Hoft. Here, boys, here, here! fhall we wag? Page. Have with you :-I had rather hear them fcold than fight. [Exeunt Hoft, Shallow, and Pages Ford. Though Page be a fecure fool, and ftand

1

fo

troduced, tells what he could once have done with his long fword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON.

The two-handed fword is mentioned in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date :

"Somtyme he ferveth me at borde,

"Somtyme he bereth my two-hand (word.”

See a note to the Firft Part of K. Hen. IV. a&t II. STEEVENS. Carleton, in his Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercy, 1625, speaking of the treachery of one Rowland York, in betraying the town of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587, fays; " he was a Londoner, famous among the cutters in his time, for bringing in a new kind of fight-to run the point of a rapier into a man's body. This manner of fight be brought firft into England, with great admiration of his audacioufnefs: when in England before that time, the ufe was, with little bucklers, and with broad fwords, to ftrike and not to thrust; and it was accounted unmanly to strike under the girdle." MALONE.

9

tall fellows-] The older quartos read-tall fencers. See note 5. p. 272. STEEVENS.

and fand fo firmly on his wife's frailty,] No, furely; Page flood tightly to the opinion of her honesty, and would not entertain a thought of her being frail. I have therefore ventured to substitute a word correfpondent to the fenfe required; and one, which our poet frequently ufes to fignify conjugal faith.

was.

THEOBALD.

fland fo firmly on his wife's frailty,] Thus all the copies. But Mr. Theobald has no conception how any man could ftand firmly on his wife's frailty. And why? Because he had no conception how he could stand upon it, without knowing what it But if I tell a stranger, that the bridge he is about to cross is rotten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not fay, when I fee him upon it, that he ftands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford editor has followed him. But they took the phrafe, to fland firmly on, to fignify to infift upon; whereas it fignifies to rest upon, which the character of a fecure fool, given to him, fhews. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be loft in the alteration. WARBURTON.

To ftand on any thing, does fignify to infift on it. So in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "All captains, and

frand

fo firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion fo eafily: She was in his company at Page's houfe; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't and I have a disguise to found Falftaff: If I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if she be otherwise, 'tis labour well beftow'd. [Exit

SCENE

The Garter inn.

Enter Falstaff and Piftol.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.

II.

Pift. Why, then the world's mine oyfter 2, which I with fword will open. I will retort the fum in equipage.

-

Stand upon the honesty of your wives." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, book 6. chap. 30:

"For ftoutly on their honefties doe wylie harlots ftand.”

The jealous Ford is the speaker, and all chastity in women appears to him as frailty. He fuppofes Page therefore to infift on that virtue as steady, which he himself fufpects to be without foun

dation. STEEVENS.

2

66

-the world's mine oyfter, &c.] Dr. Gray supposes ShakeThe mayor of Northspeare to allude to an old proverb, ampton opens ofters with his dagger." i. e. to keep them at a fufficient diftance from his nofe, that town being fourfcore miles from the fea. STEEVENS.

3

I will retort the fum in equipage.] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in stolen goods. WARBURTON.

I rather believe he means, that he will pay him by waiting on him for nothing. So in Love's Pilgrimage, by B. and Fletcher : "And boy, be you my guide,

"For I will make a full defcent in equipage." That equipage ever meant folen goods, I am yet to learn.

STEEVENS

Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equipage was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies' Papers Complaint, (a poem which has erroneously been ascribed to Donne) we have several of

them :

"Embellish, blandishment, and equipage." Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch favour of witlefe affectation. FARMER.

Fal.

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, fir, you fhould lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and + your coach-fellow, Nym; or elfe you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in hell, for fwearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good foldiers, and tall fellows: and when mistress Bridget loft the handle of her fan, I took't upon mine honour, thou hadft it not.

Pift.

your coach-fellow, Nym;-] Thus the old copies. Coach-fellow has an obvious meaning, but the modern editors read, couch-fellow. The following paffage from B. Jonfon's Cynthia's Revels, may juftify the reading I have chofen: "_"Tis the fwaggering coach-horfe Anaides, that draws with him there.” Again, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "Are you he my Page here makes choice of to be his fellow coach-horfe?" Again, in Every Woman in her humour, 1609:

"For wit, ye may be coach'd together."

Again, in 10th B. of Chapman's Translation of Homer:

"their chariot horfe, as they coach-fellows were."

STEEVENS.

