But will you hear? the king is my love fworn.

PRIN. And quick Birón hath plighted faith to me. KATH. And Longaville was for my service born. MAR. Dumain is mine, as fure as bark on tree.

Woollen caps were enjoined by act of parliament, in the year 1571, the 13th of queen Elizabeth. "Befides the bills paffed into acts this parliament, there was one which I judge not amiss to be taken notice of it concerned the queen's care for employment for her poor fort of fubjects. It was for continuance of making and wearing woollen caps, in behalf of the trade of cappers; providing, that all above the age of fix years, (except the nobility and fome others) fhould on fabbath days and holy days, wear caps of wool, knit, thicked, and dreft in England, upon penalty of ten groats.' Strype's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, Vol. II. p. 74. GREY.

This act may account for the diftinguishing mark of Mother Red-cap. I have obferved that mention is made of this fign by fome of our ancient pamphleteers and playwriters, as far back as the date of the act referred to by Dr. Grey. If that your cap be wool-became a proverbial faying. So, in Hans Beerpot, a comedy,

1618:

"You fhall not flinch; if that your cap be wool,

"You fhall along." STEEVENS.

I think my own interpretation of this paffage is right. JOHNSON. Probably the meaning is better wits may be found among the citizens, who are not in general remarkable for fallies of imagina tion. In Mariton's Dutch Courtezan, 1605, Mrs. Mulligrub fays, though my husband be a citizen, and his cap's made of wool, yet I have wit." Again, in the Family of Love, 1608: ""Tis a law enacted by the common-council of ftatute-caps."

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Again, in Newes from Hell, brought by the Devil's Carrier, 1606: in a bowling alley in a flat cap like a hop-keeper." That thefe fumptuary laws, which dictated the form and materials of caps, the dimenfions of ruffs, and the length of fwords, were executed with great exactnefs but little difcretion, by a fet of people placed at the principal avenues of the city, may be known from the following curious paffage in a letter from Lord Talbot to the Earl of Shrewsbury, June 1580. “The French Imbafidore, Mounswer Mouifer, ridinge to take the ayer, in his returne cam thowiowe Smithfield; and ther, at the bars, was fteayed by thos officers that fitteth to cut fourds, by reafon his raper was longer than the ftatute: He was in a great feaurie, and dreawe his raper. In the meane feafon my Lord Henry Scamore cam, and fo fteayed the matt. Hir

Borer. Madam, and pretty miftreffes, give car:
Immediately they will again be here

In their own fhapes; for it can never be,
They will digeft this harsh indignity.

PRIN. Will they return?

ΒΟΥΕΤ.

They will, they will, God knows; And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows: Therefore, change favours; and, when they repair, Blow like fweet rofes in this fummer air.

PRIN. How blow? how blow? fpeak to be understood.

BorET. Fair ladies, mafk'd, are rofes in their
bud:

Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture fhown,
Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown."

Matie is greatlie ofended with the offers, in that they wanted jugement." See Lodge's Illuftrations of British Hiftory, Vol. II. p. 228. STEEVENS.

The ftatute mentioned by Dr. Grey was repealed in the year 1597. The epithet by which thefe ftatute caps are defcribed, "plain ftatute caps," induces me to believe the interpretation given in the preceding note by Mr. Steevens, the true one. The king and his lords probably wore hats adorned with feathers. So they are reprefented in the print prefixed to this play in Mr. Rowe's edition, probably from fome ftage tradition. MALONE.

9 Fair ladies, mask'd, are roses in their bud:

Difmafk'd, their damask sweet commixture shown,

Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.] This ftrange nonfenfe, made worfe by the jumbling together and tranfpofing the lines, I directed Mr. Theobald to read thus:

Fair ladies mafk'd are roses in their bud:

Or angels veil'd in clouds: are roses blown,

Difmafk'd, their damafk fweet commixture shown.

But he, willing to fhow how well he could improve a thought, would print it:

Or angel-veiling clouds

i. e. clouds which veil angels: and by this means gave us, as the old proverb fays, a chud for a Juno. It was Shakspeare's purpose to compare a fine lady to an angel; it was Mr. Theobald's chance

PRIN. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do, If they return in their own fhapes to woo?

Ros. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd, Let's mock them ftill, as well known, as difguis'd: Let us complain to them what fools were here, Difguis'd like Mufcovites, in fhapeless gear; *

to compare her to a cloud: and perhaps the ill-bred reader will fay a lucky one. However, I fuppofed the poet could never be fo nonfenfical as to compare a masked lady to a cloud, though he might compare her mask to one. The Oxford editor, who had the advantage both of this emendation and criticism, is a great deal more fubtile and refined, and fays it should not be

but

angels veil'd in clouds,

angels vailing clouds,

i. e. capping the fun as they go by him, just as a man vails his bonnet. WARBURTON.

