Rob. My mafter fir John is come in at your backdoor, miftrefs Ford; and requefts your company. Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-lent, have you been

true to us?

Rob. Ay, I'll be sworn: My mafter knows not of your being here; and hath threaten'd to put me into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for, he fwears, he'll turn me away.

Mrs. Page. Thou'rt a good boy; this fecrecy of thine fhall be a tailor to thee, and fhall make thee a new doublet and hofe.-I'll go hide me.

Mrs. Ford. Do fo:-Go tell thy mafter, I am alone. Mistress Page, remember you your cue. [Exit Robin.

young hawk. The French, rom hence, took their niais, and ufed it in both thofe fignifications; to which they added a third, metaphorically a filly fellow; un garçon fort niais, un niais. Muf ket fignifies a fparrow hawk, or the finalleft fpecies of hawks. This too is from the Italian Mufchetto, a small hawk, as appears from the original fignification of the word, namely, a troublesome ftinging fy. So that the humour of calling the little page an eyas-mufket is very intelligible. WARBURTON.

So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: "no hawk fo haggard but will stoop to the lure: no nieffe fo ramage but will be reclaimed to the lunes." Eyas-mufket is the fame as infant Lilliputian. Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. i. c.

66

youthful gay

"Like eyas-hauke, up mounts into the skies,
"His newly budded pinions to effay."

In the Booke of Haukyng, &c. commonly called the Book of St. Albans, bl. 1. no date, is the following derivation of the word; but whether true or erroneous, is not for me to determine : "An hauke is called an eyeffe from her eye. For an hauke that is brought up under a butlarde or puttock, as many ben, have watry eyen, &c." STEEVENS.

8

Jack-a-lent,-] A Jack o' lent was a puppet thrown at in Lent, like fhrove-cocks. So, in The Weakest goes to the Wall, 1618: "A mere anatomy, a Jack of Lent."

Again, in the Four Prentices of London, 1632:

"Now you old Jack of Lent, fix weeks and upwards." Again, in Greene's Tu Quoque, 1599: "for if a boy that is throwing at his Jack o' Lent, chance to hit me on the fhins, &c." See a note on the last scene of this comedy. STEEVENS.

me.

Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hifs [Exit Mrs. Page. Mrs. Ford. Go to then;-we'll ufe this unwholfome humidity, this grofs watry pumpion;-we'll teach him to know turtles from jays 9.

Enter Falltaff.

Fal. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel'? Why, now let me die, for I have liv'd long enough; this is the period of my ambition: O this blefled hour! Mrs. Ford. O fweet fir John!

Fal. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate, mistress Ford. Now fhall I fin in my wifh: I would thy husband were dead; I'll speak it before the best lord, I would make thee my lady.

Mrs. Ford. I your lady, fir John! alas, I should be a pitiful lady.

Fal. Let the court of France fhew me fuch another; I fee how thine eye would emulate the diamond: Thou haft the right arched bent of the brow, that becomes the fhip-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance.

9 from jays.] So, in Cymbeline:

66

fome jay of Italy,

Mrs.

"Whose mother was her painting, &c." STEEVENS. Have I caught my heavenly jewel?] This is the first line of the second song in Sidney's Aftrophel and Stella. TOLLET,

2 Why, now let me die; for I have lived long enough; -] This fentiment, which is of facred origin, is here indecently introduced. It appears again, with fomewhat lefs of profaneness, in the Winter's Tale, act IV. and in Othello, act II. STEEVENS. 3 arched bent] Thus the quartos 1602, and 1619. The folio reads arched beauty. STEEVENS.

4 that becomes the hip tire, the tire-VALIANT, or any Venetian attire.] The old quarto reads, tire-vellet, and the old folio reads, or any tire of Venetian admittance. So that the true reading of the whole is this, that becomes the hip-tire, the tire-VALIANT, or any tire of Venetian admittance. The fpeaker tells his miftrefs, the had a face that would become all the head dreffes in fashion. The hip-tire was an open head-drefs, with a kind of feart depending from behind. Its name of hip-tire was, I prefume, from its giv

Mrs. Ford. A plain kerchief, fir John my brows become nothing elfe; nor that well neither,

Fal.

ing the wearer fome refemblance of a hip (as Shakespeare fays) in all her trim: with all her pennants out, and flags and ftreamers flying. Thus Milton, in Samfon Agoniftes, paints Dalila:

"But who is this, what thing of fea or land?

"Female of fex it seems,

"That fo bedeck'd, ornate and gay,

Comes this way failing

Like a ftately ship

"Of Tarfus, bound for the ifles

"Of Javan or Gadier,"

"With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

"Sails fill'd, and streamers waving,

"Courted by all the winds that hold them play."

