Slen. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

Page. Come on, sir.

Slen. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.

Anne. Not I, sir; pray you, keep on.

Slen. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la; I will not do

you that wrong.

Anne. I pray you, sir.

Slen. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You do yourself wrong, indeed, la.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. An outer Room in PAGE's House.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE.

Evans. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house which is the way: and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his try nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.

Sim. Well, sir.

Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with Mistress Anne Page: and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit your master's desires to Mistress Anne Page. I pray you, be gone: I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and seese to come. [Exeunt.

Magpie is said to have been an ancient and favourite alehouse sign; and some find the origin of the phrase in that. Others regard Cock as a corruption of the sacred name, and pie as referring to the table in the Roman service-book showing the service for the day.

Enter FALSTAFF, Host, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN.

Fal. Mine Host of the Garter,

Host. What says my bully-rook?1 speak scholarly and wisely.

Fal. Truly, mine Host, I must turn away some of my followers.

Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; trot, trot.

Fal. I sit at ten pounds a-week.

Host. Thou'rt an emperor, Cæsar, Keisar, and Pheezar.2 I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said I well, bully Hector?

Fal. Do so, good mine Host.

Host. I have spoke; let him follow. - Let me see thee froth and lime: 3 I am at a word; follow.

[Exit.

Fal. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade: an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd serving-man a fresh tapster. Go; adieu.

Bard. It is a life that I have desired: I will thrive.

1 Bully-rook is explained by Douce as a term for "a hectoring, cheating sharper." But mine Host seems to use it jocularly, and not in the way of reproach; and Coles, in his Latin and English Dictionary, explains Bullyrook as "Vir fortis et animosus.”

2 Keisar is an old form of Casar, the general term for an emperor; Kings and Keisars being a common phrase. Pheezar is probably from pheeze, an old word meaning to beat, to chastise, to humble. See vol. ii., page 139, note 1.

3 Frothing beer and liming sack, that is, Sherry wine, were tapster's tricks, to make the liquors, old and stale, appear fresh and new. The first was done by putting soap in the tankard before drawing the beer, the other by mixing lime with the sack to make it sparkle in the glass. Mine Host wants a living proof that Bardolph is master of the trade.

Pist. O base Hungarian 4 wight! wilt thou the spigot wield? [Exit BARDOLPH. Nym. He was gotten in drink: is not the humour conceited?

Fal. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskillful singer, he kept not time.

Nym. The good humour is to

Pist. Convey the wise call it.

phrase !

steal at a minim's rest.5

Steal! foh! a fico for the

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

Pist. Why, then let kibes 7 ensue.

Fal. There is no remedy; I must cony-catch; I must

shift.

Pist. Young ravens must have food.

Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town?

Pist. I ken the wight: he is of substance good.

Fal. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about.

Pist. Two yards, and more.

Fal. No quips now, Pistol. Indeed, I am in the waist. 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 spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she

4 Hungarian probably means the same as Bohemian in Scott's Quentin Durward; that is, a gipsey. Bishop Hall, in his Satires, plays upon the name in such a way as to infer that it was used for a starved fellow :

So sharp and meagre, that who should them see,
Would swear they lately came from Hungary.

5 A minim was formerly the shortest note in music. And to do any thing "at a minim's rest was to do it promptly or nimbly. So, in Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4, Mercutio, describing how the fiery Tybalt fights: "He rests me his minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom."

6 Pistol is so much of a linguist, that he prefers the Spanish fico to the English fig.

7 A kibe is the well-known heel-sore, an ulcerated chilblain.

8 Carve is evidently used here as denoting some sign or gesture of intel

gives the leer of invitation: I can construe the action of her familiar style; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am Sir John Falstaff's.

Pist. He hath studied her well, and translated her ill, out of honesty into English.

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

Fal. Now, the report goes she has all the rule of her husband's purse he hath legions of angels.9

Pist. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, say I. Nym. The humour rises; 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, examined my parts with most judicious œilliads; 10 sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my portly belly. Pist. Then did the Sun on dunghill shine.

Nym. [To PISTOL.] I thank thee for that humour.

Fal. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention,11 that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here's another letter to her she bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be cheater 12 to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West

So

ligence and favour. And it appears that the word was often so used. in Day's Ile of Gulls, 1606: Her amorous glances are her accusers; her very lookes write sonnets in thy commendations; she board, and cannot sleep for dreaming on thee in bedde." and White quote various other passages, all inferring the same. page 89, note 35.

carves thee at Hunter, Dyce, See vol. ii.,

Angel was the name of a gold coin; its highest value is said to have been ten shillings. The Poet has several quibbles turning on the name. 10 A French word, meaning ogles, amorous glances, or wanton looks. Cotgrave translates it "to cast a sheep's eye."

11 Intention for intentness, or eagerness of attention.

12 An escheator was an officer of the Exchequer, and cheator was a popular abbreviation of the word. Of course Falstaff is quibbling.

Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go bear thou this letter to Mistress Page; and thou this to Mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive.

Pist. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,

And by my side wear steel? then Lucifer take all !

Nym. I will run no base humour: here, take the humourletter: I will keep the haviour of reputation.

Fal. [To ROBIN.] Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters tightly; 13

Sail like my pinnace 14 to the golden shores.- [Exit ROBIN. Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;

Trudge, plod away o' the hoof; seek shelter, pack!

Falstaff will learn the humour of the age,

French thrift, you rogues; myself and skirted page.

[Exit.

Pist. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam

hold,

And high and low beguile the rich and poor: 15

Tester I'll have in pouch 16 when thou shalt lack,

Base Phrygian Turk!

Nym. I have operations in my head, which be humours of revenge.

Pist. Wilt thou revenge?

18 Tightly is nimbly or adroitly; often so used.

14 A pinnace is a light vessel made for speed: hence the word was used for a go-between. In Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, Overdo says of the pigwoman, "She has been before me, punk, pinnace, and bawd, any time these two-and-twenty years."

15 "Gourds, it would seem, were false dice, which had a secret cavity; fullams, false dice, which, on the contrary, were loaded with metal on one side, so as either to produce high throws, or to turn up low numbers, as was required, and were hence named high men or low men, also high fullams and low fullams." Such is Dyce's explanation of the passage. It is also said that false dice were called fullams from their being made chiefly at Fulham; but Nares doubts this.

16 Pouch is pocket or purse. Tester is sixpence. See vol. i., page 166,

note 12.