Scene 1. Page 327.
Slen. I bruis'd my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence.
"Master of defence, on the present occasion, does not simply mean a professor of the art of fencing, but a person who had taken his master's degree in it," says Mr. Steevens, whose readers are under great obligations to him for pointing out one of the greatest curiosities extant on the ancient science of defence, in support of his position. Yet it may be doubted whether the expression master of defence does not very often, and even on the present occasion, signify merely a professor of the art. Numerous authorities might be adduced on this side of the question, but perhaps a single one that is apposite may suffice. In Eden's History of travayle, 1577, 4to, speaking of Calecut in the East Indies, he says, "they have in the citie certayne maisters of fence that teach them how to use the swoord, &c." The original Latin from which Eden translates has lanista. Now it is not to be presumed that the last-mentioned maisters of fence had taken any degree. It must be owned that the evidence of the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens goes very far to show that none were allowed to practise as professors who had not taken a degree in some fencing school; an honour once conferred by king Edward the Sixth, and generally granted, though not till after many years' experience, by one who was himself a master. Yet a person who had only a provost's degree might be allowed to teach, and he would be termed a master of defence.
Scene 3. Page 330.
Host. What says my bully-rook?
Messrs. Steevens and Whalley maintain that the above term (a cant one) derives its origin from the rook in the game of chess; but it is very improbable that that noble game, never the amusement of gamblers, should have been ransacked on this occasion. It means a hectoring, cheating sharper, as appears from A new dictionary of the terms of the canting crew, no date, 12mo, and from the lines prefixed to The compleat gamester, 1680, 12mo, in both which places it is spelt bully-rock. Nor is Mr. Whalley correct in stating that rock and not rook is the true name of the chess piece, if he mean that it is equivalent to the Latin rupes.
Scene 3. Page 333.
Pist. O base Gongarian wight!
It is already shown that this is the same as Hungarian. It simply means a gipsy. The parts of Europe in which it is supposed that the gipsies originally appeared were Hungary and Bohemia. In Act IV. Scene 5, of this play, the host in the like cant language calls Simple a Bohemian Tartar; and Munster in his Cosmography informs us that the Germans denominated the gipsies Tartars.
Scene 3. Page 333.