ANNE. I pray you, sir. SLEN. I'll rather be unmannerly, than troublesome: you do yourself wrong, indeed, la. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The same. Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE. EVA. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house, which is the way: and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer. SIMP. Well, sir. EVA. Nay, it is petter yet: give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with mistress Anne Page: and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master's desires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt. 5 not - or his laundry,] Sir Hugh means to say his launder. Thus, in Sidney's Arcadia, B. I. p. 44, edit. 1633:" only will make him an Amazon, but a launder, a spinner," &c. 6 STEEVENS. that altogether's acquaintance -] The old copy reads-altogethers acquaintance; but should not this be " that altogether's acquaintance," i, e. that is altogether acquainted? The English, I apprehend, would still be bad enough for Evans. TYRWHITT. I have availed myself of this judicious remark. STEEVENS. SCENE III. A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter FALSTAFF, Host, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN. FAL. Mine host of the Garter, Host. What says my bully-rook? Speak schollarly, and wisely. FAL. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my followers. Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; trot, trot. FAL. I sit at ten pounds a week. Host. Thou 'rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheezar. I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector? 7 - my bully-rook?] The spelling of this word is corrupted, and thereby its primitive meaning is lost. The old plays have generally bully-rook, which is right; and so it is exhibited by the folio edition of this comedy, as well as the 4to. 1619. The latter part of this compound title is taken from the rooks at the game of chess. STEEVENS. Bully-rook seems to have been the reading of some editions: in others it is bully-rock. Mr. Steevens's explanation of it, as alluding to chess-men, is right. But Shakspeare might possibly have given it bully-rock, as rock is the true name of these men, which is softened or corrupted into rook. There is seemingly more humour in bully-rock. WHALLEY. -Keisar,] The preface to Stowe's Chronicle observes, that the Germans use the K for C, pronouncing Keysar, for Cæsar, their general word for an emperor. TOLLET. 9 and Pheezar.] Pheezar was a made word from pheeze. "I'll pheeze you," says Sly to the Hostess, in The Taming of the Shrew. MALONE. 1 said I well,] The learned editor of the Canterbury FAL. Do so, good mine host. Host. I have spoke; let him follow: Let me see thee froth, and lime: 2 I am at a word; follow. [Exit Host. FAL. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good trade: An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered servingman, a fresh tapster: Go; adieu. BARD. It is a life that I have desired; I will thrive. [Exit BARD. Tales of Chaucer, in 5 vols. 8vo. 1775, observes, that this phrase is given to the host in the Pardonere's Prologue : "Said I not wel? I cannot speke in terme:" v. 12,246. and adds, " it may be sufficient with the other circumstances of general resemblance, to make us believe that Shakspeare, when he drew that character, had not forgotten his Chaucer." The same gentleman has since informed me, that the passage is not found in any of the ancient printed editions, but only in the MSS. STEEVENS. I imagine this phrase must have reached our author in some other way; for I suspect he did not devote much time to the perusal of old MSS. MALONE. Let me see thee froth, and lime :) Thus the quarto; the folio reads" and live." This passage had passed through all the editions without suspicion of being corrupted; but the reading of the old quartos of 1602 and 1619, Let me see thee froth and lime, I take to be the true one. The Host calls for an immediate specimen of Bardolph's abilities as a tapster; and frothing beer and liming sack were tricks practised in the time of Shakspeare. The first was done by putting soap into the bottom of the tankard when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the sack (i. e. sherry) to make it sparkle in the glass. Froth and live is sense, but a little forced; and to make it so we must suppose the Host could guess by his dexterity in frothing a pot to make it appear fuller than it was, how he would afterwards succeed in the world. Falstaff himself complains of limed sack. STEEVENS. 3 - a withered servingman, a fresh tapster:] This is not improbably a parody on the old proverb-" A broken apothecary, a new doctor." See Ray's Proverbs, 3d edit. p. 2. STEEVENS. PIST. O base Gongarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield? NYM. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it.5 FAL. I am glad, I am so acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful singer, he kept not time. * O base Gongarian wight! &c.] This is a parody on a line taken from one of the old bombast plays, beginning: "O base Gongarian, wilt thou the distaff wield?" I had marked the passage down, but forgot to note the play. The folio reads Hungarian. Hungarian is likewise a cant term. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608, the merry Host says, "I have knights and colonels in my house, and must tend the Hungarians." Again: "Come ye Hungarian pilchers." Again, in Westward Hoe, 1607: " Play, you louzy Hungarians." Again, in News from Hell, brought by the Devil's Carrier, by Thomas Decker, 1606: “ the leane-jaw'd Hungarian would not lay out a penny pot of sack for himself." STEEVENS. The Hungarians, when infidels, over-ran Germany and France, and would have invaded England, if they could have come to it. See Stowe, in the year 930, and Holinshed's invasions of Ireland, p. 56. Hence their name might become a proverb of baseness. Stowe's Chronicle, in the year 1492, and Leland's Collectanea, Vol. I. p. 610, spell it Hongarian (which might be misprinted Gongarian ;) and this is right according to their own etymology. Hongyars, i. e. domus suæ strenui defensores. TOLLET. The word is Gongarian in the first edition, and should be continued, the better to fix the allusion. FARMER. humour of it.] This speech is partly taken from the corrected copy, and partly from the slight sketch in 1602. I mention it, that those who do not find it in either of the common old editions, may not suspect it to be spurious. STEEVENS. NYM. The good humour is, to steal at a mi. nute's rest. 6 PIST. Convey, the wise it call: Steal! foh; a fico for the phrase ! FAL. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels. at a minute's rest.] Our author probably wrote: "at a minim's rest." LANGTON. This conjecture seems confirmed by a passage in Romeo and Juliet: " rests his minim," &c. It may, however, mean, that, like a skilful harquebuzier, he takes a good aim, though he has rested his piece for a minute only. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. B. VÌ: " To set up's rest to venture now for all." STEEVENS. A minim was anciently, as the term imports, the shortest note in musick. Its measure was afterwards, as it is now, as long as while two may be moderately counted. In Romeo and Juliet, Act II. sc. iv. Mercutio says of Tibalt, that in fighting he "rests his minim, one, two, and the third in your bosom." A minute contains sixty seconds, and is a long time for an action supposed to be instantaneous. Nym means to say, that the perfection of stealing is to do it in the shortest time possible. SIR J. HAWKINS. 'Tis true (says Nym) Bardolph did not keep time; did not steal at the critical and exact season, when he would probably be least observed. The true method is, to steal just at the instant when watchfulness is off its guard, and reposes but for a moment. The reading proposed by Mr. Langton certainly corresponds more exactly with the preceding speech; but Shakspeare scarcely ever pursues his metaphors far. MALONE. 7 Convey, the wise it call:] So, in the old morality of Hycke Scorner, bl. l. no date: 8 - " Syr, the horesons could not convaye clene; " For an they could have carried by craft as I can," &c. STEEVENS. a fico for the phrase!] i. e. a fig for it. Pistol uses the same phraseology in King Henry V: " Die and be damn'd; and fico for thy friendship." STEEVENS. |