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nry IV._ act v. sc. 3 makes Silence sing the following scrap:-- "Do me right, And dub me knight: _Samingo_." And Nash, in his _Summer's Last Will and Testament_, 1600 (reprinted in the last edition of Dodsley's _Old Plays_, vol. xi. p. 47.) has "Monsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass, In cup, in can, or glass; God Bacchus, do me right, And dub me knight, _Domingo_" T. Warton, in a note in vol. xvii. of the _Variorum_ Shakespeare, says, "_Samingo_, that is _San Domingo_, as some of the commentators have observed. But what is the meaning and propriety of the name here, has not yet been shown. Justice Silence is here introduced as in the midst of his cups; and I remember a black-letter ballad, in which either a _San Domingo_ or a _Signior Domingo_, is celebrated for his miraculous feats in drinking. Silence, in the abundance of his festivity, touches upon some old song, in which this convivial _saint_, or _signior_, was the burden. Perhaps, too, the pronounciation in here suited to the character." I must own that I cannot see what San Domingo has to do with a drinking song. May it not be an allusion to a ballad or song on _Domingo_, one of King Henry the Eighth's jesters? "--_Domyngo Lomelyn_, That was wont to wyn Moche money of the kynge, At the cardys and haserdynge." Skelton's _Why come ye not to Courte_, ed. Dyce, ii. p. 63. None of the commentators have noticed this, but I think my suggestion carries with it some weight. In the _Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth_ (published by Sir H. Nichols, in 1827), are many entries concerning this _Domingo_, most of which relate to payments of money that he had won from the king at cards and dice. He was evidently, as Sir Harris Nichols observes, one of King Henry's "diverting vagabonds," and seems to have accompanied his majesty wherever he went, for we find that he was with him at Calais in 1532. In all these entries he is only mentioned as Domingo; his surname, and the fact of his being a Lombard, we learn from Skelton's poem, mentioned above. The following story, told of _Domingo_, occurs in Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Harington's _Treatise on Playe_, 1597, printed in the _Nugae Antiquae_, edit. Park, vol. i. p.222.:-- "The other tale I wold tell of a willinge and wise loss I have hearde dyversly tolde. Some tell it of Kyng Phillip and a favoryte of his; some of our worthy King Henry VIII. and _Domi
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