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Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my lodge 5.

Fal. But not kifs'd your keeper's daughter?

Shal. Tut, a pin! this fhall be anfwer'd.

Fal. I will answer it straight;I have done all this :That is now answer'd.

Shal. The Council fhall know this.

Fal. "Twere better for you, if 'twere known in counfel: you'll be laugh'd at.

Evans. Pauca verba, fir John; good worts.

Fal. Good worts! good cabbage.-Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, fir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching rafcals, Bardolph, Nym, and Piftol. They carried me to the

5- and broke open my lodge.] This probably alludes to fome real incident, at that time well known. JOHNSON.

So probably Falftaft's anfwer.

FARMER.

6 'Twere better for you, if 'twere known in counsel :] Falstaff quibbles between council and counsel. The latter fignifies fecrecy. So, in Hamlet: "The players cannot keep counfel, they'll tell all."

Falstaff's meaning feems to be-'twere better for you if it were known only in fecrecy, i. e. among your friends. A more publick complaint would fubject you to ridicule.

Thus, in Chaucer's prologue to the Squieres Tale, v. 10305, late edit: "But wete ye what? in confeil be it feyde,

"Me reweth fore I am unto hire teyde." STEEVENS.

The fpelling of the old quarto (counsel), as well as the general purport of the paffage, fully confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation. Sbal. Well, the Councel hall know it. Fal. 'Twere better for you 'twere known in counfell. You'll be laugh'd at."

In an office-book of Sir Heneage Finch, Treafurer of the Chambers to Queen Elizabeth, (a Mf. in the British Museum,) I obferve that whenever the Privy Council is mentioned, the word is always fpelt Counfel; fo that the equivoque was lefs ftrained then than it appears now.

"Mum is Counfell, viz. filence," is among Howel's Proverbial Sentences. See his DICT. folio, 1660. MALONE.

7 Good worts! good cabbage:] Worts was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind. STEEVENS.

8

coney-catching rafcals,] A coney-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or fharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, published A Detection of the Frauds and Tricks of Coney-catchers and Couzeners. JOHNSON.

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tavern, and made me drunk, and afterward pick'd my pocket 9.

Bar. You Banbury cheese '!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pift. How now, Mephoftophilus 2 ?
Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Nym. Slice, I fay! pauca, pauca 3; flice! that's my

humour.

Slen. Where's Simple, my man ?-can you tell, coufin? Evans. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is-mafter Page, fidelicet, mafter Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myfelf; and the three party is, laitly and finally, mine hoft of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them. Evans. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause, with as great discreetly as we can.

Fal. Piftol,

Pift. He hears with ears.

Evans. The tevil and his tam! what phrafe is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Piftol, did you pick mafter Slender's purfe? Slen. Ay, by thefe gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again elfe,) of

9 They carried me &c.] These words, which are neceffary to introduce what Falstaff fays afterwards, ["Pistol, did you pick mafter Slender's purfe?"] I have restored from the early quarto. Of this circumstance, as the play is exhibited in the folio, Sir John could have no knowledge. MALONE.

1 You Banbury cheefe !] This is faid in allufion to the thin carcafe of Slender. STEEVENS.

2 How now, Mephoftophilus ?] This is the name of a fpirit or familiar, in the old story book of Sir John Fauftus, or John Fauft: to whom our author afterwards alludes. It was a cant phrate of abute. T. WARTON.

3 Slice, I fay; pauca, pauca!] Dr. Farmer (fee a former note, p. 193, n. 6.) would transfer the Latin words to Evans. But the old copy, I think, is right. Piftol, in K. Henry V. ufes the fame language: - I will hold the quondam Quickly

For the only fle; and pauca, there's enough."
In the fame fcene Nym twice ufes the word folus. MALONE.

feven groats in mill-fixpences, and two Edward fhovelboards, that coft me two fhilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by thefe gloves.

Fal.

4-mill-fixpences,] It appears from a paffage in Sir W. Davenant's News from Plimouth, that these mill'd fixpences were used by way of counters to caft up money:

"——A few mill'd fixpences, with which

"My purfer cafts accompt." STEEVENS.

5 - Edward Shovel-boards,] He means the broad billings of one of our kings, as appears from comparing thefe words with the correfponding paffage in the old quarto: "Ay by this handkerchief did he ;two faire fhovel-board fhillings, befides feven groats in mill fixpences." How twenty eight pence could be loft in mill-fixpences, Slender, however, has not explained to us. MALONE.

Edward Shovel-boards are the broad fhillings of Edward VI. Taylor, the water poet, makes him complain :

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the unthrift every day

"With my face downwards do at hoave-board play;
"That had I had a beard, you may fuppofe,

"They had worne it off, as they have done my nose."

And in a note he tells us: "Edw. fhillings for the most part are used at fhoave-board." FARMER.

