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Eva. It is not meet the council hear of a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot: the council, look you, fhall defire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your viza-ments in that.

Shal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the fword fhould end it.

Eva. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it: and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot discretions with it: there is Ann Page, 7 which is daughter to master George Page, which is pretty virginity.

Slen. Mrs. Ann Page? fhe has brown hair, and fpeaks fmall like a woman.

Eva. It is that very perfon for all the 'orld, as juft as you will defire; and feven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and filver, is her grandfire, upon his death's-bed (Got deliver to a joyful resurrections!) give, when fhe is able to overtake feventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and defire a marriage between master Abraham and miftrefs Ann Page.

Slen. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pounds?

Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.

fentment of twelve: upon which certificate the trespaffers "and offenders fhall be put to anfwer, and they which be "found guilty fhall be punished, according the discretion of "the kinge and counfelle." Dr. GRAY.

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7 which is daughter to mafter Thomas Page,] The whole fet of editions have negligently blundered one after another in Page's Chriftian, name in this place; though Mrs. Page calls him George afterwards in at leaft fix feveral paffages. THEOB. Speaks SMALL like a woman.] This is from the folio of 1623, and is the true reading. He admires her for the fweetnefs of her voice. But the expreffion is highly humourous, as making her speaking small like a woman one of her marks of diftinction; and the ambiguity of small, which fignifies little as well as low, makes the expreffion ftill more pleasant.

WARBURTON.

Shal.

:

Shal. Seven hundred pounds, and poffibilities, is good gifts.

Shal. Well, let us fee honeft Mr. Page: is Falstaff there?

Eva. Shall I tell you a lie? I do defpife a liar, as I do defpife one that is falfe; or, as I defpife one that is not true. The knight, Sir John is there; and, I befeech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door [Knocks] for master Page. What, hoa? Got pless your house here!

Enter Page.

Page. Who's there?

Eva. Here is Got's pleffing, and your friend, and Juftice Shallow and here is young mafter Slender; that, peradventures, fhall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings.

Page. I am glad to fee your worships well. I thank you for my venifon, mafter Shallow.

Shal. Mafter Page, I am glad to fee you; much good do it your good heart! I wifh'd your venifon better; it was ill kill'd. How doth good mistress Page? and I thank you always with my heart, la; with my heart.

Page. Sir, I thank you.

Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do.
Page. I am glad to fee you, good mafter Slender.
Slen. 9 How does your fallow greyhound, Sir? I
heard fay, he was out-run on Cotfale.

Page. It could not be judg'd, Sir.

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9 How does your fallow greyhound? &c.] Cotswold, a village in Worcestershire, or Warwickshire, was famous for rural exercifes, and fports of all forts. Shallow, in another place, talks of a tout fellow, a Cotswold man, i. e. one who was "a native of this very place, fo famous for trials of strength, "activity, &c. and confequently a robuft athletic perfon." I have seen a poem, or rather a collection of poems, which I think is called The Cotfold Mufe, containing a defcription of thefe games, WARTON.

N 3

Slen

Slen. You'll not confefs, you'll not confess. Shel. That he will not;-'tis your fault, 'tis your fault: 'tis a good dog.

Page. A cur, Sir.

Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; can there be more faid? he is good and fair.-Is Sir John Falstaff here?

Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you.

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Eva. It is fpoke as a chriftians ought to speak.

Shal. He hath wrong'd me, mafter Page.

Page. Sir, he doth in fome fort confefs it.

Shal. If it be confefs'd, it is not redrefs'd; is not that fo, master Page? He hath wrong'd me ;—indeed, he hath at a word, he hath ;-believe me :-Robert Shallow, Efquire, faith, he is wrong'd.

Page. Here comes Sir John.

Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and Piftol.

Fal. Now, mafter Shallow, you'll complain of me to the king?

Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my lodge.

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Fal. But not kifs'd your keeper's daughter?

Shal. Tut, a pin! this fhall be answer❜d.

