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Hojt. I have spoke, let him follow; let me fee thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow.

[Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade; an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd fervingman, a frafh tapfter: go, adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive.

[Exit Bard. Pift. O bafe Hungarian wight, wilt thou the spigot wield?

Nym. He was gotten in drink, is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroic, and there's the humour of it.

Fal. I am glad, I am fo quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful finger, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is to fteal at a minute's reft. Pift. Convey, the wife it call: fteal? foh; a fico for the phrafe!

Fal. Well, Sirs, I am almost out at heels.

Pift. Why then, let kibes enfue.

Fal. There is no remedy: I muft conycatch, I muft fhift.

Pift. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town?
Pift. I ken the wight, he is of fubftance good.
Fal. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about.
Pift. Two yards and more.

Fal. No quips now, Piftol: indeed, I am in the wafte two yards about; but I am now about no waste, I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I fpy entertainment in her; fhe dif courfes, the carves, the gives the leer of invitation; I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftile, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am Sir John Falftaff's.

Pift. He hath ftudy'd her well, and tranflated her well; out of honefty into English.

Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pafs?

Fal.

Fal, Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her husband's purfe: fhe hath a legion of angels.

Pift. As many devils entertain; and to her, boy,fay I. Nym. The humour rifes; it is good; humour me the angels.

Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with moft judicious Iliads; fometimes, the beam of her view guilded my foot; fometimes, my portly belly.

Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine. [Afide. Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

Fal. O, fhe did fo courfe o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did feem to fcorch me up like a burning-glafs. Here's another letter to her; the bears the purfe too; (6) fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and they fhall be Exchequers to me; they shall be my East and Weft-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to miftrefs Page; and thou this to miftrefs Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pift. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become: And by my fide wear steal? then, Lucifer take all! Nym. I will run no bafe humour; here, take the humour-letter, I will keep the haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, firrah, bear you these letters tightly, Sail like my pinnace to thefe golen fhores. [To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go;

(6) She is a region in Guiana, ail gold and bounty.] If the tradition be true, as, I doubt not, but it is) of this play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's command; this paffage, perhaps, my furnish a probable conjecture that it could not appear till after the year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately difcover'd to the English, was a very happy compliment to Sir Walter Raleigh, who did not begin his expedition for South America till 1595, and return'd from it in 1596, with an advantageous account of the great wealth of Guiana. Such an addrefs of the Poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper impreffion on the people, when the intelligence of fuch a golden country was fresh in their minds, and gave them expectations of immenfe gain.

Trudge,

Trudge, plod away o' th' hoof, feek fhelter, pack! Falftaff will learn the humour of the age, (7) French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page. Exe. Falstaff and Boy. Pif. Let vultures gripe thy guts; for gourd, and

Fullam holds :

And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.
Tefter I'll have in pouch when thou shalt lack,
Bafe Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be hu mours of revenge.

Pift. Wilt thou revenge?

Nym. By welkin, and her star.
Pift. With wit, or fteel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford.
Pift. And I to Page fhall eke unfold,

How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,
And his foft couch defile.

Nym. My humour fhall not cool; I will incenfe Ford to deal with poifon; (8) I will poffefs him with

yellownefs;

(7) Falstaff will learn the honour of the age.] What was this bonour, which he was to learn? Frugality? the retrenching his expences, and keeping only a by to wait on him. Had the Editors been cut out for Collators, they might have obferv'd the old quarto's read, the humour of the age, i, e. the frugal fashion of the times. So in Much Ado about Nothing.

The fashion of the world is to avoid coft, and you encounter it. And bonour and bumour, I have obferv'd, are very often reciprocally mistaken for one another in old English plays.

(8) I will poffefs him with jealoufies, for this revolt of mine is dangerous:] This is the reading of the modern editions; the old copies have it, yellowness; i. e. the fymptom of jealouly. So Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing, speaking of Claudio's having jealous fufpicions, fays:

The Count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well; but civil, Count; civil, as an orange; and fomething of that jealous

complexion.

Again, This revolt of mine, &c.

If Nym fpeaks this of himself, he fpeaks very improperly, to call it a revolt, when he is difcarded by

his

yellowness; for the revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

Pift. Thou art the Mars of male-contents: I fecond thee; troop on.

[Exeunt.

SCENE changes to Dr. Caius's House.

Quic. Wh
WH

Enter Miftrefs Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. HAT, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to the cafement, and fee if you can fee my master, master Doctor Caius, coming; if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be old abufing of God's patience, and the King's English.

Rug. I'll go watch.

[Exit Rugby. Quic. Go, and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. An honeft, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate; his worft fault is, that he is given to pray'r; he is fomething peevish that way; but nobody but has his fault; but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay, your name is.

Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quic. And mafter Slender's your master ?
Sim. Ay, forfooth.

Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife?

it is more

his master. The old copies read, as I have reftor'd in the text: and the revolt of mine, I take to fignify the change of complexion. And then Nim muft mean, I will make him fo jealous, till he changes colour with its working; and then it will break out into fome vio lent effects, that will be dangerous to Falstaff. For mine (or mien, as generally written,) does not only lignify, the air, gefiure, and bearing of any perfon; but likewife the look and turn of countenance; oris fpecies; nativa vultus compofitio: -Vifage bon, ou mauvais, q'on fait paroitre aux gens felon qu'ils nous plaifent, &c. as Richelet explains it: that look, or turn of countenance, which we thew to people, according as they pleafe us, or not. Our Author, in other places, takes notice of the change of colour to be a fymptom of anger, envy, &c. as it certainly is in nature, according to the spring of that paffion which excites it.

Sim. No, forfooth; he hath but a little wee-face, with a little yellow beard, (9) a Cain-colour'd beard. Quic. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not?

Sim. Ay, forfooth; but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head: he hath fought with a warrener.

Quic. How fay you? oh, I should remember him; does he not hold up his head, as it were? and ftrut in his gate ?

Sim. Yes, indeed, does he.

Quic. Well, heav'n fend Ann Page no worfe fortune! Tell mafter parfon Evans, I will do what I can for your mafter: Ann is a good girl, and I wish

Enter Rugby.

Rug. Out, alas: here comes my mafter. Quic. We fhall all be fhent; run in here, good young man; go into this clofet; [buts Simple in the clofet. He will not ftay long. What, John Rugby! John! what, John, I fay; go, John, go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home and down, down, a-down-a, &c.

Enter Doctor Caius.

[Sings

Caius, Vat is you fing? I do not like des toys; pray you, go and vetch me in my clofet un boitier verd; a box, a green-a box; do intend vat Ifpeak? a-green-a

box.

Quick. Ay, forfooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad, he went not in himfelf; if he had found the

[Afide Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe, ma foi, il fait fort chaud ; j' me'n vaie à la cour-la grande affaire.

man, he would have been horn-mad.

Quic. Is it this, Sir?

Caius. Ouy, mettez le au

mon

quickly; ver is dat knave Rugby?

pocket; Depecher

(9) A cane-colour'd beard.] Thus the latter Editions. I have

reftor'd with the old copies.

Cain and Judas, in the tapestries and pictures of old, were reprefented with yellow beards.

Quic

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