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But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, promised to eat all of his killing.

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LEON. Faith, niece, you tax fignior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it

not.

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MESS. He hath done good fervice, lady, in these

wars.

BEAT. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it he is a very valiant trencher-man, he hath an excellent ftomach.

MESS. And a good foldier too, lady.

BEAT. And a good foldier to a lady; But what is he to a lord?

MESS. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues. 3

BEAT. It is fo, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed, man: but for the ftuffing,-Well, we are all mortal.*

ufed by Fools, who, for obvious reafons, were not permitted to fhoot with pointed arrows: Whence the proverb "A fool's bolt is foon fhot. DOUCE..

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he'll be meet with you,] This is a very common expreffion in the midland counties, and fignifies he'll be your match, he'll be even with you.

So, in TEXNOTAMIA, by B. Holiday, 1618:

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"Go meet her, or elfe fhe'll be meet with me."

STEEVENS.

ftuffed with all honourable virtues.] Stuffed, in this first inftance, has no ridiculous meaning. Mr. Edwards obferves, that Mede in his Difcourfes on Scripture, fpeaking of Adam, fays he whom God had fuffed with fo many excellent qualities." Edwards's MS.

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Again, in The Winter's Tale:

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whom you know

"Of Atuff'd fufficiency.

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Un homme bien étoffé, fignifies, in French, a man in good cir cumftances.

STEEVENS.

he is no less than a ftuffed man: but for the ftuffing, Well, we are all mortal.] Mr. Theobald plumed himself much on the

LEON. You must not, fir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt fignior Benedick and her: they never meet, but there is a fkirmifh of wit between them.

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BEAT. Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our laft conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one: fo that if he have wit enough to keep himfelf warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to

pointing of this paffage; which, by the way, he might learn from D'Avenant: but he fays not a word, nor any one elle that I know of, about the reason of this abruption. The truth is, Beatrice ftarts an idea at the words fluff d man; and prudently checks herfelf in the pursuit of it. A ftuff'd man was one of the many cant phrases for a cuckold. In Lily's Midas, we have an inventory of Motto's moveables: "Item, fays Petulus, one paire of hornes in the bride-chamber on the bed's head. -The beaft's head, obferves Licio; for Motto is stuff'd in the head, and these are among unmoveable goods. FARMER.

•for of his five wits-] In our author's time wit was the general term for intelle&ual powers. So, Davies on the Soul: Wit, feeking truth from caufe to caufe afcends,

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"And never refts till it the first attain;

Will, feeking good, finds many middle ends,
"But never ftays till it the last do gain."

And, in another part:

But if a phrenzy do poffefs the brain,

"It fo difturbs and blots the forms of things,
As fantasy proves altogether vain,

"And to the wit no true relation brings.

"Then doth the wit, admitting all for true,

"Build fond conclufions on thofe idle grounds;

The wits feem to have been reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the five inlets of ideas. JOHNSON.

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if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference, &c.] Such a one has wit enough to keep himself warm, is a proverbial expreffion.

So, in The Wife Woman of Hogfden, 1638: "You are the wife woman, are you? and have wit to keep yourself warm enough, Í warrant you. Again, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonfon:

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be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new fworn brother. "

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MESS. Is it poffible?

BEAT. Very eafily poffible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat, it ever changes with the next block. 8

MESS. I fee, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.

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your whole felf cannot but be perfectly wife; for your hands have wit enough to keep themfelves warm.

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To bear any thing for a difference, is a term in heraldry. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia fays:

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you may wear your rue with a difference.",

STEEVENS.

fworn brother.] i. e. one with whom he hath Sworn (as was anciently the cuftom among adventurers) to hare fortunes. See Mr. Whalley's note on "we'll be all three fworn-brothers to

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France. in King Henry V. A& II. fc. i. STEEVENS.

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he wears his faith

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-] Not religious profeffion, but profefon of friendship; for the speaker gives it as the reason of her afking, who was now his companion? that he had every month a new Sworn brother. WARBURTON.

