Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/174

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2nd s. NO 9., MAK. 1. '56.

I find it also much misinterpreted by the editors of the Harleian Miscellany, Ohlys and Park, in the third volume of whose edition, London, 1808, it occurs twice in " Ane Admonition of the trew Lordis, &c., 1571," first at p. 416. :

"That they enterit thame in danger, and supportit thame not in 'mister, so mekle as to cume to lawder and luik for thame. . . . thay socht as he that socht his wyfe drowned in the river againis the streime."

Second at p. 418. :

" The Bischop being lodged, as he seildom of befoir, quhar he might persaif the plesure of that crueltie with all hys senses, and helpe the murtheraris, if mister had bene."

The reader will perceive at once that mister here means "need" in both examples, and has nothing to do with " secresy," as the context of the former of them misled the editors to conjec- ture. It occurs again and again in the Romaunt of the Rose. Take two examples, 1. 5617., " That he of meat hath no miatere ; " and 1. 6081., "If that men had mister of thee." It is also met with in Golding's translation of Caesar's Commentaries, A.D. 1565, the seuenth booke, fol. 189. : "As for the horsemen there could be no mistre of their helpe in a fennye and moorysh ground." In the original, " Equitum vero operarn neque in loco palustri desiderari debuisse."

Your Five Gallants, Act III. Sc. 2., vol. ii. p. 268. :

" Pur. 'Sfoot, I perceive I have been the chief up- holder of this gallant all this while : it appears true we that pay dearest for our pasture are ever likely worse used. 'Sfoot, he has a nag can run for nothing, has his choice, nay, and gets by the running of her."

On. this passage Mr. Dyce's note is "pasture'] Query, ' pastime.' " There appears to me to be no query whatever ; the whole language of the speaker proves that pasture is indisputably right : the metaphor is in keeping throughout, as " pas- ture," " nag," " runs." And it partially occurs again in the Roaring Girl, Act III. Sc. 3., vol. ii. p. 498.: " S. Davy. My son, Jack Dapper, then shall run with

him, All in one pasture."

A run at grass is a phrase familiar to every horse- keeper, and nag, hackney, or hack, was a term constantly applied to the sort of cattle Pursnet speaks about ; so constantly, indeed, that if the vagaries of Shakspeare's commentators were not past the size of wondering, one might well be as- tonished at the temerity and blindness of those who would alter " nag " in Antony and Cleopa- tra, into hag, in the expression " ribaudred nag ; " the epithet " ribaudred " being, as I conceive, only a misprint (if it be a misprint) for ribaudrij, i. e. ribaldry, which, like harlotry, mockery, beg- gary, is sometimes used adjectively. Johnson, indeed, with that strong common sense which dis-

tinguishes him from most other expositors of Shakspeare, adheres to the authorised reading, but on grounds that remind a clodhopper what a sad muff the cockney equestrian of Rotten Row proves himself, when he ventures so far out of his element as to lecture upon the natural history of animals ; for says this sole arbiter of the English tongue, the " brieze or cestruua, the fly that stings cattle, proves that nag is the right word." How the brize that stings cattle (that is, burrows in the hide of a beast to deposit its eggs there), but never meddles with a horse, can prove that nag is the right word, bafHes a country wit. Not less marvellous is the assertion of the same commen- tator, in a note upon a complaint of one of the Gadshill carriers in Henry IV., that hots are worms ; unless by worms are meant maggots, which the warmth and moisture of a horse's sto- mach engenders from the eggs deposited chiefly upon the inside of its knee.*, and fetlocks beneath, by an insect likewise called a brize, in Hereford- shire a bree, but quite distinct from that which maddens cattle, thence licked off by the animal's tongue, or inside lip, to such an extent in some few cases, as to lead to the coats of the stomach being gnawed clean through, and riddled by these parasites. Once more, in a note, Henry V., Act III. Sc. 5., upon the words " can sodden water, a drench for surreyned jades," the same great authority tells us, " The exact meaning of surreyned I do not know ; it is common to give horses overridden or feverish, ground malt and hot water mixed, which is called a mash ; to this he alludes." This is wonderful, so wonderful that it is out of all whooping. Either the Doctor thought that drench and mash were the same thing, or could make nothing of his author, with- out substituting mash in his explanation for drench that he was to explain. Now a drench of malt mash for a horse would be much on a par with a draught of mashed potatoes for a man. But what renders the learned lexicographer wholly inex- cusable is, that Shakspeare calls this .same drench, in the very same line, and by a name in apposition with it, barley-broth ; nay, more, makes the speaker complain that it appears to warm the blood of the English more than wine does that of the French ; and surely Johnson did not believe, either out of his own experience, or from report, that his countrymen drank malt mashes. A quart of good ale, the barley-broth meant by Shuk- speare, is beyond question a most useful stimulant for a flagging jaded horse; and notwithstanding the Constable's sneer, gives a very comfortable fillip to a weary man. And had Johnson ever after a long run with hounds found himself at nightfall some fifty miles distant from home, before his horse reached its stable, he would have learnt both the meaning of surreined, when his faltering steed began to toss its head, thrust out