P. HEN. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle3. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? the same kind of humour as is contained in this and the three following speeches, in The Mostellaria of Plautus, Act I. Sc. II. : Jampridum ecastor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter, Nec unde me melius, mea Scapha, rear esse defecatam. Sca. Nihilo plus, quam lavatio tua ad messim. In the want of connection to what went before, probably consists the humour of the Prince's question. STEEVENS. This kind of humour is often met with in old plays. In The Gallathea of Lyly, Phillida says: "It is a pitie that nature framed you not a woman. "Gall. There is a tree in Tylos, &c. "Phill. What a toy it is to tell me of that tree, being nothing to the purpose," &c. Ben Jonson calls it a game at vapours. FARMER. 3 As the honey of Hybla, MY OLD LAD OF THE CASTLE.] Old lad is likewise a familiar compellation to be found in some of our most ancient dramatick pieces. So, in The Trial of Treasure, 1567: "What, Inclination, old lad art thou there?" In the dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. by T. Nash, 1598, old Dick of the castle is mentioned. Again, in Pierce's Supererogation, or a New Praise of the Old Asse, 1593: "And here's a lusty ladd of the castell, that will binde beares, and ride golden asses to death." STEEVENS. I have omitted some long notes here, on the question whether Falstaff was originally termed Oldcastle by Shakspeare, to which it has been supposed there is here an allusion. The contest was renewed in the notes on Henry the Fifth, but I have carried what was said in both places to the end of this play, that the reader may have the whole of the controversy before him at once. BosWELL. Old lad of the castle," is the same with “Old lad of Castile, a Castilian. Meres reckons Oliver of the castle amongst his romances and Gabriel Harvey tells us of " Old lads of the castell with their rapping babble; "-roaring boys.-This is therefore no argument for Falstaff's appearing first under the name of Oldcastle. There is, however, a passage in a play called Amends for Ladies, by Field the player, 1618, which may seem to prove it, unless he confounded the different performances : Did you never see "The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle, "Did tell you truly what this honour was?" FARMER. VOL. XVI. FAL. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy quips, and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin? P. HEN. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern? FAL. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning, many a time and oft. P. HEN. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? FAL. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there. P. HEN. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin 4 And is not a BUFF JERKIN a most sweet robe of DURANCE?] To understand the propriety of the Prince's answer, it must be remarked that the sheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff asks, whether "his hostess is not a sweet wench," the Prince asks in return whether "it will not be a sweet thing to go to prison by running in debt to this sweet wench." JOHNSON. The following passage from the old play of Ram-Alley, may serve to confirm Dr. Johnson's observation: "Look, I have certain goblins in buff jerkins, Again, in The Comedy of Errors, Act IV.: [Enter Serjeants." "A devil in an everlasting garment hath him, A fellow all in buff." Durance, however, might also have signified some lasting kind of stuff, such as we call at present, everlasting. So, in Westward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "Where did'st thou buy this buff? Let me not live but I will give thee a good suit of durance. Wilt thou take my bond?" &c. Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Varlet of velvet, my moccado villain, old heart of durance, my strip'd canvas shoulders, and my perpetuana pander." Again, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: "As the taylor that out of seven yards, stole one and a half of durance." STEEVENS. Sir William Cornwallys in his Essayes says: "I would have a jest never served but once; when it is cold, the vigour and strength of it is gone. I refuse to wear buffe, for the lasting; and shall I be content to apparell my braine in durance?" Again, Sir John Davies, in his Epigrams: "Kate being pleas'd, wisht that her pleasure could would stretch; and, where it would not, I have used my credit. FAL. Yea, and so used it, that were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is, with the rusty curb of old father antick the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. P. HEN. No: thou shalt. FAL. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge'. P. HEN. Thou judgest false already; I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves, and so become a rare hangman. FAL. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour, as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you. P. HEN. For obtaining of suits"? FAL. Yea, for obtaining of suits: whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat', or a lugged bear. 5-I'll be a brave judge.] This thought, like many others, is taken from the old play of King Henry V. : "Hen. V. Ned, so soon as I am king, the first thing I will do shall be to put my lord chief justice out of office; and thou shalt be my lord chief justice of England." "Ned. Shall I be lord chief justice? By gogs wounds, I'll be the bravest lord chief justice that ever was in England." STEEVENS. For obtaining of SUITS ?] Suit, spoken of one that attends at court, means a petition; used with respect to the hangman, means the clothes of the offender. JOHNSON. So, in an ancient Medley, bl. 1.: “The broker hath gay cloaths to sell STEEVENS. "Which from the hangman's budget fell." STEEvens. See vol. ix. p. 146, n. 7. The same quibble occurs in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631: "A poor maiden, mistress, has a suit to you; and 'tis a good suit,—very good apparel." MALONE. 7 -a GIB CAT,] A gib cat means, I know not why, an old cat. JOHNSON. P. HEN. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute. FAL. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. A gib cat is the common term in Northamptonshire, and all adjacent counties, to express a he cat. PERCY. "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: "Pet. How now, Motto, all amort? "Mot. I am as melancholy as a cat." Gib was applied to any cat, whether male or female. So, in Gamer Gurton's Nedle: "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." BOSWELL. 8 - Lincolnshire bagpipe.] "Lincolnshire bagpipes" is a proverbial saying. Fuller has not attempted to explain it; and Ray only conjectures that the Linc Inshire people may be fonder of this instrument than others. Douce. P. HEN. What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch 1? 1 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, |