pieced, and a woman's crupper of velure, which hath two letters for her name, fairly set down in studs, and here and there pieced with packthread. Bap. Who comes with him? Bion. O, sir, his lackey, for all the world caparisoned like the horse; with a linen stock on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, gartered with a red and blue list; an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies pricked in 't for a feather: a monster, a very monster 2 - crupper of velure,] Velure is velvet. Velours, Fr. So, in The World tossed at Tennis, by Middleton and Rowley: Again, in The Noble Gentleman, by Beaumont and Fletcher: 3 "- an old hat, Steevens. -stock-] i. e. stocking. So, in Twelfth Night: " - it [his leg] does indifferent well in a flame-coloured stock." 4 Steevens. an old hat and The humour of forty fancies pricked in't for a feather:] This was some ballad or drollery at that time, which the poet here ridicules, by making Petruchio prick it up in his foot-boy's hat for a feather. His speakers are perpetually quoting scraps and stanzas of old ballads, and often very obscurely; for, so well are they adapted to the occasion, that they seem of a piece with the rest. In Shakspeare's time, the kinge dom was over-run with these doggrel compositions, and he seems to have borne them a very particular grudge. He frequently ridicules both them and their makers, with excellent humour. In Much Ado about Nothing, he makes Benedick say: "Prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I get again with drinking, prick out my eyes with a ballad-maker's pen." As the bluntness of it would make the execution of it extremely painful. And again, in Troilus and Cressida, Pandarus in his distress having repeated ated a very stupid stanza from an old ballad, says, with the highest humour: "There never was a truer rhyme; let's cast away nothing, for we may live to have need of such a verse.We see it, we see it." Warburton. I have some doubts concerning this interpretation. A fancy appears to have been some ornament worn formerly in the hat. So Peacham, in his Worth of a Penny, describing "an indigent and discontented soldat," says, "he walks with his arms folded, his belt without a sword or rapier, that, perhaps, being somewhere in trouble; a hat without a band, hanging over his eyes; only it wears a weather-beaten fancy for fashion-sake." This lackey therefore did not wear a common fancy in his hat, but some fantastical ornament, comprizing the humour of forty different fan in apparel; and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey. Tra. 'Tis some odd humour pricks him to this fashion; Yet oftentimes he goes but mean apparell'd. Bap. I am glad he is come, howsoe'er he comes. Bion. Why, sir, he comes not. Bap. Didst thou not say, he comes? Bion. Who? that Petruchio came? Bap. Ay, that Petruchio came. Bion. No, sir; I say, his horse comes with him on his back. Bap. Why, that's all one. Bion. Nay, by saint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horse and a man is more than one, and yet not many. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.5 Pet. Come, where be these gallants? who is at home? cies. Such, I believe, is the meaning. A couplet in one of Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598, may also add support to my interpretation: "Nor for thy love will I once gnash a bricke, "Or some pied colours in my bonnet sticke." A fancy, however, meant also a love-song or sonnet, or other poem. So, in Sapho and Phao, 1591: "I must now fall from love to labour, and endeavour with mine oar to get a fare, not with my pen to write a fancy." If the word was used here in this sense, the meaning is, that the lackey had stuck forty ballads together, and made something like a feather out of them. Malone. Dr. Warburton might have strengthened his supposition by observing, that the Humour of Forty Fancies was probably a collection of those short poems which are called Fancies, by Falstaff, in The Second Part of King Henry IV: " - sung those tunes which he heard the carmen whistle, and swore they were his Fancies, his good-nights." Nor is the Humour of Forty Fancies a more extraordinary title to a collection of poems, than the wellknown Hundred sundrie Flowers bounde up in one small Poesie.-A Paradise of dainty Devises.