Narcissus Part 10

n.o.ble ladye, give him leave that hath beene so bolde as to take leave, to speake before your ladys.h.i.+pp, and out of the prognosticks, not of profound pond or deepe dale, but out of the candlesticke of mine owne observation, to give your ladys.h.i.+pp some lightning of a great thunder that will happen in the morning.

The reason of it is a flatt, slimye, & sulphureous matter exhaled out of the kitchins & enflamed in the highest region of the dripping pannes, which will breed fiery commetts with much lightning and thunder. And [10] the influence of it will so domineere in the cooks heads, that are brought vpp under the torridd zone of the chimney, that few of them will take rest this night, & suffer as few to take rest in the morning. They have sett a little porch before so great an house, and have called their show the flye. Some say because a maide comming to towne with b.u.t.ter was mett by a cooke & by him deceaved in a wood neare adioyning, whose laments the dryades and hamadriades of the place, pittieng, turned her into a b.u.t.terflie; & ever since the cooks are bound to this [20]

anniversary celebration of her metamorphosis; but soft, if the cooks heare that the porridgpott of my mouth [F. 45v rev.] runnes over soe, they will keele it with the ladle of reprehension; therfore I will make hast away, onely asking this boone, which wilbee as good as a bone to the cookes; that your ladys.h.i.+pps servaunt Monsieur Piers may ride to-morrowe with the fierye fraternitye of his fellowe cookes, & make vpp the worthy companye of the round table, which they are resolvd not to leave till the whole house goe rounde with them. [30]

III.

_A Speech spoken by Francis Clarke in the behalfe of the freshmen._

Ne saevi, magne sacerdos, bee not so severe, great session [F. 44v rev.]

holder; lett pittie prevaile over the poenitent, lett thy woords of woormwood goe downe againe into thy throate, & so by consequence into thy belly, but lett not those goe to the place from whence they came, & so by cohaerence to the place of exequution: and though these bee, as it is rightly said in the rule, Turba gravis paci placidaeque inimica quieti, yet thinke what goes next before, Sis bonus o felixque tuis: and although I must needes say I am sorry for it that Fertur atrocia flagitia [10] designa.s.se, yet remember what followes immediatlye in the place; Teque ferunt irae poenituisse tuae.

Your lords.h.i.+pp is learned as well as I (it is bootles & I should offer you the bootes), you knowing the Latine to expounde.

I am heere the jaylor, the Ja.n.u.s, the janitor; you are the judge, the justice, the Jupiter, to this miserable companye; yet beare I not two faces under a hoode, neither deale I doubly betweene your lords.h.i.+pp & the lewde; for though Ja.n.u.s & the jaylor goe together, vt bifrons, [20]

custos, yet Bos stands for a barre to distinguish the jaylor from the theefe, vt bifrons, custos, bos, fur.

O that you weare Jupiter, to bee a helping father to these sonnes of sorrow, or I weare Ja.n.u.s indeed, that I might have two tongues to intreate for this pittifull crew. [F. 44r rev.] Looke, O thou flower of favour, thou marigold of mercye and columbine of compa.s.sion, looke, O looke on the dolorous dew dropps distilld from the limbecks or loope-holes of their eyes, and plentifully powred on the flower of their faces; O see in these (O thou most exalted [30] eldest sonne of Justice) a lamentable example; consider that h.o.m.o bulla, honor is but a blast; pittie, O pitty the cause of these hopeles, helples, hartles and indeed half-hanged young men; if they have erred, humanum est, they are men; looke not thou for that of them which you can but expect of G.o.ds. Have they spoken against the lawes of your court, why, Dolet dictum imprudenti adolescenti et libero: has their tongue tript, why, Lingua percurrit, it was too quicke for the witt, quicknes is commendable.

Pectora percussit, have they fought with [40] your highnes servaunts, have they beene obstinate? Why, they have had their punishment, and toties quoties, went either wett skind or dry beaten to bedd. Quid est quod, in hac caus[=a] defensionis egeat; take pittie (O thou peerles patterne of equity) if on nothing els, yet on their youth.

Some of them are heires, all of good abilitye; I beseech your lords.h.i.+pp with the rest of the ioynd stooles, I would say the bench, take my foolish iudgment, & lett them fine for it, merce them according to their merritts [50] [F. 43v rev.] and their purses, wee shall all fare the better for it.

As for other punishments (I speake it with weeping teares) they have suffered no small affliction in my keeping; Est locus in carcere quod dungeanum appellatur; there they lay, noctes atque dies, at no great charge, for, Constat parvo fames; but so laded with irons that I made them Livida armis brachia, & now, see, they are come foorth after all, Trepidus morte futura.

O miseresce malis, take pitty on the poore prisners, Patres aequum esse censent nos iam iam; you may very [60] well remember, since yourselfe weare in the same case. Cutt not off for some few slippes those younge plantes of such towardnes; make not mothers weepe, winke at small faultes, rovoke your sentence, lett the common good have their fines, mee have my fees, they have their lives, and all shalbee well pleased.

Dixi.

IV.

_A letter composd for Francke Clarke, the porter of [F. 84v rev.]

S. John's, who in his brother's behalfe did breake one's head with a blacke staffe._

TO MASTER LAUDE, THEN PROCTOR.

