Coftly apparel, tents, and canopies, Fine linen, Turky cushions bofs'd with pearl, TRA. That, only, came well in-Sir, lift to me, I am my father's heir, and only fon: Counterpoint is the monkifh term for a particular fpecies of mufick, in which notes of equal duration, but of different harmony, are fet in oppofition to each other. In like manner counterpanes were anciently compofed of patchwork, and fo contrived that every pane or partition in them, was contrafted with one of a different colour, though of the same dimenfions. STEEVENS. Counterpoints were in ancient times extremely coftly. In Wat Tyler's rebellion, Stowe informs us, when the infurgents broke into the wardrobe in the Savoy, they deftroyed a coverlet, worth a thoufand marks. MALONE. 8 — tents, and canopies,] I suppose by tents old Gremio means work of that kind which the ladies call tent-ftitch. He would hardly enumerate tents (in their common acceptation) among his domeftick riches. STEEVENS. I fufpect, the furniture of fome kind of bed, in the form of a pavillion, was known by this name in our author's time. MALONE. I conceive, the pavillon, or tent-bed, to have been an article of furniture unknown in the age of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 9 Perter-] We may fuppofe that pewter was, even in the time of Queen Elizabeth, too coftly to be used in common. It appears from "The regulations and establishment of the household of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth earl of Northumberland," &c. that veffels of pewter were hired by the year. This boufebold-book was begun in the year 1512. See Holinfhed's Defcription of England, p. 188, and 189. STEVENS. If I may have your daughter to my wife, Old fignior Gremio has in Padua ; Befides two thousand ducats by the year, 2 GRE. Two thousand ducats by the year, of land! My land amounts not to fo much in all: That the fhall have; befides an argofy,' That now is lying in Marseilles' road:What, have I chok'd you with an argofy? TRA. Gremio, 'tis known, my father hath no lefs Than three great argofies; befides two galliaffes,+ 2 Gre. Two thousand ducats by the year, of land! My land amounts not to fo much in all: That he shall have; befides-] Though all copies concur in this reading, furely, if we examine the reafoning, fomething will be found wrong. Gremio is ftartled at the high fettlement Tranio propofes: fays, his whole eftate in land can't match it, yet he'll fettle fo much a year upon her, &c. This is playing at crof purposes. The change of the negative in the fecond line falves the abfurdity, and fets the paffage right. Gremio and Tranio vying in their offers to carry Bianca, the latter boldly propofes to fettle land to the amount of two thousand ducats per annum. My whole eftate, fays the other, in land, amounts but to that value; yet the fhall have that: I'll endow her with the whole; and confign a rich veffel to her ufe over and above. Thus all is intelligible, and he goes on to out-bid his rival. WARBURTON. Gremio only fays, his whole eftate in land doth not indeed amount to two thoufand ducats a year, but the fhall have that, whatever be its value, and an argofy over and above; which argofy must be understood to be of very great value from his sube joining: What, have I chak'd you with an argofy? HEATH. 3 That he shall have; befides an argofy,] She fhall have that, whatever be its value, and an argofy over and above. HEATH. two galliaffes,] A galeas or galliafs, is a heavy low-built veffel of burthen, with both fails and oars, partaking at once of 4 BAP. Who comes with him? BION. O, fir, his lackey, for all the world caparifon'd like the horfe; with a linen ftock' on one leg, and a kersey boot-hose on the other, garter'd with a red and blue lift; an old hat, and The bumour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather: * a 9 -ftock —] i. e. ftocking. So, in Twelfth Night: -it [his leg] does indifferent well in a flame-coloured ftock." 