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Caius. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape.

Eva. Pray you, let us not be laughing-ftogs 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 ftay 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.

Hoft. 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 lofe my doctor? no; he gives me the potions, and the motions. Shall I lofe my parfon? my pricft? my fir Hugh? no; he gives me the pro-verbs and the no-verbs. Give me thy hand, terreftial; fo:-Give me thy hand, ccleftial; 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!

[Exeunt Shal. Slen Page, and Hoft.

Peace, Ifay, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welch,-] Sir 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 Walter. STEEVENS.

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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 fame fcald, fcurvy, cogging companion, the hoft of the Garter.

Caius. By gar, vit all my heart; he promise to bring me vere is Anne Page: by gar, he deceive me

too.

Eva. Well, I will fmite his noddles;-Pray you follow.

SCENE II.

The Street in Windfor.

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 master's heels?

Rob. I had rather, forfooth, gọ before you like a man, than follow him like a dwarf.

Mrs. Page. O, you are a flattering boy; now, I fee, you'll be a courtier.

Enter Ford.

Ford. Well met, mistress Page: Whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, fir, to fee your wife; Is the at home?

Ford. Ay; and as idle as the may hang together,

6fcall,

fcall, feurvy,] Scall was an old word of reproach, ~ as feab was afterwards.

Chaucer imprecates on his ferivener :

"Under thy longe lockes mayeft thou have the fcalle."

JOHNSON. for

he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry't.

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Page. Not by my confent, I promise 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 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 beseech you, heartily, fome of you go home with me to dinner: befides your cheer, you fhall have fport; I will fhew you a monfter.-Mafter doctor,

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-'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 success, by their growing, or their not growing there. SMITH.

Greene mentions these batchelor's buttons, in his Quip for an upStart Courtier:-" I saw the batchelor's buttons, whose 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 Conftant 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:
66 Go, go
and reft on Venus' violets; fhew her

"A dozen of batchelor's buttons, boy."

Again, in Weftward Hoe, 1606: "Here's my husband, and no batchelor's buttons are at his doublet." STEEVENS.

of no having:] Having is the fame as eftate or for tune. JOHNSON.

So, in Macbeth:

"Of noble having, and of royal hope." STEEVENS.

you

you fhall go;-fo fhall you, mafter Page; and you,

Sir Hugh.

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

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

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Hoft. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my họneft knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

3

Ford. [Afide.] I think, I fhall drink in pipe-wine firft with him; I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles?

All. Have with you, to fee this monfter. [Exeunt.

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Enter Mrs, Ford, Mrs. Page, and fervants with a basket. Mrs. Ford. What, John! what, Robert!

Mrs. Page. Quickly, quickly; is the buck-basketMrs. Ford. I warrant: -What, Robin, I say. Mrs. Page. Come, come, come.

Mrs. Ford. Here, fet it down.

Mrs. Page, Give your men the charge; we must be brief.

s Hoft. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honeft knight Falflaff, and drink canary with him.

Ford. [Afide.] I think, I shall drink IN PIPE-vine firft with him: I'll make him dance. -] To drink in pipe-wine, is a phrafe which I cannot understand. May we not fuppofe that Shakespeare rather wrote? I think I shall drink HORN-PIPE wine firft with him: I'll make him dance.

Canary is the name of a dance, as well as of a svine. Ford lays hold of both fenfes; but, for an obvious reafon, makes the dance a born-pipe. It has been already remarked, that Shakespeare has frequent allufions to a cuckold's horns. TYRWHITT.

Pipe is known to be a veffel of wine, now containing two hogfheads. Pipe wine is therefore wine, not from the bottle, but the pipe; and the text confifts in the ambiguity of the word, which fignifics both a cafk of wine, and a mutical instrument.

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JOHNSON.

Mrs.

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

Mrs. Page. You will do it?

Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction: Be gone, and come when you are call'd. [Exeunt Servants. Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin.

Mrs. Ford. news with you?

Enter Robin,

How now, my eyas-musket? what

Rob.

-take this basket on your shoulders:] It is not improbable but that Shakespeare, in the character of Falstaff, might have aimed fome ftrokes at the corpulence and intemperance of Ben Jonfon. Mr. Oldys, in his MS. additions to Langbaine's account of English dramatic poets, introduces the following story of Ben, which was found in a memorandum book, written in the time of the cìvil wars, by Mr. Oldifworth, who was fecretary to Philip, earl of Pembroke.

"Mr. Cambden recommended him to Sir Walter Raleigh, who trusted him with the care and inftruction of his eldest son, Walter, a gay spark, who could not brook Ben's rigorous treatment; but perceiving one foible in his difpofition, made ufe of that to throw off the yoke of his government. This was an unlucky habit that Ben had contracted, through his love of jovial company, of being overtaken with liquor, which Sir Walter of all vices did most abominate, and hath most exclaimed against. One day when Ben had taken a plentiful dofe, and was fallen into a found fleep, young Raleigh got a great basket and a couple of men, who laid Ben in it, and then with a pole carried him between their shoulders to Sir Walter, telling him, that their young mafter had fent home his tutor. STEEVENS.

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7 How now, my eyas-mufket?] Eyas is a young unfledg hawk; I fuppofe from the Italian Niafo, which originally fignified any young bird taken from the neft unfledg'd, afterwards a

young

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