Slen. By thefe gloves, then 'twas he. Nym. Be avis'd, Sir, and pafs good humours: I will fay, marry trap, with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

4

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

Fal. What fay you, Scarlet and John?

Bard. Why, fir, for my part, I fay, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five fentences. Eva. It is his five fenfes: fie, what the ignorance is!

Bard. And being fap 7, fir, was, as they fay, cafhier'd; and fo conclufions pass'd the careires,

8

⚫ Slen.

We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat. Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adverfary, and is fuppofed to point to them as he speaks, STEEVENS.

4 marry trap, ] When a man was caught in his own ftratagem, I fuppofe the exclamation of infult was marry, trap! JOHNSON.

5 —nutbook's humour-] Read, pass the nuthook's bumour, Nutbook was a term of reproach in the vulgar way, and in cant ftrain. In The Second Part of Hen. IV. Dol Tearsheet fays to the beadle, Nutbook, Nuthook, you lie. Probably it was a name given to a bailiff or catchpole, very odious to the common people.

HANMER.

Nutbook is the reading of the folio, and the third quarto. The fecond quarto reads, bafe humour,

If you run the Nutbook's humour on me, is in plain English, if you fay I am a Thief. Enough is faid on the fubje&t of booking moveables out at windows, in a note on K. Henry IV.

STEEVENS

6 Scarlet and John?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour confifts in the allufion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which, fee The Second Part of Hen. IV. WARBURTON.

7 And being fap, I know not the exact meaning of this cant word, neither have I met with it in any of our old dramatic pieces, which have often proved the best comments on ShakeIpeare's vulgarifms, STEEVENS,

8 careires I believe this ftrange word is nothing but the French cariere; and the expreffion means, that the common bounds of good behaviour were overpalled. JOHNSON.

to

Slen. Ay, you fpake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll never be drunk whilft I live again, but in honeft, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. Fal. You hear all thefe matters deny'd, gentlemen; you hear it,

Enter mistress Anne Page with wine; miftrefs Ford and miftrefs Page following.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit Anne Page. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, miftrefs Ford?

Fal. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well met by your leave, good miftrefs. [Kiffing her. Page. Wife, bid thefe gentlemen welcome:Come, we have a hot venifon pafty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we fhall drink down all unkindness. [Exe. all but Shal. Slend. and Evans., Slen. I had rather than forty fhillings, I had my book of fongs and fonnets here:

Enter Simple.

How now, Simple; where have you been; I must wait on myself, muft I? You have not the book of riddles about you, have you?

to pass the cariere was a military phrafe. I find it in one of Sir John Smythe's Difcourfes, 1589, where, fpeaking of horses wounded, he fays" they, after the first fhrink at the entering of the bullet, doo pass their carriere, as though they had verie little hurt." Again, in Harrington's tranflation of Ariofto, book xxxviii. Stanza 35.

"To stop, to start, to pass carier, to bound."

STEEVENS.

9

Sim. Book of riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we ftay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by fir Hugh here;-Do you understand me?

Slen. Ay, fir, you fhall find me reasonable; if it be fo, I fhall do that that is reason.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.
Slen. So I do, fir.

Eva. Give ear to his motions, master Slender': I will defcription the matter to you,

of it.

if you be capacity

Slen. Nay, I will do, as my coufin Shallow fays: I pray you, pardon ine; he's a juftice of peace in his country, fimple though I ftand here.

Eva. But that is not the queftion; the queftion is. concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands.

Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that the lips is parcel

9-upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?] Sure, Simple's a little out in his reckoning. Allhallowmas is almoft five weeks after Michaelmas. But may it not be urged, it is defigned Simple fhould appear thus ignorant, to keep up the character? I think not. The fimpleft creatures (nay, even naturals) generally are very precife in the knowledge of feftivals, and marking how the feafons run: and therefore I have ventured to fufpect our poet wrote Martlemas, as the vulgar call it: which is near a fortnight after All-Saint's day, i. e. eleven days, both inclufive.THEOBALD.

This correction, thus feriously and wifely enforced, is received by fir Tho. Hanmer; but probably Shakespeare intended a blunder. JOHNSON.

of

of the mouth ;-Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good-will to the maid?

Shal. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, fir,-I will do, as it fhall become one that would do reafon.

Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must fpeak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her.

Shal. That you muft: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, coufin, in any reafon.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, fweet coz; what I do, is to pleafure you, coz: Can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, fir, at your requeft; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are marry'd, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt:

2

the lips is parcel of the mouth;] Thus the old copies. 66 parcel of the mind.".

The modern editors read

To be parcel of any thing is an expreffion that often occurs in the old plays.

So in Decker's Satiromaflix:

"And make damnation parcel of your oath.”

Again, in Tamburlaine, 1590:

To make it parcel of my empery.'

Again, in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1613:

"For as I tak't 'tis parcel of your oath."

This paffage, however, might have been defigned as a ridicule on another, in John Lylly's Midas, 1592:

"Pet. What lips hath the?

"Li. Tufh! Lips are no part of the head, only made for a double-leaf door for the mouth.' STEEVENS.

2

I hope, upon familiarity will grow more content :-] Certainly, the editors in their fagacity have murdered a jeft here. It is defigned, no doubt, that Slender fhould fay decrease, instead of increafe; and diffolved, diffolutely, inftead of refolved and refolutely: but to make him fay, on the prefent occafion, that upon familiarity will grow more content, instead of contempt, is difarming the

fentiment

contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely.

Eva. It is a fery difcretion anfwer; fave, the faul is in the 'ort diffolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely ;-his meaning is good. Shal. Ay, I think my coufin meant well.

Slen, Ay, or elfe I would I might be hang'd, la.

Re-enter Anne Page.

Shal, Here comes fair miftrefs Anne:-Would I were young, for your fake, miftrefs Anne!

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father defires your worship's company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne.

Eva. Od's pleffed will! I will not be absence at the grace. [Ex. Shal. and Evans. Anne. Will't pleafe your worship to come in, fir? Slen. No, I thank you, forfooth, heartily; I am very well,

Anne. The dinner attends you, fir,

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forfooth; -Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow: [Exit Simple.] A juftice of peace fometime may be beholden to his friend for a man: -I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

Anne. I may not go in without your worship; they will not fit, till you come,

Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing: I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, fir, walk in.

fentiment of all its falt and humour, and disappointing the audience of a reasonable caufe for laughter. THEOBALD.

Theobald's conjecture may be fupported by the fame intentionaļ blunder in Love's Labour Loft.

"Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me."

STEEVENS.

Slen