Notes for lines 1018-2022 ed. Eric Rasmussen
| 2004-5 Ham. Marry this <is> {munching} <Miching> Mallico, {it} <that> meanes | mischiefe. | |
|---|
1728 pope2
pope 2
Pope (ed. 1728; note on1H4 4.219) “a micher, i.e.. a truant; to mich, is to lurk out of sight: a hedge-creeper.”
1747 warb
warb
Warburton (ed. 1747): “The Oxford Editor, imagining that the speaker had here englished his own cant phrase of miching malicho, tells us (by his glossary) that it signifies, mischief lying hid, and that Malicho is the Spanish Malheco; whereas it signifies, Lying in wait for the poisoner. Which, the speaker tells us, was the very purpose of this representation. It should therefore be read MALHECHOR Spanish, the poisoner. So Mich signified, originally, to keep hid and out of sight; and, as such men generally did it for the purposes of lying in wait, it then signified to robb. And in this sense Shakespear uses the noun, a micher, when speaking of Prince Henry amongst a gang of robbers. Shall the blessed Sun of Heaven prove a micher. Shall the Son of England prove a thief? And in this sense it is used by Chaucer in his translation of Le Roman de la rose, where he turns the word lierre, (which is larron, voleur,) by micher.”
1747-60 browne
mbrowne
Browne (Isaac Hawkins Browne, Trinity College Cambridge manuscript 0.12.575 “Critical Notes on the Plays of Shakespeare”): <f.5r> “Old. ed. Mischief lying hid. Span. Malheco; Warb. reads Malhechor and says it signifies, lying in wait for the Poisoner. Malhechor Span.the Poisoner. Q. for Miching”
1754 grey
grey
Grey (C ritical, Historical, and Explanatory Notes on Shakespeare (p. 296-297): “‘Miching Malicho.’ Folios 1623, and 1632, andSir Thomas Hanmer. As Mr.Warburton observes in his note, that mich signified originally to keep hid, or out of sight, why might not Shakespeare have wrote miching Malbecco, from Spenser’s description of him, (Fairy Queen, book iii. cantos ix. x.)?
Canto ix. 3.
Then listen, lordlings, if ye list to weet
The cause why Satyrane and Paridel
Mote not be entertain’d, as seemed meet,
Into that castle, (as that squire does tell).
Therein a cancred, crabbed Earl does dwell,
That has no skill of court, nor courtesy,
Ne cares what men say of him, ill or well;
For all his days he drowns in privity,
Yet has full large to live, and spend at liberty.
iv. But all his mind is set on mucky pelf,
To hoard up heaps of evil-gotten mass,
For which he others wrongs, and wrecks himself,
Yet is he linked to a lovely lass, &c.”
1765 heath
heath
Heath (1765, p. 539): <p. 539>"The common reading was, miching malicho, which whether it be supported to stand for malhecho, the Spanish word for mischief, or malhechor, the mischief doer, the sense amounts to just the same, being no other than this; Marry, the man who bears so large a share in this dumb exhibition is the secret villian, and the shew consequently means mischief. To mich is a word still in common use in the western part of this island, and signifies, to lurk, to do mischief under a fair external appearance."
1765 john1
john1 = warb+
Johnson (ed. 1765): “I think Hanmer’s exposition most likely to be right. Dr. Warburton, to justify his interpretation, must write, miching for malechor, and even then it will be harsh.
Johnson (ed. 1765) [note for “micher” in 1H4 (4.167n6)]: “The allusion is to a truan-boy, who, unwilling to go to school and afraid to go home, lurks in the fields, and picks wild fruits.’ He adds the last because of the line: ‘Shall the /blessed Sun of heav’n prove a micher, and eat blackberries?” (166-7).
1766-70 mwar2
mwar2
2004 munching Mallico] Warner (1766-70): “Miching Mal-hechor, i.e. a Poison[er?] miching from micher, a lazy vagabond, vid. Henry IV. pt. 1. vid. P Dictionary ad voc. So Beaumont & Fletcher Vol. 4. [text missing?”
1773 v1773
v1773 = warb and john +
Steevens (ed. 1773): “The quarto reads munching mallico.”
