Will. Genitive,-borum, harum, horum2. Quick. 'Vengeance of Jenny's cafe? fie on her!-never name her, child, if fhe be a whore. Evans. For fhame, 'oman. Quick. You do ill to teach the child fuch words: he teaches him to hick and to hack 3, which they'll do fast enough of themselves; and to call, horum :-fie upon you! Evans. 'Oman, art thou lunaticks? haft thou no underftandings for thy cafes, and the numbers of the genders? Thou art a foolish chriftian creatures, as I would defires. Mrs. Page. Pr'ythee, hold thy peace. Evans. Shew me now, William, fome declenfions of your pronouns. Will. Forfooth, I have forgot. Evans. It is ki, kæ, cod; if you forget your kies, your kas, and your cods, you must be preeches . Go your ways, and play, go. Mrs. Page. He is a better scholar, than I thought he was. Evans. He is a good fprag 6 memory, Farewell, miftrefs Page. Mrs. Page. Adieu, good fir Hugh. Get you home, boy.Come, we stay too long. [Exeunt. 2 borum, barum, borum.] Taylor, the water-poet, has borrowed this jeft, fuch as it is, in his character of a strumpet: 3 "And come to borum, barum, whorum, then "She proves a great proficient among men." STEEVENS. to hick and to hack,] Sir William Blackstone thought that this, "in Dame Quickly's language, fignifies to flammer or befitate, as boys do in faying their leffons;" but Mr. Steevens, with more probability, fuppofes it fignifies, in her language,to do mischief. MALONE. your kies, your kæs &c.] All this ribaldry is likewife found in Taylor, the water-poet. See fol. edit. p. 106. STEEVENS. 4 5- you must be preeches.] Sir Hugh means to fay-you must be breech'd: i.e flogg'd. To breech is to flog. So, in the Taming of the Shrew : "I am no breeching scholar in the fchools." STEEVENS. 6 - Sprag-] I am told that this word is ftill ufed by the common people in the neighbourhood of Bath, where it fignifies ready, alert, Sprightly, and is pronounced as if it was written Sprack. STEEVENS. A fprackt lad or wench, fays Ray, is apt to learn, ingenious. REED. VOL. I. T SCENE SCENE II. A Room in Ford's Houfe. Enter FALSTAFF, and Mrs. FORD. Fal. Mitrefs Ford, your forrow hath eaten up my fufferance: I fee, you are obfequious in your love, and I profefs requital to a hair's breadth; not only, miitress Ford, in the fimple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, complement, and ceremony of it. But are you fure of your husband now? Mrs. Ford. He's a birding, fweet fir John. Mrs. Page. [within.] What hoa, goffip Ford! what hoa! Mrs. Ford. Step into the chamber, fir John. Enter Miftrefs PAGE. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Page. How now, fweetheart? who's at home bsfides yourself? Mrs. Ford. Why, none but mine own people. Mrs. Ford. No, certainly :-Speak louder. [Afide. Mrs. Page. Truly, I am fo glad you have nobody here. Mrs. Ford. Why? Mrs. Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes 7 again: he fo takes on yonder with my husband; fo rails against all married mankind; fo curses all Eve's daughters, of what complexion foever; and fo buffets himself on the forehead, crying, Peer-out, peer-out?! that lunes- i. e. lunacy, frenzy. See a note on the Winter's Tale, A& II. fc. ii. The folio reads lines, inftead of lunes. The elder quartos -his old vaine again. STEEVENS. The correction was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE. be fo takes on-] To take on, which is now used for to grieve, feems to be used by our author for to rage. JOHNSON. It is ufed by Nafh in Pierce Penniless bis Supplication to the Devil, 1592, in the fame fenfe: "Some will take on like a madman, if they fee a pig come to table." MALONE. 9-peer-out,] That is, appear borns. Shakspeare is at his old lunes. JOHNSON. Shakspeare that any madness, I ever yet beheld, feem'd but tamenefs, civility, and patience, to this his diftemper he is in now: I am glad the fat knight is not here. Mrs. Ford. Why, does he talk of him? Mrs. Page. Of none but him; and fwears, he was carried out, the last time he search'd for him, in a basket: protests to my husband, he is now here; and hath drawn him and the reft of their company from their sport, to make another experiment of his fufpicion: but I am glad the knight is not here; now he fhall fee his own foolery. Mrs. Ford. How near is he, mistress Page. Mrs. Page. Hard by; at ftreet end; he will be here anon. Mrs. Ford. I am undone !—the knight is here. Mrs. Page. Why, then you are utterly fhamed, and he's but a dead man. What a woman are you?-Away with him, away with him; better fhame than murther. Mrs. Ford. Which way fhould he go? how fhould I bestow him? Shall I put him into the basket again? Enter FALSTAFF. Fal. No, I'll come no more i' the basket: May I not go out, ere he come ? Mrs. Page. Alas, three of mafter Ford's brothers watch the door with piftols, that none fhall iffue out; otherwise you might flip away ere he came. make you here'? But what Fal. What shall I do ?