Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my lodges.

Fal. But not kifs'd your keeper's daughter?

Shal. Tut, a pin! this fhall be answer'd.

Fal. I will answer it ftraight ;-I have done all this :That is now answer'd.

Shal. The Council fhall know this.

Fal. "Twere better for you, if 'twere known in counfel you'll be laugh'd at.

Evans. Pauca verba, fir John; good worts.

Fal. Good worts! good cabbage.-Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me?

Slen. Marry, fir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching rafcals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me

5

to the

and broke open my lodge.] This probably alludes to fome real incident, at that time well known. JOHNSON.

So probably Falftaft's answer.

FARMER.

6 'Twere better for you, if 'tavere known in counsel:] Falstaff quibbles between council and counfel. The latter fignifies fecrecy. So, in Hamlet: "The players cannot keep courfel, they'll tell all."

Falstaff's meaning feems to be-'twere better for you if it were known only in fecrecy, i. e. among your friends. A more publick complaint would fubject you to ridicule.

Thus, in Chaucer's prologue to the Squieres Tale, v. 10305, late edit: "But wete ye what? in confeil be it seyde,

"Me reweth fore I am unto hire teyde." STEEVENS.

The spelling of the old quarto (counsel), as well as the general purport of the paffage, fully confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation.Shal. Well, the Councel fhall know it. Fal. "Twere better for you 'twere known in counfell. You'll be laugh'd at."

In an office-book of Sir Heneage Finch, Treasurer of the Chambers to Queen Elizabeth, (a Mf. in the British Mufeum,) I obferve that whenever the Privy Council is mentioned, the word is always fpelt Counfel; fo that the equivoque was lefs ftrained then than it appears now.

"Mum is Counfell, viz. filence," is among Howel's Proverbial Sentences. See his DICT. folio, 1660. MALONE.

7 Good worts! good cabbage:] Worts was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind. STEEVENS.

8 coney-catching rafcals,] A coney-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or fharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, published A Detion of the Frauds and Tricks of Coney-catchers and Couzeners.

tavern, and made me drunk, and afterward pick'd my pocket".

Bar. You Banbury cheefe !!

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Pift. How now, Mephoftophilus ??

Slen. Ay, it is no matter.

Njm. Slice, I fay! pauca, pauca3; flice! that's my

humour.

Slen. Where's Simple, my man?-can you tell, coufin ? Evans. Peace: I pray you! Now let us underftand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is mafter Page, fidelicet, mafter Page; and there is myfelf, fidelicet, myfelf; and the three party is, lafly and finally, mine hoft of the Garter.

Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them. Evans. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause, with as great difcreetly as we can.

Fal. Piftol,

Pift. He hears with ears.

Evans. The tevil and his tam! what phrafe is this, Ile bears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

Fal. Piftol, did you pick mafter Slender's purfe? Slen. Ay, by thefe gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else,) of

9 They carried me &c.] Thefe words, which are necessary to introduce what Falstaff fays afterwards, ["Piftol, did you pick master Slender's purfe?"] I have restored from the early quarto. Of this circumftance, as the play is exhibited in the folio, Sir John could have no knowledge. MALONE.

You Banbury cheefe !] This is faid in allufion to the thin carcafe of Slender. STEEVENS.

2 How now, Mephoftophilus ?] This is the name of a spirit or familia, in the old story book of Sir John Fauftus, or John Fauft: to whom or author afterwards alludes. It was a cant phrase of abule. T. WARTON.

3 Slice, I fay; pauca, pauca !] Dr. Farmer (fee a former note, p. 193, n. 6.) would transfer the Latin words to Evans. But the old copy, I think, is right. Piftol, in K. Henry V. ules the fame language: - I will hold the quondam Quickly

For the only fhe ; and pauca, there's enough."

In the fame fcene Nym twice ufes the word jelus. MALONE.

feven groats in mill-fixpences, and two Edward fhovelboards, that cost me two fhilling and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves.

Fal.

4 mill-fixpences,] It appears from a paffage in Sir W. Davenant's News from Plimouth, that these mill'd fixpences were used by way of counters to caft up money:

5

A few mill'd fixpences, with which

"My purfer cafts accompt." STEEVENS.

Edward Shovel-boards,] He means the broad fhillings of one of our kings, as appears from comparing these words with the corresponding palage in the old quarto: "Ay by this handkerchief did he ;two faire shovel-board fhillings, befides feven groats in mill fixpences." How twenty eight pence could be loft in mill-fixpences, Slender, however, has not explained to us. MALONE.

Edward Shovel-boards are the broad fhillings of Edward VI. Taylor, the water poet, makes him complain :

66

the unthrift every day

"With my face downwards do at hoave-board play;
"That had I had a beard, you may fuppofe,

"They had worne it off, as they have done my nose."

And in a note he tells us: "Edw. fhillings for the most part are used at fboave-board." FARMER.

