FAL. Thou art a traitor to say so: thou would'st make an abfolute courtier; and the firm fixture of thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait, in a femi-circled farthingale. I fee what thou wert, if fortune thy foe' were not; nature is thy friend: Come, thou canst not hide it. May not the tire valiant be fo called from the air of boldness and confidence which it might give the wearer? A certain court divine (who can hardly be called a courtly one) in a fermon preached before King James the Firft, thus fpeaks of the ladies' head dreffes: "Oh what a wonder it is to fee a fhip under faile with her tacklings and her mafts, and her tops and top gallants, with her upper decks and her nether decks, and fo bedeckt with her ftreames, flags and enfigns, and I know not what; yea but a world of wonders it is to fee a woman created in God's image, fo mifcreate oft times and deformed with her French her Spanish and her foolish fashions, that he that made her, when he looks upon her, fhall hardly know her, with her plumes, her fans, and a filken vizard, with a ruffe, like a faile; yea, a ruffe like a rainbow, with a feather in her cap, like a flag in her top, to tell (I thinke) which way the wind will blow." The MERCHANT ROYALL, a fermon preached at Whitehall before the King's Majeftie, at the nuptialls of Lord Hay and his Lady, Twelfth-day, 1607, 4to. 1615. Again, it-" is proverbially faid, that far fetcht and deare bought is fitteft for ladies; as nowa-daies what groweth at home is bafe and homely; and what every one eates is meate for dogs; and wee must have bread from one countrie, and drinke from another; and wee must have meate from Spaine, and fauce out of Italy; and if wee weare any thing, it must be pure Venetian, Roman, or barbarian; but the fashion of all muft be French." Ibid. REED. 2 —a traitor—] i. e. to thy own merit. STEEVENS, The folio reads-thou art a tyrant, &c. but the reading of the quarto appears to me far better. MALONE. 3 fortune thy foe-]" was the beginning of an old ballad, in which were enumerated all the misfortunes that fall upon mankind, through the caprice of fortune." See note on The Cuftom of the Country, Act I. fc. i. by Mr. Theobald; who obferves, that this ballad is mentioned again in a comedy by John Tatham, printed in 1660, called The Rump, or Mirror of the Times, wherein a Frenchman is introduced at the bonfire made for the burning of the rumps, and, catching hold of Prifcilla, will oblige her to dance, and orders the mufick to play Fortune my Foe. See alfo, Lingua, Vol. V. Dodfley's collection, p. 188; and Tom Effence, 1677, p. 37. Mr. MRS. FORD. Believe me, there's no fuch thing in me. FAL. What made me love thee? let that perfuade thee,there's fomething extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot cog, and say, thou art this and that, like a many of these lisping haw-thorn buds, that come like women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklers-bury in fimple-time; I cannot: but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it. MRS. FORD. Do not betray me, fir; I fear, you love mistress Page. FAL. Thou might'ft as well fay, I love to walk by the Counter-gate; which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln." Ritfon obferves, that "the tune is the identical air now known by the fong of Death and the Lady, to which the metrical lamentations of extraordinary criminals have been usually chanted for upwards of these two hundred years." REED. The first stanza of this popular ballad was as follows: "Wilt thou, I fay, for ever breed my pain, "And wilt thou not restore my joys again?" MALONE. 4 — nature is thy friend :] Is, which is not in the old copy, was introduced by Mr. Pope. MALONE. like Buckler's-bury, &c.] Buckler's-bury, in the time of Shakspeare, was chiefly inhabited by druggifts, who fold all kinds of herbs, green as well as dry. STEEVENS. 6 - I cannot cog, and fay, thou art this and that, like a many of thefe lifping hawthorn-buds, I cannot: but I love thee;] So, in Wily Beguil'd, 1606: "I cannot play the diffembler, "And woo my love with courting ambages, "Like one whose love hangs on his fmooth tongue's end; "But in a word I tell the fum of my defires, "I love faire Lelia." MALONE. —as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln.] Our poet has a fimilar image in Coriolanus: whofe breath I hate, "As reek o' the rotten fens." STEEVENS. MRS. FORD. Well, heaven knows, how I love you; and you fhall one day find it. FAL. Keep in that mind; I'll deferve it. MRS. FORD. Nay, I muft tell you, so you do; or fo elfe I could not be in that mind. ROB. [within.] Mistress Ford, mistress Ford! here's mistress Page at the door, fweating, and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs fpeak with you presently. FAL. She fhall not fee me; I will enfconce me behind the arras." MRS. FORD. Pray you, do fo; fhe's a very tattling woman.