Hamlet's expression in Shakspeare, where, condemning a ranting player, he says, "I
could have such a fellow whipt for ore-doingTermagant: it outherods Herod."-- A 3.
sc. 3. By degrees the word came to be applied to an outrageous turbulent person, and
especially to a violent brawling woman; to whom alone it is now confined, and this
the rather as, I suppose, the character of Termagant was anciently represented on the
stage after the eastern mode, with long robes or petticoats.
Another frequent character in the old pageants or interludes of our ancestors
was the Sowdan or Soldan, representing a grim eastern tyrant. This appears from a
curious passage in Stow's Annals, (p. 458.) In a stage-play "the people know right
well that he that plaieth the Sowdain is percase a sowter [shoe-maker]; yet if one
should cal him by his owne name, while he standeth in his majestie, one of his
tormentors might hap to break his head." The Sowdain, or Soldan, was a name given
to the Sarazen king (being only a more rude pronunciation of the wordSultan), as the
Soldan of Egypt, the Soudan of Persia, the Sowdan of Babylon, &c. who were
generally represented as accompanied with grim Sarazens, whose business it was to
punish and torment Christians.
I cannot conclude this short memoir, without observing that the French
romancers, who had borrowed the word Termagant from us, and applied it as we in
their old romances, corrupted it intoTervagaunte: and from them La Fontaine took it
up, and has used it more than once in his tales. This may be added to the other proofs
adduced in these volumes of the great intercourse that formerly subsisted between the
old minstrels and legendary writers of both nations, and that they mutually borrowed
each others romances.
NOTES
- See the note onTermagantabove.
- Sign. C. ij. b.
- Sign. C. j. b.
- Odyss. A. 105.
- See Note subjoined to 1stpt. ofBeggar of Bednal, &c.
- See the Essay on the ancient Minstrels above.
7 Even so late as the time of Froissart, we find minstrels and heralds mentioned
together, as those who might securely go into an enemy's country. Cap. cxl.
- BartholiniAntiq. Dan.p. 173.Northern Antiquities, &c. vol. i. pp. 386, 380, &c.
- See also the account of Edw. II. in the Essay on the Minstrels.
- He means fit, suitable.
- Sic MS. It should probably be "ryse,"i.e.my counsel shall arise from thee.-- See
ver. 140. - See the note onGramaryeabove.
- There is assurance that theryngwas not the article of personal adornment, but a
coin.--- VideRing Money, Transactionsof the Royal Irish Academy, vol xvii.--
Editor.