bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. PIST. Shall I fir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer take all! Nrм. I will run no base humour: here, take the humour letter; I will keep the 'haviour of reputa tion. FAL. Hold, firrah, [to Roв.] bear you these letters tightly; 8 Sail like my pinnace to these golden fhores.— 8 -bear you thefe letters tightly;] i. e. cleverly, adroitly. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, Antony, putting on his armour, fays, My queen's a fquire 66 "More tight at this, than thou." MALONE. No phrafe is fo common in the eaftern counties of this kingdom, and particularly in Suffolk, as good tightly, for brifkly and effectually. HENLEY. 9 my pinnace-] A pinnace feems anciently to have fignified a small veffel, or floop, attending on a larger. So, in Rowley's When you fee me you know me, 1613: 66 was lately fent "With threescore fail of ships and pinnaces.” Again, in Muleaffes the Turk, 1610: "Our life is but a failing to our death Through the world's ocean: it makes no matter then, "Whether we put into the world's vaft fea Shipp'd in a pinnace, or an argofy." At prefent it fignifies only a man of war's boat. A paffage fimilar to this of Shakspeare occurs in The Humourous Lieutenant, by Beaumont and Fletcher: this fmall pinnace "Shall fail for gold." STEEVENS. A pinnace is a fmall veffel with a fquare ftern, having fails and oars, and carrying three mafts; chiefly used (fays Rolt, in his Dictionary of Commerce,) as a fcout for intelligence, and for landing of men. MALONE. Falstaff will learn the humour of this age," PIST. Let vultures gripe thy guts!' for gourd, And high and low beguile the rich and poor:* 2 the humour of this age,] Thus the 4to, 1619: The folio reads the honor of the age. STEEVENS. 3 Let vultures gripe thy guts!] This hemiftitch is a burlesque on a paffage in Tamburlaine, or The Scythian Shepherd, of which play a more particular account is given in one of the notes to Henry IV. P. II. A& II. fc. iv. STEEVENS. I fuppofe the following is the paffage intended to be ridiculed: and now doth ghastly death 66 "With greedy talents [talons] gripe my bleeding heart, "And like a harper [harpy] tyers on my life.” Again, ibid: 66 Griping our bowels with retorted thoughts." MALONE. 4 for gourd, and fullam holds, And high and low beguile 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. Jonfon, in his Every Man out of his Humour, quibbles upon this cant term: "Who, he ferve? 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 false dice." I bequeath two bale of falfe dice, videlicet, high men and low men, fulloms, stop cater-traies, and other bones of function." 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 contraries ?" Again, in The Bell-man of London, by Decker, 5th edit. 1640; among the falfe dice are enumerated, "a bale of fullams." A bale of gordes, with as many high-men as low-men for passage." STEEVENS. Gourds were probably dice in which a fecret cavity had been Tefter I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk! Nrм. I have operations in my head,' which be humours of revenge. PIST. Wilt thou revenge? Nrм. By welkin, and her star! Nrм. With both the humours, I: I will difcufs the humour of this love to Page." His dove will prove, his gold will hold, made; fullams, those which had been loaded with a small bit of lead. High men and low men, which were likewife cant terms, explain themselves. High numbers on the dice, at hazard, are from five to twelve, inclufive; low, from aces to four. MALONE. High and low men were falfe dice, which, being chiefly made at Fulham, were thence called " high and low Fulhams." The high Fulhams were the numbers, 4, 5, and 6. See the manner in which thefe dice were made, in The Complete Gamefter, p. 12. edit. 1676, 12mo. DOUCE. in my head,] Thefe words which are omitted in the folio, were recovered by Mr. Pope from the early quarto. MALONE. 6 I will difcufs the humour of this love to Page.] The folio reads: to Ford;" but the very reverse of this happens. See A&t II. where Nym makes the difcovery to Page, and not to Ford, as here promifed; and Piftol, on the other hand, to Ford, and not to Page. Shakspeare is frequently guilty of these little forgetfulnesses. STEEVENS. The folio reads-to Ford; and in the next line-and I to Page, &c. But the reverfe of this (as Mr. Steevens has obferved) happens in Act II. where Nym makes the difcovery to Page, and Piftol to Ford. I have therefore corrected the text from the old quarto, where Nym declares he will make the discovery to Page; and Pistol fays, "And I to Ford will likewife tell." MALONE. Nrм. My humour fhall not cool: I will incenfe Page to deal with poison; I will poffefs him with yellowness, for the revolt of mien' is dangerous: that is my true humour. PIST. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I fecond thee; troop on. "I will incenfe Page, &c.] So, in K. Henry VIII: [Exeunt. In both paffages, to incenfe has the fame meaning as to inftigate. STEEVENS. yellownefs,] Yellowness is jealousy. JOHNSON. So, in Law Tricks, &c. 1608: "If you have me, you must not put on yellows." Again, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: Flora well, perdie, "Did paint her yellow for her jealousy." STEEVENS. the revolt of mien-] The revolt of mine is the old reading. Revolt of mien, is change of countenance, one of the effects he has just been ascribing to jealoufy. STEEVENS. This, Mr. Steevens truly observes to be the old reading, and it is authority enough for the revolt of mien in modern orthography. "Know you that fellow that walketh there? fays Eliot, 1593he is an alchymift by his mine, and hath multiplied all to moonfhine." FARMER. Nym means, I think, to say, that kind of change in the complexion, which is caused by jealoufy, renders the perfon poffeffed by fuch a paffion dangerous; confequently Ford will be likely to revenge himself on Falstaff, and I fhall be gratified. I believe our author wrote→ that revolt, &c. though I have not disturbed the text. ye and yt in the Mfs. of his time were eafily confounded. MALONE, SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. Caius's Houfe. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY.1 QUICK. What; John Rugby!-I pray thee, go to the casement, and fee if you can see my mafter, master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the houfe, here will be an old abufing of God's patience, and the king's English. RUG. I'll go watch. [Exit RUGBY. QUICK. Go; and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire.3 An honest, 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 nobody but has his fault; 2 Rugby.] This domestic of Dr. Caius received his name from a town in Warwickshire. STEEVENS. 3 at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my mafter is in bed. JOHNSON. -no breed-bate:] Bate is an obfolete word, fignifying ftrife, contention. So, in the Countefs of Pembroke's Antonius, 1595: "Shall ever civil bate "Gnaw and devour our ftate ?" Again, in Acolaftus, a comedy, 1540: "We fhall not fall at bate, or ftryve for this matter." Stanyhurst, in his tranflation of Virgil, 1582, calls Erinnys a make-bate. STEEVENS. 5 he is fomething peevish that way:] Peevish is foolish. So, in Cymbeline, Act II: "he's ftrange and peevish." STEEVENS. I believe, this is one of dame Quickly's blunders, and that she means precife. MALONE. |