Ford. When I have told you that, I have told you all. Some say, that though she appear honest to me, yet, in other places, she enlargeth her mirth so far, that there is shrewd construction made of her. Now, Sir John, here is the heart of my purpose: You are a gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your place and person, generally allowed for your many warlike, courtlike, and learned prepa rations. Fal. O, sir! Ford. Believe it, for you know it:-There is money; spend it, spend it, spend more; spend all I have; only give me so much of your time in exchange of it, as to lay an amiable siege to the honesty of this Ford's wife: use your art of wooing, win her consent to you; if any man may, you may as soon as any. Fal. Would it apply well to the vehemency of your affection, that I should win what you would enjoy? Methinks you prescribe to yourself very preposterously. Ford. O, understand my drift! she dwells so securely on the excellency of her honour, that the folly of my soul dares not present itself; she is too bright to be looked against. Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, my desires had instance and argument to commend themselves; I could drive her then from the ward of her purity, her reputation, her marriage-vow, and a thousand other her defences, which now are too strongly embattled against me: What say you to't, Sir John? Fal. Master Brook, I will first make bold with your money; next give me your hand; and last, as I am a gentleman, you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife. Ford. O good sir! Fal. Master Brook, I say you shall. Ford. Want no money, Sir John, you shall want none. Fal. Want no mistress Ford, Master Brook, you shall want none. I shall be with her (I may tell you,) by her own appointment; even as you came in to me, her assistant, or go-between, parted from me: I say, I shall be with her between teh and eleven; for at that time the jealous rascally knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at night; you shall know how I speed. Ford. I am blest in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford, sir? Fal. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave! I know him not-yet I wrong him to call him poor; they say, the jealous wittolly knave hath masses of money; for the which his wife seems to me wellfavoured, I w. use her as the key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer; and there's my harvest-home. 1 i. e. admitted into all, or the greatest companies. Ford. I would you knew Ford, sir; that you might avoid him, if you saw him. Fal. Hang him, mechanical salt-outter rogue ! I will stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel; it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns: master Brook, thou shalt know, I will predominate o'er the peasant, and thou shalt lie with his wife.-Come to me soon at night :-Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his stile; thou, master Brook, shalt know him for a knave and cuckold :-come to me soon at night. [Exit. 5 Ford. What a damned Epicurean rascal is this! My heart is ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is improvident jealousy -My wife hath sent to him, the hour is fixed, the match is made. Would any man have thought this ?-See the hell of having a false woman! my bed shall be abused, my coffers ransacked, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall not only receive this villanous wrong, but stand under the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me this wrong. Terms names!- -Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, well; Barbason, well; yet they are devils' additions, the names of fiends: but cuckold! wittol cuckold! the devil himself hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust his wife, he will not be jealous: I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, parson Hugh the Welshman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vita" bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself; then she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises: and what they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts but they will effect. Heaven be praised for my jealousy!-Eleven o'clock the hour-I will prevent this, detect my wife, be revenged on Falstaff, and laugh at Page. I will about it; better three hours too soon, than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold! [Exit. he be come. Rug. He is wise, sir; he knew your worship would kill him, if he came. Caius. By gar, de herring is no dead, so as I vill kill him. Take your rapier, Jack; I vill tell you how I vill kill him. Rug. Alas, sir, I cannot fence. Enter HOST, SHALLOW, SLENDER, and Page, Caius. Vat be all you, one, too, tree, four, come for? Host. To see thee fight, to see thee foin," to see thee traverse, to see thee here, to see thee there; to see thee pass thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant. Is he dead, my Ethi opian? is he dead, my Francisco? ha, bully! a great countie or earle." But Randle Holme, in his Academy of Armory, informs us that "Amayinon is the chief whose dominion is on the north part of the infernal gulf; and that Barbatos is like a Sagittarius, and has thirty legions under him." 6 A tame contented cuckold knowing himself to be one. From the Saxon witlan, to know. 7 Usquebaugh. 