thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do, to keep the terms of my honour precife. I, I,

Again, in Randolph's Mufes Looking-glass, 1638 :

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the Lordship of Turnbull,

"Which with my Pict-hatch Grange, and Shore-ditch farm," &c.

Pict-hatch was in Turnbull Street:

- your whore doth live

"In Pict-hatch, Turnbull-ftreet."

Amends for Ladies, a Comedy, by N. Field, 1618. The derivation of the word Pict-hatch may perhaps be difcovered from the following paffage in Cupid's Whirligig, 1607: Set fome picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profess to keep a bawdy-houfe." Perhaps the unfeasonable and obftre perous irruptions of the gallants of that age, might render fuch a precaution neceffary. So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609: - if in our youths we could pick up fome pretty estate, 'twere not amiss to keep our door hatch d." STEEVENS.

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Pict-hatch was a cant name of fome part of the town noted for bawdy-houses; as appears from the following paffage in Marfton's Scourge for Villanie, Lib. III. fat. x :

Looke, who yon doth go;

"The meager letcher lewd Luxurio.-
"No newe edition of drabbes comes out,
"But feen and allow'd by Luxurio's fnout.

"Did ever any man ere heare him talke

"But of Pick-hatch, or of fome Shoreditch baulke,
"Aretine's filth," &c.

Sir T. Hanmer fays, that this was a noted harbour for thieves and pickpockets," who certainly were proper companions for a man of Piftol's profeffion. But Falstaff here more immediately means to ridicule another of his friend's vices; and there is fome humour in calling Pistol's favourite brothel, his manor of Pickt-hatch. Marfton has another allufion to Pickt-hatch or Pick-hatch, which confirms this illustration:

"Hath forc'd him cleane forfake his Pick-hatch drab." Lib. I. fat. iii. T. WARTON.

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Epig. XII. on Lieutenant Shift: 66 Shift, here in town, not meaneft among squires "That haunt Pickt-hatch, Merth Lambeth, and White fryers."

Again, in The Blacke Booke, 1604, 4to. Lucifer fays: "I

I myself fometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my neceffity, am fain to fhuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will enfconce your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrafes, and

proceeded towards Pickt-hatch, intending to beginne their first, which (as I may fitly name it) is the very skirts of all Brothelhoufes.' DOUCE.

enfconce your rags, &c.] Afconce is a petty fortification. To ensconce, therefore, is to protect as with a fort. The word occurs again in K. Henry IV. P. I. STEEVENS.

6 red-lattice phrafes,] Your ale-house conversation.

JOHNSON.

Red lattice at the doors and windows, were formerly the external denotements of an ale-house. So, in A Fine Companion, one of Shackerley Marmion's plays : "A waterman's widow at the fign of the red lattice in Southwark." Again, in Ardén of Feverfham, 1592:

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his fign pulled down, and his lattice born away." Again, in The Miferies of inforc'd Marriage, 1607: tis treafon to the red lattice, enemy to the fignpost."

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Hence the prefent chequers. Perhaps the reader will exprefs fome furprize, when he is told that shops, with the fign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. See a view of the left-hand street of Pompeii, (No. 9,) prefented by Sir William Hamilton, (together with feveral others, equally curious,) to the Antiquary Society. STEEVENS.

The following paffage in Braithwaite's Strapado for the Divell, 1615, confirms Mr. Steevens's obfervation : "To the true dif coverer of fecrets, Monfieur Bacchus, mafter-gunner of the pottle-pot ordnance, prime-founder of red lattices," &c.

In King Henry IV. P. II. Falstaff's page, fpeaking of Bardolph, fays, " he called me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could fee no part of his face from the window."

MALONE.

This defignation of an ale-house is not altogether lost, though the original meaning of the word is, the fign being converted into a green lettuce; of which an inftance occurs in Brownlow Street, Holborn-In The Laft Will and Teftament of Lawrence Lucifer, the old Batchiler of Limbo, at the end of the "Blacke Booke," 1604, 4to. is the following paffage : watched

your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you?

PIST. I do relent; What would'ft thou more of man?

Enter ROBIN.

ROB. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you. FAL. Let her approach.

Enter Miftrefs QUICKLY.

QUICK. Give your worship good-morrow.
FAL. Good-morrow, good wife.

