PAGE. It could not be judg'd, fir. SLEN. You'll not confefs, you'll not confefs. SHAL. That he will not;-'tis your fault, 'tis your fault : '—'Tis a good dog. PAGE. A cur, fir. SHAL. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; Can there be more faid? he is good, and fair.—Is fir John Falstaff here? PAGE. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you. EVA. It is fpoke as a chriftians ought to speak. Catfold games, not founded till the reign of James the First, afcertains a period of time beyond which our author must have made the additions to his original rough draft, or, in other words, compofed the present comedy. James the First came to the crown in the year 1603. And we will fuppofe that two or three more years at least muft have paffed before thefe games could have been effectually eftablished. I would therefore, at the earliest, date this play about the year 1607. T. WARTON. The Annalia Dubrenfia confifts entirely of recommendatory verfes. DOUCE. The Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire are a large tract of downs, famous for their fine turf, and therefore excellent for courfing. I believe there is no village of that name. BLACKSTONE. 8 'tis your fault, 'tis your fault:] Of thefe words, which are addreffed to Page, the fenfe is not very clear. Perhaps Shallow means to fay, that it is a known failing of Page's not to confefs that his dog has been out-run. Or, the meaning may be,-'tis your misfortune that he was out-run on Cotfwold; he is, however, a good dog. So perhaps the word is used afterwards by Ford, speaking of his jealoufy: ""Tis my fault, mafter Page; I fuffer for it." MALONE. Perhaps Shallow addreffes these words to Slender, and means to tell him," it was his fault to undervalue a dog whose inferiority in the chafe was not ascertained." STEEVENS. not that so, master Page? He hath wrong'd me ;— indeed, he hath ;-at a word, he hath;-believe me;-Robert Shallow, Efquire, faith, he is wrong'd. PAGE. Here comes fir John. Enter Sir John FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NYM, and PISTOL. FAL. Now, mafter Shallow; you'll complain of me to the king? SHAL. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer, and broke open my lodge." FAL. But not kifs'd your keeper's daughter? SHAL. Tut, a pin! this shall be answer'd. FAL. I will anfwer it ftraight;-I have done all this:-That is now answer'd. SHAL. The Council fhall know this. FAL. 'Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel: you'll be laugh'd at. 9 and broke open my lodge.] This probably alludes to fome real incident, at that time well known. JOHNSON. So probably Falftaff's anfwer. FARMER. 'Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel:] The old copies read-'Twere better for you, if 'twere known in council. Perhaps it is an abrupt fpeech, and must be read thus :-'Twere better for you. -if'twere known in council, you'll be laugh'd at. 'Twere better for you, is, I believe, a menace. JOHNSON. Some of the modern editors arbitrarily read-if 'twere not known in council:-but I believe Falstaff quibbles between council and counsel. The latter fignifies fecrecy. So, in Hamlet : "The players cannot keep counsel, they'll tell all." Falftaff's meaning feems to be 'twere better for you if it were known only in fecrecy, i. e. among your friends. A more publick complaint would fubject you to ridicule. Thus, in Chaucer's Prologue to the Squires Tale, v. 10305, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit: "But wete ye what? in confeil be it feyde, EvA. Pauca verba, fir John; good worts. FAL. Good worts! good cabbage.3- Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me? SLEN. Marry, fir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching rafcals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards pick'd my pocket.' Again, in Gammer Gurton's Needle, laft edit. p. 29: "But first for you in council, I have a word or twaine." STEEVENS. Mr. Ritfon fuppofes the prefent reading to be juft, and quite in Falftaff's infolent fneering manner. "It would be much better, indeed, to have it known in the council, where you would only be laughed at." REED. The fpelling of the old quarto (counfel,) as well as the general purport of the paffage, fully confirms Mr. Steevens's interpretation. "Shal. Well, the Council fhall know it. Fal. "Twere better for you 'twere known in counfell. You'll be laugh't at." In an office-book of Sir Heneage Finch, Treafurer of the Chambers to Queen Elizabeth, (a Mf. in the British Museum,) I obferve that whenever the Privy Council is mentioned, the word is always fpelt Counsel; fo that the equivoque was lefs ftrained then than it appears now. "Mum is Counfell, viz. filence," is among Howel's Proverbial Sentences. See his DICT. folio, 1660. MALONE. 