Ford. Marry, fir, we'll bring you to Windfor, to one mafter Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pandar: over and above that you have fuffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction. Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends: Forgive that fum, and fo we'll all be friends. Ford. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at laft. Page. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou fhalt eat a poffet tonight at my houfe; where I will defire thee to laugh at my wife,3 that now laughs at thee: Tell her, mafter Slender hath married her daughter. Mrs. Page. Doctors doubt that: If Anne Page be my daughter, the is, by this, doctor Caius' wife. Enter SLENDER. Slen. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page! [Afide. Page. Son! how now? how now, fon? have you defpatch'd? Slen. Defpatch'd!-I'll make the beft in Glocestershire know on't; would I were hanged, la, else. Page. Of what, fon? Slen, I came yonder at Eton to marry mistress Anne Page, O 2 and Perhaps Falstaff's meaning may be this: "Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: i. e. above me;" ignorance itself is not fo low as I am, by the length of a plummet line. TYRWHITT. Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me-i. e. ferves to point out my obliquities. This is faid in confequence of Evans's laft fpeech. The allufion is to the examination of a carpenter's work by the plummet held over it; of which line Sir Hugh is here reprefented as the lead. HENLEY. I am fatisfied with the old reading. MALONE. Which Dr. Johnson's note renders perfectly intelligible; all those which follow it ferving only to fhew how agreeably learned critics can blunder. NICHOLS. 2 This and the following little fpeech I have inferted from the old quartos. The retrenchment, I prefume, was by the players. Sir John Falftaff is fufficiently punished, in being disappointed and expofed. The expectation of his being profecuted for the twenty pounds, gives the conclufion too tragical a turn. Befides, it is poetical justice that Ford fhould fuftain this lofs, as a fine Ar his unreasonable jealoufy. THEOBALD. 3 The two plots are excellently connected, and the tranfition very artfully made in this fpeech. JOHNSON. and he's a great lubberly boy: If it had not been i' the church, I would have fwinged him, or he fhould have fwinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, would I might never ftir, and 'tis a post-mafter's boy. Page. Upon my life then took the wrong. you Slen. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I took a boy for a girl: If I had been married to him, for all he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him. Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you, how you should know my daughter by her garments? Slen. I went to her in white, and cry'd, mum; and she cry'd budget, as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was not Anne, but a post-master's boy. Eva. Jefhu! Mafter Slender, cannot you fee but marry boys? Page. O, I am vex'd at heart: What shall I do? Mrs. Page. Good George, be not angry: I knew of your purpofe; turned my daughter into green; and, indeed, the is now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married. Enter CAIUS. Caius. Vere is miftrefs Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha' married un garçon, a boy; un paisan, by gar, a boy; it is not Anne Page by gar, I am cozened. Mrs. Page. Why, did you take her in green? Caius. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy: be gar, I'll raise all [Exit CAIUS. Windfor. Ford. This is ftrange: Who hath got the right Anne? Page. My heart mifgives me: Here comes mafter Fenton. Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE. How now, mafter Fenton ? Anne. Pardon, good father! good my mother, pardon! Page. Now, mistress? how chance you went not with master Slender? Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, maid? You would have married her most shamefully, The 3 i. e. confound her by your questions. STEEVENS. The truth is, She and I, long fince contracted, Which forced marriage would have brought upon her, Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a fpecial ftand to ftrike at me, that your arrow hath glanced. Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy! What cannot be eschew'd, must be embrac'd. Fal. When night dogs run, all forts of deer are chas'd.' Eva. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding." Mrs. 4 In the first sketch of this play, which, as Mr. Pope obferves, is much inferior to the latter performance, the only fentiment of which I regret the omiffion, occurs at this critical time. When Fenton brings in his wife, there is this dialogue. Mrs. Ford. Come, Mrs. Page, I must be bold with you. 'Tis pity to part love that is fo true. Mrs. Page. [Afide.] Although that I have mifs'd in my intent, Yet I am glad my husband's match is cross’d. -Here Fenton, take bër. Eva. Come, mafter Page, you must needs agree. Ford. I' faith, fir, come, you fee your wife is pleas'd. And yet it doth me good the doctor mifs'd. JOHNSON. He alludes to Fenton's hav 6 I will dance and eat plums at your wedding.] I have no doubt but this line, fupposed to be spoken by Evans, is misplaced, and should come in after that spoken by Falstaff, which being intended to rhime with the last line of Page's fpeech, fhould immediately follow it; and then the paffage will run thus: Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, Heaven give thee joy ! What cannot be efchew'd, must be embrac'd, Fal. When night-dogs run, all forts of deer are chac'd, Evans, I will dance and eat plums, &c. M. MASON. 0 3 I have Mrs. Page. Well, I will mufe no further: Fenton, Heaven give you many, many merry days!