Cham. Good-morrow, mafter Gads-hill. It holds current, that I told you yefternight. There's a & Franklin, in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company last night at fupper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter. They will away presently. Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with 9 St. Nicholas' clarks, I'll give thee this neck. Cham. No, I'll none of it: I pr'ythee keep that for the hangman; for I know thou worshipp'it St. Nicholas as truly as a man of falfhood may. Gads. What talk'ft thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows: for, if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me; and, thou know'st, Franklin] Is a little gentleman. JOHNSON. 2 St. Nicholas' clarks, St. Nicholas was the patron faint of fcholars and Nicholas, or Old Nick, is a cant name for the devii. Hence he equivocally calls robbers, St. Nicholas's clarks. WARBURTON. Highwaymen or robbers were fo called, or St. Nicholas's knights. "A mandrake grown under fome heavy tree, Glareanus Vadianus's Panegyric upon Tom. Coryat. In the old tragedy of Soliman and Perfeda I met with the following paffage, which confirms Dr. Gray's obfervation. Pifton, a fervant, who is taken in the act of picking a dead man's pocket, apologizes for himself in this manner: thro' pure good will, Seeing he was going towards heaven, I thought "To fee if he had a paflport from St. Nicholas, or not." Again in Shirley's Match at Midnight, 1633. "I think yonder come prancing down the hills from "Kinghon, a couple of St. Nicholas's clarks.” Again in The Hollander, -" to wit, divers books, and St. Nicholas's clarks." So in A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612. "We are prevented ; "St. Nicholas's clerks are tepp'd up before us." STEEVENS. he's he's no ftarveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dream'ft not of, the which, for fport-fake, are content to do the profeffion fome grace; that would, if matters fhould be look'd into, for their own credit fake, make all whole. I am join'd with no footland-rakers, no long-ftaff, fix-penny-ftrikers; none of thofe mad Muftachio-purple-hu'd-malt-worms: but with nobility and tranquillity; 2 burgomafters, and great one-yers; fuch as can hold in; 3 fuch as will ftrike fooner than fpeak; and fpeak fooner than think; 1 1- I am join'd with no foot-land-rakers,-] That is, with no padders, no wanderers on foot. No long-faff, fix-penny ftrikers, no fellows that infeft the roads with long flaffs and knock men down for fix-pence. None of thofe mad mustachiopurple-bu'd-malt-worms,-none of thofe whofe faces are red with drinking ale. JOHNSON. 2_ burgo-mafters, and great one-eyers.-] "Perhaps, "oneraires, truftees, or commiffioners;" fays Mr. Pope. But how this word comes to admit of any fuch conftruction, I am at a lofs to know. To Mr. Pope's fecond conjecture, "of cun"ning men that look fharp and aim well," I have nothing to reply feriously but choose to drop it. The reading which I have fubftituted, I owe to the friendship of the ingenious Nicholas Hardinge, Efq; A moneyer is an officer of the mint, which makes coin, and delivers out the king's money. Moneyers are alfo taken for banquers, or thofe that make it their trade to turn and return money. Either of thefe acceptations will admirably fquare with our author's context. THEOBALD. This is a very acute and judicious attempt at emendation, and is not undefervedly adopted by Dr. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads great owners, not without equal or greater likelihood of truth. I know not however whether any change is neceffary; Gads-hill tells the chamberlain that he is joined with no mean wretches, but with burgomafters and great ones, or as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great oneyers, or greatone-éers, as we fay privateer, auctioneer, circuiteer. This is I fancy the whole of the matter. JOHNSON. 3 — fuch as will firike fooner than speak; and speak fooner than DRINK; and DRINK fooner than pray :-] According to the fpecimen given us in this play, of this diffolute gang, we have no reason to think they were lefs ready to drink than speak. befides, it is plain, a natural gradation was here intended to be given of their actions, relative to one another. But what has fpeaking, drinking, and praying to do with one another? We R 2 fhould think; and think fooner than pray and yet I lie, for they pray continually unto their faint the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots. Cham. What, the common-wealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way? Gads. 4 She will, fhe will; juftice hath liquor'd her. We steal as in a castle, cock-fure; 5 we have the receipt of fern-feed, we walk invifible. fhould certainly read THINK in both places instead of drink; and then we have a very regular and humourous climax. They will firike fooner than speak; and speak fooner than THINK; and THINK fooner than pray. By which laft words is meant, that though perhaps they may now and then reflect on their crimes, "they will never repent of them." The Oxford Editor has dignified this correction by his adoption of it. WARBURTON. 