my purfe; I am yet thy debtor.- Boy, go along with this woman. This news diftracts me!

Exeunt QUICKLY and ROBIN,

Pit. This punk is one of Cupid's carriers :-5 Clap on more fails; purfue, up with your fights; Give fire; fhe is my prize, or ocean whelm them all! Exit PISTOL.

Fal. Say'ft thou fo, old Jack? go thy ways; I'll make more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look after thee? Wilt thou, after the expence of fo much money, be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee: Let them fay, 'tis grofsly done; fo it be fairly done, no matter.

Enter BARDOLPH.

Bard. Sir John, there's one mafter Brook below would fain 5 Punk is a plausible reading, yet abfurd on examination. For are not all punks Cupid's carriers? Shakspeare certainly wrote:

This PINK is one of Cupid's carriers:

And then the fenfe is proper, and the metaphor, which is all the way taken from the marine, entire. A pink is a veffel of the fmall craft, employed as a carrier (and so called) for merchants. Fletcher ufes the word in his Tamer Tamed:

"This PINK, this painted foift, this cockle-boat.

WARBURTON.

So, in The Ladies' Privilege, 1640: "Thefe gentlemen know better to cut a caper than a cable, or board a pink in the bordells, than a pinnace at fea." A fmall falmon is called a falmon pink.

Dr. Farmer, however, obferves, that the word punk has been unneceffarily altered to pink. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, juftice Overdo fays of the pig-woman; "She hath been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two and twenty years." STEEVENS.

6 The word fights, was then, and, for aught I know, may be now, a common fea-term. Sir Richard Hawkins in his Voyages, p. 66, says:

For once we cleared her deck; and had we been able to have spared but a dozen men, doubtlefs we had done with her what we would; for the had no clofe FIGHTS," i. e. if I understand it right, no small arms. So that by fights is meant any manner of defence, either small arms or cannon. So, Dryden, in his tragedy of Amboyna :

Up with your FIGHTS,

"And your nettings prepare," &c. WARBURTON.

The quotation from Dryden might at least have raised a suspicion that fights were neither fmall arms, nor cannon. Fights and nettings are properly joined. Fights, I find, are cloaths hung round the ship to conceal the men from the enemy; and cafe fights are bulk-beads, or any other shelter that the fabrick of a fhip affords. JoHNSON.

fain fpeak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath fent your worship a morning's draught of fack.*

Fal. Brook, is his name?

Bard. Ay, fir.

Fal. Call him in; [Exit BARDOLPH.] Such Brooks are welcome to me, that o'erflow fuch liquor. Ah! ha! mistress Ford and miftrefs Page, have I encompafs'd you? go to;

via !3

Re-enter BARDOLPH, with FORD difguifed.

Ford. Blefs you, fir.

Fal. And you, fir: Would you speak with me?
Ford. I make bold, to prefs with fo little preparation upon

you.

Fal. You're welcome; What's your will? Give us leave, drawer. [Exit BARDOLPH, Ford Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name is Brook.

Fal. Good mafter Brook, I defire more acquaintance of

you.

Ford. Good fir John, I fue for yours: not to charge you ; for I muft let you understand, I think myfelf in better plight for a lender than you are: the which hath fomething embolden'd me to this unfeafon'd intrufion; for they fay, if money go before, all ways do lie open.

2 It feems to have been a common custom at taverns, in our author's time, to fend prefents of wine from one room to another, either as a memorial of friendship, or (as in the prefent inftance) by way of introduction to acquaintance. Of the exiftence of this practice the following anecdote of Ben Jonfon and the ingenious Bishop Corbet furnishes a proof. "Ben Jonfon was at a tavern, and in comes Bishop Corbet (but not fo then) into the next room. Ben Jonfon calls for a quart of raw wine, and gives it to the tapfter. Sirrah, fays he, carry this to the gentleman in the next chamber, and tell him, I facrifice my service to him. The fellow did, and in thofe words. Friend, fays Dr. Corbet, I thank him for his love; but 'pr'ythee tell him from me that he is mistaken; for facrifices are always burnt." Merry Passages and Jeafts, MSS. Harl. 6395. MALONE.

3 Markham ufes this word as one of the vocal helps neceffary for reviving a horfe's fpirit, in galloping large rings, when he grows flothful, Hence this cant phrafe (perhaps from the Italian, via) may be used on other occafions to quicken the pulfe or courage. TOLLET.

4 That is, not with a purpose of putting you to expence, or being bur. thenfome. JOHNSON.

VOL. I.

L

Fal.

Fal. Money is a good foldier, fir, and will on.

Ford. Troth, and I have a bag of money here troubles me: if you will help me to bear it, fir John, take all, or half, for eafing me of the carriage.

Fal. Sir, I know not how I may deferve to be your porter. Ford. I will tell you, fir, if you will give me the hearing. Fal. Speak, good mafter Brook; I fhall be glad to be your fervant.

