means falconer, but more obviously, the words are a misprint for 'a gentleman stranger.' The contraction Gent. is prefixed to his speeches.

2 Lavatch-probably a corruption of some French word.

3 I am now, sir, muddied in fortune's moat. In the folio, 'fortune's mood. Warburton made the correction, which seems to be required by the context.

4 A play on the word Parolles (paroles), the French plural for words. The suppliant had asked to say 'one single word,' but on announcing his name as Parolles, Lafeu puns upon it: 'You beg more than one word then.' 5 Her estimation home-to know it completely in its full extent. 6 Natural rebellion, done i the blaze of youth;

When oil and fire, too strong for reason's force,
O'erbears it, and burns on.

In the folio it is 'blade o' youth.' Theobald altered it to blaze. The reference to oil, and fire, and burning, justifies the alteration.