seem to fcorch me up like a burning-glafs! Here's another letter to her: fhe bears the purfe too; 2 fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. 3 I will be 'Cheater to them both, and they fhall be Exchequers to me; they shall be my Eaft and Weft Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to miftrefs Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. Pift. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer take all! Nym. I will run no base humour: here, take the humour letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, firrah, bear you these letters tightly; Sail like my pinnace to these golden fhores. [To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go; Trudge, plod, away, o' the hoof; feek fhelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of the age, French thrift, you rogues; myself, and fkirted page. [Exit Falstaff and Boy. 2 She is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty.] If the tradition be true (as I doubt not but it is) of this play being wrote at queen Elizabeth's command, this paffage, perhaps, may furnish a probable conjecture that it could not appear till after the year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately difcovered to the English, was a very happy compliment to Sir Walter Raleigh, who did not begin his expedition for South America till 1595, and returned from it in 1596, with an advantageous account of the great wealth of Guiana. Such an addrefs of the poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper impreffion on the people, when the intelligence of fuch a golden country was fresh in their minds, and gave them expectations of immense gain. THEOBALD. 3 I will be 'Cheater to them both, and they shall be Exchequers to me;-] The fame joke is intended here, as in The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, act ii. -I will bar no honeft man my houfe, nor no Cheater.By which is meant Efcheatour, an officer in the Exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. WARBURTON. Pift. 4 Let vultures gripe thy guts! 5 for gord, and fullam holds : And high and low beguiles the rich and poor: Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge. Pift. Wilt thou revenge ? Nym. By welkin, and her star! Pift. With wit, or steel? Nym. With both the humours, I: I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford. His dove will prove, his gold will hold, Nym. My humour fhall not cool: I will incenfe 4 Let vultures gripe thy guts!] This hemiftich is a burlefque on a paffage in Tamburlaine, or The Scythian Shepherd, of which a more particular account is given in one of the notes to Henry IV. STEEVENS. 5 for gourd, and fullam holds : And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.] Fullam is a cant term for falfe dice, high and low. Torriano, in his Italian dictionary, interprets Pife by falfe dice, high and low men, high fullams and low fullams. Johnfon, in his Every Man out of his Humour, quibbles upon this cant term. Who, he Serve? He keeps high men and low men, he has a fair living at fullam. As for gourd, or rather gord, it was another inftrument of gaming, as appears from Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady. And thy dry bones can reach at nothing now, but GORDS or nine-pins. WARBURTON. In the London Prodigal I find the following enumeration of falfe dice." I bequeath two bale of falfe dice, videlicet, high men and low men, fulloms, stop cater-traies, and other "bones of function." In Monfieur D'Olive, a comedy, by Chapman, 1606, the gord, the fullam, and the flop-cater tree, are mentioned. Green, in his Art of Juggling, &c. 1612, fays, "What "fhould I fay more of falfe dice, of fulloms, high men, lowe "men, gourds, and brizled dice, graviers, demies, and con"traries ?" STEEVENS. Ford 6 Ford to deal with poifon; I will poffefs him with yellownefs; for 7 the revolt of mine is dangerous : that is my true humour. Pift. Thou art the Mars of malecontents: I fecond thee; troop on. SCENE IV. Changes to Dr. Caius's house. [Exeunt. Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. Quic. What, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to the cafement, and fee if you can fee my mafter, mafter Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be old abufing of God's patience, and the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. Quic. Go, and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, 8 at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. [Exit Rugby.] An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate: his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is fomething peevish that way: but no body but has his fault; but let that país. Peter Simple, you fay your name is. Sim. Ay, for fault of a better. 6 7 Quic. And mafter Slender's your master? -yellowness;-] Yellowness is jealoufy. JOHNSON. -the revolt of mien-] I fuppofe we may read, the revolt of men. Sir T. Hanmer reads, this revolt of mine. Either may ferve, for of the prefent text I can find no meaning. JOHNSON. The revolt of mine is the old reading. Nym, who is about to quit his mafter, may be made to obferve, with propriety, that the defertion of fervants is dangerous to the interest of their mafters. Revolt of mien, was there any authority for fuch a reading, would fignify change of countenance, one of the effects he has just been afcribing to jealoufy. STEEVENS. at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my mafter is in bed. JOHNSON, 8 O 3 Sim. Sim. Ay, forfooth. Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife? I Sim. No, forfooth; he hath but 9 a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-colour'd beard. Quic. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not? Sim. Ay, forfooth: but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head: he hath fought with a warrener. Quic. How fay you?-oh, I fhould remember him: does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gait? fies .. a little wee face,] Wee, in the northern dialect, fignivery little. "The quene, aftonyft ane little wee, "At the first fight beholding his bewte." Gawin Douglas's Virg. p. 32. edit. 1710. So in Heywood's Fair Maid of the Weft. Com. 1631. "He was nothing fo tall as I, but a little wee man, and somewhat "hutch-back'd." Again, in The Wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll, 1600. "Some two miles, and a wee bit, Sir." Wee is derived from wenig. Dutch. STEEVENS. I —a Cane-colour'd beard.] Thus the latter editions. I have restored Cain from the old copies. Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were reprefented with yellow beards. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be fupported by a parallel expreffion in an old play called Blurt Mafter Conftable, or, The Spaniard's Night-Walk, 1602. 66 over all "A goodly, long, thick, Abraham-colour'd beard.” Again, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599, Bafilifco fays, where is the eldeft fon of Priam, "That Abraham-colour'd Trojan? Again, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1605. "And let their beards be of Judas his own colour.” Again, in A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612. "That's he in the Judas beard." In an age, when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from reprefentations in painting or tapestry. STEEVENS, Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quic. Well heaven fend Ann Page no worse fortune! Tell mafter parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Ann is a good girl, and I wish Re-enter Rugby. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quic. We fhall all be fhent: run in here, good young man, go into this clofet. [Shuts Simple in the clofet.] He will not ftay long. What, John Rugby! John! what, John, I fay! Go, John, go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home and down, down, a-down-a, &c. [Sings. Enter Doctor Caius. Caius. Vat is you fing? I do not like defe toys; pray you, go and vetch me in my clofet 2 un boitier verd; a box, a green-a box; do intend vat I speak? a green-a box. Quic. Ay, forfooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad he went not in himfelf: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad. [Afide. Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud, je m'en vai à la Courla grande affaire. Quic. Is it this, Sir. Caius. Ouy, mettez le au mon pocket; Depêchez, quickly: vere is dat knave Rugby? Quic. What, John Rugby! John ! Rug. Here, Sir. Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court. Rug. 'Tis ready, Sir, here in the porch, Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long: od's me! 2 -un boitier verd ;- -] Boitier in French fignifies a cafe of furgeon's inftruments. Dr. GRAY. O 4 |