great oneyers; fuch as can hold in; fuch as will ftrike fooner than fpeak, and fpeak fooner than drink,

when the sheriff makes up his accounts for iffues, amerciaments, and mefne profits, to fet upon his head o. ni. which denotes oneratur nifi habeat fufficientem exonerationem: he thereupon becomes the king's debtor, and the parties peravaile (as they are termed in law) for whom he answers, become his debtors, and are discharged as with refpect to the king.

To fettle accounts in this manner, is ftill called in the Exchequer to ony; and from hence Shakespeare feems to have formed the word onyers.-The Chamberlain had a little before mentioned, among the travellers whom he thought worth plundering, an officer of the Exchequer," a kind of auditor, one that hath abundance of charge too-God knows what." This interpretation. is further confirmed by what Gads-hill fays in the next scene: "There's money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the king's Exchequer." MALONE.

5

fuch as will ftrike 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 reafon 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 Speaking, drinking, and praying to do with one another? We should certainly read think in both places instead of drink; and then we have a very regular and humourous climax. They will frike fooner than speak; and fpeak 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.

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 fays, Speak fooner than think it cannot mean fuch as will go calmly to work without unnecessary violence, fuch as is ufed by long-staff ftrikers, for the following part will not fuit with this meaning; and though we fhould read by tranfpofition fuch as will speak fooner than frike, the climax will not proceed regularly. I must leave it as it is. JOHNSON.

Such as can hold in, may mean, fuch as can curb old-father antic the law, or fuch as will not blab. STEEVENS.

Turbervile's Book on Hunting, 1575, p. 37, mentions huntsmen on horseback to make young hounds "hold in and close" to the old

ones:

drink, and drink 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, fhe hold out water in foul way?

6

Gads. She will, fhe will; juftice hath liquor'd her. We steal as in a caftle7, cock-fure; we have the receipt of fern-feed, we walk invifible.

Cham.

ones: fo Gads-hill may mean, that he is joined with such companions as will hold in, or keep and stick close to one another, and fuch as are men of deeds, and not of words; and yet they love to talk and speak their mind freely better than to drink. TOLLET.

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.

7 as in a caftle;] This was once a proverbial phrase. So, in the Little French Lawyer of Beaumont and Fletcher : "That noble courage we have seen, and we

"Shall fight as in a caftle."

Perhaps Shakespeare means, we steal with as much fecurity as the ancient inhabitants of caftles, who had those strong holds to fly to for protection and defence against the laws. So, in K. Hen. VI. P. I. act III. fc. i:

8

"Yes, as an outlaw in a caftle keeps,

"And useth it to patronage his theft." STEEVENS.

we have the receipt of fern-feed,-] Fern is one of those plants which have their feed on the back of the leaf fo small as to efcape the fight. Those who perceived that fern was propagated by femination, and yet could never fee the feed, were much at a lofs for a folution of the difficulty; and as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they afcribed to fern-feed many strange properties, fome of which the rustick virgins have not yet forgot. ten or exploded. JOHNSON.

This circumstance relative to fern-feed is alluded to in B. and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn:

had you Gyges' ring,

"Or the herb that gives invifibility ?” Again, in B. Jonfon's New Inn:

I had

No

Cham. Nay, by my faith; I think, you are more beholden to the night, than to fern-feed, for your walking invifible.

Gads. Give me thy hand: thou fhalt have a fhare 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; Homo is a common name to all men.-Bid the oftler bring my gelding out of the ftable. Farewel, you muddy knave.

[Exeunt.

Poins. Come, fhelter, fhelter; I have remov'd Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gumm'd velvet. P. Henry. Stand close.

"No medicine, fir, to go invifible,

"No fern-feed in my pocket."

Again, in P. Holland's Tranflation of Pliny, b. xxvii. ch. 9: "Of ferne be two kinds, and they beare neither floure nor feed." STEEVENS.

:

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 III:

66

They will steal any thing, and call it purchase.". So, Chaucer:

"And robbery is holde purchase." STEEVENS.

Homo is a name &c.] Gads-hill had promised as he was a true man; the Chamberlain wills him to promife rather as a falfe thief; to which Gads-hill anfwers, that though he might have reafon to change the word true, he might have fpared man, for homo is a name common to all men, and among others to thieves. JOHNSON.

2

-like a gumm'd velvet.] This allufion we often meet with in the old comedies. So, in the Malecontent, 1606: "I'll come among you, like gum into taffata, to fret, fret." STEEVENS.

Enter

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.

Fal. I am accurft to rob in that thief's company: the rafcal hath remov'd my horfe, and ty'd him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the square further afoot, I fhall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'fcape 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 rascal have not given me 4 medicines to make me love him, I'll be hang'd; it could not be elfe; I have drunk medicines.-Poins!-Hal!-a plague upon you both!-Bardolph!-Peto!-I'll farve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as

3 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 so much humour here as is fufpected: Four foot by the fquare is probably no more than four foot by a rule. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson is certainly right. Bishop Corbet says in one of his poems:

"Some twelve foot by the fquare." FARMER.

All the old copies read by the Squire, which points out the etymology-efquierre, Fr. The fame phrafe occurs in the Winter's Tale: " not the worst of the three, but jumps twelve foot and a half by the fquare." STEEVENS.

4

medicines to make me love him,- ] Alluding to the vulgar notion of love-powder. JOHNSON.

5

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.

drink, to turn true man, and to leave these rogues, I am the verieft varlet that ever chew'd with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground, is threescore 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 flesh so far afoot again, for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye, to colt me thus?

6

P. Henry. Thou lieft, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Fal. I pr'ythee, good prince Hal, help me to my horfe; good king's fon.

7

P. Henry. Out, you rogue! fhall I be your oftler? Fal. Go, hang thyfelf in thy own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you all, and fung to filthy tunes, let a cup of fack be my poifon : When a jeft is fo forward, and afoot too!-I hate it.

6

to colt ] Is to fool, to trick; but the prince taking it in another fenfe, oppofes it by uncolt, that is, unhorfe.

JOHNSON.

In the first of these fenfes it is ufed by Nafhe, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596: "His mafter fretting and chaffing to be thus colted of both of them, &c." Again, in B. and Fletcher's Loyal Subject: What, are we bobb'd thus ftill? colted and carted?" STEEVENS.

7

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heir-apparent garters!] Alluding to the order of the garter, in which he was enrolled as beir-apparent. JOHNSON. Had this been the allufion, Shakespeare would have writtengarter, not-garters: but he must be very ingenious who could hang himfelf in one of thefe garters. "He may hang himself in his own garters," is a proverb in Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

Enter