cry aim. The clock gives me my cue, and my affurance bids me fearch; there I fhall find Falstaff: I shall be rather praised for this, than mocked; for it is as pofitive as the earth is firm, that Falstaff is there : I will go.

To him, Enter Page, Shallow, Slender, Hoft, Evans, and Caius.

Shal. Page, &c. Well met, Mr. Ford.

Ford, Truft me, a good knot: I have good cheer at home, and, I pray you, all go with me. Shal. I muft excufe myself, Mr. Ford.

Slen. And fo muft I, Sir; we have appointed to dine with Mrs. Anne, and I would not break with her for more mony than I'll fpeak of.

Shal. We have linger'd about a match between Anne Page and my coufin Slender, and this day we shall have our anfwer.

Slen. I hope I have your good will, father Page.

Page. You have, Mr. Slender; I ftand wholly for you; but my wife, mafter Doctor is for you, altogether.

Caius. Ay, by gar, and de maid is love-a-me: my nurth-a-Quickly tell me fo mufh.

Hoft. What fay you to young Mr. Fenton ? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verfes, he speaks holy-day, he fmells April and May; he will carry't, he will carry't 'tis in his buttons, he will carry't.

E 3 He writes verfes, he speaks holy-day, 1. e. in a highflown, fuftian stile. It was called a holy-day ftile, from the old custom of acting their Farces of the mysteries and moralities, which were turgid and bombaft, on holy days. So in Much ado about nothing, I cannot woo in feftival terms. And again in the Merchant of Venice, thou spend ft fuch high-day wit lin praising himen

Page.

i

Page. Not by my confent, I promise you: the Gentleman is of no Having, he kept company with the wild Prince and Poinz: he is of too high a region, he knows too much; no, he fhall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my fubftance. If he take her, let him take her fimply; the wealth I have waits on my confent, and my confent goes not that

way.

Ford. I befeech you, heartily, fome of you go home with me to dinner; befides your cheer you fhall have fport; I will fhew you a monfter. Mr. Doctor, you fhall go ; fo fhall you, Mr. Page; and you, Sir Hugh.

Shal. Well, fare you well, we fhall have the freer wooing at Mr. Page's.

Caius. Go home, John Rugby, I come anon.

Hoft. Farewel, my hearts; I will to my honeft Knight Falstaff, and drink Canary with him.

Ford. I think, I fhall drink in Pipe-wine first with him: I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles? All. Have with you to fee this monster. [Exeunt.

S C E NE VII.
Changes to Ford's Houfe.

Enter Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Page, and Servants
with a basket.

John! what, Robert! ·

Mrs. Ford. WHAT' Page. Quickly, quickly: is

the buck-basket

Mrs. Ford. I warrant-What, Robin, I fay.
Mrs. Page. Come, come, come.

Mrs. Ford. Here, fet it down.

Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge, we muft be brief to

M

Mrs. Ford.

Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, be ready here hard-by in the brew-houfe, and when I fuddenly call on you, come forth, and without any paufe or ftaggering take this basket on your fhoulders; that done, trudge with it in all hafte, and carry it among the whitfters in Datchet-Mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch clofe by the Thames fide.

Mrs. Page. You will do it?

Mrs. Ford. I ha' told them over and over; they lack no direction. Be gone, and come when you are call'd.

Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

Enter Robin.

Mrs. Ford. How now, my Eyas-musket, what news with you?

Rob. My master Sir John is come in at your backdoor, mistress Ford, and requefts your company. Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-lent, have you been

true to us?

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

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

4 How now, my Eyas-musket,] Eyas is a young unfledg'd hawk. I fuppofe from the Italian Niafo, which originally fignified any young bird taken from the neft unfledg'd, afterwards, a young hawk. The French, from 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. -Musket fignifies a Sparrow hawk, or the fmalleft fpecies of hawks. This too is from the Italian Mufchetto, a small hawk, as appears from the original fignification of the word, namely, a trouble fome finging fly. So that the humour of calling the little page an Eyas-musket is very intelligible.

Mrs. Ford.

Mrs. Ford. Do fo; go tell thy master, I am alone; miftrefs Page, remember you your cue.

[Exit Robin. Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hiss

me.

[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.

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

Fal. Mrs. Ford, I cannot cog; I cannot prate, miftrefs Ford: now fhall I fin in my wish. I would, thy husband were dead; I'll fpeak it before the best lord, I would make thee my lady.

Mrs. Ford. I your lady, Sir 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-vailant, or any 'tire of Venetian admittance.

Mrs. Ford.

5 that becomes the hip-tire, the tire-V A LIANT, 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 ship-tire, "the tire- VAILANT, or any 'tire of Venetian admittance. The Speaker tells his mistress, the had a face that would become all the head-dreffes in fafnion. The hip-tire was an open headdrefs, with a kind of fcaif depending from behind. Its name of ip-tire was, I prefume, from its giving the wearer fome refemblance

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

femblance of a hip (as Shakespear fays) in all her trim: with all her pennants out, and flags and ftreamers flying. Thus Milton, in Samfon Agonifies, paints Dalila.

But who is this, what thing of fea or land?
Female of fex it seems,

That fo bedeckt, ornate and gay,

Comes this way failing

Like a fately fhip

Of Tartus, bound for th' fles

Of Javan or Gadier,

With all her bravery on, and tackle trim,

Sails fill'd, and fireamers 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, he 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 Shakespear wrote tire-vailant. As the fhip tire was an open head-drefs, fo the tire-vailant was a cleft one; in which the head and breast were covered as with a vail. 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 open'd to view the other, fo fecurely inclofed in kerchiefs, nothing could be feen above the eyes or below the chin.

that

or any Venetian attire 1 This is a wrong reading, as appears from the impropriety of the word attire here ufed for a woman's bead dress: whereas it fignifies the dress of any part, We should 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 Tirewoman, 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.

Fal.