two Edward fhovel-boards, that coft me two fhilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by thefe gloves.

Davenant's Newes from Plimouth, that thefe mill'd-fixpences were ufed by way of counters to caft up money:

"A few mill'd fixpences, with which

"My purfer cafts accompt." STEEVENS.

4 Edward fhovel-boards, One of thefe pieces of metal is mentioned in Middleton's comedy of The Roaring Girl, 1611: -away flid I my man, like a fovel-board fhilling," &c.

66

STEEVENS.

"Edward Shovel-boards," were the broad fhillings of Edw. VI. Taylor, the water-poet, in his Travel of Twelve-pence, makes him complain:

the unthrift every day

"With my face downwards do at hoave-board play; "That had I had a beard, you may fuppofe,

"They had worne it And in a note he tells us:

off, as they have done my nofe." "Edw. fhillings for the most part are

ufed at hoave-board." FARMER.

In the Second Part of K. Henry IV. Falstaff says, "Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a fhove-groat fhilling." This confirms Dr. Farmer's opinion, that pieces of coin were used for that purpose.

M. MASON.

The following extract, for the notice of which I am indebted to Dr. Farmer, will afcertain the fpecies of coin mentioned in the text. "I muft here take notice before I entirely quit the fubject of thefe laft-mentioned fhillings, that I have alfo feen fome other pieces of good filver, greatly refembling the fame, and of the fame date 1547, that have been fo much thicker as to weigh about half an ounce, together with fome others that have weighed an ounce." Folkes's, Table of English filver Coins, p. 32. The former of thefe were probably what coft Maller Slender two fhillings and two-pence a-piece. REED.

It appears, that the game of fhovel-board was played with the fhillings of Edward VI. in Shadwell's time; for in his Mifer, Aa III. fc. i. Cheatly fays, She perfuaded him to play with hazard at backgammon, and he has already loft his Edward Jhillings that he kept for Shovel-board, and was pulling out broad pieces (that have not feen the fun thefe many years) when I came away.'

In Shadwell's Lancashire Witches, Vol. III. p. 232. the game is called Shuffle-board. It is ftill played; and I lately heard a man afk another to go into an alehoufe in the Broad Sanctuary, Weftminfter, to play at it. DOUCE.

FAL. Is this true, Piftol?

EVA. No; it is falfe, if it is a pick-purfe.

PIST. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner!-Sir John, and mafler mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilbo :
Word of denial in thy labras here;'

เ

That Slender means the broad fhilling of one of our kings, appears from comparing thefe words with the corresponding paffage in the old quarto: Ay by this handkerchief did he ;-two faire fhovel-board fhillings, befides feven groats in mill fixpences How twenty eight pence could be loft in mill-fixpences, Slender, however, has not explained to us.. MALONE.

I combat challenge of this latten bilbo :] Pistol, feeing Slender fuch a flim, puny wight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. THEOBALD.

Latten is a mixed metal, made of copper and calamine.

MALONE. The farcafm intended is, that Slender had neither courage nor ftrength, as a latten fword has neither edge nor fubftance.

HEATH.

Latten may fignify no more than as thin as a lath. The word in fome counties is ftill pronounced as if there was no h in it: and Ray, in his Dictionary of North Country Words, affirms it to be fpelt lat in the north of England.

1.

Falstaff threatens, in another play, to drive prince Henry out of his kingdom, with a dagger of lath. A latten bilboe means therefore, I believe, no more than a blade as thin as a lath-a vice's dagger.

Theobald, however, is right in his affertion that latten was a metal. So Turbervile, in his Book of Falconry, 1575: -you muit fet her a latten bason, or a vessel of stone or earth." Again, in Old Fortunatus, 1600: "Whether it were lead or lalten that hafp'd down thofe winking cafements, I know not." Again, in the old metrical Romance of Syr Bevis of Hampton, bł. 1. no date: "Windowes of latin were fet with glaffe."

Latten is ftill a common word for tin in the North.

STEEVENS.

I believe Theobald has given the true fenfe of latten, though he is wrong in fuppofing, that the allufion is to Slender's thinness. It is rather to his foftness or weakness. TYRWHITT.

Word of denial in thy labras here;] I suppose it should rather be read:

Word of denial: froth and fcum, thou lieft,
SLEN. By thefe gloves, then 'twas he.

NYм. Be avis'd, fir, and pass good humours: I will fay, marry trap,' with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

8

SLEN. By this hat, then he in the red face had it for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an afs.

FAL. What say you, Scarlet and John??

BARD. Why, fir, for my part, I fay, the gen tleman had drunk himself out of his five fentences.

