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THER. I fhall fooner rail thee into wit and holinefs: but, I think, thy horfe will fooner con an oration, than thou learn a prayer without book. Thou canft ftrike, canft thou? a red murrain o'thy jade's tricks! 2

AJAX. Toads-ftool, learn me the proclamation. THER. Doft thou think, I have no fenfe, thou ftrik'ft me thus?

AyAx. The proclamation,

THER. Thou art proclaim'd a fool, I think. AJAX. Do not, porcupine, do not; my fingers itch.

THER. I would, thou didst itch from head to foot, and I had the fcratching of thee; I would make thee the loathfomeft fcab in Greece. When thou art forth in the incurfions, thou strikest as flow as another.

AJAX. I fay, the proclamation,—————

THER. Thou grumbleft and raileft every hour on Achilles; and thou art as full of envy at his greatnefs, as Cerberus is at Proferpina's beauty, ay, that thou bark'ft at him."

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AJAX. Miftrefs Therfites!

THER. Thou fhould'ft ftrike him.

a red murrain &c.] A fimilar imprecation is found in The Tempest: " The red plague rid you!" STEEVENS.

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in Greece.] [Thus far the folio.] The quarto adds when thou art forth in the incurfions, thou ftrikeft as flow as another.

JOHNSON.

ay, that thou bark'ft at him.] I read,-O that thou bark'dst

at him. JOHNSON.

The old reading is I, which, if changed at all, should have been changed into ay. TYRWHITT.

Ajax. Cobloaf! ♦

THER. He would pun thee into fhivers' with his fift, as a failor breaks a bifcuit.

AJAX. You whore fon cur!

THER. Do, do.

AJAX. Thou ftool for a witch!"

[Beating him.

THER. Ay, do, do; thou fodden-witted lord! thou haft no more brain than I have in mine elbows; an affinego may tutor thee: Thou fcurvy valiant

Cobloaf! A crufty, uneven, gibbous loaf, is in fome counties called by this name. STEEVENS.

A cob-loaf, fays Minfheu in his Dictionary, 1617, is "a bunne. It is a little loaf made with a round head, fuch as cob-irons which fupport the fire. G. Bignet, a bigne, a knob or lump rifen after a knock or blow." The word Bignets Cotgrave in his Dict. 1611, renders thus: "Little round loaves or lumps, made of fine meale, oyle, or butter, and reafons: bunnes, lenten loaves." Cob-loaf ought perhaps to be rather written cop-loaf.

MALONE. 9 pun thee into fhivers] Pun is in the midland counties the vulgar and colloquial word for-pound. JOHNSON.

It is ufed by P. Holland in his tranflation of Pliny's Natural Hiftory, Book XXVIII. ch. xii: "punned altogether and reduced into a liniment." Again, Book XXIX. ch. iv: “The gall of thefe lizards punned and diffolved in water.”

STEEVENS.

Cole in his Dictionary, renders it by the Latin words cantero, contundo. Mr. Pope, who altered whatever he did not understand, reads-pound, and was followed by three subsequent editors.

MALONE.

Thou ftool for a witch!] In one way of trying a witch they ufed to place her on a chair or tool, with her legs tied acrofs, that all the weight of her body might reft upon her feat; and by that means, after fome time, the circulation of the blood would be much stopped, and her fitting would be as painful as the wooden horfe. GREY.

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an affinego-] I am not very certain what the idea conveyed by this word was meant to be. Afinaio is Italian, fays Sir T. Hanmer, for an afs-driver: but in Mirza, a tragedy by

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afs! thou art here put to thrash Trojans; and thou art bought and fold among those of any wit, like a Barbarian flave. If thou use to beat me,' I will begin at thy heel, and tell what thou art by inches, thou thing of no bowels, thou!

Rob. Baron, Act III. the following paffage occurs, with a note annexed to it: the ftout trusty blade,

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"That at one blow has cut an afinego

"Afunder like a thread.

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"This (fays the author) is the ufual trial of the Perfian fhamfheers, or cemiters, which are crooked like a crefcent, of fo good metal, that they prefer them before any other, and so sharp as any

razor."

