Fal. Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her hufband's purfe; the hath legions of angels.

Pift. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, fay I. Nym. The humour rifes; it is good: humour me the angels.

Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her and here another to Page's wife; who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with moft judicious eyliads: fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, fometimes my portly belly.

Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill fhine.

Nym. I thank thee for that humour."

Fal. O, fhe did fo courfe o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did feem to feorch me up like a burning glass! Here's another letter to her: the bears the purfe too; fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty, I will be cheater to them both, and they fhall

8

with the first copy," he hath ftudied her well."And from this equivocal word, Nym catches the idea of deepness. But it is almoft impoffible to afcertain the diction of this whimsical character: and I meet with a phrase in Fenner's Comptor's Commonwealth, 1617, which may perhaps fupport the old reading: Mafter Decker's Bellman of London, hath fet forth the vices of the time fo lively, that it is impoffible the anchor of any other man's braine could found the fea of a more deepe and dreadful mifcheefe."

FARMER. Nym, I believe, only means to fay, the scheme for debauching Ford's wife is deep; well laid. MALONE.

5 i. e. do you retain in your fervice as many devils as the has angels. MALONI

6

that humour.] What diftinguishes the language of Nym from that of the other attendants on Falstaff, is the conftant repetition of this phrafe. In the time of Shakspeare fuch an affectation seems to have been fufficient to mark a character. STLEVENS.

7 i. e. eagerness of defire. STEEVENS,

If the tradition be true (as I doubt not but it is) of this play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's command, this paffage, perhaps, may furnish a probable conjecture that it could not appear till after the year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately discovered to the English, was a very happy compliment to fir Walter Raleigh, who did not begin his expedition for South America till 1595, and returned from it in 1596, with an advantageous account of the great wealth of Guiana. Such an addrefs of the poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper impreffion on the people, when the intelligence of fuch a golden country was fresh in their minds, and gave them expectations of immense gain. THEOBALD,

shall be exchequers to me ;9 they fhall be my Eaft and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pift. Shall I fir Pandarus of Troy become,

And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer take all !

Nym. I will run no bafe humour: here, take the humour letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputation.

Fal. Hold, firrah, [to ROB.] bear you these letters tightly;" Sail like my pinnace 3 to thefe golden fhores.Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o'the hoof; feek fhelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of this age,

French thrift, you rogues; myself, and fkirted page.

[Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN. Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd, and fullam holds,

And high and low beguile the rich and poor :5

Tefter

9 The fame joke is intended here, as in The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, A&t II:

"I will bar no honeft man my houfe, nor no cheater.”— By which is meant Efcheatour, an officer in the Exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. WARBURTON.

2 i. e. cleverly, adroitly. MALONE.

No phrafe is fo common in the eastern counties of this kingdom, and particularly in Suffolk, as good tightly, for brifkly and effectually.

HENLEY. 3 A pinnace seems anciently to have fignified a small veffel, òr floop, 'attending on a larger. STEEVENS.

A pinnace is a small veffel with a fquare ftern, having fails and oars, and carrying three mafts; chiefly ufed (fays Rolt, in his Dictionary of Commerce,) as a Scout for intelligence, and for landing of men. MALONE.

This hemiftitch is a burlesque on a paffage in Tamburlaine, or The Scythian Shepherd. STEEVENS.

:

s Fullam is a cant term for falfe dice, bigh and low. Torriano, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Pife by falfe dice, bigh and low men, bigh fullams and low fullams. WARBURTON.

In The London Prodigal I find the following enumeration of falfe dice."I bequeath two bale of falfe dice, videlicet, bigh men and low men, fulloms, ftop cater-traies, and other bones of function." STEEVENS.

Gourds were probably dice in which a fecret cavity had been made; fullams, thofe which had been loaded with a small bit of lead. High men and low men, which were likewife cant terms, explain themfelves. High

numbers

Tefter I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack,

Bafe Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge.

Pit. Wilt thou revenge?

Nym. By welkin, and her star!

Pift. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will difcufs the humour of this love to Page.
Pift. And I to Ford fhall eke unfold,

How Falftaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,

And his foft couch defile.

Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incenfe Page to deal with poifon; I will poffefs him with yellowness,7 for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour. Pift. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I fecond thee; troop on. [Exeunt.

Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY.? Quick. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go to the cafement, and fee if you can fee my master, mafter Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the

numbers on the dice, at hazard, are from five to twelve, inclufive; low, from aces to four. MALONE.

