ACT III. SCENE I.

The Park; near the Palace.

Enter Armado, and Moth."

ARMADO.

ARBLE, child; make paffionate my sense of

WARBL-hearing

Moth. Concolinel

3

[Singing. Arm. Sweet air!-Go, tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the fwain; bring him feftinately hither: I muft imploy him in a letter to my love.

Moth Mafter, will you win your love with a French

brawl. +

Arm.

2 Enter Armado and Moth.] In the folios the direction is, enter Braggart and Moth, and at the beginning of every speech of Armado ftands Brag. both in this and the foregoing scene between him and his boy. The other perfonages of this play are likewife All this noted by their characters as often as by their names. confufion has been well regulated by the later editors. JOHNSON.

3 Concolinel- -] Here is apparently a fong loft. JOHNSON. I have obferved in the old comedies, that the fongs are frequently omitted. On this occafion the ftage direction is generally-Here they fing-or-Cantant. Probably the performer was left to chufe his own ditty, and therefore it could not with propriety be exhibited as part of a new performance. Sometimes yet more was left to the difcretion of the ancient comedians, as I learn from the following circumftance in K. Edward IV. 2d p. 1619.Jockey is led whipping over the ftage, fpeaking fome words, but of no importance.' STEEVENS.

4 a French brawl.] A brawl is a kind of dance. Ben Jonfon mentions it in one of his mafques.

And thence did Venus learn to lead

Th' Idalian brawls, &c.

In the Malcontent of Marston, I met with the following account of it." The brawl, why 'tis but two fingles to the left, two on

"the

Arm. How mean'ft thou? brawling in French? Moth. No, my compleat mafter: but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet,3 humour it with turning up your eye-lids; figh a note, and fing a note; fometime through the throat, as if you fwallow'd love with finging love; fometime through the nofe, as if you fnuff'd up love by fielling love; with your hat penthoufe-like, o'er the fhop of your eyes; with your arms crofs'd on your thinbelly doublet, like a rabbit on a fpit; or your hands in your pocket like a man after the old painting; + and keep not too long in one tune, but a fnip and away: These are complements,' these are humours: thefe betray nice wenches that would be betray'd without thefe, and make the men of note, (do you note men?) that are most affected to these?

6

"the right, three doubles forwards, a traverse of fix rounds: do "this twice three fingles fide, galliard trick of twenty coranto pace: a figure of eight, three fingles broken down, come up, meet two doubles, fall back, and then honour."

46

61

Again, in B. Jonfon's mafque of Time Vindicated.

3

"The Graces did them footing teach;
"And, at the old Idalian brawls,

66

They danc'd your mother down." STEEVENS. canary to it with your feet,] Canary was the name of a fpritely

nimble dance. THEOBALD.

4 like a man after the old painting ;] It was a common trick, among fome of the most indolent of the ancient mafters, to place the hands in the bofom or the pockets, or conceal them in fome other part of the drapery, to avoid the labour of representing them, or to disguise their own inability. STEEVENS.

S

5 Thefe are complements,] Dr. Warburton has here changed complements to 'complishments, for accomplishments, but unneceffarily. JOHNSON. thefe betray, &c.] The former editors : wenches, that would be betray'd without thefe, and make them men thefe betray nice of note. But who will ever believe, that the odd attitudes and affectations of lover's, by which they betray young wenches, should have power to make these young wenches men of note? His meaning is, that they not only inveigle the young girls, but make the men taken notice of too, who affect them. THEOBALD.

Bb3

Arm.

Arm. How haft thou purchas'd this experience?
Moth. By my pen of obfervation.

Arm. But O, but O

Meth. The hobby-horfe is forgot.7

Arm. Call'st thou my love, hobby-horfe?

Moth. No, mafter; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love, perhaps, a hackney. But have you forgot your love?

Arm. Almoft I had.

Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart.
Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.

Moth. And out of heart, mafter: all those three I will prove.

Arm. What wilt thou prove?

Moth. A man, if I live: And this by, in, and cut of, upon the inftant: By heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her: in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her.

7 Arm. But O, but O

Moth. The hobby-horse is forgot.]

