Enter FALSTAFF, finging.

FAL. When Arthur first in court-Empty the jordan. And was a worthy king: [Exit Drawer.] How now, mistress Doll?

Hosr. Sick of a calm: yea, good footh.

FAL. So is all her fect; an they be once in a calm, they are fick.

8 When Arthur firft in court-] The entire ballad is published in the first volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry. STEEVENS.

The words in the ballad are

"When Arthur firft in court began,

"And was approved king." MALONE.

9 Sick of a calm:] I fuppofe fhe means to fay of a qualm.

STEEVENS.

a So is all her feet;] I know not why fed is printed in all the copies; I believe fex is meant. JOHNSON.

Seat is, I believe, right. Falstaff may mean all of her profeffion. In Mother Bombie, a comedy, 1594, the word is frequently used: "Sil. I am none of that feat.

"Can. Thy loving fet is an ancient fet, and an honourable," &c.

Since the foregoing quotation was given, I have found fect fo often printed for fex in the old plays, that I fuppofse these words were anciently synonymous. Thus, in Marfton's Infatiate Countess, 1613" Deceives our fect of fame and chastity."

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian:

66

Modefty was made

"When she was first intended: when she blushes

"It is the holiest thing to look upon,

"The pureft temple of her fea, that ever

"Made nature a bleft founder."

Again, in Whetstone's Arbour of Vertue, 1576:

"Who, for that these barons fo wrought a flaunder to her fe, "Their foolish, rafh, and judgment falfe, fhe fharplie did detect."

In Middleton's Mad World my Mafters, 1608, (as Dr. Farmer has elsewhere obferved,) a courtezan fays, "it is the easiest art and

I

DOL. You muddy rafcal, is that all the comfort you give me?

FAL. You make fat rafcals,3 mistress Doll.

DOL. I make them! gluttony and diseases make them; I make them not.

FAL. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue, grant that.

DOL. Ay, marry; our chains, and our jewels. FAL. Your brooches, pearls, and owches;-for to

cunning for our feet to counterfeit fick, that are always full of fits, when we are well." I have therefore no doubt that fect was licentiously used by our author, and his contemporaries, for fex.

MALONE.

I believe fet is here ufed in its ufual fenfe, and not for fex: Falstaff means to fay, that all courtezans, when their trade is at a ftand, are apt to be fick. DouUCE.

3 You make fat rafcals,] Falstaff alludes to a phrafe of the foreft. Lean deer are called rafcal deer. He tells her the calls him wrong, being fat he cannot be a rafcal. JOHNSON.

So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pefile: "The heavy hart, the blowing buck, the rafcal, and the pricket. Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599:

"What take you?-Deer.-You'll ne'er ftrike rafcal?" Again, in Quarles's Virgin Widow, 1656:

and have known a rafcal from a fat deer." Rafcall, (fays Puttenham, p. 150,) is properly the hunting terme given to young deere, leane and out of feafon, and not to people.' STEEVENS.

Το grow fat and bloated, is one of the confequences of the venereal disease; and to that Falftaff probably alludes. There are other allufions in the following speeches, to the fame diforder.

M. MASON.

Your brooches, pearls, and owches;] Brooches were chains of gold that women wore formerly about their necks. Owches were boffes of gold fet with diamonds. POPE.

I believe Falstaff gives thefe fplendid names as we give that of carbuncle, to fomething very different from gems and ornaments: but the paffage deferves not a laborious refearch. JOHNSON.

serve bravely, is to come halting off, you know: To come off the breach with his pike bent bravely, and to furgery bravely; to venture upon the charg'd chambers bravely:

Brooches were, literally, clafps, or buckles, ornamented with gems. See note on Antony and Cleopatra, A&t. IV. sc. xiii.

Mr. Pope has rightly interpreted owches in their original fenfe. So, in Nash's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599: "three scarfs, bracelets, chains, and ouches." It appears likewife from a paffage in the ancient fatire called Cocke Lorelles Bote, printed by Wynkyn de Worde, that the makers of these ornaments were called owchers:

Owchers, fkynners, and cutlers."

Dugdale, p. 234, in his account of the will of T. de Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick, in the time of King Edward III. fays: " his jewels be thus difpofed: to his daughter Stafford, an ouche called the eagle, which the prince gave him; to his daughter Alice, his next beft ouche."

