antiquity? and will you yet call yourfelf young? Fie, fie, fie, fir John! FAL. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly. For my voice,-I have loft it with hollaing, and finging of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not: the truth is, I am only old in judgement and understanding; and he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o'the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a fenfible lord. I have check'd him for it; young men would not have liked it fo well, nor would that circumftance have been perceived by the Chief Juftice, who was older than himself. But though Falstaff had fuch a fund of wit and humour, it was not unnatural that a grave judge whofe thoughts were conftantly employed about the ferious bufinefs of life, fhould confider fuch an improvident, diffipated old man, as fingle-witted, or half-witted, as we should now term it. So in the next act, the Chief Juftice calls him, a great fool; and even his friend Harry, after his reformation, bids him not to answer "with a fool-born jest,” and adds, "that white hairs ill become a fool and jefter." I think, however, that this speech of the Chief Juftice is fomewhat in Falstaff's own ftyle; which verifies what he fays of himself, "that all the world loved to gird at him, and that he was not only witty in himself, but the cause that wit is in other men." M. MASON. I think Mr. Steevens's interpretation the true one. Single, however, (as an anonymous writer has obferved,) may mean, feeble or weak. So, in Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, Act III. fc. i: "All men believe it, when they hear him speak, "He utters fuch fingle matter, in fo infantly a voice." Again, in Romeo and Juliet: "Ofingle-foal'd jeft, folely fingular for the fingleness," i. e. the tenuity, In our author's time, as the fame writer obferves, fmall beer was called fingle beer, and that of a stronger quality, double beer. 2 MALONE. antiquity?] To ufe the word antiquity for old age, is not peculiar to Shakspeare. So, in Two Tragedies in one, &c. 1601: "For falfe illusion of the magistrates "With borrow'd shapes of falfe antiquity." STEEVENS. and the young lion repents: marry, not in afhes, and fackcloth; but in new filk, and old fack.3 CH. JUST. Well, heaven fend the prince a better companion! FAL. Heaven fend the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. CH. JUST. Well, the king hath fever'd you and prince Harry: I hear, you are going with lord John of Lancaster, against the archbishop, and the earl of Northumberland. FAL. Yea; I thank your pretty fweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kifs my lady peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the lord, I take but two fhirts out with me, and I mean not to fweat extraordinarily: if it be a hot day, an I brandifh any thing but my bottle, I would I might never fpit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot laft ever: But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they 3 marry, not in afbes, and fackcloth; but in new filk, and old fack.] So, Sir John Harrington, of a reformed brother. Epigrams. L. 3. 17: "Sackcloth and cinders they advise to use; “Sack, cloves and fugar thou would't have to chuse.” BOWLE. -would I might never fpit white again.] i. e. May I never have my ftomach inflamed again with liquor; for, to Spit white is the confequence of inward heat. So, in Mother Bombie, a comedy, 1594: "They have fod their livers in fack thefe forty years; that makes them pit white broth as they do." Again, in The Virgin Martyr, by Maffinger: 66 -I could not have spit while for want of drink.” 5 But it was always &c.] This fpeech in the folio concludes at I cannot laft ever. All the reft is restored from the quarto. A clear proof of the fuperior value of thofe editions, when compared with the publication of the players. STEEVENS. have a good thing, to make it too common. If you will needs fay, I am an old man, you should give me reft. I would to God, my name were not fo terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be caten to death with ruft, than to be fcour'd to nothing with perpetual motion. CH. JUST. Well, be honeft, be honeft; And God bless your expedition! FAL. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound, to furnish me forth? CH. JUST. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to bear croffes." Fare you well: Commend me to my coufin Westmoreland. [Exeunt Chief Juftice and Attendant. FAL. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle.'-A man can no more feparate age and covetoufnefs, than he can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the you are too impatient to bear croffes.] I believe a quibble was here intended. Falstaff had just asked his lordship to lend him a thousand pound, and he tells him in return, that he is not to be entrusted with money. A cross is a coin fo called, because stamped with a crofs. So, in As you like it: "If I fhould bear you, I should bear no cross.” STEEVENS. 7 fillip me with a three-man beetle.] A beetle wielded by three men. РОРЕ. A diverfion is common with boys in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, on finding a toad, to lay a board about two or three feet long, at right angles, over a tick about two or three inches diameter, as per sketch. Then, placing the toad at A, the other end is ftruck by a bat or large stick, which throws the creature forty or fifty feet perpendicular from the earth, and its return in general kills it. This is called Filliping the Toad. other; and fo both the degrees prevent my curfes.Boy! PAGE. Sir? FAL. What money is in my purse? FAL. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purfe: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.-Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and this to old mistress Urfula, whom I have weekly fworn to marry fince I perceived the first white hair on my chin: About it; you know where to find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my pen A three-man beetle is an implement ufed for driving piles; it is made of a log of wood about eighteen or twenty inches diameter, and fourteen or fifteen inches thick, with one fhort and two long handles, as per sketch. A man at each of the long handles manages the fall of the beetle, and a third man by the short handle affifts in raising it to ftrike the blow. Such an implement was, without doubt, very fuitable for filliping fo corpulent a being as Falstaff. With this happy illustration, and the drawings annexed, I was favoured by Mr. Johnfon the architect. STEEVENS. So, in A World of Wonders, A Mass of Murthers, A Covie of Cofenages, &c. 1595, fign. F. " - whilft Arthur Hall was weighing the plate, Bullock goes into the kitchen and fetcheth a heavie washing betle, wherewith he comming behinde Hall, strake him," &c. REED. 8 prevent my curfes.] To prevent, means in this place to anticipate. So, in the 119th Pfalm: "Mine eyes prevent the night watches." STEEVENS. fion fhall feem the more reasonable: A good wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity." [Exit. SCENE III. York. A Room in the Archbishop's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of York, the Lords HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH. ARCH. Thus have you heard our caufe, and known our means; And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, MoWB. I well allow the occafion of our arms; HAST. Our present mufters grow upon the file To five and twenty thousand men of choice; And our supplies live largely in the hope Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns With an incensed fire of injuries. BARD. The queftion then, lord Hastings, standeth thus ; Whether our prefent five and twenty thousand BARD. Ay, marry, there's the point; But if without him we be thought too feeble, to commodity.] i. e. profit, felf-intereft. See Vol. VIII. p. 66, n. 5. STEEVENS. |