High and low men were falfe dice, which, being chiefly made at Fulham, were thence called "high and low Fulhams." The high Fulhams were the numbers, 4, 5, and 6.

DOUCE.

6 To incenfe has the fame meaning as to inftigate. STEEVENS. 7 Yellowness is jealoufy. JOHNSON.

8 The revolt of mine is the old reading. Revolt of mein, is change if countenance, one of the effects he has just been afcribing to jealousy.

STEEVENS.

This, Mr. Steevens truly obferves to be the old, reading, and it is authority enough for the revolt of mein in modern orthography. Know you that fellow that walketh there? fays Eliot, 1593-he is an alchymift by his mine, and hath multiplied al! to moonshine." FARMER.

9 This domeftic of Dr. Caius received his name from a town in Warwickshire. STEEVENS.

VOL. I.

K

houfe,

house, here will be an old abufing of God's patience, and the king's English.

Rug. I'll go watch.

[Exit RUGBY, Quick. Go; and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate:' his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is fomething peevish that way:4 but nobody but has his fault ;—but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay your name is? Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quick. And master Slender's your master?
Sim. Ay, forfooth.

Quick. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife?

Sim. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee face, 5 with a little yellow beard; a Cain-colour'd beard."

2 That is, when my mafter is in bed. JOHNSON.

Quick.

3 Bate is an obfolete word, fignifying ftrife, contention. STEEVENS, 4 Peevifh is foolish.

STEEVENS.

I believe, this is one of dame Quickly's blunders, and that she means recife. MALONE.

s' Wee, in the northern dialect, fignifies very little. Thus, in the Scottish proverb that apologizes for a little woman's marriage with a big man: "A wee mouse will creep under a mickle cornstack."

COLLINS.

Little wee implies fomething extremely diminutive, and is a very common vulgar idiom in the north. Wee alone, has only the fignification of little. Thus Cleveland:

"A Yorkshire wee bit, longer than a mile."

The proverb is a mile and a wee bit ; about a league and a half.

RITSON.

Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were reprefented with yellow beards. THEOBALD.

In an age, when but a fmall part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from reprefentations in painting or tapetry. A cane-colour'd beard however, [the reading of the quarto,] might fignify. a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a fickly yellow; for fraw-coloured beards are mentioned in A Midsummer Night's Dream. STEEVENS. The words of the quarto, a whey-colour'd beard, ftrongly favour this reading; for whey and cane are nearly of the fame colour. MALONE. The new edition of Leland's Collectanea, Vol. V. p. 295, afferts, that Painters conftantly reprefented Judas the traytor with a red bead. Dr.

Plot's

Quick. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not?

Sim. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands," as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a

warrener.

Quick. How fay you?-O, I fhould remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and ftrut in his gait?

Sim. Yes, indeed, does he.

Quick. Well, heaven fend Anne Page no worfe fortune! Tell master parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your mafter: Anne is a good girl, and I wish

Re-enter RUGBY.

Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master.

Quick. We fhall all be fhent: 8 Run in here, good young man; go into this clofet. [Shuts Simple in the clafet.] He will not ftay long.What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I fay!-Go, John, go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home:- and down, down, adown-a, &c. [fings. Plot's Oxfordshire, p. 153, fays the fame. This conceit is thought to have arifen in England, from our ancient grudge to the red-haired Danes.

TOLLET.

7 Perhaps this is an allufion to the jockey meafure, fo many bands high, ufed by grooms when fpeaking of horfes. Tall, in our author's time, fignified not only height of ftature, but ftoutnefs of body. The ambiguity of the phrafe feems intended. PERCY.

The tall man of the old dramatic writers, was a man of a bold, intrepid difpofition, and inclined to quarrel; fuch as is defcribed by Steevens in the fecond fcene of the third act of this play. M. MASON.

"A tall man of his hands" fometimes meant quick-handed, active; and as Simple is here commending his matter for his gymnaftick abilities, perhaps the phrafe is here used in that fenfe. "Nimble or quick-handed; a tall man of his hands." MALONE.

i. e. Scolded, roughly treated. STEEVENS.

9 To deceive her mafter, fhe fings as if at her work. SIR J. HAWKINS. This appears to have been the burden of some fong then well known. In Every Woman in ber Humour, 1609, fign. E 1. one of the characters fays, "Hey good boies! i'faith now a three man's fong, or the old downe adowne well things must be as they may; fil's the other quart: muskadine with an egge is fine, there's a time for all things, bonos nochios."