have loft a feal-ring of my grandfather's, worth forty mark. Hoft. O, I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that the ring was copper. Fal. How! the prince is a Jack, a fneak-cup; and if he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would fay fo. Enter prince Henry marching, and Falstaff meets him playing on his truncheon like a fife. Fal. How now, lad? is the wind in that door, i'faith? must we all march? 8 Bard. Yea, two and two, & Newgate fashion. Heft. My lord, I pray you, hear me. P. Henry. What fay'ft thou, mistress Quickly? How does thy husband? I love him well, he is an honeft man. Hoft. Good my lord, hear me. Fal. Pr'ythee, let her alone, and lift to me. P. Henry. What fay'ft thou, Jack? Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras, and had my pocket pick'd. This houfe is turn'd bawdy-houfe, they pick pockets. P. Henry. What didft thou lofe, Jack? Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four Now in the first of these diftichs the word inne is used in its ancient meaning, being fpoken by a perfon who is about to marry a widow for the fake of a home, &c. In the two laft places, inne feems to be used in the fenfe it bears at prefent. PERCY. Gabriel Hervey, in a MS. note to Speght's Chaucer, fays, "Some of Heywood's epigrams are fuppofed to be the conceits "and devices of pleafant Sir Thomas More." fer. Inne, for a habitation, or recefs, is frequently used by SpenSTEEVENS. 8 Newgate fashion.] As prifoners are conveyed to Newgate, faftened two and two together. JOHNSON. bonds bonds of forty pound a piece, and a feal-ring of my grandfather's. P. Henry. A trifle, fome eight-penny matter. Heft. So I told him, my lord, and I faid, I heard your grace fay fo: and, my lord, he speaks moft vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd man as he is; and faid, he would cudgel you. P. Henry. What! he did not? Hoft. There's neither faith, truth, nor woman-hood in me elfe. Fal. 9 There's no more faith in thee than in a stew'd prune; There's no more faith in thee than in a few'd prune, &c.] The propriety of these fimilies I am not fure that I fully underftand. A few'd prune has the appearance of a prune, but has no tafte. A drawn fox, that is, an exenterated fox, has the form of a fox without his powers. I think Dr. Warburton's explication wrong, which makes a drawn fox to mean, a fox often bunted; though to draw is a hunter's term for purfuit by the track. My interpretation makes the fox fuit better to the prune. Thefe are very flender difquifitions, but fuch is the task of a commentator. JOHNSON. Dr. Lodge, in his pamphlet called Wit's Miferie, or the World's Madneffe, 1596, defcribes a bawd thus: "This is fhee "that laies wait at all the carriers for wenches new come up "to London; and you fhall know her dwelling by a dish of "few'd prunes in the window, and two or three fleering "wenches fit knitting or fowing in her fhop." In Meafure for Meajure, act ii. the male bawd excufes himself for having admitted Elbow's wife into his houfe, by saying, "that he came in great with child, and longing for few'd prunes, which stood in a dish," &c. Slender, who apparently wishes to recommend himself to his mitrefs by a feeming propenfity to love as well as war, talks of having measured weapons with a fencing-mafter for a dish of few'd prunes. In another old dramatic piece, entitled, If this be not a good Play the Divel is in it, 1612, a bravo enters with money, and fays, "This is the penfion of the ftewes, you need not untie it; "tis ftew-money, Sir, few'd-prune cath, Sir." Among the other fins laid to the charge of the once celelebrated Gabriel Harvey, by his antagonist Nafh," to be drunk with the firrop or liquor of few'd prunes," is not the leaft infifted on. 2 prune; no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for woman-hood, 2 maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go. Hoft. Say, what thing? what thing? In The Knave of Harts, a collection of fatyrical poems, 1612, a whoring knave is mentioned, as taking "Burnt wine, ftew'd prunes, a punk to folace him." In The Knave of Spades, another collection of the fame kind, 1611, is the following defcription of a wanton inveigling a young man into her house: 66 He to his liquor falls, "While fhe unto her maids for cakes, So in Every Woman in her Humour, a comedy, 1619, To fearch my house! I have no varlets, no few'd prunes, no fhe fiery,” &c. The paffages already quoted are fufficient to fhew that a dif of few'd prunes was not only the ancient