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mand that truly which thou would'ft truly know 3. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leapinghoufes, and the bleffed fun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffata; I see no reason, why thou should'st be fo fuperfluous to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal: for we, that take purfes, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus,-he, that wandering knight fo fair. And, I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art king,-as, God fave thy grace, (majefty, I should say; for grace thou wilt have none,)—

P. Hen. What! none?

Fal. No, by my troth; not fo much as will ferve to be prologue to an egg and butter.

P. Hen. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. Fal. Marry, then, fweet wag, when thou art king, let not us, that are fquires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's beauty 5; let us beDiana's

3- to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.] The prince's objection to the queftion feems to be, that Falstaff had asked in the night what was the time of day. JOHNSON.

This cannot be well received as the objection of the prince; for prefently after, the prince himself fays: "Good morrow, Ned," and Poins replies: "Good morrow, fweet lad." The truth may be, that when Shakspeare makes the Prince with Poins a good morrow, he had forgot that the fcene commenced at night. STEEVENS.

Phœbus, he, that wandering knight fo fair.] Falstaff starts the idea of Phœbus, i. e. the fun; but deviates into an allufion to El Donzel del Febo, the knight of the fun, in a Spanish romance tranflated (under the title of the Mirror of Knighthood, &c.) during the age of Shakspeare. This illuftrious perfonage was "moft excellently faire," and a great wanderer, as thofe who travel after him through three thick volumes in quarto, will difcover. Perhaps the words "that wandering knight fo fair" are part of fome forgotten ballad, the fubject of this marvellous hero's adventures. In Peele's Old Wives Tale, Com. 1595, Eumenedes, the wandering knight, is a character. STEEVENS.

5-let not us, that are fquires of the night's body, be called thieves of the day's beauty;] I believe our poet by the expreffion, thieves of the day's beauty, meant only, let not us, who are body fquires to the night, ie. adorn the night, be called a difgrace to the day. To take away

Diana's forefters ", gentlemen of the fhade, minions of the moon: And let men fay, we be men of good government; being govern'd as the fea is, by our noble and chafte miftrefs the moon, under whofe countenance we-steal.

P. Hen. Thou fay'ft well; and it holds well too: for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the fea: being govern'd as the fea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: A purfe of gold moft refolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and moft diffolutely fpent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing-lay by?; and spent with crying-bring in now, in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and, by and by, in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

Fal. By the lord, thou fay'ft true, lad. And is not hoftefs of the tavern a most sweet wench? ?

my

P. Hen.

the beauty of the day, may probably mean, to difgrace it. A fquire of the body fignified originally, the attendant on a knight; the perfon who bore his head-piece, fpear, and shield. It became afterwards the cant term for a pimp; and is fo ufed in the fecond part of Decker's Honeft Whore, 1630. Again in the Witty Fair One, 1633, for aj a procurefs: "Here comes the fquire of her mistress's body." Falftaff, however, puns upon the word knight. See Curialia of Samuel Pegge Efqr. Part I. p. 100. STEEVENS..

6-Diana's forefters,-] We learn from Hall, that certain perfons who appeared as forefters in a pageant exhibited in the reign of King Henry VIII. were called Diana's knights. MALONE.

7-fwearing-lay by;] i. e. fwearing at the paffengers they robbed, lay by your arms; or rather lay by was a phrafe that then fignified ftand fill, addrefled to thofe who were preparing to rush forward. WARB. and spent with crying, bring in:] i. e. more wine. MALONE. And is not mine boftefs of the tavern &c-] We meet with the fame kind of humour as is contained in this and the three following fpeeches, in the Moftellaria of Plautus, A&t. I. fc. ii.

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"Jampridem ecaftor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter,

"Nec unde me melius, mea Scapha, rear effe defecatam. Sca." Eventus rebus omnibus, velut horno meffis magna fuit. Phi. "Quid ea meffis attinet ad meam lavationem?

Sca."Nihilo plus, quam lavatio tua ad meflim."

In the want of connection to what went before, probably confifts the humour of the prince's question. STEEVENS.

This kind of humour is often met with in old plays. In the Gallathea of Lilly, Phillida fays, "It is a pittie that nature framed you not

a woman.

P. Hen. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?

a woman.

Fal.

"Gall. There is a tree in Tylos, &c. "Phill. What a toy it is to tell me of that tree, being nothing to the purpose, &c." Ben Jonfon calls it a game at vapours. FARMER.

As the boney of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle.] Sir John Oldcaftle was not a character ever introduced by Shakspeare, nor did he ever occupy the place of Falstaff. The play, in which Oldcastle's name occurs, was not the work of our poet.-Old lad is a familiar compellation to be found in fome of our most ancient dramatick pieces. So, in the Trial of Treafure, 1567: "What, Inclination, old lad art thou there?" In the dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up &c. by T. Nah, 1598, old Dick of the caftle is mentioned. Again, in Pierce's Sapererogation, or a New Praife of the Old Affe, 1593: "—and here's a lufty ladd of the caftell, that will binde beares, and ride golden affes to death." STEEVENS.

