285. The upper Germany, &c.] Alluding to the heresy of Thomas Muntzer, which sprung up in Saxony in the years 1521 and 1522.

GREY.

Those that un

327. your painted gloss, &c.] derstand you, under this painted gloss, this fair outside, discover your empty talk and your false reasoning. JOHNSON.

332. -'tis a cruelty

To load a falling man.] This sentiment had occurred before. The lord chamberlain checking the earl of Surrey for his reproaches to Wolsey, says, -O my lord,

Press not a falling man too far.

STEEVENS.

To hear such flatteries now, and in my presence ; They are too thin, and base to hide offences.] I think the pointing of these lines preferable to that in the former edition, in which they stand thus: -I come not

To hear such flatteries now: and in my presence
They are too thin, &c.

It then follows:

To me you cannot reach : you play the spaniel,
And think with wagging of your tongue to win

me.

But the former of these lines should evidently be thus written :

To one you cannot reach, you play the spaniel; the relative whom being understood. WHALLEY.

442. —you'd spare your spoons:] It was the custom, long before the time of Shakspere, for the sponsors at christenings, to offer gilt spoons as a present to the child. These spoons were called apostle spoons, because the figures of the apostles were carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous, gave the whole twelve; those who were either more moderately rich or liberal, escaped at the expence of the four evangelists; or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint, in honour of whom the child received its name.

Thus, in the year 1560, we find entered on the books of the Stationers-Company, "a spoyne of the gyfte of master Reginold Wolfe, all gylte, with the pycture of St. John."

Mr. Pegge, in his preface to A Forme of Cury, a Roll of ancient English Cookery, compiled about A. D. 1390, &c. observes, that "the general mode of eating must either have been with the spoon or the fingers; and this, perhaps, may have been the reason, that spoons became the usual present from gossips to their god-children, at christenings."

Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew-Fair, mentions spoons of this kind:- "and all this for the hope of a couple of apostle spoons, and a cup to eat caudle in.” So, in Middleton's comedy of A chaste Maid of Cheapside, 1620:

"What has he given her?-what is it, gossip? "A faire high-standing cup, and two great

"'Postle spoons, one of them gilt.

"Sure that was Judas with the red beard."

Again, in the Maid in the Mill, by Beaumont and
Fletcher :

"Didst ask her name?

"Yes, and who gave it her;

"And what they promis'd more, besides a spoon,
"And what apostles picture.”

Again, in the Noble Gentleman, by the same authors:
"I'll be a gossip, Bewford,

"I have an odd apostle spoon."

STEEVENS.

As the following story, which is found in a collection of anecdotes, entitled Merry Passages and Feasts, MS. Harl. 6395, contains an allusion to this custom, and has not, I believe, been published, it may not be an improper supplement to this account of apostle spoons. It shews that our author and Ben Jonson were once on terms of familiarity and friendship, however cold and jealous the latter might have been in a subsequent period :

"Shakspere was godfather to one of Ben Jonson's children, and after the christening, being in deepe study, Jonson came to cheer him up, and askt him why he was so melancholy? “No, 'faith, Ben, says he, not I; but I have beene considering a great while what should be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god-child, and I have resolv'd at last." "I pr'ythee, what?" says he.-" I'faith, Ben, I'll give him a douzen good latten spoons, and thou shalt translate them."

The

The collector of these anecdotes appears to have been nephew to Sir Roger L'Estrange. He names Donne as the relater of this story. MALONE.

460. Paris-garden?] This celebrated bear-garden on the Bank-Side, was so called from Robert de Paris, who had a house and garden there in the time of King Richard II. Rot. claus. 16 R. II. dors. 11. Blount's GLOSSOGRAPH. in verb. MALONE. So, in Sir W. Davenant's News from Plimouth :

-do you take this mansion for Pict-hatch? "You would be suitors: yes, to a she-deer, "And keep your marriages in Paris-garden?" Again, in Ben Jonson's Execration on Vulcan:

"And cried, it was a threatning to the bears, "And that accursed ground the Paris-garden." The Globe theatre, in which Shakspere was a performer, stood on the southern side of the river Thames, and was contiguous to this noted place of tumult and disorder. St. Mary Overy's church is not far from London-Bridge, and almost opposite to Fishmongers-Hall. Winchester-House was over against Cole-Harbour. Paris-garden was in a line with Bridewell, and the Globe playhouse faced BlackFriars, Fleet-Ditch, or St. Paul's. It was an hexagonal building of stone or brick. Its roof was of rushes, with a flag on the top. See a South View of London (as it appeared in 1599), published by T. Wood, in Bishop's-Court, in Chancery-Lane, in

1771.

Giij

STEEVENS.

469.

469. Pray, sir, be patient ;

-] Part of this scene

in the old copy is printed as verse, and part as prose. Perhaps the whole, with the occasional addition and omission of a few harmless syllables, might be reduced into a loose kind of metre; but as I know not what advantage would be gained by making the experiment, I have left the whole as I found it. STEEVENS.

472. On May-day morning ;· -] It was anciently the custom for all ranks of people to go out a Maying on the first of May. It is on record that King Henry VIII. and queen Katharine partook of this diversion. STEEVENS.

Stowe says, that "in the month of May, namely, on May-day in the morning, every man, except impediment, would walk into the sweet meadows and green woods; there to rejoice their spirits with the beauty and savour of sweet flowers, and with the noise (i. e. concert) of birds, praising God in their kind." See also Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities, 8vo. 1777, p. 255. REED.

480. Sir Guy, nor Colbrand,] Of Guy of Warwick every one has heard. Colbrand was the Danish giant, whom Guy subdued at Winchester. Their combat is very elaborately described by Drayton in his Polyolbion, JOHNSON.

491. Moorfields to muster in?] The train-bands of the city were exercised in Moorfields. JOHNSON. 492. --some strange Indian-] To what circumstance this refers, perhaps cannot now be exactly known. A similar