Hoft. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæfar, Keifar, and Pheezar. I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: faid I well *, bully Hector? Fal. Do fo, good mine hoft. Hoft. I have fpoke; let him follow: Let me fee thee froth, and lime9: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade: An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered fervingman, a fresh tapfter': Go; adieu. 8 Bard. It is a life that I have defired: I will thrive. [Exit BARDOLPH. Pift. O bafe Gongarian wight? wilt thou the fpigot wield 2? Keifar,] The preface to Stowe's Chronicle obferves, that the Germans ufe the K for C, pronouncing Keyfar for Cæfar, their general word for an emperor. ToLLET. -faid I well-?] Mr. Tyrwhitt obferves, that a fimilar phrase is given to the boft in the Pardoneres Prologue, CANT. TALES, V. 12246, edit. 1775; and fuppofes from this, and other circumftances of general refemblance, that Shakspeare, when he drew his boft of the Garter, had not forgotten his Chaucer. But the paffage (as he remarked to Mr. Steevens) not being in any of the ancient printed editions, I imagine this phrase must have reached our author in fome other way; for I fufpect he did not devote much time to the perufal of old Mfs. MALONE. 9-and lime:] Thus the quarto. The folio has-and live. MALONE. The reading of the old quarto of 1602 and 1619, Let me fee thee froth, and lime, I take to be the true one. The Hoft calls for an immediate fpecimen of Bardolph's abilities as a tapfter; and frothing beer and liming fack were tricks practifed in the time of Shakspeare. The first was done by putting foap into the bottom of the tankard when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the fack (i. e. fherry) to make it fparkle in the glafs. Falstaff himself complains of limed fack. STEEVENS. I a wither'd fervingman, a fresh tapfer:] This is not improbably a parody on the old proverb- A broken apothecary, a new doctor." See Ray's Proverbs, 3d edit. p. 2. STEEVENS. 20 bafe Gongarian wight! &c.] This is a parody on a line taken from one of the old bombaft plays, beginning: "O bale Gongarian, wilt thou the diftaff wield ?” I had marked the paffage down, but forgot to note the play.The folio reads Hungarian, which is likewife a cant term. In the Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1626, the merry Hoft fays, "I have Knights and Colonels in my houfe, and must tend the Hungarians." STEEVENS. The word is Gongarian in the first edition, and fhould be continued, the better to fix the allufion, FARMER, Nym. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it 3. Fal. I am glad, I am fo acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful finger, he kept not time. Nym. The good humour is, to fteal at a minute's reft÷. Pift. Convey, the wife it call: Steal! foh; a fico for the phrafe! Fal. Well, firs, I am almost out at heels. Pift. Why then, let kibes enfue. Fal. There is no remedy; I must coney-catch, I muft fhift. Pift. Young ravens must have foods. Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Pift. I ken the wight; he is of fubftance good. Fal. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about. Pift. Two yards, and more. Fal. No quips now, Pistol; Indeed I am in the waift two yards about: but I am now about no wafte"; I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife; I fpy entertainment in her; the difcourfes, fhe 3 - bumour of it.] This fpeech is partly taken from the corrected copy, and partly from the flight fketch in 1602. I mention it, that thofe who do not find it in either of the common old editions, may not fufpect it to be fpurious. STEEVENS. 4 The good bumour is, to freal at a minute's reft.] 'Tis true, (fays Nym) Bardolph did not keep time; did not steal at the critical and exact feafon, when he would probably be leaft obferved. The true method is, to steal juft at the initant when watchfulness is off its guard, and repofes but for a moment.-Mr. Langton would read-minim's rest, which certainly correfponds more exactly with the preceding fpeech; bat Shakspeare fcarcely ever purfues his metaphors far. MALONE. 5 Young ravens must have feed.] An adage. See Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS. about no waße;] I find the fame play on words in Heywood's Fpigrams, 1562: 6 - Where am I leaft, husband? quoth he, in the waift; "Which cometh of this, thou art vengeance ftrait lac'd. "Where am I biggeft, wife? in the wafte, quoth she, For all is wafte in you, as far as I fee." STEEVENS. carves, carves, fhe gives the leer of invitation: I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftyle; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's. Pift. He hath ftudy'd her well, and tranflated her well; out of honefty into English. Nym. The anchor is deep: Will that humour pass? Fal. Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her husband's purfe; the hath legions of angels. Pift. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, say I. Nym. The humour rifes; it is good: humour me the angels. 7-be carves,] It should be remembered, that anciently the young of both fexes were inftructed in carving, as a neceffary accomplishment. In 1508, Wynkyn de Worde published "A Boke of Kervinge." So in Love's Labour's Loft, Biron fays of Boyet, the French courtier, "He can carve too, and lifp." STEEVENS. 8 He hath ftudied her well, and tranflated her well;] The first folio has will in both places. Well is the reading of the early quarto. MALONE. Tranflation is not used in its common acceptation, but means to explain, as one language is explained by another. So, in Hamlet: thefe profound heaves "You must tranflate; 'tis fit we understand them." STEEVENS. 