APPENDIX III. ON THE CONFUSION OF TIME IN THE MERRY WIVES. hard BY R. GRANT WHITE, ESQ. (Reprinted from his Shakespeare, ii. 200-2.) ... in the perfected play, and also in the early Quarto, Page asks the whole party that comes in after the search for Falstaff, who has been carried out in the buck-basket, to go a birding with him "tomorrow." Now although that invitation was given at dinner-time (about eleven o'clock in Shakespeare's time, as this very comedy shows us) on the day of Falstaff's first visit to Mrs Ford, we shall see that, in both Quarto and Folio, he makes his second visit to Mrs Ford on the same day, and yet that Ford, having accepted Page's invitation, diverts his friends from their sport to interrupt Falstaff's interview with his wife, which, according to the Folio, took place between eight and nine o'clock in the morning. Shakespeare is sometimes forgetful of the limits of time; but he never openly disregards them, even when they are without importance as conditions of the plot. In this case, however, the very action of the play hinged upon punctuality; and in the perfected play, he skilfully concealed an error, to eradicate which would have cost more labor than he cared to bestow. For in the Quarto we see Falstaff come puffing in from his involuntary bath immediately after the conversation at Ford's which follows the unsuccessful search, and this is the natural succession of events. Now it is remarkable that it is in this very Scene (III. v.), in both Quarto and Folio, that Mrs Quickly enters with the appointment for the second interview with Mrs Ford, and also that it is from the interview in this very Scene with Master Brook, who treads on Mrs Quickly's heels1, that, both in Quarto and Folio, Falstaff hastens to keep that appointment, lest he should be too late. In both Quarto and Folio, too, Ford follows Falstaff immediately, and meeting his men with the buck-basket at the door, stays them, assuring his friends that somebody was carried out in it "yesterday." But in the Folio the interview between Fenton and Anne Page, upon which Shallow and Slender, and, finally, Page and his wife, intrude, is made to precede Falstaff's second interviews with Master Brook and Mrs Quickly, instead of following them, as in the Quarto,-thus serving the double purpose of prolonging the apparent time, and of obscuring the memory of the former events by the intrusion of a new interest, and so at once promoting a desirable forgetfulness and affording relief to Falstaff's humor. More than this :-in the Folio we have the Scene of the Pedagogue introduced for the purpose of farther separating the Scene in which Falstaff receives his second invitation from the entertainment to which he is invited. Dr Johnson thought this not only "a very trifling Scene," but "of no use to the plot." It is not surprising that he failed to appreciate its characteristic humor; but before he condemned it as valueless, should he not have examined a little more closely into the need of it? The result of these two manoeuvres is, that in the perfected play the important incongruity ceases to be palpable. The intention of the author is still farther apparent in a change of the day named by Mrs Quickly for the second meeting, and of two hours in the time appointed. In the Quarto, where the Scene of the buck-basket is followed immediately by that in which the second invitation is given, it is for "to-morrow between ten and eleven"; but in the Folio, where those Scenes are widely separated, it is for "this morning" and "between eight and nine"; and yet, in both Quarto and Folio, Mrs Quickly's second visit is made on the same day-that of the buckbasket;-for Falstaff of course got home from Dachet Mead as fast as his fat legs would carry him, and he hardly gets his breath before Mrs Quickly enters. In the Quarto, also, Page asks the disappointed Ford and his friends "to dinner" on the next day, adding "in the The "night" (II. ii. 296) on which Brook was to come to Falstaff cannot be got into Act III. sc. v. even by supposing that Falstaff sat up all night.-F. morning we'll a birding "; but in the Folio he invites them "to breakfast" and says "after we'll a birding." Though this confusion was important enough to Shakespeare the playwright thus to conceal it, how insignificant the error is to us in comparison with its value as furnishing evidence of the haste with which the play was written, and of the labor bestowed upon it to bring it to its present state, and as adding strong confirmation to the testimony of tradition that The Merry Wives of Windsor is Queen Elizabeth's comedy. 'brag': vb. (& brag, adj. proud; jay, sb.) Venus, 113, &c. " Ornatu alterius induitur. He hath gotten on him an other mans cloaths. The iangling Gay is bragge of the peacock's feathers. For we may vse this as a proverbe, against such as bragge of that which is none of their owne."