Ther. I shall sooner rail thee into wit and holiness: but, I think, thy horse will sooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canst strike, canst thou? a red murrain o' thy jade's trick's!9 Ajax. Toads-stool, learn me the proclamation. Ther. Dost thou think, I have no sense, thou strikest me thus? Ajax. The proclamation, Ther. Thou art proclaimed a fool, I think. Ajax. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch. Ther. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the scratching of thee; I would make thee the loathsomest scab in Greece.1 When thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another. Ajax. I say, the proclamation, Ther. Thou grumblest and railest every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatness, as Cerberus is at Proserpina's beauty, ay, that thou barkest at him.2 Ajax. Mistress Thersites! Ther. Thou should'st strike him. Unsalted is the reading of both the quartos. Francis Beaumont, in his letter to Speght on his edition of Chaucer's works, 1602, says: Many of Chaucer's words are become as it were vinew'd and hoarie with over long lying." Again, in Tho. Newton's Herbal to the Bible, 8vo. 1587: "For being long kept they grow hore and vinewed." Steevens. In the Preface to James the First's Bible, the translators speak of fenowed (i. e. vinewed or mouldy) traditions. Blackstone. The folio has-thou whinid st leaven; a corruption undoubtedly of vinnewedst, or vinniedst: that is, thou most mouldy leaven. In Dorsetshire they at this day call cheese that is become mouldy vinny cheese. Malone. 9 a red murrain &c.] A similar imprecation is found in The Tempest: "— The red plague rid you!" Steevens. 1 in Greece.] [Thus far the folio.] The quarto adds—when thou art forth in the incursions, thou strikest as slow as another. 2 Johnson. ay, that thou barkest at him.] I read,-O that thou barkedst at him. Johnson. The old reading is I, which, if changed at all, should have been changed into ay. Tyrwhitt. 3 Cobloaf!] A crusty, uneven, gibbous loaf, is in some countie called by this name. Steevens. Ther. He would pun thee into shivers with his fist, as a sailor breaks a biscuit. Ajax. You whoreson cur! Ther. Do, do. Ajax. Thou stool for a witch !5 [Beating him. Ther. Ay, do, do; thou sodden-witted lord! thou hast no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an assinego A cob-loaf, says Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1617, is "a bunne. It is a little loaf made with a round head, such as cob-irons which support the fire. G. Bignet, a bigne, a knob or lump risen after a knock or blow." The word Bignets Cotgrave, in his Dictionary, 1611, renders thus: "Little round loaves or lumps, made of fine meale, oyle, or butter, and reasons: bunnes, lenten loaves." Cob-loaf ought, perhaps, to be rather written cop-loaf. Malone. 41 - pun thee into shivers -] Pun is in the midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for-pound. Johnson. It is used by P Holland, in his translation of Pliny's Natural History, Book XXVIII, ch. xii: “— punned altogether and reduced into a liniment" Again, Book XXIX, ch. iv: "The gall of these lizards punned and dissolved in water." Steevens. Cole, in his Dictionary, renders it by the Latin words contero, contundo. Mr. Pope, who altered whatever he did not understand, reads-pound, and was followed by three subsequent editors. Malone. 5 Thou stool for a witch!] In one way of trying a witch they used to place her on a chair or stool, with her legs tied across, that all the weight of her body might rest upon her seat; and by that means, after some time, the circulation of the blood would be much stopped, and her sitting would be as painful as the wooden horse. Grey. 6 an assinego-] I am not very certain what the idea conveyed by this word was meant to be. Asinaio is Italian, says Sir T. Hanmer, for an ass-driver: but, in Mirza, a tragedy, by Rob. Baron, Act III, the following passage occurs, with a note annexed to it: 66 the stout trusty blade, "That at one blow has cut an asinego "Asunder like a thread. "This (says the author) is the usual trial of the Persian shamsheers, or cemiters, which are crooked like a crescent, of so good metal, that they prefer them before any other, and so sharp as any razor." I hope, for the credit of the prince, that the experiment was rather made on an ass than an ass-driver. From the following passage I should suppose asinego to be merely a cant term for a foolish fellow, an idiot: "They apparelled me as you see, made a fool or an asinego of me." See The Antiquary, a comedy, by S. Marmion, 1641. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady: "— all may tutor thee: Thou scurvy valiant ass! thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and sold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian slave. If thou use to beat me, I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou! Ajax. You dog! Ther. You scurvy lord! Ajax. You cur! [Beating him. Ther. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do. Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS. Achil. