dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots: this house is turn'd upfide down, fince Robin oftler died.

I CAR. Poor fellow! never joy'd fince the price of oats rofe; it was the death of him.

2 CAR. I think, this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas : I am ftung like a tench.8

I CAR. Like a tench? by the mafs, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been fince the firft cock.

"at least twice a quarter, with clean cloths, ftrike away the duft and moulding of the books, which will not then continue long with it; now it proceedeth chiefly of the newness of the forrels, which in time will be lefs and lefs dankifh." Reliquiae Bodleiana, p. 111.

7 bots:] Are worms in the ftomach of a horse.

REED.

JOHNSON.

"The bottes is an yll difeafe, and they lye in a horse mawe; and they be an inche long, white coloured, and a reed heed, and as moche as a fyngers ende; and they be quycke and stycke fafte in the mawe fyde: it apperethe by ftampynge of the horfe or tomblynge; and in the beginninge there is remedy ynoughe; and if they be not cured betyme, they wyll eate thorough his mawe and kyll hym." Fitzherbert's Book of Hufbandry. REED.

A bots light upon you, is an imprecation frequently repeated in the anonymous play of K. Henry V. as well as in many other old pieces. So, in the ancient black letter interlude of The Difobedient Child, no date:

"That I wished their bellyes full of bottes."

In Reginald Scott, on Witchcraft, 1584, is "a charme for the bots in a horfe." STEEVENS.

8 I am flung like a tench.] Why like a tench? I know not, unlefs the fimilitude confifts in the fpots of the tench, and those made by the bite of vermin. MALONE.

I have either read, or been told, that it was once customary to pack fuch pond-fifh as were brought alive to market, in ftingingnettles. But writing from recollection, and having no proof of this ufage to offer, I do not prefs my intelligence on the public.

STEEVENS.

2 CAR. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jorden, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach.9

I CAR. What, oftler! come away, and be hang'd,

come away.

2 CAR. I have a gammon of bacon, and two razes of ginger,' to be delivered as far as Charingcrofs.

9

-breeds fleas like a loach.] The loach is a very small fish, but fo exceedingly prolifick that it is feldom found without fpawn in it; and it was formerly a practice of the young gallants to swallow loaches in wine, because they were confidered as invigorating, and as apt to communicate their prolifick quality. The carrier therefore means to say that " your chamber-lie breeds fleas as faft as a loach" breeds, not fleas, but loaches.

In As you like it, Jaques fays that he "can fuck melancholy out of a fong, as a weafel fucks eggs;" but he does not mean that a weafel fucks eggs "out of a fong.”—And in Troilus and Creffida, where Neftor fays that Therfites is

"A flave whofe gall coins flanders like a mint,"

he means, that his gall coined flanders as faft as a mint coins money. M. MASON.

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A paffage in Coriolanus likewife may be produced in fupport of the interpretation here given: and he no more remembers his mother, than an eight-year-old horfe;" i. e. than an eight-yearold horse remembers his dam.

I entirely agree with Mr. M. Mafon in his explanation of this paffage, and, before I had feen his COMMENTS, had in the fame manner interpreted a paffage in As you like it. See Vol. VI. p. 77, n. 7. One principal fource of error in the interpretation of many paffages in our author's plays has been the fuppofing that his fimiles were intended to correfpond exactly on both fides. MALONE.

2 — and two razes of ginger,] As our author in feveral paffages mentions a race of ginger, I thought proper to diftinguish it from the raze mentioned here. The former fignifies no more than a fingle root of it; but a raze is the Indian term for a bale of it. THEOBALD.

and two razes of ginger,] So, in the old anonymous -he hath taken the great raze of ginger, was to have had." A dainty race of ginger

play of Henry V: « that bouncing Befs, &c.

I CAR. 'Odfbody! the turkies in my pannier are quite starved.3-What, oftler!-A plague on thee! haft thou never an eye in thy head? canft not hear? An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.-Come, and be hang'd:-Haft no faith in thee?

Enter GADSHILL.4

GADS. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?

is mentioned in Ben Jonfon's mafque of The Gipfies Metamorphofed. The late Mr. Warner obferved to me, that a fingle root or race of ginger, were it brought home entire, as it might formerly have been, and not in small pieces, as at prefent, would have been fufficient to load a pack-horfe. He quoted Sir Hans Sloane's Introduction to his Hiftory of Jamaica, in fupport of his affertion; and added that he could difcover no authority for the word raze in the fenfe appropriated to it by Theobald."

