Page:The Works of Ben Jonson - Gifford - Volume 4.djvu/28

 Face.O, My lawyer's clerk, I lighted on last night, In Holborn, at the Dagger. He would have

as it stands here, in his corrected copy. That Upton knew his own meaning is highly probable, (though I will not affirm it,) but that he knew his author's I cannot possibly believe. A "quodling" is not a whitlow, neither is a "puffin," a shortness of breath. In Twelfth Night, Malvolio says—"as a squash before 'tis a peascod, or a codling when 'tis almost an apple." On which Steevens observes, that a codling anciently meant an immature apple; and produces this passage of Jonson to confirm it. An apple, though immature, is still, I presume, an apple, which the codling of Shakspeare is not, unless almost have the same meaning as altogether. The fact is, that Steevens spoke by guess, and was not lucky. Codling (a mere diminutive of cod,) is not necessarily restricted to this or that—it means an involucrum or kell, and was used by our old writers for that early state of vegetation, when the fruit, after shaking off the blossom, began to assume a globular and determinate form. This is what Shakspeare means. "I have seen Summer go up and down with hot codlings," says a character in the Sun's Darling. "This," exclaims the editor of Ford, "plainly proves the assertion of Steevens that codlings are immature apples, as none but such could be had in summer." Mr. Weber is always positive in proportion to his want of knowledge. The "codling" of Shakspeare is perfectly distinct from the "hot codlings" of Ford, which, as any one but his editor would have discovered, are not apples but young peas; which under this name were cried, ready dressed, about the streets of London. With respect to the quodling of the text, to which it is more than time to return, and which has been so often and so ridiculously quoted to confirm what Shakspeare never meant, it is neither an apple nor a pea, but a sportive appellation for a young quill-driver, derived from the quods and quids of legal phraseology, which have given so many other cant terms to the language. Dapper was dressed as youths of his grave profession usually were in Jonson's time, in a band and gown. Hence Dorothy's knowledge of his occupation, and Face's instant recognition of her description.