nevolence, to make atonements, and compromifes between you. SHAL. The Council fhall hear it; it is a riot.9 EVA. It is not meet the Council hear a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot: the Council, look you, fhall defire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your vizaments in that.' SHAL. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the fword fhould end it. EVA. It is petter that friends is the fword, and end it: and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot difcretions with it: There is Anne Page, which is daughter to mafter George Page, which is pretty virginity. 2 9 The Council hall hear it; it is a riot.] By the Council is only meant the court of Star-chamber, compofed chiefly of the king's council fitting in Camera ftellata, which took cognizance of atrocious riots. In the old quarto, "the council fhall know it," follows immediately after "I'll make a Star-chamber matter of it." BLACKSTONE. So, in Sir John Harrington's Epigrams, 1618: "Were brought into the Star-chamber for a ryot.” See Stat. 13. Henry IV. c. 7. GREY. your vizaments in that.] Advisement is now an obfolete word. I meet with it in the ancient morality of Every Man: "That I may amend me with good advyfement." Again: Again: "I fhall fmite without any advyfement." To do with good advyfement and delyberacyon." 2 which is daughter to master George Page.] The old copy reads-Thomas Page. STEEVENS. The whole fet of editions have negligently blundered one after another in Page's Chriftian name in this place; though Mrs. Page) salls him George afterwards in at least six several paffages. THEOBALD, SLEN. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and speaks fmall like a woman.3 EVA. It is that fery verfon for all the 'orld, as juft as you will defire; and feven hundred pounds. of monies, and gold, and filver, is her grandfire, upon his death's-bed, (Got deliver to a joyful refurrections!) give, when fhe is able to overtake 3 -Speaks fmall like a woman.] This is from the folio of 1623, and is the true reading.. He admires her for the sweetness of her voice. But the expreffion is highly humorous, as making her speaking fmall like a woman one of her marks of distinction; and the ambiguity of small, which fignifies little as well as low, makes the expreffion ftill more pleasant. WARBURTON. Thus, Lear, fpeaking of Cordelia : Her voice was ever foft, "Gentle and low-an excellent thing in woman." STEEVENS. Dr. Warburton has found more pleasantry here than I believe was intended. Small was, I think, not used, as he supposes, in an ambiguous fenfe, for "little, as well as low," but fimply for weak, fender, feminine; and the only pleasantry of the paffage feems to be, that poor Slender should characterise his mistress by a general quality belonging to her whole fex. In A Midfummer Night's Dream, Quince tells Flute, who objects to playing a woman's part, "You fhall play it in a mafk, and you may speak as fmall as you will." MALONE. Afmall voice is a foft and melodious voice. Chaucer ufes the word in that fenfe, in The Flower and the Leaf, Speght's edit. p. 611: "The company answered all, "With voicè sweet entuned, and fo small, Again, in Fairfax's Godfrey of Bulloigne, 1. 15, ft. 62 : "And with fweet lookes, her fweet fongs enterlaced." When female characters were filled by boys, to Speak small like a woman must have been a valuable qualification. So, in Marfton's What you will: "I was folicited to graunt him leave to play the lady in comedies prefented by children; but I knew his voice was too small, and his ftature too low. Sing a treble, Holofernes ;- -a very small sweet voice I'le affure you. HOLT WHIte. feventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and defire a marriage between mafter Abraham, and miftrefs Anne Page. SHAL. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pound ?4 EVA. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. SHAL. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts. EVA. Seven hundred pounds, and poffibilities, is good gifts. SHAL. Well, let us fee honest master Page: Is Falftaff there? EVA. Shall I tell you a lie? I do defpife a liar, as I do defpife one that is false; or, as I despise one 4 Shal. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pound?I know the young gentlewoman; &c.] Thefe two fpeeches are by mistake given to Slender in the first folio, the only authentick copy of this play. From the foregoing words it appears that Shallow is the perfon here addreffed; and on a marriage being proposed for his kinfman, he very naturally enquires concerning the lady's fortune. Slender fhould seem not to know what they are talking about; (except that he just hears the name of Anne Page, and breaks out into a foolish elogium on her;) for afterwards Shallow fays to him," Coz, there is, as it were, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here; do you understand me?" to which Slender replies-" if it be fo," &c. The tender, therefore, we fee, had been made to Shallow, and not to Slender, the former of which names fhould be prefixed to the two speeches before us. In this play, as exhibited in the first folio, many of the speeches are given to characters to whom they do not belong. Printers, to fave trouble, keep the names of the speakers in each scene ready compofed, and are very liable to mistakes, when two names begin (as in the prefent inftance) with the fame letter, and are nearly of the fame length.-The prefent regulation was fuggefted by Mr. Capell. MALONE. that is not true. The knight, fir John, is there; and, I beseech you, be ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door [knocks] for mafter Page. What, hoa! Got pless your house here! Enter PAGE. PAGE. Who's there? EVA. Here is Got's pleffing, and your friend, and justice Shallow: and here young mafter Slender; that, peradventures, fhall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your likings. PAGE. I am glad to fee your worships well: I thank you for my venifon, mafter Shallow. SHAL. Mafter Page, I am glad to fee you; Much good do it your good heart! I wished your venifon better; it was ill kill'd:-How doth good mistress Page?-and I love you 5 always with my heart, la; with my heart. PAGE. Sir, I thank you. SHAL. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. PAGE. I am glad to fee you, good master Slender. SLEN. How does your fallow greyhound, fir? I heard fay, he was out-run on Cotfale." 5 I love you-] Thus the 4to. 1619. The folio" I thank you." Dr. Farmer prefers the first of these readings, which I have therefore placed in the text. STEEVENS. 6 How does your fallow greyhound, fir? I heard fay, he was out-run on Cotfale.] He means Cotswold, in Gloucestershire. In the beginning of the reign of James the Firft, by permiffion of the king, one Dover, a public-spirited attorney of Barton on the Heath, in Warwickshire, inftituted on the hills of Cotswold an annual celebration of games, confifting of rural sports and exercises. These he conftantly conducted in perfon, well mounted, and accoutred in a fuit of his majesty's old clothes; and they were frequented above forty years by the nobility and PAGE. It could not be judg'd, fir. SLEN. You'll not confefs, you'll not confefs. SHAL. That he will not;'tis fault: "Tis a good dog. your fault, 'tis your gentry for fixty miles round, till the grand rebellion abolished every liberal establishment. I have feen a very scarce book, entitled, "Annalia Dubrenfia. Upon the yearly celebration of Mr. Robert Dover's Olympick games upon Cotswold hills," &c. London, 1636, 4to. There are recommendatory verfes prefixed, written by Drayton, Jonfon, Randolph, and many others, the moft eminent wits of the times. The games, as appears from a curious frontispiece, were, chiefly, wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike, dancing of women, various kinds of hunting, and particularly courfing the hare with greyhounds. Hence alfo we fee the meaning of another paffage, where Falftaff, or Shallow, calls a ftout fellow a Cotswold-man. But, from what is here faid, an inference of another kind may be drawn, respecting the age of the play. A meager and imperfect sketch of this comedy was printed in 1602. Afterwards Shakspeare new-wrote it entirely. This allufion therefore to the Cotswold games, not founded till the reign of James the First, ascertains a period of time beyond which our author must have made the additions to his original rough draft, or, in other words, compofed the present comedy. James the Firft came to the crown in the year 1603. And we will fuppofe that two or three more years at least must have paffed before these games could have been effectually established. I would therefore, at the earliest, date this play about the year 1607. T. WARTon. The Annalia Dubrenfia confifts entirely of recommendatory verfes. DouCE. The Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire are a large tract of downs, famous for their fine turf, and therefore excellent for courfing. I believe there is no village of that name. BLACKSTONE. 8 'tis your fault, 'tis your fault:] Of thefe words, which are addreffed to Page, the fenfe is not very clear. Perhaps Shallow means to fay, that it is a known failing of Page's not to confefs that his dog has been out-run. Or, the meaning may be, 'tis your misfortune that he was out-run on Cotswold; he is, however, a good dog. So perhaps the word is used afterwards by Ford, fpeaking of his jealoufy: ""Tis my fault, mafter Page; I fuffer for it." MALONE. VOL. V. C |