SIR TO. Who? Sir Andrew Ague-cheek? SIR TO. He's as tall' a man as any's in Illyria, SIR TO. Why, he has three thousand ducats a year. MAR. Ay, but he'll have but a year in all these ducats; he's a very fool, and a prodigal. SIR TO. Fie, that you'll fay fo! he plays o'the viol-de-gambo, and speaks three or four languages word for word without book, and hath all the good gifts of nature. MAR. He hath, indeed, almost natural : 3for, befides that he's a fool, he's a great quarreller; 9 as tall a man -] Tall means ftout, courageous. So, in Wily Beguiled: Again: 2 Ay, and he is a tall fellow, and a man of his hands too", "If he do not prove himself as tall a man as he." STEEVENS. viol-de-gambo,] The viol-de-gambo feems, in our author's time, to have been a very fashionable inftrument. In The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, it is mentioned, with its proper derivation: Her viol-de-gambo is her beft content, "For 'twixt her legs fhe holds her inftrument." COLLINS. So, in the Induction to the Mal-content. 1606. come fit between my legs here. "No indeed, coufin; the audience will then take me for a viol-de-gambo, and think that you play upon me." In the old dramatic writers, frequent mention is made of a cafe of viels, confifting of a viol-de-gambo, the tenor and the treble. See Sir John Hawkins's Hift. of Mufick, Vol. IV. p. 32, n. 338, wherein is a defcription of a cafe more properly termed a cheft of viols. STEEVENS. 3 He hath indeed,--almost natural] Mr. Upton proposes to regula.e this paffage differently: "He hath indeed, all, most natural. MALONE. and, but that he hath the gift of a coward to allay the guft he hath in quarrelling, 'tis thought among the prudent, he would quickly have the gift of a grave. SIR TO. By this hand, they are scoundrels, and fubftractors, that say so of him. Who are they? MAR. They that add moreover, he's drunk nightly in your company. SIR TO. With drinking healths to my niece; I'll drink to her, as long as there's a paffage in my throat, and drink in Illyria: He's a coward, and a coyftril, that will not drink to my niece, till his brains turn o'the toe like a parish-top.' What, wench? Caftiliano vulgo;" for here comes Sir Andrew Ague-face. 4 a coftril,] i. e. a coward cock. It may however be a keyftril, or a baftard hawk; a kind of ftone-hawk. So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592: as dear "As ever coytril bought fo little fport." STEevens. A coyftril is a paltry groom, one only fit to carry arms, but not to use them. So, in Holinfhed's Defcription of England, Vol. I. p. 162" Cofterel's or bearers of the armes of barons or knights." Vol. III. p. 248: "So that a knight with his efquire and coiftrell with his two horfes." P. 272, 66 women lackies, and coifterls, are oonfidered as the unwarlike attendants on an army." So again, in p. 127, and 217 of his Hift. of Scotland. For its etymology, fee Couftille and Gouftillier in Cotgrave's Dictionary, TOLLET. S like a parifh-top.] This is one of the cuftoms now laid afide. A large top was formerly kept in every village, to bę whipped in frofty weather, that the peasants might be kept warm by exercise, and out of mischief, while they could not work. STEEVENS. "To fleep like a town-top," is a proverbial expreffion. A top is faid to fleep, when it turns round with great velocity, and makes a smooth humming noise. BLACKSTONE. 6 -Caftiliano vulgo ;] We fhould read volto. In English, put on your Caftilian countenance; that is, your grave, folemn looks. WARBURTON. Enter SIR ANDREW AGUE-CHEEK. SIR AND. Sir Toby Belch! how now, Sir Toby Belch ? SIR TO. Sweet fir Andrew! SIR AND. Blefs you, fair fhrew. MAR. And you too, fir. SIR To. Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft.7 Caftiliano vulgo ;] I meet with the word Caftilian and Caftilians in feveral of the old comedies. It is difficult to affign any peculiar propriety to it, unless it was adopted immediately after the defeat of the Armada, and became a cant term capriciously expreffive of jollity or contempt. The Hof, in the M. W. of Windfor, calls Caius a Caftilian-king Urinal; and in the Merry Devil of Edmonton, one of the charaders fays: "Ha! my Caftilian dialogues !" In an old comedy called Look about you, 1600, it is joined with another toper's exclamation very frequent in Shakespeare: "And Rivo will he cry, and Caftile too." So again, in Marlowe's Jew of Malta, 1633; "Hey, Rivo Caftiliano, man's a man." Again, in the Stately Moral of the Three Lords of London. 