Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy 'quips, and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?

P. Henry. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hoftefs of the tavern?

our most ancient dramatic pieces. So, in the Trial of Treafure, 1567: "What, Inclination, old lad art thou there?" In the dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up &c. by T. Nafh, 1598, old Dick of the cafle is mentioned. STEEVENS.

Old lad of the caftle, is the fame with Old lad of Caftile, a Caftilian. Meres reckons Oliver of the caftle amongst his romances; and Gabriel Harvey tells us of "Old lads of the caftell with their rapping babble."-roaring boys.-This is therefore no argument for Falstaff's appearing first under the name of Oldcastle. There is however a paffage in a play called Amends for Ladies, by Field the player, 1639, which may feem to prove it, unless he confounded. the different performances:

"Did you never fee

FARMER.

"The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle, "Did tell you truly what this honour was?" 6-And is not a buff jerkin a moft fweet robe of durance ?] To understand the propriety of the prince's anfwer, it must be remarked that the sheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff asks, whether bis hoftefs is not a sweet wench, the prince asks in return, whether it will not be a fweet thing to go to prifon by running in debt to this fweet wench. JOHNSON,

The following paffage, from the old play of Ram-Alley, may ferve to confirm Dr. Johnson's observation:

"Look, I have certain goblins in buff jerkins,
"Lye ambufcado.".

Again, in the Comedy of Errors, act IV:

[Enter Serjeants.

"A devil in an everlafting garment hath him,
"A fellow all in buff."

In Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607, I meet with a paffage which leads me to believe that a robe or fuit of durance was fome kind of lasting stuff, fuch as we call at prefent, everlafting. A debtor, cajoling the officer who had just taken him up, fays: "Where did't thou buy this buff? Let me not live but I will give thee a good fuit of durance. Wilt thou take my bond? &c."

Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Varlet of velvet, my moccado villain, old heart of durance, my ftrip'd canvas fhoulders, and my perpetuana pander." Again, in the Three Ladies of London, 1584: "As the taylor that out of feven yards, ftole one and a half of durance." STEEVENS.

S 4

Fal.

1

1

Fal. Well, thou haft call'd her to a reckoning, many a time and oft.

P. Henry. Did I ever call thee to pay thy part? Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou haft paid all there.

P. Henry. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would ftretch; and, where it would not, I have us'd my credit.

Fal. Yea, and fo us'd it, that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, fweet wag, fhall there be gallows ftanding in England when thou art king? and refolution thus fobb'd as it is, with the rufty curb of old father antick the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

P. Henry. No; thou fhalt.

7

Fal. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.

P. Henry. Thou judgeft falfe already: I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves, and fo become a rare hangman.

Fal, Well, Hal, well; and in fome fort it jumps with iny humour, as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you.

8

P. Henry. For obtaining of fuits?

Fal. Yea, for obtaining of fuits; whereof the hang

"I'll be a brave judge.] This thought, like many others, is taken from the old play of Henry V :

Hen. V. Ned, as foon as I am king, the first thing I will do Thall be to put my lord chief juftice out of office; and thou shalt be my lord chief justice of England.

"Ned. Shall I be lord chief justice? By gogs wounds, I'll be the bravest lord chief juftice that ever was in England."

STEEVENS.

For obtaining of fuits?] Suit, fpoken of one that attends at court, means a petition; ufed with refpect to the hangman, means the cloaths of the offender. JOHNSON.

The fame quibble occurs in Hoffman's Tragedy, 1631: “A poor maiden, mistress, has a fuit to you; and 'tis a good fuitvery good apparel." MALONE,

man

man hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat, or a lugg'd bear.

P. Henry.

9 a gib cat,- -] A gib cat means, I know not why, an old cat. JOHNSON.

A gib cat is the common term in Northamptonshire, and all adjacent counties, to exprefs a he cat. In fome part of England he is called a ram cat. In Shropshire, where a tup is the term for a ram, the male cat is called a tup cat.

PERCY.

"As melancholy as a gib'd cat" is a proverb enumerated among others in Ray's Collection. In a Match at Midnight, 1633, is the following paffage: "They fwell like a couple of gib'd cats, met both by chance in the dark in an old garret." So, in Bulwer's Artificial Changeling, 1653: "Some in mania or melancholy madness have attempted the fame, not without fuccefs, although they have remained somewhat melancholy like gib'd cats." I believe after all, a gib'd cat is cat who has been qualified for the feraglio, for all animals fo mutilated become drowsy and melancholy. To glib has certainly that meaning. So, in the Winter's Tale, act II. fc. i:

"And I had rather glib myself, than they

"Should not produce fair iffue." STEEVENS.

Sherwood's English Dictionary at the end of Cotgrave's French one fays: "Gibbe is an old he cat." Aged animals are not fo playful as those which are young; and glib'd or gelded ones are duller than others. So we might read: -as melancholy as a gib cat or a glib'd cat. TOLLET.

-gib cat,- -] Falstaff fays, I am as melancholy as a gib cat.

