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The expreffure that it bears, green let it be,
More fertile-fresh than all the field to fee;
And, Hony Soit Qui Mal y Penfe, write,
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white;
Like faphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,3
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee:
Fairies ufe flowers for their charactery.4
Away; difperfe: But, till 'tis one o'clock,
Our dance of custom, round about the oak
Of Herne the hunter, let us not forget.

}

Eva. Pray you, lock hand in hand ;' yourselves in order set:

And

3 Thefe lines are most miferably corrupted. In the words- -Flowers purple, blue, and white-the purple is left uncompared. To remedy this, the editors, who seem to have been fenfible of the imperfection of the comparison, read—AND rich embroidery; that is, according to them, as the blue and white flowers are compared to faphire and pearl, the purple is compared to rich embroidery. Thus, inftead of mending one falfe ftep, they have made two, by bringing faphire, pearl, and rich embroidery under one predicament. Thefe lines were wrote thus by the poet:

"In emerald tufts, flowers purfled, blue, and white;
"Like Saphire, pearl, in rich embroidery."

i. e. let there be blue and white flowers worked on the greenfward, like
faphire and pearl in rich embroidery. To purfle, is to over-lay with tin-
fel, gold thread, &c. fo our ancestors called a certain lace of this kind of
work a purfling-la e. 'Tis from the French pourfiler. So Spenfer:
66 she was yclad,

All in a filken camus, lilly white,

"Purfled upon, with many a folded plight."

The change of and into in in the second verfe, is neceffary. For flowers worked, or purfled in the grafs, were not like faphire and pearl fimply,' but faphire and pearl in embroidery. How the corrupt reading and was introduced into the text, we have shown above. WARBURTON.

Whoever is convinced by Dr. Warburton's note, will fhow he has very littled ftudied the manner of his author, whofe fplendid incorrectness in this inftance, as in fome others, is furely preferable to the infipid regularity propofed in its room. STEEVENS.

4 For the matter with which they make letters. JOHNSON.

Bullokar, in his English Expofitor improved by R. Browne, 12mo. fays, that charactery is a writing by characters in ftrange marks." In 1588 was printed Charactery, an arte of thorte, fwift, and fecrete writing by character. Invented by Timothie Brighte, Doctor of Phifike." This feems to have been the first book upon fhort-hand writing printed in England. DouCE.

*5 The metre requires us to read➡➡!" lock hands.” STEEVENS.

And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanterns be,
To guide our measure round about the tree.
But, ftay; Ifmell a man of middle earth.

Fal. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy! left he transform me to a piece of cheese!

Pift. Vile worm, thou waft o'er-look'd even in thy birth. Quick. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end:

If he be chafte, the flame will back descend,

And turn him to no pain ; but if he start,

It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.

Pift. A trial, come.

Eva. Come, will this wood take fire?

Fal. Oh, oh, oh!

[They burn him with their tapers.

Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire!

About him, fairies; fing a scornful rhime:

And, as you trip, ftill pinch him to your time.

Eva. It is right; indeed he is full of lecheries and iniquity.

SONG. Fie on finful fantasy!

Fie on luft and luxury !2

Luft is but a bloody fire,3

Kindled with unchafte defire,

Fed in heart; whofe flames afpire,

As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
Pinch him, fairies, mutually;

Pinch him for his villainy ;

Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about,
'Till candles, and ftar-light, and moon-fhine be out.

During

• Spirits are fuppofed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under ground; men therefore are in a middle ftation. JOHNSON.

The author of THE REMARKS says, the phrafe fignifies neither more nor lefs, than the earth or world, from its imaginary fituation in the midft or middle of the Ptolemaic system, and has not the leaft reference to either fpirits or fairies. REED.

7 The old copy reads-vild, which was not an error of the prefs, but the old fpelling and the pronunciation of the time. MALONE.

8 i. e flighted as foon as born. STEEVENS.

9 This appears to have been the common phraseology of our author's time. MALONE.

2 Luxury is here used for incontinence. STEEVENS.

3 Abloody fire, means a fire in the bload. STEEVENS.

During this fong, the fairies pinch Falstaff. Doctor Caius comes one way, and fieals away a fairy in green; Slender another way, and takes off a fairy in white; and Fenton comes, and fteals away Mrs. Anne Page. A noife of hunting is made within. All the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his buck's head, and rifes.

Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs. FORD. They lay hold on him.

Page. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have watch'd you

now;

Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn?

Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up the jeft no higher :Now, good fir John, how like you Windfor wives? See you thefe, hufband? do not thefe fair yokes

Become the foreft better than the town ?4

Ford. Now, fir, who's a cuckold now ?-Master Brook, Falftaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, Mafter Brook: And, mafter Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing

of

4 Mrs. Page's meaning was this. Seeing the horns (the types of cuckoldom) in Falstaff's hand, she asks her husband, whether thofe yokes are not more proper in the foreft than in the town; i, e, than in his own family. THEOBALD.

