Cricket, to Windfor chimneys fhalt thou leap: Fal. They are fairies; he, that speaks to them, fhall die : Evans.Where's Pede? Go you, and where you find a maid, Sleep the as found as careless infancy; But thofe, as fleep, and think not on their fins, Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, fhoulders, fides, and fhins", Search Windfor caftle, elves, within and out: couplets do and accordingly, in the old editions, the final words of each line are printed, oyes and toyes. This therefore is a striking inftance of the inconvenience which has arifen from modernizing the orthography of Shakspeare. TYRWHITT. 7-as bilberry:] The bilberry is the whortleberry. Fairies were always fuppofed to have a strong averfion to fluttery. Thus, in the old fong of Robin Good Fellow. See Dr. Percy's Reliques, &c. Vol. III: "When houfe or hearth doth fluttish lye, "I pinch the maidens black and blue, &c." STEEVENS. -Go you, and where you find a maid, That, ere she fleep, bath thrice ber prayers faid, Raije up the organs of her fantaly, Sleep he as found as careless infancy; But thofe, as fleep, and think not on their fins, Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, fides, and spins.] i. e, Go you, and wherever you find a maid afleep, that hath thrice prayed to the deity, though, in confequence, of her innocence the fleep as foundly as an infant, elevate her fancy, and amufe her tranquil mind with fome delightful vifion; but those whom you find afleep, without having previously thought on their fins, and prayed to heaven for forgiveness, pinch &c. It should be remembered, that thofe perfons who fleep very foundly, feldom dream. Hence the injunction "to raife up the organs of her fantafy," "Sleep the &c." i. e. though the fleep as found &c. Dr. Warburton, who appears to me to have totally misunderstood this paffage, reads-Rein up &c. in which he has been followed, in my opinion too hastily, by the fubfequent editors. MALONE. -on every facred room;] See Chaucer's Cant. Tales, v. 3482, edit. Tyrwhitt. On foure halves of the hous aboute," &c. MALONE. In ftate as wholesome, as in ftate 'tis fit; In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white; Buckled below fair knight-hood's bending knee : } Evans. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order fet: And twenty glow-worms fhall our lanthorns be, -as wholefome,] Wholefom here fignifies integer. He wishes the caftle may stand in its prefent ftate of perfection. WARBURTON. The feveral chairs of order look you scour With juice of balm, &c.] It was an article of our ancient luxury, to rub tables, &c. with aromatick herbs. Pliny informs us, that the Romans did the fame, to drive away evil spirits. STEEVENS. 2 - for their charactery.] For the matter with which they make letters. JOHNSON. 3 of middle earth.] Spirits are fuppofed to inhabit the ethereal regions, and fairies to dwell under ground; men therefore are in a middle ftation. JOHNSON. So, in the ancient metrical romance of Syr Guy of Warwick, bl. 1. no date : "Thou mayft them flea with dint of fwearde, "And win the fayreft mayde of middle erde." Again, in Gower, De Confeffione Amantis, fol. 26: "Adam, for pride, loft his price "In myddell ertb." STEEVENS, Fal. F. Heavens defend me from that Welch fairy! left be transform me to a piece of cheese! P6.Vile worm, thou wait o'er-look'd even in thy birth*. Sand. With trial-fre touch me his finger-end: If he be chane, the fame will back defcend, And turn him to no pain; but if he start, It is the fe of a corrupted heart. P:4. A trial, come. Etar. Come, will this wood take fire? Fal. Oh, oh, oh! [Tery burn him with their tapers. Quick. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in defire! SONG. Fie on finful phantafy! Fie on laft and luxury! Fed in heart; hoje flames aspire, As thoughts do blow them, bigher and higher. Pinch him for his villainy ; 4 Vile worm, thou waft o'er-look'd even in thy birth.] The old copy reads vild. That wild, which so often occurs in thefe plays, was not an error of the prefs, but the old fpelling and the pronunciation of the time, appears from thefe lines of Heywood, in his Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, 1637: "EARTH. What goddefs, or how flyld? "AGE. Age am I call'd. "EARTH. Hence, falfe virago wild!" However, as the fpelling of the original copy of our author's plays has not been adhered to in the modern editions, there is no reason why this in particular fhould be preferved. In a paffage in the Tempeft, I have inadvertently retained the old fpelling of this word. MALONE. 