Shakespeare Jest-Books Part 41

other Husband you were speaking of, is he here in the House_?"--_Complete London Jester_, 1771, p. 49.

This story was appropriated by the editor of _Pasquil's Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments_, of which there were several editions, the first appearing in 1604. In Pasquil's Jests, the tale is told of a "young woman of Barnet."

_She rowned her father in the eare._

Gower (_Confessio Amantis_, ed. Pauli, Vol. 1. p. 161) has a precisely similar expression:--

"But whan they rounenin her ere, Than groweth all my moste fere."

P. 21. _Of him that kissed the mayde with the longe nose._

"'Good Sir William, let it rest' quoth shee, 'I know you will not beleeue it when I haue reuealed it, neither is it a thing that you can helpe: and yet such is my foolishnesse, had it not beene for that, I thinke, verily I had granted your suite ere now. But seeing you vrge me so much to know what it is, I will tell you: it is, sir, your ill-fauoured great nose, that hangs sagging so lothsomely to your lips, _that I cannot finde in my heart so much as to kisse you_.'"--_Pleasant History of Thomas of Reading_, by T. D. circa 1597, p. 73 (ed. Thoms).

P. 26. _Of the Marchaunt that lost his bodgetie betwene Ware and Lon[don]._

In _Pasquil's Jests_, 1604 occurs an account substantially similar to the present, of "how a merchant lost his purse between _Waltam_ and London."

P. 28. _Of the fatte woman that solde frute._

"Being thus dispatcht he layes downe Jacke A peny for the shot: 'Sir, what shall this doe?' said the boy.

'Why, rogue, discharge my pot!

So much I cald for, but the rest By me shall nere be paid: For victualls thou didst offer me; _Doe and thou woot_, I said.'"

_The Knave of Clubbs_, by S. Rowlands, 1600 (Percy Soc. ed. p. 20).

P. 31.--Wilson introduces the "notable historie" of Papirius Pretextatus into his _Rule of Reason_, 1551, 80, and it had previously been related in Caxton's _Game and Playe of the Chesse_, 1474.

P. 33. _Of the corrupte man of law._

"An arch Barber at a certain Borough in the West, where there are but few Electors, had Art enough to suspend his Promise till the Voters, by means of _Bribery_, the _old Balsam_, were so divided, that the casting vote lay in himself. One of the Candidates, who was sensible of it, cameinto his little dirty Shop to be shaved, and when the operation was finish'd, threw into the Bason _Twenty Guineas_. The next Day came the other Candidate, who was shaved also, and left _Thirty_. Some Days after this, the first return'd to solicit the Barber's Vote, who told him very coldly, _That he could not promise. Not promise!_ says the Gentleman; why I thought I had been shaved here! 'Tis true, says the Barber, _you was, but another Gentleman has been trimm'd_ since that; however, if you please, I'll trim you again, and then tell you my mind."--_Complete London Jester_, ed. 1771, p. 99.

P. 35. _Conon peaked into the court._--So in Skelton's _Colin Clout_ (Works by Dyce, I. 312), we have:--

"He cryeth and he creketh, He pryeth and he peketh, He chides and he chatters," &c.

In the _Posthums Poems of Richard Lovelace, Esq._ 1659, 80, p. 60, the word is employed in a different sense:--

"Have you not marked their C[oe]lestial play, And no more peek'd the gayties of day?"

_To peak_, however, in the sense in which it is used by Skelton, and in the _Merie Tales_, &c. is of rather frequent occurrence in _Scoggin's Jests_, 1626 (but first printed before 1565); and Gascoigne employs the word in the same manner in the _Steel Glas_, n. d. (1576) 40. The pa.s.sage in Gascoigne, which I perused long ago, was brought back to my recollection by a note by the Rev. A. Dyce to Skelton's _Colin Clout_.

P. 38.--See Diogenes Laertius, transl. by Yonge, p. 226. Diogenes the Cynic evidently had Thales in his mind when he said "that mathematicians kept their eyes fixed on the sun and moon, and overlooked what was under their feet."

P. 40. _Of him that dreamed he fonde golde._

In _Pasquil's Jests_, we are told "how drunken Mullins of Stratford dreamed he found golde." It is the same story.

P. 52. _Gelidus facet anguis in herba._--Whoever edited this collection of stories seems to have had a great fancy for quotations. Throughout the _C. Mery Talys_, on the contrary, there is not a single instance of this pa.s.sion for extracts. Sir Thomas Overbury, in his _Characters_ (if at least they were written by him), ed. 1632, sign. K4, describes "An Innes of Court man" as taking "_ends of Latine_, though it be false, with as great confidence as ever _Cicero_ could p.r.o.nounce an oration." I suspect that the _Mery Tales and Quicke Answeres_ were collected by some person more or less versed in the cla.s.sics and in foreign authors, which was probably not the case with the _C. Mery Talys_, which do not smell so much of the inkhorn, as Gascoigne would have said.

P. 54. _Breble-brable._

In _Twelfth Night_, act iv. sc. 2, Shakespeare makes the Clown use _bibble-babble_ in a similar sense; but afterwards in the same drama, act v. sc.1, _brabble_ is put for "a brawl."

This word is no doubt the same as the "pribbles and prabbles" which Sir Hugh uses more than once in the _Merry Wives of Windsor_. See act v. sc.

5.

P. 60. _Of hym that payde his dette with crienge bea._--Compare the story of "the subtility of Kindlewall the lawyer repayed with the like craft," printed in _Pasquil's Jests_, ed. Gilbertson, n. d. 40.

P. 65. _All to._--I fear that I too hastily adopted the self-suggested notion that the former words might be read more properly as one word, and in the sense which I indicated. Perhaps as _all to_ or _al to_ is not uncommonly used by early writers in this way, though the meaning in the present case is not particularly clear, it may be better to restore the original reading.

P. 67. _Of the Inholders wyfe and her ii lovers._--See Rowlands' _Knave of Clubbs_, 1600, ed. Rimbault, p. 25.

P. 67. _Daungerous of her tayle._ So in the _Schole-house of Women_, 1542, the author says:--

"Plant them round with many a pin, Ringed for routing of pure golde, Faire without, and foule within, And of their tailes have slipper holde."

P. 70. _Of Mayster Vavasour and Turpin his man._

"A Lawyer and his Clerk riding on the Road, the Clerk desired to know what was the chief Point of the Law. His Master said, if he would promise to pay for their Suppers that Night, he would tell him; which was agreed to. Why then, said the Master, good Witnesses are the chief Point in the Law. When they came to the Inn, the Master bespoke a couple of Fowls for Supper; and when they had Supped, told the Clerk to pay for them according to Agreement. O _Sir_, says he, where's your witness."--_Complete London Jester_, ed. 1771, p. 102.

P. 72. One of _Pasquil's Jests_ is "how mad Coomes, when his wife was drowned, sought her against the stream." It is merely a new application of the present anecdote.

P. 75. _Of the foole that thought hym selfe deed._--A story of a similar character occurs in _The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinarie, or, the Walkes in Powles_, 1604, (repr. 1841, p. 19), where "mine Host" gives an account of "how a yong fellow was even bespoke and jested to death by harlots."

P. 93. _He fell to a nyce laughyng._

_Nice_, in the sense of _foolish_, is also used by Gower, who likewise employs the substantive _nicete_ in a similar way:--

"But than it were a _nicete_ To telle you, how that I fare!"

_Confessio Amantis_, lib. vi.