FAL. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes"; and art, indeed, the most comparative, rascalliest,— sweet young prince,-But, Hal, I pr'ythee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought 5: An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir; but I marked him not: and yet he talked very wisely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talked wisely, and in the street too.

P. HEN. Thou did'st well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it".

and by reason the stomacke of it is overladen, is ready to fall to casting. So does that; it stinks almost worse, is almost as poysonous, altogether so muddy, altogether so black." STEEVENS.

So, in Taylor's Pennylesse Pilgrimage, quarto, 1618: "-my body being tired with travel, and my mind attired with moody, muddy, Moore-ditch melancholy." MALONE.

Moor-ditch, a part of the ditch surrounding the city of London, between Bishopsgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholesome and impassable morass, and consequently not frequented by the citizens, like other suburbial fields which were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable places of resort. T. WARTON.

3-similes;] Old copies-smiles. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALone.

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the most COMPARATIVE,] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read-incomparative, I suppose for incomparable, or peerless; but comparative here means quick at comparisons, or fruitful in similes, and is properly introduced. JOHNSON. This epithet is used again, in Act III. Sc. II. of this play, and apparently in the same sense :

stand the push

"Of every beardless vain comparative."

And in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. ult. Rosalind tells Biron that he is a man "Full of comparisons and wounding flouts." STEEVENS.

s I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought :] So, in The Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste, 1597, sign. C: "In troth they live so so, and it were well if they knew where a commoditie of names were to be sould, and yet I thinke all the money in their purses could not buy it." REED,

FAL. O, thou hast damnable iteration 7; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal,-God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain; I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom.

P. HEN. Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack?

FAL. Where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me 9.

P. HEN. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying, to purse-taking.

Enter POINS, at a distance.

FAL. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation 9.

Poins!

wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.] This is a scriptural expression: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.—I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded." Proverbs, i. 20, and 24. HOLT WHITE.

7 O, thou hast damnable ITERATION;] For iteration Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read-attraction, of which the meaning is certainly more apparent; but an editor is not always to change what he does not understand. In the last speech a text is very indecently and abusively applied, to which Falstaff answers, "thou hast damnable iteration," or a wicked trick of repeating and applying holy texts. This, I think, is the meaning. JOHNSON. Iteration is right, for it also signified simply citation or recitation. So, in Marlow's Doctor Faustus, 1631:

"Here take this book, and peruse it well,

"The iterating of these lines brings gold."

From the context, iterating here appears to mean pronouncing, reciting. Again, in Camden's Remaines, 1614: "King Edward I. disliking the iteration of Fitz," &c. MALONE.

8 and BAFFLE me.] See Mr. Tollet's note on King Richard II. p. 16, n. 6. STEEVENS.

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no sin for a man to labour in his VOCATION,] This (as

Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match'. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain, that ever cried, Stand, to a true

man.

P. HEN. Good morrow, Ned.

POINS. Good morrow, sweet Hal.-What says monsieur Remorse? What says Sir John Sackand-Sugar? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee

Dr. Farmer observes to me,) is undoubtedly a sneer on Agremont Radcliffe's Politique Discourses, 1578. From the beginning to the end of this work, the word vocation occurs in almost every paragraph. Thus chap. i.:

"That the vocation of men hath been a thing unknown unto philosophers, and other that have treated of Politique Government; of the commoditie that cometh by the knowledge thereof; and the etymology and definition of this worde vocation." Again, chap. xxv. :

"Whether a man being disorderly and unduly entered into any vocation, may lawfully brooke and abide in the same; and whether the administration in the meane while done by him that is unduly entered, ought to holde, or be of force." STEEVENS. have set a MATCH.] Thus the quarto. So, in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, 1614: " Peace, sir, they'll be angry if they hear you eves-dropping, now they are setting their match." There it seems to mean making an appointment.—The folio reads -set a watch. MALONE.

As no watch is afterwards set, I suppose match to be the true reading. So, as Dr. Farmer observed, in Ratsey's (Gamaliel) Ghost, bl. 1. 4to. (no date) about 1605: "I have," says he, "been many times beholding to Tapsters and Chamberlaines for directions and setting of matches." STEEVENS.

