Fal. You make fat rascals, Mistress Doll. Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to Fal. "Your brooches, pearls, and ouches:" for to serve 45 42. make them ;] make them, Ff; make, Q. 44. help to make] make Ff. 46. poor] pure Singer, ed. 2 (Collier MS. and Singer MS.). 47. Yea, joy] Yea ioy, Q; I marry Ff. 48. "Your . . . ouches "] marked as a quotation by Capell. 66 A 41. fat rascals] An oxymoron. "rascal" was the technical term for a young deere, leane and out of season" (Puttenham, Arte of English Poesie, III. xvii). "Rascal beeing," writes R. Verstegan (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, p. 336), "the name for an ilfavoured leane and woorthlesse deer." 42. gluttony them] So Nashe, Summer's Last Will (Haz. Dods., viii. 82): "Feasts are but puffing up of the flesh, the purveyors for diseases." . 46. virtue] A concrete use of an abstract noun, to which Onions' parallels Timon of Athens, III. v. 7. 47. joy] A term of endearment, as in Antony and Cleopatra, 1. v. 58; Fletcher, Beggars Bush, II. iii: "Come, my joy, Say thou art mine," and Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, 11. i: "Thou art a matchless wife: farewell, my joy !" 47. our chains... jewels] Yes, you catch of us, i.e. you wheedle out of us, our chains and jewels. Courtesans received gifts of chains and jewels, and these they, in their turn, bestowed upon favoured lovers. In Middleton, Your Five Gallants, I. i, we learn that courtesans acquired jewels by "nimming" them from gentlemen, and that such were their "chief vails." In the same play, III. i, Tailby obtains a chain, a jewel and a ring from three courtesans. See also T. Heywood, If You Know not Me, You Know Nobody, Part II. (Pear son, i. 308), where Jack Gresham induces a French courtesan to part with a chain, a ring and a jewel; Barry, Ram-Alley, IV. i, where Capt. Face, indulging in a day-dream, says "Say now, the virtuous wife should ... give me a chain worth some three score pounds"; Middleton, A Trick to Catch the Old One, 11. i; Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, Induction, and iv. i. A chain that had cost "two hundred pound" is named as a gift in J. Tomkis, Albumazar, I. vii. Chains were formerly generally worn by men an i women of station; as they are still worn by civic dignitaries. "Yea joy... jewels," is perhaps, like the words that immediately follow in Falstaff's reply, a scrap from some ballad. 48. "Your brooches, pearls, and ouches "] A scrap from The Boy and the Mantle: "with brooches, rings and owches"; a ballad printed in Percy's Reliques. Ouches, gems, jewels. Lyly, Euphues, Anatomy of Wyt (Bond's Lyly, i. 224): "in stead of silkes I will weare sackecloth, for Owches and Bracelettes, Leere and Caddys"; Greene, Debate betweene Follie and Loue (Grosart, iv. 212): "their iemmes, iewells, ouches, ringes," and Mamillia (Grosart, ii. 19): no Gem nor Jewell, Ouch nor Ring left behind, which might make them seemely in her sight." Sing. ouch =a brooch. For the quibbling reference to the effects of venereal disease, see Chapman, The Widow's Tears, I. i, where it is said of a "diseased lord," "up-start as many aches in 's bones, as there are ouches in 's skinne" [i.e. sores on the skin]. ... 66 48-52. to serve. . . bravely,-] The whole of this speech is in a coarse strain of equivocation which found many imitators. See, for instance, Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part II. (Pearson, ii. 174). bravely is to come halting off, you know; to come Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself! meet but you fall to some discord: you are both, i' 55 49. off, you know; to] Rowe; off, you know to Q; off: you know, to Ff 1, 2; . 49. come halting off] Cf. Chapman, May-Day, Iv. iii: "the artillery plays and many a tall man goes halting off," and Barry, Ram-Alley, v. i. 49, 50. come off bravely] Cf. Barry, Ram-Alley, m. i: "Capt. Puff. haue not I plac'd My sakers, culverings. . . Upon her breach, and do I not stand Ready with my pike to make my entry?" Also Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part II. (Pearson, ii. 161): vpon the breach.' "venture says Mrs. Quickly, in The Merry Wives, 57. confirmities] A blunder for "in- 57, 58. What the good-year !] What . you you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the 60 Dol. