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and, as he said to me,-it was no longer ago than Wednesday laft,-Neighbour Quickly, fays he;master Dumb, our minifter, was by then;-Neigbbour Quickly, fays he, receive thofe that are civil; for, faith he, you are in an ill name ;-now he faid fo, I can tell whereupon; for, fays he, you are an boneft woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive, says he, no fwaggering companions.-There comes none here;you would bless you to hear what he said :—no, I'll no fwaggerers.

FAL. He's no fwaggerer, hoftefs; a tame cheater,'

3 a tame cheater,] Gamefter and cheater were, in Shakfpeare's age, fynonymous terms. Ben Jonfon has an epigram on Captain Hazard, the cheater.

A tame cheater, however, as Mr. Whalley obferves to me, appears to be a cant phrafe. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of

the Inn:

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and will be drawn into the net,

By this decoy-duck, this tame cheater." Greene, in his Mihil Mumchance, has the following paffage:

They call their art by a new-found name, as cheating, themselves cheators, and the dice cheters, borrowing the term from among our lawyers, with whom all fuch cafuals as fall to the lord at the holding of his leets, as waifes, ftraies, and fuch like, be called chetes, and are accuftomably faid to be efcheted to the lord's ufe." So, likewife in Lord Coke's charge at Norwich, 1607: " But if you will be content to let the efcheator alone, and not looke into his actions, he will be contented by deceiving you to change his name, taking unto himfelfe the two laft fyllables only, with the es left out, and fo turn cheater." Hence perhaps the derivation of the verb-to cheat, which I do not recollect to have met with among our most ancient writers. In The Bell-man of London, by T. Decker, 5th edit. 1640, the fame derivation of the word is given: "Of all which lawes, the highest in place is the cheating law, or the art of winning money by falfe dyce. Those that practice this study call themfelves cheaters, the dyce cheators, and the money which they purchase cheate; borrowing the terme from our common lawyers, with whom all fuch cafuals as fall to the lord at the holding of his leetes, as waifes, ftraies, and fuch like, are faid to

he; you may ftroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound: he will not fwagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any fhow of refiftance.-Call him up, drawer.

Hosr. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honeft man my house, nor no cheater: But I do not love swaggering; by my troth, I am the worse, when one fays-fwagger: feel, masters, how I fhake; look you, I warrant you.

DOL. So you do, hostess.

HOST. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an afpen leaf: I cannot abide fwaggerers.

Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page.

PIST. 'Save you, fir John!

FAL. Welcome, ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I charge you with a cup of fack: do you discharge upon mine hoftefs.

PIST. I will discharge upon her, fir John, with two bullets.

FAL. She is piftol-proof, fir; you shall hardly offend her.

HOST. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bul

be efcheated to the lordes use, and are called cheates." This account of the word is likewife given in A Manifeft Detection of Dice-play, printed by Vele, in the reign of Henry VIII. STEEVENS.

4 I will bar no honeft man my house, nor no cheater:] The humour of this confifts in the woman's miftaking the title of cheater, (which our ancestors gave to him whom we now, with better manners, call a gamefter,) for that officer of the exchequer called an efcheator, well known to the common people of that time; and named, either corruptly or fatirically, a cheater. WARBURTON.

lets: I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.1

PIST. Then to you, miftrefs Dorothy; I will charge you.

DOL. Charge me? I fcorn you, fcurvy companion. What! you poor, bafe, rafcally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! 7! I am meat for your master.

PIST. I know you, mistress Dorothy.

DOL. Away, you cut-purfe rafcal! you filthy bung, away! by this wine, I'll thruft my knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the faucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rafcal! you basket

5 — I'll drink no more—for no man's pleasure, I.] This should not be printed as a broken fentence. The duplication of the pronoun was very common: in The London Prodigal we have,

I fcorn fervice, I."" I am an afs, I," fays the stage-keeper in the Induction to Bartholomew Fair; and Kendal thus tranflates a well known epigram of Martial:

"I love thee not, Sabidius,

"I cannot tell thee why:

"I can faie naught but this alone,

"I do not love thee, I.”

In Kendall's Collection there are many translations from Claudian, Aufonius, the Anthologia, &c. FARMER.

So, in King Richard III. A& III. fc. ii:

"I do not like these separate councils, I." STEEVENS.