The editor of the fecond folio changed yoaks to oaks. MALONE.

Perhaps only the printer of the fecond folio is to blame, for the omiffion of the letter y. STEEVENS.

I am confident that oaks is the right reading. I agree with Theobald that the words," See you thefe husbands ?" relate to the buck's horns;— but what refemblance is there between the horns of a buck and a yoak? What connection is there between a yoak and a foreft? Why, none whereas on the other hand, the connection between a forest and an oak is evident; nor is the refemblance lefs evident between a tree and the branches of a buck's horns; they are indeed called branches from that very refemblance; and the horns of a deer are called in French les bois. Though horns are types of cuckoldom, yoaks are not; and furely the types of cuckoldom, whatever they may be, are more proper for a town than for a foreft. I am surprised that the fubfequent editors should have adopted an amendment, which makes the passage nonsense. M. MASON.

I have inferted Mr. M. Mafon's note, because he appears to think it brings conviction with it. Perhaps, however, fas Dr. Farmer obferves to me) he was not aware that the extremities of yokes for cattle, as still ufed in feveral counties of England, bend upwards, and rising very high, in fhape refemble kerns. STELVING.

1

of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to mafter Brook; his horfes are arrested for it, mafter Brook.

Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I

will always count you my deer.

Fal. I do begin to perceive, that I am made an ass.

Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant.

Fal. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought, they were not fairies: and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the fudden furprize of my powers, drove the groffness of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent," when 'tis upon ill employment!

Eva. Sir John Falftaff, ferve Got, and leave your defires, and fairies will not pinfe you.

Ford. Well faid, fairy Hugh.

Eva. And leave you your jealoufies too, I pray you.

Ford. I will never miftfuft my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English.

Fal. Have I lay'd my brain in the fun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent fo grofs o'er reaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'tis time I were choked with a piece of toasted cheese.

Eva. Seefe is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.

5 We ought rather to read with the old quarto," which must be paid to mafter Ford;" for as Ford, to mortify Falstaff, addreffes him throughout his fpeech by the name of Brook, the describing himself by the fame name creates a confufion. A modern editor plaufibly enough reads" which must be paid too, Mafter Brook;" but the first fketch fhows that to is right; for the fentence, as it stands in the quarto, will not admit too.

MALONE. 6 A Jack o'Lent appears to have been fome puppet which was thrown at in Lent, like Shrove-tide cocks. STEEVENS.

7 i. e. a fool's cap made out of Welch materials. Wales was famous for this cloth. So, in K. Edward I. 1599: "Enter Llucllin, alias prince of Wales, &c. with fwords and bucklers, and freize jerkins." Again: "Enter Suffex, &c. with a mantle of freize." 66. --my boy shall we are a mantle of this country's weaving, to keep him wam.' STEEVENS. O

VOL. I.

Fal.

Fal. Seefe and putter! Have I lived to ftand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of luft and late-walking, through the realm.

Mrs. Page. Why, fir John, do you think, though we fhould have thruft virtue out of our hearts by the head and fhoulders, and have given ourselves without fcruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight?

Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax?

Mrs. Page. A puff'd man ?

Page. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable entrails? Ford. And one that is as flanderous as Satan?

Page. And as poor as Job?

Ford. And as wicked as his wife?

Eva. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and fack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and fwearings, and flarings, pribbles and prabbles?

Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the ftart of me ; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch flannel;8 ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me : ufe me as you will.

Ford.

8 The very word is derived from a Welch one, fo that it is almost unneceffary to add that flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales. In the old play of K. Edward I. 1599: "Enter Hugh ap David, Guenthian his wench in flannel and Jack his novice." STEEVENS.

9 Though this be perhaps not unintelligible, yet it is an odd way of confeffing his dejection. I should wish to read:

66 -ignorance it felf has a plume o' me."

That is, I am fo depreffed, that ignorance itfelf plucks me, and decks. itself with the spoils of my weakness. Of the prefent reading, which is probably right, the meaning may be, I am so enfeebled, that ignorance itself weighs me down and oppreffes me. JOHNSON.

"Ignorance itself, says Falstaff, is a plummet o'er me." If any alteration be neceffary, I think, "Ignorance itself is a planet o'er me," would have a chance to be right. Thus Bobadil excufes his cowardife: "Sure

I was struck with a planet, for I had no power to touch my weapon."

FARMER.

As Mr. M. Mafon obferves, there is a paffage in this very play which tends to fupport Dr. Farmer's amendment.

"I will awe him with my cudgel; it fhall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns: Mafter Brook, thou shalt know, I will predominate over the peafant."

Dr. Farmer might also have countenanced his conjecture by a paffage in K. Henry VI. where queen Margaret says, that Suffolk's face:

66 -rul'd like a wandring planet over me." STEEVENS. Perhaps

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