Withouten doure or composition,

But to release his former foule condition.

Book vi. Canto 1.

But it may be considered doubtful whether reference is made here to the form of the Cross impressed on the blade, or to the form of the Cross a sword presents where the guard crosses the blade.

Salisbury. Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought

to-day;

By the mass, so did we all.

2 Henry VI., Act v. Sc. 3.

Salisbury probably plays upon the words mass and all, using them in connection with each other. (See Part I. p. 44.)

Ulysses. Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back, Wherein he puts alms for oblivion

A great-sized monster of ingratitudes :

Those scraps are good deeds past: which are devour'd
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon

As done.

Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3.

But tell me, lady, wherefore doe you beare
This bottle thus before you with such toile,

And eeke this wallet at your backe arreare,

That for these carles to carry much more comely were.

There in this bottle, sayd the sory mayd,

I put the tears of my contrition,

Till to the brim I have it full defrayd:

SPENSER.

And in this bag, which I behinde me don,
I put repentaunce for things past and gon.
Yet is the bottle leake, and bag so torne,
That all which I put in fals out anon,

And is behinde me trodden downe of Scorne,

9

Who mocketh all my paine, and laughs the more I

mourn.

6

The Faerie Queene, Book vi. Canto 8.

It is probable that the passage I have quoted from Troilus and Cressida' was suggested by these stanzas in the 'Faerie Queene,' which contain the same idea similarly expressed.

Edm. This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune-often the surfeit of our own behaviour-we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in, by a divine thrusting on: an admirable evasion of whore-master man, to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star.

Lear, Act i. Sc. 2.

Right true but faulty men use oftentimes

To attribute their folly unto fate,

And lay on heaven the guilt of their owne crimes. The Faerie Queene, Book v. Canto 4.

Eudox. But if that country of Ireland, whence you lately came, be of so goodly and commodious a soil, as you

report, I wonder that no course is taken for the turning thereof to good uses, and reducing the nation to better government and civility.

Iren. Marry, so there have been divers good plots devised, and wise counsels cast already about reformation of that realm; but they say it is the fatal destiny of that land, that no purposes whatsoever which are meant for her good, will prosper or take good effect: which, whether it proceed from the very genius of the soil or influence of the stars, or that Almighty God hath not yet appointed the time of her reformation, or that He reserveth her in this unquiet state still, for some secret scourge, which shall by her come unto England, it is hard to be known, but yet much to be feared.

Eudox. Surely I suppose this but a vain conceit of simple men, which judge things by their effects, and not by their causes; for I would rather think the cause of this evil which hangeth upon that country to proceed rather of the unsoundness of the counsels and plots which you say have been oftentimes laid for the reformation, or of faintness in following and effecting the

same, than of any such fatal course appointed of God as

you misdeem: but it is the manner of men, that, when they are fallen into any absurdity, or their actions succeed not as they would, they are always ready to impute the blame thereof unto the heavens, so to excuse their own follies and imperfections.-SPENSER, A View of the State of Ireland.

Say. Justice with favour have I always done; Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never. 2 Henry VI., Act iv. Sc. 7.

When that a man is indicted at the king's suit, the ing intendeth nothing but Justice with favour, and that

PLAY THE GOOD HUSBAND AT HOME. 11

is to the rest and Quietness of his faithful subjects, and to pull away Misdoers among them charitably.-Doctor and Student, Chap. 48.

Tra. Sir, what are you that offer to beat my servant? Vin. What am I, sir! nay, what are you, sir? immortal gods! O fine villain! A silken doublet! a velvet hose! a scarlet cloak! and a copatain hat! O, I am undone! I am undone! while I play the good husband at home, my son and my servant spend all at the university.

Taming the Shrew, Act v. Sc. 1.

The expression 'play the good husband at home' is used in the deposition of Robert Huyck contained in 'Coke's Reports.'

'I was an humble suiter unto her gracious Majesty about ten years past, that she would licence Mark Steward Serjeant at arms, attendant upon the then Lord keeper, to give off his attendance in his own Person, to the end he might withdraw himself into the country to play the good husband at home in his own house, so long as she should permit him, and not revoke him to his former attendance, and the office should be served otherwise to her Majesty's contentation, and the Lord keeper's well liking.' The Record of Mark Steward's Case, vouched in Sir Geo. Reynel's Case.Co. Rep. ix.

Armado. By my sweet soul, I mean setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person: thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound.

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iii. Sc. 1.

Nathaniel. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is instituted, nominated, or called Don Adriano de Armado.

Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. Sc. 1.

King. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, surveyest, or seest.

Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1.

Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL. Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience.

Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo, the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth.

Nath. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: but, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.

Hol.

Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.

Hol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination, after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather, unlettered, or ratherest, unconfirmed fashion, to insert again my haud credo for a deer.

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv. Sc. 2.

Touch. Give me your hand. Art thou learned?
Will. No, sir.

Touch. Then learn this of me: to have, is to have;