THE EXMOOR COURTSHIP. Persons. ANDREW MOREMAN, a young Farmer Scene-Margery's Home. To Margery, enter Andrew. An. How goeth it, cozen Margery? Mar. Hoh! cozen Andra, how d'ye try? An. Come, let's shake hands, thof kissing be scarce. Mar. Kissing's plenty enow: bet chud zo leefe kiss the back o ma hond es e'er a man in Chattacomb, or yeet in Paracomb; not dispreze. An. Es dont believe thate, yeet es believe well too. Mur. Hemph! oh, that vary vengeance THE ARCADIAN LOVERS, A Dramatic Pastoral CELADON, Lover of Pastora Scene A Vestibule before an elegant Cottage, with a picturesque View of the Country on each side. Pastora coming from the Vestibule is met by Celadon. Cel. How fares the lovely maid, Arca- To Celadon by kindred ties allied? Its sweeter symbol, lip to lip's denied? To such unseemly weakness is betray'd. Such a salute, to this cold hand of mine, Pas. Forbear, rude swain! ill fortune * This has been a symbol of love and friendship from the earliest ages. Thus, a deserted maiden, in Ovid's epistles, exclaims, "Heus ubi pacta fides commissaque dextera dextrâ.” And thus Æneas receives his companions. " Amicum Ilionea petit dextrâ lævaque Segestum." Achilles, as a mark of friendship, takes the Greek envoys by the right hand. + This word, differently accented, was in use in Queen Elizabeth's time, "it was A handsome pretty-custom'd brandy-shop As any was in Venice, none dispraized." Volpone, A. 5. i. e. No offence intended to the others by an implied degradation. The amiable trait of character in the no dispreze is but faintly imitated in the translation. It denotes, that at the same time in which she would be understood as holding the least approach towards indelicacy in abhorrence, which causes her warmth of expression, she would be extremely sorry if it was understood to proceed from any personal dislike to the swains of Paracomb or Chattacomb. She detracts not from their merits, nor wishes to degrade their characters by elevating her own. Her real aversion to improper liberties is again strongly marked in her following speech, as well as her secret attachment to Andrew, which makes her so soon forget her cause for resentment against him. A striking proof of our bard's intimate acquaintance with the human heart. And it is observable, that the endearments of Andrew are less and less strenuously resisted as the drama proceeds. A passage similar to this, and the conclusion of Margery's former speech, occurs in the opening of the xx. Idyllium : Pursue thy steps! forbear the rude embrace! Yet tell me, Celadon,-ah me! with friends Cel. In truth, Pastora, not exempt from These limbs have proy'd since on Ladona's With angry Lycidas I strove; but know, Pas. Ah! little deem'd Pastora that, in σε Εννικα μ' εγελαζε θέλοντα μον Chaucer says, when woman -&c. "hath caught an ire Vary vengeance is all her desire."-The Sompnour's Tale. * i. e. Squeezed, from the Teutonic Krimpen, to contract, to be creem'd with the cold, is synonimous to be cramped præ frigore obtorpescere. May we derive from the same word the army crimps, who render torpid those they lay hands upon ? + i. e. How d'ye do? A sea phrase, perhaps communicated to the old Exmooreans by some navigators of the Bristol Channel. It is used by Shakspeare in the Tempest (Act i. scene i.) in a nautical sense. Nort marchantable seems a figurative expression derived from commerce, 66 a commodity not perfectly sound or vendible." Andrew's meaning therefore is" Not perfectly sound or well, ever since I interchanged some blows with Roger Vrogwell. § From the Islandic tak a blow, or the Latin tactus. Score is often used in the same sense as to reckon. Perhaps for ummun, i. e. woman. Perhaps from mome, a foolish creature, and chance, or come by chance, a changeling, dropt by the fairies instead of some more promising child taken away by them from the cradle. Mome or mawm may be derived from momar, an old Sicilian word, which denotes an idiot. ** A hog or sow, from the cutaneous distemper to which these animals are liable; or, it may be from the Danish meolk, and Anglo-Saxon meole, " milk," their general food. "Against those meazles which we disdain should fetter us."-Coriolanus. An. Es begit tha words now-bet ha roilad zo, that es coudent bear et.-Bet a dedent lost hes labour, fath! vor, es tozed en, es tamb'd en, es laced en, es thong'd en, es drash'd en, es drubb'd en, es tann'd en to the true § ben, fath.