EVA. It is his five fenfes: fie, what the ignorance is!

"Word of denial in my labras hear;"

that is, hear the word of denial in my lips. Thou lyft. JOHNSON. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat. Pistol chofes to throw the word of denial in the lips of his ad verfary, and is fuppofed to point to them as he fpeaks.

STEEVENS.

There are few words in the old copies more frequently mifprin ted than the word hear. 66 Thy lips," however, is certainly right, as appears from the old quarto: "I do retort the lie even in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge." MALONE.

7 marry trap, ] When a man was caught in his own ftratagem, I fuppofe the exclamation of infult was--marry, trap!

JOHNSON.

8 —nuthook's humour-] Nuthook is the reading of the folio. The quarto reads, bafe humour.

t If you run the Nuthook's humour on me, is in plain English, if you fay I am a Thief. Enough is faid on the fubjed of hooking moveables out at windows, in a note on K. Henry IV. STEEVENS.

9 -Scarlet and John?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour confifts in the allufion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which, fee. The Second Part of Henry IV.

WARBURTON,

BARD. And being fap, fir, was, as they fay, cashier'd; and fo conclufions pafs'd the careires."

SLEN. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick:

2 And being fap,] I know not the exa& meaning of this cant word, neither have I met with it in any of our old dramatic pieces, which have often proved the best comments on Shakspeare's vulgarifms.

Dr. Farmer, indeed, obferves, that to fib is to beat; fo that being fap may mean being beaten; and cashiered, turned out of company.

STEEVENS.

The word fap, is probably made from vappa, a drunken fellow, or a good-for-nothing fellow, whofe virtues are all exhaled. Slender, in his anfwer, feems to understand that Bardolph had made ufe of a Latin word: " Ay, you spake in Latin then too;" as Piftol had just before. S. W.

It is not probable that any cant term is from the Latin; nor that the word in queftion was fo derived, because Slender miftook it for Latin. The mistake, indeed, is an argument to the contrary, as it shows his ignorance in that language. Fap however, certainly means drunk, as appears from the gloffaries. DOUCE.

3 careires.] I believe this ftrange word is nothing but the French carière; and the expreffion means, that the common bounds of good behaviour were overpaffed. JOHNSON.

-to pass the cariere was a military phrafe, or rather perhaps a term of the manege. I find it in one of Sir John Smythe's Difcourfes, 1589, where, fpeaking of horses wounded, he fays-——————— "they, after the first shrink at the entering of the bullet, doo pafs their carriere, as though they had verie little hurt." Again, in Harrington's tranflation of Arioflo, book xxxviii. ftanza 35:

"To ftop, to start, to pass carier, to bound."

STEEVENS.

Bardolph means to fay," and fo in the end he reel'd about with a circuitous motion, like a horse, paffing a carier." To pass a carier was the technical term. So, in Nafhe's Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596: "her hotteft fury may be refembled to the paffing of a brave cariere by a Pegasus."

We find the term again ́used in K. Henry V. in the fame manner as in the paffage before us: "The king is a good king, but→ he paffes fome humours and cariers." MALONE.

if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with thofe that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

EVA. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. FAL. You hear all thefe matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter Miftrefs ANNE PAGE with wine; Miftrefs FORD and Miftrefs PAGE following.

PAGE. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit ANNE PAGE. SLEN. O heaven! this is miftrefs Anne Page. PAGE. How now, miftrefs Ford?

FAL. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well met by your leave, good miftrefs. [kiffing her. PAGE. Wife, bid thefe gentlemen welcome: Come, we have a hot venifon pafty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we fhall drink down all unkindnefs. [Exeunt all but SHAL. SLENDER and EVANS. SLEN. I had rather than forty fhillings, I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here:*

4

my book of Songs and Sonnets here:] It cannot be fuppofed that poor Slender was himself a poet. He probably means the Poems of Lord Surrey and others, which were very popular in the age of Queen Elizabeth. They were printed in 1597, with this title: "Songes and Sonnettes, written by the right honourable Lord Henry Howard, late Earle of Surrey, and others."

Slender laments that he has not this fafhionable book about him, fuppofing it might have affifted him in paying his addrefles to Anne Page. MALONE.

Under the title mentioned by Slender, Churchyard very evidently points out this book in an enumeration of his own pieces, prefixed to a collection of verfe and profe, called Churchyard's Chal-, lenge, 4to. 1593: "-and many things in the booke of fonges and Jonets printed then, were of my making." By then he means "in Queene Maries raigue;" for Surrey was firft published in 1557.

STEEVENS.