you must have but four here, sir;-and so, I pray you, go in with me to dinner.

Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to see you, in good troth, master Shallow.

Shal. O, sir John, do you remember since we lay all night in the windmill in Saint George's fields.

Fal. No more of that, good master Shallow, no more of that.

Shal. Ha, it was a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?

Fal. She lives, master Shallow.

Shal. She never could away with me.7

Fal. Never, never: she would always say, she could not abide master Shallow.

Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. She was then a bona-roba.8 Doth she hold her own well?

Fal. Old, old, master Shallow.

Shal. Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old; certain, she 's old; and had Robin Night-work by old Night-work, before I came to Clement's-inn.

6

- the windmill in Saint George's fields.] It appears from the following passage in Churchyard's Dreame, a poem that makes part of the collection entitled his Chippes, 4to. 1578, that this windmill was a place of notoriety:

"And from the windmill this dreamd he,
"Where hakney horses hired be." Steevens.

7 She never could away with me.] This expression of dislike is used by Maurice Kyffin, in his translation of the Andria of Terence, 1588: "All men that be in love can ill away to have wives appointed them by others." Perhaps the original meaning was -such a one cannot travel on the same road with me. Steevens.

So, in Harrington's Orlando Furioso, Book 1:

66

- scarce to look on him she can away." Malone. This mode of expression had not become obsolete even in the time of Mr. Locke, who himself uses it in one of his popular works: "- with those alone he converses, and can away with no company whose discourse goes beyond what claret or dissoluteness inspires." On the Conduct of the Understanding. Reed.

8-bona-roba.] A fine showy wanton. Johnson.

Bona-roba was, in our author's time, the common term for a harlot. It is used in that sense by Ben Jonson, in his Every Man out of his Humour, and by many others. Steevens.

Sil. That 's fifty-five year ago.

Shal. Ha, cousin Silence, that thou hadst seen that that this knight and I have seen! - Ha, sir John, said I well?9

Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, master Shallow.

Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, sir John, we have; our watch-word was, Hem, boys! Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner:O, the days that we have seen!-Come, come.

[Exeunt FAL. SHAL. and SIL.

Bull. Good master corporate Bardolph, stand my friend; and here is four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had as lief be hanged, sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but, rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends; else, sir, I did not care, for mine own part, so much. Bard. Go to; stand aside.

Moul. And good master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend: she has nobody to do any thing about her, when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself: you shall have forty, sir.

Bard. Go to; stand aside.

Fee. By my troth I care not;-a man can die but once; we owe God a death;-I'll ne'er bear a base mind:-an 't be my destiny, so; an 't be not, so: No man 's too good to serve his prince; and, let it go which way it will, he that dies this year, is quit for the next. Bard. Well said; thou 'rt a good fellow.

Fee. 'Faith, I 'll bear no base mind.

Re-enter FALSTAFF, and Justices.

Fal. Come, sir, which men shall I have?
Shal. Four, of which you please.

Bard. Sir, a word with you:-I have three pound1 to free Mouldy and Bull-calf.

9

said I well?] This phrase has already occurred in The Merry Wives of Windsor. See Vol. III, p. 33, n. 3. Steevens. 1 - I have three pound -] Here seems to be a wrong computation. He had forty shillings for each. Perhaps he meant* conceal part of the profit. Johnson.

12

Fal. Go to; well.

Shal. Come, sir John, which four will you have

Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry then, - Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf: -For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service: 2-and, for your part, Bull-calf,-grow till you come unto it; I will none of

you.

Shal. Sir John, sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.

Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! Give me the spirit, master Shallow. - Here 's Wart;-you see what a

2

For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service:] The old copies read-For you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service. Steevens.

This should surely be: "For you, Mouldy, you have stay'd at home," &c. Falstaff has before a similar allusion: ""Tis the more time thou wert used."

There is some mistake in the number of recruits: Shallow says, that Falstaff should have four there, but he appears to get but three: Wart, Shadow, and Feeble. Farmer.

I believe, "stay at home till you are past service," is right; the subsequent part of the sentence being likewise imperative; "and, for your part, Bull-calf, grow till you come unto it."

Malone.

Perhaps this passage should be read and pointed thus: For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service: - Tyrwhitt. I have admitted Mr. Tyrwhitt's amendment, as it is the least violent of the two proposed, being effected by a slight change in punctuation, and the supplement of a single letter. Steevens.

3- the thewes,] i. e. the muscular strength or appearance of manhood. So, again:

"For nature crescent, does not grow alone
"In thewes and bulk."

