and was pulling out broad pieces, that have not seen the sun these many According to Douce, it used to be played See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol.

years, when I came away." early in the present century. viii., p. 22.

Page 4, line 32. Of this same laten bilbo.] Pistol is comparing Slender with the long and thin bilboa blades, made of laten, a metal composed of gold and brass. The comparison is of older date, for in Grange's Garden, 4to., Lond., 1577, we read,

"Hir husbandes wealth shall wasted be,

Upon hyr bilbowe boyes."

It may be mentioned, as some difference of opinion exists among the commentators, that laten metal is thus defined in the Promptorium Parvulorum, MS. Harl. 221, "Latone metal, auricalcum." The corresponding passage in the amended play is almost the same, and Becket (Shakespeare's Himself Again, 8vo. 1815, vol. i., p. 253) proposes to insert a stop after the word laten, making an exclamation of the remaining word; and the same writer tells us that laten is a composite metal. There is no necessity whatever for Becket's emendation, which is, to say the least of it, very unlikely to be

correct.

Page 5, line 1. My honor is not for many words.] The amended play reads "humour" for "honor." The character of Nym is distinguished by the frequent repetition of this word; and its constant occurrence in the conversation of Shakespeare's time is well illustrated by Steevens by the following curious passage from " Humor's Ordinarie," 1607,

"Aske Humors what a feather he doth weare,

It is his humour (by the Lord) he 'll sweare;
Or what he doth with such a horse-taile locke,
Or why upon a whore he spendes his stocke,—
He hath a humour doth determine so:
Why in the stop-throte fashion he doth goe,
With scarfe about his necke, hat without band,-

It is his humour. Sweet sir, understand,
What cause his purse is so extreame distrest
That oftentimes is scarcely penny-blest;
Only a humour. If you question, why
His tongue is ne'er unfurnish'd with a lye,—
It is his humour too he doth protest :

Or why with sergeants he is so opprest,
That like to ghosts they haunt him ev'rie day;
A rascal humour doth not love to pay.

Object why bootes and spurres are still in season,
His humour answers, humour is his reason.

If you perceive his wits in wetting shrunke,

It cometh of a humour to be drunke.

When you behold his lookes pale, thin, and poore,
The occasion is, his humour and a whore:
And every thing that he doth undertake,

It is a veine, for senceless humour's sake."

Page 5, line 3. I will say mary trap.] Dr. Johnson supposes that this was the exclamation of insult when a man was caught in his own stratagem.

Page 5, line 23. What would you with me?] This part of the conversation between Slender and "sweet Anne Page" is introduced in act iii., sc. 4., of the amended play.

Page 6, line 2. Your afeard of a beare let loose.] "Est et alius postea locus theatri quoque formam habens, ursorum et taurorum venationibus destinatus, qui a postica parte alligati, a magnis illis canibus et molossis Anglicis, quos linqua vernacula docken appellant, mire exagitantur; ita tamen ut sæpe canes isti ab ursis vel tauris, dentibus arrepti, vel cornibus impetiti, de vita periclitari, aliquando etiam animam exhalare soleant, quibus sic vel sauciis vel lassis etatim substituuntur alii recentes et magis alacres. Accedit aliquando in fine hujus spectaculi, ursi plane excæcati flagellatio, ubi quinque vel sex, in circulo constituti, ursum flagellis misere excipiunt, qui licet alligatus, aufugere nequeat, alacriter tamen se defendit, circumstantes, et nimium appropinquantes, nisi recte et provide sibi caveant, prosternit ac flagella e manibus cædentium eripit atque confringit."-Pauli Hentzneri Itinerarium, 12mo. Noriberg. 1629, p. 196-7.

Page 6, line 5. Now that's meate and drinke to me.] A common low phrase, meaning great fondness for any thing. Touchstone, in "As You Like It," uses the same phrase "It is meat and drink to me to see a clown." A writer of our own time, Mr. Dickens, introduces the phrase in one of his novels.

Page 6, line 6. Ile run yon to a beare.] The word "yon" is omitted in the second edition of this sketch, printed in 1619.

Page 6, line 16. I plaid three venies.] Slender means to say that the wager for which he played was a dish of stewed prunes, which was to be paid by him who received three hits. See Bullokar's "English Expositor," 8vo. Lond. 1616:-" Venie, a touch in the body at playing with weapons." Steevens gives several instances of the use of the word, but the above is quite sufficient. Shakespeare uses the word metaphorically in another play.

Page 6, line 18. He hot my shin.] "He hit my shin," 4to. of 1619. Page 6, line 31. Doctor Cayus house, the French Doctor.] I very much doubt whether Shakespeare had the learned founder of an eminent Cambridge College in his mind when he gave a name to this character, who is, of course, intended as a satire on the foreign physicians of the time, who were so fashionable and popular with the English gentry. Farmer, however, says that the doctor was handed down as a sort of Rosicrucian, and mentions a MS., in the hands of Ames, entitled "The Secret Writings of Dr. Caius." In the "Merry Tales of Jack of Dovor," 1604, a story told by "the fool of Windsor" begins thus::- "Upon a time there was in Windsor a certain simple outlandish doctor of physick belonging to the dean," &c. The character may then possibly have been drawn from life; and, as Shakespeare would scarcely have introduced the real name into his play, he may have made quite an arbitrary choice.

Page 7, line 1. Tis about Maister Slender.] The reader will observe that the object of this letter is explained in the amended play, act i. sc. 2, being, of course, to solicit Mistress Quickly's interest in favour of Slender in his suit to Anne Page. But Simple (p. 11) says the letter is from Slender; and yet the doctor writes a challenge to Sir Hugh, the why and wherefore of which proceeding is left entirely unexplained in the text of this copy of the play.

