Chapter 85

“_Just._ I mean a child of the horn-thumb, a babe _of booty_, boy, a cut purse.”

Does not this confirm, what the passage itself cannot but suggest, the propriety of substituting “booty” for “beauty” in Falstaff’s speech, _Henry IV._ part i. act i. sc. 2. “Let not us, &c.?”

It is not often that old Ben condescends to imitate a modern author; but Master Dan. Knockhum Jordan, and his vapours are manifest reflexes of Nym and Pistol.

_Ib._ sc. 5.—

“_Quarl._ She’ll make excellent geer for the coachmakers here in Smithfield, to anoint wheels and axletrees with.”

Good! but yet it falls short of the speech of a Mr. Johnes, M.P., in the Common Council, on the invasion intended by Buonaparte:—“Houses plundered—then burnt;—sons conscribed—wives and daughters ravished,” &c., &c.—“But as for you, you luxurious Aldermen! with your fat will he grease the wheels of his triumphant chariot!”

_Ib._ sc. 6.—

“_Cok._ Avoid in your satin doublet, Numps.”

This reminds me of Shakespeare’s “Aroint thee, witch!” I find in several books of that age the words _aloigne_ and _eloigne_—that is,—“keep your distance!” or “off with you!” Perhaps “aroint” was a corruption of “aloigne” by the vulgar. The common etymology from _ronger_ to gnaw seems unsatisfactory.