ARM. Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin?

MOTH. By saying that a Costard was broken in a shin.

Then call'd you for the l'envoy.

COST. True, and I for a plantain; Thus came your argument in;

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought;

And he ended the market."

ARM. But tell me; how was there a Costard broken in a shin? 8

MOTH. I will tell you sensibly.

COST. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that l'envoy :

I, Costard, running out, that was safely within, Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.

ARM. We will talk no more of this matter. COST. Till there be more matter in the shin. ARM. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee. Cosr. O, marry me to one Frances;-I smell some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

ARM. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at

"And he ended the market.] Alluding to the proverb-Three women and a goose, make a market. Tre donne et un occa fan un mercato. Ital. Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS.

8

how was there a Costard broken in a shin?] Costard is the name of a species of apple. JOHNSON.

It has been already observed that the head was anciently called the costard. So, in King Richard III: "Take him over the costard with the hilt of thy sword." A costard likewise signified a crab-stick. So, in The Loyal Subject of Beaumont and Fletcher:

"I hope they'll crown his service—.”
"With a costard." STEEVENS.

liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound.

COST. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose.

ARM. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: Bear this significant to the country maid Jaquenetta: there is remuneration; [Giving him money.] for the best ward of mine honour, is, rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow.

[Exit. MOTH. Like the sequel, I.-Signior Costard,

adieu.

COST. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew!1[Exit MOTH.

Like the sequel, I.] Sequele, in French, signifies a great man's train. The joke is, that a single page was all his train. THEOBALD.

I believe this joke exists only in the apprehension of the commentator. Sequelle, by the French, is never employed but in a derogatory sense. They use it to express the gang of a highwayman, but not the train of a lord; the followers of a rebel, and not the attendants on a general. Thus, Holinshed, p. 639:"to the intent that by the extinction of him and his sequeale, all civil warre and inward division might cease," &c. Moth uses sequel only in the literary acceptation.

Mr. Heath observes that the meaning of Moth is," I follow you as close as the sequel does the premises." STEEVENS.

Moth alludes to the sequel of any story, which follows a preceding part, and was in the old story-books introduced in this manner: "Here followeth the sequel of such a story, or adventure." So, Hamlet says: "But is there no sequel at the heels

of this mother's admonition?" M. MASON.

1 my incony Jew!] Incony or kony in the north, signifies, fine, delicate-as a kony thing, a fine thing. It is plain, therefore, we should read:

my incony jewel." WARBURTON.

I know not whether it be right, however specious, to change Jew to Jewel. Jew, in our author's time, was, for whatever

Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings-remuneration.-What's the price of this inkle? a penny :-No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it.-Remuneration!—— why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word.

Enter BIRON.

BIRON. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly well met.

COST. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration ?

reason, apparently a word of endearment. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream:

"Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew."

The word is used again in the 4th Act of this play :

66

most incony vulgar wit."

JOHNSON.

In the old comedy called Blurt Master Constable, 1602, I meet with it again. A maid is speaking to her mistress about a gown:

66

it makes you have a most inconie body."

Cony and incony have the same meaning. So, Metaphor says, in Jonson's Tale of a Tub:

"O superdainty canon, vicar inconey."

Again, in The Two Angry Women of Abington, 1599:

"O, I have sport inconey i'faith.”

Again, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

"While I in thy incony lap do tumble."

Again, in Doctor Dodypoll, a comedy, 1600:

"A cockscomb incony, but that he wants money."

STEEVENS.

There is no such expression in the North as either kony or incony. The word canny, which the people there use, and from which Dr. Warburton's mistake may have arisen, bears a variety of significations, none of which is fine, delicate, or applicable to a thing or value. Dr. Johnson's quotation by no means proves Jew to have been a word of endearment. RITSON.

BIRON. What is a remuneration?

Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing. BIRON. O, why then, three-farthings-worth of silk.

COST. I thank your worship: God be with you! BIRON. O, stay, slave; I must employ thee: As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave, Do one thing for me that I shall entreat. COST. When would you have it done, sir? BIRON. O, this afternoon.

COST. Well, I will do it, sir: Fare you well. BIRON. O, thou knowest not what it is. COST. I shall know, sir, when I have done it. BIRON. Why, villain, thou must know first. COST. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.

BIRON. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this ;

The princess comes to hunt here in the park,
And in her train there is a gentle lady;

When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her

name,

And Rosaline they call her: ask for her;
And to her white hand see thou do commend
This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go.
[Gives him money.

COST. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better: Most

2 Cost. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better: &c.] Guerdon, i. e. reward. So, in The Spanish Tragedy:

Speak on, I'll guerdon thee whate'er it be." Perhaps guerdon is a corruption of regardum, middle Latin.

sweet guerdon!--I will do it, sir, in print.3-Guerdon-remuneration.

[Exit.

BIRON. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip;

A very beadle to a humorous sigh;

A critick; nay, a night-watch constable;
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,

The following parallel passage in A Health to the gentlemanly Profession of Serving-men, or the Serving-man's Comfort, &c. 1578, was pointed out to me by Dr. Farmer.

"There was, sayth he, a man, (but of what estate, degree, or calling, I will not name, lest thereby I might incurre displeasure of anie,) that comming to his friendes house, who was a gentleman of good reckoning, and being there kindly entertained, and well used, as well of his friende the gentleman, as of his servantes; one of the sayde servantes doing him some extraordinarie pleasure during his abode there, at his departure he comes up to the sayd servant, and saith unto him, Hold thee, here is a remuneration for thy paynes; which the servant receiveth, gave him utterly for it (besides his paynes) thankes, for it was but a three-farthings peece: and I holde thankes for the same a small price, howsoever the market goes. Now an other coming to the sayd gentlemen's house, it was the foresayd servant's good hap to be neare him at his going away, who calling the servant unto him, sayd, Holde thee, here is a guerdon for thy deserts: now the servant payd no deerer for the guerdon, than he did for the remuneration; though the guerdon was xid. farthing better; for it was a shilling, and the other but a three-farthinges."

Shakspeare was certainly indebted to this performance for his present vein of jocularity, the earliest edition of Love's Labour's Lost being printed in 1598. STEEVENS.

3

in print.] i. e. exactly, with the utmost nicety. It has been proposed to me to read-in point, but I think, without necessity, the former expression being still in use.

So, in Blurt Master Constable, 1602:

"Next, your ruff must stand in print.”

Again, in Decker's Honest Whore, 1635:

"I am sure my husband is a man in print, in all things else."

Again, in Woman is a Weathercock, 1612:

this doublet sits in print, my lord." STEEVENS.