BARD. What, are ancient Pistol and you friends yet?

Nrм. For my part, I care not: I fay little; but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles;—but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink, and hold out mine iron: It is a fimple one; but what though? it will toast cheese; and it will endure cold as another man's fword will: and there's the humour of it.*

BARD. I will beftow a breakfast, to make you

now alive, he would perhaps find it as difficult to give the defired information as Mr. Steevens. The intelligent reader muft long fince have obferved that our author not only neglected to compare his plays with each other, but that, even in the fame play, "the latter end of his commonwealth fometimes forgets the beginning." MALONE.

there fhall be fmiles;] I fufpect miles to be a marginal direction crept into the text. It is natural for a man, when he threatens, to break off abruptly, and conclude, But that shall be as it may. But this fantastical fellow is made to fmile difdainfully while he threatens; which circumftance was marked for the player's direction in the margin. WARBURTON.

I do not remember to have met with thefe marginal directions for expreffion of countenance in any of our ancient manufcript plays neither do I fee occafion for Dr. Warburton's emendation, as it is vain to feek the precife meaning of every whimsical phrafe employed by this eccentric character. Nym, however, having expreffed his indifference about the continuation of Piftol's friendship, might have added, when time ferves, there shall be miles, i. e. he fhould be merry, even though he was to lose it; or, that his face would be ready with a fmile as often as occafion should call one out into fervice, though Pistol, who had excited fo many, was no longer near him. Dr. Farmer, however, with great probability, would read,-fmites, i. e. blows, a word ufed in the midland counties. STEEVENS.

Perhaps Nym means only to fay, I care not whether we are friends at prefent; however, when time fhall ferve, we shall be in good humour with each other: but be it as it may. MALONE.

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- the humour of it.] Thus the quarto. The folio reads,— and there's an end. STEEVENS.

friends; and we'll be all three fworn brothers to France: let it be fo, good corporal Nym.

Nrм. 'Faith, I will live fo long as I may, that's the certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may: that is my reft," that is the rendezvous of it.

BARD. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly: and, certainly, fhe did you wrong; for you were troth-plight to her.

Nrм. I cannot tell; things must be as they may: men may fleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time; and, fome say, knives have edges. It must be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet fhe will plod. There must be conclufions. Well, I cannot tell.

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and we'll be all three fworn brothers to France:] We fhould read, we'll all go fworn brothers to France, or, we'll all be Jaworn brothers in France. JOHNSON.

The humour of fworn brothers should be opened a little. In the times of adventure, it was ufual for two chiefs to bind themfelves to share in each other's fortune, and divide their acquifitions between them. So, in the Conqueror's expedition, Robert de Oily, and Roger de Ivery, were fratres jurati; and Robert gave one of the honours he received to his faworn brother Roger. So these three fcoundrels fet out for France, as if they were going to make a conqueft of the kingdom. WHALLEY.

s —— and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may :} Surely we ought to read, "I will die as I may." M. MASON. that is my reft,] i. e. what I am refolved on. For a particular account of this phrafe, fee notes on Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. fc. v. and A&t V. sc. iii. [Vol. XIV.] STEEVENS.

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1 patience be a tired mare.] The folio reads, by corruption, tired name, from which Sir T. Hanmer, fagaciously enough, derived tired dame. Mr. Theobald retrieved from the quarto tired mare, the true reading. JOHNSON.

So, in Pierce's Supererogation, or a New Praife of the Old Affe, &c. "Silence is a flave in a chaine, and patience the common packhorse of the world." STEEVENS.

Enter PISTOL and Mrs. QUICKLY.

BARD. Here comes ancient Piftol, and his wife:good corporal, be patient here.-How now, mine hoft Piftol?

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PIST. Base tike, call'ft thou me-host?

Now, by this hand I fwear, I fcorn the term;
Nor fhall my Nell keep lodgers.

QUICK. No, by my troth, not long for we cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen, that live honeftly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdyhoufe ftraight. [NYм draws his fword.] O well-aday, Lady, if he be not drawn now! O Lord! here's

8 Bafe tike,] Tijk, is the Runic word for a little, or worthless dog. So, in King Lear:

"Or bobtail tike, or trundle-tail."

This word is ftill employed in Yorkshire, and means a clown, or ruftic. So, in Henry Carey's ballad opera, entitled, The Wonder, an Honeft Yorkshireman, 1736:

"If you can like

"A Yorkshire tike," &c. STEEVENS.

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In Minfheu's Dictionary, 1617, tike is defined, a worme that fucks the blood." It is now commonly fpelt tick, an animal that infefts fheep, dogs, &c. This may have been Piftol's term. Our author has the word in the fenfe Mr. Steevens has affigned to it, in King Lear; and it occurs with the other fignification in Troilus and Creffida. Piftol's next fpeech, however, fupports the former explanation. MALONE.