Dr. Farmer's note, and the authority he quotes, might, I think, pafs uncenfured, unless better proofs could be produced in oppofition to them. They have, however, been objected to; and we are pofitively told that Matter Slender's "Edward Shovel boards have undoubtedly been broad fbillings of Edward the Third." I believe the broad fhillings of that monarch were never before heard of, as he undoubtedly did not coin any fhillings whatever. The following extract, for the notice of which I am indebted to Dr. Farmer, will probably fhew the fpecies of coin mentioned in the text. "I must here take notice before I entirely quit the fubject of these laft-mentioned thillings [of Edward VI.] that I have alfo feen fome other pieces of good filver, greatly refembling the fame, and of the fame date, 1547, that have been so much thicker as to weigh about half an ounce, together with fome others that have weighed an ounce." Folkes's Table of English filver coins, p. 32. The former of these were probably what coft Mafter Slender two fhillings and two pence a-piece. As to the point of chronology (to use the objector's own words on another occafion) it is not worth confideration. REED.

That Shakspeare should here (as in all his other plays) have attributed the customs and manners of his own age to a preceding century, without any regard to chronology, cannot be a matter of furprise to any reader who is converfant with his compofitions; nor is it to be wondered at, that the prefent unfounded objection fhould have been made by one, whole arguments in general, like thofe of our author's Gratiano," are

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Evans. No; it is falfe, if it is a pick-purse.
Pift. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner!-Sir John, and
mafter mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilboe:
Word of denial in thy labras here 7;

Word of denial: froth and fcum, thou lieft.

Slen. By thefe gloves, then 'twas he.

Nym. Be avis'd, Sir, and pafs good humours: I will fay, marry trap, with you, if you run the nuthcok's humour 9 on me; that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

two grains of wheat hid in two bushels of chaff; you fhall feek all day ere you find them, and, when you have them, they are not worth the fearch." MALONE.

6 I combat challenge of this latten bilboe :] Pistol, seeing Slender fuch a flim, puny weight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten: and which was, as we are told, the old erichale. THEOBALD.

Latten is a mixed metal, made of copper and calamine. MALONE. The farcafm intended is, that Slender had neither courage nor ftrength, as a latten fword hath neither edge nor fubftance. HEATH.

I believe Theobald has given the true fenfe of latten, though he is wrong in fuppofing, that the allufion is to Slender's thinness. It is rather to his foftness or weakness. TYRWHITT.

7-in thy labras here;] I fuppose it should rather be read:

Word of denial in my labras hear;

that is, bear the word of denial in my lips. Thou lyft. JOHNSON. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his threat. Piftol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adverfary, and is fuppofed to point to them as he speaks. STEEVENS.

There are few words in the old copies more frequently misprinted than the word hear. "Thy lips," however, is certainly right, as appears from the old quarto: "I do retort the lie even in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge." MALONE.

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marry trap,-] When a man was caught in his own ftratagem, I fuppofe the exclamation of infult was marry, trap! JOHNSON. 9- nutbook's bumour-] If you run the nutbook's humour on me, is in plain English, If you fay I am a thief. Enough is faid on the fubject of booking moveables out of windows, in a note on K. Henry IV.

STEEVENS.

Fal.

Fal. What fay you, Scarlet and John'?

Bard. Why, fir, for my part, I fay, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five fentences.

Evans. It is his five fenfes: fye, what the ignorance is!

Bard. And being fap 2, fir, was, as they fay, cashier'd; and fo conclufions pafs'd the careires 3.

Slen. Ay, you fpake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilft I live again, but in honeft, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Evans. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind.

Fal. You hear all thefe matters deny'd, gentlemen ; you hear it.

Enter Mistress Anne Page with wine; Miftrefs Ford and Miftrefs Page following. Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit Anne Page. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, mistress Ford ?

Fal. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good miftrefs. [kiffing her. Page. Wife, bid thefe gentlemen welcome:Come,

1 - Scarlet and John?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour confifts in the allufion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which, fee Henry IV. Part II. WARBURTON.

2 And being fap,-] I know not the exact meaning of this cant word, neither have I met with it in any of our old dramatick pieces, which have often proved the beft comments on Shakspeare's vulgarifms. -Dr. Farmer, indeed, obferves, that to fib is to be beat; fo that fap may mean being beaten, and cashier'd, turned out of company. STEEV. The word fap is probably made from vappa, a drunken fellow, or a good for nothing fellow, whofe virtues are all exhaled. Slender in his anfwer feems to understand that Bardelph had made ufe of a Latin word. S. W.

3 careires.] I believe this ftrange word is nothing but the French cariere; and the expreffion means, that the common bounds of good bebaviour were overpaffed. JOHNSON,

Cariere is a term of the manege. It is, I believe, properly the ring or circle wherein managed horses move, MALONE.

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