by gar, it is a fhallenge: I vill cut his troat in de park ; and I vill teach a fcurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or inake-you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here: by gar, I vill cut all his two ftones; by gar, he fhall not have a stone to trow at his dog. Exit SIMPLE.

Quick. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

Caius. It is no matter-a for dat:-do not you tell-a me dat I fhall have Anne Page for myfelf?-by gar, I vill kill de Jack prieft; and I have appointed mine hoft of de Jarterre to meafure our weapon:-by gar I vill myself have Anne Page.

Quick. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well: we muft give folks leave to prate: What, the good-jer'! Caius. Rugby, come to the court vit me ;-By gar, if I have not Anne Page, 1 fhall turn your head out of my door-Follow my heels, Rugby.

[Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY. Quick, You fhall have Ann fool's-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windfor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven.

Fent. [within.] Who's within there, ho?

Quick. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray you.

Enter FENTON.

Fen. How now, good woman; how doft thou?

-de Jack prieft;] Jack in our author's time was a term of contempt: So, faucy Jack, &c. See K. Henry IV. P. I. A&t. III. fc. iii. "The prince is a Jack, a fneak-cup;" and Much Ado about Nothing, Act. fc.i."-do you play the flouting Jack" MALONE.

What, the good jer!] Mrs. Quickly fcarcely ever pronounces a hard word rightly. Good-jer and Good-year were in our author's time common corruptions of goujere; i. e. morbus Gallicus; and in the books of that age the word is as often written one way as the other. MALONE.

2 You fhall have Ann fool's-head-] Mrs. Quickly, I believe, intends a quibble between ann, founded broad, and one, which was formerly fomtimes pronounced on, or with nearly the fame found. In the Scottish dialect one is written, and I fuppofe pronounced, ane.-In 1603, was published "Ane verie excellent and delectable Treatife, intitulit Philotus," &c. MALONE.

VOL. I.

P 5

Quick..

Quick. The better that it pleases your good worship to ask.

Fent. What news? how does pretty mistress Anne?

Quick. In truth, fir, and fhe is pretty, and honeft, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way, I praise heaven for it.

Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkeft thou? Shall I not lofe my fuit?

Quick. Troth, fir, all is in hands above: but notwithftanding, mafter Fenton, I'll be fworn on a book, the loves you:-Have not your worship a wart above your eye? Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?

Quick. Well, thereby hangs a tale ;-good faith, it is fuch another Nan ;-but, I deteft 3, an honest maid as ever broke bread:-We had an hour's talk of that wart;-I fhall never laugh but in that maid's company!-But, indeed, the is given too much to allicholly and mufing: But, for you-Well, go to.

Fent. Well, I fhall fee her to-day: Hold, there's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou feet her before me, commend me

Quick. Will I? i'faith, that we will: and I will tell your worship more of the wart, the next time we have confidence; and of other wooers.

Fent. Well, farewell; I am in great hafte now. [Exit. Quick. Farewell to your worship,-Truly, an honeft gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does :-Out upon't, what have I forgot? [Exit.

ACT II. SCENE I.

Before Page's Houfe.

Enter Mistress PAGE, with a letter.

Mrs. Page. What, have I 'fcaped love-letters in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a fubject for them? Let me fee:

[reads. Afk me no reason why I love you; for though love ufe rea

3 —but I deteft,] She means-I proteft. MALONE.

fen for his precifian, he admits him not for his counsellor1: You are not young, no more am I; go to then, there's fympathy: you are merry, fo am I; Ha! ha! then there's more fympathy: you love fack, and fo do I; Would you defire better jympathy? Let it fuffice thee, miftrefs Page, (at the leaft, if the love of a foldier can fuffice,) that I love thee. I will not fay, pity me, 'tis not a foldier-like phrafe; but I fay, love me. By me,

Thine own true knight,

By day or night2,
Or any kind of light,
With all his might,
For thee to fight,

John Falstaff.

What a Herod of Jewry is this?-O wicked, wicked world!-one that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age, to fhow himself a young gallant! What an unweigh'd behaviour 3 hath this Flemish drunkard pick'd (with the devil's name) out of my converfation, that he dares in this manner affay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company!-What fhould I fay to him?-I was then frugal of my mirth:-heaven forgive me!-Why I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of fat

1 though love use reason for his precifian, he admits him not for bis counfellor] By precifian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and fanctity. On which account they gave this name to the puritans of that time. WARBURTON.

Of this word I do not fee any meaning that is very appofite to the prefent intention. Perhaps Falstaff said, Though love use reason for bis phyfician, be admits him not for his counfellor. This will be plain fenfe. Afk not the reafon of my love; the business of reafon is not to aflift love, but to cure it. There may however be this meaning in the prefent reading. Though love, when he would fubmit to regulation, may use reason as bis precifian, or director in nice cafes, yet when he is only eager to attain his end, he takes not reafon for bis counsellor. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnson wishes to read phyfician; and this conjecture becomes almost a certainty from a line in our author's 147th fonnet :

"My reafon the phyfician to my love, &c." FARMER.