8 The ancient term for making a thrust in fencing. 9 Terms in fencing. The stoccado, the reverso, &c. from the Italian. Shal. He is the wiser man, master doctor: he is a curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies; if you should fight, you go against the hair of your professions: is it not true, master Page? Page. Master Shallow, you have yourself been a great fighter, though now a man of peace. HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE, Shal. Bodykins, master Page, though I now be SCENE I. A Field near Frogmore. Enter SIR old, and of the peace, if I see a sword out, my finger itches to make one: though we are justices, and doctors, and churchmen, master Page, we have some salt of our youth in us; we are the sons of women, master Page. Page. 'Tis true, master Shallow. Shal. It will be found so, master Page. Master doctor Caius, I am come to fetch you home. I am sworn of the peace; you have showed yourself a wise physician, and Sir Hugh hath shown himself a wise and patient churchman: you must go with me, master doctor. Host. Pardon, guest justice :-A word, monsieur Muck-water.3 Caius. Muck-vater; vat is dat? Host. Muck-water, in our English tongue, is valour, bully. Caius. By gar, then I have as much muck-vater as de Englishman :-Scurvy jack-dog priest; by gar, me vil cut his ears. Host. He will clapper-claw thee tightly, bully. Host. And I will provoke him to't, or let him wag. Host. And moreover, bully,-But first, master guest, and master Page, and eke cavalero Slender, go you through the town to Frogmore. [Aside to them. Page. Sir Hugh is there, is he? Host. He is there: see what humour he is in; and I will bring the doctor about by the fields: will it do well? Shal. We will do it. Page, Shal. and Slen. Adieu, good master doctor. [Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Caius. By gar, me vill kill de priest; for he speak for a jack-an-ape to Anne Page. Host. Let him die: but, first, sheath thy impatience; throw cold water on thy choler: go about the fields with me through Frogmore; I will bring 1 Heart of elder The joke is that elder has a heart of pith. 2 Bully-stale and king-urinal, these epithets will be sufficiently obvious to those who recollect the prevalence of empirical water-doctors. Castilian, a cant word (like Cataian and Ethiopian,) appears to have been generally used as a term of reproach after the defeat of the Spanish Armada. The Host avails himself of the poor doctor's ignorance of English phraseology in ap plying to him these high-sounding opprobrious epithets; he here means to call him coward. 3 Drain of a dunghill. 4 Steevens tried to give some kind of meaning to this passage. "Cry'd game," says he, "might mean in those days a professed buck, who was well known by the report of his gallantry as he could have been by proclamation." Warburton conjectures that we should lead Cry Aim, that is, "Encourage me, do I not deserve it!" This suits the speaker and occasion, and is therefore very plausible. See the second scene of the third act of this play, where the phrase again occurs. 5 Head. 6 This is a part of a beautiful little pastoral, printed Among Shakspeare's Sonnets in 1599: but in England's Eva. I pray you now, good master Slender's serving-man, and friend Simple by your name, which way have you looked for master Caius, that calls himself Doctor of Physic? Sim. Marry, sir, the pittie-ward, the park-ward, every way; old Windsor way, and every way but the town way. Eva. I most fehemently desire you, you will also look that way. Sim. I will, sir. Eva. 'Pless my soul! how full of cholers I am, To shallow rivers, to whose fallss To shallow 'Mercy on me! I have a great dispositions to cry. To shallow Sim. Yonder he is coming this way, Sir Hugh. To shallow rivers, to whose falls Eva. Pray you, give me my gown; or else keep it in your arms. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Shal. How now, master parson? Good morrow, good Sir Hugh. Keep a gamester from the dice, and to it is subjoined an answer, called The Nymph's Helicon, 1600, it is attributed to Christopher Marlowe, Reply,' signed Ignoto, which is thought to be the sig nature of Sir Walter Raleigh. Walton has inserted them both in his Complete Angler, under the character of that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago; and an answer to it, which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days.Old fashioned poetry but choicely good. Sir Hugh misrecites the lines in his panic. The reader will be pleased to find them at the end of the play. 7 This line is from the old version of the 137th Psalm: "When we did sit in Babylon, Then the remembrance of Sion, The word rivers in the second line was probably brought to Sir Hugh's thoughts by the line of the madr gal he had just repeated; and in his fright he blends the sacred and profane songs together. The old quarte has-There lived a man in Babylon,' which was the first line of an old song mentioned in Twelfth Night; 'but the other line is more in character and a good student from his book, and it is won- Slen. Ah, sweet Anne Page! Eva. 'Pless you from his mercy sake, all of you! Shal. What! the sword and the word! do you study them both, master parson? Page. And youthful still, in your doublet and nose, this raw rheumatic day? Eva. There is reasons and causes for it. Page. We are come to you, to do a good office, master parson. Eva. Fery well: What is it? TRESS PAGE and ROBIN. Page. Yonder is a most reverend gentleman, who SCENE II. The street in Windsor. Enter Mis be like, having received wrong by some person, is at most odds with his own gravity and patience, that ever you saw. Mrs. Page. Nay, keep your way, little gallant; Shal. I have lived fourscore years and upward; you were wont to be a follower, but now you are a I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learn-leader: Whether had you rather lead mine eyes, ing, so wide of his own respect. Eva. What is he? Page. I think you know him; master doctor Caius, the renowned French physician. Eva. Got's will, and his passion of my heart! 1 had as lief you would tell me of a mess of porridge. Page. Why? Eva. He has no more knowledge in Hibocrates and Galen, and he is a knave besides; a cowardly knave, as you would desires to be acquainted withal. Page. I warrant you, he's the man should fight with him. Slen. O, sweet Anne Page! Shal. It appears so, by his weapons:-Keep them asunder; here comes doctor Caius. Enter HOST, CAIUS, and RUGBY. or eye your master's heels? Rob. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man, than follow him like a dwarf. Mrs. Page. O you are a flattering boy; now, I see you'll be a courtier. Enter FORD. Ford. Well met, mistress Page: Whither go you? Mrs. Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife; Is she at home? Ford. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of company: I think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry. Mrs. Page. Be sure of that,-two other husbands. Ford. Where had you this pretty weather-cock? Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my husband had him of: What do you Page. Nay, good master parson, keep in your call your knight's name, sirrah? weapon. Shal. So do you, good master doctor. Host. Disarm them, and let them question; let them keep their limbs whole, and hack our English. Caius. I pray you, let-a me speak a word vit your ear: Verefore vill you not meet a-me? Eva. Pray you, use your patience: In good time. Caius. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape. Rob. Sir John Falstaff. Mrs. Page. By your leave, sir ;-I am sick, till I see her. [Exeunt MRS. PAGE and ROBIN. Ford. Has Page any brains? hath he any eyes? Eva. Pray you, let us not be laughing-stogs to hath he any thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath other men's humours; I desire you in friendship, no use of them. Why, this boy will carry a letter and I will one way or other make you amends:- twenty miles, as easy as a cannon will shoot point I will knog your urinals about your knave's cogs-blank twelve score. He pieces-out his wife's inclicomb, for missing your meetings and appointments. Caius. Diable!-Jack Rugby,- -mine Host de Jarterre, have I not stay for him, to kill him? have I not, at de place I did appoint? Eva. As I am a Christians soul, now, look you, this is the place appointed; I'll be judgment by mine host of the Garter. Host. Peace, I say Guallia and Gaul, French and Welsh; soul-curer and body-curer. ter. Caius. Ay, dat is very good! excellent! Host. Peace, I say; hear mine host of the GarAm I politic? am I subtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my doctor? no; he gives me the potions, and the motions. Shall I lose my parson? iny priest, my Sir Hugh? no; he gives me the proverbs and the no-verbs.-Give me thy hand, terrestial; so:-Give me thy hand, celestial; so. -Boys of art, I have deceived you both; I have directed you to wrong places: your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and let burnt sack be the issue.