QUICK. Good corporal Nym, show the valour of a man, and put up thy sword. NYм. Will you shog off?? I would have you solus. [Sheathing his sword. PIST. Solus, egregious dog? O viper vile! The solus in thy most marvellous face; The solus in thy teeth, and in thy throat, And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy 3; 3 tempt in Epigrams served out in Fifty-two several Dishes, no date, but apparently written in the time of James the First: "He wears a gown lac'd round, laid down with furre, "Or, miser-like, a pouch, where never man "Could thrust his finger, but this island curre.” See also Britannia Triumphans, a masque, 1636: she who hath been bred to stand 11 66 "Near chair of queen, with Island shock in hand." MALONE. prick-eared cur -] A prick-eared cur is likewise in the list of dogs enumerated in The Booke of Huntyng, &c. bl. 1. no date : trundle-tails and prick-eared curs." STEEVENS. "There were newly come to the citie two young men that were Romans, which ranged up and downe the streetes, with their ears upright." Painter's Palace of Pleasure. This is said of two sharpers, and seems to explain the term prick-eared. HENDERSON. 2 Will you SHOG off?] This cant word is used in Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb: "Come, pr'ythee, let us shog off." Again, in Pasquill and Katharine, 1601: 66 thus it shogges," i. e. thus it goes. Thus, also, in Arthur Hall's Translation of the 4th Iliad, 4to. 1581: 66 these fained wordes agog "So set the goddesses, that they in anger gan to shog." STEEVENS. So, in 3 in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy MAW, perdy;] Such was the coarse language once in use among vulgar brawlers. The Life and Death of William Summers, &c. : 66 Thou lyest in thy throat and in thy guts." STEEVENs. So, in Marston's Fawne, the Page says of his master Herod Frappatore, that he boasted of having lyen with that, and that, and tother lady, &c. when poore I know all this while he only lied in his throat. BosWELL. And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth! For I can take ', and Pistol's cock is up, NYM. I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me. I have an humour to knock you indifferently well: If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may; and that's the humour of it. PIST. O braggard vile, and damned furious wight! The grave doth gape, and doting death is near 7 near7; Therefore exhale 8. [PISTOL and NYм draw. 4 — thy NASTY mouth!] The quartos read: messful mouth. STEEVENS. 5 For I can TAKE,] I know not well what he can take. The quarto reads talk. In our author "to take," is sometimes to blast,' which sense may serve in this place. JOHNSON. The old reading, "I can take," is right, and means, ‘I can take fire.' Though Pistol's cock was up, yet if he did not take fire, no flashing could ensue. The whole sentence consists in allusions to his name. M. MASON. The folio here, as in two other places, corruptly reads-take. See vol. xi. p. 137, n. 6. MAlone. I am not BARBASON; you cannot CONJURE me.] Barbason is the name of a dæmon mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor, vol. viii. p. 91, n. 2. The unmeaning tumour of Pistol's speech very naturally reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers. STEEVENS. 7 DOTING death is near;] Thus the folio. The quarto has groaning death. JOHNSON. 8 Therefore EXHALE.] Exhale, I believe, here signifies draw, or, in Pistol's language, hale or lug out. The stage-direction in the old quarto, [They drawe.] confirms this explanation. MALONE. "Therefore exhale" means only-therefore breathe your last, or die,' a threat common enough among dramatick heroes of a higher rank than Pistol, who only expresses this idea in the fantastick language peculiar to his character. In Chapman's version of the eighteenth Iliad, we are told that BARD. Hear me, hear me what I say :-he that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. [Draws. PIST. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give ; NYM. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms; that is the humour of it. PIST. Coupe le gorge, that's the word ?—I thee defy again. O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? No; to the spital go, And from the powdering tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind1, "Twelve men of greatest strength in Troy, left with their lives exhal'd 9 O hound of CRETE,] He means to insinuate that Nym thirsted for blood. The hounds of Crete described by our author in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, appear to have been bloodhounds. See vol. v. p. 289. MALONE. This is an ingenious supposition; and yet I cannot help thinking that Pistol on the present, as on many other occasions, makes use of words to which he had no determinate meaning. STEEVENS. I the lazar KITE OF CRESSID'S KIND,] The same expression occurs in Green's Card of Fancy, 1601: "What courtesy is to be found in such kites of Cressid's kind?" Again, in Gascoigne's Dan Bartholomew of Bathe, 1587: "Nor seldom seene in kites of Cressid's kinde." Shakspeare might design a ridicule on the last of these passages. Again, in The Forrest of Fancy, 1579: 2 "For such rewardes they dayly fynde "That fyxe their fancy faithfully "On any catte of Cressed's kinde." STEEVENS, there's enough.] Thus the quarto. The folio adds—to go to. STEEVENS. Enter the Boy. Bor. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, hostess";-he is very sick, and would to bed.-Good Bardolph, put thy nose between his sheets, and do the office of a warmingpan 'faith, he's very ill. BARD. Away, you rogue. QUICK. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days: the king has killed his heart.-Good husband, come home presently. [Exeunt Mrs. QUICKLY and Boy. BARD. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together; Why, the devil, should we keep knives to cut one another's throats? PIST. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! NYм. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? PIST. Base is the slave that pays *. NYM. That now I will have; that's the humour of it. PIST. As manhood shall compound; Push home. BARD. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. PIST. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. BARD. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends: an thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Pr'ythee, put up. 3 and you, hostess ;] The folio has-" and your hostess." Corrected by Sir T. Hanmer. The emendation is supported by the quarto: Hostess, you must come straight to my master, and you host Pistol." MALONE. 4 Base is the slave that pays.] Perhaps this expression was proverbial. I meet with it in The Fair Maid of the West, by Heywood, 1631: "My motto shall be, Base is the man that pays.” STEEVENS. NYM. I shall have my eight shillings, I won of you at betting? PIST. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; And liquor likewise will I give to thee, And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood: Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. NYM. I shall have my noble? PIST. In cash most justly paid. NYM. Well then, that's the humour of it. 5 Re-enter Mrs. QUICKLY. QUICK. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to sir John: Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him. NYм. The king hath run bad humours on the knight, that's the even of it. PIST. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; His heart is fracted, and corroborate. NYM. The king is a good king: but it must be as it may; he passes some humours, and careers. PIST. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins we will live". [Exeunt. 5 - SO SHAKED &c.] Thus Sidney, in the first book of his Arcadia : 6 "And precious couches full oft are shaked with a feaver." STEEVENS. for, LAMBKINS we will live.] That is, we will live as quietly and peaceably together as lambkins. The meaning has, I think, been obscured by a different punctuation: "for, lambkins, we will live." MALONE. Lambkins seems to me a fantastick title by which Pistol addresses his newly-reconciled friends, Nym and Bardolph. The words-we will live, may refer to what seems uppermost in his head, his expected profits from the camp, of which he has just |