LEON. To satisfy my lady. MAR. Why would she have me kill'd? LEON. My commission Is not to reason of the deed, but do it. MAR. You will not do't for all the world, I hope. You are well-favour'd, and your looks foreshow You have a gentle heart. I saw you lately, When you caught hurt in parting two that fought: Good sooth, it show'd well in you; do so now: Your lady seeks my life; come you between, And save poor me, the weaker. LEON. And will despatch. I am sworn, hope for me to escape my life, give me licence to say my prayers before I die. I give thee license, saide the villaine. And I take God to record, that I am constrained to murther thee against my will." STEEVENS. 3 * I trod upon a worm against my will, But I wept for it.] Fenton has transplanted this image into his Mariamne: Enter Pirates, whilst MARINA is struggling. 1 PIRATE. Hold, villain! [LEONINE runs away. 2 PIRATE. A prize! a prize! 3 PIRATE. Half-part, mates, half-part. Come, let's have her aboard suddenly. [Exeunt Pirates with MARINA, SCENE II.. The same. Re-enter LEONINE. LEON. These roving thieves serve the great pirate Valdes; 5 And they have seiz'd Marina. Let her go: * Leonine runs away.] So, in Twine's translation: “ When the villain heard that, he ran away as fast as he could.-Then came the Pyrats and rescued Tharsia, and carried her away to their ships, and hoised sailes, and departed." STEEvens. These roving thieves serve the great pirate Valdes;] [Old copy-roguing.] The Spanish armada, I believe, furnished our author with this name. Don Pedro de Valdes was an Admiral in that fleet, and had the command of the great galleon of An'dalusia. His ship being disabled, he was taken by Sir Francis Drake, on the twenty-second of July, 1588, and sent to Dartmouth. This play therefore, we may conclude, was not written till after that period. The making one of this Spaniard's ancestors a pirate, was probably relished by the audience in those days. MALONE. In Robert Greene's Spanish Masquerado, 1589, the curious reader may find a very particular account of this Valdes, who was commander of the Andalusian troops, and then prisoner in England. STEEvens. There's no hope she'll return. I'll swear she's dead, And thrown into the sea.-But I'll see further; Perhaps they will but please themselves upon her, Not carry her aboard. If she remain, Whom they have ravish'd, must by me be slain. SCENE III. [Exit. Mitylene. A Room in a Brothel. Enter PANDER, Bawd, and BOULT. PAND. Boult. BOULT. Sir. PAND. Search the market narrowly; Mitylene is full of gallants. We lost too much money this mart, by being too wenchless. BAWD. We were never so much out of creatures. We have but poor three, and they can do no more than they can do; and with continual action are even as good as rotten. 6 PAND. Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for them. If there be not a conscience to be used in every trade, we shall never prosper." We should probably read-These roving thieves.-The idea of roguery is necessarily implied in the word thieves. M. MASON. and with continual action-] Old copies-and they with &c. The word they was evidently repeated by the carelessness of the compositor. MAlone. 7 Therefore let's have fresh ones, whate'er we pay for them. If there be not a conscience to be used in every trade, we shall never prosper.] The sentiments incident to vicious professions suffer BAWD. Thou say'st true: 'tis not the bringing up of poor bastards, as I think, I have brought up some eleven 8 BOULT. Ay, to eleven, and brought them down again.9 But shall I search the market? BAWD. What else, man? The stuff we have, a strong wind will blow it to pieces, they are so pitifully sodden. PAND. Thou say'st true; they are too unwholesome o'conscience.' The poor Transilvanian is dead, that lay with the little baggage. little change within a century and a half. This speech is much the same as that of Mother Cole, in The Minor: "Tip him an old trader! Mercy on us, where do you expect to gov when you die, Mr. Loader ?" STEEVENS. * Thou say'st true: 'tis not the bringing up of poor bastards,] There seems to be something wanting. Perhaps that will do or some such words. The author, however, might have intended an imperfect sentence. MALONE. 9 Ay, to eleven, and brought them down again.] I have brought up (i. e. educated) says the Bawd, some eleven. Yes, (answers Boult) to eleven (i. e. as far as eleven years of age) and then brought them down again. The latter clause of the sentence requires no explanation. Thus, in The Play of the Wether, by John Heywood, 4to. bl. 1. Mery Report says: "Oft tyme is sene both in court and towne, "Longe be women a bryngynge up, and sone brought downe." STEEVENS. The modern copies read-I too eleven. The true reading, which is found in the quarto, 1609, was pointed out by Mr. Steevens. MALONE. 1 Thou say'st true; they're too unwholesome o'conscience.] The old copies read-there's two unwholesome o'conscience. The preceding dialogue shows that they are erroneous. The complaint had not been made of two, but of all the stuff they had. According to the present regulation, the pandar merely assents to what his wife had said. The words two and too are perpetually confounded in the old copies. MALONE. BOULT. Ay, she quickly pooped him ; she made him roast-meat for worms:-but I'll go search the market. [Exit BOULT. PAND. Three or four thousand chequins were as pretty a proportion to live quietly, and so give over. BAWD. Why, to give over, I pray you? is it a shame to get when we are old? 3 PAND. O, our credit comes not in like the commodity; nor the commodity wages not with the danger; therefore, if in our youths we could pick up some pretty estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door hatched. Besides, the sore terms we stand 2 Ay, she quickly pooped him;] The following passage in The Devil's Charter, a tragedy, 1607, will sufficiently explain this singular, term: foul Amazonian trulls, "Whose lanterns are still lighted in their poops." MALONE. This phrase (whatever be its meaning) occurs in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: "But we shall l'envoy him, and trumpe and poope him well enough-." The same word is used by Dryden, in his Wild Gallant: "He's poopt too." STEEVENS. 3 the commodity wages not with the danger;] i. e. is not equal to it. Several examples of this expression are given in former notes on our author. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: his taints and honours Wag'd equal with him." STEEVens. Again, more appositely, in Othello: "To wake and wage a danger profitless." MALONE. to keep our door hatched.] The doors or hatches of brothels, in the time of our author, seem to have had some distinguishing mark. So, in Cupid's Whirligig, 1607: "Set some picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profess to keep a bawdy-house.' Prefixed to an old pamphlet entitled Holland's Leaguer, 4to. 1632, is a representation of a celebrated brothel on the Bank-side |