a A curtail dog-] It was supposed that the tail of a dog assisted him in running. A curtail dog may mean a halting, lingering dog, as it certainly implied a worthless one; "A curtaid dogg, chien courtaud, c'est à dire chien sans queue ou esqueuè bon à tout service."-HOWELL'S Lexicon Tet. 1660. b And there's the humour of it.] These words, so necessary to the sense because echoed by Page, are omitted in the folio. e Frights humour out of his wits.] So the quarto: the folio reads, Frights English, &c. d Cataian,-] A term of reproach, of which the precise meaning NYM. And this is true; [To PAGE.] I like not the humour of lying. He hath wronged me in some humours: I should have borne the humoured letter to her; but I have a sword, and it shall bite upon my necessity. He loves your wife; there's the short and the long. My name is corporal Nym; I speak, and I avouch. 'Tis true:-my name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your wife.Adieu! I love not the humour of bread and cheese; and there's the humour of it. Adieu. MRS. FORD. How now, sweet Frank? why art thou melancholy? FORD. I melancholy! I am not melancholy. Get you home, go. MRS. FORD. 'Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now. Will you go, Mistress Page? MRS. PAGE, Have with you. You'll come to dinner, George? Look, who comes yonder: she shall be our messenger to this paltry knight. [Aside to MRS. FORD. MRS. FORD. Trust me, I thought on her she'll fit it. Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY. MRS. PAGE. You are come to see my daughter Anne? QUICK. Ay, forsooth; and, I pray, how does good mistress Anne? MRS. PAGE. Go in with us, and see; we have an hour's talk with you. Enter Host, and SHALLOW, behind. HOST. How now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gentleman cavalero-justice, I say. SHAL. I follow, mine Host, I follow.-Good even and twenty, good master Page! Master Page, will you go with us? we have sport in hand. HOST. Tell him, cavalero-justice; tell him, bully-rook. SHAL. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between sir Hugh the Welsh priest, and Caius the French doctor. FORD. Good mine Host o' th' Garter, a word with you. HOST. What say'st thou, my bully-rook? [They go aside. SHAL. Will you [To PAGE.] go with us to behold it? My merry Host hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, I think, hath [Exeunt MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, appointed them contrary places: for, believe me, and MISTRESS QUICKLY. PAGE. How now, master Ford? FORD. You heard what this knave told me, did you not? PAGE. Yes; and you heard what the other told me? FORD. DO think there is truth in them? FORD. Were they his men? FORD. I like it never the better for that: does he lie at the Garter? If he should PAGE. Ay, marry, does he. intend this voyage toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head. FORD. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loath to turn them together: a man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head : I cannot be thus satisfied. PAGE. Look, where my ranting Host of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purse, when he looks so merrily. How now, mine Host? . a Good even and twenty,-] An old popular salutation, meaning twenty good evenings. Similar to which is, "God night and a thousand to every body."-ELIOT's Fruits of the French, 1593, quoted by Halliwell. b My name is Brook:] The folio prints Broome throughout, as the assumed name of Ford, and assigns the present speech to Shallow. e Will you go, myn-heers?] The folio reads, An-heires, an evident corruption, for which Theobald proposed the word we adopt. Warburton Heris, an old Scotch word for master; Malone, and hear us; Steevens, on, heroes, or on, hearts; Boaden, Cavaliers; and Mr. Col I hear the parson is no jester. Hark, I will tell you what our sport shall be. HOST. Hast thou no suit against my knight, my guest-cavalier? b FORD. None, I protest: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt sack to give me recourse to him, and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jest. HOST. My hand, bully: thou shalt have egress and regress; said I well? and thy name shall be Brook: It is a merry knight. Will you go, mynheers? с SHAL. Have with you, mine Host. PAGE. I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier. SHAL. Tut, sir, I could have told you more. In these times you stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, master Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have seen the time, with my long sword, I would have made you four tall fellows skip like rats. HOST. Here, boys, here, here! shall we wag? PAGE. Have with you :—I had rather hear them scold than fight. [Exeunt Host, SHALLOW, and PAGE. FORD. Though Page be a secured fool, and stands so firmly on his wife's fealty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily: she was in his company at Page's house; and, what they made lier's annotator, on here. d A secure fool,-] An over-confident, or careless fool. e And stands so firmly on his wife's fealty,-] That is, insists so stoutly upon his wife's fidelity. The old text has, "on his wife's frailty;""fealty" is the correction of Theobald, and to us appears a very happy restoration. fAnd, what they made there,-] A mode of speech now almost obsolete, implying, "What they did there." As in "Hamlet," Act I. Sc. 2, "And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio?" there, I know. not. Well, I will look further into 't: and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff: if I find her honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 't is labour well bestowed. [Exit. SCENE II.-A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL. FAL. I will not lend thee a penny. FAL. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow Nym; or else you had looked through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damned in hell, for swearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good soldiers, and tall fellows and when mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took't upon mine honour, thou hadst it not. PIST. Didst thou not share? hadst thou not fifteen pence? FAL. Reason, you rogue, reason. Think'st a I will retort the sum in equipage.] This line is not in the folio, and it forms the whole of Pistol's reply in the quarto. b A short knife and a throng:] Faistaff bids him get a cutpurse's knife, and seek out a crowd. Purses, it must be remembered, were formerly hung at the girdle. thou, I'll endanger my soul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you: go. A short knife and a throng; to your manor of Pickt-hatch,(4) go. You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue! you stand upon your honour! Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do, to keep the terms of my honour precise. I, I, I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will ensconce your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you! PIST. I do relent; what would thou more of QUICK. Not so, an't please your worship. QUICK. I'll be sworn; as my mother was, the first hour I was born. FAL. I do believe the swearer: what with me? QUICK. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two? FAL. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe thee the hearing. QUICK. There is one mistress Ford, sir; I pray, come a little nearer this ways: I myself dwell with master doctor Caius. FAL. Well, on: mistress Ford, you say,QUICK. Your worship says very true: I pray your worship, come a little nearer this ways. FAL. I warrant thee, nobody hears; mine own people, mine own people. QUICK. Are they so? Heaven bless them, and make them his servants! FAL. Well: mistress Ford;-what of her? QUICK. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Lord, Lord! your worship's a wanton : well, heaven forgive you, and all of us, I pray! FAL. Mistress Ford;-come, mistress Ford,QUICK. Marry, this is the short and the long of it; you have brought her into such a canaries," as 't is wonderful. The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, could never have brought her to such a canary. Yet there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly, (all musk,) and so rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best, and the fairest, that would have won any woman's heart; and I warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her. I had myself twenty angels, given me this morning but I defy all angels, (in any such sort, as they say,) but in the way of honesty : a Canaries,-] Mrs. Q. means, quanduries. FAL. But what says she to me? be brief, my good she-Mercury. QUICK. Marry, she hath received your letter for the which she thanks you a thousand times : and she gives you to notify, that her husband will be absence from his house between ten and eleven. FAL. Ten and eleven. QUICK. Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see the picture, she says, that you wot of; master Ford, her husband, will be from home. Alas! the sweet woman leads an ill life with him; he's a very jealousy man; she leads a very frampold life with him, good heart. b FAL. Ten and eleven; woman, commend me to her; I will not fail her. QUICK. Why, you say well. But I have another messenger to your worship: mistress Page hath her hearty commendations to you too;—and let me tell you in your ear, she's as fartuous a civil modest wife, and one, I tell you, that will not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Windsor, whoe'er be the other: and she bade me tell your worship, that her husband is seldom from home; but she hopes there will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote upon a man; surely, I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth. FAL. Not I, I assure thee; setting the attraction of my good parts aside, I have no other charms. QUICK. Blessing on your heart for't! FAL. But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife, and Page's wife, acquainted each other how they love me? QUICK. That were a jest, indeed!—they have not so little grace, I hope:-that were a trick, indeed! but mistress Page would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves; her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page: and, truly, master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in Windsor leads a better life than she does; do what she will, say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when she list, rise when she list, all is as she will; and, truly, she deserves it for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. You must send her your page; no remedy. FAL. Why, I will. QUICK. Nay, but do so then: and, look you, he may come and between you both; and, in go a Pensioners;] Gentlemen of the band of Pensioners, whose duty was to be in immediate attendance on the sovereign, and whose splendid uniform might well induce Mrs. Quickly to rank them above the magnates of the Court. b Frampold life-] Frampold, equivalent to our cantankerous. c Of all loves;] For love's sake. See note (b), page 356. any case, have a nay-word, that you may know one another's mind, and the boy never need to understand anything; for 'tis not good that children should know any wickedness: old folks, you know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world. FAL. Fare thee well: commend me to them both there's my purse; I am yet thy debtor. -Boy, go along with this woman.-This news distracts me! [Exeunt QUICKLY and ROBIN. PIST. This punk is one of Cupid's carriers :Clap on more sails; pursue! up with your fights; Give fire! she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! [Exit PISTOL. FAL. Say'st thou so, old Jack? go thy ways; I'll make more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look after thee? Wilt thou, after the expense of so much money, be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee: let them say, 't is grossly done; so it be fairly done, no matter. Enter BARDolph. BARD. Sir John, there's one master Brook below would fain speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath sent your worship a morning's draught of sack.(5) FAL. Brook, is his name? BARD. Ay, sir. FAL. Call him in. [Exit BARDOLPH.] Such Brooks are welcome to me, that o'erflow such liquor. Ah! ha! mistress Ford and mistress Page, have I encompassed you? go to; via! Re-enter BARDOLPH, with FORD disguised. FORD. 'Bless you, sir. FAL. And you, sir: would you speak with me? FORD. I make bold, to press with so little preparation upon you. FAL. You're welcome; what's your will? Give us leave, drawer. [Exit BARDOLPH. FORD. Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name is Brook. FAL. Good master Brook, I desire more acquaintance of you. FORD. Good sir John, I sue for yours: not to charge you; for I must let you understand, I think myself in better plight for a lender than you are the which hath something emboldened me to this unseasoned intrusion; for they say, if money go before, all ways do lie open. |
