Queen Elizabeth was so well pleased with the admirable character of Falstaff in the Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, the commanded Shakspeare to continue it for one play more, and to shew him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windfor: which, Mr. Gildon fays, he was very well assured our author finished in a fortnight. 2 This is the first, of sundry inftances in our poet, where a parfon is called fir; upon which it may be observed, that anciently it was the common defignation both of one in holy orders and a knight. 3 The Star-chamber had a right to 4 Probably intended for a corruption of Cuftos Rotulorum. take cognizance of routs and riots. luce is a pike or jack. This passage is also supposed to point at Sir Thomas Lucy, who was the cause of Shakspeare's leaving Stratford. s The Shal. Shal. Not a whit. tale, if matters grow to your likings. Page. I am glad to fee your worships well: I thank you for my venifon, master Shallow. Shal. Master Page, I am glad to fee you: Much Eva. Yes, py'r-lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three skirts for yourself, in my fimple conjectures: but that is all one: If fir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you, 5 good do it your good heart! I wish'd your venifon I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromises between you. Shal. The council shall hear it; it is a riot. Eva. It is not meet the council hear of a riot; 10 there is no fear of Got in a riot: the council, look you, shall defire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments in that. Sbal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the fword should end it. Eva. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings good difcretions with it: There is Anne Page, which is daughter to master George Page, which is pretty virginity. Slen. Mistress Anne Page? she has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman. 15 better; it was ill kill'd:-How doth good mistress Page? - and I thank you always with my heart, la; with my heart. Page. Sir, I thank you. Sbal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. Slen. You'll not confess, you'll not confefs. Page. A cur, fir. Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; can 20 there be more said? he is good, and fair. Is fir John Falstaff here? Eva. It is that very person for all the 'orld, as just as you will defire; and seven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and silver, is her grandfire, upon 25 his death's-bed, (Got deliver to a joyful refurrections!) give, when she is able to overtake seventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage between mafter Abraham and mistress Anne Page. Slen. Did her grandfire leave her seven hundred pounds? Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you. Eva. It is spoke as a christians ought to speak. Sbal. If it be confefs'd, it is not redress'd; is not Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; she has 35 Sbal. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd good gifts. Eva. Seven hundred pounds, and poffibilities, is my deer, and broke open my lodge. Fal. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter? Fal. I will answer it strait;-I have done all 40 this: That is now answer'd. Eva. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar, as I do despise one that is false; or, as I despise one that is not true. The knight, Sir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door [Knocks] for master Page. What, 45 hoa! Got pless your house here! Enter Page. Sbal. The council shall know this. Fal. 'Twere better for you, if 'twere known in counsel 3: you'll be laughed at. Eva. Pauca verba, fir John; good worts. Fal. Good worts 4! good cabbage: -Slender, D broke your head; What matter have you against me? Slen. Marry, fir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching 5 rafcals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. Bar. You Banbury cheese 6! Slen. Ay, it is no matter. * Advisement is now an obfolete word. 2 He means Cotfrwold, in Gloucestershire; where in the begin ning of the reign of James the First, by permiffion of the king, Dover, a public-spirited attorney o Barton on the Heath, in Warwickshire, instituted on the hills of Corfwold an annual celebration c games, confifting of rural sports and exercises. These he conftantly conducted in person, well mounted and accoutred in a fuit of his majesty's old cloaths; and they were frequented above forty years b the nobility and gentry for fixty miles round, till the grand rebellion abolished every liberal establin ment. The games were, chiefty, wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike, dancing o women, various kinds of hunting, and particularly coursing the hare with greyhounds. here probably quibbles between council and counfel; the latter fignifies fecrecy; and his meaning feems be, 'Twere better for you if it were known only in fecrecy, i. e. among your friends. 4 Worts was t ancient name of all the cabbage kind. 5 A coney-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a comme name for a cheat or sharper. This alludes to the thin carcafe of Slender. 3 Falsta P but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick : if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knayes. Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. Fal. You hear all these matters deny'd, gentlemen; you hear it. Enter Mistress Anne Page with wine; mistress Ford and mistress Page following. Eva. Peace, I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is-master Page, fidelicet, master Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and 10 drink within. the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host of the Garter. Page. We three to hear it, and end it between them. Ees. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in 15 my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause, with as great discreetly as we can. Fal. Piftol, Pif. He hears with ears. Eva. