Enter the Lord Chief Juftice, attended.

CH. JUST. What's the matter? keep the peace here, ho!

Hosr. Good my lord, be good to me! I beseech you, ftand to me!

CH. JUST. How now, fir John? what, are you brawling here?

Doth this become your place, your time, and bufinefs?

You should have been well on your way to York.Stand from him, fellow; Wherefore hang'ft thou

on him?

HOST. O my most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eaftcheap, and he is arrested at my fuit.

CH. JUST. For what fum?

HOST. It is more than for fome, my lord; it is for all, all I have: he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my fubftance into that fat belly of his :-but I will have fome of it out again, or I'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare.

FAL. I think, I am as like to ride the mare," if I have any vantage of ground to get up.

to ride the mare,] The Hoftefs had threatened to ride Falstaff like the Incubus or Night-Mare; but his allufion, (if it be not a wanton one,) is to the Gallows, which is ludicrously called the Timber, or two-legg'd Mare. So, in Like will to like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, 1587. The Vice is talking of Tyburn:

"This piece of land whereto you inheritors are,
"Is called the land of the two-legg'd Mare.
"In this piece of ground there is a Mare indeed,
"Which is the quickest Mare in England for fpeed."

CH. JUST. How comes this, fir John? Fie! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not afhamed, to enforce a poor widow to fo rough a course to come by her own?

FAL. What is the grofs fum that I owe thee? HOST. Marry, if thou wert an honeft man, thyfelf, and the money too. Thou didst fwear to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, fitting in my Dolphinchamber, at the round table, by a fea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Whitfun-week, when the prince

Again :

"I will help to bridle the two-legged Mare
"And both you for to ride need not to spare."

STEEVENS.

I think the allufion is only awanton one. MALONE.

2

66

a parcel-gilt goblet,] A parcel-gilt goblet is a goblet gilt only on fuch parts of it as are embofs'd. On the books of the Stationers' Company, among their plate 1560, is the following entry : Item, nine fpoynes of filver, whereof vii gylte and ii parcell-gylte." The fame records contain fifty inftances to the fame purpose of these spoons the faint or other ornament on the handle was the only part gilt.

Thus, in Ben Jonfon's Alchemift:

or changing
"His parcel-gilt to mafly gold."

Again, in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613:

"I am little better than a parcel-gilt bawd."

Holinfhed, defcribing the arrangement of Wolfey's plate, fays" and in the council-chamber was all white, and parcel-gilt plate." STEEVENS.

Langham, defcribing a bride-cup, fays it was "foormed of a fweet fucket barrell, a faire turn'd foot fet too it, all feemly befylvered and parcel gilt."

Again, in the XII merry ieftes of the widdow Edyth :

"A ftandyng cup with a cover percell gilt." RITSON. Parcel-gilt meant what is now called by artifts party-gilt; that is, where part of the work is gilt, and part left plain or ungilded. MALONE,

3

broke thy head for liking his father to a fingingman of Windfor; thou didft fwear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canft thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me goffip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, fhe had a good difh of prawns; whereby thou didst defire to eat fome; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound? And didft thou not, when he was gone down ftairs, defire me to be no more fo familiarity with fuch poor people; faying, that ere long they should call me madam? And didst thou not kifs me, and bid me fetch thee thirty fhillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it, if thou canft.

FAL. My lord, this is a poor mad foul; and the fays, up and down the town, that her eldeft fon is like you: the hath been in good cafe, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for thefe foolish

3 for liking his father to a finging-man-] Such is the reading of the first edition; all the reft have-for likening him to a finging man. The original edition is right; the Prince might allow familiarities with himfelf, and yet very properly break the knight's head when he ridiculed his father. JOHNSON.

Liking is the reading of the quarto, 1600, and is better fuited to dame Quickly than likening, the word substituted instead of it, in the folio. MALONE.

4

goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife,] A Keech is the fat of an ox rolled up by the butcher into a round lump. STEEVENS. a mefs of vinegar;] So, in Mucedorus:

"I tell you all the meffes are on the table already,
"There wants not fo much as a mess of mustard."

Again, in an ancient interlude published by Rafiel; no title or date: "Ye mary fometyme in a meffe of vergelle."

A mess feems to have been the common term for a small proportion of any thing belonging to the kitchen. STEEVENS.

So the fcriptural term:-" a mess of pottage." MALONE.

officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.

CH. JUST. Sir John, fir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the falfe way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with fuch more than impudent faucinefs from you, can thrust me from a level confideration; you have, as it appears to me, practifed upon the eafy-yielding fpirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purfe and perfon.

Host. Yea, in troth, my lord.

CH. JUST. Pr'ythee, peace:-Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done with her; the one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.

FAL. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap'

6 -you have, &c.] In the first quarto it is read thus:-You have, as it appears to me, practifed upon the eafy-yielding Spirit of this woman, and made her ferve your ufes both in purfe and perfon. Without this, the following exhortation of the Chief Justice is less proper. JOHNSON.

In the folio the words" and made her ferve," &c. were omitted. And in the fubfequent fpeech "the villainy you have done with her," is improperly changed to " the villainy you have done her." MALONE.

7this fneap-] A Yorkshire word for rebuke. POPE.

Sneap fignifies to check; as children eafily fneaped; herbs and fruits neaped with cold weather. See Ray's Collection. Again, in Brome's Antipodes, 1638:

Again:

Again:

"Do you freap me too, my lord?

"No need to come hither to be neap'd.”

even as now I was not,

"When you neap'd me, my lord."

This word is derived from fryb, Scotch. We still use snab in the fame fenfe. STEEVENS.

without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent faucinefs: if a man will make court'fy, and fay nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble duty remember'd, I will not be your fuitor; I fay to you, I do defire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs.

CH. JUST. You speak as having power to do wrong: but answer in the effect of your reputation, and fatisfy the poor woman.

FAL. Come hither, hostess.

Enter GOWER.

[Taking her afide.

CH. JUST. Now, mafter Gower; What news? Gow. The king, my lord, and Harry prince of Wales

Are near at hand: the reft the paper tells.

FAL. As I am a gentleman;

HOST. Nay, you faid fo before.

FAL. As I am a gentleman;-Come, no more words of it.

HOST. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.

8

FAL. Glaffes, glaffes, is the only drinking:' and

anfwer in the effect of your reputation,] That is, answer in a manner suitable to your character. JOHNSON.

9

I must be fain to pawn-my plate,

Glaffes, glaffes, is the only drinking:] Mrs. Quickly is here in the fame ftate as the Earl of Shrewsbury, who not having been paid for the diet, &c. of Mary Queen of Scots, while she was in his cuftody in 1580, writes as follows to Thomas Bawdewyn: "I wold have you bye me glasses to drink in: Send me word what