& lieve us If they would yield us but the fuperfluity, while it were wholefome, we might guefs, they relieved us humanely but they think, we are too dear the leannefs that afflicts us, the object of our mifery, is as an inventory to particularize their abun dance; our fufferance is a gain to them. Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere we become rakes: but they think, we are too dear:] They think that the charge of maintaining us is more than we are worth. JOHNSON. 3 Let us revenge this with our pikes, ere ave become rakes:] It was Shakespeare's defign to make this fellow quibble all the way. But time, who has done greater things, has here ftifled a miferable joke; which was then the fame as if it had been now wrote, Let us now revenge this with forks, ere we become rakes: for pikes then fignified the fame as forks do now. So Jewel in his own tranflation of his Apology, turns Chriftianos ad furcas condemnare, to-To condemn Chriftians to the pikes. But the Oxford editor, without knowing any thing of this, has with great fagacity found out the joke, and reads on his own authority, pitch-forks. WARBURTON. 4 ere we become rakes:] It is plain that, in our authour's time, we had the proverb, as lean as a rake. Of this proverb the ori ginal is obfcure. Rake now fignifies a diffolute man, a man worn out with disease and debauchery. But the fignification is, I think much more modern than the proverb. Rakel, in Iflandick, is faid to mean a cur-dog, and this was probably the first use among us of the word rake; as lean as a rake is, therefore, as lean as a dog too worthlefs to be fed. JOHNSON. It may be fo: and yet I believe the proverb, as lean as a rake, owes its origin fimply to the thin taper form of the inftrument made ufe of by hay-makers. Chaucer has this fimile in his defcription of the clerk's horfe in the prologue to the Canterbury Tales, late edit. v. 288: "As lene was his hors as is a rake." Spenfer introduces it in the fecond book of his Faery Queen, Canto II: "His body lean and meagre as a rake." As thin as a whipping-poft, is another proverb of the fame kind. Stanyhurft, in his tranflation of the third book of Virgil, 1582, defcribing Achaemenides, fays: "A meigre leane rake, &c." This paffage feems to countenance Dr. Johnfon's fuppofition. STEEVENS. for for the gods know, I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 2 Cit. Would you proceed especially against Caius Marcius? All. Against him firft; he's a very dog to the commonalty. 2 Cit. Confider you what services he has done for his country? 1 Cit. Very well; and could be content to give him good report for't, but that he pays himself with being proud. All. Nay, but fpeak not maliciously. 1 Cit. I fay unto you, what he hath done famously, he did it to that end: though foft-confcienc'd men can be content to fay, it was for his country, he did it to please his mother, and to be partly proud; which he is, even to the altitude of his virtue. 2 Cit. What he cannot help in his nature, you account a vice in him: You must in no way fay, he is covetous. 1 Cit. If I muft not, I need not be barren of accufations; he hath faults, with furplus, to tire in repetition. [Shouts within.] What shouts are these? The other fide o'the city is risen: Why stay we prating here? to the Capitol. All. Come, come. 1 Cit. Soft; who comes here? Enter Menenius Agrippa. 2 Cit. Worthy Menenius Agrippa; one that hath always lov'd the people. 1 Cit. He's one honeft enough; 'Would, all the Men. What work's, my countrymen, in hand? With bats and clubs? The matter? Speak, I pray you. J 2 Cit. Our bufinefs is not unknown to the fenate ;they have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll fhew 'em in deeds. They fay, poor fuiters have ftrong breaths; they fhall know, we have ftrong arms too. Men. Why, mafters, my good friends, mine honeft. neighbours, Will you undo yourselves? 2 Cit. We cannot, fir, we are undone already, Thither where more attends 2 Cit. Care for us!-True, indeed!-They ne'er car'd for us yet. Suffer us to famifh, and their ftorehouses cramm'd with grain; make edicts for ufury, to support ufurers repeal daily any wholesome act established against the rich; and provide more piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and there's all the love they bear us. Men. Either you must Confefs yourselves wond'rous malicious, Or be accus'd of folly. I fhall tell you A pretty tale; it may be, you have heard it; But, fince it ferves my purpose, I will venture I will venture To fcale't a little more.] Το Thus To fcale't a little more. 2 Cit. Well, I'll hear it, fir: yet you must not Thus all the editions, as Mr. Theobald confeffes, who alters it to ftale't. And for a good reason, because he can find no fenfe (he fays) in the common reading. For as good a reafon, I, who can, have restored the old one to its place. To fcale't fignifying to weigh, examine, and apply it. The author uses it again, in the fame fenfe, in this very play: Scaling his prefent bearing with his paft. And fo, Fletcher, in The Maid of the Mill: "What fcale my invention before hand? you shall pardon me for that." WARBURTON. Neither of Dr. Warburton's examples afford a fenfe congruous to the prefent occafion. In the paffage quoted, to feale may be to weigh and compare, but where do we find that scale is to apply? If we scale the two criticks, I think Theobald has the advantage. JOHNSON. To fcale is to difperfe. The word is ftill used in the North. If emendation were at all neceffary, Theobald's is as good a one as could be propofed. The fenfe of the old reading is, Though fome of you have heard the story, I will fpread it yet wider, and diffuse it among the rest. A measure of wine fpilt, is called-" a fcal'd pottle of wine” in Decker's comedy of The Honeft Whore, 1635. So, in The Hyftorie of Clyomon, Knight of the Golden Shield, &c. a play published in 1599: "The hugie heapes of cares that lodged in my minde Again, in Deckar's Honeft Whore, already quoted: 66 Cut off his beard. "Fye, fye; idle, idle; he's no Frenchman, to fret at the lofs of a little fcal'd hair." In the North they fay Scale the corn, i. e. fcatter it: scale the muck well, i. e. fpread the dung well. The two foregoing inftances are taken from Mr. Lambe's notes on the old metrical history of Floddon Field. 66 66 Again, Holinfhed, vol. ii. p. 499, speaking of the retreat of the Welchmen during the abfence of Richard II. fays: -they would no longer abide, but scaled and departed away.' "So again, P. 530: -whereupon their troops fcaled, and fled their waies.' In the Gloffary to Gawin Douglas's Tranflation of Virgil, the following account of the word is given. Skail, fkale, to scatter, to fpread, perhaps from the Fr. efcheveler, Ital. fcapigliare, crines paffos, feu fparfos habere. All from the Latin capillus. Thus efcheveler, fchevel, fkail; but of a more general fignification.. STEEVENS. think to fob off our difgrace with a tale : but, an't please you, deliver. Men. There was a time, when all the body's members Rebell'd against the belly; thus accus'd it :- I' the midst o' the body, idle and unactive, Like labour with the reft;7 where the other inftru ments Did fee, and hear, devife, inftruct, walk, feel, 2 Cit. Well, fir, what answer made the belly? Men. Sir, I fhall tell you.-With a kind of smile, Which ne'er came from the lungs, but even thus, (For, look you, I may make the belly smile, As well as fpeak) it tauntingly reply'd To the difcontented members, the mutinous parts 2 Cit. Your belly's anfwer: What! 7 difgrace with a tale :] Difgraces are hardships, injuries. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. where the other inftruments] Where for whereas. • Which ne'er came from the lungs, -] With a fimile not indicating pleasure, but contempt. JOHNSON. The counfellor heart, even so most fitly,] i. e. exactly. WARBURTON. -] The heart was anciently esteemed the feat of prudence. Homo cordatus is a prudent man. JOHNSON. Men. |