Chapter LXXXV: Act IV: Page 399

CHO. The armourers accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing _rivets_ up.

This does not solely refer to the business of rivetting the plate armour before it was put on, but as to the part when it was on. Thus the top of the cuirass had a little projecting bit of iron, that passed through a hole pierced through the bottom of the casque. When both were put on, the smith or armourer presented himself, with his rivetting hammer, _to close the rivet up_, so that the party's head should remain steady notwithstanding the force of any blow that might be given on the cuirass or helmet. This custom more particularly prevailed in tournaments. See _Varietés historiques_, 1752, 12mo, tom. ii. p. 73.

SCENE 2. Page 424.

GRAND. Their horsemen sit like _fixed candlesticks_,
With torch-staves in their hands.

This fashion is of great antiquity, being mentioned in Homer's description of the palace of Alcinous. _Odys_. book 7.

"Youths forg'd of gold, at every table there,
Stood holding flaming torches, that in night
Gave through the house, each honour'd guest his light."

It is likewise thus alluded to in Lucretius, lib. ii.

"Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædeis
Lampadas igniferas manibus retinentia dextris,
Lumina nocturnis epulis ut suppeditentur."

The practice might originate in a supposed indelicacy of placing candlesticks on a table. Gregory of Tours relates a story of a French nobleman named Rauching, who disgraced himself by an act of wanton and excessive cruelty. When a servant _held a candle before him_ at his supper, he made him uncover his legs, and drop the burning wax on them; if the man offered to move, the cruel master was ready with his sword to run him through; and the more the unfortunate sufferer lamented, the more his persecutor convulsed himself with savage laughter. Gregor. Turon. _Hist._ lib. v. cap. 3.

The favourite forms of these inanimate _candle-holders_ were those of armed warriors. Sometimes they were hairy savages, a fool kneeling on one knee, &c.

SCENE 4. Page 439.

PIST. Quality, call you me?--Construe me, art thou a gentleman?

The old copy reads _qualitee, calmie custure me_, and has been corrected or rather _corrupted anew_ into its present form. The proposed reading of Mr. Malone deserves a decided preference, as founded on the ingenious conjecture that Pistol is quoting, as he has elsewhere done, the fragment of an old ballad. It is exceedingly probable that, whenever chance shall disclose this ballad, we shall find in it this whole line,

"Calen, o custure me, art thou a gentleman."

Calen may be some proper name; the ballad itself may be provincial, and _custure_ the representative of _construe_. Nothing is more probable than that _calmie_ should be a misprint of _calen o_.

SCENE 4. Page 441.

FR. SOL. ... ayez pitié de _moy_!

PIST. _Moy_ shall not serve, I will have forty _moys_.

FR. SOL. O pardonnez _moy_!

PIST. Say'st thou me so? is that a _ton of moys_?

Dr. Johnson says that "_moy_ is a piece of money, whence moi-d'or, or moi of gold." But where had the doctor made this discovery? His etymology of _moidor_ is certainly incorrect. _Moidore_ is an English corruption of the Portuguese _moeda d'ouro_, i. e. _money_ of gold; but there were no moidores in the time of Shakspeare.

We are therefore still to seek for Pistol's _moy_. Now a _moyos_ or _moy_ was a measure of corn; in French _muy_ or _muid_, Lat. _modius_, a bushel. It appears that 27 moys were equal to a last or two _tons_. To understand this more fully, the curious reader may consult Malyne's _Lex mercatoria_, 1622, p. 45, and Roberts's _Marchant's Mapp of commerce_, 1638, chap. 272.

SCENE 4. Page 442.

FR. SOL. Est il impossible d'eschapper la force de ton _bras_?

PIST. _Brass_, cur.
Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
Offer'st me _brass_.

A question having arisen concerning the pronunciation of the French word _bras_ in the time of Shakspeare, it was observed in a former note that some remarks by the Rev. Mr. Bowle, in another place, had contributed at least to leave the matter open to discussion. That gentleman has certainly offered some evidence from Pasquier, that in the _middle_ of words the _s_ was pronounced where now it is silent; but on the other hand there is positive proof that the contrary practice prevailed in 1572, when De la Ramée published his French grammar. At page 19, he says, "Premierement nous sommes prodigues en lescripture de _s_, _sans la prononcer_ comme en _maistre_, _mesler_, _oster_, _soustenir_." This writer has expatiated on the difficulty which foreigners have in pronouncing the French language on account of its orthography, and offered a new mode by which it may be avoided. In the course of this specimen, he has, fortunately for the present occasion, printed the word _bras_ without the _s_, (see p. 61,) and thereby supplied the means of deciding the present question, which, after all, was scarcely worth a controversy. Whoever wrote this dialogue was unacquainted with the true pronunciation of the French language, as Mr. Malone has already remarked, and framed Pistol's reply accordingly. In Eliot's _Orthoepia Gallica_, 1593, 4to, mentioned in Dr. Farmer's note, there is a passage which seems to have escaped the doctor's notice. In page 61, the author directs the sentence "vous avez un _bras_ de fer," to be pronounced "voo-za-ve-zewn _bra_ de fer."

SCENE 5. Page 448.

BOUR. Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand,
Like a base pander, hold the chamber door, &c.

This is an allusion to the conduct of Pandarus when he introduced Troilus to his niece Cressida's chamber. See the story as related by Chaucer.