ARM. A most fine figure! MOTH. To prove you a cypher. [Aside. 66 likewise mentioned in The Guls Horn-booke, a satirical pamphlet by Decker, 1609: - From hence you may descend to talk about the horse that went up, and strive, if you can, to know his keeper; take the day of the month, and the number of the steppes, and suffer yourself to believe verily that it was not a horse, but something else in the likeness of one." Again, in Chrestoloros, or Seven Bookes of Epigrames, written by T. B. [Thomas Bastard] 1598, lib. iii. ep. 17: Of Bankes's Horse. 66 "Bankes hath a horse of wondrous qualitie, "For he can fight, and pisse, and dance, and lie, In 1595, was published a pamphlet entitled, Maroccus Extaticus, or Bankes's Bay Horse in a Trance: A Discourse set downe in a merry Dialogue between Bankes and his Beast: anatomizing some Abuses and bad Trickes of this Age, 4to.: prefixed to which, was a print of the horse standing on his hind legs with a stick in his mouth, his master with a stick in his hand and a pair of dice on the ground. Ben Jonson [in his 134th Epigram] hints at the unfortunate catastrophe of both man and horse, which I find happened at Rome, where to the disgrace of the age, of the country, and of humanity, they were burnt by order of the pope, for magicians. See Don Zara del Fogo, 12mo. 1660, p. 114. REED. Bankes narrowly escaped in France, as we learn from Bishop Morton's answer to Theophilus Higgins: "Which bringeth into my remembrance a storie which Banks told me at Frankeford, from his own experience in France among the Capuchins, by whom he was brought into suspition of magicke, because of the strange feates which his horse Morocco plaied (as I take it) at Orleance; where he to redeem his credit, promised to manifest to the world that his horse was nothing lesse than a divell. To this end he commanded his horse to seek out one in the preasse of the people, who had a crucifixe on his hat; which done, he bad him kneele downe unto it; and not this only, but also to rise up againe and to kisse it. And now, gentlemen, (quoth he) I think my horse hath acquitted both me and himself; and so his adversaries rested satisfied: conceiving (as it might seeme) that the divell had no power to come neare the crosse." The best account of Bankes and his horse is to be found (as Mr. Douce observes) in the notes to a French translation of Apuleius's Golden Ass, by Jean De Montlyard Sieur de Milleray, 1602. BOSWELL. ARM. I will hereupon confess, I am in love: and, as it is base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take Desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a new devised courtesy. I think scorn to sigh; methinks, I should out-swear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: What great men have been in love? MOTH. Hercules, master. The following representation of Bankes and his Horse, is a facsimile from a rude wooden frontispiece to the pamphlet mentioned by Mr. Reed. ARM. Most sweet Hercules !-More authority, dear boy, name more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage. MоTH. Sampson, master: he was a man of good carriage, great carriage; for he carried the towngates on his back, like a porter: and he was in love. ARM. O well-knit Sampson! strong-jointed Sampson! I do excel thee in my rapier, as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in love too,-Who was Sampson's love, my dear Moth? MOTH. A woman, master. ARM. Of what complexion? MOTH. Of all the four, or the three, or the two; or one of the four. ARM. Tell me precisely of what complexion? ARM. Is that one of the four complexions? MOTH. As I have read, sir; and the best of them too. ARM. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers 2: but to have a love of that colour, methinks, Sampson had small reason for it. He, surely, affected her for her wit. MOTH. It was so, sir; for she had a green wit. ARM. My love is most immaculate white and red. 2 GREEN, indeed, is the colour of LOVERS:] I do not know whether our author alludes to " the rare green eye," which in his time seems to have been thought a beauty, or to that frequent attendant on love, jealousy, to which, in The Merchant of Venice, and in Othello, he has applied the epithet green-ey'd. MALONE. Perhaps Armado neither alludes to green eyes, nor to jealousy ; but to the willow, the supposed ornament of unsuccessful lovers: Sing, all a green willow shall be my garland," is the burden of an ancient ditty preserved in The Gallery of gorgious Inventions, &c. 4to. 1578. STEEVENS. MOTH. Most maculate thoughts3, master, are masked under such colours. ARM. Define, define, well-educated infant. MOTH. My father's wit, and my mother's tongue, assist me! ARM. Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty, and pathetical! MOTH. If she be made of white and red, Her faults will ne'er be known; 4 For blushing cheeks by faults are bred, By this you shall not know; For still her cheeks possess the same, A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red. ARM. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar'? MOTH. The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages since: but, I think, now 'tis not to be found: or, if it were, it would neither serve for the writing, nor the tune. 3 Most MACULATE thoughts,] So, the first quarto, 1598. The folio has immaculate. To avoid such notes for the future, it may be proper to apprize the reader, that where the reading of the text does not correspond with the folio, without any reason being assigned for the deviation, it is always warranted by the authority of the first quarto. MALONE. As this intimation would be of no use to a reader who is not possessed of the first folio, I have marked the variations. BOSWELL. 4 For BLUSHING -] The original copy has-blush in. The emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. MALONE. 5 Which NATIVE she doth owE.] i. e. of which she is naturally possessed. To owe is to possess. So, in Macbeth: 66 the disposition that I owe." STEEVENS. 6 the King and the Beggar?] See Dr. Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, 4th edit. vol. i. p. 198. STEEVENS. ARM. I will have the subject newly writ o'er, that I may example my digression 7 by some mighty precedent. Boy, I do love that country girl, that I took in the park with the rational hind Costard &; she deserves well. MOTH. To be whipped; and yet a better love than my master. [Aside. ARM. Sing, boy; my spirit grows heavy in love. MOTH. And that's great marvel, loving a light wench. ARM. I say, sing. MOTH. Forbear till this company be past. Enter DULL, COSTARD, and JAQuenetta. DULL. Sir, the duke's pleasure is, that you keep Costard safe and you must let him take no delight, nor no penance; but a'* must fast three days a week: For this damsel, I must keep her at the park; she is allowed for the day-woman". Fare you well. 7 *First folio, he. my DIGRESSION] Digression on this occasion signifies the act of going out of the right way, transgression. So, in Romeo and Juliet : 66 Thy noble shape is but a form of wax, Digressing from the valour of a man." Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece : 8 66 my digression is so vile, so base, "That it will live engraven on my face." STEEVENS. MALONE. the RATIONAL hind Costard;] Perhaps we should read— the irrational hind, &c. TYRWHITT. The rational hind, perhaps, means only the reasoning brute, the animal with some share of reason. STEEVENS. I have always read irrational hind; if hind be taken in its bestial sense, Armado makes Costard a female. FARMER. Shakspeare uses it in its bestial sense in Julius Cæsar, Act I. Sc. III. and as of the masculine gender: "He were no lion, were not Romans hinds." Again, in King Henry IV. Part I. Sc. III.: “ low cowardly hind, and you lie." STEEVENS. you are a shal 9 for the DAY-WOMAN.] "i. e. for the dairy-maid. Dairy, |