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Ford. And as wicked as his wife?

Evans. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and fack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and fwearings, and ftarings, pribbles and prabbles?

Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch flannel3; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me+: ufe me as you will.

Ford. Marry, fir, we'll bring you to windfor, to one mafter Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you should have been a pandar: over and above that you have fuffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, hufband 5, let that go to make amends: Forgive that fum, and fo we'll all be friends.

Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at laft.

Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou fhalt eat a poffet to-night at my houfe; where I will defire thee to laugh

3 - the Welch flannel ;] The very word is derived from a Welch one, fo that it is almoft unneceffary to add that flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales. STEEVENS.

It probably might make part of Sir Hugh's drefs. EDWARDS.

4 Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me :] The meaning may be, I am fo enfeebled, that ignorance itself weighs me down and opprefies me. JOHNSON. Perhaps Falstaff's meaning may be this: "Ignorance itself is a plum met o'er me: i. e. above me;" ignorance itself is not fo low as I am, by the length of a plummet-line. TYRWHITT.

Dr. Johnson, for plummet, proposes to read plume; Dr. Farmer fuggefts -planet. The latter conjecture (fays Mr. Steevens) derives fome fupport from a paffage in K. Henry VI. where Queen Margaret fays, that Suffolk's face

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rul'd like a wand'ring planet over me." I am fatisfied with the old reading. MALONE.

5 Mrs. Ford. Nay, bufband, &c.] This and the following little speech I have inserted from the old quartos. The retrenchment, I prefume, was by the players. Sir John Falstaff is fufficiently punished, in being disappointed and expofed. The expectation of his being profecuted for the twenty pounds, gives the conclufion too tragical a turn. Befides, it is poetical juftice that Ford should sustain this lofs, as a fine for his unreasonable jealousy. THEOBALD.

VOL. I.

X

at

at my wife, that now laughs at thee: Tell her, mafter Slender hath married her daughter.

Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be my daughter, the is, by this, doctor Caius wife.

Enter SLENDER.

Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page!

[Afide.

Page. Sou! how now? how now, fon? have you difpatch'd?

Slen. Difpatch'd! I'll make the heft in Gloucestershire know on't; would I were hang'd, la, else.

Page. Of what, fon?

Slen. I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, and the's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i'the church, I would have fwinged him, or he should have fwinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never ftir, and 'tis a poft-mafter's boy. Page. Upon my life then you took the wrong.

Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.

Page. Why, this is your own folly; Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her gar

ments?

Slen. I went to her in white, and cry'd, mum, and fhe cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a poft-mafter's boy.

Evans. Jefhu! Mafter Slender, cannot you see but marry boys 8?

6- laugh at my wife,] The two plots are excellently connected, and the transition very artfully made in this fpeech. JoHNSON.

7-in white,] The old copy, by the inadvertence of either the author or tranfcriber, reads-in green; and in the two fubfequent speeches of Mrs. Page, instead of green we find white. The corrections, which are fully justified by what has preceded, (fee p. 292,) were made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

8

-marry boys] This and the next speech are likewife reftorations from the old quarto. STEEVENS.

Page.

Page, O, I am vex'd at heart: What shall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpofe; turn'd my daughter into green; and, indeed, the is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married.

Enter CAIUS.

Caius. Vere is mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paifan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page: by gar, I am cozened. Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green?

Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I'll raise [Exit CAIUS. all Windfor. Ford. This is ftrange: Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart mifgives me: Here comes mafter Fenton.

Enter FENTON, and ANNE PAGE.

How now, mafter Fenton?

Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon! Page. Now, miftrefs? how chance you went not with mafter Slender?

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with mafter doctor,
maid?

Fent. You do amaze her; Hear the truth of it.
You would have married her most shamefully,
Where there was no proportion held in love.
The truth is, She and I, long fince contracted,
Are now fo fure, that nothing can diffolve us.
The offence is holy, that the hath committed:
And this deceit lofes the name of craft,
Of disobedience, or unduteous title;
Since therein the doth evitate and fhun

A thousand irreligious curfed hours,

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.
Ford. Stand not amaz'd: here is no remedy
In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state;
Money buys lands, and wives are fold by fate.

Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced.

X 2

Page.

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Fuge. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give

We act be editev, mit be embrac'i.

FLT1-dogs, afers of deer are cha'd'.
I can i wtance and eat plans at your wedding?
Mr. Pagr. Well, I will mue no farthe-Mater
Feason,

Heaven give you many, many merry days !—
Good inband, let us every one go bome,

And langa tals sport o'er by a country fre;
Sir John and 20.

Ford. Let it be fo :-Sir John,

To mañer Brook you yet fall hold your word;
For he, to-night, fhall lie with mitreis Ford 3. [Exeunt.

↑ Pigt. Well, mice remedy ?—] In the frit ketch of this play, which, as Mr. Pope onerves, is much inferior to the latter performance, the only fentiment of which I regret the omition, occurs at this critical When Fenton bringe in his wife, there is this dialogue. Mrs. Ford. Come, mifery's Page, I muß be bald with ya, Ti pry to part love that is fo trat.

Mr. Page. (Afice.] Although that I bave mii'd in my intent, Tn I am glad my busband's match is cross'd.

-Here Fenton, take ber

Evans. Come, matter Page, you must needs agree.
Ford. I faith, fir, come, you see your wife is pleas'd.
Page. I cannot tell, and yet my beart is eas'd;

And yet it deth me good the doctor mifs'd.

Come bitber, Fenton, and come bitber, daughter. JOHNSON.

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ail forts of deer are chas'd.] Young and old, does as well as bucks. He alludes to Fenton's having just run down Anne Page. MALONE.

2 I will dance &c.] This fpeech was restored from the first quarto by Mr. Pope; but inferted improperly before that of Falstaff, which feems to have been intended to rhime with the preceding line. MALONE.

3 Of this play there is a tradition preserved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was fo delighted with the character of Falstaff, that the wished it to be diffused through more plays; but fufpecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diverfify his manner, by fhewing him in love. No talk is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakspeare knew what the queen, if the story be true, feems not to have known, that by any real paffion of tenderness, the felfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff must have suffered fo much abate.

ment,

ment, that little of his former caft would have remained. Falstaff could not love, but by ceafing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his profeffions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his own idea, feems not to have been able to give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.

This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the perfonages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and difcriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play.

Whether Shakspeare was the first that produced upon the English ftage the effect of language diftorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide *. This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praife only on him, who originally difcovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgment: its fuccefs must be derived almoft wholly from the player, but its power in a fkilful mouth, even he that despises it, is unable to refift.

The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often before the conclufion, and the different parts might change places without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by which all works of genius fhall finally be tried, is fuch, that perhaps it never yet had reader or spectator, who did not think it too foon at an end. JOHNSON. The story of The two Lovers of Pifa, from which (as Dr. Farmer has obferved) Falstaff's adventures in this play feem to have been taken, is thus related in Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatorie, bl. let. no date. [Entered in the Stationers' Books, June 16, 1590.]

"In Pifa, a famous cittie of Italye, there liued a gentleman of good linage and landes, feared as well for his wealth, as honoured for his vertue; but indeed well thought on for both : yet the better for his riches. This gentleman had one onelye daughter called Margaret, who for her beauty was liked of all, and defired of many: but neither might their futes, nor her owne preuaile about her fathers refolution, who was determyned not to marrye her, but to fuch a man as should be able in abundance to maintain the excellency of her beauty. Diuers young gentlemen proffered large feoffments, but in vaine: a maide fhee muft bee ftill: till at last an olde doctor in the towne, that professed phificke, became a futor to her; who was a welcome man to her father, in that he was one of the welthiest men in all Pifa. A tall strippling he was, and a proper youth, his age about fourefcore; his head as white as milke, wherein for offence fake there was left neuer a tooth: but it is no mat

• In the Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italian merchant, very ftrongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dodypoll, in the comedy which bears his name, is, like Caius, a French phyfician. This piece appeared at least a year before the Merry Wives of Windfor. The hero of it speaks such another Jargon as the antagonist of Sir Hugh, and like him is cheated of his mistress. In feveral other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakspeare's, provincial characters are introduced. STEEVENS.

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