Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now:
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the fea;
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,*
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament:
And let us choofe fuch limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the beft-govern'd nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us ;-
In which you, father, fhall have foremost hand.-
[To the Lord Chief Justice.
Our coronation done, we will accite,
As I before remember'd, all our state:

4

the state of floods,] i. e. The affembly, or general meeting of the floods: for all rivers, running to the fea, are there reprefented as holding their feffions. This thought naturally introduced the following:

"Now call we our high court of parliament." But the Oxford editor, much a ftranger to the phrafeology of that time in general, and to his author's in particular, out of mere lofs for his meaning, reads it backwards, the floods of ftate. WARBURTON.

The objection to Warburton's explanation is, that the word ftate, in the fingular, does not imply the fenfe he contends for; we fay an affembly of the ftates, not of the flate. I believe we must either adopt Hanmer's amendment, or fuppofe that fate means dignity; and that, "to mingle with the ftate of floods," is to partake of the dignity of floods. I should prefer the amendment to this interpretation. M. MASON.

I prefer the interpretation to the amendment. State most evidently means dignity. So, in The Tempest:

Highest queen of flate, "Great Juno comes. STEEVENS.

with the fate of floods,] With the majestick dignity of the ocean, the chief of floods. So before, in this fcene:

"And, as you are a king, speak in your ftate,"—

State and Eftate, however, were used in our author's time for a perfon of high dignity, and may in that fenfe be applied to the fea, fuppofing it to be perfonified. MALONE.

And (God configning to my good intents,)
No prince, nor peer, fhall have juft caufe to fay,-
Heaven fhorten Harry's happy life one day.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Glofterfhire. The Garden of Shallow's Houfe.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, BARDOLPH, the Page, and DAVY.

SHAL. Nay, you shall see mine orchard: where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a difh of caraways, and fo forth; -come, coufin Silence;-and then to bed.

5 a difh of caraways, &c.] A comfit or confection fo called in our author's time. A paffage in De Vigneul Marville's Melanges d' Hiftoire et de Litt. will explain this odd treat: "Dans le dernier fiecle ou l'on avoit le gout delicat, on ne croioit pas pouvoir vivre fans Dragées. Il n'etoit fils de bonne mere, qui n'eut fon Dragier; et il eft reporté dans l'hiftoire du duc de Guife, que quand il fut tué à Blois, il avoit fon Dragier à la main.”

WARBURTON.

Mr. Edwards has diverted himself with this note of Dr. Warburton's, but without producing a happy illuftration of the paffage. The difh of caraways here mentioned was a difh of apples of that name. GOLDSMITH.

Whether Dr. Warburton, Mr. Edwards, or Dr. Goldfmith is in the right, the following paffage in Decker's Satiromeftix, has left undecided:

"By this handful of carraways I could never abide to fay grace."

66

by thefe comfits we'll let all flide."

By thefe comfits and thefe carraways; I warrant it does him good to fwear.".

I am glad, lady Petula, by this apple, that they please

FAL. 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich.

SHAL. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, fir John:-marry, good air.'-Spread, Davy; fpread, Davy: well faid, Davy.

FAL. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your ferving-man, and your husbandman."

That apples, comfits, and caraways, at least were diftinct things, may be inferred from the following paffage in the old black letter interlude of the Disobedient Child, no date:

"What running had I for apples and nuttes,

"What callying for biskettes, cumfettes, and carowaies." Again, in How to chufe a Good Wife from a Bad, 1602: "For apples, carrawaies, and cheese."

There is a pear, however, called a caraway, which may be corrupted from caillouel, Fr. So, in the French Roman de la Rofe: "Ou la poire de caillouel.”

Chaucer, in his verfion of this paffage, fays:

"With caleweis," &c. STEEVENS.

It would be eafy to prove by feveral inftances that caraways were generally part of the defert in Shakspeare's time. See particularly Murrel's Cookery, &c. A late writer however afferts that caraways is the name of an apple as well known to the natural inhabitants of Bath, as nonpareil is in London, and as generally affociated with golden pippins. He obferves alfo that if Shakspeare had meant comfits he would have faid, "a difh of last year's pippins with carraways. -With a dish, &c. clearly means fomething diftinct from the pippins. Jackjon's Thirty Letters, 8vo. Vol. II. p. 42. REED.

