A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX - Various
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DEMETRIUS. _Gramercy_, lovely Lucius; what's the news?
BOY. That you are both decipher'd (that's the news)
For villains mark'd with rape. [_Aside_] May it please you,
My grandsire, well advis'd, hath sent by me
The goodliest weapon of his armoury,
To gratify your honourable youth,
The hope of Rome: for so he bid me say;
And so I do, and with his gifts present
Your lordships, that whenever you have need,
You may be armed and appointed well.
And so I leave you both--like bloody villains. [_Aside_.
--Hanmer's 2d edit., act iv. sc. 2. [The text is the same in Dyce's 2d
edit., vi. 326-7.]
[119] "Poetaster," act v. sc. 3. [Gifford's edit. ii. 524-5, and the
note.]
[120] [So in the old copy Kemp is made, perhaps intentionally, to call
Studioso. See also _infra_, p. 198.]
[121] [See Kemp's "Nine Daies Wonder," edit. Dyce, ix.]
[122] _Sellenger's round_, corrupted from St Leger, a favourite dance
with the common people.
[123] Old copy reads--
"As you part in _kne_
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _sice kne_," &c.
The genuine reading, it is presumed, is restored to the text--
"As your part in _cue_.
KEMP. You are at Cambridge still with _size cue_," &c.
A pun upon the word _cue_, which is a hint to the actor to proceed in
his part, and has the same sound with the letter _q_, the mark of a
farthing in college buttery-books. To _size_ means to _battle_, or to be
charged in the college accounts for provisions. [A _q_ is so called
because it is the initial letter of _quadrans_, the fourth part of a
penny.]
[124] This seems to be quoted from the first imperfect edition of "The
Spanish Tragedy;" in the later (corrected) impression it runs thus--
"What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,
And chill," &c.
--[v. 54.]
[125] [Old copy points this sentence falsely, and repeats _thing_.]
[126] Old copy, _woe_.
[127] [Old copy, _birds_. Perhaps, however, the poet may have meant
_swans_.]
[128] Old copy, _sooping_.
[129] [I think this is much more likely to be an allusion to
Shakespeare, than the passage in the prologue to which Hawkins
refers.--_Ebsworth_.]
[130] [Old copy, _some_.]
[131] [There were several Greek _literati_ of this name. Amoretto's
page, personating his master, is so nicknamed by the other, who
personates Sir Raderic--unless the passage is corrupt.]
[132] [Old copy, _Irenias_.]
[133] [Old copy, _Nor_.]
[134] [Old copy, _we have_.]
[135] [Old copy, _run_. Mr Ebsworth's correction.]
[136] Old copy, _cluttish_.
[137] Old copy, _trus_.
[138] One of the old copies reads _repay'st_.
[139] Old copy, _seeling_.
[140] This play is not divided into acts.
[141] [Cadiz.]
[142] [Shear-penny.]
[143] [Extortion.]
[144] [Old copies, _waves_.]
[145] [Old copy, _fates to friend_.]
[146] [Old copy, _springold_.]
[147] [Old copy, as before, _springold_.]
[148] [Old copy, _doff off_.]
[149] [Old copy, _wat'ry_.]
[150] [Resound.]
[151] Edit. 1606 has: _Mi Fortunate, ter fortunate Venus_. The 4to of
1623 reads: _Mi Fortunatus, Fortunate Venter_.
[152] [Intend.]
[153] She means to say eloquence, and so it stands in the edition of
1623.
[154] [Robin Goodfellow.]
[155] [See p. 286.]
[156] [This must allude to some real circumstance and person.]
[157] [Attend.]
[158] [Bergen-op-Zoom.]
[159] [Old copy, _our_.]
[160] [Lap, long. See Nares, edit. 1859, _v. Lave-eared_.]
[161] [Old copy, _seas_.]
[162] [Orcus.]
[163] [Worried.]
[164] [An answer to a summons or writ. Old copy, _retourner_.]
[165] [This most rare edition was very kindly lent to me by the Rev.
J.W. Ebsworth, Moldash Vicarage, near Ashford.]
[166] [Cromwell did not die till September 3, 1658, a sufficient reason
for the absence of the allusion which Reed thought singular.]
