Ant. S. What gold is this? What Adam dost thou 15 mean? Dro. S. Not that Adam that kept the Paradise, but that Adam that keeps the prison: he that goes in the calf's skin that was killed for the Prodigal: he that came behind you, sir, like an evil angel, and 20 bid you forsake your liberty. Ant. S. I understand thee not. Dro. S. No? why, 'tis a plain case: he that went, like a base-viol, in a case of leather; the man, sir, that, when gentlemen are tired, gives them a bob and 25 19. calf's skin] calues-skin Ff. 25. bob] Hanmer; sob Ff; fob Rowe; sop Staunton and Dyce conj.; stop Grant White (ed. 1). is no corruption. For examples of jests on Adam's skin, Steevens quotes King Edward III. (1599,? 1596), II. ii. 120: "The register of all varieties, Since leathern Adam, to this younger hour"; and Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 1583: "Did the Lorde clothe our first parents in leather, as not having any thyng more precious to attire them withall." Douce thinks there may be an allusion to some well-known contemporary painting, perhaps of a sign. "Adam whom God did fyrst create, made the fyrst lether coates for himselfe and his wyfe Eve our old mother." (Polydore Vergil, de rer. invent., trans. by Langley, fo. 69.) case of 23, 24. plain case leather] The quibble here is obvious. Compare Marston's Insatiate Countess, v. iii. 19 (Bullen, iii. 109) [Scene, The Compter]: My case, Master Bramble, is stone walls and iron gates." 25. bob] I think we must adopt Hanmer's reading, as referring to the sergeant's tap on the shoulder. Compare shoulder-clapper," IV. ii. 37 ante. The word occurs in this sense in Richard III. v. iii. 334: "Whom ... 66 bobb'd and thumped"; Midsummer-Night's Dream, II. i. 49: Against her lips I bob." The New English Dictionary quotes Ascham, Scholemaster, 1571 (Arber, 47, Aldis Wright, 1904, 201): "So cruellie threatened, yea presentlie some tymes with pinches, nippes, and bobbes, and other waies"; also Pappe w. Hatchet, 1589 (ed. 1844, 21): "give thee as many bobs on the eare, as thou hast eaten morsels." The word is also used in the sense of a mental blow, e.g. in Lyly's Campaspe, III. ii. (ed. Fairholt, 1892, vol. i. p. 117): "I have drawne bloud at one's braines with a bitter bob"; in his Mother Bombie, II. i. (ibid. vol. ii. p. 91): 66 Wee 'le bite for an ape, if thou bob us like asses"; and see As You Like It, II. vii. 55: "Not to seem senseless of the bob"; Troilus and Cressida, II. i. 76: “I have bobbed"; and ш. i. 75: "You shall not bob us out of our melody" (in the sense of cheat). 'rests them; he, sir, that takes pity on decayed men, 26. 'rests] Warburton; rests Ff. 29. morris-pike] Moris Pike Ff; MauricePike Hanmer (Warburton). 27. suits of durance] An obvious play on "clothes of everlasting wear and "prison dress." Compare Iv. ii. 33 ante: "everlasting garment." Any kind of strong buff-coloured stuff was called "durance." It is the epithet of petticoats in Chapman, Jonson and Marston's Eastward Ho, 1. i. 182 (Bullen, iii. 15). 27, 28. sets up his rest] stakes his all upon an event; is absolutely determined on some course of action; of course with a quibble on "'rest or "arrest." "Is confident in his expectation," Henley; who quotes Bacon [Essay xxix., Of the true Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates, There be many examples where] Sea-Fights have been Final to the War; but this is, when Princes [or States have] set up their Rest, upon the Battles." Henley further remarks that the figure of speech is certainly derived from the rest which Warburton had described, viz. the rest with which musketeers supported their pieces when firing: and some colour is lent to this view by the reference to "morris-pike" in line 29. But the usual modern explanation of the term is that it is a metaphor borrowed from the card game of primero. And Shakespeare may also hint at the sense of "stay or "halt." Compare Romeo and Juliet, IV. v. 6: "The County Paris hath set up his rest"; v. iii. 110: "Will I set up my everlasting rest"; Merchant of Venice, 11. ii. 110: "As I have set up my rest to run away"; All's Well that Ends Well, II. i. 138: "Since you set up your rest 'gainst remedy"; King Lear, 1. i. 125: "I loved her most and thought to set my rest On her kind nursery." Compare also Ford's 'Tis pity she's a Whore, v. 3: "I have set up my rest"; and Massinger's Bondman, i. 3, and Gifford's note: "A metaphor taken from play, where the highest stake the parties were disposed to venture was called the rest. To appropriate this term to any particular game, as is sometimes done, is extremely incorrect." Florio, Ital. Dict., has "Restare: to set up one's rest, to make a rest, or play upon one's rest at primero." Cotgrave, Fr. Dict., has "Renvier: Il y renvioit de sa reste, he set his whole rest, he adventured all his estate upon it." Hence the meaning to stake one's all, to be determined. Nares explains "to stand upon the cards you have in your hand, in hopes they may prove better than those of your adversary.' Dowden, in his note on Romeo and Juliet, loc. cit., says, "As I understand it, the stake was a smaller sum, the rest a larger sum, which if a player were confident (or desperate) might all be set or set up, that is, be wagered." Craig, in his note on King Lear, loc. cit., quotes Gascoyne's Supposes, iii. "This amorous cause... .. may be compared to them that play at primero: of whom one, peradventure, shall leese a great sum of money before he win one stake, and, at last, half in anger shall set up his rest, win it, and after that another, and another; till, at last, he draw the most part of the money to his heap, the other by little and little diminishing his rest, till he come as near the brink as erst the other was." 2: Ant. S. What, thou mean'st an officer? Ant. S. Well, sir, there rest in your foolery. Is there 30 35 the bark Expedition put forth to-night; and then Ant. S. The fellow is distract, and so am I; 31. band] bond Rowe. 3, 4. 