66 Gnawing, and faft the ar"mourers alfo "With file and hammer riding "to and fro, &c. Mr. WARTON. correction. P. 396. -chrifom child.] The old quarto has it crifomb'd child. The chryfom was no more than the white cloth put on the new baptifed child. See Johnson's Canons of Ecclef. Law, 1720. And not a cloth anointed with holy unguent, as described under that article in Johnfon's Dictionary, that of the chrifm being a feparate operation, and was itself no more than a compofition of oil and balfam bleffed by the bishop. I have fomewhere (but cannot recollect where) met with this farther account of it; that the chryfom was allow'd to be carried out of the church, to enwrap thofe children which were in too weak a condition to be borne thither, the chryfom being fuppofed to make every place holy. Thiscuftom would rather ftrengthen the allufion to the weak condition of Faiftaff. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 396. Quickly. For his nofe was as sharp as a pen on a table of green fields,] Here our editors "pikes fo."-In Heywood's comedy, Euftace, the grocer's prentice, is introduced courting the daughter of the King of France: and, in the frontispiece, the four prentices are reprefented in armoor, tilting with javelins. Immediately before the last quoted fpeeches, we have the following inftances of allufion. "Cit. Let "the Sophy of Perfia come, and "chriften him a child. Boy, Be❝lieve me, fir, that will not do "fo well; 'tis ftale: it has been "before at the Red Bull." A circumftance in Heywood's comedy; which, as has been already fpecified, was acted at the Red Bull. Beaumont and Fletcher's play is pure burlesque. Heywood's is a mixture of the droll and ferious, and was evidently intended to ridicule the reigning fashion of reading romances. Mr. WARTON. P.304. Ledon by bloody youth--] Bloody youth, with which I puz zled myself in the note, is only fanguine youth, or youth full of blood, and of those paffions which blood is fuppofed to produce and incite or nourish. P. 332. And from the tents, The armourers accomplishing the knights, With bufy hammers closing_ri vets up.] See the preparation for the battle between Palamon and Arcite in Chaucer. "And on the morrow when "day gan fpring Of horse and harneis, noise * all about, P. 347. In the note, I had confounded the character of Silence with that of Slender, and drawn an inference from a false fuppofition. Dele the whole note. P. 383. But till the king come forth, and not till then,] The Canons of Criticism read, -And but till then; And the Revifal approves the "The foaming fteyds on the not knowing what to make of a goldin bridyl table of green fields, Mr. Pope Kk 2 and and Mr. Warburton have caft it But had they been appriz'd that table in our author, fignifies a pocket-book, I believe they would have retained it, with the following alteration. "For his nofe was as sharp as a pen upon a table of green "fells." On table-books, filver or fteelpens, very sharp-pointed, were formerly, and are still fixed either to the backs or covers. Mother Quickly compares Faltaff's nofe (which in dying perfons grow thin and sharp) to one of those pens, very properly, and fhe meant probably to have faid, on a table-book with a fhagreencover, or hagreen-table, but, in her ufual blundering way, the calls it a table of green fells, or a table covered with green skin, which the blundering tranfcriber turn'd into green-fields; and our editors have turned the prettiest blunder in Shakespeare, quite out of doors. Mr. SMITH. P.398. Pitch and pay-] Seems to be an expreffion taken from the language used to porters, who are ordered to throw down their burdens before they are paid for carrying them. This, I believe, is the first instance of worldly prudence, to be found in the character of Piftol. The caution he leaves behind him, was a very proper one to Mrs. Quickly, who had fuffered before, by letting Falstaff run in her debt. Truft none, immediately follows it, which fufficiently explains the expreffion, which is, to this days a P. 398. Clear thy crystals-] May, I think, better mean, in this place, wash thy glasses. P. 420. Pift. For tune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him, For he hath ftolen a pax, and hang'd muft be.] 'Tis pax in folios 1623 and 1632; but altered to pix by Mr. Theobald and Sir Thomas Hanmer. But they fignified the fame thing. See Pax at Mafs, Minfhew's Guide into the Tongues. Pix, or pax, was a little box, in which were kept the confecrated wafers. P. 426. For ches les narines, read, avec les narines. P. 428. For chein, read chien. P. 442. In the note, for pafty, read puffy. P. 445. The Revifal reads, Dau. Le ciel-coufin Orleans, This is well conjectured, nor does the paffage deserve that more should be done, yet I know not whether it might not ftand thus. Dau. Voyez les eaux et la terre. Orleans. L'air et le feu-Bien puis? Dau. Le ciel. P. 453. Thou dieft on point of fox.] Fox is no more than an old cant word for a fword. "I made my father's old fex "fly about his ears." Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaf Mr. STEEVENS. ter. P. 454. For I will fetch thy rym out of thy throat In drops of crimson blood-] Rym, I am told, is a part in the throat. Was a monofyllable wanted in the room of it, I would offer rheum, and then the expreffion, in Piftel diction, would mean no more than, I will make thee Spit blood. