Pensioners were Gentlemen of the band of Pensioners. ,,In the month of December," [1559] says Stowe, Annals, p. 973, edit. 1605, ,,were appointed to waite on the King's person fifty Gentlemen called Pensioners, or Speares, like as they were in the first yeare of the King; unto whom was assigned the summe of fiftie pounds, yerely, for the maintenance of themselves, and everie man two horses, orone horse and a gelding of service." Their dress was remarkably splendid, and therefore likely to attract the notice of Mrs. Quickly. Hence, (as both 'Mr. Steevens and Mr. T. Warton have observed] in A Midsummer Night's: Dream, our author has selected from all the tribes of flowers the goldencoated cowslips to be pensioners to the Fairy Queen: „The cowslips tall her pensioners be, : P. 207, 1. 22. To wot is to know. Obsolete. .* P. 207. 1. 25. frampold -). This word I have never seen elsewhere, except in Dr. Hacker's Life of Archbishop Williams, where a frampul man signifiés a peevish troublesome fellow. JOHNSON. Ray, among his South and East country words, observes, that frampald, or frampard, signifies fretful, peevish, cross, froward. As froward (he adds) comes from from; so may frampard. STEEVENS. Thus, in The Isle of Gulls - „What a goodyer aile you mother? are you frampull? know you not your own daughter?" HENLEY. P. 208, 1. 15. Of all loves, is an adjuration only, and signifies no more than if she had said, desires you to send him by all means. STEEVENS. P.208, 1. 28. have a nay-word,] i. e. a watch word. So, in a subsequent scene: ,,- We have a nay-word to know one another," etc. STEEVENS. P. 209, 1. 4. This punk is one of Cupid's carriers: - Punk is a plausible reading, yet absurd on examination. For are not ali punks Cupid's carriers? Shakspeare certainly wrote: This PINK is one of Cupid's carriers: And then the sense is proper, and the metaphor, which is all the way taken from the marine, entire. A pink is a vessel of the small craft, employed as a carrier (and so called) for merchants. Fletcher uses the word in his Tamer Tamed: ار This FINK, this painted foist, this cockle boat. WARBURTON. So, in The Ladies' Privilege, 1640: „These gentlemen know better to cut a caper than a cable, or board a pink in the bordells, than a pinnace, at sea." A small salmon is called a salmonpink. Dr. Farmer, however, observes, that the word punk has been unnecessarily altered to pink. In Len Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, justice Overdo says of the pig woman; „She hath been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two and twenty years." STEEVENS. P. 209, 1. 5.- pursue, up with your fights;] The word fights, was then, and, for aught I know, may be now, a common sea-term. Sir Richard Hawkins in his Voyages, p. 66, says: „For once we cleared her deck; and had we been able to have spared but a dozen men, doubtless we 1 had done with her what we would; for she had no close FIGHTS," i. e. if I understand it right, no small arms. So that by fights is meant any manner of defence, either small arms or cannon. So, Dryden, in his tragedy of Amboyna Up with your FIGHTS, „And your nettings prepare, etc.. The quotation from Dryden might at least have raised a suspicion that fights were neither small arms, nor cannon. Fights and nettings are properiy joined. Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the ship to conceal the men from the ene my; and close fights are bulk-beads, or any other shelter that the fabrick of a ship affords. JOHNSON. P. 209, 1. 17. and hath sent your Worship a morning's draught of sack.] It seems to have been a common custom at taverns, in our author's time, to send presents of wine from one room to another, either as a memorial of friend ship, or (as in the present instance) by way of introduction to acquaintance. Of the existence of this practice the following anecdote of Ben Jonson and the ingenious Bishop Corbet furnishes a proof. „Ben Jonson was at a tavern, and in comes Bishop Corbet (but not so then) into the next room. Ben Jonson calls for a quart of raw wine, and gives it to the tapster., Sirrah, says he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, and tell him, I sacrifice my service to him. The fellow did, and in those words. Friend, says Dr. Corbet, I thank him for his love; but 'pr'ythee tell him from me that he is mistaken; for sacrifices are always burnt." •Merry Passages and Jeasts, MSS. Harl. 6395. MALONE. P. 209, 1. 24. - via!) Markham uses this word as one of the vocal helps necessary for re viving a horse's spirit, in galloping large rings, when he grows slothful. Hence this cant phrase (perhaps from the Italian, via) may be used on other occasions to quicken the pulse or courage. TOLLET. P. 210, 1. 4. - not to charge you;) That is, not with a purpose of putting you to expence, or being burthensome. JOHNSON. P. 211, last 1. of great admittance,] i. e. ad. mitted into all, or the greatest companies. STEEVENS. P. 212, 1.2. Allowed is approved. STEEVENS. P. 212, 1. 8. an amiable siege,] i. e. a siege of love. MALONE. P. 212, 1. 21. Instance is example. JOHNSON. P. 212, 1. 22. the ward of her purity,] i. e. The defence of it. STEEVENS. What Ford means to say is, that if he could once detect her in a crime, he should then be able to drive her from those defences with which she would otherwise ward off his addresses, such as her purity, her reputation, her marriage vow, etc. M. MASON. 1. P. 213, 1.25. and I will aggravate his stile;] Stile is a phrase from the Herald's office. Falstaff meaus, that he will add more titles to those he already enjoys. STEEVENS. P. 214, 1. 2. 3. Amaimon sounds well; Lu cifer, well; Barbason, well] The reader who is curious to know any particulars concerning these daemons, may find them in Reginald Scott's Inven tarie of the Names, Shapes, Powers, Governe ment, and Effects of Devils and Spirits, of their several Segnories and Degrees: a strange Dis course woorth the reading, p. 577, etc, From hence it appears that Amaimon' was King of the East, and Barbatos a great countie or earle. STEEVENS. Ρ. 214, 1. 5. wittol-cuckold!) One who knows his wife's falsehood, and is contented with it; from wittan, Saxon, to know. MALONE. P. 214, 1. 10. my aqua-vitae bottle,] Heywood, in his Challenge for Beauty, 1636, mentions the love of aqua-vitae as characteristick of the Irish? ,,The Briton he metheglin quaffs, „The Irish aqua-vitae. The Irish aqua-vitae, I believe, was not brandy, but usquebaugh, for which Ireland has been long celebrated. MALONE. Dericke, in The Image of Irelande, 1581, Sign. F 2, mentions Uskebeaghe, and in a note explains it to mean aqua vitae. REED. P. 214, 1. 16. Eleven o'clock the hour] Ford should rather have said ten o'clock the time was between ten and eleven; and his impatient suspicion was not likely to stay beyond the time. JOHNSON. It was necessary for the plot that he should mistake the hour, and come too late. M. MASON. It is necessary for the business of the piece that Falstaff should be at Ford's house before his return. Hence our author made him name the later hour. See Act III. sc. ii: -„The clock gives me-my cue; - there I shall find Falstaff." When he says above, „I shall prevent this," he means, not the meeting, but his wife's effecting her purpose. MALONE. P. 215, 1. 14. To foin, I believe, was the ancient term for making a thrust in fencing, or tilting. STEEVENS. P. 215, L. 16. Stock is a corruption of stocata, |