in prey. Let not the creaking of shoes, nor the rustling of silks, betray thy poor heart to women: Keep thy foot out of brothels, thy hand out of plackets, thy pen from lenders' books, and defy the foul fiend.-Still through the hawthorn blows the cold wind: Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by [Storm still continues. snoring for sloth, &c.-Harsnet's Book, pp. 279, 280, &c. To this probably our author alludes. STEEVENS. thy hand out of PLACKETS,] It appeareth from the following passage in Any Thing for a Quiet Life, a silly comedy, that placket doth not signify the petticoat in general, but only the aperture therein: "between which is discovered the open part which is now called the placket." Bayley in his Dictionary, giveth the same account of the word. Yet peradventure, our poet hath some deeper meaning in The Winter's Tale, where Autolycus saith-" you might have pinched a placket, it was senseless : "—and, now I bethink me, sir Thomas Urquart, knight, in his translation of that wicked varlet Rabelais, styleth the instrument wherewith Garagantua played at carnal tennis, his "placket-racket." See that work, vol. i. p. 184, edit. 1750. Impartiality nevertheless compelleth me to observe, that Master Coles in his Dictionary hath rendered placket by sinus muliebris : and a pleasant commentator who signeth himself T. C. hath also produced instances in favour of that signification; for, saith he, but hear we his own words: " Peradventure a placket signified neither a petticoat nor any part of one; but a stomacher." See the word Torace in Florio's Italian Dict. 1598. .66 The brest or bulke of a man.-Also a placket or stomacher."-The word seems to be used in the same sense in The Wandering Whores, &c. a comedy, 1663: " If I meet a cull in Morefields, I can give him leave to dive in my placket.” · So that, after all, this matter is enwrapped in much and painful uncertainty. AMNER. 5- thy pen from lenders' books,] So, in All Fools, a comedy, by Chapman, 1605 : "If I but write my name in mercers' books, "I am as sure to have at six months end STEEVENS. 6 Says suum, mun, ha no nonny, dolphin my boy, my boy, sessa; let him trot by.] The quartos read "the cold wind; hay, LEAR. Why, thou were better in thy grave, than to answer with thy uncovered body this extremity no on ny, Dolphin my boy, my boy, cease, let him trot by." The folio-"the cold wind: sayes suum, mun, nonny, Dolphin my boy, boy Sessey, let him trot by." The text is formed from the two copies. I have printed Sessa, instead of Sessey, because the same cant word occurs in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew : Therefore, paucas pallabris; let the world slide: Sessa." 66 MALONE. Hey no nonny" is the burthen of a ballad in The Two Noble Kinsmen, (said to be written by Shakspeare, in conjunction with Fletcher,) and was probably common to many others. The folio introduces it into one of Ophelia's songs. 66 Dolphin, my boy, my boy, 66 Cease, let him trot by ; "It seemeth not that such a foe This is a stanza from a very old ballad written on some battle fought in France, during which the King, unwilling to put the suspected valour of his son the Dauphin, i. e. Dolphin, (so called and spelt at those times,) to the trial, is represented as desirous to restrain him from any attempt to establish an opinion of his courage on an adversary who wears the least appearance of strength; and at last assists in propping up a dead body against a tree for him to try his manhood upon. Therefore, as different champions are supposed to cross the field, the King always discovers some objection to his attacking each of them, and repeats these two lines as every fresh personage is introduced: "Dolphin, my boy, my boy," &c. The song I have never seen, but had this account from an old gentleman, who was only able to repeat part of it, and died before I could have supposed the discovery would have been of the least importance to me.-As for the words, says suum, mun, they are only to be found in the first folio, and were probably added by the players, who, together with the compositors, were likely enough to corrupt what they did not understand, or to add more of their own to what they already concluded to be nonsense. STEEVENS. Coke cries out, in Bartholomew Fair : 66 God's my life!-He shall be Dauphin my boy!" FARMER. It is observable that the two songs to which Mr. Steevens refers for the burden of " Hey no nonny," are both sung by girls distracted from disappointed love. The meaning of the burden may be inferred from what follows.-Drayton's Shepherd's Garland, 1593, 4to.:: of the skies.-Is man no more than this? Consider him well: Thou owest the worm no silk, the beast no hide, the sheep no wool, the cat no perfume: Ha! here's three of us are sophisticated!—Thou art the thing itself: unaccommodated man is no more but such a poor, bare, forked animal as thou art.-Off, off, you lendings:-Come; unbutton here 7.[Tearing off his clothes. FOOL. Pr'ythee, nuncle, be contented; this is a naughty night to swim in .-Now a little fire in a wild field were like an old lecher's heart; a small 8 "Who ever heard thy pipe and pleasing vaine, "That doth not muse." - these dauncers Again, in White's Wit of a Woman: sometimes do teach them trickes above trenchmore, yea and sometimes such lavoltas, that they mount so high, that you may see their hey nony, nony, nony, no." HENLEY. 