6 the caftle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? Fal. opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." This looks like declining a point that had been made an objection to him. I'll give a farther matter in proof, which feems almoft to fix the charge. I have read an old play, called, The famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, containing the honourable battle of Agincourt. The action of this piece commences about the 14th year of K. Henry the Fourth's reign, and ends with Henry the Fifth's marrying princefs Catharine of France. The fcene opens with prince Henry's robberies. Sir John Oldcastle is one of the gang, and called Jockie; and Ned and Gadhill are two other comrades. -From this old imperfect fketch, I have a fufpicion Shakespeare might form his two parts of Henry the Fourth, and his history of Henry the Fifth; and confequently it is not improbable, that he might continue the mention of fir John Oldcattle, till fome defcendants of that family moved queen Elizabeth to command him to change the name. THEOBALD. my old lad of the caftle: -] This alludes to the name Shakespeare first gave to this buffoon character, which was fir John Oldcastle; and when he changed the name he forgot to strike out this expreflion that alluded to it. The reafon of the change was this; one fir John Oldcastle having fuffered in the time of Henry the Fifth for the opinions of Wickliffe, it gave offence, and therefore the poet altered it to Falstaff, and endeavours to remove the fcandal in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. Fuller takes notice of this matter in his Church Hiftory:-" Stage-poets have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of fir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royfter, and a coward to boot. The beft is, fir John Falstaff hath relieved the memory of fir John Oldcastle, and of late is fubftituted buffoon in his place." Book iv. p. 168. But, to be candid, I believe there was no malice in the matter. Shakefpeare wanted a droll name to his character, and never confidered whom it belonged to: we have a like inftance in the Merry Wives of Windfor, where he calls his French quack, Caius, a name at that time very refpectable, as belonging to an eminent and learned phyfician, one of the founders of Caius College in Cambridge. WAR Burton. The propriety of this note the reader will find contested at the beginning of Henry V. Sir John Oldcastle was not a character ever introduced by Shakespeare, nor did he ever occupy the place of Falstaff. The play in which Oldcastle's name occurs, was not the work of our poet. Old lad is likewife a familiar compellation to be found in some of our Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy quips, and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin? P. Henry. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hoftefs of the tavern? our most ancient dramatic pieces. So, in the Trial of Treafure, 1567: "What, Inclination, old lad art thou there?" In the dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up &c. by T. Nash, 1598, old Dick of the caftle is mentioned. STEEVENS. Old lad of the caftle, is the fame with Old lad of Caftile, a Caftilian. Meres reckons Oliver of the caftle amongst his romances; and Gabriel Harvey tells us of "Old lads of the caftell with their rapping babble."-roaring boys.-This is therefore no argument for Falstaff's appearing first under the name of Oldcastle. There is however a paffage in a play called Amends for Ladies, by Field the player, 1639, which may feem to prove it, unless he confounded the different performances: "Did you never fee FARMER. "The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle, "Did tell you truly what this honour was?" 6-And is not a buff jerkin a moft fweet robe of durance?] To understand the propriety of the prince's anfwer, it must be remarked that the sheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff asks, whether his hoftefs is not a fweet wench, the prince afks in return, whether it will not be a fweet thing to go to prifon by running in debt to this fweet wench. JOHNSON. The following paffage, from the old play of Ram- Alley, may serve to confirm Dr. Johnfon's obfervation : "Look, I have certain goblins in buff jerkins, Again, in the Comedy of Errors, act IV : [Enter Serjeants. "A devil in an everlafting garment hath him, In Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607, I meet with a paffage which leads me to believe that a robe or fuit of durance was fome kind of lasting stuff, fuch as we call at preient, everlafting. A debtor, cajoling the officer who had just taken him up, fays: "Where did'st thou buy this buff? Let me not live but I will give thee a good fuit of durance. Wilt thou take my bond? &c. Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Varlet of velvet, my moccado villain, old heart of durance, my ftrip'd canvas fhoulders, and my perpetuana pander." Again, in the Three Ladies of London, 1584: "As the taylor that out of feven yards, itole one and a half of durance." STEEVENS. Fal. Well, thou haft call'd her to a reckoning, many a time and oft. P. Henry. Did I ever call thee to pay thy part? Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou haft paid all there. P. Henry. Yea, and elsewhere, fo far as my coin would ftretch; and, where it would not, I have us'd my credit. Fal. Yea, and fo us'd it, that, were it not here ap-. parent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, fweet wag, fhall there be gallows ftanding in England when thou art king? and refolution thus fobb'd as it is, with the rufty curb of old father antick the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. P. Henry. No; thou fhalt. Fal. Shall I? O'rare! By the Lord, 7 I'll be a brave judge. P. Henry. Thou judgeft falfe already: I mean, thou fhalt have the hanging of the thieves, and so become a rare hanginan. Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in fome fort it jumps with my humour, as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you. 7 P. Henry. For obtaining of suits? Fal. Yea, for obtaining of fuits; whereof the hang I'll be a brave judge.] This thought, like many others, is taken from the old play of Henry V : "Hen. V. Ned, as foon as I am king, the first thing I will do hall be to put my lord chief juftice out of office; and thou shalt be my lord chief juftice of England. "Ned. Shall I be lord chief justice? By gogs wounds, I'll be the braveft lord chief juftice that ever was in England." STEEVENS. For obtaining of fuits?] Suit, fpoken of one that attends at court, means a petition; ufed with respect to the hangman, means the cloaths of the offender. JOHNSON. The fame quibble occurs in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631: “A poor maiden, miftrefs, has a fuit to you; and 'tis a good suit― very good apparel," MALONE, man man hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as 'a gib cat, or a lugg'd bear. P. Henry. 9 a gib cat,] A gib cat means, I know not why, an old cat. JOHNSON. A gib cat is the common term in Northamptonshire, and all adjacent counties, to exprefs a he cat. In fome part of England he is called a ram cat. In Shropshire, where a tup is the term for a ram, the male cat is called a tup cat. PERCY. "As melancholy as a gib'd cat" is a proverb enumerated among others in Ray's Collection. In a Match at Midnight, 1633, is the following paflage: "They fwell like a couple of gib'd cats, met both by chance in the dark in an old garret." So, in Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, 1653: "Some in mania or melancholy madness have attempted the fame, not without fuccefs, although they have remained fomewhat melancholy like gib'd cats." I believe atter all, a gib'd cat is a cat who has been qualified for the feraglio, for all animals fo mutilated become drowsy and melancholy. To glib has certainly that meaning. So, in the Winter's Tale, act II. fc.i: "And I had rather glib myself, than they "Should not produce fair iffue." STEEVENS. Sherwood's English Dictionary at the end of Cotgrave's French one fays: "Gibbe is an old be cat." Aged animals are not fo playful as those which are young; and glib'd or gelded ones are duller than others. So we might read: -as melancholy as a gib cat or a glib'd cat. TOLLET. -gib cat,- -] Falstaff fays, I am as melancholy as a gib cat. Gib is the abbreviation or nick-name of Gilbert: and the name Gibfon is nothing more than Gib's, i. e. Gilbert's fon. Now it is well known that Chriftian names have been of old appropriated, as familiar appellations, to many animals: as Jack to a horfe, Tom to a pigeon, Philip to a fparrow, Will to a goat, &c. Thus Gilbert, or Gib, was the name of a cat of the male fpecies. Tibert is old French for Gilbert; and Tibert is the name of a cat in the old ftory-book of Reynart the Foxe, tranflated by Caxton from the French in the year 1481. In the original French of the Romaunt of the Rofe tranflated by Chaucer, we have "Thibert le cas.' v. 11689. This paffage Chaucer tranflated, "Gibbe our cat." Rom. R. v. 6204, pag. 253, edit. Urr. Tib is alfo hence no uncommon name among us for a cat. In Gammer Gurton's Needle we find; "Hath no man ftoln her ducks or hens, or gelded Gib her cat?" Dodf. Old Pl. vol. I. p. 128. The compofure of a cat is almost characteristical; and I know not, whether there is not a fu. P. Henry. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute. Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. P. Henry. What fay'ft thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch? 66 Fal. fuperior folemnity in the gravity of the he cat. Falstaff therefore means that he is grown as dull and demure as a ram cat." See Gammer Gurton's Needle, iii. 3. where Gib our cat is the subject of a curious converfation. Dodf. Old Pl. vol. I. p. 157. WARTON. —a bare,- -] A hare may be confidered as melancholy, becaufe fhe is upon her form always folitary; and, according to the phyfic of the times, the flesh of it was fuppofed to generate melancholy. JOHNSON. The following paffage in Vittoria Corombona &c. 1612, may prove the best explanation : "like your melancholy hare, "Feed after midnight." Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong the second: "The melancholy hare is form'd in brakes and briers." STEEVENS. 2 the melancholy of Moor-ditch?] This I do not understand, unlefs it may allude to the croaking of frogs. JoHNSON. I rather believe this to have been faid in allufion to its fituation in refpect of Moor-gate the prifon, and Bedlam the hofpital. It appears likewife from Stowe's Survey, that a broad ditch, called Deep-ditch, formerly parted the hofpital from Moor-fields; and what has a more melancholy appearance than ftagnant water? In the old play of Nobody and Somebody, 1598, the clown fays: "I'll bring the Thames through the middle of the city, empty Moor-ditch at my own charge, and build up Paul's fteeple with out a collection." So again, in A Woman never vex'd, com. by Rowley, 1632: "I fhall fee thee in Ludgate again fhortly." "Thou lyeft again 'twill be at Moor-gate, beldame, where I fhall fee thee in the ditch, dancing in a cucking-ftool." Again, in the Gul's Hornbook, by Deckar, 1609: -it will be a forer labour than the cleanfing of Augcas' ftable, or the fcowring of Moor-ditch." STEEVENS. 66 Moor-ditch, a part of the ditch furrounding the city of London, between Bishopfgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholesome and impaffable morafs, and confequently not frequented by the citizens, like other fuburbial fields which were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable places of refort. Fitz-Stepl.en fpeaks of the great |