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From a passage in The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinaire, or the Walkes in Powles, quarto, 1604, it appears that Sir John Oldcastle was represented on the stage as a very fat man.

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The cause of all the confusion relative to these two characters, and of the tradition mentioned by Mr. Rowe, that our author changed the name from Oldcastle to Falstaff, (to which I do not give the smallest credit, seems to have been this. Shakspeare appears evidently to have caught the idea of the character of Falstaff from a wretched play entitled The famous Victories of King Henry V. (which had been exhibited before 1589,) in which Henry Prince of Wales is a principal character. He is accompanied in his revels and his robberies by Sir John Oldcastle, (“a pamper'd glutton, and a debauchee," as he his called in a piece of that age,) who appears to be the character alluded to in the passage above quoted from The meeting of Gallants, &c. To this character undoubtedly it is that Fuller alludes in his Church History, 1656, when he says, "Stage poets have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royster, and a coward to boot." Speed in his History, which was first published in 1611, alludes both to this boon companion" of the anonymous K. Henry and to the Sir John Oldcastle exhibited in a play of the same name, which was printed in 1600: The author of The Three Conversions hath made Oldcastle a ruffian, a robber, and a rebel, and his authority taken from the stage players." Oldcastle is represented as a rebel in the play last mentioned

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alone; in the former play as "a ruffian and a robber."

Shakspeare probably never intended to ridicule the real Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, in any respect; but thought proper to make Falstaff, in imitation of his prototype, the Oldcastle of the old K. Henry V. a mad round knave, also. From the first appearance of our author's King Henry IV. the old play in which Sir John Oldcastle had been exhibited. (which was printed in 1598,) was probably never performed. Hence, I conceive, it is, that Fuller says, "Sir John Falstaff has relieved the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, and of late is substituted buffoon in his place;" which being misunderstood, probably gave rise to the story, that Shakspeare changed the name of his character.

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Falstaff having grown out of, and immediately succeeding, the other character, (the Oldcastle of the old K. Henry V.) having one or two features in common with him, and being probably represented in the same dress, and with the same fictitious belly, as his predecessor, the two names might have been indiscriminately used by Field and others, without any mistake, or intention to deceive. Perhaps, behind the scenes, in consequence of the circumstances already mentioned, Oldcastle might have been å cant appellation for Falstaff, for a long time, Hence the name might have been prefixed inadvertently, in some playhouse copy, to one of the speeches in The Second Part of King IF.

If the verses be examined, in which the name of Falstaff occurs, it will be found, that Oldcatsle could not have stood in those places. The

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only who are entirely unacquainted with our author's history and works have under one. MALONE P. 8, 1. 10. 11. And LS a Jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?] To under stand the propriety of the Prince's answer, it must be remarked that the sheriff's officers were formerly ad in buif. So that when Falstaff asks whether his hostess is not a

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Durance, however, mis such as we call at might also have signified some lasting kind of

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The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphics s da a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form. BHOW 2006) OWW 778M bas gital T 10 P. 9, 1. 15. It appears from S Stowe's s Survey, that a broad ditch called Deep-ditch, formerly parted the hospital from Moor-fields; and what has a more melancholy day appearance than stagnant Water? STEEVENS atoll of gister giuleurs Moor ditch, a part of the ditch surrounding vithe city of London, between Bishopsgate and Crip- plegate, opened to an unwholesome and impas-sable

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a were remarkably pleasant, and the fashionable biplaces of resort. WARTON 40 Sir T. Han9 47 comparative, -1

za mer and Dr. Warburton after him, read to comparative suppose for incomparable, or peerless but comparative here means quick at w comparisons, or fruitful in similes, and is properly introduced. JOHNSON, en d 19 273 for wisdom cries out the streefs, and no man regard man regards it. This is Moa scriptural expression: Wisdom crieth withgut, she queigh bereford and no man, Jei yoice in the streets. I have stretched out, ! my hand

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P. 9, 1. 19. For iteration Sir T. Henmer and Dr. Warburton read attraction, of which the meaning is certainly more apparent; but an editor is not always to change what he does not understand. In the last speech a text is very indecently and abusively applied, to which Falstaff answers, thou hast damnable iteration, or a wicked trick of repeating and applying holy texts. This I think is the meaning. JoHNSON,

Iteration is right, for it also signified simply citation or recitation MALONE.

P. 10 10, 1. 10. 11. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, &c.] This (as Dr. Farmer observes to me) is undoubtedly a sneer on Agremont Padcliffe's Politique Discourses, 1578. From the beginning to the end of this work, the word vocation occurs in almost every paragraph.

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STEEVENS.

P. 10, 1, 19. 20. What says Sir John Sackand Sugar? Hentzner, p. 88, edit. 1757, speaking of the manners of the English, says, "in porum copiose immittunt saccarum," they put a great deal of sugar in their drink. REED.

Much inquiry has been made about Falstaff's sack, and great surprise has been expressed that he should have mixed sugar with it. As they are here mentioned for the First time in this play, it may not be improper to observe that it is probable that Falstaff's wine was Sherry', a Spanish wine, originally made at Xeres. He frequently himself calls it Sherris-sack. "Nor will his mixing sugar with sack appear extraordinary, when it is known that it was a very common practice in our author's time to put sugar into all wines. "Clownes and vulgar men (saysFynes Moryson) only use large drinking of beere or ale, but

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