Dr. Farmer's note, and the authority he quotes, might, I think, pafs uncenfured, unleís better proofs could be produced in oppofition to them. They have, however, been objected to; and we are pofitively told that Master Slender's "Edward Shovel boards have undoubtedly been broad fhillings of Edward the Third." I believe the broad fhillings of that monarch were never before heard of, as he undoubtedly did not coin any fhillings whatever. The following extract, for the notice of which I am indebted to Dr. Farmer, will probably fhew the fpecies of coin mentioned in the text. "I must here take notice before I entirely quit the fubject of these last-mentioned fhillings [of Edward VI.] that I have alfo feen fome other pieces of good filver, greatly refembling the fame, and of the fame date, 1547, that have been fo much thicker as to weigh about half an ounce, together with fome others that have weighed an ounce." Folkes's Table of English filver coins, p. 32. The former of thefe were probably what cost Master Slender two fhillings and two pence a-piece. As to the point of chronology (to use the objector's own words on another occafion) it is not worth confideration. REED.

That Shakspeare fhould here (as in all his other plays) have attributed the customs and manners of his own age to a preceding century, without any regard to chronology, cannot be a matter of furprife to any reader who is converfant with his compofitions; nor is it to be wonder ed at, that the present unfounded objection should have been made by one, whofe arguments in general, like thofe of our author's Gratiano," are

0 4

twq

Fal. Is this true, Pistol?

Evans. No; it is falfe, if it is a pick-purfe.

Pift. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner!-Sir John, and master mine,

I combat challenge of this latten bilboe 6:
Word of denial in thy labras here 7;

Word of denial: froth and fcum, thou lieft.
Slen. By thefe gloves, then 'twas he.

Nym. Be avis'd, Sir, and pafs good humours: I will fay, marry trap, with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.

two grains of wheat hid in two bufhels of chaff; you fhall feek all day ere you find them, and, when you have them, they are not worth the fearch." MALONE.

6 I combat challenge of this latten bilboe:] Pistol, feeing Slender fuch a flim, puny weight, would intimate, that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten: and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. THEOBALD.

Latten is a mixed metal, made of copper and calamine. MALONE. The farcafm intended is, that Slender had neither courage nor ftrength, as a latten fword hath neither edge nor fubftance. HEATH.

I believe Theobald has given the true fenfe of latten, though he is wrong in fuppofing, that the allufion is to Slender's thinness. It is rather to his foftness or weakness. TYRWHITT.

7 - in thy labras here;] I fuppofe it thould rather be read:

Word of denial in my labras hear;

that is, bear the word of denial in my lips. Thou lyft. JOHNSON. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat, Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adverfary, and is fuppofed to point to them as he fpeaks. STEEVENS.

There are few words in the old copies more frequently mifprinted than the word hear. "Thy lips," however, is certainly right, as appears from the old quarto: "I do retort the lie even in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge." MALONE.

- marry trap,-] When a man was caught in his own ftratagem, I fuppofe the exclamation of infult was marry, trap! JOHNSON. 9- nutbook's bumour-] If you run the nutbook's bumour on me, is in plain English, If you say I am a thief. Enough is faid on the fubject of booking moveables out of winderos, in a note on K. Henry IV.

STEEVENS.

Fal.

Fal. What fay you, Scarlet and John'?

Bard. Why, fir, for my part, I fay, the gentleman had drunk himfelf out of his five fentences.

Evans. It is his five fenfes: fye, what the ignorance is!

Bard. And being fap 2, fir, was, as they fay, cashier'd; and fo conclufions pafs'd the careires 3.

Slen. Ay, you fpake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilft I live again, but in honeft, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Evans. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind."

Fal. You hear all thefe matters deny'd, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter Miftrefs Anne Page with wine; Miftrefs Ford and Miftrefs Page following.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit Anne Page. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. Page. How now, miftrefs Ford?

Fal. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good mistress. [kiffing her. Page. Wife, bid thefe gentlemen welcome:-Come,

1

Scarlet and John?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour confifts in the allufion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which, fee Henry IV. Part II. WARBURTON.

2 And being fap,-] I know not the exact meaning of this cant word, neither have I met with it in any of our old dramatick pieces, which have often proved the best comments on Shakspeare's vulgarifms. —Dr. Farmer, indeed, obferves, that to fib is to be beat; fo that fap may mean being beaten, and cashier'd, turned out of company. STEEV. The word fap is probably made from vappa, a drunken fellow, or a good for nothing fellow, whofe virtues are all exhaled. Slender in his anfwer feems to understand that Bardolph had made ufe of a Latin word. S. W.

3 careires.] I believe this ftrange word is nothing but the French cariere; and the exprefiion means, that the common bounds of good bebaviour were overpaffed. JOHNSON.

Cariere is a term of the manege. It is, I believe, properly the ring or circle wherein managed horfes move. MALONE.

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