the priest o' the town commended him for a true

man.

Ford.

only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the first adventurers that travelled thither; fuch as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told fuch incredible wonders of this new difcovered empire (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jefuits themselves, who followed them) that a notorious liar was ufually called a Cataian. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton have both told their stories with confidence, I am afraid, very difproportionate to any evidence that can be produced. That Cataian was a word of hatred or contempt is plain, but that it fignified a boafter or a liar has not been proved. Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night, fays of the Lady Olivia to her maid, "thy Lady's a Cataian;" but there is no reafon to think he means to call her liar. Besides, Page intends to give Ford a reason why Pistol should not be credited. He therefore does not fay, I would not believe fuch a liar: for that he is a liar is yet to be made probable: but he fays, I would not believe fuch a Cataian on any teftimony of his veracity. That is, "This fellow has fuch an odd appearance, is fo unlike a man civilized, and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit him." To be a foreigner was always in England, and I fuppofe every where else, a reafon of diflike. So Piftol calls Sir Hugh in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of grofs behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian right. JOHNSON.

66

I believe that neither of the commentators is in the right, but am far from profeffing, with any great degree of confidence, that I am happier in my own explanation. It is remarkable, that in Shakespeare, this expreffion- -a true man is always put in oppofition (as it is in this instance) to—a thief. So in Hen. IV. Part I. now the thieves have bound the true men." The Chinese (anciently called Cataians) are faid to be the most dextrous of all the nimble-finger'd tribe; and to this hour they deferve the fame character, Piftol was known at Windfor to have had a hand in picking Slender's pocket, and therefore might be called a Cataian with propriety, if my explanation be admitted.

That by a Cataian fome kind of harper was meant, I infer from the following paffage in Love and Honour, a play by Sir W. Davenant, 1649:

"Hang him, bold Cataian, he indites finely,
"And will live as well by fending fhort epiftles,
"Or by the fad whisper at your gamefier's ear,
"When the great By is drawn,

"As any diftreft gallant of them all,”

From

Ford. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow: Well.
Page. How now, Meg?

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George ?-Hark you, Mrs. Ford. How now, fweet Frank? why art thou melancholy?

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.-Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head now.-Will you go, mistress Page?

Mrs. Page. Have with you.-You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe fhall be our meffenger to this paltry knight.

[Afide to Mrs. Ford.

Enter Miftrefs Quickly.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her: she'll fit it.

From the ufe Sir Toby Belch makes of the word, little can be inferred with any certainty. Sir Toby is drunk, calls Malvolio by the name of an old fong, and talks, in fhort, nonfense. Cathaia is mentioned in the Tamer Tamed, of B. and Fletcher :

"I'll with you in the Indies, or Cathaia."

The tricks of the Čataians are hinted at in one of the old bl. letter hiftories of that country; and again, in a dramatic performance, called the Pedler's Prophecy, 1595:

66

in the caft part of Inde,

"Through feas and floods, they work all thievife."

Mr. Malone obferves, that in a book of Shakespeare's age, entitled, A brief Defcription of the whole World, "the people of China are (faid to be) very politick and crafty, and in refpect thereof contemning the wits of others; ufing a proverb, That all other nations do fee but with one eye, but they with two."

Again, in the the Treafury of Ancient and Modern Time, 1613, the Cathaians are defcribed in the fame manner: "For myfelf, I condemn this cuftom as favage and brutish, and hold the Cathaians to be a very grofs people, albeit they both fay and believe, that the whole world befide them, doth fee but with one eye, and they directly with both." STEEVENS.

'Twas a good fenfible fellow:] This, and the two preceding fpeeches of Ford, are spoken to himself, and have no connection with the fentiments of Page, who is likewife making his comment on what had paffed, without attention to Ford. STEEVENS.

Mrs.

Mrs. Page. You are come to see my daughter Anne? Quic. Ay, forfooth; And, I pray, how does good mistress Anne ?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and see; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. Page. How now, mafter Ford?

Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did you not?

Page. Yes; And you heard what the other told me? Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

Page. Hang 'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but these, that accuse him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his difcarded men ; very rogues, now they be out of service.

Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he fhould intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more of her than fharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not mifdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head: I cannot be thus fatisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting host of the Garter comes there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purse, when he looks fo merrily.-How, now,

mine hoft?

3 Very rogues, now they be out of fervice.] A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its confequential fignification, a cheat.

JOHNSON.

Enter

Enter Hoft, and Shallow.

Hoft. How, now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gentleman cavalero-juftice, I fay.

Shal. I follow, mine hoft, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good master Page! Master Page, will you go with us? we have fport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavalero-juftice; tell him, bullyrook ?

Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between fir Hugh the Welch prieft, and Caius the French doctor. Ford. Good mine hoft o' the Garter, a word with

you.

Hoft. What fay'st thou, bully-rook?

[They go a little afide. Shal. [To Page] Will you go with us to behold it? My merry hoft hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places: for, believe, me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our fport fhall be. Hot. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my gueft-cavalier?

Ford. None, I proteft: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourfe to him, him, my name is Brook, only for a jeft.

and tell

Hoft. My hand, bully: thou fhalt have egrefs and

-cavalero-justice,] So in The Stately Moral of three Ladies of London, 1590:

"Then know, Caftilian cavalieros, this."

There is a book printed in 1599, called, A Countercuffe given to Martin Junior; by the venturous, hardie, and renowned Pafquil of Englande, CAVALIERO. STEEVENS.

5 -and tell him, my name is Brook; ] Thus both the old quartos; and thus moft certainly the poet wrote. We need no better evidence than the pun that Falstaff anon makes on the name, when Brook fends him fome burnt fack.

Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow with fuch liquor. The players, in their editions, altered the name to Broom.

THEOBALD.

regrefs

regrefs; faid I well? and thy name shall be Brook: It is a merry knight.-7 Will you go an-heirs? Shal. Have with you, mine hoft,

Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier.

Shal. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In thefe times you ftand on distance, your paffes, ftoccado's, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, mafter Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have seen the time, with my long fword, I would have made you four tall fellows fkip like rats.

8

Hoft.

faid I well?] The learned editor of the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, in 4 vols 8vo, 1775, obferves, that this phrafe is given to the hoft in the Pardonere's Prologue:

"Said I not wel? I cannot fpeke in terme:" V. 12246. and adds, “if may be fufficient with the other circumstances of general refemblance, to make us believe, that Shakespeare, when he drew that character, had not forgotten his Chaucer." The fame gentleman has fince informed me, that the paffage is not found in any of the ancient printed editions, but only in the MSS. STEEVENS.

7

Will you go AN-HEIRS?] This nonfenfe is spoken to Shallow. We fhould read, Will you go ON, HERIS? i. e. Will you go on, mafter? Heris, an old Scotch word for master.

WARBURTON.

The merry Hoft has already faluted them feparately by titles of distinction; he therefore probably now addreffes them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably

Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a fubfequent fcene of this play, Farewell, my hearts. Again, in the Mid-fummer's Night Dream, Bottom fays, " -Where are these hearts?" My brave hearts, or my bold hearts, is a common word of encouragement. A heart of gold expreffes the more foft and amiable qualities, the Mores aurei of Horace; and a beart of oak it a frequent encomium of rugged honefty. Hanmer reads-Mynheers. STEEVENS.

Will you go an-heirs?] Perhaps we fhould read, Will you go and bear us? So in the next page- "I had rather hear them fcold than fight." MALONE.

8

my long fword,] Before the introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length, and fometimes raifed with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, cenfures the innovation by which lighter weapons were in

troduced,