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 parish-tops. What, wench? Caftiliano vulgo; for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

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 fhrew.

Mar. And you too, fir,

Sir To. Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft".

Sir

4- and a coyftril,] A coyftril is a paltry groom, only fit to carry arms, but not to ufe them. So, in Holinfhed's Defcription of England, Vol. I. p. 162: Cofterels or bearers of the arms of barons, or knights: Vol. II. p. 272.—“ women, lackies, and coifterels are confidered as the unwarlike attendants on an army." For its etymology, fee coufille and couftillier in Cotgrave's Dictionary. TOLLET.

A coyftrel or coyftril is properly the fervant of a man at arms, or lifeguard of a prince. Each of the life-guards of Henry VIII. had a coyftrel that attended upon him. Hence it came to fignify a low mean MALONE.

man.

5 like a parish-top.] This is one of the customs 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 ou tof mifchief, 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 fmooth humming noise. BLACKSTONE.

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

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 boft, in the Merry Wives of Windfor, 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 Shakspeare; "And Rivo will he cry, and Caftile too."

STEEVENS.

So again, in Heywood's Jew of Malta, 1633: "Hey, Rivo Caftiliano, man's a man.' 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 fecond part of The English Dictionary, by H. C. 1655, in which the reader "who

Sir And. Good mistress Accoft, I defire better acquaintance.

Mar. My name is Mary, fir.

Sir And. Good Mrs. Mary Accost,

Sir To. You mistake, knight: accoft, is, front her, board her, woo her, affail her.

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 fhall 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, fir9.

is defirous of a more refined and elegant fpeech," is furnished with bard words," to draw near," is explained thus: "To accoft, appropriate, appropinquate." See alfo Cotgrave's Dict. in v. accofter. MALONE.

board ber,] Dr. Johnfon obferves in his Dictionary, that one of the fenfes of to board is, to attack, or make the first attempt upon a perfon;- aborder quelqu'un. In the common French Dictionaries,

aborder une femme," is tranflated" to board a woman, to pick her up." To board, as it is explained by Dr. Johnson, is evidently derived as Mr. Steevens has obferved, from the original naval term. Our author is frequent in this ufe of the word. "I would, he had boarded me," fays Beatrice; and Mrs. Page uses the fame expreffion. Again, in All's well that ends well:

"And boarded her in the wanton way of youth." MALONE. It's dry, fir.] She may intend to infinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moift hand being vulgarly accounted a fign of an amorous con. ftitution. JOHNSON.

The Chief Juftice in the fecond part of King Henry IV. enumerates a dry band among the characteristicks of debility and age. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Charmian fays: "if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear.” These paffages ferve to confirm Dr. Johnson's suppofition. STEEVENS.

4

Sir

Sir And. Why, I think fo; I am not fuch an afs, 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 fingers' ends: marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren. [Exit MARIA. Sir To. O knight, thou lack'st a cup of canary; When did I fee 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.

Şir 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 seeft, it will not curl by

nature 1.

Sir And. But it becomes me well enough, does't not? Sir To. Excellent! it hangs like flax on a diftaff; and I hope to fee a housewife take thee between her legs, and Spin it off.

Sir And. 'Faith, I'll home to-morrow, fir Toby: your niece will not be feen; or, if the be, it's four to one fhe'll none of me: the count himself, here hard by, woes her.

Sir To. She'll none o'the count; fhe'll not match above her degree, neither in eftate, years, nor wit; I have heard her fwear it. Tut, there's life in't, man.

it will not curl by nature.] The old copy reads-cool my nature.

The emendation is Mr. Theobald's, MALONE.

Sir And. I'll ftay a month longer. I am a fellow o'the ftrangeft mind i'the world; I delight in mafques and revels fometimes altogether.

Sir To. Art thou good at thefe kick-fhaws, knight?

Sir And. As any man in Illyria, whatfoever he be, under the degree of my betters; and yet I will not compare with an old man 2.

Sir To. What is thy excellence in a galliard, knight? Sir And. 'Faith, I can cut a caper.

