me fee; what am I to buy for our fheep-fhearing feaf? Three pound of fugar; five pound of currants; rice What will this fifter of mine do with rice? But my father hath made her miftrefs of the feaft, and fhe lays it on. She hath made me four-andtwenty nofegays for the fhearers: three-man fongmen all, and very good ones; but they are most of them means and bafes: 3 but one Puritan amongst them, and he fings pfalms to hornpipes. I muft have faffron, to colour the warden pies; mace,-dates, 9 -Sheep-fhearing feaft?] The expence attending these feftivities, appears to have afforded matter of complaint. Thus in Queflions of Profitable and Pleasant Concernings, &c. 1594: "If it be a sheep-fhearing feaft, maifter Baily can entertaine you with his bill of reckonings to his maifter of three fheapheard's wages, spent on fresh cates, befides fpices and Saffron pottage." STEEVENS. 2 See ——three-man fong-men all,] i. e. fingers of catches in three parts! A fix-man fong occurs in The Tournament of Tottenham. The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. II. p. 24. PERCY. So, in Heywood's King Edward IV. 1626: “ call Dudgeon and his fellows, we'll have a three-man fong." Before the comedy of The Gentle Craft, or the Shoemaker's Holiday, 1600, some of these three-man jongs are printed. STEEVENS. 4 t warden pies; Wardens are a fpecies of large pears, believe the name is difufed at prefent. It however afforded Ben Jonfon room for a quibble in his masque of Gypfies Metamorphofed: "A deputy tart, a church-warten pye." It appears from a paffage in Cupid's Revenge, by Beaumont and Fletcher, that thefe pears were ufually eaten roasted: "I would have had him roafted like a warden, "In brown paper." The French call this pear the poire de garde. STEEVENS. Barrett, in his Alvearie, voce Warden Tree, [Volemum] fays, Volema autem pyre funt prægrandia, ita quod impleant volam. し REED. > -none; that's out of my note: nutmegs, feven; a race, or two, of ginger;—but that I may beg;-four pound of prunes, and as many of raifins o'the fun.. AUT. O, that ever I was born! [Groveling on the ground. CLOWN. I'the name of me,—— 5 AUT. O, help me, help me! pluck but off thefe rags; and then, death, death! CLOWN. Alack, poor foul; thou haft need of more rags to lay on thee, rather than have these off. AUT. O, fir, the loathfomeness of them offends me more than the firipes I have receiv'd; which are mighty ones, and millions. CLOWN. Alas, poor man! a million of beating may come to a great matter. ÁUT. I am robb'd, fir, and beaten; my money and apparel ta'en from me, and these deteftable things put upon me. CLOWN. What, by a horse-man, or a foot-man? AUT. A foot-man, fweet fir, a foot-man. CLOWN. Indeed, he should be a foot-man, by the garments he hath left with thee; if this he a horfeman's coat, it hath feen very hot service. Lend my thy hand, I'll help thee: come, lend me thy hand. [Helping him up. AUT. O! good fir, tenderly, oh! CLOWN. Alas, poor foul. I the name of me,] This is a vulgar exclamation, which I have often heard ufed. So, Sir Andrew Ague-cheek:-" Before me, fhe's a good wench." STEEVENS. AUT. O, good fir, foftly, good fir: I fear, fir, my fhoulder-blade is out. CLOWN. How now? canft fland? AUT. Softly, dear fir; [picks his pocket.] good fir, foftly: you ha' done me a charitable office. CLOWN. Doft lack any money? I have a little money for thee. AUT. No, good fweet fir; no, I beseech you, fir: I have a kinfman not paft three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom I was going; I fhall there have money, or any thing I want: Offer me no money, I pray you; that kills my heart." CLOWN. What manner of fellow was he that robb'd you? AUT. A fellow, fir, that I have known to go about with trol-my-dames: I knew him once a 7 6 that kills my heart.] So, in K. Henry V. Dame Quickly, fpeaking of Falftaff, fays- the king hath kill'd his heart. See Vol. VIII. p. 260, n. 