your part, Bull-calf,-grow till you come unto it; I will none of you.

SHAL. Sir John, fir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you ferv'd with the best.

FAL. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes," the ftature, bulk, and big affemblance of a man!* Give me the spirit, master Shallow.-Here's Wart; -you see what a ragged appearance it is: he fhall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of

This fhould furely be: "For you, Mouldy, you have ftay'd at home," &c. Falstaff has before a fimilar allufion, "'Tis the more time thou wert ufed."

There is some miftake in the number of recruits: Shallow fays, that Falstaff should have four there, but he appears to get but three: Wart, Shadow, and Feeble." FARMER.

See p. 133, n. 8. I believe, " ftay at home till you are paft fervice," is right; the fubfequent part of the fentence being like wife imperative;" and, for your part, Bull-calf, grow till you come unto it." MALONE.

Perhaps this paffage fhould be read and pointed thus: For you, Mouldy, ftay at home ftill; you are paft service:

TYRWHITT.

I have admitted Mr. Tyrwhitt's amendment, as it is the leaft violent of the two propofed, being effected by a flight change in punctuation, and the fupplement of a fingle letter. STEEVENS.

7the thewes,] i. e. the mufcular ftrength or appearance of manhood. So again:

"For nature crefcent, does not grow alone

"In theres and bulk."

In ancient writers this term ufually implies manners, or behaviour only. Spenfer often employs it; and I find it likewise in Gafcoigne's Glafs of Government, 1575:

"And honour'd more than bees of better theres." Shakspeare is perhaps fingular in his application of it to the perfections of the body. STEEVENS.

It is fo applied in The Marriage of Sir Gawaine, printed in The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. III:

Hee's twice the fize of common men,

"Wi' thewes and finewes stronge." HOLT WHITE.

8 affemblance of a man!] Thus the old copies. The modern editors read-affemblage, STEEVENS,

a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, fwifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket. And this fame half-faced fellow, Shadow,-give me this man; he prefents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how fwiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O,give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.Put me a caliver' into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

BARD. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.

fwifter than he that gibbets-on the breaver's bucket.] Swifter than he that carries beer from the vat to the barrel, in buckets hung upon a gibbet or beam croffing his fhoulders.

JOHNSON.

I do not think Johnfon's explanation of this paffage juft.-The carrying beer from the vat to the barrel, muft be a matter that requires more labour than fwiftnefs. Falstaff seems to mean, "fwifter than he that puts the buckets on the gibbet;" for as the buckets at each end of the gibbet must be put on at the fame inftant, it neceffarily requires a quick motion. M. MASON.

2

- foeman-] This is an obfolete term for an enemy in war. STEEVENS.

So, in Selimus, 1594:

"For he that never faw his foeman's face,

"But alwaies flept upon a ladies lap" &c. HENDERSON. 3 caliver-] A hand-gun. JOHNSON.

So, in The Mafque of Flowers, 1613: "The ferjeant of Kawasha carried on his fhoulders a great tobacco-pipe as big as a caliver."

It is fingular that Shakspeare, who has fo often derived his fources of merriment from recent cuftoms or fashionable follies, fhould not once have mentioned tobacco, though at a time when all his contemporaries were active in its praife or its condemnation.

It is equally remarkable (as Dr. Farmer obferves to me) that he has written no lines on the death of any poetical friend, nor commendatory verses on any living author, which was the conftant practice of Jonfon, Fletcher, &c. Perhaps the fingular modefty of Shakspeare hindered him from attempting to decide on the merits of others, while his liberal turn of mind forbade him to exprefs fuch grofs and indifcriminate praifes as too often difgrace the names of many of his contemporaries. Our author, indeed, feems to condemn this practice, through a fentiment given to

FAL. Come, manage me your caliver. So:very well:-go to:-very good:-exceeding good. -O, give me always a little, lean, old, chapp'd, bald fhot.-Well faid, i'faith Wart; thou'rt a good fcab: hold, there's a tefter for thee.

SHAL. He is not his craft's-master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-end green,' (when

Rofaline in Love's Labour's Loft, where, fpeaking of the Princess, The fays

"My lady, (to the manner of these days)

"In courtefy, gives undeferving praife." STEEVENS.

Mr. Grofe, in A Treatise on ancient Armour and Weapons, 4to. p. 67, fays: "That a caliver was lefs and lighter than a mufquet, as is evident from its being fired without a reft. This is shown in a Military Treatife, containing the Exercife of the Musket, Caliver, and Pike, with figures finely engraved by J. de Gheyn." And in a note in loc. Mr. Grofe alfo obferves, That this is confirmed by Shakspeare, where Falstaff reviewing his recruits, fays of Wart, a poor, weak, underfized fellow, put me a caliver into Wart's hands,'-meaning that although Wart is unfit for a mufquetteer, yet if armed with a lighter piece he may do good service.'

VAILLANT.

-bald fhot.] Shot is used for shooter, one who is to fight by fhooting. JOHNSON.

So, in The Exercife of armes for Calivres, Muskettes, and Pykes, 1619: "First of all is in this figure fhowed to every hot how he shall stand and marche, and cary his caliver," &c. With this inftance I was furnished by Dr. Farmer. We ftill fay of a skilful fportfman or game-keeper, that he is a good foot. STEEVENS.

