ANT. S. What! thou mean'st an officer?

As the artists improved the strength of their powder, the soldiers proportionably shortened their arms and artillery; so that the cannon, which Froissart tells us was once fifty feet long, was contracted to less than ten. This proportion likewise held in their muskets; so that, till the middle of the last century, the musketeers always supported their pieces, when they gave fire, with a rest stuck before them into the ground, which they called setting up their rest, and is here alluded to. There is another quibbling allusion too to the serjeant's office of arresting. But what most wants animadversion is the morris-pike, which is without meaning, impertinent to the sense, and false in the allusion: no pike being used amongst the dancers so called, or at least not famed for much execution. In a word, Shakspeare' wrote

a Maurice-pike..

i. e. a pikeman of Prince Maurice's army. He was the greatest general of that age, and the conductor of the Low-country wars against Spain, under whom all the English gentry and nobility were bred to the service. Hence the pikes of his army became famous for their military exploits. WARBURTON.

!

This conjecture is very ingenious, yet the commentator talks unnecessarily of the rest of a musket, by which he makes the hero of the speech set up the rest of a musket to do exploits with a pike. The rest of a pike was a common term, and signified, I believe, the manner in which it was fixed to receive the rush of the enemy. A morris-pike was a pike used in a morris or a military dance, and with which great exploits were done, that is, great feats of dexterity were shown. There is no need of change. JOHNson.

A morris-pike is mentioned by the old writers as a formidable weapon; and therefore Dr. Warburton's notion is deficient in first principles. "Morespikes (says Langley, in his translation of Polydore Virgil,) were used first in the siege of Capua." And in Reynard's Deliverance of certain Christians from the Turks," the English mariners laid about them with brown bills, halberts, and morrice-pikes." FARMer.

Polydore Virgil does not mention morris-pikes at the siege of Capua, though Langley's translation of him advances their antiquity so high.

Morris pikes, or the pikes of the Moors, were excellent formerly; and since, the Spanish pikes have been equally famous. See Hartlib's Legacy, p. 48. TOLLET.

DRO. S. Ay, sir, the sergeant of the band; he, that brings any man to answer it, that breaks his band; one that thinks a man always going to bed, and says, God give you good rest!

ANT. S. Well, sir, there rest in your foolery, Is there any ship puts forth to-night? may we be gone?

DRO. S. Why, sir, I brought you word an hour since, that the bark Expedition put forth to-night; and then were you hindered by the sergeant, to tarry for the hoy, Delay: Here are the angels that you sent for, to deliver you.

ANT. S. The fellow is distract, and so am I; And here we wander in illusions;

Some blessed power deliver us from hence!

The mention of morris-pikes is frequent among our old writers. So, in Heywood's King Edward IV. 1626:

"Of the French were beaten down

66

Morris-pikes and bowmen," &c.

Again, in Holinshed, p. 816: "they entered the gallies again with moris pikes and fought," &c. STEEvens.

Swords

There is, I believe, no authority for Dr. Johnson's assertion, that the Morris-Pike was used in the Morris-dance. were sometimes used upon that occasion. It certainly means the Moorish-pike, which was very common in the 16th century. See Grose's History of the English Army, Vol. I. p. 135.

Douce.

The phrase he that sets up his rest, in this instance, signifies only, I believe," he that trusts"—is confident in his expectation. Thus, Bacon: "Sea-fights have been final to the war, but this is, when Princes set up their REST upon the battle." Again, Clarendon : 66 they therefore resolved to set up their REST upon that stake, and to go through with it, or perish." This figure of speech is certainly derived from the REST which Dr. Warburton has described, as that was the only kind of rest which was ever set up. HENLEY.

Enter a Courtezan.

COUR. Well met, well met, master Antipholus. I see, sir, you have found the goldsmith now: Is that the chain, you promis'd me to-day?

ANT. S. Satan, avoid! I charge thee tempt me not!

DRO. S. Master, is this mistress Satan?

ANT. S. It is the devil.

DRO. S. Nay, she is worse, she is the devil's dam; and here she comes in the habit of a light wench; and thereof comes, that the wenches say, God damn me, that's as much as to say, God make me a light wench. It is written, they appear to men like angels of light light is an effect of fire, and fire will burn; ergo, light wenches will burn; Come not near her.

COUR. Your man and you are marvellous, merry,

sir.

Will you go with me? We'll mẹnd our dinner here.3

DRO. S. Master, if you do expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a long spoon.*

3

We'll mend our dinner here.] i. e. by purchasing something additional in the adjoining market. MALONE.

if you do expect spoon-meat, or bespeak a long spoon.] The passage is wrong pointed, and the or, a mistake for and: Cour. We'll mend our dinner here.

Dro. S. Master, if you do, expect spoon meat, and bespeak a long spoon. RITSON.

In the old copy you is accidentally omitted. It was supplied by the editor of the second folio. I believe some other words were passed over by the compositor, perhaps of this import: "If you do expect spoon-meat, either stay away, or bespeak a long spoon."

ANT. S. Why, Dromio?

DRO. S. Marry, he must have a long spoon, that must eat with the devil.

ANT. S. Avoid then, fiend! what tell'st thou me of supping?

Thou art, as you are all, a sorceress:

I conjure thee to leave me, and be gone.

COUR. Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner,

Or, for my diamond, the chain you promis'd;
And I'll be gone, sir, and not trouble you.

DRO. S. Some devils ask but the paring of one's
nail,

A rush, a hair, a drop of blood," a pin,

A nut, a cherry-stone; but she, more covetous, Would have a chain.

Master, be wise; an' if you give it her,

The devil will shake her chain, and fright us with it.

COUR. I pray you, sir, my ring, or else the chain; I hope, you do not mean to cheat me so.

ANT. S. Avaunt, thou witch! Come, Dromio, let us go.

DRO. S. Fly pride, says the peacock: Mistress, that you know.

[Exenunt ANT. S. and DRO. S. COUR. Now, out of doubt, Antipholus is mad, Else would he never so demean himself:

The proverb mentioned afterwards by Dromio, is again alluded to in The Tempest. See Vol. IV. p. 87, n. 2. MALONE.

5

— a drop of blood,] So, in The Witch, by Middleton, when a spirit descends, Hecate exclaims

"There's one come downe to fetch his dues,

"A kisse, a coll, a sip of blood," &c. STEEVENS.

;

A ring he hath of mine worth forty ducats,
And for the same he promis'd me a chain
Both one, and other, he denies me now.
The reason that I gather he is mad,
(Besides this present instance of his rage,)
Is a mad tale, he told to-day at dinner,

Of his own doors being shut against his entrance.
Belike, his wife, acquainted with his fits,
On purpose shut the doors against his way.
My way is now, to hie home to his house,
And tell his wife, that, being lunatick,
He rush'd into my house, and took perforce
My ring away: This course I fittest choose;
For forty ducats is too much to lose.

[Exit.

SCENE IV.

The same.

Enter ANTIPHOLUS of Ephesus, and an Officer.

ANT. E. Fear me not, man, I will not break away;

I'll give thee, ere I leave thee, so much money
To warrant thee, as I am 'rested for.
My wife is in a wayward mood to-day;
And will not lightly trust the messenger,
That I should be attach'd in Ephesus:
I tell you, 'twill sound harshly in her ears.-

Enter DROMIO of Ephesus, with a rope's end.

Here comes my man; I think, he brings the money. How now, sir? have you that I sent you for?