Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he fhould intend this voyage toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more of her than fharp words, let it lie head.

on my

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head +: I cannot be thus fatisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting hoft of the Garter comes there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purfe, when he looks fo merrily. How, now, mine host?

Enter Hoft, and SHALLOW.

Hoft. How, now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gentleman: cavalero-juftice, I fay.

Shal. I follow, mine hoft, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good mafter Page! Mafter Page, will you go with us? we have sport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavalero-juftice; tell him, bully-rook? Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between fir Hugh the Welch priest, and Caius the French doctor.

Ford. Good mine hoft o' the Garter, a word with you. Hoft. What fay'ft thou, bully-rook? [They go afide. Shal. Will you [to Page] go with us to behold it? My merry hoft hath had the meafuring of their weapons; and, I think, hath appointed them contrary places: for, believe me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our sport shall be.

Hoft. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my guestcavalier?

Ford. None, I proteft: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourfe to him, and tell him, my name is Brook 5; only for a jeft.

Hoft. My hand, bully: thou fhalt have egrefs and re

4 I would have nothing lie on my bead :] Here feems to be an allufion to Shakspeare's favourite topick, the cuckold's horns. MALONE. s—and tell bim, my name is Brook ;] The folio reads-Broom. The true name was recovered from the quarto by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

grefs;

grefs; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook: It is a merry knight.-Will you go an-heirs?

Shal. Have with you, mine hoft.

Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good fkill in his rapier.

Shal. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In these times you ftand on diftance, your paffes, ftoccados, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, mafter Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time, with my long fword, I

would

Will you go an heirs?] There can be no doubt that this passage is corrupt. Perhaps we should read,-Will you go and bear us? So, in the next page" I had rather bear them fcold than fight." MALONE.

The merry Hoft has already faluted them feparately by titles of diftinction; he therefore probably now addrelles them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably—Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a fubfequent fcene of this play, Farewell, my hearts. STEEVENS.

? —in bis rapier.] In the old quarto here follow these words: Shal. I tell you what, matter Page; I believe the doctor is no jefter; he'll lay it one [on]; for though we be juftices and doctors and churchmen, yet we are the fons of women, master Page.

Page. True, mafter Shallow.

Shal. It will be found fo, mafter Page.

Page. Mafter Shallow, you yourself have been a great fighter, though now a man of peace.

Part of this dialogue is found afterwards in the third scene of the prefent act; but it feems more proper here, to introduce what Shallow fays of the prowess of his youth. MALONE.

8 my long sword,] Before the introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length, and fometimes raifed with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, cenfures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long fword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation of the long favord is certainly right; for the early quarto reads--my trvo-band fword; fo that they appear to have been fynonymous.

Carleton, in his Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercy, 1625, speaking of the treachery of one Rowland York, in betraying the town of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587, fays; "he was a Londoner, famous among the Cutters in his time, for bringing in a new kind of fight,-to run the point of a rapier into a man's body. This manner of fight be brought firft into England, with great admiration of his audaciousnels:

when

would have made you four tall fellows fkip like

rats.

Hoft. Here, boys, here, here! fhall we wag?

Page. Have with you:-I had rather hear them fcold [Exeunt Hoft, SHALLOW, and PAGE, than fight. Ford. Though Page be a fecure fool, and ftands fo firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion fo eafily: She was in his company at Page's houfe; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't: and I have a difguife to found Falstaff: If I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if the be other[Exit, wife, 'tis labour well beftow'd.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.

with Pift. Why, then the world's mine oyfter 3, which I

when in England before that time, the ufe was, with little bucklers, and with broad fwords, to strike, and not to thrust; and it was accounted unmanly to ftrike under the girdle."

The Continuator of Stowe's Annals, p. 1024, edit. 1631, fuppofes the rapier to have been introduced fomewhat fooner, viz. about the 20th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, [1578] at which time, he fays, Sword and Bucklers began to be difufed. Shakspeare has here been guilty of a great anachronism in making Shallow ridicule the terms of the rapier in the time of Henry IV. an hundred and feventy years before it was used in England. MALONE.

9 tall fellows-] A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant a ftout, bold, or courageous perfon. The elder quarto reads-tall fencers. STEEVENS.

and fands fo firmly on his wife's frailty,] i. e. has fuch perfect confidence in his unchafte wife. His wife's frailty is the fame as-his frail wife. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, we meet with death and MALONE. bonour, for an honourable death.

To ftand on any thing, fignifies to infift on it. Ford fuppofes Page to infift on that virtue as teady, which he fuppofes to be without foundation. STEEVENS.

2 and what they made there,] An obfolete phrase fignifying-what they did there. MALONE.

allude 3 the world's mine syfter, &c.] Dr. Grey fuppofes Shakspeare to

Q3

with fword will open. I will retort the fum in equipage.

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, fir, you should Jay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coachfellow, Nym; or elfe you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in hell, for fwearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good foldiers, and tall fellows: and when mitrefs Bridget loft the handle of her fan', I took't upon mine honour, thou hadft it not.

Pift. Didt not thou fhare? hadit thou not fifteen pence?

Fal. Reafon, you rogue, reafon: Think'ft thou, I'll endanger

allude to an old proverb, "The mayor of Northampton opens cyflers with his dagger." i. e. to keep them at a fufficient diftance from his nofe, that town being fourfcore miles from the fea. STEEVENS.

4

- I will retort the fum in equipage.] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in ftolen goods. WARB. I rather believe he means, that he will pay him by waiting on him for nothing. That equipage ever meant ftolen goods, I am yet to learn. STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equipage was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies Papers Complaint, (a poem which has erroneously been escribed to Denne) we have feveral of them:

"Embellish, blandishment, and equipage." Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch favour of witleffe affectation. FARMER. 5 your coach-fellow, Nym ;] i. e. he, who draws along with you; who is joined with you in all your knavery. So before, Page, fpeaking of Nym and Piftol, calls them a "yoke of Falftaff's difcarded men." The word (as Mr. Stevens has obferved) is ufed by Chapman in his Tranflation of the Iliad. MALONE.

6 and tall fellows :] See p. 229, n. 9; and p. 214, n. 4. MALONE. 7-loft the bandle of her fan,] It fhould be remembered, that fans, in our author's time, were more coftly than they are at prefent, as well 23 of a different conftruction. They confifted of oftrich feathers, (or others of equal length and flexibility,) which were ftuck into handles. The richer fort of these were compofed of gold, filver, or ivory of curious workmanship. In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Morey, or A pleasant Comedy of a Woman will have ber Will, 1616, is a portrait of a lady with one of thefe fans, which, after all, may prove the best commentary on the paffage. The three other specimens are taken from the Habiti Antichi et Moderni di tutto il Monde, published

at

endanger my foul 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,

go.

You'll

at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cefare Vecelli, his brother. This fashion was perhaps imported from Italy, together with many others, in the reign of king Henry VIII. if not in that of king Richard II,

學華

STEEVENS.

It appears from Marfton's Satires, that the fum of 40l. was fometimes given for a fan in the time of queen Elizabeth. MALONE.

In the Sidney papers, published by Collins, a fan is prefented to queen Elizabeth for a new year's gift, the handle of which was ftudded with diamonds. T. WARTON.

8 A bort knife and a throng:] So Lear: "when cut-purfes come not to throngs." WARBURTON.

Mr. Dennis reads thong; which has been followed, I think, improperly, by fome of the modern editors. MALONE.

Pickt-batch, Pit-batch was in Turnbull-freet.

Your whore doth live

"In Pict-hatch, Turnbull-street."

Amends for Ladies, a comedy by N. Field, 1639.

The