2-sir John Sack-and-Sugar?] Hentzner, p. 88, edit. 1757, speaking of the manners of the English, says, "in potum copiosè immittunt saccarum;" they put a great deal of sugar in their drink. REEd.

Much inquiry has been made about Falstaff's sack, and great surprize has been expressed that he should have mixed sugar with it. As they are here mentioned for the first time in this play, it may not be improper to observe, that it is probable that Falstaff's wine was Sherry, a Spanish wine, originally made at Xeres. He frequently himself calls it Sherris-sack*. Nor will his mixing

*Sherris is possibly a corruption from Zeres.

about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Goodfriday last, for a cup of Madeira, and a cold capon's leg?

sugar with sack appear extraordinary, when it is known that it was a very common practice in our author's time to put sugar into all wines. "Clownes and vulgar men (says Fynes Moryson) only use large drinking of beere or ale,-but gentlemen garrawse only in wine, with which they mix sugar, which I never observed in any other place or kingdom to be used for that purpose. And because the taste of the English is thus delighted with sweetness, the wines in taverns (for I speak not of merchantes' or gentlemen's cellers) are commonly mixed at the filling thereof, to make them pleasant." Itin. 1617, Part III. p. 152. See also Mr. Tyrwhitt's Chaucer, vol. iv. p. 308: " Among the orders of the royal household in 1604 is the following: [MŠS. Harl. 392, fol. 162.] And whereas in tymes past, Spanish wines, called Sacke, were little or no whitt used in our courte,— -we now understanding that it is now used in common drink,' &c. Sack was, I believe, often mulled in our author's time. See a note, post, on the words, "If sack and sugar be a sin," &c. See also Blount's Glossography: "Mulled Sack, (Vinum mollitum) because softened and made mild by burning, and a mixture of sugar."

Since this note was written, I have found reason to believe that Falstaff's Sack was the dry Spanish wine which we call Mountain Malaga. A passage in Via Recta ad Vitam Longam, by Thomas Venner, Dr. of Physicke in Bathe, 4to. 1622, seems to ascertain this:

"Sacke is completely hot in the third degree, and of thin parts, and therefore it doth vehemently and quickly heat the body. -Some affect to drink sack with sugar, and some without, and upon no other grounds, as I thinke, but as it is best pleasing to their palates. I will speake what I deeme thereof.-Sack, taken by itself, is very hot and very penetrative; being taken with sugar, the heat is both somewhat allayed, and the penetrative quality thereof also retarded."

The author afterwards thus speaks of the wine which we now denominate Sack, and which was then called Canary: "Canarie-wine, which beareth the name of the islands from whence it is brought, is of some termed a sacke, with this adjunct, sweete; but yet very improperly, for it differeth not only from sacke in sweetness and pleasantness of taste, but also in colour and consistence, for it is not so white in colour as sack, nor so thin in substance; wherefore it is more nutritive than sack, and less penetrative.-White wine, Rhenish wine, &c.—do in six or seven moneths, or within, according to the smallness of them, attaine unto the height of their goodness, especially the smaller sort of 5

P. HEN. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs, he will give the devil his due. POINS. Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.

P. HEN. Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.

POINS. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gadshill: There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: I have visors for you all, you have horses for yourselves; Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester; I have bespoke supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap; we may do it as secure as sleep: If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home, and be hanged.

FAL. Hear me, Yedward; if I tarry at home, and go not, I'll hang you for going. POINS. You will, chops?

FAL. Hal, wilt thou make one?

P. HEN. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.

FAL. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings 3.

3

them. But the stronger sort of wines, as sack, muskadell, malmsey, are best when they are two or three years old."

From hence, therefore, it is clear, that the wine usually called sack in that age was thinner than Canary, and was a strong lightcoloured dry wine; vin sec; and that it was a Spanish wine is ascertained by the order quoted by Mr. Tyrwhitt, and by several ancient books. Cole, in his Dict. 1679, renders sack by Vinum Hispanicum; and Sherwood in his English and French Dict. 1650, by Vin d'Espagne. MALONE.

3

if thou darest not stand, &c.] The modern reading [cry stand] may perhaps be right; but I think it necessary to remark,