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furgery bravely; to venture upon 5 the charg'd chambers bravely

Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!

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Hoft. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to fome difcord: you are both, in good truth, as rheumatic 7 as two dry toafts; you cannot bear with one another's confirmities. What the good-jer! one must bear, and that must be you : you are the weaker veffel, as they fay, the emptier [To Dol. Dol. Can a weak empty veffel bear fuch a huge full hogfhead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bour

veffel.

I believe Falftaff gives thefe fplendid names as we give that of carbuncle, to fomething very different from gems and ornaments: but the paffage deserves not a laborious research. JOHNSON.

Your brooches, pearls, and orches,] Is a line in an old fong,. but I forget where I met with it. Dr. Johnfon may be fupported in his conjecture by a paffage in The Widow's Tears, a comedy, by Chapman, 1612,

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As many

aches in his bones as there are ouches " in his fkin." STEEVENS.

the charg'd chambers-] To understand this quibble, it is neceffary to fay, that a chamber fignifies not only an apartment, but a piece of ordnance.

So in The Fleire, a comedy, 1610,

he has taught my ladies to make fireworks; they " can deal in chambers already, as well as all the gunners that "make them fly off with a train at Lambeth, when the mayor " and aldermen land at Westminster." STEEVENS.

6 — rheumatic-] She would fay fplenetic. HANMER.

I believe the means what she says. So Jonfon's Every Man in his Humour,

"Cob. Why, I have my rewme, and can be angry." So in Henry V.

"He did in fome fort handle women; but then he was "rheumatic," &c.

Rheumatic, in the cant language of the times, fignified capricious, humourfome. In this fenfe it appears to be used in many of the old plays. STEEVENS.

7-as two dry toafts;-] Which cannot meet but they grate one another. JOHNSON.

deaux ftuff in him; you have not feen a hulk better ftuff'd in the hold. Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack.-Thou art going to the wars, and whether I fhall ever fee thee again, or no, there is no body cares.

Re-enter Drawer.

Draw. Sir, 7 ancient Piftol is below, and would speak with you.

Dol. Hang him, fwaggering rafcal! let him not come hither: it is the foul-mouth'dft rogue in England.

Hoft. If he fwagger, let him not come here. No, by my faith, I muft live amongst my neighbours; I'll no fwaggerers. I am in good name and fame with the very beft. Shut the door; there comes no fwaggerers here: I have not liv'd all this while to have fwaggering now. Shut the door, I pray you.

Fal. Doft thou hear, hoftefs?

Hoft. Pray you pacify yourfelf, Sir John; there comes no fwaggerers here.

Fal. Doft thou hear?-it is mine ancient.

Hoft. Tilly-fally, Sir John, never tell me your ancient fwaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before master Tifick, the deputy, the other day: and, as he faid to me,-it was no longer ago than Wednesday laft, - Neighbour Quickly, fays he; - mafter Dumb, our minifter, was by then; - Neighbour 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 honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive. Receive, fays he, no fwaggering companions.There comes none here. You would blefs you to hear what he faid.-No, I'll no fwaggerers.

7 ancient Piftol-] Is the fame as enfign Piftol. Falftaff was captain, Peto lieutenant, and Piftol enfign, or ancient.

JOHNSON.

Fal.

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Fal. He's no fwaggerer, hoftefs; a tame cheater, he: you may stroak him as gently as a puppy-greyhound: he will not fwagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any fhew of refiftance. Call him up, drawer.

Hoft. Cheater, call you him? 9 I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater: but I do not love fwaggering, by my troth; I am the worse when one fays, fwagger. Feel, mafters, how I fhake; look you, I warrant you.

Dol. So you do, hostess.

Hoft. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an if it were an afpen leaf. I cannot abide fwaggerers.

Enter Piftol, Bardolph, and Page.

Pist. Save you, Sir John!

Fal. Welcome, Ancient Pistol.

Here, Pistol, I

charge you with a cup of fack; do you discharge upon mine hoftess.

Pift. I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets.

Fal. She is piftol-proof, Sir; you fhall hardly offend her.

Hoft. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bullets: I will drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure. I—

Pift. Then to you, mistress Dorothy; I will charge you.