5- and luxury !] Luxury is here used for incontinence. So, in K. Lear: "To't luxury, pell-mell, for I lack foldiers." STEEVENS. Luft is but a bloody fire,] A bloody fire, means a fire in the blood. In K. Henry IV. P. II. A& IV. the fame expreffion occurs: "Led on by bloody youth," &c. i. e. fanguine youth. STEEVENS. So alfo, in the Tempeft: the ftrongest oaths are ftraw "To the fire i'the blood." MALONE. Pinch him, and burn him, and turn him about, Till candles, and ftar-light, and moon-shine be out. During this fong, the fairies pinch Falstaff". Doctor Caius comes one way, and fteals away a fairy in green; Slender another way, and takes off a fairy in white; and Fenton comes, and fteals away Mrs. Anne Page. A noise of bunting is made within. All the fairies run away. Falstaff pulls off his buck's head, and rises. Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, and Mrs. FORD. They lay hold on him. Page. Nay, do not fly: I think, we have watch'd you now; Will none but Herne the hunter ferve your turn? Mrs. Page. I pray you, come; hold up the jeft no higher : : Now, good fir John, how like you Windsor wives? Ford. Now, fir, who's a cuckold now ?-Mafter Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, mafter Brook: And, mafter Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck-bafket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money; which must be paid to mafter Brook; his horfes are arrefted for it, master Brook. Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could 7 the fairies pinch Falstaff.] So, in Lilly's Endymion, 1591: "The fairies dance, and with a long pinch him." STEEVENS. 8 See you thefe, bufband? do not these fair yokes Become the foreft better than the town] Mrs. Page's meaning is this. Seeing the horns (the types of cuckholdom) in Falstaff's hand, the asks her husband, whether thofe yokes are not more proper in the foreft than in the town; i. e. than in his own family. THEOBALD. The editor of the fecond folio changed yokes to-oaks. MALONE. 9to mafter Brook;] We ought rather to read with the old quarto, "which must be paid to mafter Ford;" for as Ford, to mortify Falftaff, addrefies him throughout this fpeech by the name of Brook, the defcribing himself by the fame name creates a confufion. A modern editor plaufibly enough reads "which must be paid too, Mafter Brook;" but the first sketch fhews that to is right; for the fentence, as it stands In the quarto, will not admit too. MALONE. 4 never never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive, that I am made an ass. Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant. Fal. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought, they were not fairies: and yet the guiltinefs of my mind, the fudden furprize of my powers, drove the groffnefs of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, in defpight of the teeth of all rhime and reafon, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent', when 'tis upon ill employment! Evans. Sir John Falftaff, ferve Got, and leave your defires, and fairies will not pinfe you. Ford. Well faid, fairy Hugh. Evans. And leave your jealoufies too, I pray you. Ford. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I lay'd my brain in the fun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent fo grofs o'er-reaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'tis time I were choak'd with a piece of toasted cheese. Evans. Seefe is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter. Fal. Seefe and putter! Have I lived to ftand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of luft and late-walking, through the realm. Mrs. Page. Why, fir John, do you think, though we would have thruft virtue out of our hearts by the head and fhoulders, and have given ourfelves without fcruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? Mrs. Page. A puff'd man? Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails? 1 — bow wit may be made a Jack-a-lent,] See p. 2 54, n. 8. MALONE. 2-a coxcomb of frizz ?] i. e. a fool's cap made out of Welch materials, Wales was famous for this cloth. STEEVENS. Ford. |
