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Enter Doctor CAIUS.2

Caius. Vat is you fing? I do not like defe toys; Pray you, go and vetch me in my clofet un boitier verd; 3 a box, a green-a box; Do intend vat 1 fpeak? a green-a box. Quick. Ay, forfooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad he went not in himfelf: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad.

[Afide. Caius. Fe, fe fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la Cour, la grande affaire.

Quick. Is it this, fir?

Caius. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Depeche, quickly :Vere is dat knave Rugby?

Quick. What, John Rugby! John!

Rug. Here, fir.

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de

court.

Rug. 'Tis ready, fir, here in the porch.

Cains. By my trot, I tarry too long:- -Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublié ? dere is fome fimples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I fhall leave behind.

Quick. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

clofet?-Villainy!

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my larron! [Pulling Simple out.] Rugby, my rapier.

Quick.

2 It has been thought strange, that our author fhould take the name of Caius [an eminent phyfician who flourished in the reign of Elizabeth, and founder of Caius College in our univerfity] for his Frenchman in this comedy; but Shakspeare was little acquainted with literary hiftory; and without doubt, from this unusual name, fuppofed him to have been a foreign quack. Add to this, that the doctor was handed down as a kind of Roficrucian: Mr. Ames had in MS. one of the Secret Writings of Dr. Caius." FARMER.

This character of Dr. Caius might have been drawn from the life; as in Jacke of Dower's Queft of Enquirie, 1604, (perhaps a republication,) a ftory called The Foole of Windfor begins thus: Upon a time there was in Windfor a certain fimple outlandishe doctor of Phificke belonging to the deane," &c. STEEVENS.

3 Boitier in French fignifies a cafe of furgeon's inftruments. GREY. I believe it rather means a box of falve, or cafe to hold fimples, for which Caius profeiles to feek. STEEVENS.

Quick. Good master, be content.

Caius. Verefore fhall I be content-a?

Quick. The young man is an honeft man.

Caius. Vat fhall de honeft man do in my closet? dere is no honeft man dat shall come in my closet.

Quick. I beseech you, be not fo flegmatick; hear the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from parfon Hugh. Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forfooth, to defire her to

Quick. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue :-Speak-a your tale.

Sim. To defire this honeft gentlewoman, your maid, to fpeak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my mafter, in the way of marriage.

Quick. This is all, indeed, la; but I'll ne'er put my finger in the fire, and need not.

Caius. Sir Hugh fend-a you?-Rugby, baillez me fome paper: Tarry you a little-a while.

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Quick. I am glad he is fo quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you should have heard him fo loud, and fo melancholy; But notwithstanding, man, I'll do your mafter what good I can and the very yea and the no is, the French Doctor, my master,-I may call him my mater, look you, for I keep his houfe; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, feuur, drefs meat and drink,+ make the beds, and do all myself ;Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand. Quick. Are you avis'd o' that? you fhall find it a great charge and to be up early, and down late; -but notwithftanding, (to tell you in your ear; I would have no words of it ;) my mafter himself is in love with mistress Anne Page: but notwithstanding that,-I know Anne's mind,-that's neither here nor there.

Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to Sir Hugh; by gar, it is a fhallenge: I vill cut his troat in de park; and I vill teach a fcurvy jack-a-nape prieft to meddle or make-you may be gone, it is not good you tarry here:

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4 Dr. Warburton thought the word drink ought to be expunged; but by drink Dame Quickly might have intended potage and foup, of which her mafter may be fuppofed to have been as fond as the rest of his countymin. MALONE.

by gar, I vill cut all his two ftones; by gar, he shall not have a ftone to trow at his dog. [Exit SIMPLE. Caius. It is no matter-a for dat :-do not you tell-a me dat I fhall have Anne Page for myfelf?-by gar, I vill kill de Jack prieft; and I have appointed mine hoft of de Farterre to measure our weapon: by gar, I vill myself have Anne Page.

Quick. Alas, he fpeaks but for his friend.

Quick. Sir, the maid loves you, and all fhall be well: we muft give folks leave to prate: What, the good-jer!"

Caius. Rugby, come to the court vit me ;-By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I fhall turn your head out of my door: -Follow my heels, Rugby. [Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY.

Quick. You fhall have An fools-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windfor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven.

Fent. [Within.] Who's within there, ho?

Quick. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray you.

Enter FENTON.

Fent. How now, good woman; how doft thou? Quick. The better, that it pleases your good worship to alk.

Fent. What news? how does pretty mistress Anne?