I know not why Sir T. Hanmer's explanation fhould be treated with fo much contempt, or why wailing clouds fhould be capping the fun. Ladies unmask'd, fays Boyet, are like angels vailing clouds, or letting thofe clouds which obfcured their brightness, fink from before them. What is there in this abfurd or contemptible?

JOHNSON.

Holinfhed's Hiftory of Scotland, p. 91. fays: "The Britains began to avale the hills where they had lod ed." i. e. they began to defcend the hills, or come down from them to meet their enemies. If Shakspeare ufes the word vailing in this fenfe, the meaning isAngels defcending from clouds which concealed their beauties; but Dr. Johnfon's expofition may be better. TOLLET.

To avale comes from the Fr. aval [Terme de batelier] Down, downward, down the ftream. So, in the French Romant de la Rofe, v. 1415:

"Leaue aloit aval enfaifant

"Son melodieux et plaifant."

Again, in Laneham's Narrative of Queen Elizabeth's Entertainment at Kenelworth-Caftle, 1575:

the water is avail'd." STEEVENS.

as on a fea-fhore when

2 -fhapeless gear;] Shapels, for uncouth, or what Shakspeare elfewhere calls diffufed. WARBURTON.

And wonder, what they were; and to what end Their fhallow fhows, and prologue vilely penn'd, And their rough carriage fo ridiculous,

Should be prefented at our tent to us.

BOYET. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand.

PRIN. Whip to our tents, as roes run over land. [Exeunt PRINCESS, ROS. KATH. and MARIA.

Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN, in their proper habits.

KING. Fair fir, God fave you! Where is the princefs?

BOYET. Gone to her tent: Please it your majefty, Command me any service to her thither?

KING. That fhe vouchfafe me audience for one

word.

BOYET. I will; and fo will fhe, I know, my lord.

[Exit.

BIRON. This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons

peas;

And utters it again when God doth please:

3 Exeunt Princefs, &c.] Mr. Theobald ends the fourth act here, JOHNSON.

verbial:

pecks up wit, as pigeons peas;] This expreffion is pro.

"Children pick up words as pigeons peas,
"And utter them again as God fhall please."

See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

Pecks is the reading of the firft quarto. The folio has-picks. That pecks is the true reading, is ascertained by one of Nashe's tracts; Chrift's Tears over Jerufalem, 1594: "The fower scattered fome feede by the highway fide, which the foules of the ayre peck'd up." MALONE.

He is wit's pedler; and retails his wares
At wakes, and waffels,' meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that fell by grofs, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his fleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
He can carve too, and lifp: Why, this is he,
That kifs'd away his hand in courtesy;
This is the ape of form, monfieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honourable terms; nay, he can fing

A mean most meanly; and, in ufhering,

3 waffels, Waffels were meetings of ruftic mirth and intemperance. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

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Antony,

"Leave thy lafcivious waffels"

See note on Macbeth, A&t I. fc. vii. STEEVENS.

Waes heal, that is, be of health, was a falutation first used by the lady Rowena to King Vortiger. Afterwards it became a custom in villages, on new year's eve and twelfth-night, to carry a Waffel or Waifail bowl from houfe to houfe, which was prefented with the Saxon words above mentioned. Hence in procefs of time waffel fignified intemperance in drinking, and also a meeting for the purpofe of feftivity. MALONE.

6 He can carve too, and lifp:] The character of Boyet, as drawn by Biron, represents an accomplished fquire of the days of Chivalry, particularly in the inftances here noted." Le jeune Ecuyer apprenoit long-temps dans le filence cet art de bien parler, lorsqu'en qualité d'Ecuyer TRANCHANT, il étoit debout dans les repas & dans les feftins, occupé à couper les viandes avec la propreté, l'addreffe & l'elegance convenables, et à les faire diftribuer aux nobles convives dont il étoit environné. Joinville, dans fa jeuneffe, avoit rempli à la cour de Saint Louis cet office, qui, dans les maisons des Souverains, étoit quelquefois exercé par leurs propres enfans." Memoires fur l'ancienne Chevalerie, Tom. I. p. 16. HENLEY.

I cannot cog, (fays Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor,) and fay, thou art this and that, like a many of thefe lifping hawthorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel-." On the subject of carving fee Vol. III. p. 335, n. 5. MALONE.

1 A mean most meanly; &c.] The mean, in mufic, is the tenor. So, Bacon: "The treble cutteth the air fo fharp, as it returneth