defignation of a brothel, but the conftant appendage to it. From A Treatise on the Lues Venerea, written by W. Clowes, one of her majesty's furgeons, 1596, and other books of the fame kind, it appears that prunes were directed to be boiled in broth for thofe perfons already infected, and that both fiew'd prunes and roafted apples were commonly, though unfuccefsfully, taken by way of prevention. So much for the infidelity of fter'd prunes. STEEVENS. a drawn fox ;-] A drawn fox is a fox drawn over the ground to exercise the hounds. So in B. and Fletcher's Tamer tam'd, 2 that drawn fox Morofo.", STEEVENS. maid Marian may be, &c.] Maid Marian is a man dreffed like a woman, who attends the dancers of the morris. JOHNSON. In the ancient Songs of Robin Hood frequent mention is made of maid Marian, who appears to have been his concubine. I could quote many paffages in my old MS. to this purpose, but fhall produce only one: "Good Robin Hood was living then, "Which now is quite forgot, "And fo was fayre maid Marian," &c. PERCY. In The Witch of Edmonton, act iii. fc. 1. is the following paffage : Have we ever a witch in the morrice? "No, no; no woman's part, but maid Marian and the "hobby-horfe." STEEVENS, Fal. Fal. What thing? why a thing to thank God on. Hoft. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou fhould't know it. I am an honeft man's wife; and, fetting thy knighthood afide, thou art a knave to call me fo. Fal. Setting thy womanhood afide, thou art a beast to fay otherwife. Hoft. Say, what beaft, thou knave, thou? Fal. What beast? why, an otter. P. Henry. An otter, Sir John! why an otter? Fal. Why? fhe's neither fifh nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her. Hoft. Thou art an unjust man in saying so: thou, or any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou! P. Henry. Thou fay'ft true, hoftefs; and he flanders thee most grofsly. Hoft. So he doth you, my lord; and faid this other day, you ow'd him a thousand pound. P. Henry. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound? Fal. A thousand pound, Hal? a million: thy love is worth a million; thou ow't me thy love. Hoft. Nay, my lord, he call'd you Jack, and faid he would cudgel you. Fal. Did I, Bardolph ? Bard. Indeed, Sir John, you faid fo. Fal. Yea; if he faid my ring was copper. P. Henry. I fay, 'tis copper. Dar't thou be as good as thy word now? Fal. Why, Hal, thou know'ft, as thou art but man, I dare; but as thou art prince, I fear thee, as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp. P. Henry. And why not as the lion? Fal. The king himself is to be fear'd as the lion : doft thou think I'll fear thee, as I fear thy father? nay, an if I do, let my girdle break! P. Henry. O, if it fhould, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! But, firrah, there's no room for faith, VOL. V. X truth, truth, or honefty, in this bofom of thine; it is all fill'd up with guts, and midriff. Charge an honeft woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou whorfon, impudent, 3 imbofs'd rascal, if there were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor penny-worth of fugar-candy to make thee long-winded; if thy pocket were enrich'd with any other injuries but thefe, I am a villain. And yet you will ftand to it; you will not pocket up wrongs. Art thou not asham'd? Fal. Doft thou hear, Hal? thou know'ft in the ftate of innocency Adam fell: and what should poor Jack Falstaff do, in the days of villainy? Thou feeft I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty. -You confess, then, you pick'd my pocket. P. Henry. It appears fo by the story. Fal. Hoftefs, I forgive thee: go make ready breakfaft.-Love thy hufband, look to thy fervants, and cherish thy guests; thou shalt find me tractable to any honeft reafon. Thou feeft I am pacify'd ftill.-Nay, I pr'ythee, be gone. [Exit Hoftefs. Now, Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad, how is that answer'd? P. Henry. O my fweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee. The money is paid back again, Fal. O, I do not like that paying back; 'tis a double labour. P. Henry. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing. 3 impudent, imbofs'd rafcal,-] Imbofs'd is fwola, puffy. JOHNSON. #gs.] 4 And yet you will ftand to it; you will not pocket up wrongs. Some part of this merry dialogue feems to have been loft. fuppofe Falstaff in preffing the robbery upon his hoftefs, had declared his refolution not to pocket up wrongs or injuries, to which the prince alludes. JOHNSON. Fah |