Narcissus Part 11

"And let it ne'er be said for shame that we, the youths of London, Lay thrumming of our caps at home, and left our custom undone."

To _thrum_ = to beat in the Suffolk dialect.

Line 167. _Shrimpe._--This use of the word in the sense of child, offspring (or possibly as a term of endearment, "little one") is not common. It was generally employed contemptuously, and meant a dwarfish or stunted creature, as in 1 _Henry VI._ ii. 3, 23. See, however, _Love's Labour's Lost_, v. 2, 594.

Line 193. _Oddes_ here = contention, quarrel. For this sense compare--

"I cannot speak Any beginning to this peevish odds."

(_Oth.e.l.lo_, ii. 3, 185.)

and also _Henry V._ ii. 4, 129, and _Timon of Athens_, iv. 3, 42.

Line 195. _Seven yeares I was a woman._--The blindness of Tiresias is most frequently ascribed, either to his having, when a child, revealed the secrets of the G.o.ds, or to his having gazed upon Athene bathing, on which occasion the G.o.ddess is said to have deprived him of sight.

Another tradition, however (adhered to by Ovid, _Met._ iii. 516, etc.), relates that Tiresias beheld two serpents together; he struck at them, and, happening to kill the female, was himself changed into a woman.

Seven years later he again encountered two serpents, but now killed the male, and resumed the shape of man. Zeus and Hera, disputing over the relative happiness of man and woman, referred the matter to Tiresias, as having a practical knowledge of both conditions. He favoured Zeus's a.s.sertion that a woman possessed the more enjoyments; whereupon Hera, indignant, blinded him, while Zeus bestowed on him, in compensation, the power of prophecy.

Line 197. _Fold._--The omission of a prefix to suit the exigencies of metre, common enough in verbs such as defend, defile, becomes remarkable when the force of the prefix itself is such as to change entirely the meaning of the verb. Examples of omission in such cases are comparatively rare, but they are not confined to our own language. See Vergil, _Aen._ i. 262--

"Longius et volvens fatorum arcana movebo"--

and cf. also _Aen._ v. 26, and Cicero's _Brutus_, 87.

Line 223. _Catch audacitye._--For the old metaphorical use of catch cf.

Wyclif's Bible (1 Tim. vi. 12), "Catche euerlastyng lyf."

Line 227. _Curromanstike_, chiromantic, _i.e._ pertaining to chiromancy; the rhyme being probably responsible for the use of the adjective rather than the noun.

Line 229. _The table_, etc.--"The table-line, or line of fortune, begins under the mount of Mercury, and ends near the index and middle finger.... When lines come from the mount of Venus, and cut the line of life, it denotes the party unfortunate in love and business, and threatens him with some suddain death" (_The True Fortune-teller, or Guide to Knowledge_, 1686).

Line 236. _Sheppbiter._--A malicious, surly fellow; according to Dyce, "a cant term for a thief." See _Twelfth Night_, ii. 5, 6, "The n.i.g.g.ardly, rascally sheep-biter."

Line 246. _What._--MS. has the abbreviation w^{th}, usually denoting _with_, but evidently subst.i.tuted here, by a copyist's error, for w^{t} = _what_.

Line 247. _They can but bring_, etc.--W. Carew Hazlitt (_English Proverbs_, p. 28) quotes from Heywood, 1562--"A man maie well bring a horse to the water, but he can not make him drinke without he will." He also mentions that the proverb is ascribed (probably falsely) to Queen Elizabeth, in the _Philosopher's Banquet_ (1614).

Line 261. _I_ = ay.--Both spellings occur in the MS. For the common use of the capital _I_ in this sense, see Juliet's play upon the word--

"Hath Romeo slain himself? Say thou but 'I,'

And that bare vowel 'I' shall poison more Than the death-darting eye of c.o.c.katrice; I am not I, if there be such an I."

(_Romeo and Juliet_, iii. 2, 45, etc.)

Line 262. _In spight of ... pye._--Alluding to the common belief in the pie, or magpie, as a bird of ill-omen.

Line 266. _Phibbus._--The same spelling as in _Midsummer Night's Dream_, i. 2, 37.

Line 270. _Baskett dagger._--Doubtless a weapon resembling the basket-_sword_, which had a hilt specially designed to protect the hand from injury. Cf. 2 _Henry IV._ ii. 4, 141.

