Fig

275

expression. There is good reason for believing that it was known to the ancient Romans, etc. (DOUCE). Gifford notices the gesticulation in question as "forming a coarse representation of a disease to which the name of ficus has always been given. This is the true import of the act," etc. Note on Jonson's Works, vol. i. p. 52. ("FICHA. Ficham facere, Ital. Fare le fiche, Hispan. Hacer la higa, nostris Faire la figue, Medium unguem ostendere, signum derisionis et contemtus." Du Cange's Gloss. From which a person unacquainted with Spanish would naturally conclude that higa meant "a fig;" but the name of that fruit in Spanish is higo. Connelly's Span. and Engl. Dict., Madrid, 4to, furnishes what follows: "Higa. La accion que se hace con la mano, cerrado el puño, sacando el dedo pulgar por entre el indice y el de en medio. The act of thrusting out the thumb between the fore and middle fingers that are clenched. . . . Dar higas. Hacer desprecio de una persona ó cosa. To despise a person or thing. Higo. La fruta que da la higuera. Fig, the fruit of a figtree. .. Higo. Cierta especie de almorranas. A certain species of piles."')

fig of Spain! - The, HENRY V., iii. 6. 58. Here "Pistol, after spurting out his 'figo [fico] for thy friendship' [see fico, etc.]; as if he were not satisfied with the measure of the contempt expressed, more emphatically adds, the fig of Spain.' This undoubtedly alludes to the poisoned figs mentioned in Mr. Steevens's note, because [as Steevens observes] the quartos read the fig of Spain within thy jaw,' and 'the fig within thy bowels and thy dirty maw.’ Or, as in many other instances, the allusion may be twofold; for the Spanish fig, as a term of contempt only [see the preceding article], must have been very familiar in England in Shakspeare's time" (DOUCE). In the note to which Douce refers above, Steevens, to illustrate "the custom of giving poisoned figs to those who were the

objects either of Spanish or Italian revenge," cites, among

other passages:

"I do look now for a Spanish fig, or an Italian salad, daily." Webster's White Devil,- Works, p. 30,

figs

I love long life better than, ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, i. 2. 31. A proverbial expression.

fight the course · Bear-like, I must. See course-bear-like

etc.

fights Up with your, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, ii. 2. 123. Phillips thus explains fights: "(In sea-affairs) the waste-cloaths that hang round about the ship in a fight, to hinder the men from being seen by the enemy: also any place wherein men may cover themselves, and yet use their firearms." The New World of Words.

ed. 1706.

figures, "pictures created by imagination or apprehension (CRAIK): to scrape the figures out of your husband's brains, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, iv. 2. 193; He apprehends a world of figures here, 1 HENRY IV., i. 3. 209; Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, JULIUS CESAR, ii. 1. 231. file, a number, a list: the greater file of the subject, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, iii. 2. 128; the valued file (the list in which is set down the value of each), MACBETH, iii. 1. 94; a file Of all the gentry, MACBETH, v. 2. 8.

file, to polish his tongue filed, LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, V. 1. 9; when your countenance fil'd (fill'd, Cambridge) up his line, SONNETS, lxxxvi. 13; filed talk, THE PASSIONATE PILGRIM, Xix. 8.

file, to defile: have I filed my mind, MACBETH, iii. 1. 64.

file, to keep equal pace: Yet filed with my abilities, kept pace with my abilities, HENRY VIII., iii. 2. 171.

file our engines with advice

with advice, etc.

And she shall. See engines

fill-horse (phill-horse or thill-horse), shaft-horse, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, ii. 2. 87.

fills, shafts of a cart or wagon: put you i' the fills, TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, iii. 2. 44.

filth, used as a term of reproach and contempt:

66

Filth as

thou art, THE TEMPEST, i. 2. 346; Filth, thou liest ! OTHELLO, V. 2. 234; To general filths Convert o' the instant, green virginity! TIMON OF ATHENS, iv. 1. 6; Filths savour but themselves, KING LEAR, iv. 2. 39. In the third of these passages Steevens explains general filths by common sewers;" but surely the meaning is "common whores ;" and so in the second passage "Filth" seems from Iago's preceding speech to be equivalent to "whore." (Compare Greene's Notable Discovery of Coosnage, etc., 1592: "To him will some common filth [that neuer knew loue] faine an ardent and honest affection," etc. Sig. c 4.) find forth, to find out falling there to find his fellow forth, THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, i. 2. 37; To find the other forth, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, i. 1. 143.

