hammer; come off and on fwifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket. And this fame halffac'd fellow Shadow, give me this man; he prefents no mark to the enemy; the foe-man may with as great aim level at the edge of a pen-knife. And, for a retreat, how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's taylor, run off? O give me the fpare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a 2 caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph. Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus. Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So; very well, go to; very good; exceeding good. O give me always a little, lean, old, chopp'd, 3 bald, fhot. Well faid, Wart; thou art a good fcab. Hold, there is a tefter for thee. Shal. He is not his craft-mafter; he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-End-Green, when I lay at Clement's-Inn (4 I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's fhow) favifter than be that gibbets on the brewer's bucket.] Swifter than he that carries beer from the vat to the barrel, in buckets hung upon a gibbet or beam croffing his fhoulders. JOHNSON. 2 3 caliver- A hand-gun. JOHNSON. bald, fhot.] Shot is ufed for shooter, one who is to fight by fhooting. JOHNSON. 4 (I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's fhow)-] The only intelligence I have gleaned of this worthy wight Sir Dagonet, is from Beaumont and Fletcher in their Knight of the Burning Peftle: 66 Boy. Befides, it will fhew ill-favouredly to have a grocer's prentice to court a king's daughter. "Cit. Will it fo, Sir? You are well read in histories; I pray you, what was Sir Dagonet? Was he not prentice to a grocer in London? Read the play of The Four Prentices of "London, where they tofs their pikes fo," &c. THEOBALD. The ftory of Sir Dagonet is to be found in La Mort d'Arthure, an old romance much celebrated in our author's time, or a little before it. "When papiftry," fays Afcham in his Schoolmafter," as a ftanding pool, overflowed all England, few books were read in our tongue faving certain books of chivalry, as "they faid, for paftime and pleafure; which books, as fome 66 fay, fhow) there was a little quiver fellow, and a' would manage you his piece thus: and he would about, and about, 66 "fay, were made in monafteries by idle monks. As one for example, La Mort d'Arthure." In this romance Sir Dagonet is king Arthur's focl. Shakespeare would not have fhewn his juftice capable of reprefenting any higher character. JOHNSON. Arthur's how feems to have been a theatrical representation made out of the old romance of Morte Arthure, the most popular one of our author's age. Sir Dagonet is king Arthur's fquire. Theobald remarks on this paffage, "The only intelligence "I have gleaned of this worthy knight (Sir Dagonet) is from "Beaumont and Fletcher, in their Knight of the Burning Peftle." The commentators on Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pefle have not obferved that the defign of that play is founded upon a comedy called The Four Prentices of London, with the Conqueft of Jerufalem; as it hath been diverfe Times acted at the Red Bull, by the Queen's Majefty's Servants. Written by Tho. Heywood, 1612. For as in Beaumont and Fletcher's play, a grocer in the Strand turns knight-errant, making his apprentice his fquire, &c. fo in Heywood's play four apprentices accoutre themfelves as knights, and go to Jerufalem in queft of adventures. One of them, the most important character, is a goldfmith, another a grocer, another a mercer, and a fourth an haberdasher. But Beaumont and Fletcher's play, though founded upon it, contains many fatyrical ftrokes againft Heywood's comedy; the force of which is entirely loft to those who have not feen that comedy. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's prologue, or first scene, a citizen is introduced declaring that, in the play, he "will "have a grocer, and he fhall do admirable things.' Again, act i. fcene 1. Rafe fays, "Amongst all the worthy "books of atchievements, I do not call to mind that I have yet "read of a grocer-errant: I will be the faid knight. Have you heard of any that hath wandered unfurnished of his fquire and dwarf? My elder brother Tim fhall be my trusty squire, "and George my dwarf." 66 In the following paffage the allufion to Heywood's comedy is demonftrably manifeft, act iv. fcene 1. "Bay. It will fhew ill-favouredly to have a grocer's prentice court a king's daughter. "Cit. Will it fo, Sir? You are well read in hiftories; I pray you who was Sir Dagonet? Was he not prentice to a grocer in London? Read the play of The Four Prentices, "where they tofs their pikes fo." about, and come you in, and come you in; rah, tab, tab, would he fay; bounce, would he fay; and away again would he go, and again would he come. I fhall never fee fuch a fellow. Fal. Thefe fellows will do well, mafter Shallow. God keep you, mafter Silence: I will not use many words with you: fare you well, gentlemen both. I thank you; I must a dozen mile to-night. Bardolph, give the foldiers coats. Shal. Sir John, heaven bless you, and profper your affairs, and fend us peace! As you return, vifit my house. Let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure, I will with you to the court. Fal. I would you would, mafter Shallow. Shal. Go to; I have spoke at a word. Fare you [Exeunt Shal. and Sit. well. Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. On, Bardolph; lead the men away. As I return, I will fetch off thefe juftices. I do fee the bottom of justice Shallow. Lord, lord, how fubject we old men are to this vice of lying! This fame ftarv'd justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth, and the feats he hath done 5 about Turnbull-street and In Heywood's comedy, Euftace the grocer's prentice is introduced courting the daughter of the king of France; and in the frontispiece the four prentices are reprefented in armour tilting with javelins. Immediately before the last quoted fpeeches we have the following inftances of allufion. "Cit. Let the Sophy of Perfia come, and christen him a "child. "Boy. Believe me, Sir, that will not do fo well; 'tis flat; "it has been before at the Red Bull." A circumftance in Heywood's comedy; which, as has been already specified, was acted at the Red Bull. Beaumont and Fletcher's play is pure burlefque. Heywood's is a mixture of the droll and ferious, and was evidently intended to ridicule the reigning fashion of reading romances. WARTON. 5 about Turnbull-ftreet;] In an old comedy call'd Ram-alley, or Merry Tricks, this ftrect is mentioned again : Sir, get you gone, "You swaggering, cheating, Turnbull-street rogue." Nash, and every third word a lie, duer paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's-Inn, like a man made after fupper of a cheeseparing. When he was naked, he was for all the world like a forked radish, with a head fantastically carv'd upon it with a knife. He was fo forlorn, that his dimenfions to any thick fight were invifible. He was the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a monkey; and the whores called him Mandrake. He came ever in the rere-ward of the fafhion; and fung those tunes to the over-fcutcht hufwives that he heard the carmen whistle, and fware they were his Fancies, or 8 Nafh, in Pierce Pennileffe his Supplication, commends the fifters of Turnbull-freet to the patronage of the devil. In The Inner Temple Mafque, by Middleton, 1619, ""Tis in your charge to pull down bawdy-houses, 66 "And deface Turnbull." 66 Again, in Middleton's comedy, called Any Thing for a quiet Life; a French bawd fays, J'ay une fille qui parle un peu Franç is, elle converfera avec vous, a la Fleur de Lys, "en Turnbull-ftreet." 66 Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady "Here "has been fuch a hurry, fuch a din, fuch difmal drinking, fwearing, &c. we have all liv'd in a perpetual Turnbullftrect." Again, in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, 66 this my lady dear, "I ftole her from her friends in Turnbull-ftreet." Turnbull or Turnmill Street is near Cow-crofs, Weft Smithfield. STEEVENS. 6 —were invifible.] The folio and quarto read, by an apparent error of the prefs, invincible. Mr. Rowe first made the neceffary alteration. STEEVENS. 7 over-fcutcht] That is whipt, carted. POPE. I rather think that the word means dirty or grimed. The word bufwives agrees better with this fenfe. Shallow crept into mean houfes, and boafted his accomplishments to dirty women. JoHNS. The explanation of either commentator is fomewhat difputable. Ray, among his north country words, fays, indeed, that an over-fwitch'd hufwife is a ftrumpet. Over-fcutch'd, I believe, is derived from fomething more ancient than either whips, carts, or the fumus lupanaris. STEEVENS. 8 Fancies, or bis Goodnights.] Fancies and Good- nights were the titles of little poems. 2 449 his Goodnights. 9 And now is this vice's dagger become a fquire, and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt, as if he had been fworn brother to him: and I'll be fworn, he never faw him but once in the Tiltyard; and then he burst his head for crouding among the marshal's men. I faw it; and told John of Gaunt he beat his own name: for you might have trufs'd him, and all his apparel, into an eelfkin; the cafe of a treble hoboy was a manfion for him-a court:-and now hath he land and beeves. Well; I will be acquainted with him, if I return : and it fhall go hard but I will make him a 3 philofopher's two ftones to me. 4 If the young dace be a bait 9 And now is this vice's dagger] By vice here the poet means that droll character in the old plays (which I have feveral times mentioned in the courfe of thefe notes) equipped with affes ears and a wooden dagger. It was very fatirical in Falitaff to compare Shallow's activity and impertinence to fuch a machine as a wooden dagger in the hands and management of a buffoon. THEOBALD. 1 he burst his head. -] Thus the folio and quarto. The modern editors read broke. To break and to burst were, in our poet's time, fynonimoufly ufed. Thus B. Jonfon, in his Poetafter, tranflates the following paffage in Horace, fracta pereuntes cufpide Gallos." "The lances burft in Gallia's flaughter'd forces." So in The Old Legend of Sir Bevis of Hampton, 2 "But Syr Bevis fo hard him thruft, that his fhoulder"bone he burft." STEEVENS. beat his own name :] That is, beat gaunt, a fellow fo flender that his name might have been guunt. JOHNSON. 3 -philofopher's two stones -] One of which was an univerfal medicine, and the other a tranfmuter of bafer metals into gold. WARBURTON. I believe the commentator has refined this paffage too much. A philofopher's two ftones is only more than the philofopher's ftone. The universal medicine was never, fo far as I know, conceived to be a ftone before the time of Butler's ftone. JOHNSON. 4 If the young dace] That is, If the pike may prey upon the dace, if it be the law of nature that the ftronger may feize upon the weaker, Falstaff may, with great propriety, devour Shallow. JOHNSON. VOL. V. Ff for |