Warton (apud ed. 1773) “Myching is secret, covered, lying hid. So in the Philaster of Beaumont & Fletcher, ‘A rascal myching in a meadow.’ Mychers are lurking vagabonds: ‘Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a mycher?’ says prince Henry.”
1773 jen
jen=warb+
2004 Mallico]
Jennens (ed. 1773): “So the qu’s. The fo’s and all the rest, Malicho, besides W. who reads Malhechor, and gives the following note,” [this is where JEN inserts W’s note.]
1774-79? capn
capn
CAPN: <p. 136>“This is said of the person of the ‘Poisoner’ in the Dumb Show, a representative of the King, who was a man of mean figure, (v. 83, 7.) and is therefore compar’d by the speaker to the character call’d– Iniquity, in the ancient moralities, whose figure (it is like) was the same, an ill-looking, ‘munching’ animal. See ‘Malicho’ in the Glossary.”
1778 v1778
v1778 :
STEEVENS (ed. 1778): “Dr. Warburton is right in his explanation of the word miching. So, in the Raging Turk, 1631:
‘--wilt thou, envious dotard,
‘Strangle my greatness in a miching hole?’
Again, in Stanyhurst’s Virgil, 1582:
‘--wherefore thus vainely in land Lybye mitche you?’
The quarto reads--munching mallico.
WARTON (apud ed. 1778): “Miching, secret, covered, lying, hid. In this sense Chapman, our author’s contemporary, uses the world in The Widow’s Tears, Dods. Old Pl. vol. iv. p. 291. Lysander, to try his wife’s fidelity, elopes from her: his friends report that he is dead, and make a mock funeral for him: his wife, to shew excessive sorrow for the loss of her husband, shuts herself up in his monument; to which he comes in disguise, and obtains her love, notwithstanding he has assured her in the mean time, that he was the man who murdered her husband. On which he exclaims,
--Out upon the monster!
Go tell the governour, let me be brought
To die for that most famous villany;
Not for this miching base transgression
Of truant negligence.--
And again, p. 301.
--My truant
Was micht, sir, into a blind corner of the tomb.
In this very sense it occurs in the Philaster of Beaumont and Fletcher, vol. i. p. 142. ‘A rascal miching in a meadow.’ That is, as the ingenuous editors (who have happily substituted mitching for milking) remark: ‘A lean deer, creeping, solitary, and withdrawn from the herd.’
2004 miching] Steevens (ed. 1778, 1:339-40 n. 3) equates the Wiv. 4.4.6 (2129): “ I rather will suspect the sun with gold” and 1H4 “Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher,” both meaning one cannot “suspect the sun of being a thief, or be corrupted by a bribe, . . . . ” Steevens then says: “Mr. Rowe silently made the change [from gold to cold], which succeeding editors have as silently adopted. [Then the 1H4 ref.] I have not, however, displaced Mr. Rowe’s emendation; as a zeal to preserve old readings without distinction, may sometimes prove as injurious to the author’s reputation, as a desire to introduce new ones, without attention to the quaintness of phraseology then in use. Steevens.”
1784 ays
ays
2004 munching Mallico] Ayscough (ed. 1784): “Hanmer tells us, that miching malicho signifies mischief lying hid, and that malicho is that Spanish malheco.”
1784 C
2004 munching Mallico] C (Review of CAPN in MR 70 [1784]: 20-21): <p. 20> “ This is said of the person of the ‘
Poisoner’ in the Dumb Show, a representative of the King; who was a man of mean figure (
v. 83, 7.), and is therefore compar’d by the speaker to the character call’d— Iniquity, in the ancient moralities, whose figure (it is like) was the same, an ill-looking ‘munching’ </p. 20><p. 21> animal. See ‘
Malicho’ in the
Glossary.— The ‘Dumb Show’ is (for any thing the Editor knows to the contrary) a domestick invention; and was the ornament of most of the plays that came immediately next the moralities, such as— Gorboduc, Jocasta, &c. in which they were prefix’d to each act; their matter,— a piece of history similar, or some typical fable, expressing that act’s moral: these degenerated afterwards into a bare mute representation of the whole action in little, but under different personages, and this was the common run of those shows; of which, and of the plays they belong’d to, the play and show in this place are a fair specimen, and so intended by Shakespeare; who, in his ‘
Tempest, Midsummer Night’s Dream, and
Love’s Labour’s lost,’ has given samples of three other pieces,— a pageant, a masque, and an interlude,— and all with the same design, it is probable, namely— to shew the general state of our theatres when he first came among them, and (perhaps) of some of them afterwards.’
