P. HEN. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute. FAL. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipes. A gib cat is the common term in Northamptonshire, and all adjacent counties, to express a he cat. PERCY. 66 66 'As melancholy as a gib'd cat," is a proverb enumerated among others in Ray's Collection. In A Match at Midnight, 1633, is the following passage: They swell like a couple of gib'd cats, met both by chance in the dark in an old garret." So, in Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, 1653: "Some in mania or melancholy madness have attempted the same, not without success, although they have remained somewhat melancholy like gib'd cats." I believe after all, a gib'd cat is a cat who has been qualified for the seraglio; for all animals so mutilated, become drowsy and melancholy. To glib has certainly that meaning. So, in The Winter's Tale, Act III. Sc. I.: "And I had rather glib myself than they "Should not produce fair issue." In Sidney's Arcadia, however, the same quality in a cat is mentioned, without any reference to the consequences of castration: "The hare, her sleights; the cat, his melancholy." STEEVENS. Sherwood's English Dictionary at the end of Cotgrave's French one, says: "Gibbe is an old he cat." Aged animals are not so playful as those which are young; and glib'd or gelded ones are duller than others. So we might read: "as melancholy as a gib cat, or a glib'd cat." TOLLET. 66 The melancholy of a cat is spoken of generally in Lilly's Midas: Gib was applied to any cat, whether male or female. So, in "Gib (a fowle feind might on her light) lickt the milke pan so clene." So, in Edward the First, by G. Peele: "Now, maister, as I am true wag, "I will be neither late nor lag, "But goe, and come with gossip's cheare, So, in The Scornful Lady: 66 Bring out the cat-hounds. "I'll make you take a tree, whore; then, with my tiller, Bring down your gibship." BoS WELL. 8- Lincolnshire bagpipe.] "Lincolnshire bagpipes" is a proverbial saying. Fuller has not attempted to explain it; and Ray only conjectures that the Lincolnshire people may be fonder of this instrument than others. DOUCE. P. HEN. What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch1? I suspect, that by the "drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe," is meant the dull croak of a frog, one of the native musicians of that waterish county. As a vigorous support to my explanation, I am informed by Sir Joseph Banks, that in the neighbourhood of Boston in Lincolnshire, the noisy frogs are still humorously denominated "the Boston waits."-In The Pleasaunt and Stately Morall of Three Lordes and Three Ladies of London, 1590, 4to. bl. 1. there is mention of "The sweete ballade of The Lincolnshire Bagpipes." STEEVENS. Lincolnshire bagpipes are thus mentioned in A Nest of Ninnies, by Robert Armin, 1608 : " At a Christmas time, when great logs furnish the hall fire: when brawne is in season, and indeed all reveling is regarded: this gallant knight kept open house for all commers, where beefe, beere, and bread was no niggard. Amongst all the pleasures provided, a noyse of Minstrells and a Lincolnshire bagpipe was prepared: the minstrells for the great chamber, the bagpipe for the hall; the minstrels to serve up the knights meate, and the bagpipe for the common dauncing.' BOSWELL. 9 - a HARE,] A hare may be considered as melancholy, because she is upon her form always solitary; and, according to the physick of the times, the flesh of it was supposed to generate melancholy. JOHNSON. The following passage in Vittoria Corombona, &c. 1612, may prove the best explanation: "like your melancholy hare, "Feed after midnight." Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, song the second: "The melancholy hare is form'd in brakes and briers." The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form. See Pierii Hieroglyph. lib. xii. STEEVENS. the melancholy of MOOR-DITCH ?] It appears from Stowe's Survey, that a broad ditch, called Deep-ditch, formerly parted the Hospital from Moor-fields; and what has a more melancholy appearance than stagnant water? This ditch is also mentioned in The Gul's Hornbook, by Decker, 1609: it will be a sorer labour than the cleansing of Augeas' stable, or the scowring of Moor-ditch." Again, in Newes from Hell, brought by the Divel's Carrier, by Thomas Decker, 1606: "As touching the river, looke how Moor-ditch shews when the water is three quarters dreyn'd out, FAL. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes; and art, indeed, the most comparative, rascalliest,sweet young prince,-But, Hal, I pr'ythee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought: An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir; but I marked him not: and yet he talked very wisely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talked wisely, and in the street too. P. HEN. Thou did'st well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it. and by reason the stomacke of it is overladen, is ready to fall to casting. So does that; it stinks almost worse, is almost as poysonous, altogether so muddy, altogether so black." STEEVENS. So, in Taylor's Pennylesse Pilgrimage, quarto, 1618: "-my body being tired with travel, and my mind attired with moody, muddy, Moore-ditch melancholy." MALONE. Moor-ditch, a part of the ditch surrounding the city of London, between Bishopsgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholesome and impassable morass, and consequently not frequented by the citizens, like other suburbial fields which were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable places of resort. T. WARTON. 