with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou haft loft much honour, that thou wert not with me in this action. But, fweet Ned,-to fweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of fugar, clapp'd even now into my hand by an under-fkinker; one that never fpake other English in his life, than-Eight shillings and fixpence, and-You are welcome; with this fhrill addition,-Anon, anon, fir! Score a pint of baftard in the Half-moon, or fo. But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I pr'ythee, do thou 6 this pennyworth of fugar,] It appears from the following paffage in Look about you, 1600, and fome others, that the drawers kept fugar folded up in papers, ready to be delivered to those who called for fack: -but do you hear? Bring fugar in white paper, not in brown." Shakspeare might perhaps allude to a custom mentioned by Deckar in The Gul's Horn Book, 1609: Enquire what gallants fup in the next roome, and if they be any of your acquaintance, do not you (after the city fashion) fend them in a pottle of wine, and your name fweetened in two pittiful papers of fugar, with fome filthy apologie cram'd into the mouth of a drawer," &c. STEEVENS. 7 See p. 381, n. 2. MALONE. under-fkinker;] A tapfter; an under-drawer. Skink is drink, and a skinker is one that ferves drink at table. JOHNSON. Schenken, Dutch, is to fill a glafs or cup; and schenker is a cupbearer, one that waits at table to fill the glaffes. An under-skinker is therefore, as Dr. Johnson has explained it, an under-drawer. 66 STEEVENS. Giles Fletcher, in his Ruffe Commonwealth, 1591, p. 13, fpeaking of a town built on the fouth fide of Moskoa, by Bafilius the emperor, for a garrifon of foldiers, fays: to whom he gave privilege to drinke mead and beer at the drye or prohibited times, when other Ruffes may drinke nothing but water; and for that caufe called this new citie by the name of Naloi, that is, skink or poure in." So, in Ben Jonfon's Poetafter, A& IV. fc. v: “Alb. I'll ply the table with nectar, and make 'em friends. "Her. Heaven is like to have but a lame Skinker." REED. stand in fome by-room, while I question my puny drawer, to what end he gave me the fugar; and do thou never leave calling-Francis, that his tale to me may be nothing but-anon. Step afide, and I'll fhow thee a precedent. POINS. Francis! P. HEN. Thou art perfect. POINS. Francis! Enter Francis. [Exit POINS. FRAN. Anon, anon, fir.-Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph. P. HEN. Come hither, Francis. FRAN. My lord. P. HEN. How long haft thou to ferve, Francis? FRAN. Forfooth, five year, and as much as toPOINS. [Within.] Francis. FRAN. Anon, anon, fir. P. HEN. Five years! by'rlady, a long leafe for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, dareft thou be fo valiant, as to play the coward with thy indenture, and fhow it a fair pair of heels, and run from it? FRAN. O lord, fir! I'll be fworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heartPOINS. [Within.] Francis! 8 Enter Francis.] This fcene, helped by the distraction of the drawer, and grimaces of the prince, may entertain upon the ftage, but affords not much delight to the reader. The author has judi ciously made it short. JOHNSON. 9 Look down into the Pomegranate,] To have windows or loopholes looking into the rooms beneath them, was anciently a general cuftom. See note on K, Henry VIII. A& V. sc. ii. STEEVENS. FRAN. Anon, anon, fir. P. HEN. How old art thou, Francis? FRAN. Let me fee,-About Michaelmas next I fhall be POINS. [Within.] Francis! FRAN. Anon, fir.-Pray you, ftay a little, my lord. P. HEN. Nay, but hark you, Francis: For the fugar thou gaveft me,-'twas a pennyworth, was't not? FRAN. O lord, fir! I would, it had been two. P. HEN. I will give thee for it a thousand pound: ask me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it. POINS. [Within.] Francis! FRAN. Anon, anon. P. HEN. Anon, Francis? No, Francis: but tomorrow, Francis; or, Francis, on Thursday; or, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But, Francis,FRAN. My lord? P. HEN. Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, chryftal-button, nott-pated,' agat-ring, puke-ftocking, 9 Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, &c.] The prince intends to afk the drawer whether he will rob his master, whom he denotes by many contemptuous diftinctions. JOHNSON. 2 66 a -chryftal-button,] It appears from the following paffage in Greene's Quip for an upftart Courtier, 1620, that a leather jerkin with chryftal-buttons was the habit of a pawn-broker: black taffata doublet, and a fpruce leather jerkin with chryftal buttons, &c. I enquired of what occupation: Marry, fir, quoth he, a broker." STEEVENS. 