Mym. i have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge. Pt. Wilt thou revenge? Nm. By welkia, and ser far! P4. With wit, or feel? Nom. With both the hamours, I: I will difcus the amour of this love to Pages. How Falltaf, varlet vile, His dove will prove, his gold will hold, Nym. My humour fhall not cool: I will incenfe Page to deal with polion; I will poffets him with yellownets", for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true hu mour. 7 Pift. Thou art the Mars of malecontents: I fecond thee; troop on. SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius's Houfe. [Exeunt. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY. Quick. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go to the cafement, and fee if you can fee my mafter, master Doctor 4-in my bead,] Thefe words, which are omitted in the folio, were recovered by Mr. Pope from the early quarto. MALONE. s I will difcufs the bumour of this love to Page.] The folio reads to Ford; and in the next line and I to Page, &c. But the reverfe of this (as Mr. Steevens has obferved) happens in A&t. II. where Nym makes the difcovery to Page, and Piftol to Ford. I have therefore corrected the text from the old quarto, where Nym declares he will make the difcovery to Page; and Piftol fays, " And 1 to Ford will likewife tell," MALONE. yellowness,] Yellowness is jealoufy. JOHNSON. 7 - the revolt of mien-] is change of countenance; one of the effects he has been just afcribing to jealoufy. STEEVENS. Nym means, I think, to fay, that kind of change in the complexion, which is caufed by jealoufy, renders the perfon poffeffed by fuch a paffion dangerous; confequently Ford will be likely to revenge himself on Falftaff, and I fhall be gratified. I believe our author wrote-bat revolt &c. though I have not disturbed the text. ye and yt in the Mfs. of his time were eafily confounded. MALONE. Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abufing of God's patience, and the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit RUGBY. Quick. Go; and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breedbate: his worft fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is fomething peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault; but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay your name is ? Sim. Ay, for fault of a better. Quick. And mafter Slender's your master? Sim. Ay, forfooth. Quick. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring knife? Sim. No, forfooth: he hath but a little wee face 2, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-colour'd beard3. Quick. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not? 8 at the latter end of a fea-coal fire.] That is, when my master is in bed. JOHNSON. 9no breed-bate:] Bate is an obfolete word, fignifying ftrife, contention. STEEVENS. 1-peevi] Peevish is foolish. So in Cymbeline, A& II: he's ftrange and peevish." STEEVENS. I believe, this is one of dame Quckly's blunders, and that she means precife. MALONE. a great round beard, &c.] See a note on K. Henry V. A&t. III. fc. vi: "And what a beard of the general's cut, &c." MALONE. 2-a little wee face,] Wee, in the northern dialect, fignifies very little. COLLINS. On the authority of the quarto, 1619, we might be led to readwhey face: "fomewhat of a weakly man, and has as it were a whey coloured beard." Macbeth calls one of the meflengers whey-face. STEEV. 3-a Cain-colour'd beard.] Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were represented with yellow beards. THEOBALD. In an age, when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from reprefentations in painting or tapestry. A cane-colour'd beard however, [the reading of the quarto,] might fignify a beard of the colour of cane, i. e. a fickly yellow; for fraw-coloured beards are mentioned in the Midsummer Night's Dream. STEEVENS. The words of the quarto, a whey-colour'd beard, ftrongly favour this reading; for whey and cane are nearly of the fame colour. MALONE. Sim. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands*, as any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a warrener. Quick. How fay you?-O, I fhould remember him; Does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quick. Well, heaven fend Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell mafter parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish— Re-enter RUGBY. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quick. We fhall all be fhent: Run in here, good young man; go into this clofet. [Shuts Simple in the closet.] He will not ftay long.-What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I fay! Go, John, go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home:-and down, down, adown-a6, &c. [Sings. Enter Doctor CAIUS7, Caius. Vat is you fing? I do not like defe toys; Pray you, 4 as tall a man of his hands,] Perhaps this is an allufion to the jocky measure, fo many bands bigk, ufed by grooms when fpeaking of horfes. Tall, in our author's time, fignified not only height of ftature, but ftoutness of body. The ambiguity of the phrase seems intended. PERCY. Whatever may be the origin of this phrafe, it is very ancient, being ufed by Gower. De Confeffione Amantis, lib. v. fol. 118. b. "A worthie knight was of bis bonde, "There was none fuch in all the londe." STEEVENS. Dr. Percy's account of the origin of this phrafe can hardly be juft; for a proper man of his hands" was likewile a phrafe of our author's age; and that cannot allude to the meafure of ho:fes. MALONE. 