Enter another Carrier.

2. Car. Peafe and beans are as dank 2 here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots 3: this house is turn'd upfide down, fince Robin oftler dy'd. 1. Car. Poor fellow! never joy'd fince the price of oats rofe; it was the death of him.

2. Car. I think, this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas : I am ftung like a tench.

1. Car. Like a tench? by the mafs, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been fince the firft cock.

2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jorden, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach ".

2 as dank] i. e. wet, rotten. PoPE.

3

1 Car.

bots] are worms in the ftomach of a horfe. JOHNSON. A bots light upon you, is an imprecation frequently repeated in the anonymous play of K. Henry V. as well as in many other old pieces. STEEVENS.

I am ftung like a tench.] Why like a tench? I know not, unless the fimilitude confifts in the fpots of the tench, and thofe made by the bite of vermin. MALONE.

5 breeds fleas, like a loach.] The loach is a very small fish, but fo exceedingly prolifick that it is feldom found without fpawn in it; and it was formerly a practice of the young gallants to fwallow loaches in wine, because they were confidered as invigorating, and as apt to communicate their prolifick quality. The carrier therefore means to fay that your chamber-lie breeds fleas as fast as a loach" breeds, not fleas, but loaches.

In As you like it, Jaques fays that he can fuck melancholy out of a fong, as a weafel fucks eggs;" but he does not mean that a weafel fucks eggs "out of a fong."-And in Troilus and Creffida, where Neftor fays that Therfites is

"A flave whofe gall coins flanders like a mint,"

he means, that his gall coined flanders as faft as a mint coins money. MASON.

I entirely agree with Mr. Mason in his explanation of this paffage, and, before I had feen his COMMENTS, had in the fame manner interpreted a paffage in As you like it. See Vol. III. p. 168, n. 2. One principal fource of errour in the interpretation of many paffages in our author's plays has been the fuppofing that his fimiles were intended to correfpond exactly on both fides.

The author, however, of Remarks &c. on the text and notes of the L 2

laft

1. Car. What, oftler! come away, and be hang'd,

come away.

2. Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two razes of ginger, to be deliver'd as far as Charing-crofs.

1. Car. 'Odfbody! the turkies in my pannier are quite ftarved'.-What, oftler!-A plague on thee! haft thou never an eye in thy head? canit not hear? An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.-Come, and be hang'd:-Haft no faith in thee?

Enter GADS-HILL.

Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock ? 1. Car. I think it be two o'clock 9.

laft edition of Shakspeare, very gravely affures Mr. Steevens," that in the course of his extensive researches he may one day find that a loach either bas or was formerly fuppofed to have, when dead, the quality of producing fleas in abundance!!" MALONE.

2 and two razes of ginger,] A race of ginger fignifies no more than a fingle root of it; but a raze is the Indian term for a bale of it. THEOBALD.

-and two razes of ginger,] So, in the old anonymous play of Henry V: "he hath taken the great raze of ginger, that bouncing Befs, &c. was to have had." A dainty race of ginger is mentioned in Ben Jonfon's mafque of the Gipfies Metamorphofed. STEEVENS.

Dr. Grew fpeaks, in the Philofophical Tranfa&tions, of a fingle root of ginger weighing fourteen ounces, as uncommonly large. I doubt therefore concerning the truth of Mr. Warner's affertion, (in fupport of which he quotes Sir Hans Sloane's Introduction to his Hift. of Jamaica, that "a fingle root or race of ginger, were it brought home entire, as it might formerly have been, and not in fmall pieces, as at prefent, would have been fufficient to load a pack-horfe." Theobald's explanation feems equally difputable. MALONE.

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-the turkies in my pannier are quite ftarved.] Here is a flight anachronifm. Turkies were not brought into England till the time of King Henry VIII. MALONE.

-Gads-bill.] This thief receives his title from a place on the Kentish road, where many robberies have been committed. So, in the anonymous play of the Famous Victories of Henry V: "And I know thee for a taking fellow upon Gads-bill in Kent." In the year 1558 a ballad entitled "The Robery at Ga is-hill," was entered on the books of the Stationers' company. STEEVENS.

I think it be two o'clock.] The carrier, who fufpe&ted Gads-hill, ftrives to mislead him as to the hour; becaufe the firft obfervation made in this fcene is, that it was four o'clock.

STEEVENS.

Gads.

Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lantern, to fee my gelding in the table.

1. Car.

Nay, foft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i'faith.

Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thine.

2. Car. Ay, when, canft tell?-Lend me thy lantern, quoth-a-marry, I'll fee thee hang'd first.

Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London ?

2. Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge. [Exeunt Carriers.

Gads. What, ho! chamberlain !

Cham. [within.] At hand, quoth pick-purfe'.

Gads. That's even as fair as-at hand, quoth the chamberlain for thou varieft no more from picking of purfes, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'ft the plot how.

Enter Chamberlain.

Cham. Good morrow, mafter Gads-hill. It holds current, that I told you yefternight: There's a franklin

At band, quoth pick-purfe.] This is a proverbial expreffion often ufed by Green, Nafhe, and other writers of the time, in whofe works the cant of low converfation is preferved. STEEVENS.

This proverbial faying probably arofe from the pick-purfe always feifing upon the prey neareft to him: his maxim being that of Pope's man of gallantry,-"The thing at band is of all things the beft." MALONE. *That's even as fair as-at band, quoth the chamberlain : &c.] So, in the Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratfy, 1605: "he dealt with the chamberlaine of the houfe to learn which way they rode in the morning, which the chamberlaine performed accordingly, and that with great care and diligence, for he knew he should partake of their fortunes, if he fped." STEEVENS.

