Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,' Bated like eagles having lately bath'd;] To bate is, in the ftyle of falconry, to beat the wing, from the French, battre, that is, to flutter in preparation for flight. JOHNSON. The following paffage from David and Lethfabe, 1599, will confirm Dr. Johnson's affertion: "Where all delights fat bating, wing'd with thoughts, "Ready to neftle in her naked breast." Again, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: “ at the prey, bate at the lure," &c. made her check Writers on falconry alfo often mention the bathing of hawks and eagles, as highly neceffary for their health and fpirits.-All birds, after bathing, (which almost all birds are fond of,) fpread out their wings to catch the wind, and flutter violently with them in order to dry themselves. This, in the falconer's language, is called bating, and by Shakspeare, bating with the wind. It may be obferved that birds never appear fo lively and full of fpirits, as immediately after bathing. STEEVENS. This appears to be juftly explained by Steevens. When birds have bathed, they cannot fly until their feathers be difentangled, by bating with the wind. M. MASON. Bated, is, I believe, here used for bating, the paffive for the active participle; a licence which our author often takes. So, in Othello: "If virtue no delighted beauty lack." Again, in The Comedy of Errors: "And careful hours with time's deformed hand." To bate, as appears from Minfheu's Dict. 1617, was originally applied to birds of prey, when they fwoop upon their quarry. S'abbatre, fe devaller, Fr. Hence it fignifies, as Dr. Johnfon has explained it, to flutter, "à Gal. batre, (fays Minfheu,) i. e. to beat, because the [the hawk] beats herself with unquiet fluttering." MALONE. 8 Glittering in golden coats like images;] This alludes to the manner of dreffing up images in the Romish churches on holy-days; when they are bedecked in robes very richly laced and embroidered. So, in Spenfer's Faerie Queen, Book I. ch. iii: "He was to weet a ftout and sturdie thiefe "Wont to robbe churches of their ornaments, &c. "He did difrobe," &c. STEEVENS. 9 I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,] We fhould readbeaver up. It is an impropriety to fay on: for the beaver is only His cuiffes on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,- the vifiere of the helmet, which let down, covers the face. When the foldier was not upon action he wore it up, fo that his face might be feen, (hence Vernon fays he faw young Harry &c.) But when upon action, it was let down to cover and fecure the face. Hence in the Second Part of K. Henry IV. it is faid: "Their armed ftaves in charge, their beavers down.” WARBURTON. There is no need of all this note; for beaver may be a helmet; or the Prince, trying his armour, might wear his beaver down. JOHNSON. Dr. Warburton feems not to have obferved, that Vernon only fays, he faw" young Harry," not that he faw his face. MALONE. Bever and vifiere were two different parts of the helmet. The former part let down to enable the wearer to drink, the latter was raifed up to enable him to fee. LORT. Shakspeare however confounded them; for, in Hamlet, Horatio fays, that he faw the old king's face, because he wore his beaver up." Nor is our poet fingular in the ufe of this word. This was the common fignification of the word, for Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 1616, defines beaver thus: "In armour it fignifies that part of the helmet which may be lifted up, to take breath the more freely." MALONE. The poet is certainly not guilty of the confufion laid to his charge with refpect to the paffage in Hamlet; for the beaver was as often made to lift up as to let down. DOUCE. 2 His cuiffes on his thighs,] Cuiffes, French. Armour for the thighs. POPE. The reafon why his cuiffes are fo particularly mentioned, I conceive to be, that his horfemanfhip is here praifed, and the cuiffes are that part of armour which most hinders a horfeman's activity. JOHNSON. 3 And vaulted-] The context requires vault, but a word of one fyllable will not fuit the metre. Perhaps our author wrote vault it, a mode of phrafeology of which there are fome examples in these plays. MALONE. 4 To turn and wind a fiery Pegafus,] This idea occurs in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596: her hotteft fury may be refembled to the passing of a brave cariere by a Pegafus." STEEVENS, 66 And witch the world' with noble horsemanship. This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come; And yet not ours :-Come, let me take my horse, Against the bofom of the prince of Wales: VER. There is more news: I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along, VER. To thirty thousand. Hor. DOUG. Talk not of dying; I am out of fear Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year. [Exeunt. 5 And witch the world-] For bewitch, charm. PoPE. So, in King Henry VI. Part II: "To fit and witch me, as Afcanius did." STEEVENS. FAL. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of fack: our foldiers fhall march through; we'll to Sutton-Colfield to-night. BARD. Will you give me money, captain? BARD. This bottle makes an angel. FAL. An if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. BARD. I will, captain: farewell. [Exit. FAL. If I be not ashamed of my foldiers, I am a fouced gurnet.' I have mifufed the king's press 6 -lieutenant Peto-] This paffage proves that Peto did not go with the Prince. JOHNSON. 7 -fouced gurnet.] This is a difh mentioned in that very laughable poem called The Counter-fcuffle, 1658: "Stuck thick with cloves upon the back, "Well stuff'd with fage, and for the fmack, Daintily ftrew'd with pepper black, "Souc'd gurnet." Souced gurnet is an appellation of contempt very frequently employed in the old comedies. So, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: "Punck! you fouc'd gurnet!” Again, in the Prologue to Wily Beguiled, 1606: "Out you fouced gurnet, you wool-fift!" Among the Cotton MSS. is a part of an old household book for the year 1594. See Vefp. F. xvi: Supper. Paid for a gurnard, viii. d." STEEVENS, A gurnet is a fish very nearly resembling a piper. Nn3 ヒ e of a hundred d odd pounds. ers, yeomen's :helors, fuch as fuch a commohear the devil t of a caliver, wild-duck. I entitled A bawd, es used in the fame ntly use the word he flesh, all is fifh ites for all kinde of countrey gentleman ws'd gurnet, or her · prejs me none but good bouleholders, &c.] This practice is complained of in Barnabie Riche's Souldier's Wibe to Briton's welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604, p. 62: “ Sir, I perceive by the found of your words you are a favourite to Captaines, and I thinke you could be contented, that to serve the expedition of thefe times, we fhould take up honeft householders, men that are of wealth and abilitie to live at home, fuch as your captaines might chop and chaunge, and make marchandise of," &c. STEEVENS. 9 worse than a ftruck fowl, or a hurt wild-duck.] The repetition of the fame image difpofed Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, to read, in oppofition to all the copies, a ftruck deer, which is indeed a proper expreffion, but not likely to have been corrupted. Shakspeare, perhaps, wrote a ftruck forrel, which, being negligently read by a man not skilled in hunter's language, was easily changed to ftruck fowl. Sorrel is used in Love's Labour's Loft for a young deer; and the terms of the chase were, in our author's time, familiar to the ears of every gentleman. JOHNSON. -fowl,] Thus the first quarto, 1598. In a fubfequent copy (1608) the word fowl being erroneously printed fool, that errour was adopted in the quarto 16:3, and confequently in the folio, which was printed from it. MALONE. Fowl, feems to have been the word defigned by the poet, who might have thought an oppofition between fowl, i. e. domeftick birds, and wild-forul, fufficient on this occafion. He has almost the fame expreffion in Much Ado about Nothing: "Alas poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into fedges." STEEVENS. 1 |