3-similes;] Old copies-smiles. Corrected by the editor of the second folio. MALone. 4 - the most COMPARATIVE,] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read-incomparative, I suppose for incomparable, or peerless; but comparative here means quick at comparisons, or fruitful in similes, and is properly introduced. JOHNSON. This epithet is used again, in Act III. Sc. II. of this play, and apparently in the same sense: 66 stand the push "Of every beardless vain comparative." And in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. ult. Rosalind tells Biron that he is a man "Full of comparisons and wounding flouts." STEEVENS. s I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought :] So, in The Discoverie of the Knights of the Poste, 1597, sign. C: "In troth they live so so, and it were well if they knew where a commoditie of names were to be sould, and yet I thinke all the money in their purses could not buy it." REEd. UNIY: FAL. O, thou hast damnable iteration 7; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal,-God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain; I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom. P. HEN. Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack? FAL. Where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me . P. HEN. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying, to purse-taking. Enter POINs, at a distance. FAL. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation 9. 6 Poins! wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.] This is a scriptural expression: "Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets.-I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded." Proverbs, i. 20, and 24. HOLT WHITE. 7 O, thou hast damnable ITERATION;] For iteration Sir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read-attraction, of which the meaning is certainly more apparent; but an editor is not always to change what he does not understand. In the last speech a text is very indecently and abusively applied, to which Falstaff answers, "thou hast damnable iteration," or a wicked trick of repeating and applying holy texts. This, I think, is the meaning. JOHNSON. Iteration is right, for it also signified simply citation or recitation. So, in Marlow's Doctor Faustus, 1631: "Here take this book, and peruse it well, "The iterating of these lines brings gold." From the context, iterating here appears to mean pronouncing, reciting. Again, in Camden's Remaines, 1614: "King Edward I. disliking the iteration of Fitz," &c. MALONE. 8 and BAFFLE me.] See Mr. Tollet's note on King Richard II. p. 16, n. 6. STEEVENS. 9 no sin for a man to labour in his VOCATION,] This (as Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match'. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain, that ever cried, Stand, to a true man. P. HEN. Good morrow, Ned. POINS. Good morrow, sweet Hal.-What says monsieur Remorse? What says Sir John Sackand-Sugar2? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee Dr. Farmer observes to me,) is undoubtedly a sneer on Agremont Radcliffe's Politique Discourses, 1578. From the beginning to the end of this work, the word vocation occurs in almost every paragraph. Thus chap. i.: "That the vocation of men hath been a thing unknown unto philosophers, and other that have treated of Politique Government; of the commoditie that cometh by the knowledge thereof; and the etymology and definition of this worde vocation." Again, chap. xxv.: "Whether a man being disorderly and unduly entered into any vocation, may lawfully brooke and abide in the same; and whether the administration in the meane while done by him that is unduly entered, ought to holde, or be of force." STEEVENS. - have set a MATCH.] Thus the quarto. So, in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, 1614: "Peace, sir, they'll be angry if they hear you eves-dropping, now they are setting their match." There it seems to mean making an appointment.-The folio reads -set a watch. MALONE. As no watch is afterwards set, I suppose match to be the true reading. So, as Dr. Farmer observed, in Ratsey's (Gamaliel) Ghost, bl. I. 4to. (no date) about 1605: “I have," says he, "been many times beholding to Tapsters and Chamberlaines for directions and setting of matches." STEEVENS. 2-sir John Sack-and-Sugar?] Hentzner, p. 88, edit. 1757, speaking of the manners of the English, says, "in potum copiosè immittunt saccarum ; they put a great deal of sugar in their drink. REED. Much inquiry has been made about Falstaff's sack, and great surprize has been expressed that he should have mixed sugar with it. As they are here mentioned for the first time in this play, it may not be improper to observe, that it is probable that Falstaff's wine was Sherry, a Spanish wine, originally made at Xeres. He frequently himself calls it Sherris-sack*. Nor will his mixing * Sherris is possibly a corruption from Zeres. |