Old lad of the caftle, is the fame with Old lad of Caftile, a Caftilian.Meres reckons Oliver of the caftle among ft his romances; and Gabriel Harvey tells us of Old lads of the caftell with their rapping babble:" -roaring boys. This is therefore no argument for Falstaff's appearing firft under the name of Oldcastle. There is however a paffage in a play called Amends for Ladies, by Field the player, 1618, which may feem to prove it, unless he confounded the different performances :

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"Did you never fee

"The play where the fat night, hight Oldeafle,

"Did tell you truly what this bonour was?" FARMER. Mr. Rowe mentions a tradition that "this part of Falstaff was originally written under the name of Oldeaftle, and that some of that family being then remaining, the Queen was pleafed to command him to alter it; upon which he made ufe of Falftaft." From whom he received this tradition, he does not fay; nor had he, I am perfuaded, any other authority for it, than a mifunderstood paffage in a book of the last age, quoted below. Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton believed this ftory, and concurred in thinking that the paffage before us alluded to the old name of this character. "When Shakspeare changed the name, (fays the latter editor) he forgot to ftrike out this expreflion that alluded to it."-I fhall not infert their notes, because I believe them to be wholly unfounded.

From the following paflage in The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordiraire, or the Walkes in Powles, quarto, 1604, it appears that Sir John Oldcastle was reprefented on the stage as a very fat man (certainly not in the play printed with that title in 1600): :-"Now, figniors, how like you mine hoft? did I not tell you he was a madde round knave and a. merrie one too? and if you chaunce to talke of fatte Sir John Oldcastle, he will tell you, he was his great grand

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father,

Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy quips, and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?

P. Hen.

father, and not much unlike him in paunch."-The hoft, who is here defcribed, returns to the gallants, and entertains them with telling them ftories. After his first tale, he fays: "Nay gallants, I'll fit you, and now I will ferve in another, as good as vinegar and pepper to your roaft beefe."-Signor Kickshawe replies: "Let's have it, let's taste on it, mine hoft, my noble fat actor."

The caufe of all the confufion relative to these two characters, and of the tradition mentioned by Mr. Rowe, that our author changed the name from Oldcastle to Falftaff, (to which I do not give the smallest credit,) feems 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 is called in a piece of that age,) who appears to be the character alluded to in the paffage above quoted from The Meeting of Gallants, &c. To this character undoubtedly it is that Fuller alludes in his Church Hiftory, 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 royfter, and a coward to boot." Speed in his Hiftory, which was first published in 1611, alludes both to this "boon companion" of the anonymous K. Henry V. and to the Sir John Oldcastle exhibited in a play of the fame 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 fage players." Oldcastle is reprefented as a rebel in the play last mentioned 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 refpect; but thought proper to make Falstaff, in imitation of his proto-type, the Oldcastle of the old King 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 fays, "Sir John Falstaff has relieved the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, and of late is fubftituted buffoon in his place;" which being misunderstood, probably gave rife to the ftory, that Shakspeare changed the name of his character.

A paffage in his Worthies, folio, 1662, p. 253, fhews his meaning ftill more clearly; and will ferve at the fame time to point out the fource of the mistakes on this fubject." Sir John Faftolfe, knight, was a native of this county [Norfolk]. To avouch him by many arguments valiant, is to maintain that the fun is bright; though, fince,

the

P. Hen. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?

Fal.

the ftage has been over-bold with his memory, making him a Thrafonical puff, and emblem of mock valour.-True it is, Sir John Oldcaftle did firft bear the brunt of the one, being made the makesport in all plays for a coward. It is eafily known out of what purfe this black penny came. The papifts railing on him for a heretick; and therefore he must be alfo a coward: though indeed he was a man of arms, every inch of him, and as valiant as any of his age.

"Now as I am glad that Sir John Oldcastle is put out, fo I am forry that Sir John Fafelfe is put in, to relieve his memory in this bafe fervice; to be the anvil for every dull wit to ftrike upon. Nor is our comedian excufable by fome alteration of his name, writing him Sir John Falftafe, (and making him the property and pleasure of King Henry V. to abufe,) feeing the vicinity of founds intrench on the memory of that worthy knight."

Here we fee the affertion is, not that Sir John Oldeafile did firft bear the brunt in Shakspeare's play, but in all plays, that is, on the stage in general, before Shakipeare's character had appeared; owing to the malevolence of papifts, of which religion it is plain Fuller fuppofed the writers of thofe plays in which Oldcastle was exhibited, to have been ; nor does he complain of Shakspeare's altering the name of his character from Oldcastle to Falstaff, but of the metathesis of Faftolfe to Falstaff. Yet I have no doubt that the words above cited, "put out" and "put in," and by fome alteration of his name," that these words alone, misunderstood, gave rife to the misapprehenfion that has prevailed fince the time of Mr Rowe, relative to this matter. For what is the plain meaning of Fuller's words?" Sir John Faftolfe was in truth a very brave man, though he is now reprefented on the ftage as a cowardly braggart. Before be was thus ridiculed, Sir John Oldcastle, being hated by the papists, was exhibited by popish writers, in all plays, as a coward. Since the new character of Falstaff has appeared, Oldcastle has no longer borne the brunt, has no longer been the object of ridicule : but, as on the one hand I am glad that "his memory has been relieved," that the plays in which he was reprefented have been expelled from the scene, fo on the other, I am forry that fo refpectable a character as Sir John Faftolfe has been brought on it, and "fubftituted buffoon in his place"; for however our comick poet [Shakspeare] may have hoped to escape cenfure by altering the name from Faftolfe to Falstaff, he is certainly culpable, fince fome imputation muft neceflarily fall on the brave knight of Norfolk from the fimilitude of the founds."

Falftaff thus having grown out of, and immediately fucceeding, the other character, (the Oldcastle of the old K. Henry V.) having one or two features in common with him, and being probably reprefented in the fame dress, and with the fame fictitious belly, as his predeceffor, the two names might have been indifcriminately used by Field and others, without any mistake, or intention to deceive. Perhaps, behind the fcenes, in con

fequence

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