2 SER. He hath ribands of all the colours i'the rainbow; points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle, though they come to him by the grofs; inkles, caddiffes,' cambricks, lawns: why, he fings them over, 'as they were gods or goddeffes; you would think, a fmock were a fhe-angel; he fo chants to the fleeve-hand, and the work about the fquare on't.+ 66 allufion which I cannot explain: She fays that you fent ware which is not warrantable, braided ware, and that you give not London measure." STEEVENS, Braid Unbraided wares may be wares of the beft manufacture. in Shakspeare's All's Well, &c. A&t IV. fc. ii. fignifies deceitful. Braided in Bailey's Dict. means faded, or having loft its colour; and why then may not unbraided import whatever is undamaged, or what is of the better fort? Several old ftatutes forbid the importation of ribands, laces, &c. as "falfely and deceitfully wrought." Probably unbraided wares means, braid." M. MASON. TOLLET. 66 wares not ornamented with The clown is perhaps inquiring not for fomething better than common, but for fmooth and plain goods. Has he any plain wares, not twisted into braids? Ribands, cambricks, and lawns, all anfwer to this defcription. MALONE. 2 -points, more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle,] The points that afford Autolycus a fubject for this quibble, were laces with metal tags to them. Aiguilettes, Fr. MALONE. 3 caddiffes,] I do not exactly know what caddiffes are. In Shirley's Witty Fair One, 1633, one of the characters fays:"I will have eight velvet pages, and fix footmen in caddis." In The First Part of K. Henry IV. I have fuppofed caddis to be ferret. Perhaps by fix footmen in caddis, is meant fix footmen with their liveries laced with fuch a kind of worsted ftuff. As this worfted lace was particoloured, it might have received its title from cadeffe, the ancient name for a daw. STEEVENS. Caddis is, I believe, a narrow worsted galloon. I remember when very young to have heard it enumerated by a pedler among the articles of his pack. There is a very narrow flight ferge of this name now made in France. Inkle is a kind of tape alfo. MALONE. 4the fleeve-hand, and the work about the fquare on't.] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-fleeve-band, JOHNSON, CLOWN. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach finging. PER. Forewarn him, that he ufe no fcurrilous words in his tunes. CLOWN. You have of these pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, sister. PER. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. The old reading is right, or we muft alter fome paffages in other authors. The word fleeve-hands occurs in Leland's Collectanea, 1770, Vol. IV. p. 323: "A furcoat [of crimson velvet] furred with mynever pure, the coller, fkirts, and fleeve-hands garnished with ribbons of gold." So, in Cotgrave's Dict. "Poignet de la chemife." is Englished "the wristband, or gathering at the fleeveband of a fhirt. Again, in Leland's Collectanea, Vol. IV. p. 293, king James's" fhurt was broded with thred of gold," and in p. 341, the word fleeve-hand occurs, and feems to fignify the cuffs of a furcoat, as here it may mean the cuffs of a fmock. I conceive, that the work about the fquare on't, fignifies the work or embroidery about the bofom part of a fhift, which might then have been of a fquare form, or might have a fquare tucker, as Anne Bolen and Jane Seymour have in Houbraken's engravings of the heads of illuftrious perfons. So, in Fairfax's tranflation of Tasso, B. XII. ft. 64: "Between her breafts the cruel weapon rives, "Her curious fquare, embofs'd with fwelling gold." I fhould have taken the fquare for a gorget or stomacher, but for this paffage in Shakspeare. ToLLET. The following paffage in John Grange's Garden, 1577, may likewife tend to the fupport of the ancient reading-fleeve-hand. In a poem called The Paynting of a Curtizan, he fays: "Their fmockes are all bewrought about the necke and hande." STEEVENS. The word fleeve-hand is likewife ufed by P. Holland, in his Tranflation of Suetonius, 1606, p. 19: "in his apparel he was noted for fingularity, as who used to goe in his fenatour's purple Яtudded robe, trimmed with a jagge or frindge at the fleeve-hand." MALONE. 