[167] [i.e., The human body and mind. _Microcosmus_ had been used by
Davies of Hereford in the same sense in the title of a tract printed in
1603, as it was afterwards by Heylin in his "Microcosmus," 1621, and by
Earle in his "Microcosmography," 1628.]
[168] _Skene_ or _skane: gladius, Ensis brevior.--Skinner_. Dekker's
"Belman's Night Walk," sig. F 2: "The bloody Tragedies of all these are
onely acted by the women, who, carrying long knives or _skeanes_ under
their mantles, doe thus play their parts." Again in Warner's "Albion's
England," 1602, p. 129--
"And Ganimaedes we are," quoth one, "and thou a prophet trew:
And hidden _skeines_ from underneath their forged garments drew,
Wherewith the tyrant and his bawds with safe escape they slew."
--See the notes of Mr Steevens and Mr Nichols on "Romeo and Juliet," act
ii. sc. 4.
[169] The edition of 1657 reads, _red buskins drawn with white ribband.
--Collier_.
[170] Musical terms. See notes on "Midsummer's Night's Dream," vol. iii.
p. 63, and "King Richard III." vol. vii. p. 6, edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
[171] A metaphor drawn from music, more particularly that kind of
composition called a _Ground_, with its _Divisions_. Instead of
_relish_, I would propose to read _flourish_.--_S.P_.
[172] Mr Steevens supposes this to be a musical term. See note on
"Richard II." act ii. sc. 1--
"The setting sun and music at the close."
[173] Fr. for whistlings.--_Steevens_.
[174] i.e., Petitionary.--_Steevens_.
[175] [Altered by Mr Collier to _girls_; but _gulls_ is the reading of
1607.]
[176] _Like an ordinary page, gloves, hamper_--so the first edition; but
as the two last words seem only the prompter's memoranda, they are
omitted. They are also found in the last edition.--_Collier_.
[177] Ready.
[178] Graceful. See Mr Malone's note on "Coriolanus," act ii. sc. 1.
[179] [Edits., _blasting_.] I would propose to read the _blushing
childhood_, alluding to the ruddiness of Aurora, the _rosy morn_, as in
act iii. sc. 6--
"Light, the fair grandchild to the glorious sun,
Opening the casements of the _rosy morn_," &c.
--_S. Pegge_.
[180] So in "Hamlet," act i. sc. 1--
"But, look, the morn, in russet mantle clad,
_Walks_ o'er the dew of _yon high eastern hill_."
[181] A _fool's bauble_, in its _literal_ meaning, is the carved
truncheon which the licensed fools or jesters anciently carried in their
hands. See notes on "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 5.
--_Steevens_.
[182] Winstanley has asserted that Oliver Cromwell performed the part of
Tactus at Cambridge: and some who have written the life of that great
man have fixed upon this speech as what first gave him ideas of
sovereignty. The notion is too vague to be depended upon, and too
ridiculous either to establish or refute. It may, however, not be
unnecessary to mention that Cromwell was born in 1599, and the first
edition of this play [was printed in 1607, and the play itself written
much earlier]. If, therefore, the Protector ever did represent this
character, it is more probable to have been at Huntingdon School.
[183] [Old copies, _scarve_, and so the edit. of 1780. Mr Collier
substituted _change_ as the reading of the old copies, which it is not.
See Mr Brae's paper read before the Royal Society of Literature, Jan.
1871, 8vo edit. 1873, p. 23, et seq.]
[184] Edits., _deeds_. Pegge thought that by _deeds_ was intended Tactus
himself; but it is hard to say how this could be made out, as Tactus
cannot be translated _deeds_, though Auditus might be rendered by
metonymy _ears_.
[185] [Edit., _fear'd_.]
[186] In Surphlet's "Discourses on the Diseases of Melancholy," 4to,
1599, p. 102, the case alluded to is set down: "There was also of late a
great lord, _which thought himselfe to be a glasse_, and had not his
imagination troubled, otherwise then in this onely thing, for he could
speake mervailouslie well of any other thing: he used commonly to sit,
and tooke great delight that his friends should come and see him, but so
as that he would desire them, that they would not come neere unto him."
[187] Hitherto misprinted _conclaves_.--_Collier_. [First 4to,
correctly, _concaves_.]
[188] See Surphlet, p. 102.
[189] [An allusion to the myth of the werewolf.]