Steevens reads Miching Malicho (with long notes), after the folio: but takes no notice of the original reading (munching), though he himself published Hamlet from the old quarto, among the twenty plays of Shakespeare, in the year 1766. Capell, with his wonted fidelity, gives miching among his Various Readings from the folio. By the bye, we believe miching to be the true reading, not being satisfied with Capell’s explanation of munching. By what authority does he construe it in his note ill-looking? The word occurs in a very different sense in Macbeth. ‘A sailor’s wife had chesnuts in her lap, And munch’d, and munch’d, and munch’d.’” </p. 21>
1787 ann
ann
2004 munching Mallico]
Henley (1787, p. 102): <p. 102> “The word
mitching is daily used in the west of England for
playing truant, or
skulking about in private for some sinister purpose; and
malicho, inaccurately written for
malheco, signifies
mischief; so that
mitching malicho is
mischief on the
watch for opportunity.— When Ophelia asks Hamlet— ‘What means this—?’ she applies to him for
an explanation of what she had just seen in the show; and not, as Dr. Warburton would have it,
the purpose
for which the show was contrived.— Besides,
malhechor no more signifies a
poisoner, than the perpetrator of
any other crime.” </p. 102>
1790 mal
mal
Malone (ed. 1790): “A secret and wicked contrivance; a concealed wickedness. To mich is a provincial word, and was probably once general, signifying to lie hid, or play the truant. In Norfolk michers signify pilferers. The signification of miching in the present passage may be ascertained by a passage in Decker’s Wonderful Yeare, 4to, 1630: ‘Those that could shift for a time,—went most bitterly miching and muffled, up and downe, with rue and wormwood stuft into their ears and nostrills.’
See also Florio’s Italian Dictionary, 1598,in v. Acciapinare. ‘To miche, to shrug or sneak in some corner, and with powting and lips to shew some anger.’ In a subsequent passage we find that the murderer before he poisons the king makes damnable faces.
Where our poet met with the word mallecho, which in Minsheu’s Spanish Dictionary, 1617, is defined malefactum, I am unable to ascertain. In the folio, the word is spelt malicho. The quarto reads—munching Mallico. Mallico is printed in a distinct character, as a proper name.”
c.1790 mf4ttc
mF4TTC (MS notes in Trinity College Cambridge F4, shelfmark H.18.12. , c.1790): “Miching malicho: I never looked for better of that Rascall / Since he came Miching first into our House.” Woman Killed with Kindness
1791- rann
rann
2004 miching malicho;] Rann (ed. 1791-): “—skulking iniquity, the secret villain that lies in wait to do mischief.—munching.”
1793 v1793
v1793 = mal +
HENLEY (apud. ed 1793): “The word miching is daily used in the West of England for playing truant, or skulking about in private for some sinister purpose; and malicho, inaccurately written for malheco, signifies mischief; so that miching malicho is mischief on the watch for opportunity. When Ophelia asks Hamlet--’What means this?’ she applies to him for an explanation of what she had not seen in the show; and not, as Dr. Warburton would have it, the purpose for which the show is contrived. Besides, malhechor no more signifies a poisoner, than a perpetrator of any other crime.”
2004 Mallico] Farmer (ms. notes, ed. 1793): “If as Capell declares ( I know not on what authority) Malicho be the vice of the Spanish moralities, he should at least be distinguished by a Capital. “ Farmer
2004 Mallico] Steevens (ms notes, ed. 1793) appends: “It is not, however, easy to be supposed that our readers discovery pleasantry or even sense in ‘this is miching [or munching] Mallico.’ no meaning as yet affixed to these words has entitled them to escape a further investigation. Omit them, and the reset unities without their existance.. . . Among the Shakspearian memoranda of the late Dr. Farmer, I met with the following--At the beginning of Grim the Collier of Croydon, the Ghost of Malbecco is introduced as a prolocution. Query, therefore, if the obscure words already quoted-, were not originally--”This mimicking Malbecco,” a private gloss by some friend on the margin of the MS Hamlet & thence ignorantly received into the text of Shakespeare.