9 The anchor is deep :] Dr. Johnfon very acutely propofes "the author is deep." He reads with the first copy," he hath study'd her well;" and from this equivocal word, Nym catches the idea of deepnefs. But it is almost impoffible to afcertain the diction of this whimfical character; and I meet with a phrafe in Fenner's Comptor's Commenwealth, 1617, which perhaps may support the old reading: "Master Decker's Bellman of London hath fet forth the vices of the time fo lively, that it is impoflible the anchor of any other man's braine could found the fea of a more deepe and dreadful mifcheefe." FARMER. Nym, I believe, only means to fay, the fcheme for debauching Ford's wife is deep; well laid. MALONE. "The anchor is deep," may mean his hopes are well founded. In the year 1558, a ballad intituled "Hold the ancer fait," is entered on the books of the Stationers' Company. STEEVENS. As many devils entertain;] i. e. do you retain in your service as many devils as she has angels. So, in the Two Gentlemen of Verona : "Sweet lady, entertain him for your fervant.” This is the reading of the folio. MALONE. STEEVENS. Fal. Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her: and here another to Page's wife; who even now gave me good eyes too, examined my parts with moft judicious eyliads: fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly 3. Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine+. Nym. I thank thee for that humour. Fal. O, fhe did fo courfe o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did feem to fcorch me up like a burning-glafs! Here's another letter to her: fhe bears the purfe too; fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and they fhall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and 2 eyliads :] This word is differently fpelt in all the copies. I fuppose we should write oeillades, French. STEEVENS. 3 fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, fometimes my portly belly.] So, in our authour's 20th Sonnet: "An eye more bright than their's, lefs false in rolling, "Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth." MALONE. 4 Then did the fun on dunghill shine.] So, in Lilly's Eupbues, 1581: "The fun thineth upon the dunghill." T. H. W. 5 that bumour.] What diftinguishes the language of Nym from that of the other attendants on Falstaff, is the conftant repetition of this phrafe. In the time of Shakspeare fuch an affectation feems to have been fufficient to mark a character. In Sir Giles Goofecap, a play of which I have no earlier edition than that of 1606, the fame peculiarity is mentioned in the hero of the piece: "his only reason for every thing is, that we are all mortal; then hath he another pretty phrafe too, and that is, he will tickle the vanity of every thing."" STEEVENS. 6-intention,] i. e. eagerness of defire. STEEVENS. 7- fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty.] After Sir Walter Raleigh's return from Guiana in 1596, a very few years before this play was written, very pompous accounts were published of the wealth of South America, and extraordinary hopes entertained about its produce. MALONE. I will be cheater to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me ;] The fame joke is intended here, as in The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, act II: "I will bar no horeft man my houfe, nor no cheater."-By which is meant Efcbeatour, an officer in the Exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. WARBURTON. thou thou this to miftrefs Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pift. Shall I fir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer take all ! Nym. I will run no bafe humour: here, take the humour letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, firrah, to Rob.] bear you thefe letters tightly'; I Sail like my pinnace to thefe golden fhores. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanifh like hail-ftones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o' the hoof; feek fhelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of this age, French thrift, you rogues; myfelf, and fkirted page. [Exeunt FALSTAFF and Robin. Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts 2! for gourd, and fullam holds, And high and low beguile the rich and poor 3: 9-tightly;]i. e. cleverly, adroitly. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Antony putting on his armour, fays, << my queen's a fquire "More tight at this, than thou." MALONE. I - my pinnace] A small veffel with a fquare ftern, having fails and oars, and carrying three mafts; chiefly used (fays Rolt, in his Dictionary of Commerce,) as a fcout for intelligence, and for landing of men. likewife fignifies (as Mr. Steevens has observed) a man of war's boat. MALONE. It 2 Let vultures gripe thy guts!] This hemiftich is a burlesque on a paflage in Tamburlaine, or The Scythian Shepherd, 1591, of which play a more particular account is given in one of the notes to Henry IV. P. II. A& II. fc. iv. STEEVENS. I fuppofe the following is the paffage intended to be ridiculed: "With greedy tallents [talons] gripe my bleeding heart, Again, ibid: "Griping our bowels with retorted thoughts." MALONE. 3- •for gourd, and fullam bolds, And high and low beguile the rich and poor :] Cant terms for falfe dice.-Gourds were probably dice in which a fecret cavity had been made; fuliams, those which had been loaded with a small bit of lead. High men and low men, which were likewife cant terms, explain themfelves. Higb numbers on the dice, at hazard, are from five to twelve, inclufive; low, from aces to four. MALONE. |
