What shall be done with him? what is your plot ? Mrs. Page. That likewise we have thought upon, and thus: Nan Page my daughter, and my little son, And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress Let them from forth a faw-pit rush at once 8 • With fome diffused fong: upon their fight, 9 And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight; And faid one word to afcertain it. This makes it more than fufpicious, the defect in this point must be owing to fome wife retrenchment. The two intermediate lines, which I have restored from the old quarto, are abfolutely neceffary, and clear up the matter THEOBALD. 7-urchins, ouphes,—] The primitive fignification of urchin is a hedge-hog. In this fenfe it is used in the Tempeft. Hence it comes to fignify any thing little and dwarfish. Ouph is the Teutonic word for a fairy or goblin. STEEVENS. 8 With fome diffufed fong:] A diffused fong fignifies a fong that strikes out into wild fentiments beyond the bounds of nature, fuch as those whofe fubject is fairy land. WARBURTton. Diffufed may mean confufed. So in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 553: "Rice, quoth he, (i. e. Cardinal Wolfey,) fpeak you Welch to them: I doubt not but thy fpeech fhall be more diffufe to him, than his French fhall be to thee." TOLLET. By diffufed fong, Shakespeare may mean fuch irregular fongs as mad people fing. Edgar, in K. Lear, when he has determined to affume the appearance of a travelling lunatic, declares his refolution to diffuse his speech, i. e. to give it the turn peculiar to madness. STEEVENS. fo And, fairy-like, To pinch the unclean knight;] The grammar requires us to read: And, fairy-like TOO, pinch the unclean knight. WARB. This fhould perhaps be written to-pinch, as one word. This ufe of 10 in compofition with verbs, is very cominon in Gower and Chaucer, but must have been rather antiquated in the time of Shakespeare. See, Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, B. iv. fol. 7: All to-tore is myn araie." And And ask him, why, that hour of fairy revel, In shape prophane? Mrs. Ford. And till he tell the truth, Let the fuppofed fairies pinch him found', Mrs. Page. The truth being known, We'll all present ourselves; dif-horn the spirit, Ford. The children muft Be practis'd well to this, or they'll neʼer do't. Eva. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will be like a jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my taber. Ford. This will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards. Mrs. Page. My Nan fhall be the queen of all the fairies, Finely attired in a robe of white, Page. That filk will I go buy ;-and, in that time The conftruction will otherwise be very hard. TYRWHITT. Shall I add a few more inftances to fhew that this ufe of the prepofition to was not entirely antiquated. Spenfer's F, 2. b. iv. c. 7: "With briers and bushes all to-rent and fcratched." Again, b. v. c. 8: "With locks all loose, and raiment all to-tore." Again, b. v. c. 9: "Made of ftrange ftuffe, but all to-worne and ragged, Again, in the Three Lords of London, 1590: "The poft at which he runs, and all to-burns it.” Again, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592: "A watchet fattin doublet, all to-torn." STEEVENS. I - pinch him found,] i. e. foundly. The adjective used as an adverb. The modern editors read- -round. STEEVENS. That filk will I go buy ;-and, in that time] Mr. Theobald, referring that time to the time of buying the filk, alters it to tire. But 24 there Shall mafter Slender steal my Nan away, ftraight. [Afide Go, fend to Falstaff Ford. Nay, I'll to him again in the name of Brook; He'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come. Mrs. Page. Fear not you that: Go, get us properties 3 And tricking for our fairies. Eva. Let us about it: It is admirable pleasures, and fery honeft knaveries. [Ex. Page, Ford, and Evans.. Mrs. Page. Go, mistress Ford, Send Quickly to fir John, to know his mind. [Exit Mrs. Ford. I'll to the doctor; he hath my good will, And none but he, to marry with Nan Page. That Slender, though well landed, is an ideot; And he my husband best of all affects : The doctor is well money'd, and his friends Potent at court; he, none but he fhall have her, Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her. [Exit. there is no need of any change; that time evidently relating to the time of the mask with which Falstaff was to be entertained, and which makes the whole fubject of this dialogue. Therefore the common reading is right. WARBURTON. 3 -properties ] Properties are little incidental neceffaries to a theatre, exclufive of fcenes and dreffes. So, in the Taming a fhoulder of mutton for a property." the Shrew: STEEVENS. 4-tricking for our fairies.] To trick, is to drefs out. So, in Milton: "Not trick'd and frounc'd as she was wont, "With the Attic boy to hunt; "But kerchief'd in a homely cloud." STEEVENS. SCENE Hoft. What would'st thou have, boor? what, thickskin? fpeak, breathe, discuss; brief, fhort, quick, fnap. Simp. Marry, fir, I come to speak with fir John Falstaff from mafter Slender. Hoft. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his 'ftanding-bed, and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the story of the prodigal, fresh and new: Go, knock and call; he'll speak like an Anthropophaginian' unto thee: Knock, I say. Simp. There's an old woman, a fat woman gone up into his chamber; I'll be fo bold as stay, fir, 'till the come down I come to speak with her, indeed. Hoft. Ha! a fat woman! the knight may be robb'd: I'll call.- -Bully knight! Bully fir John! speak -what, thick-skin?] I meet with this term of abufe in Warner's Albions England, 1602, book vi. chap. 30: "That he fo foul a thick-fkin should fo fair a lady catch." STEEVENS. 6 ftanding-bed, and truckle-bed;-] The ufual furniture of chambers in that time was a standing-bed, under which was a trochle, truckle, or running bed. In the standing-bed lay the mafter, and in the truckle-bed the fervant. So, in Hall's Account of a Servile Tutor: "He lieth in the truckle-bed, "While his young mafter lieth o'er his head." JOHNSON. So, in the Return from Parnaffus, 1606: "When I lay in a trundle-bed under my tutor." And here the tutor has the upper bed. Again, in Heywood's Royal King, &c. 1637:" fhew these gentlemen into a close room with a ftanding-bed in't, and a truckle too.' STEEVENS. Anthropophaginian] i. e. a canibal. See Othello, act I. fc. iii. It is here ufed as a founding word to astonish Simple, Ephefian, which follows, has no more meaning. STEEVENS. 7 from from thy lungs military: Art thou there? it is thine host, thine Ephefian, calls. Falftaff above. Fal. How now, mine hoft? 8 Hoft. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of thy fat woman: Let her defcend, bully, let her defcend; my chambers are honourable: Fie! privacy? fie!. Enter Falstaff. Fal. There was, mine hoft, an old fat woman even now with me; but she's gone. Simp. Pray you, fir, was't not the wife woman of Brentford ? Fal. Ay, marry was it, muffel-fhell; What would you with her? Simp. My mafter, fir, mafter Slender fent to her, feeing her go through the ftreet, to know, fir, whether one Nym, fir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain, or no. Fal. I fpake with the old woman about it. Fal. Marry, the fays, that the very fame man, that beguil❜d mafter Slender of his chain, cozen'd him of it. Simp. I would I could have spoken with the wo Bohemian-Tartar-] The French call a Bohemian what we call a Gypfey; but I believe the Hoft means nothing more than, by a wild appellation, to infinuate that Simple makes a strange appearance. JOHNSON. In Germany, there were several companies of vagabonds, &c. called Tartars and Zigens. "These were the fame in my opinion,' fays Mezeray, "as those the French call Bohemians, and the English Gypfies." Bulteel's Tranflation of Mezeray's Hiftory of France, under the year 1417. TOLLET. 9 muffel-fhell;] He calls poor Simple muffel-fhell, because he stands with his mouth open. JOHNSON. man |