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Page.

The bumour of it, quoth a'! here's a fel

low, frights humour out of its wits.

Ford. I will feek out Falstaff.

Page. I never heard fuch a drawling, affecting rogue.

Ford. If I do find it, well.

Page. 3 I will not believe fuch a Cataian, though the priest o' the town commended him for a true man. Ford. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow :-well.

Enter

2 The humour of it,-] The following epigram, taken from an old collection without date, but apparently printed before the year 1600, will beft account for Nym's frequent repetition of the word humour.

Epig. 27.

Afke HUMORS what a feather he doth weare,
It is his bumour (by the Lord) he'll fweare.
Or what he doth with fuch a horfe-taile locke;
Or why upon a whore he spends his stocke?
He hath a humour doth determine fo.
Why in the ftop-throte fashion he doth goe,
With fcarfe about his necke, hat without band?
It is his bumour. Sweet Sir, understand
What cause his purfe is fo extreame distrest
That oftentimes is fcarcely penny-blest?
Only a bumour. If you question why
His tongue is ne'er unfurnish'd with a lye?
It is his humour too he doth protest.
Or why with ferjeants he is fo opprest,
That like to ghofts they haunt him ev'rie day?
A rafcal humour doth not love to pay.

Object why bootes and spurres are ftill in feafon ?
His bumour anfwers: bumour is his reason.

If you perceive his wits in wetting fhrunke,
It commeth of a humour to be drunke.

When you behold his lookes pale, thin, and poore,
Th' occafion is, his humour and a whoore.
And every thing that he doth undertake,

STEEVENS.

It is a veine, for fenceless humour's fake. 3 I will not believe fuch a Cataian,] Mr. Theobald has here a pleafant note, as ufual. "This is a piece of fatire "that did not want its force at the time of this play's appear"ing; though the history on which it is grounded is become "obiclete." And then tells a long ftory of Martin Frobisher

attempt

Enter Miftrefs Page and Mistress Ford.

Page. How now, Meg?

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George?-Hark you. Mrs. Ford. How now, fweet Frank? why art thou melancholy?

Ford..

attempting the north-weft paffage, and bringing home a black ftone, as he thought, full of gold ore: that it proved not fo, and that therefore Cataians and Frobishers became by-words for vain boasters.- The whole is an idle dream. All the mystery of the term Cataian, for a liar, is only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the firft adventurers that travelled thither; fuch as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told fuch incredible wonders of this new difcovered empire (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jefuits themfelves, who followed them) that a notorious liar was usually called a Cataian. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton have both told their stories with confidence, I am afraid, very difproportionate to any evidence that can be produced. That Cataian was a word of hatred or contempt is plain, but that it fignified a boafter or a liar has not been proved. Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night, fays of the Lady Olivia to her maid, "thy Lady's a Cataian;" but there is no reason to think he means to call her liar. Besides, Page intends to give Ford a reason why Pistol fhould not be credited. He therefore does not fay, I would not believe fuch a liar for that he is a liar is yet to be made probable: but he fays, I would not believe fuch a Cataian on any teftimony of his veracity. That is, "This fellow has fuch an odd appearance; "is fo unlike a man civilized, and taught the duties of life, "that I cannot credit him." To be a foreigner was always in England, and I fuppofe every where elfe, a reafon of dislike. So Piftol calls Slender in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of grofs behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian wight. JOHNSON.

I believe that neither of the commentators are in the right, but am far from profeffing, with any great degree of confidence, that I am happier in my own explanation. It is remarkable, that in Shakespeare, this expreflion-a true man is always put in oppofition (as it is in this inftance) to-a thief. So in Hen. IV. Part I.

-now the thieves have bound the true men." The Chinese (anciently called Catalans) are faid to be the moft dextrous of all the nimble-finger'd tribe. Piftol was known

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.-Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head now. Will you go, miftrefs Page?

Mrs. Page. Have with you.-You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe fhall be our messenger to this paltry knight.

[Afide to Mrs. Ford.

Enter Mistress Quickly.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her: fhe'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quic. Ay, forfooth; and, I pray, how does good

mistress Anne?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. Page. How now, mafler Ford?

Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did you not?

Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told me? Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

Page. Hang 'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it but these that accufe him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his difcarded men; very rogues, now they be out of fervice.

at Windfor to have had a hand in picking Slender's pocket, and therefore might be called a Cataian with propriety, if my explanation be admitted. From the ufe Sir Toby Belch makes of the word, little can be inferred with any certainty. Sir Toby is drunk, calls Malvolio by the name of an old fong,. and talks, in fhort, nonfenfe. Cathaia is mentioned in The Tamer Tamed, of B. and Fletcher.

"I'll with you in the Indies, or Cathaia."

The tricks of the Cataians are hinted at in one of the old bl. letter hiftories of that country. STEEVENS.

4 Very regues, now they be out of fervice.] A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its confequential fignification, a cheat. JOHNSON.

Ford.

Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he fhould intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than fharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not mifdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: a man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head: I cannot be thus fatisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting Hoft of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purse, when he looks fo merrily. How, now, mine Hoft?

Enter Hoft and Shallow.

Hoft. How, now, bully Rock? thou'rt a gentleman cavalero-justice, I fay.

Shal. I follow, mine Hoft, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good mafter Page! Mafter Page, will you go with us? we have fport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavalero-juftice; tell him, bully Rock?

Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh the Welch prieft, and Caius the French doctor. Ford. Good mine Hoft o' the Garter, a word with

you.

Hoft. What fay'ft thou, bully Rock?

[They go a little afide. Shal. [To Page.] Will you go with us to behold it? My merry Hoft hath had the meafuring of their weapons; and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places: for, believe me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our fport fhall be. Hoft. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my guest-cavalier?

'P 3

Ford.

Ford. None, I proteft: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourfe to him, 5 and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jeft.

Hoft. My hand, bully. Thou fhalt have egrefs and regrefs; faid I well? and thy name fhail be Brook. It is a merry knight.-6 Will you go an-heirs? Shal. Have with you, mine host.

Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier.

Shal. Tut, Sir, I could have told you more. In thefe times you ftand on distance, your paffes, ftoccado's, and I know not what. 'Tis the heart, master Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have seen the time with my 7 long fword, I would have made you four tall fellows fkip like rats.

5 —and tell him, my name is Brook ;] Thus both the old quartos; and thus moft certainly the poet wrote. We need no better evidence than the pun that Falstaff anon makes on the pame, when Brook fends him fome burnt fack.

Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow with fuch liquor. The players, in their editions, altered the name to Broom. THEOBALD.

6

Will you go AN HEIRS?] This nonfenfe is spoken to Shallow. We should read, Will you go ON, HERIS? i. e. Will you go on, master. Heris, an old Scotch word for master. WARBURTON.

The merry Hoft has already faluted them separately by titles of distinction; he therefore probably now addreffes them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr, Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a fubfequent fcene of this play, Farewell, my hearts. Hanmer reads-Mynheers. My brave hearts, or my bold hearts, is a common word of encouragement. A beart of gold expreffes the more foft and amiable qualities, the Mares aurei of Horace; and a beart of oak is a frequent encomium of rugged honefty. STEEVENS.

7

my long sword,] Not long before the introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length, and fometimes raifed with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, cenfures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his leng fword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON. See a note to the First Part of K. Hen. IV. p. 280. STEEV.

Hoft.

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