Shal. I have lived fourscore years, and upward; I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of his own respect. Eva. What is he? Page. I think you know him; master doctor Caius, the renowned French physician. Eva. Got's will, and his passion of my heart! I had as lief you would tell me of a mess of porridge. Page. Why? Eva. He has no more knowledge in Hibbocrates and Galen, -and he is a knave besides; a cowardly knave, as you would desires to be acquainted withal. Page. I warrant you, he's the man should fight with him. Slen. Oh, sweet Anne Page! Shal. It appears so, by his weapons.-Keep them asunder: -here comes doctor Caius. Enter Host, CAIUS, and RUGBY. Page. Nay, good master parson, keep in your weapon. Host. Disarm them, and let them question: let them keep their limbs whole, and hack our English. Caius. I pray you, let-a me speak a word vit your ear: verefore vill you not meet-a me? Eva. Pray you, use your patience in good time. Caius. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape. Eva. Pray you, let us not be laughing-stogs to other men's humours; I desire you in friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.-I will knog your urinals about your knave's cogscomb for missing your meetings and appointments3. Caius. Diable!-Jack Rugby,-mine Host de Jarretière, have I not stay for him, to kill him? have I not, at de place I did appoint? Eva. As I am a Christians soul, now, look you, this is the place appointed. I'll be judgement by mine Host of the Garter. Host. Peace, I say! Gallia and Guallia, French and Welsh*; soul-curer and body-curer. 3 for missing your meetings and appointments.] These words are from the 4tos, and by what follows it seems that they are necessary: Caius, thus charged, appeals to bystanders, if he had not come to the place appointed. Peace, I say! Gallia and GUALLIA, French and Welsh ;] In the folios it Caius. Ay, dat is very good: excellent. Host. Peace, I say! hear mine Host of the Garter. Am J politic? am I subtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my doctor? no; he gives me the potions, and the motions. Shall I lose my parson? my priest? my sir Hugh? no; he gives me the proverbs and the noverbs.-Give me thy hand, terrestrial; so:-Give me thy hand, celestial; so.-Boys of art, I have deceived you both; I have directed you to wrong places: your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and let burnt sack be the issue.-Come, lay their swords to pawn. -Follow me, lad of peace; follow, follow, follow. Shal. Trust me, a mad host.-Follow, gentlemen, follow. Slen. Oh, sweet Anne Page! [Exeunt SHALLOW, SLENDER, PAGE, and Host. Caius. Ha! do I perceive dat? have you make-a de sot of us? ha, ha! Eva. This is well; he has made us his vlouting-stog.-I desire you, that we may be friends, and let us knog our prains together to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion, the Host of the Garter. Caius. By gar, vit all my heart. He promise to bring me vere is Anne Page: by gar, he deceive me too. Eva. Well, I will smite his noddles.-Pray you, follow. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Street in Windsor. Enter Mrs. PAGE and ROBIN. Mrs. Page. Nay, keep your way, little gallant: you were wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader. Whether had you rather, lead mine eyes, or eye your master's heels? Rob. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man, than follow him like a dwarf. 5 stands "Gallia and Gaule;" but as the Host puts "French" before "Welsh," it seems probable that the true reading is what we have given, "Gallia and Guallia." Give me thy hand, terrestrial; so:] These words are wanting in the folios, but the antithesis is required, and our reading, excepting as to the small word "so," is that of the 4to, 1602. The emendation in the corr. fo. 1632 runs thus:-"Give me thy hands, celestial and terrestrial, so.-Boys of art," &c. Mrs. Page. Oh! you are a flattering boy: now, I see, you'll be a courtier. Enter FORD. Ford. Well met, mistress Page. Whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife: is she at home.? Ford. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of your company. I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry. Mrs. Page. Be sure of that, -two other husbands. Ford. Where had you this pretty weather-cock ? Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of.-What do you call your knight's name, sirrah? Rob. Sir John Falstaff. Ford. Sir John Falstaff! Mrs. Page. He, he; I can never hit on's name..-There is such a league between my good man and he! Is your wife at home, indeed? Ford. Indeed, she is. Mrs. Page. By your leave, sir: I am sick, till I see her. [Exeunt Mrs. PAGE and ROBIN. Ford. Has Page any brains? hath he any eyes? hath he any thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty miles, as easy as a cannon will shoot point-blank twelve score. He pieces-out his wife's inclination; he gives her folly motion, and advantage; and now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A man may hear this shower sing in the wind :— and Falstaff's boy with her!