The following copy of an illumination in a fine MS. of Froiffart's Chronicle, preferved in the British Museum, will ferve to illuftrate Dr. Johnfon's note, and to convey fome idea, not only of the manner in which thefe hairy men were habited, but also of the rude fimplicity of an ancient Ball-room and Mafquerade. See the ftory at large in Froiffart, B. IV. chap. lii. edit. 1559. DOUCE.

felves faltiers :3 and they have a dance which the wenches fay is a gallimaufry 4 of gambols, because they are not in't; but they themselves are o'the mind, (if it be not too rough for fome, that know little but bowling,5) it will please plentifully.

SHEP. Away! we'll none on't; here has been too much humble foolery already :-I know, fir, we weary you.

POL. You weary those that refresh us: Pray, let's fee these four threes of herdsmen.

SERV. One three of them, by their own report, fir, hath danced before the king; and not the worst of the three, but jumps twelve foot and a half by the fquire.

SHEP. Leave your prating; fince these good men are pleafed, let them come in; but quickly now.

3 they call themselves faltiers:] He means Satyrs. Their drefs was perhaps made of goat's fkin. Cervantes mentions in the preface to his plays that in the time of an early Spanish writer, Lopè de Rueda, "All the furniture and utenfils of the actors confifted of four fhepherds' jerkins, made of the skins of sheep with the wool on, and adorned with gilt leather trimming : four beards and periwigs, and four paftoral crooks ;-little more or lefs." Probably a fimilar fhepherd's jerkin was used in our author's theatre. MALONE.

gallimaufry -] Cockeram, in his Dictionarie of hard Words, 12mo. 1622, fays, a gallimaufry is "a confused heape of things together." STEEVENS.

5 bowling,] Bowling, I believe, is here a term for a dance of fmooth motion, without great exertion of agility.

JOHNSON.

The allufion is not to a smooth dance, as Johnson fuppofes, but to the fmoothnefs of a bowling green. M. MASON.

6

by the fquire.] i. e. by the foot-rule: Efquierre, Fr. See Love's Labour's Loft, Vol. VII. p. 177, n. 2. MALONE.

SERV. Why, they ftay at door, fir.

[Exit.

Re-enter Servant, with Twelve Rufticks habited like Satyrs. They dance, and then exeunt.

POL. O, father, you'll know more of that here

Is it not too far gone?-'Tis time to part them.He's fimple, and tells much. [Afide.]-How now, fair fhepherd?

Your heart is full of fomething, that does take
Your mind from feafting. Sooth, when I was young,
And handed love, as you do, I was wont

To load my fhe with knacks: I would have ranfack'd
The pedler's filken treasury, and have pour'd it
To her acceptance; you have let him go,
And nothing marted with him: If your lass
Interpretation fhould abuse; and call this,
Your lack of love, or bounty; you were straited3
For a reply, at least, if you make a care
Of happy holding her.

FLO.

Old fir, I know

7 Pol. O, father, you'll know more of that hereafter.] This is replied by the King in answer to the Shepherd's faying, fince thefe good men are pleased. WARBURTON.

The dance which has intervened would take up too much time to preferve any connection between the two speeches. The line spoken by the King feems to be in reply to some unexpressed queftion from the old Shepherd. RITSON.

This is an answer to fomething which the Shepherd is fuppofed to have faid to Polixenes during the dance. M. MASON.

She prizes not fuch trifles as these are:

The gifts, the 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 fir, who, it should seem,"
Hath fometime lov'd: I take thy hand; this hand,
As foft as dove's down, and as white as it;
Or Ethiopian's tooth, or the fann'd snow,'
That's bolted by the northern blasts twice o'er.

POL. What follows this?—

How prettily the young fwain seems to wash
The hand, was fair before!-I have put you out :-
But, to your proteftation; 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 moft worthy; were I the fairest youth That ever made eye fwerve; had force, and know

ledge,

More than was ever man's,-I would not prize them, Without her love: for her, employ them all;

9

who, it should feem,]

Old copy-whom. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

I

Dream:

or the fann'd fnow,] So, in A Midfummer-Night's

"That pure congealed white, high Taurus' now,
"Fann'd by the eastern wind, turns to a crow,
"When thou hold'ft up thy hand." STEEVENS.

or the fann'd fnow,

That's bolted &c.] The fine fieve used by millers to feparate flour from bran is called a bolting cloth. HARRIS.

Commend them, and condemn them, to her fervice,

Or to their own perdition.

I cannot speak

So well, nothing fo 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.

O, that must be

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

POL. Methinks, a father

Is, at the nuptial of his fon, a guest

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

Is not your father grown incapable