word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature.

MAR. He hath, indeed,-almoft natural: for, besides that he's a fool, he's a great quarreller; and, but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the guft he hath in quarelling, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave.

SIR TO. By this hand, they are fcoundrels, and fubftractors, that fay fo of him. Who are they? MAR. They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company.

SIR TO. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink to her, as long as there is a paffage in my throat, and drink in Illyria: He's a coward, and a coyftril,' that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn o' the toe like a parifh-top." What,

9 He hath indeed, almoft natural:] to regulate this paffage differently:

I

He hath indeed, all, moft natural,

Mr. Upton propofes

MALONE.

a coyftril,] i. e. a coward cock. It may, however, be a keyftril, or a baftard hawk; a kind of stone-hawk. So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

as dear

As ever coyftril bought fo little fport." STEEVENS.

women

A coyftril is a paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them. So, in Holinfhed's Defcription of England, Vol. I, p. 162: Cofterels, or bearers of the armes of barons or knights." Vol. III. p. 248 : "So that a knight with his efquire and coiftrell with his two horfes." P, 272: lackies, and coifterels, are confidered as the unwarlike attendants on an army." So again, in p. 127, and 217 of his History of Scotland, For its etymology, fee Couftille and Couftillier in Cotgrave's Dictionary. TOLLET.

2

like a parifh-top.] This is one of the customs now laid afide. A large top was formerly kept in every village, to be whipped in frofty weather, that the peasants may be kept warm by exercife, and out of mifchief, while they could not

wench? Caftiliano vulgo ;3 for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face.

work. The fame comparison is brought forward in the Night Walker of Fletcher:

"And dances like a town-top, and reels and hobbles."

STEEVENS.

"To fleep like a town-top," is a proverbial expreffion. A top is faid to fleep, when it turns round with great velocity, and makes a smooth humming noise. BLACKSTONE.

3 Caftiliano vulgo ;] We fhould read volto. In English, put on your Caftilian countenance; that is, your grave, folemn looks. WARBURTON.

Caftiliano vulgo;] I meet with the word Caftilian and Caftilians in feveral of the old comedies. It is difficult to affign any peculiar propriety to it, unless it was adopted immediately after the defeat of the Armada, and became a cant term capriciously expreffive of jollity or contempt. The Hoft, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, calls Caius a Caftilian-king Urinal; and in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, one of the characters fays: "Ha! my Caftilian dialogues!" In an old comedy called Look about you, 1600, it is joined with another toper's exclamation very frequent in Skakspeare:

"And Rivo will he cry, and Caftile too." So again, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633:

Hey, Rivo Caftiliano, man's a man." Again, in The Stately Moral of the Three Lords of London, 1590:

"Three Cavaliero's Caftilianos here," &c.

Cotgrave, however, informs us, that Caftille not only fignifies the nobleft part of Spain, but contention, debate, brabling, altercation. Ils font en Caftille. There is a jarre betwixt them; and prendre la Caftille pour autruy: To undertake another man's quarrel. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens has not attempted to explain vulgo, nor per haps can the proper explanation be given, unless fome incidental application of it may be found in connection with Caftiliano, where the context defines its meaning. Sir Toby here, having juft declared that he would perfift in drinking the health of his niece, as long as there was a passage in his throat, and drink in Illyria, at the fight of Sir Andrew, demands of Maria, with a banter, Caftiliano vulgo. What this was, may be probably inferred from a speech in The Shoemaker's Holiday, 4to, 1610: "Away, firke, fcower thy throat, thou shalt wash it with Gaftilian licuor." HENLEY.

Enter Sir ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK.

SIR AND. Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch?

SIR To. Sweet fir Andrew!

SIR AND. Bless you,

fair fhrew.

MAR. And you too, fir.

SIR TO. Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft.4

SIR AND. What's that?

SIR TO. My niece's chamber-maid.

SIR AND. Good miftrefs Accoft, I defire better acquaintance.

MAR. My name is Mary, fir.

SIR AND. Good Miftrefs Mary Accoft,

SIR TO. You mistake, knight: accoft, is, front her, board her,5 woo her, affail her.

