Slen. Miftrefs Anne Page? fhe has brown hair, and fpeaks fmall like a woman. I Eva. It is that very person for all the 'orld, as just as you will defire; and feven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and filver, is her grandfire, upon his death's-bed, (Got deliver to a joyful refurrections!) give, when fhe is able to overtake feventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and defire a marriage between master Abraham, and miftrefs Anne Page. Slen. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pounds? Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; fhe has good gifts. Eva. Seven hundred pounds, and poffibilities, is good gifts. Shal. Well, let us fee honeft mafter Page: Is Falstaff there? Eva. Shall I tell you a lie? I do defpife a liar, as I do defpife one that is false; or, as I defpife one that is not true. The knight, fir John is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door [Knocks] for master Page. What, hoa! Got pless your house here! Enter Page. Page. Who's there? Speaks SMALL like a woman.] This is from the folio of 1623, and is the true reading. He admires her for the sweetness of her voice. But the expreffion is highly humourous, as making her Fpeaking fmall like a woman one of her marks of diftinction; and the ambiguity of small, which fignifies little as well as low, makes the expreffion still more pleafant. WARBURTON. Thus Lear, fpeaking of Cordelia: Her voice was ever foft, "Gentle and low-an excellent thing in woman." VOL. I. STEEVENS. Eva. Eva. Here is Got's pleffing, and your friend, and justice Shallow and here is young mafter Slender; that, peradventures, fhall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings. Page. I am glad to fee your worships well: I thank you for my venifon, mafter Shallow. Shal. Mafter Page, I am glad to see you; Much good do it your good heart! I wifh'd your venison better; it was ill kill'd :-How doth good mistress Page?—and I thank you always with my heart, la; with my heart. Page. Sir, I thank you. Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. Page. I am glad to fee you, good mafter Slender. Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, fir? I heard fay, he was out-run on Cotfale. 2 Page.. 2 How does your fallow greyhound, fir? I heard fay, he was outrun on Cotfale.] He means Cotswold, in Gloucestershire. In the beginning of the reign of James the First, by permiffion of the king, one Dover, a public-fpirited attorney of Barton on the Heath, in Warwickshire, inftituted on the hills of Cotswold an annual celebration of games, confifting of rural fports and exercifes. These he conftantly conducted in perfon, well mounted, and accoutred in a fuit of his majesty's old cloaths; and they were frequented above forty years by the nobility and gentry for fixty miles round, till the grand rebellion abolished every liberal esta blishment. I have seen a very scarce book, entitled, " Annalia Dubrenfia. Upon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dover's Olympick games upon Cotswold hills, &c." Lond. 1636. 4to. There are recommendatory verfes prefixed, written by Drayton, Jonfon, Randolph, and many others, the most eminent wits of the times. The games, as appears by a curious frontispiece, were, chiefly, wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike, dancing of women, various kinds of hunting, and particu larly courfing the hare with greyhounds. Hence also we fee the meaning of another paffage, where Falstaff, or Shallow, calls a ftout fellow a Cotswold-man. But from what is here said, an inference of another kind may be drawn, refpecting the age of the play. A meager and imperfect sketch of this comedy was printed in 1602. Afterwards Shakespeare new-wrote it entirely. This allufion therefore to the Cotswold games, not founded till the reign of Page. It could not be judg'd, fir. Slen. You'll not confefs, you'll not confess. Shal. That he will not; 'tis your fault, 'tis your fault :-'Tis a good dog. Page. A cur, fir. Shal Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; Can there be more faid? he is good, and fair.-Is fir John Falftaff here? Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you. Eva. It is fpoke as a chriftians ought to speak. Page. Sir, he doth in fome fort confefs it. Shal. If it be confefs'd, it is not redrefs'd; is not that fo, master Page? He hath wrong'd me ;-indeed, he hath ;-at a word, he hath ;-believe me ; -Robert Shallow, Efquire, faith, he is wrong'd. Page. Here comes fir John. Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, and Piftol. Fal. Now, mafter Shallow; you'll complain of me to the king? Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my lodge. of James the First, afcertains a period of time beyond which our author must have made the additions to his original rough draught, or, in other words, compofed the prefent comedy. James the First came to the crown in the year 1603. And we will fuppofe that two or three more years at least must have paffed before these games could have been effectually established. I would therefore, at the earliest, date this play about the year 1607. It is not ge nerally known, at least it has not been obferved by the modern editors, that the first edition of the Merry Wives in its present ftate, is in the valuable folio, printed 1623. From whence the quarto of the fame play, dated 1630, was evidently copied. The two earlier quartos, 1602, and 1619, only exhibit this comedy as it was originally written: and are fo far curious, as they contain Shakespeare's first conceptions in forming a drama, which is the most complete fpecimen of his comick powers. WARTON. 3- and broke open my lodge.] This probably alludes to fome real incident, at that time well known. JOHNSON. Q 2 Fal Fal. But not kifs'd your keeper's daughter? Shal. The council fhall know this. Fal. "Twere better for you, if 'twere known in council; you'll be laugh'd at. Eva. Pauca verba, fir John; good worts. Fal. Good worts good cabbage :-Slender, 1 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. * The old copies read, 'Twere better for you, if 'twere known in council. Perhaps it is an abrupt fpeech, and must be read thus: "Twere better for you-if 'twere known in council, you'll be laugh'd at. 'Twere better for you, is, I believe, a menace. JOHNSON. The modern editors arbitrarily read-if 'twere not known in council; but I believe Falstaff quibbles between council and counfel. The latter fignifies fecrecy. So in Hamlet : "The players cannot keep counfel, they'll tell all." Falftaff's meaning feems to be-'twere better for you if it were known only in fecrecy, i. e. among your friends. A more public complaint would fubject you to ridicule. Thus, in Chaucer's prologue to the Squierès Tale, v. 10305, late edit: "But wete ye what? in confeil be it feyde, "Me reweth fore I am unto hire teyde." STEEVENS. Good worts! good cabbage :-] Worts was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind. So in B. and Fletcher's Valentinian: "Planting of worts and onions, any thing." STEEVENS, concy-catching rafcals,] A coney-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or sharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, published A Detection of the Frauds and Tricks of Coney-catebers and Couzeners. JOHNSON. So in Decker's Satiromaftix: "Thou shalt not coney-catch me for five pounds.' STEETENS Bar Bar. 7 You Banbury cheese! Slen. Ay, it is no matter. Pift. How now, Mephoftophilus ? Nym. Slice, Ifay! pauca, pauca; flice! that's my humour. Slen. Where's Simple, my man?-can you tell, coufin? Evan. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I under ftand that is-mafter Page, fidelicet, mafter Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, laftly and finally, mine hoft of the Garter. Page. We three, to hear it, and end it between them. Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the caufe, with as great difcreetly as we can, Fal. Piftol, 7 You Banbury cheefe!] This is faid in allufion to the thin carcafe of Slender. The fame thought occurs in Jack Drums Entertainment, 1601:- Put off your cloaths, and you are like a Banbury cheese nothing but paring." So Heywood, in his colJection of epigrams: "I never faw Banbury checfe thick enough, "But I have oft feen Effex cheese quick enough." STEEVENS. How now, Mephofiophilus ?] This is the name of a fpirit or familiar, in the old story book of Sir John Fauftus, or John Fauft: to whom our author afterwards alludes, p. 279. That it was a cant phrase of abuse, appears from the old comedy cited above, called A pleafant Comedy of the Gentle Craft, Signat. H. 3. "Away you flington whitepot, hence you hopper-arfe, you barley-pudding full of maggots, you broiled carbonado, avaunt, avaunt, Mephofiophilus." In the fame vein, Bardolph here alfo calls Slender," You Banbury cheese." WARTON. So in Decker's Satiromaftix: "Thou must run of an errand for me, Mephoftophilus." Again, in the Mufe's Looking Glass, 1638: "We want not you to play Mephoftophilus. A pretty natural vizard," STEEVENS. |
