FAL. But what fays fhe to me? be brief, my good fhe Mercury.

QUICK. Marry, fhe hath receiv'd your letter; for the which fhe thanks you a thousand times: and fhe gives you to notify, that her hufband will be abfence from his house between ten and eleven.

FAL. Ten and eleven?

9

QUICK. Ay, forfooth; and then you may come and fee the picture, fhe fays, that you wot of; mafter Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the fweet woman leads an ill life with him; he's a very jealoufy man; fhe leads a very frampold life with him, good heart.

Penfioners were Gentlemen of the band of Penfioners. In the month of December," [1539] fays Stowe, Annals, p. 973, edit. 1605, “were appointed to waite on the king's person fifty Gentlemeu, called Penfioners, or Speares, like as they were in the first yeare of the king; unto whom was affigned the fumme of fifty pounds, yerely, for the maintenance of themselves, and everie man two horfes, or one horfe and a gelding of fervice." Their drefs was remarkably fplendid, and therefore likely to attract the notice of Mrs. Quickly. Hence, [as both Mr. Steevens and Mr. T. Warton have obferved] in A Midfummer Night's Dream, our author has felected from all the tribes of flowers the golden-coated cowflips to be penfioners to the Fairy Queen:

9

"The cowflips tall her penfioners be,

In their gold coats spots you see;" &c.

MALONE.

you wot of;] To wot is to know. Obfolete. So, in King Henry VIII: "wot you what I found?" STEEVENS.

2

—— frampold —] This word I have never feen elsewhere, except in Dr. Hacket's Life of Archbishop Williams, where a frampul man fignifies a peevish troublesome fellow. JOHNSON.

In The Roaring Girl, a comedy, 1611, I meet with a word, which though differently spelt appears to be the fame:

Lax. Coachman.

"Coach. Anon, fir!

Lax. Are we fitted with good phrampell jades?"

Ray, among his South and East country words, observes, that frampald, or frampard, fignifies fretful, peevish, cross, froward. As froward (he adds comes from from; fo may frampard.

Nah, in his Praife of the Red Herring, 1599, speaking of Leander, fays: the churlish fiampold waves gave him his belly full of Efhbroth."

FAL. Ten and eleven: Woman, commend me to her; I will not fail her.

QUICK. Why you fay well; But I have another messenger to your worship: Mistress Page hath her hearty commendations to you too;--and let me tell you in your ear, fhe's as fartuous a civil modest wife, and one (I tell you) that will not mifs you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windfor, who'er be the other: and the bade me tell your worship, that her husband is feldom from home; but, fhe hopes, there will come a time. I never knew a woman fo dote upon a man; furely, I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth.

FAL. Not I, I affure thee; fetting the attraction of my good parts afide, I have no other charms. QUICK. Bleffing on your heart for't!

FAL. But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife, and Page's wife, acquainted each other how they love me?

QUICK. That were a jeft, indeed!-they have not fo little grace, I hope:- that were a trick, indeed! But miftrefs Page would defire you to fend her your little page, of all loves; her.hufband has a marvellous infection to the little page: and, truly, master'

-'tis

Again, in The Inner Temple Mafque, by Middleton 1619: " fo frampole, the puritans will never yield to it." Again, in The Blind Beggar of Bethnal-Green, by John Day: I think the fellow's frampell," &c. And, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at feveral Weapons: “Is Pompey grown so malapert, so frampel?" STEEVENS. Thus, in The Ife of Gulls-What a goodyer aile you mother? are you frampull? know you not your own daughter?"

3

HENLEY.

to fend her your little page, of all loves; ] Of all loves, is an adjuration only, and fignifies no more than if he had faid, defires you to fend him by all means.

It is ufed in Decker's Honeft Whore, P. I. 1635 : —“ conjuring his wife, of all loves, to prepare cheer fitting," &c. Again, in

Page is an honeft man. Never a wife in Windfor leads a better life than fhe does; do what fhe will, fay what fhe will, take all, pay all, go to bed when fhe lift, rife when fhe lift, all is as fhe will; and, truly fhe deferves it; for if there be a kind woman in Windfor, the is one. You must send her your page; no remedy.

FAL. Why, I will.

QUICK. Nay, but do fo then: and, look you, he may come and go between you both; and, in any cafe, have a nay-word, that you may know one another's mind, and the boy never need to understand any thing; for 'tis not good that children fhould know any wickednefs: old folks, you know, have difcretion, as they fay, and know the world.

FAL. Fare thee well: commend me to them both: there's my purfe; I am yet thy debtor.--Boy, gó along with this woman. -This news diftracts me! [Exeunt QUICKLY and ROBIN. PIST. This punk is one of Cupid's carriers: '

Holinfhed's Chronicle, p. 1064: "Mrs. Arden defired, of all loves,
to come backe againe." Again, in Othello, A& III:
the gene-
ral fo likes your mufick, that he defires you, of all loves, to make no
more noife with it." STEEVENS.

