Hoft. What fay you to young Mr. Fenton ? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verfes, he speaks holy-day, he smells April and May: he will carry't, he will carry't; 9 'tis in his buttons; he will carry't. I Page. Not by my confent, I promise you. The gentleman is of no having: he kept company with the wild prince and Poins. He is of too high a region, he knows too much. No, he fhall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my fubftance. 8- he writes verfes, he fpeaks holy-day, i. e. in a highflown, fustian stile. It was called a holy-day file, from the old cuftom of acting their farces of the myfteries and moralities, which were turgid and bombaft, on holy-days. So in Much Ado about Nothing "I cannot woo in festival terms." And again, in The Merchant of Venice" thou spend'ft fuch high-day wit in praifing him." WARBURTON. 66 9 tis in his buttons ;-] Alluding to an ancient cuftom among the country fellows, of trying whether they fhall fucceed with their miftreffes, by carrying the batchelor's buttons (a plant of the Lychnis kind, whofe flowers refemble a coat button in form) in their pockets. And they judged of their good or bad fuccefs, by their growing, or their not growing there. SMITH. Greene mentions thefe batchelor's buttons, in his Quip for an upftart Courtier-"I faw the batchelor's buttons, whofe virtue is, to make wanton maidens weep, when they have worne "them forty weeks under their aprons," &c. The fame expreffion occurs in Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, 1631. "He wears batchelor's buttons, does he not ?” Again, in The Conftant Maid, by Shirley, 1640. "I am a batchelor, "I pray let me be one of your buttons ftill then." Again, in A Fair Quarrel, by Middleton and Rowley, 1617. "I'll wear my batchelor's buttons ftill." So in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607. he's my husband, he has no batchelor's buttons at his doublet." Again, in A Woman never Vex'd, com. by Rowley, 1632. Go, go and reft on Venus' violets; fhew her 1 "A dozen of batchelor's buttons, boy." STEEVENS. of no having:] Having is the fame as eftate or fortune. JOHNSON. If If he take her, let him take her fimply; the wealth that way. Ford. I beseech you, heartily, fome of you go home with me to dinner: befides your cheer you fhall have fport; I will fhew you a monster. Master Doctor, you fhall go; fo fhall you, mafter Page; and you, Sir Hugh. Shal. Well, fare you well: we shall have the freer wooing at Mr. Page's. Caius. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon. Hoft. 2 Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honeft knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him. Ford. [Afide.] I think, I fhall drink in pipe-wine firft with him: I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles? All. Have with you, to fee this monster. [Exeunt. Hoft. 2 Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honeft knight Falftaff, and drink canary with him. Ford. [Afide.] I think, I fall drink IN PIPE-wine first with him: I'll make him dance.-] To drink in pipe-wine, is a phrafe which I cannot understand. May we not fuppofe that Shakespeare rather wrote? I think I shall drink HORN-PIPE wine first with him: I'll make him dance. Canary is the name of a dance, as well as of a wine. Ford lays hold of both fenfes; but, for an obvious reason, makes the dance a born-pipe. It has been already remarked, that Shakespeare has frequent allufions to a cuckold's horns. Obfervations and Conjectures, &c. printed at Oxford 1766. Pipe is known to be a veffel of wine, now containing two hogfheads. Pipe wine is therefore wine, not from the bottle, but the pipe; and the text confifts in the ambiguity of the word, which fignifies both a cafk of wine, and a mufical inftrument. Horn-pipe wine has no meaning. JoHNSON. VOL. I. R SCENE Enter Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Page, and fervants with a basket. Mrs. Ford. What, John! what, Robert! Mrs. Page. Quickly, quickly: is the buck-basketMrs. Ford. I warrant.- -What, Robin, I say. Mrs. Page. Come, come, come. Mrs. Ford. Here, fet it down. Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge; we must be brief. Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brew-house; and when I fuddenly call on you, come forth, and (without any paufe or ftaggering) take this bafket on your fhoulders that done, trudge with it in all hafte, and carry it among the whitfters in Datchet mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch clofe by the Thames fide. Mrs. Page. You will do it? Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction. Be gone, and come when you are call'd. [Exeunt Servants. Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin. Enter Robin. Mrs. Ford. 3 How now, my eyas-mufket, what news with you? Rob. 3 How now, my eyas-mufket,-] Eyas is a young unfledg'd hawk. I fuppofe from the Italian Niafo, which originally fignifed any young bird taken from the nett unfledg'd, afterwards a young hawk. The French, from hence, took their niais, and ufed it in both thofe fignifications; to which they added a third, metaphorically a filly fellow; un garçon fort niais, un niais. Majket fignifies a parrow hawk, or the fmallest species of Rob. My mafter Sir John is come in at your backdoor, mistress Ford; and requests your company. Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-lent, have you been true to us? Rob. Ay, I'll be fworn: my mafter knows not of your being here: and hath threaten'd to put me into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for he fwears, he'll turn me away. Mrs. Page. Thou'rt a good boy this fecrecy of thine fhall be a tailor to thee, and fhall make thee a new doublet and hofe. I'll go hide me. Mrs. Ford. Do fo: go tell thy master, I am alone. Mistress Page, remember you your cue. [Exit Robin. Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hifs [Exit Mrs. Page. Mrs. Ford. Go to then ;-we'll ufe this unwholfome humidity, this grofs watry pumpion ;--we'll teach him to know turtles from jays. me. Enter Falstaff. Fal. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel? Why, now let die; for I have liv'd long enough: this is the period of my ambition: O this bleffed hour! Mrs. Ford. O fweet Sir John! Fal. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog; I cannot prate, mistress Ford. Now fhall I fin in my wifh: I would thy husband were dead; I'll fpeak it before the best lord, I would make thee my lady. Mrs. Ford. I your lady, Sir John! alas, I fhould be a pitiful lady. Fal. Let the court of France fhew me fuch another; I fee how thine eye would emulate the diamond: thou of hawks. This too is from the Italian Mufchetto, a small hawk, as appears from the original fignification of the word, namely, a troublesome flinging fly. So that the humour of calling the little page an eyas-mufket is very intelligible. WARBURTON. haft haft the right arched bent of the brow, that becomes the hip-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance. Mrs. that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-VALIANT, or any Venetian attire.] The old quarto reads, tire-vellet, and the old folio reads, or any tire of Venetian admittance. So that the true reading of the whole is this, that becomes the ship-tire, the tireVAILANT, or any tire of Venetian admittance. The speaker tells his miflrefs, the had a face that would become all the headdreffes in fashion. The hip-tire was an open head-drefs, with a kind of scarf depending from behind. Its name of ship-tire was, I presume, from its giving the wearer fome resemblance of a fhip (as Shakespeare fays) in all her trim : with all her pennants out, and flags and treamers flying. Thus Milton, in Samfon Agonistes, paints Dalila: But who is this, what thing of sea or land? "Female of fex it seems, "That fo bedeck'd, ornate and gay, "Comes this way failing "Like a stately ship 46 Of Tarfus, bound for the isles "Of Javan or Gadier, "With all her bravery on, and tackle trim, Courted by all the winds that hold them play." This was an image familiar with the poets of that time. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their play of Wit without Money"She spreads fattens as the king's fhips do canvas every where, "the may fpace her mifen," &c. This will direct us to reform the following word of tire-valiant, which I fufpect to be corrupt, valiant being a very incongruous epithet for a woman's head-drefs. I fuppofe Shakespeare wrote tire-voilant. As the hip-tire was an open head-drefs, fo the tire-voilant was a clofe one; in which the head and breaft were covered as with a vail. And these were, in fact, the two different head-dreffes then in fashion, as we may fee by the pictures of that time. One of which was fo open, that the whole neck, breafts, and shoulders, were opened to view: the other, fo fecurely inclofed in kerchiefs, &c. that nothing could be feen above the eyes, or below the chin. or any Venetian attire.] This is a wrong reading, as appears from the impropriety of the word attire here used for a woman's bead-drefs: whereas it fignifies the drefs of any part. We fhould read therefore, or any tire of For the word attire, reduced by the aphærefis, to 'tire, takes Venetian admittance. a new |