--The Arbor of amorous Conceits. The gorgeous Gallery of gallant Inventions - The Forest of Histories.The Ordinary of Humors, &c. Chance, at some future period, may establish as a certainty what is now offered as a conjecture. A penny book, containing forty short poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt imitation of a plume of feathers for the hat of a humourist's servant. Steevens. 5 Enter Petruchio and Grumio.] Thus, in the original play: "Enter Ferando, basely attired, and a red cap on his head. Bap. You are welcome, sir. Bap. And yet you halt not. As I wish you were. And yet I come not well. Not so well apparell'd Pet. Were it better I should rush in thus. But where is Kate? where is my lovely bride? How does my father?-Gentles, methinks you frown; And wherefore gaze this goodly company; As if they saw some wondrous monument, Some comet, or unusual prodigy? Bap. Why, sir, you know, this is your wedding-day: First were we sad, fearing you would not come; Now sadder, that you come so unprovided. Fy! doff this habit, shame to your estate, An eye-sore to our solemn festival. "Feran. Good morrow, father: Polidor well met, "You wonder, I know, that I have staide so long. "Alfon. Yea, marry sonne: we were almost persuaded "That we should scarce have had our bridegroome heere: "But say, why art thou thus basely attired? "Feran. Thus richly, father, you should have saide; "For when my wife and I are married once, "Shee's such a shrew, if we should once fall out, "Sheele pull my costly sutes over mine ears, "And therefore I am thus attir'd a while: "For many things I tell you 's in my head, "And none must know thereof but Kate and I; "For we shall live like lambes and lions sure: "Nor lambes to lions never were so tame, "If once they lie within the lions pawes, "As Kate to me, if we were married once: "And therefore, come, let's to church presently. "Pol. Fie, Ferando! not thus attired: for shame, "Come to my chamber, and there suite thyselfe, "Of twenty sutes that I did never weare. "Feran. Tush, Polidor: I have as many sutes "Fantastike made to fit my humour so, "As any in Athens; and as richly wrought "As was the massie robe that late adorn'd "The stately legat of the Persian king, "And this from them I have made choise to weare. "Alfon. I prethee, Ferando, let me intreat, "Before thou go'st unto the church with us, "To put some other sute upon thy backe. "Feran. Not for the world," &c. Steevens. Tra. And tell us, what occasion of import Pet. Tedious it were to tell, and harsh to hear: But, where is Kate? I stay too long from her; Tra. See not your bride in these unreverent robes; Go to my chamber, put on clothes of mine. Pet. Not I, believe me; thus I'll visit her. words; To me she's married, not unto my clothes: And seal the title with a lovely kiss? ১০ [Exeunt PET. GRU. and BION. Tra. He hath some meaning in his mad attire: We will persuade him, be it possible, To put on better ere he go to church. Bap. I'll after him, and see the event of this. [Exit. Tra. But, sir, to her love concerneth us to add 6- to digress;] To deviate from my promise. Johnson. 7 Tra. But, sir, to her love-] Mr. Theobald reads-our love. Steevens. Our is an injudicious interpolation. The first folio reads-But, sir, love concerneth us to add, Her father's liking-which, I think, should be thus corrected: But sir, to her love concerneth us to add Her father's liking. We must suppose, that Lucentio had before informed Tranio in private of his having obtained Bianca's love; and Tranio here resumes the conversation, by observing, that to her love it conthem to add her father's consent; and then goes on to propose a scheme for obtaining the latter. Tyrwhitt. cerns The nominative case to the verb concerneth is here understood. A similar license may be found in Coriolanus: Her father's liking: Which to bring to pass, Luc. Were it not that my fellow schoolmaster Tra. That by degrees we mean to look into, Signior Gremio! came you from the church? A grumbling groom, and that the girl shall find. "Remains that in the official marks invested, Again, in Troilus and Cressida: "The beauty that is borne here in the face 8 As I before imparted - I, which was inadvertently omitted in the old copy, was added by the editor of the second folio; but with his usual inaccuracy was inserted in the wrong place. The second folio reads: As before I imparted, &c. Malone. As this passage is now pointed, where is the inaccuracy of it? if there be any, might it not have happened through the or, carelessness of the compositor? Steevens. 9 As willingly &c.] This is a proverbial saying. See Ray's Collection. Steevens. |