-Bet, tap! cham avore ma story. Zes I; "Thee art a pretty vella!" zes he; Gar! thee cassent make a pretty vella o'ma." "No, agar," zeys I," vor th'art too ugly to be made a pretty vella that's true enow." Gar, a was woundy mad | thoa. "Chell try thate," zeys he." As zoon's tha¶ wut," zeys I. Zo, up a roze, and to't we went. Vurst, a geed maa ++ whisterpoop under tha year, and voreway a geed maa §§ vutch in the zeer.-Add! thoa es rakad up, and tuck en be that collar, and so box'd en and zlapp'd en, that es made heskep hoppy, and hes yead addle to en. He felt the fury of repeated blows. Is mine; a pretty youth then style not me, With fury swell'd, as he these words addrest. Oliver, in the London Prodigal, who, from his speaking so nearly the genuine language of the Moor, shews its having prevailed much more extensively in former days, threatens to take away his mistress from theck a measel," i. e. such a worthless despicable fel. low. He often uses the word in that sense. * Toze, I take to be of the same meaning as another Devonian word, towzee to toss or tumble. + From an obsolete Greek word Aaμw to lick, still used in the same sense at Eaton and other learned seminaries. Some literati derive it from the sound of a blow heartily laid on, as well as slam, or the more expressive slam-bang, all Exmoorean words; some from the Icelandic lem to kill, from whence the proverbial expression, "to give any one a lam-pye," is ingeniously traced. Lace denotes to lash, verberare toris, for which consult Junius on lace and leash ; and Skinner on lace and lash. § Or perhaps bent, possibly to the utmost stretch of the bow. Thus, in Hamlet, "They fool me to the top of my bent." ++ A close offensive whisper, as disagreeable to the ear as crepitus ventris to the nose, thence applied to a sudden unwelcome blow. Immediately; so vore-reert denotes forthright, headlong, without consideration. §§ "Vutch in the Leer," to push any one (under the ribs), as if you were underpropping, from the Anglo-Saxon. Leery denotes, among the Exmooreans, "hollow or empty." A leery horse, a leery stomach, i. e. a lean horse, an empty stomach. Under the leer is under the hollow of the ribs, from the A. S. "Kep," a cap. A. S. or Græce xipaλos. This combat will lose nothing on being compared with that between Amycus and Pollux (Idyll. xxii.), which the author appears to have had in his eye. It seems in the original to have been written in a kind of irregular lyric measure, and in acting was probably accompanied with music, which gave time to the comedian (as well as regulated it) Mar. Well es thank ye, cozen Andra, vor taking wone's pearte zo.-Bet cham aghest he'll go vor a varrant vor ye, and take ye bevore the cunsabel; and than ye mey be bound over, and be vorst to g'in to Exter to zizes; and than a mey zwear the peace o es, you know.-Es en et better to drenk vriens and make et up? An. Go vor a varrant! Ad, let en, let en go. Chell not hend en. Vor there's Tom Vuzz can take his cornoral oath that he begun vurst.-And if a deth, chell ha as good a varrant vor he, as he can for me, dont question it, vor the turney into Moulton knoweth me, good now, and has had zome zweet pounds o vauther bevore ha died. And if he's a meended to go to la, es can spend vorty or vifty shillings as well's he. And zo let en go, and whipe what a zets upon a Zendeys wey hes varrant.-Bet, hang en, let's ha nort more to zey about en; vor chave better bezeneze in hond a gurt deal. Pas. Thus to defend an injur'd maid was Accept the thanks of no ungrateful mind; "Tis better far to bid contention cease, complain, Soon shall he find that his complaint was vain. for explaining his varied feats of prowess by gesticulation. "Es tozed en, es lamb'd en, es laced en," &c. were doubtless plaid with rapidity, and, if accompanied by the marrow – bones and cleavers, musical instruments of great antiquity and popularity, though now much in disuse, must have had a happy effect. The precise meaning of whisterpoop, though a word in common use, I am unacquainted with, but believe that it denotes, like lirripoop, a blow in general. The latter word likewise is common in the north of Devon, and was formerly so probably in other parts of England." So, so, I've my lerrepoop already." ("Wit at several weapons." Fletcher's Works, Oct. vol. viii. 259.) So Oliver, in the London Prodigal, "Such a lirripoop, as thick ich was ne'er a sarved.” "The Greek ayasros has the same meaning, dos ayastov, Hom. ab ayaw. Aghast frequently occurs in old writers, and sometimes in modern, but no longer in conversation. So Hodge, in “ Gammer Gurton's Needle,” A. i. §. 