[FALSTAFF bides himself. Enter Mistress PAGE and ROBIN. What's the matter? how now? MRS. PAGE. O mistress Ford, what have you done? You're fhamed, you are overthrown, you are undone for ever. MRS. FORD. What's the matter, good mistress Page? MRS. PAGE. O well-a-day, mistress Ford! having an honeft man to your husband, to give him fuch cause of fufpicion! MRS. FORD. What cause of fufpicion? MRS. PAGE. What cause of fufpicion?-Out upon you! how am I mistook in you? MRS. FORD. Why, alas! what's the matter? behind the arras.] The spaces left between the walls and the wooden frames on which arras was hung, were not more commodious to our ancestors than to the authors of their ancient dramatic pieces. Borachio in Much ado about Nothing, and Polonius in Hamlet, alfo avail themselves of this convenient recefs. STEEVENS, MRS. PAGE. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all the officers in Windfor, to fearch for a gentleman, that, he says, is here now in the house, by your confent, to take an ill advantage of his abfence: You are undone. MRS. FORD. Speak louder."-[Afide.]—'Tis not fo, I hope. MRS. PAGE. Pray heaven it be not fo, that you have such a man here; but 'tis most certain your husband's coming with half Windfor at his heels, to fearch for fuch a one. I come before to tell you: If you know yourself clear, why I am glad of it: but if you have a friend here, convey, convey him out. Be not amazed; call all your fenfes to you; defend your reputation, or bid farewell to your good life for ever. MRS. FORD. What fhall I do?-There is a gentleman, my dear friend; and I fear not mine own fhame, fo much as his peril: I had rather than a thousand pound, he were out of the house. MRS. PAGE. For fhame, never ftand you had rather, and you had rather; your husband's here at hand, bethink you of fome conveyance: in the house you cannot hide him.-O, how have you deceived me!-Look, here is a bafket; if he be of any reafonable ftature, he may creep in here; and throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking: Or, it is whiting-time," fend him by your two men to Datchet mead. MRS. FORD. He's too big to go in there: What fhall I do? 6 Speak louder.] i. e. that Falstaff who is retired may hear. This paffage is only found in the two elder quartos. STEEVENS. whiting-time,] Bleaching time; fpring. The feason when "maidens bleach their fummer fmocks.' HOLT WHITE. 7 Re-enter FALSTAFF. FAL. Let me fee't, let me fee't! O let me fee't! I'll in, I'll in;-follow your friend's counsel ; — I'll in. MRS. PAGE. What! fir John Falstaff! Are these your letters knight? FAL. I love thee, and none] but thee; help me away: let me creep in here; I'll never [He goes into the basket; they cover him with foul linen.] MRS. PAGE. Help to cover your mafter, boy: Call your men, miftrefs Ford :-You diffembling knight! MRS. FORD. What, John, Robert, John! [Exit Robin. Re-enter Servants.] Go take up these clothes here, quickly; Where's the cowl-ftaff? look, how you drumble: carry them to the laundrefs in Datchet mead;' quickly, come. 2 - and none but thee ;] Thefe words which are characteristick, and spoken to Mrs. Page afide, deserve to be restored from the old quarto. He had used the fame words before to Mrs. Ford. 9 MALONE. the cowl-faff?] Is a ftaff ufed for carrying a large tub or basket with two handles. In Effex the word cowl is yet pfed for a tub. MALONE. 2 — how you drumble :] The reverend Mr. Lambe, the editor of the ancient metrical hiftory of the Battle of Floddon, obferves, that-look how you drumble, means-how confused you are; and that in the North, drumbled ale is muddy, difturbed ale. Thus, a Scottish proverb in Ray's collection: "It is good fishing in drumbling waters." Again, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, this word occurs: -gray-beard drumbling over a -your fly in a boxe is but a drumble-bee in comparison of it." Again: "this drumbling courfe." difcourfe.' Again: 66 - - STEEVENS. To drumble, in Devonshire, fignifies to mutter in a fullen and inarticulate voice. No other fenfe of the word will either explain |