Again, in Romeo and Juliet:

"I will not budge, for no man's pleasure, I."

Again, in King Edward II. by Marlowe, 1598:

"I am none of those common peafants, I."

The French ftill ufe this idiom:-Je fuis Parifien, moi.

MALONE.

6 filthy bung,] In the cant of thievery, to nip a bung was to cut a purfe; and among an explanation of many of these terms in Martin Mark-all's Apologie to the Bel-man of London, 1610, it is faid that" Bung is now used for a pocket, heretofore for a purse." STEEVENS.

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an you play the faucy cuttle with me.] It appears from Greene's Art of Coneycatching, that cuttle and cuttle-boung were the

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hilt ftale juggler, you!-Since when, I pray you, fir?-What, with two points on your fhoulder? much!"

PIST. I will murder your ruff for this.

FAL. No more, Pistol;' I would not have you go off here: difcharge yourself of our company, Pistol.

Hosr. No, good captain Pistol; not here, sweet captain.

DOL. Captain! thou abominable damn'd cheater,'

cant terms for the knife used by the sharpers of that age to cut the bottoms of purfes, which were then worn hanging at the girdle. Or the allufion may be to the foul language thrown out by Piftol, which she means to compare with fuch filth as the cuttle-fifh ejects. STEEVENS.

8 with two points-] As a mark of his commiffion.

JOHNSON.

9 —much!] Much was a common expreffion of difdain at that time, of the fame fenfe with that more modern one, Marry come up. The Oxford editor, not apprehending this, alters it to march. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton is right. Much! is ufed thus in Ben Jonson's Volpone:

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But you fhall eat it. Much!"

Again, in Every Man in his Humour:

"Much, wench! or much, fon!"

Again, in Every Man out of his Humour:

"To charge me bring my grain unto the markets:
Ay, much! when I have neither barn nor garner."
STEEVENS.

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2 No more, Piftol; &c.] This is from the oldeft edition of 1600. POPE.

3 Captain! thou abominable damn'd cheater, &c.] Piftol's character feems to have been a common one on the stage in the time of Shakspeare. In A Woman's a Weathercock, by N. Field, 1612, there is a perfonage of the fame ftamp, who is thus defcribed: "Thou unfpeakable rafcal, thou a foldier! "That with thy flops and cat-a-mountain face, Thy blather chaps, and thy robuftious words,

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art thou not ashamed to be call'd-captain? If captains were of my mind, they would truncheon you out, for taking their names upon you before you have earn'd them. You a captain, you flave! for what? for tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdyhoufe?-He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy ftew'd prunes, and dried cakes. A captain! these villains will make the word captain as odious as the word occupy; which was an ex

"Fright'ft the poor whore, and terribly doft exact
"A weekly fubfidy, twelve pence a piece,
confcience,
"Whereon thou liveft; and on my
"Thou snap'ft befides with cheats and cut-purses."

MALONE.

4 He lives upon mouldy ftew'd prunes, and dried cakes.] That is, he lives on the refufe provifions of bawdy houfes and pastry-cooks fhops. Stew'd prunes, when mouldy, were perhaps formerly fold at a cheap rate, as ftale pies and cakes are at prefent. The allufion to few'd prunes, and all that is neceffary to be known on that fubject, has been already explained in the firft part of this hiftorical play, p. 528, n. 8. STEEVENS.

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—as odious as the word occupy ;] So, Ben Jonfon in his Discoveries: "Many, out of their own obfcene apprehenfions, refuse and fit words; as, occupy, nature," &c. proper

STEEVENS. This word is ufed with different fenfes in the following jeft, "One threw ftones at an yllfrom Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614: fauor'd old womans Owle, and the olde woman faid: Faith (fir knaue) you are well occupy'd, to throw ftones at my poore Owle, that doth you no harme. Yea marie (anfwered the wag) fo would you be better occupy'd too (I wiffe) if you were young againe, and

had a better face.'

RITSON.

Occupant feems to have been formerly a term for a woman of the town, as occupier was for a wencher. So, in Marston's Satires, 1599:

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He with his occupant

"Are cling'd fo close, like dew-worms in the morne,

"That he'll not ftir."

Again, in a fong by Sir T. Overbury, 1616:

"Here's water to quench maiden's fires,

"Here's fpirits for old occupiers." MALONE.

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