sake you have suffered all this. My suit then is desperate; you'll undertake her no more?

FAL. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, as I have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus. Her husband is this morning gone a birding: I have received from her another embassy of meeting; 'twixt eight and nine is the hour, master Brook.

FORD. 'Tis past eight already, sir.

FAL. Is it? I will then address me to my appointment. Come to me at your convenient leisure, and you shall know how I speed; and the conclusion shall be crowned with your enjoying her: Adieu. You shall have her, master Brook; master Brook, you shall cuckold Ford. [Exit.

FORD. Hum! ha! is this a vision? is this a dream? do I sleep? Master Ford, awake; awake, master Ford; there's a hole made in your best coat, master Ford. This 'tis to be married! this 'tis to have linen, and buck-baskets!-Well, I will proclaim myself what I am: I will now take the lecher; he is at my house: he cannot 'scape me; 'tis impossible he should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse, nor into a pepper-box: but, lest the devil that guides him should aid him, I will search impossible places. Though what I am I cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not, shall not make me tame: if I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb go with me, I'll be horn mad '.

[Exit.

9 address me-] i. e. make myself ready. So, in King. Henry V.:

"To-morrow for our march we are addrest."

Again, in Macbeth :

"But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
"Again to sleep."

STEEVENS.

I'll be HORN MAD.] There is no image which our author

ACT IV. SCENE I2.

The Street.

Enter Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. QUICKLY, and WILLIAM. MRS. PAGE. Is he at master Ford's already, think'st thou ?

QUICK. Sure, he is by this; or will be presently: but truly, he is very courageous mad, about his throwing into the water. Mistress Ford desires you to come suddenly.

Mrs. PAGE. I'll be with her by and by; I'll but bring my young man here to school: Look, where his master comes; 'tis a playing-day, I see.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS.

How now, sir Hugh? no school to-day?

EVA. No; master Slender is let the boys leave to play.

QUICK. Blessing of his heart!

appears so fond of, as that of cuckold's horns. Scarcely a light character is introduced that does not endeavour to produce merriment by some allusion to horned husbands. As he wrote his plays for the stage rather than the press, he perhaps reviewed them seldom and did not observe this repetition; or finding the jest, however frequent, still successful, did not think correction necessary. JOHNSON.

2 This is a very trifling scene, of no use to the plot, and I should think of no great delight to the audience; but Shakspeare best knew what would please. JOHNSON.

very entertaining Many of the old Marston has a

We may suppose this scene to have been a one to the audience for which it was written. plays exhibit pedants instructing their scholars. very long one in his What You Will, between a schoolmaster, and Holofernes, Nathaniel, &c. his pupils. The title of this play was perhaps borrowed by Shakspeare, to join to that of Twelfth Night. What You Will appeared in 1607. Twelfth Night was first printed in 1623. STEEVENS.

MRS. PAGE. Sir Hugh, my husband says, my son profits nothing in the world at his book; I pray you, ask him some questions in his accidence.

EVA. Come hither, William; hold up your head;

come.

MRS. PAGE. Come on, sirrah; hold up your head; answer your master, be not afraid.

EVA. William, how many numbers is in nouns ? WILL: TWO.

QUICK. Truly, I thought there had been one number more; because they say, od's nouns.

EVA. Peace your tatlings. What is fair, William? WILL. Pulcher.

QUICK. Pole-cats! there are fairer things than pole-cats, sure.

EVA. You are a very simplicity 'oman; I pray you, peace. What is lapis, William ?

WILL. A stone.

EVA. And what is a stone, William ?
WILL. A pebble.

EVA. No, it is lapis; I pray you remember in your prain.

WILL. Lapis.

EVA. That is good, William. What is he, William, that does lend articles?

WILL. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun; and be thus declined, Singulariter, nominativo, hic, hæc, hoc.

EVA. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog;-pray you, mark: genitivo, hujus: Well, what is your accusative case?

WILL. Accusativo, hinc.

EVA. I pray you, have your remembrance, child; Accusativo, hing, hang, hog.

QUICK. Hang hog is Latin for bacon, I warrant you.

EVA. Leave your prabbles, 'oman. What is the focative case, William ?

WILL. O-Vocativo, O.

EVA. Remember, William; focative is, caret. QUICK. And that's a good root.

EVA. 'Oman, forbear.

MRS. PAGE. Peace.

EVA. What is your genitive case plural, William ? WILL. Genitive case?

Eva. Ay.

WILL. Genitive,―horum, harum, horum*.

QUICK. 'Vengeance of Jenny's case! fie on her! -never name her, child, if she be a whore.

EVA. For shame, 'oman.

QUICK. You do ill to teach the child such words: he teaches him to hick and to hack, which they'll do fast enough of themselves; and to call horum, -fie upon you!

EVA. 'Oman, art thou lunatics? hast thou no understandings for thy cases, and the numbers of the genders? Thou art as foolish christian creatures as I would desires.

MRS. PAGE. Pr'ythee hold thy peace.

EVA. Shew me now, William, some declensions of your pronouns.

WILL. Forsooth, I have forgot.

Eva. It is ki, kæ, cod; if you forget your kies, your kas, and your cods, you must be preeches'. Go your ways, and play, go.

4

horum, harum, horum.] Taylor, the water-poet, has borrowed this jest, such as it is, in his character of a strumpet: "And comes to horum, harum, whorum, then

"She proves a great proficient among men." STEEVENS. 5 -to hick and to hack,] Sir William Blackstone thought, that this, in Dame Quickly's language, signifies "to stammer or hesitate, as boys do in saying their lessons;" but Mr. Steevens, with more probability, supposes that it signifies, in her dialect, to do mischief. MALONE.

6-your kies, your kæs, &c.] All this ribaldry is likewise found in Taylor, the water-poet. See fol. edit. p. 106.

STEEVENS.

MRS. PAGE. He is a better scholar, than I thought he was.

8

EVA. He is a good sprag memory. mistress Page.

MRS. PAGE. Adieu, good sir Hugh.

Farewell,

[Exit Sir

HUGH.] Get you home, boy.-Come, we stay too

long.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

A Room in FORD'S House.

Enter FALSTAFF and Mrs. FORD.

FAL. Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up my sufferance: I see, you are obsequious in your love, and I profess requital to a hair's breadth; not only, Mrs. Ford, in the simple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, complement, and ceremony of it. But are you sure of your husband now?

7 - you must be PREECHES.] Sir Hugh means to say-you must be breeched, i. e. flogged. To breech is to flog. So, in The Taming of the Shrew:

8

66

"I am no breeching scholar in the schools."

Again, in The Humorous Lieutenant, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Cry like a breech'd boy, not eat a bit." STEEVens. sprag-] I am told that this word is still used by the common people in the neighbourhood of Bath, where it signifies ready, alert, sprightly, and is pronounced as if it was writtensprack. STEEVENS.

A spackt lad or wench, says Ray, is apt to learn, ingenious.

REED.

This word is used by Tony Aston, the comedian, in his supplement to Colley Cibber's Life; "Mr. Dogget (he tells us,) was a little lively sprack man." MALONE.

9

- your SORROW hath eaten up my sufferance: I see, you are OBSEQUIOUs in your love.] So, in Hamlet:

66

for some term

"To do obsequious sorrow.”

The epithet obsequious refers, in both instances, to the seriousness with which obsequies, or funeral ceremonies, are per

formed. STEEVENS.