Chapter XIII: Act II: SCENE 1. Page 357

MRS. FORD. ... to the tune of _Green sleeves_.

Another ballad with this title, and which has an equally good claim to be the one alluded to as those already quoted, may be seen in Mr. Ellis's elegant _Specimens of the early English poets_, vol. iii. p. 327, edit. 1801.

SCENE 1. Page 358.

MRS. PAGE. ... for sure, unless he knew some _strain_ in me that I
know not myself----

The note seem to have wrested from this word its plain and obvious meaning of _turn_, _humour_, _tendency_, in which it is often used by Shakspeare.

SCENE 1. Page 359.

PIST. Hope is a _curtail dog_ in some affairs.

A curtail or curtal dog is placed by Howel in the vocabulary at the end of his _Dictionary of four languages_ among hunting-dogs, and is defined to be _a dog without a tail good for any service_. Yet we are not to suppose that the word uniformly signifies an animal with its tail cut off. It is in fact derived from _tailler court_, and applied to _any_ animals that are defective, man not excepted. Thus in Greene's _Quip for an upstart courtier_, a collier is made to say, "I am made a _curtall_: for the pillory hath eaten off both my _eares_," sign. E. 2. Nashe, in his _Prayse of the red herring_, speaks of the "_curtaild skinclipping pagans_." fo. 20. Dr. Stukeley, in a manuscript note in his copy of Robin Hood's garland, states that "the _curtal_ fryer of Fountain's abby is _Cordelier_, from the cord or rope which they wore round their wast, to whip themselves with. They were of the Franciscan order." But this is a mistake; and the opinion of Staveley much more probable, who, in chap. xxv. of his _Romish horseleech_, says, that in some countries where the Franciscan friars, conformably to the injunction of their founder, wore short habits, the order was presently contemned and derided, and men called them _curtailed friars_.

SCENE 2. Page 360.

FORD. Love my wife?

PIST. With _liver burning hot_.

It is here observed by Mr. Steevens, and elsewhere by Dr. Johnson, that the liver was anciently supposed to be the inspirer of amorous passions, and the seat of love. In conformity with this opinion, we are told in the English translation of Bartholomæus _De proprietatibus rerum_, lib. v. cap. 39, that "the lyver is the place of voluptuousnesse and lyking of the flesh;" and again, "the liver is a member, _hot_, &c." There is some reason for thinking that the idea was borrowed from the Arabian physicians, or at least adopted by them; for in the _Turkish tales_, an amorous tailor is made to address his wife by the titles of "thou _corner of my liver_, and soul of my life!" and in another place the king of Syria, who had sustained a temporary privation of his mistress, is said to have had "his liver, which had been _burnt up_ by the loss of her, cooled and refreshed at the sight of her." In _Twelfth night_, Fabian, speaking of Olivia's supposed letter to Malvolio, says, "This wins him, _liver and all_."

SCENE 2. Page 367, 368.

PAGE. I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his _rapier_.

SHAL. In these times you stand on distance, your passes stoccadoes
and I know not what. I have seen the time with my long sword I
would have made you four tall fellows skip like rats.

The notes on these speeches are at variance on a supposed anachronism committed by Shakspeare in introducing the _rapier_ in the time of Henry the Fourth. The same weapon is likewise found in _Richard II._