-Good plots!-they are laid; and our revolted wives share damnation together. Well; I will take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so-seeming mistress Page, divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful Actæon; and to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim'. [Clock strikes.] The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me search where I shall find Falstaff. I shall be rather praised for 6 for want of YOUR company.] In the folios "your" is omitted, and we obtain it from the corr. fo. 1632. The conclusion of the speech shows that Ford referred to Mrs. Page's company, and not to company in general. 71 all my neighbours shall CRY AIM.] To ". cry aim" is to encourage. p. 207, no such meaning can well be assigned to the Host's cride game. 8 - On and my assurance bids me search WHERE I shall find Falstaff.] The corr. this, than mocked; for it is as positive as the earth is firm, that Falstaff is there I will go. [Going. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, SLENDER, Host, Sir HUGH EVANS, CAIUS, and RUGBY. Page, Shal. &c. Well met, master Ford. Ford. Trust me, a good knot. I have good cheer at home, and I pray you all go with me. Shal. I must excuse myself, master Ford. Slen. And so must I, sir: we have appointed to dine with mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more money than I'll speak of. Shal. We have lingered about a match between Anne Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have our answer. Slen. I hope, I have your good will, father Page. Page. You have, master Slender; I stand wholly for you: -but my wife, master doctor, is for you altogether. Caius. Ay, by gar; and de maid is love-a me: my nursh-a Quickly tell me so mush. Host. What say you to young master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holyday, he smells April and May: he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in his buttons"; he will carry't. Page. Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman is of no having: he kept company with the wild Prince and Poins: he is of too high a region; he knows too much. No, he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my substance: if he take her, let him take her simply: the wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way. fo. 1632 has "where" for there of the old impressions. The change is of small moment, but Mr. Singer adopts it, adding a note, merely stating, as if it were his own emendation, that "the old copy has there." He does not pretend that his corrected second folio has "where," and it would trouble him to show it in print, until he met with it in our Vol. of "Notes and Emendations," p. 36. If the alteration were worth making and noting, it was worth acknowledging, derived as it was from our corr. fo. 1632. 9 - 'tis in his BUTTONS;] A difficulty has here been created out of nothing : all that the Host means is that Fenton has it in him to succeed: it is, as it were, buttoned up within his dress. There is no sort of allusion to bachelors' buttons, as some have fancied, but merely to the buttons of Fenton's doublet. Speaking holyday seems no more to require a note, than smelling "April and May;" but as to "holyday," the reader may, if he think fit, consult " Henry IV., Part I.," A. i. sc. 3, Vol. iii. p. 333. 66 Ford. I beseech you, heartily, some of you go home with me to dinner: besides your cheer, you shall have sport; I will show you a monster.-Master doctor, you shall go:-so shall you, master Page;—and you, sir Hugh. Shal. Well, fare you well.—We shall have the freer wooing at master Page's. [Exeunt SHALLOW and SLENDER. Caius. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon. [Exit RUGBY. Host. Farewell, my hearts. I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him. [Exit Host. Ford. [Aside.] I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles? All. Have with you, to see this monster. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Room in FORD'S House. Enter Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE. Mrs. Ford. What, John! what, Robert! Enter Servants with a large basket. Mrs. Page. Come, come, come. Mrs. Ford. Here, set it down. Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge: we must be brief. Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John, and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brew-house; and when I suddenly call you, come forth, and (without any pause, or staggering) take this basket on your shoulders: that done, trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters in Datchet mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames side. Mrs. Page. You will do it? Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction.-Be gone, and come when you are called. Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin. [Exeunt Servants. |