POL. She dances featly. SHEP. So fhe does any thing; though I report it. That fhould be filent: if young Doricles' Do light upon her, fhe fhall bring him that Which he not dreams of. Enter a Servant. SER. O master, if you did but hear the pedler at the door, you would never dance again after a tabor and pipe; no, the bagpipe could not move you: he fings feveral tunes, fafter than you'll tell money; he utters them as he had eaten ballads, and all men's ears grew to his tunes. CLOWN. He could never come better : he fhall come in: I love a ballad but even too well; if it be doleful matter, merrily fet down, or a very pleasant thing indeed, and fung lamentably. 6 5 SER. He hath fongs, for man, or woman, of all fizes; no milliner can fo fit his cuftomers with gloves he has the prettieft love-fongs for maids; fo without bawdry; which is ftrange; with fuch delicate burdens of dildo's' and fadings: 8 jump her 5- doleful matter, merrily fet down, ] This feems to be atnother ftroke aimed at the title-page of Prefton's Cambifes, "" A lamentable Tragedy, mixed full of pleasant Mirth, &c. STEEVENS. 6 -no milliner can fo fit his customers with gloves:] In the time. of our author, and leng afterwards, the trade of a milliner was carried on by men. MALONE. 7- - of dildo's "With a bie dildo dill." is the burthen of the Batchelors Feaft, an ancient ballad, and is likewife called the Tune of it. STEEVENS.. and thump her; and where fome ftretch-mouth'd rafcal would, as it were, mean mifchief, and break a foul gap into the matter, he makes the maid to anfwer, Whoop, do me no harm, good man; puts him off, flights him, with Whoop, do me no harm, good man.9 POL. This is a brave fellow. CLOWN. Believe me, thou talkeft of an admirableconceited fellow. Has he any unbraided wares ?* 8 fadings; ] An Irish dance of this name is mentioned by Ben Jonson, in The Irish Mafque at Court. and daunfh a fading at te wedding. Again in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Peftle : "I will have him dance fading; fading is a fine jigg.” 9 TYRWHITT. "See you yond motion? not the old fading." STEEVENS. Whoop, do me no harm good man. ] This was the name of an old fong. In the famous history of Frjar Bacon we have a balad to the tune of, "Oh! do me no harme, good man." FARMER. This tune is preferved in a collection intitled "Ayres, to fing and play o the Lyte and Baffe Violl. with Pauins, Galliards, Almaines, and Corantos, for the Lyra Violl. By William Corbine: " 1610. fol. RITSON. 2 unbraided wares?] Surely we must read braided, for such are all the wares mentioned in the answer. JOHNSON. believe by unbraided wares, the Clown means, has he any thing befides laces which are braided, and are the principal commodity fold by ballad- finging pedlers. Yes, replies the fervant, he has ribands, &c. which are things not braided, but woven. The drift of the Clown's queftion, is either to know whether Autolycus has any thing better than is commonly fold by fuch vagrants; any thing worthy to be prefented to his miftrefs: or, as probably, by enquiring for fomething which pedlars ufually have not, to efcape laying out his money at all. The following paffage in Any Thing for a quiet Life, however, leads me to fuppofe that there is here fome 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, cad diffes, 3 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." She fays that you fent allufion which I cannot explain : ware which is not warrantable, braided ware, and that you give not London measure." STEEVENS. Unbraided wares may be wares of the best manufaЯure. Braided in Shakspeare's All's Well, &c. A& IV. fc. ii. fignifies deceitful. Braided in Bailey's Di&. means faded, or having loft its color; and why then may uot 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. 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 twifted into braids? Ribands, cambricks, and lawns, all an fwer to this defcription. MALONE. 2 3 points more than all the lawyers in Bohemia can learnedly handle,] The points that afford Autolicus a fubject for this quibble were laces with metal tags to them. Aiguilettes. Fr. MALONE. Caddiffes, I do not exacly know what caddiffes are. In Shirley's Witty Fair one. 1633, one of the charaders 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 worfted 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 allo. MALONE. 4 the fleeve-hand, and the work about the fquare on't. Six Thomas Hanmer reads-fleeve-band. JOHNSON. CLOWN. Pr'ythee, bring him in; and let him approach finging. PER. Forewarn him, that he use no fcurrilous words in his tunes. CLOWN. You have of thefe pedlers, that have more in 'em than you'd think, fifter. PER. Ay, good brother, or go about to think. The old reading is right, or we muft alter fome passages in other authors. The word fleeve-hand occurs in Leland's Collectane a 1770, Vol IV. p. 323: A furcoat of crimion velvet faired with mynever pure, the coller, kitis, and eve-hands gainifhed with ribbons of gold. "So, in Cotgrave's Lic Poignet de la chemile." is Englished, "the wristband o gathering at the fleeveband of a thirt." Again, in Lelaud's Collectanea, Vol. IV. p. 293, king James's hurt was broded with thred of gold and in p. 341, the word fleeve-band occurs, and feems to figmfy the cuffs of a furcoat, as here it may mean the cuffs of a fmock. I conceive, that the word above the fquare on't, fignifies the work or embroidery about the bofom part of a shift, which might then have been of a fquare form, or might have a square tucker, as Aune Bolen and Jane Seymour have in Houbraken's engravings of the heads of illuftrions perfons. So, in Fairfax's tranflation of Tafjo, B. XII. ft. 64: "Between her breafts the cruel weapon rives, "Her curious Square, embols'd with fwelling gold." I should have taken the Square for a gorget or ftomacher, but for this paffage in Shakspeate. TOLLET. The following paffage in John Grange's Garden, 1577, may likewise tend to the fupport of the ancient reading-feeve-hand. In a poem called The Paynting of a Curtizan, he fays: "Their fmockes are all bewrought about the necke and hande. STEEVENS. าจ The word fleeve-hand is likewife ufed by P. Holland, in his Tranflation of Suetonius, 1606. in his apparel he was p. 19: noted for fingularity, as who used to goe in his fenatour's purple ftudded robe, trimmed with a jagge or frindge at the fleeve-hand MALONE. 1 5 Enter AUTOLYCUS, finging. Lawn, as white as driven fnow; 6 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-flicks of feel,] Thefe poking-flicks were heated in the fire, and made use of to adjust the plaits of ruffs. In Marfton's Malcontent, 1604, is the following inftance: —— "There is fuch a deale of pinning these 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 Constable, 1602: Your ruff muft ftand in print, and for that purpose get poking-flicks with fair long handles, left they fcorch your hands." Thele poking-fiicks 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 ballat entitled Blewe Starche and Poking-flicks. Allowed under the hand of the Bishop of London." |