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How now, fir John? quoth I: what, man! be of good cheer. So 'a cried out-God, God, God!

a scene in a tavern where they drink at parting), and this direction crept into the text from the margin. Greenfield was the name of the property-man in that time, who furnished implements, &c. for the actors, A table of Greenfield's. POPE.

So reasonable an account of this blunder, Mr. Theobald could not acquiefce in. He thought a table of Greenfield's, part of the text, only corrupted, and that it fhould be read, he babbled of green fields, because men do fo in the ravings of a calenture. But he did not confider how ill this agrees with the nature of the knight's illness, who was now in no babbling humour; and fo far from wanting cooling in green fields, that his feet were very cold, and he just expiring. WARBURTON.

Upon this paffage Mr. Theobald has a note that fills a page, which I omit in pity to my readers, fince he only endeavours to prove, what I think every reader perceives to be true, that at this time no table could be wanted. Mr. Pope, in an appendix to his own edition in 12mo. feems to admit Theobald's emendation, which we would have allowed to be uncommonly happy, had we not been prejudiced against it by Mr. Pope's first note, with which, as it excites merriment, we are loath to part. JOHNSON.

Had the former editors been apprized, that table, in our author, fignifies a pocket-book, I believe they would have retained it with the following alteration for his nose was as sharp as a pen upon a table of green fells.- -On table books, filver or fteel pens, very fharp-pointed, were formerly and ftill are fixed to the backs or covers. Mother Quickly compares Falftaff's nofe (which in dying perfons grows thin and fharp) to one of those pens, very properly, and fhe meant probably to have faid, on a table-book with a fhagreen cover or fhagreen table; but, in her ufual blundering way, the calls it a table of green fells, or a table covered with green-fkin; which the blundering tranfcriber turned into green-fields; and our editors have turned the prettiest blunder in Shakspeare, quite out of doors. SMITH.

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Dr. Warburton objects to Theobald's emendation, on the ground of the nature of Falstaff's illness; "who was fo far from babbling, or wanting cooling in green fields, that his feet were cold, and he was just expiring." But his diforder had been a " burning quotidian tertian." It is, I think, a much stronger objection, that the word Table, with a capital letter, (for fo it appears in the old copy,) is very unlikely to have been printed inftead of babbled. This reading, is, however, preferable to any that has been yet propofed.

three or four times: now I, to comfort him, bid him, 'a fhould not think of God; I hoped, there was no need to trouble himself with any fuch thoughts yet: So, 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed, and felt them, and they were as cold as any ftone; then I felt to his knees, and fo upward, and upward, and all was as cold as any stone."

On this difficult paffage I had once a conjecture. It was, that the word table is right, and that the corrupted word is and, which may have been mifprinted for in; a mistake that has happened elfewhere in thefe plays: and thus the paffage will run—and his noje was as fharp as a pen in a table of green fields.-A pen may have been used for a pinfold, and a table for a picture. See Vol. VI.

P. 193, n. 9.

The pointed ftakes of which pinfolds are fometimes formed, were perhaps in the poet's thoughts. MALONE.

It has been obferved (particularly by the fuperftition of women,) of people near death, when they are delirious by a fever, that they talk of removing; as it has of those in a calenture, that they have their heads run on green fields. THEOBALD.

6 now I, to comfort him, bid him, 'a fhould not think of God;] Perhaps Shakspeare was indebted to the following ftory in Wits, Fits, and Fancies, &c. 1595, for this very characteristick exhortation: "A gentlewoman fearing to be drowned, faid, now Jefu receive our foules! Soft, miftrefs, anfwered the waterman; I trow, we are not come to that paffe yet." MALONE.

7 cold as any ftone.] Such is the end of Falstaff, from whom Shakspeare had promifed us in his epilogue to K. Henry IV. that we should receive more entertainment. It happened to Shakspeare, as to other writers, to have his imagination crowded with a tumultuary confufion of images, which, while they were yet unforted and unexamined, feemed fufficient to furnish a long train of incidents, and a new variety of merriment; but which, when he was to produce them to view, fhrunk fuddenly from him, or could not be accommodated to his general defign. That he once defigned to have brought Falftaff on the fcene again, we know from himfelf; but whether he could contrive no train of adventures fuitable to his character, or could match him with no companions likely to quicken his humour, or could open no new vein of pleafantry, and was afraid to continue the fame ftrain left it should not find the fame reception, he has here, for ever difcarded him, and made hafte to defpatch him, perhaps for the fame reason for

Nrм. They fay, he cried out of fack.
QUICK. Ay, that ’a did.

BARD. And of women.

QUICK. Nay, that 'a did not.

Bor. Yes, that 'a did; and faid, they were devils incarnate.

8

QUICK. 'A could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never lik'd.

Bor. A faid once, the devil would have him about women.

QUICK. 'A did in fome fort, indeed, handle women: but then he was rheumatick; and talk'd of the whore of Babylon.

