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FR. SOL. Eft il impoffible d'efchapper la force de ton bras?

PIST. Brafs, cur! 3

Phil. Holland, in his tranflation of Pliny's Natural Hiftory, feveral times mentions the rim of the paunch. See Book XXVIII. ch. ix. p. 321, &c. STEEVENS.

Cole, in his Dictionary, 1678, describes it as the caul in which the bowels are wrapped. MALONE.

Ryno is at this day a vulgar cant expreffion for money;-ready ryno, means, ready money. This was probably the expreffion that Pistol meant to ufe; and I fhould fuppofe ryno, instead of rym, to be the true reading. M. MASON.

I ought to have fome kindness for this conjecture, as it has fuggefted itself to me more than once; and yet I fear it is what Dr. Warburton calls (in a note on Othello,) a White Friars' phrafe, of Alfatian origin, and consequently much more modern than the age of Shakspeare.

Mr. M. Mafon's idea, however, may receive countenance from a paffage in Timon:

"Tim. Cut my heart in fums.

"Tit. Mine, fifty talents.

"Tim. Tell out my blood.

"Luc. Five thousand crowns, my lord.

"Tim. Five thousand drops pays that." STEEVENS.

3 Brafs, cur!] Either Shakspeare had very little knowledge in the French language, or his over-fondness for punning led him in this place, contrary to his own judgement, into an error. Almoft every one knows that the French word bras is pronounced brau; and what refemblance of found does this bear to brass, that Pistol fhould reply Brass, cur? The joke would appear to a reader, but could fcarce be difcovered in the performance of the play.

Sir W. RAWLINSON.

If the pronunciation of the French language be not changed fince Shakspeare's time, which is not unlikely, it may be suspected fome other man wrote the French fcenes. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson makes a doubt, whether the pronunciation of the French language may not be changed fince Shakspeare's time; "if not (fays he) it may be fufpected that fome other man wrote the French fcenes;" but this does not appear to be the cafe, at leaft in this termination, from the rules of the grammarians, or the practice of the poets. I am certain of the former from the French Alphabeth of De la Mothe, and the Orthoepia Gallica of

Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,*
Offer'ft me brass?

FR. SOL. O pardonnez moy!

PIST. Say'ft thou me fo? is that a ton of moys? 5. Come hither, boy; Afk me this flave in French, What is his name.

Box. Efcoutez; Comment eftes vous appellé?

John Eliot; and of the latter from the rhymes of Marot, Ronfard, and Du Bartas.-Connections of this kind were very common. Shakspeare himself affifted Ben Jonfon in his Sejanus, as it was originally written; and Fletcher in his Two Noble Kinfmen.

FARMER. Mr. Bowle has at least rendered doubtful the question concerning the different pronunciation of the French language. See Archeologia, Vol. VI. p. 76. DOUCE.

The word moy proves in my apprehenfion decifively, that Shakfpeare, or whoever furnished him with his French, (if indeed he was affifted by any one,) was unacquainted with the true pronunciation of that language. Moy he has in King Richard II. made a rhyme to defroy, fo that it is clear that he fuppofed it was pronounced exactly as it is fpelled, as he here fuppofes bras to be pronounced:

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Speak it in French, king; fay, pardonnez moy. "Doft thou teach pardon pardon to deftroy?"

See alfo Vol. V. p. 328, n. 7.

The word bras was without doubt pronounced in the last age by the French, and by the English who understood French, as at prefent, braw. So, as Dr. Farmer obferves to me, in the prologue to the First Day's Entertainment at Rutland Houfe, by Sir W. D'Avenant:

"And could the walls to fuch a wideness draw,

"That all might fit at ease in chaise à bras.”

Drummond of Hawthornden tells us that Ben Jonson did not understand French. It does not, I own, therefore follow that Shakspeare was alfo unacquainted with that language; but I think it highly probable that that was the cafe; or at least that his know. ledge of it was very flight. MALONE.

4 -luxurious mountain goat,] Luxurious means lafcivious. So, in Much Ado about Nothing:

"She knows the heat of a luxurious bed." STEEVENS.

S -a ton of moys?] Moy is a piece of money; whence moi d'or, or moi of gold. JOHNSON.

FR. SOL. Monfieur le Fer.

Bor. He fays, his name is-mafter Fer.

