Page. Let's obey his humour a little further: Come, gentlemen. [Exeunt. Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him moft pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the mafs, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought. Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd, and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious fervice. Mrs. Ford. What think you? may we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witnefs of a good confcience, purfue him with any further revenge? Mrs. Page. The fpirit of wantonnefs is, fure, scar'd out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-fimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of wafte, attempt us again". Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have ferved him? Mrs. Page. Yea, by all means; if it be but to fcrape the figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in their hearts, the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any further afflicted, we two will be ftill the minifters. Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publickly fham'd: and, methinks, there would be no period' to the jeft, fhould he not be publickly fham'd. Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it then, fhape it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt. 9 in the way of wafte, attempt us again.] i. e. he will not make further attempts to ruin us, by corrupting our virtue, and destroying our reputation STEEVENS. no period-] Shakespeare feems, by no period, to mean, no proper catastrophe. Of this Hanmer was fo well perfuaded, that he thinks it neceffary to read-no right period. STEEVENS. VOL. I. Z SCENE Bard. Sir, the Germans defire to have three of your horfes the duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and they are going to meet him. Hoft. What duke fhould that be, comes fo fecretly? I hear not of him in the court: let me fpeak with the gentlemen; they fpeak English? Bard. Sir, I'll call them to you. Hoft. They fhall have my horfes; but I'll make them pay, I'll fauce them they have had my houses a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guefts: they muft come off; I'll fauce them; come. 2 [Exeunt. SCENE -they must COME off; ;- ] This never can be our poet's or his hoft's meaning. To come off being, in other terms, to go fcotfree. We must read, COMPT off, i. e. clear their reckoning. WARBURTON. To come off, fignifies, in our author, fometimes, to be uttered with Spirit and volubility. In this place it feems to mean what is in our time expreffed by to come down, to pay liberally and readily. These accidental and colloquial fenfes are the difgrace of language, and the plague of commentators. JOHNSON. To come off, is, to pay. In this fenfe it is used by Maffinger, in The Unnatural Combat, act IV. fc. ii. where a wench, demanding money of the father to keep his baftard, fays: “Will you come off, fir "Again, in Decker's if this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612: "Do not your gallants come off roundly then?" Again, in Heywood's If you know not me you know Nobody, 1633, P. 2: and then if he will not come off, carry him to the compter." Again, in A Trick to catch the Old One, 1616: "Hark in thine ear-will he come off think'it thou, and pay my debts ?" Again, in the Return from Parnaffus, 1606: "It is his meaning I fhould come off." SCENE IV. Ford's houfe. Enter Page, Ford, Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Sir Hugh Evans. Eva. 'Tis one of the best discretions of a 'omans as ever I did look upon. Page. And did he send you both these letters at an inftant? Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour. Ford. Pardon me, wife: Henceforth do what thou wilt; I rather will fufpect the fun with cold, ་ Than Again, in The Widow, by B. Jonfon, Fletcher, and Middleton, 1652: "I am forty dollars better for that: an 'twould come off quicker 'twere nere a whit the worse for me." Again, in A merye Feft of a Man called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: "Therefore come off lightly, and geve me my mony." STEEVENS. 66 They must come off, fays mine hoft; I'll fauce them." This paffage has exercised the critics. It is altered by Dr. Warburton; but there is no corruption, and Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted it. The quotation however from Malinger, which is referred to likewife by Mr. Edwards in his Canons of Criticifm, fcarcely fatisfied Mr. Heath, and ftill lefs the last editor, who gives us, "They muft not come off." It is ftrange that any one converfant in old language, fhould hefitate at this phrafe. Take another quotation or two, that the difficulty may be effectually removed for the fuIn John Heywood's play of the Four P's, the pedlar fays: "If you be willing to buy, ture. Lay down money, come of quickly." “ if In The Widow, by Jonion, Fletcher, and Middleton, he will come off roundly, he'll fet him free too." And, again, in Fennor's Comptor's Commonwealth: ———“ except I would come off roundly, I fhould be bar'd of that priviledge," &c. FARMER. The phrafe is ufed by Chaucer, Friar's Tale, 338. edit. Urry: Come off, and let me riden haftily, "Give me twelve pence; I may no longer tarie." TYRWHITT. 3 I rather will fufpect the fun with cold,] Thus the modern ediThe old ones read-with gold, which may mean, I ra tions. Z 2 ther Than thee with wantonnefs: now doth thy honour ftand, In him that was of late an heretick, Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more. As in offence; But let our plot go forward: let our wives At midnight! fie, fie; he will never come. Eva. You fay, he hath been thrown into the rivers; and hath been grievoufly peaten, as an old 'oman: methinks, there fhould be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punifh'd, he fhall have no defires. Page. So think I too. Mrs. Ford. Devife but how you'll ufe him when he comes, And let us two devife to bring him hither. Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne Sometime a keeper here in Wind for foreft, ther will fufpect the fun can be a thief, or be corrupted by a bribe, than thy honour can be betrayed to wantonnefs. Mr. Rowe filently made the change, which fuccceding editors have as filently adopted. A thought of a fimilar kind occurs in Hen. IV. Part I: "Shall the bleffed fun of heaven prove a micher?" I have not, however, difplaced Mr. Rowe's emendation; as a zeal to preferve old readings without diftinétion, may fometimes prove as injurious to the author's reputation, as a defire to introduce new ones, without attention to the quaintnefs of phrafeology then in tfe. STEEVENS. And And there he blafts the tree, and takes the cattle; And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain In a most hideous and dreadful manner: You have heard of such a spirit; and well you know, The fuperftitious idle-headed eld Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age, This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth. Page. Why, yet there want not many, that do fear In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak: But what of this? 6 Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device; That Falstaff at that oak fhall meet with us. What and takes the cattle;] To take, in Shakespeare, fignifies to feize or strike with a disease, to blast. So, in Lear: 66 Strike her young bones, JOHNSON. "Ye taking airs, with lamenefs." So, in Markham's Treatife of Horfes, 1595, chap. 8. "Of a horfe that is taken. A horfe that is bereft of his feeling, mcoving, or ftyrring, is faid to be taken, and in footh fo hee is, in that he is arrefted by fo villanous a difeafe; yet fome farriors, not well underftanding the ground of the difcafe, confter the word taken, to be striken by some planet or evil-spirit, which is falfe, &c." Thus our poet : 5 "No planets frike, no fairy takes." TOLLET. -idle-headed eld] Eld feems to be used here, for what our poet calls in Macbeth-the olden time. It is employed in Meafure for Meafure, to exprefs age and decrepitude: doth beg the alms "Of palfied eld." STEEVENS. Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device; That Falstaff at that oak fhall meet with us. Page. Well, let it not be doubted, but he'll come, And in this fhape; when you have brought him thither.] Thus this paffage has been tranfmitted down to us, from the time of the first edition by the players: but what was this fhape, in which Falfaff was to be appointed to meet? For the women have not |