4 I have a fword, and it fhall bite upon my neceffity. He loves your wife; there's the fhort and the long. My name is Corporal Nym; I speak, and I avouch; 'tis true my name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your Wife. Adieu; I love not the humour of bread and cheese adieu. [Exit Nym. Page. The humour of it, quoth a'! here's a fellow, frights humour out of its wits.

Ford. I will feek out Falstaff.

Page. I never heard fuch a drawling, affecting rogue. Ford. If I do find it: well.

5

Page. I will not believe fuch a Cataian, tho' the prieft o' th' town commended him for a true man. Ford. 'Twas a good fenfible fellow: well.

5 I have a favord, and it shall bite upon my neceffity. He lowes your wife; &c.] This abfurd paffage may be pointed into fenfe. I have a fword, and it shall bite upon my neceffity, be lowes your wife, &c. Having faid his favord fhould bite, he stops fhort, as was fitting: For he meant that it fhould bite upon the high-way. And then turns to the fubject of his conference, and fwears, by his neceffity, that Falfaff loved his wife.

5 I will not believe fuch a Cataian,] Mr. Theobald has here a pleafant note, as ufual. This is a piece of fatire that did not want its force at the time of this play's appearing; tho' the biftory on which it is grounded is become obfolete. And then tells a long ftory of Martin Frobisher attempting the north-weft paffage, and bringing home a black ftone, as he thought, rich in gold-ore: that it proved not fo, and that therefore Cataians and Frobishers became by-words for vain boafters. The whole is an idle dream. All the mystery of the term Cataian, for a liar, is only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the firft adventurers that travelled thither; fuch as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told fuch incredible wonders of this new dif covered empire, (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jefuits themfelves, who followed them) that a notorious liar was ufually called a Cataian.

SCENE

Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford come forwards.

Page. How now, Meg?

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George? hark you. Mrs. Ford. How now, fweet Frank, why art thou melancholy?

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy. Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou haft fome crotchets in thy head. Now, will you go, mistress Page?

. Mrs. Page. Have with you. You'll come to dinner, George? Look, who comes yonder; fhe shall be our meffenger to this paultry Knight.

Enter Mistress Quickly.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her, fhe'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quick. Ay, forfooth; and, I pray, how does good miftrefs Anne?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and fee; we have an hour's talk with you.

2

[Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly.

S

CEN E V.

Page. How now, mafter Ford?

. Ford. You heard what this knave told me, did you not?

Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told me? Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

Page. Hang 'em, flaves; I do not think, the Knight would offer it; but thefe, that accufe him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoak of his discarded men ; very rogues, now they be out of fervice.

Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

T 3

Ford.

Ford. I like it never the better for that. Does he lye at the Garter?

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

Ford. I do not mifdoubt my wife, but I would be loth to turn them together; a man may be too confident; I would have nothing lye on my head; I cannot be thus fatisfy'd.

Page. Look, where my ranting Hoft of the Garter comes; there is either liquor in his pate, or mony in his purfe, when he looks fo merrily. How now, mine Hoft?..

Hoft. How now, bully Rock? thou'rt a gentleman; cavalerio-juftice, I fay.

Shal. I follow, mine Hoft, I follow. Good even, and twenty, good mafter Page. Mafter Page, will you go with us? we have fport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavaliero-juftice; tell him, bully Rock.

Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh the Welch priest, and Caius the French doctor. Ford. Good mine Hoft o'th' Garter, a word with you.

Hoft. What fay't thou, bully Rock?

Shal. Will you go with us to behold it? my merry Hoft hath had the meafuring of their weapons, and, think, he hath appointed them contrary places; for, believe me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our fport fhall be.

Hoft. Haft thou no fuit against my Knight, my gueft-cavalier? Ford.

Ford None, I proteft; but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourfe to him, and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jest.

Hoft. My hand, bully: thou fhalt have egrefs and regrefs; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook. It is a merry Knight. "Will you go on, Heris?

Shal. Have with you, mine hoft.

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

66

Shal. Tut, Sir, I could have told you more; in "these times you ftand on distance, your paffes, ftoc"cado's, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, mafter

Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time, with "my long fword, I would have made you four tall "fellows skip like rats.

Hoft. Here, boys, here, here: fhall we wag? Page. Have with you; I had rather hear them fcold than fight. [Exeunt Hoft, Shallow and Page. Ford. Tho' Page, be a fecure fool, and 7 ftand fo firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion fo easily. She was in his company at Page's houfe; and what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't; and I have a disguise to

6 Will you go AN HEIRS ] This nonfenfe is fpoken to Shallow, We fhould read,

Will you go ON, HERIS?

i.e. Will you go on, Mafter. Heris, an old Scotch word for master. 7 ftand fo firmly on his wife's frailty,] Thus all the Copies. But Mr. Theobald has no conception how any man could stand firmly on his wife's frailty. And why? Because he had no conception how he could ftand upon it, without knowing what it was. But if I pell a ftranger, that the bridge he is about to cross is rotten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not fay, when I fee him upon it, that he ftands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford Editor has followed him. But they took the phrafe, to ftand firmly on, to fignify to infift upon; whereas it fignifies to reft upon, which the character of a fecure fool, given to him, fhews. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be loft in the alteration.

VOL. I.

T 4

found

found Falstaff: if I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if the be otherwife, 'tis labour well beftow'd."

[Exit.

S CE

NE

VII.

Fal.

Changes to the Garter-Inn.

Enter Falstaff and Pistol.

Will not lend thee a penny.

"Pift. Why then the world's mine oyster, which I with fword will open- I will retort the fum in Equipage.

Fal. Not a penny. I have been content, Sir, you fhould lay my countenance to pawn; I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you, and your couch-fellow, Nim; or elfe you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in hell for fwearing to gentlemen, my friends, you were good foldiers, and tall fellows. And when miftrefs Bridget loft the handle of her fan, I took't upon mine honour, thou hadst it not.

Pift. Didft thou not fhare? hadft thou not fifteen pence?

Fal. Reafon, you rogue, reafon : think'ft thou, I'll endanger my foul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me, I am no gibbet for you: go, 9 a fhort knife and a throng, to your manour of Pickt-hatch; go, you'll not bear a letter for me, you rogue! you ftand upon your honour! why, thou unconfinable bafenefs, it is as much as I can do to keep the term of mine honour precife. I, I, I myself fometimes, leaving the fear of heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine ho

8 I will retort the fum in equipage. ] This is added from the. old Quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in ftolen goods.

9 a bort knife and a throng.] So Lear, When Cutpurfes come not to throngs.

nour