John Falstaff's, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, efquire, SLEN. In the county of Glofter, justice of and coram. peace, SHAL. Ay, coufin Slender, and Cuft-alorum,3 Sir feems to have been a title formerly appropriated to fuch of the inferior clergy as were only Readers of the fervice, and not admitted to be preachers, and therefore were held in the lowest eftimation; as appears from a remarkable paffage in Machell's MS, Collections for the Hiftory of Westmoreland and Cumberland, in fix volumes, folio, preferved in the Dean and Chapter's library at Carlisle. The reverend Thomas Machell, author of the Collections, lived temp. Car. II. Speaking of the little chapel of Martindale in the mountains of Westmoreland and Cumberland, the writer fays, "There is little remarkable in or about it, but a neat chapel-yard, which by the peculiar * Richard Berket, care of the old Reader, Sir Richard,* is kept clean, and as neat as a bowling-green." Reader, Et. 74. "Within the limits of myne own memory all Readers in chapels were called Sirs,† and of old have been writ fo; whence, I fuppofe, fuch of the laity as received the noble order of knighthood being called Sirs too, for distinction fake had Knight writ after them; which had been fuperfluous, if the title Sir had been peculiar to them. But now this Sir Richard is the only Knight Templar (if I may so call him) that retains the old style, which in other places is much laid aside, and grown out of ufe." PERcy. See Mr. Douce's obfervations on the title "Sir," (as given to Ecclefiafticks,) at the end of Act V. The length of this curious memoir obliges me to disjoin it from the page to which it naturally belongs. STEEVENS. 2 a Star-chamber matter of it:] Ben Jonfon intimates, that the Star-chamber had a right to take cognizance of fuch matters. See the Magnetic Lady, Act III. fc. iv: 3 There is a court above, of the Star-chamber, "To punith routs and riots." STEEVENS, -Cuft-alorum.] This is, I fuppofe, intended for a corrup tion of Cuftos Rotulorum. The mistake was hardly defigned by In the margin is a MS. note feemingly in the hand-writing of Bp. Nicholfon, who gave there voluites to the library : "Since I can remember there was not a reader in any chapel but was called Sir." ISLEN. Ay, and ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, mafter parfon; who writes himself armigero ;4 in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero. SHAL. Ay, that we do ;5 and have done any time these three hundred years. SLEN. All his fucceffors, gone before him, have done't; and all his ancestors, that come after him, may they may give the dozen white luces in their coat. SHAL. It is an old coat. the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read: "Shal. Ay, coufin Slender, and Cuftos Rotulorum.” It follows naturally: "Slen. Ay, and Ratolorum too." JOHNSON. I think with Dr. Johnson, that this blunder could scarcely be intended. Shallow, we know, had been bred to the law at Clement's Inn. But I would rather read cuftos only; then Slender adds naturally, " Ay, and rotulorum too." He had heard the words cuftos rotulorum, and fuppofes them to mean different offices. FARMER. Perhaps Shakspeare might have intended to ridicule the abbreviations fometimes used in writs and other legal inftruments, with which his Justice might have been acquainted. In the old copy the word is printed Cuft-alorum, as it is now exhibited in the text. If, however, this was intended, it should be Cuft-ulorum; and, it must be owned, abbreviation by cutting off the beginning of a word is not authorized by any precedent, except what we may suppose to have existed in Shallow's imagination. MALONE. 4 who writes himself armigero;] Slender had feen the Juftice's atteftations, figned "jurat' coram me, Roberto Shallow, Armigero ;" and therefore takes the ablative for the nominative cafe of Armiger. STEEVENS. S Ay, that we do;] The old copy reads- -" that I do.' 6 and have done - i. e. all the Shallows have done. Shakspeare has many expreffions equally licentious. MALONE. EVA. The dozen white loufes do become an old coat well; it agrees well, paffant: it is a familiar beast to man, and fignifies-love. SHAL. The luce is the fresh fish; the falt fish is an old coat.8 7 The dozen white loufes do become an old coat well; &c.] So, in The Penniless Parliament of thread-bare Poets, 1608: "But amongst all other decrees and statutes by us here fet downe, wee ordaine and commaund, that three thinges (if they be not parted) ever to continue in perpetuall amitie, that is, a Loufe in an olde doublet, a painted cloth in a painter's shop, and a foole and his bable." STEEVENS. 