antick the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

P. HEN. No; thou fhalt.

FAL. Shall 1? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.+

P. HEN. Thou judgeft falfe already; I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves, and fo become a rare hangman.

FAL. Well, Hal, well; and in fome fort it jumps with my humour, as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you.

P. HEN. For obtaining of fuits?'

FAL. Yea, for obtaining of fuits: whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat, or a lugg'd bear.

6

4I'll be a brave judge.] This thought, like many others, is taken from the old play of Henry V:

"Hen. V. Ned, fo foon as I am king, the first thing I will do fhall be to put my lord chief juftice out of office; and thou shalt be my lord chief juftice of England.

Ned. Shall I be lord chief juftice? By gogs wounds, I'll be the braveft lord chief juftice that ever was in England." STEEVENS.

5 For obtaining of fuits?] Suit, fpoken of one that attends at court, means a petition; ufed with refpect to the hangman, means the clothes of the offender. JOHNSON.

So, in an ancient Medley, bl. 1:

"The broker hath gay cloaths to fell

"Which from the hangman's budgett fell." STEEVENS. See Vol. IV. p. 325, n. 5. The fame quibble occurs in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631: "A poor maiden, mistress, has a fuit to you; and 'tis a good fuit,-very good apparel." MALONE.

6

—a gib cat,] A gib cat means, I know not why, an old cat. JOHNSON.

A gib cat is the common term in Northamptonshire, and all adjacent counties, to exprefs a he cat. PERCY.

"As melancholy as a gib'd cat" is a proverb enumerated among others in Ray's Collection. In A Match at Midnight, 1633,

P. HEN. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute." FAL. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.

8

P. HEN. What say'ft thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch? "

is the following paffage: "They fwell like a couple of gib'd cats, met both by chance in the dark in an old garret." So, in Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, 1653:"Some in mania or melancholy madnefs have attempted the fame, not without fuccefs, although they have remained fomewhat melancholy like gib'd cats." I believe after all, a gib'd cat is a cat who has been qualified for the feraglio; for all animals fo mutilated, become drowfy and melancholy. To glib has certainly that meaning. So, in The Winter's Tale, Act II. fc. i: "Ánd I had rather glib myself than they "Should not produce fair iffue."

In Sidney's Arcadia, however, the fame quality in a cat is mentioned, without any reference to the confequences of castration: "The hare, her fleights; the cat, his melancholy.”

STEEVENS.

Sherwood's English Dictionary at the end of Cotgrave's French one, fays: "Gibbe is an old he cat." Aged animals are not fo playful as thofe which are young; and glib'd or gelded ones are duller than others. So we might read: as melancholy as a gib cat, or a glib'd cat. TOLLET.

8

7 or a lover's lute.] See Vol. IV. p. 472, n. 9. P. 472, n. 9. MALONE. Lincolnshire bagpipe.] "Lincolnshire bagpipes" is a proverbial faying. Fuller has not attempted to explain it; and Ray only conjectures that the Lincolnshire people may be fonder of this inftrument than others. DOUCE.

I fufpect, that by the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe, is meant the dull croak of a frog, one of the native musicians of that waterish county. STEEVENS.

9a hare,] A hare may be confidered as melancholy, because the is upon her form always folitary; and, according to the phyfick of the times, the flesh of it was fuppofed to generate melancholy. JOHNSON.

The following paffage in Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612, may the best explanation:

prove

-like your melancholy hare,

"Feed after midnight."

Again, in Drayton's Polyolvion, Song the second:

"The melancholy hare is form'd in brakes and briers."

FAL. Thou haft the most unfavoury fimiles; and art, indeed, the moft comparative, rafcalliest,fweet young prince,-But, Hal, I pry'thee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God,

The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphics expreffed a melancholy man by a bare fitting in her form. See Pierii Hieroglyph.

Lib. XII. STEEVENS.

2

the melancholy of Moor-ditch?] It appears from Stowe's Survey, that a broad ditch, called Deep-ditch, formerly parted the hofpital from Moor-fields; and what has a more melancholy appearance than ftagnant water?

This ditch is alfo mentioned in The Gul's Hornbook, by Decker, 1609: "it will be a forer labour than the cleanfing of Augeas' ftable, or the fcowring of Moor-ditch."

Again, in Newes from Hell, brought by the Divel's Carrier, by Thomas Decker, 1606: "As touching the river, looke how Moor-ditch fhews when the water is three quarters dreyn'd out, and by reafon the ftomacke of it is overladen, is ready to fall to cafting. So does that; it ftinks almoft worse, is almoft as poyfonous, altogether fo muddy, altogether fo black." STEEVENS.

So, in Taylor's Pennyleffe 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 furrounding the city of London, between Bishopfgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholefome and impaffable morafs, and confequently not frequented by the citizens, like other fuburbial fields which were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable places of refort. T. WARTON.

3fimiles;] Old copies-fmiles. of the fecond folio. MALONE.

Corrected by the editor

4the most comparative,] Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton after him, read-incomparative, I fuppofe for incomparable, or peerless; but comparative here means quick at comparisons, or fruitful in fimiles, and is properly introduced. JOHNSON.

This epithet is ufed again, in Act III. fc. ii. of this play, and apparently in the fame fenfe:

-stand the push

"Of every beardlefs vain comparative."

And in Love's Labour's Loft, A&t V. fc. ult. Rofaline tells Biron that he is a man " Full of comparisons and wounding flouts."

STEEVENS.

thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought: An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, fir; but I mark'd him not: and yet he talk'd very wifely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talk'd wifely, and in the street too.

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

FAL. O, thou haft damnable iteration; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a faint. Thou haft 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 fhould fpeak 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

5 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 Pofte, 1597, fign. C: "In troth they live fo fo, and it were well if they knew where a commoditie of names were to be fould, and yet I thinke all the money in their purfes could not buy it." REED.

6

66

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

70, thou haft 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 laft fpeech a text is very indecently and abusively applied, to which Falstaff answers, thou haft 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 fignified fimply citation or recitation. So, in Marlow's Doctor Fauftus, 1631:

"Here take this book, and peruse it well,

"The iterating of thefe lines brings gold."

From the context, iterating here appears to mean pronouncing, reciting. Again, in Camden's Remaines, 1614: "King Edward I.

not, I am a villain; I'll be damn'd for never a king's fon 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."

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

Enter POINS, at a distance.

8

FAL. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no fin for a man to labour in his vocation. Poins!Now fhall we know if Gadshill have fet a match."

7

and baffle me.] See Mr. Tollet's note on K. Richard II. p. 198. STEEVENS.

8 —no fin for a man to labour in his vocation.] This (as Dr. Farmer obferves to me) is undoubtedly a fneer on Agremont Radcliffe's Politique Difcourfes, 1578. From the beginning to the end of this work, the word vocation occurs in almost every paragraph. Thus chapter i:

"That the vocation of men hath been a thing unknown unto philofophers, 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 diforderly and unduely entered into any vocation, may lawfully brooke and abide in the fame; and whether the adminiftration in the meane while done by him that is unduely entered, ought to holde, or be of force." STEEVENS.

9 -have fet a match.] Thus the quarto. So, in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair, 1614: "Peace, fir, they'll be angry if they hear you eves-dropping, now they are fetting their match." There it feems to mean making an appointment.—The folio reads-set a watch, MALONE.

As no watch is afterwards fet, I fuppofe match to be the true reading. STEEVENS.