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Enter a Servant.

Serv. Master, there is three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds, three swine-herds,2 that have made themselves all men of hair;3 they call themselves sal

2 Master, there are three carters, three shepherds, three neat-herds, and three swine-herds,] Thus all the printed copies hitherto. Now, in two speeches after this, these are called four threes of herdsmen. But could the carters properly be called herdsmen? At least, they have not the final syllable, herd, in their names; which, I believe, Shakspeare intended all the four threes should have. I therefore guess he wrote:-Master, there are three goat-herds, &c. And so, I think, we take in the four species of cattle usually tended by herdsmen. Theobald.

3 all men of hair;] Men of hair, are hairy men, or satyrs. A dance of satyrs was no unusual entertainment in the middle ages. At a great festival celebrated in France, the king and some of the nobles personated satyrs dressed in close habits, tufted or shagged all over, to imitate hair. They began a wild dance, and in the tumult of their merriment one of them went too near a candle and set fire to his satyr's garb, the flame ran instantly over the loose tufts, and spread itself to the dress of those that were next him; a great number of the dancers were cruelly scorched, being neither able to throw off their coats nor extinguish them. The king had set himself in the lap of the dutchess of Burgundy, who threw her robe over him and saved him. Johnson.

The curious reader, who wishes for more exact information relative to the foregoing occurrence in the year 1392, may consult the translation of Froissart's Chronicle, by Johan Bourchier knyght, lorde Berners, &c. 1525, Vol. II, cap. C.xcii, fo. CCxliii : "Of the aduenture of a daunce that was made at Parys in lykenesse of wodehowses, wherein the Frenche kynge was in parell of dethe." Steevens.

Melvil's Memoirs, p. 152, edit. 1735, bear additional testimony to the prevalence of this species of mummery:

"During their abode, [that of the embassadors who assembled to congratulate Mary Queen of Scots on the birth of her son] at Stirling, there was daily banqueting, dancing, and triumph. And at the principal banquet there fell out a great grudge among the Englishmen: for a Frenchman called Bastian devised a number of men formed like satyrs, with long tails, and whips in their hands, running before the meat, which was brought through the great hall upon a machine or engine, marching as appeared alone, with musicians clothed like maids, singing, and playing upon all sorts of instruments. But the satyrs were not content only to make way or room, but put their hands behind them to their tails, which they wagged with their hands in such sort, as the Englishmen supposed it had been devised and done

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tiers: and they have a dance which the wenches say is a gallimaufry of gambols, because they are not in 't; but they themselves are o' the mind, (if it be not too rough for some, that know little but bowling,) it will please plentifully.

Shep. Away! we 'll none on 't; here has been too much homely foolery already :-I know, sir, we weary you. Pol. You weary those that refresh us: Pray, let's see these four threes of herdsmen.

Serv. One three of them, by their own report, sir, hath danced before the king; and not the worst of the three, but jumps twelve foot and a half by the squire.7 Shep. Leave your prating; since these good men are pleased, let them come in; but quickly now. Serv. Why, they stay at door, sir.

[Exit.

in derision of them; weakly apprehending that which they should not have appeared to understand. For Mr. Hatton, Mr. Lignish, and the most part of the gentlemen desired to sup before the queen and great banquet, that they might see the better the order and ceremonies of the triumph: but so soon as they perceived the satyrs wagging their tails, they all sat down upon the bare floor behind the back of the table, that they might not see themselves derided, as they thought. Mr. Hatton said unto me, if it were not in the queen's presence, he would put a dagger to the heart of that French knave Bastian, who he alleged had done it out of despight that the queen made more of them than of the Frenchmen. Reed.

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they call themselves saltiers:] He means Satyrs. Their dress was perhaps made of goat's skin. Cervantes mentions in the preface to his plays that in the time of an early Spanish writer, Lopè de Rueda, "All the furniture and utensils of the actors consisted of four shepherds' jerkins, made of the skins of sheep with the wool on, and adorned with gilt leather trimming: four beards and periwigs, and four pastoral crooks;-little more or less." Probably a similar shepherd's jerkin was used in our author's theatre. Malone.

5 gallimaufry] Cockeram, in his Dictionarie of hard Words, 12mo. 1622, says, a gallimaufry is “ a confused heape of things together." Steevens.

6 bowling.] Bowling, I believe, is here a term for a dance of smooth motion, without great exertion of agility. Johnson. The allusion is not to a smooth dance, as Johnson supposes, but to the smoothness of a bowling green. M. Mason.