3. “ Cham aghast, by the masse !” + Andrew's affirming that he could spend 40 or 50 shillings in a law-suit as well as his adversary, is one of the circumstances on which I ground the idea that this work was composed in the early part of Henry 7th's reign. Upon a strict inquiry, and an accurate examination of several attornies bills at that time, I find a smart contest of this kind might be carried on and concluded for that sum at the Exeter Assizes. Some people have imagined (idly enough), that those Pastorals, like the poems of Ossian and of Rowley, were composed by their editor; but the Moor-men, at the period he published them, about sixty years since, perfectly well knew by experience that an action for assault and battery would soon swallow up treble that sum. He would not therefore, had he meant to depicture the times as they then were, have been guilty of such an inaccuracy. That he indeed has, in a few instances, modernised the original is evident, and perhaps in this very place has substituted 40 or 50 shillings for 3 or 4 merkes, to render the passage more intelligible to the Moor-men of his time. By the ideal coin merks, as by pounds at present, sums were reckoned in Henry 7th's time. In Rowley's poems they are frequently mentioned, and spelt sometimes merkes, sometimes mancas. The latter probably was the court, the former the country pronunciation. As his ingenious editor has not elucidated this difficulty, the conjecture, though rather hazardous, being supported by no authority, is, I hope, entitled to pardon. 66 Pas. Why in thy arms is thus Pastora Why rudely clasp'st thou my reluctant breast? Is fair Pastora now so wond'rous shy? The yielding maiden to his throbbing breast; Past. Surely the demon of detraction reigns In the vile bosom of Arcadian swains! Th' embrace was noted by the general eye. * A corruption of grapple, from the Belg. " grabbalen." +From the A. S. G. τιτθος τιτθη τιθήνη. Or, moulad and soulad," pulled or halled about." Shakspeare uses the latter word, though differently spelt, in the same sense. "He'll go," he says, "and sole the porter of Rome by the ears.' Coriolanus. § From the action here referred to in the dialogue, we may suspect that these scenes were publicly exhibited to relieve, as noticed in the preface, the melancholy impression of more serious performances. Our forefathers, in some respects not so delicate as their descendants, smiled doubtless at the freedoms of Andrew, and triumphed over the alarmed delicacy of Margery. Long after this performance was composed, in 1600, the Mysterie, entitled Adam and Eve, was exhibited, in which they appeared in their primitive state, and, as 'tis said," neither they nor the audience were ashamed," so that, instead of censuring our bard for approaching so near to indecency, we should applaud him for going no nearer. Few dramatists indeed, in the following century, sacrificed so little to the depraved taste of the times. If some tincture of blame still remains, let us consider that he made Theocritus his model; that those liberties are warranted by the customs of Arcadia. I refer the learned reader to the xxvii. Idyl. where the shepherdess, in terms similar to Margery's, thus upbraids her shepherd: * Μη καυχω ςατυριςκε" κενοντο φίλημα λεγεςιν. αποπτύω τα φιλάμα. Τι ρήξεις Σατυριςκε ; τι δ' ενδοθεν αψας μαζων; Ναρκω και τον Πανα· στην καλιν εξελε χειρα.” The poet of the Moor was too modest and decorous to copy the original any farther.Johnson somewhere observes, that the characters introduced in pastoral poetry are neither "in real existence nor speculative probability." The doctor was a great man, but not infallible. That the characters in the Exmoor Courtship are true copies of nature, no Devonshire man will deny; that they agree with those drawn by Theocritus, the father of pastoral poetry, in his Idyllia, in many striking instances, is no less certain. That the doctor, therefore, sometimes rationated inconsequentially is equally indisputable. || An expression of admiration:-" Look here-Only see!" From the A. S. Locah, to see. "The devil" (or Deule), from the A. S. him about women."-Hen. 5. ** Volk and voaken, people. 66 "He said the Deule would have ++"Zure and zure and double zure," for it has sometimes that addition, is considered as a Devonshire oath.-Pol. Edipol. ++ Lump. VOL. IV. 3 Y |