Caius. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape. Eva. Pray you, let us not be laughing-stogs to other men's humours; I defire you in friendship, and will one way or other make you amends:-I will knog your urinals about your knave's cogs-combs, for miffing your meetings and appointments. Caius. Diable!-Jack Rugby,-mine Hoft de farterre, have I not stay for him, to kill him? have I not, at de place I did appoint? Eva. As I am a chriftians foul, now, look you, this is the place appointed; I'll be judgment by mine hoft of the Garter. Hof. Peace, I fay, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welch', foul-curer and body-curer. Caius. Ay, dat is very good! excellent! Hoft. Peace, I fay; hear mine hoft of the Garter. Am I politick? am I fubtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my doctor? no; he gives me the potions, and the motions. Shall I lofe my parfon my prieft? my fir Hugh? no; he gives me the pro-verbs and the no-verbs. Give me thy hand, terreftial; fo :-Gire me thy hand, celeftial; fo.-Boys of art, I have deceiv'd you both; I have directed you to wrong places your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and let burnt fack be the iffue.Come, lay their fwords to pawn:-Follow me, lad of peace; follow, follow, follow. Shal. Truft me, a mad hoft.-Follow, gentlemen, follow. Slen. O, fweet Anne Page! h A M [Exeunt Shal. Slen Page, and H. -] Sir 5 Peace, Ifay, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welch,Thomas Hanmer reads Gallia and Wallia: but it is objected that Wallia is not eafily corrupted into Gaul. Poffibly the word was written Guallia. FARMER, Thus, in K. Hen. VI. Gualtier for I'alter. STEEVENS. 4 Caius. Ha! do I perceive dat? have you make-a de fot of us? ha, ha! Eva. This is well; he has made us his vloutingftog.I defire you, that we may be friends; and let us knog our prains together, to be revenge on this famefcald, fcurvy, cogging companion, the hoft of the Garter. Caius. By gar, vit all my heart; he promife to bring me vere is Anne Page: by gar, he deceive me too. Eva. Well, I will fmite his noddles ;-Pray you follow. 45-1 Enter Miftrefs Page and Robin. Mrs. Page. Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader: Whether had you rather, lead mine eyes, or eye your mafter's heels? Rob. I had rather, forfooth, go before you like a inan, than follow him like a dwarf. Mrs. Page. O, you are a flattering boy; now, I fee, you'll be a courtier. Ford. Well met, miftrefs Page: Whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, fir, to fee your wife; Is the at home? Ford. Ay; and as idle as he may hang together, fo fcall, Jeurty, as ftab was afterwards. Chaucer imprecates on his fcrivener Under thy longe lockes mayeft thou have the scalle." JOHNSON. for for want of company: I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry. Mrs. Page. Be fure of that,-two other husbands. Ford. Where had you this pretty weather-cock? Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of: What do you call your knight's name, firrah? Rob. Sir John Falstaff. Mrs. Page. He, he; I can never hit on's name. There is fuch a league between my good man and he! -Is your wife at home, indeed ? Ford. Indeed, fhe is. Mrs. Page. By your leave, fir;-I am fick, 'till I fee her. [Exeunt Mrs. Page and Robin. Ford. Has Page any brains? hath he any eyes? hath he any thinking? fure they fleep; he hath no ufe of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty miles, as easy as a cannon will fhoot point-blank twelve fcore. He pieces-out his wife's inclination; he gives her folly motion, and advantage: and now the's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A man may hear this fhower fing in the wind!-and Falstaff's boy with her!- Good plots!they are laid; and our revolted wives fhare damnation together. Well; I will take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrow'd veil of modefty from the fo feeming mistrefs Page 7, divulge Page himself for a fecure and wilful Acteon; and to thefe violent proceedings all my neighbours fhall cry aim. The clock gives me my cue, and my affurance bids me fearch; there I fhall 7 K. Lear: 8 so seeming mistress Page,] Seeming is specious. So, in "If ought within that little seeming substance." STEEVENS. fhall cry aim.] i.e. fhall encourage. The phrafe is taken from archery: See a note on the first scene of this act, and another in K. John, act II. fc. i. STEEVENS. find Falstaff: I'fhall be rather prais'd for this, than mock'd; for it is as pofitive as the earth is firm, that Falstaff is there: "I will go." Enter Page, Shallow, Slender, Hoff, Evans, and Caius. TShals Page, &c. Well met, mafter Ford. Ford. Trust me, a good knot :: I have good cheer at home; and, I pray you, all go with me. Shal. I muft excufe myfelf, mafter Ford. Sten. And fo muft I, fir; we have appointed to dine with miftrefs Anne, and I would not break with her for more money than I'll fpeak of. Shal. We have linger'd about a match between Anne Page and my coufin Slender, and this day we fhall have our answer. T Slen. I hope, I have your good will, father Page. .Page. You have, mafter Slender; I ftand wholly for you but my wife, mafter doctor, is for you al together. Caius. Ay, by gar; and de maid is love-a me; mỹ nurfh-a Quickly tell me fo mufh. 1 Hoft. What fay you to young mafter Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verfes, he speaks holy-day 2, he finells April and May: 509 We have linger'd They have not linger'd very long. The mafch was propofed by Sir Hugh but the day before. JOHNSON. Shallow reprefents the affair as having been long in hand, that he may better excufe himself and Slender from accepting Ford's invivation on the day when it was to be concluded. STEEVENS. [ be writes werfes, he speaks holy-day, i. e. in an highflown, fuftian style. It was called a boly-day ftyle, from the old cuftom of acting their farces of the myfteries 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 fpend'ft fuch high-day wit in praifing him." WARBURTON. 11521 he fpeaks holy day, So in K. Hen. IV. P. I. With many holiday and lady terms." STEEVENS, he he will carry't, he will carry't; tis in his buttons; he will carry't. Page. Not by my confent, I promife you. The gentleman is of no having: he kept company with the wild prince and Poins; he is of too high a region, he knows too much. No, he shall 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 consent goes not that way. Ford. I beseech you, heartily, fome of you go home with me to dinner: befides your cheer, you shall have fport; I will fhew you a monfter.-Mafter doctor, 3 -'tis in his buttons ; -] Alluding to an ancient custom among the country fellows, of trying whether they should fucceed with their mistreffes, by carrying the batchelor's buttons (a plant of the Lychnis kind, whofe flowers resemble a coat button in form) in their pockets. And they judged of their good or bad fuccefs, by their growing, or their not growing there. SMITH. Greene mentions these batchelor's buttons, in his Quip for an upftart Courtier: "I saw the batchelor's buttons, whofe virtue is, to make wanton maidens weep, when they have worne them forty weeks under their aprons, &c." The fame expreffion occurs in Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft, 1631: "He wears batchelor's buttons, does he not?” Again, in The Confiant Maid, by Shirley, 1640: I am a batchelor, 66. I pray let me be one of your buttons still then." Again, in A Fair Quarrel, by Middleton and Rowley, 1617: "I'll wear my batchelor's buttons still." Again, in A Woman never Vex'd com. by Rowley, 1632: "Go, go and reft on Venus' violets; fhew her "A dozen of batchelor's buttons, boy." Again, in Weftward Hoc, 1606: "Here's my husband, and no batchelor's buttons are at his doublet." STEEVENS. 4 of no having:] Having is the fame as cftate or for tune. JOHNSON. So, in Macbeth: "Of noble having, and of royal hope." STEEVENS. you |