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 109, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). by: (as in 'by-paths,' 2 Hen. IV., IV. v. 185). "And now they faine betwixt themselues an odde by peece of craft, that this Glycerie is a freeborne woman of Athens."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 19, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'carbonado': sb. 1 Hen. IV., V. iii. 61. "Incarbonare, to broile vpon the coales, to make a carbonado. Incarbonata, a carbonado of broyled meate, a rasher on the coales."-1598; Florio. 'casual': Hamlet, V. ii. 393. "But hoe Syr, see to it .. if such a thing as this is, shall perchance befall to him at any time: as humane things are casuall. [Si quid huius simile, fortè aliquando evenerit, Vt sunt humana.]"-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 226, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'changeling': Mids. N. Dr., IV. i. 64. "Puer supponitur. It's a changeling or counterfait child."—R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 112, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'coil': Tempest, I. ii. 207, &c. "Faire le diable de Vauvert. To keepe an old coyle, horrible bustling, terrible swaggering: to play monstrous reakes, or raks-iakes."-Cotgrave, u. Diable. 'controlment': 'without controlment,' M. Ado, I. iii. 21 (Titus, II. i. 68). "Impune hoc facit, He doth this without controlment. Thers no fault found with him, or, he is not punished for this he doth."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 101, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'drown': Tempest, V. i. 207-8. "Qui a à pendre, n'a pas à noyer: Prov. Hee thats borne to be hanged, needs feare no drowning."-1611; Cotgrave. 'excellent': adj. excelling. "Mulier egregiâ formâ & integrâ ætáte. A woman of excellent beautie, and in her best life, or flowre of her age, nothing broken."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 12, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'familiarity': All's Well, V. ii. 3. "he, that vppon small acquaintance and familiaritie, takes this womans death so to heart, what if he had loued her himselfe ?"-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 10, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598) (familiarly, p. 11). 'fleer at': Much Ado, V. i. 58. "shall we suffer him to get away so much money from vs, to fleere and geere at vs in euery corner? I'll die first."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 449, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'fustian': adj. Tw. N., II. v. 119. "Monelle, a roguish or fustian word, a word in pedlers French, signifying wenches, strumpets or whores."-1598; Florio. 'galled': adj. Hamlet, III. ii. 253. "Pelato, puld, pluckt the feathers off, skalded or singed as a hog, vnskinned, puld off the haire or skinne, galled, pilled, pared, or prouled."-1598; Florio. 'hand': 'out of hand.' 3 Hen. VI., IV. vii. 63. "Stay a little if you will: the maidens brother will he here out of hand [he went to fetch the nurse]."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 174, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'hang': 'go hang yourselves.' Tw. N., Shrew. "Get thee away quickly, and goe hang thy selfe."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 24, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'have with you': 'I'll go with you.' My. Wives, II. i. 161, &c. &c. "In quovis tibi loco parâtus sum. I am readie for you in any place: put but vp the finger where you will, and haue with you."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 78, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'heels': 'take my heels.' Err., I. ii. 94. Marrie, I would very gladly you had a sling, that you might from this place secretly hurle at them aloofe, till they take their heeles."-R. Bernard's Terence in English, p. 167, ed. 1607 (1st ed. 1598). 'hugger-mugger, in': Hamlet, IV. v. 84. "Sous la courtine. Secretly, closely, priuately, vnderhand, in corners, in hugger-mugger."-1611; Cotgrave. (And see Wheatley's Dict. of Reduplicated Words, Philolog. Soc. Trans., 1865.) 'impasted': Hamlet, II. ii. 481. raied with dirte."-1548, ed. 1567. mar. "Ital. Impastato, impasted or Wm Thomas. Italian Gram AIŁMIL AN AVNCIENT Hiftorie and exquifite Chronicle of the Romanes warres, both Ciuile and Foren. Written in Greeke by the noble Orator and Hifto- Traiane and Adriane. In the which is declared: Their greedy defire to conquere others. Their feeking of matters to make warre abroade. Their picking of quarels to fall out at home. All the degrees of Sedition, and all the effects of Ambition. of Fortune. And finally, an euident demonftration, That peoples With a continuation1 bicause that parte |