Eva. It is marring indeed, if he quarter it. EVA. Yes, py'r-lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three fkirts for yourself, in my fimple conjectures: but that is all one: If fir John Falftaff have committed difparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromifes between you. SHAL. The Council fhall hear it; it is a riot." I may add, that the veracity of the late Mr. Oldys has never yet been impeached; and it is not very probable that a ballad fhould be forged, from which an undiscovered wag could derive no triumph over antiquarian credulity. STEEVENS. The luce is the fresh fish; the falt fish is an old coat.] Our author here alludes to the arms of Sir Thomas Lucy, who is faid to have profecuted him in the younger part of his life for a mifdemefnor, and who is fuppofed to be pointed at under the character of Juftice Shallow. The text however, by fome carelessness of the printer or tranfcriber, has been fo corrupted, that the paffage, as it ftands at prefent, feems inexplicable. Dr. Farmer's regulation appears to me highly probable; and in further fupport of it, it may be obferved, that fome other fpeeches, befide those he has mentioned, are misplaced in a fubfequent part of this scene, as exhibited in the firft folio. MALONE. Perhaps we have not yet conceived the humour of Mafter Shallow. Slender has obferved, that the family might give a dozen white Luces in their coat; to which the Justice adds, It is an old one." This produces the Parfon's blunder, and Shallow's correction. "The Luce is not the Loufe but the Pike, the fresh fish of that name. Indeed our Coat is old, as I faid, and the fish cannot be fresh; and therefore we bear the white, i. e. the pickled or falt-fib." In the Northumberland Household Book, we meet with "nine barrels of white herringe for a hole yere, 4. 10. o:" and Mr. Pennant in the additions to his London fays, " By the very high price of the Pike, it is probable that this fifh had not yet been introduced into our ponds, but was imported as a luxury, pickled." It will be still clearer if we read-tho' faltfifh in an old coat." FARMER. 9 The Council hall hear it; it is a riot.] By the Council is only meant the court of ftar-chamber, compofed chiefly of the king's EVA. It is not meet the Council hear a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot: the Council, look you, fhall defire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments in that." SHAL. Ha! o'my life, if I were young again, the fword fhould end it. EVA. It is petter that friends is the fword, and end it: and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot discretions with it: There is Anne Page, which is daughter to mafter George Page,' which is pretty virginity. SLEN. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman.* council fitting in Camerâ ftellatá, which took cognizance of atrocious riots. In the old quarto, "the council fhall know it," follows immediately after I'll make a star-chamber matter of it." BLACKSTONE. So, in Sir John Harrington's Epigrams, 1618: "No marvel, men of fuch a fumptuous dyet See Stat. 13. Henry IV. c. 7. GREY. 2 MALONE. —your vizaments in that.] Advifement is now an obfolete word. I meet with it in the ancient morality of Every Man: Again: Again: "That I may amend me with good advyfement.” "I fhall fmite without any ad-vyfement,” 66 ""To go with good advyfement and delyberacyon." It is often used by Spenfer in his Faery Queen. So, B. II. c. 9: Perhaps my fuccour and advizement meete. STEEVENS. 3 which is daughter to mafter George Page,] The old copy reads-Thomas Page. STEEVENS. The whole set of editions have negligently blundered one after another in Page's Chriftian name in this place; though Mrs. Page calls him George afterwards in at least fix feveral paffages. THEOBALD. -Speaks fmall like a woman.] This is from the folio of 1623, and is the true reading. He admires her for the fweetness of her voice. But the expreffion is highly humourous, as making her Speaking small like a woman one of her marks of distinction; EVA. It is that fery verson for all the 'orld, as just as you will defire; and seven 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 mistress Anne Page. SHAL. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pound? 5 and the ambiguity of fmall, which fignifies little as well as low, makes the expreffion ftill more pleafant. WARBURTON. Thus Lear, fpeaking of Cordelia: 66 Her voice was ever foft, "Gentle and low-an excellent thing in woman." STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton has found more pleasantry here than I believe was intended. Small was, I think, not used, as he fuppofes, in an ambiguous fenfe, for "little, as well as low," but fimply for weak, flender, feminine; and the only pleafantry of the paffage feems to be, that poor Slender fhould characterife his mistress by a general quality belonging to her whole fex. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Quince tells Flute, who objects to playing a woman's part, "You fhall play it in a mask, and you may fpeak as fmall as you will." MALONE. Afmall voice is a foft and melodious voice. Chaucer ufes the word in that fenfe, in The Flower and the Leaf, Speght's edit. p. 611: "The company answered all, "With voicè fweet entuned, and so small, "That me thought it the fweeteft melody." Again, in Fairfax's Godfrey of Bulloigne, 1. 15. ft. 62: "She warbled forth a treble small, "And with fweet lookes, her fweet fongs enterlaced." When female characters were filled by boys, to speak fmall like a woman must have been a valuable qualification. So, in Marlton's What you will: "I was folicited to graunt him leave to play the lady in comedies prefented by children; but I knew his voice was too small, and his ftature too low. Sing a treble, Holofernes ;—a very Small sweet voice I'le affure you.' HOLT WHITE. 5 Shal. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pound?-! know the young gentlewoman; &c.] Thefe two fpeeches are by mif -Era. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. SHAL. 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 falfe; 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? EVA. Here is Got's pleffing, and your friend, and justice Shallow: and here young master Slen take given to Slender in the firft folio, the only authentick copy of this play. From the foregoing words it appears that Shallow is the perfon here addreffed; and on a marriage being propofed for his kinfman, he very naturally enquires concerning the lady's fortune. Slender fhould feem not to know what they are talking about; (except that he just hears the name of Anne Page, and breaks out into a foolish elogium on her ;) for afterwards Shallow fays to him," Coz, there is, as it were, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here; do you understand me?” to which Slender replies-" if it be fo," &c. The tender, therefore, we fee, had been made to Shallow, and not to Slender, the former of which names fhould be prefixed to the two speeches before us. In this play, as exhibited in the firft folio, many of the speeches are given to characters to whom they do not belong. Printers, to fave trouble, keep the names of the fpeakers in each scene ready compofed, and are very liable to mistakes, when two names begin (as in the prefent inftance,) with the fame letter, and are nearly of the fame length. The prefent regulation was fuggefted by Mr. Capell. MALONE. der; 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, master Shallow. SHAL. Master Page, I am glad to fee you; Much good do it your good heart! I wish'd your venifon better; it was ill kill'd:-How doth good mistress Page?-and I love 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 see you, good master Slender. SLEN. How does your fallow greyhound, fir? I heard fay, he was out-run on Cotfale." I love you] Thus the 4to. 1619. The folio-" I thank you." Dr. Farmer prefers the first of these readings, which I have therefore placed in the text. STEEVENS. 7 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 publick-fpirited attorney of Barton on the Heath, in Warwickshire, inftituted on the hills of Cotswold an annual celebration of games, confifting of rural sports and exercises. These he constantly 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 eftablishment. I have feen a very scarce book, entitled, "Annalia Dubrenfia. Upon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dover's Olympick games upon Cotswold hills," &c. London, 1636, 4to. There are recommendatory verfes prefixed, written by Drayton, Jonfon, Randolph, and many others, the moft eminent wits of the times. The games, as appears from a curious frontispiece, were, chiefly, wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike, dancing of women, various kinds of hunting, and particularly courfing the hare with greyhounds. Hence alfo we fee the meaning of another paffage, where Falftaff, or Shallow, calls a ftout fellow a CotswoldBut from what is here faid, 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 Shakspeare new-wrote it entirely. This allufion therefore to the man. |