Fal. Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning, many a time and oft. P. Hen. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou haft paid all there. P. Hen. Yea, and elsewhere, fo far as my coin would ftretch; and, where it would not, I have used my credit. Fal. Yea, and fo ufed it, that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, iweet wag, fhall there be gallows ftanding in England fequence of the circumftances already mentioned, Oldcastle might have been a cant-appellation for Falstaff, for a long time. Hence the name might have been prefixed inadvertently, in fome play-house copy, to one of the speeches in The Second Part of King Henry IV. If the verfes be examined, in which the name of Falstaff occurs, it will be found, that Oldcastle could not have ftood in thofe places. The only answer that can be given to this, is, that Shakspeare newwrote each verfe in which Falstaff's name occurred;-a labour which thofe only who are entirely unacquainted with our author's history and works, can fuppofe him to have undergone.-A paffage in the Epilogue to the Second Part of K. Henry IV. rightly understood, appears to me Strongly to confirm what has been now fuggefted. See the note there. MALONE. 2 And is not a buff jerkin a moft fweet robe of durance?] To understand the propriety of the prince's anfwer, it must be remarked that the sheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff afks, whether bis hoftefs is not a fweet wench, the prince asks in return, whether it will not be a fweet thing to go to prifon by running in debt to this sweet wench. JOHNSON. The following pallage, from the old play of Ram-Alley, may ferve to confirm Dr. Johnson's obfervation: "Look, I have certain goblins in buff jerkins, Again, in the Comedy of Errors, A&IV: [Enter Serjeants. "A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, In Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607, I meet with a paffage which leads me to believe that a robe or fuit of durance was fome kind of lafting ftuff, fuch as we call at prefent, everlafting. A debtor, cajoling the officer who had juft taken him up, fays: Where did't thou buy this buff?" Let me not live but I will give thee a good fuit of durance. Wilt thou take my bond? &c." Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Varlet of velvet, my moccado villain, old heart of durance, my ftrip'd canvas fhoulders, and my perpetuana pander." STEEVENS. when when thou art king? and refolution thus fobb'd as it is, with the rufty curb of old father antick the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. P. Hen. No; thou shalt. Fal. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judges. P. Hen. Thou judgeft falfe already; I mean, thou fhalt have the hanging of the thieves, and fo become a rare hangman. Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in fome fort it jumps with my humour, as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you. P. Hen. For obtaining of fuits? Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits: whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melan choly as a gib cat, or a lugg'd bear. P. Hen. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute 6. Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. 3 I'll be a brave judge.] This thought, like many others, is taken from the old play of Henry V. "Hen. 5. Ned, fo foon as I am king, the first thing I will do fhall be to put my lord chief justice out of office; and thou shalt be my Lord chief justice of England. "Ned. Shall I be lord chief juftice? By gogs wounds, I'll be the bravest lord chief juftice that ever was in England." STEEVENS. 4 For cbtaining of fuits?] Suit, fpoken of one that attends at court, means a petition; used with respect to the hangman, means the cloaths of the offender. JOHNSON. See Vol. II. p. 90. n. 6. The fame quibble occurs in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631: "A poor maiden, mistress, has a fuit to you; and 'tis a good fuit, very good apparel." MALONE. 5 a gib cat,] A gib cat means, I know not why, an old cat. JOHNSON. A gib cat is the common term in Northamptonshire, and all adjacent counties, to exprefs a be cat. PERCY. "As melancholy as a gib'd cat" is a proverb enumerated among others in Ray's Collegion. So in Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, 1653: "Some in mania or melancholy madness have attempted the fame, not without fuccefs, although they have remained somewhat melancholy, like gib’d cats." STEEVENS. Sherwood's English Dictionary at the end of Cotgrave's French one fays, "Gibbe is an old be cat." Aged animals are not fo playful as thofe which are young. TOLLET. 6 ➡or a lover's lute.] Sec Vol. II. p. 254, n. 6. MALONE. P. Hen. P. Hen. What fay'ft thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch? Fal. Thou haft the most unfavoury fimiles*; and art, indeed, the most comparative, rafcallieft,-fweet young prince, But, Hal, I pr'ythee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought: An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, fir; but I mark'd him not: and yet he talk'd very wifely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talk'd wifely, and in the street too. P. Hen. Thou did't well; for wisdom cries out in the freets, and no man regards it. Fal. O, thou haft damnable iteration; and art, indeed, 7- a bare,] A bare may be confidered as melancholy, because she is upon her form always folitary; and, according to the phyfick of the times, the flesh of it was fuppofed to generate melancholy. JOHNSON. The following passage in Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612, may provę the best explanation: -like your melancholy bare, "Feed after midnight." STEEVENS. 