sion, no ars te ful se FAL. Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good ticklebrain .-Harry, I do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied for though the camomile', the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion; but chiefly, a villainous trick of thine eye, and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip, Tale: "Soche harlotre men," &c. Again, in P. P. fol. 27: “ I had lever hear an harlotry, or a somer's game." Junius explains the word by "inhonesta paupertinæ sortis fœditas." STEEVENS. 9 -tickle-brain,] This appears to have been the nick name of some strong liquor. So, in A New Trick to Cheat the Devil, 1636: "A cup of Nipsitate brisk and neat, In The Antipodes, 1640, settle-brain is mentioned as another potation. STEEvens. though the camomile, &c.] This whole speech is supremely comick. The simile of camomile used to illustrate a contrary effect, brings to my remembrance an observation of a late writer of some merit, whom the desire of being witty has betrayed into a like thought. Meaning to enforce with great vehemence the mad temerity of young soldiers, he remarks, that though Bedlam be in the road to Hogsden, it is out of the way to promotion." JOHNSON. In The More the Merrier, a collection of Epigrams, 1608, is the following passage; "The camomile shall teach thee patience, "Which thriveth best when trodden most upon.' Again, in Parasitaster, or the Fawne, a comedy, by Marston, 1606: "For indeed, sir, a repress'd fame mounts like camomile, the more trod down, the more it grows." STEEVENS. The style immediately ridiculed, is that of Lyly, in his Euphues: "Though the camomile the more it is trodden and pressed downe, the more it spreadeth: yet the violet the oftener it is handled and touched, the sooner it withereth and decayeth," &c. FARMER. Again, in Philomela, the Lady Fitzwaller's Nightingale, by Robert Greene, bl. 1. 1595, sign. Í 4: "The palme tree, the more it is prest downe, the more it sprowteth up: the camomill, the more it is troden, the sweeter smell it yeildeth. REED. that doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point;-Why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of heaven' prove a micher3, and eat blackberries? a question not to be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief, and take purses? a question to be asked. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is known to many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou 2 Shall the blessed SUN of heaven-] Thus the first quarto. In the second quarto, 1599, the word sun was changed to son, which consequently is the reading of the subsequent quartos and the folio and so I suspect the author wrote. The orthography of these two words was formerly so unsettled, that it is often from the context alone one can determine what is meant. MALONE. a micher;]___i. e. truant; to mich is to lurk out of sight, a hedge-creeper. WARBURTON. 3 The allusion is to a truant boy, who unwilling to go to school, and afraid to go home, lurks in the fields, and picks wild fruits. JOHNSON. In A Comment on the Ten Commandments, printed at London, in 1493, by Richard Pynson, I find the word thus used: "They make Goddes house a den of theyves; for commonly in such feyrs and markets, wheresoever it be holden, ther ben many theyves, michers, and cutpurse." Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Pox on him, micher, I'll make him pay for it." Again, in Lyly's Mother Bombie, 1594: "How like a micher he stands, as though he had truanted from honesty." Again, in the old Morality of Hycke Scorner: STEEVENS. "Wanton wenches and also michers." A micher, I believe, means only a lurking thief distinguished from one more daring. Lambard in his Eirenarcha, 1610, p. 186, speaking of the powers which may be exercised by one justice, says, he may charge the constables to arrest such as shall be suspected to be " draw-latches, wastors, or robertsmen, that is to say, either miching or mightie theeves, for the meaning must remaine howsoever the word be gone out of use." REED. 4 this PITCH, as ancient writers do report, DOTH DEFILE ;] Alluding to an ancient ballad beginning: "Who toucheth pitch must be defil'd." STEEVENS. keepest: for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in words only, but in woes also:-And yet there is a virtuous man, whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name. P. HEN. What manner of man, an it like your majesty ? FAL. A good portly man, i' faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or, by'r-lady, inclining to threescore; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. If then the tree' may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast thou been this month? Or perhaps to Lyly's