out of him; if the devil have him not in fee simple, with fine and recovery,3 he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again.4 Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have served him? Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape 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 still be the minis ters. Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publickly shamed: and, methinks, there would be no period3 to the jest, should he not be publickly shamed. Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it then, shape it: I would not have things cool. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter Host and BARDOLPH. Bard. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of your horses: the duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and they are going to meet him. Host. What duke should that be, comes so secretly? I hear not of him in the court: Let me speak with the gentlemen; they speak English? Bard. Ay, sir; I'll call them to you. 3 if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and recovery, Our author had been long enough in an attorney's office, to learn that fee-simple is the largest estate, and fine and recovery the strongest assurance, known to English law. 4 Ritson. in the way of waste, attempt us again.] i. e. he will not make further attempts to ruin us, by corrupting our virtue, and destroying our reputation. Steevens. 5 — no period —] Shakspeare seems, by no period, to mean, no proper catastrophe. Of this Hanmer was so well persuaded, that he thinks it necessary to read-no right period. Steevens. Our author often uses period, for end or conclusion. So, in King Richard III: "O, let me make the period to my curse." 66 Malone. Host. They shall have my horses; but I'll make them pay, I'll sauce them: they have had my houses a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests: they must come off; I'll sauce them: Come. [Exeunt. 6 they must come off;] To come off, is, to pay. In this sense it is used by Massinger, in The Unnatural Combat, Act IV, sc. ii, where a wench, demanding money of the father to keep his bastard, says: "Will y you come off, sir?" 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, p. 2: " and then if he will not come off, carry him to the compter." Again, in A Trick to catch the Old One, 1608: "Hark in thine ear:-will he come off, think'st thou, and pay my debts?" Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606: "It is his meaning I should come off." Again, in The Widow, by Ben Jonson, 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 Fest of a Man called Howleglas, bl. 1. no date: "Therefore come of lightly, and geve me my mony." Steevens. They must come off, (says mine host) I'll sauce them." This passage has exercised the critics. It is altered by Dr. Warburton; but there is no corruption, and Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted it. The quotation, however, from Massinger, which is referred to likewise by Mr. Edwards in his Canons of Criticism, scarcely satisfied Mr. Heath, and still less Mr. Capell, who gives us, "They must not come off." It is strange that any one, conversant in old language, should hesitate at this phrase. 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 says: If you be willing to buy, Lay down money, come off quickly." In The Widow, by Jonson, Fletcher, and Middleton: " if he will come off roundly, he 'll set him free too.” And again, in Fennor's Comptor's Commonwealth: ". except I would come off roundly, I should be bar'd of that privilege," &c. Farmer. The phrase is used by Chaucer, Friar's Tale, 338 edit. Urry: "Come off and let me riden hastily, "Give me twelve pence; I may no longer tarie.” Tyrwhitt. SCENE IV. A Room in Ford's house. Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Sir HUGH EVANS. Eva. 'Tis one of the pest discretions of a 'oman as ever I did look upon. Page. And did he send you both these letters at an instant? Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour. Ford. Pardon me, wife: Henceforth do what thou wilt; I rather will suspect the sun with cold," Than thee with wantonness: now doth thy honour stand, In him that was of late an heretic, As firm as faith. Page. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more. Be not as extreme in submission, As in offence; But let our plot go forward: let our wives Where we may take him and disgrace him for it. Eva. You say, he has been thrown into the rivers; and has been grievously peaten, as an old 'oman: me "I rather will suspect the sun with cold,] Thus the modern editions. The old ones read-with gold, which may mean, I rather will suspect the sun can be a thief, or be corrupted by a bribe, than thy honour can be betrayed to wantonness. Rowe silently made the change, which succeeding editors have as silently adopted. A thought of a similar kind occurs in Henry IV, P. I: "Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher?" Mr. I have not, however, displaced Mr. Rowe's emendation; as a zeal to preserve old readings, without distinction, may sometimes prove as injurious to our author's reputation, as a desire to introduce new ones, without attention to the quaintness of phraseology then in use. Steevens. So, in Westward for Smelts, a pamphlet which Shakspeare certainly had read: "I answere in the behalfe of one, who is thinks, there should be terrors in him, that he should not come; methinks, his flesh is punish'd, he shall have no desires. Page. So think I too. Mrs. Ford. Devise. but how you'll use him when he comes, And let us two devise to bring him thither. Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes, that Herne the hunter, Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest, Doth all the winter time, at still midnight, Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns; You have heard of such a spirit; and well you know, Received, and did deliver to our age, This tale of Herne the hunter for a truth. Page. Why, yet there want not many, that do fear In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak: But what of this? Mrs. Ford. Marry, this is our device; That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us, as free from disloyaltie, as is the sunne from darkness, or the fire from COLD." A husband is speaking of his wife. Malone. and takes the cattle;] To take, in Shakspeare, signifies to seize or strike with a disease, to blast. So, in Lear: 8 Johnson. "Ye taking airs, with lameness." So, in Markham's Treatise of Horses, 1595, chap. 8: "Of a horse that is taken. A horse that is bereft of his feeling, mooving or styrring, is said to be taken, and in sooth so he is, in that he is arrested by so villainous a disease; yet some farriors, not well understanding the ground of the disease, conster the word taken, to be stricken by some planet or evil-spirit, which is false," &c. Thus our poet: 66 No planets strike, no fairy takes." Tollet. 9 idle-headed eld-] Eld seems to be used here, for what our poet calls in Macbeth-the olden time. It is employed in Measure for Measure, to express age and decrepitude : 66 doth beg the alms "Of palsied eld." Steevens. I rather imagine it is used here for old persons. Malone. Disguis'd like Herne, with huge horns on his head.1 Page. Well, let it not be doubted but he 'll come, And in this shape: When you have brought him thither, What shall be done with him? what is your plot? Mrs. Page. That likewise have we thought upon, and thus: Nan Page my daughter, and my little son, 2 And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met, Then let them all encircle him about, 1 Disguised like Herne, with huge horns on his head.] This line, which is not in the folio, was properly restored from the old quarto by Mr. Theobald. He at the same time introduced another: "We'll send him word to meet us in the field;" which is clearly unnecessary, and indeed improper: for the word field relates to two preceding lines of the quarto, which have not been introduced: 2 "Now, for that Falstaff has been so deceiv'd, "We'll send him word to meet us in the field." Malone. - urchins, ouphes,] The primitive signification of urchin is a hedge-hog. In this sense it is used in The Tempest. Hence it comes to signify any thing little and dwarfish. Ouph is the Teutonick word for a fairy or goblin. Steevens. 3 With some diffused song;] A diffused song signifies a song that strikes out into wild sentiments beyond the bounds of nature, such as those whose subject is fairy land. Warburton. Diffused may mean confused. So, in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 553: "Rice quoth he, (i. e. Cardinal Wolsey) speak you Welch to him: I doubt not but thy speech shall be more diffuse to him, than his French shall be to thee." Tollet. By diffused song, Shakspeare may mean such unconnected ditties as mad people sing. Kent, in K. Lear, when he has determined to assume an appearance foreign to his own, declares his resolution to diffuse his speech, i. e. to give it a wild and irregular turn. Steevens. With some diffused song;] i. e. wild, irregular, discordant. That this was the meaning of the word, I have shown in a note en another play by a passage from one of Greene's pamphlets, |