4 Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft.] To accoft, had a fignification in our author's time that the word now feems to have loft. In the fecond part of The English Dictionary, by H. C. 1655, in which the reader "who is defirous of a more refined and elegant speech," is furnished with hard words, "to draw near,' is explained thus: "To accoft, appropriate, appropinquate." See alfo Cotgrave's Dict. in verb. accofter. Malone.

5 -board her,] "I hinted that bourd was the better reading. Mr. Steevens fuppofed it should then be bourd with her; but to the authorities which I have quoted for that reading in Jonfon, Catiline, A&t I. fc. iv. we may add the following: "I'll bourd him ftraight; how now Cornelio?"

All Fools, A& V. fc. i.

"He brings in a parafite that flowteth, and bourdeth Nafh's Lenten Stuff, 1599.

them thus.'

"I can bourd when I fee occafion."

'Tis Pity fhe's a Whore, p. 38. WHALLEY.

I am ftill unconvinced that board (the naval term) is not the proper reading. It is fufficiently familiar to our author in other places. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, Act II. fc. i:

SIR AND. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. Is that the meaning of

accoft?

MAR. Fare you well, gentlemen.

SIR TO. An thou let part fo, fir Andrew, 'would thou might'ft never draw fword again.

SIR AND. An you part fo, miftrefs, I would I might never draw fword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand?

MAR. Sir, I have not you by the hand.

SIR AND. Marry, but you fhall have; and here's my hand.

MAR. Now, fir, thought is free: I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink.

SIR AND. Wherefore, fweet heart? what's your metaphor ?

unless he knew some strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury. "Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be fure to keep him above deck," &c. &c. STEEVENS.

"He

Probably board her may mean no more than falute her, Speak to her, &c. Sir Kenelm Digby, in his Treatife of Bodies, 1643, fo. Paris, p. 253, fpeaking of a blind man, fays: would at the firft aboard of a ftranger, as foone as he spoke to him, frame a right apprehenfion of his ftature, bulke, and manner of making." REED.

To board is certainly to accoft, or addrefs. So, in the History of Celeftina the Faire, 1596: -whereat Alderine fomewhat difpleafed for fhe would verie faine have knowne who he was, boorded him thus." RITSON.

Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand!

Mar. Now, fir, thought is free:] There is the fame pleafantry in Lyly's Euphues, 1581: "None (quoth fhe) can judge of wit but they that have it; why then (quoth he) doest thou think me a fool? Thought is free, my Lord, quoth fhe."

HOLT WHITE.

MAR. It's dry, fir.”

SIR AND. Why, I think fo; I am not fuch an ass, but I can keep my hand dry. But what's jeft?

MAR. A dry jeft, fir.

ŞIR AND. Are you full of them?

your

MAR. Ay, fir; I have them at my fingers' ends: marry, now I let go your hand, I am barren.

[Exit MARIA. SIR TO. O knight, thou lack'st a cup of canary: When did I fee thee fo put down?

SIR AND. Never in your life, I think; unless you fee canary put me down: Methinks, fometimes I have no more wit than a Chriftian, or an ordinary man has: but I am a great eater of beef, and, I believe, that does harm to my wit.

7 It's dry, fir.] What is the jeft of dry hand, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may poffibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of phyfiognomy, the may intend to infinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moift hand being vulgarly accounted a fign of an amorous conftitution, JOHNSON.

So, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "But to say you had a dull eye, a fharp nofe (the vifible marks of a fhrew); a dry hand, which is the fign of a bad liver, as he faid you were, being toward a husband too; this was intolerable."

Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635: "Of all dry-fifted knights, I cannot abide that he should touch me." Again, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1606: "Let her marry a man of a melancholy complexion, she shall not be much troubled by him. My husband has a hand as dry as his brains," &c, The Chief Juftice likewife, in The Second Part of K. Henry IV. enumerates a dry hand among the characteristicks of debility and age. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, Charmian fays: "if an oily palm be not a fruitful prognoftication, I cannot fcratch mine ear." All these paffages will ferve to confirm Dr. Johnson's latter fuppofition. STEEVENS.