[190] [This proverb is cited by Heywood. See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," 1869,
p. 392.]
[191] [All the editions except 1657, _bidden_, and all have _arms_ for
_harms_.]
[192] Presently, forthwith.
[193] [Edits., _wax_.]
[194] Some of the old copies [including that of 1607] read--
"Here lies the sense that _lying_ gull'd them all."
--_Collier_.
[195] Auditus is here called _Ears_, as Tactus is before called
_Deed_.--_Pegge_. [But see note at p. 349.]
[196] Circles. So in Milton--
"Throws his steep flight in many an airy wheel."
--_Steevens_.
[197] [It is _Mendacio_ who speaks.]
[198] Old copies, _Egyptian knights_. Dr Pegge's correction.
[199] [Edits., _I_.]
[200] [Edits., _safe_.]
[201] A pun; for he means _Male aeger_.--_Pegge_.
[202] The [first edit.] gives the passage thus: _brandish no swords but
sweards of bacon_, which is intended for a pun, and though bad enough,
need not be lost.--_Collier_.
[203] _Glaves_ are swords, and sometimes partisans.--_Steevens_.
[204] Lat. for phalanxes.--_Steevens_.
[205] [Edits., _dept_.]
[206] Mars.
[207] See Note 2 to the "First Part of Jeronimo," [v. 349].
[208] [Edits., _kist_. The word _hist_ may be supposed to represent the
whistling sound produced by a sword passing rapidly through the air.]
[209] i.e., Exceeds bounds or belief. See a note on "The Merry Wives
of Windsor," act iv. sc. 2.--_Steevens_.
[210] "_Graecia mendax_
Audet in historia."--_Steevens_.
[211] [His "History," which is divided into nine books, under the names
of the nine Muses.]
[212] i.e., Whispered him. See note to "The Spanish Tragedy," [vi. 10.]
[213] [Peter Martyr's "Decades."]
[214] A luncheon before dinner. The farmers in Essex still use the
word.--_Steevens_.
So in the "Woman-hater," by Beaumont and Fletcher, act i. sc. 3, Count
Valore, describing Lazarillo, says--
"He is none of these
Same Ordinary Eaters, that'll devour
Three breakfasts, as many dinners, and without any
Prejudice to their _Beavers_, drinkings, suppers;
But he hath a more courtly kind of hunger.
And doth hunt more after novelty than plenty."
Baret, in his "Alvearic," 1580, explains _a boever_, a drinking betweene
dinner and supper; and _a boier_, meate eaten after noone, a collation,
a noone meale.
[215] See Note 19 to "The Ordinary."
[216] [In 1576 Ulpian Fulwell published "The First Part of the Eighth
Liberal Science, Entituled Ars Adulandi."]
[217] This word, which occurs in Ben Jonson and some other writers,
seems to have the same meaning as our _numps_. I am ignorant of its
etymology.--_Steevens_. [Compare Nares, 1859, in _v_.]
[218] i.e., Other requisites towards the fitting out of a character.
See a note on "Love's Labour Lost," vol. ii. p. 385, edit. 1778.
--_Steevens_.
[219] A busk-point was, I believe, the lace of a lady's stays. Minsheu
explains a _buske_ to be a part of dress "made of wood or whalebone, a
plated or quilted thing to keepe the body straight." The word, I am
informed, is still in common use, particularly in the country among the
farmers' daughters and servants, for a piece of wood to preserve the
stays from being bent. _Points_ or laces were worn by both sexes, and
are frequently mentioned in our ancient dramatic writers.
[220] [Edits., _hu, hu_.]
[221] [i.e., Our modern _pet_, darling, a term of endearment.] Dr
Johnson says that it is a word of endearment from _petit_, little. See
notes on "The Taming of the Shrew," act i. sc. 1.
Again, in "The City Madam," by Massinger, act ii. sc. 2--
"You are _pretty peats_, and your great portions
Add much unto your handsomeness."
[222] Shirley, in his "Sisters," ridicules these hyperbolical
compliments in a similar but a better strain--
"Were it not fine
If you should see your mistress without hair,
Drest only with those glittering beams you talk of?
Two suns instead of eyes, and they not melt
The forehead made of snow! No cheeks, but two
Roses inoculated on a lily,
Between a pendant alabaster nose:
Her lips cut out of coral, and no teeth
But strings of pearl: her tongue a nightingale's!