3 Good worts! good cabbage.] Worts was the ancient name of all the cabbage kind. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Valentinian: "Planting of worts and onions, any thing." STEEVENS. 4-coney-catching rafcals,] A coney-catcher was, in the time of Elizabeth, a common name for a cheat or fharper. Green, one of the first among us who made a trade of writing pamphlets, pub lifhed A Detection of the Frauds and Tricks of Coney-catchers and Couzeners. JOHNSON. So, in Decker's Satiromaftix: "Thou shalt not coney-catch me for five pounds." STEEVENS. They carried me, &c.] Thefe words, which are neceffary to introduce what Falftaff fays afterwards, ["Piftol, did you pick mafter Slender's purfe ?"] I have reftored from the early quarto. I PIST. How now, Mephoftophilus?" SLEN. Ay, it is no matter. 8 Nrм. Slice, I fay! pauca, pauca; flice! that's my humour." Of this circumftance, as the play is exhibited in the folio, Sir John could have no knowledge. MALONE. We might fuppofe that Falftaff was already acquainted with this robbery, and had received his thare of it, as in the cafe of the handle of miftrefs Bridget's fan, Act II. fc. ii. His queftion, therefore, may be faid to arise at once from confcious guilt and pretended ignorance. I have, however, adopted Mr. Malone's reftoration. STEEVENS. 6 You Banbury cheese!] This is faid in allufion to the thin carcafe of Slender. The fame thought occurs in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601 :- "Put off your cloaths, and you are like a Banbury cheese,nothing but paring." So Heywood, in his collection of epigrams: "I never faw Banbury cheefe thick enough, "But I have oft feen Effex cheese quick enough." STEEVENS. How now, Mephoftophilus?] This is the name of a spirit or familiar, in the old ftory book of Sir John Fauftus, or John Fauft: to whom our author afterwards alludes, Act II. fc ii. That it was a cant phrase of abuse, appears from the old comedy cited above, called A pleafant Comedy of the Gentle Craft, Signat. H 3. " Away you Iflington whitepot; hence you hopper-arfe, you barley-pudding full of maggots, you broiled carbonado: avaunt, avaunt, Mephoftophilus." In the fame vein, Bardolph here alfo calls Slender, " You Banbury cheese." T. WARTON. Pistol means to call Slender a very ugly fellow. So, in Nosce tt, (Humors) by Richard Turner, 1607: "O face, no face hath our Theophilus, "But the right forme of Mephotophilus. "I know 'twould ferve, and yet I am no wizard, "To playe the Devil i'the vault without a vizard.” Again, in The Mufes Looking Glafs, 1638: "We want not you to play Mephoftophilus. A pretty natural vizard!" STEEVENS. 8 Slice, I fay! pauca, pauca ;] Dr. Farmer (fee a former note, p. 306, n. 8.) would transfer the Latin words to Evans. But the SLEN. Where's Simple, my man?-can you tell, coufin? EVA. Peace: I pray you! Now let us underftand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is-mafter Page, fidelicet, master Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and · the three party is, laftly and finally, mine hoft of the Garter. PAGE. We three, to hear it, and end it between them. Eva. Fery goot: I will make a prief of it in my hote-book; and we will afterwards 'ork cause, with as great discreetly as we can. FAL. Piftol, PIST. He hears with ears. upon the EVA. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is this,* He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations. FAL. Piftol, did you pick master Slender's purfe? SLEN. Ay, by these gloves, did he, (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again elfe,) of feven groats in mill-fixpences, and old copy, I think, is right. Piftol, in K. Henry V. ufes the fame language: 66 I will hold the quondam Quickly "For the only fhe; and pauca, there's enough." In the fame scene Nym twice ufes the word folus. MALONE. that's my humour.] So, in an ancient Mf. play, entitled The Second Maiden's Tragedy: 9 66 I love not to difquiet ghofts, fir, "Of any people living; that's my humour, fir." See a following note, Act II. fc. i. STEEVENS. what phrafe is this, &c.] Sir Hugh is justified in his cenfure of this paffage by Pecham, who in his Garden of Eloquence, 1577, places this very mode of expreffion under the article Pleonafmus. HENDERSON, 3-mill-fixpences,] It appears from a paffage in Sir William |