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is 20 this, He bears with ear? Why, it is affectations. Fal. Pistol, did you pick master Slender's purse? Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Fal. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good mistress. [Kiffing ber Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome: Come, we have a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope, we shall drink down all unkindness. [Exe. all but Shal. Slend. and Evans. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings, I had my book of fongs and fonnets here: Enter Simple. I might never come in mine own great chamber again elfe) of seven groats in mill-fixpences, and 25 wait on myself, must I? You have not the book two Edward shovel-boards 3; that cost me two fhilling and two-pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves. Fal. Is this true, Pistol? Eva. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse. and master mine, I combat challenge of this latten bilboe 4: Nym. Be advis'd, Sir, and pass good humours : I will fay, marry trap, with you, if you run the nut-hook's humour 7 on me; that is the very note of it. Slen. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an afs. Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John? Bard. Why, fir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences. Evs. It is his five senses: fie, what the igno wance is! 30 How now, Simple; where have you been? I must of riddles about you, have you ? Sim. Book of riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas? Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz; marry this, coz: There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by fir Hugh here;-do you understand me? Slen. Ay, fir, you shall find me reasonable; if 35 it be fo, I shall do that that is reason. Eva. Give ear to his motions, master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be ca40 pacity of it. Slen. Nay, I will do, as my cousin Shallow says: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, simple though I stand here. Eva. But that is not the question; the question 45 is concerning your marriage. Bard. And being fap, fir, was, as they say, ca-50 hier'd; and so conclufions pass'd the careires 8. Siez. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll never be drunk whilst I live again, Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir. Eva. Marry is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page. Slen. Why, if it be so, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands. Eva. But can you affection the *oman? let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philosophers hold, that the lips is The name of a spirit or familiar, in the old story book of Sir John Faustus, or Joan Fauft, and in those times a cant phrase of abuse. 2 Mill'd-fixpences were used by way of counters to cast up money. These were the broad shillings of Eduard VI. and at that time used at the play of shovel-board. * Mr. Theobald is of opinion, that by latten bilboe Pistol, seeing Slender such a slim, puny wight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal which is called latten; whilst Mr. Steevens thinks, that latten bilbse means no more than a blade as thin as a lath. 5 That is, bear the word of denial in my lips. Thou ly'st. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat. Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adversary. own ftratagem, the exclamation of insult probably was marry, trap! in cant ftrain; and, if you run the nutbook's humour on me, is in plain English, if you fay I am a thief. • A military phrafe. 6 When a man was caught in his 7 Nutbook was a term of reproach parcel parcel of the mouth: Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good-will to the maid? Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? your dogs bark so! be there bears i' the town? Anne. I think there are, fir; I heard them talk'd of. Slen. I love the sport well; but I shall as foon Slen. I hope, fir, I will do, as it shall become 5 quarrel at it, as any man in England:-You are one that would do reafon. Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her. afraid, if you fee the bear loose, are you not? Anne. Ay, indeed, fir. Slen. That's meat and drink to me now: I have seen Sackerson loose, twenty times; and have taken Shal. That you must: Will you, upon good 10 him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the women dowry, marry her? Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, coufin, in any reason. Sbal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet have so cry'd and shriek'd at it, that it pass'd 3: but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things. Re-enter Page. coz; what I do, is to pleasure you, coz: Can you 15 Page. Come, gentle master Slender, come; we love the maid? Slen. I will marry her, fir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are marry'd, and have more occafion to 20 know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely dissolved, and diffolutely. stay for you. Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, fir. Page. By cock and pye, you shall not choose, fir: come, come. Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way. Page. Come on, fir. Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first. Slen. Truly, I will not go first; truly-la; I will Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; save, the 25 not do you that wrong. faul' is in the 'ort dissolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, resolutely ;-his meaning is good. Shal. Ay, I think my coufin meant well. Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne:-Would Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne. Anne. Will 't please your worship to come in, fir? Slen. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very well. Anne. The dinner attends you, fir. 30 Anne. I pray you, fir. Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly, than troublefome: you do yourself wrong, indeed-la.' [Exeunt. Eva. Go your ways, and ask of Dr. Caius house, which is the way; and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, 35 his washer, and his wringer. Simp. Well, fir. Eva. Nay, it is petter yet :-give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with mistress Anne Page; and the letter is, to de40 fire and require her to folicit your master's defires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt feverally. Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forfooth: -Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my cousin Shallow: [Exit Simple.] A justice of peace sometime may be beholden to his friend 45 for a man:-I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born. Anne. I may not go in without your worship: they will not fit till you come. Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing: I thank you as much as though I did. Anne. I pray you, fir, walk in. That is, three different set-to's, bouts, a technical term from the French, venue. a bear. 3 Meaning, that it passed all expreffion. 4 A popular adjuration of those times. Cock is no more than a corruption of the Sacred Name, as appears from cock's wounds, cock's bones, and cock's mother, and some other exclamations which occur in the old Moralities and Interludes. The pye is a table in the old Roman offices, shewing how to find out the service which is to be read on each day. Fal ! : Fal. Do fo, good mine hoft. Hat. I have spoke; let him follow: Let me fee thee froth, and lime; I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fatl. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good 5 trade: An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd ferving-man, a fresh tapster: Go; adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive. [Exit Bard. Jeyes too; exarnin'd my parts with most judicious Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine. Fal. O, she did fo course o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention 9, that the appetite of her eye did feem to scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse Pift. O base Gongarian wight?! wilt thou the ro too; the is a region in Guiana, all gold and fpigot wield? Nym. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroic, and there's the humour of it. bounty. I will be cheater 10 to them both, and they thall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and Weft-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou thrive. Fal. I am glad, I am so acquit of this tinderbox; 15 this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will his thefts were too open: his filching was like an usskilful finger, he kept not time. Nym. The good humour is, to steal at a minute's reft 3. Pift. Shall I fir Pandarus of Troy become, Pif. Convey, the wife it call; Steal! foh; a 20 humour letter; I will keep the haviour of reputation. fico for the phrafe! Fal. Well, firs, I am almost out at heels. Pit. Why then, let kibes ensue. Fal. There is no remedy; I must cony-catch, I must shift. Pit. Young ravens must have food 4. Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Pif. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. Fal. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. Pit. Two yards, and more. Fal. Hold, firrah, bear you these letters tightly"; Sail like my pinnace 12 to these golden shores. [To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; 25 Trudge, plod, away, o' the hoof; seek shelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of this age, French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. [Exeunt Falstaff and Boy. 30 Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd, And high and low beguiles the rich and poor: Nym. I have operations in my head, which be Pit. Wilt thou revenge? Fal. No quips now, Pistol: Indeed, I am in the waift two yards about: but I am now about no waite; I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife; I spy entertainment in 35 humours of revenge. her; the discourses, the carves 5, she gives the leer of invitation: I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftile; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am fir Jobn Talftaff's. Pift. He hath study'd her will, and translated her will; out of honesty into English. Nym. The anchor is deep: will that humour pass? Nym. By welkin, and her star! Pift. With wit, or steel? Nym. With both the humours, I: 40 I will discuss the humour of this love to Ford. His dove will prove, his gold will hold, her husband's purse; she hath a legion of angels. 45 Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incenfe Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her: and here 50 cond thee; troop on. another to Page's wife; whoeven now gave me good [Exeunt, This alludes to the tricks of frothing beer and liming sack, practised in the time of Shakspeare. The first was done by putting foap into the bottom of the tankard when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the fack (i. e. sherry) to make it sparkle in the glass. 2 This is a parody on a line taken from one of the old bombast plays. 3 Nym means to say, that the perfection of ftealing is to do it in the shortest time possible. 4 A proverb. 5 In those times the young of both sexes were instructed in carving, as a necessary accomplishment. 6 That is, explained. 7 The old quarto reads: As many devils attend ber! & Probably from geillades, French. is, eagerness of defire. 10 By this is meant efcheatour, an officer in the Exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. "Perhaps we should read rightly. 12 A pinnace anciently seems to have fignified a small vessel or floop, attending on a larger. At present it signifies only a man of war's 13 Fullam is a cant term for false dice, bigb and low. Gourd was another instrument of *** That is, jealoufy. 15 Revolt of mien means change of countenance, one of the effects he Boat. gaming. has just been afcribing to jealoufy. 9 That 1 SCENE |