"This fellow has such an odd appearance; is so unlike a man "civilized, and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit "him." To be a foreigner was always in England, and I suppose every where else, a reason of dislike. So Pistol calls Slender, in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of gross behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian wight. JOHNSON. Line 169. Very rogues, now they be out of service.] A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its consequential signification, a cheat. JOHNSON. Line 220. and tell him, my name is Brook ;- -] Thus both the old quartos; and thus most certainly the poet wrote. We need no better evidence than the pun that Falstaff anon makes on the name, when Brook sends him some burnt sack. Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow with such liquor. The players, in their editions, altered the name to Broom. THEOBALD. Line 223. Will you go on, hearts] We should read, Will · you go on, HERIS? i. e. Will you go on, master. Heris, an old Scotch word for master. WARBURTON. The merry Host has already saluted them separately by titles of distinction; he therefore probably now addresses them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably-Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a subsequent scene of this play, Farewell, my hearts. Hanmer reads-Mynheers. My brave hearts, or my bold hearts, is a common word of encouragement. A heart of gold expresses the more soft and amiable qualities, the Mores aurei of Horace; and a heart of oak is a frequent encomium of rugged honesty. STEEVENS. Line 232. -my long sword,] Before the introduction of rapiers, the swords in use were of an enormous length, and sometimes raised with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, censures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long sword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON. See a note to the First Part of King Henry IV. STEEVENS. Line 232. -tall -] i. e. Sturdy. ACT II. SCENE II. Line 248. I will retort the sum in equipage.] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in stolen goods. WARBURTON. Line 252. -your coach-fellow, Nym;] Thus the old copies. Coach-fellow has an obvious meaning, but the modern editors read, couch-fellow. The following passage from Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels may justify the reading I have chosen. "-Tis the swaggering coach-horse Anaides, that draws with him "there." STEEVENS. Line 257. -lost the handle of her fan,- -] It should be remembered, that fans, in our author's time, were more costly than they are at present, as well as of a different construction. They consisted of ostrich feathers, or others of equal length and flexibility, which were stuck into handles; the richer sort of which were composed of gold, silver, or ivory of curious workmanship. One of these is mentioned in The Fleire, Com. 1610. "she hath a fan with a short silver handle, about the length "of a barber's syringe." STEEVENS. Line 264. A short knife and a throng;] So Lear, "When cut-purses come not to throngs." WARBURTON. " Greene, in his Life of Ned Browne, 1592, says, "I had no "other fence but my short knife, and a paire of purse-strings." Line 264. pick-pockets. STEEVENS. -Pickt-hatch,] A noted place for thieves and Pict-hatch is frequently mentioned by contemporary writers. So in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour : "From the Bordello it might come as well, "The Spital, or Pict-hatch." STEEVENS. Line 273. red lattice phrases,] Your ale-house conversation. JOHNSON. Red lattice at the doors and windows, were formerly the external denotements of an ale-house. Hence the present chequers. So in A Fine Companion, one of Shackerley Marmion's plays,"A waterman's widow at the sign of the red lattice in South"wark." STEEVENS. —your bold-BEATING oaths, Line 274. read, bold-BEARING oaths, i. e. out-facing. light dance, and is therefore properly enough guage for any hurry or perturbation. -] We should WARBURTON. name of a brisk used in low lanJOHNSON. So Nash, in Pierce Pennyless his Supplication, 1595, says—“ A "merchant's wife jets it as gingerly, as if she were dancing the "canaries:" and our author, in All's well, &c. "Make you dance canary. STEEVENS. Line 323, earls, nay, which is more, pensioners;] This may be illustrated by a passage in Gervase Holles's Life of the First Earl of Clare. Biog. Brit. Art. HOLLES. "I have heard "the earl of Clare say, that when he was pensioner to the queen, " he did not know a worse man of the whole band than himself; " and that all the world knew he had then an inheritance of 40001. a year." TYRWHITT. Line 334. of. Obsolete. Line 337. -wot off:] To wot is to know, to be aware frampold- -] This word I have never seen elsewhere, except in Dr. Hacket's Life of Archbishop Williams, where a frampul man signifies a peevish troublesome fellow. Line 360. JOHNSON. -to send her your little page, of all loves:] Of all loves, is an adjuration only, and signifies no more than if he had said desires you to send him by all means. It is used in Decker's Honest Whore, Part I. 1635—“ con"juring his wife, of all loves, to prepare cheer fitting," &c. STEEVENS. Line 373. nay-word,-] i. e. A watch-word. 381. This PUNK is one of Cupid's carriers:] This punk is one of Cupid's carriers, is a plausible reading, yet absurd on examination. For are not all punks Cupid's carriers? Shakspeare certainly wrote, This PINK is one of Cupid's carriers: And then the sense is proper, and the metaphor, which is all the way taken from the marine, entire. A pink is a vessel of the small craft, employed as a carrier (and so called) for merchants. WARBURTON. Line 382. -up with your fights;] Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the ship to conceal the men from the enemy; and close-fights are bulkheads, or any other shelter that the fabrick of a ship affords. JOHNSON. So in The Christian turn'd Turk, 1612-" lace the netting, and "let down the fights, make ready the shot," &c. STEEVENS. Line 399. -go to; via!] This cant phrase of exultation is common in the old plays. So in Blurt Master Constable: "Via for fate! Fortune, lo! this is all." Line 411. STEEVENS. -not to charge you ;] That is, not with a pur pose of putting you to expence, or being burthensome. JOHNSON. Line 435. 451. -sith -] i. e. Since-obsolete, 494. of it. meed,] i. e. Reward. -instance and argument.] Instance is example. JOHNSON. 495. the ward of her purity,] i. e. The guard Line 532. and I will aggravate his stile: -] Stile is a phrase from the herald's office. Falstaff means, that he will add more titles to those he already enjoys. Line 547. STEEVENS. ―wittol-cuckold!] One who knows of his wife's infidelity, and tamely submits to it. Line 558. -Eleven o'clock -] Ford should rather have said ten o'clock: the time was between ten and eleven; and his impatient suspicion was not likely to stay beyond the time. JOHNSON. ACT II. SCENE III. Line 585. 590. foin,] To foin, is to thrust in fencing. -my heart of elder?- -] It should be remembered, to make this joke relish, that the elder tree has no heart. I suppose this expression was made use of in opposition to the common one, heart of oak. Line 594. STEEVENS. Castilian- -] Sir T. Hanmer reads Cardalian, as used corruptedly for Caur de lion. Castilian and Ethiopian, like Cataian, appear in our author's time to have been cant terms. I have met with them in more than one of the old comedies. STEEVENS. against the hair] i. e. Against the grain. Line 601. Line 619. —muck-water.] In the old copies, mock-water. 648. cry'd game, said I well?] We say, in colloquial language, that such a one is-game-or game to the back. Cry'd game might mean, in those days—a profess'd buck, one who was as well known by the report of his gallantry as he could have been by proclamation. STEEVENS. Whether or not our author meant, or wrote, "cry'd game," or "cry'd aim," it is not in this case material; but it has served to show what the ingenuity of commentators will make of it. Dr. Warburton is for the reading cry'd aim, a term in archery. Many quotations might be adduced to prove both expressions common. ACT III. SCENE I. Line 16. By shallow rivers, &c.] This is part of a beautiful little poem of the author's; which poem, and the answer to it, the reader will not be displeased to find here. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love. |