Your brooches, pearls, and owches, is, however, a line in an old fong, but I forget where I met with it. Dr. Johnson's conjecture may be fupported by a paffage in The Widow's Tears, a comedy, by Chapman, 1612:

As many aches in his bones, as there are ouches in his skin." Again, in The Duke's Miftrefs, by Shirley, 1638, Valerio speaking of a lady's nofe, fays:

"It has a comely length, and is well ftudded

66

With gems of price; the goldsmith would give money for't."
STEEVENS.

It appears from Stubbes's Anatomie of Abuses, 1595, that owches were worn by women in their hair, in Shakspeare's time. Dr. Johnson's conjecture, however, may be fupported by the following paffage in Maroccus Exftaticus, 1 1595: "Let him pafs for a churle, and wear his miftrefs's favours, viz. rubies and precious stones, on his nofe, &c; and this et cetera fhall, if you will, be the perfectest p- that ever grew in Shoreditch or Southwarke." MALONE. -the charg'd chambers-] To understand this quibble, it is neceffary to say, that a chamber fignifies not only an apartment, but a piece of ordnance.

So, in The Fleire, a comedy, 1610:

he has taught my ladies to make fireworks; they can deal in chambers already, as well as all the gunners that make them fly off with a train at Lambeth, when the mayor and aldermen land at Westminster."

Again, in The Puritan, 1605:

66

-only your chambers are licensed to play upon you, and drabs enow to give fire to them."

DOL. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!

6

HOST. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to fome difcord: you are both, in good troth, as rheumatick as two dry toafts ; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-year!' one must bear, and that must be you: [To Doll.] you are the weaker veffel, as they fay, the emptier veffel.

DOL. Can a weak empty veffel bear fuch a huge full hogfhead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux ftuff in him; you have not seen a

A chamber is likewife that part in a mine where the powder is lodged. STEEVENS.

Chambers are very fmall pieces of ordnance which are yet used in London, on what are called rejoicing days, and were fometimes ufed in our author's theatre on particular occafions. See King Henry VIII. A&t I. fc. iii. MALONE.

5 rheumatick-] She would fay fplenetic. HANMER.

I believe she means what the fays. So, in Ben Jonfon's Every Man in his Humour:

"Cob. Why I have my reme, and can be angry." Again, in our author's King Henry V:

"He did in fome fort handle women; but then he was rheumatick," &c.

Rheumatic, in the cant language of the times, fignified capricious, humourfome. In this fenfe it appears to be ufed in many other old plays. STEEVENS.

The word fcorbutico (as an ingenious friend obferves to me) is ufed in the fame manner in Italian, to fignify a peevish ill-tempered MALONE.

man.

Dr. Farmer obferves, that Sir Tho. Elyott in his Caftell of Helth, 1572, fpeaking of different complexions has the following remark: "Where cold with moisture prevaileth, that body is called fleumatick." STEEVENS.

-as two dry toafts;] Which cannot meet but they grate one another. JOHNSON.

7 good-year!] Mrs. Quickly's blunder for goujere, i. e. morbus Gallicus. See Vol III. p. 349, n. 7. STEEVENS,

hulk better stuff'd in the hold.-Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and whether I fhall ever fee thee again, or no, there is nobody cares.

Re-enter Drawer.

8

DRAW. Sir, ancient Piftol's below, and would

speak with you.

DOL. Hang him, fwaggering rafcal! let him not come hither: it is the foul-mouth'dft rogue in England.

HOST. If he fwagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live amongst my neighbours; I'll no fwaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the very beft:-Shut the door;-there comes no fwaggerers here: I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now :-shut the door, I pray you.

FAL. Doft thou hear, hoftefs?—

Host. Pray you, pacify yourself, fir John; there comes no fwaggerers here."

FAL. Doft thou hear? it is mine ancient.

HOST. Tilly-fally, fir John, never tell me; your ancient fwaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before master Tifick, the deputy, the other day;

8 ancient Piftol-] is the fame as enfign Piftol. Falstaff was captain, Peto lieutenant, and Piftol enfign, or ancient.

9

JOHNSON.

there comes no fwaggerers here.] A fwaggerer was a roaring, bullying, bluftering, fighting fellow. So, in Greene's Tu Quoque, a comedy, by Cooke, 1614: "I will game with a gamfter, drinke with a drunkard, be ciuill with a citizen, fight with a fwaggerer, and drabb with a whoore-mafter." RITSON.

2 Tilly-fally,] See Vol. IV. p. 60, n. 4. MALONE.