4 Word of denial in thy labras here *; Word of denial: froth and scum, thou liest. NYм. Be avised, sir, and pass good humours: I thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten : and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. THEOBALD. Latten is a mixed metal, made of copper and calamine. MALONE. The sarcasm intended is, that Slender had neither courage nor strength, as a latten sword has neither edge nor substance. HEATH. Latten may signify no more than as thin as a lath. The word in some counties is still pronounced as if there was no h in it: and Ray, in his Dictionary of North Country Words, affirms it to be spelt lat in the North of England. Falstaff threatens, in another play, to drive prince Henry out of his kingdom with a dagger of lath. A latten bilboe means therefore, I believe, no more than a blade as thin as a lath—a vice's dagger. 66 you Theobald, however, is right in his assertion that latten was a metal. So Turbervile, in his book of Falconry, 1575: must set her a latten bason, or a vessel of stone or earth." Again, in Old Fortunatus, 1600: "Whether it were lead or latten that hasp'd down those winking casements, I know not." Again, in the old metrical Romance of Syr Bevis of Hampton, bl. 1. no date : "Windowes of latin were set with glasse." Latten is still a common word for tin in the North. STEEVENS. I believe Theobald has given the true sense of latten, though he is wrong in supposing, that the allusion is to Slender's thinness. It is rather to his softness or weakness. TYRWHitt. 4 Word of denial in THY labras HERE;] I suppose it should rather be read: "Word of denial in my labras hear; That is, hear the word of denial in my lips. Thou lyst. JOHNSON. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat. Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adversary, and is supposed to point to them as he speaks. STEEVENS. 66 There are few words in the old copies more frequently misprinted than the word hear. Thy labras," however, is certainly right, as appears from the old quarto: "I do retort the lie even in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge." MALONE. 6 will say, marry traps, with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it. SLEN. By this hat, then he in the red face had it for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass. FAL. What say you, Scarlet and John' ? BARD. Why, sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences. EVA. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is! BARD. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires 9. 5 gem, 6 1 marry trap,] When a man was caught in his own strataI suppose the exclamation of insult was-marry, trap! JOHNSON. NUTHOOK's humour-] Nuthook is the reading of the folio. The quarto reads, base humour. If you run the nuthook's humour on me, is, in plain English, if you say I am a thief. Enough is said on the subject of hooking moveables out at windows, in a note on King Henry IV. STEEVENS. 7 Scarlet and John ?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour consists in the allusion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which, see The Second Part of Henry IV. WARBURTON. 8 And being FAP,] I know not the exact meaning of this cant word, neither have I met with it in any of our old dramatic pieces, which have often proved the best comments on Shakspeare's vulgarisms. Dr. Farmer, indeed, observes, that to fib is to beat; so that being fap may mean being beaten; and cashiered, turned out of company. STEEVENS The word fap is probably made from vappa, a drunken fellow, or a good-for-nothing fellow, whose virtues are all exhaled. Slender, in his answer, seems to understand that Bardolph had made use of a Latin word: "Ay, you spake in Latin then too;" as Pistol had just before. S. W. It is not probable that any cant term is from the Latin; nor that the word in question was so derived, because Slender mistook it for Latin. The mistake, indeed, is an argument to the con SLEN. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves. EVA. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. FAL. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it. Enter Mistress ANNE PAGE with Wine; Mistress FORD and Mistress PAGE following. PAGE. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'l drink within. [Exit ANNE PAGE. trary, as it shows his ignorance in that language. Fap, however, certainly means drunk, as appears from the glossaries. Douce. 9 Pass'd the CAREIRES.] I believe this strange word is nothing but the French cariere; and the expression means, that the common bounds of good behaviour are overpassed. JOHNSON. To pass the cariere was a military phrase, or rather perhaps a term of the manege. I find it in one of Sir John Smythe's Discourses, 1589, where, speaking of horses wounded, he says" they, after the first shrink at the entering of the bullet, doo pass the carriere, as though they had verie little hurt." Again, in Harrington's translation of Ariosto, b. xxxviii. stanza 35: 66 "To stop, to start, to pass carier, to bound." STEEVENS. Bardolph means to say, "and so in the end he reel'd about with a circuitous motion, like a horse, passing a carier." To pass a carier was a technical term. So, in Nashe's Have with You to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596: her hottest fury may be resembled to the passing of a brave cariere by a Pegasus." We find the term again used in King Henry V. in the same manner as in the passage before us : "The king is a good king, but he passes some humours and cariers." MALONE. We are told that this is a technical term in the manege; but no explanation is given. It was the same as running a career, or galloping a horse violently backwards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end of the career; "which career the more seldom it be used and with the lesse fury, the better mouth shall your horse have," says Master Blundeville in his Arte of Riding, b. 1. 4to, where there is a whole chapter on the subject, as well as in "The Art of Riding," translated by Thomas Bedingfield from the Italian of Claudio Corte, 1584, 4to. DOUCE. SLEN. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. FAL. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good mistress. [Kissing her. PAGE. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome :Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. [Exeunt all but SHAL., SLENDER, and Evans. SLEN. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here1: Enter SIMPle. 1 How now, Simple! Where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, have you? 2 SIM. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it 1 my book of SONGS AND SONNETS here :] It cannot be supposed that poor Slender was himself a poet. He probably means the Poems of Lord Surrey and others, which were very popular in the age of Queen Elizabeth. They were printed in 1567, with this title: " Songes and Sonnettes, written by the Right Honourable Lord Henry Howard, late Earle of Surrey, and others." Slender laments that he has not this fashionable book about him, supposing it might have assisted him in paying his addresses. to Anne Page. MALONE. Under the title mentioned by Slender, Churchyard very evidently points out this book in an enumeration of his own pieces, prefixed to a collection of verse and prose, called Churchyard's Challenge, 4to. 1593: " and many things in the booke of songes and sonets printed then, were of my making," By then he means" in Queene Maries raigne;" for Surrey was first published in 1557. STEEVENS. 2 The Book of Riddles-] This appears to have been a popular book, and is enumerated with others in The English Courtier, and Country Gentleman, bl. 1. 4to. 1586, Sign. H 4. See quotation in note to Much Ado About Nothing, Act II. Sc. I. REED. to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas "? SHAL. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz; marry, this, coz: There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by sir Hugh here ;-Do you understand me? SLEN. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason. SHAL. Nay, but understand me. SLEN. So I do, sir. EVA. Give ear to his motions, master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. SLEN. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here. EVA. But that is not the question; the question is concerning your marriage. SHAL. Ay, there's the point, sir. EVA. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page. SLEN. Why, if it be so, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands. EVA. But can you affection the 'oman? command to know that of your mouth, or lips; for divers philosophers hold, that the Let us of your lips is 3 upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight AFORE Michaelmas ?] Sure, Simple's a little out in his reckoning. Allhallowmas is almost five weeks after Michaelmas. But may it not be urged, it is designed Simple should appear thus ignorant, to keep up the character? I think not. The simplest creatures (nay, even naturals,) generally are very precise in the knowledge of festivals, and marking how the seasons run: and therefore I have ventured to suspect our poet wrote Martlemas, as the vulgar call it: which is near a fortnight after All-Saints day, i. e. eleven days, both inclusive. THEOBALD. This correction, thus seriously and wisely enforced, is received by Sir Thomas Hanmer; but probably Shakspeare intended to blunder. JOHNSON. |