and, but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the guft he hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

SIR TO. By this hand, they are fcoundrels, and fubftractors, that say so of him. Who are they? MAR. They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company.

SIR TO. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink to her, as long as there's a paffage in my throat, and drink in Illyria: He's a coward, and a coyftril, that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn o'the toe like a parifh-top. What, wench? Caftiliano vulgo; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

a coyftril, i, e. a coward cock. It may however be a keyftril, or a baftard hawk; a kind of ftone-hawk. So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

-as dear

"As ever conftril bought fo little fport." STEEVENS.

A conftril is a paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them. So, in Holinfhed's Defcription of England, Vol. I. p. 162: "Cofterel's, or bearers of the armes of barons or knights.' Vol. III. p. 248: "So that a knight with his efquire and coiftrell with his two horfes." P. 272, "women lackies, and coifterels, are confidered as the unwarlike attendants on an army." So again, p. 127, and 217 of his Hift. of Scotland. For its etymology, fee Conftille and Couftillier in Cotgrave's Dictionary. TOLLET.

like a parifh-top.] This is one of the cuftoms now laid afide. A large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipped in frofty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercife, and out of mischief, while they could not work. STEEVENS,

"To fleep like a town-top," is a proverbial expreffion. A top is faid to fleep, when it turns round with great velocity, and makes a smooth humming noife. BLACKSTONE.

6

Caftiliano vulgo;] We should read volto. In English, put on your Caftilian countenance; that is, your grave, folema looks. WARBURTON,

Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.

SIR AND. Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch?

SIR TO. Sweet fir Andrew!

SIR AND. Blefs you, fair shrew.

MAR. And you too, fir.

SIR TO. Accoft, fir Andrew, accost."

Caftiliano vulgo;] I meet with the word Caftilian and Caftilians in feveral of the old comedies. It is difficult to affign any peculiar propriety to it, unless it was adopted immediately after the defeat of the Armada, and became a cant term capriciously expreffive of jollity or contempt. The Hoft, in the M. W. of Windjor, calls Caius a Caftilian-king Urinal; and in the Merry Devil of Edmonton, one of the characters fays: "Ha! my Caftilian dialogues!" In an old comedy called Look about you, 1600, it is joined with another toper's exclamation very frequent in Shakespeare:

"And Rivo will he cry, and Caftile too."

So again, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

"Hey, Rivo Caftiliano, man's a man.'

Again, in the Stately Moral of the Three Lords of London, 1590: "Three Cavaliero's Caftilianos here," &c.

Cotgrave, however, informs us, that Caftille not only fignifies the nobleft part of Spain, but contention, debate, brabling, altercaIls font en Caftille. There is a jarre betwixt them; and prendre la Caftille pour autruy: To undertake another man's quarrel. STEEVENS.

tion.

Mr. Steevens has not attempted to explain vulgo, nor perhaps can the proper explanation be given, unless fome incidental application of it may be found in connection with Caftiliano, where the context defines its meaning. Sir Toby here, having juft declared that he would perfift in drinking the health of his niece, as long as there was a paffage in his throat, and drink in Illyria, at the fight of Sir Andrew, demands of Maria, with a banter, Caftiliano vulgo. What this was, may be probably inferred from a fpeech in the Shoemaker's Holiday, 4to, 1610: " Away, firke, fcower thy throat, thou shalt wash it with Gaftilian licuor." HENLEY.

7 Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft.] To accoft, had a fignification in our author's time that the word now feems to have loft. In the second part of The English Dictionary, by H, C. 1655, in

SIR AND. What's that?

SIR TO. My niece's chamber-maid.

SIR AND. Good mistress Accoft, I defire better acquaintance.

MAR. My name is Mary, fir.

SIR AND. Good Mistress Mary Accoft,

SIR TO. You mistake, knight: accoft, is, front her, board her, woo her, affail her.

which the reader "who is defirous of a more refined and elegant fpeech," is furnished with hard words, "to draw near," is explained thus: "To accoft, appropriate, appropinquate." See also Cotgrave's Dict. in verb. accofter. MALONE.

