as to lay an amiable fiege to the honesty of this Ford's wife: use your art of wooing, win her to confent to you; if any man may, you may as foon as any. Fal. Would it apply well to the vehemence of your affection, that I should win what you would enjoy? methinks, you prescribe to yourself very prepofteroufly. Ford. O, understand my drift! fhe dwells fo fecurely on the excellency of her honour, that the folly of my foul dares not prefent itself; she is too bright to be look'd againft. Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, my defires had inftance and argument to commend themselves; I could drive her then from the ward of her purity, her reputation, her marriage vow, and a thousand other her defences, which now are too too ftrongly embattled against me: What say you to't, fir John? Fal. Mafter Brook, I will firft make bold with your money; next, give me your hand; and laft, as I am a gentleman, you fhall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife. Ford. O good fir! Fal. Mafter Brook, I fay you fhall. Ford. Want no money, fir John, you fhall want none. Fal. Want no miftrefs Ford, mafter Brook, you shall want none. I fhall be with her (I may tell you) by her own appointment; even as you came in to me, her affiftant, or go-between, parted from me: I fay, I fhall be with her between ten and eleven; for at that time the jealous rafcally knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at night; you fhall know how I fpeed. Ford. I am bleft in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford, fir? -inftance and argument-] Inftance is example. JOHNSON. the ward of her purity,] i. e. The defence of it. STEEVENS. Fal Fal. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave! I know him not-yet I wrong him to call him poor; they fay, the jealous wittolly knave hath maffes of money; for the which, his wife feems to me well-favour'd. I willufe her as the key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer; and there's my harveft-home. Ford. I would you knew Ford, fir; that you might avoid him, if you faw him. Fal. Hang him, mechanical falt-butter rogue! I will stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel; it fhall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns: mafter Brook, thou fhalt know, I will predominate over the peafant, and thou shalt lye with his wife. Come to me foon at night:-Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his ftile; thou, mafter Brook, fhalt know him for knave and cuckold:-come to me foon at night. [Exit. Ford. What a damn'd Epicurean rafcal is this!-My heart is ready to crack with impatience.-Who fays, this is improvident jealoufy? my wife hath fent to him, the hour is fix'd, the match is made: Would any man have thought this?-See the hell of having a false woman! my bed fhall be abus'd, my coffers ranfack'd, my reputation gnawn at; and I fhall not only receive this villainous wrong, but ftand under the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me this wrong. Terms! names!-Amaimon' founds well; and I will aggravate his ftile:-] Stile is a phrafe from the herald's office. Falftaff means, that he will add more titles to thofe he already enjoys. So, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611: "I will create lord of a greater flyle." Again, in Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. v. c. 2. I "As to abandon that which doth contain "Your honour's file, that is, your warlike shield." STEEVENS. Amaimon-Barbafon, -] The reader who is curious to know any particulars concerning thefe dæmons, may find them in Reginald Scott's Inventarie of the Names, Shapes, Powers, Government, and Effects of Devils and Spirits, of their feveral Seig well; Lucifer, well; Barbafon, well; yet they are devils' additions, the names of fiends: but cuckold! wittol! cuckold! the devil himself hath not fuch a name. Page is an afs, a fecure afs; he will truft his wife, he will not be jealous: I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, parfon Hugh the Welchman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua vitæ bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself: then the plots, then the ruminates, then fhe devises; and what they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts but they will effect. Heaven be prais'd for my jealoufy! Eleven o'clock the hour;-I will prevent this, detect my wife, be reveng'd on Falftaff, and laugh at Page: I will about it ;-better three hours too foon, than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold! [Exit. nories and Degrees, a ftrange Difcourfe worth the reading, P. 377. From hence it appears that Amaimon was king of the Eaft, &c. and Barbatos a great countie or earle. STEEVENS. 2 An Irishman with my aqua vita bottle,] Heywood, in his Challenge for Beauty, 1636, mentions the love of aqua vita as characteristic of the Irish: "The Briton he metheglin quaffs, "The Irish, aqua vita." By aqua vite, was, I believe understood, not brandy, but ufquebaugh, for which the Irish have been long celebrated. So, in Marston's Male content, 1604: 3 "The Dutchman for a drunkard, "The Dane for golden locks, "The Irishman for ufquebaugh, "The Frenchman for MALONE. Eleven o'clock-] Ford fhould rather have faid ten o'clock: the time was between ten and eleven ; and his impatient fufpicion was not likely to stay beyond the time. JOHNSON. SCENE SCENE III. Windfor park. Enter Caius and Rugby. Caius. Jack Rugby! Rug. Sir. Caius. Vat is de clock, Jack? Rug. 'Tis paft the hour, fir, that fir Hugh promis'd to meet. Caius. By gar, he has fave his foul, dat he is no come; he has pray his Pible vell, dat he is no come: by gar, Jack Rugby, he is dead already, if he be come. Rug. He is wife, fir; he knew, your worship would kill him, if he came. , Caius. By gar, de herring is no dead, fo as I vill kill him. Take your rapier, Jack; I vill tell you how I vill kill him. Rug. Alas, fir, I cannot fence. Caius. Villan-a, take your rapier. Enter Hoft, Shallow, Slender, and Page. Hoft. 'Blefs thee, bully doctor. Caius. Vat be all you, one, two, tree, four, come for? Hoft. To fee thee fight, to fee thee foin, to fee thee 4 to fee the foin,] To foin, I believe, was the anci ent term for making a thruft in fencing, or tilting. So in The avife Woman of Hogfdon, 1638: I had my wards, and foins, and quarter blows." thee traverse, to fee thee here, to fee thee there; to fee thee pafs thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy dif tance, thy montant. Is he dead, my Ethiopian? is he dead, my Francifco? ha, bully! What fays my Æfculapius? my Galen? my heart of elder? ha! is he dead, bully Stale is he dead? 6 Caius. By gar, he is de coward Jack priest of the vorld; he is not fhew his face. Hoft. Thou art a Caftilian king, Urinal! Hector of Greece, my boy! Should falfify the foine upon me thus, "Here will I take him." Caius. Spenfer, in his Faery Queen, often uses the word foin. So in b. ii. c. 8 And ftrook and foyn'd, and lafh'd outrageously." Again, in Holinfhed: p. 833: "Firft fix foines with hand-fpeares, &c." STEEVENS. 5 thy flock,] Stock is a corruption of ftocata, Ital. from which language the technical terms that follow, are likewife adopted. STEEVENS. my heart of elder?] It fhould be remember'd, to make this joke relish, that the elder tree has no heart. I suppose this expreffion was made ufe of in oppofition to the common one, beart of oak. STEEVENS. 7-bully Stale?-] The reason why Caius is called bully Stale, and afterwards Urinal, must be fufficiently obvious to every reader, and efpecially to thofe whofe credulity and weaknes have enrolled them among the patients of the prefent German empiric, who calls himself Doctor Alexander Mayersbach. STEEVENS. Caftilian-] Sir T. Hanmer reads Cardalian, as used corruptedly for Cœur de lion. JOHNSON. Caftilian and Ethiopian, like Cataian, appear in our author's time to have been cant terms. I have met with them in more than one of the old comedies. So, in a defcription of the Armada introduced in the Stately Moral of the Three Lords of London, 1590: "To carry as it were a care!efs regard "Of thefe Caftilians, and their accuftom'd bravado." Again:"To parly with the proud Caftilians." I fuppofe Caftilian was the cant term for Spaniard in general. STEEVENS. "Thou art a Caftilian king, Urinal!" quoth mine hoft to Dr. Caius. I believe this was a popular flur upon the Spaniards, who VOL. I. U were |