as lief they would put ratfbane in my mouth, as offer to ftop it with fecurity. I looked he fhould have fent me two and twenty yards of fatin, as I am a true knight, and he fends me fecurity. Well, he may fleep in fecurity; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightnefs of his wife fhines through it and yet cannot he fee, though he have his own lantern to light him.9-Where's Bardolph ? PAGE. He's gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse. They will take up, I warrant you, where they may be trufted." Again, in the same piece : "Sattin gowns must be taken up." Again, in Love Reftored, one of Ben Jonfon's mafques: "A pretty fine speech was taken up o' the poet too, which if he never be paid for now, 'tis no matter." STEEVENS. 8 the horn of abundance,] So, in Pafquil's Night-Cap, 1612, p. 43: "But chiefly citizens, upon whose crowne the lightness of his wife Jhines through it: and yet cannot he fee, though he have his own lantern to light him.] This joke feems evidently to have been taken from that of Plautus: "Quò ambulas tu, qui Vulcanum in cornu conclufum geris?" Amph. A&t I. fc. i. and much improved. We need not doubt that a joke was here intended by Plautus; for the proverbial term of horns for cuckoldom, is very ancient, as appears by Artemidorus, who fays: « Προειπεῖν αὐτῷ ὅτι ἡ γυνή σου πορνεύσει, καὶ τὸ λεγομενον, κέρατα αυτῶ ποιήσει, κι ὄντως ἀπέβη. "Ovεipol." Lib. II. cap. 12. And he copied from those before him. WARBURTON. The fame thought occurs in The Two Maids of Moreclacke, 1609: your wrongs "Shine through the horn, as candles in the eve, FAL. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the ftews, I were manned, horfed, and wived. I bought him in Paul's,] At that time the refort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the poft. WARBURTON. So, in Fearful and lamentable Effects of Two dangerous Comets, &c. no date; by Nafhe, in ridicule of Gabriel Harvey: "Paule's church is in wonderfull perill thys yeare without the help of our confcionable brethren, for that day it hath not eyther broker, maifterlefs ferving-man, or pennileffe companion, in the middle of it, the ufurers of London have fworne to bestow a newe steeple upon it." In an old Collection of Proverbs, I find the following: "Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to St. Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may meet with a whore, a knave, and a jade." See alfo Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 631. In a pamphlet by Dr. Lodge, called Wit's Miferie, and the World's Madneffe, 1596, the devil is described thus: "In Powls hee walketh like a gallant courtier, where if he meet fome rich chuffes worth the gulling, at every word he fpeaketh, he maketh a moufe an elephant, and telleth them of wonders, done in Spaine by his ancestors," &c. &c. I fhould not have troubled the reader with this quotation, but that it in fome measure familiarizes the character of Pistol, which (from other paffages in the fame pamphlet) appears to have been no uncommon one in the time of Shakspeare. Dr. Lodge concludes his description thus: "His courage is boafting, his learning ignorance, his ability weakness, and his end beggary." Again, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: cloak and hat, get thee a gray "And walk in Paul's among thy cashier'd mates, "As melancholy as the best.' I learn from a paffage in Greene's Difpulation between a He Coneycatcher and a She Coneycatcher, 1592, that St. Paul's was a privileged place, fo that no debtor could be arrested within its precincts. STEEVENS. 6.6 a man muft In The Choice of Change, 1598, 4to. it is faid, not make choyce of three thinges in three places. Of a wife in Westminster; of a fervant in Paule's; of a horfe in Smithfield; leaft he chufe a queane, a knave, or a jade." See alfo Moryfon's Itinerary, Part III. p. 53, 1617. REED. "It was the fashion of those times," [the times of King 2 Enter the Lord Chief Juftice, and an Attendant. PAGE. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for ftriking him about Bardolph. FAL. Wait clofe, I will not fee him. CH. JUST, What's he that goes there? ATTEN. Falftaff, an't pleafe your lordship. CH. JUST. He that was in queftion for the robbery? ATTEN. He, my lord: but he hath fince done good fervice at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with fome charge to the lord John of Lancafter. CH. JUST. What, to York? Call him back again. ATTEN. Sir John Falftaff! FAL. Boy, tell him, I am deaf. PAGE. You must speak louder, my master is deaf. CH. JUST. I am fure, he is, to the hearing of any thing good.-Go, pluck him by the elbow; I muft speak with him. James I.] fays Ofborne, in his Memoirs of that monarch," and did fo continue till thefe, [the interregnum,] for the principal. gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all profeffions, not merely mechanicks, to meet in St. Paul's church by eleven, and walk in the middle isle till twelve, and after dinner from three to fix; during which time fome difcourfed of bufinefs, others of news. Now, in regard of the universal commerce there happened little that did not firft or laft arrive here." MALONE. 2 Lord Chief Juftice,] This judge was Sir Wm. Gascoigne,' Chief Juftice of the King's Bench. He died December 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church, in Yorkshire. His effigy, in judicial robes, is on his monument. STEEVENS. His portrait, copied from the monument, may be found in The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. LI. p. 516. MALONE. ATTEN. Sir John, FAL. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack fubjects? do not the rebels need foldiers? Though it be a fhame to be on any fide but one, it is worfe fhame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it. ATTEN. You mistake me, fir. FAL. Why, fir, did I fay you were an honeft man? fetting my knighthood and my foldierfhip aside, I had lied in my throat if I had faid fo. I ATTEN. I pray you, fir, then fet your knighthood and your foldiership afide; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you fay I am any other than an honest man. FAL. I give thee leave to tell me fo! I lay afide that which grows to me! If thou get'ft any leave of me, hang me; if thou takeft leave, thou wert better be hanged: You hunt-counter, hence! avaunt! 3-hunt-counter,] That is, blunderer. He does not, I think, allude to any relation between the judge's fervant and the counter-prifon. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson's explanation may be countenanced by the folowing paffage in Ben Jonfon's Tale of a Tub: -Do you mean to make a hare "Of me, to hunt counter thus, and make thefe doubles, "And you mean no fuch thing as you fend about?" Again, in Hamlet: O, this is counter, you falfe Danish dogs." It fhould not, however, be concealed, that Randle Holme, in his Academy of Armory and Blazon, Book III. ch. 3. fays: "Hunt counter, when hounds hunt it by the heel." STEEVENS. Hunt counter means, bafe tyke, or worthless dog. There can be no reason why Falftaff fhould call the attendant a blunderer, but he seems very anxious to prove him a rafcal. After all, it ATTEN. Sir, my lord would speak with you. FAL. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to fee your lordship abroad: I heard fay, your lordship was fick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordfhip, though not clean paft your youth, hath yet fome fmack of age in you, fome relifh of the faltnefs of time; and I moft humbly befeech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health. CH. JUST. Sir John, I fent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury. FAL. An't please your lordship, I hear, his majefty is returned with some discomfort from Wales. CH. JUST. I talk not of his majefty:-You would not come when I fent for you. FAL. And I hear moreover, his highnefs is fallen into this fame whorefon apoplexy. CH. JUST. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you. FAL. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of fleeping in the blood, a whorefon tingling. CH. JUST. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. FAL. It hath its original from much grief; from is not impoffible the word may be found to fignify a catchpole or bum-bailiff. He was probably the Judge's tipftaf. RITSON. Perhaps the epithet hunt-counter is applied to the officer, in reference to his having reverted to Falftaff's falvo. HENLEY. I think it much more probable that Falstaff means to allude to the counter-prifon. Sir T. Overbury, in his character of A Serjeant's Yeoman, 1616, (in modern language, a bailiff's follower,) calls him " a counter-rat." MALONE. |