cellent good word before it was ill forted: therefore captains had need look to it. BARD. Pray thee, go down, good ancient. FAL. Hark thee hither, mistress Doll. PIST. Not I: I tell thee what, corporal Bardolph;-I could tear her :-I'll be reveng'd on her. PAGE. Pray thee, go down. PIST. I'll fee her damn'd first;-to Pluto's damned lake, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile alfo." Hold hook and line, fay I. Again, in Promos and Caffandra, bl. 1. 1578: " Mistresse, you muft shut up your shop, and leave your occupying." This is faid to a bawd. HENDERSON. 6 I'll fee her damn'd firft;-to Pluto's damned lake, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures vile alfo.] These words, I believe, were intended to allude to the following paffage in an old play called The Battle of Alcazar, 1594, from which Pistol afterwards quotes a line (fee p. 92, n. 7.): "You daftards of the night and Erebus, Fiends, fairies, hags, that fight in beds of fteel, "The mangled body of that traitor king.- "Such tortures as ufurpers feel below. "Damn'd let him be, damn'd and condemn'd to bear 7 Hold hook and line,] Thefe words are introduced in ridicule by Ben Jonfon in The Cafe is alter'd, 1609. Of abfurd and fuftian paffages from many plays, in which Shakspeare had been a performer, I have always fuppofed no fmall part of Piftol's character to be compofed: and the pieces themselves being now irretrievably loft, the humour of his allufions is not a little obfcured. In Tuffer's Husbandry, bl. 1. 1580, it is faid: STEEVENS. "At noone if it bloweth, at night if it fhine, HENDERSON. Down! down, dogs! down faitors! Have we not Hiren here?? 8 Down! down, dogs! down faitors!] A burlefque on a play already quoted; The Battle of Alcazar: "Ye proud malicious dogs of Italy, "Strike on, strike down, this body to the earth." MALONE. Faitours, fays Minfheu's Dictionary, is a corruption of the French word faifeurs, i. e. factores, doers; and it is used in the statute 7 Rich. II. c. 5. for evil doers, or rather for idle livers; from the French, faitard, which in Cotgrave's Dictionary fignifies slothful, idle, &c. TOLLET. down faitors!] i. e. traitors, rascals. So, Spenfer : "By this falfe faitour." The word often occurs in The Chefter Myfteries. STEEVENS. 9 Have we not Hiren here?] In an old comedy, 1608, called Law Tricks; or, Who would have thought it? the fame quotation is likewise introduced, and on a fimilar occafion. The Prince Polymetes fays: "What ominous news can Polymetes daunt? "Have we not Hiren here?" Again, in Maffinger's Old Law: "Clown. No dancing for me, we have Siren here. "Cook. Syren! 'twas Hiren the fair Greek, man.” Again, in Decker's Satiromaftix: therefore whilft we have Hiren bere, fpeak my little dish-wafhers." Again, in Love's Miftrefs, a mafque by T. Heywood, 1636: fay fhe is a foul beaft in your eyes, yet fhe is my Hyren." Mr. Tollet obferves, that in Adams's Spiritual Navigator, &c. 1615, there is the following paffage: "There be firens in the fea What a of the world. Syrens? Hirens, as they are now called. number of these firens, Hirens, cockatrices, courteghians,—in plain English, harlots,-swimme amongst us?" Piftol may therefore mean,-Have we not a ftrumpet here? and why am I thus ufed by her? STEEVENS. From The Merie conceited Jefts of George Peele, Gentleman, fometime Student in Oxford, quarto, 1657, it appears, that Peele was the author of a play called The Turkish Mahomet, and Hyren the Fair Greek, which is now loft. One of these jefts, or rather stories, is entitled, How George read a Play-book to a Gentleman. "There was a gentleman (fays the tale) whom God had endued with good living, to maintain his fmall wit,-one that took great delight to HOST. Good captain Peefel, be quiet; it is very late, i'faith: I befeek you now, aggravate your choler. PIST. These be good humours, indeed! Shall packhorses, And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia,* have the first hearing of any work that George had done, himself being a writer.-This felf-conceited brock had George invited to half a score sheets of paper; whofe Chriftianly pen had writ Finis to the famous play of The Turkish Mahomet and Hyren the Fair Greek;-in Italian called a curtezan; in Spaine, a margarite; in French, un curtain; in English, among the barbarous, a whore; among the gentles, their ufual affociates, a punk.-This fantaftick, whofe brain was made of nought but cork and fpunge, came to the cold lodging of Monfieur Peel.-George bids him welcome;told him he would gladly have his opinion of his book.