— Ford. -Mafter [Exeunt. I have availed myself of Mr. M. Mafon's very judicious remark, which had alfo been made by Mr. Malone, who obferves that Evans's fpeech I will dance," &c. was restored from the first quarto by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS. 7 Of this play there is a tradition preferved by Mr. Rowe, that it was written at the command of queen Elizabeth, who was fo delighted with the character of Falftaff, that the wifhed it to be diffufed through more plays; but fufpecting that it might pall by continued uniformity, directed the poet to diverfify his manner, by fhewing him in love. No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of another. Shakspeare knew what the queen, if the story be true, feems not to have known, that by any real paffion of tenderness, the selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Falstaff muft have fuffered fo much abatement, that little of his former caft would have remained. Falftaff could not love, but by ceafing to be Faiftaff. He could only counterfeit love, and his profeffions could be prompted, not by the hope of pleasure, but of money. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the work enjoined him; yet having perhaps in the former plays completed his own idea, feems not to have been able to give Faiftaff all his former power of entertainment. This comedy is remarkable for the variety and number of the perfonages, who exhibit more characters appropriated and difcriminated, than perhaps can be found in any other play. Whether Shakspeare was the first that produced upon the English ftage the effect of language diftorted and depraved by provincial or foreign pronunciation, I cannot certainly decide * This mode of forming ridiculous characters can confer praise only on him who originally difcovered it, for it requires not much of either wit or judgement: its fuccefs must be derived almoft wholly from the player, but its power in a skilful mouth, even he that defpifes it, is unable to refift. The conduct of this drama is deficient; the action begins and ends often, before the conclufion, and the different parts might change places without In The Three Ladies of London, 1584, is the character of an Italian merchant, very strongly marked by foreign pronunciation. Dr. Dodypoll, in the comedy which bears his name, is, like Caius, a French physician. This piece appeared at least a year before The Merry Wives of Windfor. The hero of it fpeaks fuch another jargon as the antagonist of Sir Hugh, and like him is cheated of his mistress. In feveral other pieces, more ancient than the earliest of Shakspeare's, provincial characters are introduced. Steevens. without inconvenience; but its general power, that power by which all works of genius fhall finally be tried, is such, that perhaps it never yet had reader or fpectator who did not think it too foon at the end. JOHNSON, The ftory of The Two Lovers of Pifa, from which (as Dr. Farmer has obferved) Falstaff's adventures in this play feem to have been taken, is printed in Tarleton's Newes out of Purgatorie, bl. 1. no date. [Entered in the Stationers' Books, June 16, 1590.] It is obfervable, however, that in this novel (which, I believe, Shakfpeare had read,) there is no trace of the buck-basket. -In the firft tale of The Fortunate, the Deceived, and Unfortunate Lovers, (of which I have an edition printed in 1684, but the novels it contains had probably appeared in English in our author's time,) a young student of Bologne is taught by an old doctor how to make love; and his firft effay is practised on his inftructor's wife. The jealous husband having tracked his pupil to his house, enters unexpectedly, fully perfuaded that he fhould detect the lady and her lover together; but the gallant is concealed under a heap of linen balf-dried; and afterwards informs him, (not knowing that his tutor was likewife his mistress's husband,) what a lucky efcape he had. It is, therefore, I think, highly probable that Shakspeare had read both ftories. Sir Hugb Evans.] See p. 171 and 172. MALONE. The question whether priests were formerly knights in confequence of their being called Sir, ftill remains to be decided. Examples that those of the lower clafs were fo called are very numerous; and hence it may be fairly inferred that they at leaft were not knights, nor is there perhaps a fingle inftance of the order of knighthood being conferred upon ecclefiaf tics of any degree. Having cafually, however, met with a note in Dyer's Reports, which feems at firft view not only to contain fome authority for the custom of knighting priefts by Abbots, in confequence of a charter granted to the Abbot of Reading for that purpose, but likewise the opinion of two learned judges, founded thereupon, that priests were anciently knights, I have been induced to enter a little more fully upon this difcuffion, and to examine the validity of those opinions. The extract from Dyer is a marginal note in p. 216. B. in the following words: "Trin. 3 Jac. Banc le Roy Holcraft and Gibbons, cas Popham dit que il ad view un ancient charter grant al Abbot de Reading per Roy d'Angliterre, a fair knight, fur que fon conceit fuit que l' Abbot fait, ecclefiaftical perfons, knights, d'illonque come a luy be nofmes de Sir John and Sir Will. que eft done al afcun Clerks a ceft jour fuit derive quel opinion Coke Attorney-General applaud difont que fueront milites cæleftes &milites terreftres." It is proper to mention here that all the reports have been diligently fearched for this cafe of Holcraft and Gibbons, in hopes of finding fome further illuftration, but without fuccefs. The charter then above-mentioned appears upon further enquiry to have been the foundation charter of Reading Abbey, and to have been granted by Henry I. in 1125. The words of it referred to by Chief Juftice Popham, and upon which he founded his opinion, are as follow: 04 "Nec |