Eva. There is reasons and causes for it.

Page. We are come to you, to do a good office, master parson.

Eva. Fery well: What is it?

Page. Yonder is a most reverend gentleman, who belike, having received wrong by some person, is at most odds with his own gravity and patience, that ever you saw.

Shal. I have lived fourscore years, and upward; I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of his own respect.

Eva. What is he?

Page. I think you know him; master doctor Caius, the renowned French physician.

Eva. Got's will, and his passion of my heart! I had as lief you would tell me of a mess of porridge. Page. Why?

Eva. He has no more knowledge in Hibocrates and Galen, and he is a knave besides; a cowardly knave, as you would desires to be acquainted withal.

Page. I warrant you, he's the man should fight with him.

Slen. O, sweet Anne Page!

Shal. It appears so by his weapons:-Keep them assunder;-here comes doctor Caius.

Enter Host, CAIUS, and RUGBY.

Page. Nay, good master parson, keep in your weapon. Shal. So do you, good master doctor.

Host. Disarm them, and let them question; let them keep their limbs whole, and hack our English.

Caius. I pray you let-a me speak a word vit your ear: Verefore vill you not meet a-me?

Eva. Pray you use your patience: In good time. Caius. By gar you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape.

Eva. Pray you let us not be laughing-stogs to other men's humours; I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends :-I will knog your urinals about your knave's cogscomb, for missing your meetings and appointments.

Caius. Diable!-Jack Rugby,-mine Host de Jarterre, have I not stay for him, to kill him? have I not, at de place I did appoint?

Eva. As I am a christians soul, now, look you, this is the place appointed; I'll be judgement by mine host of the Garter.

Host. Peace, I say, Guallia and Gaul, French and Welch; soul-curer and body-curer.

Caius. Ay, dat is very good! excellent!

Host. Peace I say; hear mine host of the Garter. Am I politick? am I subtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my doctor? no; he gives me the potions, and the motions. Shall I lose my parson? my priest? my sir Hugh? no; he gives me the proverbs and the no-verbs.Give me thy hand, terrestrial? so:-Give me thy hand, celestial; so. Boys of art, I have deceived you both; I have directed you to wrong places: your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and let burnt sack be the issue. Come, lay their swords to pawn:-Follow me, lad of peace; follow, follow, follow.

--

Shal. Trust me, a mad host :-Follow, gentlemen, follow.

Slen. O, sweet Anne Page!

[Exeunt SHAL. SLEN. PAGE, and Host. Caius. Ha! do I perceive dat? have you make-a de sot of us?5 ha, ha!

Eva. This is well; he has made us his vlouting-stog.I desire you, that we may be friends; and let us knog our prains together, to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion, the host of the Garter.

6

4 Peace I say, Guallia and Gaul, French and Welch;] Sir Thomas Hanmer reads-Gallia and Wallia: but it is objected that Wallia is not easily corrupted into Gaul. Possibly the word was written Guallia. Farmer.

Thus, in K. Henry VI, P. II, Gualtier for Walter. Steevens. The quarto, 1602, confirms Dr. Farmer's conjecture. It reads -Peace I say, Gawle and Gawlia, French and Welch, &c. Malone. make-a de sot of us?] Sot, in French, signifies a fool.

5

Malone.

6 scall, scurvy,] Scall was an old word of reproach, as scab was afterwards.

Chaucer imprecates on his scrivener : "Under thy longe lockes mayest thou have the scalle." Johnson. Scall, as Dr. Johnson interprets it is a scab breaking out in the hair, and approaching nearly to the leprosy. It is used by other writers of Shakspeare's time. You will find what was to be done by persons afflicted with it, by looking into Leviticus, 13 ch. v. 31, and seqq. Whalley.

30,

Caius. By gar, vit all my heart; he promise to bring me vere is Anne Page: by gar, he deceive me too. Eva. Well, I will smite his noddles:-Pray you, follow. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Street in Windsor.

Enter Mistress PAGE and ROBIN.

Mrs. Page. Nay keep your way, little gallant; you were wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader: Whether had you rather, lead mine eyes, or eye your master's heels?

Rob. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man, than follow him like a dwarf.

Mrs. Page. O you are a flattering boy; now I see, you'll be a courtier.

Enter FORD.

