6 Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this fack too: there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a coward is worse than a cup of fack with lime in it; a villainous coward.-Go thy ways, .. old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a fhotten herring. There live not three good men unhang'd in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old, God help, the while! a bad world, I Shall I offer a bolder alteration? In the oldest copy the contested part of this paffage appears thus: -at the fweet tale of the fonnes. The author might have written pitiful-hearted Titan, who melted at the feet tale of his fon, i. e. of Phaeton, who by a fine ftory won on the eafy nature of his father fo far, as to obtain from him the guidance of his own chariot for a day. STEEVENS. 6 here's lime in this fack too: there is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man:-] Sir Richard Hawkins, one of queen Elizabeth's fea-captains, in his voyages, p. 379, fays, Since the Spanish facks have been common in our taverns, "which for confervation are mingled with lime in the making, "our nation complains of calentures, of the flone, the dropiy, "and infinite other diflempers, not heard of before this wine "came into frequent ufe. Befides, there is no year that it "wafleth not two millions of crowns of our fubftance by conveyance into foreign countries." This latter, indeed, was a fubitantial evil. But as to lime's giving the ftone, this fure must be only the good old man's prejudice; fince in a wifer age by far, an old woman made her fortune by fhewing us that lime was a cure for the ftone. Sir John Falstaff, were he alive again, would fay fhe deferved it, for fatisfying us that we might drink fack in fafety: but that liquor has been long fince out of date. I think Lord Clarendon, in his Apology, tells us, That fweet "wines before the Refloration were fo much to the English "tafte, that we engroffed the whole product of the Canaries; "and that not a pipe of it was expended in any other country "in Europe." But the banished cavaliers brought home with them the gout for French wines, which has continued ever fince; and from whence, perhaps, we may more truly date the greater frequency of the flone. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton does not confider that fack in Shakespeare is moft probably thought to mean what we now call fberry, which when it is drank is ftill drank with fugar. JOHNSON. fay! fay!-7 I would I were a weaver; I could fing all manner of fongs.-A plague on all cowards, I fay ftill! P. Henry. How now, wool-fack, what mutter you? Fal. A king's fon! if I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy fubjects afore thee like a flock of wild geefe, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You prince of Wales! P. Henry. Why, you whorfon round man! what's the matter? Fal. Are you not a coward? answer me to that, and Poins there? [To Poins. P. Henry. Ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, I'll stab thee. 7 I would I were a weaver; I could fing pfalms, &c.] In the perfecutions of the protestants in Flanders under Philip II. those who came over into England on that occafion, brought with them the woollen manufactory. Thefe were Calvinitts, who were always diftinguished for their love of pfalmody. WARBURTON. In the first editions the paffage is read thus, I could fing pfalms or any thing. In the firft folio thus, I could fing all manner of Jongs. Many expreffions bordering on indecency or profaneness are found in the first editions, which are afterwards corrected. The reading of the three last editions, I could fing pfalms and all manner of fongs, is made without authority out of different copies. I believe nothing more is here meant than to allude to the practice of weavers, who, having their hands more employed than their minds, amufe themfelves frequently with fongs at the loom. The knight, being full of vexation, wishes he could fing to divert his thoughts. Weavers are mentioned as lovers of mufic in The Merchant of Venice. Perhaps to fing like a weaver" might be proverbial. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton's obfervation may be confirmed by the following paffages. Ben Jonfon makes Cutberd tell Morofe that "the parfon caught his cold by fitting up late, and finging catches with cloth-workers." So in Jasper Maine's City Match, 1639, "Like a Geneva weaver in black, who left Fal. I call the coward! I'll fee thee damn'd ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound I could run as faft as thou canft. You are strait enough in the fhoulders, you care not who fees your back. Call you that backing of your friends? a plague upon fuch backing! give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of fack: I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day. P. Henry. O villain! thy lips are scarce wip'd fince thou drunk'ft laft. Fal. All's one for that. A plague on all cowards, ftill fay I! P. Henry. What's the matter? [He drinks. Fal. What's the matter! here be four of us have ta'en a thousand pound this morning. P. Henry. Where is it, Jack? where is it? Fal. Where is it? taken from us, it is. A hundred upon poor four of us. P. Henry. What a hundred, man? Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-fword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have efcap'd by miracle. I am eight times thruft through the doublet; four through the hofe; my buckler cut through and through, my fword hack'd like a hand-faw, ecce fignum. [Shows his fword.] I never dealt better fince I was a man.--All would not do. A plague on all cowards! -Let them fpeak; if they speak more or lefs than truth, they are villains, and the fons of darkness. 8 my buckler cut through and through,-] It appears from the old comedy of The two angry Women of Abington, that this method of defence and fight was in Shakespeare's time growing out of fashion. The play was published in 1599, and one of the characters in it makes the following obfervation: "I fee by this dearth of good swords, that fword-and-bucklerfight begins to grow out. I am forry for it; I fhall never fee good manhood again. If it be once gone, this poking fight of rapier and dagger will come up then. Then a tall man, and a good fword-and-buckler man, will be fpitted like a cat, or a coney: then a boy will be as good as a man,” &c. STEEVENS. P. Henry P. Henry. Speak, Sirs, how was it? Peto. No, no, they were not bound. Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them, or I am a Jew elfe, an Ebrew Jew. Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men fet upon us Fal. And unbound the reft, and then came in the other. P. Henry. What, fought you with them all? Fal. All? I know not what ye call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legg'd creature. Poins. Pray heaven, you have not murther'd fome of them. Fal. Nay, that's past praying for. I have pepper'd two of them: two, I am fure, I have pay'd; two rogues in buckram fuits. I tell thee what, Hal; if I tell thee a lie, fpit in my face, call me horse. Thou know'ft my old ward:-here I lay, aud thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at meP. Henry. What four? thou faidft but two, even now. Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four. Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. Fal. Thefe four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus. P. Henry. Seven! why, there were but four even now. Fal. In buckram. Poins. Ay, four, in buckram fuits. Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. more anon, Fal Fal. Doft thou hear me, Hal? P. Henry. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack. Fal. Do fo, for it is worth the lift'ning to. Thefe nine in buckram, that I told thee of P. Henry. So, two more already. Fal. 9 Their points being broken- Fal. Began to give me ground; but I follow'd me clofe, came in foot and hand; and, with a thought, feven of the eleven I pay'd. P. Henry. O monftrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! 2 Fal. But as the devil would have it, three mif-begot ten knaves, in Kendal green, came at my back, and let drive at me; (for it was fo dark, Hal, that thou couldft not fee thy hand.) P. Henry. Thefe lies are like the father that begets them; grofs as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, Their points being broken-Down fell bis hofe.] To underftand Poins's joke, the double meaning of point must be remembered, which fignifies the sharp end of a weapon, and the lace of. a garment. The cleanly phrafe for letting down the hofe, ad levandum alvum, was to untrufs a point. JOHNSON. 2 Kendal-] Kendal in Weftmorland, as I have been told, is a place famous for dying cloths, &c. with feveral very bright colours. Kendal green is repeatedly mentioned in the old play of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601. "Off then I wish you with your Kendal green, Again, "Bateman of Kendall gave us Kendall green." Again, "Are full of outlaws, that, in Kendall green, "Follow the out-law'd earl of Huntington." Again, "Off then I wish you with your Kendall green." Again, "Then Robin will I wear thy Kendall green." STEEVENS. thou |