John Falstaffs, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, efquire.

conclufive. Slender obferves to mafter Page, that his greyhound was out-run on Cotfale; [Cotswold-Hills in Gloucestershire] and Mr. Warton thinks, that the games established there by Capt. Dover in the beginning of K. James's reign, are alluded to.-But perhaps, though the Captain be celebrated in the Annalia Dubrenfia as the founder of them, he might be the reviver only, or fome way contribute to make them more famous; for in the 2d part of Henry IV. 1600, justice Shallow reckons amongst the Swinge-bucklers, "Will Squeele, a Cotfole man."

In the first edition of the imperfect play, fir Hugh Evans is called on the title-page, the Welch Knight; and yet there are fome perfons who ftill affect to believe, that all our author's plays were originally published by bimfelf. FARMER.

Mr. Farmer's opinion is well fupported by " An eclogue on the noble affemblies revived on Cotswold Hills, by Mr. Robert Dover." See Randolph's Poems, printed at Oxford, 4to. 1638, p. 114. The hills of Coffwold, in Gloucestershire, are mentioned in K. Rich. II. act II. fc. iii. and by Drayton, in his Polyolbion, fong 14. STEEVENS.

The Merry Wives of Windfor.] Queen Elizabeth was fo well pleafed with the admirable character of Falstaff in The Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, fhe commanded Shakespeare to continue it for one play more, and to fhew him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives of Windfor: which, Mr. Gildon fays, he was very well affured our author finithed in a fortnight. But this must be meant only of the first imperfect sketch of this comedy; an old quarto edition which I have feen, printed in 1602, fays, in the title-page-As it hath been divers times acted both before her majefty, and elsewhere. POPE. THEOBALD.

3 Sir Hugh,] This is the first, of fundry instances in our poet, where a parfon is called fir. Upon which it may be ob ferved, that anciently it was the common defignation both of one in holy orders and a knight. Fuller, fomewhere in his Church History fays, that anciently there were in England more firs than knights; and fo lately as temp. W. and Mar. in a depofition in the Exchequer in a cafe of tithes, the witnefs fpeaking of the curate, whom he remembered, ftiles him, fir Gyles. Vide Gibson's View of the State of the Churches of Door, Home-Lacy, &c. page 36. SIR J. HAWKINS.

4

-a Star-chamber matter of it:] Ben Jonfon intimates, that the Star-chamber had a right to take cognizance of fuch matters. See The Magnetic Lady, act III. fc. iv:

"There is a court above, of the Star-chamber,

"To punish reats and riots." STEEVENS.

Slen.

Slen. In the county of Glofter, juftice of peace, and coram.

Shal. Ay, coufin Slender, and 5 cuftalorum.

Slen. Ay, and ratalorum too; and a gentleman born, mafter parfon; who writes himfelf armigero; in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero.

Shal. Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three hundred years.

Slen. All his fucceffors, gone before him, have don't; and all his ancestors, that come after him, may they may give the dozen white luces in their

coat.

Shal. It is an old coat.

Eva. The dozen white loufes do become an old coat well; it agrees well, paffant: it is a familiar beaft to man, and fignifics-love.

Shal. The luce is the frefh fifh; the falt fish is an old coat.

Slen.

5 cuftalorum.] This is, I fuppofe, intended for a corruption of Cuftos Rotulorum. The mistake was hardly defigned by the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read:

Shal. Ay, coufin Slender, and Cuftos Rotulorum.

It follows naturally:

Slen. Ay, and Ratolorum too. JOHNSON.

Ay, coufin Slender, and cuftalorum.]

I think with Dr. Johnson, that this blunder could scarcely be intended. Shallow, we know, had been bred to the law at Clement's Inn.-But I would rather read cuftos only; then Slender adds naturally, "Ay, and rotulorum too." He had heard the words cuftos rotulorum, and supposes them to mean different offices. FARMER.

The luce &c.] I fee no confequence in this anfwer. Perhaps we may read, the falt fish is not an old coat. That is, the fresh fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the falt fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the fea. JOHNSON.

Shakespeare, by hinting that the arms of the Shallows and the Lucys were the fame, fhews he could not forget his old friend fir Tho. Lucy, pointing at him under the character of justice Shallow. But to put the matter out of all doubt, Shakespeare has

here

Slen. I may quarter, coz.

Shal. You may, by marrying.

Evd.

here given us a diftinguishing mark, whereby it appears that fir Thomas was the very perfon reprefented by Shallow. To fet blundering parfon Evans right, Shallow tells him, the luce is not the loufe, but the fresh fish, or pike, the falt fish (indeed) is an old coat. The plain English of which is (if I am not greatly mistaken) the family of the Charlcotts had for their arms a falt fish origi nally; but when William, fon of Walter de Charlcott, affumed the name of Lucy, in the time of Henry III. he took the arms of the Lucys. This is not at all improbable; for we find, when Maud Lucy bequeathed her eftates to the Percys, it was upon condition they joined her arms with their own. Says Dugdale,

it is likely William de Charlcott took the name of Lucy to oblige his mother." And I fay farther, it is likely he took the arms of the Lucys at the fame time. SMITH.