find him not - If she, If she do not make him out, HAMLET, iii. 1. 185.

fine, a conclusion, an end: and the fine is, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, i. 1. 212; the fine 's the crown, ALL 's WELL THAT ENDS WELL, iv. 4. 34.

fine, to end: Time's office is to fine the hate of foes, THE RAPE of LUCRECE, 936.

fine and recovery, THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, iv. 2. 188; THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, ii. 2. 73. See fee-simple,

etc.

fine (find, Cambridge) his title with some shows of truth

To,

HENRY V., i. 2. 72. Here fine has been explained fine," "

66 re

embellish," etc.; but "line" (suggested by Johnson) is probably the true reading.

fine in thy evidence, full of finesse, artful, in thy evidence, ALL 'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, v. 3. 262.

fine issues To, "To great consequences, for high purposes" (JOHNSON), MEASURE FOR MEASURE, i. 1. 37.

fineless, endless, OTHELLO, iii. 3. 177.

Finsbury As if thou never walk'st further than, 1 HENRY IV., iii. 1. 253. "In 1498, all the gardens which had continued time out of mind without Moorgate, to wit, about and beyond the lordship of Finsbury, were destroyed, and of them was made a plain field to shoot in. It was called Finsbury field, in which there were three windmills, and here they usually shoot at twelve score. Stow, 1633, p. 913. In Jonson's time, this was the usual resort of the plainer citizens. People of fashion, or who aspired to be thought so, probably mixed but little in those parties; and hence we may account for the indignation of Master Stephen at being suspected of such vulgarity [see Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, act i. sc. 1]. An idea of a similar kind occurs in Shakespeare, As if thou ne'er walk'st,' etc." Gifford's note on Jonson's Works, vol.

66

i. p. 10. firago I have not seen such a, TWELFTH NIGHT, iii. 4. 262. Firago a corruption for virago, like fagaries for vagaries" (MALONE). Sir Toby means, I never saw one that had so much the look of woman with the prowess of man (JOHNSON). "The word virago is certainly inapplicable to a man, a blustering hectoring fellow, as Sir Toby means to represent Viola; for he cannot possibly entertain any suspicion of her sex: but it is no otherwise so than Rounceval is to a woman, meaning a terrible fighting blade; from Ronceval or Roncesvalles, the famous scene of that fabulous combat with the Saracens, • When

Charlemagne and all his peerage fell, By Fontarabia""" (RITSON).

fire is in mine ears? What, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, iii. 1. 107. “Alluding to a proverbial saying of the common people, that their ears burn when others are talking of them" (Warburton).

fire, fire; cast on no water, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, iv. 1. 16. "There is an old popular catch of three parts in these words:

'Scotland burneth, Scotland burneth.

Fire, fire; - Fire, fire;

Cast on some more water.'"

(BLACKSTONE).

firebrand brother - Our, TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, ii. 2. 110. "Hecuba, when pregnant with Paris, dreamed she should be delivered of a burning torch " (STEEVENS).

fire-drake That, HENRY VIII., v. 4. 41. The word firedrake had several meanings — viz. a fiery dragon, a meteor, and a sort of firework: that here it is used to describe a person with a red nose is proved by what immediately precedes.

fire-new (newly come from the fire), bran-new, Love's LABOUR'S LOST, i. 1. 176; TWELFTH NIGHT, iii. 2. 21; RICHARD III., i. 3. 256; KING LEAR, v. 3. 132.

firk, HENRY V., iv. 4. 28, 31. Seems to mean "beat." "The word firk is so variously used by the old writers, that it is almost impossible to ascertain its precise meaning" (STEEVENS).

--

first son - My, CORIOLANUS, iv. 1. 33. Here first is explained by Warburton "noblest and most eminent of men. fish lives in the sea- The, that is, has not been caught, ROMEO AND JULIET, i. 3. 90. Fish-skin was sometimes used for binding books.

fish - Here's another ballad of a, etc., THE WINTER'S TALE,