Pift. He hears with ears.

Eva. The tevil and his tam! what phrafe is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Piftol, did you pick master Slender's purfe? Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again elfe) of feven groats in mill-fixpences, and two 'Edward fhovel-boards, that coft me two fhilling and two pence a piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Eva. No; it is falfe, if it is a pick-purse,.

Pift. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner !Sir John, and mafter mine,

* I combat challenge of this latten bilboe:

Word

mill-fixpences,] It appears from a paffage in Sir W. Davenant's News from Plimouth, that thefe mill'd-fixpences were ufed by way of counters to caft up money:

-A few mill'd fixpences with which

"My purfer cafts accompt." STEEVENS.

Edward Shovel-boards,] By this term, I believe, are meant brafs caftors, fuch as are fhoveled on a board, with king Edward's face ftamped upon them. JOHNSON.

One of these pieces of metal is mentioned in Middleton's comedy of The Roaring Girl, 1611" away flid I my man, like a fhovel-board fbilling," &c. STEEVENS.

"Edward Shovel-boards," were not brass castors, but the broad fhillings of Edw. VI.

Taylor, the water-poet, in his Travel of Twelve-pence, makes him complain :

'66.

-the unthrift every day

"With my face downwards do at hoave-board play;

That had I had a beard, you may suppose,

"They had worne it off, as they have done my nose." And in a note he tells us: "Edw. fhillings for the most part are ufed at fboave-board." FARMER.

I combat challenge of this Latin bilboe:] Our modern editors have diftinguifhed this word Latin in Italic characters, as if it was addreffed to Sir Hugh, and meant to call him pedantic blade, on account of his being a schoolmaster, and teaching Latin. But I'll be bold to fay, in this they do not take the poet's conceit. Pital barely calls Sir Hugh mountain-foreigner, because he had inter

pofed

1

3 Word of denial in thy labra's here;
Word of denial: froth and fcum, thou-ly'ft.

Slen.

pofed in the difpute: but then immediately demands the combat of Slender, for having charged him with picking his pocket. The old quartos write it latten, as it fhould be, in the common characters and as a proof that the author defigned this fhould be addreffed to Slender, Sir Hugh does not there interpose one word in the quarrel. But what then fignifies-latten bilboe? Why, Piftol, feeing Slender fuch a flim, puny wight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten: and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. Monfieur Dacier, upon this verfe in Horace's epistle de Arte Poetica,

"Tibia non ut nunc orichalco vincta," &c.

fays, C'eft une espece de cuivre de montagne, comme fon nom mesme le temoigne; c'eft ce que nous appellons aujourd'huy du leton. It is a fort of mountain-copper, as its very name imports, and which we at this time of day call latten." THEOBALD.

After all this difplay of learning in Mr. Theobald's note, I believe our poet had a much more obvious meaning. Latten may fignify no more than as thin as a lath. The word in fome counties is ftill pronounced as if there was no bin it; and Ray, in his Dict. of North Country Words, affirms it to be fpelt lat in the north of England.

Falstaff threatens, in another play, to drive prince Henry out of his kingdom, with a dagger of lath. A latten bilboe" means therefore, I believe, no more than a blade as thin as a lath—a vice's dagger,

Theobald, however, is right in his affertion that latten was a -you metal. So Turbervile, in his Book of Falconry, 1575: must set her a latten bason, or a veffel of ftone or earth." Again, in Old Fortunatus, 1600: "Whether it were lead or lattin that hafp'd down those winking cafements, I know not." Again, in the old metrical Romance of Syr Bevis of Hampton, b. 1. nd

date :

"Windowes of latin were fet with glaffe." Latten is ftill a common word for tin in the North.

STEEVENS.

I believe Theobald has given the true fenfe of latten, though he is wrong in fuppofing, that the allufion is to Slender's thinness. It is rather to his foftnefs or weakness. TYRWHITT.

3 Word of denial in thy labra's here ;] I fuppofe it fhould rather be read:

Word of denial in my labra's hear;

that is, bear the word of denial in my lips. Thou lyft.

JOHNSON.