Quick. In truth, fir, and fhe is pretty, and honeft, and gentle and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praise heaven for it.

Fent.

sfack in our author's time was a term of contempt: So, faucy Jack, &c. MALONE.

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6 She means to fay- the goujere, i. e. morbus Gallicus."

Mrs. Quickly fcarcely ever pronounces a hard word rightly. Gol-jer and Good-year were in our author's time common corruptions of gcujere; and in the books of that age the word is as often written one way as the other: MALONE.

7 Mrs. Quickly, I believe, intends a quibble between ann, founded broad, and one, which was formerly fometimes pronounced on, or with nearly the fame found. In the Scottish dialect one is written, and I fup. pofe pronounced, ane. In 1630, was published "Ane verie excellent and delectable Treatise, intitulit Pbilotus." &c. MALONE.

Fent. Shall I do any good, thinksft thou? Shall I not lofe my fuit?

Quick. Troth, fir, all is in his hands above: but notwithftanding, mafter Fenton, I'll be fworn on a book, she loves you :-Have not your worship a wart above your eye? Fent. Yes, marry, have 1; what of that?

Quick. Well, thereby hangs a tale;-good faith, it is fuch another Nan ;-but, I deteft, an honeft maid as ever broke bread :-We had an hour's talk of that wart;-I fhall never laugh but in that maid's company!-But, indeed, she is given too much to allicholly and mufing: But for youWell, go to.

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Fent. Well, I fhall fee her to-day: Hold, there's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: If thou feeft her before me, commend me

Quick. Will I? i'faith, that we will: and I will tell your worship more of the wart, the next time we have confidence ; and of other wooers.

Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great hafte now.

[Exit. Quick. Farewell to your worship.-Truly, an honeft gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does :-Out upon't! what have I forgot?1

ACT II. SCENE I.

Before Page's House.

Enter Mistress PAGE, with a letter.

[Exit.

Mrs. Page. What! have I 'fcaped love-letters in the holyday time of my beauty, and am Í now a subject for them? Let me fee:

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8 She means- proteft MALONE. The fame intended miftake occurs in Measure for Measure, A&t II. fc. i: My wife, fir, whom I deteft before heaven and your honour," &c. STEEVENS.

9 And yet, in a former part of this very fcene, Mrs. Quickly is made to utter the word-melancholy, without the leaft corruption of it.

STEEVENS.

2 This excufe for leaving the ftage, is rather too near Dr. Caius's "Od's me! qu'ay j'oublié ?" in the former part of the scene.

STLEVENS.

Afk me no reason why I love you; for though love ufe reason for his precifian, he admits him not for his counsellor :3 You are not young, no more am I go to then, there's fympathy: you are merry, fo am 1; Ha! ha! then there's more fympathy: love fack, and fo do I; Would you defire better sympathy? Let it fuffice thee, miftrefs Page, (at the leaft, if the love of a foldier can fuffice,) that I love thee. I will not fay, pity me, tis not a foldier-like phrafe; but I fay, love me. By me, Thine own true knight,

you

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By day or night,
Or any kind of light,
With all his might,
For thee to fight,

John Falftaff,

What a Herod of Jewry is this?-O wicked, wicked world!-one that is well nigh worn to pieces with age, to fhow himself a young gallant! What an unweigh'd behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard 4 pick'd (with the devil's name) out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner affay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company!-What

fhould

3. This is obfcure: but the meaning is, though love permit reafon to tell what is fit to be done, be feldom fellows its advice.-By precifian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and sanctity. On which account they gave this name to the puritans of that time.

WARBURTON.

Of this word I do not fee any meaning that is very appofite to the prefent intention. Perhaps Falstaff faid, Though love ufe reafon as bis phyfician, be admits bint not for his cou fellor. This will be plain fenfe. Ak not the reafon of my love; the butinefs of reafon is not to affift love, but to cure it. There may however be this meaning in the prefent reading. Though love, when he would fubmit to regulation, may use reafon as bis precian, or director in nice cafes, yet when he is only eager to attain his end, he takes not reafon for bis counfelter. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon wishes to read phyfician; and this conjecture becomes almoft a certainty from a tine in our author's 147th fonnet:

"My reason the phyfician to my love," &c. FARMER.

The character of a precifian feems to have been very generally ridiculed in the time of Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

If physician be the right reading, the meaning may be this: A lover uncertain as yet of fuccefs, never takes reafon for his counsellor, but, when defperate, applies to him as his phyfician. MUSGRAVE.

4 It is not without reafon that this term of reproach is here ufed."

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