*SUF. Thus droops this lofty pine, and hangs his fprays;

* Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days. YORK. Lords, let him go. Pleafe it your majefty,

This is the day appointed for the combat; And ready are the appellant and defendant, The armourer and his man, to enter the lifts, So please your highnels to behold the fight. * Q. MAR. Ay, good my lord; for purposely therefore

* Left I the court, to fee this quarrel tried. K. HEN. O' God's name, fee the lifts and all things fit;

6

Here let them end it, and God defend the right! *YORK. I never faw a fellow worse bested, * Or more afraid to fight, than is the appellant, *The fervant of this armourer, my lords.

Rather raft, or reft, the preterite of reave; unless reached were ever used with the sense of arracher, Fr. that is, to fnatch, take or pull violently away. So, in Peele's Arraygnement of Paris, 1584: "How Pluto raught queene Ceres daughter thence.

RITSON.

4 Thus Eleanor's pride dies in her youngest days. ] This expreffion has no meaning, if we fuppofe that the word her refers to Eleanor, who certainly was not a young woman. We must therefore fuppofe that the pronoun her refers to pride, and flands for it's; a licence frequently practifed by Shakspeare. M. MASON.

Or the meaning may be, in her, i. e. Eleanor's, youngest days of power. But the affertion, which ever way understood, is untrue. MALONE.

Suffolk's meaning may be:- The pride of Eleanor dies before it has reached maturity. It is by no means unnatural to suppose, that had the defigus of a proud woman on a crown fucceeded, the might have been prouder than fhe was before. STEEVENS.

5 Lords, let him go. i. e. Let him pafs out of your thoughts. Duke Humphrey had already left the flage. STEEVENS.

worfe befted,] In a worfe plight. JOHNSON.

7

Enter, on one fide, HORNER, and his neighbours, drinking to him fo much that he is drunk; and he enters bearing his staff with a fand-bag faftened to it; ? a drum before him; at the other fide, PETER, with a drum and a fimilar faff; accompanied by prentices drinking to him.

1. NEIGH. Here, neighbour Horner, I drink to you in a cup of fack; And fear not, neighbour, you fhall do well enough.

2. NEIGH. And here, neighbour, here's a cup of charneco.

7

with a fand-bag fastened to it ;] As, according to the old laws of duels, knights were to fight with the lance and fword; fo those of inferior rank fought with an ebou ftaff or battoon, to the farther end of which was fixed a bag cramm'd hard with fand. To this cuftom Hudibras has alluded in thefe humourous lines: Engag'd with money-bags, as bold

"As men with fand-bags did of old. WARBURTON. Mr. Sympfon, in his notes on Ben Jonfon, obferves, that a paffage in St. Chryfoftom very clearly proves the great antiquity of this practice. STEEVENS.

nor

8 a cup of charneco.] A common name for a sort of sweet wine, as appears from a paffage in a pamphlet intitled, The Difcovery of a London Monfier, called the Black Dog of Newgate, printed 1612: "Some drinking the neat wine of Orleance, fome the Gascony, fome the Bourdeaux. There wanted neither fherry, fack, charneco, maligo, nor amber-colour'd Candy, nor liquorish ipocras, brown beloved bastard, fat Aligant, or any quick spirited liquor. And as charneca is, in Spanish, the name of a kind of turpentinetree, I imagine the growth of it was in fome diftri&t abounding with that tree; or that it had its name from a certain flavour refembling it. WARBURTON.

In a pamphlet entitled, Wit's Miferie, or the World's Madness, printed in 1596, it is faid, that the only medecine for the fleghm, is three cups of charneco, fafting.

Again, in Beaumout and Fletcher's Wit without Money:

"Where no old charneco is, nor no anchovies.

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1630, P. II:

Imprimis, a poule of Greek wine, a pottle of Peter-fameene,

a pottle of charneco, and a poule of Ziattica.'

3. NEIGH. And here's a pot of good double beer, neighbour: drink, and fear not your man.

HOR. Let it come, i'faith, and I'll pledge you all; And a fig for Peter!

1. PREN. Here, Peter, I drink to thee; and be not afraid.

2. PREN. Be merry, Peter, and fear not thy mafter: fight for credit of the prentices.

8

PET. I thank you all: * drink, and pray for me, I pray you; for, I think, I have taken my last draught in this world. Here, Robin, and if I die, I give thee my apron; and, Will, thou fhalt have my hammer: and here, Tom take all the O Lord, blefs me, I pray God!

money that I have.

for I am never able to deal with my mafter, he hath learnt fo much fence already.