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with the next block.] A block is the mould on which a hat is formed. So, in Decker's Satiromafix:

"Of what fashion is this knight's wit? of what block? See a note on K. Lear, A& IV. fc. vi. The old writers fometimes use the word block, for the hat itself. STEEVENS.

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the gentleman is not in your books. ] This is a phrase used, I believe, by more than underftand it. To be in one's books is to be in one's codicils or will, to be among friends fet down for legacies.

JOHNSON.

I rather think that the books alluded to, are memorandum-books, like the vifiting books of the prefent age. Whore, Part II. 1630:

So, in Decker's Honeft

"I am sure her name was in my table-book once." Or, perhaps the allufion is to matriculation at the University. So, in Arifippus, or The Jovial Philofopher, 1630:

"You must be matriculated, and have your name recorded in Albo Academiæ.

BEAT. No: an he were, I would burn my ftudy. But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no

Again: "What have you enrolled him in albo? fully admitted him into the society? academic?"

Have you

to be a member of the body

Again: And if I be not entred, and have my name admitted into fome of their books, let, &c.

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And yet I think the following paffage in The Maid's Revenge, by Shirley, 1639, will fufficiently fupport my first fuppofition: "Pox of your compliment, you were beft not write in her table-books.

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It appears to have been anciently the custom to chronicle the Small beer of every occurrence, whether literary or domeftic, in table

books.

So, in the play last quoted:

"Devolve itfelf! that word is not in my table-books." my tables, &c.

Hamlet like wife has,

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We weyl haunfe thee, or fet thy name into our felowship boke, with clappynge of handes,

&c.

I know not exactly to what cuftom this laft quoted paffage refers, unless to the album: for juft after, the fame expreffion occurs again: that " - from henceforthe thou may'ft have a place worthy for thee in our whyte: from hence thou may'ft have thy name written in our boke.

It should feem from the following paffage in The Taming of a Shrew, that this phrase might have originated from the Herald's Office = "A herald, Kate! oh, put me in thy books!"

After all, the following note in one of the Harleian MSS. No. 847, may be the beft illuftration:

"W. C. to Henry Fradfham, Gent. the owner of this book: "Some write their fantafies in verfe

"In theire bookes where they friendshippe fhewe,

"Wherein oft tymes they doe rehearse

"The great good will that they do owe," &c. STEEVENS. This phrafe has not been exadly interpreted. To be in a man's books, originally meant to be in the lift of his retainers. Sir John Mandeville tells us, "alle the mynstrelles that comen before the great Chan ben witholden with him, as of his houfhold, and entred in his bookes, as for his own men." FARMER.

A seivant and a lover were in Cupid's Vocabulary, fynonymous.

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young fquarer now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil?

MESS. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.

BEAT. O Lord! he will hang upon him like a disease: he is fooner caught than the peftilence, and the taker runs prefently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will coft him a thousand pound ere he be cured.

MESS. I will hold friends with you, lady.
BEAT. Do, good friend.

LEON. You will never run mad, niece.
BEAT. No, not till a hot January.
MESS. Don Pedro is approach'd.

Enter Don PEDRO, attended by BALTHAZAR and others; Don JOHN, CLAUDIO, and BENEDICK.

D. PEDRO. Good fignior Leonato, you are come to meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid coft, and you encounter it.

LEON. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort fhould remain; but, when you depart from me, forrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.

Hence perhaps the phrase to be in a perfon's books equally to the lover and the menial attendant. MALONE.

was applied

There is a MS. of Lord Burleigh's, in the Marquis of Lanfdowne's library, wherein, among many other household concerns, he has entered the names of all his fervants, &c. DOUCE.

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young fquarer] A Squarer I take to be a cholerick, quarrelfome fellow, for in this fenfe Shakspeare ufes the word to fquare. So, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, it is faid of Oberon and Titania, that they never meet but they fquare. So the fenfe may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep him company through all his mad pranks? JOHNSON.

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