Dol. Charge me! I fcorn you, fcurvy companion!

8 a tame cheater,-] Gamefter and cheater were, in Shakespeare's age, fynonimous terms. Ben Jonfon has an epigram on Captain Hazard the cheater. STEEVENS.

9 I will bar no honeft man my houfe, nor no cheater:-] The humour of this confifts in the woman's mistaking the title of cheater (which our ancestors gave to him whom we now, with better manners, call a gamefler) 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.

VOL. V.

Dd

What,

What, you poor, bafe, rafcally, cheating, lack-linen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue, away! I am meat for your mafter!

Pift. I know you, mistress Dorothy.

Dol. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy bung, away! By this wine, I'll thruft my knife in your mouldy chaps, if you play the faucy cuttle with me. Away, you bottle-ale rafcal! you basket-hilt ftale jugler, you!-Since when, I pray you, Sir?—2 what, with two 3 points on your fhoulder? much!

Pift. I will murther your ruff for this.

Fal. 4 No more, Piftol; I would not have you go off here. Discharge yourself of our company, Pistol. Hoft. No, good captain Piftol; not here, fweet captain.

Dol. Captain! thou abominable damn'd cheater, art thou not asham'd to be call'd captain? If captains were of my mind, they would truncheon you out of

if you play the faucy cuttle with me.] It appears from Greene's Art of Conny-catching, that cuttle and cuttle-boung were the cant terms for the knife with which the sharpers of that age cut out the bottoms of purfes, which were then worn hanging at the girdle. Or the allufion may be to the foul language thrown out by Pistol, which the means to compare with fuch filth as the fcuttle-fifb ejects. STEEVENS.

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what, with two points on your shoulder? much!] Much was a common expreffion of disdain at that time, of the fame fense with that more modern one, Marry come up. The Oxford Editor, not apprehending this, alters it to march. WARBURTON. I cannot but think the emendation right. This use of much I do not remember; nor is it here proved by any example. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton is right. Much! is ufed thus in B. Jonson's Volpone,

But you shall eat it. Much!"

Again in Every Man in his Humour,

"Much, wench! or much, fon!"

Much is frequently used as an expreffion of disdain.

STEEVENS.

3 points-] As a mark of his commiffion. JOHNSON.

4 No more, Pifiol, &c.] This is from the old edition of 1600. POPE.

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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 bawdy-houfe?-He a captain! hang him, rogue! 5 He lives upon mouldy ftew'd prunes and dry'd cakes. A captain! thefe villains will make the word captain 6 as odious as the word occupy; which was an excellent 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 Dol.

Pift. Not I. I tell thee what, corporal Bardolph, -I could tear her :-I'll be reveng'd on her. Page. Pray thee, go down.

Pift. I'll fee her damn'd firft; to Pluto's damn'd lake, to the infernal deep; where Erebus and tortures vile alfo. 7 Hold hook and line, fay I; down! down, dogs! down, faitors! have we not Hiren here?

Hoft.

5 He lives upon mouldy fter'd prunes and dry'd cakes.] That is, he lives at other mens coft, but is not admitted to their tables, and gets only what is too ftale to be eaten in the house.

JOHNSON.

It means rather, that he lives on the refufe provisions of bawdy-houses and paftry-cooks fhops. Stew'd prunes, when mouldy, were perhaps formerly fold at a cheap rate, as ftale pyes 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 first part of this hiftorical play. STEEVENS.

as odious as the word occupy ; -] So B. Jonfun

in his Difcoveries, "Many out of their own obfcene apprehenfions refuse proper and fit words; as, occupy, nature,' &c. STEEVENS.

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1 Hold book and line,] Thefe words are introduced in ridicule, by B. Jonfon in The Cafe is alter'd, 1609. STEEVENS. have we not Hiren here ?] I have been told, that the words-bave we not Hiren here, are taken from a very old play, entitled, Hiren, or the Fayre Greeke, and are spoken by Mahomet when his Baffas upbraided him with having loft fo many provinces through an attachment to effeminate pleafures. Pistol, with fome humour, is made to repeat them before Fal

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