Line 275. _Footinge_, step, tread; cf. _Merchant of Venice_, v. 24.

Line 279.--_Late-mouse._--A facetious spelling of Latmus, the "mount of oblivion."

Line 281. _s.h.i.+ft_ originally meant simply change, subst.i.tution of one thing for another. Cf. _Timon of Athens_, i. 1, 84--"Fortune, in her s.h.i.+ft and change of mood." Wotton writes--"My going to Oxford was not merely for s.h.i.+ft of air." From this arose the later sense of a change of clothing, in which the word is here used; and which has now become further limited, _s.h.i.+ft_ amongst the lower cla.s.ses being equivalent to an under-garment.

Line 282. _Cantle._--A corner, angle, small point. Cf. 1 _Henry IV._ iii. 1, 100; _Antony and Cleopatra_, iii. 10, 6. See also under _cantle_ in N. E. D.

Line 283. _Portmantle._--The older and commoner form of _portmanteau_, occurring, for example, in Howell's _Familiar Letters_ (1623). Early instances of _portmanteau_ are, however, to be found.

Line 296. _Ile bee a diar,_ etc.--The joke is on the double meaning of _diar_; there seems to be no special significance in the choice of the colour orange-tawny.

Line 300. _Codshead_ = stupid-head, foolish fellow. Cf. in 1607, Drewill's _Arraignm_. in Harl. Misc. (Malh.) iii. 56:--"Lloyd (threatning he) woulde trye acquaintance with the other codsheade."

Also, in 1594, Carew Huarte's _Exam. Wits_, i. (1596), 2:--"His (Cicero's) sonne ... prooued but a cods-head."

Line 301. _O eyes, noe eyes._--The common tag from Hieronymo, in Kyd's _Spanish Tragedy_, Act iii.:

"O eyes! No eyes, but fountains fraught with tears; O life! No life, but lively form of death."

The line was a frequent subject of ridicule amongst contemporary writers; cf. _Every Man in his Humour_, i. 5, 58, etc.

Line 316. _Fennell._--Foeniculum vulgare, considered as an inflammatory herb, and used as an emblem of flattery. Cf. _Hamlet_, iv. 5, 180.

Line 320. _Thou._--MS. has _though_.

Line 327. _Weasand._--This word is generally used as a noun, and itself means wind-pipe. Cf. _Tempest_, iii. 2, 99.

Line 328. _Thy face more faire, etc._--According to some legends, Gorgon or Medusa was a beautiful maiden before Athene, in anger, changed her hair into serpents, thereby rendering her so hideous that all who saw her became petrified. Possibly, however, the allusion here is merely facetious.

Line 329. _Dishevells._--Spreads in disorder (an intransitive use).

"Their hair, curling, dishevels about their shoulders." (Sir T.

Herbert.)

Line 330. _Queene of devills._--Probably Persephone, the wife of Pluto, who ruled amongst the shades of the departed.

Line 332. _Mavors_ or _Mavers_ is the form from which _Mars_ is contracted.

Line 337. _Silenus for streight backe._--Silenus is usually depicted as a fat, jovial old man, intoxicated and requiring support. The comparison is of course ironical.

Line 339. _Rine_ = rind or bark. The O. E. form was rinde; but for a similar omission of _d_ in the literary language cf. _lime_ (O. E.

linde) and _lawn_ (M. E. launde).

Line 342. _Whose nose, etc._--Cf. _Midsummer Night's Dream_, v. 338. A similar jest occurs in Peele's "Old Wives' Tale": "Her corall lippes, her crimson chinne."

Line 345. _Thy._--MS. has _they_.

Line 360. _Cruell_, _huge_, are the epithets properly belonging to _elephant_; _changing_, _small_, to _chameleon_. See Introduction.

Line 396. _Ile beare thee light._--If this expression be an idiom, I can find no other instance of it; cf., however, the a.n.a.logous phrase "to bear hard," _i.e._ to take ill (_Julius Caesar_, ii. 1, 215; 1 _Henry IV._ i. 3, 270). The punning character of the pa.s.sage makes it difficult to determine what exact meaning Florida wishes to convey. A not improbable sense would be obtained by supplying a comma after _thee_, and thus turning _light_ into a nominative of address.