“It remains to be observed that the mimicking imagined by Dr. Farmer must lie in our author’s stage-directions &, which, like Malbeccos legend, convey a printed censure on the infidelity of married women. Or--to repeat the sameidea in different words--The drift of the present Dumb Show and succeeding dialogue, was considered by the glosser as to congenial with the well-known invective in Spenser’s Fairy Queen, Book III. or the contracted copy from it in the Induction to Grim the Collier & a comedy which was acted many years before it was printed. See Mr.Reeds Old Plays, vol. XI. 189.”
Steevens’ MS notes in v1793 (Bod. Mal. C.193) [following Malone’s use of “Mallico”as proper name] <p. 188>“If, as Capell declares ( I know not on what authority) Malicho be the vice of the Spanish moralities, he should at least be distinguished by a Capital. [Cites Farmer’s note] It is not, however, easy to be supposed that our readers discovery pleasantry or even sense in ‘this is miching [or munching] Mallico.’ no meaning as yet affixed to these words has entitled them to escape a further investigation. Omit them, and the reset unities without their existance.. . . Among the Shakspearian memoranda of the late Dr. Farmer, I met with the following--At the beginning of Grim the Collier of Croydon, the Ghost of Malbecco is introduced as a prolocution. Query, therefore, if the obscure words already quoted-, were not originally--’This mimicking Malbecco,’ a private gloss by some friend on the margin of the MS Hamlet & thence ignorantly received into the text of Shakespeare
It remains to be observed that the micmicking imagined by Dr. Farmer must lie in our author’s stage-directions &, which, like Malbeccos legend, convey a printed censure on the infidelity of married women. Or--to repeat the sameidea in different words--The drift of the present Dumb Show and succeeding dialogue, was considered by the glosser as to congenial with the well-known invective in Spenser’s Fairy Queen, Book III. or the contracted copy from it in the Induction to Grim the Collier & a comedy which was acted many years before it was printed. See Mr.Reeds Old Plays, vol. XI. 189.”
1803 v1803
v1803 = v1793 +
FARMER: “If, as Capell declares, (I know not on what authority) Malicho be the Vice of the Spanish Moralities, he should at least be distinguished by a capital.”
STEEVENS: “It is not, however, easy to be supposed that our readers discover pleasantry or even sense in ‘this is miching [or munching] mallico, no meaning as yet affixed to these words has entitled them to escape a further investigation. Omit them, and the text unites without their assistance: ‘Oph. What means this, my lord? Ham. Marry, it means mischief.’
Among the Shakspearian memoranda of the late Dr. Farmer, I met with the following— ‘At the beginning of Grim the Collier of Croydon, the ghost of Malbecco is introduced as a prolocutor.’ Query, therefore, if the obscure words already quoted, were not originally:— ‘This is mimicking Malbecco;’ a private gloss by some friend on the margin of the MS. Hamlet, and thence ignorantly received into the text of Shakspeare.
It remains to be observed, that the mimickry imagined by Dr. Farmer, must lie in our author’s stage-directions, &c. which, like Malbecco’s legend, convey a pointed censure on the infidelity of married women. Or, to repeat the same idea in different words— the drift of the present dumb show and succeeding dialogue, was considered by the glosser as too congenial with the well-known invective in Spenser’s Fairy Queen, Book III. or the contracted copy from it in the Induction to Grim the Collier &c. a comedy which was acted many years before it was printed. See Mr. Reed’s Old Plays, Vol. XI. p. 189.”
1813 gifford
Gifford (ed. Massinger’s Works, vol. 4, p. 182)[Gloss on “Forward, you micher!” in
The Guardian]: <p. 182>To
mich is to lurk. I am ashamed to wast a word on what is known to every school-boy in the kingdom; but I am told that there are some grown persons ‘who will be thankful for the information.’
