To give thee all, and, in his waning age, [Exit. TRA. A vengeance on your crafty wither'd hide! Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.5 and only fignifies-a wag, a frolickfome character. So, in King Henry VIII: "You are a merry gamefter, my lord Sands." STEEVENS. 5 Yet I have faced it with a card of ten.] That is, with the highest card, in the old fimple games of our ancestors. So that this became a proverbial expreffion. So, Skelton: Fyrfte pycke a quarrel, and fall out with him then, And, Ben Jonfon, in his Sad Shepherd: A.hart of ten has no reference to cards, but is an expreffion taken from The Laws of the Foreft, and relates to the age of the deer. When a hart is paft fix years old, he is generally called a hart of ten. See Foreft Laws, 4to. 1598. Again, in the fixth scene of The Sad Shepherd: a great large deer! 66 "Rob. What head? "John. Forked. A hart of ten." The former expreffion is very common. So, in Law-Tricks, &c. 1608: " I may be out-fac'd with a card of ten." Mr. Malone is of opinion that the phrafe was " applied to those persons who gained their ends by impudence, and bold confident affertion." As we are on the fubject of cards, it may not be amifs to take notice of a common blunder relative to their names. We call the king, queen, and knave, court-cards, whereas they were anciently denominated coats, or coat-cards, from their coats or dreffes. So, Ben Jonfon, in his New Inn: "When the is pleas'd to trick or trump mankind, Again, in May-day, a comedy, by Chapman, 1611: "She had in her hand the ace of harts and a coat-card. She led the board with her coat; I plaid the varlet, and took up her 'Tis in my head to do my mafter good:- Do get their children; but, in this cafe of wooing, A child fhall get a fire, if I fail not of my cunning." [Exit. coat; and meaning to lay my finger on her ace of hearts, up ftarted a quite contrary card." Again, in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1621: "You have been at noddy, I fee. 6 "Ay, and the firft card comes to my hand is a knave. "I am a coat-card, indeed. "Then thou must needs be a knave, for thou art neither queen nor king." STEEVENS. if I fail not of my cunning.] As this is the conclufion of an act, I fufpect that the poet defigned a rhyming couplet. Inftead of cunning we might read-doing, which is often used by Shakspeare in the fenfe here wanted, and agrees perfectly well with the beginning of the line-" a child shall get a fire.” After this, the former editors add Sly. Sim, when will the fool come again ?* "Sim. Anon, my lord. Sly. Give us fome more drink here; where's the tapfter? "Here, Sim, eat some of these things. "Sim. I do, my lord. Sly. Here, Sim, I drink to thee." These speeches of the prefenters, (as they are called,) are not in the folio. Mr. Pope, as in fome former inftances, introduced them from the old fpurious play of the fame name; and therefore we may eafily account for their want of connection with the prefent comedy. I have degraded them as ufual into the note. By the fool in the original piece, might be meant Sander the fervant to Ferando, (who is the Petruchio of Shakspeare,) or Ferando himfelf. It appears, however, from the following paffage in the eleventh -when will the fool come again ?] The character of the fool has not been introduced in this drama, therefore I believe that the word again should be omitted, and that Sly afks, When will the fool come? the fool being the favourite of the vulgar, or, as we now phrase it, of the upper gallery, was naturally expected in every interlude. JOHNSON. ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in Baptifta's House. Enter LUCENTIO, HORTENSIO, and BIANCA. Luc. Fiddler, forbear; you grow too forward, fir: Luc. Prepofterous afs! that never read fo far 66 Book of Thomas Lupton's Notable Things, edit. 1660, that it was the conftant office of the fool to preserve the stage from vacancy : 79. When Stage-plays were in ufe, there was in every place one that was called the Foole; as the Proverb faies, Like a Fool in a Play. At the Red Bull Play-house it did chance that the Clown or the Fool, being in the attireing house, was fuddenly called upon the ftage, for it was empty. He fuddenly going, forgot his Fooles-cap. One of the players bad his boy take it, and put it on his head as he was speaking. No fuch matter (faies the Boy,) there's no manners nor wit in that, nor wisdom neither; and my mafter needs no cap, for he is known to be a Fool without it, as well as with it." STEEVENS. 7 this is] Probably our author wrote-this lady is, which completes the metre, wrangling being used as a trifyllable. We fhould read, with Sir T. Hanmer : MALONE. But, wrangling pedant, know this lady is. RITSON. Then give me leave to read philosophy, HOR. Sirrah, I will not bear these braves of thine. BIAN. Why, gentlemen, you do me double wrong, To ftrive for that which refteth in my choice: I am no breeching scholar in the schools; I'll not be tied to hours, nor 'pointed times, But learn my leffons as I please myself. And, to cut off all strife, here fit we down: Take you your inftrument, play you the whiles; His lecture will be done, ere you have tun'd. HOR. You'll leave his lecture when I am in tune? [TO BIANCA.-HORTENSIO retires. Luc. That will be never ;-tune your inftrument. BIAN. Where left we laft? Luc. Here, madam : Hac ibat Simois; hic eft Sigeia tellus; Luc. Hac ibat, as I told you before,-Simois, I am Lucentio,-hic eft, fon unto Vincentio of Pifa, Sigeia tellus, difguised thus to get your love;-Hic fteterat, and that Lucentio that comes a wooing,Priami, is my man Tranio,-regia, bearing my -no breeching Scholar] i. e. no fchool-boy liable to corporal correction. So, in King Edward the Second, by Marlow, 1598 : "Whofe looks were as a breeching to a boy." Again, in The Hog has loft his Pearl, 1614: he went to fetch whips, I think, and, not refpecting my honour, he would have breech'd me." Again, in mends for Ladies, 1618: "If I had had a fon of fourteen that had served me fo, I would have breech'd him.” STEEVENS. port, celfa fenis, that we might beguile the old pantaloon.9 HOR. Madam, my inftrument's in tune. BIAN. Let's hear;· O fye! the treble jars. [Returning. [HORTENSIO plays. Luc. Spit in the hole, man, and tune again. BLAN. Now let me fee if I can conftrue it: Hac ibat Simois, I know you not; hic eft Sigeia tellus, I truft you not;-Hic fteterat Priami, take heed he hear us not;-regia, prefume not ;—celfa fenis, defpair not. HOR. Madam, 'tis now in tune. Luc. All but the base. HOR. The base is right; 'tis the base knave that jars. How fiery and forward our pedant is! Now, for my life, the knave doth court my love: Pedafcule, I'll watch you better yet. BIAN. In time I may believe, yet I mistrust.2 Luc. Miftruft it not; for, fure, acides Was Ajax,3-call'd fo from his grandfather. •9-pantaloon.] The old cully in Italian farces. JOHNSON. 1 Pedafcule,] He should have faid, Didafcale, but thinking this too honourable, he coins the word Pedafcule, in imitation of it, from pedant. WARBURTON. I believe it is no coinage of Shakspeare's, it is more probable that it lay in his way, and he found it. STEEVENS. 2 In time I may believe, yet I miftruft.] This and the seven verfes that follow, have in all the editions been ftupidly fhuffled and misplaced to wrong fpeakers; fo that every word faid was glaringly out of character. THEOBALD. 3 -for, fure, Eacides &c.] This is only faid to deceive |