tachio, purple-hued malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers; such as

Again, in Glapthorne's Hollander, 1640:

"The only shape to hide a striker in."

Again, in an old MS. play, entitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy:

one that robs the mind,

"Twenty times worse than any highway striker." Steevens. In Greene's Art of Coneycatching, 1592, under the table of Cant Expressions used by Thieves: "- the cutting a pocket or picking a purse, is called striking." Again: -- who taking a proper youth to be his prentice, to teach him the order of striking and foisting." Collins.

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See also, The London Prodigal, 1605: "Nay, now I have had such a fortunate beginning, I'll not let a six-penny-purse escape me." Malone.

2-malt-worms:] This cant term for a tippler I find in The Life and Death of Jack Straw, 1593: "You shall purchase the prayers of all the alewives in town, for saving a malt-worm and a customer." Again, in Gammer Gurton's Needle. Steevens.

3

-burgomasters, and great oneyers;) "Perhaps, oneraires, trustees, or commissioners;" says Mr. Pope. But how this word comes to admit of any such construction, I am at a loss to know. To Mr. Pope's second conjecture, "of cunning men that look sharp, and aim well," I have nothing to reply seriously: but choose to drop it. The reading which I have substituted, [moneyers] I owe to the friendship of the ingenious Nicholas Hardinge, Esq. A moneyer is an officer of the Mint, who makes coin, and delivers out the king's money. Moneyers are also taken for bankers, or those that make it their trade to turn and return money. Either of these acceptations will admirably square with our author's context. Theobald.

Mr. Hardinge's conjecture may be supported by an ancient authority, and is probably right: "- there is a house upon Page Greene, next unto the round tuft of trees, sometime in the tenure and occupation of Simon Bolton, Monyer;" i. e. probably banker. Description of Tottenham High-Cross, 1631. Reed. This is a very acute and judicious attempt at emendation, and is not undeservedly adopted by Dr. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads great owners, not without equal or greater likelihood of truth. I know not however whether any change is necessary: Gadshill tells the chamberlain, that he is joined with no mean wretches, but with burgomasters and great ones, or, as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great oneyers, or great-one-éers, as we say, privateer, auctioneer, circuiteer. This is, I fancy, the whole of the matter. Johnson.

Perhaps Shakspeare wrote-onyers, that is, publick accountants; men possessed of large sums of money belonging to the state.It is the course of the Court of Exchequer, when the sheriff can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray:

makes up his accounts for issues, amerciaments, and mesne profits, to set upon his head o. ni. which denotes oneratur, nisi habeat sufficientem exonerationem: he thereupon becomes the king's debtor, and the parties peravaile (as they are termed in law) for whom he answers, become his debtors, and are discharged as with respect to the King.

To settle accounts in this manner, is still called in the Exchequer, to ony; and from hence Shakspeare perhaps formed the word onyers.-The Chamberlain had a little before mentioned, among the travellers whom he thought worth plundering, an officer of the Exchequer, “a kind of auditor, one that hath abun. dance of charge too, God knows what." This emendation may derive some support from what Gadshill says in the next scene: "There's money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the king's Exchequer." The first quarto has-oneyres, which the second and all the subsequent copies made oneyers. The original reading gives great probability to Hanmer's conjecture. Malone.

4

such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink &c.] According to the specimen given us in this play, of this dissolute gang, we have no reason to think they were less ready to drink than speak. Besides, it is plain, a natural gradation was here intended to be given of their actions, relative to one another. But what has speaking, drinking, and praying, to do with one another? We should certainly read think in both places instead of drink; and then we have a very regular and humorous climax. They will strike sooner than speak; and speak sooner than think; and think sooner than pray. By which last words is meant, that "though perhaps they may now and then reflect on their crimes, they will never repent of them." The Oxford editor has dignified this correction by his adoption of it. Warburton.

I am in doubt about this passage. There is yet a part unexplained. What is the meaning of such as can hold in? It cannot mean such as can keep their own secret, for they will, he says, speak sooner than think: it cannot mean such as will go calmly to work without unnecessary violence, such as is used by long-staff strikers, for the following part will not suit with this meaning; and though we should read by transposition such as will speak sooner than strike, the climax will not proceed regularly. I must leave it as it is.

Johnson.

Such as can hold in, may mean such as can curb old father antick the law, or such as will not blab. Steevens.

Turbervile's Book on Hunting, 1575, p. 37, mentions huntsmen on horseback to make young hounds "hold in and close" to the old ones: so Gadshill may mean, that he is joined with such companions as will hold in, or keep and stick close to one another, And yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.

Cham. What, the commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way?

Gads. She will, she will; justice hath liquor'd her.5 We steal as in a castle, cock-sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible.

and such as are men of deeds, and not of words; and yet they love to talk and speak their mind freely better than to drink.

Tollet.

