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of fortune-telling. She works by charms,3 by spells, by the figure, and fuch daubery as this is; beyond our element: we know nothing.- -Come down, you witch, you hag you; come down, I say.

MRS. FORD. Nay, good, sweet husband ;-good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman."

Enter FALSTAFF in women's clothes, led by Mrs. PAGE.

MRS. PAGE. Come, mother Prat, come, give me. your hand.

3 She works by charms, &c.] Concerning fome old woman of Brentford, there are several ballads; among the reft, Julian of Brentford's laft Will and Teftament, 1599. STEEVENS.

This without doubt was the perfon here alluded to; for in the early quarto Mrs. Ford fays-" my maid's aunt, Gillian of Brentford, hath a gown above." So alfo, in Weftward Hoe, a comedy, 1607: "I doubt that old hag, Gillian of Brentford, has bewitch'd MALONE.

me.

Mr. Steevens, perhaps, has been misled by the vague expreffion of the Stationers' book. Iyl of Breyntford's Teftament, to which he feems to allude, was written by Robert, and printed by William Copland, long before 1599. But this, the only publication, it is believed, concerning the above lady, at present known, is certainly no ballad. RITSON.

Julian of Brainford's teftament is mentioned by Laneham in his letter from Killingworth Caftle, 1575, amongst many other works of established notoriety. HENLEY.

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4-fuch daubery-] Dauberies are counterfeits; difguifes. So, in King Lear, Edgar fays: I cannot daub it further.' Again, in K. Richard III:

"So fmooth he daub'd his vice with fhew of virtue."

STEEVENS.

Perhaps rather fuch grofs falfhood, and impofition. In our author's time a dauber and a plafterer were fynonymous. See Minfheu's DICT. in v. "To lay it on with a trowel" was a phrase of that time, applied to one who uttered a grofs lie. MALONE.

5 ———— let him not ftrike the old woman.] Not, which was inadvertently omitted in the firtt folio, was fupplied by the fecond.

MALONE.

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FORD. I'll prat her:-Out of my door, you witch! [beats him.] you rag, you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. [Exit FALSTAFF.

MRS. PAGE. Are you not ashamed? I think, you have kill'd the poor woman.

MRS. FURD. Nay, he will do it :-'Tis a goodly credit for you.

FORD. Hang her, witch!

EVA. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a'oman has a great peard; I spy a great peard under her muffler.

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-you rag,] This opprobrious term is again used in Timon of Athens: " thy father, that poor rag-." Mr. Rowe unne ceffarily difmiffed this word, and introduced bag in its place.

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MALONE.

ronyon!] Ronyon, applied to a woman, means, as far as can be traced, much the fame with fcall or feab fpoken of a man.

From Rogneux, Fr. So, in Macbeth:

JOHNSON.

Aroint thee, witch, the rump-fed ronyon cries."

Again, in As you like it:

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the roynifh clown." STEEVENS.

Ifpy a great peard under her muffler.] One of the marks of a fuppofed witch was a beard.

So, in The Duke's Mistress, 1638:

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a chin, without all controverfy, good

"To go a fishing with; a witches beard on't."

See alfo Macbeth, A& I. fc. iii.

The muffler (as I have learnt fince our last sheet was worked off) was a thin piece of linen that covered the lips and chin. See the figures of two market-women, at the bottom of G. Hoefnagle's curious plate of Nonfuch, in Braunii Civitates Orbis Terrarum; Part V. Plate I. See likewife the bottom of the view of Shrewfbury, &c. ibid. Part VI. Plate II. where the female peasant seems to wear the fame art cle of drefs. See also a country-woman at the corner of Speed's map of England. STEEVENS.

As the fecond ftratagem, by which Falftaff efcapes, is much the groffer of the two, I wish it had been practised first. It is very unlikely that Ford, having been fo deceived before, and knowing that he had been deceived, would fuffer him to escape in fo flight a difguife. JOHNSON.

FORD. Will you follow, gentlemen? I befeech you, follow; fee but the iffue of my jealoufy: if I cry out thus upon no trail, never truft me when I open again.

PAGE. Let's obey his humour a little further: Come, gentlemen.

[Exeunt PAGE, FORD, SHALLOW, and EVANS. MRS. PAGE. Trust me, he beat him moft pitifully. MRS. FORD. Nay, by the mafs, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought.

MRS. PAGE. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd, and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious fervice.

