Pist. As many devils entertain; and, "To her,

boy," say I.

Nym. The humour rises; 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 most judicious eyliads: sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly.

8

Pist. Then did the sun on dunghill shine.
Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

9

Fal. O she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning glass. Here's another letter to her: she bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater 10 to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me: they shall be my East and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to mistress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pist. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my side wear steel? then, Lucifer take all ! Nym. I will run no base humour: here, take the humour-letter: I will keep the 'haviour of reputa

tion.

Fal. [To ROB.] Hold, sirrah; bear you these letters tightly:

Sail like my pinnace," to these golden shores.

8 Eyliads are soft glances, or wanton looks. Cotgrave translates it, "to cast a sheep's eye."

9 That is, intentness.

H.

10 The escheators were officers of the exchequer, and popularly called cheaters.

H.

11 A pinnace was a light vessel built for speed, and was also called a brigantine. Hence the word is used for a go-between. In Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, Justice Overdo says of the

Rogues, hence! avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go; Trudge, plod away o' the hoof; seek shelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of this age, French thrift, you rogues: myself, and skirted page. [Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN. Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts! 12 for gourd and fullam 13 holds,

And high and low beguile the rich and poor: Tester1 I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack, Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations, which be humours of

revenge.

Pist. Wilt thou revenge?

Nym. By welkin, and her star!

Pist. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will discuss the humour of this love to Page.
Pist. And I to Ford shall eke unfold,

How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,

And his soft couch defile.

Nym. My humour shall not cool: I will incense Page to deal with poison; I will possess him with yellowness; for the revolt of mine is dangerous: that is my true humour.

16

15

pig-woman," She has been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two and twenty years."

12 A burlesque on a passage in Marlowe's Tamburlaine :

"and now doth ghastly death

With greedy talents gripe my bleeding heart,
And like a harper tyers on my life."

13 In Decker's Bellman of London, 1640, among the false dice are enumerated "a bale of fullams- -a bale of gordes, with as many high men as low men for passage." The false dice were chiefly made at Fulham; hence the name.

14 Sixpence I'll have in pocket.

15 Jealousy.

16 Evidently referring to his revolt from Falstaff, which is now his "true humour."

H.

Pist. Thou art the Mars of malcontents: I

second thee; troop on.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A Room in Dr. CAIUS's House.

Enter Mrs. QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY.

Quick. What, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to the casement, and see if you can see my master, master Doctor Caius, coming: if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be an old abusing' of God's patience, and the king's English. Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit RUGBY.

Quick. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal: and, I warrant you, no telltale, nor no breed-bate :2 his worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is something peevish 3 that way but nobody but has his fault ; but let that Peter Simple, you say, your name is?

pass.

Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quick. And master Slender's your master?
Sim. Ay, forsooth.

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

Sim. No, forsooth: he hath but a little wee face, with a little yellow beard; a Cain-colour'd beard.*

1 Old is here intensive, much the same as huge; a common use of the word in the Poet's time. Thus we have old coil in Much Ado about Nothing.

2 That is, breeder of debate, maker of strife.

3 Foolish.

H.

4 It is said that Cain and Judas in old pictures and tapestry were constantly represented with yellow beards. In an age when but a small part of the nation could read, ideas were frequently borrowed from these representations. The quartos read kanecoloured, that is, having the colour of cane.

Quick. A softly-sprighted man, is he not?

5

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

Quick. How say you? — O! I should remember him Does he not hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait ?

Sim. Yes, indeed, does he.

Quick. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish

Re-enter RUGBY.

Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quick. We shall all be shent : Run in here, good young man; go into this closet. [Shuts SIMPLE in the closet.] He will not stay long. — What, John Rugby! John, what, John, I say! Go, John, go inquire for my master; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home: [Sings.] "and down, down,

adown-a," &c.

Enter Doctor CAIUS.

Caius. Vat is you sing? I do not like dese toys: Pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier

5 A common phrase of the time for a man of valour or execution, something like the French homme haut à la main. Thus again in Twelfth Night: "As tall a man as any's in Illyria." It is one of the new phrases ridiculed by Mercutio, as being used by the "antic, lisping, affected fantasticos" of his age: "A very good blade, a very tall man!" H.

6 The keeper of a warren.

7 The original meaning of shent was killed or ruined; but it came to be used for reviled, or abused with rough language, in which sense it occurs several times in Shakespeare.

H.

8 It has been thought strange that Shakespeare should take the name of Caius for his Frenchman, as an eminent physician of that

verd; a box, a green-a box: Do intend vat I speak?

a green-a

box.

Quick. Ay, forsooth: I'll fetch it you. [Aside.] I am glad he went not in himself: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad.

ma foi, il fait fort chaud.

la grande affaire.

Caius. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Dépêche,

quickly - Vere is dat knave Rugby?

:

Quick. What, John Rugby! John!

Rug. Here, sir.

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

Rug. "Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long: Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublié ? dere is some simples in my closet dat I vill not for the varld I shall leave behind.

Quick. [Aside.] Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet? Villainy! larron! [Pulling SIMPLE out.] Rugby, my rapier!

Quick. Good master, be content.

Caius. Verefore shall I be content-a?

Quick. The young man is an honest man.

Caius. Vat shall de honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet.

name, founder of Caius College, Oxford, flourished in Elizabeth's reign. But Shakespeare was little acquainted with literary history, and without doubt, from this unusual name, supposed him to have been some foreign quack. The character might however be drawn from the life, for in Jack Dover's Quest of Enquirie, 1604, a story called The Foole of Windsor turns upon a simple outlandish Doctor of Physic.