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk better stuffed in the hold. Come, I 'll be friends with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and whether 65 I shall ever see thee again or no, there is nobody cares. Re-enter FIRST DRAWER. First Draw. Sir, Ancient Pistol's below, and would speak with you. Dol. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come 70 hither it is the foul-mouthedst rogue in England. 68. 61. Dol.] Dorothy Q. 68. Re-enter. .] Re-enter Drawer. Capell; Enter drawer. Q, Ff. 68. First Draw.] Dra. Q; Drawer. (or Draw.) Ff. Pistol's] Pistol is Ff. 58, 59. one .. vessel] Cf. Taming of the Shrew, II. i. 102; and Middleton, No Wit, no Help Like a Woman's, I. i: 66 women were made to bear," and ib. III. i. For "weaker vessel," see 1 Peter, iii. 7: a passage to which many direct or quibbling allusions are made in Elizabethan comedy. "Would all women were of my minde," exclaims the City Wife, in Everie Woman in her Humor, I. i, "they call us weaker vessels, they should finde vessels of us, but no weake vessels, I warrant them." 61. bear] For the quibble, cf. Jonson, Poetaster, Iv. iii: "Vulcan must do as Venus does, bear," and Nabbes, Covent Garden, 1. ii: "Tong. I am a patient bearer. Ralph. Not unlikely, I have heard there are many such in Covent Garden. Tong. I meane with your unmanerliness." ... 61, 62. huge. hogshead] An image perhaps suggested by Nashe, Summer's Last Will (Haz. Dods., viii. 57), where Autumn inquires of Bacchus: "may I ask without offence, How many tuns of wine hast in thy paunch?" 62. merchant's venture] cargo of a merchantman, or the consignment of wines of Bourdeaux in which the merchant has invested his capital. 63. hulk] a large ship of burden. See 1 Henry VI. v. v. 6: "the mightiest 65-67. whether cares] Doll speaks in the distracted language of grief. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Cupid's Revenge, IV. i: "Ismenus. I'm crying now, God be with you, if I never see you again: why then pray get you gone, for grief and anger wonnot let me know what I say" [in a parting scene between two friends]; Webster and Rowley, A Cure for a Cuckold, 11. iii; Marston, The Dutch Courtezan, v. iii. 68. Ancient] Ensign, Standardbearer. Ancient is a corruption of "ensign " (= standard), which in its early forms was confused with ancyen" (= ancient). 71. foul-mouthedst] "We swaggerers," says Brabo, in Josh. Cooke's How a Man May Choose, etc., II. iii, "That live by oaths and big-mouth'd menaces." For the form of the superlative, "foul-mouthedst," cf. I. T., Grim the Collier of Croydon, III. i: "the true-heartedst man"; The Puritan, III. V: "most free-heartedst"; and Machin and Markham, The Dumb Host. If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live among my neighbours; I'll no swaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the very best: shut the door; there comes no swaggerers here: I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now: shut the door, I pray you. Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess ? Host. Pray ye, pacify yourself, Sir John: there comes no swaggerers here. Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient. your ancient I was before 75 80 swaggerer comes not in my doors. 73. among] amongst Ff. 72, 73. no, . . . faith] om. Ff. 'Pray you Ff. 82. ne'er] neuer Ff. Deputie Ff. 84. t'other] the other Ff. nesday] wedsday Q. 86. I'good faith] om. Ff. Domb Ff 3, 4. 89. said] sayth (or saith) Ff. Knight, I. i: "worst-favouredst." Usually the first member in the compound is inflected, as in Marston's Malcontent, I. ii: "the rustiest-jawed, the foulest-mouthed knave," and in the same author's Dutch Courtezan, 1. ii: "foulest-mouth'd." 82. Tilly-fally] An expression of impatience; usually spelt" tilly-vally," as in Twelfth Night, 11. iii. 86. Craig cites The Taming of a Shrew, line 4: "Tilly-vally, by crise, Tapster." 82. ne'er tell me] An expression of impatience, as in Othello, 1. i. 1. 84. debuty] deputy of the ward. The deputy was "some grave citizen," charged by one of the four aldermen of the city with the good government of the ward in which he resided. He was known as the alderman's deputy, or deputy of the ward (Minsheu). The deputy's name suggests an elderly citizen with a consumptive cough. 