Ford. Well met, mistress Page: Whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife: Is she at home?

Ford. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of company: I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry.

Mrs. Page. Be sure of that,-two other husbands. Ford. Where had you this pretty weather-cock? Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of: what do you call your knight's name, sirrah?

Rob. Sir John Falstaff.

Ford. Sir John Falstaff!

Mrs. Page. He,, he; I can never hit on 's name.There is such a league between my good man and he !— Is your wife at home, indeed?

Ford. Indeed, she is.

Mrs. Page By your leave, sir;—I am sick till I see her. [Exeunt Mrs. PAGE and ROB. Ford. Has Page any brains? hath he any eyes? hath he any thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty miles, as easy as a cannon will shoot point-blank twelve score,

8

He pieces-out his wife's inclination; he gives her folly motion, and advantage: and now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her! A man may hear this shower sing in the wind!7-and Falstaff's boy with her! Good plots!-they are laid; and our revolted wives share damnation together. Well; I will take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so seeming mistress Page, divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful Acteon; and to these violent pro ceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim. [Clock strikes] The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me search; there I shall find Falstaff: I shall be rather praised for this, than mocked; for it is as positive as the earth is firm,1 that Falstaff is there: I will go.

Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, SLENDER, Host, Sir HUGH EVANS CAIUS, and RUGBY.

Shal. Page, &c. Well met, master Ford.

Ford. Trust me, a good knot: I have good cheer at home; and, I pray you, all go with me.

Shal. I must excuse myself, master Ford.

Slen. And so must I, sir; we have appointed to dine with mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more money than I'll speak of.

7 A man may hear this shower sing in the wind!] This phrase has already occurred in The Tempest, Act II, sc. ii: "I hear it sing in the wind." Steevens.

8

K. Lear:

so seeming mistress Page,] Seeming is specious. So, in

"If ought within that little seeming substance."

Again, in Measure for Measure, Act I, sc. iv:

9

66 -Hence shall we see,

"If power change purpose, what our seemers be."

Steevens.

shall cry aim.] i. e. shall encourage. So, in K. John.

Act II, sc. i.

"It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim

"To these ill-tuned repetitions."

The phrase, as I have already observed, is taken from archery. See note on the last scene of the preceding act, where Dr. Warburton would read-cry aim, instead of "cry'd game." Steevens-` 1 — as the earth is firm,] So, in Macbeth:

66

·Thou sure firm-set earth." Malone.

Shal. We have linger'd2 about a match between Anne Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we

shall have our answer.

Slen. I hope I have your good will, father Page.

Page. You have, master Slender; I stand wholly for you: but my wife, master doctor, is for you altogether. Caius. Ay by gar; and de maid is love-a me; my nursh-a Quickly tell me so mush.

Host. What say you to young master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday,3 he smells April and May:* he will carry 't, he will carry 't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry 't.

2 We have linger'd-] They have not lingered very long. The match was proposed by Sir Hugh but the day before.

Johnson. Shallow represents the affair as having been long in hand, that he may better excuse himself and Slender from accepting Ford's invitation on the day when it was to be concluded. Steevens.

3

- he writes verses, he speaks holiday,] i. e. in an high-flown, fustian-style, it was called a holy-day style, from the old custom of acting their farces of the mysteries and moralities, which were turgid and bombast, on holy-days. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "I cannot woo in festival terms.” And again, in The Merchant of Venice:

"Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him."

Warburton.

I suspect that Dr. Warburton's supposition that this phrase is derived from the season of acting the old mysteries, is but an holiday hypothesis; and have preserved his note only for the sake of the passages he quotes. Fenton is not represented as a talker of bombast.

He speaks holiday, I believe, means only, his language is more curious and affectedly chosen than that used by ordinary men. Malone.

So, in King Henry IV, P. I:

"With many holiday and lady terms." Steevens. To speak holiday must mean to speak out of the common road, superior to the vulgar; alluding to the better dress worn on such days. Ritson.

4

he smells April and May:] This was the phraseology of the time; not "he smells of April," &c. So, in Measure for Measure: "he would mouth with a beggar of fifty, though she smelt brown bread and garlick." Malone.

5 'tis in his buttons;] Alluding to an ancient custom among the country fellows, of trying whether they should succeed