5 and tall fellows: -] A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant, a flout, bold, or courageous perfon. In A Difcourfe on Ufury, by Dr. Wilfon, 1584, he fays, "Here in England, he that can rob a man by the high-way, is called a tall fellow." Lord Bacon fays, "that bishop Fox caufed his caftle of Norham to be fortified, and manned it likewife with a very great number of tall foldiers." In The Love of David and Bethfabe, 1599, Joab enters in triumph; and fays-" Well done, tall foldiers," &c. So B. Jonfon, in Every Man out of his Humour:

"Is he fo tall a man?"

So likewife in Soliman and Perfeda:

"Is this little defperate fellow gone?

"Doubtless he is a very tall fellow." STEEVENS.

-loft the handle of her fan,-] It fhould be remembered, that fans, in our author's time, were more coftly than they are at prefent, as well as of a different conftruction. They confifted of oftrich feathers, (or others of equal length and flexibility) which were ftuck into handles. The richer fort of these were compofed of gold, filver, or ivory of curious workmanship. One of them is mentioned in The Fleire, Com: 1610: "-fhe hath a fan with a fhort filver handle, about the length of a barber's fyringe." Again, in Love and Honour, by fir W. Davenant, 1649: "All your

plate,

Pift. Didft thou not fhare? hadft thou not fifteen pence?

plate, Vafco, is the filver handle of your old prifoner's fan."

In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Money, or A pleafant Comedy of a Woman will have her Will, 1616, is a portrait of a lady with one of these fans, which, after all, may prove the best commentary on the paffage. The three other fpecimens are taken from the Habiti Antichi et Moderni di tutto il Mondo, published at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cefare Vecelli, his brother. This fashion was perhaps imported from Italy, together with many others in the reign of king Henry VIII. if not in that of king Richard II.

STEEVENS.

Thus alfo Marston, in the Scourge of Villainie, lib. iii. fat. 8:

"Her filver-handled fan would gladly be."

And in other places. And Bishop Hall, in his Satires, published 1597, lib. v. fat. 4 :

"Whiles one piece pays her idle waiting-manne,

"Or buys a hoode, or filver-handled fanne."

In the Sidney papers, published by Collins, a fan is presented to queen Elizabeth for a new year's gift, the handle of which was ftudded with diamonds. WARTON.

It appears from Marfton's Satires, that the fum of 401. was fometimes given for a fan in the time of queen Elizabeth.

MALONE.

Fal.

Fal. Reafon, you rogue, reafon: Think'ft thou, FIF endanger my foul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you:-go.

A fhort

knife and a thong,- to your manor of Pickt-hatch,

go.

7-A bort knife and a throng:

-] So Lear: "When cut

purfes come not to throngs." WARBURTON.

Part of the employment given by Drayton, in The Mooncalf,, to the Baboon, feems the fame with this recommended by Falftaff:

"He like a gypfy oftentimes would go,

"All kinds of gibberish he hath learn'd to know; "And with a flick, a short ftring, and a noofe, "Would show the people tricks at faft and loofe." Theobald has throng instead of thong. The latter feems right. LANGTON.

Greene, in his Life of Ned Browne, 1592, fays: "I had ne other fence but my fhort knife, and a paire of purfe-firings."

STEEVENS. See a note on Anthony and Cleopatra, that explains the trick of faft and lonfe. SIR J. HAWKINS.

8

Pickt-hatch,-] A noted place for thieves and pickpockets. THEOBALD.

Pit-hatch is frequently mentioned by contemporary writers. So, in B. Jonfon's Every Man in his Humour :

"From the Bordello it might come as well,

"The Spital, or Pict-hatch."

Again, in Woman's a Weather-cock,, 1612 :

"Scratch faces, like a wild cat of Pic-hatch."

Again, in Randolph's Mufes Looking-glass, 1638: the lordship of Turnbull fo

"Which with my Pict-hatch, Grange, and Shore-ditch

farm &c."

PiЯ-batch was in Turnbull-freet:

66

your whore doth live

"In Pict-hatch, Turnbull-freet."

Amends for Ladies, a Comedy by N. Field, 1639, The derivation of the word Pict-hatch may perhaps be difcovered from the following paffage in Cupid's Whirligig, 1630: "-Set fome pickes upon your hatch, and I pray, profefs to keep a bawdy-houfe." Perhaps the unfeafonable and obftreperous irruptions of the gallants of that age, might render fuch a precau tion neceffary. So in Pericles P. of Tyre, 1609: “ If in our youths we could pick up fome pretty eftate, 'twere not amifs to keep our door hatch'd, &c." STEEVENS,