mine inn, but I fhall have my pocket pick'd? I have loft a feal-ring of my grandfather's, worth forty mark. Hoft. O, I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that the ring was copper. Fal. How! the prince is a Jack, a fneak-cup; and, -Shall I not take mine eafe in mine inn, but I shall have my pocket pick'd?] There is a peculiar force in thefe words. To take mine eafe in mine inne, was an ancient proverb, not very different in its application from that maxim: Every man's houfe is his castle;" for inne originally fignified a house or habitation. [Sax. inne, domus domicilium.] When the word inne began to change its meaning, and to be used to fignify a house of entertainment, the proverb, ftill continuing in force, was applied in the latter fenfe, as it is here used by Shakespeare; or perhaps Falstaff here humouroufly puns upon the word inne, in order to represent the wrong done him more strongly. In John Heywood's Works, imprinted at London 1598, quarto, bl. 1. is "a dialogue wherein are pleasantly contrived the number of all the effectual proverbs in our English tongue, &c. together with three hundred epigrams on three hundred proverbs.' ch. 6. is the following: "Refty welth willeth me the widow to winne, "To let the world wag, and take mine eafe in mine inne.” And among the epigrams is: [26. Of Eafe in an Inne.] "Thou takeft thine eafe in thine inne fo nye thee, "That no man in his inne can take ease by thee.” Otherwise : "Thou takeft thine ease in thine inne, but I fee, "Thine inne taketh neither ease nor profit by thee." In Now in the first of these diftichs the word inne is ufed in its ancient meaning, being spoken by a person who is about to marry a widow for the fake of a home, &c. In the two laft places, inne seems to be used in the sense it bears at prefent. PERCY. Gabriel Hervey, in a MS. note to Speght's Chaucer, fays: "Some of Heywood's epigrams are fuppofed to be the conceits and devices of pleasant fir Thomas More." Inne, for a habitation, or recefs, is frequently ufed by Spenfer and other ancient writers. So, in A World tofs'd at Tennis, 1620: "Thefe great rich men must take their eafe in their Inn." Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617: "The beggar Irus that haunted the palace of Penelope, would take his ease in his inne as well as the peeres of Ithaca." STEEVENS. if he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would fay fo. Enter Prince Henry, and Poins, marching; and Falstaff meets them, playing on his truncheon, like a fife. Fal. How now, lad? is the wind in that door, i'faith? muft we all march? Bard. Yea, two and two, Newgate-fashion. Hoft. My lord, I pray you, hear me. P. Henry. What fay'ft thou, mistress Quickly? How does thy husband? I love him well, he is an honeft ̧ man. Hoft. Good my lord, hear me. Fal. Pr'ythee, let her alone, and lift to me. P. Henry. What fay'ft thou, Jack? Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras, and had my pocket pick'd this houfe is turn'd bawdy-house, they pick pockets. P. Henry. What didft thou lofe, Jack? Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound a-piece, and a feal-ring of my grandfather's. P. Henry. A trifle, fome eight-penny matter. Hoft. So I told him, my lord; and I said, I heard your grace fay fo: And, my lord, he speaks moft vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd man as he is; and faid, he would cudgel you. P. Henry. What! he did not? Hoft. There's neither faith, truth, nor woman-hood in me else. Fal. There's no more faith in thee than in a stew'd prune; Newgate-fashion.] As prifoners are conveyed to Newgate, fastened two and two together. JOHNSON. There's no more faith in thee than in a few'd prune ; &c.] The propriety of these fimilies I am not fure that I fully understand A few'd prune has the appearance of a prune, but has no taste. A drawn fox, that is, an exenterated fox, has the form of a fox without 8 prune; nor no more truth in thee, than in a drawn fox; and for woman-hood, maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go. Hoft. without his powers. I think Dr. Warburton's explication wrong, which makes a drawn fox to mean, a fox often hunted; though to draw is a hunter's term for purfuit by the track. My interpretation makes the fox fuit better to the prune. These are very flender difquifitions, but such is the task of a commentator. JOHNSON. Dr. Lodge, in his pamphlet called Wit's Miferie, or the World's Madneffe, 1596, describes a bawd thus: "This is thee that laies wait at all the carriers for wenches new come up to London; and you fhall know her dwelling by a dish of few'd prunes in the window; and two or three fleering wenches fit knitting or fowing in her shop." In Meafure for Measure, act II. the male bawd excufes himself for having admitted Elbow's wife into his houfe, by faying: "that the came in great with child, and longing for fter'd prunes, which stood in a difh, &c." Slender, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, who apparently wishes to