In the celebration of May-day, befides the fports now used of banging a pole with garlands, and dancing round it, formerly a boy was dreffed up reprefenting Maid Marian; another like a fryar; and another rode on a hobby-horfe, with bells jingling, and painted ftreamers. After the Reformation took place, and precifians multiplied, thefe latter rites were looked upon to favour of paganifm; and then maid Marian, the friar, and the poor hobby-horfe, were turned out of the games. Some who were not fo wifely precife, but regretted the difufe of the hobby-horse, no doubt, fatirized this fufpicion of idolatry, and archly wrote the epitaph above alluded to, Now Moth, hearing Armado groan ridiculously, and cry out, But ob! but ob!humourously pieces out his exclamation with the fequel of this epitaph.

THEOBALD.

The fame line is repeated in Hamlet. STEEVENS. 8 but a colt, Cot is a hot, mad-brained, unbroken young fellow; or fometimes an old fellow with youthful defires.

JOHNSON.

Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all.

Arm. Fetch hither the fwain; he must carry me

a letter.

Moth. A meffage well fympathis'd; a horfe to be embaffador for an afs!

Arm. Ha, ha; what say'st thou?

Moth. Marry, Sir, you must fend the ass
horfe, for he is very flow-gated: But I
But I go.
Arm. The way is but fhort; away.
Moth. As fwift as lead, Sir.

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?

Is not lead a metal heavy, dull and flow?

upon the

Moth. Minimè, honeft mafter; or rather, mafter,

no.

Arm. I fay, lead is flow.

Moth. You are too fwift, Sir, to say so.'

Is that lead flow, Sir, which is fir'd from a gun ?
Arm. Sweet fmoak of rhetorick!

He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he:
I fhoot thee at the swain.

Moth. Thump then, and I flee.

[Exit. Arm. A moft acute Juvenal, voluble and free of

grace;

'By thy favour, fweet welkin, I muft figh in thy face:

9 You are too fwift, fir, to say fo.] How is he too fwift for faying that lead is flow? I fancy we should read, as well to fupply the rhyme as the fenfe,

You are too fwift, fir, to say fo, so foon

Is that lead flow, fir, which is fir'd from a gun?

JOHNSON.

The meaning, I believe, is, You do not give yourself time to think, if you fay fo. STEEVENS.

By thy favour, sweet welkin,— -] Weikin is the sky, to which Armado, with the falfe dignity of a Spaniard, makes an apology for fighing in its face. JOHNSON.

Moft rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
My herald is return'd.

Re-enter Moth and Coftard.

Moth. A wonder, mafter; here's a Coftard broken in a fhin.

Arm. Some enigma, fome riddle: come,-thy l'envoy ;-begin.

Coft. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no falve in the male, Sir. O Sir, plantain, a plain plantain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, or falve, Sir, but plantain !

Arm. By virtue, thou enforceft laughter; thy filly thought, my fpleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous fmiling: O, pardon me, my ftars! Doth the inconfiderate take falve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for a falve?

Moth. Doth the wife think them other? is not l'envoy a falve?

Arm. No, page, it is an epilogue or difcourfe, to make plain

Some obfcure precedence that hath tofore been fain.

no l'envoy ;] The l'envoy is a term borrowed from the old French poetry. It appeared always at the head of a few concluding verfes to each piece, which either ferved to convey the moral, or to addrefs the poem to fome particular perfon. It was frequently adopted by the old English writers. STEEVENS.

3 no falve in the male, fir.] The old folio reads, no salve in thee male, fir, which, in another folio, is, no falve, in the male, fir. What it can mean is not eafily discovered if mail for a packet or bag was a word then in ufe, no falve in the mail may mean, no falve in the mountebank's budget. Or fhall we read, no enigma, no riddle, no l'envoy-in the vale, fir-O, fir, plantain. The matter is not great, but one would wish for fome meaning or other.

JOHNSON. Male or mail was a word then in ufe. Reynard the fox fent Kayward's head in a male. I believe Dr. Johnson's first explana tion to be right. STEEVENS.

Perhaps we fhould read-no falve in them all, fir. T. T.

I will