be explained by a passage in another comedy found in vol. vi. of that valuable selection from our ancient drama: I refer to "The Hog hath lost his Pearl," where the following dialogue takes place between Haddit, a poet, and a Player: 66 Player. The muses assist you, sir. What! at your study so early? “Haddit. O! chiefly now, sir; for Aurora Musis amica. Player. Indeed I understand not Latin, sir. 66 "Haddit. You must then pardon me, Mr. Change-coat; for, I protest unto you, it is so much my often converse, that, if there be none but women in my company, yet I cannot forbear it. you, "Player. That shows your more learning, sir. But, I pray is that small matter done I entrusted you for? "Haddit. A small matter! You'll find it worth Meg of Westminster, although it be but a bare jig. 66 Player. O, lord! sir, I wish it had but half the taste of Garlick. not more ...... "Haddit. Garlick stinks to this: if it prove that you have than e'er Garlick had, say I am a boaster of my own works; disgrace me on the open stage, and bob me off with ne'er a penny." If any further illustration be wanted, it may be found in a couplet of the Works of John Taylor, the water-poet, printed in 1630, where he says: “And for his action he eclipseth quite The Jig of Garlick or the Punk's delight;" which may establish that the jig had a second title, which in fact is distantly alluded to by Haddit. The play of "Meg of Westminster" is spoken of by Nat. Field in his excellent comedy, "Amends for Ladies," act ii., sc. 1, which was re printed some years ago in a supplementary volume to Dodsley's Collection it is much to be regretted that sufficient encouragement was not given to that laudable undertaking; although it affords the more room to the Shakespeare Society, which, I trust, will follow up its plan of printing farther specimens of our early drama. However, this is beside the question in relation to which I quoted the epigram from H. Parrott's Epigrams. By the way, and before I conclude, I may ask if the following do not clearly allude to Ben Jonson, and to his early trade of bricklaying? It is numbered 163; and if it have been already quoted, it has escaped my memory. 66 Cignus per plumas Anser. "Put off thy buskins, Sophocles the great, thanks. DRAMATICUS. ART. VII. Illustration of a Passage in Twelfth Night: the passing measure Pavin. I am anxious to avail myself of the intended publication of the Papers of the Shakespeare Society, in order to make an addition to a note in the impression of "Shakespeare's Works" completed under my care. The note to which I am desirous of appending a supplement is upon a passage in "Twelfth Night," act v., sc. 1, where Sir Toby Belch says of "Dick surgeon," who, he is told, is drunk : "Then, he's a rogue, and a passy-measures pavin. I hate a drunken rogue." 66 The difficulty here, with all the commentators, has been to understand why "Dick surgeon" is called "a passy-measures pavin:" having become intoxicated, of course he has passed the ordinary measures of discretion in his cups; but the word pavin" also requires farther explanation. I was not aware, until very recently, that there was in Shakespeare's time a wellknown dance, called "the passing measure pavin ;" and it is to this that Sir Toby clearly alludes. "Dick surgeon" has passed his measures in getting drunk, and these words instantly bring pavin" to the knight's mind, which was not inappropriate, because, as stated in the note, (Shakespeare's Works, iii., 413, edit. 1844) a pavin was "a slow, heavy movement, such as a drunken man might be supposed to execute in his intoxication." Musical authorities tell us, that "passy-measures," as it stands in the old copies, is a corruption of passamezzo, and such may be the fact; but nobody seems to have known, any more than myself, that there was a dance, in which Queen Elizabeth must often have joined, called "the passing measure pavin." 66 I have before me a list of thirteen dances, in a manuscript of the time, with curious descriptions of the figures belonging to them, and the first of these is "the passinge measure pavyon,” which is thus explained, I do not say how intelligibly to modern professors : "The passinge measure Pavyon. "2 singles and a double forward, and Among the other twelve dances we find "my Lord of Essex measure," "the Queenes Allmane," and various others, not perhaps so much illustrative of Shakespeare as of the court entertainments at the period when he was a writer for the stage, and when his plays were performed at Whitehall, Greenwich, Richmond, &c., as part of the amusements during Christmas and Shrovetide, at which seasons these dances were also in request. Even their titles are amusing; and, although some of them are new (not being mentioned, as I apprehend, elsewhere) others will be recognized as having been repeatedly referred to by dramatists, and other writers, about two centuries and a half ago. I therefore shall not hesitate to subjoin the whole, with the technical terms employed in the descriptions, exactly as they stand in the manuscript. I have already quoted "The passing measure pavin," or pavyon, which comes first, and the second is the well known dance of "A double foreward, reprince back 4 tymes-2 singles, a double foreward: reprynce back twice, a double foreward: reprynce back 4 tymes. "A double foreward, one single syde 4 tymes: 2 syngles syde, a double foreward: reprins back. "Tynterne abb. "A double foreward: reprynce back once: 2 singles, a double rownde bothe wayes: a double foreward: reprynce back 3 tymes: 2 syngles, a double rownd both wayes. "The old Allmayne. "2 syngles, a double rownd both wayes: 4 doubles foreward, 2 singles, a double rownd both wayes. "The Queenes Allmane. "2 singles foreward; caste of a couple rownde: 2 singles syde: Reprynce back twies, 4 doubles foreward, 2 singles foreward, cast of a double rownde: 2 singles syde: Reprince back twyes. "Cicilia Pavyon. "One single, a double foreward, one syngle syde: reprynce back, a double forward: 2 syngles syde and 6 back twies: 2 singles, a double foreward. Reprynce back twyes: one single, a double forward, one single syde. Reprins back: a double foreward, 2 singles syde, and 6 back twyes. "Cicilia Allmane. "2 singles and a double foreward, one single syde twyse: parte 2 singles syde, and hover. Change places with singles and double; then hover and imbrace: 2 singles syde, and hover 2 singles, a double into your owne place agayne, then hover and imbrace. "The Black Allman. "4 doubles foreward: parte. A double back, a double foreward, a double syde. Longe on the lefte legge, and a double on the right legge. 2 singles foreward, and 2 singles rownd, |