Thou, beaftly feeder, art fo full of him, And now thou would'ft eat thy dead vomit up, And howl'ft to find it. What truft is in these times? They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die, Are now become enamour'd on his grave: Thou, that threw'ft duft upon his goodly head, HAST. We are time's subjects, and time bids be [Exeunt. gone. I do not perceive that a trifyllable is wanted on this occafion, as any diffyllable will complete the verfe; for inftance: And being now trimm'd in thine own furtout. Defires, like furtout, is a word of two fyllables. STEEVENS. Enter Hostess; FANG, and his boy, with her; and SNARE following.. Hosr. Mafter Fang, have you enter'd the action? FANG. It is enter'd. Hosr. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lufty yeoman? will a' ftand to't? FANG. Sirrah, where's Snare? Hosr. O lord, ay; good mafter Snare. SNARE. Here, here. FANG. Snare, we muft arreft fir John Falstaff. HOST. Yea, good mafter Snare; I have enter'd him and all. SNARE. It may chance coft fome of us our lives, for he will stab. Host. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabb'd me in mine own house, and that most beaftly: in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither woman, man, nor child. FANG. If I can clofe with him, I care not for his thrust. Host. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow. 6 Where is your yeoman?] A bailiff's follower was in our author's time called a ferjeant's yeoman. MALONE. FANG. An I but fift him once; an a' come but within my vice;" HOST. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an infinitive thing upon my fcore:-Good mafter Fang, hold him fure;-good mafter Snare, let him not 'fcape. He comes continuantly to Pyecorner, (faving your manhoods,) to buy a faddle; and he's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert-street, to mafter Smooth's the filkman: I pray ye, fince my exion is enter'd, and my cafe fo openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan" for a poor lone woman to bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fub'd off, and fub'd off, and fub'd off, from this day to that 7an a' come but within my vice;] Vice or grafp; a metaphor taken from a fmith's vice: there is another reading in the old edition, view, which I think not fo good. POPE. Vice is the reading of the folio; view of the quarto. STEEVENS. The fift is vulgarly called the vice in the Weft of England. -Lubbar's head-] tion of the Libbard's head. See Vol. V. p. 352, n. 6. HENLEY. This is, I fuppofe, a colloquial corrup- MALONE. 9 A hundred mark is a long loan-] Old copy-long one. STEEV. A long one? a long what? It is almost needless to observe, how familiar it is with our poet to play the chimes upon words fimilar in found, and differing in fignification; and therefore I make no queftion but he wrote- -A hundred mark is a long loan for a poor · lone woman to bear: i. e. a hundred mark is a good round fum for a poor widow to venture on trust. THEOBALD. 2 —a poor lone woman-] A lone woman is an unmarried woman. So, in the title-page to A Collection of Records, &c. 1642: "That Queen Elizabeth being a lone woman, and having few friends, refufing to marry" &c. Again, in Maurice Kyffin's Tranflation of Terence's Andria, 1588: "Moreover this Glycerie is a lone Woman;"-" tum hæc fola eft mulier." In The First Part of King Henry IV. Mrs. Quickly had a husband alive. She is now a widow. STEEVENS. day, that it is a fhame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an afs, and a beaft, to bear every knave's wrong. Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH. 2 Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmfey-nofe knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, mafter Fang, and mafter Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices. FAL. How now? whofe mare's dead? what's the matter? FANG. Sir John, I arreft you at the fuit of miftrefs Quickly. FAL. Away, varlets!-Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the channel. Host. Throw me in the channel? I'll throw thee in the channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou baftardly rogue!-Murder, murder! O thou honeyfuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and the king's? O thou honey-feed rogue!' thou art a honey-feed; a man-queller, and a womanqueller. 2 malmsey-nofe-] That is, red nofe, from the effect of malmfey wine. JOHNSON. In the old fong of Sir Simon the King, the burthen of each ftanza is this: 66 Says old Sir Simon the king, Says old Sir Simon the king, "With his ale-dropt hofe, "And his malmfey-nofe, "Sing hey ding, ding a ding." PERCY. honey-fuckle villain!-honey-feed rogue!] The landlady's corruption of homicidal and homicide. THEOBALD. 4 — a man-queller,] Wicliff, in his Tranflation of the New FAL. Keep them off, Bardolph. FANG. A rescue! a refcue! HOST. Good people, bring a refcue or two.Thou wo't, wo't thou?' thou wo't, wo't thou? do, do, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-feed! FAL. Away, you fcullion!" you rampallian! you fuftilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe. Teftament, ufes this word for carnifex, Mark, vi. 27: "Herod fent a man-queller, and commanded his head to be brought." STEEVENS. 5 Thou wo't, wo't thou? &c.] The first folio reads, I think, lefs properly, thou wilt not? thou wilt not? JOHNSON. 6 Fal. Away, you fcullion!] This fpeech is given to the Page in all the editions to the folio of 1664. It is more proper for Falstaff, but that the boy must not stand quite filent and useless on the ftage. JOHNSON. 7 rampallian!-fuftilarian!] The firft of thefe terms of abufe may be derived from ramper, Fr. to be low in the world. The other from fuftis, a club; i. e. a perfon whofe weapon of defence is a cudgel, not being entitled to wear a fword. The following paffage however, in A New Trick to cheat the Devil, 1639, feems to point out another derivation of Rampallian: "And bold Rampallian like, fwear and drink drunk." It may therefore mean a ramping riotous ftrumpet. Thus, in Greene's Ghoft haunting Coneycatchers: "Here was Wiley Beguily rightly acted, and an aged rampalion put befide her schoole-tricks." STEEVENS. Fuftilarian is, I believe, a made word, from fufty. Mr. Steevens's laft explanation of rampallian appears the true one. MALONE. 8 — I'll tickle your catastrophe.] This expreffion occurs feveral times in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: " Bankes your ale is a Philiftine; foxe zhart there fire i'th' tail ont; you are a rogue to charge us with mugs i'th' rereward. A plague o' this wind! O, it tickles our catastrophe." Again: to feduce my blind cuftomers; I'll tickle his catastrophe for this." STEEVENS. |