In ancient writers this term usually implies manners, or behaviour only. Spenser often employs it; and I find it likewise in Gascoigne's Glass of Government, 1575:

"And honour'd more than bees of better thewes." Shakspeare is perhaps singular in his application of it to the perfections of the body. Steevens.

4- assemblance of a man!] Thus the old copies. The modern oditors read-assemblage. Steevens.

ragged appearance it is: he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket.5 And this same half-faced fellow, Shadow, give me this man; he presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

5 swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket.] Swifter than he that carries beer from the vat to the barrel, in buckets hung upon a gibbet or beam crossing his shoulders. Johnson.

I do not think Johnson's explanation of this passage just. The carrying beer from the vat to the barrel, must be a matter that requires more labour than swiftness. Falstaff seems to mean, "swifter than he that puts the buckets on the gibbet;" for as the buckets at each end of the gibbet must be put on at the same instant, it necessarily requires a quick motion. M. Mason.

6-foeman) This is an obsolete term for an enemy in war.

So, in Selimus, 1594:

Steevens.

"For he that never saw his foeman's face,
"But alwaies slept upon a ladies lap" &c. Henderson.

7-caliver-] A hand-gun. Johnson.

So, in The Masque of Flowers, 1613: "The serjeant of Kawasha carried on his shoulders a great tobacco-pipe as big as a caliver."

It is singular that Shakspeare who has so often derived his sources of merriment from recent customs or fashionable follies, should not once have mentioned tobacco, though at a time when all his contemporaries were active in its praise or its condemnation.

It is equally remarkable (as Dr. Farmer observes to me) that he has written no lines on the death of any poetical friend, nor commendatory verses on any living author, which was the con. stant practice of Jonson, Fletcher, &c. Perhaps the singular modesty of Shakspeare hindered him from attempting to decide on the merits of others, while his liberal turn of mind forbade him to express such gross and indiscriminate praises as too often disgrace the names of many of his contemporaries. Our author, indeed, seems to condemn this practice, through a sentiment given to Rosaline, in Love's Labour 's Lost, where, speaking of the Princess, she says:

"My lady (to the manner of these days)

"In courtesy, gives undeserving praise." Steevens.

Mr. Grose, in A Treatise on ancient Armour and Weapons, 4to. Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.

Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So:-very well: -go to :-very good:-exceeding good. O, give me always a little, lean, old, chapped, bald shot. -Well said, i' faith Wart; thou 'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.

Shal. He is not his craft's-master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-end green,1 (when I lay at

p. 67, says: "That a caliver was less and lighter than a musquet, as is evident from its being fired without a rest. This is shown in a Military Treatise, containing the Exercise of the Musket, Caliver, and Pike, with figures finely engraved by J. de Gheyn." And, in a note in loc. Mr. Grose also observes, “That this is confirmed by Shakspeare, where Falstaff, reviewing his recruits, says of Wart, a poor, weak, undersized fellow, 'put me a caliver into Wart's hands,'-meaning, that although Wart is unfit for a musquetteer, yet, if armed with a lighter piece, he may do good service." Vaillant.

8- traverse] An ancient term in military exercise. So, in Othello:

9

"Traverse; go; provide thy money." Steevens.

bald shot.] Shot is used for shooter, one who is to fight by shooting. Johnson.

So, in The Exercise of Armes for Calivres, Muskettes, and Pykes, 1619: "First of all is in this figure showed to every shot how he shall stand and marche, and carry his caliver," &c. With this instance I was furnished by Dr. Farmer. We still say of a skilful sportsman or game-keeper, that he is a good shot. Steevens.

Again, in Stowe's Annales, 1631: “ - men with armour, ensignes, drums, fifes, and other furniture for wars, the greater part whereof were shot, the other were pikes and halberts, in faire corslets." Malone.

1- Mile-end green,] We learn from Stowe's Chronicle, (edit. 1615, p. 702) that in the year 1585, 4000 citizens were trained and exercised at Mile-end. It appears, however, that the pupils of this military school were but slightly thought of; for, in Barnabie Riche's Souldiers Wishe to Britons Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604, is the following passage: "Skill. God blesse me, my countrey, and frendes, from his direction that hath no better experience than what hee hath atteyned unto at the fetching home of a Maye-pole, at a Midsomer sighte, or from a tr ayning at Mile-end-greene." Steevens.

From the same Chronicle, p. 789, edit. 1631, it appears that "thirty thousand citizens-shewed on the 27th of August, 1599, on the Miles-end, where they trained all that day, and other dayes, under their captaines, (also citizens) until the 4th of September."

Malone.