Nrм. 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 fo acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unfkilful finger, he kept not time. Nrм. The good humour is, to fteal at a minute's reft." The Hungarians, when infidels, over-ran Germany and France, and would have invaded England, if they could have come to it. See Stowe, in the year 930, and Holinfhed's invafions of Ireland, p. 56. Hence their name might become a proverb of baseness. Stowe's Chronicle, in the year 1492, and Leland's Collectanea, Vol. I. p. 610, fpell it Hongarian (which might be misprinted Gongarian ;) and this is right according to their own etymology. Hongyars, i. e. domus fuæ ftrenui defenfores. ToLLET. The word is Gongarian in the first edition, and should be continued, the better to fix the allufion. FARMER. -humour of it.] This fpeech is partly taken from the corrected copy, and partly from the flight sketch in 1602. I mention it, that those who do not find it in either of the common old editions, may not fufpect it to be fpurious. STEEVENS. 66 9 at a minute's reft.] Our author probably wrote: at a minim's reft." LANGTON. This conjecture feems confirmed by a paffage in Romeo and Juliet: -refts his minim," &c. It may, however, mean, that, like a fkilful harquebuzier, he takes a good aim, though he has refted his piece for a minute only. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. B. VI: To fet up's reft to venture now for all." STEEVENS. A minim was anciently, as the term imports, the shortest note in mufick. Its meafure was afterwards, as it is now, as long as while two may be moderately counted. In Romeo and Juliet, Act II. fc. iv. Mercutio fays of Tibalt, that in fighting he "refts his minim, one, two, and the third in your bofom." A minute contains fixty feconds, and is a long time for an action fuppofed to be inftantaneous. Nym means to fay, that the perfection of stealing is to do it in the shortest time poffible. SIR J. HAWKINS. 'Tis true (fays Nym) Bardolph did not keep time; did not steal at the critical and exact season, when he would probably be leaft obferved. The true method is, to fteal juft at the inftant when watchfulness is off its guard, and reposes but for a moment, PIST. Convey, the wife it call:9 Steal! foh; a fico for the phrase! * FAL. Well, firs, I am almoft out at heels. FAL. There is no remedy; I must coney-catch; I must shift. PIST. Young ravens must have food.3 FAL. Which of you know Ford of this town? PIST. I ken the wight; he is of substance good. FAL. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about. PIST. Two yards, and more. FAL. No quips now, Piftol; Indeed I am in the waift two yards about: but I am now about no wafte; + I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to The reading propofed by Mr. Langton certainly correfponds more exactly with the preceding fpeech; but Shakspeare scarcely ever purfues his metaphors far. MALONE. 9 Convey, the wife it call:] So, in the old morality of Hycke Scorner, bl. 1. no date: 66 Syr, the horefons could not convaye clene; "For an they could have carried by craft as I can," &c. STEEVENS. 2a fico for the phrafe !] i. e. a fig for it. Piftol uses the fame phrafeology in King Henry V: "Die and be damn'd; and fico for thy friendship." STEEVENS. 3 Young ravens must have food.] An adage. See Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS. 4 - about no wafte;] I find the fame play on words in Heywood's Epigrams, 1562: Where am I leaft, hufband? quoth he, in the waift; "Which cometh of this, thou art vengeance ftrait lac'd. "Where am I biggeft, wife? in the wafte, quoth the, "For all is wafte in you, as far as I fee." And again, in The Wedding, a comedy, by Shirley, 1629: "He's a great man indeed; по Something given to the waft, for he lives within no reasonable compass." STEEVENS. 335 make love to Ford's wife; I spy entertainment in her; the discourses, the carves,' fhe gives the leer of invitation: I can conftrue the action of her familiar style; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am fir John Falstaff's. PIST. He hath study'd her well, and tranflated her well; out of honefty into English. Nrм. The anchor is deep: Will that humour pass? 5 he carves,] It fhould be remembered, that anciently the young of both fexes were inftructed in carving, as a neceffary accomplishment. In 1508, Wynkyn de Worde published " A Boke of Kerving." So, in Love's Labour's Loft, Biron fays of Boyet, the French courtier: " -He can carve too, and lifp." STEEVENS. 6 -fudy'd her well, and tranflated her well;] Thus the first quarto. The folio, 1623, reads" ftudied her will, and tranflated her will." Mr. Malone obferves, that there is a fimilar corruption in the folio copy of King Lear. In the quarto, 1608, fignat. B, we find-" fince what I well intend;" instead of which the folio exhibits-" fince what I will intend," &c. Tranflation is not used in its common acceptation, but means to explain, as one language is explained by another. So, in Hamlet: -thefe profound heaves 66 "You must tranflate; 'tis fit we understand them." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "Did in great Ilion thus tranflate him to me." STEEVENS. 7 The anchor is deep :] I fee not what relation the anchor has to tranflation. Perhaps we may read the author is deep; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and should be inferted lower, after Falftaff has faid, "Sail like my pinnace to thofe golden fhores." It may be observed, that in the hands of that time anchor and author could hardly be distinguished. JOHNSON. "The anchor is deep," may mean-his hopes are well founded. So, in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Now my latest hope, 66 "Forfake me not, but fling thy anchor out, "And let it hold!" 66 Again, as Mr. M. Mason obferves, in Fletcher's Woman-Hater: FAL. Now, the report goes, she has all the rule of her husband's purfe; fhe hath legions of angels." PIST. As many devils entertain; and, To her, boy, fay I. 8 Nrм. 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 moft judicious eyliads: fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, fometimes my portly belly." Dr. Johnfon very acutely propofes "the author is deep." He reads with the first copy, he hath ftudied her well."-And from this equivocal word, Nym catches the idea of deepness. But it is almoft impoffible to afcertain the diction of this whimsical character: and I meet with a phrafe in Fenner's Comptor's Commonwealth, 1617, which may perhaps fupport the old reading: "Mafter Decker's Bellman of London, hath fet forth the vices of the time fo lively, that it is impoffible the anchor of any other man's braine could found the fea of a more deepe and dreadful mischeefe.” FARMER. Nym, I believe, only means to fay, the scheme for debauching Ford's wife is deep;—well laid. MALONE. 7the hath legions of angels.] Thus the old quarto. The folio reads " he hath a legend of angels." STEEVENS. 8 As many devils entertain;] i. e. do you retain in your fer vice as many devils as she has angels. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Sweet lady, entertain him for your fervant." This is the reading of the folio. MALONE. The old quarto reads: "As many devils attend her!" &c. 9 STEEVENS. eyliads] This word is differently spelt in all the copies. It occurs again, in King Lear, Act IV. fc. v: "She gave ftrange æiliads, and moft speaking looks, I fuppofe we should write oëillades, French. STEEVENS. 2 -fometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, fometimes my portly belly.] So, in our author's 20th Sonnet: "An eye more bright than their's, less false in rolling, Gilding the object whereupon it gazeth." MALONE. PIST. Then did the fun on dung-hill shine.' FAL. O, fhe did fo course o'er my exteriors with fuch a greedy intention,' that the appetite of her eye did feem to scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here's another letter to her: fhe bears the purfe too; 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 fhall be my Eaft and West Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, 3 Then did the fun on dung-bill fbine.] So, in Lyly's Euphues, 1581: "The fun shineth upon the dunghill." HOLT WHITE. 4 that humour.] What diftinguishes the language of Nym from that of the other attendants on Falftaff, is the conftant repetition of this phrase. In the time of Shakspeare fuch an affectation feems to have been fufficient to mark a character. In Sir Giles Goofecap, a play of which I have no earlier edition than that of 1606, the fame peculiarity is mentioned in the hero of the piece: "his only reason for every thing is, that we are all mortal; then hath he another pretty phrafe too, and that is, he will tickle the vanity of every thing." STEEVENS. S -intention,] i. e. eagerness of defire. STEEVENS. 6fbe is a region in Guiana, all gold and bounty.] If the tradition be true (as I doubt not but it is) of this play being wrote at queen Elizabeth's command, this paffage, perhaps, may furnish a probable conjecture that it could not appear till after the year 1598. The mention of Guiana, then fo lately discovered to the English, was a very happy compliment to fir Walter Raleigh, who did not begin his expedition for South America till 1595, and returned from it in 1596, with an advantageous account of the great wealth of Guiana. Such an addrefs of the poet was likely, I imagine, to have a proper impreffion on the people, when the intelligence of fuch a golden country was fresh in their minds, and gave them expectations of immenfe gain. THEOBALD. " I will be cheater to them both, and they shall be exchequers to me;] The fame joke is intended here, as in The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, A&t II: "I will bar no honeft man my house, nor no cheater."— By which is meant Efcheatour, an officer in the Exchequer, in no good repute with the common people. WARBURTON. Ꮓ VOL. III. |