Would not this strange chimera fright yourself?"
--_Collier_.
[223] [i.e., Doff it in salutation.]
[224] Alluding to the office of sheriff.
[225] "_Cassock_," says Mr Steevens, "signifies a horseman's loose coat,
and is used in that sense by the writers of the age of Shakespeare. It
likewise appears to have been part of the dress of rusticks." See note
to "All's Well that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 3.
[226] "A _gimmal_ or _gimbal ring_, Fr. _gemeau_, utr. a Lat. Gemellus,
q.d. Annulus Gemellus, quoniam, sc. duobus aut pluribus orbibus
constat."--_Skinner_.
_Gimmal rings_ are often mentioned in ancient writers.
[227] "Quis nescit primam esse Historiae legem, ne quid falsi dicere
audeat; deinde, ne quid veri non audeat."--Cicero "De Orat." lib. ii. 15.
[228] This was called "The Clouds," in which piece Socrates was
represented hanging up in a basket in the air, uttering numberless
chimerical absurdities, and blaspheming, as it was then reputed, the
gods of his country. At the performance of this piece Socrates was
present himself; and "notwithstanding," says his biographer, "the gross
abuse that was offered to his character, he did not show the least signs
of resentment or anger; nay, such was the unparalleled good nature of
this godlike man, that some strangers there, being desirous to see the
original of this scenic picture, he rose up in the middle of the
performance, stood all the rest of the time, and showed himself to the
people; by which well-placed confidence in his own merit and innocence,
reminding them of those virtues and wisdom so opposite to the sophist in
the play, his pretended likeness, he detected the false circumstances,
which were obtruded into his character, and obviated the malicious
designs of the poet who, having brought his play a second time upon the
stage, met with the contempt he justly merited for such a composition."
--Cooper's "Life of Socrates," p. 55.
[229] [Old copies, _page's tongue_; but Mendacio, Lingua's page, is
intended. Perhaps we should read _Tongueship's page_.]
[230] [This is marked in the editions as the opening of a new scene, but
wrongly, as it should seem, as the same persons remain on the stage, and
the conversation is a sequel to what has gone before.]
[231] These were the names of several species of hawks. See an account
of them in the "Treatises on Falconry," particularly those of Turbervile
and Latham.
[232] i.e., Hedgehogs. See a note on Shakespeare's "Tempest," i. 28,
edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
Again, in Erasmus's "Praise of Folie," 1549, sig. Q 2: "That the soule
of Duns woulde a litle leve Sorbone College, and enter into my breast,
be he never so thornie, and fuller of pricles than is any _urcheon_."
[233] Perhaps, instead of _the masks are made so strong_, we ought to
read, _the mesh is made so strong_. It clearly means the _mesh of the
net_, from what is said afterwards.--_Collier_. [But _mask_, in
Halliwell's "Dictionary," is said to be used for _mesh_. What is
intended above is not a _net_, but a network ladder.]
[234] [_Hazard_, the plot of a tennis-court.--Halliwell's "Dictionary."]
[235] This is one of the many phrases in these volumes which, being not
understood, was altered without any authority from the ancient copies.
The former editions read _odd mouthing_; the text, however, is right;
for old, as Mr Steevens observes, was formerly a common augmentative in
colloquial language, and as such is often used by Shakespeare and
others. See notes on the "Second Part of Henry IV." act ii. sc. 4, and
"The Taming of the Shrew," act iii. sc. 2.
Again, in Tarlton's "Newes out of Purgatory," 1630, p. 34: "On Sunday at
Masse there was _old ringing of bells_, and old and yong came to church
to see the new roode."
[236] A sneer at the Utopian Treatises on Government.--_Steevens_.
[237] The latest of the old copies, [and the first edition, have] _wine_
instead of _swine_, which is clearly a misprint, as the _hogs_ of
Olfactus are subsequently again mentioned.--_Collier_.
[238] [Old copies, _he_.]
[239] [A flogging.]
[240] [i.e., A blockhead, a fool.--_Steevens_.]
[241] _Nor I out of Memory's mouth_ is the correct reading, although the
pronoun has been always omitted. Anamnestes is comparing his situation
with that of Mendacio.--_Collier_.
[242] [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 296.]
