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nurfe, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

Simp. Well, Sir.

Eva. Nay, it is petter yet; give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogethers acquaintance with miftrefs Anne Page; and the letter is to defire and require her to follicit your master's defires to mistress Anne Page: be pray you, gone; I will make an end of dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come.

I

my

[Exeunt feverally.

SCENE VII.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Falstaff, Hoft, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol and Robin.

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MIN

Hoft. What fays my bully Rock? speak fchollarly, and wifely.

Fal. Truly, mine hoft, I must turn away fome of

followers.

my

Hoft. Difcard, bully Hercules, cafhier; let them wag: trot, trot.

Fal. I fit at ten pounds a week.

Hoft. Thou'rt an Emperor, Cafar, Keifar and Pheazar. I will entertain Bardolph, he shall draw, he shall tap: faid I well, bully Hector?

Fal. Do fo, good mine hoft.

Hoft. I have fpoke, let him follow; let me fee thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd fervingman, a fresh tapfter; go, adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive. [Exit Bard. Pift. O bafe Hungarian wight, wilt thou the spigot.

wield?

Nym:

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Nym. He was gotten in drink, is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it.

Fal. I am glad, I am fo quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unfkilful finger, he kept not time.

6

Nym. The good humour is to steal at a minute's

reft.

Pift. Convey, the Wife it call: fteal? foh; a fico for the phrafe!

Fal. Well, Sirs, I am almost out at heels.

Pift. Why then let kibes enfue.

Fal. There is no remedy: I must cony-catch, muft fhift.

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Pift. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this Town?
Pift. Iken the wight, he is of substance good.

Fal. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about.
Pift. Two yards and more.

Fal. No quips now, Pistol: indeed, I am in the wafte two yards about; but I am now about no waste, I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife: I fpy entertainment in her; fhe difcourses, she carves, the gives the leer of invitation; I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftile, and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be english'd right, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's.

Pift. He hath study'd her well, and tranflated her well; out of honefty into English.

6

7

Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?

at a minute's reft.] It was very judiciously fuggefted to me by a young gentleman who knows more of mufick than I, that our authour probably wrote at a minim's reft.

7 The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?] 1 fee not what

relation the anchor has to translation. Perhaps we may read the authour is deep; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and thould be inferted lower after Falfaff has faid,

Sail like my pinnace to those golden fhores.

Fal

Fal. Now, the report goes, fhe has all the rule of her husband's purfe: the hath a legion of angels. Pift. As many devils entertain; and to her, boy, fay I.

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Nym. The humour rifes; it is good; humour me the angels.

- Fal. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes too, examin'd my parts with moft judicious ey liads; femetimes, the beam of her view gilded my foot; fometimes, my portly belly.

Pift. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine.

Nym. I thank thee for that humour.

8

Fal. O, fhe did fo course o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did feem to fcorch me up like a burning-glafs. Here's another letter to her; the bears the purfe too; fhe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be Cheater to them both, and they fhall be Exchequers to me; they fhall be my East and West-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to

fhe is a Region in Guiana, all Gold and Bounty.] If the Tradition be true (as I doubt not, but it is) of this Play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's Com mand; this Paffage, perhaps, may furnish a probable Conjecture that it could not appear 'till after the Year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately dif cover'd to the English, was very happy Compliment to Sir W. Raleigh, who did not begin his Expedition for South America 'till 1595, and return'd from it in 1596, with an advantageous Account of the great Wealth of Guiana. Such an Addrefs of the

VOL. II.

a

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Poet was likely, I imagine, to
have a proper Impreffion on the
People, when the Intelligence of
fuch a golden Country was fresh
in their Minds, and gave them
Expectations of immense Gain.
THEOBALD.

-
both, and they shall be Exchequers
to me;-] The fame joke is in-
tended here, as in the fecond
part of Henry the fourth, Act 2.

9 I will be Cheater to them

H h

-I will bar no honeft man my house, nor no Cheater.-By which is meant Escheatours, an officer in the exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. WARBURTON.

mistress

miftrefs Page, and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive..

Pift. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,

And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer, take all! Nym. I will run no bafe humour; here, take the humour letter, I will keep the 'haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, Sirrah, bear you these letters tightly, Sail like my pinnace to these golden fhores. [To Robin. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hail-ftones, go; Trudge, plod away o'th' hoof feek fhelter, pack! Falstaff will learn the humour of the age, French thrift, you rogues; myfelf, and skirted page. [Exit Falftaff and Boy.

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Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts; 'for gourd, and

Fullam holds :

And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.
Tefter I'll have in pouch, when thou shalt lack,
Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be hu

mours of revenge.

Pift. Wilt thou revenge

?

Nym. By welkin, and her ftar.

Pift. With wit, or steel?

Nym. With both the humours, I:

I will difcufs the humour of this love to Ford.

for gourd, and Ful

lam holds: And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.] Fullam is a cant term for falfe dice, high and low. Torriano, in his Italian Dictionary, interprets Pife by falfe dice, high and low men, high Fullams, and low Fullams. Johnson, in his Every man out of his humour, quibbles upon this

cant term. Who, he ferve? He
keeps high men and low men, be
has a fair living at Fullam.
As for Gourd, or rather Gord, it
was another inftrument of gam-
ing, as appears from Beaumont
and Fletcher's Scornful Lady.
And thy dry bones can reach at no-
thing now, but GORDS or nine-
pins.

WARBURTON.

Pift. And I to Page fhall eke unfold,
How Falstaff, varlet vile,

His dove will prove, his gold will hold,
And his foft couch defile.

Nym. My humour fhall not cool; I will incenfe Ford to deal with poifon; I will poffefs him with yellowness; for the Revolt of Mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

Pift. Thou art the Mars of male-contents: I fecond thee; troop on.

SCENE IX.

Changes to Dr. Caius's House.

[Exeunt.

Enter Mrs. Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby.

Quic.W the cafement, and fee if you can fee my

HAT, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to'

master, mastër Doctor Caius, coming; if he do, i'faith, and find any body in the house, here will be old abufing of God's patience, and the King's English.

Rug. I'll go watch.

Quic. Go, and we'll have a poffet for't foon at night, in faith, at the latter end3 of a fea-coal fire. [Exit Rugby.] An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever fervant fhall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor no breed-bate; his worst fault is, that he is given to pray'r; he is fomething peevish that way; but no-body but has his fault; but let that pafs. Peter Simple, you fay your name is. Sim. Ay, for fault of a better.

Quic. And mafter Slender's your mafter?
Sim. Ay, forfooth.

-the Revolt of Mien] I fuppofe we may read, the revolt of men. Sir T. Hanmer reads, this revolt of mine. Either may Hh

ferve, for of the prefent text I can find no meaning.

3 at the latter end, &c.] That is, when my master is in bed. 2 Quic

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