der; that, peradventures, shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings. Page. I am glad to see your worships well: I thank you for my venison, master Shallow. Shal. Master Page, I am glad to see you; Much good do it your good heart! I wished your venison better; it was ill kill'd:- How doth good mistress Page?-and I love you always with my heart, la; with my heart. you. I do. Page. Sir, I thank Shal. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, Page. I am glad to see you, good master Slender. Slen. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say, he was out-run on Cotsale. Page. It could not be judg'd, sir. Slen. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. Shal. That he will not;-'tis your fault, 'tis your fault-Tis a good dog. Page. A cur, sir. Shal. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog; Can there be more said? he is good, and fair.-Is Sir John Falstaff here? Page. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office between you. Eva. It is spoke as a christians ought to speak. Shal. If it be confess'd, it is not redress'd; is not that so, master Page? He hath wrong'd me; indeed he hath;—at a word, he hath;-believe me ;-Robert Shallow, esquire, saith he is wrong'd. Page. Here comes Sir John. 8 First folio. I thank. The reading in the text is from the 4to. 1619. 9 The Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire, famous for their fine turf, and therefore excellent for coursing. Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NYм, and PISTOL. Fal. Now, master Shallow; you'll complain of me to the king? Shal. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, and broke open my lodge. Fal. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter? Fal. I will answer it straight;-I have done all this:-That is now answer'd. Shal. The Council shall know this. Fal. 'Twere better for you, if it were known in counsel: you'll be laugh'd at. Eva. Pauca verba, Sir John, good worts. Fal. Good worts 10! good cabbage.-Slender, I broke your head; What matter have you against me? 11 Slen. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you; and against your coney-catching 11 rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk, and afterwards picked my pocket. Bar. You Banbury cheese 12! Slen. Ay, it is no matter. Pist. How now, Mephostophilus 13? Slen. Ay, it is no matter. 14 Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca 14; slice! that's my humour. 10 Worts was the ancient term for all the cabbage kind. 11 A common name for cheats and sharpers in the time of Elizabeth. By a metaphor taken from those that rob warrens and conie grounds.'-Minshew's Dict. 12 Said in allusion to the thin carcass of Slender. So, in Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601. "Put off your clothes, and you are like a Banbury Cheese, nothing but paring." 13 The name of a spirit, or familiar, in the old story book of Faustus: to whom there is another allusion Act ii. Sc 2. It was a cant phrase, probably for an ugly fellow. 14 Few words. Slen. Where's Simple, my man? cousin? -can you tell, Eva. Peace: I pray you! Now let us understand: There is three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is-master Page, fidelicet, master Page; and there is myself, fidelicet, myself; and the three party is, lastly and finally, mine host 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 note-book; and we will afterwards 'ork upon the cause with as great discreetly as we can. Fal. Pistol, Pist. He hears with ears. Eva. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations. Fal. Pistol, did you pick master Slender's purse? Slen. Ay, by these gloves, did he (or I would I might never come in mine own great chamber again else), of seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovel-boards 15, that cost me two shilling and twopence a-piece of Yead Miller, by these gloves. Fal. Is this true, Pistol? Eva. No; it is false, if it is a pick-purse. I combat challenge of this latten bilbo 16: Word of denial; froth and scum, thou liest. 15 Mill sixpences were used as counters; and King Edward's shillings used in the game of shuffle-board. 16 Latten, from the Fr. Laiton, Brass. Bilbo, from Bilboa in Spain where fine sword blades were made. Pistol therefore calls Slender a weak blade of base metal, as one of brass would be. 17 Lips. Slen. By these gloves, then 'twas he. Nym. Be avised, sir, and pass good humours: I will say, marry, trap, with you, if you run the nuthook's 18 humour on me; that is the very note of it. Slen. By this hat, then he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass. Fal. What say you, Scarlet and John? Bard. Why, sir, for my part, I say, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five sentences. Eva. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is! Bard. And being fap 19, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd; and so conclusions pass'd the careires 20. Slen. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, civil, godly company, for this trick: If I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves. Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. Fal. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it. Enter MISTRESS ANNE PAGE, with wine; MisTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE following. Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit ANNE Page. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Anne Page. 18 Metaphorically a bailiff or constable, who hooks or seizes debtors or malefactors with a staff or otherwise. The meaning apparently is, if you try to bring me to justice.' 19 Fap was evidently a cant term for Foolish. It may have been derived from the Italian Vappa, which Florio explains "any wine that hath lost his force: used also for a man or woman without wit or reason." In Hutton's Dict. 1583, one of the meanings of the Latin Vappa is a Dissard or foolish man, &c. 20 A military phrase for running the charge in a tournament or attack; here used metaphorically. Page. How now, mistress Ford? Ful. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well met: by your leave, good mistress. [kissing her. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome :— Come, we have a hot vension pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness. [Exeunt all but SHAL. SLENDER, and EVANS. Slen. I had rather than forty shillings I had my book of Songs and Sonnets 21 here: Enter SIMPLE. How now, Simple! where have you been? I must wait on myself, must I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, have you? Sim. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas 22? Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word with you, coz: marry this, coz: There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here;-Do you understand me? Slen. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I shall do that that is reason. Shal. Nay, but understand me. Slen. So I do, sir. Eva. Give ear to his motions, master Slender: I will description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. Slen. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says: 21 Slender means a popular book of Shakspeare's time, "Songes and Sonnettes, written by the Earle of Surrey and others," and published by Tottel in 1557. 22 This is an intended blunder. Theobald would in sober sadness have corrected it to Martlemas. |