This was an image familiar with the poets of that time. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play of Wit without Money: "She spreads fattens as the king's fhips do canvas every where, fhe may space her mifen, &c." This will direct us to reform the following word of tire-valiant, which I fufpect to be corrupt, valiant being a very incongruous epithet for a woman's head-drefs. I fuppofe Shakespeare wrote tire-voilant. As the hip-tire was an open head-drefs, fo the tire-voilant was a close one; in which the head and breaft were covered as with a veil. And these were, in fact, the two different head-dreffes then in fashion, as we may fee by the pictures of that time. One of which was fo open, that the whole neck, breafts, and fhoulders, were opened to view the other, fo fecurely inclofed in kerchiefs, &c. that nothing could be feen above the eyes, or below the chin.

or any Venetian attire.] This is a wrong reading, as appears from the impropriety of the word attire here used for a woman's head-drefs: whereas it fignifies the drefs of any part. We fhould read therefore, or any 'tire of Venetian admittance. For the word attire, reduced by the aphærefis, to 'tire, takes a new fignification, and means only the head drefs. Hence tire-woman, for a dreffer of the head. As to the meaning of the latter part of the fentence, this may be feen by a paraphrafe of the whole fpeech.Your face is fo good, fays the fpeaker, that it would become any head-drefs worn at court, either the open or the clofe, or indeed any rich and fashionable one worth adorning with Venetian point, or which will admit to be adorned. [Of Venetian admittance.] The fashionable lace, at that time, was Venetian point.

WARBURTON. This note is plaufible, except in the explanation of Venetian admittance:

X 3

Fal. Thou art a traitor' to say fo: thou would'st make an absolute courtier; and the firm fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait, in a femi-circled farthingale. I fee what thou wert, if fortune thy foe were not; nature is thy friend: Come, thou canst not hide it.

me.

Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there's no fuch thing in

Fal. What made me love thee? let that perfuade thee, there's fomething extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and fay, thou art this and that, like a many of these lifping haw-thorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and fmell like Bucklers-bury' in fimple-time; I cannot; but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deferveft it.

Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, fir; I fear, you love mistress Page.

Fal. Thou might'ft as well fay, I love to walk by the Counter-gate; which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln.

admittance: but I am afraid this whole fyftem of dress is unfupported by evidence. JOHNSON.

66

-of Venetian admittance.] i. e. of a fashion received from Venice. So, in Weftward Hoe, 1606, by Decker and Webiter: now he's in that Italian bead-tire you fent her." Dr. Warburton might have found the fame reading in the quarto, 1630. Inftead of tire-valiant, I would read tire-volant. Stubbs, who defcribes moft minutely every article of female-drefs, has mentioned none of these terms, but fpeaks of vails depending from the top of the head, and flying behind in loofe folds. The word olant was in ufe before the age of Shakespeare. I find it in Wilfride Holme's Fall and evil Succeffe of Rebellion, 1537:

high volant in any thing divine."

Tire vellet, in the old 4to, may be printed, as Mr. Tollet obferves, by mistake, for tire velvet. We know that velvet-hoods were worn in the age of Shakespeare. STEEVENS.

5

6

a traitor. -] i. e. to thy own merit. STEEVENS. like Bucklers-bury, &c.] Bucklers-bury, in the time of Shakespeare, was chiefly inhabited by druggifts, who fold all kind of herbs, green as well as dry. STEEVENS.

Mrs.

Mrs. Ford. Well, heaven knows how I love you; and you shall one day find it.

Fal. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or elfe I could not be in that mind.

Rob. [Within.] Mistress Ford, mistress Ford! here's miftrefs Page at the door, fweating, and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs speak with you prefently.

Fal. She fhall not fee me; I will enfconce me be hind the arras.

Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do fo; fhe's a very tattling [Falstaff hides himself.

woman.

Enter Miftrefs Page.

What's the matter? how now?

Mrs. Page. O miftrefs Ford, what have you done? you're fham'd, you are overthrown, you are undone for ever.

Mrs. Ford. What's the matter, good mistress Page? Mrs. Page. O well-a-day, mistress Ford! having an honeft man to your husband, to give him fuch cause of fufpicion!

Mrs. Ford. What caufe of fufpicion?

Mrs. Page. What caufe of fufpicion ?-Out upon you!-how am I mistook in you?

Mrs. Ford. Why, alas! what's the matter?

Mrs. Page. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all the officers in Windfor, to fearch for a gentleman, that, he says, is here now in the house, by your confent, to take an ill advantage of his abfence: You are undone.

Mrs. Ford. Speak louder 7.-[Afide.] 'Tis not fo, I hope.

Speak louder] i. e. that Falstaff who is retired may hear. This paffage is only found in the two elder quartos. STEEVENS.