66 I am in doubt about this paffage. There is yet a part unexplained. What is the meaning of fuch as can hold in? It cannot mean fuch as can keep their own fecret, for they will, he says, Speak fooner than think: it cannot mean fuch as will go calmly to work without unneceffary violence, fuch as is ufed by long-staf ftrikers, for the following part will not fuit with this meaning; and though we should read by tranfpofition fuch as will speak fooner than frike, the climax will not proceed regularly. I muft leave it as it is. JOHNSON. 4 She will, he will; juftice hath liquor'd her.] A fatire on chicane in courts of justice; which fupports ill men in their violations of the law, under the very cover of it. WARBURTON. 5 we have the receipt of fern-feed,-] Fern is one of thofe plants which have their feed on the back of the leaf fo fmall as to escape the fight. Thofe who perceived that fern was propagated by femination, and yet could never see the feed, were much at a lofs for a folution of the difficulty; and as wonder always endeavours to augment itfelf, they afcribed to fernfeed many strange properties, fome of which the ruftick virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded. JOHNSON. This circumftance relative to fern-feed is alluded to in B. and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn. 66 had you Gyges' ring, 66 I had "No medicine, Sir, to go invisible, STEEVENS. Cham Cham. Nay, I think rather, you are more beholden to the night, than the fern-feed, for your walking invifible. Gads. Give me thy hand: thou fhalt have a share in our purchase, as I am a true man. Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a falfe thief. Gads. Go to; 7 Homo is a common name to all men.-Bid the oftler bring my gelding out of the ftable. Farewell, you muddy knave. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The road by Gads-hill. Enter prince Henry, Poins, and Peto. Poins. Come, shelter, shelter. I have removed Falstaff's horfe, and he frets like a gumm'd velvet. P. Henry. Stand close. Enter Falstaff. Fal. Poins! Poins! and be hang'd, Poins! P. Henry. Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rafcal; what a brawling doft thou keep? Fal. What, Poins! Hal! P. Henry. He is walk'd up to the top of the hill; I'll go feek him. 6 Purchase,-] Is the term used in law for any thing not inherited but acquired. JOHNSON. in our purchase,-] Purchafe was anciently the cant term for ftolen goods. So in Henry V. act 3. They will fteal any thing, and call it purchase.” So Chaucer, 7 "And robbery is holde purchase." STEEVENS. Homo is a name, &c.] Gads-hill had promifed as he was a true man, the chamberlain wills him to promise rather as a falfe thief; to which Gads-hill anfwers, that though he might have reafon to change the word true, he might have spared man, for homo is a name common to all men, and among others to thieves. JOHNSON. Fal. Fal. I am accurft to rob in that thief's company: the rafcal hath remov'd my horse, and ty'd him, I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the fquare further afoot, I fhall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forfworn his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty year, and yet I am bewitch'd with the rogue's company. If the rafcal have not given me 9 medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd; it could not be elfe; I have drank medicines. Poins! Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto! I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as to drink, to turn true-man, and to leave thefe rogues, I am the verieft varlet that ever chew'd with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threefcore and ten miles afoot with me; and the ftony-hearted villains know it well enough. A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true one to another! [they whistle.] Whew!-a plague upon you all! Give me my horfe, you rogues; give me my horfe, and be hang'd. P. Henry. Peace, ye fat-guts! lye down; lay thine ear close to the ground, and lift if thou canst hear the tread of travellers. Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flefh fo far four foot by the fquare-] The thought is humourous, and alludes to his bulk: infinuating, that his legs being four foot afunder, when he advanced four foot, this put together made four foot square. WARBURTON. I am in doubt whether there is fo much humour here as is fufpected: Four foot by the fquare is probably no more than four foot by a rule. JOHNSON. 9 medicines to make me love him,-] Alluding to the vulgar notion of love-porder. JOHNSON. rob a foot further.] This is only a flight error, which yet has run through all the copies. We fhould read rub a foot. So we now fay rub on. JOHNSON. Why may it not mean, I will not go a foot further to rob? STEEVENS. afoot |