9 O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now!] The foliobewn. If he be not hewn muft fignify, if he be not cut down; and in that cafe the very thing is fuppofed which Quickly was apprehenfive of. But I rather think her fright arifes upon feeing the fwords drawn, and I have ventured to make a flight alteration accordingly. If he be not drawn, for, if he has not his word drawn, is an expreffion familiar to our poet. THEOBALD.

The quarto omits this obfcure paffage, and only gives us,-O Lord! here's corporal Nym's But as it cannot be afcertained

corporal Nym's-now fhall we have wilful adultery and murder committed. Good lieutenant Bardolph,'-good corporal, offer nothing here.

which words (or whether any) were defignedly excluded, I have left both exclamations in the text. Mrs. Quickly, without deviation from her character, may be fuppofed to utter repeated outcries on the fame alarm. And yet I think we might read,-if he be not hewing. To hack and hew is a common vulgar expreffion. So, in If you know not me you know Nobody, by Heywood, 1606: Bones o'me, he would hew it." Again, in K. Edward III.

1599:

"The fin is more to hack and hew poor men." After all (as the late Mr. Guthrie observed) to be hewn might mean, to be drunk. There is yet a low phrafe in ufe on the fame occafion, which is not much unlike it; viz. he is cut.""Such a one was cut a little last night." So, in The Witty Fair One, by Shirley, 1633: “Then, fir, there is the cut of your leg.

- that's when a man is drunk, is it not?

"Do not flagger in your judgment, for this cut is the grace of your body."

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Again, in The London Chaunticleres, 1659: "when the cups of canary have made our heads frisk; oh how we shall foot it when we can scarce ftand, and caper when we are cut in the leg!" Again, in Decker's Guls Hornbook, 1609: “. to accept the courtesy of the cellar when it is offered you by the drawers (and you must know that kindness never creepes upon them but when they fee you almoft cleft to the fhoulders)," &c. STEEVENS.

I have followed the quarto, because it requires no emendation. Here's corporal Nym's word drawn, the hoftefs would say, but fhe breaks off abruptly.

The editor of the folio here, as in many other places, not underftanding an abrupt paffage, I believe, made out fomething that he conceived might have been intended. Inftead of " O Lord," to avoid the penalty of the ftatute, he inferted, "O well a-day, lady," and added,-" if he be not hewn now." The latter word is evidently corrupt, and was probably printed, as Mr. Steevens conjectures, for hewing. But, for the reafon already given, I have adhered to the quarto. MALONE.

How would the editor of the folio have efcaped profaneness by fubftituting Lady for Lord? for Lady is an exclamation on our bleffed Lady, the Virgin Mary. STEEVENS.

Nrм. Pish!

PIST. Pifh for thee, Iceland dog!+ thou prickear'd cur' of Iceland!

3 Good lieutenant &c.] This fentence (except the word Bardolph) is in the folio given to Bardolph, to whom it is evident these words cannot belong, for he is himfelf, in this play, the lieutenant. Mr. Steevens propofes to folve the difficulty by reading-good ancient, fuppofing Piftol to be the perfon addreffed. But it is clear, I think, from the quarto, that thefe words belong to the fpeech of the hoftefs, who, feeing Nym's fword drawn, conjures him and his friend Bardolph to ufe no violence. In the quarto, the words, "Good corporal Nym, fhow the valour of a man," are immediately fubjoined to-" now fhall we have wilful adultery and murder committed." Bardolph was probably an interlineation, and erroneoufly inferted before the words "good lieutenant," instead of being placed, as it now is, after them. Hence, he was confidered as the speaker, instead of the perfon addressed. MALONE.

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Iceland dog!] In the folio the word is fpelt Island; in the quarto, Ifeland. MALONE.

I believe we should read, Iceland dog. He feems to allude to an account credited in Elizabeth's time, that in the north there was a nation with human bodies and dogs' heads. JOHNSON.

The quartos confirm Dr. Johnson's conjecture. STEEVENS. Iceland dog is probably the true reading; yet in Hakluyt's Voyages, we often meet with island. Drayton, in his Moon-calf, mentions water-dogs, and iflands. And John Taylor dedicates his Sculler" To the whole kennel of Antichrift's hounds, priefts, friars, monks, and jefuites, maftiffs, mongrels, islands, blood-hounds, bobtaile-tikes." FARMER.

Perhaps this kind of dog was then in vogue for the ladies to carry about with them.

So, in Ram-Alley, or Merry-tricks, 1611:

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-you fhall have jewels,

"A baboon, a parrot, and an Izeland dog."

Again, in Two Wife Men, and all the rest Fools, 1619:

Enter Levitia, cum Pedifequa, her periwig of dog's hair white, &c.

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Infa. A woman? 'tis not a woman. The head is a dog; 'tis a mermaid, half dog, half woman.