We

Slen. By thefe gloves, then 'twas he.

4

Nym. Be avis'd, Sir, and país good humours: I will fay, marry trap, with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an afs.

Fal. What fay you, Scarlet and John?

Bard. Why, fir, for my part, I fay, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five fentences. Eva. It is his five fenfes: fie, what the ignorance is!

Bard, And being fap 7, fir, was, as they fay, cafhier'd; and fo conclufions pafs'd the careires.

8

Slen.

We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat, Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adverfary, and is supposed to point to them as he speaks, STEEVENS,

-marry trap, -] When a man was caught in his own Stratagem, I fuppofe the exclamation of infult was marry, trap! JOHNSON.

5-nutbook's humour-] Read, pass the nuthook's humour. Nathook was a term of reproach in the vulgar way, and in cant ftrain. In The Second Part of Hen, IV, Dol Tearsheet says to the beadle, Nutbook, Nutbook, you lie, Probably it was a name given to a bailiff or catchpole, very odious to the common people. HANMER.

Nutbook is the reading of the folio, and the third quarto. The fecond quarto reads, bafe humour,

If you run the Nutbook's humour on me, is in plain English, if you fay I am a Thief. Enough is faid on the fubject of booking moveables out at windows, in a note on K, Henry IV.

STEEVENS.

Scarlet and John?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour confifts in the allufion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which, fee The Second Part of Hen. IV. WARBURTON.

" And being fap, I know not the exact meaning of this cant word, neither have I met with it in any of our old dramatic pieces, which have often proved the beft comments on Shakefpeare's vulgarifms. STEEVENS.

8

careires-1 I believe this strange word is nothing but the French cariere; and the expreffion means, that the common bounds of good behaviour were overpaffed. JOHNSON.

to

Slen. Ay, you fpake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll never be drunk whilft I live again, but in honeft, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. Fal. You hear all these matters deny'd, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter mistress Anne Page with wine; miftrefs Ford and miftrefs Page following.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit Anne Page. Slen. O heaven! this is miftrefs Anne Page. Page. How now, miftrefs Ford?

Fal. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good miftrefs. [Kiffing her. Page. Wife, bid thefe gentlemen welcome:Come, we have a hot venifon pafty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we fhall drink down all unkindness. [Exe. all but Shal. Slend. and Evans. Slen. I had rather than forty fhillings, I had my book of fongs and fonnets here:

Enter Simple.

How now, Simple; where have you been; 1 muft wait on myself, muft I? You have not the book of riddles about you, have you?

to pass the cariere was a military phrafe. I find it in one of Sir John Smythe's Difcourfes, 1589, where, fpeaking of horses wounded, he fays" they, after the firft fhrink at the entering of the bullet, doo pass their carriere, as though they had verie little hurt." Again, in Harrington's tranflation of Ariosto, book xxxviii. anza 3.5.

To ftop, to start, to pass carier, to bound."

STEEVENS.

Sim. Book of riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake 9 upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?

. Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by fir Hugh here ;-Do you understand me?

Slen. Ay, fir, you fhall find me reasonable; if it be fo, I fhall do that that is reafon.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, fir.

Eva. Give ear to his motions, mafter Slender : I will defcription the matter to you,

'of it.

if you be capacity

Slen. Nay, I will do, as my coufin Shallow fays: I pray you, pardon me; he's a juftice of peace in his country, fimple though I ftand here.

Eva. But that is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands.

Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that the lips is parcel

upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?] Sure, Simple's a little out in his reckoning. Allhallowmas is almost five weeks after Michaelmas. But may it not be urged, it is defigned Simple fhould appear thus ignorant, to keep up the character? I think not. The fimpleft creatures (nay, even naturals) generally are very precife in the knowledge of feftivals, and marking how the feafons run: and therefore I have ventured to fufpect our poet wrote Martlemas, as the vulgar call it: which is near a fortnight after All-Saint's day, i. e. eleven days, both inclufive. THEOBALD.

This correction, thus feriously and wifely enforced, is received by fir Tho. Hanmer; but probably Shakespeare intended a blun der. JOHNSON.

of