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Page. I will not believe fuch a Cataian, though the priest o' the town commended him for a true man.

Ford. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow :

Page. How now, Meg?

6 Well.

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George?-Hark you. Mrs. Ford. How now, fweet Frank? why art thou melancholy?

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.-Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. 'Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head now.- -Will you go, mistress Page?

Mrs. Page. Have with you. You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe fhall be our meffenger to this paltry knight. [Afide to Mrs. FORD.

5 All the mystery of the term Cataian, for a liar, is only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the first adventurers that travelled thither; fuch as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told fuch incredible wonders of this new difcovered empire (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jefuits themselves, who followed them,) that a notorious liar was ufually called a Cataian. WARBURTON.

"This fellow has fuch an odd appearance, is fo unlike a man civilized, and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit him." To be a foreigner was always in England, and I fuppofe every where else, a reafon of dislike. So Piftol calls Sir Hugh in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of grofs behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian wight. JOHNSON.

I believe that neither of the commentators is in the right, but am far from profeffing, with any great degree of confidence, that I am happier in mine own explanation. It is remarkable, that in Shakspeare, this expreffion-a true man, is always put in oppofition (as it is in this inftance) to-a thief. So, in Henry IV. P. I:

"" — now the thieves have bound the true men."

The Chinese (anciently called Cataians) are faid to be the most dexterous of all the nimble-finger'd tribe; and to this hour they deferve the fame character. Piftol was known at Windfor to have a hand in picking Stender's pocket, and therefore might be called a Cataian with propriety, if my explanation be admitted.

That by a Cataian fome kind of sharper was meant, I infer from a pas fage in Love and Honour, a play by Sir William D'Avenant, 1649.

STEEVENS.

6 This, and the two preceding fpeeches of Ford, are spoken to himself, and have no connection with the fentiments of Page, who is likewise making his comment on what had paffed, without attention to Ford.

3

TEEVENS

Enter

Enter Mistress QUICKLY.

Mrs. Ford. Truft me, I thought on her: fhe'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quick. Ay, forfooth; And, I pray, how does good mis. trefs Anne?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Exeunt Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Mrs. QUICKLY. Page. How now, master Ford?

Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did you not?
Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told me ?
Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

Page. Hang 'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but these that accufe him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his difcarded men; very rogues, now they be out of fervice."

Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he fhould intend this voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident; I would have nothing lie on my head: I cannot be thus fatisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting host of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purfe, when he looks fo merrily.-How now, mine host ?

Enter Hoft, and SHALLOW.

Hoft. How now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gentleman: cavalero-juftice, I fay.

Shal. I follow, mine hoft, I follow.-Good even, and twenty,

7 A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its confequential fignification, a cheat. JOHNSON.

Here feems to be an allufion to Shakspeare's favourite topick, the cuckold's horns. MALONE.

twenty, good mafter Page! Mafter. Page, will you go with us? we have fport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavalero-juftice; tell him, bully-rook.. Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between fir Hugh the Welch priest, and Caius the French doctor.

Ford. Good mine host o' the Garter, a word with you. Hoft. What fay'ft thou, bully-rook? [They go afide. Shal. Will you [to Page] go with us to behold it? My merry hoft hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places: for, believe me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our fport fhall be.

Hoft. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my gueft-cavalier? Ford. None, I proteft: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourfe to him, and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jeft.

Hoft. My hand, bully: thou fhalt have egrefs and regress; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook: It is a merry knight.-Will you go on, hearts ? 9

Shal. Have with you, mine hoft.

Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier.

Shal. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In these times you ftand on distance, your paffes, ftoccadoes, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, mafter Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time, with my long fword,2 I would have made you four tall fellows 3 skip like rats.

Hoft

9 The merry Hoft has already faluted them feparately by titles of diftinction; he therefore probably now addreffes 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 scene of this play, Farewell my hearts. Again, in The Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom fays, ". Where are thefe bearts ?" My brave hearts, or my bold bearts, is a common word of encouragement. A beart of gold expreffes the more foft and amiable qualities, the mores aurei of Horace; and a beart of oak is a frequent encomium of rugged honefty. STEEVENS.

2 Before the introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length, and sometimes raifed 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.

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 ftands fo firmly 4 on his wife's frailty 5 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 difguife to found Faltaff: If I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if the be otherwife, 'tis labour well bestow'd.

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A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.

Pift. Why, then the world's mine oyster, 7

[Exit.

Which

It should feem from a paffage in Nash's Life of Jacke Wilton, 1594, that rapiers were used in the reign of Henry VIII: "At that time I was no common fquire, &c.-my rapier pendant like a round stick faftned in the tacklings, for skippers the better to climbe by." Sig. C 4.

RITSON.

3 A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant a stout, bold, or courageous perfon. STEEVENS.

4 Thus all the copies. But Mr. Theobald has no conception how any man cou'd stand firmly on his wife's frailty. And why? Because he had no conception how he could ftand upon it, without knowing what it was. But if I tell a stranger, that the bridge he is about to crofs is rotten, `and' he believes it not, but will go on, may I not fay, when I fee him upon it, that he ftands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford editor has followed him. But they took the phrafe, to ftand firmly on, to fignify to infift upon; whereas it fignifies to rest upon, which the character of a fecure fool, given to him, th ws. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be loft in the alteration.

WARBURTON. To ftand on any thing, does fignify to insist on it. The jealous Ford is the fpeaker, and all chastity in women appears to him as frailty. He fuppofes Page therefore to infift on that virtue as fteady, which he him. felf fufpects to be without foundation. STEEVENS.

5 i. e. has fuch perfect confidence in his unchafte wife. His wife's . frailty is the fame as his frail wife. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, we meet with death and bonour, for an honourable death. MALONE.

6 An obfolete phrafe fignifying--what they did there. MALONE. 7 Dr. Grey fuppofes Shakspeare to allude to an old proverb, _Tho

mayor

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

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Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, fir, you fhould lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow, Nym; 9 or else 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 miftrefs Bridget loft the handle of her fan,' I took't upon mine honour, thou hadst it not.

Pift.

mayor of Northampton opens oyfters_with_his_dagger.”—i. e. to keep them at a fufficient diftance from his nofe, that town being fourscore miles from the fea. STEEVENS.

8 This means, I will pay you again in ftolen goods. WARBURTON. 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 Donne) we have several of them :

"Embellish, blandishment, and equipage,"

Which words, he tells us in the margin,” overmuch favour of witlesse affeftation. FARMER.

Dr. Warburton's interpretation is, I think, right. Equipage indeed does not per fe fignify stolen goods, but fuch goods as Piftol promises to return, we may fairly fuppofe, would be ftolen. Equipage, which, as Dr. Farmer obferves, had been but newly introduced into our language, is defined by Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616: «Furniture, or provifion for horfemanship, efpecially in triumphs or tournaments.” Hence the modern ufe of this word. MALONE.

9 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 discarded men." MALONE.

It should 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 composed of gold, filver, or ivory of curious workmanship.

In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Money, or A pleafant Comedy of a woman will have ber Will, 1616, is a portrait of a lady with one of these 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 at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cesare Vecelli, his brother. This fashion

was

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