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rather antiquated in the time of Shakspere.
Gower, De Confessione Amantis, B. iv. fol. 7.
"All to-toré is myn araie."

And Chaucer, Reeve's Tale, 1169:

66 -mouth and nose to-broke." The construction will otherwise be very hard.

See,

TYRWHITT.

I add a few more instances, to shew that this use of the preposition to was not entirely antiquated. Spenser's Faery Queen, b. iv. c. 7.

"With briers and bushes all to-rent and scratched."

Again, b. v. c. 8.

"With locks all loose, and raiment all to-tore." Again, b. v. c. 9.

"Made of strange stuffe, but all to-worne and ragged,

"And underneath the breech was all to-torne and

jagged."

Again, in the Three Lords of London, 1590:

"The post at which he runs, and all to-burns it.” Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592:

"watchet sattin doublet, all to-torn." STEEVENS. 380. pinch him sound,] i. e. soundly. The adjective used as an adverb. STEEVENS.

394. That silk will I go buy; and, in that time] Mr. Theobald, referring that time to the time of buying the silk, alters it to tire. But there is no need of any change; that time evidently relating to the time of the mask with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and

which makes the whole subject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right.

WARBURTON.

399. -properties] Properties are little incidentalnecessaries to a theatre, exclusive of scenes and dres

ses.

400.

STEEVENS.

-tricking for our fairies.] To trick, is to

dress out. So, in Milton:

"No trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont,
"With the Attic boy to hunt;

"But kirchief'd in a homely cloud." STEEVENS. 413. -what thick-skin ?- -] I meet with this term of abuse in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, book vi. chap. 30.

"That he so foul a thick-skin should so fair a lady catch."

418.

STEEVENS.

-standing-bed, and truckle-bed ;--] The usual furniture of chambers in that time was a standing-bed, under which was a trochle, truckle, or running bed. In the standing-bed lay the master, and in the truckle-bed the servant. So, in Hall's Account of ȧ Servile Tutor:

"He lieth in the truckle-bed,

"While his young master lieth o'er his head."

So, in the Return from Parnassus, 1606:

JOHNSON.

"When I lay in a trundle-bed under my tutor." And here the tutor has the upper bed. Again, in Heywood's Royal King, &c. 1637:

66 -shew these

gen.

gentlemen into a close room with a standing-bed in't,

and a truckle too.”

STEEVENS.

420. -Anthropophaginian] i. e. a canibal. See Othello, act i. It is here used as a sounding word to astonish Simple. Ephesian, which follows, has no more meaning. STEEVENS.

430.

-Bohemian-Tartar- -] The French call a Bohemian what we call a Gypsey; but I believe the Host means nothing more than, by a wild appellation, to insinuate that Simple makes a strange appearance.

JOHNSON.

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In Germany there were several companies of vagabonds, &c. called Tartars and Zigens. "These were the same in my opinion," says Mezeray, those the French call Bohemians, and the English Gypsies." Bulteel's Translation of Mezeray's History of France, under the year 1417.

TOLLET.

436. -wise woman -] In our author's time female dealers in palmistry and fortune-telling were usually denominated wise women. So the person from whom Heywood's play of The Wise Woman of Hogsden, 1638, takes its title, is employed in answering many such questions as are the objects of Simple's enquiry. REED.

438. —mussel-shell; -] He calls poor Simple mussel-shell, because he stands with his mouth open.

454. I may not conceal them, sir,

JOHNSON

Conceal them or thou dy'st] In both these

instances,

instances, Dr. Farmer thinks we should read, reveal.

STEEVENS.

-] i. e. scholar-like. So, in the

467.

clerkly,

Two Gentlemen of Verona,

-'Tis very clerkly done."

STEEVENS,

471. -I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my learning] He alludes to the beating which he had just received. in Cymbeline, act v.

The same play on words occurs

-sorry you have paid too much, and sorry "that you are paid too much." STEEVENS. -three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses.] John Faust, commonly called Doctor Faustus, was a German.

479.

511.

STEEVENS.

-Primero] A game at cards.

JOHNSON.

-since I foreswore myself at Primero.] Primero was, in Shakspere's time the fashionable game. In the earl of Northumberland's letters about the powder plot, Josc. Percy was playing at Primero on Sunday, when his uncle, the conspirator, called on him at Essex House. This game is again mentioned in our author's Henry VIII. PERCY.

572. -to say my prayers,]

These words are

restored from the early quarto. They were probably omitted in the folio, on account of the stat. 3 Jac. I. MALONE.

C. 21.

528. -action of an old woman, -] The text must certainly be restor❜d a wood woman, a crazy, frantick woman; one too wild, and silly, and unmean

ing, to have either the malice, or mischievous subtlety of a witch in her. THEOBALD.

The reading of the old copy is fully supported by what Falstaff says to Ford:

"I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a poor old man; but I came from her, Master Brook, like a poor old woman." MALONE.

534. what adoe is here to bring you together!—] The great fault of this play is the frequency of expressions so profane, that no necessity of preserving character can justify them. There are laws of higher authority than those of criticism. JOHNSON.

552. Fat Sir John Falstaff- -] The words-Sir John,- -which are not in the first folio, were arbitrarily inserted in the second, to supply the metre. The corresponding passage in the early quarto,

"Whereon fat Falstaffe hath a mighty scarre," [a misprint for scene], renders it highly probable that the omitted word was that above printed in Italicks. I would therefore read,

-Without the shew of both; wherein fat Falstaff Hath a great scene ;

Sir John Falstaff

"Hath a great scene; the image of the jest

"I'll shew you at large.”

MALONE.

A similar allusion to a custom still in use of hanging out painted representations of shows, occurs in Bussy d'Ambois:

"The witch policy makes him like a monster "Kept only to shew men for goddesse money:

5

"That

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