26

I

and dagger with a master of fence, three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes; and, by my troth, cannot abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark so? be there bears i' the town?

Anne. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of.

Slen. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at it as any man in England:-You are afraid if you see the bear loose, are you not?

Anne. Ay, indeed, sir.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me now: I have seen Sackerson 27 loose twenty times; and have taken him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and shriek'd at it, that it pass'd 28-but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things.

Re-enter PAGE.

Page. Come, gentle master Slender, come; we stay for you.

Slen. I'll eat nothing; I thank you, sir.

Page. By cock and pye 29, you shall not choose, sir: come, come.

25 Master of fence here signifies not merely a fencing-master, but a person who had taken his master's degree in the science. There were three degrees, a master's, a provost's, and a scholar's. For each of these a prize was played with various weapons, in some open place or square. Tarlton the player was allowed a master' on the 23d of October, 1587, 'he being ordinary grome of her majesty's chamber.' The unfortunate Robert Greene played his master's prize at Leadenhall with three weapons, &c. The MS. from which this information is derived is a Register belonging to some of the Schools of the noble Science of Defence, among the Sloane MSS.-Brit. Mus. No. 2530, xxvi. D.

26 Veney, or Venue, Fr. a touch or hit in the body at fencing, &c.

27 The name of a bear exhibited at Paris Garden, in Southwark. 28 i. e. passed all expression.

29 By cock and pye was a popular adjuration. See Note on Henry IV. P. 2, Act v. Sc. 1.

Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.
Page. Come on, sir.

Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.
Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on.

Slen. Truly, I will not go first, truly, la: I will

not do you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, sir.

Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome: you do yourself wrong, indeed, la.

SCENE II. The same.

[Exeunt.

Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE. Eva. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house, which is the way: and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry1, his washer, and his wringer.

Simp. Well, sir.

Eva. Nay, it is petter yet:give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with mistress Anne Page; and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master's desires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you, be gone. I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF, Host, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN.

Fal. Mine host of the Garter,—

Host. What says my bully-rook? Speak scholarly, and wisely.

Fal. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my followers.

1i. e. launder, from the Fr. Lavandiere..

Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier; let them wag; trot, trot.

Fal. I sit at ten pounds a week.

Host. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar1, and Pheezar, I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector?

Fal. Do so, good mine host.

Host. I have spoke; let him follow: Let me see thee froth, and lime2: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Host. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered servingman, a fresh tapster: Go; adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have desired; I will thrive.

[Exit BARD. Pist. O base Gongarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?

Nym. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it.

Fal. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is, to steal at a minute's

rest.

Pist. Convey, the wise it call: Steal! foh; a fico3 for the phrase!

Fal. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.

Pist. Why then let kibes ensue.

1 Keysar old spelling for Cæsar, the general word for an emperor. Kings and Keysars is an old phrase in very common use, Pheezar, a made word from Pheeze, in the Induction to Taming of a Shrew.

2 To froth beer and to lime sack were tapster's tricks. Mr. Steevens says the first was done by putting soap in the bottom of the tankard; the other by mixing lime with the wine to make it sparkle in the glass.

3A fico for the phrase.' See K. Henry IV. Part 2. A. S.

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.

4 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 Oëillades. French. Ogles, wanton looks of the eyes. Cotgrave translates it, 'to cast a sheep's eye,'

Pist. Then did the sun on dunghill shine.
Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

Fal. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, 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.
10 Cleverly, adroitly.

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."