a foot; and fo long am I, at the leaft. But wilt thou make a fire, or fhall I complain on thee to our mistress, whose hand (fhe being now at hand,) thou fhalt foon feel, to thy cold comfort, for being flow in thy hot office.

CURT. I pr'ythee, good Grumio, tell me, How goes the world?

GRU. A cold world, Curtis, in every office but thine; and, therefore, fire: Do thy duty, and have thy duty; for my mafter and miítrefs are almost frozen to death.

CURT. There's fire ready; And therefore, good Grumio, the news?

GRU. Why, Jack boy! bo boy!' and as much news as thou wilt.4

why, thy horn is a foot; and fo long am I, at the leaft.] Though all the copies agree in this reading, Mr. Theobald fays, yet he cannot find what horn Curtis had; therefore he alters it to my born. But the common reading is right, and the meaning is, that he had made Curtis a cuckold. WARBURTON.

3 Jack boy! ha boy!] is the beginning of an old round in three parts.

as thou wilt.] Old copy-wilt thou. Corrected by the

editor of the second folio.

MALONE.

CURT. Come, you are fo full of conycatching:GRU. Why therefore, fire; for I have caught extreme cold. Where's the cook? is fupper ready, the house trimm'd, rushes ftrew'd, cobwebs swept ; the fervingmen in their new fuftian, their white ftockings, and every officer his wedding-garment on? Be the jacks fair within, the jills fair without," the carpets laid,' and every thing in order? CURT. All ready; And therefore, I

pray thee,

5 their white ftockings,] The old copy reads-the white-. Corrected by the editor of the third folio. MALONE.

Be the Jacks fair within, the Jills fair without,] i. e. are the drinking veffels clean, and the maid fervants drefs'd? But the Oxford editor alters it thus:

Are the Jacks fair without, the Jills fair within? What his conceit is in this, I confess I know not.

WARBURTON.

Sir T. Hanmer's meaning feems to be this: "Are the men who are waiting without the house to receive my mafter, drefs'd; and the maids, who are waiting within, drefs'd too?"

I believe the poet meant to play upon the words Jack and Jill, which fignify two drinking measures, as well as men and maid fervants. The diftinction made in the queftions concerning them, was owing to this: The Jacks being of leather, could not be made to appear beautiful on the outfide, but were very apt to contract foulnefs within; whereas, the Jills, being of metal, were expected to be kept bright externally, and were not liable to dirt on the infide, like the leather.

The quibble on the former of these words I find in The Atheift's Tragedy, by C. Tourner, 1611:

have you drunk yourselves mad?

σε 1 Ser. My lord, the Jacks abus'd me.

"D'Am. I think they are Jacks indeed that have abus'd thee.” Again, in The Puritan, 1607: " I owe money to several hofteffes, and you know fuch jills will quickly be upon a man's jack." In this laft inftance, the allufion to drinking measures is evident. STEEVENS.

7

the carpets laid,] In our author's time it was cuftomary to cover tables with carpets. Floors, as appears from the prefent paffage and others, were ftrewed with rufhes. MALONE.

8

I pray thee, news?] I believe the author wrote-I pray, thy news. MALONE.

GRU. First, know, my horfe is tired; my mafter and mistress fallen out.

CURT. HOW?

GRU. Out of their saddles into the dirt; And thereby hangs a tale.

CURT. Let's ha't, good Grumio.

GRU. Lend thine ear.

CURT. Here.

GRU. There.

[Striking him.

CURT. This is to feel a tale, not to hear a tale.

GRU. And therefore 'tis called, a fenfible tale: and this cuff was but to knock at your ear, and be feech liftening. Now I begin: Imprimis, we came down a foul hill, my master riding behind my miftrefs:

CURT. Both on one horse? *
GRU. What's that to thee?

CURT. Why, a horse.

-But hadft thou not

GRU. Tell thou the tale:crofs'd me, thou fhould'ft have heard how her horfe fell, and fhe under her horfe; thou fhould'st have heard, in how miry a place: how she was bemoil'd;3 how he left her with the horse upon her; how he beat me because her horse stumbled; how the waded through the dirt to pluck him off me; how he fwore; how the pray'd—that never pray'd before; *

9 This is-] Old copy-This 'tis. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

2

3

4

on one horfe?] The old copy reads-of one horfe?

STEEVENS.

bemoil'd;] i. e. be-draggled; bemired. STEEVENS. how he fwore; how she pray'd-that never pray'd before ;] These lines, with little variation, are found in the old copy of King Leir, published before that of Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

4

how I cried; how the horses ran away; how her bridle was burft; how I loft my crupper;-with many things of worthy memory; which now fhall die in oblivion, and thou return unexperienced to thy grave.

CURT. By this reckoning, he is more fhrew than fhe.

GRU. Ay; and that thou and the proudest of you all fhall find, when he comes home. But what talk I of this?-call forth Nathaniel, Jofeph, Nicholas, Philip, Walter, Sugarfop, and the reft: let their heads be fleekly combed, their blue coats brushed,' and their garters of an indifferent knit :"

was burft;] i. e. broken. So, in the firft scene of this play: "You will not pay for the glasses you have burst ?"

5

STEEVENS.

-

their blue coats brush'd,] The drefs of fervants at the time. So, in Decker's Belman's Night Walkes, fig. E. " — the 3: other act their parts in blew coates, as they were their ferving men, though indeed they be all fellowes." Again, in The Curtain Drawer of the World, 1612, p. 2: "Not a ferving man dare appeare in a blew coat, not because it is the livery of charity, but left he should be thought a retainer to their enemy." REED.

6 -garters of an indifferent knit:] What is the sense of this I know not, unless it means, that their garters fhould be fellows : indifferent, or not different, one from the other. JoHNSON.

This is rightly explained. So, in Hamlet:

"As the indifferent children of the earth."

Again, in King Richard II:

66

Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye." i. e. an impartial one. STEEVENS.

Perhaps by "garters of an indifferent knit," the author meant parti-coloured garters; garters of a different knit. In Shakspeare's time indifferent was fometimes used for different. Thus Speed, (Hift. of Gr. Brit. p. 770,) defcribing the French and English armies at the battle of Agincourt, fays, 66 the face of these hoafts were diverfe and indifferent."

That garters of a different knit were formerly worn, appears from TEXNOTAMIA, or the Marriages of the Arts, by Barton Holyday, 1630, where the following stage direction occurs. “Phantastes in

let them curt'fy with their left legs; and not prefume to touch a hair of my mafter's horse-tail, till they kifs their hands. Are they all ready?

CURT. They are.

GRU. Call them forth.

CURT. Do you hear, ho? you must meet my master, to countenance my mistress.

GRU. Why, the hath a face of her own.

CURT. Who knows not that?

GRU. Thou, it seems; that call'ft for company to countenance her.

CURT. I call them forth to credit her.

GRU. Why, fhe comes to borrow nothing of them.

Enter feveral Servants.

NATH. Welcome home, Grumio.

PHIL. How now, Grumio?

Jos. What, Grumio!

NICH. Fellow Grumio!

NATH. HOW now, old lad?

GRU. Welcome, you;-how now, you ;-what, you ;-fellow, you;-and thus much for greeting. Now, my spruce companions, is all ready, and all things neat?

NATH. All things is ready: How near is our mafter?

a branched velvet jerkin,—red filk stockings, and parti-coloured garters." MALONE.

All things is ready:] Though in general it is proper to correct the falfe concords that are found in almoft every page of the old copy, here it would be improper; because the language fuits the character. MALONE.