BEAT. He fet up his bills here in Meffina, and challenged cupid at the flight:9 and my uncle's

He fet up his bills &c.] So, in Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, Shift fays:

"This is rare, I have fet up my bills without discovery." Again, in Swetnam Arraign'd, 1620:

66

"I have bought foils already, fet up bills,

"Hung up my two-hand fword," &c.

Again, in Nath's Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596: -setting up bills, like a bearward or fencer, what fights we shall have, and what weapons fhe will meet me at."

The following account of one of these challenges, taken from an ancient MS. of which further mention is made in a note on The Merry Wives of Windfor, A&t I. fc. i. may not be unacceptable to the inquifitive reader. " Item a challenge playde before the King's majeftie (Edward VI.) at Westminster, by three maifters, Willyam Pafcall, Robert Greene, and W. Browne, at feven kynde of weapons. That is to say, the axe, the pike, the rapier and target, the rapier and cloke, and with two fwords, agaynft all alyens and ftrangers being borne without the King's dominions, of what countrie fo ever he or they were, geving them warninge by theyr bills fet up by the three maifters, the space of eight weeks before the fayd challenge was playde; and it was holden four feverall Sundayes one after another." It appears from the fame work, that all challenges "to any maifter within the realme of Englande being an Englithe man," were against the ftatutes of the " Noble Science of Defence."

Beatrice means, that Benedick published a general challenge, like a prize-fighter. STEEVENS.

9challenged Cupid at the flight:] Flight (as Mr. Douce. obferves to me) does not here mean an arrow, but a fort of fhooting called roving, or shooting at long lengths. The arrows used at this sport are called flight-arrows; as were those used in battle for great diftances. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca :

not the quick rack swifter;

"The virgin from the hated ravisher

"Not half fo fearful: not a flight drawn home,

"A round stone from a fling,-:

Again, in A Woman kill'd with Kindness, 1617:

"We have tied our geldings to a tree, two flight-fhot off.”

Again, in Middleton's Game of Chefs:

"Who, as they fay, discharg'd it like a flight."

fool, reading the challenge, fubfcribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt.'-I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars?

Again, in The Entertainment at Caufome Houfe, &c. 1613: "it being from the park about two flight-fhots in length."

Again, in The Civil Wars of Daniel, B. VIII. ft. 15:

and affign'd

"The archers their flight-fhafts to shoot away;

"Which th' adverse fide (with fleet and dimness blind,
"Mistaken in the diftance of the way,)

"Answer with their Sheaf-arrows, that came short
"Of their intended aim, and did no hurt."

Holinfhed makes the fame diftinction in his account of the fame occurrence, and adds, that these flights were provided on purpose. Again, in Holinfhed, p. 649: "He caufed the foldiers to fhoot their flights towards the lord Audlies company."

Mr. Tollet obferves, that the length of a flight-fhot feems afcertained by a paffage in Leland's Itinerary, 1769, Vol. IV. p. 44: "The paffage into it at ful fe is a flite-fhot over, as much as the Tamife is above the bridge." It were easy to know the length of London-bridge, and Stowe's Survey may inform the curious reader whether the river has been narrowed by embanking fince the days of Leland.

Mr. Douce, however, obferves, that as the length of the fhot depended on the strength and 1kill of the archer, nothing can with certainty be determined by the paffage quoted from Leland. STEEVENS.

The flight was an arrow of a particular kind: In the Harleian Catalogue of MSS. Vol. I. n. 69, is "a challenge of the lady Maiee's fervants to all comers, to be performed at Greenwiche to shoot standart arrow, or flight." I find the title-page of an old pamphlet ftill more explicit-" A new post-a marke exceeding neceffary for all men's arrows: whether the great man's flight, the gallant's rover, the wife man's pricke-fhaft, the poor man's but-fhaft, or the fool's bird-bolt." FARMER.

I at the bird-bolt.] The bird-bolt is a fhort thick arrow without a point, and fpreading at the extremity fo much, as to leave a flat surface, about the breadth of a fhilling. Such are to this day in use to kill rooks with, and are fhot from a crossbow. So, in Marfton's What you will, 1607:

- ignorance fhould shoot

"His grofs-knobb'd bird bolt-."

But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.*

LEON. Faith, niece, you tax fignior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you,3 I doubt it

not.

MESS. He hath done good fervice, lady, in these

wars.

BEAT. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it he is a very valiant trencher-man, he hath an excellent ftomach.

MESS. And a good foldier too, lady.

BEAT. And a good foldier to a lady ;-But what is he to a lord?

