Sail like my pinnace to these golden fhores. [To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o' the hoof; feek fhelter, pack!: Falstaff will learn the humour of this age', French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. [Exit Falstaff and Boy. Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts! 3 for gourd, and fullam holds; And high and low beguiles the rich and poor : Tefter my pinnace] A pinnace feems anciently to have fignified a fmall veffel, or floop, attending on a larger. So in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1613: 66 was lately fent "With threescore fail of ships and pinnaces.” Again, in Mulcaffes the Turk, 1610: "Our life is but a failing to our death "Thro' the world's ocean: it makes no matter then, At prefent it fignifies only a man of war's boat. STEEVens. -the humour of this age,] Thus the 4to, 1619: The fo lio reads the honor of the age. STEEVENS. 2 Let vultures gripe thy guts!] This hemiftich is a burlesque on a paffage in Tamburlaine, or The Scythian Shepherd, of which. play a more particular account is given in one of the notes to Henry IV. P. II. act II. fc. iv. STEEVENS. 3 for gourd, and fullam holds ; this cant term: 66 from And high and low beguiles the rich and poor:] Fullam is a cint term for falfe dice, high and low. Torriano, in his Italian dictionary, interprets Pife by falfe dice, high and low men, high fullams and low fullams. Jonfon, in his Every Man out of bis Humour, Who, beferve? He keeps high men quibbles upon and low men, he has a fair living at fullam."-As for gourd, or rather gord, it was another inftrument of gaming, as appears And thy dry bones can Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady: reach at nothing now, but GORDS or nine-pins." WARBURTON. In the London Prodigal I find the following enumeration of false dice." I bequeath two bale of falfe dice, videlicet, high men and low men, fulloms, ftop cater-traies, and other bones of function." 66 In Monfieur D'Olive, a comedy, by Chapman, 1606, the gord, the fullam, and the flop-cater trée, are mentioned. R 3 Green, Tefter I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge. Pift. Wilt thou revenge? Nym. By welkin, and her ftar! Nym. With both the humours, I: I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford 4. His dove will prove, his gold will hold, Nym. My humour fhall not cool: I will incenfe Ford to deal with poifon; I will poffefs him with yellownefs, for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour. Pift. Green, in his Art of Juggling, &c. 1612, fays, "What fhould I fay more of falfe dice, of fulloms, high men, lowe men, gourds, and brizled dice, graviers, demies, and contraries ?" Again, in The Bell-man of London, by Decker, 5th edit. 1640; the falfe dice are enumerated, a bale of fullams."—“ A bale of gordes, with as many high-men as low-men for paffage." Again, in Soliman and Perfeda: among 66 Pifton." Nay, I ufe not to go without a pair of falfe dice; "Here are tall men and little men. Julio. High men and low men, thou wouldst say.” "The gourd, the fulham, and the stop-cater-tre." Again, in Nobody and Somebody, 1598: "Here fullams and gourds, here's tall-men and low-men." STEEVENS. I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford.] The very reverse of this happens. See act II. where Nym makes the discovery to Page, and not to Ford, as here promised; and Piftol, on the other hand, to Ford, and not to Page. Shake fpeare is frequently guilty of thefe little forgetfulneffes. STEEVENS. 5 -yellowness,] Yellowness is jealoufy. JOHNSON. So, in Law Tricks, &c. 1608: "If you have me you must not put on yellows." Pit. Thou art the Mars of malecontents: I fe cond thee; troop on. SCENE [Exeunt. IV. Dr. Caius's houfe. Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. Quic. What; John Rugby !-I pray thee, go to the cafement, and fee if you can fee my mafter, mafter Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abufing of God's patience, and the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit Rugby. Quic. Go; and we'll have a poffet for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in houfe withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate : his worft fault is, that Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: 6 66 Flora well, perdie, he "Did paint her yellow for her jealousy." STEEVENS. the revolt of mien] I fuppofe we may read, the rewolt of men. Sir T. Hanmer reads, this revolt of mine. may ferve, for of the prefent text I can find no meaning. Either JOHNSON. The revolt of mine is the old reading. Revolt of mien, is change of countenance, one of the effects he has just been afcribing to jealoufy. STEEVENS. This, Mr. Steevens truly obferves to be the old reading, and it is authority enough for the revolt of mien in modern orthography. "Know that fellow that walketh there? fays Eliot, 1593he is an alchymift by his mine, and hath multiplied all to moonfhine." FARMER. 7 you ——— at the latter end &c.] That is, when my mafter is in bed. JOHNSON. 8 no breed bate:] Bate is an obfolete word, fignifying ftrife, contention. So, in the Countess of Pembroke's Antonius, 1590: "Shall ever civil bate Again, 1 he is given to prayer; he is fomething peevish that way but no body but has his fault; but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay your name is ? Quic. And mafter Slender's your master ? Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife? 2 I Sim. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-colour'd beard, Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1529; Quic "We shall not fall at bate, or ftryve for this matter." Stanyhurft, in his tranflation of Virgil, 1582, calls Erinnys a make bate. STEEVENS. 9 peevish] Peevish is foolish. So in Cymbeline, act II. "-he's strange and peevish." STEEVENS. a little see face,] Wee, in the northern dialect, fignifies very little. Thus, in the Scottish proverb that apologizes for a little woman's marriage with a big man: 66 A wee mouse will creep under a mickle cornftack." COLLINS. So in Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, com. 1631: "He was nothing fo tall as I, but a little quee man, and fomewhat hutchback'd," Again, in The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600: "Some two miles, and a wee bit, Sir." Wee is derived from venig. Dutch. On the authority of the 4to, 1619, we might be led to read whey-face: "—Somewhat of a weakly man, and has as it were a whay-colour'd beard." Macbeth calls one of the meffengers Whey-face. STEEVENS. 2 - a Cane-colour'd beard.] Thus the latter editions. I have reftored Cain from the old copies. Cain and Judas, in the tapeftries and pictures of old, were reprefented with yellow beards. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be countenanced by a parallel expreffion in an old play called Blurt Mafter Conftable, or, The Spaniard's Night-Walk, 1602: over all, "A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard." Again, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, Bafilifco fays: where is the eldest fon of Priam, "That Abraham-colour'd Trojan ?”. I am not however certain, but that Abraham may be a corrup tion of Auburn. Quic. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not? Sim. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. Quic. How fay you ?-oh, I should remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and ftrut in his gait ? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quic. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell mafter parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your mafter: Anne is a good girl, and I wish Re-enter Rugby. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1605: "And let their beards be of Judas his own colour." Again, in A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612: "That's he in the Judas beard.". In an age, when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from reprefentations in painting or tapeftry. A cane-colour'd beard however, might fignify a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a fickly yellow; for fraw-coloured beards are mentioned in the Mid-fummer's Night Dream. STEEVENS. The new edition of Leland's Collectanea, vol. v. p. 295, afferts, that painters conftantly reprefented Judas the traytor with a red head. Dr. Plot's Oxfordshire, p. 153, fays the fame. This conceit is thought to have arifen in England, from our ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes. TOLLET. See my quotation in K. Hen. VIII. act V. fc. ii. STEEVENS. 3 as tall a man of his hands,—] Perhaps this is an allufion to the jocky measure, fo many hands high, used by grooms when speaking of horfes. Tall, in our author's time, fignified not only height of ftature, but ftoutnefs of body. The ambiguity of the phrafe feems intended. PERCY. Whatever be the origin of this phrafe, it is very ancient, being pfed by Gower: "A worthie knight was of his honde, "There was none fuche in all the londe." De Confeffione Amantis. lib. v. fol. 118. b. STEEVENS. |