FAL. A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue blanket. in a DOL. Do, if thou darest for thy heart: if thou dost, I'll canvas thee between a pair of sheets". Enter Musick. PAGE. The musick is come, sir. FAL. Let them play ;-Play, sirs.-Sit on my knee, Doll. A rascal bragging slave! the rogue fled from me like quicksilver. DOL. I' faith, and thou followedst him like a church. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave fighting o' days, 7 — I'll CANVAS thee between a pair of SHEETS.] This phrase occurs in the 12th Mery Ieste of the Widow Edyth, 1573: 66 Hore, hore, by coks blood euen here, 'Sayd Cotes, and it were not for shame, "I should canvas thee, and make thee lame." STEEVENS. Doll's meaning here is sufficiently clear. There is however an allusion which might easily escape notice, to the material of which coarse sheets were formerly made. So, in the MS. Account-book of Mr. Philip Henslow, which has been already quoted: "7 Maye, 1594. Lent goody Nalle upon a payre of canvas sheates, for v s.' MALONE. 8 — little TIDY BARTHOLOMEW BOAR PIG,] For tidy, Sir T. Hanmer reads tiny; but they are both words of endearment, and equally proper. Bartholomew boar-pig is a little pig made of paste, sold at Bartholomew fair, and given to children for a fairing. JOHNSON. Tidy has two significations, timely and neat. In the first of these senses, I believe, it is used in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: "I myself have given good, tidie lambs." STEEVens. From Ben Jonson's play of Bartholomew Fair, we learn, that it was the custom formerly to have booths in Bartholomew Fair, in which pigs were dressed and sold, and to these it is probable the allusion is here, and not to the pigs of paste mentioned by Dr. Johnson. The practice of roasting pigs at Bartholomew Fair continued until the beginning of the last century, if not later. It is mentioned in Ned Ward's London Spy, 1697. When about the year 1708 some attempts were made to limit the duration of the fair to three days, a poem was published entitled The Pig's Petition and foining o' nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven? Enter behind, Prince HENRY and POINs, disguised like Drawers. FAL. Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death's head9: do not bid me remember mine end. against Bartholomew Fair, &c. See Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, 1780, vol. xii. p. 419. Tidy, I apprehend, means only fat, and in that sense it was certainly sometimes used. See an old translation of Galateo of Manners and Behaviour, bl. 1. 1578, p. 77: "and it is more proper and peculiar speache to say, the shivering of an ague, than to call it the colde; and flesh that is tidie to terme it rather fat than fulsome." REED. Again, in Gawin Douglas's translation of the 5th Æneid: "And als mony swine and tydy qwyis." STEEVENS. See also D'Avenant's burlesque Verses on a long Vacation, written about 1630: "Now London's chief on saddle new "Rides into fair of Barthol'mew ; "Till female with great belly call," &c. Coles, whose Dictionary explains many of Shakspeare's words, interprets tidy by dapper, habilis, agilis; for dapper, he gives us homunculus agilis, animosus. And this I believe is the meaning here. Doll meant to praise Falstaff's nimbleness and agility in fighting o' days and foining o' nights. MALONE. 9 like a DEATH'S HEAD;] It appears from the following passage in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, 1605, that it was the custom for the bawds of that age to wear a death's head in a ring, very probably with the common motto, memento mori. Cocledemoy, speaking of some of these, says: as for their death, how can it be bad, since their wickedness is always before their eyes, and a death's head most commonly on their middle finger." 66 Again, in Massinger's Old Law: "-sell some of my cloaths to buy thee a death's head, and put it upon thy middle finger: your least considering bawds do so much." Again, in Northward Hoe, 1607 : " as if I were a bawd, no ring pleases me but a death's head." On the Stationers' books, Feb. 21, 1582, is entered a ballad intitled Remember thy End. STEEVENS. DOL. Sirrah, what humour is the prince of? FAL. A good shallow young fellow he would have made a good pantler, he would have chipped bread well. DOL. They say, Poins has a good wit. FAL. He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit is as thick as Tewksbury mustard'; there is no more conceit in him, than is in a mallet2. DOL. Why does the prince love him so then? FAL. Because their legs are both of a bigness; and he plays at quoits well; and eats conger and fennel; and drinks off candles' ends for flap-dragons; and rides the wild mare with the boys* ; Falstaff's allusion, I should have supposed, was to the death's head, and motto on hatchments, grave-stones, and the like.— Such a ring, however, as Mr. Steevens describes, but without any inscription, being only brass, is in my possession. RITSON. Tewksbury mustard:] Tewksbury is a market town in the county of Gloucester, formerly noted for mustard-balls made there, and sent into other parts. GREY. 2 in a MALLET.] So, in Milton's Prose Works, 1738, vol. i. p. 330: "Though the fancy of this doubt be as obtruse and sad as any mallet." TOLLET. 