Speak to thy boy to fetch his arrow back,

"Or ftrike her with a sharp one!" STEEVENS.

The meaning of the whole is-Benedick, from a vain conceit of his influence over women, challenged Cupid at roving (a particular kind of archery, in which flight-arrows are used). In other words, he challenged him to Shoot at hearts. The fool, to ridicule this piece of vanity, in his turn challenged Benedick to shoot at crows with the cross-bow and bird-bolt; an inferior kind of archery used by fools, who, for obvious reafons, were not permitted to fhoot with pointed arrows: Whence the proverb-" A fool's bolt is foon fhot." DOUCE.

2

3

I promised to eat all of his killing.] So in King Henry V: "Ram. He longs to eat the English.

"Con. I think, he will eat all he kills." STEEVENS.

he'll be meet with you,] This is a very common expreffion in the midland counties, and fignifies, he'll be your match, he'll be even with you.

So, in TEXNOгAMIA, by B. Holiday, 1618:

"Go meet her, or else fhe'll be meet with me." Chapman has nearly the fame phrafe in his verfion of the 22d Iliad:

when

"Paris and Phoebus meet with thee-." Steevens.

MESS. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; ftuffed with all honourable virtues.4

BEAT. It is fo, indeed; he is no lefs than a ftuffed man: but for the ftuffing,-Well, we are all mortal.5

LEON. You muft not, fir, miftake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt fignior Benedick and her: they never meet, but there is a skir~ mish of wit between them.

BEAT. Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our laft conflict, four of his five wits went halting off,

4 stuffed with all honourable virtues.] Stuffed, in this first inftance, has no ridiculous meaning. Mr. Edwards obferves, that Mede, in his Difcourfes on Scripture, fpeaking of Adam, fays, he whom God had stuffed with fo many excellent qualities." Edwards's MS.

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

whom you know

“ Of stuff”d fufficiency."

Un homme bien etoffe, fignifies, in French, a man in good circumstances." STEEVENS.

5 he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the ftuffing,Well, we are all mortal.] Mr. Theobald plumed himself much on the pointing of this paffage; which, by the way, he might learn from D'Avenant: but he fays not a word, nor any one elfe that I know of, about the reafon of this abruption. The truth is, Beatrice starts an idea at the words Stuffed man; and prudently checks herself in the purfuit of it. A Stuffed man was one of the many cant phrafes for a cuckold. In Lyly's Midas, we have an inventory of Motto's moveables: Item, fays Petulus, one paire of hornes in the bride-chamber on the bed's head. The beaft's head, obferves Licio; for Motto is Stuff'd in the head, and thefe are among unmoveable goods." FARMER.

6

rr

-four of his five wits-] In our author's time wit was the general term for intellectual powers. So, Davies on the Soul: "Wit, feeking truth, from caufe to caufe afcends,

"And never refts till it the first attain;

"Will, seeking good, finds many middle ends,
"But never stays till it the last do gain."

and now is the whole man governed with one: fo that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature.-Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new fworn brother.

MESS. Is it poffible ?

BEAT. Very easily poffible: he wears his faith

And, in another part:

"But if a phrenzy do poffefs the brain,

"It fo difturbs and blots the forms of things,

"As fantafy proves altogether vain,

"And to the wit no true relation brings.

"Then doth the wit, admitting all for true,

"Build fond conclufions on those idle grounds.'

The wits feem to have been reckoned five, by analogy to the five fenfes, or the five inlets of ideas. JOHNSON.

7 if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference &c.] Such a one has wit enough to keep himself warm, is a proverbial expreffion.

So, in Heywood's Epigrams on Proverbs:

"Wit kept by warmth.”

"Thou art wife inough, if thou keepe thee warme,

"But the leaft colde that cumth, kilth thy wit by harme." Again, in The Wife Woman of Hogsden, 1638: "You are the wife woman, are you? and have wit to keep yourself warm enough, I warrant you." Again, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonfon: 6.6 -your whole self cannot but be perfectly wife; for your hands have wit enough to keep themselves warm." To bear any thing for a difference, is a term in heraldry. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia fays:

a

8

you may wear your rue with a difference."

STEEVENS.

-fworn brother.] i. e. one with whom he hath fworn (as was anciently the cuftom among adventurers) to fhare fortunes. See Mr. Whalley's note on-" we'll be all three wornbrothers to France," in King Henry V. A&t II. fc. i. STEEVENS.

9 he wears his faith-] Not religious profeffion, but profeffion of friendship; for the speaker gives it as the reafon of