Caius. Vat shall the honest man do in my closet? dere is no honest man dat shall come in my closet.

Quick. I beseech you, be not so flegmatick; hear the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from parson Hugh.

Caius. Vell.

Sim. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to

Quick. Peace, I pray you.

Caius. Peace-a your tongue :-Speak-a your tale. Sim. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to speak a good word to mistress Anne Page for my master, in the way of marriage.

Quick. This is all, indeed, la; but I 'll ne'er put my finger in the fire, and need not.

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you?-Rugby, baillez me some paper: Tarry you a little-a while. [Writes.

Quick. I am glad he is so quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you should have heard him so loud, and so melancholy;-But notwithstanding, man, I'll do your master what good I can: and the very yea and the no is, the French Doctor, my master,—I may call him my master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and do all myself;

Sim. 'Tis a great charge, to come under one body's hand.

Quick. Are you advis'd o' that? you shall find it a great charge and to be up early and down late;-but notwithstanding, (to tell you in your ear; I would have no words of it ;) my master himself is in love with mistress Anne Page: but notwithstanding that, I know Anne's mind, that 's neither here nor there.

Caius. You jack'nape; give-a dis letter to Sir Hugh;' by gar it is a shallenge: I vill cut his troat in de park; and I vill teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make::-you may be gone; it is not good you tarry here:-by gar I vill cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to trow at his dog. [Exit SIM.

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dress meat and drink,] Dr. Warburton thought the word drink ought to be expunged; but by drink Dame Quickly. might have intended potage and soup, of which her master may be supposed to have been as fond as the rest of his countrymen. Malone.

Quick. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

8

Caius. It is no matter-a for dat:-do not you tell-a me dat I shall have Anne Page for myself?-by gar, I vill kill de Jack priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Jarterre to measure our weapon :-by gar, I *vill myself have Anne Page.

Quick. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well: we must give folks leave to prate: What, the good-jer!9 Caius. Rugby, come to the court vit me;-By gar, if I have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door:-Follow my heels, Rugby.

[Exeunt CAIUS and RUG. Quick. You shall have An fool's-head1 of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven.

I

Fent. [Within.] Who 's within there, ho?

Quick. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, pray you.

Enter FENTON.

Fent. How now, good woman; How dost thou ? Quick. The better, that it pleases your good worship to ask.

Fent. What news? how does pretty mistress Anne? Quick. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest,

8 de Jack priest;] Jack, in our author's time, was a term of contempt: "So, saucy Jack," &c. See K. Henry IV, P. I, Act III, sc. iii: "The prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup ;" and Much Ado about Nothing, Act I, sc. i: "do you play the flouting Jack?" Malone.

9 What, the good-jer!] She means to say-" the goujere,” i. e. morbus Gallicus. So, in K. Lear:

"The goujeres shall devour them."

See Hanmer's note, King Lear, Act V, sc. iii. Steevens. Mrs. Quickly scarcely ever pronounces a hard word rightly. Good-jer and Good-year were in our author's time common corruptions of goujere; and in the books of that age the word is as often written one way as the other. Malone.

1 You shall have An fool's-head — ] Mrs. Quickly, I believe, intends a quibble between Ann, sounded broad, and one, which was formerly sometimes pronounced on, or with nearly the same sound. In the Scottish dialect one is written, and I suppose pronounced, ane.—In 1603 was published "Ane verie excellent and delectable Treatise, intitulit Philotus," &c. Malone.

and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praise heaven for it.

Fent. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? Shall I not lose my suit?

Quick. Troth, sir, all is in his hands above: but notwithstanding, master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book, she loves you:-Have not your worship a wart above your eye?

Fent. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?

Quick. Well, thereby hangs a tale;-good faith, it is such another Nan;-but, I detest,2 an honest maid as ever broke bread:-We had an hour's talk of that wart ;-I shall never laugh but in that maid's company!But, indeed, she is given too much to allicholly and musing: But for you-Well, go to.

Fent. Well, 1 shall see her to-day: Hold, there 's money for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf: if thou seest her before me, commend me

Quick. Will I? i' faith, that we will: and I will tell your worship more of the wart, the next time we have confidence; and of other wooers.

Fent. Well, farewel; I am in great haste now.

[Exit. Quick. Farewel to your worship.-Truly, an honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know Anne's mind as well as another does :-Out upon 't! what have I forgot?

[Exit.

ACT II.....SCENE I.

Before Page's House.

Enter Mistress PAGE, with a letter.