Page 7, line 4. I must not be absent at the grace.] Evans was the chaplain at the dinner party.

Page 7, line 12. What ses my bully-rooke ?] Steevens says the spelling of this word is corrupted, and thereby its primitive meaning is lost. He says also that the latter part of this compound title is taken from the rooks at the game of chess. Douce says the word means a hectoring, cheating sharper; but Mr. Knight thinks that the host would not have applied such offensive terms to Falstaff, who sat "at ten pounds a week," and in his expense was an "emperor." The old editions generally have the word compounded, which is right; but in some it is bully-rock, which reading is adopted by Whaller.

Page 7, line 25. Let me see thee froth and lyme.] The folio reads "froth and live," but Steevens adopts the reading of the old quartos. The host calls for au immediate specimen of Bardolph's abilities as a tapster; and frothing beer and liming sack were tricks practised in the time of Shakespeare. The first was done by putting soap into the bottom of the tankard when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the sack to make it sparkle in the glass. "Froth and live" is sense, but a little forced; and to make it so we must suppose the host could guess, by his dexterity in frothing a pot to make it appear fuller than it was, how he would afterwards

succeed in the world. Falstaff himself complains of limed sack (first part of Henry IV., act ii. sc. 4). See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. viii. p. 35; and Collier's Shakespeare, vol. iv. p. 265.

Page 7, line 29. A withered servingman, a fresh tapster.] Steevens thinks this is not improbably a parody on the old proverb-" A broken apothecary, a new doctor." See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. viii. p. 35.

Page 7, line 33. O bace Gongarian wight, wilt thou the spicket willd?] This appears to be a parody on a line taken from one of the old bombast plays, beginning

"O base Gongarian, wilt thou the distaff wield?"

which Steevens quotes without a special reference. In the folio it is Hungarian, which is a cant term. So in the "Merry Devil of Edmonton," 4to. Lond. 1608, the merry host says, "I have knights and colonels in my house, and must tend the Hungarians."

Page 8, line 3. I am almost out at the heeles.] A proverbial phrase for a vanishing purse.

Page 8, line 4. Let cybes insue.] Cf. King Lear, act v. sc. 1.

Page 8. line 6. Tinder boy.] The folio edition of 1623 reads " tinderbox." Page 8, line 9. The good humor is to steale at a minutes rest.] Langton conjectures we ought to read "at a minim's rest," which Steevens thinks is confirmed by a passage in "Romeo and Juliet." Nym means to say, according to Hawkins, that the perfection of stealing is to do it in the shortest time possible.

Page 8, line 18. But now I am about no wast.] The same play upon words occurs in Heywood's "Epigrammes," 4to. Lond. 1562—

“Where am I least, husband? quoth he, in the waist ;
Which cometh of this, thou art vengeance strait-lac'd.
Where am I biggest, wife? in the waste, quoth she,
For all is waste in you, as far as I see."

And again in Shirley's comedy of "The Wedding," 1629-" He is a great man indeed something given to the wast, for he lives within no reasonable compass." (Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. viii., p. 38.)

Page 8, lines 21, 22. She carues, she discourses.] Jackson (Shakespeare's Genius Justified, 8vo. 1819, p. 17) proposes to read craves, and the emendation is certainly a very easy and simple one, had it been necessary for the sense; but a passage that Boswell produces from Vittoria Corombona seems to place the accuracy of the generally received reading out of doubt" Your husband is wondrous discontented.-Vit. I did nothing

to displease him; I carved to him at supper time." See Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. viii., p. 38.

Page 8, line 22.

Lyre.] The folio of 1623 reads “leere.”

Page 8, line 25. He hath studied her well.] The folio of 1623 reads— "studied her will, and translated her will,” the reading which Mr. Knight adopts in his last edition of the amended play. Malone prefers the reading of the quartos, and as either reading makes equally good sense, there is no reason to carp at Malone for adopting the earlier one.

Page 8, line 29. As many devils attend her.] In act i., sc. 3 of the amended play, we read, " as many devils entertain," the meaning of which is sufficiently evident, understanding the pun on the word angels in the speech immediately preceding this. The present reading entirely places the correctness of the commonly received reading beyond a doubt. Coleridge, however, in his " Literary Remains," vol. ii., p. 122, proposes to

read

"As many devils enter (or enter'd) swine;
And to her, boy, say I."

and believes it to be a somewhat profane, but not un-Shakespearian, allusion to the "legion" in St. Luke's Gospel. This cannot, I should think, be esteemed a particularly happy suggestion, and the above will show that there is no necessity whatever for a change.

Page 9, line 3. Ile be cheaters to them both.] The same joke is intended here as in the second part of Henry IV., act ii., sc. 4.

Page 9, line 14. Pinnice.] A pinnace is a small vessel with a square stern, having sails and oars, and carrying three masts; chiefly used (says Rolt, in his " Dictionary of Commerce,") as a scout for intelligence, and for landing of men. (Malone's Shakespeare, by Boswell, vol. viii., p. 42.) Page 9, line 16. Falstaffe will learne the humor of this age.] The folio of 1623 reads "the honour of the age." Mr. Knight adopts the reading of the folio. I believe that the contexts of the passage in the two different states of the play require the change.

Page 9, line 21. In my head.] These words are omitted in the folio of 1623. They are, however, inserted by Pope, in his edition of the amended play, from the early quarto.

Page 9, line 24. By Welkin and her Fairies.] The amended play reads, "by welkin, and her star."

Page 9, line 27. Jallowes.] That is, jealousy.

Page 10, line 6. A whay coloured beard.] Bottom enumerates different coloured beards in the "Midsummer Nights Dream," act i. sc. 2. Mr. Repton has published a very curious tract on the subject, 8vo. Lond. 1839. From the next line it would appear that beards were christened from