1819 cald1
cald1
Caldecott (ed. 1819): “A skulling, roguish, aim at mischief. Mychen or stelen pryvely. Promp. parv. See I. H. IV. II. 4. falst. In Minshieu’s Spanish Dict. 1617, malhecho is rendered malefactum: and we are informed, the malhecho is compounded of mal, bad, and hecho, the past participle of hacer, to do; and may literally rendered misdeed.”
1826 sing1
sing1
Singer (ed. 1826): Miching malicho is lurking mirchief, or evil doing. To mich, for to skulk, to lurk, was an old English verb in common use in Shakespeare’s time; and malicho or malhecho, misdeed, he had borrowed from the Spanish. Many stray words of Spanish and Italian were then affectedly used in common conversation, as we have seen French used in more recent times. The quarto spells the word mallico. Our ancestors were not particular in orthography, and often spelt according to the ear.
1832 cald2
cald2
CALD2=CALD1 +
Caldecott (ed. 1832): “In his Dict. (addit. notes Todd considers the old Fr
. mucer, musser, to conceal, to lurk, Cotgrave;
mucha, concealed, Ketham; as the origin of the word
miche. “
1841 knt1 (nd)
knt1
2004-5 Knight (ed. 1839): “Miching mallecho. To mich is to filch;--- mallecho, is misdeed, from the Spanish. The skulking crime pointed out in the dumb show is, in one sense of Hamlet’s wild phrase, miching mallecho; his own secret purpose, from which mischief will ensue, is miching mallecho, in another sense;---in either case, ‘it means mischief.’”
1843 col1
col1
2004-5 Collier (ed. 1843): “The quartos (with the exception of the first of 1603) read ‘munching Malleco:’ ‘miching.’ i.e. stealing ,is no doubt the right word: and by Minshew’s Dictionary, 1617, it appears that mallecho is Spanish for a malefaction-- any ill deed. In modern Spanish Dictionaries the word is spent malhecho, and the sense given is badly done.”
1843- mlewes
mlewes
2004 munching Mallico,] Lewes (ms. notes in Knight, ed. 1843): “malhecho?”
-1845 mhun1
mhun1
2004-05 Marry...mischiefe.] Hunter (-1845, f. 228v-229r): <f.228v>“In the illustration of this passage concerning which the reader may ask with Ophelia: ‘What means this, my Lord’ without any satisfactory answer from the Commentators the new found quarto lends no other assistance than by having Mallacho printed with a Capital letter.— It is impossible to read this scene without </f. 228v><f. 229r>a dighit that it is really painful at such a prostitution of the [off the top] and talents of a writer which it must be allowed he has generally employed in the noble purpose of moving the mind to goodness by that powerful engine of which he was the master. The darkness is as evident as the grossness, which may lead one to hope it was far from his natural vein, that he was compelled into this, or perhaps that some coarser mind has here introduced its disgusting & dark imagination.”</f. 229r>
1850 jmb
munching Mallico] B (
N. & Q. 2 [1850]: 358): <p. 358> “The writer of the review of
Urquhart’s Travels in the
Quart. Rev. for March 1850, who is, in all probability, identical with the author of the
Handbook of Spain, felicitously suggests that
Miching Mallecho is a mere misprint for the Spanish words
Mucho Malhecho,
much mischief: Hamlet, iii. 2. Imagining that I had seen this ingenious conjecture somewhere in print before, I referred to, and was disappointed when I found it not in Knight’s
Shakspeare (library ed.). Recently, in looking over Dr. Maginn’s admirable dissections of
Dr. Farmer’s Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare, I discovered what I was in search of, and beg to present it to the notice of your readers. ‘That the text is corrupt, I am sure; and I think Dr. Farmer’s substitution of
mimicking malhecco, a most unlucky attempt at emendation. In the old copies it is
munching malicho, in which we find traces of the true reading,
mucho malhecho, much mischief. ‘Marry,
mucho malhêcho— it means mischief.’’
Fraser’s Magazine, Dec. 1839, p. 654. J. M. B.” </p. 358>
1856 hud1 (1851-6)
hud1
Hudson (ed. 1856): "Miching mallecho is lurking mischief, or evil doing. To mich, for to skulk, to lurk, was an old English verb in common use in Shakespeare’s time; and mallecho or malecho, misdded, he has borrowed from the Spanish."
