9

to A-jax: he will be the ninth worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to speak! run away for fhame, Alifander. [NATH. retires.] There, an't fhall please you; a foolish mild man; an honest man, look you, and foon dafh'd! He is a marvellous good neighbour, infooth; and a very good bowler: but, for Alifander, alas, you fee, how 'tis ; a little o'erparted: -But there are worthies a coming will fpeak their mind in fome other fort.

PRIN. Stand afide, good Pompey.

to" Alexander, the which did beare geules, a lion or, feiante in a chayer, holding a battle-ax argent." Leigh's Accidence of Armory, 1597, p. 23. TOLLET.

9-A-jax :] There is a conceit of Ajax and a jakes. JOHNSON. This conceit, paltry as it is, was fed by Ben Jonfon, and Camden the antiquary. Ben, among his Epigrams, has these two lines:

"And I could wish, for their eternis'd fakes,

My mufe had plough'd with his that fung A-jax." So, Camden, in his Remains, having mentioned the French word pet, fays, "Enquire, if you underftand it not, of Cloacina's chaplains, or fuch as are well read in A-jax,”

Again, in The Maftive, &c. a collection of epigrams and fatires: no date:

"To thee, brave John, my book I dedicate,

"That wilt from A-jax with thy force defend it." See alfo Sir John Harrington's New Difcourfe of a ftale Subject called, the Metamorphofis of Ajax, 1596; his Anatomie of the Metamorphofed Ajax, no date; and Ulyffes upon Ajax, 1596. All thefe performances are founded on the fame conceit of Ajax and A jakes. To the first of them a license was refused, and the author was forbid the court for writing it. His own copy of it, with MSS. notes and illuftrations, and a MS. dedication to Thomas Markham, Efq. is now before me. STEEVENS.

See alfo Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, Vol. IX. p. 133. edition 1780. REED.

2 a little o'er-parted :] That is, the part or character allotted to him in this piece is too confiderable. MALONE.

Enter HOLOFERNES arm'd, for Judas, and MOTH arm'd, for Hercules.

HOL. Great Hercules is prefented by this imp, Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-beaded

canus;

And, when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp,
Thus did he ftrangle ferpents in his manus:
Quoniam, be feemeth in minority;

Ergo, I come with this apology.

Keep fome state in thy exit, and vanish.

HOL. Judas I am,

[Exit MOTH

DUM. A Judas!

HOL. Not Ifcariot, fir.

Judas I am, ycleped Machabæus.

DUM. Judas Machabæus clipt, is plain Judas. BIRON. A kiffing traitor :-How art thou prov'd Judas?

HOL. Judas I am,—

DUM. The more fhame for you, Judas.

HOL. What mean you, fir?

BOYET. To make Judas hang himself.

HOL. Begin, fir; you are my elder.

BIRON. Well follow'd: Judas was hang'd on an elder.

HOL. I will not be put out of countenance.
BIRON. Because thou haft no face.

HOL. What is this?

BorET. A cittern head.3

A cittern head.] So, in Fancies Chafte and Noble, 1638: "—A cittern-headed gew-gaw." Again, in Decker's Match

DUM. The head of a bodkin.

BIRON. A death's face in a ring.

LONG. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce feen.

Borer. The pummel of Cæfar's faulchion.
DUM. The carv'd-bone face on a flask.+

BIRON. St. George's half-cheek in a brooch.
DUм. Ay, and in a brooch of lead.

BIRON. Ay, and worn in the cap of a toothdrawer:

And now, forward; for we have put thee in coun

tenance.

HOL. You have put me out of countenance.
BIRON. False; we have given thee faces.
HOL. But you have out-fac'd them all.

BIRON. An thou wert a lion, we would do fo.

BOYET. Therefore, as he is, an ass, let him go. And so adieu, fweet Jude! nay, why doft thou stay? DUM. For the latter end of his name.

BIRON. For the afs to the Jude; give it him:Jud-as, away.

me in London, 1631:" Fiddling on a cittern with a man's broken bead at it." Again, in Ford's Lover's Melancholy, 1629: "I hope the chronicles will rear me one day for a head-piece-'

"Of woodcock without brains in it; barbers fhall wear thee on their citterns," &c. STEEVENS.

4

on a flask.] i. e. a foldier's powder-horn. So, in Romer and Juliet:

like powder in a skilless soldier's flask,

"Is fet on fire."

Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607:

Keep a light match in cock; wear flask and touch-box."

STEEVENS.

HOL. This is not generous, not gentle, not hum

ble.

BOYET. A light for monfieur Judas: it grows dark, he may stumble.

PRIN. Alas, poor Machabæus, how hath he been baited!

Enter ARMADO arm'd, for Hector.

BIRON. Hide thy head, Achilles; here comes Hector in arms.

DUM. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry.

KING. Hector was but a Trojan' in refpect of this.

Borer. But is this Hector?

DUM. I think, Hector was not fo clean-timber'd. LONG. His leg is too big for Hector.

DUM. More calf, certain.

BOYET. No; he is beft indued in the small.

BIRON. This cannot be Hector.

DUM. He's a god or a painter; for he makes faces.

ARM. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty, Gave Hector a gift,—

DUM. A gilt nutmeg.

BIRON. A lemon.

s Hector was but a Trojan-] A Trojan, I believe, was in the time of Shakspeare, a cant term for a thief. So, in K. Henry IV. P. I: "Tut there are other Trojans that thou dream'ft not of," &c. Again, in this scene, unless you play the boneft Trojan," &c.

STEEVENS.

6 — of lances] i. e. of lance-men. So, in another of our author's plays:

"And turn our impreft lances in our eyes." STERVENS,

LONG. Stuck with cloves."

DUM. No, cloven.

ARM. Peace!

The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion;

A man fo breath'd, that certain he would fight, yea,
From morn till night, out of his pavilion.

I am that flower,

DUM.

LONG.

That mint.

That columbine.

ARM. Sweet lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. LONG. I must rather give it the rein; for it runs against Hector.

DUм. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound.

ARM. The fweet war-man is dead and rotten; fweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried: when he breath'd, he was a man-But I will forward with my device: Sweet royalty, [to the Princefs.] beftow on me the fenfe of hearing.

[BIRON whispers COSTARD.

Stuck with cloves.] An orange fluck with cloves appears to have been a common new-year's gift. So, Ben Jonfon, in his Christmas Mafque: he has an orange and rofemary, but not a clove to stick in it." A gilt nutmeg is mentioned in the fame piece, and on the fame occafion.

The ufe, however, of an orange, &c. may be afcertained from The Second Booke of Notable Thinges by Thomas Lupton, 4to. bl. 1: "Wyne wyll be pleasant in taste and favour, if an orenge or a Lymon (ftickt round about with Cloaves) be hanged within the veffell that it touche not the wyne. And fo the wyne wyll be preserved from foyftines and evyll favor." STEEVENS.

The quarto, 1598, reads-A gift nutmeg; and if a gilt nutmeg had not been mentioned by Ben Jonfon, I fhould have thought it right. So we fay, a gift-horfe, &c. MALONE.

7 he would fight, yea,] Thus all the old copies. Theobald very plaufibly reads he would fight ye; a common vulgarifm.

STEEVENS.