3 eats CONGER and FENNEL; and drinks off CANDLES' ENDS for FLAP-DRAGONS;] Conger with fennel was formerly regarded as a provocative. It is mentioned by Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair: " like a long-laced conger with green fennel in the joll of it." And in Philaster, one of the ladies advises the wanton Spanish prince to abstain from this article of luxury. - Greene likewise, in his Quip for an upstart Courtier, calls fennel "women's weeds,"-fit generally for that sex, sith while they are maidens they wish wantonly." The qualification that follows, viz. that of swallowing candles' ends by way of flap-dragons, seems to indicate no more than that the Prince loved him, because he was always ready to do any thing for his amusement, however absurd or unnatural. Nash, in his Pierce Pennylesse his Supplication to the Devil, advises hard drinkers "6 to have some shooing horne to pull on their wine, as a rasher on the coals, or a red herring; or to stir it about with a candle's end to make it taste the better," &c. And Ben Jonson, in his News from the Moon, &c. a masque, and jumps upon joint-stools; and swears with a good grace; and wears his boot very smooth, like unto the sign of the leg3; and breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories, and such other gambol speaks of those who eat candles' ends, as an act of love and gallantry; and Beaumont and Fletcher, in Monsieur Thomas: -carouse her health in cans, and candles' ends." In Rowley's Match at Midnight, 1633, a captain says, that his corporal was lately choaked at Delf by swallowing a flapdragon." Again, in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, 1605: "— have I not been drunk to your health, swallowed flapdragons, eat glasses, drank urine, stabbed arms, and done all the offices of protested gallantry for your sake?" Again, in The Christian turn'd Turk, 1612: "—as familiarly as pikes do gudgeons, and with as much facility as Dutchmen swallow flapdragons." STEEVENS. A flap-dragon is some small combustible body, fired at one end, and put afloat in a glass of liquor. It is an act of a toper's dexterity to toss off the glass in such a manner as to prevent the flap-dragon from doing mischief. JOHNSON. and rides the wild MARE with the boys ;] "Riding the wild mare," is another name for the childish sport of see-saw, or what the French call bascule and balançoire. Douce. 5-wears his boot very smooth, like unto the sign of the leg ;] The learned editor of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, 1775, observes, that such is part of the description of a smart abbot, by an anonymous writer of the thirteenth century: "Ocreas habebat in cruribus, quasi innatæ essent, sine plicâ porrectas." MS. Bod. James, n. 6, p. 121. STEEVENS. 6 -DISCREET Stories ;] We should read-indiscreet. WARBURTON. I suppose by discreet stories is meant what suspicious masters and mistresses of families would call prudential information; i. e. what ought to be known, and yet is disgraceful to the teller: Among the virtues of John Rugby, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Mrs. Quickly adds, that "he is no tell-tale, no breedbate." STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton would most unnecessarily read indiscreet. Mr. Steevens supposes that "by discreet stories is meant what suspicious masters and mistresses of families would call prudential information; i. e. what ought to be known, and yet is disgraceful to the teller." But Poins, of whom Falstaff is speaking, had no masters or mistresses; and if it be recollected with what sort of faculties he hath, that show a weak mind and an able body, for the which the prince admits him : for the prince himself is such another; the weight of a hair will turn the scales between their avoirdupois. P. HEN. Would not this nave of a wheel' have his ears cut off? POINS. Let's beat him before his whore. P. HEN. Look, if the withered elder hath not his poll clawed like a parrot. POINS. Is it not strange, that desire should so many years outlive performance? FAL. Kiss me, Doll. P. HEN. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! what says the almanack to that? companions he was likely to associate, Falstaff's meaning will appear to be, that he excites no censure for telling them modest stories; or in plain English that he tells them nothing but immodest ones. DOUCE. 71 NAVE of a WHEEL-] Nave and knave are easily reconciled, but why nave of a wheel?' I suppose from his roundness. He was called round man, in contempt, before. JOHNSON. So, in the play represented before the king and queen in Hamlet: 8 - "Break all the spokes and fellies of her wheel, STEEVENS. his POLL CLAWED like a parrot.] This custom, we may suppose, was not peculiar to Falstaff, especially as it occurred among the French, to whom we were indebted for most of our artificial gratifications. So, in La Venerie, &c. by Jaques de Fouilloux, &c. Paris, 4to. 1585: "Le seigneur doit auoir sa petite charette, là où il sera dedans, auec sa fillette, aagée de seize a dix sept ans, la quelle lui frottera la teste par les chemins." A wooden cut annexed, represents this operation on an old man, who lies along in his carriage, with a girl sitting at his head. STEEVENS. 9 Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction !] This was, indeed, a prodigy. The astrologers, says Ficinus, remark, that Saturn and Venus are never conjoined. JOHNSON. |