77. Pray ye] 84. debuty] 85. Wed87. Dumbe] Dombe Ff 1, 2; 89. a'] hee (or he) Ff. Troilus and Cressida, v. iii. 101: "A whoreson rascally tisick so troubles me" (where Pandarus is the speaker). 87. Dumbe] Lee points out that the epithet "dumb" was commonly applied to the clergy, who forbore to preach, and only read homilies prescribed by authority. 88. civil] orderly, well conducted. 90, 91. you are... thought on] The form of humour here may have been suggested by a speech in Lodge and Greene, A Looking Glasse for London and England, 1. ii: "Clowne. father bare office in our towne; an honest man he was, and in great discredit in the parish," etc. your 90. whereupon] on what grounds, as in 1 Henry IV. IV. iii. 42. 93. companions]" mates,' ""fellows " -a term of contempt. W. Fleetwood, City Recorder, wrote to Lord Burghley (1584): "two companions . . . and you would bless you to hear what he said: no, I'll no swaggerers. Fal. He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater, i' faith; you may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound. he'll not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of resistance. Call him up, drawer. [Exit First Drawer. Host. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater: but I do not love swaggering, by my troth; I am the worse, when one says swagger: feel, masters, how I shake; look you, I warrant you. 95 100 105 96. cheater] cheter Q. 96, 97. i'faith] hee (or he) Ff. 98. he 'll] hee will Ff. 100. Exit ..] Exit Drawer. Capell; om. Q, Ff. 103. swaggering, by my troth; 1] swaggering by my troth, I Q; swaggering; I Ff. 104. swagger] swaggerer Ff 3, 4. both very lewd fellows, fell out about a harlot." Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, III. vi: "that companion ["yonder boy"]. Craig refers to Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, iii. 2. 2. 4: "many silly gentlewomen are fetched over in like sort by a company of gulls and swaggering companions." 94. bless you] esteem yourself supremely happy; cf. Winter's Tale, III. iii. 116. 96. tame cheater] Pistol might have said with the swaggerer in T. Nabbes, Microcosmus, v: "I can play the Bravo where my affronting is upon sure advantage: otherwise I can be kick't with as much patience, as a hungry fidler." A cheater was strictly one who practised the art of winning money by false dice (see Dekker, Belman of London), but the cheater also acted as a decoy, a pander, etc. The respective rôles of swaggerer and cheater were often united in the same person. Thus Barry, Ram-Alley, 11. i: "You swaggering cheating Turnbull Street rogue." And a swaggerer is elsewhere described as one "that. can cheat at dice, swagger in bawdy-houses." Middleton and Rowley (A Fair Quarrel, IV. iv.) seem to distinguish between cheaters and decoys: "No cheaters nor decoys." Falstaff's meaning would appear to be that Pistol is a cheater indeed, but too tame to be a good swaggerer. We meet with "a tame coward in Beaumont and Fletcher, Laws of Candy, III. i, and with "tame swag gerer" in Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe, II. i. Onions doubtfully explains the "tame cheater" of the text as a "decoy duck, or other tame animal used as a decoy." Craig suggests that there is "a quibble between the two senses of the word 'cheater,' a cheat, a swindler, and the sense an animal used as a decoy (for other animals) in hunting'"; cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, II. ii: "you are worse than simple widgeons, and will be drawn into the net by this decoy duck, this tame cheater." 98. greyhound] See 1 Henry IV. 1. iii. 252. 98, 99. he'll not . . . resistance] Cf. Barry, Ram-Alley, iv. i: "Y' are a coward rogue, That dares not look a kitling in the face, If she but stare or mew. Barbary hen, a Guinea hen (Onions); "A fowl whose feathers are naturally ruffled " (Rolfe). IOI. Cheater] Mrs. Quickly has no more objection to a cheater than to any other honest man, provided he will not swagger. Cf. Jonson, The New Inn, III. i: "Pierce [a Drawer]. A cheater, and another fine gentleman." I do not think Mrs. Quickly understands by "cheater " an "escheator" or "cheater," an officer appointed to look after the king's escheats, as sometimes explained. 104. how I shake] So Mistress Mulligrub, in Marston, The Dutch Courtezan, III. iii: "how everything about me quivers. . . And how I tremble!" |