Thus ufed in his play, intitled, Much ado about Nothing, act v. fc. vii. vol. ii. p. 86. Benedick. 66 age his own tomb e'er he dics, "He fhall not live no longer "in monument than the "Bells ring, and the widow 66 weeps. Beatrice. "And how long is "that think you? Benedick. Queftion; Why 66 an hour in clamour, And a quarter in rheum." But I fhould rather imagine, he wrote charm your tongues, as Sir Thomas Hanmer has altered it, as he uses the expreffion, third part of King Henry the Sixth, act v. fc. vi. K. Ed. "Peace, wilful boy, or "I will charm your tongue." And in Othello, Moor of Venice, act. v. fc. viii. p. 397. lago. Miftrefs, go to, charm your tongue. 65 66 66 Emilia. "I will not charm my tongue, I am bound to *fpeak; "My miftrefs lies here mur"dered in her bed." We meet with the like expreffion, and in the fame fenfe, in Ben. Johnfon, Cynthia's Revels, act i. ic, i. Mercurio. "How now my dan"cing braggart, in decimo fexto; "charm your skipping tongue, or "I'llDr. GRAY. - a P. 307. You promised me tawdry lace and a pair of Sweet gloves.] Tawdry lace is thus defcribed in Skinner, by his friend Dr. Henshawe. "Tawdrie lace, "attrigmenta, timbriæ, feu fafciole, emptæ Nundinis Sæ. As to the other prefent, promised by Camillo to Mo Ja, of sweet, or perfumed gloves, they were frequently mentioned by ShakeSpeare, and were very fashionable in the age of Elizabeth, and long afterwards. Thus Autolicus, in the fong juft preceding this paffage, offers to fale, Gloves as fweet as damafk rofes. Stowe's Continuator, Edmund Howes, informs us, that the Exglish could not "make any coft ly wash or perfume, until a"bout the fourteenth or fif"teenth of the queene [Eliza 66 beth], the right honourable "Edward Vere earle of Oxford "came from Italy, and brought "him with gloves, fweet bagges, a perfumed leather jerkin, and other pleasant thinges and that yeare the queene had a payre of perfumed gloves trimmed onlie "with foure tuftes, or rofes, of "cullered filke. The queene "tooke fuch pleasure in thofe 16 66 : gloves, that fhee was pictured "with thofe gloves upon her "hands and for many yeers "after it was called the erle of "Oxfordes perfume." Store's Annals by Hawes, edit. 1614. p. 868. col. z. In the annual accounts of a college in Oxford, anno 1630, is this article, folut. pro fumigandis chirotheis. Mr. WARTON. P.312. Difpute his own eftate.] Does not this allude to the next heir fueing for the estate in cafes of imbecillity, lunacy, &c. Mr. CHAMIER. P. 320. Autolicus. -I have Sold all my trumpery, not a cun terfeit fione, Not a ribbon, glass, pomander.] A pomander was a little ball made of perfumes, and worn in the pocket, or about the neck, to prevent infection in times of plague. In a tract, intitled, Certain neceffary directions, as well for cu ring the plague, as for preventing infection, printed 1636, there are directions for making two forts of pomanders, one for the rich and another for the poor. Dr. GRAY. P. 323. Pedler's excrement, is pedler's beard. P. 324. Therefore they do not give us the lye.] The meaning is, they are paid for lying, therefore they do not give us the lye; they fell it us. P. 330. Where we offend her new.] The Revifal reads, Were we offenders new. Very reafonably. P. 380. By my troth the fail has an excellent breaft.] That is, he has an excellent voice. It was propofed to Theobald to read breath for breaft. Theobald's reafons for retaining breaft, may be corroborated from the following paffage in the statutes given to Stoke College by archbishop Parker 1535: 66 Of which faid que rifters, after their breasts are changed, we will, the moft "apt be helpen with exhibition offorty fhillings, &c." Strype's life of Parker, p. 9. That is, the boys when their voices were changed, or broke, and confequently rendered unferviceable to the choir, were to be removed to the univerfity. Mr. WARTON, P. 384. The steward might in thefe days wear a chain as a badge of office, or mark of dignity; and the method of cleaning a chain, or any gilt plate, is by rubbing it with crums. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 390. For imphatical read emphatical P. 392. The lady of the frachy married the yeoman of the wardrobe.] Stracchio (fee Torriano's and Altieri's Italian Dic-tionaries, under the letters TI K A,) fignifies rags, clouts and tatters. And Torriano, in the grammar at the end of his dictionary, fays, that traccio was pronounced fratchy. So that it is probable, that Shakespeare's meaning was this, that the chief lady of the queen's wardrobe had married a yeoman of the king's, who was vaftly inferior to her. Mr. SMITH. P. 393. --bow now, my nettle of India?] The poet muft here mean a plant called the urtica marina, abounding in the Indian feas. 66 Quæ tacta totius "corporis pruritum quendam ex"citat, unde nomen urticæ est "fortita. Wolfgan. Hift. Animal. "Urtica marina omnes pru"ritum quendam movent, & "acrimoniâ fuâ venerem extinctam & fopitam excitant. Fobnfton's Hift. Nat. de Evang. Aquat. p. 56. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 399. Tray-trip.] I am almolt certain that tray-trip was a game then in fashion, as I have fomewhere read among the commendations of a young nobleman, that he was good at the game of try-trip, or tray-trip. I am not fufficiently acquainted with the characters of the two perfons, to be able to fay, fuppofing the game to be called try trip, which may be the fame as wrestling, whether either of them had courage enough to have given fuch a challenge. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 429. Clown. Nay, I am for all mafters.] i. e. a cloak for all kinds of knavery; taken from the Italian proverb, Tu hai mantillo da ogni acqua. Mr. SMITH, P. 431. Are you not mad, &c.] The reading may ftand, and the fenfe continue fuch as I have given in the note. P. 441. Sir To. Then he's a rogue, and a past measure painim.] Then he's a rogue, after a pal-measure pavin, folio 1632, and probably right, being an allufion to the quick measure of the pavin, a dance in Shakespeare's time. Dr. GRAY, P. 452. Evans. The dozen white lowfes do become an old coat well, &c. Shallow. The luce is the fresh fifb, the falt fifb is an old coat.] Shakespeare by hinting that the arms of the Shallows and the Lucys were the fame, fhews he could not forget his old friend Sir Thomas Lucy, pointing at him under the character of Justice Shallow. But to put the matter out of all doubt, Shakespeare has here given us a diftinguishing mark, whereby it appears, that Sir Thomas was the very perfon reprefented by Shallow. To fet blundering parfon Evans right, Shallow tells him, The luce is not the loafe, but the fresh fish, or pike, the falt fish (indeed) is an old coat. The plain English of which is, if I am not greatly mistaken, The family of the Charlcott's had for their arms a falt fife originally; but when William, fon of Walter de Charlcott, affumed the name of Lucy, in the time of Henry the third, he took the arms of the Lucys. This is not at all improbable, for we find, when Maud Lucy bequeatbed her eftate to the Piercies, it was upon condition, they joined her arms with their own. "And, fays Dugdale, 'tis likely "William de Charlcott took the name of Lucy to oblige his “mother,” and I fay farther, it is as likely he took the arms of the Lucys at the fame time. The luce is the fresh fish (our modern coat of arms); the falt fish (our ancient coat) an old coat. Mr. SMITH. The luce a pike, or jack. "Many a fair partriche had he ❝ in mewe, "And many a breme, and many "a luce in ftewe." Chaucer's Prologues of the Canterbury Tales, 351, 52. P. 453. Shallow. The council hall hear it; it is a riot.] He alludes to a ftatute made in the reignof king Henry the fourth (13th, chap. vii.) by which it is enacted, "That the juftices, three, 66 or two of them, and the fhe"riff, fhall certifie before the "king, and his counfelle, ali "the deeds and circumftances. 66 thereof, thereof, (namely, of the riot) "which certification fhould be of "the like force as the prefent"ment of twelve: upon which "certificate, the trefpaffers and "offenders, fhall be put to an"fwer, and they, which be found guilty, fhall be punish"ed according to the difcretion "of the king and counfelle." Dr. GRAY. P. 454. Slender. How does your fallow greyhound? I heard Say he was outrun on Cotfale.] Cotswold, a village in Worcesterfhire, or Warwickshire, was famous for rural exercifes and fports of all forts. Falstaff, or Shallow, in another place, talks of a ftout fellow, "Cotswold man, i. e. one who was a native of this very place, fo famous for tryals "of strength, activity, &c. and "confequently, a robust athletic "perfon." I have feen a poem, or rather a collection of poems, which, I think, is called, The Corfwold mufe, containing a defcription of thefe games. 