SAL. Come, leave your drinking, and fall to blows. Sirrah, what's thy name?

PET. Peter, forfooth.

SAL. Peter! what more?

PET. Thump.

SAL. Thump! then fee thou thump thy master well.

HOR. Mafters, I am come hither, as it were,

Again, in The Fair Maid of the West, 1615:

Aragoofa, or Peter-fee-me, canary, or charneco. But none of thefe paffages (as Mr. Malone obferves) afcertain either its quality, or the country where it is produced.

STEEVENS.

• I have taken my last draught in this world.] Gay has borrowed this idea in his What d'ye call it, where Peafcod fays:

Stay let me pledge. 'tis my laft earthly liquor. Peafcod's fubfequent bequest is likewife copied from Peter's divifion of his moveables. STEEVENS.

upon my man's infligation, to prove him a knavė, and myself an honeft man: and touching the duke *of of York, will take my death, I never meant him. any ill, nor the king, nor the queen; * And therefore, Peter, have at thee with a downright blow, as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Afcapart. 9

* YORK. Defpatch: this knave's tongue begins to double.

2

as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Afcapart.] I have added this from the old quarto. WARBURTON.

Afcapart the giant of the ftory a name familiar to our ancestors, is mentioned by Dr. Donne:

"Thole Afcaparts, men big enough to throw
"Charing-cross for a bar, &c. JOHNSON.

The figures of thefe combatants are ftill preferved on the gates of Southampton. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare not having adopted these words, according to the hypothesis already ftated, they ought perhaps not to be here introduced. However, I am not, fo wedded to my own opinion, as to oppose it to fo many preceding editors, in a matter of so little importance. MALONE.

2 — this knave's tongue begins to double. So, in Holinfhed, whose narrative Shakspeare has deferted, by making the armourer confefs treafon.

"In the fame yeare alfo, a certeine armourer was appeached of treafon by a fervant of his owne. For proofe whereof a daie was giuen them to fight in Smithfield, infomuch that in conflict the said armourer was ouercome and flaine; but yet by mifgouerning of himfelfe. For on the morrow, when he fhould haue come to the field fresh and fafting, his neighbours came to him, and gaue him wine and frong drink in fuch exceffiue fort, that he was therewith distempered, and reeled as he went; and fo was flain without guilt as for the falfe feruant, he liued not long," &c.

By favour of Craven Ord, Efq. I have now before me the original Exchequer record of expences attending this memorable combat. From hence it appears that William Catour, the Armourer, was not killed by his opponent John Davy, but worfted, and immediately afterwards hanged. The following is the laft article in the account; and was ftruck off by the Barons of Exchequer, because it contained charges unauthorized by the theriffs.

*Sound trumpets, alarum to the combatants. [Alarum. They fight, and Peter Strikes down his mafter.

HOR. Hold, Peter, hold! I confefs, I confefs treason. [Dies. * YORK. Take away his weapon:-Fellow, thank *God, and the good wine in thy mafter's way.

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PET. O God! have I overcome mine enemies in this prefence? O Peter, thou haft prevailed in right!

K. HEN. Go, take hence that traitor from our

fight;

For, by his death, we do perceive his guilt:
And God, in justice, hath reveal'd to us
The truth and innocence of this poor fellow,

"Alfo paid to officers for watchyng of ye ded man in Smyth felde ye fame day and ye nyghte aftyr yt ye bataill was doon, and for hors hyre for ye officeres at ye execucion doing, and for ye hangmans labor, xjs, vid.

"Alfo paid for ye cloth yat lay upon ye ded man in Smyth felde, viijd

Allo paid for I pole and nayllis, and for fettyng up of ye faid mannys hed on london Brigge, v. d

The fum total of expence incurred on this occafion was

3

6. d.

>Sum. xij. vii.

L. 10 18 9

I know not why Shakspeare has called the Armourer Horner. The name of one of the fheriffs indeed was Horne, as appears from the record before me, which will be printed at full length by Mr. Nichols in one of his valuable colle&ions. STEEVENS.

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For, by his death, we do perceive his guilt: According to the ancient ufage of the duel, the vanquished perfon not only loft his life but his reputation, and his death was always regarded as a certain evidence of his guilt. We have a remarkable infance of this in an account of the Duellum inter Dominum Johannem Hannefly, Militem, Robertum Katlenton, Armigerum, in quo Robertus fuit occifus. From whence, fays the hiftorian, magna fuit evidentia quod militis caufa erat vera, ex quo mors alterius fequebatur, ann. 1380, p. 149. BOWLE.

A. Murimuth, ad