"There is the plat-form, and their hands, my lord,
Each severally subscribed to the same."
—Collier.
[451] [A common proverb.]
[452] [The ordinary proverb is, "The devil is good when he is pleased.">[
[453] The Italian for How do you do?
[454] Skinker was a tapster or drawer. Prince Henry, in "The First Part of Henry IV." act ii. sc. 4, speaks of an underskinker, meaning an underdrawer. Mr Steevens says it is derived from the Dutch word schenken, which signifies to fill a cup or glass. So in G. Fletcher's "Russe Commonwealth," 1591, p. 13, speaking of a town built on the south side of Moscow by Basilius the emperor, for a garrison of soldiers, "to whom he gave priviledge to drinke mead and beer, at the drye or prohibited times, when other Russes may drinke nothing but water, and for that cause called this newe citie by the name of Naloi, that is, skinck, or poure in." Again, in Marston's "Sophonisba," iii. 2—
"Ore whelme me not with sweets, let me not drink,
Till my breast burst, O Jove, thy nectar skinke."
And in Ben Jonson's "Poetaster," act iv. sc. 5—
"ALB. I'll ply the table with nectar, and make 'em friends.
"HER. Heaven is like to have but a lame skinker."