8

-board her,] "I hinted that bourd was the better reading. Mr. Steevens fuppofed it should then be bourd with her; but to the authorities which I have quoted for that reading in Jonfon, Catiline, A& I. fc. iv. we may add the following: I'll bourd him ftraight; how now Cornelio?"

All Fools, Act. V. fc. i. "He brings in a parafite that flowteth, and bourdeth them

thus."

Nafb's Lenten Stuff, 1599.

"I can bourd when I fee occafion."

'Tis pity She's a Whore, p. 38. WHALLEY.

I am ftill unconvinced that board (the naval term) is not the proper reading. It is fufficiently familiar to our author in other places. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, A&t II. fc. i:

"unlefs he knew fome train in me, that I know not myfelf, he would never have boarded me in this fury.

"Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be fure to keep him above deck," &c. &c. STEEVENS.

Probably board her may mean no more than falute her, Speak to her, &c. Sir Kenelm Digby, in his Treatife of Bodies, 1643, fo. Paris, p. 253, fpeaking of a blind man fays, "He would at the firft aboard of a ftranger, as foone as he spoke to him, frame a right apprehenfion of his ftature, bulke, and manner of making."

REED

To board is certainly to acceft, or addrefs. So, in the Hiftory of Celeftina the Faire, 1596: -whereat Alderine fomewhat difpleafed for the would verie faine have knowne who he was, boorded him thus." RITSON.

SIR AND. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. Is that the meaning of accost? MAR. Fare you well, gentlemen.

SIR TO. An thou let part fo, fir Andrew, 'would thou might'ft never draw fword again.

SIR AND. An you part fo, miftrefs, I would I might never draw fword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand?

MAR. Sir, I have not you by the hand.

SIR AND. Marry, but you shall have; and here's my hand.

MAR. Now, fir, thought is free:' I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink.

SIR AND. Wherefore, fweet heart? what's your metaphor?

MAR. It's dry, fir."

Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand!

Mar. Now, Sir, thought is free:] There is the fame pleafantry in Lylies Euphues, 1581: None (quoth fhe) can judge of wit but they that have it; why then (quoth he) doeft thou think me a fool? Thought is free, my Lord, quoth fhe." HOLT WHITE.

2 It's dry, fir.] What is the jeft of dry hand, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may poffibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of phyfiognomy, she may intend to infinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moift hand being vulgarly accounted a fign of an amorous conftitution.

JOHNSON.

So, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: “ But to fay you had a dull eye, a fharp nofe (the vifible marks of a threw); a dry hand, which is the fign of a bad liver, as he faid you were, being toward a bufband too; this was intolerable.”

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: "Of all dry-fifted knights, I cannot abide that he fhould touch me." Again, in Weftward-Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1606: "

-Let her marry a man of a melancholy complexion, the fhall not be much troubled by him. My husband has a hand as dry as his brains," &c. The Chief Juftice likewife in the fecond part of K. Henry IV. enumerates a dry hand among the characteristicks of debility and

SIR AND. Why, I think fo; I am not fuch an ass, but I can keep my hand dry. But what's your jeft? MAR. A dry jeft, fir.

SIR AND. Are you full of them?

MAR. Ay, fir; I have them at my finger's ends: marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren.

[Exit MARIA. SIR TO. O knight, thou lack'ft a cup of canary: When did I see thee fo put down?

SIR AND. Never in your life, I think; unless you fee canary put me down: Methinks, fometimes I have no more wit than a Chriftian, or an ordinary man has: but I am a great eater of beef, and, I believe, that does harm to my wit.

SIR TO. No question.

SIR AND. An I thought that, I'd forfwear it. I'll ride home to-morrow, fir Toby.

SIR To. Pourquoy, my dear knight?

SIR AND. What is pourquoy? do, or not do? I would I had bestowed that time in the tongues, that I have in fencing, dancing, and bear-baiting: O, had I but follow'd the arts!

SIR TO. Then hadft thou had an excellent head of hair.

SIR AND. Why, would that have mended my hair?

SIR To. Paft queftion; for thou feeft, it will not curl by nature.3

age. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Charmian fays: " —if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear. All these paffages will ferve to confirm Dr. Johnfon's latter fuppofition. STEEVENS.

3

it will not curl by nature.] The old copy reads-cool my nature. The emendation was made by Theobald. STEEVENS.