1856b sing2
sing2=sing1 (minus “The quarto . . . the ear”) +
Singer (ed. 1856): “It is printed in italics in the folios.”
1860 walker
walker
Walker (1860, p. 266): “Shirley, Gentleman of Venice, iii.4, Gifford and Dyce, vol. v. p. 52, — ‘Be humble, Thou man of mallecho, or thou diest. Mar. I do sir’.”
1861 wh1
wh1
White (ed. 1861): “A fantastic compound. ’Miching’ is thieving; ’mallecho’ or ’mal hecho,’ Spanish, for an evil deed, something ill (= mal) done (= hecho.)”
1867 ktlyn
ktlyn
2004-5 Keightly (1867, p. 292): “For ‘miching malicho,’ which is nonsense, I read mucho malhecho Sp. i.e. very ill--done.”
1869 romdahl
romdahl
2004 munching] Romdahl (1869, p. 33): “Miching mallecho = lurking mischief. To mich (also written miche, meech, and meach) signified, to lie hidden, to play the truant, to rob, and is still a not uncommon provincialism, at least in the West of England; hence micher = a robber, see 1. Henry IV. A. II. Sc. IV, 450. To mich is probably related to the German verbs mucken, meuchlen, and others of the same root, with which the idea of concealment or privacy is connected.”
2004 Mallico] Romdahl (1869, p. 33): “Mallecho, innacurately so written for the Spanish malhecho (mal = bad, hecho = deed) denotes, evil act, mischief. — The readings are in this passage very various, but most modern editions have: miching mallecho (Mr. Malone’s conjecture), at least deviating from the reading of the folios: miching malicho.”
1877 clns
clns
2004 munching Mallico] Neil (ed. 1877): Agrees with G. H. Lewes.
1879 new shakespeare society
anon
2004 miching] Anon. (New Shakespeare Society’sTransactions 1877-9, pp.472): “‘Hurtillo, m. pilferie, miching, petie larcenie.’ Minsheu’s Spanish Dictionary, 1623.”
1882 elze
elze
2004 munching Mallico] Elze (ed. 1882): “Mallico is the Spanish malhecho, i.e. male factum, and miching Mallico means ‘sneaking or lurking mischief’. That mallico is not English, but a corruption of a foreign word, is shown by the epexegesis ‘that meanes mischiefe’. Maginn’s ingenious conjecture mucho malhecho deserves not only to be mentioned, but carefully to be considered.”
1885 macd
macd
2004-5 MacDonald (ed. 1885): “skulking mischief: the latter word is Spanish. To mich is to play truant. ‘How tenderly her hands betweene / In yvorie cage she did the micher bind.’ The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, page 84.” My Reader tells me the word is still in use among printers, with the pronunciation mike, and the meaning to skulk or idle.”
1899 ard1
ard1
miching mallecho] Dowden (ed. 1899): “skulking mischief. Minsheu gives ‘To miche, or secretly to hide himself out of the way, as Truans doe form schoole’; Florio has ‘to miche, to shrug, or sneake in some corner.’ See ‘micher,’ truant, in 1 Henry IV. II. Iv. 452. ‘Mallecho,’ Spanish malhecho, mischief. So Shirley, Gentleman of Venice: ‘Be humble, Thou man of mallecho, or thou diest.’
1904 macmichael
macmichael
Macmichael (1904, p. 524): “With the light thrown upon it by the best commentators there does not seem to be any difficulty about the reading of this phrase. I have myself heard it in common use to-day, ‘miching’ or ‘mouching’ about, meaning to hang about for no good purpose, to skilk. Perhaps the French ‘miche,’ a loaf, has som connexion with our word ‘loafing,’ and consequently with ‘miching.’ At all events a ‘mouchard’ is a spy, and Nugent’s French dictionary of 1793 gives’muche muche’ = in secret. So Prof. Skeat has ‘Mich, to skulk, play truant (French). M.E. michen; also moucher, moochen. Old French mucir, mucier, later musser, to hide, conceal (hence to skulk). Origin unknown.’ But why not from miche, a manchet or loaf? In Australian and Bush slang, ‘to do a mike’ is to bold ‘unbeknown,’ and in Beaumont and Fletcher’s ‘Scornful Lady (IV.i.):’--’Sure she has some meeching rascal in her house.’ Mallicho is a Spanish word meaning an ‘evil action,’ whence it is transferred in ‘miching mallecho’ to the evil-doer himself. The words Hamlet would have used had he liven in these days would probably be-- ‘Marry, there is mischief brewing’ in allusion to a vague foreboding of the poisoning scene.”
