There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man : Yet a coward is worfe than a cup

3

MALONE.

of 1613 we find "Why then 'tis like, if there comes a hot Jun,"-inftead of a hot June. There, as in the inftance before us, the error is implicitly copied in the folio.In that copy also, in Timon of Athens, A& IV. fc. ult. we find "`— 'twixt natural funne and fire," inftead of " 'twixt natural fon and fire." Till the deviation from eftablished grammar, which Mr. Malone has ftyled "the phraseology of our poet's age," be fupported by other examples than fuch as are drawn from the most incorrect and vitiated of all publications, I muft continue to exclude the double genitive, as one of the numerous vulgarifms by which the early printers of Shakspeare have difgraced his compofitions.

1

It muft frequently happen, that while we fuppofe ourselves fruggling with the defects and obfcurities of our author, we are in reality bufied by omiffions, interpolations, and corruptions chargeable only on the ignorance and careleffness of his original tranfcribers and editors. STEEVENS.

3 here's lime in this fack too: There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man:] Sir Richard Hawkins, one of Queen Elizabeth's fea-captains, in his Voyages, p. 379, fays: "Since the Spanish facks have been common in our taverns, which for confervation are mingled with lime in the making, our nation complains of calentures, of the ftone, the dropfy, and infinite other diftempers, not heard of before this wine came into frequent ufe. Befides, there is no year that it wafteth not two millions of crowns of our fubftance, by conveyance into foreign countries." I think Lord, Clarendon, in his Apology, tells us, "That fweet wines before the Restoration were fo much to the English tafte, that we engroffed the whole product of the Canaries; and that not a pipe of it was expended in any other country in Europe." But the banished cavaliers brought home with them the gouft for French wines, which has continued ever fince. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton does not confider that fack,, in Shakspeare, is most probably thought to mean what we now call Sherry, which, when it is drank, is ftill drank with fugar. JOHNSON.

Rhenifh is drank with fugar, but never Sherry.

The difference between the true fack and Sherry, is diftin&ly marked by the following paffage in Fortune by Land and Sea, by Heywood and Rowley, 1655:

Rayns. Some fack boy &c.

"Drawer. Good fherry fack, fir?

Rayns. I meant canary, fir: what, haft no brains?"

of fack with lime in it; a villainous coward.-Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a fhotten herring. There live not three good men unhang'd in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old: God help the while! a bad world, I fay! I would I were a weaver; I could fing pfalms or any thing: plague of all cowards, I fay ftill!

A

Eliot, in his Orthoepia, 1593, speaking of fack and rhenish, fays: The vintners of London put in lime, and thence proceed infinite maladies, fpecially the gouttes." FARMER.

From the following paffage in Greene's Ghoft haunting Coniecatchers, 1604, it feems as though lime was mixed with the fack for the purpose of giving ftrength to the liquor: “——a chriftian exhortation to Mother Bunch would not have done amiffe, that the fhould not mixe lime with her ale to make it mightie." REED.

Sack, the favourite beverage of Sir John Falstaff, was, according to the information of a very old gentleman, a liquor compounded of Sherry, cyder, and fugar. Sometimes it fhould feem to have been brewed with eggs, i. e. mulled. And that the vintners played tricks with it, appears from Faiftaff's charge in the text. It does not feem to be at prefent known; the fweet wine fo called, being apparently of a quite different nature. RITSON.

That the sweet wine at prefent called fack, is different from Falftaff's favourite liquor, I am by no means convinced. On the contrary, from the fondness of the English nation for fugar at this period, I am rather inclined to Dr. Warburton's opinion on this fubject. If the English drank only rough wine with fugar, there appears nothing extraordinary, or worthy of particular notice; and that their partiality for fugar was very great, will appear from the passage in Hentzner already quoted, p. 195, as well as the passage from Moryfon's Itinerary, which being adopted by Mr. Malone in his note, ibid. need not to be here repeated. The addition of Jugar even to fack, might, perhaps, to a taste habituated to sweets, operate only in a manner to improve the flavour of the wine.

REED.

I would I were a weaver; I could fing pfalms &c.] In the paffage is read thus: I first folio thus I could fing

the first edition [the quarto 1598, could fing pfalms or any thing. In the

P. HEN. How now, wool-fack? what mutter you?

FAL. A king's fon! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, 5 and drive all

all manner of fongs. Many expreffions bordering on indecency or profaneness are found in the first editions, which are afterwards corrected. The reading of the three laft editions, I could fing pfalms and all manner of fongs, is made without authority out of different copies. JOHNSON.