Wors.h.i.+pfull and woorthy Master Proctor, wheras I, your poore va.s.saile, in charitye towardes my afflicted brother, have stepped over the shooes of my duetye in partic.i.p.atinge or accommodatinge my blacke staffe to the easinge of his over-charged artickles & members, wherby I have iustlye plucked the oulde house, or rather the maine beame of your indignation, upon my impotent and impudent shoulders, I doe now beseech you upon the knees of my sorrowfullnes and marybones of repentance to forgive mee all delictes & crimes as have beene [10] formerly committed.

And wheras you, contrary to my desertes, have out of the bottomles pitt of your liberalitye restored mee out of the porters lodge of miserye into the tower of faelicitie, by giving that which was due from mee (silly mee) vnto your wors.h.i.+ppfull selfe, I meane my ladye pecunia; lett mee intreate you that I may burden the leggs of your liberalitie so much farther, as to deliver mee the afore-said blacke staffe, without which I am a man & noe beast, a wretch & no porter. But wheras it is thus [20] by my most vnfortunate fate, that so woorthy a President [F.

85r rev.] hath seene so vnworthy a present, I cannott but condole my tragedies, committing you to the profunditye or abisse of your liberalitie, & my selfe to the 3 craues of my adversitie. Dixi.

NOTES TO THE PLAY OF "NARCISSUS."

NOTES TO THE PLAY OF "NARCISSUS."

Line 1. _Master and Mistris._--Doubtless the President of S. John's and his wife. The office was held at this time by Ralph Hutchinson, who had been elected to it in 1590, after holding for some years the college living of Charlbury, Oxon. Little seems to be known of Mrs. Hutchinson beyond the fact that after her husband's death in 1606 she placed his effigy in the college chapel.

Line 39. _Rebateth._--To rebate, to blunt or disedge; see _Measure for Measure_, i. 4, 60--"Doth rebate and blunt his natural edge."

Line 55. _Quaffe._--The substantival use of this word is not uncommon in contemporary writings. Cf., in 1579, L. Tomson, Calvin's _Sermons on Timothy, &c.,_ p. 512, col. 2: "Now they thinke that a sermon costeth no more then a quaffe wil them."

Line 78. _Ladds of mettall._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 13.

Line 80._ No vertue extant._--Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 132, where virtue = bravery, physical courage. The porter's use of the phrase sounds like a quotation.

Line 97. _A the stampe._--Halliwell gives "Stamp, a tune," and quotes from MS. Fairfax, 16, "Songes, stampes, and eke daunces." Cf. also _Midsummer Night's Dream_, iii. 2, 25.

Line 98. _Windsuckers._--This old name for the kestrel, or wind-hover, is of tolerably frequent occurrence. It is used metaphorically of a person ready to pounce on anything. "There is a certain envious windsucker that hovers up and down" (Chapman).

Line 101. _I pre, sequor._--Literally, "Go before, I follow." The porter supplies a free translation in the words "one of your consorte." Cf.

the use of the phrase "to be hail-fellow-well-met with anyone."

Line 109. _Condolent_ here means _expressing sorrow_. For this sense see Wood, Ath. Oxon. (R)--"His vein for ditty and amorous ode was deemed most lofty, condolent, and pa.s.sionate."

Line 110. _Suffocat._--The porter's subst.i.tute for _sufficit_; though, strictly speaking, the _o_ should be long.

Line 111. _I tickle them for a good voice._--Besides the ordinary metaphorical meaning of to flatter, _tickle_ sometimes = to serve one right, to make one pay for a thing. For this sense see 1 _Henry IV._ ii.

4, 489, "I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i' faith;" and cf. _Ibid._ ii. 1, 66. Probably the expression has a similar force here.

Line 114. _b.u.t.terd beare._--Ale boiled with lump-sugar, b.u.t.ter, and spice.

Line 122. _Act in conye._--The adjective _incony_, with the apparent sense of fine, delicate, is used twice by Costard in _Love's Labour's Lost_ (iii. 136, iv. 1, 144) and also in Marlowe's _Jew of Malta_, iv.

5--"While I in thy incony lap do tumble." Other examples are rare, and I have not found any instance of an adverbial use. A second, though much less probable interpretation of the pa.s.sage is suggested by the frequent use of _cony_ as a term of endearment to a woman (cf. Skelton's _Eleanor Rummyng_, 225--"He called me his whytyng, his n.o.bbes, and his conny").

If, however, "act in conye" were equivalent to "act as woman," _i.e._ take a female part, examples of a.n.a.logous constructions should be forthcoming.

Line 129. _Lovely._--Here used in the sense of loving, tender. Cf.

_Taming of the Shrew_, iii. 2, 125--"And seal the t.i.tle with a lovely kiss."

Line 156. _All and some._--An expression meaning everyone, everything, altogether:

"For which the people blisful, _al and somme_, So cryden" ...

(CHAUCER, _Anelida and Arcite_, i. 26.)

"Thou who wilt not love, do this; Learne of me what Woman is.

Something made of thred and thrumme; A meere botch of all and some."

(HERRICK, _Hesperides_, i. 100.)

Line 160. _Cappes a thrumming._--Cf. _Knight of the Burning Pestle_, iv.

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