The luce is the fresh fish, the falt fish is an old coat.]

I am not fatisfied with any thing that has been offered on this difficult paffage. All that Mr. Smith tell us, is a mere gratis dictum. I cannot find that salt fish were ever really borne in heraldry. I fancy the latter part of the speech fhould be given to fir Hugh, who is at crofs purposes with the Juftice. Shallow had faid juft before, the coat is an old one; and now, that it is the luce, the fresh fish.-No, replies the parfon, it cannot be old and fresh too-" the falt fish is an old coat." I give this with rather the more confidence, as a fimilar mistake has happened a little lower in the fcene." Slice, I fay!" cries out Corporal Nym," Pauca, pauca: Slice, that's my humour." There can be no doubt, but pauca, pauca should be spoken by Evans.

Again, a little before this, the copies give us :

Slender. You'll not confefs, you'll not confefs.

Shallow. That he will not-'tis your fault, 'tis fault-'tis a

good dog.

Surely it should be thus:

Shallow. You'll not confefs, you'll not confess.

Slender. That he will not.

Shallow. 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault, &c. FARMER.

This fugitive fcrap of Latin, pauca, &c. is used in several old pieces, by characters, who have no more of literature about them, than Nym. So Skinke, in Look about you, 1600:

"But pauca Verba, Skinke."

Again, in Every Man in his Humour, where it is called the benchers phrafe. STEEVENS.

Shakespeare feems to frolick here in his heraldry, with a defign not to be eafily understood. In Leland's Collectanea, vol. I. p. ii. p. 615. the arms of Geffrey de Lucy are " de goules poudre a croifil

dor

Eva. It is marring, indeed, if he quarter it.
Shal. Not a whit.

Eva.

dor a treis luz dor." Can the poet mean to quibble upon the word poudré, that is, powdred, which fignifies falted; of ftrewed and fprinkled with any thing? In Meafure for Meafure, Lucio fays"Ever your fresh whore and your powder'd bawd." TOLLET. The luce is a pike or jack:

"Ful many a fair partrich hadde he in mewe,

"And many a breme, and many a luce in ftewe."

Chaucer's Prol. of the Cant. Tales, late edit. 351, 352. In Ferne's Blazon of Gentry, 1586, quarto, the arms of the Lucy family are reprefented as an inftance, that "figns of the coat fhould fomething agree with the name. It is the coat of Geffray Lord Lucy. He did bear gules, three lucies hariant, argent."

Mr. William Oldys, (Norroy King at Arms, and well known from the share he had in compiling the Biographia Britannica) among the collections which he left for a Life of Shakespeare, obferves, that there was a very aged gentleman living in the neighbourhood of Stratford, (where he died fifty years fince) who had not only heard, from feveral old people in that town, of Shakespeare's tranfgreffion, but could remember the first stanza of that bitter ballad, which, repeating to one of his acquaintance, he preserved it in writing; and here it is, neither better nor worfe, but faithfully transcribed from the copy which his relation very curteously communicated to me.”

"A parliemente member, a justice of peace,

"At home a poor fcare-crowe, at London an affe,
"If lowfie is Lucy, as fome volke mifcalle it,
"Then Lucy is lowfie whatever befall it :
"He thinks himself greate,

"Yet an affe in his state,

"We allowe by his ears but with affes to mate.
"If Lucy is lowfie, as fome volke mifcalle it,
"Sing lowfie Lucy, whatever befall it."

Contemptible as this performance muft now appear, at the time when it was written it might have had fufficient power to irritate a vain, weak, and vindictive magiftrate; efpecially as it was affixed to feveral of his park-gates, and confequently published among his neighbours.-It may be remarked likewife, that the jingle on which it turns, occurs in the first scene of the Merry Wives of Windfor.

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

Eva. Yes, py'r-lady; if he has a quarter of of your coat, there is but three fkirts for yourfelf, in my fimple conjectures: but that is all one: If fir John Falstaff 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.

Eva. It is not meet the council hear of 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 alfo 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.

fhould be forged, from which an undiscovered wag could derive no triumph over antiquarian credulity. STEEVENS.

7 The council fhall hear it; it is a riot.] He alludes to a statute made in the reign of K. Henry IV. (13, chap. 7.) by which it is enacted, "That the juftices, three, or two of them, and the "fheriff, fhall certify before the king, and his counfelle, all the "deeds and circumstances thereof (namely the riot); which cer"tification fhould be of the like force as the presentment of "twelve: upon which certificate the trefpaffers and offenders "fhall be put to anfwer, and they which be found guilty shall be "punished, according to the difcretion of the kinge and counselle." Dr. GRAY.

8 Your vizaments in that.] Advisement is now an obfolete word. I meet with it in the ancient morality of Every Man:

"That I may amend me with good adryfement." Again: "I fhall fmite without any advyfement." Again: "To go with good advyfements and delyberacyon." It is often ufed by Spenfer in his Faery Queen. So, b. n. c. 9: "Perhaps my fuccour and advizement meete." STEEVENS. which is daughter to mafter Thomas Page,] The whole fet 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 pailages. THEOBALD.

Slen.