Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way. Page. Come on, Sir. Slen. Miftrefs Ann, yourself fhall go first. Slen. Truly, I will not go first, truly-la: I will not do you that wrong. you Ann. I pray you, Sir. Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly, than troublesome ; do yourself wrong, indeed-la. Re-enter Evans and Simple. [Exeunt Eva. Go your ways, and ask of doctor Caius's houfe which is the way; and there dwells one Mrs. Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his wafher, and his wringer. Simp. Well, Sir. Eva. Nay, it is petter yet; give her this letter; for it is a o'man that altogethers acquaintance with mistress Ann Page; and the letter is to defire and require her to folicit your mafter's defires to Mrs. Ann Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt feverally. SCENE changes to the Garter-Inn. Enter Falstaff, Hoft, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol and Robin. INE hoft of the garter Fal. M Hoft. What fays my bully rock; speak fchollarly and wifely. Fal. Truly, mine hoft, I must turn away fome of my followers. Hoft. Difcard, bully Hercules, cafhier; let them wag; trot, trot. Fal. I fet at ten pounds a week. Hoft. Thou'rt an Emperor, Cafar, Keifar and PheaI will entertain Bardolph, he fhall draw, he fhall tap; faid I well, bully Hector? zar. Fal. Do fo, good mine host. Hoft, Heft. I have spoke, let him follow; let me fee thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade; an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd fervingman, a fresh tapfter: go, adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive. [Exit Bard. Pift. O base Hungarian wight, wilt thou the spigot weild? Nym. He was gotten in drink, is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroic, and there's the humour of it. Fal. I am glad, I am fo quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful finger, he kept not time. Nym. The good humour is to fteal at a minute's rest. Pift. Convey, the wife it call: fteal? foh; a fico for the phrase! Fal. Well, Sirs, I am almoft out at heels. Pift. Why then, let kibes enfue. Fal. There is no remedy: I muft conycatch, I muft fhift. Pift. Young ravens must have food. Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Fal. No quips now, Piftol: indeed, I am in the wafte two yards about; but I am now about no waste, I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I fpy entertainment in her; fhe difcourses, the carves, the gives the leer of invitation; I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftile, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's. Pift. He hath ftudy'd her well, and tranflated her well; out of honefty into English. Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pafs? Fal Fal. Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her hufband's purfe: the hath a legion of angels. Pift. As many devils entertain; and to her, boy, fay I. Nym. The humour rifes; it is good; humour me the angels. Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with moft judicious Iliads ; fometimes, the beam of her view gilded my foot; fometimes, my portly belly. Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine. [Afide. Fal. O, fhe did fo course o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did feem to fcorch me up like a burning-glafs. Here's another letter to her; fhe bears the purfe too; (6) she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and they fhall be Exchequers to me; they fhall be my East and Weft-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to miftrefs Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pift. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become; And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer take all ! Nym. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour-letter, I will keep the haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, firrah, bear you thefe letters tightly, Sail like my pinnace to thofe golden fhores. [To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go; (6) She is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty.] If the tradition be true, (as, I doubt not, but it is) of this play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's command; this paffage, perhaps, may furnish a probable conjecture that it could not appear till after the year 1598.. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately discover'd to the English, was a very happy compliment to Sir Walter Raleigh, who did not begin his expedition for South America till 1595, and return'd from it in 1596, with an advantageous account of the great wealth of Guiana. Such an addrefs of the Poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper impreffion on the people, when the intelligence of fuch a golden country was fresh in their minds, and gave them expectations of immenfe gain. Trudge, Trudge, plod away o' th' hoof, feek fhelter, pack! French thrift, you rogues; myself, and fkirted page. Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts; for gourd, and And high and low beguiles the rich and poor. Tefter I'll have in pouch when thou fhalt lack, Bafe Phrygian Turk! Nym. I have operations in my head, which be hu mours of revenge. Pift. Wilt thou revenge? Nym. By welkin, and her star. Pift. With wit, or steel? Nym. With both the humours, I: I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford. His dove will prove, his gold will hold, Nym. My humour fhall not cool; I will incenfe Ford to deal with poison; (8) I will poffefs him with yellowness; (7) Falstaff will learn the honour of the age.] What was this bonour, which he was to learn? Frugality? the retrenching his expences, and keeping only a boy to wait on him. Had the Editors been cut out for Collators, they might have obferv'd the old quartos read, the humour of the age, i. e. the frugal fashion of the times. So in Much Ado about Nothing. The fashion of the world is to avoid coft, and you encounter it. And bonour and bumour, I have obferv'd, are very often reciprocally mistaken for one another in old English plays. `(8) I will possess bim with jealoufies, for this revolt of mine is dangerous:] This is the reading of the modern editions; the old copies have it yellowness; i. e. the fymptom of jealoufy. So Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing, fpeaking of Claudio's having jealous fufpicions, fays: The Count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well; but civil, Count; civil, as an orange; and something of that jealous complexion. Again, This revolt of mine, &c. If Nym fpeaks this of himself, he fpeaks very improperly, to call it a revolt, when he is discarded by yellowness; for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour. Pift. Thou art the Mars of male-contents: I fecond thee; troop on. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to Dr. Caius's House. Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. HAT, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to the casement, and fee if you can fee my mafter, master Doctor Caius, coming; if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the houfe, here will be old abufing of God's patience, and the King's English. Quick. W HAT, John Rugby! I Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit Rugby. Quick. Go, and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in houfe withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate; his worft fault is, that he is given to pray'r; he is fomething peevish that way; but nobody but has his fault; but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay, your name is. Sim. Ay, for fault of of a better. Quic. And mafter Slender's your master ? Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife? his mafter. The old copies read, as I have reftor'd in the text: and the revolt of mine, I take to fignify the change of complexion. And then Nym muft mean, I will make him so jealous, till he changes colour with its working; and then it will break out into fome violent effects, that will be dangerous to Falstaff. For mine (or mien, as it is more generally written,) does not only fignify, the air, gefture, and bearing of any perfon; but likewife the look and turn of countenance; aris fpecies; nativa vultus compofuio: Vifage bon, ou mauvais, qu'on fait paroitre aux gens felon qu'ils nous plaifent, &c. as Richelet explains it: that look, or turn of countenance, which we thew to people, according as they please us, or not. Our Author, in other places, takes notice of the change of colour to be a symptom of anger, envy, &c. as it certainly is in nature, according to the spring of that paffion which excites it, |