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 WARBURTΟΝ. "cut-purses come not to throngs." Greene, in his Life of Ned Browne, 1592, says, "I had no "other fence but my short knife, and a paire of purse-strings." STEEVENS. Line 264. Pickt-hatch,] A noted place for thieves and pick-pockets. THEOBALD. 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, 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. Line 274. your bold-BEATING oaths, -) We should read, bold-BEARING oaths, i. e. out-facing. WARBURTON. Line 307.canaries, ) This is the name of a brisk light dance, and is therefore properly enough used in low language for any hurry or perturbation. JOHNSON. So Nash, in Pierce Pennyless his Supplication, 1595, says-" А " 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 4000l. " a year." TYRWHITT. Line 334.wot off:) To wot is to know, to be aware of. Obsolete. Line 337. 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. JOHNSON. Line 360. 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. Line 373. STEEVENS. -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 purpose of putting you to expence, or being burthensome. Line 435. sith] i. e. Since-obsolete. 451.meed,] i. e. Reward. JOHNSON. 494. -instance and argument.] Instance is example. JOHNSON. -495. the ward of her purity,] i. e. The guard of it. Line 532. and I will aggravate his stile:] Stile is a phrase from the herald's office. Falstaff means, that he will add STEEVENS. more titles to those he already enjoys. Line 547. 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. foin, ] To foin, is to thrust in fencing. 590.-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. STEEVENS. Line 594. Castilian ) Sir T. Hanmer reads Cardalian, as used corruptedly for Cœur de lion. Castilian and Ethiopian, like Cataian, appear in our author's JOHNSON. time to have been cant terms. I have met with them in more than one of the old comedies. Line 601. Line 619. STEEVENS. against the hair] i. e. Against the grain. 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. A belt of straw, and ivy buds, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. If all the world and love were young, * The conclusion of this and the following poem have furnished Milton with the hint for the last lines both of his Allegro and Penseroso. STEEVENS. |