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ner, George?--Look, who comes yonder: she shall be our messenger to this paultry Knight.

[Afide to Mrs. Ford.

Enter Mistress Quickly.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her, she'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quick. Ay, forsooth; and, I pray, how does good mistress Anne ?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly.

SCENE V.

Page. How now, master Ford?

Ford. You heard what this knave told me, did you

not?

Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told me?
Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

Page. Hang 'em, flaves; I do not think, the Knight would offer it; but these, that accuse him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoak of his difcarded men; very rogues, now they be out of fervice.

3

Ford. Were they his men?
Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that. Does he lye at the Garter?

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lye on my head.

Ford. I do not mifdoubt my wife, but I would be loth to turn them together; a man may be too confident; I would have nothing lye on my head; I cannot be thus fatisfy'd.

3 Very rogues, now they be out of fervice.] A rogue is a wanderer

or vagabond, and, in its confequential fignification, a cheat

loth

Page. Look, where my ranting Host of the Garter comes; there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purse, when he looks so merrily. How now, mine Host?

SCENE VI.

Enter Host and Shallow.

Hoft. How, now, bully Rock? thou'rt a gentleman; cavalero-justice, I say.

Shal. I follow, mine Host, I follow. Good even, and twenty, good master Page. Master Page, will you go with us? we have sport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavaliero-justice; tell him, bully

Rock.

Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh the Welsh priest, and Caius the French doctor. Ford. Good mine Host o'th' Garter, a word with you.

Host. What fay'st thou, bully Rock ?

[They go a little afide.

Shal. [To Page.] Will you go with us to behold it ? my merry Host hath had the measuring of their Weapons, and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places; for, believe me, I hear, the parson is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our sport shall be.

Hoft. Hast thou no fuit against my Knight, my guest-cavalier ?

Ford. None, I protest; but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourse to him, 4 and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jest.

Hoft.

* And tell him, my Name is Quarto's; and thus most certainBrook ;) Thus both the oldly the Poet wrote. We need no

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better

Hoft. My hand, bully. Thou shalt have egrefs and regress; faid I well? and thy name shall 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 skill in his rapier.

In

Shal. Tut, Sir, I could have told you more. these times you ftand on distance, your passes, stoccado's, and I know not what. 'Tis the heart, master Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have seen the time with my long fword, I would have made you four tall fellows fkip like rats.

6

Hoft. Here, boys, here, here: shall we wag? Page. Have with you; I had rather hear them fcold than fight. [Exeunt Host, Shallow and Page. Ford. Tho' Page be a fecure fool', and stand fo firmly

better Evidence, than the Pun that Falstaff anon makes on the Name, when Brook sends him fome burnt Sack.

Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow with fuch Liquor. The Players, in their Editions, altered the Name to Broom.

THEOBALD.

s Will you go AN HEIRS?] This nonsense is spoken to Shal low. We should read,

Will you go on, HERIS? i. e. Will you go on, Master. Heris, an old Scotch word for mafter. WARBURTON.

My long fword.) Not long before the introduction of rapiers, the swords in use were of an enormous length, and fometimes raised with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, censures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once

have done with his long word, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier.

And stand so firmly on bis Wife's Frailty.] No furely; Page flood tightly to the opinion of her Honesty, and would not entertain a Thought of her being frail. I have therefore ventured to fubftitute a Word correspondent to the Sense requir'd; and one, which our Poet frequently uses, to fignify conjugal faith. THEOBALD. stand fo firmly on bis wife's frailty.) Thus all the copies. But Mr. Theobald has no conception how any man could stand firmly on his wife's frailty. And why? Because he had no concep tion how he could stand upon it, without knowing what it But if I tell a stranger, that the bridge he is about to cross is rot

was.

ten,

firmly on his wife's fealty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily. She was in his company at Page's house; and what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't; and I have a disguise to found Falstaff: if I find her honeft, I lose not my labour; if the be otherwise, 'tis labour well bestow'd.

[Exit.

SCENE

VII.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Falstaff and Pistol.

Fal. Will not lend thee a penny.

Pist. Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open. - I will retort the fum in Equipage *.

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, Sir, you should lay my countenance to pawn; I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you, and your couch-fellow, 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 Mrs. Bridget lost the handle of her fan, I took't upon mine honour, thou hadst it not.

Pist. Didft thou not share? hadst thou not fifteen pence?

ten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not say, when I fee him upon it, that he stands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford Editor has followed him. But they took the phrase, to stand firmly on, to fignify to infift upon, whereas it fig. nifies to rest upon, which the cha

racter of a fecure fool, given to him, shews. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be loft in the alteration.

WARBURTON.

* I will retort the jum in equipage.) This is added from the old Quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in stolen goods.

Ii 2

WARBURTON.

Fal. 9 a short knife and a throng,] So Lear. When Cutpurses come not to throngs. WARBURTON. * A noted place for thieves and pickpockets. THEOBALD. 2 Red lettice phrases.] Your alehouse conversation.

Fal. Reason, you rogue, reason: think'st thou, I'll endanger my foul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you. -Go. - Ashort knife and a throng-to your manor of 'Pickt-batch. Go.You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue!-you stand upon your honour!-why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do to keep the term of my honour precife. I, I, I myself sometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my neceffity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge and to lurch; and yet you rogue will ensconce your rags, your cat-a-mountain looks, your red lettice phrafes, and your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you!

Pift. I do relent: what wouldst thou more of man?

Enter Robin.

Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you.
Fal. Let her approach.

SCENE VIII.

Enter Mrs. Quickly.

Quic. Give your worship good-morrow.

Fal. Good morrow, good wife.

Quic. Not fo, and't please your worship.

Fal. Good maid, then.

Quic. I'll be sworn, as my mother was, the first hour I was born.

3 your bold BEATING oaths;)

We should read bold-BEARING oaths, i. e. out-facing.

WARBURTON.

A beating oath is, I think, right; so we now say, in low language, a thwacking or fwinging thing.

Fal.

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