MRS. PAGE. I pray you, come; hold up the jeft

no higher :

Now, good fir John, how like you Windfor wives? See you thefe, husband? do not these fair yokes Become the foreft better than the town? 3

FORD. Now, fir, who's a cuckold now?-Master Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, Mafter Brook: And, mafter Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buckbafket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds of money;

See you thefe, husband? do not thefe fair yokes

Become the foreft better than the town?] Mrs. Page's meaning is this. Seeing the horns (the types of cuckoldom) in Falstaff's hand, fhe afks her husband, whether thofe yokes are not more proper in the foreft than in the town; i. e. than in his own family.

THEOBALD.

The editor of the fecond folio changed yoaks to-oaks.

MALONE. Perhaps, only the printer of the second folio is to blame, for the omiffion of the letter-y. STEEVENS.

I am confident that oaks is the right reading. I agree with Theobald that the words, "See you thefe hufbands?" relate to the buck's horns;-but what refemblance is there between the horns of a buck and a voak? What connection is there between a yoak and a foreft? Why, none; whereas on the other hand, the connection between a foreft and an oak is evident; nor is the refemblance lefs evident between a tree and the branches of a buck's horns; they are indeed called branches from that very resemblance; and the horns of a deer are called in French les bois. Though horns are types of cuckoldom, yoaks are not; and furely the types of cuckoldom, whatever they may be, are more proper for a town than for a foreft. I am furprifed that the fubfequent editors fhould have adopted an amendment, which makes the pallage

nonfenfe. M. MASON.

I have inferted Mr. M. Mafon's note, because he appears to think it brings conviction with it. Perhaps, however, (as Dr. Farmer obferves to me,) he was not aware that the extremities of yokes for cattle, as ftill ufed in feveral counties of England, bend upwards, and rifing very high, in fhape refemble barns.

STEEVENS.

which must be paid to master Brook; his horses are arrested for it, mafter Brook.

MRS. FORD. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never meet. I will never take you for my love again, but I will always count you my deer.

FAL. I do begin to perceive, that I am made an ass. FORD. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are

extant.

FAL. And these are not fairies? I was three or four times in the thought, they were not fairies: and yet the guiltiness of my mind, the sudden furprize of my powers, drove the groffness of the foppery into a receiv'd belief, in defpite of the teeth of all rhime and reason, that they were fairies. See now, how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent,' when 'tis upon ill employment!

4 to mafter Brook;] We ought rather to read with the old quarto," which must be paid to mafter Ford;" for as Ford, to mortify Falftaff, addreffes him throughout his fpeech by the name of Brook, the defcribing himself by the fame name creates a confufion. A modern editor plaufibly enough reads-" which muft be paid too, Mafter Brook;" but the first sketch fhows that to is right; for the fentence, as it ftands in the quarto, will not admit too.

5

MALONE.

-how wit may be made a Jack-a-lent,] A Jack o’Lent appears to have been fome puppet which was thrown at in Lent, like Shrove-tide cocks.

So, in the old comedy of Lady Alimony, 1659:

-throwing cudgels

"At Jack-a-lents, or Shrove-cocks." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Tamer Tamed:

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if I forfeit,

"Where thou didft ftand fix weeks the Jack o' Lent,
"For boys to hurl three throws a penny at thee."

STEEVENS.

EVA. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your defires, and fairies will not pinfe you.

FORD. Well faid, fairy Hugh.

EVA. And leave you your jealoufies too, I pray

you.

FORD. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able to woo her in good English.

FAL. Have I lay'd my brain in the fun, and dried it, that it wants matter to prevent fo grofs o'erreaching as this? Am I ridden with a Welch goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frize? 'tis time I were choked with a piece of toasted cheese.

EVA. Seefe is not good to give putter; your pelly is all putter.

FAL. Seefe and putter! Have I lived to stand at the taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough to be the decay of luft and latewalking, through the realm.

MRS. PAGE. Why, fir John, do you think, though we would have thruft virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without fcruple to hell, that ever the devil could have made you our delight?

