The two-handed sword is mentioned in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date: "Somtyme he serveth me at borde, "Somtyme he bereth my two-hand sword." See a note to the First Part of K. Henry IV. a&t ii. STEEVENS. Dr. Johnson's explanation of the long-sword is certainly right; for the early quarto reads my two-hand sword; so that they appear to have been synonymous. Carleton, in his Thankful Rembrance of God's Mercy, 1625, speaking of the treachery of one Rowland York, in betraying the town of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587, says; "he was a Londoner, famous among the cutters in his time, for bringing a new kind of fight— to run the point of a rapier into a man's body. This manner of fight he brought first into England, with great admiration of his audaciousnes: when in England before that time, the use was, with little bucklers, and with broad swords, to strike and not to thrust; and it was accounted unmanly to strike under the girdle.” MALONE. 221. -tall fellows- -] The old quartos read— STEEVENS. tall fencers. 226. stand so firmly on his wife's frailty,-] To stand on any thing, does signify to insist on it. So in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "All captains, and stand upon the honesty of your wives." Again in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, book 6. chap. 30. "For stoutly on their honesties do wylie harlots stand." The The jealous Ford is the speaker, and all chastity in women appears to him as a frailty. He supposes Page therefore to insist on that virtue as steady, which he himself suspects to be without foundation. STEEVENS. 234. -the world's mine oyster, &c.] Dr. Grey supposes Shakspere to allude to an old proverb, -The mayor of Northampton opens oysters with with his dagger."—i. e. to keep them at a sufficient distance from his nose, that town being fourscore miles from the sea. STEEVENS. 235. -I will retort the sum in equipage.] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I wil pay you again in stolen goods. WARBURTON. I rather believe he means, that he will pay him by waiting on him for nothing. So in Love's Pilgrimage, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "And boy, be you my guide, “For I will make a full descent in equipage." That equipage ever meant stolen goods, I am yet to learn. STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equipage was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies' Papers Complaint, (a poem which has erroneously been ascribed to Donne) we have several of them : "Embellish, blandishment, and equipage." Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch savour of witlesse affectation. FARMER. 240. your coach-fellow, Nym;] Thus the old copies. Coach-fellow has an obvious meaning, but the modern editors read, couch-fellow. The following pas sage Act II. sage from B. Jonson's Cynthia's Revels may justify the reading I have chosen: "Tis the swaggering coachhorse Anaides, that draws with him there." Again, in Monsieur D' Olive, 1606: "Are you he, my Page here makes choice of, to be his fellow coach-horse!" Again, in a True Narrative of the entertainment of his Royal Majestie, from the time of his departure from Edinburgh, till his receiving in London, &c. 1603: " Base pilfering theefe was taken who plaid the cutpurse in the court: his fellow was ill mist, for no doubt he had a walking mate: they drew together like coach-horses, and it is a pitie they did not hang together." Again, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609: "For wit, ye may be coach'd together." Again, in 10th B. of Chapman's Translation of Homer: -their chariot horse, as they coach-fellows were." STEEVENS. 243. -and tall fellows :- -] A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant, a stout, bold, or courageous person. In A Discourse on Usury, by Dr. Wilson, 1584, he says, "Here in England, he that can rob a man by the high way, is called a tall fellow." Lord Bacon says, "that bishop Fox caused his castle of Norham to be fortified, and manned it likewise with a very great number of tall soldiers.” STEEVENS. 244. -lost the handle of her fan,- -] It should be remembered that fans, in our author's time, were more costly than they are at present, as well as of a different construction. They consisted of ostrich fea thers (or others of equal length and flexibility), which were were stuck into handles. The richer sort of these were composed of gold, silver, or ivory of curious workmanship. One of them is mentioned in The Fleire, Com. 1610: "-she hath a fan with a short silver handle, about the length of a barber's syringe.” Again, in Love and Honour, by sir W. Davenant, 1649: " All your plate, Vaso, is the silver handle of your old prisoner's fan.” In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Money, or A pleasant Comedy of a Woman will have her Will, 1616, is a portrait of a lady with one of these fans, which, after all, may prove the best commentary on the passage. Three other specimens are taken from the Habiti Antichi et Moderni di tutto il Mondo, published at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cesare Vecelli, his brother. This fashion was perhaps imported from Italy, together with many others in the reign of King Henry VIII. if not in that of King Richard II. STEEVENS. Thus also Marston, in the Scourge of Villainie, lib. iii. sat. 8. -Another he "Her silver-handled fan would gladly be." And in other places. And bishop Hall, in his Satires, published 1597, lib. v. sat. 4. "Whiles one piece pays her idle waiting manne, "Or buys a hoode, or silver-handled fanne." WARTON. It appears from Marston's Satires, that the sum of 40l. was sometimes given for a fan in the time of queen Elizabeth. MALONE. A& II. In the Sidney papers, published by Collins, a fan is presented to queen Elizabeth for a new year's gift, the handle of which was studded with diamonds. WARTON. A repesentation of the fan here mentioned by Mr. Warton, together with the others by Titian and his brother, to which Mr. Steeven's refers are here given from a print of them in the NOTES subjoined to the HISTORY of VATHOK. 251. -A short knife and a thong: J. B. -] So Lear: "When cutpurses come not to thongs.” WARBURTON. Part of the employment given by Drayton, in The Mooncalf, to the Baboon, seems the same with this recommended by Falstaff: "He like a gypsy oftentimes would go, "All kinds of gibberish he hath learn'd to know: "And with a stick, a short string, and a noose, "Would show the people tricks at fast and loose.” Theobald has throng instead of thong. The latter seems right. LANGTON. Both the folio and quarto read throng. MALONE. Greene, in his Life of Ned Browne, 1592, says: "I had no other fence but my short knife, and a paire of purse strings." STEEVENS. See a note on Antony and Cleopatra, that explains SIR J. HAWKINS. the trick of fast and loose. 251. -Pickt - hatch,- -] A noted place for thieves and pick-pockets. THEOBALD. |