8 The luce is the fresh fish; the falt fish is an old coat.] That is, the fresh fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the salt fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the sea. JOHNSON. I am not fatisfied with any thing that has been offered on this difficult paffage. All that Mr. Smith told us was a mere gratis dictum. [His note, being worthlefs, is here omitted.] I cannot find that falt fish were ever really borne in heraldry. I fancy the latter part of the fpeech fhould be given to Sir Hugh, who is at crofs purposes with the Juftice. Shallow had faid just before, the coat is an old one; and now, that it is the luce, the fresh fish. No, replies the parfon, it cannot be old and fresh too"the falt fish is an old coat." I give this with rather the more confidence, as a fimilar mistake has happened a little lower in the fcene," Slice, I fay!" cries out Corporal Nym," Pauca, pauca: Slice! that's my humour." There can be no doubt, but pauca, pauca, fhould be fpoken by Evans. Again, a little before this, the copies give us : 'tis a good dog." Surely it should be thus: Shallow. You'll not confefs, you'll not confefs. "Slender. That he will not. fault: "Shallow. "Tis your fault, 'tis your fault," &c. FARMER. This fugitive fcrap of Latin, pauca, &c. is used in several old pieces, by characters who have no more of literature about them than Nym. So, Skinke, in Look about you, 1600: "But pauca verba, Skinke." Again, in Every Man in his Humour, where it is called the benchers' phrafe. STEEVENS, SLEN. I may quarter, coz? SHAL. You may, by marrying. Shakspeare feems to frolick here in his heraldry, with a defign not to be easily understood. In Leland's Collectanea, Vol. I. P. II. p. 615, the arms of Geffrey de Lucy are "de goules poudre a croifil dor a treis luz dor." Can the poet mean to quibble upon the word poudré, that is, powdred, which fignifies falted; or ftrewed and fprinkled with any thing? In Meafure for Meafure, Lucio fays Ever your fresh whore and your powder'd bawd." TOLLET. The luce is a pike or jack: So, in Chaucer's Prol. of the Cant. Tales, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. pp. 351, 352: "Full many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe, "And many a breme, and many a luce in ftewe." In Ferne's Blazon of Gentry, 1586, quarto, the arms of the Lucy family are reprefented as an inftance, that "figns of the coat fhould fomething agree with the name. It is the coat of Geffray Lord Lucy. He did bear gules, three lucies hariant, argent." Mr. William Oldys, (Norroy King at Arms, and well known from the fhare he had in compiling the Biographia Britannica, among the collections which he left for a Life of Shakspeare,) obferves that there was a very aged gentleman living in the neighbourhood of Stratford, (where he died fifty years fince,) who had not only heard, from several old people in that town, of Shakspeare's tranfgreffion, but could remember the first ftanza of the bitter ballad, which, repeating to one of his acquaintance, he preferved it in writing; and here it is, neither better nor worse, but faithfully transcribed from the copy which his relation very courteously communicated to me." "A parliement member, .a juftice of peace, "Yet an affe in his ftate, "We allow by his ears but with affes to mate. Sing lowfie Lucy, whatever befall it." "Contemptible as this performance muft now appear, at the time when it was written it might have had fufficient power to irritate a vain, weak, and vindictive magiftrate; especially as it was affixed to feveral of his park-gates, and consequently pub EVA. It is marring, indeed, if he quarter it. EVA. Yes, py'r-lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three skirts for yourself, in my fimple conjectures: but this is all one: If fir John Falftaff have committed difparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my be lifhed among his neighbours. It may be remarked likewife, that the jingle on which it turns, occurs in the firft fcene of The Merry Wives of Windfor." I may add, that the veracity of the late Mr. Oldys has never yet been impeached; and it is not very probable that a ballad fhould be forged, from which an undiscovered wag could derive no triumph over antiquarian credulity. STEEVENS. The luce is the fresh fish; the falt fish is an old coat.] Our author here alludes to the arms of Sir Thomas Lucy, who is faid to have profecuted him in the younger part of his life for a mifdemefnor, and who is fuppofed to be pointed at under the cha racter of Justice Shallow. The text, however, by fome careleffnefs of the printer or tranfcriber, has been fo corrupted, that the paffage, as it ftands at prefent, feems inexplicable. Dr. Farmer's regulation appears to me highly probable; and in further fupport of it, it may be obferved, that fome other fpeeches, hefide thofe he has mentioned, are misplaced in a fubfequent part of this scene, as exhibited in the first folio. Malone Perhaps we have not yet conceived the humour of Mafter Shallow Slender has obferved, that the family might give a dozen white Luces in their coat; to which the Juftice adds, "It is an old one." This produces the Parfon's blunder, and Shallow's correction. "The Luce is not the Loufe but the Pike, the fresh fish of that name. Indeed our Coat is old, as I faid, and the fifh cannot be fresh; and therefore we bear the white, i.e. the pickled or falt fish." In the Northumberland Household Book, we meet with "nine barrels of white herringe for a hole yere, 4. 10. 0:" and Mr. Pennant in the additions to his London fays, "By the very high price of the Pike, it is probable that this fifh had not yet been introduced into our ponds, but was imported as a luxury, pickled." It will be ftill clearer if we read" tho' falt fish in an old coat." FARMER, |