I think a gradation was intended, as Dr. Warburton supposes. To hold in, I believe, meant to "keep their fellows' counsel, and their own;" not to discover their rogueries by talking about them. So, in Twelfth Night: " - that you will not extort from me, what I am willing to keep in." Gadshill, therefore, I suppose, means to say, that he keeps company with steady robbers; such as will not impeach their comrades, or make any discovery by talking of what they have done; men that will strike the traveller sooner than talk to him; that yet would sooner speak to him than drink, which might intoxicate them, and put them off their guard; and, notwithstanding, would prefer drinking, however dangerous, to prayer, which is the last thing they would think of. The words however will admit a different interpretation. We have often in these plays, "it were as good a deed as to drink." Perhaps therefore the meaning may be,-Men who will knock the traveller down sooner than speak to him; who yet will speak to him and bid him stand, sooner than drink; (to which they are sufficiently well inclined;) and lastly, who will drink sooner than pray. Here indeed the climax is not regular. But perhaps our author did not intend it should be preserved. Malone.

5 She will, she will; justice hath liquor'd her.] A satire on chicane in courts of justice; which supports ill men in their violations of the law, under the very cover of it. Warburton.

Alluding to boots mentioned in the preceding speech. "They would melt me (says Falstaff, in The Merry Wives of Windsor) out of my fat drop by drop, and liquor fishermen's boots with me." See also Peacham's Complete Gentleman, 1627, p. 199:

6

"Item, a halfpenny for liquor for his boots." Malone. as in a castle,] This was once a proverbial phrase. So, Dante, (in Purgatorio):

"Sicura quasi rocca in alto monte."

Again, in The Little French Lawyer, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "That noble courage we have seen, and we "Shall fight as in a castle."

Perhaps Shakspeare means, we steal with as much security as the ancient inhabitants of castles, who had those strong holds to Cham. Nay, by my faith; I think you are more beholden to the night, than to fern-seed, for your walking invisible.

Gads. Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as I am a true man.

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fly to for protection and defence against the laws. So, in King Henry VI, Part I, Act III, sc. i:

"Yes, as an outlaw in a castle keeps,

"And uses it to patronage his theft."

Again, in Sidney's Arcadia, Book II: "Among the rest, two brothers of huge both greatnesse and force, therefore called giants, who kept themselves in a castle seated upon the top of a rock, impregnable" &c. Steevens.

7-we have the receipt of fern-seed,] Fern is one of those plants which have their seed on the back of the leaf so small as to escape the sight. Those who perceived that fern was propagated by semination, and yet could never see the seed, were - much at a loss for a solution of the difficulty; and as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed to fern-seed many strange properties, some of which the rustick virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded. Johnson.

This circumstance relative to fern-seed is alluded to in Beau

mont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn: "-had you Gyges' ring,

"Or the herb that gives invisibility?"

Again, in Ben Jonson's New Inn:

- I had

"No medicine, sir, to go invisible,
"No fern-seed in my pocket."

Again, in P. Holland's translation of Pliny, Book XXVII, ch. ix: "Of ferne be two kinds, and they beare neither floure nor seede." Steevens.

The ancients, who often paid more attention to received opinions than to the evidence of their senses, believed that fern bore no seed. Our ancestors imagined that this plant produced seed which was invisible. Hence, from an extraordinary mode of reasoning, founded on the fantastic doctrine of signatures, they concluded that they who possessed the secret of wearing this seed about them would become invisible. This superstition the good sense of the poet taught him to ridicule. It was also supposed to seed in the course of a single night, and is called in Browne's Britannia's Pastorals, 1613:

"The wond'rous one-night-seeding ferne."

Absurd as these notions are, they were not wholly exploded in the time of Addison. He laughs at "a doctor who was arrived at the knowledge of the green and red dragon, and had discovered the female fern-seed." Tatler, No. 240. H. White.

8

purchase,] Is the term used in law for any thing not in

herited but acquired. Johnson.

Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.

Gads. Go to Homo is a common name to all men.9 Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewel, you muddy knave. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Road by Gadshill.

Enter Prince Henry and POINS; BARDOLPH and PЕТО, at some distance.

Poins. Come, shelter, shelter; I have removed Fal

staff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.1 P. Hen. Stand close.

Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rascal; What a brawl

ing dost thou keep?

Fal. Where 's Poins, Hal?

P. Hen. He is walked up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek him. [Pretends to seek Poins.

Fal. I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squire fur

Purchase was anciently the cant term for stolen goods. So, in Henry V, Act III:

"They will steal any thing, and call it purchase."

So, Chaucer:

"And robbery is holde purchase." Steevens.

9 - Homo is a common name &c.] Gadshill had promised as he was a true man; the Chamberlain wills him to promise rather as a false thief; to which Gadshill answers, that though he might have reason to change the word true, he might have spared man, for homo is a name common to all men, and among others to thieves. Johnson.

This is a quotation from The Accidence, and I believe is not the only one from that book, which, therefore, Mr. Capell should have added to his Shaksperiana. Lort.

1 like a gummed velvet.] This allusion we often meet with in the old comedies. So, in The Malcontent, 1604: "I'll come among you, like gum into taffata, to fret, fret." Steevens.

2

-four foot by the squire-] The thought is humorous, and alludes to his bulk: insinuating, that his legs being four foot