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-but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you say your name is?

SIM, Ay, for fault of a better.

QUICK. And master Slender's your master?
SIM. Ay, forfooth.

QUICK. Does he not wear a great round beard," like a glover's paring-knife?

SIM. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-colour'd beard.R

6 -a great round beard, &c.] See a note on K. Henry V. A& III. fc. vi: "And what a beard of the general's cut," &c. MALONE. 7 a little wee face,] Wee, in the northern dialect, fignifies very little. Thus, in the Scottish proverb that apologizes for a little woman's marriage with a big man: 66 - A wee moufe will creep under a mickle cornftack." COLLINS.

So, in Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, a comedy, 1631: "He was nothing so tall as I; but a little wee man, and somewhat hutch-back'd.”

Again, in The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600:

"Some two miles, and a wee bit, fir."

Wee is derived from weenig, Dutch. On the authority of the 4to, 1619, we might be led to read whey-face: "Somewhat of a weakly man, and has as it were a whey-coloured beard." Macbeth calls one of the meffengers Whey-face. STEEVENS.

Little wee is certainly the right reading; it implies fomething extremely diminutive, and is a very common vulgar idiom in the North. Wee alone, has only the fignification of little. Thus Cleveland:

"A Yorkshire wee bit, longer than a mile."

The proverb is a mile and a wee bit; i. e. about a league and a half. RITSON.

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a Cain-colour'd beard.] Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were reprefented with yellow beards.

THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be countenanced by a parallel expreffion in an old play called Blurt Mafter Conftable, or, The Spaniard's Night-Walk, 1602:

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over all,

"A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard."

QUICK. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not?

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SIM. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener.

Again, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, Bafilifco fays:

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where is the eldest fon of Priam,

"That Abraham-colour'd Trojan ?".

I am not however, certain, but that Abraham may be a corruption of auburn.

Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1603:

"And let their beards be of Judas his own colour.”

Again, in A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612:

"That's he in the Judas beard.".

Again, in The Infatiate Countefs, 1613:

"I ever thought by his red beard he would prove a Judas." In an age, when but a fmall part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from reprefentations in painting or tapeftry. A cane-colour'd beard however, [the reading of the quar to,] might fignify a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a fickly yellow; for raw-coloured beards are mentioned in A Midsummer Night's Dream. STEEVENS.

The words of the quarto,-a whey-colour'd beard, ftrongly favour this reading; for whey and cane are nearly of the fame colour. MALONE.

The new edition of Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V. p. 295, af ferts, that painters conftantly reprefented Judas the traytor with a red head. Dr. Plot's Oxfordshire, p. 153, fays the fame. This conceit is thought to have arifen in England, from our ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes. TOLLET.

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See my quotation in King Henry VIII. A& V. fc. ii.

STEEVENS.

as tall a man of his hands,] Perhaps this is an allufion to the jockey measure, fo many hands high, ufed by grooms when fpeaking of horses. Tall, in our author's time, fignified not only height of ftature, but ftoutness of body. The ambiguity of the phrafe feems intended. PERCY.

Whatever be the origin of this phrafe, it is very ancient, being ufed by Gower:

"A worthie knight was of his honde,
"There was none fuche in all the londe."

De Confeffione Amantis, lib. v. fol. 118. b.
STEEVENS.

QUICK. How fay you?-O, I should remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and ftrut in his gait?

SIM. Yes, indeed, does he.

QUICK. Well, heaven fend Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I with

Re-enter RUGBY.

RUG. Out, alas! here comes my master. QUICK. We shall all be fhent: Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts Simple in the clofet.] He will not ftay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I fay !-Go, John, go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home:-and down, down, adown-a, &c.

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[Sings.

The tall man of the old dramatick writers, was a man of a bold, intrepid difpofition, and inclined to quarrel; fuch as is defcribed by Steevens in the second scene of the third act of this play.

M. MASON.

"A tall man of his hands" fometimes meant quick-handed, active; and as Simple is here commending his master for his gymnaftick abilities, perhaps the phrase is here used in that fenfe. See Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598, in v. " Manefco. Nimble or quick-handed; a tall man of his hands." MALONE.

9 We shall all be fhent :] i. e. Scolded, roughly treated. So, in the old Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date:

I can tell thee one thyng,

"In fayth you wyll be fhent." STEEVENS.

2 — and down, down, adown-a, &c.] To deceive her master, fhe fings as if at her work. SIR J. HAWKINS.

This appears to have been the burden of fome fong then well known. In Every Woman in her Humour, 1609, fign. E 1. one of the characters fays, " Hey good boies! i'faith now a three man's

Enter Doctor CAIUS.'

CAIUS. Vat is you fing? I do not like defe toys; Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier verd; a box, a green-a box; Do intend vat I speak? a green-a box.

QUICK. Ay, forfooth, I'll fetch it you. glad he went not in himself: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad.

[Afide. CAIUS. Fe, fe fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la Cour, la grande affaire.

fong, or the old downe adowne: 'well things must be as they may; fil's the other quart: muskadine with an egge is fine, there's a time for all things, bonos nochios." REED.

3 Enter Doctor Caius.] It has been thought ftrange, that our author fhould take the name of Caius [an eminent phyfician who flourished in the reign of Elizabeth, and founder of Caius College in our univerfity] for his Frenchman in this comedy; but Shakfpeare was little acquainted with literary hiftory; and without doubt, from this unufual name, fuppofed him to have been a foreign quack. Add to this, that the doctor was handed down as 2 kind of Roficrucian: Mr. Ames had in MS. one of the "Secret Writings of Dr. Caius." FARMER.

This character of Dr. Caius might have been drawn from the life; as in Jacke of Dover's Queft of Enquirie, 1604, (perhaps a republication,) a story called The Foole of Winfor begins thus: "Upon a time there was in Winfor a certain fimple outlandishe doctor of phi ficke belonging to the deane," &c. STEEVENS,

4 -un boitier verd;] Boitier in French. fignifies a case of furgeon's inftruments, GREY.

I believe it rather means a box of falve, or cafe to hold fimples, for which Caius profeffes to feek. The fame word, fomewhat curtailed, is ufed by Chaucer, in The Pardoneres Prologue, Y. 12241: "And every boift ful of thy letuarie."

Again, in The Skynners' Play, in the Chefter Collection of Myfteries, MS. Harl. p. 149: Mary Magdalen fays: "To balme his bodye that is fo brighte, "Boyfte here have I brought." STEEVENS.

QUICK. Is it this, fir?

CAIUS. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Depeche, quickly :-Vere is dat knave Rugby?

QUICK. What, John Rugby! John!

RUG. Here, fir.

CAIUS. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

RUG. 'Tis ready, fir, here in the porch.

CAIUS. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublié? dere is fome fimples in my clofet, dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind.

QUICK. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad..

CAIUS. O diable, diable! vat is in my clofet?Villainy! larron! [Pulling Simple out.] Rugby, my rapier.

QUICK. Good master, be content.

CAIUS. Verefore fhall I be content-a?

QUICK. The young man is an honest man. CAIUS. Vat fhall de honeft man do in my closet? dere is no honeft man dat fhall come in my clofet. QUICK. I beseech you, be not fo flegmatick; hear the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from parfon Hugh.

CAIUS. Vell.

SIM. Ay, forfooth, to defire her to-
QUICK. Peace, I pray you.

CAIUS. Peace-a your tongue :-Speak-a your tale. SIM. To defire this honeft gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master, in the way of marriage.

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