ACT IV.
Page 399.
Cho. The armourers accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up.
This does not solely refer to the business of rivetting the plate armour before it was put on, but as to the part when it was on. Thus the top of the cuirass had a little projecting bit of iron, that passed through a hole pierced through the bottom of the casque. When both were put on, the smith or armourer presented himself, with his rivetting hammer, to close the rivet up, so that the party's head should remain steady notwithstanding the force of any blow that might be given on the cuirass or helmet. This custom more particularly prevailed in tournaments. See Varietés historiques, 1752, 12mo, tom. ii. p. 73.
Scene 2. Page 424.
Grand. Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,
With torch-staves in their hands.
This fashion is of great antiquity, being mentioned in Homer's description of the palace of Alcinous. Odys. book 7.
"Youths forg'd of gold, at every table there,
Stood holding flaming torches, that in night
Gave through the house, each honour'd guest his light."
It is likewise thus alluded to in Lucretius, lib. ii.
"Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædeis
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris,
Lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur."
The practice might originate in a supposed indelicacy of placing candlesticks on a table. Gregory of Tours relates a story of a French nobleman named Rauching, who disgraced himself by an act of wanton and excessive cruelty. When a servant held a candle before him at his supper, he made him uncover his legs, and drop the burning wax on them; if the man offered to move, the cruel master was ready with his sword to run him through; and the more the unfortunate sufferer lamented, the more his persecutor convulsed himself with savage laughter. Gregor. Turon. Hist. lib. v. cap. 3.
The favourite forms of these inanimate candle-holders were those of armed warriors. Sometimes they were hairy savages, a fool kneeling on one knee, &c.
Scene 4. Page 439.
Pist. Quality, call you me?—Construe me, art thou a gentleman?
The old copy reads qualitee, calmie custure me, and has been corrected or rather corrupted anew into its present form. The proposed reading of Mr. Malone deserves a decided preference, as founded on the ingenious conjecture that Pistol is quoting, as he has elsewhere done, the fragment of an old ballad. It is exceedingly probable that, whenever chance shall disclose this ballad, we shall find in it this whole line,
"Calen, o custure me, art thou a gentleman."
Calen may be some proper name; the ballad itself may be provincial, and custure the representative of construe. Nothing is more probable than that calmie should be a misprint of calen o.
Scene 4. Page 441.
Fr. Sol. ... ayez pitié de moy!
Pist. Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys.
Fr. Sol. O pardonnez moy!
Pist. Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys?
Dr. Johnson says that "moy is a piece of money, whence moi-d'or, or moi of gold." But where had the doctor made this discovery? His etymology of moidor is certainly incorrect. Moidore is an English corruption of the Portuguese moeda d'ouro, i. e. money of gold; but there were no moidores in the time of Shakspeare.
We are therefore still to seek for Pistol's moy. Now a moyos or moy was a measure of corn; in French muy or muid, Lat. modius, a bushel. It appears that 27 moys were equal to a last or two tons. To understand this more fully, the curious reader may consult Malyne's Lex mercatoria, 1622, p. 45, and Roberts's Marchant's Mapp of commerce, 1638, chap. 272.
Scene 4. Page 442.
Fr. Sol. Est il impossible d'eschapper la force de ton bras?
Pist. Brass, cur.
Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
Offer'st me brass.
A question having arisen concerning the pronunciation of the French word bras in the time of Shakspeare, it was observed in a former note that some remarks by the Rev. Mr. Bowle, in another place, had contributed at least to leave the matter open to discussion. That gentleman has certainly offered some evidence from Pasquier, that in the middle of words the s was pronounced where now it is silent; but on the other hand there is positive proof that the contrary practice prevailed in 1572, when De la Ramée published his French grammar. At page 19, he says, "Premierement nous sommes prodigues en lescripture de s, sans la prononcer comme en maistre, mesler, oster, soustenir." This writer has expatiated on the difficulty which foreigners have in pronouncing the French language on account of its orthography, and offered a new mode by which it may be avoided. In the course of this specimen, he has, fortunately for the present occasion, printed the word bras without the s, (see p. [61],) and thereby supplied the means of deciding the present question, which, after all, was scarcely worth a controversy. Whoever wrote this dialogue was unacquainted with the true pronunciation of the French language, as Mr. Malone has already remarked, and framed Pistol's reply accordingly. In Eliot's Orthoepia Gallica, 1593, 4to, mentioned in Dr. Farmer's note, there is a passage which seems to have escaped the doctor's notice. In page [61], the author directs the sentence "vous avez un bras de fer," to be pronounced "voo-za-ve-zewn bra de fer."
Scene 5. Page 448.
Bour. Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,
Like a base pander, hold the chamber door, &c.
This is an allusion to the conduct of Pandarus when he introduced Troilus to his niece Cressida's chamber. See the story as related by Chaucer.