[243] [Another name of Jupiter.]
[244] [Edits., _belly_.]
[245] Chess.
[246] A favourite game formerly, and apparently one of the oldest in
use. The manner in which it was played will appear from the following
epigram of Sir John Harington, the translator of Ariosto--
_The Story of Marcus's Life at Primero_.
"Fond Marcus ever at _Primero_ playes,
Long winter nights, and as long summer dayes:
And I heard once to idle talke attending
The story of his times and coins mis-spending
At first, he thought himselfe halfe way to heaven,
If in his hand he had but got a sev'n.
His father's death set him so high on flote,
All rests went up upon a sev'n and coate.
But while he drawes from these grey coats and gownes,
The gamesters from his purse drew all his crownes.
And he ne'er ceast to venter all in prime,
Till of his age, quite was consum'd the prime.
Then he more warily his rest regards,
And sets with certainties upon the cards,
On sixe and thirtie, or on sev'n and nine,
If any set his rest, and saith, and mine:
But seed with this, he either gaines or saves,
For either Faustus prime is with three knaves,
Or Marcus never can encounter right,
Yet drew two Ases, and for further spight
Had colour for it with a hopeful draught
But not encountred, it avail'd him naught.
Well, sith encountring, he so faire doth misse,
He sets not, till he nine and fortie is.
And thinking now his rest would sure be doubled,
He lost it by the hand, with which sore troubled,
He joynes now all his stocke unto his stake,
That of his fortune he full proofe may make.
At last both eldest hand and five and fifty,
He thinketh now or never (thrive unthrifty.)
Now for the greatest rest he hath the push:
But Crassus stopt a club, and so was flush:
And thus what with the stop, and with the packe,
Poore Marcus and his rest goes still to wracke.
Now must he seek new spoile to rest his rest,
For here his seeds turne weeds, his rest, unrest.
His land, his plate he pawnes, he sels his leases,
To patch, to borrow, and shift he never ceases.
Till at the last two catch-poles him encounter,
And by arrest, they beare him to the Counter.
Now Marcus may set up all rests securely:
For now he's sure to be encountred surely."
Minsheu thus explains _Primero_:--"_Primero and Primavista_, two games
at cards. Primum et primum visum, that is, first and first seene,
because he that can show such an order of cards first, winnes the game."
[See Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," in _v_.]
[247] See Note 30 to "The Dumb Knight."
[248] [See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," ii. 318-19.] So in
Dekker's "Belman's Nights-walke," it is alluded to:--"The set at _Maw_
being plaid out."
Henslowe in his Diary mentions a play under the title of "The Maw,"
which probably had reference to the game at cards so called. It was
acted on the 14th December 1594. He also names a play entitled "The
Macke," under date of Feb. 21, 1594-5; but it is doubtful if they were
not the same.--_Collier_.
[249] In the old editions this is given as a part of what is said by
Anamnestes.--_Collier_.
[250] [See Dyce's "Middleton," iii. 106. _There's no ho_, there are no
bounds or restraints with them.--_Reed_. They are not to be restrained
by a call or ho. The expression is common.--_Dyce_.]
[251] Rather Ptolemy.--_Pegge_.
[252] _Latten_, as explained by Dr Johnson, is "Brass; a mixture of
Copper and Caliminaris stone." Mr Theobald, from Monsieur Dacier, says,
"C'est une espece de cuivre de montagne, comme son nom mesme le
temoigne; c'est ce que nous appellons au jourd'huy du _leton_. It is a
sort of mountain copper, as its very name imports, and which we at this
time of day call _latten_." See Mr Theobald's note on "The Merry Wives
of Windsor," act i. sc. 1.
Among the Harleian MSS. is a tract, No. 6395, entitled "Merry Passages
and Jeasts," written in the seventeenth century, [printed by Thoms in
"Anecdotes and Traditions," 1839,] in which is the following story of
Shakespeare, which seems entitled to as much credit as any of the
anecdotes which now pass current about him: "Shake-speare was god-father
to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christning, being in a
deepe study, Jonson came to cheere him up, and ask't him why he was so
melancholy? No, faith, Ben (sayes he) not I, but I have been considering
a great while, what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my
god-child, and I have resolv'd at last; I pr'y thee what, says he? I
faith, Ben, Ile e'en give him a douzen good _Lattin_ spoones, and thou
shall translate them."