recommend himself to his miftrefs by a feeming propenfity to love as well as war, talks of having measured weapons with a fencing-mafter for a dish of flow'd prunes. In another old dramatic piece, entitled, If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612, a bravo enters with money, and fays: "This is the penfion of the ftewes, you need not untie it; 'tis ftew-money, fir, few'd-prune cafh, fir." Among the other fins laid to the charge of the once celebrated Gabriel Harvey, by his antagonist Nafh, "to be drunk with the firrop or liquor of few'd prunes," is not the least infisted on. In The Knave of Harts, a collection of fatyrical poems, 1612, a wanton knave is mentioned, as taking "Burnt wine, fter'd prunes, a punk to folace him.” In The Knave of Spades, another collection of the fame kind, 1611, is the following defcription of a wench inveigling a young man into her house : 46 He to his liquor falls, "While fhe unto her maids for cakes, "Stew'd prunes, and pippins, calls." So, in Every Woman in her Humour, a comedy, 1619: 64 To search my house! I have no varlets, no few'd prunes, no fhe fiery, &c." Again, in The Bride, a comedy by Nabbes, 1640:"-wenches at Tottenham-Court for fewed prunes and cheesecakes.' Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, P. II. :630: "Peace, two dishes of Bb 4 ftew'd Hoft. Say, what thing? what thing? 66 few'd prunes, a bawd and a pander!" Again, in Northward The paffages already quoted are fufficient to fhew that a dish of fiew'd prunes was not only the ancient defignation of a brothel, but the conftant appendage to it. From A Treatife on the Lues Venerea, written by W. Clowes, one of her majefty's furgeons, 1596, and other books of the fame kind, it appears that prunes were directed to be boiled in broth for thofe perfons already infected; and that both few'd prunes and roafted apples were commonly, though unfuccefsfully, taken by way of prevention. So much for the infidelity of few'd prunes. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens has fo fully difcuffed the fubject of stewed prunes, that one can add nothing but the price. In a piece called Banks's Bay Horfe in a Trance, 1595, we have "A ftock of wenches, fet up with their fewed prunes, nine for a tefter." FARMER. 7 a drawn fox ;] A drawn fox is a fox drawn over the ground to exercife the hounds. So, in B. and Fletcher's Tamer Tam'd: that drawn fox Morofo." I am not, however, confident that this explanation is right. It was formerly fuppofed that a fox, when drawn out of his hole, had the fagacity to counterfeit death, that he might thereby obtain an opportunity to efcape. For this information I am indebted to Mr. Tollet, who quotes Olaus Magnus, lib. xviii. cap. 39: Infuper fingit fe mortuam &c." This particular and many others relative to the fubtilty of the fox, have been tranflated by feveral ancient English writers. STEEVENS. 8 maid Marian may be &c.] Maid Marian is a man dressed like a woman, who attends the dancers of the morris. JOHNSON. In the ancient Songs of Robin Hood frequent mention is made of maid Marian, who appears to have been his concubine. I could quote many paffages in my old MS. to this purpose, but shall produce only one: Good Hoft. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou should'st know it; I am an honeft man's wife: and, fetting thy knighthood afide, thou art a knave to call me fo. Fal. Setting thy womanhood afide, thou art a beast to fay otherwise. Hoft. Say, what beast, thou knave thou? P. Henry. An otter, fir John? why an otter? "Good Robin Hood was living then, "Which now is quite forgot, And fo was fayre maid Marian, &c." PERCY. It appears from the old play of the Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601, that maid Marian was originally a name affumed by Matilda the daughter of Robert lord Fitzwater, while Robin Hood remained in a state of outlawry : "Next 'tis agreed (if therto fhee agree) "That faire Matilda henceforth change her name; "Mat. I am contented; reade on, little John: This lady was afterwards poifon'd by king John at Dunmow Priory, after he had made feveral fruitless attempts on her chastity. Drayton has written her Legend. Shakespeare speaks of maid Marian in her degraded state, when fhe was reprefented by a ftrumpet or a clown. See Figure 2 in the plate at the end of this play, with Mr. Tollet's obfervations on it. STEEVENS. Maid Marian feems to have been the lady of a Whitfun-ale, or morris-dance, The widow in fir William Davenant's Love and Honour, (p. 247.) fays: "I have been Miftrefs Marian in a Maurice ere now. Morris is, indeed, there fpelt wrong, the dance was not fo called from prince Maurice, but from the Spanish morifco, a dancer of the morris or moorish dance. HAWKINS. There is an old piece entitled, Old Meg of Herefordshire for a Mayd Marian, and Hereford Town for a Morris-dance: or 12 Morris-dancers in Herefordshire of 1200 Years old. Lond. 1609, quarto. It is dedicated to one Hall a celebrated Tabourer in that country. WARTON. Fal |