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you thus? How now, Thersites? what's the matter, man? Ther. You see him there, do you? Achil. Ay; what's the matter? Ther. Nay, look upon him. Achil. So I do; What's the matter? Ther. Nay, but regard him well. Achil. Well, why I do so. Ther. But yet you look not well upon him: for, who soever you take him to be, he is Ajax. Achil. I know that, fool. Ther. Ay, but that fool knows not himself. Ther. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evasions have ears thus long. I have bobb'd his brain, more than he has beat my bones: I will buy nine sparrows for a penny, and his pia mater9 is not worth the this would be forsworn, and I again an asinego, as your sister left me." Steevens Asinego is Portuguese for a little ass. Musgrave. And Dr. Musgrave might have added, that, in his native coun ty, it is the vulgar name for an ass at present. Henley. The same term, as I am informed, is also current among the lower rank of people in Norfolk. Steevens. 7 sion. thou art bought and sold-] This was a proverbial expresMalone. So, in King Richard III: "For Dickon thy master is bought and sold.” Again, in King Henry VI, Part I: "From bought and sold lord Talbot." Steevens. 8 If thou use to beat me,] i. e. if thou continue to beat me, or make a practice of beating me. Steevens. 9 his pia mater &c.] So, in Twelfth Night: "~ - here VOL. XII. G ninth part of a sparrow. This lord, Achilles, Ajax,— who wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his head, -I'll tell you what I say of him. Achil. What? Ther. I say, this Ajax Achil. Nay, good Ajax. [AJAX offers to strike him, ACHIL. interposes. Ther. Has not so much wit Achil. Nay, I must hold you. Ther. As will stop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight. Achil. Peace, fool! Ther. I would have peace and quietness, but the foot will not: he there; that he; look you there. Ajax. O thou damned cur! I shall Achil. Will you set your wit to a fool's? Ther. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will shame it. Patr. Good words, Thersites. Achi. What's the quarrel? Ajax. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. Ther. I serve thee not, Ajax. Well, go to, go to. Ther. I serve here voluntary. Achil. Your last service was sufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary;1 Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an impress. Ther. Even so?-a great deal of your wit too lies in your sinews, or else there be liars. Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; 'a were as good crack a fusty nut with no kernel. Achil. What, with me too, Thersites? Ther. There's Ulysses, and old Nestor,-whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails3 on their 1— comes one of thy kin has a most weak pia mater." The pia mater is a membrane that protects the substance of the brain. Steevens. is beaten voluntary:] i. e. voluntarily. Shakspeare often uses adjectives adverbially. See Vol. VIII, p. 302, n. 6. Malone. 2 Hector shall have a great catch, if he knock out either of your brains; &c.] The same thought occurs in Cymbeline: not Hercules "Could have knock'd out his brains, for he had none." Steevens, toes,-yoke you like draught oxen, and make you plough up the wars. Achil. What, what? Ther. Yes, good sooth; To, Achilles! to, Ajax! to' Ajax. I shall cut out your tongue. Ther. 'Tis no matter; I shall speak as much as thou, afterwards. Patr. No more words, Thersites; peace. Ther. I will hold my peace when Achilles' brach bids me, shall I? 3 Nestor,-whose wit was mouldy ere your grandsires had nails] [Old copies-their grandsires] This is one of these editors' wise riddles. What! was Nestor's wit mouldy before his grandsire's toes had any nails? Preposterous nonsense! and yet so easy a change as one poor pronoun for another, sets all right and clear. Theobald. 4 - when Achilles' brach bids me,] The folio and quarto read -Achilles brooch. Brooch is an appendant ornament. The mean. ing may be, equivalent to one of Achilles' hangers-on. Johnson. Brach I believe to be the true reading. He calls Patroclus, in contempt, Achilles's dog. So, in Timon of Athens: "When thou art Timon's dog" &c. A brooch was a cluster of gems affixed to a pin, and anciently worn in the hats of people of distinction. See the portrait of Sir Christopher Hatton. Steevens. I believe brache to be the true reading. It certainly means a bitch, and not a dog, which renders the expression more abusive and offensive. Thersites calls Patroclus Achilles' brache, for the same reason that he afterwards calls him his male harlot, and his masculine whore. M. Mason. I have little doubt of broch being the true reading, as a term of contempt. The meaning of broche is well ascertained-a spit-a bodkin; which being formerly used in the ladies' dress, was adorned with jewels, and gold and silver ornaments. Hence in old lists of jewels are found brotchets. I have a very magnificent one, which is figured and described by Pennant, in the second volume of his Tour to Scotland, in 1772, p. 14, in which the spit or bodkin forms but a very small part of the whole. Lort. Broch was, properly, a trinket with a pin affixed to it, and is consequently used by Shakspeare for an ornament in general. So, in Hamlet: 66 he is the brooch indeed So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "not the imperious show "Of the full fortun'd Cæsar, ever shall |