7

by the squire.] i. e. by the foot-rule. Esquierre, French. See Love's Labour's Lost, Vol. IV, p. 133, n. 1. Malone.

Re-enter Servant, with twelve Rustics habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then exeunt.

Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.3. Is it not too far gone?-'Tis time to part them.He's simple, and tells much. [Aside.]-How now, fair shepherd?

Your heart is full of something, that does take

Your mind from feasting. Sooth, when I was young,
And handed love, as you do, I was wont

To load my she with knacks: I would have ransack'd
The pedler's silken treasury, and have pour'd it
To her acceptance; you have let him go,
And nothing marted with him: If your lass
Interpretation should abuse; and call this,
Your lack of love, or bounty; you were straited9
For a reply, at least, if you make a care
Of happy holding her.

Flo.

Old sir, I know
She prizes not such trifles as these are:

The gifts, she looks from me, are pack'd and lock'd
Up in my heart; which I have given already,
But not deliver❜d.-O, hear me breathe my life
Before this ancient sir, who, it should seem,1
Hath sometime lov'd: I take thy hand; this hand,
As soft as dove's down, and as white as it;

Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow, 2

8 Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.] This is replied by the King in answer to the Shepherd's saying, since these good men are pleased. Warburton.

The dance which has intervened would take up too much time to preserve any connexion between the two speeches. The line spoken by the King seems to be in reply to some unexpressed question from the old Shepherd. Ritson.

This is an answer to something which the Shepherd is supposed to have said to Polixenes during the dance. M. Mason. straited -] i. e. put to difficulties. Steevens.

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1

who, it should seem,] Old copy-whom. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

2

or the fann'd snow,] So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow, "Fann'd by the eastern wind, turns to a crow,

"When thou hold'st up thy hand." Steevens.

or the fann'd snow,

That's bolted &c.] The fine sieve used by millers to separate flour from bran is called a bolting cloth. Harris.

That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.
Pol. What follows this?-

How prettily the young swain seems to wash
The hand, was fair before!-I have put you out:-
But, to your protestation; let me hear

What you profess.

Flo.

Do, and be witness to 't.

Pol. And this my neighbour too?

Flo. And he, and more Than he, and men; the earth, the heavens, and all: That, were I crown'd the most imperial monarch, Thereof most worthy; were I the fairest youth That ever made eye swerve; had force, and knowledge, More than was ever man's,—I would not prize them, Without her love: for her, employ them all;

Commend them, and condemn them, to her service, Or to their own perdition.

Pol.

Cam. This shows a sound affection.
Shep.

Say you the like to him?

Per.

Fairly offer'd.

But, my daughter,

I cannot speak

So well, nothing so well; no, nor mean better:
By the pattern of mine own thoughts I cut out
The purity of his.

Shep.

Take hands, a bargain;

And, friends unknown, you shall bear witness to 't:
I give my daughter to him, and will make

Her portion equal his.

Flo.

O, that must be

I' the virtue of your daughter: one being dead,
I shall have more than you can dream of yet;
Enough then for your wonder: But, come on,
Contract us, 'fore these witnesses.

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Is, at the nuptial of his son, a guest

That best becomes the table. Pray you, once more;

Is not your father grown incapable

Of reasonable affairs? is he not stupid

With age and altering rheums? Can he speak? hear? Know man from man? dispute his own estate?4

Lies he not bed-rid? and again does nothing,

But what he did being childish?

Flo.
He has his health, and ampler strength, indeed,

Than most have of his age.

Pol.

You offer him, if this be so,

No, good sir;

By my white beard,

a wrong

Something unfilial: Reason, my son

Should choose himself a wife; but as good reason,
The father, (all whose joy is nothing else

But fair posterity) should hold some counsel
In such a business.

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But, for some other reasons, my grave sir,
Which 'tis not fit you know, I not acquaint
My father of this business.

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Shep. Let him, my son; he shall not need to grieve At knowing of thy choice.

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3

altering rheums?] Rowe has transplanted this phrase in

to his Jane Shore, Act II, sc. i:

4

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when altering rheums

"Have stain'd the lustre of thy starry eyes,".

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Steevens.

dispute his own estate?] Perhaps for dispute we might read compute; but dispute his estate may be the same with talk over his affairs. Johnson.

The same phrase occurs in Romeo and Juliet:

Steevens.

"Let me dispute with thee of thy estate." Does not this allude to the next heir suing for the estate in

cases of imbecility, lunacy, &c.? Chamier.

It probably means-" Can he assert and vindicate his right to his own property." M. Mason.

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