-Come, lay their swords to pawn:Follow me, lad of peace; follow, follow, follow. Shal. Trust me, a mad host:-Follow, gentlemen, follow. Slen. O, sweet Anne Page! 1 Fool. nation; he gives her folly motion and advantage: and now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A man may hear this shower sing in the wind!-and Falstaff's boy with her!-Good plots' they are laid; and our revolted wives share damnation together. Well; I will take him; then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty from the so-seeming mistress Page, divulge Page himself for a secure and wilful Actæon; and to these violent proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim. [Clock strikes.] The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me search; there I shall find Falstaff: I shall be rather praised for this, than mocked; for it is as positive as the earth is firm, that Falstaff is there: I will go. Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, SLENDER, Host, SIR at 4 To cry aim, in archery was to encourage the archers by crying out aim when they were about to [Exeunt SHAL. SLEN. PAGE, and HOST. shoot. Hence it came to be used for to applaud or en 2 Flouting-stock. courage, in a general sense. It seems that the specta tors in general cried aim occasionally, as a mere word of encouragement or applause Thus, in K. John, Act It ill beseems this presence to cry aim 3 i. e. scall'd-head, a term of reproach. Chaucerii. Sc. 1. umprecates on the scrivener who miswrites his verse"Under thy long locks mayest thou have the scalle" To these ill tuned repetitions' Slen. And so must I, sir; we have appointed to dine with mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more money than I'll speak of. Shal. We have lingered about a match between Anne Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have our answer. Slen, I hope, I have your good will, father Page. Page. You have, master Slender; I stand wholly for you:-but my wife, master doctor, is for you altogether. Caius. Ay, by gar; and de maid is love-a me; my nursh-a Quickly tell me so mush. Host. What say you to young master Fenton? he capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holyday,' he smells April and May: he will carry't, he will carry't; 'tis in ais buttons; he will carry't. Page. Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman is of no having:3 he kept company with the wild Prince and Poins; he is of too high a region, he knows too much. No, he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of my substance: if he take her, let him take her simply; the wealth 1 have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not that way. Ford. I beseech you, heartily, some of you go home with me to dinner: besides your cheer, you shall have sport; I will show you a monster.Master doctor, you shall go ;-so shall you, master Page;-And you, Sir Hugh. Shal. Well, fare you well:-we shall have the freer wooing at raster Page's. [Exeunt SHALLOW and SLENDER. Caius. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon. [Exit RUGBY. Host. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him. [Exit Host. Ford. [Aside.] I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine^ first with him; I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles? All. Have with you, to see this monster. SCENE III. A Room in Ford's House. [Exeunt. Mrs. Ford. What, John! what, Robert! Mrs. Page. Quickly! quickly: Is the basket basket on your shoulders: that done, trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters in Datchet mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames' side. Mrs. Page. You will do it? Mrs. Ford. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction: Be gone, and come wher you are called. [Exeunt Servants Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin. Enter ROBIN. Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket?" wha news with you? Rob. My master Sir John has come in at your back door, mistress Ford; and requests 'your company, Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-lent," have you been true to us? Rob. Ay, I'll be sworn: My master knows not of your being here; and hath threatened to put me into everlasting liberty, if I tell you of it; for, he swears, he'll turn me away. Mrs. Page. Thou art a good boy; this secrecy of thine shall be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee a new doublet and hose.-I'll go hide me. Mrs. Ford. Do so:-Go tell thy master, I am alone. Mistress Page, remember you your cue. [Exit ROBIN. Mrs. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, [Exit MRS. PAGE. Mrs. Ford. Go to then: we'll use this unwholesome humidity, this gross watery pumpion ;—we'll teach him to know turtles from jays." hiss me. Enter FALSTAFF. your lady, Sir John! alas, I should Fal. Let the court of France show me such another; I see how thine eye would emulate the buck-diamond: Thou hast the right arched bent1o of the brow, that becomes the ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance.11 Mrs. Ford. I warrant :-What, Robin, I say. Enter Servants with a basket. Mrs. Page. Come, come, come. Mrs Ford. A plain kerchief, Sir John: my brows become nothing else; nor that well neither. Fal. By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so: thou would'st make an absolute courtier; and the firm fixture of thy foot would give an excellent mo tion to thy gait, in a semi-circled farthingale. I see Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John what thou wert, if fortune thy foe12 were not: naand Robert, be ready here hard by in the brew-ture is thy friend: Come, thou canst not hide it. house; and when I suddenly call you, come forth, Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there's no such thing and (without any pause, or staggering) take this To speak out of the common style, superior to the vulgar, in allusion to the better dress worn on holidays. So in K. Henry IV. P. I. "With many holiday and lady terms." 2 Alluding to an ancient custom among rustics, of trying whether they should succeed with their mistresses by carrying the flower called bachelor's buttons in their pockets. They judged of their good or bad success by their growing or not growing there. Hence, to wear bachelor's buttons, seems to have grown into a phrase for being unmarried. 3i. e. Fortune or possessions. So, in Twelfth Night: I'll make division of my present with you: 4 Canary is the name of a dance as well as of a wine. Pipe-wine is wine, not from the bottle but the pipe or cask. The jest consists in the ambiguity of the word, which signifies both a cask of wine and a musical instrument. I'll give him pipe wine, which will make him dance.' in me. 11 That is, any fanciful head-dress worn by the celebrated beauties of Venice, or approved by them. In how much request the Venetian tire or head-dress was for. merly held, appears from Burton's Anatomy of Melan. choly, 1624. Let her have the Spanish gait, the Ve netian tire, Italian compliments and endowments." 12 Fortune my Foe is the beginning of a popular old ballad enumerating all the misfortunes that fall on mankind through the caprice of Fortune. The tune was the same with that of Death and the Lady,' to 6 Young sparrow-hawk, here used as a jocular term which the metrical lamentations of extraordinary cri for a small child. 5 Bleachers of linen. minals were chanted for two hundred years and more Fal. What made me love thee? let that persuade Mrs. Page. For shame, never stand, you had rathee, there's something extraordinary in thee. Come, ther, and you had rather; your husband's here a I cannot cog, and say thou art this and that, like a hand, bethink you of some conveyance: in the house many of these lisping hawthorn buds, that come like you cannot hide him.-O, how have you deceived women in men's apparel, and smell like Bucklers-me!-Look, here is a basket; if he be of any reabury in simple-time; I cannot: but I love thee; none but thee; and thou deservest it. Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, sir; I fear you Love mistress Page. Fal. Thou might'st as well say, I love to walk by the Counter-gate; which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime-kiln." Mrs. Ford. Well, heaven knows how I love you; and you shall one day find it. Fal. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it. Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could not be in that mind. Rob. [within.] Mistress Ford, mistress Ford! nere's mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing, and looking wildly, and would needs speak with you presently. Fal. She shall not see me; I will ensconce me behind the arras.4 Mrs. Ford. Pray you, do so; she's a very tattling [FALSTAFF hides himself. woman. Enter MISTRESS PAGE and ROBIN. What's the matter? how now? Mrs. Page. O mistress Ford, what have you done? You're ashamed, you are overthrown, you are undone for ever. Mrs. Ford. What's the matter, good mistress Page? Mrs. Page. O well-a-day, mistress Ford! having an honest man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion! Mrs. Ford. What cause of suspicion? Mrs. Page. What cause of suspicion ?-Out upon you! how am I mistook in you! Mrs. Ford. Why, alas! what's the matter? Mrs. Page. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman, that, he says, is here now in the house, by your consent, to take an ill advantage of his absence: You are undone. Mrs. Ford. Speak louder.—[Aside.]