I hope, for the credit of the prince, that the experiment was rather made on an ass, than an as-driver. From the following paffage I fhould fuppofe afinego to be merely a cant term for a foolish fellow, an idiot: “ They apparell'd me as you fee, made a fool, or an afinego of me." See The Antiquary, a comedy, by S. Marmion, 1641. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady:

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- all this would be forfworn, and I again an afinego, as your fifter left me." STEEVENS.

MUSGRAVE.

Afinego is Portuguefe for a little afs. And Dr. Mufgrave might have added, that, in his native county, it is the vulgar name for an a/s at prefent. HENLEY.

The fame term, as I am informed, is alfo current among the lower rank of people in Norfolk. STEEVENS.

An afinego is a be afs. "A fouldiers wife abounding with more luft than love, complaines to the king, her husband did not fatisfie her, whereas he makes her to be coupled to an Afinego, whofe villainy and luft took away her life." Herbert's Travels, 1634, P. 98. RITSON.

4 thou art bought and fold-] This was a proverbial expreffion. See Vol. X. MALONE. 688, n. 2. So, in King Richard III:

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"For Dickon thy mafter is bought and fold.”

Again, in King Henry VI. Part I:

"From bought and fold lord Talbot."

5 If thou ufe to beat me,] i. e. make a practice of beating me.

STEEVENS.

if thou continue to beat me, or

STEEVENS.

AJAX. You dog!

THER. You fcurvy lord!

Ajax. You cur!

[Beating him.

THER. Mars his idiot! do, rudeness; do, camel; do, do.

Enter ACHILLES and PATROCLUS.

ACHIL. Why, how now, Ajax? wherefore do you thus?

How now, Therfites? what's the matter, man? THER. You fee him there, do you?

ACHIL. Ay; what's the matter?

THER. Nay, look upon him.

ACHIL. So I do; What's the matter?

THER. Nay, but regard him well.

ACHIL. Well, why I do fo.

THER. But yet you look not well upon him: for, whofoever you take him to be, he is Ajax.

ACHIL. I know that, fool.

THER. Ay, but that fool knows not himself.

Ajax. Therefore I beat thee.

THER. Lo, lo, lo, lo, what modicums of wit he utters! his evafions have ears thus long. I have bobb'd his brain, more than he has beat my bones: I will buy nine fparrows for a penny, and his pia mater' is not worth the ninth part of a fparrow. This lord, Achilles, Ajax,-who wears his wit in his belly, and his guts in his head,-I'll tell you what I fay of him.

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his pia mater &c.] So, in Twelfth Night: comes one of thy kin has a moft weak pia mater.' The pia mater is a membrane that protects the fubftance of the brain. STEEVENS.

ACHIL. What?

THER. I fay, this Ajax

ACHIL. Nay, good Ajax.

[AJAX offers to ftrike him, ACHILLES interpofes. THER. Has not fo much wit

AcuIL. Nay, I must hold you.

THER. As will ftop the eye of Helen's needle, for whom he comes to fight.

ACHIL. Peace, fool!

THER. I would have peace and quietnefs, but the fool will not he there; that he; look you there. Ajax. O thou damn'd cur! I fhall

it.

ACHIL. Will you fet your wit to a fool's?

THER. No, I warrant you; for a fool's will fhame

PATR. Good words, Therfites.

ACHIL. What's the quarrel?

AJAX. I bade the vile owl, go learn me the tenour of the proclamation, and he rails upon me. THER. I ferve thee not.

Ajax. Well, go to, go to.

THER. I ferve here voluntary.

ACHIL. Your laft fervice was fufferance, 'twas not voluntary; no man is beaten voluntary:" Ajax was here the voluntary, and you as under an imprefs.

THER. Even fo?-a great deal of your wit too lies in your finews, or else there be liars. Hector

6 is beaten voluntary:] i. e. voluntarily. Shakspeare often ufes adjectives adverbially. See Vol. VIII. p. 552, n. 5. MALONE.

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