Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend this voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: A man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head:1 I cannot be thus satisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting host of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purse, when he looks so merrily.-How now, mine host?

Enter HOST and SHALLOW.

Host. How now, bully-rook? thou 'rt a gentleman: cavalero-justice, I say.

2

Shal. I follow, mine host, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good master Page! Master Page, will you go with us? we have sport in hand.

Host. Tell him, cavalero-justice; tell him, bully-rook. Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought, between sir Hugh the Welch priest, and Caius the French doctor. Ford. Good mine host 'o the Garter, a word with you. Host. What say'st thou, bully-rook? [They go aside. Shal. Will you [to PAGE] go with us to behold it? My merry host hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places: for, believe me, I hear the parson is no jester. Hark, I will tell you what our sport shall be.

Host. Hast thou no suit against my knight, my guestcavalier?

Ford. None, I protest: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt sack to give me recourse to him, and tell him, my

I would have nothing lie on my head:] Here seems to be an allusion to Shakspeare's favourite topic, the cuckold's horns. Malone.

2

cavalero-justice,] This cant term occurs in The Stately

Moral of Three Ladies of London, 1590:

"Then know, Castilian cavaleros, this."

There is also a book printed in 1599, called A Countercuffe given to Martin Junior; by the venturous, hardie, and renowned

Pasquil of Englande, CAVALIEro.

Steevens.

name is Brook; only for a jest.

Host. My hand, bully: thou shalt have egress and regress; said I well? and thy name shall be Brook: It is a merry knight.-Will you go on, hearts?4 Shal. Have with you, mine host.

Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier.5

Shal. Tut, sir, I could have told you more: In these times you stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes,

3

and tell him, my name is Brook;] Thus both the old quartos; and thus most certainly the poet wrote. We need no better evidence than the pun that Falstaff anon makes on the name, when Brook sends him some burnt sack: Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow such liquor. The players, in their edition, altered the name to Broom. Theobald.

will you go on, hearts?] For this substitution of an intelligible for an unintelligible word, I am answerable.—The old reading is-an-heirs. See the following notes. Steevens.

We should read, Will you go oN, HERIS? i. e. Will you go on, master? Heris, an old Scotch word for master. Warburton.

66

The merry Host has already saluted them separately by titles of distinction; he therefore probably now addresses them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably,Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a subsequent scene of this play, Farewel my hearts. Again, in The Midsummer Night's Dream, Bottom says, Where are these hearts?" My brave hearts, or my hold hearts, is a common word of encouragement. A heart of gold expresses the more soft and amiable qualities, the mores aurei of Horace; and a heart of oak is a frequent encomium of rugged honesty. Sir T. Hanmer reads-Mynheers. Steevens.

There can be no doubt that this passage is corrupt. Perhaps we should read-Will you go and hear us? So, in the next page—“ I had rather hear them scold than fight." Malone.

5

words:

in his rapier.] In the old quarto here follow these

"Shal. I tell you what, master Page; I believe the doctor is no jester; he 'll lay it one [on]; for though we be justices and doctors and churchmen, yet we are the sons of women, master Page.

66 Page. True, master Shallow.

"Shal. It will be found so, master Page.

Page. Master Shallow, you yourself have been a great fighter, though now a man of peace."

Part of this dialogue is found afterwards in the third scene of the present act; but it seems more proper here, to introduce what Shallow says of the prowess of his youth. Malone.

war as the heart, master Page; 'tis me de time, with my long are mut 700 bar tall fellows? skip

--* * *. shall we wag?

Bacher hear them scold

EST. SHAL, and PAGE. scure bel and stands so

firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily: she was in his company at Page's house; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into 't: and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff: If I find her honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 'tis labour well bestowed. [Exit.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

Fal. I will not lend thee a penny.
Hist. Why, then the world 's mine oyster,1
Which I with sword will open.-

I will retort the sum in equipage.2

stands so firmly on his wife's frailty,] To stand on any thing, does signify to insist on it. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: " All captains, and stand upon the honesty of your wives." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, Book VI, chap. 30:

"For stoutly on their honesties doe wylie harlots stand." The jealous Ford is the speaker, and all chastity in women appears to him as frailty. He supposes Page therefore to insist on that virtue as steady, which he himself suspects to be without foundation. Steevens.

and stands so firmly on his wife's frailty,] i. e. has such perfect confidence in his unchaste wife. His wife's frailty is the same as his frail wife. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, we meet with death and honour, for an honourable death. Malone.

9 and, what they made there,] An obsolete phrase signifying-what they did there. Malone.

So, in As you like it, Act I, sc. i:

"Now, sir, what make you here?" Steevens.

1- the world's mine oyster, &c.] Dr. Grey supposes Shakspeare to allude to an old proverb, "The mayor of Northampton opens oysters with his dagger,"-i. e. to keep them at a sufficient distance from his nose, that town being fourscore miles from the sea. Steevens.

2 I will retort the sum in equipage,] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in stolen goods. Warburton.

I rather believe he means, that he will pay him by waiting on him. So, in Love's Pilgrimage, by Beaumont and Fletcher:

"And boy, be you my guide,

"For I will make a full descent in equipage.”

and I know not what: 'tis the heart, master Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have seen the time, with my long sword, I would have made you four tall fellows' skip like rats.

Host. Here, boys, here, here! shall we wag?

Page. Have with you:-I had rather hear them scold than fight. [Exeunt HOST, SHAL. and PAGE. Ford. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so

6

my long sword,] Before the introduction of rapiers, the swords in use were of an enormous length, and sometimes raised with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, censures the innovation, by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long sword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. Johnson.

Dr. Johnson's explanation of the long sword is certainly right; for the early quarto reads-my two-hand sword; so that they appear to have been synonymous.

Carleton, in his Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercy, 1625, speaking of the treachery of one Rowland York, in betraying the town of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587, says: he was a Londoner, famous among the cutters in his time, for bringing in a new kind of fight-to run the point of the rapier into a man's body. This manner of fight he brought first into England, with great admiration of his audaciousness: when in England before that time, the use was, with little bucklers, and with broad swords, to strike, and not to thrust; and it was accounted unmanly to strike under the girdle."

The Continuator of Stowe's Annals, p. 1024, edit. 1631, supposes the rapier to have been introduced somewhat sooner, viz. about the 20th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, [1578] at which time, he says, Sword and Bucklers began to be disused. Shakspeare has here been guilty of a great anachronism in making Shallow ridicule the terms of the rapier in the time of Henry IV, an hundred and seventy years before it was used in England. Malone.

It should seem from a passage in Nash's Life of Jacke Wilton, 1594, that rapiers were used in the reign of Henry VIII. “ At that time I was no common squire, &c.-my rapier pendant like a round stick fastned in the tacklings for skippers the better to climbe by." Sig. C 4. Ritson.

7 tall fellows] A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant a stout, bold, or courageous person. In A Discourse on Usury, by Dr. Wilson, 1584, he says, "Here in England, he that can rob a man on the high-way, is called a tall fellow." Lord Bacon says, "that Bishop Fox caused his castle of Norham to be fortified, and manned it likewise with a very great number of tall soldiers."

The elder quarto reads-tall fencers. Steevens.