Fal. Truly, mine host, I must turn away fome of my followers. Hoft. Discard, bully Hercules, cashier; let them wag; trot, trot. Fal. I fit at ten pounds a week. 8.это? zar. Hoft. Thou'rt an Emperor, Cefar, Keisar and PheaI will entertain Bardolph, he shall draw, he shall tap; said I well, bully Hector ? Fal. Do so, good mine hoft. Hoft. I have spoke, let him follow; let me fee thee froth, and live: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft. Fal. Bardolph, follow him; a tapster is a good trade; an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd servingman, a fresh tapster; go, adieu. Bard. It is a life that I have defir'd: I will thrive. [Exit Bard. Pift. O base Hungarian wight, wilt thou the spigot wield? 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 so quit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful finger, he kept not time. Nym. The good humour is to steal at a minute's reft. Pift. Convey, the Wise it call: steal? foh; a fico for the phrafe ! Fal. Well, Sirs, I am almost out at heels. Pift. Why then, let kibes ensue. Fal. There is no remedy: I must conycatch, I muft shift. Pift. Young ravens must have food. Fal. Which of you know Ford of this town? Pift. I ken the wight, he is of substance good. bout. Pift. Two yards and more. Fal. Fal. No quips now, Pistol: indeed, I am in the waste 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 difcourses, she carves, the gives the leer of invitation; I can construe the action of her familiar stile, 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 translated her well; 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: the hath a legion of angels. Pift. As many devils entertain; and to her, boy, fay 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, examin'd my parts with most judicious Iliads; sometimes, the beam of her view guilded my foot; sometimes, my portly belly. Pist. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine. [Afide. Fal. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to scorch me up like a burning-glass. Here's another letter to her; the bears the purse too; (6) she is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty. I will be Cheater to them both, and they shall be Exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West-Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this letter to miftress Page; and thou this to mistress Ford: we will thrive, lads, we will thrive. (6) She is a Region in Guiana, all Gold and Bounty.) If the Tradi tion be true, (as, I doubt not, but it is ;) of this Play being wrote at Queen Elizabeth's Command; this Passage, perhaps, may furnish probable Conjecture that it could not appear till after the Year 1598. The menti of Guiana, then so lately difcover'd to the English, was a 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 Address of the Poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper Impression on the People, when the Intelligence of fuch a golden Country was fresh in their Minds, and gave them Expectations of immenfe Gain. me; Pift. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become; And by my fide wear steel? then, Lucifer take all! Nym. I will run no base humour; here, take the humour-letter, I will keep the haviour of reputation. Fal. Hold, Sirrah, bear you these letters tightly, Pift. Let vultures gripe thy guts; for gourd, and And high and low beguiles the rich and poor. 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 star. Pift. With wit, or steel? Nym. With both the humours, I: I will discuss the humour of this love to Ford. i blu Pift. And I to Page shall eke unfold, His dove will prove, his gold will hold, (7) Falstaff will learn the Honour of the Age,] What was this Honour, which he was to learn? Frugality; the retrenching his Expences, and keeping only a Boy to wait on him. Had the Editors been cut out for Collators, they might have observ'd the old Quarto's read, the Humour of the Age, i. e. the frugal Fashion of the Times. So in Much Ado about Nothing. The Fashion of the World is to avoid Cost, and you encounter it. And Honour and Humour, I have observ'd, are very often reciprocally mistaken for one another in old English Plays. Nym. Nym. My humour shall not cool; I will incenfe Ford to deal with poison; (8) I will possess him with yellowness; for the Revolt of Mien is dangerous: that is my true humour. Pift. Thou art the Mars of male-contents: I second thee; troop on. [Exeunt. SCENE changes to Dr. Caius's House. Enter mistress Quickly, Simple, and John Rugby. Quic. WHAT HAT, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to and fee if you can see my master, master Doctor Caius, coming; if he do, i'faith, .. and find any body in the house, here will be old abusing of God's patience, and the King's English. Rug. I'll go watch. [Exit Rugby. Quic. Go, and we'll have a poffet for't soon at night, in faith, at the latter end of a fea-coal fire. An honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale, nor (8) I will possefs him with jealoufies, for this revolt of mine is dangerous: This is the Reading of the modern Editions; the old Copies have it, Yellowness; i. e. the Symptom of Jealousy. So Beatrice, in Much Ado about Nothing, speaking of Claudio's having jealous Sufpicions, says; The Count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well; but civil, Count; civil, as an Orange; and something of that jealous Complexion. Again, This revolt of mine, &c. If Nym speaks this of himself, he speaks very improperly, to call it a Revolt, when he is discarded by his Master. The old Copies read, as I have restor'd in the Text; and the Revolt of mine, I take to fignify the Change of Complexion. And then Nym must mean, I will make him fo jealous, till he changes Colour with its Working; and then it will break out into some violent Effects, that will be dangerous to Falstaff. For Mine (or Mien, as it is more generally written,) does not only fignify, the Air, Gesture, and Bearing of any Perfon; but likewise the Look and Turn of Countenance; Oris Species; nativa vultûs Compofitio: Visage bon, ou mauvais, qu'on fait paroître aux gens felon qu'ils nous plaisent, &c. as Richelet explains it: that Look, or Turn of Countenance, which we shew to People, according as they please us, or not. Our Author, in other places, takes notice of the Change of Colour to be a Symptom of Anger, Envy, &c. as it certainly is in Nature, according to the Spring of that Paffion which excites it. no no breed-bate; his worst fault is, that he is given to pray'r; he is something peevish that way; but no body but has his fault; but let that pass. Peter Simple, you fay, your name is. Sim. Ay, for fault of a better. Quic. And master Slender's your master? Sim. Ay, forsooth. Quic. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a glover's paring-knife? Sim. No, forsooth; he hath but a little wee-face, with a little yellow beard, (9) a Cain-colour'd beard. Quic. A foftly-fprighted man, is he not ? Sim. Ay, forsooth; but he is as tall a man of his hands, as any is between this and his head: he hath fought with a warrener. Quic. How say you? oh, I should remember him; does he not hold up his head, as it were? and strut in his gate? Sim. Yes, indeed, does he. Quic. Well, heav'n send Anne Page no worse fortune! Tell master parson Evans, I will do what I can for your master: Anne is a good girl, and I wish Enter Rugby. Rug. Out, alas! here comes my master. Quic. We shall all be shent; run in here, good young man; go into this closet; [shuts Simple in the closet. He will not stay long. What, John Rugby! John! what, John, I say; go, John, go enquire for my master; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home : and down, down, a-down-a, &c. [Sings. Enter Doctor Caius. Caius. Vat is you fing? I do not like des toys; pray you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier verd; a (9) A cane-colour'd beard.] Thus the latter Editions. I have rekor'd with the old Copies. Cain and Judas, in the Tapestries and Pictures of old, were represented with yellow Beards. box, |