Bor. Do you not remember, 'a faw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nofe; and 'a faid, it was a black foul burning in hell-fire?

BARD. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintain'd that fire: that's all the riches I got in his fervice. Nr.м. Shall we fhog off? the king will be gone from Southampton.

which Addifon killed Sir Roger, that no other hand might attempt to exhibit him.

Let meaner authors learn from this example, that it is dangerous to fell the bear which is yet not hunted; to promife to the publick what they have not written.

This difappointment probably inclined Queen Elizabeth to command the poet to produce him once again, and to show him in love or courtship. This was, indeed, a new fource of humour, and produced a new play from the former characters.

JOHNSON.

8 incarnate.-carnation;] Mrs. Quickly blunders, miftaking the word incarnate for a colour. In Questions of Love, 1566, we have," Yelowe, pale, redde, blue, whyte, graye, and incarnate." HENDERSON.

9 — rheumatick;] This word is elsewhere used by our author for peevish, or fplenetick, as fcorbutico is in Italian. Mrs. Quickly however probably means lunatick. MALONE.

PIST. Come, let's away.-My love, give me thy

lips.

Look to my chattels, and my moveables:

Let fenfes rule; the word is, Pitch and pay;
Truft none;

3

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,

2 Let fenfes rule;] I think this is wrong, but how to reform it I do not fee. Perhaps we may read:

Let fenfe us rule,

Piftol is taking leave of his wife, and giving her advice as he kiffes her; he fees her rather weeping than attending, and, fuppofing that in her heart fhe is ftill longing to go with him part of the way, he cries, Let fenfe us rule, that is, let us not give way to foolish fondness, but be ruled by our better understanding. He then continues his directions for her conduct in his abfence.

JOHNSON.

Let fenfes rule evidently means, let prudence govern you: conduct yourself fenfibly; and it agrees with what precedes and what follows. Mr. M. Mason would read, "Let fentences rule;" by which he means fayings, or proverbs; and accordingly (fays he) Pistol gives us a ftring of them in the remainder of his fpeech.

STEEVENS.

3 Pitch and pay;] The caution was a very proper one to Mrs. Quickly, who had fuffered before, by letting Falstaff run in her debt. The fame expreffion occurs in Blurt Mafter Conftable, 1602:

"I will commit you, fignior, to my houfe; but will you pitch and pay, or will your worship run

So again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622:

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he that will purchase this,

"Muft pitch and pay."

Again, in The Maftive, an ancient collection of epigrams:

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Sufan, when the firft bore fway,

"Had for one night a French crown, pitch and pay."

STEEVENS.

Old Tuffer, in his defcription of Norwich, tells us it is
"A city trim—

"Where ftrangers well, may feeme to dwell,
"That pitch and paie, or keepe their daye."

John Florio fays, "Pitch and paie, and goe your waie." One of the old laws of Blackwell-hall was, that a penny be paid by the owner of every bale of cloth for pitching.”

And hold-faft is the only dog, my duck;
Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor."

Go, clear thy chrystals."-Yoke-fellows in arms,
Let us to France! like horfe-leeches, my boys;
To fuck, to fuck, the very blood to fuck!

Bor. And that is but unwholesome food, they say.
PIST. Touch her soft mouth, and march.
BARD. Farewell, hoftefs.

[Killing ber. Nrм. I cannot kifs, that is the humour of it; but adieu.

PIST. Let housewifery appear; keep clofe, I thee command.

QUICK. Farewell; adieu.

[Exeunt.

And hold-faft is the only dog,] Alluding to the proverbial faying," Brag is a good dog, but holdfaft is a better." Douce. 5 Therefore, caveto be thy counfellor.] The old quartos read: Therefore Cophetua be thy counfellor. STEEVENS.

The reading of the text is that of the folio. MALONE. 6- clear thy crystals.] Dry thine eyes: but I think it may better mean, in this place, wash thy glaffes. JOHNSON.

The firft explanation is certainly the true one. So, in The Gentleman Usher, by Chapman, 1602:

"

an old wife's eye

"Is a blue chryftal full of forcery."

Again, in A Match at Midnight, 1633:

66

66

ten thoufand Cupids

Methought, fat playing on that pair of chryftals."

Again, in The Double Marriage, by Beaumont and Fletcher: - fleep, you fweet glaffes,

66

"An everlasting flumber clofe thofe chryftals!" Again, in Coriolanus, A&t III. fc. ii:

66

the glaffes of my fight."

The old quartos 1600 and 1608 read:
Clear up thy chryftals. STEEVENS.

7

keep close,] The quartos 1600 and 1608 read:
- keep faft thy buggle boe;

which certainly is not nonfenfe, as the fame expreffion is ufed by Shirley, in his Gentleman of Venice:

"

the courtifans of Venice,

"Shall keep their bugle bowes for thee, dear uncle."

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