8- the melancholy of Moor-ditch ?] It appears from Stowe's Survey, that a broad ditch, called Deep-ditch, formerly parted the hospital from Moor-fields; and what has a more melancholy appearance than stagnant water? STEEVENS. So in Taylor's Pennilesse Pilgrimage, quarto, 1618: "-my body being tired with travel, and my mind attired with moody, muddy, Moore-ditch melancholy. MALONE. Moor-ditch, a part of the ditch furrounding the city of London, between Bishopfgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholesome and impaffable morafs, and confequently not frequented by the citizens, like other fuburbial fields which were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable places of refort. T. WARTON. fimiles ;] Old Copies-fmiles. Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE. the most comparative,] Quick at comparisons, or fruitful in fimiles. JOHNSON. This epithet is ufed again, in Act III. fc. ii. of this play, and apparently in the fame fente: 66- -stand the push "Of every beardlefs vain comparative." And in Love's Labour's Loft, Act V. fc. ult. Rofaline tells Biron that he is a man "Full of comparisons and wounding flouts." STEEVENS. 10, thou baft &c.] In the laft fpeech a text is very indecently and abusively indeed, able to corrupt a faint. Thou haft done much harm upon me, Hal,-God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I muft give over this life, and I will give it over; by the lord, an I do not, I am a villain; I'll be dam n'd for never a king's fon in Christendom. P. Hen. Where fhall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack? Fal. Where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me 2. P. Hen. I fee a good amendment of life in thee; from praying, to purse-taking. Enter POINS, at a distance. Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no fin for a man to labour in his vocation 3. Poins!-Now fhall we know, if Gadhill have fet a match 4. O, if men were abusively applied, to which Falstaff answers, thou haft damnable iteration, or, a wicked trick of repeating and applying holy texts. This, I think, is the meaning. JOHNSON. Iteration is right, for it also fignified fimply citation or recitation. So in Marlowe's Doctor Fauftus, 1631: "Here take this book and perufse it well, "The iterating of thefe lines brings gold." From the context, iterating here appears to mean pronouncing, reciting. Again in Camden's Remaines, 1614: "King Edward I. difliking the iteration of FITZ," &c. MALONE. 2 and baffle me.] See Mr. Tollet's note on K. Richard II. p. 9. STEEVENS. 3- to labour in bis vocation.] This (as Dr. Farmer observes to me) is undoubtedly a fneer on Agremont Radcliffe's Politique Difcourjes, 1578. From the beginning to the end of the book the word vocation occurs in almost every paragraph. Thus chap. 1. "That the vocation of men had been a thing unknown unto philofophers, and others that have treated of Politique Government; of the commoditie that cometh by the knowledge thereof; and the etymologyy and definition of this word, vocation."-Again, chap. 25. "Whether a man being diforderly and nduely entered into any socation, may lawfuly brooke and abide in the fame; and whether the adminiftration in the meane while done by him that is unduely entered, ought to holde, or be of force." STEEV. bave fet a match.] Thus the quarto. So, in B. Jonfon's Bartbolomew Fair, 1614: "Peace, fir, they'll be angry if they hear you were to he fav'd by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the moft omnipotent villain, that ever cry'd, Stand, to a true man. P. Hen. Good morrow, Ned. Poins. Good morrow, fweet Hal.-What fays monfieur Remorfe? What fays fir John Sack-and-Sugar? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee about thy foul, that thou foldeft him on Good-friday laft, for a cup of Madeira, and a cold capon's leg? P. Hen. Sir John ftands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs, he will give the devil his due. Poins. Then art thou damn'd for keeping thy word with the devil. P. Hen. Elfe he had been damn'd for cozening the devil. eaves-dropping, now they are fetting their match." There it feems to mean making an appointment. The folio reads-fet a watch. MALONE. 5 Sir John Sack-and-Sugar.] Much inquiry has been made about Falftaff's fack, and great furprife has been exprefled that he should have mixed fugar with it. As they are here mentioned for the first time in this play, it may not be improper to obferve that it is probable that Falstaff's wine was Sherry, a Spanish wine, originally made at Xeres. He frequently himself calls it Sherris-fack. Nor will his mixing fugar with fack appear extraordinary, when it is known that it was a very common practice in our author's time to put fugar into all wines. "Clownes and vulgar men (fays Fynes Moryfon) only use large drinking of beere or ale,-but gentlemen garrawfe only in wine, with which they mix fugar, which I never obferved in any other place or kingdom to be used for that purpofe. And because the taste of the English is thus delighted with fweetnefs, the wines in taverns (for I fpeak not of merchantes' or gentlemen's cellars) are commonly mixed at the filling thereof, to make them pleasant." ITIN. 1617. P.III p.152. See alfo Mr. Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, Vol IV. p. 308: "Among the orders of the royal household in 1604 is the following: [Mfs. Harl. 293, fol. 162.] And whereas in tymes paft, Spanish wines, called Sacke, were little or no whitt ufed in our courte, we now understanding that it is now used in common drink, &c." Sack was, I believe, often mulled in our author's time. See a note, poft, on the words, "If fack and fugar be a fin, &c.” See alfo Blount's GLOSSOGRAPHY: "Mulled Sack, (Vinum mollitum) becaufe foftened and made mild by burning, and a mixture of fugar. MALONE. Hentzner, p. 88, edit. 1757, speaking of the manners of the English, fays, "in potum copiofi immittunt faccarum," they put a great deal of fugar in their drink. REED. 5 Poins. |