-He willingly condefcended, and George begins to read, and between every fcene he would make paufes, and demand his opinion how he liked the carriage of it," &c. Have we not Hiren here? was, without doubt, a quotation from this play of Peele's, and, from the explanation of the word Hiren above given, is put with peculiar propriety on the prefent occafion into the mouth of Piftol. In Eastward Hoe, a comedy by Jonfon, Chapman, and Marfton, 1605, Quickfilver comes in drunk, and repeats this and many other verfes, from dramatick performances of that time: "Holla, ye pamper'd jades of Afia!" [Tamburlaine.] [Probably The Turkish Mahomet.] "Who cries on murther? lady, was it [A Parody on The Spanish Tragedy.] All thefe lines are printed as quotations, in Italicks. In John Day's Law Tricks, quoted by Mr. Steevens in the preceding note, the Prince Polymetes, when he says, "Have we not Hiren here? alludes to a lady then present, whom he imagines to be a harlot." 2 MALONE. -hollow pamper'd jades of Afia, &c.] Thefe lines are in part a quotation out of an old abfurd fuftian play, entitled, Tamburlaine's Conquefts; or, The Scythian Shepherds, 1590, [by C. Marlowe.] THEOBALD. These lines are addreffed by Tamburlaine to the captive princes who draw his chariot: "Holla, you pamper'd jades of Afia, "What! can you draw but twenty miles a day?” . Which cannot go but thirty miles a day, The fame paffage is burlefqued by Beaumont and Fletcher in The Coxcomb. Young, however, has borrowed the idea for the ufe of his Bufiris: "Have we not feen him shake his filver reins "O'er harnefs'd monarchs, to his chariot yok'd?" I was furprised to find a fimile, much and juftly celebrated by the admirers of Spenfer's Fairy Queen, inferted almoft word for word in the fecond part of this tragedy. The earlieft edition of thofe books of The Fairy Queen, in one of which it is to be found, was published in 1590, and Tamburlaine had been reprefented in or before the year 1588, as appears from the preface to Perimedes the Blacksmith, by Robert Greene. The firft copy, however, that I have met with, is in 1590, and the next in 1593. In the year 1590 both parts of it were entered on the books of the Stationers' Company: 3 "Like to an almond-tree ymounted high With bloffoms brave bedecked daintily, "Whose tender locks do tremble every one "At every little breath that under heaven is blown." "Like to an almond-tree ymounted high 86 Upon the lofty and celeftial mount "Of ever-green Selinis, quaintly deck'd "With bloom more bright than Erycina's brows; "At every little breath from heaven is blown." Spenjer. Tamburlaine. STEEVENS. Cannibals,] Cannibal is used by a blunder for Hannibal. This was afterwards copied by Congreve's Bluff and Wittol. Bluff is a character apparently taken from this of ancient Piftol. JOHNSON. Perhaps the character of a bully on the English ftage might have been originally taken from Piftol; but Congreve feems to have copied his No Bluff more immediately from Jonson's Captain Bobadil. STEEVENS. 4 and let the welkin rear.] Part of the words of an old HOST. By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words. BARD. Be gone, good ancient: this will grow to a brawl anon. PIST. Die men, like dogs;' give crowns like pins; Have we not Hiren here? HOST. O' my word, captain, there's none fuch here." What the good-year! do you think, I would deny her? for God's fake, be quiet. ballad intitled, What the father gathereth with the rake, the fon doth fcatter with the forke: "Let the welkin roare, "Ile never give ore," &c. Again, in another ancient fong called, The Man in the Moon drinks Claret: "Drink wine till the welkin roares, "And cry out a p- of your fcores." STEEVENS. So, in Eastward Hoe, 1605: "turn fwaggering gallant, and let the welkin roar, and Erebus alfo." MALONE. 5 Die men, like dogs;] This expreffion I find in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: 6 "Your lieutenant's an afs. "How an ass? Die men lie dogs?" STEEVENS. Have we not Hiren here? Hoft. O' my word, captain, there's none fuch here.] i. e. fhall I fear, that have this trufty and invincible sword by my fide? For, as King Arthur's fwords were called Caliburne and Ron; as Edward the Confeffor's, Curtana; as Charlemagne's, Joyeufe; Orlando's Durindana; Rinaldo's Fufberta; and Rogero's, Balifarda; fo Pistol, in imitation of these heroes, calls his fword Hiren. I have been told, Amadis de Gaul had a fword of this name. Hirir is to ftrike, and from hence it seems probable that Hiren may be derived; and fo fignify a fwafhing, cutting fword.-But what wonderful humour is there in the good hoftefs fo innocently miftaking Piftol's drift, fancying that he meant to fight for a whore in the houfe, and therefore telling him. O' my word, captain, there's none fuch here; what the good-year! do you think, I would deny her? THEOBALD. As it appears from a former note, that Hiren was fometimes a cant term for a mistress or harlot, Pistol may be fupposed to give |