424
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vn. JUNE i, 1901.
" were passing away the time in plaies and sportes
of all sortes and usuall amongst soldiers, did joyfullj
beguile their eyes of sleepe For amongst* then
likewise, every man was bent to take his ease anc to spend away the time in mirth."
According to the Chorus,
Proud of their numbers and secure in soul, The confident and over-lusty French Do the low-rated English play at dice.
' Henry V.,' IV.
And to the description of the state ot Bassa's army this marginal note is attached " Securitie and negligence of the Turkes."
Sea-sick.
The word "sea -sick" in Shakespeare'* works has a peculiar meaning.
" Such, Philautus, is thy disease, who pining in thine owne follies, chusest rather to perish in love, then to live in wisdome, but whatsoever be the cause, I wish the effect may answer my friendly care : then doubtless you shall neither die being sea-sick, or doat being love-sick. I would the sea could aswel purge thy mind of fond conceits as thy body of grose humours." 'Euphues and his England.' King. We are descried ; they '11 mock us
downright.
Dumain. Let us confess and turn it to a jest. Princess. Amazed, my lord? why looks your
highness sad ? Rosaline. Help, hold his brows ! he '11 swoon !
Why look you pale ? Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy.
' Love's Labour 's Lost,' V. ii.
Further on in this passage Biron says,
My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw ;
and,
Yet I have a trick Of the old rage ; bear with me, / am sick.
It is evident that Shakespeare here refers to the following passage in ' Euphues and his England ' :
"But beleeve me, Fidus, he taketh as great delight to course a cogitation of love, as you doe to use your time with Honny. In this plight hath he bene ever since his comming out of ^Naples, and so hath it wrought with him (which I had thought impos- sible) that pure love did make him sea-sick, insomuch as in all my travaile with him, I seemed to every one to beare with me the picture of a proper man, but no living person, the more pitie and yet no force."
Portia. He is the picture of a proper man.
' Merchant of Venice,' I. ii.
Rosaline thinks the king is sea-sick coming from Muscovy, and Euphues says, " In this plight hath he bene ever since his comming out of Naples," &c., and " pure love did make him sea-sick" Pure love makes Philautus sea-sick, and Biron is sick because he has "a trick of the old rage "that is, he is in love.
Autolycus. I brought the old man and his son aboard the prince ; told him I heard them talk of a
fardel and I know not what : but he at that time,
over-fond of the shepherd's daughter, so he then took
her to be, who began to be much sea-sick, and him-
self little better, extremity of weather continuing,
this mystery remained undiscovered.
' Winter's Tale,' V. ii.
In another part of ' Euphues and his England ' Philautus says,
" Would that I were in Italy, or now in England. I cannot brook these seas, which provoke my stomach sore";
and Euphues replies,
"I cannot tell, Philautus, whether the sea make thee sicke or she that was borne of the sea; if the first, then thou hast a queasie stomach ; if the latter, a wanton desire."
According to Autolycus, to be over-fond is to be sea-sick, and it was not the sea which made Biron sick, but "she that was borne of the sea," that is, Venus, the mother of love.
It is evident that sea -sick in 'Love's Labour's Lost' and 'The Winter's Tale' stands for love- sick, and I think the adjective has that meaning in ' Romeo and Juliet,' V. iii.
Romeo. Come, bitter conduct, come, unsavoury
guide !
Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick weary bark ! Here 's to my love ! [Drinks.] true apothecary ! Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die.
I think Romeo, who was desperately in love, uses the word sea-sick in the sense in which it is used in the passages I have quoted from 'Euphues and his England,' where it means love-sick.
Shakespeare sometimes imitates Lyly's manner of playing upon words, as in 'Richard II.,' V. ii., where the Duchess of Aumerle plays upon the word violets, using it in its ordinary sense, meaning the flowers of that name,
That strew the green lap of the new-come spring, and also in the sense in which it is used in Euphues and his England,' where it signifies a lover or sweetheart.
Shakespeare uses sea-sick three times. I im not aware that any of the commentators lave noticed the peculiar meaning of this adjective in his works. W. L. RUSHTON. (To be continued.)
THE "COME -OUTERS." The information
n the ' H.E.D.' as to this word is somewhat
nadequate, the earliest citation being from
laliburton's 'Human Nature,' 1855. In
840 there was an unusual excitement con-
erning religion in Massachusetts. Many
persons of varying shades of opinion were
dissatisfied with the churches and societies
then and there existing, and "came out." In
conjunction with the Second Adventists they