FORD. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? MRS. PAGE. A puff'd man?

PAGE. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable entrails?

6

FORD. And one that is as flanderous as Satan? PAGE. And as poor as Job?

-a coxcomb of frize?] i. e. a fool's cap made out of Welch materials. Wales was famous for this cloth. So, in K. Edward I. 1599: "Enter Lluellin, alias prince of Wales, &c. with fwords and bucklers, and frieze jerkins." Again: "Enter Suffex, &c. with a mantle of frieze." "my boy fhall weare a mantle of this country's weaving, to keep him warm." STEEVENS.

3

FORD. And as wicked as his wife?

EVA. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and fack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and fwearings, and ftarings, pribbles and prabbles?

FAL. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me; I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welch flannel; ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: ufe me as you will.

-the Welch flannel;] The very word is derived from a Welch one, fo that it is almoft unneceffary to add that flannel was originally the manufacture of Wales. In the old play of K. Edward I. 599: "Enter Hugh ap David, Guenthian his wench in flannel, and Jack his novice." Again:

I

STEEVENS.

." Here's a wholefome Welch Wench, Lapt in her flannel, as warm as wool." 8 ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me:] Though this be perhaps not unintelligible, yet it is an odd way of confeffing his dejection. I fhould wish to read:

66

ignorance itself has a plume o' me."

That is, I am fo depreffed, that ignorance itfelf plucks me, and decks itself with the fpoils of my weakness. Of the prefent reading, which is probably right, the meaning may be, I am fo enfeebled, that ignorance itself weighs me down and oppreffes me.

JOHNSON.

"Ignorance itself, fays Falstaff is a plummet o'er me." If any alteration be neceffary, I think, "Ignorance itself is a planet o'er me," would have a chance to be right. Thus Bobadil excufes his cowardice: "Sure I was ftruck with a planet, for I had no power to touch my weapon." FARMER.

As Mr. M. Mafon obferves, there is a paffage in this very play which tends to fupport Dr. Farmer's amendment.

"I will awe him with my cudgel; it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns: Mafter Brook, thou fhalt know, I will predominate over the peafant."

Dr. Farmer might alfo have countenanced his conjecture by a paffage in K. Henry VI. where queen Margaret fays, that Suffolk's face.

rul'd like a wandring planet over me." STEEVENS. Perhaps Falstaff's meaning may be this: "Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me: i. e. above me;" ignorance itself is not fo low as I am, by the length of a plummet line. TYRWHITT.

FORD. Marry, fir, we'll bring you to Windfor, to one master Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you should have been a pandar: over and above that you have fuffered, I think, to repay that money will be a biting affliction.

MRS. FORD. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends:

Forgive that fum, and fo we'll all be friends. FORD. Well, here's my hand; all's forgiven at laft.

PAGE. Yet be cheerful, knight: thou shalt eat a poffet to-night at my houfe; where I will defire thee to laugh at my wife, that now laughs at thee: Tell her, master Slender hath married her daughter. MRS. PAGE. Doctors doubt that: If Anne Page be my daughter, fhe is, by this, doctor Caius' wife. [Afide.

Enter SLENDER.

SLEN. Whoo, ho! ho! father Page!

Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me-i. e. ferves to point out my obliquities. This is faid in confequence of Evans's last speech. The allufion is to the examination of a carpenter's work by the plummet held over it; of which line Sir Hugh is here represented as the lead. HENLEY.

I am satisfied with the old reading. MALONE.

9 Mrs. Ford. Nay, hufband,] This and the following little speech I have inferted from the old quartos. The retrenchment, I prefume, was by the players. Sir John Falftaff is fufficiently punished, in being difappointed and expofed. The expectation of his being profecuted for the twenty pounds, gives the conclufion too tragical a turn. Befides, it is poetical justice that Ford fhould fuftain this lofs, as a fine for his unreasonable jealousy.. THEOBALD.

ว

laugh at my wife,] The two plots are excellently connected, and the tranfition very artfully made in this fpeech.

JOHNSON.

VOL. III.

K k