"Now is the parents' mirth quite changed into mone, "And now to sorrow is return'd the joy of every one; "And now the wedding weeds for mourning weeds they change, "And Hymen to a dirge: -alas! it seemeth strange. "Instead of marriage gloves, now funeral gowns they have, "And, whom they should see married, they follow to the grave; "The feast that should have been of pleasure and of joy, and annoy." "Hath every dish and cup fill'd full of sorrow MALONE. 369. Enter Peter.] From the quarto of 1599, it appears, that the part of Peter was originally perform ed by William Kempe. MALONE. 373. My heart is full of woe: -] This is the bur. then of the first stanza of A pleasant new Ballad of Two Lovers, yet, as ancient as the time of Shakspere : "Hey hoe! my heart is full of woe." STEEVENS. -O, play me some merry dump, to comfort me.] This is not in the folio, but the answer plainly requires it. JOHNSON. It was omitted in the folio by mistake, for it is found in the quarto, 1609, from which the folio was manifestly printed. MALONE. A dump anciently signified some kind of dance, as well as sorrow. So, in Humour out of Breath, a comedy, by John Day, 1607: "He loves nothing but an Italian dump, "Or a French brawl.' But on this occasion it means a mournful song. So, in the Arraignment of Paris, 1584, after the shepherds have sung an elegiac hymn over the hearse of Colin, Venus says to Paris: "How cheers my lovely boy after this dump of woe? "Paris. Such dumps, sweet lady, as bin these, are deadly dumps to prove." STEEVENS. Dumps were heavy mournful tunes; possibly indeed any sort of movements were once so called, as we sometimes meet with a merry dump. Hence doleful dumps, deep sorrow, or grievous affliction, as in the next page, and in the less ancient ballad of Chevy Chase. It is still said of a person uncommonly sad, that he is in the dumps. 380. the gleek : Night's Dream: REMARKS. -] So, in The Midsummer "Nay, I can gleek, upon occasion." To gleek is to scoff. The term is taken from an ancient game at cards called gleek. STEEVENS. The game is mentioned in the beginning of the present century, by Dr. King of the Commons, in his Art of Love: "But whether we diversion seek "In these, in Comet, or in Gleek, NICHOLS. The use of this cant term is no where explained; and in all probability cannot, at this distance of time, be recovered. To gleek, however, signified to put a joke or trick upon a person, perhaps to jest according to the coarse humour of that age. See Midsummer Night's Dream, above quoted. REMARKS. 381. the minstrel.] From the following entry on the books of the Stationers-Company, in the year 1560, it appears that the hire of a parson was cheaper than that of a minstrel or a cook. "Item, payd to the preacher vis. iid. STEEVENS. 392. When griping grief, &c.] The epithet griping was by no means likely to excite laughter at the time it was written. Lord Surrey, in his translation of the second book of Virgil's Æneid, makes the hero say: "New gripes of dred then pearse our trembling brestes." Dr. Percy thinks that the questions of Peter are designed as a ridicule on the forced and unnatural explanations too often given by us painful editors of ancient authors. STEEVENS. In Commendation of Musicke. "Where griping grief ye hart would woud (and dolful domps ye mind oppresse), "There musick with her silver sound, is wont with spede to geue redresse, "Of troubled minds for every sore, swete musick hath a salue in store. "In ioy it maks our mirth abound, in grief it chers our heauy sprights, "The carefull head releaf hath found, by musicks pleasant swete delights, "Our senses, what should I saie more, are subject unto musicks lore. "The Gods by musick hath their pray, the soul therein doth ioye, "For as the Romaine poets saie, in seas whom pirats would destroye, "A Dolphin sau'd from death most sharpe, Arion playing on his harp., "Oh heauenly gift that turnes the minde, like as the sterne doth rule the ship, "Of musick whom ye Gods assignde to comfort mā, whom cares would nip, "Sith thou both man & beast doest moue, what wisemā the will thee reprove?" From the Paradise of Daintie Deuises, fol. 31. b. Richard Edwards. Of Richard Edwards and William Hunnis, the authors of sundry poems in this collection, see an account in Wood's Athena Oxon. and also in Tanner's 393. And doleful dumps the mind oppress,] This line I have recovered from the old copy. It was wanting to complete the stanza as it is afterwards repeated. 396. lutestring made of catgut. STEEVENS. -Simon Catling?] A catling was a small STEEVENS. 398. Hugh Rebeck?] The fidler is so called from an instrument with three strings, which is mentioned by several of the old writers. Rebec, rebecquin. See Menage, in v. Rebec. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle: "—'Tis present death for these fidlers to tune their rebecks before the great Turk's grace." In England's Helicon, 1614, is The Shepherd Arsilius, his Song to his REBECK, by Bar. Yong. STEEVENS. It is mentioned by Milton, as an instrument of mirth : "When the merry bells ring round, "And the jocund rebecks sound." MALONE. 406. -because such fellows as you,-] Thus the quarto, 1597. The others read-because musicians. I should suspect that a fidler made the alteration. STEEVENS, |