[253] _Deft_ is handy, dexterous. So in "Macbeth," act iv. sc. 1--
"Thyself and office _deftly_ show."
See note on "Macbeth," edit. 1778.--_Steevens_.
[254] [Concert.]
[255] [Summoners, officers of the old ecclesiastical court.]
[256] [Ignorant of arts.]
[257] A _jangler_, says Baret, is "a jangling fellowe, a babbling
attornie. _Rabula, ae_, mas. gen. [Greek: Dikologos]_ Vn pledoieur
criard, une plaidereau_."
[258] This speech is in six-line stanzas, and _beforn_ should rhyme to
_morn_, as it does in the old copies, which were here abandoned.
--_Collier_.
[259] i.e., "Going. _Gate_, in the Northern Dialect, signifies a way;
so that _agate_ is at or upon the way."--Hay's "Collection of Local
Words," p. 13, edit. 1740.
[260] Here again, as in the passage at p. 354, we have _arms_ for
_harms_. In the old copies this speech of the Herald is printed as
prose.--_Collier_.
[261] A monster feigned to have the head of a lion, the belly of a goat,
and the tail of a dragon.
[262] "If at any time in Rolls and Alphabets of Arms you meet with this
term, you must not apprehend it to be that fowl which in barbarous
Latine they call _Bernicla_, and more properly (from the Greek)
_Chenalopex_--a creature well known in Scotland, yet rarely used in
arms; but an instrument used by farriers to curb and command an unruly
horse, and termed Pastomides."--Gibbons's "Introductio ad Latinam
Blasoniam," 1682, p. 1.
[The allusion here is to the barnacle of popular folk-lore and
superstition, which, from a shell-fish, was transformed into a
goose.--See "Popular Antiquities of Great Britain," iii. 309.]
[263] [A reference to the belief in prodigies reported from Africa.
"Africa semper aliquid oportet novi."--S. Gosson's "School of Abuse,"
1579. See also Rich's "My Ladies Looking-glass," 1616, sig. B 3.]
[264] [Edits. give this speech to the Herald.]
[265] [The head.]
[266] A celebrated puppet-show often mentioned by writers of the times
by the name of the Motion of Nineveh. See Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew
Fair," act v. sc. 1; "Wit at Several Weapons," act i.; "Every Woman in
her Humour," 1609, sig. H, and "The Cutter of Coleman Street," act v.
sc. 9.
[267] So in "Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 1.
"That strain again; it had a dying _fall_."--_Steevens_.
[268] [Edits., _bitter_.]
[269] [See Dyce's "Beaumont and Fletcher," ii. 225, note.] Theobald
observes in his edition of "Beaumont and Fletcher," that this ballad is
mentioned again in "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," and likewise in a
comedy by John Tatham, 1660, called "The Rump, or Mirrour of the Times,"
wherein a Frenchman is introduced at the bonfires made for the burning
of the Rump, and catching hold of Priscilla, will oblige her to dance,
and orders the music to play _Fortune my foe_. Again, in "Tom Essence,"
1677, p. 37.
[270] A dance. Sir John Davies, in his poem called "Orchestra," 1596,
stanza 70, thus describes it--
"Yet is there one, the most delightfull kind,
A loftie jumping, or a leaping round,
Where arme and arme two dauncers are entwind,
And whirle themselues with strict embracements bound,
And still their feet an _anapest_ do sound:
An _anapest_ is all their musicks song,
Whose first two feet are short, and third is long."
71.
"As the victorious twinnes of Laeda and Ioue,
That taught the Spartans dauncing on the sands,
Of swift Eurotas, daunce in heauen aboue,
Knit and vnited with eternall hands,
Among the starres their double image stands,
Where both are carried with an equall pace,
Together iumping in their turning race."
[271] "Or, as it is oftener called, _passa mezzo_, from _passer_ to walk,
and _mezzo_ the middle or half; a slow dance, little differing from the
action of walking. As a Galliard consists of five paces or bars in the
first strain, and is therefore called a Cinque pace; the _passa mezzo_,
which is a diminutive of the Galliard, is just half that number, and
from that peculiarity takes its name."--Sir John Hawkins's "History of
Music," iv. 386. [Compare Dyce's second edition of Shakespeare, iii.
412.]