MRS. FORD. What think you? May we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witness of a good confcience, pursue him with any further revenge?

MRS. PAGE. The spirit of wantonnefs is, fure, fcared out of him; if the devil have him not in feefimple, with fine and recovery,' he will never, I think, in the way of wafte, attempt us again.+

MRS. FORD. Shall we tell our hufbands how we have ferved him?

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·cry out thus upon no trail,] The expreffion is taken from the hunters. Trail is the scent left by the paffage of the game. To cry out, is to open or bark. JOHNSON.

So, in Hamlet:

"How cheerfully on the falfe trail they cry:

"Oh! this is counter, ye falfe Danish dogs!" STEEVENS. 3 if the devil have him not in fee-fimple, with fine and recovery,] Our author had been long enough in an attorney's office to learn that fee-fimple is the largest eftate, and fine and recovery the Strongest affurance, known to English law. RITSON.

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in the way of wafte, attempt us again.] i. e. he will not make further attempts to ruin us, by corrupting our virtue, and deftroying our reputation. STEEVENS.

MRS. PAGE. Yes, by all means; if it be but to fcrape the figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in their hearts, the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any further afflicted, we two will ftill be the minifters.

MRS. FORD. I'll warrant, they'll have him publickly fhamed: and, methinks, there would be no period to the jeft, fhould he not be publickly fhamed.

MRS. PAGE. Come, to the forge with it then, fhape it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt,

SCENE III.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter Host and BARDOLPH.

BARD. Sir, the Germans defire to have three of horfes the duke himself will be to-morrow your at court, and they are going to meet him.

HOST. What duke fhould that be, comes fo secretly? I hear not of him in the court: Let me fpeak with the gentlemen; they speak English?

BARD. Ay, fir; I'll call them to you.'

HOST. They fhall have my horses; but I'll make them pay, I'll fauce them: they have had my houses

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no period-] Shakspeare feems, by no period, to mean, no proper catastrophe. Of this Hanmer was fo well perfuaded, that he thinks it necessary to read-no right period. STEEVENS. Our author often ufes period, for end or conclufion. So, in King

Richard III:

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O, let me make the period to my curfe." MALONE. I'll call them to you.] Old Copy-I'll call him. Corrected in the third folio. MALONE.

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a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests: they must come off; I'll fauce them: Come. [Exeunt.

6 they must come off;] To come off, is, to pay. In this fenfe it is ufed by Maffinger in The Unnatural Combat, Act IV. fc. ii. where a wench, demanding money of the father to keep his baftard, fays: "Will you come off, fir?" Again, in Decker's If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612:

"Do not your gallants come off roundly then?" Again, in Heywood's If you know not me you know Nobody, 1633, - and then if he will not come off, carry him to the Again, in A Trick to catch the Old One, 1608:

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P. 2: compter."

"Hark in thine ear-will he come off think'ft thou, and pay my debts ?"

Again, in The Return from Parnaffus, 1606:

"It is his meaning I should come off.”

Again, in The Widow, by Ben Jonfon, Fletcher, and Middleton, 1542: "I am forty dollars better for that: an 'twould come off quicker, 'twere nere a whit the worse for me." Again, in A merye Jeft of a Man called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: "Therefore come of lightly, and geve me my mony." STEEVENS.

"They must come off, (fays mine hoft,) I'll fauce them." This paffage has exercifed the criticks. It is altered by Dr. Warburton; but there is no corruption, and Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted it. The quotation, however, from Maflinger, which is referred to likewife by Mr. Edwards in his Canons of Criticism, fcarcely fatisfied Mr. Heath, and ftill lefs Mr. Capell, who gives us,

They must not come off." It is ftrange that any one, converfant in old language, should hefitate at this phrafe. Take another quotation or two, that the difficulty may be effectually removed for the future. In John Heywood's play of The Four P's, the pedlar Lays:

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If you be willing to buy,

Lay down money, come off quickly."

In The Widow, by Jonfon, Fletcher, and Middleton,-" if he will come off roundly, he'll fet him free too." And again, in Fennor's Comptor's Commonwealth :—" except I would come off roundly, I should be bar'd of that priviledge," &c. FARMER. The phrafe is used by Chaucer, Friar's Tale, 338. edit. Urry: Come off, and let me riden haftily,

"Give me twelve pence; I may no longer tarie."

TYRWHITT.

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