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cross is rotten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not say, when I see him upon it, Yet he that he stands firmly on a rotten plank? has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford editor has followed him. But they took the phra se, to stand firmly on, to signify to insist upon; whereas it signifies to rest upon, which the cha racter of a secure fool, given to him, shows. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be lost in the alteration.

on it.

WARBURTON.

To stand on any thing, does signify to insist The jealous Ford is the speaker, and all chastity in women appears to him as frailty. He supposes Page therefore to insist on that virtue as steady, which he himself suspects to be withSTEEVENS, out foundation.

P. 204, 1. 21. on his wife's frailty,] i. e. has such perfect confidence in his unchaste wife. His his frail wife. wife's frailty is the same So, in Antony and Cleopatra, we meeth with death and honour, for an honourable death.

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MALONE.

P. 204, 1. 23. what they made there,] An obsolete phrase signifying what they did there.

MALONE.

P. 204, 1. 32. Why, then the world's mine oyster,] Dr. Grey supposes Shakspeare to allude to an old proverb, The mayor of Northamp

i. e. to ton opens oysters with his dagger." keep them at a sufficient distance from his nose, that town being fourscore miles from the sea.

STEEVENS.

P. 204, last 1. I will retort the sum in equi page.] This means, I will pay you again in stolen goods. WARBURTON.

I rather believe he means, that he will pay

him by waiting on him for nothing. That equipage ever meant stolen goods, I am yet to learn. STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equi page was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies' Papers Complaint, (a poem which has erroneously been ascribed to Donne) we have se veral of them:

,,Embellish, blandishment, and equipage." Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch savour of witlesse affectation. FARMER.

Dr. Warburton's interpretation is, I think, right. Equipage indeed does not per se signify stolen goods, but such goods as Pistol promises to return, we may fairly suppose, would be sto leu. Equipage, which, as Dr. Farmer observes, had been but newly introduced into our langua ge, is defined by Bullokar in his English Expositor, 8vo. 1616:,,Furniture, or provision for horsemanship, especially in triumphs or tournaments." Hence the modern use of this word. MALONE.

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P. 205, 1. 2. I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coachfellow,] i. e. he, who draws along with you; who is joined with you in all your knavery. So before, Page, speaking of Nym and Pistol, calls them a,,yoke of Falstaff's discarded mèn." MALONE. P. 205, 1. ga and when Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan,] It should be remembered, that fans, in our author's time, were more costly than they are at present, as well as of a different construction. They consisted of ostrich feathers (or others of equal length and flexibility,) which were stuck into handles. The richer sort of these were composed of gold, sil ver, or ivory of curious workmanship.

In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Money, or pleasant Comedy of a woman will have her Will, 1616, is a por trait of a lady with one of these fans, which, after all, may prove the best commentary on the passage. The three other specimens are taken from the Habiti Antichi et Moderni di tutto il Mondo, published at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cesare Vecelli, his brother. This fashion was perhaps imported from Italy, together with many others, in the reign of King Henry VIII. if not in that of King Richard II.

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In the Sidney papers, published by Collins, a fan is presented to Queen Elizabeth for a new year's gift, the handle of which was studded with diamonds. T. WARTON.

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P. 205,1. 16. A short knife and a throng ;] So Lear:,,When cut-purses come not to throngs." WARBURTON.

Theobald has throng instead of thong.

latter seems right. LANGTON.

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Greene, in his Life of Ned Browne, 1592, says;,,I had no other fence but my short knife, and a paire of purse-strings." STEEVENS.

Mr. Dennis reads thong; which has been followed, I think, improperly, by some of the modern editors. MALONE.

P. 205, 1. 17. Pickt-hatch was in Turnbull street. The derivation of the word may perhaps be discovered from the following passage in Cu pid's Whirligig, 1607: „,- Set some picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profess to keep a bawdy. house." Perhaps the unseasonable and obstreperous irruptions of the gallants of that age, might render such a precaution necessary. STEEVENS.

Pict-hatch was a cant-name of some part of the town noted for bawdy-houses. Sir T. Hanmer says, that it was,,a noted harbour for thieves and pickpockets," who certainly were proper companions for a man of Pistol's profession. But Falstaff here more immediately means to ridicule another of his friend's vices; and there is some humour in calling Pistol's favourite brothel, his manor of Pict-hatch. T. WARTON.

P. 205, 1. 25. A sconce is a petty fortification. To ensconce, therefore, is to protect as with a fort. STEEVENS.

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P. 205, 1. 26. your red - lattice phrases] Your ale-house conversation. JOHNSON. Red lattice at the doors and windows, formerly the external denotements of an ale-house. Hence the present chequers. Perhaps the reader will express some surprize, when he is told that shops, with the sign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. See a view of the lefthand street of Pompeii, (No. 9.) presented by Sir William Hamilton, (together with several others, equally curious,) to the Antiquary Society,

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In King Henry IV. P. II. Falstaff's page, speaking of Bardolph, says,,,he called me. even now, my Lord, through a red lattice, and I could see ne part of his face from the window." MALONE.

This designation of an ale-house is not altogether lost, though the original meaning of the word is, the sign being converted into a green lettuce; of which an instance occurs in Brownlow Street, Holborn. DOUCE.

P. 206, L. 29. Canaries is the name of a brisk light dance, and is therefore properly enough used in low language for any hurry or perturbation. JOHNSON.

P. 206, 1. 31. when the court lay at Windsor,] i. e. resided there. MALONE.

P. 207, I. 11. - and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more, pensioners;] This may be illustrated by a passage in Gervase Holles's Life of the First Earl of Clare. Biog. Brit. Art. HOLLES: ,,I have heard, the Earl of Clare say, that when he was pensioner to the Queen, he did not know a worse man of the whole band than himself; and that all the world knew he had. then an inheritance of 4000l. a year." TYRWHIT.

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