1 an infurrection: and in failure of that, to have my Sc. 2. p. 343. My Lord of Cambridge, and Folios 1623, 1632. K. Henry. God quit you in his mercy, bear your You have confpired against our perfon, &c, 66 "The King having fecured their perfons, ❝he in a publick affembly of his nobility, and officers, with the juft refentments due from injured majefty, told them, That fince they had confpired to murder him, the head and father of "the people; it was not to be doubted, but that they also had mark'd out all those brave men for flaughter, to their country's ruine, and their own perpetual infamy: therefore fince they had "been guilty of fuch an execrable crime, they fhould without mercy receive the just demerits 86 of their villany. Whereupon the criminals "were led out to execution, which was perform"ed ed in the fight of the whole army." Echard's Hift. of England, vol. 1. p. 440. Holinfbed, p. See likewife Hall's Chronicle, folio 44, 1173. and and the History of the Trials of Great Britain and Ireland, published 1715. p. 80, &c. Sc. 3. p. 349. Enter Pistol, Nim, Bardolph, boy, and Quickly. Quickly. For his nofe was as sharp as a pen on a table of green fields.] Here our editors, not knowing what to make of a table of green fields, Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton have caft it out of the text; others have turn'd it into,' "and have babbled "of green fields." But had they been appriz'd that (a) table in our author fignifies a pocket book, I believe they would have retained it, with the following alteration. "For his nofe was as fharp as a pen upon a "table of green fells." On table-books, filver, or fteel pens, very fharp-pointed, were formerly, and are still fix'd either to the backs or covers. Mother Quickly compares Falstaff's nofe, (which in dying perfons grows thin, and sharp) to one of those pens very properly, and she meant probably to have faid, on a table-book with a hagreen cover, or fhagreen table, but in her ufual blundering way, fhe calls it a table of green fells, or a table cover'd with green skin: which the blundering transcriber turn'd into green fields and our editors have turn'd the (a) So it is used in the Firft Part of King Henry the Fourth. And in Hamlet Prince of Denmark, a& 1. fc. 8. p. 149. the the prettiest blunder in Shakespeare, quite out of doors. Mr. Smith. A&t 2. fc. 4. P. 352. Dau. My most redoubted father, It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe No with no more, than if we heard that England The English were famed for these, and fuch like diverfions: and even the old, as well as young perfons, formerly followed them: a remarkable inftance of which, is given by Sir William Temple, (in his Mifcellanea, part 3. Effay of Health and Long Life,) who makes mention of a morrice dance in Herefordshire, from a noble perfon; who told him he had a pamphlet in his library written by a very ingenious gentleman of that county, which gave an account, how in such a year of King James's reign, there went about the country a fett of morrice dancers, compofed of ten men who danced, a maid marian, and a tabor and pipe: and how these twelve one with another, made up twelve hundred years. 'Tis hot fo much (fays he) that fo many in one fmall county fhould live to that age, as that they fhould be in vigour, and humour to travel and dance. See an account of the morrice dance. Minhieu's Guide into the Tongues, col. 476. 3 A& 3. A& 3. fc. 1. p. 358. The-offer likes not, and the nimble gunner With Lynftock, now the devilish cannon touches] He might call them devilish cannon, in allufion to the inhabitants of the kingdom of Mongebar, in the kingdom of the Negus, who fay, that guns were the devil's invention. Le Blanc's Travels, chap. 14. p. 233. (a) Philip Melanthon feems to have been of the fame opinion. So Spenfer. "As when that devilish engine wrought "In deepest hell, and fram'd by furies fkill, "With windy nitre, and quick fulphur fraught, "And ramm'd with bullet round, ordain'd "to kill "Conceiveth fire; the heavens it doth fill "With thundring noife, and all the air doth "choke, "That none can breath, nor fee, nor hear "at will "Through fmouldry cloud of duskish stinking smoke, 66 "That th' only breath him daunts who hath efcap'd the ftroke." 66 Fairy Queen, book 1. canto 7. 13. (a) Inventum hoc fæculo tradunt, in generis humani perniciem, ille ferale bellicofum tormentorum genus quod bombardas a fonitu vocamus, monacho miniftro, et fabro, diabolo architecto. Chronic. Carionis edit. à Philippo Melantho, &c. 1580. lib. 5. p. 617. Sc. 2. p. 358. Whofe blood is fetch'd from fathers of wanproof.] Whose blood is fet, Folio 1632. The word fet was us'd in the same sense with fetch'd, in Chaucer's time. See Glossary to Mr. Urry's edition. And by Spenser. "Upon his head his glift'ring burganet "The which was wrought by wonderous "device "And curiously engraven he did fet, "The metal was of rare, and paffing price "Not Bilbo fteel, nor brafs from Corinth fet, "Nor coftly oricalch from ftrange Phenice, "But fuch as could both Phabus arrows ward, And th' hailing darts of heaven, beating "hard." Muiopotmos, or The Fate of the Butterfly, works, p. 1343. So it was used in Shakespeare's time, as appears from several paffages of fcripture, of the laft tranflation at the Hampton Court Conference; at the beginning of King James the First's reign. "Then King David fent, and fet him out of "the houfe of Machir. 2 Sam. ix. 5. "And when the mourning was paft, David "fent and fet her to his house. 27. 2 Sam. xi. "And King Solomon fent and fet Hiram out "of Tyre. 1 Kings vii. 13. "And |