greft; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook: It is merry knight-Will you go an-heirs?

Leal. Have with roa, mine bot

Paze. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good kill in his rapier?.

Seal. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In thefe times you ftand on distance, your paffes, fioccados, and I know not what : is the heart, maer Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time, with my long fword, Í

would

• Will you go an-bein ] There can be no doubt that this parlage is corrupt. Perhaps we fhould ready-Win you go and bear a:? So, in the next page 1 had rather bear them fcold than fight." MALONE.

The merry Hot has already faluted them feparately by titles of dfrinétion; he therefore probably now addrefies them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably-Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a fubfequent fcene of this play, Farewell, my bearts. STEEVENS.

? in bis rapier.] In the old quarto here follow thefe words:

Skal. I tell you what, mafter Page; I believe the doctor is no jefter; he'll lay it one [on]; for though we be juftices and doctors and churchmen, yet we are the fons of women, mafter Page.

Page. True, mafter Shallow.

Skal. It will be found fo, mafter Page.

Page. Matter Shallow, you yourself have been a great fighter, though now a man of peace.

Part of this dialogue is found afterwards in the third scene of the prefent act; but it seems more proper here, to introduce what Shallow fays of the prowess of his youth. MALONE.

8 my long fword,] Before the introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length, and femetimes railed with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, cenfures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long fword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon's explanation of the long fword is certainly right; for the early quarto reads-my two-hand sword; fo that they appear to have been fynonymous.

Carleton, in his Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercy, 1625, speaking of the treachery of one Rowland York, in betraying the town of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587, fays; he was a Londoner, famous among the Cutters in his time, for bringing in a new kind of fight,-to run the point of a rapier into a man's body. This manner of fight be brought firft into England, with great admiration of his audacioufnels:

when

would have made you four tall fellows fkip like

rats.

Hoft. Here, boys, here, here! fhall we wag?

Page. Have with you:-I had rather hear them fcold than fight. [Exeunt Hoft, SHALLOW, and PAGE. Ford. Though Page be a fecure fool, and stands fo firmly on his wife's frailty', yet I cannot put off my opinion fo eafily: She was in his company at Page's houfe; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't and I have a disguise to found Falstaff: If I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if the be otherwife, 'tis labour well beftow'd.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.

[Exit,

Pift. Why, then the world's mine oyfter?, which I

with

when in England before that time, the ufe was, with little bucklers, and with broad swords, to strike, and not to thrust; and it was accounted unmanly to ftrike under the girdle."

The Continuator of Stowe's Annals, p. 1024, edit. 1631, fuppofes the rapier to have been introduced fomewhat fooner, viz. about the 20th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, [1578] at which time, he fays, Sword and Bucklers began to be difufed. Shakspeare has here been guilty of a great anachronism in making Shallow ridicule the terms of the rapier in the time of Henry IV. an hundred and feventy years before it was used in England. MALONE.

9

tall fellows-] A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant a ftout, bold, or courageous perfon. The elder quarto reads-tall fencers. STEEVENS.

1

and ftands fo firmly an bis wife's frailty,] i. e. has fuch perfect confidence in his unchafte wife. His wife's frailty is the fame as his we meet with death and frail wife. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, bonour, for an bonourable death.

MALONE.

To fiand on any thing, fignifies to infift on it. Ford fuppofes Page to infift on that virtue as fteady, which he fuppofes to be without foundation. STEEVENS.

2 and what they made there,] An obfolete phrase signifying—what they did there. MALONE.

3

➡the world's mine syfler, &c.] Dr. Grey supposes Shakspeare to

Q3

allude

with fword will open. I will retort the fum in equipage 4.

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, fir, you should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coachfellow, Nym'; or elfe you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in hell, for fwearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good foldiers, and tall fellows: and when mistress Bridget loft the handle of her fan', I took't upon mine honour, thou hadft it not.

Pift. Didft not thou fhare? hadft thou not fifteen pence?

Fal. Reason, you rogue, reason: Think'ft thou, I'll endanger

allude to an old proverb, «The mayor of Northampton opens cyffers with his dagger." i. e. to keep them at a fufficient diftance from his nofe, that town being fourfcore miles from the fea. STEEVENS.