3 nott-pated,] It fhould be printed as in the old folios, -nott-pated. So, in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Yeman is thus defcribed: "A nott head had he with a brown vifage." A perfon was faid to be nott-pated, when the hair was cut short and round; Ray fays the word is ftill used in Effex, for polled or caddis-garter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch,— fhorn. Vide Ray's Collection, p. 108. Morell's Chaucer, 8vo. p. 11. vide Jun. Etym. ad verb. PERCY. So, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612: your nott-headed country gentleman." Again, in Stowe's Annals for the Year 1535, 27th of Henry VIII: "He caufed his own head to bee polled, and from thenceforth his beard to bee notted and no more fhaven." In Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, to notte the hair is the fame as to cut it. STEEVENS. 4 -puke-ftocking,] In Barrett's Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, a puke colour is explained as being a colour between ruffet and black, and is rendered in Latin pullus. Again, in Drant's tranflation of the eighth fatire of Horace, 1567: nigra fuccinctam vadere palla." -ytuckde in pukifhe frocke." In a small book entitled, The Order of my Lorde Maior, Et. for their Meetings and Wearing of theyr Apparel throughout the Yeere, printed in 1586: "the maior, &c. are commanded to appeare on Good Fryday in their pewke gownes, and without their chaynes and typetes." Shelton, in his tranflation of Don Quixote, p. 2. fays: "the reft and remnant of his eftate was spent on a jerkine of fine puke.” Edit. 1612. In Salmon's Chymift's Shop laid open, there is a receipt to make a puke colour. The ingredients are the vegetable gall and a large proportion of water; from which it should appear that the colour was grey. In the time of Shakspeare the most expenfive filk ftockings were worn; and in King Lear, by way of reproach, an attendant is called a worsted-flocking knave. So that, after all, perhaps the word puke refers to the quality of the stuff rather than to the colour. STEEVENS. Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1730, p. 406, fpeaks of " a gown of black puke." The ftatute 5 and 6 of Edward VI. c. vi. mentions cloth of thefe colours" puke, brown-blue, blacks." Hence puke feems not to be a perfect or full black, but it might be a ruffet blue, or rather, a ruffet black, as Mr. Steevens intimates from Barrett's Alvearie. TOLLET. If Shelton be accurate, as I think he is, in rendering velarte by puke; puke muft fignify ruffet wool that has never been dyed. HENLEY. FRAN. O lord, fir, who do you mean? I have no doubt that the epithet referred to the dark colour. Black ftockings are now worn, as they probably were in Shakspeare's time, by perfons of inferior condition, on a principle of economy. MALONE. S caddis-garter,] Caddis was, I believe, a kind of coarse ferret. The garters of Shakspeare's time were worn in fight, and confequently were expenfive. He who would fubmit to wear a coarfer fort, was probably called by this contemptuous diftinction, which I meet with again in Glapthorne's Wit in a Conftable, 1639: -dost hear, "My honeft caddis-garters?" This is an address to a fervant. Again, in Warres, or the Peace is broken: " fine piecd filke ftockens on their legs, tyed up fmoothly with caddis garters. STEEVENS. "At this day, [about the year 1625] fays the continuator of Stowe's Chronicle, men of mean rank weare garters and fhoe-rofes of more than five pound price." In a note on Twelfth-Night, Mr. Steevens obferves that very rich garters were anciently worn below the knee; and quotes the following lines from Warner's Albions England, 1602, Book IX. c. xlvii. which may throw a light on the following paffage : "Then wore they "Garters of liftes; but now of filk, fome edged deep with gold." In a manufcript Account-book kept by Mr. Philip Henslowe, ftep-father to the wife of Alleyn the player, of which an account is given in Vol. II. is the following article: "Lent unto Thomas Hewode, [the dramatick writer,] the 1 of feptember 1602, to bye him a payre of filver garters, ijs. vid.” Caddis was worfted galloon. MALONE. 6 — brown baftard-] Baftard was a kind of fweet wine. The prince finding the waiter not able, or not willing to understand his inftigation, puzzles him with unconnected prattle, and drives him away. JOHNSON. In an old dramatick piece, entitled, Wine, Beer, Ale, and Tobacco, the second edition, 1630, Beer fays to Wine: "Wine well born? Did not every man call you baftard but t'other day?" So again, in The Honeft Whore, a comedy by Deckar, 1635: What wine fent they for? "Ro. Baftard wine; for if it had been truely begotten, it |