1904 pierpoint
pierpoint
Pierpoint (1904, p. 344): “Perhaps the following from ‘The Dialect of the English Gypsies,’ by B. C. Smart M.D. and H. T. Crofton, second edition (London, Asher & Co., 1875), may be worth noting: ‘Malleco, False. Borrow, ‘Lavo-lil,’ 1874; ? Dr. Paspati, ‘Tchinghianes ou Bohemiens de l’Empire Ottoman,’ 1870, maklo, stained.’ See p. 160, and for interpretations of contractions, pp. 157-8. The above is the ‘Appendix to the Gypsy-English Vocabulary’.”
1982 ard2
ard2
2004 miching malicho] Jenkins (ed. 1982): "Heavy weather has been made of this aggravated by the practice of lumping two words together as though they were one indivisible phrase. Miching at least (though OED for no discernible reasons stops short of certainty) is perfectly straightforward - a present participle formation from the common verb to mich, lurk, be (furtively) up to mischief, still apparently current in some dialects alongside the related mooch (see Eng. Dialect Dictionary) and meech (see Webster). Cf. Anon., Woodstock, l. 2649 (one number to another), ’Come, ye miching rascal’; Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness, II. iii. 179, ’I never look’d for better of that rascal, Since he came miching first into our house’. Further confirmation, if such were necessary, comes from Florio (A World of Words, Acciapinare), ’to miche, to shrug, or sneake in some corner’; Cotgrave (under recuit), ’ . . . miching, . . . dodging’; and Minsheu, ’To Minche, or secretly to hide himselfe out of the way, as Truants doe from schoole’. It seems to be in the common sense of truant, mischievous skulker, that Shakespeare uses the noun micher in 1H4 II. iv. 396. In Massinger, A Very Woman, V. iii. 34, a slave notorious for villainous tricks is called ’you micher’.
“The interpretation of malicho permits less certainty, though it need call for no serious doubt. It has long been taken to represent the Spanish malhecho, malefaction, mischief, which Kittredge therefore reads : the compromise spelling mallecho has been traditional since Malone. When OED remarks that ’there is no evidence that the Sp. word was familiar in English’, it ignores (1) the possible significance of the h spelling in F’s substitution of Malicho for the presumably phonetic Mallico of Q1, Q2, and (2) the parallel in Shirley’s Gentleman of Venice (Q1655) where Malligo would appear to be a further variant of the same word: ’Be humble, Thou man of Malligo, or thou dyest’ (III. iv. 125). This instance also helps to dispel the objection sometimes made that the Spanish malhecho means a particular deed of iniquity rather than iniquity in the abstract: an English vogue-word deriving from it need not of course do the same. There have been conjectures of textual corruption; but the hypothesis that a strange word might result from the misreading of a common one like mallice (J. Crawford, RES, n.s. XVIII, 40-5) defies ordinary probability and the weight of all three texts. The italics of Q2 and F are easily accounted for as signaling a foreign word, but the printers may have taken it as a proper name. Attempts to explain it as one have ranged from Spenser’s Malbecco (FQ, III. ix-x) to Malichus, prisoner of Antipater (A. Walker, MLR, XXXI, 513-17). Yet while it is true that miching is an epithet for a person rather than an action, personification either in or out of Shakespeare is no unusual figure.
“As for what it is that is characterized as miching malicho, no interpretation is acceptable which would have it to be the poisoner. Hamlet’s answer, no less than Ophelia’s question, clearly implies to the dumb-show as a whole. Primarily Hamlet refers to the action of murder and marriage which the dumb-show has exhibited. But, with a play on the word means, the dumb-show, by revealing what is to come, also ’means mischief’ for the King. There is little to support Dover Wilson’s fancy that Hamlet is surprised by the dumb-show and ascribes it to the mischief’ of the Players, who thus give the game away too soon (WHH, pp. 156-8, 185-6)."
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