as lief they would put ratfbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with fecurity. I look'd he should have sent me two and twenty yards of fattin, as I am a true knight, and he fends me fecurity. Well, he may fleep in fecurity; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightnefs of his wife fhines through it: and yet cannot he fee, though he have his own lantern to light him."- -Where's Bar dolph ? PAGE. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horfe. So again, in Northward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: They will take up, I warrant you, where they may be trufted." Again, in the fame piece: "Sattin gowns must be taken up." Again, in Love Reftored, one of Ben Jonfon's mafques: "A pretty fine fpeech was taken up o' the poet too, which if he never be paid for now, 'tis no matter." STEEVENS. 5 P. 43: 6 the horn of abundance,] So, in Pafquil's Night-cap, 1612, "But chiefly citizens, upon whofe crowne STEEVENS, the lightness of his wife fhines through it: and yet cannot he fee, though he have his own lantern to light him.] This joke feems evidently to have been taken from that of Plautus: "Quò ambulas tu, qui Vulcanum in cornu conclufum geris?" Amph. Act I. fc. i. and much improved. We need not doubt that a joke was here intended by Plautus; for the proverbial term of horns for cuckoldom, is very ancient, as appears by Artimedorus, who fays: Προειπεῖν αὐτῶ ὅτι ἡ γυνή σου πορνεύσει, καὶ τὸ λεγόμενον, κέρατα αυτῷ ποιήσει, καὶ ὄντως απέδη. Όνειροι. Lib. II. cap. xii. And he copied from those before him. WARBURTON. The fame thought occurs in The Two Maids of Moreclacke, 1609: "Shine through the horn, as candles in the eve, FAL. I bought him in Paul's,' and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the ftews, I were mann'd, horfed, and wived. "I bought him in Paul's,] At that time the refort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the poit. WARBURTON. So, in Fearful and Lamentable Effects of Two dangerous Comets, &c. no date; by Nathe, in ridicule of Gabriel Harvey: "Paule's church is in wonderfull perill thys yeare without the help of our confcionable brethren, for that day it hath not eyther broker, maifterlefs ferving-man, or pennileffe companion, in the middle of it, the ufurers of London have fworne to beftow a newe fteeple upon it." In an old Collection of Proverbs, I find the following: "Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to St. Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a whore, a knave and a jade." In a pamphlet by Dr. Lodge, called Wit's Miferie, and the World's Madneffe, 1596, the devil is defcribed thus: "In Powls hee walketh like a gallant courtier, where if he meet fome rich chuffes worth the gulling, at every word he fpeaketh, he maketh a moufe an elephant, and telleth them of wonders, done in Spaine by his ancestors," &c. &c. I fhould not have troubled the reader with this quotation, but that it in fome measure familiarizes the character of Pistol, which (from other paffages in the fame pamphlet) appears to have been no uncommon one in the time of Shakspeare. Dr. Lodge concludes his defcription thus: "His courage is boafting, his learning ignorance, his ability weaknefs, and his end beggary." Again, in Ram-Alley, or Merry-Tricks, 1611: -get thee a gray cloak and hat, "And walk in Paul's among thy cashier'd mates, I learn from a palage in Greene's Difputation between a He Caneycatcher and a She Coneycatcher, 1592, that St. Paul's was a privileged place, fo that no debtor could be arrested within its precincts. STEEVENS. a man muft In The Choice of Change, 1598, 4to, it is faid, " not make choyce of three thinges in three places. Of a wife in Westminster; of a fervant in Paule's; of a horfe in Smithfield; leaft he chufe a queane, a knave, or a jade." See also Moryfon's Itinerary, Part III. p. 53, 1617. REED. "It was the fashion of thofe times," [the times of K. James I.] fays Ofborne, in his MEMOIRS of that monarch, " and did fa Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and an Attendant. PAGE. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for ftriking him about Bardolph. FAL. Wait clofe, I will not see him. CH. JUST. What's he that goes there? ATTEN. Falstaff, an't please your lordship. CH. JUST. He that was in queftion for the robbery? ATTEN. He, my lord: but he hath fince done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with fome charge to the lord John of Lancafter. CH. JUST. What, to York? Call him back again. ATTEN. Sir John Falstaff! FAL. Boy, tell him, I am deaf. PAGE. You must speak louder, my mafter is deaf. CH. JUST. I am fure, he is, to the hearing of any thing good.-Go, pluck him by the elbow; I muit speak with him. continue till these, [the interregnum,] for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all profeffions, not merely mechanicks, to meet in St. Paul's church by eleven, and walk in the middle ifle till twelve, and after dinner from three to fix; during which time fome difcourfed of bufinefs, others of news. Now, in regard of the univerfal commerce there happened little that did not first or laft arrive here." MALONE. 8 Lord Chief Juftice,] This judge was Sir William Gascoigne, Chief Juftice of the King's Bench. He died December 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church in Yorkshire. His effigy, in judicial robes, is on his monument. STEEVENS. His portrait, copied from the monument, may be found in The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. LI. p. 516. MALONE. ATTEN. Sir John, · FAL. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack fubjects? do not the rebels need foldiers? Though it be a fhame to be on any fide but one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst fide, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it. ATTEN. You mistake me, fir. FAL. Why, fir, did I fay you were an honeft man? fetting my knighthood and my soldiership afide, I had lied in my throat if I had said so. ATTEN. I pray you, fir, then fet your knighthood and your foldiership afide; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man. FAL. I give thee leave to tell me fo! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou takeft leave, thou wert better be hang'd; You hunt-counter, hence! avaunt! hunt-counter,] That is, blunderer. He does not, I think, allude to any relation between the judge's fervant and the counterprifon. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon's explanation may be countenanced by the following paffage in Ben Jonfon's Tale of a Tub: Do you mean to make a hare "Of me, to hunt counter thus, and make thefe doubles, "And you mean no fuch thing as you fend about?" Again, in Hamlet: O, this is counter, you falfe Danish dogs." STEEVENS. Hunt counter means, bafe tyke, or worthless dog. There can be no reafon why Falftaff fhould call the attendant a blunderer, but he feems very anxious to prove him a rajcal. After all, it is not impoffible the word may be found to fignify a catchpole or bumbailiff. He was probably the Judge's tipftaff. RITSON. Perhaps the epithet hunt-counter is applied to the officer, in reference to his having reverted to Falftaff's falvo. HENLEY. ATTEN. Sir, my lord would fpeak with you. you. CH. JUST. Sir John Falstaff, a word with FAL. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to fee your lordship abroad: I heard fay, your lordfhip was fick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordfhip, though not clean past your youth, hath yet fome fmack of age in you, fome relish of the faltnefs of time; and I moft humbly befeech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health. CH. JUST. Sir John, I fent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury. FAL. An't please your lordship, I hear, his majesty is return'd with some discomfort from Wales. CH. JUST. I talk not of his majefty :-You would not come when I fent for you. FAL. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this fame whorefon apoplexy. CH. JUST. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you. FAL. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whorefon tingling. CH. JUST. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. FAL. It hath its original from much grief; from study, and perturbation of the brain: I have read the cause of his effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafness. CH. JUST. I think, you are fallen into the difeafe; for you hear not what I fay to you. I think it much more probable that Falstaff means to allude to the counter-prifon. Sir T. Overbury in his character of A Serjeant's yeoman, 1616, (in modern language, a bailiff's follower,) calls him "a Counter-rat." MALONE. 7 |