Quick. And that's a good root. Eva. 'Oman, forbear. Mrs. Page. Peace. Eva. What is your genitive cafe plural, William ? Eva. Ay. Will. Genitive,-horum, harum, borum.5 Quick. 'Vengeance of Jenny's cafe! fie on her!—never name her, child, if the be a whore. Eva. For fhame, 'oman. Quick. You do ill to teach the child fuch words: he teaches him to hick and to hack," which they'll do faft enough of themselves; and to call horum :-fie upon you! Eva. 'Oman, art thou lunatics? haft thou no understandings for thy cafes, and the numbers of the genders? Thou art as foolish christian creatures, as I would defires. Mrs. Page. Pr'ythee, hold thy peace. Eva. Shew me now, William, fome declenfions of your pronouns. Will. Forfooth, I have forgot. Eva. It is ki, kæ, cod; if you forget your kies, your kæs;" and your cods, you must be preeches.8 Go your ways, and play, go. Mrs. Page. He is a better scholar than I thought he was. Eva. He is a good fprag memory. Farewell, mistress Page: Mrs. 5 Taylor, the water-poet, has borrowed this jeft, fuch as it is, in his character of a ftrumpet: "And come to borum, barum, wborum, then STEEVENS. 6 Sir William Blackftone thought that this, in Dame Quickly's fanguage, fignifies "to ftammer or he fitate, as boys do in faying their leffons;" but Mr. Steevens, with more probability, fupposes that it fignifies, in her dialect, to do mifchief. MALONE. 7 All this ribaldry is likewife found in Taylor the water-poet. STEEVENS. 8 Sir Hugh means to fay-you must be breech'd, i. e. flogg'd. To breech is to fing. STEEVENS. 9 I am told that this word is ftill used by the common people in the neighbourhood of Bath, where it fignifies ready, alert, sprightly, and is pronounced as if it was written-Sprack. STEEVENS. A fpackt lad or wench, fays Ray, is apt to learn, ingenious. REED. Mrs. Page. Adieu, good fir Hugh. [Exit Sir HUGH.] Get you home, boy.-Come, we stay too long. SCENE II. A Room in FORD's Houfe. Enter FALSTAFF and Mrs. FORD. [Exeunt Fal. Miftrefs Ford, your forrow hath eaten up my fufferance: I fee, you are obfequious in your love,2 and I profefs requital to a hair's breadth; not only, miftrefs Ford, in the fimple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, complement, and ceremony of it. But are you fure of your husband now ? Mrs. Ford. He's a birding, fweet fir John. Mrs. Page. [Within.] What hoa, goffip Ford! what hoa! Mrs. Ford. Step into the chamber, fir John. Enter Mrs. PAGE. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Page. How now, fweetheart? who's at home be fides yourself? Mrs. Ford. Why, none but mine own people. Mrs. Page. Indeed ? Mrs. Ford. No, certainly :-Speak louder. [Afide. Mrs. Page. Truly, I am fo glad you have nobody here. Mrs. Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes3 again he fo takes on 4 yonder with my husband; fo rails against all married mankind; fo curfes all Eve's daughters, of what complexion foever; and fo buffets himself on the forehead, crying, Peer-out, peer-out! 5 that any madness, I ever for fome term yet The epithet obfequious refers, in both inftances, to the ferioufnefs with which obfequies, or funeral ceremonies, are performed. STEEVENS. 3 lunes] i. e. lunacy, frenzy. STEEVENS. 4 To take on, which is now ufed for to grieve, feems to be used by our author for to rage. Perhaps it was applied to any paffion. JOHNSON. 5 That is, appear borns. Shakspeare is at his old lunes. JOHNSON. Shakspeare yet beheld, feem'd but tamenefs, civility, and patience, to this diftemper he is in now: I am glad the fat knight is not here. Mrs. Ford. Why, does he talk of him? Mrs. Page. Of none but him; and fwears, he was carried out, the last time he search'd for him, in a basket: protests to my husband, he is now here; and hath drawn him and the reft of their company from their sport, to make another experiment of his fufpicion : but I am glad the knight is not here; now he shall fee his own foolery. Mrs. Ford. How near is he, mistress Page? Mrs. Page. Hard by; at ftreet end; he will be here anon. Mrs. Ford. I am undone !—the knight is here. Mrs. Page. Why, then you are utterly fhamed, and he's but a dead man. What a woman are you?-Away with him, away with him; better fhame than murder. Mrs. Ford. Which way fhould he go? how fhould I beftow him? Shall I put him into the basket again? Re-enter FALSTAFF. Fal. No, I'll come no more i' the basket: May I not go out, ere he come ? Mrs. Page. Alas, three of mafter Ford's brothers watch the door with piftols," that none shall iffue out; otherwise you might flip away ere he came. But what make you here ?7 Fal. What fhall I do ?