we have a hot venifon pafty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we fhall drink down all unkindness.

[Exeunt all but SHAL. SLENDER, and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty fhillings, I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here+ :

Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple; where have you been; I must wait on myself, muft I? You have not The Book of Riddles ↳ about you, have you?

Sim. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas "?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we ftay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by fir Hugh here ;-Do you understand me ?

Slen. Ay, fir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I fhall do that that is reafon.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, fir.

Evans. Give ear to his motions, mafter Slender : I will defcription the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. Slen. Nay, I will do as my coufin Shallow fays: I pray you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, fimple though I stand here.

4 my book of Songs and Sonnets bere :] It cannot be fuppofed that poor Slender was himself a poet. He probably means the Poems of Lord Surrey and others, which were very popular in the age of Queen Elizabeth. They were printed in 1567, with this title: "Songes and Sonnettes, written by the right honorable Lord Henry Howard, late Earle of Surrey, and others."

Slender laments that he has not this fashionable book about him, fuppofing it might have aflifted him in paying his addresses to Anne Page. MALONE.

5 You have not The Book of Riddles-] This appears to have been a popular book, and is enumerated with others in The English Courtier and Country Gentleman, Bl. 1. quarto, 1586. Sig. H. 4. REED.

6

upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?] Allhallowmas being almost five weeks after Michaelmas, Mr. Theobald reads Martlemas; but Shakspeare (as Dr. Johnson has obferved) probably in

tended a blunder. MALONE.

Evans. But that is not the queftion; the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, fir.

Evans. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Anne Page.

Slen. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her, upon any reafonable demands.

Evans. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mouth;-Therefore, precifely, can you carry your good

will to the maid?

Shal. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, fir,-I will do, as it fhall become one that would do reafon.

Evans. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must speak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her. Shal. That you muft: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your requeft, coufin, in any reafon.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, fweet coz; what I do, is to pleasure you, coz: Can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, fir, at your requeft; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are marry'd, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely.

Evans. It is a fery difcretion anfwer; fave, the faul'

7- the lips is parcel of the mouth;] Parcel in our author's time fignified part. It is yet ufed by lawyers in that fenfe. Mr. Reed, I find, has made the fame obfervation. MALONE.

Ibope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt :] The old copy reads content. The emendation is Mr. Theobald's. MALONE. Theobald's conjecture may be fupported by the fame intentional blunder in Love's Labour's Loft:

Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me." STEEVENS.

is in the 'ort diffolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely;-his meaning is good.

Shal. Ay, I think my coufin meant well.

Slen. Ay, orelfe I would I might be hang'd, la.
Re-enter Anne Page.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Anne-Would I were young, for your fake, miftrefs Anne!

Anne. The dinner is on the table; my father defires your worships' company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Anne.

the grace.

Evans. Od's pleffed will! I will not be abfence at
[Exeunt SHALLOW and Sir H. EVANS.
Anne. Will't please your worship to come in, fir?
Slen. No, I thank you, forfooth, heartily; I am very

well.

Anne. The dinner attends you, fir.

:

Slen. I am not a-hungry, Í thank you, forfooth :-Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow [Exit SIMPLE.] A juftice of peace fometime may be beholden to his friend for a man:-I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

Anne. I may not go in without your worship: they will not fit, till you come.

Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

Anne. I pray you, fir, walk in.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my fhin the other day with playing at fword and dagger with a mafter of fence, three veneys for a dish of

9 a master of fence,] Mafter of defence, on this occafion, does not fimply mean a profeffor of the art of fencing, but a person who had taken his master's degree in it. I learn from one of the Slonian Mfs. (now in the British Museum, N° 2530. XXVI D.) which feems to be the fragment of a regifter formerly belonging to fome of our schools where the "Noble Science of Defence" was taught from the year 1568 to 1583, that in this Art there were three degrees, viz. a Mafter's, a Provolt's, and a Scholar's. For each of thefe a prize was play'd, as exercifes are kept in Universities for fimilar purposes. STEEVENS.

ftew'd

OF WINDSOR.

205

ftew'd prunes; and, by my troth, 'I cannot abide the Why do your dogs bark fo? be fmell of hot meat fince.

there bears i' the town?

Anne. I think, there are, fir; I heard them talk'd of. Slen. I love the fport well; but I fhall as foon quarrel at it, as any man in England :-You are afraid, "if you fee the bear loose, are you not?

Anne. Ay, indeed, fir.

Slen. That's meat and drink to me now: I have feen Sackerfon loose 2, twenty times; and have taken him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the women have so cry'd and fhriek'd at it, that it pafs'd:-but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things.

Re-enter PAGE.

Page. Come, gentle mafter Slender, come; we stay for you.

Slen. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, fir.

Page. By cock and pyes, you fhall not choose, fir:

come, come.

I three veneys for a dish of few'd prunes ;] i. e. three venues, French. Three different fet-to's, bouts, a technical term. So, in our author's Love's Labour's Left:

"a quick venew of wit." STEEVENS.

2- I have feen Sackerfon hofe,] Sackerfon, or Sacarfon, was the name of a bear that was exhibited in our author's time at Paris-Garden in Southwark. See an old collection of Epigrams [by Sir John Davies] printed at Middlebourg (without date, but in or before 1598): "Publius, a ftudent of the common law, "To Paris-garden doth himself withdraw ;"Leaving old Ployden, Dyer, and Broke, alone, "To fee old Harry Hunkes and Sacarfon." Sacarfon probably had his name from his keeper. So, in the Puritan, a comedy, 1607: "How many dogs do you think I had upon MALONE. -Almost as many as George Stone, the bear; three at once."

3

4 --

and have taken him by the chain:] You dare as well take a bear by the tooth is one of Ray's Proverbial Sentences. MALONE. that it pass'd:] It pafs'd, or this paffes, was a way of speaking customary heretofore, to fignify the excefs, or extraordinary degree of any thing. The fentence completed would be, This paffes all expreffion, or perhaps, This paffes all things. We still use paffing well, paffing range. WARBURTON.

5 By cock and pye,] See a note on A& V. fc i. K. Henry IV. P. II. STEEVENS.

Slen.

Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

Page. Come on, fir.

Slen. Miftrefs Anne, yourself fhall go first.

Anne. Not I, fir; pray you, keep on.

Slen. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la: I will not

do you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, fir.

Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly, than troublesome : you do yourself wrong, indeed, la.

SCENE II.
The fame.

Enter Sir Hugh EVANS and SIMPLE.

[Exeunt.

Evans. Go your ways, and afk of Doctor Caius' house, which is the way: and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurfe, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer. Simp. Well, fir.

Evans. Nay, it is petter yet:-give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with mistress Anne Page; and the letter is, to defire and require her to folicit your master's defires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come.

[Exeunt.

Enter FALSTAFF, Hoft, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and Robin.

Fal. Mine hoft of the Garter,—

Hoft. What fays my bully-rook 7? Speak scholarly, and wifely.

Fal. Truly, mine hoft, I muft turn away fome of my followers.

Hoft. Difcard, bully Hercules; cafhier: let them wag; trot, trot.

6

Fal. I fit at ten pounds a week.

that altogether's acquaintance] The old copy has altogethers acquaintance. The emendation was made by Mr. Tyrwhitt. MALONE. my bully-rook] The latter part of this compound title is taken from the rooks at the game of chefs. STEEVENS.

7

Hoft.