Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

FAL. But what fays fhe to me? be brief, my good The Mercury.

QUICK. Marry, fhe hath receiv'd your letter; for the which fhe thanks you a thousand times: and the gives you to notify, that her husband will be absence from his houfe between ten and eleven.

FAL. Ten and eleven?

QUICK. Ay, forfooth; and then you may come and fee the picture, she says, that you wot of; '— mafter Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the fweet woman leads an ill life with him; he's a very jealoufy man; fhe leads a very frampold life with him, good heart.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

2

Barrett, in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, fays, that a penfioner was a gentleman about his prince, alwaie redie, with his fpeare." STEEVENS.

[ocr errors]

Penfioners were Gentlemen of the band of Penfioners.—“ In the month of December," [1539] fays Stowe, Annals, p. 973, edit. 1605, were appointed to waite on the king's perfon fifty Gentlemen, called Penfioners, or Speares, like as they were in the first yeare of the king; unto whom was affigned the fumme of fiftie pounds, yerely, for the maintenance of themfelves, and everie man two horfes, or one horfe and a gelding of fervice." Their drefs was remarkably fplendid, and therefore likely to attract the notice of Mrs. Quickly. Hence, [as both Mr. Steevens and Mr. T. Warton have obferved] in A Midfummer Night's Dream, our author has felected from all the tribes of flowers the golden-coated cowflips to be penfioners to the Fairy Queen :

9

"The cowflips tall her penfioners be,

"In their gold coats fpots you fee;" &c. MALONE.

Henry VIII: "

2

-you wot of;] To wot is to know. Obfolete. So, in King wot you what I found?" STEEVENS. -frampold-] This word I have never feen elfewhere, except in Dr. Hacket's Life of Archbishop Williams, where a fram pul man fignifies a peevish troublesome fellow. JOHNSON.

In The Roaring Girl, a comedy, 1611, I meet with a word, which, though differently fpelt, appears to be the fame; "Lax. Coachman.

"Coach. Anon, fir!

"Lax. Are we fitted with good phrampell jades ?”

· FAL. Ten and eleven: Woman, commend me to her; I will not fail her.

QUICK. Why you fay well: But I have another meffenger to your worship: Mistress Page hath her hearty commendations to you too ;-and let me tell you in your ear, fhe's as fartuous a civil modeft wife, and one (I tell you) that will not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe'er be the other and the bade me tell your worship, that her husband is feldom from home; but, fhe hopes, there will come a time. I never knew a woman fo dote upon a man; furely, I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.

FAL. Not I, I affure thee; fetting the attraction of my good parts afide, I have no other charms. QUICK. Bleffing on your heart for't!

FAL. But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife, and Page's wife, acquainted each other how they love me?

QUICK. That were a jeft, indeed!--they have not

Ray, among his South and Eaft country words, obferves, that frampald, or frampard, fignifies fretful, peevish, cross, froward. As froward (he adds) comes from from; fo may frampard.

Nah, in his Praife of the Red Herring, 1599, fpeaking of Leander, fays: " the churlish frampold waves gave him his belly full of fith-broth."

Again, in The Inner Temple Mafque, by Middleton 1619: "-'tis fo frampole, the puritans will never yield to it," Again, in The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, by John Day: "I think the fellow's frampell," &c. And, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at feveral Weapons:

"Is Pompey grown fo malapert, fo frampel?"

[ocr errors]

STEEVENS. Thus, in The Ifle of Gulls What a goodyer aile you mother? are you frampull? know you not your own daughter?"

HENLEY.

fo little grace, I hope:-that were a trick, indeed! But mistress Page would defire you to fend her your little page, of all loves; her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page: and, truly, master Page is an honeft man. Never a wife in Windfor leads a better life than fhe does; do what the will, fay what the will, take all, pay all, go to bed when fhe lift, rife when she lift, all is as fhe will; and, truly, the deserves it; for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. You must send her your page; no remedy.

FAL. Why, I will.

QUICK. Nay, but do fo then: and, look you, he may come and go between you both; and, in any cafe, have a nay-word, that you may know one another's mind, and the boy never need to understand any thing; for 'tis not good that children should know any wickedness: old folks, you know, have difcretion, as they fay, and know the world.

FAL. Fare thee well: commend me to them both: there's my purse; I am yet thy debtor.-Boy, go along with this woman. This news distracts me! [Exeunt QUICKLY and ROBIN.

3 to fend her your little page, of all loves;] Of all loves, is an adjuration only, and fignifies no more than if she had faid, defires you to fend him by all means.

