What shall be done with him? what is your plot? Mrs. Page. That likewife we have thought upon, and thus: Nan Page my daughter, and my little fon, And three or four more of their growth, we'll drefs ? And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight; And faid one word to afcertain it. This makes it more than fuspicious, the defect in this point must be owing to fome wife retrenchment. The two intermediate lines, which I have restored from the old quarto, are abfolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter THEOBALD. 7-urchins, ouphes,-] The primitive fignification of urchin is a hedge-hog. In this fenfe it is ufed in the Tempeft. Hence it comes to fignify any thing little and dwarfish. Ouph is the Teutonic word for a fairy or goblin. STEEVENS. 8 With fome diffused fong:] A diffused fong fignifies a fong that strikes out into wild fentiments beyond the bounds of nature, fuch as those whofe fubject is fairy land. WARBURTON. Diffufed may mean confufed. So in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 553: "Rice, quoth he, (i. e. Cardinal Wolfey,) fpeak you Welch to them: I doubt not but thy fpeech fhall be more diffuse to him, than his French shall be to thee." TOLLET. By diffufed fong, Shakespeare may mean fuch irregular fongs as mad people fing. Edgar, in K. Lear, when he has determined to affume the appearance of a travelling lunatic, declares his refolution to diffuse his fpeech, i. e. to give it the turn peculiar to madness. STEEVENS. 9 And, fairy-like, TO pinch the unclean knight;] The grammar requires us to read: And, fairy-like TOO, pinch the unclean knight. WARB. This fhould perhaps be written to-pinch, as one word. This use of to in compofition with verbs, is very common in Gower and Chaucer, but must have been rather antiquated in the time of Shakespeare. See, Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, B. iv. fol. 7: All to-tore is myn araie." And And ask him, why, that hour of fairy revel, Mrs. Ford. And till he tell the truth, Mrs. Page. The truth being known, We'll all present ourfelves; dif-horn the fpirit, Ford. The children muft Be practis'd well to this, or they'll ne'er do't. Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes alfo, to burn the knight with my taber. Ford. This will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards. Mrs. Page. My Nan fhall be the queen of all the fairies, Finely attired in a robe of white. Page. That filk will I go buy ;-and, in that time The construction will otherwise be very hard. TYRWHITT. Shall I add a few more inftances to fhew that this ufe of the prepofition to was not entirely antiquated. Spenfer's F. 2. b. iv. c. 7: "With briers and bufhes all to-rent and scratched." Again, b. v. c. 8: "With locks all loose, and raiment all to-tore." Again, b. v. c. 9: "Made of strange ftuffe, but all to-worne and ragged, Again, in the Three Lords of London, 1590: "The poft at which he runs, and all to-burns it.” Again, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592: 1 "A watchet fattin doublet, all to-torn." STEEVENS. pinch him found,] i. e. foundly. The adjective used as an adverb. The modern editors read- -round. STEEVENS. 2 That filk will I go buy ;-and, in that time] Mr. Theobald, referring that time to the time of buying the filk, alters it to tire. But there Shall mafter Slender fteal my Nan away, [Afide. And marry her at Eaton.. -Go, fend to Falstaff ftraight. Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of Brook; He'll tell me all his purpofe. Sure, he'll come. Mrs. Page. Fear not you that: Go, get us properties3 And tricking for our fairies. Eva. Let us about it: It is admirable pleasures, and fery honeft knaveries. [Ex. Page, Ford, and Evans. Mrs. Page. Go, miftrefs Ford, Send Quickly to fir John, to know his mind. [Exit Mrs. Ford. I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will, And none but he, to marry with Nan Page. That Slender, though well landed, is an ideot; And he my husband beft of all affects: The doctor is well money'd, and his friends Potent at court; he, none but he fhall have her, Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her. [Exit. there is no need of any change; that time evidently relating to the time of the mask with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and which makes the whole fubject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right. WARBURTON. 3 properties Properties are little incidental neceffaries to a theatre, exclufive of fcenes and dreffes. So, in the Taming the Shrew: " -a fhoulder of mutton for a property." STEEVENS. tricking for our fairies.] To trick, is to drefs out. So, in Milton: "Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont, "With the Attic boy to hunt; "But kerchief'd in a homely cloud." STEEVENS. SCENE Hoft. What would'st thou have, boor? what, thickfkin fpeak, breathe, difcufs; brief, fhort, quick, fnap. Simp. Marry, fir, I come to fpeak with fir John Falstaff from mafter Slender. Hoft. There's his chamber, his houfe, his caftle, his ftanding-bed, and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the ftory of the prodigal, fresh and new: Go, knock and call; he'll fpeak like an Anthropophaginian' unto thee: Knock, I fay. Simp. There's an old woman, a fat woman gone up into his chamber; I'll be fo bold as stay, fir, 'till the come down I come to speak with her, indeed. Hoft. Ha! a fat woman! the knight may be robb'd: I'll call.- -Bully knight! Bully fir John! speak 5-what, thick-fkin?] I meet with this term of abuse in Warner's Albions England, 1602, book vi. chap. 30: 6 "That he fo foul a thick-skin should fo fair a lady catch." STEEVENS. flanding-bed, and truckle-bed;-] The ufual furniture of chambers in that time was a standing-bed, under which was a trochle, truckle, or running bed. In the standing-bed lay the mafter, and in the truckle-bed the fervant. So, in Hall's Account of a Servile Tutor: "He lieth in the truckle-bed, "While his young mafter lieth o'er his head." JOHNSON. So, in the Return from Parnaffus, 1606: "When I lay in a trundle-bed under my tutor." And here the tutor has the upper bed. Again, in Heywood's Royal King, &c. 1637" fhew thefe gentlemen into a close room with a ftanding-bed in't, and a truckle too.' STEEVENS. 7 Anthropophaginian] i. e. a canibal. See Othello, act I. fc. iii. It is here ufed as a founding word to astonish Simple. Ephefian, which follows, has no more meaning. STEEVENS. from from thy lungs military: Art thou there? it is thine hoft, thine Ephefian, calls. Falftaff above. Fal. How now, mine hoft? Hoft. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman: Let her defcend, bully, let her defcend; my chambers are honourable: Fie! privacy? fie! Enter Falfiaff. Fal. There was, mine hoft, an old fat woman even now with me; but she's gone. Simp. Pray you, fir, was't not the wife woman of Brentford? Fal. Ay, marry was it, muffel-fhell; What would you with her? Simp. My mafter, fir, mafter Slender fent to her, feeing her go through the ftreet, to know, fir, whether one Nym, fir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain, or no. Fal. I fpake with the old woman about it. Simp. And what fays fhe, I pray, fir? Fal. Marry, fhe fays, that the very fame man, that beguil'd mafter Slender of his chain, cozen'd him of it. Simp. I would I could have spoken with the wa ·Bohemian-Tartar-] The French call a Bohemian what we call a Gypsey; but I believe the Host means nothing more than, by a wild appellation, to infinuate that Simple makes a strange appearance. JOHNSON. In Germany, there were feveral companies of vagabonds, &c. called Tartars and Zigens. "These were the fame in my opinion,' fays Mezeray, "as thofe the French call Bohemians, and the English Gypfies." Bulteel's Tranflation of Mezeray's Hiftory of France, under the year 1417. TOLLET. 9 -mussel-shell ;] He calls poor Simple muffel-fhell, because he stands with his mouth open. JOHNSON. man |