I will perform with a moft chriftian care. Enter Falstaff, and Colevile, meeting. Fal. What's your name, fir? of what condition are you; and of what place, I pray? 1 * Cole. I am a knight, fir; and my name is-Cole vile of the dale. 2 Fondly brought here, &c.] Fondly is foolishly. So, in lord Surrey's tranflation of the fecond book of Virgil's Eneid: "What wight fo fond fuch offer to refufe?" STEEVENS, 3 Exeunt.] It cannot but raise fome indignation to find this horrible violation of faith paffed over thus flightly by the poet, without any note of cenfure or deteftation. JOHNSON. 4 Cole. I am a knight, fir; and my name is Colevile of the Dale. Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree, and your place, the Dale. Colevile fhall ftill be your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place, a place deep enough. Sofball you fill be Colevile of the Dale. But where is the wit, or the logic of this conclufion? I am almoft perfuaded that we ought to read thus: Colevile fhall ftill be your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place, a dale deep enough. He may then justly infer, So fhall you ftill be Colevile of the Dale. TYRWHITT. The fenfe of dale is included in deep; a dale is a deep place; a dungeon is a deep place: he that is in a dungeon may be therefore faid to be in a dale. JOHNSON. Fal Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale: Colevile fhall ftill be your name; a traitor your degree; and the dungeon your place,-a place deep enough; fo fhall you ftill be Colevile of the dale ". Cole. Are not you fir John Falstaff? Fal. As good a man as he, fir, whoe'er I am. Do ye yield, fir? or fhall I sweat for you? If I do fweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death: therefore roufe up fear and trembling, and do obfervance to my mercy. Cole. I think, you are fir John Falstaff; and, in that thought, yield me. Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all fpeaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were fimply the most active fellow in Europe: My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.-Here comes our general. Enter Prinse John of Lancaster, and Westmoreland. Lan. "The heat is paft, follow no farther now ;Call in the powers, good coufin Weftmoreland.[Exit Weft. Now, Falftaff, where have you been all this while? Fal. I would be forry, my lord, but it should be thus: I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, 5 Colevile of the dale.] "At the king's coming to Durham, the lord Haftings, Sir John Colevile of the Dale, &c. being convicted of the confpiracy, were there beheaded." Holinfhed, P. STEEVENS. 530. The heat is paft, That is, the violence of refentment, the eagerness of revenge. JOHNSON. an an arrow, or a bullet? have I, in my poor and old mo tion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremeft inch of poffibility; I have founder'd nine-fcore and odd pofts: and here, traveltainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken fir John Colevile of the dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy: But what of that he faw me, and yielded; that I may juftly fay with the hook-nos'd fellow of Rome,I came, faw, and overcame. Lan. It was more of his courtesy than your deferving. Fal. I know not; here he is, and here I yield him : and I beseech your grace, let it be book'd with the reft of this day's deeds; or, by the lord, I will have it in a particular ballad elfe, with mine own picture on the top of it, Colevile kiffing my foot: To the which courfe if I be enforced, if you do not all fhew like gilt two-pences to me; and I, in the clear sky of fame, o'erfhine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element, which fhew like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the noble: Therefore let me have right, and let defert mount. Lan. Thine's too heavy to mount. Fal. Let it fhine then. Lan. Thine's too thick to shine. Fal. Let it do fomething, my good lord, that may do me good, and call it what you will. Lan. Is thy name Colevile ? 7 Cole. It is, my lord. Lan. A famous rebel art thou, Colevile. the book-nos'd fellow of Rome,] The quarto reads, "the hook-nos'd fellow of Rome, their cofin." I have followed the folio. The modern editors read, but without authority," the hook-nos'd fellow of Rome there, Cafar." STEEVENS. That That led me hither: had they been rul'd by me, Fal. I know not how they fold themselves: but thou, like a kind fellow, gav'ft thyself away; and I thank thee for thee. Re-enter Weftmoreland. Lan. Have you left pursuit? Weft. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd. To York, to prefent execution. Blunt, lead him hence; and fee you guard him fure. Fal. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through Gloftershire: and, when you come to court, ftand my good lord 'pray, in your good report. Lan. Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my condition, Shall better speak of you than you deserve. [Exit. Fal fland my good lord'pray, in your good report.] We muft either read, pray let me ftand, or, by a construction somewhat harsh, understand it thus: Give me leave to go. and-ftand. To ftand in a report, referred to the reporter, is to perfift; and Falstaff did not ask the prince to perfist in his present opinion. JOHNSON. Stand my good lord, I believe, means only ftand my good friend, (an expreffion ftill in common use) in your favourable report of me. So, in the Taming of a Shrew: "I pray you ftand good father to me now. " STEEVENS. 9 -I, in my condition, Shall better peak of you than you deferve.] I know not well the meaning of the word condition in this place; I believe it is the fame with temper of mind: I fhall, in my good 'nature, fpeak better of you than you merit. JoHNSON. I believe 1 Fal. I would, you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom.-Good faith, this fame young fober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh;-but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof: for thin drink doth fo over-cool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-ficknefs; and then, when they marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools and cowards; which fome of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good fherris-fack hath a two-fold operation in it. It afcends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish, and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it: makes it apprehenfive 4, quick, forgetive 5, full of nimble, fiery, and I believe it means, I, in my condition, i. e. in my place as a commanding officer, who ought to represent things merely as they are, fhall speak of you better than you deserve. So, in the Tempeft, Ferdinand fays: 66 -I am, in my condition, "A prince, Miranda -this fame young fober-blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh;] Falstaff speaks here like a veteran in life. The young prince did not love him, and he despaired to gain his affection, for he could not make him laugh. Men only become friends by community of pleafures. He who cannot be foftened into gaiety, cannot easily be melted into kindness. JOHNSON. Sherris-fack] This liquor is mentioned in The Captain, by B. and Fletcher. STEEVENS. 2 3 -the -It afcends me into the brain, and dries me up there crudy vapours] This ufe of the pronoun is a familiar redundancy among our old writers. So, Latimer, p. 91, "Here cometh me now thefe holy fathers from their counfels." "There was one wiser than the reft, and he comes me to the bishop." Edit. 1571. p. 75. BOWLE. 4 -apprehenfive,] i. e. Quick to understand. So, in the Revenger's Tragedy, 1608: "Thou'rt a mad apprehenfive knave." Again, in Every man out of his Humour:-"You are too quick, too apprehenfive." In this fenfe it is now almoft difufed. STEEVENS. 5 forgetive,] Forgetive from forge; inventive, imaginative. JOHNSON, delect |