Again, in Stowe's Annales, 1631:" men with armour, enfignes, drums, fifes, and other furniture for the wars, the greater part whereof were bot, the other were pikes and halberts, in faire corflets." MALONE.

5 -Mile-end green,] We learn from Stowe's Chronicle, (edit. 1615, p. 702,) that in the year 1585, 4000 citizens were trained and exercifed at Mile-end. It appears, however, that the pupils of this military school were but flightly thought of; for in Barnabie Riche's Souldiers Wibe to Britons Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604, is the following paffage: " Skill. God bleffe me, my countrey, and frendes, from his direction that hath no better experience than what hee hath atteyned unto at the fetching

I lay at Clement's inn,-I was then fir Dagonet in Arthur's fhow,) there was a little quiver fellow,

home of a Maye-pole, at a Midfomer fighte, or from a trayning at Mile-end-greene." STEEVENS.

From the fame Chronicle, p. 789, edit. 1631, it appears that "thirty thoufand citizens-bered on the 27th of Auguft 1599, on the Miles-end, where they trained all that day, and other dayes, under their captaines, (alfo citizens,) until the 4th of September." MALONE.

"I remember at Mile-end green, when I lay at Clement's-inn,] "When I lay," here fignifies, when I lodged or lived. So Leland: "An old manor place where in tymes pafte fum of the Moulbrays lay for a ftarte;" ́i. e. lived for a time, or fometimes. Itin. Vol. I. fol. 119. T. WARTON.

Again, in Marfton's What you Will, a comedy, 1607:
Survey'd with wonder by me, when I lay

"Factor in London." MALONE.

7 I was then fir Dagonet in Arthur's fhow,] The ftory of Sir Dagonet is to be found in La Morte d'Arthure, an old romance much celebrated in our author's time, or a little before it. "When papiftry (fays Afcham, in his Schoolmafter,) as a standing pool, overflowed all England, few books were read in our tongue faving certaine books of chivalry, as they faid, for paftime and pleasure; which books, as fome fay, were made in monafteries by idle monks. As one for example, La Mort d'Arthure." In this romance Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's fool. Shak fpeare would not have shown his juftice capable of representing any higher character. JOHNSON.

Sir Dagonet is king Arthur's 'fquire; but does he mean that he acted Sir Dagonet at Mile-end Green, or at Clement's-inn? By the application of a parenthefis only, the paffage will be cleared from ambiguity, and the fenfe I would affign, will appear to be juft. I remember at Mile-end Green (when I lay at Clement's-inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's fhow) there was, &c. That is: "I remember when I was a very young man at Clement's-inn, and not fit to act any higher part than Sir Dagonet in the interludes which we used to play in the fociety, that among the foldiers who were exercifed at Mile-end Green, there was," &c. The performance of this part of fir Dagonet was another of Shallow's feats at Clement's inn, on which he delights to expatiate; a circumftance in the mean time, quite foreign to the purpose of what he is faying, but introduced, on that account, to heighten the ridicule of his character. Juft as he had told Silence, a little before, that

and 'a would manage you his piece thus: and 'a would about, and about, and come you in, and

" and

he faw Scogan's head broke by Falstaff at the court-gate, the very fame day, I did fight with one Sampfon Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-inn." Not to mention the fatire implied in making Shallow act fir Dagonet, who was king Arthur's fool. Arthur's bow, here fuppofed to have been prefented at Clement'sinn, was probably an interlude, or masque, which actually existed, and was very popular in Shakspeare's age: and feems to have been compiled from Mallory's Morte Arthur, or the History of King Arthur, then recently published, and the favourite and moft fashionable romance.

That Mile-end Green was the place for publick sports and exercifes, we learn from Froifart.

Theobald remarks on this paffage: "The only intelligence I have gleaned of this worthy knight (fir Dagonet) is from Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Knight of the Burning Peftle."

The commentators on Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Peftle have not observed that the defign of that play is founded upon a comedy called The Four Prentices of London, with the Conqueft of Jerufalem; as it hath been diverfe Times acted at the Red Bull, by the Queen's Majesty's Servants. Written by Thomas Heywood, 1613. For as in Beaumont and Fletcher's play, a grocer in the Strand turns knight-errant, making his apprentice his 'fquire, &c. fo in Heywood's play, four apprentices accoutre themfelves as knights, and go to Jerufalem in queft of adventures. One of them, the most important character, is a goldfmith, another a grocer, another a mercer, and a fourth an haberdasher. But Beaumont and Fletcher's play, though founded upon it, contains many fatirical ftrokes againft Heywood's comedy, the force of which are entirely loft to thofe who have not seen that comedy.

Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's prologue, or first scene, a citizen is introduced declaring that, in the play, he "will have a grocer, and he shall do admirable things."

Again, Act I. fc. i. Rafe fays: "Amongst all the worthy books. of achievements, I do not call to mind that I have yet read of a grocer-errant: I will be the faid knight. Have you heard of any that hath wandered unfurnished of his 'fquire, and dwarf? My elder brother Tim fhall be my trusty 'fquire, and George my dwarf."

In the following paffage the allufion to Heywood's comedy is demonftrably manifeft, Act IV. fc. i:

"Boy. It will fhow ill-favouredly to have a grocer's prentice court a king's daughter.