2 - franklin-] is a little gentleman. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon has faid more accurately, in a note on Cymbeline, that a franklin is a freebolder. MALONE.

"Fortescue," fays the editor of the Canterbury Tales, Vol. IV. p. 202, "(de L. L. Ang. c. xxix.) defcribes a franklain to be pater familias-magnis ditatus poffeffionibus. He is claffed with (but after) the miles and armiger, and is diftinguished from the libere tenentes and valesti, though, as it should feem, the only diftinction between him and other freeholders confiited in the largenefs of his eftate." REED.

in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at fupper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter 3: They will away pretently.

Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with faint Nicholas' clerks, I'll give thee this neck.

Cham. No, I'll none of it: Ipry'thee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou worship'ft faint Nicholas as truly as a man of falfhood may.

Gads. What talk'ft thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows: for, if I hang, old fir John hangs with me; and, thou know'ft, he's no ftarveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dream'ft not of, the which, for sport fake, are content to do the profeffion fome grace; that would, if matters fhould be look'd into, for their own credit fake, make all whole. I am join'd with no foot land-rakers, no long

3

and call for eggs and butter:] It appears from the Household Book of the Fifth Earl of Northumberland, that butter'd eggs was the ufual breakfast of my lord and lady, during the feafon of Lent. STEEV. 4-faint Nicholas' clerks,-] St. Nicholas was the patron faint of fcholars; and Nicholas, or Old Nick, is a cant name for the devil. Hence he equivocally calls robbers, St. Nicholas' clerks. WARBURTON.

So in Rowley's Match at Midnight, 1633: "I think yonder come prancing down the hills from Kingston, a couple of Saint Nicholas's clerks." Again in the Hollander, a comedy by Glapthorne, 1640 :—“ to wit, dicer's books, and St. Nicholas's clerks." STEEVENS.

See Vol. I. p. 153, n. 8. where an account is given of the origin of this expreffion as applied to scholars. Mr. Whalley thinks it took its rife from the parish clerks of London, who were incorporated into a fraternity or guild, with St. Nicholas for their patron. Dr. W's account of the application of the term to robbers, is undoubted'y juft. MALONE.

5-other Trojans] So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "Hector was but a Trojan in refpect of this." Trojan in both these inftances had a cant fignification, and perhaps was only a more creditable term for a thief. So again, in Love's Labour's Loft: "unless you play the boneft Trojan, the poor wench is caft away." STEEVENS.

6 I am j'in'd with no foot land-rakers, &c.] That is, with no padders, no wanderers on foot. No long-ftaff. fix-penny Arikers, no fellows that infeft the road with long ftaffs and knock men down for fix-pence. None of thefe mad, muftachio, purple-bued malt-worms,-none of those whofe faces are red with drinking ale. JOHNSON.

staff,

ftaff, fix-penny ftrikers7; none of these mad, muftachio, purple-hued malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers; fuch as can

hold

7-fix-penny ftrikers;] A ftriker had fome cant fignification with which at prefent we are not exactly acquainted. It is ufed in feveral of the old plays. So in an old Mf. play entitled A fecond Maiden's Tragedy: one that robs the mind,

"Twenty times worse than any highway-ftriker." STEEVENS. In Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592, under the table of Cant Expreffions used by Thieves," the cutting a pocket or picking a purfe,” is called ftriking. COLLINS.

9

See alfo the London Prodigal, 1605: "Nay, now I have had fuch a fortunate beginning, I'll not let a fixpenny-purfe escape me." MALONE. — malt-worms :] This cant term for a tippler I find in The life and death of Jack Strawe, 1593, and in Gammer Gurton's Needle. STEEV. •burgomafters, and great oneyers;] The reading which I have fubftituted [moneyers] I owe to the friendship of the ingenious Nicholas Hardinge Efq. A moneyer is an officer of the mint, who makes coin, and delivers out the king's money. Moneyers are alfo taken for bankers, or thofe that make it their trade to turn and return money. Either of thefe acceptations will admirably fquare with our author's context. THEOBALD.

This is a very acute and judicious attempt at emendation, and is not undeservedly adopted by Dr. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads great owners, not without equal or greater likelihood of truth. I know not however whether any change is neceffary: Gads-hill tells the Chamberlain that he is joined with no mean wretches, but with bur gomafters and great ones, or, as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great oneyers, or great one-éers, as we lay, privateer, auctioneer, circuiteer. This is, I fancy, the whole of the matter. JOHNSON. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote onyers, that is, publick accountants; men poffeffed of large fums of money belonging to the state. It is the course of the Court of Exchequer, when the theriff makes up his accounts for iffues, amerciaments, and mefne profits, to fet upon his head o. ni. which denotes oneratur, nifi babeat fufficientem exonerationem: he thereupon becomes the king's debtor, and the parties peravaile (as they are termed in law) for whom he anfwers, become his debtors, and are difcharged as with refpect to the king.

To fettle accounts in this manner, is still called in the Exchequer, to ny; and from hence Shakspeare perhaps formed the word onyers. The Chamberlain had a little before mentioned, among the travelders whom he thought worth plundering, an officer of the Exchequer, "a kind of auditor, one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what." This emendation may derive fome fupport from what Gads-hill fays in the next fcene: "There's money of the king's