Enter SIMPLE.

How now, Simple! where have you been? I must wait on myself, muft I? You have not The Book of Riddles about you, 5 have you?

SIM. Book of Riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas?"

SHAL. Come, coz; come, coz; we flay for you. A word with you, coz marry, this, coz; There is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by fir Hugh here;-Do you understand me?

SLEN. Ay, fir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be fo, I fhall do that that is reafon.

SHAL. Nay, but understand me.

SLEN. So I do, fir.

EVA. Give ear to his motions, mafter Slender: I will defcription the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.

-The book of riddles-] This appears to have been a popular book, and is enumerated with others in The English Courtier, and Country Gentleman, bl. 1. 4to. 1586, Sign. H 4. See quotation in note to Much ado about Nothing, A& II. fc. i. REED.

6 -upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore Michaelmas?] Sure, Simple's a little out in his reckoning. Allhallowmas is almost five weeks after Michaelmas. But may it not be urged, it is defigned Simple fhould appear thus ignorant, to keep up the chara&er? I think not. The fimpleft creatures (nay, even natu, rals generally are very precife in the knowledge of feftivals, and marking how the feafons run: and therefore I have ventured to fufpe& our poet wrote Martlemas, as the vulgar call it: which is near a fortnight after All-Saint's day, i. e. eleven days, both inclufive. THEOBALD.

This correction, thus feriously and wifely enforced, is received by fir Thomas Hanmer; but probably Shakspeare intended to blunder. JOHNSON.

I

in

SLEN. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow fays: pray you, pardon me; he's a juflice of peace his country, fimple though I ftand here.

EVA. But that is not the queftion; the queflion is concerning your marriage.

SHAL. Ay, there's the point, fir.

EVA. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to miftress Anne Page.

SLEN. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her, upon any reasonable demands.

EVA. But can you affection the 'oman? Let us command to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that the lips is parcel of the mouth; '—Therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

SHAL. Coufin Abraham Slender, can you love her?

SLEN. I hope, fir,-I will do, as it fhall become one that would do reafon.

EVA. Náy, Got's lords and his ladies, you must

-the lips is parcel of the mouth ;] Thus the old copies. The modern editors read-" parcel of the mind."

To be parcel of any thing, is an expreffion that often occurs in the old plays.

So, in Decker's Satiromafix:

“And make damnation parcel of your oath.”

Again, in Tamburlaine, 1590:

To make it parcel of my empery."

This paffage, however, might have been defigned as a ridicule on another, in John Lyly's Midas, 1592:

"Pet. What lips hath fhe?

"Li. Tuh! Lips are no part of the head, only made for a double-leaf door for the mouth." STEEVENS.

"Part,

The word parcel, in this place, feems to be ufed in the fame fense as it was both formerly and at prefent in conveyances. parcel, or member of any eftate," are formal words ftill to be found in various deeds. REED.

fpeak poffitable, if

towards her.

you can carry her your defires

SHAL. That you must: Will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

SLEN. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your requeft, coufin, in any reafon.

SHAL. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, fweet coz; what I do, is to pleasure you, coz: Can you love the maid?

SLEN. I will marry her, fir, at your requeft; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely.

EVA. It is a fery discretion anfwer; fave, the faul' is in the 'ort diffolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely;-his meaning is good.

SHAL. Ay, I think my coufin meant well.

SLEN. Ay, or elfe I would I might be hang'd, la.

8 hope upon familiarity will grow more contempt: ] The old copy reads--content. STEEVENS.

Certainly, the editors in their fagacity have murdered a jeft here. It is defigned, no doubt, that Slender fhould fay decrease, inftead of increafs; and diffolved and diffolutely, instead of refolved and refolutely but to make him fay, on the prefent occafion, that upon familiarity will grow more content, intead of contempt, is difarming the fentiment of all its falt and humour, and disappoint. ing the audience of a reasonable cause for laughter. THEOBALD. Theobald's conjecture may be fupported by the fame intentional blunder in Love's Labour's Left:

Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me.”

STEEVENS.

Re-enter ANNE PAGE.

SHAL. Here comes fair miftrefs Anne :---Would I were young, for your fake, miftrefs Anne! ANNE. The dinner is on the table; my father defires your worfhips' company.

SHAL. I will wait on him, fair miftrefs Anne. EVA. Od's pleffed will! I will not be abfence at the grace.

[Exeunt SHALLOW and Sir H. EVANS. ANNE. Will't please your worship to come in, fir?

SLEN. No, I thank you, forfooth, heartily; I am very well.

ANNE. The dinner attends you, fir.

SLEN. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forfooth-Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow: " [Exit SIMPLE.] A juftice of peace fometime may be beholden to his friend for a man:-I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead: But what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

ANNE. I may not go in without your worship: they will not fit, till you come.

9 Anne. The dinner attends you, fir.

Slen. -Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go, wait upon my coufin Shallow:] This paffage fhews that it was formerly the cuftom in England, as it is now in France, for perfons to be attended at dinner by their own fervants, wherever they dined. M. MASON.

a-I keep but three men and a boy yet,] As great a fool as the poet has made Slender, it appears, by his boafting of his wealth, his breeding and his courage, that he knew how to win a woman. This is a fine inftance of Shakspeare's knowledge of nature.

WARBURTON.

SLEN. I'faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as though I did.

ANNE: I pray you, fir, walk in.

SLEN. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my fhin the other day with playing at fword and dagger with a master of fence,' three veneys for a difh of ftew'd prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the fmell of hot meat fince. Why do your dogs bark fo? be there bears i' the town?

4

3 a mafter of fence,] Mafter of defence, on this occafion, does not fimply mean a profeffor of the art of fencing, but a perfon who had taken his master's degree in it. I learn from one of the Sloanian MSS. (now in the British Museum, No. 2530, xxvi. D.) which feems to be the fragment of a regifter formerly belonging to fome of our fchools where the "Noble Science of Defence," was taught from the year 1568 to 1583, that in this art there were three degrees, viz. a Mafter's, a Provost's, and a Scholar's. For each of these a prize was played, as exercifes are kept in universities for fimilar purpofes. The weapons they ufed were the axe, the pike, rapier and target, rapier and cloke, two fwords, the twohand sword, the bastard sword, the dagger and staff, the fword and buckler, the rapier and dagger, &c. The places where they exercifed were commonly theatres, halls, or other enclosures fufficient to contain a number of fpectators; as Ely-Place in Holborn, the Bell Savage on Ludgate-Hill, the Curtain in Hollywell, the Gray Friars within Newgate, Hampton Court, the Bull in Bifhopfgate-Street, the Clink, Duke's Place, Salisbury-Court, Bridewell, the Artillery garden, &c. &c. &c. Among thofe who diftinguifhed themselves in this fcience, I find Tarlton the Comedian, who was allowed a mafter" the 23d of O&tober, 1587 [I fuppose, either as grand compounder, or by mandamus], he being ordinary grome of her majefies chamber," and Robert Greene, who plaide his maister's prize at Leadenhall with three weapons," &c. The book from which thefe extracts are made, is a fingular curiofity, as it contains the oaths, cuftoms, regulations, prizes, fummonfes, &c. of this ouce fashionable fociety. K. Henry VIII. K. Edward VI. Philip and Mary, and queen Elizabeth, were fiequent fpectators of their skill and activity. STEEVENS.

three veneys for a dish, &c.] i. e. three venues, French. Three different fet-to's, bouts, (or hits, as Mr. Malone, perhaps