FORD. I will feek out Falstaff.

PAGE. I never heard fuch a drawling, affecting rogue.

FORD. If I do find it, well.

2

PAGE. I will not believe fuch a Cataian, though the priest o' the town commended him for a true

man.

" When you behold his lookes pale, thin, and poore,

"The occafion is, his humour and a whoore:

"And every thing that he doth undertake,

"It is a veine, for fenceless humour's fake." STEEVENS.

2 I will not believe fuch a Cataian,] All the mystery of the term Cataian, for a liar, is only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the first adventurers that travelled thither; fuch as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told fuch incredible wonders of this new difcovered empire (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jefuits themselves, who followed them,) that a notorious liar was ufually called a Cataian. WARBURTON..

"This fellow has fuch an odd appearance, is fo unlike a man civilized, and taught the duties of life, that I cannot credit him.' To be a foreigner was always in England, and I fuppofe every where elfe, a reason of dislike. So Pistol calls Sir Hugh in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of grofs behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian wight. JOHNSON.

I believe that neither of the commentators is in the right, but am far from profeffing, with any great degree of confidence, that I am happier in my own explanation. It is remarkable, that in Shakspeare, this expreffion-a true man, is always put in oppofition (as it is in this inftance) to—a thief. So, in Henry IV. P. I: now the thieves have bound the true men.

6

The Chinese (anciently called Cataians) are faid to be the most dextrous of all the nimble-finger'd tribe; and to this hour they deferve the fame character. Piftol was known at Windfor to have had a hand in picking Slender's pocket, and therefore might be called a Cataian with propriety, if my explanation be admitted.

That by a Cataian fome kind of harper was meant, I infer from the following paffage in Love and Honour, a play by Sir William D'Avenant, 1649:

"Hang him, bold Cataian, he indites finely,
"And will live as well by fending short epistles,
"Or by the fad whisper at your gamefter's ear,

FORD. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow: Well.
PAGE. How now, Meg?

MRS. PAGE. Whither go you, George?-Hark

you.

MRS. FORD. How now, fweet Frank? why art thou melancholy?

FORD. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.Get you home, go.

MRS. FORD. 'Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head now.-Will you go, mistress Page?

MRS. PAGE. Have with you.-You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe fhall be our meffenger to this paltry knight. [Afide to Mrs. FORD.

Enter Mistress QUICKLY.

MRS. FORD. Trust me, I thought on her: fhe'll fit it.

MRS. PAGE. You are come to fee my daughter Anne?

QUICK. Ay, forfooth; And, I pray, how does good mistress Anne?

"When the great By is drawn,

"As any diftreft gallant of them all.”

Cathaia is mentioned in The Tamer Tamed, of Beaumont and Fletcher:

"I'll wish you in the Indies, or Cathaia."

The tricks of the Cataians are hinted at in one of the old black letter hiftories of that country; and again in a dramatick performance, called the Pedler's Prophecy, 1595:

in the eaft part of Inde,

"Through feas and floods, they work all thievih."

STEEVENS.

3 'Twas a good fenfible fellow:] This, and the two preceding fpeeches of Ford, are fpoken to himself, and have no connection with the fentiments of Page, who is likewife making his comment on what had paffed, without attention to Ford. STEEVENS,

I

MRS. PAGE. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Exeunt Mrs. PAGE, Mrs. FORD, and Mrs. QUICKLY.]

PAGE. How now, master Ford?

FORD. You heard what this knave told me; did you not?

PAGE.Yes; And you heard what the other told me? FORD. Do you think there is truth in them?

PAGE. Hang 'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but these that accuse him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his discarded men; very rogues, now they be out of fervice.+

FORD. Were they his men?

PAGE. Marry, were they.

FORD. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

PAGE. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend this voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head.

FORD. I do not mifdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head: ' I cannot be thus fatisfied.

PAGE. Look, where my ranting host of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purfe, when he looks fo merrily.How now, mine hoft?

-very rogues, now they be out of fervice.] A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its confequential fignification, a cheat. JOHNSON.

-I would have nothing lie on my head:] Here feems to be an allufion to Shakspeare's favourite topick, the cuckold's horns. MALONE.

Enter Hoft, and SHALLOW.

HOST. How now, bully-rook? thou'rt a gentleman: cavalero-juftice,' I fay.

SHAL. I follow, mine hoft, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good mafter Page! Master Page, will you go with us? we have sport in hand.

Host. Tell him, cavalero-juftice; tell him, bully-rook.

SHAL. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between fir Hugh the Welch prieft, and Caius the French doctor.

FORD. Good mine hoft o' the Garter, a word with you.

HOST. What fay'ft thou, bully-rook?

[They go afide. SHAL. Will you [to Page] go with us to behold it? My merry hoft hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places: for, believe me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our fport fhall be.

HOST. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my gueft-cavalier?

FORD. None, I proteft: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourse to him, and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jest.

6

cavalero-juftice,] This cant term occurs in The Stately Moral of three Ladies of London, 1590;

"Then know, Caftilian cavaleros, this."

There is alfo a book printed in 1599, called, A countercuffe given to Martin Junior; by the venturous, hardie, and renowned Pafquil of Englande, CAVALIERO. STEEVENS.

and tell him, my name is Brook;] Thus both the old quartos; and thus moft certainly the poet wrote. We need no

HOST. My hand, bully: thou shalt have egress and regrefs; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook: It is a merry knight.-Will you go on,

hearts?"

SHAL. Have with you, mine host.

PAGE. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier.

8

better evidence than the pun that Falstaff anon makes on the name, when Brook fends him fome burnt fack.

Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow fuch liquor. The players, in their edition, altered the name to Broom.

THEOBALD. 7 will you go on, hearts?] For this fubftitution of an intelligible for an unintelligible word, I am anfwerable. The old reading is-an-heirs. See the following notes. STEEVENS.

We should read, Will you go ON, HERIS? i. e. Will you go on, mafter? Heris, an old Scotch word for master. WARBURTON.

66

The merry Hoft has already faluted them feparately by titles of diftinction; he therefore probably now addreffes them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably-Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a fubfequent fcene of this play, Farewell my hearts. Again, in The Midfummer Night's Dream, Bottom fays, Where are these bearts" My brave hearts, or my bold hearts, is a common word of encouragement. A heart of gold expreffes the more soft and amiable qualities, the mores aurei of Horace; and a heart of oak is a frequent encomium of rugged honefty. Sir T. Hanmer readsMynbeers. STEEVENS.

There can be no doubt that this paffage is corrupt. Perhaps we should read-Will you go and hear us? So, in the next page—“ I had rather hear them scold than fight." MALONE.

8 in his rapier.] In the old quarto here follow these words: Shal. I tell you what, mafter Page; I believe the doctor is no jefter; he'll lay it one [on]; for though we be justices and doctors and churchmen, yet we are the fons of women, malter Page. Page. True, mafter Shallow.

Shal. It will be found fo, mafter Page.

Page. Mafter Shallow, you yourself have been a great fighter, though now a man of peace.

Part of this dialogue is found afterwards in the third scene of the prefent act; but it seems more proper here, to introduce what Shallow fays of the prowefs of his youth. MALONE.