66 Hey nonny, nonny," although sometimes used by those who thought an indecent meaning might not be so offensive, when nonsensically expressed, was nothing more than a common burthen of a song, like fal lal or derry down. Amiens, in As You Like It, was certainly not a girl distracted from disappointed love, and he employs it without any such meaning as is here ascribed to it. BosWELL. Come; unbutton here.] Thus the folio. One of the quartos reads-Come on, be true. STEEVENS. 7 Quartos A and B read so; quarto C, come on. fol. 93: BOSWELL. a NAUGHTY night to swim in.] So, Tusser, chap. xlii. "Ground grauellie, sandie, and mixed with claie, "Is naughtie for hops anie manner of waie." Naughty signifies bad, unfit, improper. This epithet which, as it stands here, excites a smile, in the age of Shakspeare was employed on serious occasions. The merriment of the Fool, therefore, depended on his general image, and not on the quaintness of its auxiliary. STEEVENS. 9 an old lecher's heart;] This image appears to have been imitated by Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Humorous Lieu "Is like the glow-worm's light the apes so wonder'd at; spark, all the rest of his body cold.-Look, here comes a walking fire. 2 EDG. This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet1: he begins at curfew, and walks till the first cock ; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye, and "Which when they gather'd sticks, and laid upon't, I - Flibbertigibbet:] We are not much acquainted with this fiend. Latimer, in his Sermons, mentions him; and Heywood, among his sixte hundred of Epigrams, edit. 1576, has the following, of calling one Flebergibet: "Thou Flebergibet, Flebergibet, thou wretch! "Wottest thou whereto last part of that word doth stretch? STEEVENS. "Frateretto, Fliberdigibet, Hoberdidance, Tocobatto, were four devils of the round or morrice..... These four had forty assistants under them, as themselves doe confesse." Harsnet, p. 49. 2 PERCY. he begins at CURFEW, and walks till the first cock;] It is an old tradition that spirits were relieved from the confinement in which they were held during the day, at the time of curfew, that is, at the close of day, and were permitted to wander at large till the first cock-crowing. Hence, in The Tempest, they are said to "rejoice to hear the solemn curfew." See Hamlet, Act I. Sc. I.: and at his [the cock's] warning, "Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, Again, Sc. V.: "I am thy father's spirit, "Doom'd for a certain time to walk the night, 66 "shall for that vast of And for the day confin'd to fast in fires-.' MALONE. See Tempest, Act I. Sc. II. [note on night that they may work."] STEEVENS. web and the pin,] Diseases of the eye. JOHNSON. So, in Every Woman in her Humour, 1609. One of the characters is giving a ludicrous description of a lady's face, and when he comes to her eyes he says, a pin and web argent, in hair du roy." STEEVENS. The pin and web was a cataract. See Florio's Dict. voce Cataratta. MALONE. makes the hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the poor creature of earth. Saint Withold footed thrice the wold ; And her troth plight, And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee! The Lapland method of cure for " a disease of the eyes called the pin and web, which is an imperfect stage of a cataract, is given by Acerbi in his Travels, vol. ii. p. 290. BLAKIWAY. 4 Saint Withold footed thrice the wold; He met the night-mare, and her NINE-FOLD; Bid her alight, And her troth plight, And, aroint thee, witch, aroint thee!] We should read it thus: 66 Saint Withold footed thrice the wold, "He met the night-mare, and her name told, "Bid her alight, and her troth plight, "And aroynt thee, witch, aroynt thee right." i. e. Saint Withold traversing the wold or downs, met the nightmare; who having told her name, he obliged her to alight from those persons whom she rides, and plight her troth to do no more mischief. This is taken from a story of him in his legend. Hence he was invoked as the patron saint against that distemper. And these verses were no other than a popular charm, or night-spell against the Epialtes. The last line is the formal execration or apostrophe of the speaker of the charm to the witch, aroynt thee right, i. e. depart forthwith. Bedlams, gipsies, and such like vagabonds, used to sell these kinds of spells or charms to the people. They were of various kinds for various disorders, and addressed to various saints. We have another of them in the Monsieur Thomas of Fletcher, which he expressly calls a night-spell, and is in these words: "Saint George, Saint George, our lady's knight, "And when he had her found, "He her beat and her bound; "Until to him her troth she plight, "She would not stir from him that night." WARBURTON. This is likewise one of the " magical cures' for the incubus, quoted, with little variation, by Reginald Scott in his Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584. STEEVENS. In the old quarto the corruption is such as may deserve to be noted. "Swithald footed thrice the olde anelthu night moore |