Euphues: "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled." HOLT WHITE. Dr. Farmer has pointed out another passage exhibiting the same observation, but omitted to specify the work to which it belongs: "— It is harde for a man to touch pitch, and not to be defiled with it." STEEVENS. The quotation is from the apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus, xiii. 1: He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith." 5 HARRIS. If then the tree, &c.] Sir T. Hanmer reads-" If then the fruit may be known by the tree, as the tree by the fruit," &c. and his emendation has been adopted in the late editions. The old reading is, I think, well supported by Mr. Heath, who observes, that "Virtue is considered as the fruit, the man as the tree; consequently the old reading must be right. If then the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree,—that is, If I can judge of the man by the virtue I see in his looks, he must be a virtuous man." MALONE. I am afraid here is a prophane allusion to the 33d verse of the 12th chapter of St. Matthew. STEEVENS. P. HEN. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll play my father. FAL. Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbet-sucker, or a poulter's hare. P. HEN. Well, here I am set. FAL. And here I stand :-judge, my masters, P. HEN. The complaints I hear of thee are FAL. 'Sblood, my lord, they are false :-nay, I'll tickle thee for a young prince, i' faith. P. HEN. Swearest thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee, in the likeness of a fat old man: a tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, 8 6 rabbet-sucker, &c.] Is, I suppose, a sucking rabbet. The jest is in comparing himself to something thin and little. So a poulterer's hare; a hare hung up by the hind legs without a skin, is long and slender. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson is right; for in the account of the serjeant's feast, by Dugdale, in his Orig. Juridiciales, one article is a dozen of rabbet-suckers. Again, in Lyly's Endymion, 1591: "I prefer an old coney before a rabbet-sucker." Again, in The Tryal of Chivalry, 1599; "— a bountiful benefactor for sending thither such rabbetsuckers." A poulterer was formerly written-a poulter, and so the old copies of this play. Thus, in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devil, 1595: "We must have our tables furnisht like poulters' stalles." STEEVENS. 7-a tun of man-] Dryden has transplanted this image into his Mac Flecknoe : "A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ, STEEVENS. 8-bolting-hutch-] Is the wooden receptacle into which the meal is bolted. STEEVENS, that swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox' with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years?? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, 9 that huge BOMBARD of sack,] A bombard is a barrel. So, in The Tempest: " - like a foul bombard that would shed his liquor." STEEVENS. I MANNINGTREE OX -] Manningtree in Essex, and the neighbourhood of it, are famous for richness of pasture. The farms thereabouts are chiefly tenanted by graziers. Some ox of an unusual size was, I suppose, roasted there on an occasion of publick festivity, or exposed for money to publick show. This place likewise appears to have been noted for the intemperance of its inhabitants. So, in Newes from Hell, brought by the Devil's Carrier, by Thomas Decker, 1606: “ · you shall have a slave eat more at a meale than ten of the guard; and drink more in two days, than all Manningtree does at a Whitsun-ale." STEEVENS. It appears from Heywood's Apology for Actors, 1612, that Manningtree formerly enjoyed the privilege of fairs, by exhibiting a certain number of stage-plays yearly. See also The Choosing of Valentines, a poem, by Thomas Nashe, MS. in the Library of the Inner Temple, No. 538, vol. xliii. : 66 66 —or see a play of strange moralitie, "Showen by bachelrie of Manning-tree, "Whereto the countrie franklins flock-meale swarme.” Again, in Decker's Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, 1607: Cruelty has got another part to play; it is acted like the old morals at Manning-tree." In this season of festivity, we may presume it was customary to roast an ox whole, "Huge volumes, (says Osborne, in his Advice to his Son,) like the ox roasted whole at Bartholomew Fair, may proclaim plenty of labour and invention, but afford less of what is delicate, savoury, and well concocted, than smaller pieces." MALONE. 2 that reverend vICE, that grey INIQUITY,-that VANITY in years?] The Vice, Iniquity, and Vanity, were personages exhibited in the old moralities. MALONE. 3-cunning,] Cunning was not yet debased to a bad meaning; it signified knowing, or skilful. JOHNSON. |