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Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne:
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
Than ftamps in gold, or fums in fealed bags;
And 'tis the very riches of thyself

That now I aim at.

Anne. Gentle mafter Fenton,

Yet feek my father's love; ftill feek it, fir: 3 If opportunity and humbleft fuit

Cannot attain it, why then,Hark you hither. [Fenton and Mistress Anne go apart.

Enter Shallow, Slender, and Mrs. Quickly.

Shal. Break their talk, mistress Quickly; my kinfman shall speak for himself.

Slen. I'll make a shaft or a bolt on't; 'flid, 'tis but venturing.

Shal. Be not difmay'd.

Slen. No, fhe fhall not difmay me: I care not for that, but that I am afeard.

Quic. Hark ye; mafter Slender would speak a word with you.

Anne. I come to him.-This is my father's choice. O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults. Look handfome in three hundred pounds a year!

[Afide. Quic. And how does good mafter Fenton? Pray you, a word with you.

Shal. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadft a father!

courtship, as made all other motives fufpected. Congreve makes twelve thousand pounds more than a counterbalance to the affectation of Belinda. No poet would now fly his favourite character at lefs than fifty thoufand. JOHNSON.

3 If opportunity and humbleft fuit] Dr. Thirlby imagines, that our author with more propriety wrote:

If importunity and humbleft fuit.

I have not ventur'd to disturb the text, becaufe it may mean, "If the frequent opportunities you find of folliciting my father, and your obfequioufnefs to him, cannot get him over to your party,

&c." THEOBALD.

Slen

Slen. I had a father, mistress Anne;-my uncle can tell you good jefts of him :-Pray you, uncle, tell mistress Anne the jeft, how my father ftole two geefe out of a pen, good uncle.

Shal. Miftrefs Anne, my coufin loves you.

Slen. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in Glocefterfhire.

Shal. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. Slen. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail, under the degree of a 'fquire.

Shal. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure.

Anne. Good mafter Shallow, let him woo for himself. Shal. Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz: I'll leave you. Anne. Now, mafter Slender.

Slen. Now, good mistress Anne.

Anne. What is your will?

Slen. My will? od's heartlings, that's a pretty jeft, indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not fuch a fickly creature, I give heaven praise. Anne. I mean, mafter Slender, what would you with me?

Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you: Your father, and my uncle, have

come cut and long tail,] i. e. come poor, or rich, to offer himself as my rival. The following is the origin of the phrafe. According to the foreft laws, the dog of a man, who had no right to the privilege of chace, was obliged to cut, or law his dog, amongst other modes of difabling him, by depriving him of his tail. A dog fo cut was called a cut, or curt-tail, and by contraction cur. Cut and long-tail therefore fignified the dog of a clown, and the dog of a gentleman. STEEVENS.

come cut and long tail,-] I can fee no meaning in this phrafe. Slender promifes to make his mistress a gentlewoman, and probably means to fay, he will deck her in a gown of the court cut, and with a long train or tail. In the comedy of Eafteward Hoe, is this paffage: The one must be ladyfied forfooth, and be attired just to the court cut and long tayle;" which feems to justify our reading Court cut and long tail. SIR J. HAWKINS.

made motions: if it be my luck, fo; if not, happy man be his dole'! They can tell you how things go, better than I can: You may afk your father; here he comes.

Enter Page, and Miftrefs Page.

Page. Now, mafter Slender :-Love him, daughter

Anne.

Why how now! what does mafter Fenton here? You wrong me, fir, thus ftill to haunt my house: I told you, fir, my daughter is difpos'd of.

Fent. Nay, mafter Page, be not impatient.
Mrs. Page. Good mafter Fenton, come not to my
child.

Page. She is no match for you.
Fent. Sir, will you hear me?
Page. No, good mafter Fenton.

Come, mafter Shallow ;-come, fon Slender; in :—
Knowing my mind, you wrong me, mafter Fenton.

[Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender.

Quic. Speak to miftrefs Page.

Fent. Good miftress Page, for that I love your daughter

In fuch a righteous fafhion as I do,

Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners, I must advance the colours of my love,

And not retire: Let me have your good will.

Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to yon' fool.
Mrs. Page. I mean it not; Ifcck you a better husband.
Quic. That's my mafter, mafter doctor.

Anne. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i'the earth, And bowl'd to death with turnips.

Mrs.

•happy man be his dole!] A proverbial expreffion. See

Ray's collection, p. 116. edit. 1757. STEEVENS.
Anne. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i' the earth,

And borel'd to death with turnips.] Can we think the fpeaker would thus ridicule her own imprecation? We may be fure

the

Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourself: Good maf ter Fenton,

I will not be your friend nor enemy:

My daughter will I queftion how the loves you,
And as I find her, fo am I affected;

go

in ;

'Till then, farewell, fir:-She muft needs Her father will be angry. [Exe. Mrs. Page and Anne. Fent. Farewell, gentle miftrefs; farewell, Nan. Quic. This is my doing now ;-Nay, faid I, will you caft away your child on a 7 fool, and a phyfician? Look on master Fenton :-this is my doing.

Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night give my sweet Nan this ring: There's for thy pains. [Exit.

the last line should be given to the procurefs, Quickly, who would mock the young woman's averfion for her mafter the doctor. WARBURTON.

-be fet quick the earth,

And bowl'd to death with turnips.]

This is a common proverb in the fouthern counties. I find almoft the fame expreffion in Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair: "Would I had been fet in the ground, all but the head of me, and had my brains bowl'd at." COLLINS.

7 fool, and a phyfician?] I fhould read fool or a phyfician, meaning Slender and Caius. JOHNSON.

Sir Tho. Hanmer reads according to Dr. Johnfon's conjecture. This may be right.- -Or my Dame Quickly may allude to the proverb, a man of forty is either a fool or a phyfician; but she afferts her mafter to be both. FARMER.

So, in Microcofmus, a mafque by Nabbes, 1637: "Choler. Phlegm's a fool.

"Melan. Or a phyfician."

Again, in a Maidenhead well loft, 1632:

No matter whether I be a fool or a phyfician."

Mr. Dennis of irafcible memory, who altered this play, and brought it on the stage, in the year 1702, under the title of The Comical Gallant, (when, thanks to the alterer, it was fairly damn'd) has introduced the proverb at which Mrs. Quickly's allufion appears to be pointed. STEEVENS.

8 once to-night-] i. e. fometime to-night. So in a letter from the fixth earl of Northumberland; (quoted in the notes on the household book of the fifth earl of that name :) "-notwithstanding I trust to be able ons to fet up a chapell off myne owne," STEEVENS.

Quic. Now heaven fend thee good fortune! A kind heart he hath a woman would run through fire and water for fuch a kind heart. But yet, I would my mafter had mistress Anne; or I would mafter Slender had her; or, in footh, I would mafter Fenton had her: I will do what I can for them all three; for fo I have promis'd, and I'll be as good as my word; but fpeciously for mafter Fenton. Well, I muft of another errand to Sir John Falstaff from my two miftreffes; What a beaft am I to flack it?

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Enter Falftaff and Bardolph.

Fal. Bardolph, I fay.—

Bard. Here, fir.

[Exit.

Fal. Go fetch me a quart of fack; put a toast in't. [Ex. Bard.] Have Iliv'd to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of butcher's offal; and to be thrown into the Thames? Well; if I be ferv'd fuch another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new year's gift. The rogues flighted me into the river with as little remorfe 'as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' the

9 -Speciously-] She means to fay Specially. STEEVENS. In former copies :

as they would have drown'd a blind bitch's puppies,-] I have ventured to tranfpofe the adjective here, against the authority of the printed copies. I know, in horfes, a colt from a blind stallion lofes much of the value it might otherwife have; but are puppies ever drown'd the fooner, for coming from a blind bitch? The author certainly wrote, as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies. THEOBALD,

The tranfpofition may be juftified from the following paffage in the Two Gentlemen of Verona: " -one that I faved from drowning, when three or four of his blind brothers and fifters went to STEEVENS.

it.

VOL. I.

Y

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