JACK-A-LENT. Act III., Sc. 3.

"You little Jack-a-Lent."

A puppet thrown at in Lent; a sport, or game, like what is now practisedat fairs and races.

LABRAS. Act I., Sc. 1.

Lips.

"Word of denial in thy labras, here."

"Word of denial in thy labras," is equivalent to "the lie in thy teeth."

LAUNDRY. Act I., Sc. 2.

“His dry-nurse, or his cook, or his laundry.”

Launder, or laundress, is meant by Sir Hugh.

LUCE. Act II., Sc. 1.

"The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat."
The luce is a pike, "the fresh fish;" it is no doubt an allusion
to the arms of the Lucy family, three pikes or luces, and
which are now quartered by the Duke of Northumberland.
The "salt fish is an old coat;" is supposed to mean that the
luces saltant, an heraldic term for springing, was an ancient
bearing.

MEPHISTOPHILUS. Act I., Sc. 1.

An evil spirit, mentioned in the old story of Sir John Faustus,' and in Marlowe's Play of Doctor Faustus,' but is there a very inferior demon to that pourtrayed in Göthe's extraordinary drama of 'Faust.'

MORNING'S DRAUGHT. Act II., Sc. 2.

....

"Master Brook . . . . hath sent your worship a morning's draught of sack."

It was not unusual, in Shakspere's time, for one guest in a tavern to send presents of wine to another, either as a recognition of old acquaintance, or as the means for forming a

new one.

MUFFLER. Act IV., Sc. 2.

"I spy a great peard under her muffler."

The muffler was of various fashions, and covered a part of the face, either the upper or lower part, and was apparently used as a sort of disguise. A Scottish statute, in 1457, enacted that " na woman cum to kirk, nor mercat, with her face mussaled, or covered that scho may not be kend." NUTHOOK. Act I., Sc. 1.

"If you run the nuthook's humour on me." The nuthook was an instrument used by pickpockets. OUPHES.

Act IV., Sc. 4.

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"Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies."

Ouphes are goblins.

OF ALL LOVES. Act II., Sc. 2.

An antique phrase, which, pretty as it is, is now obsolete.

OYES. Act V., Sc. 5.

"Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes."

This is the oyez, "hear ye,” of our old Norman French law; the O yes of modern proclamations. It appears to have been sounded as a rhyme to boys.

PASSED.

Act I., Sc. 1.

"The women have so cried and shrieked at it, that it passed." It passed-it surpassed-passed expression.

PENSIONERS.

Act II., Sc. 2.

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Nay, which is more, pensioners."

Queen Elizabeth's pensioners were men of large fortune; the Earl of Clare, who had been one, said he did not know a man among them worse than himself, and he had £4,000 a-year. So that from their wealth and splendid dress, Mrs. Quickly might easily think them greater men than earls. PICKT HATCH. Act II., Sc. 2.

"To your manor of Pickt Hatch, go."

A place of resort for bad characters. It is mentioned by Ben
Jonson in connection with "Mersh Lambeth and White
Fryers," the latter the Alsatia of Sir Walter Scott.

PINNACE. Act I., Sc. 3.

"Sail like my pinnace."

A small vessel, usually accompanying another.

RED-LATTICE PHRASES.

Act II., Sc. 2. Ale house terms.

SACKERSON LOOSE. Act I., Sc. 1.

"I have seen Sackerson loose twenty times."

Sackerson was a bear much celebrated among the frequenters of the Paris Garden bear-baitings in Southwark.

SCALL. Act III., Sc. 1.

"To be revenged on this same scall . . . . companion."

Scall, scalled, is scabby. Scalled head is a well-known disease at the present time.

SHENT. Act I., Sc. 4.

Roughly handled.

"We shall all be shent."

SHORT KNIFE. Act II., Sc. 2.

"A short knife and a throng."

The short knife was used by pickpockets to cut purses in the crowd-the throng.

SIR HUGH. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Sir Hugh, persuade me not."

The title of Sir is frequently applied by Shakspere to priests. Fuller, in his 'Church History,' says, "Such priests as have the addition of Sir before their Christian name were men not graduated in the university, being in orders, but not in degrees, whilst others, entituled masters, had commenced in the arts."