5- we fhall all be fhent :] i. e. fcolded, roughly treated. STEEVENS. and down, down, adown-a, &c.] To deceive her master, the fings as if at her work. SIR J. HAWKINS. 6 This appears to have been the burden of fome fong then well known. In Every woman in ber Humour, 1609, fign. E. 1. one of the characters fays, "Hey, good boyes i'faith; now a threemans fong, or the old downe adorne; well, things must be as they may; &c." REED. 7 Enter Doctor Caius.] Dr. John Caius was a celebrated phyfician a you, go and vetch me in my clofet un boitier verd3 box. Quick. Ay, forfooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad he went not in himself: if he had found the young man, he [Afide. would have been horn-mad. Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la Cour,-la grande affaire. Quick. Is it this, Sir. Caius. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Depeche, quickly:-Vere is dat knave Rugby? Quick. What, John Rugby! John! Rug. Here, Sir. Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court. Rug. 'Tis ready, Sir, here in the porch. Od's me! Qu'ai j'oublié? dere is fome fimples in my clofet, dat 1 vill not for the varld I fhall leave behind. Quick. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad. Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my clofet ?-Villainy! laron! [pulling Simple out.] Rugby, my rapier. in the time of Queen Elizabeth, and founder of Caius college, in Cambridge. He was born in 1510, and died in 1567: He is said to have written a great part of Grafton's Chronicle. MALONE. It has been thought ftrange, that our author fhould take the name of Caius for his Frenchman in this comedy; but Shakspeare was little acquainted with literary history; and without doubt, from his unusual name, fuppofed him to have been a foreign quack. Add to this, that the doctor was handed down as a kind of Rosicrucian: Mr. Ames had in Mf. one of the "fecret Writings of Dr. Caius." FARMER. This character of Dr. Caius might have been drawn from the life; as in Jacke of Dover's Queft of Enquiric, 1604, (perhaps a republication) a story called the Foole of Winfor begins thus: "Upon a time there was in Winfor a certaine fimple outlandishe doctor of phyficke, belonging to the deane, &c." STEEVENS. 8 -un boitier verd;] Boitier in French fignifies a cafe of furgeons inftruments. GREY. I believe it rather means a box of falve, or cafe to hold fimples, for which Caius profefies to feek. STEEVENS. P 4 Quick. How fall be revenged on him? for revenged I be, a fare as his guts are made of pussings. Mr. Ford. Miires Page! tra me, I was going a your house. Mrs. Page. And, truf me, I was coming to you. You Mr. Ford. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to fbow to the contrary. Mrs. Page. 'Faith, but you do, in my mind. Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then; yet, I fay, I could flow you to the contrary: O, miftreis Page give me fome counfel! Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman? Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one trifing respect, I could come to fuch honour! Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour: What is it?-difpenfe with trifles ;-what is it? Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or fo, I could be knighted. 4-for the putting down of fat men.] The word fat, which feems to have been inadvertently omitted in the folio, was restored by Mr. Theobald from the quarto, where the corresponding speech runs thus: "Well, I fhall truft fat men the worse, while I live, for his fake. O God; that I knew how to be revenged of him!"-Dr. Johnson, however, thinks that the infertion is unneceffary, as "Mrs. Page might naturally enough, in the first heat of her anger, rail at the sex for the fault of one." But the authority of the original sketch in quarto, and Mrs. Page's frequent mention of the fize of her lover in the play as it now ftands, in my opinion fully warrant the correction that has been made. Our author well knew that bills are brought into parliament for fome purpofe that at least appears praticable. Mrs. Page therefore in her paflion might exhibit a bill for the putting down or deftroying men of a particular defcription; but Shakspeare would never have made her threaten to introduce a bill to effect an impoffibility; viz. the exter mination of the whole fpecies. There is no error more frequent at the prefs than the omiffion of words. In a fheet of this work now before me, there was an out, (as it is termed in the printing-house,) that is, a paffage omitted, of no less than ten lines. In every fheet fome words are at first omitted. The expreilion, putting down, is a common phrase of our municipal law. MALONE, Mrs. |
