Fal. There is no remedy; I must coney-catch; I must shift. Pist. Young ravens must have food. Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Pist. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. Fal. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. Pist. Two yards, and more. Fal. No quips now, Pistol; indeed I am in the waist 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 spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves *, she gives the leer of invitation: I can construe the action of her familiar style, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's. Pist. He hath studied her well, and translated her well; out of honesty into English. Nym. The anchor is deep: will that humour pass? Fal. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purse; she hath legions of angels 5. Pist. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, say I. Nym. The humour rises; 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, examined my parts with most judicious eyliads: sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly.. + It seems to have been a mark of kindness when a lady carved to a gentleman. So, in Vittoria Corombona: "Your husband is wondrous discontented. Vit. I did nothing to displease him, I carved to him at supper time." 5 Gold coin. 6 Orillades. French. Ogles, wanton looks of the eyes. Cotgrave translates it, 'to cast a sheep's eye.' Pist. Then did the sun on dunghill shine. Fal. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention3, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning glass! Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse too she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater9 to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pist. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my side wear steel? then, Lucifer take all! Nym. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour-letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputa tion. Fal. Hold, sirrah [to ROB.], bear you these letters tightly 10; Sail like my pinnace 11 to these golden shores.Rogues, hence avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o' the hoof; seek shelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of this age, French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. [Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN. 7 What distinguishes the language of Nym from that of the other attendants on Falstaff is the constant repetition of this phrase. In the time of Shakspeare such an affectation seems to have been sufficient to mark a character. Some modern dramatists have also thought so. 8 i. e. attention. 9 Escheatour, an officer in the Exchequer. 11 A pinnace was a light vessel built for speed, and was also called a Brigantine. Under the words Catascopium and Celox in Hutton's Dictionary, 1583, we have a Brigantine or Pinnace, a light ship that goeth to espie.' Hence the word is used for a go-between. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, Justice Overdo says of the pig-woman, "She has been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two and twenty years." Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts 12! for gourd and fullam 13 holds, And high and low beguile the rich and poor: Tester 14 I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk! Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge. Pist. Wilt thou revenge? Nym. By welkin, and her star! Pist. With wit, or steel? Nym. With both the humours, I: I will discuss the humour of this love to Page. How Falstaff, varlet vile, His dove will prove, his gold will hold, Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incense 15 Page to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness 16, for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour. Pist. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I second thee; troop on. [Exeunt. 12 A burlesque on a passage in Tamburlaine, or the Scythian Sheperd: -" and now doth ghastly death With greedy talents gripe my bleeding heart, Again, ibid, Griping our bowels with retorted thoughts." 13 In Decker's Bellman of London, 1640, among the false dice are enumerated a bale of fullams'-' a bale of gordes, with as many high men as low men for passage.' The false dice were chiefly made at Fulham, hence the name. The manner in which they were made is described in The Complete Gamester, 1676, 12mo. 15 Instigate. 16 Jealousy. 14 Sixpence I'll have in pocket. SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius's House. Quick. What; John Rugby!—I pray thee, go to the casement, and see if you can see my master, master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abusing of God's patience, and the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit RUGBY. Quick. Go; and we'll have a posset for❜t soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no telltale, nor no breed-bate1: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault;-but let that pass. Peter Simple, you say, your name is? Sim. Ay, for a fault of a better. Quick. And master Slender's your master? 2 Quick. Does he not wear a great round beard3, like a glover's paring knife? Sim. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-coloured beard 4. Quick. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? Sim. Ay, forsooth: but he is as tall a man of 1 i. e. breeder of debate, maker of contention. 2 Foolish. precise. Mrs. Quickly possibly blunders, and would say 3 See a Note on K. Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 6. And what a beard of the general's cut.' 4 It is said that Cain and Judas in old pictures and tapestry were constantly represented with yellow beards. In an age when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from these representations. One of the copies reads a cane-coloured beard, i. e. of the colour of cane, and the reading of the 4to. a whey-coloured beard favours this reading. his hands, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. Quick. How say you?-O, I should remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quick. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune? Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish Re-enter RUGBY. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quick. We shall all be shent: Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts Simple in the closet.] He will not stay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I say!—Go, John, go inquire for my master; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home:-and down, down, adown-a, &c. [Sings. Enter Doctor Caius 8. Caius. Vat is you sing? I do not like dese toys; Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier 5 This phrase has been very imperfectly explained by the commentators, though they have written about it, and about it.' Malone's quotation from Cotgrave was near the mark, but missed it: "Haut à la main, Homme à la main, Homme de main. A MAN OF HIS HANDS; a man of execution or valour; a striker, like enough to lay about him; proud, surlie, sullen, stubborn." So says this truly valuable old dictionary: from which it is evident that a TALL man of his hands was only a free version of the French Homme HAUT à la main. This equivocal use of the words Haut and tall will also explain the expression a TALL fellow, or a TALL man, wherever it occurs. Mercutio ridicules it as one of the affected phrases of the fantasticos of his age, a very good blade,' a very tall man!'-Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4. 6 The keeper of a warren. 7 Scolded, reprimanded. 8 It has been thought strange that Shakspeare should take the name of Caius for his Frenchman, as an eminent physician of that name, founder of Caius College, Oxford, flourished in Elizabeth's |