Fal. I will anfwer it ftrait: I have done all this :

that is now anfwer'd.

Shal. The council fhall know this.

Fal. 'Twere better for you, if 'twere not known in council; you'll be laugh'd at.

Eva. Pauca verba, Sir John; good worts.

-and broke open my lodge.] This probably alludes to fome real incident, at that time well known. JOHNSON.

The old copies read, 'Twere better for you, if 'twere known in council. Perhaps it is an abrupt fpeech, and must be read thus: 'Twere better for you-if 'twere known in council, you'll be laugh'd at. 'Twere better for you, is, I believe, a menace.

JOHNSON.

Fal.

Fal. Good worts! good cabbage. Slender, I broke your head; what matter have you against me? Slen. Marry, Sir, I have matter in my head against you, and against your coney-catching rafcals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol.

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Bar. 4 You Banbury cheese !
Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pift. 5 How now, Mephoftophilus ?

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Nym. Slice, I fay! pauca, pauca: flice! that's my humour.

Slen. Where's Simple, my man? can you tell, coufin?

Eva. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: there is three umpires in this matter, as I understand; that is, mafter Page, fidelicet, mafter Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myfelf; and the three party is, laftly and finally, mine Hoft of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them.

Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the caufe with as great discreetly as we can.

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Fal. Piftol

Pift. He hears with ears.

—coney-catching rafcals,-] A coney-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or fharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, published A Detection of the Frauds and Tricks of Coney-catchers and Couzeners. JOHNSON.

+ You Banbury cheeje!] This is faid in allufion to the thin carcafe of Slender. The fame thought occurs in Jack Drums Entertainment, 1601." You are like a Banbury cheefe"nothing but paring." So Heywood, in his collection of epigrams:

"I never faw Banbury cheefe thick enough,
"But I have oft feen Effex cheese quick enough."
STEEVENS.

5 How now, Mephoftophilus ?] This is the name of a spirit or familiar in the old ftory book of Sir John Fauftus, or John Fauft. WARTON,

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Eva. The tevil and his tam! what phrafe is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Piftol, did you pick master Slender's purfe? Slen. Ay, by thefe gloves, did he (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again elfe) of seven groats in mill-fixpences, and two 6 Edward fhovel-boards, that coft me two fhilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves. Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Eva. No, it is falfe, if it is a pick-purse. Pift. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner !—Sir John, and mafter mine,

7 I combat challenge of this latten bilboe:

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Word

Edward shovel-boards,-] By this term, I believe, are meant brass caftors, fuch as are shoveled on a board, with king Edward's face ftamped upon them. JOHNSON.

One of thefe pieces of metal is mentioned in Middleton's comedy of The Roaring Girl, 1611.-" away flid I my man, "like a hovel-board fhilling," &c. STEEVENS..

7 I combat challenge of this Latin bilboe:] Our modern editors have diftinguished this word Latin in Italic characters, as if it was addreffed to Sir Hugh, and meant to call him pedantic blade, on account of his being a fchoolmafter, and teaching Latin. But I'll be bold to fay, in this they do not take the poet's conceit. Piftol barely calls Sir Hugh mountain-foreigner, because he had interpofed in the difpute; but then immediately demands the combat of Slender, for having charged him with picking his pocket. The old quartos write it latten, as it hould be, in the common characters and as a proof that the author defigned this should be addreffed to Slender, Sir Hugh does not there interpofe one word in the quarrel, But what then fignifies-latten bilboe? Why, Piftol feeing Slender fuch a flim, puny wight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. Monfieur Dacier, upon this verse in Horace's epifle de Arte Poetica,

"Tibia non ut nunc orichalco vincta," &c. fays, C'est une espece de cuivre de montagne, comme fon nom me mefme le temoigne; c'eft ce que nous appellons aujourd' buy du leton. "It is a fort of mountain-copper, as its very name imports, and * which we at this time of day call latten." THEOBALD. After all this difplay of learning in Mr. Theobald's note,

I believe our poet had a much more obvious meaning. Latten

may

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