66 Ibid. Piftol. How now Mephiftophilus?] This is the name of a fpirit, or familiar, in the. old story book of Sir John Fauftus, or John Fauft. Mr. WARTON. P. 463. Let me fee thee froth and live.] This paffage has paffed through all the editions without fufpicion of being corrupted; but the reading of the old quartos of 1602, and 1619, Let me fee the froth and lyme, I take to be the true one. The host calls for an immediate fpecimen of Bardolph's abilities, as a tapfter; and frothing beer and lim ing fack were tricks in practice in Shakespeare's time; the one was done by putting foap into the bottom of the tankard, when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the fack (i. e. fherry) to make it fparkle in the glass. Froth and live is fenfe; but a little forced; and to make it fo, we must suppose the host could guefs, by his fkill in doing the former, how he would fucceed in the world. Falstaff himself complains of limed fack. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 464. The anchor is deep.] Nym, in this place, does not mean that Mrs. Ford refembles a fhip's anchor, but a cafk called an anchor, which smugglers make ufe of to this day, for the convenience of carrying their brandy on horfes; and fays, the anchor is deep, in anfwer to Falstaff's expreffion, that he Spies entertainment in her; for what greater entertainment could Nym have an idea of, than was to be found in a deep anchor, provided the liquor it contained was to his tafte. The word is generally spelt anchor. Chambers fays it is a measure chiefly used at Amfterdam, and fpells it from the Dutch word anker. The remarks the two characters make on Falfiaff's report, are the most proper that could be put into their mouths. Piftol, who affects to borrow phrafes from literature, fays, he hath ftudied her will, and translated her out of honefly into English. Nym, whofe turn it is to speak next, and who loved hard drinking better better than any thing else, borrows an allufion from it, and fays, the anchor is deep. Mr. STEEVENS. I do not think this right. P. 467.-Revolt of mien.] This quaint expreffion, in the mouth of Nym, feems to imply no more than one of the effects he has juft afcribed to jealoufy. He fays, he will poffefs him with yef lowness, and furely revolt of mien, or change of countenance, is one of the firft fymptoms of being affected by that paffion. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 468. Simple. He hath but a little wee face.] Wee in the Northern dialect, fignifies very little. The quene aftonyft ane "At the first ficht, behalding P. 468. And vetch me in my clofet un boitier verd.] Boitier, in French, fignifies a cafe of furgeon's inftruments. Dr. GRAY. P. 484. Falstaff. (To Nym and Piftol.) Go, go, a fhort knife and a thong to your manor of Picthatch.] Part of the employment given by Drayton, in the Mooncalf, to the Baboon, feems the fame with this recommended by Falstaff. He like a gipsy oftentimes would go, All kinds of gibberish he had Would he the people tricks at faft and loose. Theobald has throng instead of thong. The latter feems right. Mr. LANGTON. P. 504. We have linger'd, &c.] The expreffion of having linger'd, in this place, feems to mean no more than that Slender has been backward in his own addreffes, as indeed he may be allowed to have been, as he never ventured further in his first interview, than to recommend himself obliquely to his mistress; and he had declared before, that if he married her, it would be at the request of Shallow, not promifing himself any great degree of happiness, from the part his own love would have in the affair. Shallow fays, We have, fpeaking in his own person, as well as for his friend. Mr. STEEVENS. P. 526. In the note for lanes read lunes. P. 547. Falftaff. Divide me like a bribe-buck, each a haunch, I will keep my fides for myself, my fhoulders for the fellow of this walk.] To the keeper the shoulders and humbles belonging as a perquifite. Dr. GRAY. Mr. Reynolds is of opinion that by the fellow of this walk is meant Herne the hunter. P. 554. In the note, for intelligible, read unintelligible. NOTES |