tain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no falve, fir, but a plantain ! - falve in the mountebank's budget. Or fhall we read-no enigma, no riddle, no l'envoy in the vile, fir O fir, plantain. The matter is not great, but one would wish for fome meaning or other. JOHNSON. Male or mail was a word then in ufe. Reynard the fox fent Kayward's head in a male. So likewife, in Tamburlane, or the Scythian Shepherd, 1590: Open the males, yet guard the treasure fure." I believe Dr. Johnson's firft explanation to be right. STEEVENS. Male, which is the reading of the old copies, is only the ancient fpelling of mail. So, in Taylor the Water-Poet's Works, Character of a Bawd,) 1630: the cloathe-bag of counfel, the capcafe, fardle, pack, male, of friendly toleration. The quarto 1598, and the first folio, have thee male. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. I can fçarcely think that Shakspeare had fo far forgotten his little fchool-learning, as to fuppofe the Latin verb falve, and the English fubftantive, falve, had the fame pronunciation; and yet without this, the quibble cannot be preferved. FARMER. The fame quibble occurs in Ariftippus, or The Jovial Philofopher, 1630: Salve, Mafter Simplicius. "Salve me; 'tis but a Surgeon's complement." STEEVENS. Perhaps we fhould read -no falve in them all, fir. TYRWHITT. This paffage appears to me to be nonsense as it ftands, incapable of explanation. I have therefore no doubt but we should adopt the amendment propofed by Tyrwhitt, and read No falve in them all, Sir. Moth tells his mafter, that there was a Coftard with a broken fhin: and the Knight, fuppofing that Moth has fome conceit in what he faid, calls upon him to explain it. Some riddle, fays he, fome enig ma. Come thy l'envoy, begin. But Collard fuppofing that he was calling for these things, in order to apply them to his broken fhin, fays, he will not have them, as they were none of them falves, and begs for a plain plantain inftead of them. This is clearly the meaning of Coftard's fpeech, which provokes the illuftrious Armado to laugh at the inconfiderate, who takes falve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for falve. ARM. By virtue, thou enforceft laughter; thy filly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling: O, pardon me my fars! Doth the inconfiderate take falve for l'envoy, and the word, l'envoy, for a falve? MOTH. Do the wife think them other? is not l'envoy a falve? ARM. No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain Some obfcure precedence that hath tofore been fain. I will example it: 3 But when Moth, who is an arch and fenfible character, fays, in reply to Armado: Do the wife think them other? Is not l'envoy a falve?" we must not fuppofe that this question is owing to his fimplicity, but that he intended thereby either to lead the Knight on to the subsequent explanation of the word l'envoy, or to quibble in the manner ftated in the notes upon the Eng lifh word falve and the Latin falvé; a quibble which operates upon the eye, not the ear:- - Yet Steevens has fhown it was not a new one. If this quibble was intended, which does not evidently appear to be the cafe, the only way that I account for it, is this: As the l'envoy was always in the concluding part of a play or poem, it was probably in the l'envoy that the poet or reciter took leave, of the audience, and the word itself appears to be derived from the verb envoyer, to fend away. Now the ufual falutation amongst the Romans at parting, as. well as meeting, was the word Jalve. Moth, therefore, confiders the l'envoy as a falutation or falve, and then quibbling on this laft word, afks if it be not a Jalve. I do not offer this explanation with much confidence, but it is the only one that occurs to me. M. MASON. 3 I will example it: &c.] Thefe words, and fome others, are not in the first folio, but in the quarto of 1598. I still believe the old paffage to want regulation, though it has not fufficient merit to encourage the editor who should attempt it. There is in Tuffer an old fong, beginning. "The ape, the lion, the fox, and the affe, Perhaps fome ridicule on this ditty was intended. STELVENS. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, There's the moral: Now the l'envoy. MOTH. I will add the l'envoy: Say the moral again. ARM. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were ftill at odds, being but three: MOTH. Until the goofe came out of door, Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were ftill at odds, being but three: ARM. Until the goofe came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four. MOTH. A good l'envoy, ending in the goofe; Would you defire more? COST. The boy hath fold him a bargain, a goose, that's flat: Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goose be fat. To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as faft and loofe : Let me fee a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goofe. ARM. Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin? MOTH. By faying, that a Coftard was broken in a fhin. Then call'd you for the l'envoy. COST. True, and I for a plantain; Thus came your argument in: Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goofe that you bought; And he ended the market. ✦ And he ended the market.] Alluding to the proverb Three ARM. But tell me; how was there a Coftard broken in a fhin? MOTH. I will tell you fenfibly. COST. Thou haft no feeling of it, Moth; I will fpeak that l'envoy:— I, Costard, running out, that was fafely within, ARM. By my fweet foul, I mean, fetting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy perfon; thou wert immur'd, restrained, captivated, bound. COST. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose. ARM. I give thee thy liberty, fet thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impofe on thee nothing but this: Bear this fignificant to the country maid Jaquenetta: there is remuneration; [ Giving him money. ] for the best ward of mine honour, is, rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow. [ Exit. women and a goofe, make a market. Tre donne ed un'occa fan un mercato. Ital. Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS. how was there a Coftard broken in a fhin?] Coftard is the name of a fpecies of apple. JOHNSON. It has been already observed that the head was anciently called the coftard. So, in K. Richard III. "Take him over the coftard with the hilt of thy fword. A coftard likewife fignified a crab fick. So, in The Loyal Subject of Beaumont and Fletcher: "I hope they'll crown his fervice.' 6 MOTH. Like the fequel, I. Signior Coftard, adieu. COST. My fweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew! 7 [ Exit MOTH. 6 Like the fequel, I.] Sequele, in French, fignifies a great man's train. The joke is, that a fingle page was all his train. THEOBALD. I believe this joke exifts only in the apprehenfion of the commentator. Sequelle, by the French, is never employed but in a derogatory sense. They use it to exprefs the gang of a highwayman, but not the train of a lord; the followers of a rebel, and not the attendants on a general. Thus Holinfhed, p. 639. "to the intent that by the extin&ion of him and his fequeale, all civil warre and inward divifion might ceafe," &c. Moth ufes fequel only in the literary acceptation. Mr. Heath obferves that the meaning of Moth is, you as clofe as the fequel does the premises." STEEVENS. I follow Moth alludes to the fequel of any ftory, which follows a preceding part, and was in the old ftory-books introduced in this manner; "Here followeth the fequel of such a story, or adventure. Hamlet fays, " But is there no fequel at the heels of this mother's admonition?" M. MASON. 7 delicate So my incony Jew!] Incony or kony in the north fignifies, fine, as a kony thing, a fine thing. It is plain therefore, we fhould read: my incony jewel." I know not whether it be right, WARBURTON. however fpecious, to change Jew to Jewel. Jew, in our author's time, was, for whatever reafon, apparently a word of endearment, So, in The Midfummer-Night's Dream: Most brifky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew." The word is ufed again in the 4th act of this play: JOHNSON. In the old comedy called Blurt Mafler Confiable, 1602, I meet with it again. A maid is speaking to her mistress about a gown: it makes you have a most inconic body." 66 Cony and incony have the fame meaning. So, Metaphor fays in Jonfon's Tale of a Tub: "O fuperdainty canon, vicar inconey." Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599: "O, I have fport inconey i faith," |
