Well, I will back him straight: O espérance 10!- [Exit Servant. Lady. But hear you, my lord. A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen 11, In faith, I'll know your business, Harry, that I will. In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry, Away, you trifler!-Love? I love thee not, 10 The motto of the Percy family. 11 So in Cymbeline we have : 'As quarrellous as the weasel.' 12 i. e. to strengthen. So in Macbeth : 13 Mammets were puppets or dolls, here used by Shakspeare for a female plaything; a diminutive of mam. Quasi dicat parvam matrem, seu matronulam.'-'Icunculæ, mammets or puppets that goe by devises of wyer or strings, as though they had life and moving.' Junius's Nomenclator, by Fleming, 1585.-Mr. Gifford has thrown out a conjecture about the meaning of mammets from the Italian mammetta, which signified a bosom as well as a young wench. See Ben Jonson's Works, vol. v. p. 66. I have not found the word used in English in that sense; but mammet, for a puppet or dressed up living doll is common enough. We must have bloody noses, and crack'd crowns, And pass them current too.-Gods me, my horse!What say'st thou, Kate? what would'st thou have with me? Lady. Do you not love me? do you not indeed? Hot. Come, wilt thou see me ride? Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know; Hot. Not an inch further. But hark you, To-day will I set forth, to-morrow you.— Lady. SCENE IV. Kate? It must, of force. Eastcheap1. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern, Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS. P. Hen. Ned, pr'ythee, come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little. 1 Eastcheap is selected with propriety for the scene of the prince's merry meetings, as it was near his own residence; a mansion called Cold Harbour (near All Hallows Church, Upper Poins. Where hast been, Hal? P. Hen. With three or four loggerheads, amongst three or four score hogsheads. I have sounded the very base string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as-Tom, Dick, and Francis. They take it already upon their salvation, that, though I be but prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy,-by the Lord, so they call me; and when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call-drinking deep, dying scarlet: and when you breathe in your watering, they cry-hem! and bid you play it off3.-To conclude, I am so good a proficient in Thames Street), was granted to Henry prince of Wales. 11 Henry IV. 1410. Rymer. vol. viii. p. 628. In the old anonymous play of King Henry V. Eastcheap is the place where Henry and his companions meet: Hen. V. You know the old tavern in Eastcheap; there is good wine.' Shakspeare has hung up a sign for them that he saw daily; for the Boar's Head tavern was very near Blackfriars' Playhouse.-Stowe's Survey. Sir John Falstaff was in his lifetime a considerable benefactor to Magdalen College, Oxford; and though the College cannot give the particulars at large, the Boar's Head in Southwark, and Caldecot Manor in Suffolk were part of the lands, &c. he bestowed. 2 A Corinthian was a wencher, a debauchee. The fame of Corinth, as a place of resort for loose women, was not yet extinct. Thus Milton, in his Apology for Smectymnus:- And raps up, without pity, the sage and rheumatic old prelatess with all her young Corinthian laity.' 3 Mr. Gifford has shown that there is no ground for the filthy interpretation of this passage which Steevens chose to give. To breathe in your watering' is to stop and take breath when you are drinking.' Thus in the old MS. play of Timon of Athens, cited by Steevens: we also do enact That all hold up their heads and laugh aloud, Drink much at one draught; breathe not in their drink, That none go out to So in Rowland's Letting of Humours Blood in the Head Vaine, one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour, that thou wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned,-to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now in my hand by an under-skinker5; one that never spake other English in his life, than-Eight shillings and sixpence, and-You are welcome; with this shrill addition,-Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon, or so. But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I pr'ythee, do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer, to what end he gave me the sugar; and do thou never leave calling-Francis, that his tale to me may be nothing but-anon. Step aside, and I'll show thee a precedent. Poins. Francis! P. Hen. Thou art perfect. [Exit POINS. 1600, a passage first pointed out by Sir W. Scott in his edition of those rare satires : 'Will is a right good fellow by this drinke, Shall look into your water well enough, Thus also in Peacham's Compleat Gentleman, p. 194 :- If he dranke off his cups cleanely, took not his wind in his draught, spit not, left nothing in the pot, nor spilt any upon the ground, he had the prize,' &c. 4 It appears from two passages cited by Steevens that the drawers kept sugar folded up in paper, ready to be delivered to those who called for sack. 5 An under-skinker is a tapster, an under-drawer. Skink is drink, liquor; from scenc, drink, Saxon. Enter FRANCIS. Fran. Anon, anon, sir. Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph. P. Hen. Come hither, Francis. Fran. My lord. P. Hen. How long hast thou to serve, Francis? 'Fran. Forsooth, five year, and as much as to— Poins. [Within.] Francis! Fran. Anon, anon, sir! P. Hen. Five years! by'rlady, a long lease for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant, as to play the coward with thy indenture, and to show it a fair pair of heels, and run from it? Fran. O lord, sir! I'll be sworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heart— Poins. [Within.] Francis! Fran. Anon, anon, sir. P. Hen. How old art thou, Francis? Fran. Let me see,-About Michaelmas next I shall be Poins. [Within.] Francis! Fran. Anon, sir.-Pray you, stay a little, my lord. P. Hen. Nay, but hark you, Francis: For the sugar thou gavest me, 'twas a pennyworth, was't not? Fran. O lord, sir! I would it had been two. P. Hen. I will give thee for it a thousand pound: ask me when thou wilt, and thou shalt have it. Poins. [Within.] Francis! Fran. Anon, anon. P. Hen. Anon, Francis? No, Francis: but tomorrow, Francis; or, Francis, on Thursday; or, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But, Francis, |