A race of ginger is a phrafe that feems familiar among our comic writers. So, in A Looking-Glafs for London and England, 1598: "I have spent eleven pence, befides three rases of ginger."— "Here's two rafes more." STEEVENS.

Dr. Grew fpeaks, in The Philofophical Transactions, of a fingle root of ginger weighing fourteen ounces, as uncommonly large. I doubt therefore concerning the truth of Mr. Warner's affertion. Theobald's explanation feems equally difputable. MALONE.

3 the turkies in my pannier are quite ftarved.] Here is a flight anachronism. Turkies were not brought into England till the time of King Henry VIII. MALONE.

4 Gadshill.] This thief receives his title from a place on the Kentish road, where many robberies have been committed. So, in Weftward Hoe, 1606:

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Why, how lies fhe?

Troth, as the way lies over Gads-hill, very dangerous." Again, in the anonymous play of The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth:

"And I know thee for a taking fellow

Upon Gads-bill in Kent.”

In the year 1558, a ballad entitled "The Robbery at Gadshill," was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company.

STEEVENS.

I CAR. I think it be two o'clock.'

GADS. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lantern, to fee my gelding in the ftable.

I CAR Nay, foft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i'faith.

GADS. I pr'ythee, lend me thine.

2 CAR. Ay, when, canft tell?-Lend me thy lantern, quoth a?-marry, I'll see thee hang'd first. GADS. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?

2 CAR. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll cal! up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge.

[Exeunt Carriers.

GADS. What, ho! chamberlain !
CHAM. [Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse."

I think it be two o'clock.] The carrier, who fufpected Gadshill, ftrives to mislead him as to the hour; because the first observation made in this fcene is, that it was four o'clock. STEEVENS,

At hand, quoth pick-purfe.] This is a proverbial expreffion often ufed by Green, Nafhe, and other writers of the time, in whofe works the cant of low converfation is preferved. Again, in the play of Apius and Virginia, 1575, Haphazard, the vice, fays: "At hand, quoth pickpurfe, here redy am I,

"See well to the cutpurfe, be ruled by me." Again, (as Mr. Malone obferves,) in The Dutchefs of Suffolk, by Tho. Drue, (but hitherto afcribed to Heywood,) 1631: "At hand, quoth pickpurfe-have you any work for a tyler?"

STEEVENS.

This proverbial faying probably arofe from the pick-purfe always feizing upon the prey neareft him his maxim being that of Pope's man of gallantry:

:

"The thing at hand is of all things the best." MALONE.

GADS. That's even as fair as-at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou varieft no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'ft the plot how."

Enter Chamberlain.

CHAM. Good morrow, master Gadshill. It holds current, that I told you yefternight: There's a franklin' in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, laft night at fupper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: They will away prefently.

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8

• That's even as fair as—at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou varieft no more &c.] So, in The Life and Death of Gamaliel Ratfey, 1605: - he dealt with the chamberlaine of the house to learne which way they rode in the morning, which the chamberlaine performed accordingly, and that with great care and diligence, for he knew he should partake of their fortunes, if they sped."

7-franklin-] is a little gentleman. JOHNSON.

A franklin is a freeholder. M. MASON.

STEEVENS,

Fortefcue, fays the editor of The Canterbury Tales, Vol. IV. p. 202. (de L. L. Ang. c. xxix.) describes a franklain to be pater familias-magnis ditatus poffeffionibus. He is claffed with (but after) the miles and armiger; and is diftinguished from the Libere tenentes and valeti; though, as it fhould feem, the only real diftinction between him and other freeholders, confifted in the largenefs of his eftate. Spelman, in voce Franklein, quotes the following paffage from Trivet's French Chronicle. (MSS. Bibl. R. S. n. 56.) "Thomas de Brotherton filius Edwardi I. marefcallus Angliæ, apres la mort de fon pere efpofa la fille de un Franchelyn apelee Alice." The hiftorian did not think it worth his while even to mention the name of the Frankelein. REED.

8and call for eggs and butter:] It appears from the Houfebold Book of the Fifth Earl of Northumberland, that butter'd eggs was the ufual breakfaft of my lord and lady, during the feafon of Lent. STEEVENS.