2 Thine own true knight,

By day or night ] This expreffion, which is ludicrously employed by Falstaff, anciently meant, at all times. STEEVENS.

3 What an unweigh'd behaviour-] It has been fuggefted to me that we should read-one. STEEVENS.

men.

men 4. How fhall I be revenged on him? for revenged I will be, as fure as his guts are made of puddings.

Enter Miftrefs FORD.

Mrs. Ford. Miftrefs Page! truft me, I was going to your house.

Mrs. Page. And, truft me, I was coming to you. You look very ill.

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to fhow to the contrary.

Mrs. Page. 'Faith, but you do, in my mind.

Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then; yet, I fay, I could show you to the contrary: O, miftrefs Page give me fome counfel!

Mrs. Page. What's the matter, woman?

Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one trifling refpect, I could come to fuch honour!

Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour: What is it?-difpenfe with trifles ;-what is it?

Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or fo, I could be knighted.

4 for the putting down of fat men.] The word fat, which feems to have been inadvertently omitted in the folio, was restored by Mr. Theobald from the quarto, where the corresponding speech runs thus: "Well, I shall trust fat men the worse, while I live, for his fake. O God; that I knew how to be revenged of him!"-Dr. Johnson, however, thinks that the infertion is unneceflary, as "Mrs. Page might naturally enough, in the first heat of her anger, rail at the fex for the fault of one." But the authority of the original sketch in quarto, and Mrs. Page's frequent mention of the fize of her lover in the play as it now ftands, in my opinion fully warrant the correction that has been made. Our author well knew that bills are brought into parliament fór fome purpose that at least appears praticable. Mrs. Page therefore in her paffion might exhibit a bill for the putting down or destroying men of a particular defcription; but Shakspeare would never have made her threaten to introduce a bill to effect an impoffibility; viz. the exter mination of the whole fpecies.

There is no error more frequent at the prefs than the omiffion of words. In a fheet of this work now before me, there was an eat, (as it is termed in the printing-house,) that is, a paffage omitted, of no less than ten lines. In every sheet fome words are at first omitted.

The expreffion, putting down, is a common phrase of our municipal law. MALONE.

Mrs.

Mrs. Page. What?-thou lieft!-Sir Alice Ford!Thefe knights will hack; and fo thou should'st not alter the article of thy gentry 5.

Mrs. Ford. We burn day-light-here, read, read; -perceive how I might be knighted.-I fhall think the worfe of fat men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's liking: And yet he would not swear; prais'd women's modefty: and gave fuch orderly and well-behaved reproof to all uncomeliness, that I would have fworn his difpofition would have gone to the truth of his words: but they do no more adhere, and keep place together, than the hundredth pfalm to the tune of Green

5 What?-thou lieft! Sir Alice Ford !-Thefe knights, will hack; and fo thou shouldft not alter the article of thy gentry.] It is not impoffible that Shakspeare meant by-thefe knight will back-these knights will foon become backney'd characters. So many knights were made about the time this play was amplified (for the paffage is neither in the copy 1602, nor 1619,) that such a stroke of fatire might not have been unjustly thrown in. STEEVENS.

Thefe knights will back, (that is, become cheap and vulgar,) and therefore the advifes her friend not to fully her gentry by becoming one. The whole of this difcourfe about knighthood is added fince the first edition of this play [in 1602]; and therefore I fufpect this is an oblique reflection on the prodigality of James I. in bestowing these honours. BLACKSTONE.

Sir W. Blackstone fuppofes that the order of Baronets (created in 1611) was likewife alluded to. I have omitted that part of his note, because it appears to me highly probable that our author amplified the play before us at an earlier period. See An Attempt to afcertain the order of SbakSpeare's plays, ante, Article, Merry Wives of Windfor.

Between the time of King James's arrival at Berwick in April 1603, and the 2d of May, he made two hundred and thirty-feven knights; and in the July following between three and four hundred. It is probable that the play before us was enlarged in that or the fubfequent year, when this ftroke of fatire must have been highly relished by the audience.

Bythefe knights will hack" may have been meant,-These unworthy knights of the prefent day will be degraded by having their fpurs back'd off; the punishment (as Dr. Johnson has obferved) of a recreant or undeferving knight. MALONE.

We burn day-light] i. e. we are wafting time in idle talk, when we ought to read the letter; refembling thofe, who waste candles by burning them in the day-time. So, in Romeo and Juliet (the quotation is Mr. Steevens's):

"We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day." MALONE.

Sleeves.