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 454French Soldier. Et il impoffible d' efchapper la force de ton bras. Piftol. Brafs, cur?] Either Shakespeare had very little knowledge in the French language, or his over-fondness for punning led him in this place, contrary to his judgment, into an error. Almost any one knows that the French word bras is pronounced brau; and what refemblance of found does this bear to brass, that Piftol fhould reply, Brafs, cur? The joke may appear to a reader, but would fcarce be difcovered in the performance of the play. Mr. HAWKINS. If the pronounciation of the French language be not changed fince Shakespeare's time, which is not unlikely, it may be fuf- ➡his payment into overgrown with hair.] The incongruity of the comparison I continue to cenfure, but the expreffion, wildly overgrown with bair, is juftifiable; the hair may be wild, though the prisoner be confined. P. 505. I'll canvas thee in the broad cardinal's hat.] This means, I believe, I'll tumble thee into thy great hat, and shake thee as bran and meal are baken in a fieve. P. 508. In yonder tower, to overpeer the city.] That is, the English went, not through a fecret grate, but went to everpeer the city through a Jecret grate which is in yonder tower. I did not know till of late that this paf-, fage had been thought difficult. NOTES to the FIFTH VOLUME. P. 4. With you mine alder- The vulgar name for this liquor, liefeft fovereign.] liefest, most dear. Alder Aldirlevift in Chaucer. "Mine aldirlevift lorde, and "brothir dere." Troilus and Creffeide, lib. iii. 240. Dr. GRAY. P. 39. A cup of charneco.] was charingo. I meet with it in Kk 3 "alite, "And fpeke of Palamon, and "of Arcite, "The "The day approacheth of ther 66 you told," Chaucer. 1 "Nor a battayle mayntaine, P. 107. Ay, Clifford, bed- the king.] The word bedlam not used in the reign of king Henry VI. nor was Bethlehem hofpital (vulgarly called Bedlam) converted into a house, or hofpital, for lunatics, till the reign of king Henry VIII. who gave it to the city of London for that purpose. Dr. GRAY. P. 107. -Bears.] The Ne vils, earls of Waravick, had a bear and ragged staff for their cognifance; but the Talbots, who were formerly earls of Salisbury, had a lion, and the prefent earl of Telbot, a defcendant of that family, has the fame. Collins's Peerage. Mr. HAWKINS. P. 128. In the note, for tier, read tirer. P. 143. Is by the fern lord Clifford done to death.] Done to death, for killed, was a common expreffion long before Shakespeare's time. P. 151. To make this shameless caliat know her feif.] Shakefeare ufes the word callat likewife in the Winter's Tale, a&t ii. fc. iii. Leonatus of Paulina. "A cal"lat "Of boundless tongue, who Callat, a lewd woman, a drab, perhaps fo called from the French calote, which was a fort of headdrefs, worn by country girls. See Glary to Urry's Chaucer. "A cold old knave cuckolde 46 menyng." Chaucer's Prologue to the Remedy of Love, 308. So Skelton, in his Elinour Ramming. Works, p. 133. "Then Elinour" said, ye cal** lettes, "I fhall break your palettes.” And again, p. 136. "She was a cumiye callet." Gammar. "Vengeance on "thofe callets, whofe confcience "is fo large." Gammar Gurton's Needle, act iii. fc. iii. Old Plays, published 1744, vol. i. p. 154. "A cart for a callet." Id. ib. Why the callet you told me "of here, "I have tane difguis'd." Ben Johnson's Volpene, act iv. fc. iii. Dr. GRAY. P. 204. Meed.] This word fignifies merit, both as a verb and a fubftantive; that it is ufed as a verb, is clear from the following foolish couplet, which I re"And feide, that if ye done member to have read. Thus Chau er; * us both te dien." Deem if I me d invent, and it fuggefts a new idea, and fuch a one as the text feems to warrant. Mr. HAWKINS. P. 335. Whom now two ten der bedfellows.] Read rather, too tender. REVISAL. P. 356. Sound drums and trum pets, boldly, chearfully, God, and St. George, &c.] St. George was the common cry of the English foldiers, when they charged the enemy. The author of the old Arte of Warre, cited above, printed in the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, formally enjoins the ufe of this cry among his military laws. 66 66 66 66 84. Item, that all fouldiers "entring into battaile, affault, "fkirmish, or other faction of armes, fhall have for their common cry and word, St. George, St. George, forward, or upon them, St. George, "whereby the fouldier is much "comforted, and the enemy "difmaid by calling to minde "the antient valour of England, "which with that name has fo "often been victorious: and "therefore, he that upon any 'finifer zile, fhall maliciously "omit fo fortunate a name, shall "be feverely punished for his ob"ftinate erroneous heart, and perverfe mind." P. 47. 36 Mr. WARTON. P. 357. This and St. George A fpecimen of verfes that read Q. Marg. Peace, mafter mar- is fearce current.] ShakeSpeare may either allude to the late creation of the marquis of Dorfet, or to the inftitution of the title of marquis here in England, as a special dignity; which was no older than Richard II. Robert Vere, earl of Oxford, was the first, who, as a diftinct dignity, received the title of marquis, ft December, anno nono Ricardi Secundi. See Ample's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter, p. 456. P. 320. Because that like a jack thou keep ft the froke between thy begging and my meditation.] An image like those at St. Dunftan's church in Fleet-ftreet, and at the market-houses of several towns in this kingdom, was ufually called a jack of the clockhoufe. See Cowley's Difcourfe on the Government of Oliver Cromwel. Richard resembles Buckingham to one of these automatons, and bids him not fufpend the ftroke on the clock bell, but strike, that the hour may be past, and himfelf be at liberty to purfue his meditations. Mr. HAWKINS. P. 324. Pufellow is a word to hoo', is to help;] As I conceive yet in ufe. not over and above. Mr. HAWKINS. P. 331. demife.] I think it fhould be devife; but not in the fenfe you fuppofe. Devife, as a mode of conveyance, is appropriated to wills, but take it as a fynomine, to imagine, contrive, or Mr. HAWKINS. P. 368. The life and death of king Richard the Third.] Te oldest known edition of this tragedy is printed for Andrew Wife, 1597: but Harrington, in his KK 4 Apan |
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