BARD. ... And so conclusions _pass'd the careires_. We are told that this is a technical term in the _manege_; but no explanation is given. It was the same as _running a career_, or galloping a horse violently backwards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end of the career; "which career the more seldom it be used and with the lesse fury, the better mouth shall your horse have," says Master Blundeville in his _Arte of ryding_, b. l. 4to, where there is a whole chapter on the subject, as well as in "_The art of riding_," translated by Thomas Bedingfield from the Italian of Claudio Corte, 1584, 4to. SCENE 1. Page 325. SLEN. I hope upon familiarity will grow more contempt. This is no more than a perversion of the common proverb, _Familiarity breeds contempt_. Slender's school learning had furnished him on the occasion. The phrase is still used in copy-books for children. SCENE 1. Page 327. SLEN. I bruis'd my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger with a _master of fence_. "_Master of defence_, on the present occasion, does not simply mean a professor of the art of fencing, but a person who had taken his _master's degree_ in it," says Mr. Steevens, whose readers are under great obligations to him for pointing out one of the greatest curiosities extant on the ancient science of defence, in support of his position. Yet it may be doubted whether the expression _master of defence_ does not very often, and even on the present occasion, signify merely a _professor of the art_. Numerous authorities might be adduced on this side of the question, but perhaps a single one that is apposite may suffice. In Eden's _History of travayle_, 1577, 4to, speaking of Calecut in the East Indies, he says, "they have in the citie certayne _maisters of fence_ that teach them how to use the swoord, &c." The original Latin from which Eden translates has _lanista_. Now it is not to be presumed that the last-mentioned _maisters of fence_ had taken any degree. It must be owned that the evidence of the manuscript cited by Mr. Steevens goes very far to show that none were allowed to practise as professors who had not taken a degree in some fencing school; an honour once conferred by king Edward the Sixth, and generally granted, though not till after many years' experience, by one who was himself a _master_. Yet a person who had only a _provost's_ degree might be allowed to teach, and _he_ would be termed a _master of defence_. SCENE 3. Page 330. HOST. What says my _bully-rook_?