So, in a fubfequent

--a nay-word,] i. e. a watch-word.
fcene: " -We have a nay-word to know one another," &c.

STEEVENS.

This punk is one of Cupid's carriers:-] Punk is a plaufible reading, yet abfurd on examination. For are not all punks Cupid's

carriers? Shakspeare certainly wrote:

�༧ This PINK is one of Cupid's carriers:

And then the fenfe is proper, and the metaphor, which is all the way taken from the marine, entire. A. pink is a veffel of the small craft, employed as a carrier (and fo called) for merchants. Fletcher ules the word in his Tamer Tamed:

This PINK, this painted foift, this cockle-boat.

WARBURTON.

Clap on more fails; purfue, up with

your fights; Give fire; fhe is my prize, or ocean whelm them

all!

[Exit PISTOL.

So, in The Ladies' Privilege, 1640: "Thefe Gentlemen know bet. ter to cut a caper than a cable, or board a pink in the bordells, than a pinnace at fea." A fmall falmon is called a falmon-pink.

Dr. Farmer, however, obferves, that the word punk has been unneceffarily altered to pink. In Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair, justice Overdo fays of the pig-woman; She hath been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time thefe two and twenty years."

6 up with your fights; ] Tamed:

STEVENS.

So again, in Fletcher's Tamer

"To hang her fights out, and defy me, friends!

"A well-known man of war.'

As to the word fights, both in the text and in the quotation, it was then, and, for aught I know, may be now, a common lea-term. Sir Richard Hawkins, in his Voyages, p. 66, says: L For once we cleared her deck; and had we been able to have spared but a dozen men, doubtlefs we had done with her what we would; for fhe had no clofe FIGHTS," i. e. If I understand it right, no fmall arms. So that by fights is meant any manner of defence, either fmall arms or So, Dryden, in his tragedy of Amboyna:

canon.

"Up with your FIGHTS,

"And your nettings prepare," &c.

WARBURTON.

The quotation from Dryden might at least have raised a fufpicion that fights were neither fmall arms nor cannon. Fights and nettings are properly joined. Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the hip to conceal the men from the enemy; and clofe-fights are buikheads, or any other fhelter that the fabrick of a fhip affords.

JOHNSON.

So, in Heywood and Rowley's comedy, called Fortune by Land and Sea: "display'd their enfigns, up with all their feights, their matches in their cocks," &c. Again, in The Chriflian turned Turk, 1612 Lace the netting, and let down the fights, make ready the fhot," &c. Again, in The Fair Maid of the Weft, 1615:

"Then now up with your fights, and let your enfigns, "Bieft with St. George's crofs, play with the winds." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian:

This pallage may receive an additional and perhaps a fomewhat different illuftration from John Smith's Sea-Grammar. 4to. 1627. In page 58 he says, "But if you fee your chafe trip himfelt into fighting

FAL. Say'ft thou fo, old Jack? go thy ways; I'll make more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look after thee? Wilt thou, after the expence of fo much money, be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee: Let them fay 'tis grofsly done; fo it be fairly done, no matter.

Enter BARDOLPH.

BARD. Sir John, there's one mafter Brook below would fain fpeak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath sent your worship a morning's draught of fack."

FAL. Brook, is his name?

failes, that is to put out his colours in the poope, his flag in the maine top, his ftreamers or pendants at the end of his yard's armes, &c. provide yourself to fight." Again, p. 60. Thus they ufe to ftrip themselves into their fhort failes, or fighting failes, which is only the fore fail, the main and fore top failes, because the reft fhould not be fired or fpoiled; befides they would be troublesome to handle, hinder our fights and the ufing our armes: he makes ready his clofe fights fore and aft." In a former paffage, p. 58, he has faid that a fhip's clofe fights are fmall ledges of wood laid croffe on another, like the grates of iron in a prifon's window, betwixt the maine maft and the fore maft, and are called gratings or nettings, &c. STELVENS.

7 one mafter Brook below would fain Speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath fent your worship a morning's draft of fack. It feems to have been a common custom at taverns, in our author's time, to fend prefents of wine from one room to another, either as a memorial of friendship, or (as in the present inftance) by way of introduction to acquaintance. Of the existence of this pradice the following anecdote of Ben Jonfon and the ingenious Bishop Corbet furnishes a proof. "Ben Jonfon was at a tavern, and in comes Bifhop Corbet (but not fo then) into the next room. Ben Jonfon calls for a quart of raw wine, and gives it to the tapfter. Sirrah, fays he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, and tell him, I facrifice my fervice to him.' The fellow did, and in those words. Friend, fays Dr. Corbet, I thank him for his love; but 'pr'ythee tell him from me that he is mistaken; for facrifices are always burnt." Merry Paffages and Jeafts, MSS. Harl. 6395. MALONE