The editors of the folio, 1623, to avoid the penalty of the ftatute, 3 Jac. I. c. xxi. changed the text here, as they did in many other places from the fame motive. MALONE.

In the perfecutions of the Proteftants in Flanders under Philip II. those who came over into Eugland on that occafion, brought with them the woollen manufactory. These were Calvinifts, who were always diftinguished for their love of pfalmody.

WARBURTON.

I believe nothing more is here meant than to allude to the prac tice of weavers, who, having their hands more employed than their minds, amuse themselves frequently with fongs at the loom. The knight, being full of vexation, wishes he could fing to divert his thoughts.

Weavers are mentioned as lovers of mufick in Venice. [Twelfth Night, Vol. V. p. 272, n. 3. like a weaver" might be proverbial. JOHNSON.

:

The Merchant of Perhaps "to fing

Dr. Warburton's obfervation may be confirmed by the following paffage Ben Jonfon, in The Silent Woman, makes Cutberd tell Morofe, that the parfon caught his cold by fitting up late, and finging catches with cloth-workers." STEEVens.

So, in The Winter's Tale: but one puritan among them, and be fings pfalms to hornpipes." MALONE.

The Proteftants who fled from the perfecution of the Duke d'Alva were moftly weavers and woollen manufacturers: they fettled in Glocestershire, Somerfetfhire, and other counties, and (as Dr. Warburton obferves,) being Calvinifts, were diftinguished for their love of pfalmody. For many years the inhabitants of these counties have excelled the reft of the kingdom in the skill of vocal harmony. SIR J. HAWKINS.

5

a dagger of lath, ] i. e. fuch a dagger as the Vice in the old moralities was arm'd with. So, in Twelfth Night:

thy fubjects afore thee like a flock of wild geefe, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You prince of Wales!

P. HEN. Why, you whorefon round man! what's the matter?

FAL. Are you not a coward? answer me to that; and Poins there?

POINS. 'Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, I'll ftab thee.

( FAL. I call thee coward! I'll fee thee damn'd ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound, I could run as faft as thou canft. You are ftraight enough in the fhoulders, you care not who fees your back: Call you that, backing of your friends? A plague upon fuch backing! give me them that will face me.-Give me a cup of fack:— I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day.

P. HEN. O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped fince thou drunk ft laft.

FAL. All's one for that. A plague of all cowards, ftill fay I. [ He drinks.

"In a trice, like to the old Vice,

"Your need to fuftain :

"Who with dagger of lath,

"In his rage and his wrath," &c.

Again, in Like will to Like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, 1587, the Vice fays:

"Come no neer me you knaves for vour life,

"Left I ftick you both with this wood knife.

"Back, I fay, back, you sturdy beggar;

Body o'me, they have tane away my dagger."

And in the Second Part of this play, Falftaff calls Shallow a "Vice's dagger." STEEVENS.

6 Poins. Zounds, &c.] Thus the firft quarto and the three subfequent copies. In the quarto of 1613, Prince being prefixed to this fpeech by the careleffuefs of the printer, the errour, with many others, was adopted in the folio; the quarto of 1613 being evidently the copy from which the folio was printed. MALONE.

P. HEN. What's the matter?

FAL. What's the matter? there be four of us here have ta'en a thoufand pound this morning.

P. HEN. Where is it, Jack? where is it?

FAL. Where is it? taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us.

P. HEN. What, a hundred, man?

FAL. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-fword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have 'fcap'd by miracle. I am eight times thruft through the doublet; four, through the hofe; my buckler cut through and through;' my fword hack'd like a hand-faw, ecce fignum. I never dealt better fince I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them fpeak: if they fpeak more or less than truth, they are villains, and the fons of darkness.

P. HEN. Speak, firs; How was it?
GADS. We four set upon some dozen,-
FAL. Sixteen, at leaft, my lord.
GADS. And bound them.

PETO. No, no, they were not bound.

7 my buckler cut through and through ;] It appears from the old comedy of The Two Angry Women of Abington, that this method of defence and fight was in Shakspeare's time growing out of fashion. The play was published in 1599, and one of the characters in it makes the following obfervation:

"I fee by this dearth of good fwords, that fword-and-bucklerfight begins to grow out. I am forry for it; I fhall never fee good manhood again. If it be once gone, this poking fight of rapier and dagger will come up then. Then a tall man, and a good fword-and-buckler-man, will be spitted like a cat, or a coney; then a boy will be as good as a man," &c. STEEVENS.

See Vol. V. p. 72, n. 9.

MALONE.