3. Malone. with trol-my-dames: ] Trou-Madame, French. STEEVENS. The game The In Dr. Jones's old treatife on Buckftone Bathes, he says: ladyes, gentle woomen, wyves, maydes, if the weather be not agreeable, may have, in the ende of a benche, eleven holes made, intoo the which to troule pummits, either wyolent or fofte, after their own discretion: the paftyme troule in madame is termed." FARMER. The old English title of this game was pigeon-holes as the arches in the machine through which the balls are rolled, resemble the cavities made for pigeons in a dove-houfe. So, in The Antipodes, 1638: "Three-pence I loft at nine-pins; but I got Again, in A wonder, or a Woman never vex'd, 1632: "What quickfands he finds out, as dice, cards, pigeon-holes." STEEvens, fervant of the prince; I cannot tell, good fir, for which of his virtues it was, but he was certainly whipp'd out of the court. CLOWN. His vices, you would say; there's no virtue whipp'd out of the court: they cherish it, to make it stay there; and yet it will no more but abide. 8 AUT. Vices I would fay, fir. I know this man well he hath been fince an ape-bearer; then a process ferver, a bailiff; then he compass'd a motion of the prodigal fon,' and married a tinker's wife within a mile where my land and living lies; and, having flown over many knavifh profeffions, he fettled only in rogue: fome call him Autolycus. CLOWN. Out upon him! Prig, for my life, prig:* he haunts wakes, fairs, and bear-baitings. Mr. Steevens is perfe&ly accurate in his description of the game of Trou-madame, or pigeon holes, Nine holes is quite another thing; Thus: O o being fo many holes made in the ground, into which o they are to bowl a pellet. I have feen both played O O O at. RITSON. This game is mentioned by Drayton in the 14th fong of his Polyolbion: 8 "At nine-holes on the heath while they together play." STEEVENS. abide.] To abide, here, muft fignify to fojourn, to live for a time without a fettled habitation. JOHNSON. To abide is again used in Macbeth, in the fenfe of tarrying for a while: "I'll call upon you ftraight; abide within." MALONE. motion of the proligal fon.] i. e. the puppet-shew, then called motions. A term frequently occurring in our author. 9 2 WARBURTON. -Prig, for my life, prig:] To prig is to filch. MALONE. In the canting language Prig is a thief or pick-pocket; and therefore in The Beggars Bujh, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Prigis the name of a knavith beggar. WHALLEY. AUT. Very true, fir; he fir, he; that's the rogue, that put me into this apparel. CLOWN. Not a more cowardly rogue in all Bohemia; if you had but look'd big, and spit at him, he'd have run. AUT. I must confefs to you, fir, I am no fighter: I am falfe of heart that way; and that he knew, I warrant him. ▾ CLOWN. How do you now? AUT. Sweet fir, much better than I was; I can ftand, and walk: I will even take my leave of you, and pace foftly towards my kinfman's. CLOWN. Shall I bring thee on the way ? CLOWN. Then fare thee well; I must go buy fpices for our sheep-fhearing. AUT. Profper you, fweet fir!-[Exit Clown.] Your parfe is not hot enough to purchase your fpice. I'll be with you at your fheep-fhearing too: If I make not this cheat bring out another, and the fhearers prove fheep, let me be unrolled, and my name put in the book of virtue! 3 Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way, 4 Α merry heart goes all the day, [Exit. 3 --let me be unroll'd, and my name put in the book of virtue!] Begging gypfies, in the time of our author, were in gangs and companies, that had fomething of the show of an incorporated body. From this noble fociety he wishes he may be unrolled, if he does not fo and fo. WARBURTON. 4 Jog on, jog on, &c.] These lines are part of a catch printed in an Antidote against Melancholy, made up in Pills compounded of witty ballads, Jovial Songs, and merry catches, 1661," 4to. p. 69. REED. |