It is ufed in Decker's Honeft Whore, P. I. 1635-" conjuring his wife, of all loves, to prepare cheer fitting," &c. Again, in Holinfhed's Chronicle, p. 1064: "Mrs. Arden defired him, of all loves, to come backe againe." Again, in Othello, Act III: "— the general fo likes your mufick, that he defires you, of all loves, to make no more noise with it." STEEVENS.

―a nay-word,] i. e. a watch-word. So, in a fubsequent fcene: - We have a noy-word to know one another," &c.

66

STEEVENS.

PIST. This punk is one of Cupid's carriers : — Clap on more fails; purfue, up with your fights;" Give fire; she is my prize, or ocean whelm them [Exit PISTOL.

all!

5 This punk is one of Cupid's carriers :-] Punk is a plaufible reading, yet abfurd on examination. For are not all punks Cupid's carriers? Shakspeare certainly wrote:

"This PINK is one of Cupid's carriers:

And then the sense is proper, and the metaphor, which is all the way taken from the marine, entire. A pink is a vessel of the fmall craft, employed as a carrier (and fo called) for merchants. Fletcher uses the word in his Tamer Tamed:

"This PINK, this painted foift, this cockle-boat.

WARBURTON.

So, in The Ladies' Privilege, 1640: "Thefe gentlemen know better to cut a caper than a cable, or board a pink in the bordells, than a pinnace at sea." A fmall falmon is called a falmon-pink.

Dr. Farmer, however, obferves, that the word punk has been unneceffarily altered to pink. In Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair, juftice Overdo fays of the pig-woman; " She hath been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two and twenty years." STEEVENS.

6 up with your fights;] So again, in Fletcher's Tamer Tamed:

"To hang her fights out, and defy me, friends!

"A well-known man of war."

As to the word fights, both in the text and in the quotation, it was then, and, for aught I know, may be now, a common featerm. Sir Richard Hawkins, in his Voyages, p. 66, says: "For once we cleared her deck; and had we been able to have spared but a dozen men, doubtlefs we had done with her what we would; for fhe had no clofe FIGHTS," i. e. if I understand it right, no Small arms. So that by fights is meant any manner of defence, either fmall arms or cannon. So, Dryden, in his tragedy of Amboyna:

[ocr errors]

Up with your FIGHTS,

"And your nettings prepare," &c. WARBURTON.

The quotation from Dryden might at least have raised a fufpicion that fights were neither fmall arms, nor cannon. Fights and nettings are properly joined. Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the fhip to conceal the men from the enemy; and clofe-fights are bulkbeads, or any other shelter that the fabrick of a fhip affords.

JOHNSON.

FAL. Say'ft thou fo, old Jack? go thy ways; I'll make more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look after thee? Wilt thou, after the expence of fo much money, be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee: Let them fay, 'tis grofsly done; fo it be fairly done, no matter.

Enter BARDOLPH.

BARD. Sir John, there's one mafter Brook below would fain speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath fent your worship a morning's draught of fack."

FAL. Brook, is his name?

So, in Heywood and Rowley's comedy, called Fortune by Land and Sea :—“ difplay'd their enfigns, up with all their feights, their matches in their cocks," &c. Again, in The Chriftian turned Turk, 1612" Lace the netting, and let down the fights, make ready the shot," &c. Again, in The Fair Maid of the Weft, 1615: "Then now up with your fights, and let your enfigns, "Bleft with St. George's crofs, play with the winds." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian:

66

- while I were able to endure a tempeft,
"And bear my fights out bravely, till my tackle
"Whistled i' th' wind."-

STEEVENS.

one mafter Brook below would fain speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath sent your worship a morning's draught of fack.] It feems to have been a common cuftom at taverns, in our author's time, to fend prefents of wine from one room to another, either as a memorial of friendship, or (as in the prefent inftance) by way of introduction to acquaintance. Of the existence of this practice the following anecdote of Ben Jonfon and the ingenious Bishop Corbet furnishes a proof. "Ben Jonfon was at a tavern, and in comes Bishop Corbet (but not fo then) into the next room. Ben Jonfon calls for a quart of raw wine, and gives it to the tapfter. Sirrah, fays he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, and tell him, I facrifice my fervice to him.' The fellow did, and in those words. Friend, fays Dr. Corbet, I thank him for his love; but 'pr'ythee tell him from me that he is mistaken; for facrifices are always burnt." Merry Paffages and Feafts, MSS. Harl. 6395. MALONE.

« FöregåendeFortsätt »