2 STEEVENS. an old hat, and The humour of forty fancies prick'd in't for a feather:] This was fome 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 fpeakers are perpetually quoting fcraps and ftanzas of old ballads, and often very obfcurely; for, fo well are they adapted to the occafion, that they seem of a piece with the reft. In Shakspeare's time, the kingdom was overrun with thefe doggrel compofitions, and he feems to have borne them a very particular grudge. He frequently ridicules both them and their makers, with excellent humour. Ín Much ado about Nothing, he makes Benedick fay, "Prove that ever I lofe more blood with love than I get again with drinking, prick out my eyes with a ballad-maker's pen." As the bluntnefs of it would make the execution of it extremely painful. And again, in Troilus and Creffida, Pandarus in his diftrefs having repeated a very stupid ftanza from an old ballad, fays, with the highest humour, "There never was a truer rhyme; let's caft away nothing, for we may live to have need of fuch a verfe. We fee it, we fee it." WARBURTON. I have fome doubts concerning this interpretation. A fancy appears to have been fome ornament worn formerly in the hat. So Peacham, in his Worth of a Penny, defcribing "an indigent and difcontented foldat," fays," he walks with his arms folded, his belt without a fword or rapier, that perhaps being fomewhere in trouble; a hat without a band, hanging over his eyes; only it wears a weather-beaten fancy for fashion-fake." This lackey therefore did not wear a common fancy in his hat, but fome fantaftical ornament, comprizing the humour of forty different fancies. Such, I believe is the meaning. A couplet in one of Sir John Davies's Epigrams, 1598, may alfo add fupport to my interpretation: "Nor for thy love will I once gnash a bricke, "Or fome pied colours in my bonnet flicke." A fancy, however, meant alfo a love-fong or fonnet, or other poem. So, in Sapho and Phao, 1591: "I must now fall from monster, a very monster in apparel; and not like a christian footboy, or a gentleman's lackey. TRA. 'Tis fome odd humour pricks him to this Yet often times he goes but mean apparell❜d. BAP. Didft thou not fay, he comes? BION. Who? that Petruchio came? BAP. Ay, that Petruchio came. BION. No, fir; I fay, his horse comes with him on his back. BAP. Why, that's all one. BION. Nay, by faint Jamy, I hold you a penny, A horfe and a man is more than one, and yet not many. 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 fenfe, the meaning is, that the lackey had ftuck forty ballads together, and made fomething like a feather out of them. MALONE. Dr. Warburton might have ftrengthened his fuppofition by obferving, that the Humour of Forty Fancies was probably a collection of those fhort poems which are called Fancies, by Falftaff, fung thofe tunes which in the Second Part of K. Henry IV: " he heard the carmen whistle, and fwore 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 well-known Hundred fundrie Flowers bounde up in one fmall Poefie.-A Paradife of dainty Devifes.-The Arbor of amorous Conceits.-The Gorgeous Gallery of gallant Inventions.-The Foreft of Hiftories.-The Ordinary of Humors, &c. Chance, at fome future period, may establish as a certainty what is now offered as a conjecture. A penny book, containing forty fhort poems, would, properly managed, furnish no unapt imitation of a plume of feathers for the hat of a humourist's fervant. STEEVENS. Enter PETRUCHIO and GRUMIO.3 PET. Come, where be these gallants? who is at home? BAP. You are welcome, fir. PET. Were it better I should rush in thus. 3 Enter Petruchio and Grumio.] Thus, in the original play: "Enter Ferando, bafely attired, and a red cap on his head. "Feran. Good morrow, father: Polidor well met, "You wonder, I know that I have staide so long. Alfon. Yea, marry fonne: we were almoft perfuaded "That we should fcarce have had our bridegroome heere: "But fay, why art thou thus bafely attired? "Feran. Thus richly, father, you should have faide; "For when my wife and I are married once, "Shee's fuch a fhrew, if we should once fall out, "Feran. Tufh, Polidor, I have as many futes "The ftately legat of the Perfian king, "And this from them I have made choife to weare. "Alfon. I prethee, Ferando, let me intreat, "Before thou go'ft unto the church with us, "To put fome other fute upon thy backe. "Feran. Not for the world," &c. STEEVENS, |