4 Enter AUTOLYCUs, finging. Lawn, as white as driven fnow; Come, buy of me, come; come buy, come buys necklace-amber,] Place only a comma after amber. " Autolycus is puffing his female wares, and fays that he has got among his other rare articles for ladies, fome necklace-amber, an amber of which necklaces are made, commonly called bead-amber, fit to perfume a lady's chamber. So, in The Taming of the Shrew, A& IV. fc. iii. Petruchio mentions amber-bracelets, beads," &c. Milton alludes to the fragrance of amber. See Sams. Agon. V. 720: 6 "An amber fcent of odorous perfume, - poking-fticks of feel,] Thefe poking-fticks were heated in the fire, and made ufe of to adjust the plaits of ruffs. In Marston's Malcontent, 1604, is the following inftance: There is fuch a deale of pinning thefe ruffes, when the fine clean fall is worth them all" and, again, "if you should chance to take a nap in an afternoon, your falling band requires no poking-flick to recover his form," &c. Again, in Middleton's comedy of Blurt Mafter Conftable, 1602: "Your ruff muft ftand in print, and for that purpose get poking-flicks with fair long handles, left they fcorch your hands." Thefe poking-flicks are feveral times mentioned in Heywood's If you know not me you know Nobody, 1633, fecond part; and in the Yorkshire Tragedy, 1619, which has been attributed to Shakspeare. In the books of the Stationers' Company, July 1590, was entered "A bailat entitled Blewe Starche and Paking-flicks. Allowed under the hand of the Bishop of London." CLOWN. If I were not in love with Mopfa, thou fhould'st take no money of me; but being enthrall'd as I am, it will also be the bondage of certain ribands and gloves. Mop. I was promised them against the feast; but they come not too late now. DOR. He hath promised you more than that, or there be liars. Mop. He hath paid you all he promised you: may be, he has paid you more; which will fhame you to give him again. CLOWN. Is there no manners left among maids? will they wear their plackets, where they fhould bear their faces? Is there not milking-time, when you are going to bed, or kiln-hole," to whistle off these fecrets; but you must be tittle-tattling before all our guests? 'Tis well they are whifpering: Clamour your tongues, and not a word more. 8 Stowe informs us, that "about the fixteenth yeare of the queene [Elizabeth] began the making of fteele poking-flicks, and untill that time all lawndreffes ufed fetting ftickes made of wood or bone." See Vol. IV. p. 486. STEEVENS. 7 kiln-hole,] The mouth of the oven. The word is fpelt in the old copy kill-hole, and I fhould have fuppofed it an intentional blunder, but that Mrs. Ford in The Merry Wives of Windfor defires Falstaff to "" creep into the kiln-hole ;" and there the fame falfe fpelling is found. Mrs. Ford was certainly not intended for a blunderer. MALONE. Kiln-bole is the place into which coals are put under a ftove, a copper, or a kiln in which lime, &c. are to be dried or burned. To watch the kiln-hole, or ftoking-hole, is part of the office of female fervants in farm-houfes. Kiln, at least in England, is not a fynonyme to oven. STEEVENS. 8 Clamour your tongues,] The phrafe is taken from ringing. When bells are at the height, in order to cease them, the repetition of the strokes becomes much quicker than before; this is called clamouring them, The allufion is humourous. WARBURTON. MOP. I have done. Come, you promifed me a tawdry lace, and a pair of fweet gloves." The word clamour, when applied to bells, does not fignify in Shakspeare a ceafing, but a continued ringing. Thus used in Much ado about Nothing, Act V. fc. ii: Ben. "If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb e'er he dies, he fall live no longer in monument, than the bell rings and the widow weeps. Beat. And how long is that, think you? Ben. " Question? why an hour in clamour, and a quarter in rheum." GREY. Perhaps the meaning is, Give one grand peal, and then have done. "A good Clam" (as I learn from Mr. Nichols) in fome villages is ufed in this fenfe, fignifying a grand peal of all the bells at once. I fufpect that Dr. Warburton's is a mere gratis dictum. In a note on Othello, Dr. Johnson fays, that" to clam a bell is to cover the clapper with felt, which drowns the blow, and hinders the found." If this be fo, it affords an easy interpretation of the paffage before us. MALONE. Admitting this to be the fenfe, the difputed phrafe may answer to the modern one of―ringing a dumb peal, i. e. with muffled bells. STEEVENS. 66 9 -you promised me a tawdry lace,] Tawdry lace is thus defcribed in Skinner, by his friend Dr. Henshawe: Tawdrie lace, aftrigmenta, timbriæ, feu fafciolæ, emtæ Nundinis Sæ. Etheldredæ celebratis: Ut rectè monet Doc. Thomas Henfhawe." Etymol. in voce. We find it in Spenfer's Paftorals, Aprill: "And gird in your waft, "For more fineneffe, with a tawdrie lace." T. WARTON. So, in The Life and Death of Jack Straw, a comedy, 1593: "Will you in faith, and I'll give you a tawdrie lace. Tom, the miller, offers this prefent to the queen, if she will procure his pardon. It may be worth while to obferve, that these tawdry laces were not the ftrings with which the ladies faften their stays, but were worn about their heads, and their waifts. So, in The Four P's.` 1569: "Brooches and rings, and all manner of beads, Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong the fecond: "Of which the Naides and the blew Nereides make |