4- I will retort the fum in equipage.] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in stolen goods. WARB. I rather believe he means, that he will pay him by waiting on him for nothing. That equipage ever meant ftolen goods, I am yet to learn. STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equipage was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies' Papers Complaint, (a poem which has erroneously been afcribed to Denne) we have feveral of them:

Embellish, blandifhment, and equipage." Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch favour of witlesse affectation. FARMER. 5your coach-fellow, Nym ;] i. e. he, who draws along with you; who is joined with you in all your knavery. So before, Page, fpeaking of Nym and Pistol, calls them a "yoke of Falstaff's difcarded men." The word (as Mr. Steevens has obferved) is used by Chapman in his Tranflation of the Iliad. MALONE.

6- and tall fellows :] See p. 229, n. 9; and p. 214, n. 4. MALONE. 7-loft the handle of her fan,] It fhould be remembered, that fans, in our author's time, were more coftly than they are at prefent, as well as of a different conftruction. They confifted of oftrich feathers, (or others of equal length and flexibility,) which were stuck into handles. The richer fort of these were compofed of gold, filver, or ivory of curious workmanship. In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Money, or Apleafant Comedy of a Woman will have her Will, 1616, is a portrait of a lady with one of thefe fans, which, after all, may prove the best commentary on the paffage. The three other fpecimens are taken from the Habiti Antichi et Moderni di tutto il Mondo, published

endanger my foul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you :-go.-A fhort knife and a throng;-to your manor of Pickt-hatch,

go.

You'll

at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cefare Vecelli, his brother. This fashion was perhaps imported from Italy, together with many others, in the reign of king Henry VIII. if not in that of king Richard II.

STEEVENS

It appears from Marton's Satives, that the fum of 401. was fometimes given for a fan in the time of queen Elizabeth. MALONE. In the Sidney papers, published by Collins, a fan is prefented to queen Elizabeth for a new year's gift, the handle of which was ftudded with diamonds. T. WARTON.

SA fort knife and a throng:] So Lear: "

come not to throngs." WARBURTON.

when cut-purses

Mr. Dennis reads-thong; which has been followed, I think, improperly, by fome of the modern editors. MALONE.

9

"

Pickt-batch,] Pit-batch was in Turnbull-fireet.
Your whore doth live

"In Pict-hatch, Turnbull-ftreet."

Amends for Ladies, a comedy by N. Field, 1639..

The

You'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue!-you tand upon your Lonour-Why, thou unconnnable bafeneis, it is as much as I can do, to keep the terms of my honour precife. I, I, I myself fometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in my neceffity, am fain to fuffie, to hedge, and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will enfconce your rags, your cata-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrafes, and your bold-beating aths, under the shelter of your honour! You will not do it, you?

Pift. I do relent; What would't thou more of man ?

Enter ROBIN.

Rob. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you.
Fal. Let her approach.

The derivation of the word may perhaps be difcovered from the following paffage in Cupid': Whirligig: "Set fome pickes upon your batch, and I pray, profefs to keep a bawdy-houfe." Perhaps the unfeafonable and obstreperous irruptions of the galiants of that age might render fuch a precaution necefiary. STEEVENS.

This was a cant name of fome part of the town noted for bawdyhoufes. Sir T. Hanmer fays, that this was a noted harbour for thieves and pickpockets," who certainly were proper companions for a man of Piftol's crofeffion. But Falstaff here more immediately means to ridicule another of his friend's vices; and there is fome humour in calling Piftol's favourite brothel, his manor of Pickt-batch.

1

T. WARTON. enfconce your rags, &c.] A fconce is a petty fortification. To enfeonce, therefore, is to protect as with a fort. The word occurs again in K. Henry IV. Part I. STEEVENS.

2-red-lattice phrafes,] Your ale-houfe converfation. JOHNSON. Red lattice at the doors and windows were formerly the external denotements of an ale-houfe. Hence the prefent chequers. Perhaps the reader will exprefs fome furprize, when he is told that fhops, with the fign of the chequers, were common among the Romans. See a view of the left-hand ftrect of Pompeii, (No. 9) prefented by Sir William Hamilton (together with feveral others, equally curious,) to the Antiquary Society. STEEVENS.

The following paflage in Braithwaite's Strapado for the Divell, 1615, confirms Mr. Steevens's obfervation." To the true difcoverer of fecrets, Monfieur Bacchus,-Mafter-gunner of the pottle-par ordnance, --prime-founder of red lattices &c."

In King Henry IV. P. II. Falstaff's page, speaking of Bardolph, fays, "he called me even now, my Lord, through a red lattice, and I could fee no part of his face from the window." MALONE.

Enter