Ford. Sir, I hear you are a scholar,-I will be brief with you; and you have been a man long known to me, though I had never fo good means, as defire, to make myself acquainted with you. I fhall difcover a thing to you, wherein I muft very much lay open mine own imperfection: but, good fir John, as you have one eye upon my follies, as you hear them unfolded, turn another into the register of your own; that I may pafs with a reproof the eafter, fith yourfelf know, how eafy it is to be fuch an offender.

Fal. Very well, fir; proceed.

you

Ford. There is a gentlewoman in this town, her husband's naine is Ford.

Fal. Well, fir.

Ford. I have long loved her, and, I proteft to you, beftow'd much on her; follow'd her with a doting obfervance ; engrofs'd opportunities to meet her; fee'd every flight occafion, that could but niggardly give me fight of her; not only bought many prefents to give her, but have given largely to many, to know what the would have given: briefly, I have purfued her, as love hath pursued me; which hath been, on the wing of all occafions. But whatfoever I have merited, either in my mind, or in my means, meed, I am fure, I have received none; unlefs experience be a jewel: that I have purchased at an infinite rate; and that hath taught me to say this:

Love like a fhadow flies, when fubftance love purfues;
Purfuing that that flies, and flying what purfues.

Fal. Have you received no promise of satisfaction at her hands?

Ford. Never.

Fal. Have you importuned her to fuch a purpose?
Ford. Never.

"Sequentem jugit, fugientem sequiti

Fal. Of what quality was your love then?

Ford. Like a fair houfe, built upon another man's ground; fo that I have loft my edifice, by miftaking the place where I erected it.

Fal. To what purpose have you unfolded this to me?

Ford. When I have told you that, I have told you all. Some fay, that, though the appear honeft to me, yet, in other places, the enlargeth her mirth fo far, that there is fhrewd conftruction made of her. Now, fir John, here is the heart of my purpofe: You are a gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable difcourfe, of great admittance, authentick in your place and perfon, generally allowed for your many war like, court-like, and learned preparations.

Fal. O, fir!

Ford. Believe it, for you know it:-There is money; fpend it, fpend it; fpend more; fpend all I have; only give me fo much of your time in exchange of it, as to lay an amiable fiege to the honefty of this Ford's wife: ufe your art of wooing, win her to confent to you; if any man may, you may as foon as any.

Fal. Would it apply well to the vehemency of your affec tion, that I fhould win what you would enjoy? Methinks, you prefcribe to yourself very prepofterously.

8

Ford. O, understand my drift! fhe dwells fo fecurely on the excellency of her honour, that the folly of my foul dares not prefent itself; fhe is too bright to be look'd against. Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, my defires had inftance and argument to commend themfelves; I could drive her then from the ward of her purity," her reputation, her marriage vow, and a thousand other her defences, which now are too ftrongly embattled against me: What fay you to't, fir John?

L 2

Si. e. admitted into all, or the greatest companies. STEEVENS. 6 Allowed is approved. STEEVENS.

7 i. e. a fiege of love. MALONE.

8

Inftance is example. JOHNSON.

9 i. e. The defence of it. STEEVENS.

Fal.

What Ford means to fay is, that if he could once detect her in a crime, he fhould then be able to drive her from thofe defences with which he would otherwife ward off his addreffes, fuch as her purity, her reputation, her marriage vow, &c. M. MASON.

Fal. Mafter Brook, I will first make bold with your money; next, give me your hand; and laft, as I am a gentleman, you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife.

Ford. O good fir!

Fal. Mafter Brook, I fay you fhall.

Ford. Want no money, fir John, you shall want none. Fal. Want no miftrefs Ford, mafter Brook, you shall want none. I fhall be with her (I may tell you,) by her own appointment; even as you came in to me, her affiftant, or gobetween, parted from me: I fay, I fhall be with her between ten and eleven; for at that time the jealous rafcally knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at night; you fhall know how I fpeed.

Ford. I am bleft in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford, fir?

Fal. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave! I know him not-yet I wrong him, to call him poor; they say, the jealous wittolly knave hath masses of money; for the which his wife feems to me well-favour'd. I will ufe her as the key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer; and there my harvesthome.

Ford. I would you knew Ford, fir; that you might avoid him, if you faw him.

Fal. Hang him, mechanical falt-butter rogue! I will stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel: it fhall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns: mafter Brook, thou fhalt know, I will predominate over the peasant, and thou shalt lie with his wife. -Come to me foon at night-Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his ftile; 2 thou, mafter Brook, fhalt know him for knave and cuckold :— come to me foon at night. [Exit.

Ford. What a damn'd Epicurean rafcal is this!-My heart is ready to crack with impatience.-Who fays, this is improvident jealoufy? My wife hath fent to him, the hour is fixed, the match is made. Would any man have thought this?-See the hell of having a falfe woman! my bed shall be abused, my coffers ranfacked, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall not only receive this villainous wrong, but stand under

2 Stile is a phrafe from the Herald's office. Falstaff means, that be will add more titles those be already enjoys. STEEVENS.