Shakspeare, who was a minute observer of the anatomical and physiological
varieties of the human frame, did not allow this dissimilarity to pass
unnoticed; and, moreover, he starts a query that has never been
satisfactorily answered, from his time to the present; viz. "Canst thou
tell why one's nose stands i' the middle of one's face?"[4] And his nice
discrimination about noses extends also to shape and colour.--from the
"Red-nosed innkeeper of Dav'ntry,"[5] and the "Malmsy-nosed knave,
Bardolph,"[6] to him in Henry V., "whose nose was sharp as a pen!"
[4] Lear.
[5] 1 Henry IV. iv. 2.
[6] 2 Henry IV. ii. 1.
This celebrated "Malmsy-nose" possessed properties unknown to the same
feature now-a-days. It was adapted to practical utility, in its application
to domestic purposes, and moral instruction, by that great admirer and
competent judge of its virtues, Sir John Falstaff, to whose sheets it did
the office of a warming-pan;[7] and who made as good use of it as some men
do of a death's head, or a _memento mori:_ "I never see it," said he, "but
I think upon hell fire." It stands almost unrivalled in history, and ranks
at least with that which gave a cognomen to Ovid,[8] and the one to which
the celebrated violoncello player, Cervetto, owed the _sobriquet_ of
_Nosey_.
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