PIST. Mafter Fer! I'll fer him, and firk him," and ferret him :-difcufs the fame in French unto him. Bor. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.

PIST. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.
FR. SOL. Que dit-il, monsieur?

Box. Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous preft; car ce foldat icy eft difpofé tout à cette beure de couper vostre gorge.

PIST. Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pefant, Unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns; Or mangled shalt thou be by this my fword.

FR. SOL. O, je vous fupplie pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je fuis gentilhomme de bonne maifon; gardez ma vie, & je vous donneray deux cents efcus. PIST. What are his words?

Bor. He prays you to fave his life: he is a gentleman of a good houfe; and, for his ranfom, he will give you two hundred crowns.

and firk him,] The word firk is fo variously used by the old writers, that it is almoft impoffible to afcertain its precife meaning. On this occafion it may mean to chaftife. So, in RamAlley, or Merry Tricks, 1611:

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-nay, I will firk

My filly novice, as he was never firk'd

"Since midwives bound his noddle."

In Beaumont and Fletcher's Rule a Wife, &c. it means to collect by low and dishonest industry:

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thefe five years he has firk'd

"A pretty living."

Again, in Ram-Alley, &c. it seems to be employed in the fenfe of-quibble:

"Sir, leave this firk of law, or by this light," &c.

In The Alchemift, it is obfcenely ufed. STEEVENS.

PIST. Tell him,-my fury shall abate, and I The crowns will take.

FR. SOL. Petit monfieur, que dit-il?

Box. Encore qu'il eft contre fon jurement, de pardonner aucun prifonnier; neantmoins, pour les efcus que vous l'avez promis, il eft content de vous donner`la liberté, le franchisement.

FR. SOL. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille remerciemens: & je m'eflime heureux que je fuis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je penfe, le plus brave, valiant, & tres diftingué feigneur d'Angleterre.

PIST. Expound unto me, boy.

Bor. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks: and he efteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of, (as he thinks) the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy fignieur of England.

PIST. As I fuck blood, I will fome mercy fhow.Follow me, cur. [Exit PISTOL. Boy. Suivez vous le grand capitaine.

[Exit French Soldier. I did never know fo full a voice iffue from fo empty a heart but the faying is true,-The empty veffel makes the greatest found. Bardolph, and Nym, had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i'the old play,' that every one may pare his nails

7this roaring devil i'the old play,] In modern puppetfhows, which feem to be copied from the old farces, Punch fometimes fights the devil, and always overcomes him. I fuppofe the vice of the old farce, to whom Punch fucceeds, used to fight the devil with a wooden dagger. JOHNSON.

The devil, in the old myfteries, is as turbulent and vain-glorious as Piftol. So, in one of the Coventry Whitfun Plays, preferved in the British Museum. Vefpafian. D. VIII. p. 136:

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with a wooden dagger; and they are both hang'd; and fo would this be, if he durft fteal any thing advent'roufly. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it, but boys.

"I am your lord Lucifer that out of helle cam,
"Prince of this world, and gret duke of helle;
"Wherfore my name is clepyd fer Satan,

"Whech aperyth among you a mater to spelle."

[Exit.

And perhaps the character was always performed in the moft clamorous manner.

In the ancient Tragedy, or rather Morality, called All for Money, by T. Lupton, 1578, Sin fays:

"I knew I would make him foon change his note,

"I will make him fing the Black Sanctus, I hold him a groat. [Here Satan fhall cry and roar."

Again, a little after:

"Here he roareth and crieth."

See Taming of the Shrew, Vol. VI. p. 397, n. 2. STEEVENS. In the old Moralities the devil was always attacked by the Vice, who belaboured him with his lath, and fent him roaring off the ftage. So, in Twelfth Night:

"In a trice,

"Like to the old vice,

"Who, with dagger of lath,
"In his rage and his wrath,
"Cries ah! ha! to the devil."

And in The old Taming of a Shreau, one of the players fays, "my lord, we must have a little vinegar to make our devil roar."

The reafon of the Vice's endeavouring to entertain the audience by attempting to pare the devil's nails, has been already affigned in a note on Twelfth Night, Vol. IV. p. 147, n. 7. MALONE.

See also a note on King Richard III. Act III. fc. i. and Mr. Upton's Differtation at the end of the fame play. MALONE.

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