Eva. Why, this is lunatics! this is mad as a mad dog! Enter Mrs. FORD. Ford. So fay I too, fir.-Come hither, mistress Ford; miftrefs Ford, the honeft woman, the modest wife, the vir tuous creature, that hath the jealous fool to her husband — I fufpect without caufe, mistress, do I? Mrs. Ford. Heaven be my witnefs, you do, if you suspect me in any dishonesty. Ford. Well faid, brazen-face; hold it out. firrah. Page. This paffes! -Come forth, [Pulls the clothes out of the basket. Mrs. Ford. Are you not ashamed? let the clothes alone. Ford. I fhall find you anon. Eva. 'Tis unreafonable! Will you take up your wife's clothes? Come away. Ford. Empty the basket, I fay. Ford. Mafter Page, as I am a man, there was one convey'd out of my houfe yesterday in this basket: Why may not he be there again? In my houfe I am fure he is: my intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable: Pluck me out all the linen. Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he fhall die a flea's death. Page. Here's no man. Shal. By my fidelity, this is not well, master Ford: this wrongs you." Eva. Mafter Ford, you must pray, and not follow the imaginations of your own heart: this is jealoufies. Ford. Well, he's not here I feek for. Page. No, nor no where elfe, but in your brain. Ford. Help to fearch my house this one time: if I find not what I feek, fhow no colour for my extremity, let me for preffion of Shakspeare was prepared; and therefore gave these two words as part of an imperfect fentence. One of the obfolete fenfes of the verb, to pafs, is to go beyond bounds. STEEVENS. This is below your character, unworthy of your understanding, injurious to your honour. JOHNSON. for ever be your table-fport; let them fay of me, As jealous as Ford, that fearch'd a hollow walnut for his wife's leman." Satisfy me once more; once more fearch with me. Mrs. Ford. What hoa, miftrefs Page! come you, and the old woman down; my husband will come into the chamber. Ford. Old woman! What old woman's that? Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford. Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not forbid her my houfe? She comes of errands, does the? We are fimple men; we do not know what's brought to pafs under the profeffion of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by the figure, and fuch daubery 9 as this is; beyond our element; we know nothing.- Come down, you witch, you hag you; come down, I fay. Mrs. Ford. Nay, good, fweet hufband;-good gentlemen, let him not strike the old woman. Enter FALSTAFF in women's clothes, led by Mrs. PAGE. Mrs. Page. Come, mother Prat, come, give me your hand. Ford. I'll prat her;- -Out of my door, you witch! [beats 7 Leman, i. e. lover, is derived from leef, Dutch, beloved, and man. STEEVENS. 8 Concerning fome old woman of Brentford, there are feveral ballads; among the reft, Julian of Brentford's laft Will and Teftament, 1599. STEEVENS. This without doubt is the perfon here alluded to; for in the early quarto Mrs. Ford fays-" my maid's aunt, Gillian of Brentford, hath a gown above." So alfo, in Weftward Hoe, a comedy, 1607: "I doubt that old hag, Gillian of Brentford, has bewitch'd me." MALONE. Mr. Steevens, perhaps, has been misled by the vague expreffion of the Stationers' book. Iyl of Breyntford's Teftament, to which he feems to allude, was written by Robert, and printed by William Copland, long before 1599. But this, the only publication, it is believed, concerning the above lady, at prefent known, is certainly no ballad, RITSON. Julian of Brainford's Teftament is mentioned by Lancham in his letter from Killingworth Cafile, 1575, amongst many other works of established notoriety. HENLEY. 9 Dauberies are counterfeits; difguifes. STEEVENS. Perhaps rather fuch grofs falfhood, and impofition. In our author's time a dauber and a plafterer were fynonymous. "To lay it on with a trowel" was a phrafe of that time, applied to one who uttered a grofs lie. MALONE. [beats bim.] you rag, you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon! out! out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you. [Exit FALSTAFF. Mrs. Page. Are you not afhamed? I think, you have kill'd the poor woman. Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it:-'Tis a goodly credit for you. Ford. Hang her, witch! Eva. By yea and no, I think, the 'oman is a witch indeed: I like not when a 'oman has a great peard; I spy a great peard under her muffler.4 Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you, follow; fee but the iffue of my jealoufy: if I cry out thus upon no trail, never truft me when I open again. Page. Let's obey his humour a little further: Come, gentlemen. [Exeunt PAGE, FORD, SHALLOW, and EVANS. Mrs. Page. Truft me, he beat him moft pitifully. Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the mafs, that he did not; he beat him most unpitifully, methought. Mrs. 2 This opprobrious term is again used in Timon of Athens: "-thy father, that poor rag-" Mr. Rowe unneceffarily difmiffed this word, and introduced bag in its place. MALONE. 