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.
Pist. And I to Ford shall eke unfold,

How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,
And his soft couch defile.

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,
And like a harper tyers on my life.”

Again, ibid,

"Griping our bowels with retorted thoughts."

The false dice were The manner in which

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.' chiefly made at Fulham, hence the name. they were made is described in The Complete Gamester, 1676, 12mo. 16 Jealousy.

14 Sixpence I'll have in pocket.

15 Instigate.

SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius's House.

Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY.

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?
Sim. Ay, forsooth.

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. 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

7 Scolded, reprimanded.

verd; a box, a green-a box; Do intend vat I speak? a-green-a box.

Quick. Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad he went not in himself; if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad. [Aside. Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! mai foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la Cour,-la grande affaire.

Quick. Is it this, sir?

Caius. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Dépêche, quickly:-Vere is dat knave Rugby? Quick. What, John Rugby! John!

Rug. Here, sir.

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby; Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

Rug. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay-j'oublié? dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind.

Quick. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet?— Villainy? larron! [Pulling Simple out.] Rugby, my rapier.

Quick. Good master, be content.

Caius. Verefore shall I be content-a?

Quick. The young man is an honest man.

Caius. Vat shall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet.

Quick. I beseech you, be not so flegmatick; hear the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from parson Hugh.

reign. But Shakspeare was little acquainted with literary history, and without doubt, from this unusual name, supposed him to have been some foreign quack. The character might however be drawn from the life, for in Jack Dover's Quest of Enquirie, 1604, a story called the Foole of Windsor,' turns upon a simple outlandish Doctor of Physicke.

Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to-
Quick. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue:-Speak-a your tale. Sim. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master, in the way of marriage.

Quick. This is all, indeed, la; but I'll ne'er put my finger in the fire, and need not.

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you?-Rugby, baillez me some paper:-Tarry you a little-awhile.

[Writes. Quick. I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so loud, and so melancholy;-But notwithstanding, man, I'll do your master what good I can: and the very yea and the no is, the French Doctor, my master, I may call him my master, look for

you,

I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself;

Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand.

Quick. Are you avis'd o' that? you shall find it a great charge and to be up early, and down late; -but notwithstanding (to tell you in your ear; I would have no words of it); my master himself is in love with mistress Anne Page: but notwithstanding that, I know Anne's mind,-that's neither here nor there.

Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to Sir Hugh; by gar, it is a shallenge: I vill cut his troat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack-anape priest to meddle or make:—you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here:-by gar, I vill cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog. [Exit SIMPLE. Quick. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.