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, [writes.

QUICK. I am glad he is fo quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so 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 mafter, I may call him my mafter, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, fcour, 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 notwithstanding, (to tell you in your ear; I would have no words of it ;) my mafter himfelf 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 scurvy jacka-nape prieft to meddle or make :-you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here:-by gar, I vill cut all his two ftones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog. [Exit SIMPLE.

QUICK. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

3 drefs meat and drink,] 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 reft of his countrymen.

MALONE.

CAIUS. It is no matter-a for dat:-do not you tell-a me dat I fhall have Anne Page for myself? -by gar, I vill kill de Jack prieft; and I have appointed mine hoft of de Jarterre to measure our weapon:-by gar, I vill myself have Anne Page.

QUICK. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well: we must 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.

6 de Jack prieft;] Jack in our author's time was a term of contempt: So, faucy Jack, &c. See K. Henry IV. P. I. A& III. fc. iii: The prince is a Jack, a fneak-cup ;" and Much ado about Nothing, A&t I. fc. i: "do you play the flouting Jack?"

MALONE, 7 What the good-jer!] She means to fay-" the goujere, i. e. morbus Gallicus. So, in K. Lear:

"The goujeres fhall devour them."

See Hanmer's note, King Lear, A&t V. fc. iii. STEEVENS. Mrs. Quickly fcarcely ever pronounces a hard word rightly. Good-jer and Good-year were in our author's time common corrup tions of goujere; and in the books of that age the word is as often written one way as the other. MALONE.

8 You shall have An fool's-bead] 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 fuppofe pronounced, ane.-In 1603, was published " Ane verie excellent and delectable Treatife, intitulit Philotus," &c. MALONE.

Enter FENTON.

FENT. How now, good woman; how doft thou? QUICK. The better, that it pleases your good worfhip to ask.

FENT.What news? how does pretty mistress Anne?

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

FENT. Shall I do any good, thinkeft thou? Shall I not lofe my fuit?

QUICK. Troth, fir, all is in his hands above: but notwithstanding, mafter Fenton, I'll be fworn on a book, fhe loves you:-Have not your worship a wart above your eye?

FENT. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?

QUICK. Well, thereby hangs a tale;-good faith, it is fuch another Nan;-but, I deteft," an honest 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 you-Well, go to.

2

FENT. Well, I fhall fee her to-day: Hold, there's bemoney for thee; let me have thy voice in my half: 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.

9 -but, I deteft,] She means-I proteft. MALONE. The fame intended mistake occurs in Measure for Measure, A& II. fc. i: " My wife, fir, whom I deteft before heaven and your honour," &c.-" Doft thou deteft her therefore?" STEEVENS. to allicholly] 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. Such is the inconfiftency of the firft folio. STEEVENS.

2

FENT. Well, farewell; I am in great haste 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?* [Exit.

Enter Mistress PAGE, with a letter.

MRS. PAGE. What! have I 'fcaped love-letters in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a fubject for them? Let me fee:

[reads.

Afk me no reason why I love you; for though love ufe reafon for his precifian, he admits him not for his counfellor: You are not young, no more am I; go to

-Out upon't! what have I forgot?] 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 fcene. STEEVENS.

3 though love ufe reafon for his precifian, he admits him not for his counsellor:] This is obfcure: but the meaning is, though love permit reafon to tell what is fit to be done, he feldom follows its advice.—By precifian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and fanctity. On which account they gave this name to the puritans of that time. So Ofborne-" Conform their mode, words, and looks, to thefe PRECISIANS," And Maine, in his City Match:

Of this word I do not fee any meaning that is very appofite to the prefent intention. Perhaps Falstaff said, Though love ufe reafon as his phyfician, he admits him not for his counfellor. This will be plain fenfe. Afk not the reafon of my love; the business of reafon is not to affist love, but to cure it. There may however be this

then, there's fympathy: you are merry, fo am I; Ha! ba! then there's more fympathy: you love fack, and fo do I; Would you defire better fympathy? 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,
By day or night,'
Or any kind of light,
With all his might,

For thee to fight,

John Falstaff.

meaning in the prefent reading. Though love, when he would fubmit to regulation, may use reafon as his precifian, or director in nice cafes, yet when he is only eager to attain his end, he takes not reason for his counsellor. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson wishes to read phyfician; and this conjecture becomes almost a certainty from a line in our author's 147th fonnet:

"My reafon the phyfician to my love," &c. FARMER. The character of a precifian seems to have been very generally ridiculed in the time of Shakspeare. So, in The Malcontent, 1604: "You must take her in the right vein then; as, when the fign is in Pifces, a fifhmonger's wife is very fociable: in Cancer, a preci fian's wife is very flexible."

Again, Dr. Fauftus, 1604:

"I will fet my countenance like a precisian ?”

Again, in Ben Jonson's Cafe is alter'd, 1609:

"It is precifianism to alter that,

"With auftere judgement, which is given by nature."

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

3 Thine own true knight,

By day or night,] This expreffion, which is ludicrously em

ployed by Falftaff, anciently meant, at all times.

So, in the third book of Gower, De Confeffione Amantis : "The fonne cleped was Machayre,

"The daughter eke Canace hight,

66

By daie bothe and eke by night."