The following paffage in Cogan's Haven of Health, 4to. bl. 1. 1595, will at once fettle this important queftion: "This is a confirmation of our ufe in England, for the ferving of apples and other fruites laft after meales. Howbeit we are wont to eate carawaies or bikets, or fome other kind of comfits or feedes together with apples, thereby to breake winde ingendred by them and furely it is a very good way for ftudents." STEEVENS.

6 barren, barren; beggars all,good air.] Juftice Shallow alludes to a witticifm frequent among ruftics, who when talking of a healthy country pleafantly obferve: "Yes, it is a good air, more run away than die." HOLT WHITE.

7 and your husbandman.] Old copy-kufband. Corrected

SHAL. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, fir John.-By the mafs, I have drunk too much fack at fupper -a good varlet. Now fit down, now fit down:-come, coufin.

SIL. Ah, firrah! quoth-a,-we fhall

Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer, [Singing.
And praise heaven for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,
And lufty lads roam here and there,
So merrily,

And ever among fo merrily.

FAL. There's a merry heart!-Good master Silence, I'll give you a health for that anon.

SHAL. Give mafter Bardolph fome wine, Davy. DAVY. Sweet fir, fit; [Seating BARDOLPH and the Page at another table.] I'll be with you anon:most sweet fir, fit.- -Mafter page, good mafter page, fit: proface! What you want in meat,

2

by Mr. Rowe. I am not fure that the emendation is neceffary. "He was a wife man, and a good," was the language of our author's time. See alfo Falftaff's preceding fpeech. MALONE.

By the mafs,] So, in Springes for Woodcocks, a collection of epigrams, 1606, Ep. 221:

"In elders' time, as ancient cuftom was,

"Men fwore in weighty caufes by the maffe;

"But when the maffe went down (as others note,)

"Their oathes were, by the croffe of this fame groat," &c,

STEEVENS.

and femals dear, &c.] This very natural character of juftice Silence is not fufficiently obferved. He would fcarcely fpeak a word before, and now there is no poffibility of stopping his mouth. He has a catch for every occafion:

Ever

When flesh is cheap, and females dear.

Here the double fenfe of the word dear must be remembered.-
among is used by Chaucer in the Romant of the Rofe:
"Ever among (fothly to faine)

2

"I fuffre noie and mochil paine." FARMER.

-proface!] Italian from profaccia; that is, much good HANMER.

may it do you.

VOL. IX.

we'll have in drink. But you must bear; The heart's all.3

[Exit.

Sir Thomas Hanmer (fays Dr. Farmer) is right, yet it is no argument for his author's Italian knowledge.

Old Heywood, the epigrammatift, addressed his readers long before:

"Readers, reade this thus: for preface, proface,

"Much good may it do you," &c.

So, Taylor, the water-poet, in the title of a poem prefixed to his Praife of Hempfeed:

"A preamble, preatrot, preagallop, preapace, or preface; and proface, my masters, if your ftomach ferve.'

Decker, in his comedy of If this be not a good Play the Diuil is in it, makes Shackle-foule, in the character of Friar Rush, tempt his brethren" with choice of dishes :"

"To which proface; with blythe lookes fit yee."

I am ftill much in doubt whether there be fuch an Italian word as profaccia. Baretti has it not, and it is more probable that we received it from the French; proface being a colloquial abbreviation of the phrafe.-Bon prou leur face, i. e. Much good may it do them. See Cotgrave, in voce Prou.

To the inftances produced by Dr. Farmer, I may add one more from Springes for Woodcocks, a collection of epigrams, 1606: Ep. 110:

"Proface, quoth Fulvius, fill us t'other quart." And another from Heywood's Epigrams:

"I came to be merry, wherewith merrily
"Proface. Have among you," &c.

Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 528: "

the cardina!!

came in booted and fpurred, all fodainly amongst them, and bade them proface." STEEVENS.

So, in Nafhe's Apologie for Pierce Penniless, 1593:

"A preface to courteous minds,-as much as to fay proface, much good may it do you! would it were better for you!"

Sir T. Hanmer, (as an ingenious friend obferves to me,) was miftaken in fuppofing profaccia a regular Italian word; the proper expreffion being buon pro vi faccia, much good may it do you! Profaccia is however, as I am informed, a cant term used by the common people in Italy, though it is not inferted in the best Italian dictionaries. MALONE.

3 The heart's all.] That is, the intention with which the entertainment is given. The humour confifts in making Davy act as mafter of the houfe. JOHNSON.