Gib is the abbreviation or nick-name of Gilbert: and the name Gibfon is nothing more than Gib's, i. e. Gilbert's fon. Now it is well known that Chriftian names have been of old appropriated, as familiar appellations, to many animals: as Jack to a horfe, Tom to a pigeon, Philip to a fparrow, Will to a goat, &c. Thus Gilbert, or Gib, was the name of a cat of the male fpecies. Tibert is old French for Gilbert; and Tibert is the name of a cat in the old ftory-book of Reynart the Foxe, tranflated by Caxton from the French in the year 1481. In the original French of the Romaunt of the Rofe tranflated by Chaucer, we have "Thibert le cas." v. 11689. This paffage Chaucer tranflated, "Gibbe our cat." Rom. R. v. 6204, pag. 253, edit. Urr. Tib is alfo hence no un. common name among us for a cat. In Gammer Gurton's Needle we find ; "Hath no man ftoln her ducks or hens, or gelded Gib her cat?" Dodf. Old Pl. vol. I. p. 128. The compofure of a cat is almost characteristical: and I know not, whether there is not a

P. Henry. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute. Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. P. Henry. What fay'ft thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch?

1

2.

Fal.

See

fuperior folemnity in the gravity of the he cat. Falstaff therefore means "that he is grown as dull and demure as à ram cat.' Gammer Gurton's Needle, iii. 3. where Gib our cat is the fubject of a curious converfation. Dodf. Old Pl, vol. I. p. 157. ·

WARTON.

—a hare, -] A hare may be confidered as melancholy, because she is upon her form always folitary; and, according to the phyfic of the times, the flesh of it was fuppofed to generate melancholy. JOHNSON.

The following paffage in Vittoria Corombona &c. 1612, may prove the best explanation :

66

-like your melancholy hare,

"Feed after midnight."

Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, fong the fecond:

2

"The melancholy hare is form'd in brakes and briers."

STEEVENS.

the melancholy of Moor-ditch ?] This I do not understand, unless it may allude to the croaking of frogs. JOHNson.

I rather believe this to have been faid in allufion to its fituation in respect of Moor-gate the prison, and Bedlam the hofpital. It appears likewife from Stowe's Survey, that a broad ditch, called Deep-ditch, formerly parted the hofpital from Moor-fields; and what has a more melancholy appearance than stagnant water?

In the old play of Nobody and Somebody, 1598, the clown says: "I'll bring the Thames through the middle of the city, empty Moor-ditch at my own charge, and build up Paul's steeple without a collection."

:

So again, in A Woman never vex'd, com. by Rowley, 1632 "I fhall fee thee in Ludgate again fhortly." "Thou lyeft again 'twill be at Moor-gate, beldame, where I fhall fee thee in the ditch, dancing in a cucking-ftool." Again, in the Gul's Hornbook, by Deckar, 1609: " -it will be a forer labour than the cleaning of Augeas' stable, or the feowring of Moor-ditch." STEEVENS.

Moor-ditch, a part of the ditch furrounding the city of London, between Bishopfgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholesome and impaffable morafs, and confequently not frequented by the citizens, like other fuburbial fields which were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable places of refort. Fitz-Stephen fpeaks of the

great

Fal. Thou haft the most unfavoury fimilies; and art, indeed, 3 the most comparative, rafcallieft,-sweet young prince,-But, Hal, I pr'ythee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought: An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, fir; but I mark'd him not: and yet he talk'd very wifely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talk'd wifely, and in the street too.

P. Henry. Thou did'ft well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.

Fal. O, thou haft damnable iteration; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a faint. Thou haft done much

great fen, or moor, on the north fide of the walls of the city, being frozen over, &c. This explains the propriety of the comparifon. WARTON.

3 the most comparative,-] Sir T. Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton after him, read, incomparative, I fuppofe for incomparable, or peerless; but comparative here means quick at comparisons, or fruitful in fimilies, and is properly introduced. JOHNSON.

This epithet is ufed again, in act III. fc. ii, of this play, and apparently in the fame fense:

ftand the pufh

"Of every beardlefs vain comparative.

And in Love's Labour's Loft, act V. fc. ult. Rofaline tells Biron that he is a man "Full of comparisons and wounding flouts." STEEVENS.

So, in Nafh's Apologie of Pierce Penniless, 1593: "He took upon him to fet his foot against me, and to over-crow me with comparative terms." MALONE.

4

O, thou hast &c.] For iteration fir T. Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read attraction, of which the meaning is certainly more apparent; but an editor is not always to change what he does not understand. In the laft fpeech a text is very indecently and abufively applied, to which Falstaff answers, thou haft damnable iteration, or, a wicked trick of repeating and applying holy texts. This I think is the meaning. JOHNSON,

Iteration is right, for it also fignified fimply citation or recitation. So, in Marlow's Doctor Fauftus, 1631:

"Here take this book and perufe it well,

"The iterating of thefe lines brings gold."

From the context, iterating here appears to mean pronouncing, reciting. MALONE.

harm