Mrs. Page. What? have I'scaped love-letters in the holy-day time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let me see:

2

[Reads.

but, I detest,] She means-I protest. Malone. The same intended mistake occurs in Measure for Measure, Act 1, sc. i: "My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour," &c." Dost thou detest her therefore?" Steevens

Ask me no reason why I love you; for though love use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsel lor: You are not young, no more am I; go to then, there's sympathy: you are merry, so am I; Ha! ha! then there's, more sympathy: you love sack, and so do I; Would you desire better sympathy? Let it suffice thee, mistress Page, (at the least, if the love of a soldier can suffice,) that I love thee. I will not say, pity me, 'tis not a soldier-like phrase; but I say, love me. By me,

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Thine own true knight,

By day or night,

4

Or any kind of light,
With all his might,

For thee to fight,

John Falstaff.

though love use reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsellor :] This is obscure: but the meaning is, though love permit reason to tell what is fit to be done, he seldom follows its advice. By precisian, is meant one who pretends to a more than ordinary degree of virtue and sanctity. On which account they gave this name to the puritans of that time. So Osborne-" Conform their mode, words, and looks, to these PRECISIANS." Maine, in his City Match:

66

I did commend

And

A great PRECISIAN to her for her woman." Warburton. Of this word I do not see any meaning that is very apposite to the present intention. Perhaps Falstaff said, Though love use reason as his physician, he admits him not for his counsellor. This will be plain sense. Ask not the reason of my love; the business of reason is not to assist love, but to cure it. There may however be this meaning in the present reading. Though love, when he would submit to regulation, may use reason as his precisian, or director, in nice cases, yet when he is only eager to attain his end, he takes not reason for his counsellor. Johnson..

Dr. Johnson wishes to read physician; and this conjecture becomes almost a certainty from a line in our author's 147th sonnet:

"My reason the physician to my love," &c. Farmer.

The character of a precisian seems to have been very generally ridiculed in the time of Shakspeare. So, in The Malcontent, 1604: "You must take her in the right vein then; as, when the sign is in Pisces, a fishmonger's wife is very sociable: in Cancer, a precisian's wife is very flexible."

If physician be the right reading, the meaning may be this: A lover uncertain as yet of success, never takes reason for his coun sellor, but, when desperate, applies to him as his physician.

4 Thine own true knight,

Musgrave.

By day or night,] This expression, ludicrously employed

What a Herod of Jewry is this?-O wicked, wicked, world!-one that is well nigh worn to pieces with age, to show himself a young gallant! What an unweighed behaviours hath this Flemish drunkard picked (with the devil's name) out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company!-What should I say to him?—I was then frugal of my mirth:7-heaven forgive me!-Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament for the putting down of men.8 How shall I be revenged on him? for reveng

by Falstaff, is of Greek extraction, and means, at all times. So, in the twenty-second Iliad, 433:

8 μοι NUKTAZ TE KAI HMAP

Εὐχωλή.

Thus faithfully rendered by Mr. Wakefield:

My Hector! night and day thy mother's joy."

So likewise, in the third book of Gower, De Confessione Amantis "The sonne cleped was Machayre,

"The daughter eke Canace hight,
"By daie bothe and eke by night."

Loud and still was another phrase of similar meaning. Steevens.
What an unweighed behaviour &c.] Thus the folio, 1623.
It has been suggested to me, that we should read-one. Steevens.

5

6 Flemish drunkard-] It is not without reason that this term of reproach is here used. Sir John Smythe in Certain Discourses, &c. 4to. 1590, says, that the habit of drinking to excess was introduced into England from the Low Countries " by some of our such men of warre within these very few years; whereof. it is come to passe that now-a-dayes there are very fewe feastes where our said men of warre are present, but that they do invite and procure all the companie, of what calling soever they be, to carowsing and quaffing; and, because they will not be denied their challenges, they, with many new conges, ceremonies, and reverences, drinke to the health and prosperitie of princes; to the health of counsellors, and unto the health of their greatest friends both at home and abroad: in which exercise they never cease till they be deade drunke, or, as the Flemings say, Doot dronken.” He adds, "And this aforesaid detestable vice hath within these six or seven yeares taken wonderful roote amongest our English nation, that in times past was wont to be of all other nations of Christendome one of the soberest." Reed.

7

I was then frugal of my mirth:] By breaking this speech into exclamations, the text may stand; but I once thought it must be read, If I was not then frugal of my mirth, &c. Johnson.

8

-for the putting down of men.] The word which seems to have been inadvertently omitted in the folio, was restored by Mr.