3 Ronyon, applied to a woman, means, as far as can be traced, much the fame with feall or fcab spoken of a man. JOHNSON. From Rogneux, Fr. STEEVENS. 4 One of the marks of a fuppofed witch was a beard. So, in The Duke's Miftrefs, 1638: a chin, without all controverfy, good "To go a fishing with; a witches beard on't." See alfo Macbeth, A&t I. fc. iii. The muffler (as I have learnt fince our last sheet was worked off) was a thin piece of linen that covered the lips and chin. See the figures of two market-women, at the bottom of G. Hoefnagle's curious plate of Nonfuch, in Braunii Civitates Orbis Terrarum; Part V. Plate I. See likewise the bottom of the view of Shrewsbury, &c. ibid. Part VI. Plate II. where the female peafant feems to wear the fame article of drefs. See also a Country-woman at the corner of Speed's map of England. STEEVENS. As the fecond ftratagem, by which Falstaff escapes, is much the groffer of the two, I wish it had been practifed first. It is very unlikely that Ford, having been fo deceived before, and knowing that he had been deceived, would fuffer him to escape in fo flight a difguife. JOHNSON. 5 The expreffion is taken from the hunters. Trail is the fcent left by the paffage of the game. To cry out, is to open or bark. JOHNSON. Mrs. Page. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd, and hung o'er the altar; it hath done meritorious fervice. Mrs. Ford. What think you? May we, with the warrant of woman-hood, and the witness of a good confcience, pur, fue him with any further revenge? Mrs. Page. The fpirit of wantonnefs is, fure, fcared out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-fimple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of wafte, attempt us again.7 Mrs. Ford. Shall we tell our husbands how we have ferved him? Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to fcrape the figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in their hearts, the poor unvirtuous fat knight fhall be any fur ther afflicted, we two will ftill be the minifters. Mrs. Ford. I'll warrant, they'll have him publickly fhamed: and, methinks, there would be no period to the jeft, fhould he not be publickly fhamed. Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it then, fhape it: I would not have things cool. SCENE III. A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter Host and BARDOLPH. [Exeunt. hor Bard. Sir, the Germans defire to have three of your fes: the duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and they are going to meet him. Hoft. What duke fhould that be, comes so fecretly? I hear not of him in the court: Let me fpeak with the gentlemen; they speak English? Bard. 6 Our author had been long enough in an attorney's office to learn that fee fimple is the largest eftate, and fine and recovery the strongest assurance, known to English law. RITSON. 7 i. e. he will not make further attempts to ruin us, by corrupting our virtue, and deftroying our reputation. STEEVENS. 8 Shakspeare feems, by no period, to mean, no proper catastrophe. Of this Hanmer was fo well perfuaded, that he thinks it neceflary to readno right period. STEEVENS. Our author often uses period, for end or conclufion. MALONE. Bard. Ay, fir; I'll call them to you. Hof. They fhall have my horfes; but I'll make them pay, I'll fauce them: they have had my houfes a week at command; I have turn'd away my other guests: they must come off; I'll fauce them: Come. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Ford's Houfe. Enter PAGE, FORD, Mrs. PAGE. Mrs. FORD, and Sir HUGH EVANS. Eva. "Tis one of the peft difcretions 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 fufpect the fun with cold,2 9 To come off, is, to pay. STEVENS. Than "They must come off, (fays mine hoft,) I'll fauce them." This paffage has exercifed the criticks. It is altered by Dr. Warburton; but there is no corruption, and Mr. Steevens has rightly interpreted it. The quotation, however, from Maflinger, which is referred to likewife by Mr. Edwards in his Canons of Criticifm, fcarcely fatisfied Mr. Heath, and ftill lefs Mr. Capell, who gives us, "They must not come off." It is ftrange that any one, converfant in old language, fhould hefitate at this phrafe. Take another quotation or two, that the difficulty may be effect ually removed for the future. In John Heywood's play of The Four P's, the fedlar fays: <c If you be willing to buy, "Lay down money, come off quickly." In The Widow, by Jonfon, Fletcher, and Middleton," if he will came off roundly, he'll fet him free too.' And again, in Fennor's Comptor's Commonwealth -"except I would come off roundly, I should be bar'd of that priviledge," &c. FARMER. The phrafe is ufed by Chaucer, Friar's Tale, 338. edit. Urry: "Give me twelve pence; I may no longer tarie." TYRWHITT. Mr. Rowe Thus the modern editions.-The old ones read-with gold, which may mean, I rather will fufpect the fun can be a thief, or be corrupted by bribe, than thy honour can be betrayed to wantonnels. Alently made the change, which fucceeding editors have as filently adopted. A thought of a fimilar kind occurs in Henry IV. P. I ; VOL. I. N Shall |