Pliny informs us, that the Romans did the same to

"All the charactery of my sad brows."

i. e. all that seems to be written on them.

155.

STEEVENS.

of middle earth.] Spirits are supposed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under ground; men therefore are in a middle station.

JOHNSON. So, in the antient metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date :

"Thou mayst them flea with dint of swearde, « And win the fayrest mayde of middle erde.”

"That ever was in middle earde.”

Again, in Gower, De Confessione Amantis, fol. 26. "Adam for pride lost his price

"In mydell erth."

Again in an ancient alliterative ode, quoted by Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry:

"Middle-erd for mon was made."

Again, the MSS. called William and the Werwolf in the library of King's College, Cambridge, p. 15.

"And seide God that madest man and all middle

arthe."

STEEVENS.

The

The phrase signifies neither more nor less, than the earth or world, from its imaginary situation in the midst or middle of the Ptolemaic system, and has not the least reference to either spirits or fairies.

REMARKS.

158. Vile worm, thou wast o'er-look'd even in thy birth.] The old copy reads-vild. That vild, which so often occurs in these plays, was not an error of the press, but the pronunciation of the time, appears from these lines of Heywood, in his Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, 1637:

"EARTH. What goddess, or how styl'd?
"AGE. Age am I call'd

"EARTH.

Hence false virago vild.”

MALONE.

159. With trial-fire, &c.] So Beaumont and Fletcher, in the Faithful Shepherdess:

"In this flame his finger thrust,
"Which will burn him if he lust ;
"But if not, away will turn,

"As loth unspotted flesh to burn."

169. Eva. It is right indeed,

STEEVENS.

-] This short

speech, which is very much in character for sir Hugh,

I have inserted from the old quarto, 1619.

THEOBALD.

172. and luxury!] Luxury is here used for incontinence. So, in K. Lear, "To't luxury pell-mell, for I lack soldiers."

STEEVENS.

173. Lust is but a bloody fire,] A bloody fire,

means

means a fire in the blood. In The Second Part of Hen. IV. act iv. the same expression occurs :

"Led on by bloody youth,” &c.

i.e. sanguine youth.

STEEVENS.

Again in the Tempest, we have the very expression of

the text:

"the strongest oaths are straw,

"To the fire i' the blood."

And in Othello: "It is merely a lust in the blood.” MALONE.

181. During this song,-] This direction I thought proper to insert from the old quartos. THEOBALD. they pinch him.] So, in Lylly's Endymion, "The fairies dance, and with a song, pinch 1591: him." And, in his Maid's Metamorphosis, 1600, they threaten the same punishment. STEEVENS.

207.

-how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent,- -] A Jack o'Lent appears to have been some puppet which was thrown at in Lent, like Shrove-tide cocks. So, in the old comedy of Lady Alimony, 1659: -throwing cudgels

"At Jack-a-lents, or Shrove-cocks."

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Tamer Tamed: -if I forfeit,

"Make me a Jack o' Lent, and break my shins

"For untagg'd points and counters."

Again, in Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub:

-on an Ash-Wednesday,

"Where thou didst stand six weeks the Jack

o' Lent,

L

"For

"For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee." STEEVENS.

218. -a coxcomb of Frize?] i. e, a fool's cap made out of Welch materials. Wales was famous for this cloth. So, in K. Edward I. 1599: "Enter Lluellin, alias Prince of Wales, &c. with swords and bucklers, and frieze jerkins." Again: "Enter Sussex, &c. with a mantle of frieze." "-my boy shall weare a mantle of this country's weaving, to keep him warm." STEEVENS.

243. -the Welch flannel ;-] The very word is derived from a Welch one, so that it is almost unnecessary to add that flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales. In the old play of K. Edward I. 1599: "Enter Hugh ap David, Guenthian his wench in flannel, and Jack his novice." Again:

"Here's a wholesome Welch wench,
"Lapt in her flannel as warm as wool."

STEEVENS.

243. · ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me :Though this be perhaps not unintelligible, yet it is an odd way of confessing his dejection. I should wish to read :

-ignorance itself has a plume o' me:

That is, I am so depressed, that ignorance itself plucks me, and decks itself with the spoils of my weakness. Of the present reading, which is probably right, the meaning may be, I am so enfeebled, that ignorance itself weighs me down and oppresses me.

JOHNSON. "Ignorance

"Ignorance itself, says Falstaff, is a plummet o'er me." If any alteration be necessary, I.think, "Ig-. norance itself is a planet o'er me," would have a chance to be right. Thus Bobadil excuses his cowardice: "Sure I was struck with a planet, for I had no power to touch my weapon." FARMER.

Dr. Farmer might have supported his conjecture by a passage in K. Henry VI. where Queen Margaret says, that Suffolk's face,

——————-rul'd like a wandering planet over me.” STEEVENS. Perhaps Falstaff's meaning may be this: "Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: i. e. above me;” ignorance itself is not so low as I am, by the length of a plummet-line. TYRWHITT.

A passage in our author's 78th Sonnet adds some support to the emendation proposed by Dr. Johnson : “Thine eyes, that taught the dumb on high to sing,

"And heavy ignorance aloft to fly."

If plume be the true reading, Falstaff, I suppose meant to say, that even ignorance, however heavy, could soar above him. MALONE.

Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me-i. e. serves to point out my obliquities. This is said in consequence of Evans's last speech. The allusion is to the examination of a carpenter's work by the plumline held over it; of which line Sir Hugh is here represented as the lead.

Lij

HENLEY.

250.