-I'll creep up into the chimney. Mrs. Ford. There they always ufe to discharge their birding-pieces: Creep into the kiln-hole *. Fal. Where is it? Mrs. Ford. He will feek there on my word. Neither prefs, coffer, cheft, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an Shakspeare here refers to the practice of children, when they call on a fnail to push forth his horns : Peer out, peer out, peer out of your hole, Or elfe I'll beat you black as a coal. HENLEY. But what make you bere ?] i. e. What do you here? MALONE. Creep into the kiln-bole.] I fufpect, these words belong to Mrs. Page. See Mrs. Ford's next fpeech. That, however, may be a fecond thought; a correction of her former propofal: but the other suppofition is more probable. MALONE. abstract for the remembrance of fuch places, and goes to them by his note: There is no hiding you in the house. Fal. I'll go out then. Mrs. Page. If you go out in your own femblance, you die, fir John. Unless you go out disguis'd,— Mrs. Ferd. How might we difguife him? Mrs. Page. Alas the day, I know not. There is no woman's gown big enough for him; otherwife, he might put on a hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape. Fal. Good hearts, devife fomething: any extremity, rather than a mischief. Mrs. Ford. My maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brentford, has a gown above. Mrs. Page. On my word, it will ferve him; fhe's as big as he is and there's her thrum'd hat, and her muffler too 3: Run up, fir John. : Mrs. Ford. Go, go, fweet fir John: mistress Page, and I, will look fome linen for your head. Mrs. Page. Quick, quick; we'll come drefs you ftraight put on the gown the while. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Ford. I would, my husband would meet him in this fhape: he cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he fwears, she's a witch; forbade her my house, and hath threaten'd to beat her. Mrs. Page. Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel; and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards! Mrs. Ford. But is my husband coming? Mrs. Page. Ay, in good fadnefs, is he; and talks of the basket too, howsoever he hath had intelligence. Mrs. Ford. We'll try that; for I'll appoint my men to carry 2- an abstract] i. e. a fhort note or defcription. So, in Hamlet :"the abftra&t and brief chronicle of the times." MALONE. Mrs. Page. If you go &c.] In the first folio, by the mistake of the compofitor, the name of Mrs. Ford is prefixed to this speech and the next, For the correction now made the prefent editor is anfwerable. The editor of the fecond folio put the two fpeeches together, and gave them both to Mrs. Ford. The threat of danger from without ascertains the firft to belong to Mrs. Page. See her speech on her entrance. MALONE. 3-ber thrum'd hat, and her muffler too:] The thrum is the end of a weaver's warp, and we may fuppofe, was used for the purpose of making coarse hats. A muffler was fome part of drefs that covered the face. STEEVENS. A thrum'd carry the basket again, to meet him at the door with it, as they did last time. Mrs. Page. Nay, but he'll be here presently: let's go drefs him like the witch of Brentford. Mrs. Ford. I'll first direct my men, what they fhall do with the basket. Go up, I'll bring linen for him ftraight. [Exit. Mrs. Page. Hang him, difhoneft varlet! we cannot mifufe him enough 4. We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do, We do not act, that often jeft and laugh; 'Tis old but true, Still fwine eat all the draughs. [Exit. Re-enter Mrs. FORD, with two Servants. you fet Mrs. Ford. Go, firs, take the bafket again on your fhoulders; your master is hard at door; if he bid it down, obey him: quickly, dispatch. 1. Serv. Come, come, take it up. [Exit. 2. Serv. Pray heaven, it be not full of knight again. 1. Serv. I hope not; I had as lief bear fo much lead. Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and Sir Hugh EVANS. Ford. Ay, but if it prove true, mafter Page, have you any way then to unfool me again ?-Set down the basket, villain-Somebody call my wife:-You youth in a basket, come out here?!-O, you panderly rafcals! there's a knot, a gang, a pack, a confpiracy, against me: Now A thrum'd hat was made of very coarfe woollen cloth. See Minfheu's DICT. 1617, in v. Thrum'd is, formed of thrums. MALONE. mifufe him enough.] Him which was accidentally omitted in the first folio, was inferted by the editor of the fecond. 4 MALONE. 5 Still favine &c.] This is a proverbial fentence. See Ray's Collection. MALONE. 6 of knight] Thus the only authentick copy, the first folio. The editor of the fecond reads-of the knight; I think, unneceflarily. We have just had-" hard at door." MALONE. 7 You youth in a basket come out here!] This reading I have adopted from the early quarto. The folio has only Youth in a basket!"* MALONE. s—a gang,] Old Copy-gin. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. T 3 fhall |