Chapter 21

[129] Dingy. "Russet" or "russeting" was the name of the coarse brown dress worn by shepherds.

[130] In _Henry V_., iv. 1, Pistol accosts the king with "Che vous la?" according to the first folio. Modern editors correct the intentional blunder.

[131] To "outface with a card of ten" was just what we mean by "browbeat." The expression (which is very common) was no doubt drawn from the game of primero.

[132] Old spelling of "pumpkin."

[133] The officer of lowest rank (now called "lance corporal").

[134] _Quart d'écu_.

[135] Cf. Day's _Ile of Guls_, ii. 2:--

"But forresters, like images, set forth The tyrannie of greatness without pittie."

Everybody remembers Jaques' moralising in _As You Like It_, ii. 1.

[136] Cf. Day's _Humour out of Breath_, I. 2:--"Deceive the _watry subjects_."

[137] To "kill with kindness" was a proverbial saying.

[138] A falconer's term: to flap the wings when preparing for flight.

[139] A giant who was conquered by Sir Bevis of Southampton. See notes of the commentators on _2 Henry VI_., ii. 3: "Therefore, Peter, have at thee with a downright blow, as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart."

[140] i.e., a vain boaster. "Puckfist" is the fungus commonly known as "puff-ball."

[141] "Carbonade. A carbonado, a _rasher on the coals_."--COTGRAVE.

[142] Cf. _Antony and Cleopatra_, i. 3:--

"Upon your sword sit laurel victory."

The form of expression is common. Cf. _Knight of Malta_, iv. 2 (Fletcher's portion):--

"Art thou a knight? did ever on that sword The Christian cause sit nobly?"

I make this note because I find Mr. G.C. Macaulay, in his interesting "Study of Francis Beaumont," choosing the words, "Victory sits on his sword" (_Maid's Tragedy_, i. 1), as one of the "special passages which suggest imitation, conscious or unconscious," of Shakespeare.

[143] 4to. honord. The correction (which would occur to most readers) is made by Dyce on the fly-leaf of his copy in the Dyce and Forster Library.

[144] If we retain "unscorcht" we must suppose the construction to be proleptic. But quy. "sun-scorcht."

[145] The stage-direction is my own.

[146] Ink-stand (more commonly "standish").

[147] Plan, design. Cf. _Arden of Feversham_, ii. 1. "And I will lay the _platform_ of his death."

[148] "Termagant" or "Trivigant" is often coupled with "Mahound." Cf. "Faery Queene," vi. 7. (47):--

"And oftentimes by Termagant and Mahound swore."

Our ancestors were not accustomed to draw fine distinctions. They regarded Mohammedans as heathens, and Termagant and Mahound as false gods.

[149] 4to. Ruthelesse and bloudy slaughters.

[150] "Pickt-hatch" was a notorious brothel in or near Turnbull Street.

[151] See Strutt's "Sports and Pastimes," p. 212 (ed. 1801).

[152] Swaggered, crowed.

[153] i.e. sucking rabbit. So Falstaff,--"Hang me up by the heels for a _rabbit sucker_" (I _Henry IV_., ii. 4).

[154] A variation of Bobadil's oath "By the foot of Pharaoh."

[155] For the sake of the metre I should like to read "You, Pembrooke, worthy knight."