-I'll creep up into the chimney. Mrs. Ford. There they always ufe to discharge their birding-pieces Creep into the kiln-hole.8 Fal. Shakspeare here refers to the practice of children, when they call on a fnail to push forth his horns: "Peer out, peer out, peer out of your hole, "Or elfe I'll beat you black as a coal." HENLEY. This is one of Shakspeare's anachronisms. DoUCE. Thus, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Thaliard fays, if I "Can get him once within my piftol's length," &c. and Thaliard was one of the courtiers of Antiochus the third, who reigned 200 years before Chrift; a period rather too early for the use of piftols. 7 i. e. what do you bere. MALONE. STEEVENS. See Mrs. Ford's next fpecch Fal. Where is it? Mrs. Ford. He will feek there on my word. Neither prefs, coffer, cheft, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abftract for the remembrance of fuch places, and goes to them by his note: There is no hiding you in the house. Fal. I'll go out then. Mrs. Page. If you go out in your own femblance, you die, fir John. Unless you go out difguis'd,Mrs. Ford. How might we difguife him? Mrs. Page. Alas the day, I know not. There is no woman's gown big enough for him; otherwife, he might put on a hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape. Fal. Good hearts, devife fomething: any extremity, ather than a mischief. Mrs. Ford. My maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brentford, above. has a gown Mrs. Page. On my word, it will ferve him; fhe's as big as he is and there's her thrum'd hat, and her muffler too: 2 Run up, fir John. Mrs. Ford. Go, go, fweet fir John: mistress Page, and I, will look fome linen for your head. Mrs. Page. Quick, quick; we'll come drefs you ftraight:' put on the gown the while. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Ford. I would, my husband would meet him in this fhape he cannot abide the old woman of Brentford; he fwears, fhe's a witch; forbade her my house, and hath threatn'd to beat her. Mrs. Page. Heaven guide him to thy hufband's cudgel; and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards! Mrs. Ford. But is my husband coming? Mrs. fpeech. That, however, may be a fecond thought; a correction of her former propofal: but the other fuppofition is more probable. MALONE. 9 i. e. a lift, an inventory. STEEVENS. Rather, a fhort note or description. MALONE. The thrum is the end of a weaver's warp, and we may fuppofe, was ufed for the purpose of making coarse hats. A muffler was fome part of drefs that covered the face. STIEVENS. The muffler was a part of female attire, which only covered the lower half of the face. DOUCE. A thrum'd hat, was made of very coarse woollen cloth. Thrum'd isa formed of thrums. MALONE. Mrs. Page. Ay, in good fadnefs, is he; and talks of the basket too, howfoever he hath had intelligence. Mrs. Ford. We'll try that; for I'll appoint my men to carry the basket again, to meet him at the door with it, as they did last time. Mrs. Page. Nay, but he'll be here prefently: let's go drefs him like the witch of Brentford. Mrs. Ford. I'll firft direct my men, what they fhall do with the basket. Go up, I'll bring linen for him ftraight. [Exit. Mrs. Page. Hang him, difhoneft varlet? we cannot mis ufe him enough. We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do, 'Tis old but true, Still fwine eat all the draff.3 [Exit. Re-enter Mrs. FORD, with two Servants. Mrs. Ford. Go, firs, take the basket again on your fhoulders; your master is hard at door; if he bid you fet it down, obey him quickly, defpatch. 1. Serv. Come, come, take it up. [Exit. 2. Serv. Pray heaven, it be not full of the knight again. 1. Serv. I hope not; I had as lief bear fo much lead. Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and Sir HUGH EVANS. Ford. Ay, but if it prove true, mafter Page, have you any way then to unfool me again?-Set down the basket, villain :— Somebody call my wife:- -You, youth in a basket, come out here!-O, you panderly rafcals! there's a knot, a ging, a pack, a confpiracy, against me: Now fhall the devil be fhamed. What! wife, I fay! come, come forth; behold what honeft clothes you fend forth to bleaching. Page. Why, this paffes !5 Mafter Ford, you are not to go loofe any longer; you must be pinion'd. 3 This is a proverbial fentence. MALONE. Eva. The force of the phrafe I did not understand, when a former im preffion |