—'Tis not so, I hope. Mrs. Page. Pray heaven it be not so, that you have such a man here; but 'tis most certain your husband's coming with half Windsor at his heels, to search for such a one. I come before to tell you: If you know yourself clear, why I am glad of it: but if you have a friend here, convey, convey him out. Be not amazed: call all your senses to you; defend your reputation, or bid farewell to your good life for ever. Mrs. Ford. What shall I do?-There is a gentleman, my dear friend; and I fear not mine own shame, so much as his peril: I had rather than a thousand pound, he were out of the house. 1 Formerly chiefly inhabited by druggists, who sold all kinds of herbs green as well as dry. 2 The Counter as a prison was odious to Falstaff. 3 So, in Coriolanus Whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens." The name of this prison was a frequent subject of jocu larity with our ancestors. Shakspeare has availed himself of it in the Comedy of Errors. My old acquaintance Baret records one pleasantly enough in his Alvearie, 1573.-"We saie merrily of him who hath been in the Counter or such like places of prison: He can sing his counter-tenor very well. And in anger we say, I will make you sing a counter-tenor for this geare: meaning imprisonment." 4 The spaces left between the walls and wooden frames on which the tapestry was hung, were not more commodious to our ancestors, than to the authors of ancient dramatic pieces. 5 Bleaching time. 6 These words, which are characteristic, and spoken to Mrs. Page aside, deserve to be restored from the old quarto. He had used the same words before to Mrs. Ford. sonable stature, he may creep in here; and throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking: Or, it is whiting-time', send him by your two men to Datchet mead. Mrs. Ford. He's too big to go in there: What shall I do? Re-enter FALStaff. Fal. Let me see't; let me see't! O let me see't!✔ I'll in, I'll in ;-follow your friend's counsel :-I'll in. Mrs. Page. What! Sir John Falstaff! Are these your letters, knight? Fal. I love thee, and none but thee; help me away: let me creep in here; I'll never. [He goes into the basket; they cover him with foul linen. Mrs. Page. Help to cover your master, boy: Call your men, mistress Ford :-You dissembling knight! Robin; Re-enter Servants.] Go take up these Mrs. Ford. What, John, Robert, John! [Exit clothes here, quickly; where's the cowl-staff? look, how you drumble: carry them to the laundress in Datchet mead; quickly, come. Enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH Ford. Pray you, come near: if I suspect with out cause, why then make sport at me, then let me be your jest; I deserve it.-How now? whither bear you this? Serv. To the laundress, forsooth. Mrs. Ford. Why, what have you to do whither they bear it? You were best meddle with buckwashing. Ford. Buck? I would I could wash myself of the buck! Buck! buck! buck? Ay, buck? I warrant you, buck; and of the season too, it shall appear. [Exeunt Servants with the basket.] Gentlemen, I have dreamed to-night; I'll tell you my dream. Here, here, here be my keys: ascend my chambers, search, seek, find out: I'll warrant we'll unkennel the fox:-Let me stop this way first;-So, now uncape.10 Page. Good master Ford, be contented: you wrong yourself too much. Ford. True, master Page.-Up, gentlemen; you shall see sport anon: follow me, gentlemen. [Erit. Eva. This is fery fantastical humours, and jealousies. Caius. By gar, 'tis no de fashion of France: it is not jealous in France. Page. Nay, follow him, gentlemen, see the issue of his search. [Exeunt EVANS, PAGE, and CAIUS. Mrs. Page. Is there not a double excellency in this? Mrs. Ford. I know not which pleases me better, that my husband is deceived, or Sir John. 7 A staff used for carrying a cowl or tub with two handles to fetch water in. "Bicollo, a cowle-staffe to carie behind and before with, as they use in Italy to carie two buckets at once."-Florio's Dictionary, 1598. 8 To drumble and drone meant to move sluggishly To drumble, in Devonshire, means to mutter in a sullen and inarticulate voice. A drumble drone, in the western dialect signifies a drone or humble-bee. That master genius of modern times, who knows so skilfully how to adapt his language to the characters and manners of the age in which his fable is laid, has adopted this word in The Fortunes of Nigel,' vol. ii. p. 298-" Why hdw she drumbles-I warrant she stops to take a sip on the road." 9 Dennis observes that, it is not likely Falstaff would suffer himself to be carried to Datchet mead, which is half a mile from Windsor; and it is plain that they could not carry him, if he made any resistance.' 10 Hanmer proposed to read uncouple; but, perhaps, uncape had the same signification. It means, at any rate, to begin the hunt after him, when the holes for ca cape had been stopped |