from experience: this makes his case different from all other unfortunate heroes; for, instead of pitying, we laugh at him.” V. 818. With orange-tawney slime his beard.] Bottom, the weaver, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, asks in what beard he shall play the part of Pyramus, whether in a perfect yellow beard, or an orange-tawney beard, or a purple in grain beard? V. 843-4. And till all four were out of wind, And danger too, ne'er look'd behind.] This was probably designed as a sneer upon the Earl of Argyle, who more than once fled from Montrose, and never looked behind him till he was quite out of danger; as at Inverary, 1644, where he fled, (says Guthrie,) and never looked over his shoulder, until, after riding twenty miles, he reached the South Queen's Ferry, where he possessed himself again of his boat. Tom Coryat seems to have acted in a like manner on a similar occasion, as we may gather from Strangeway's Panegyric Verses prefixed to his Crudities: "But thou that time, like many an errant knight, V. 859-60. And doubtless have been chew'd with teeth Of some that had a stinking breath.] It is probable that Oldham had these lines in view when he wrote his Character of an Ugly Parson, "who, by his scent, might be winded by a good nose at twelve score. I durst have ventured," says he, "at first being in company, to have affirmed that he dieted on assafœtida." V. 877-8. And as such homely treats, they say, Portend good fortune -] Warburton says, "the origin of the coarse proverb here alluded to took its rise from the glorious battle of Agincourt, when the English were so afflicted with the dysentery, that most of them chose to fight naked from the girdle downward.” In the collection of Loyal Songs, there is one called the Resurrection of the Rump, which says, "There's another proverb gives the rump for his crest, But Alderman Atkins made it a jest, That, of all kinds of luck, sh-t-n luck is the best." V. 879. Vespasian being daub'd with dirt.] An allusion to the mean origin of this emperor, who, in his early days, was a common soldier. V. 887-8. And after as we first design'd, Swear I've performed what she enjoin'd.] The Knight resolves to wash his face and dirty his conscience. This is perfectly agreeable to his politics, in which hypocrisy seems to be the predominant principle. He is no longer for reducing Ralpho to a whipping, but for deceiving the widow by forswearing himself; and by the sequel we find that he is as good as his word. |