QUICK. Not fo, an't please your worship.

FAL. Good maid, then.

QUICK. I'll be fworn; as my mother was, the first hour I was born.

FAL. I do believe the fwearer: What with me? QUICK. Shall I vouchfafe your worship a word or two?

FAL. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouch-. fafe thee the hearing.

QUICK. There is one mistress Ford, fir;-I pray, come a little nearer this ways:-I myself dwell with mafter doctor Caius.

FAL. Well, on: Miftrefs Ford, you fay,

QUICK. Your worship says very true: I pray your worship, come a little nearer this ways.

FAL. I warrant thee, nobody hears ;-mine own people, mine own people.

sometimes ten houres together in an ale-house, ever and anon peeping forth, and fampling thy nofe with the red Lattis."

DOUCE.

QUICK. Are they fo? Heaven bless them, and make them his fervants!

FAL. Well: Mistress Ford;-what of her?

QUICK. Why, fir, fhe's a good creature. Lord, lord! your worship's a wanton: Well, heaven forgive you, and all of us, I pray!

FAL. Mistress Ford ;-come, mistress Ford,

QUICK. Marry, this is the fhort and the long of it; you have brought her into fuch a canaries, as 'tis wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windfor, could never have brought her to fuch a canary. Yet there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after gift; fmelling fo fweetly, (all mufk,) and fo rufhling, I warrant you, in filk and gold; and in fuch alligant terms; and in fuch wine and sugar of the beft, and the faireft, that would have won any woman's heart; and, I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her.-I had myself twenty angels given me this morning: but I defy all angels, (in any fuch fort, as they fay,) but in the way of honefty:-and, I warrant you, they could never get her fo much as fip on a cup with the proudeft of them all and yet there has been earls,

:

7 canaries,] This is the name of a brisk light dance, and therefore is properly enough used in low language for any hurry or perturbation. JOHNSON,

So, Nash, in Pierce Pennylefs his Supplication, 1595, fays: "A merchant's wife jets it as gingerly, as if the were dancing the canaries." It is highly probable, however, that canaries is only a mistake of Mrs. Quickly's for quandaries; and yet the Clown, in As you like it, fays, we that are true lovers, run into strange capers." STEEVENS.

8 lay at Windfor,] i. c. refided there. MALONE.

nay, which is more, penfioners; but, I warrant you, all is one with her.

FAL. But what fays fhe to me? be brief, my good the Mercury.

QUICK. Marry, fhe hath received your letter; for the which the thanks you a thousand times: and the gives you to notify, that her husband will be abfence from his house between ten and eleven.

FAL. Ten and eleven?

QUICK. Ay, forfooth; and then you may come and fee the picture, fhe fays, that you wot of; '— master Ford, her husband, will be from home.

9 earls, nay, which is more, penfioners;] This may be illuftrated by a paffage in Gervafe Holles's Life of the First Earl of Clare, Biog. Brit. Art. HoLLES: "I have heard the Earl of Clare fay, that when he was penfioner to the queen, he did not know a worfe man of the whole band than himself; and that all the world knew he had then an inheritance of 40001. a year." TYRWHITT.

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Barrett, in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, fays, that a penfioner was a gentleman about his prince, alwaie redie, with his fpeare." STEEVENS.

Penfioners were Gentlemen of the band of Penfioners.-" In the month of December," [1539] fays Stowe, Annals, p. 973, edit. 1605, "were appointed to waite on the king's person fifty Gentlemen, called Penfioners, or Speares, like as they were in the first yeare of the king; unto whom was affigned the fumme of fiftie pounds, yerely, for the maintenance of themselves, and everie man two horses, or one horse and a gelding of fervice." Their drefs was remarkably fplendid, and therefore likely to attract the notice of Mrs. Quickly. Hence, [as both Mr. Steevens and Mr. T. Warton have obferved,] in A Midfummer Night's Dream, our author has selected from all the tribes of flowers the golden-coated cowflips to be penfioners to the Fairy

Queen :

I

"The cowflips tall her penfioners be,

"In their gold coats fpots you fee;" &c. MALONE.
To wot is to know. Obfolete. So, in
- wot you what I found?" STEEVENS.

you wot of;] King Henry VIII: “