Sir To. And I can cut the mutton to't.

Sir And. And, I think, I have the back-trick, fimply as ftrong as any man in Illyria.

Sir To. Wherefore are these things hid? wherefore have thefe gifts a curtain before them? are they like to take duft, like miftrefs Mall's picture3? why doft thou not go

to

2- and 1 yet I will not compare with an old man.] Ague-cheek, though willing enough to arrogate to himself fuch experience as is commonly the acquifition of age, is yet careful to exempt his perfon from being compared with its bodily weaknefs. In fhort, he would fay with Falstaff,-"I am old in nothing but my understanding." STEEVENS.

3

- miftrefs Mall's picture? The real name of the woman whom I fuppofe to have been meant by Sir Toby, was Mary Frith. The appellation by which the was generally known, was Mall Cut-purfe. She was at once an bermaphrodite, a proftitute, a bawd, a bully, a thief, a receiver of ftolen goods, &c. &c. On the books of the Stationers' Company, August 1610, is entered" A Booke called the Madde Prancks of Merry Mall of the Bankfide, with her walks in man's apparel, and to what purpofe. Written by John Day." Middleton and Decker wrote a comedy, of which he is the heroine. The title of this piece is The Rearing Girl, or, Moll Cut-purfe; as it hath been lately acted on the Fortune Stage, by the Prince bis players, 1611. The frontifpiece to it contains a full length of her in man's clothes, fmoaking tobacco. As this extraordinary perfonage appears to have partaken of both fexes, the curtain which Sir Toby mentions, would not have been unneceffarily drawn before fuch a picture of her as might have been exhibited in an age, of which neither too much delicacy or decency was the characteriftick. STEEVENS.

In our author's time, I believe, curtains were frequently hung before pictures of any value. So, in Webster's Vittoria Corombona, 1612:

"I yet but draw the curtain;-now to your picture." Mary Frith was born in 1584, and died in 1659.In a Mf. letter in the British Mufeum, from John Chamberlain to Mr. Carleton, dated February 11, 1611-12, the following account is given of this woman's

doing

to church in a galliard, and come home in a coranto? My very walk fhould be a jig; I would not fo much as make water, but in a fink-a-pace. What doft thou mean? is it a world to hide virtues in? I did think, by the excellent conftitution of thy leg, it was form'd under the star of a galliard.

Sir And. Ay, 'tis ftrong, and it does indifferent well in a flame-colour'd ftock. Shall we fet about fome revels?

Sir To. What fhall we do elfe? were we not born under Taurus ?

Sir And. Taurus? that's fides and heart".

Sir To. No, fir; it is legs and thighs. Let me fee thee caper: ha! higher: ha, ha!-excellent! [Exeunt. doing penance: "This laft Sunday Moll Cut-purje, a notorious baggage, that used to go in men's apparel, and challenged the field of diverfe gallants, was brought to the fame place, [St. Paul's Crofs,] where the wept bitterly, and feemed very penitent; but it is fince doubted the was maudlin drunk, being difcovered to have tippel'd of three quarts of fack, before she came to her penance. She had the daintiest preacher or ghoftly father that ever I faw in the pulpit, one Radcliffe of Brazen-nofe College in Oxford, a likelier man to have led the revels in fome inn of court, than to be where he was. But the best is, he did extreme badly, and fo wearied the audience that the best part went away, and the reft tarried rather to hear Moll Cut-purfe than him." MALONE.

4a fink-a-pace.] i. e. a cinque-pace; the name of a dance, the measures whereof are regulated by the number five. The word occurs elsewhere in our author. SIR J. HAWKINS.

5-flame colour'd flock.] The old copy readsa dam'd colour'd stock. Stockings were in Shakspeare's time called flocks. So, in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601:

"or would my filk flock fhould lofe his glofs elfe." STEEVENS. The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

6 Taurus? that's fides and beart.] Alluding to the medical aftrology ftill preferved in almanacks, which refers the affections of particular parts of the body, to the predominance of particular conftellations.

JOHNSON.

SCENE