SPED. Act. III., Sc. 5.

"And sped you, sir?"

Speeded-succeeded.

SPRAG. Act IV., Sc. 1.

"He is a good sprag memory."

Has a quick lively memory.

STANDING BED and TRUCKLE BED.

Act IV., Sc. 5.

The standing bed was a four-post bed for the master; the truckle bed was a low frame, often in the same room, for the servant.

STRAIN. Act II., Sc. 1.

"Unless he know some strain in me."

Turn, humour, disposition.

TAKES. Act IV., Sc. 4.

"And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle."

Seizes with disease. As in 'Lear,'

"Strike her young bones

Ye taking airs."

TIGHTLY. Act I., Sc. 3.

66 Bear you

Briskly, cleverly.

TIKE. Act IV., Sc. 5.

these letters tightly."

'Ay, Sir Tike, who more bold?"

Sir Tike-a tike was a provincial word for a young bullock. To-PINCH. Act IV., Sc. 4.

66

'And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight." Spenser, and others, use to as a prefix to a verb. Spenser has "raiment all to-tore;" and Milton, in his 'Comus,'

66

Were all to-ruffled, and sometimes impair'd."

TURNIPS. Act. III., Sc. 4.

66

Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth,
And bowl'd to death with turnips."

The cruelties practised in the East, in putting persons to death
in a manner similar to this, seem to have given rise to this
allusion. Ben Jonson, in his Bartholomew Fair,' says,

"Would I had been set in the ground, all but the head, and had my brains bowled at." Sir Thomas Roe, in his 'Voyage to the East Indies,' relates a story of a woman being put to death by the Mogul by being buried in this manner. VIZAMENTS. Act I., Sc. 1.

Advisements.

"Take your vizaments in that."

WHITSTERS. Act III., Sc. 3.

Carry it among the whitsters in Datchet Mead.” Whitsters are launders; the term is still in use in the woollen manufactory; but the whitsters of the play were most likely washers of clothes in the Thames, like the blanchisseuses of the Seine at present.

WISE-WOMAN. Act IV., Sc. 5.

"Was 't not the wise-woman of Brentford ?" Fortune-teller, or witch; as we yet use cunning-man or cunning-woman in a similar sense.

WORTS. Act I., Sc. 1.

"Good worts, good cabbage."

The generic name for cabbages. We have cole-wort in use at the present time.

PLOT AND CHARACTERS.

"WHEN that I was a little tiny boy," I was taken to a great fête, (as such holiday-making was called,) in the gardens of Queen Charlotte's house at Frogmore. Amongst other delights of that time, there was a play, or rather scenes of a play, acted before the portico, or colonnade, of the mansion. The royal audience sat on the temporary stage, and the miscellaneous company stood on the sunny lawn. The scenes were from the 'Merry Wives of Windsor.' I believe that was the first time I ever saw a theatrical representation; and how intense was my enjoyment! What glorious fun it was, to behold the fat man crammed into the dirty linen basket, and afterwards beaten as the Witch of Brentford! Did years of critical experience ever bring such dramatic pleasure as that hour of childhood at Frogmore? What mattered it to me who played Falstaff, or who Mrs. Ford? I believe they were great actors from London. To my mind they were real people, and at any rate they became to me realities. Falstaff, and Quickly, and mine Host of the Garter, and Slender, and Anne Page, certainly dwelt once at Windsor. I used to fancy where they lived in the dingy old town. I could tell the precise spot where he of the buck-basket went hissing hot into the Thames. I believed in Herne's Oak. I knew the pit where the fairies danced. Might I not, then, cordially agree with Dr. Warton, that "The Merry Wives of Windsor is the most complete specimen of Shakspere's comic powers," when I look back upon half a century of the delight which it has afforded me?" Comparisons are odorous," says honest Dogberry; and therefore I will not controvert Dr. Warton's opinion.

This play has the remarkable distinction of being the only one of Shakspere's Comedies, of which the Locality and the Characters are English. It is thus more essentially a Comedy of Manners than any other of the Poct's works. And they