1590: "Three Cavaliero's Caftilianos here," &c. Cotgrave, however, informs us, that Caftille not only fignifies the nobleft part of Spain, but contention, debate, brabling, altercation. Ils font en Caftille. There is a jarre betwixt them; and prendre la Caftille pour autruy : To undertake another man's quarrel. STEEVENS, Mr. Steevens has not attempted to explain vulgo, nor perhaps can the proper explanation be given, unless fome incidental application of it may be found in connection with Caftiliano, where the context defines its meaning. Sir Toby here, having just declared that he would perfift in drinking the health of his niece, as long as there was a paffage in his throat, and drink in Illyria, at the fight of Sir Andrew, demands of Maria, with a banter, Caftiliano vulgo. What this was, may be probably inferred from a speech in the Shoemaker's Holiday, 4to, 1610: -Away, firke, fcower thy throat, thou shalt wash it with Caftilian licuor." HENLEY. 7 Accoft, fir Andrew, accoft.] To accoft, had a fignification in our author's time that the word now feems to have loft. In the second part of The English Dictionary, by H. C. 1655, ią SIR AND. What's that? SIR TO. My niece's chamber-maid. SIR AND. Good miftrefs Accoft, I defire better acquaintance. MAR. My name is Mary, fir. SIR AND. Good Miftrefs Mary Accoft, SIR TO. You miftake, knight: accoft, is, front her, "board her, woo her, affail her. which the reader 8 who is defirous of a more refined and elegant is ex fpeech," is furnished with hard words, "to draw near, plained thus: "To accoft, appropriate, appropinquate. See alfo Cotgrave's Di&. in verb. accofter. MALONE, 8 better board her,] I hinted that bourd was the reading. Mr. Steevens fuppofed it fhould then be bourd with her; but to the authorities which I have quoted for that reading in Jonfon, Catiline, A& I. fc. iv. we may add the following: I'll bourd him ftraight; how now Cornelio' All Fools, A&. V. fc. i. "He brings in a parafite that flowteth, and bourdeth them Nafh's Lenten Stuff, 1599. 1 can bourd when I fee occafion. 'Tis pity She's a Whore, p. 38. WHALLEY. I am ftill unconvinced that board' (the naval term) is not the proper reading. It is fufficiently familiar to our author in other places. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, A& II. fc. i: unless he knew fome ftrain in me, that I know not myfelf, he would never have boarded me in this fury. Mrs. Ford. Boarding, call you it? I'll be fure to keep him above deck, &c. &c. STEEVENS. Probably board her may mean no more than falute her, Speak to her, &c. Sir Kenelm Digby, in his Treatife of Bodies, 1643, fo. Paris, p. 253, speaking of a blind man says, "He would at the firft aboard of a ftranger, as foone as he spoke to him, frame a right apprehenfion of his ftature, bulkę, and manner of making. REED. To board is certainly to accoft, or addrefs. So, in the Hiftory of Celeftina the Faire, 1596: whereat Alderine fomewhat difpleafed for fhe would verie faine have knowne who he was, boorded him thus. RITSON. SIR AND. By my troth, I would not undertake her in this company. Is that the meaning of accost? MAR. Fare you well, gentlemen. SIR TO. An thou let part fo, fi Andrew, 'would thou might'ft never draw fword again. SIR AND. An you part fo, mistress, I would I might never draw fword again. Fair lady, do you think you have fools in hand? MAR. Sir, I have not you by the hand. SIR AND. Marry, but you fhall have; and here's my hand. MAR. Now, fir, thought is free: I pray you, bring your hand to the buttery-bar, and let it drink. SIR AND. Wherefore, fweet heart? what's your metaphor? 9 Fair Lady, do you think you have fools in hand! Mar. Now, Sir thought is free:] There is the same pleasantry in Lylies Euphues, 1581, None (quoth fhe) can judge of wit but they that have it; why then (quoth he) doeft thou think me a fool? Thought is free, my Lord, quoth fhe. HOLT WHITE. 2 It's dry, fir.] What is the jest of dry hand, I know not any better than Sir Andrew. It may poffibly mean, a hand with no money in it; or, according to the rules of phyfiognomy, she may intend to infinuate, that it is not a lover's hand, a moift hand being vulgarly accounted a fign of an amorous constitution. JOHNSON, So, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "But to fay you had a dull eye, a fharp nofe (the vifible marks of a fhrew); a dry hand, which is the fign of a bad liver, as he faid you were, being toward a hufband too; this was intolerable. "Of all dry-fifted Again, in Again, in Decker's Honeft Whore, 1635 : knights, I cannot abide that he fhould touch me. Weftward-Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1606: “ marry a man of a melancholy complexion, fhe fhall not be much troubled by him. My husband has a hand as dry as his brains, &c. The Chief Justice likewise in the second part of K. Henry IV. enumerates a dry hand among the chara&erifticks of debility and |