33. says] Capell; saies F 1; saieth F 2; saith Ff 38. put] puts Rowe (ed. 2). 36. ship] Ff 2, 3, 4; ships F 1. 29. morris-pike] A Moorish pike, a formidable weapon, which, as Douce remarks, was very common in the sixteenth century. Craig quotes Hall's Chronicles (Ellis, 1809, p. 215): "The Frenchmen, with quarrelles, morris-pikes, slings and other weapons, began to attack the walles." 31, 32. band. . . band] Compare IV. ii. 49. 34. rest] the play is on (repose) and "'rest" (arrest). "rest 38. the bark Expedition] Craig remarks: "This metaphorical way of speaking and writing may have been due to the influence of the Morality play. See the Merchant of Venice, 1. ii. 19-22, and compare this with the conversations between Juventus and Good Counsel in the morality Lusty Juventus' (see Hazlitt's Dodsley, ii. 91-96)." 40. angels] The "angel" was originally the "angel-noble," an English gold coin, worth at the highest about ten shillings, and having on the obverse a figure of the archangel Michael trampling on the dragon, and on the reverse a cross surmounting the escutcheon of England. It was first struck by Edward IV. in 1465, and lastly by Charles I. in 1634. It is referred to in the Merchant of Venice, III. vii. 55:— They have in England A coin that bears the figure of an angel Stamped in gold." The dramatists frequently refer to it, e.g. Lyly, Gallathea, 11. iii. (ed. Fairholt, i. 234): "Hee can make of thy cap gold, and by multiplication of one grote three old angels"; Mydas, i. 2 (ii. 15): "Thou are deceived, wench, angels are gold"; ibid. ii. 2 (p. 23): "change an angel into ten shillings"; and his Mother Bombie, v. 3 (ii. 134): "Nas. What's the almes ? Syn. An Angell. Bed. I'le warrant there's some worke towards, ten shillings is money in Master Maior's purse." And here we wander in illusions : Some blessed power deliver us from hence! Enter a Courtesan. Cour. Well met, well met, Master Antipholus. I see, sir, you have found the goldsmith now: Is that the chain you promised me to-day? 45 Ant. S. Satan, avoid! I charge thee, tempt me not! Ant. S. It is the devil. 50 Dro. S. Nay, she is worse, she is the devil's dam; and here she comes in the habit of a light wench: and thereof comes that the wenches say, "God damn me," that's as much as to say, "God make me a light wench." It is written, they appear to men like angels of light: light is an effect of fire, and fire will burn; ergo, light wenches will burn. Come not near her. 55 60 Cour. Your man and you are marvellous merry, sir. Will you go with me? we'll mend our dinner here? 45. SCENE VI. Pope. 53. damn] Capell; dam Ff. 54. as much as] Rowe (ed. 2); as much Ff. 60. me?. here?] me, here? Ff; there. Gould conj. me? ... here. Steevens (1778); me? 51. devil's dam]" the devil and his dam" is not uncommon in the earlier plays of Shakespeare, but it occurs as late as Othello (1604), IV. i. 153: "Let the devil and his dam haunt you!" H. Chichester Hart, in his note on the latter passage, says that it was derived from a medieval legend, and he quotes the York Mystery Plays (ed. Toulmin Smith, p. 300): "What pe deuyll and his dame schall I now doo?" (circ. 1400). 52, 55, 57. light] So Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, v. i. 129, 130:"Let me give light, but let me not be light; For a light wife doth make a heavy husband." The quibble is quite in Shakespeare's manner. 54. as much as] The Folio here is undoubtedly at fault. Dyce rightly remarks in his note: "In this formula Shakespeare, I believe, never omits the second as,' though he sometimes places it before, sometimes after the verb "; and he compares Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. i. [308]; Much Ado About Nothing, 11. iii. [269], and other passages. 60. mend our dinner] i.e. procure additional food. Dro. S. Master, if you do, expect spoon-meat; or be speak a long spoon. Ant. S. Why, Dromio? Dro. S. Marry, he must have a long spoon that must eat with the devil. 65 Ant. S. Avoid, thou fiend! what tell'st thou me of sup ping? Thou art, as you are all, a sorceress : I conjure thee to leave me, and be gone. Cour. Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner, A rush, a hair, a drop of blood, a ... 70 61. if you do, expect] Ff 2, 3, 4; if do expect F 1; if you do expect Rowe. if. bespeak] if you do, or expect spoon-meat, bespeak Collier (ed. 2). or] omitted by Rowe; so Capell; Either stay away, or Malone conj.; and Grant White, ed. 1 (Ritson conj.). 66. thou] F 4; then Ff 1, 2, 3; thee Dyce. 67. are all] all are Boswell. 72-77. Printed as prose by Ff; as verse by Capell, ending the third line at covetous. line 73 with a kiss, and begin line 74 with A coll, Editor. 73, 74. End probably refers to Marlowe's Faustus, and his signature of the bond in his own blood. 74. The Folio is here at fault. Steevens aptly refers to Middleton's Witch [(? 1604), III. iii. 50; Bullen, v. 417 (1885)]: "There's one come downe to fetch his dues, A kisse, a coll, a sip of blood," etc. See also ib. 1. ii. 25: "Dance, kiss and coll, use everything." On the ground that Middleton may have taken them from his recollection of The Errors, I think the words kiss and coll should be included in the text-until something better is pro |