for a dish of stewed prunes; and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat fince. Why do your dogs bark fo? be there bears i' the town?

ANNE. I think, there are, fir; I heard them talked of.

SLEN. I love the fport well; but I fhall as foon quarrel at it, as any man in England:-You are afraid, if you fee the bear loofe, are you not?

ANNE. Ay, indeed, fir.

SLEN. That's meat and drink to me now:1 I have seen Sackerfon loofe, twenty times; and

2

tions, prizes, fummonfes, &c. of this once fashionable fociety. K. Henry VIII. K. Edward VI. Philip and Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, were frequent spectators of their fkill and activity.

9

STEEVENS.

-three veneys for a difh &c.] i. e. three venues, French. Three different fet-to's, bouts, (or hits, as Mr. Malone, perhaps mote properly, explains the word,) a technical term. So, in our author's Love's Labour's Loft: a quick venew of wit." Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Philafter :- "thou wouldft be loth to play half a dozen venies at Wafters with a good fellow for a broken head." Again, in The Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609 : "This was a país, 'twas fencer's play, and for the after veny, let me ufe my fkill." So, in The Famous History, &c. of Capt. Tho. Stukely, 1605: for forfeits and venneys given upon a wager at the ninth button of your doublet."

Again, in the MSS. mentioned in the preceding note, "and at any prize whether it be maisfter's prize, &c. whofoever doth play agaynfte the prizer, and doth ftrike his blowe and clofe with all, fo that the prizer cannot ftrike his blowe after agayne, fhall wynne no game for any veneye fo given, althoughe it fhold breake the prizer's head." STEEVENS.

1 That's meat and drink to me now:] Decker has this proverbial phrafe in his Satiromaftix : "Yes faith, 'tis meat and drink to me." WHALLEY.

2

Sackerfon- Seckarfon is likewife the name of a bear in the old comedy of Sir Giles Goofecap. STEEVENS.

Sackerfon, or Sacarfon, was the name of a bear that was exhibited in our author's time at Paris-Garden in Southwark. VOL. V.

D

have taken him by the chain: but, I warrant you, the women have fo cried and fhriek'd at it, that it pafs'd: 3-but women, indeed, cannot abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured rough things.

Re-enter PAGE.

PAGE. Come, gentle mafter Slender, come; we ftay for you.

SLEN. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, fir.

PAGE. By cock and pye, you shall not choose, fir: come, come.

SLEN. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

PAGE. Come on, fir.

SLEN. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.
ANNE. Not I, fir; pray you, keep on.

SLEN. Truly, I will not go firft; truly, la: I will

not do you that wrong.

See an old collection of Epigrams [by Sir John Davies] printed at Middlebourg (without date, but in or before 1598 :)

Publius, a ftudent of the common law,

"To Paris-garden doth himself withdraw ;

Leaving old Ployden, Dyer, and Broke, alone,

"To fee old Harry Hunkes and Sacarfon."

Sacarfon probably had his name from his keeper. So, in the Puritan, a comedy, 1607: "How many dogs do you think I had upon me? Almost as many as George Stone, the bear; three at once." MALONE.

3

that it pafs'd:] It pafs'd, or this paffes, was a way of speaking customary heretofore, to fignify the excefs, or extraordinary degree of any thing. The fentence completed would be, This passes all expreffion, or perhaps, This passes all things. We ftill ufe paffing well, paffing strange.

4

WARBURTON.

By cock and pye,] This was a very popular adjuration, and occurs in many of our old dramatic pieces. See note on Act V. fc.i. K. Henry IV. P. II. STEEVENS.

ANNE. I pray you, fir.

SLEN. I'll rather be unmannerly, than troublefome: you do yourself wrong, indeed, la. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The fame.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE.

EVA. Go your ways, and afk of Doctor Caius' house, which is the way and there dwells one mistress Quickly, which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook, or his laundry,5 his washer, and his wringer.

SIMP. Well, fir.

6

EVA. Nay, it is petter yet:give her this letter; for it is a 'oman that altogether's acquaintance with mistress Anne Page: and the letter is, to defire and require her to folicit your mafter's defires to mistress Anne Page: I pray you, be gone; I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins and cheese to come. [Exeunt.

5

or his laundry,] Sir Hugh means to fay his launder. Thus, in Sidney's Arcadia, B. I. p. 44, edit. 1633: "not only will make him an Amazon, but a launder, a spinner," &c. STEEVENS.

6 that altogether's acquaintance] The old copy reads altogethers acquaintance; but should not this be "that altogether's acquaintance," i. e. that is altogether acquainted? The English, I apprehend, would ftill be bad enough for Evans. TYRWHITT.

I have availed myself of this judicious remark. STEEVENS.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF, Hoft, BARDOLPH, NYM,
PISTOL, and ROBIN.

FAL. Mine hoft of the Garter,—

HOST. What fays my bully-rook?” Speak schollarly, and wifely.

FAL. Truly, mine hoft, I must turn away fome of my followers.

HOST. Difcard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; trot, trot.

FAL. I fit at ten pounds a week.

HOST. Thou 'rt an emperor, Cæfar, Keifar, and Pheezar.9 I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he fhall tap: faid I well, bully Hector?

7 my bully-rook?] The fpelling of this word is corrupted, and thereby its primitive meaning is loft. The old plays have generally bully-rook, which is right; and fo it is exhibited by the folio edition of this comedy, as well as the 4to. 1619. The latter part of this compound title is taken from the rooks at the game of chefs. STEEVENS.

Bully-rook feems to have been the reading of fome editions: in others it is bully-rock. Mr. Steevens's explanation of it, as alluding to chefs-men, is right. But Shakspeare might poffibly have given it bully-rock, as rock is the true name of these men, which is foftened or corrupted into rook. There is seemingly more humour in bully-rock. WHALLEY,

8 Keifar,] The preface to Stowe's Chronicle obferves, that the Germans ufe the K for C, pronouncing Keyfar, for Cæfar, their general word for an emperor. ToLLET.

9

-and Pheezar.] Pheezar was a made word from pheeze. "I'll pheeze you," fays Sly to the Hoftefs, in The Taming of the Shrew. MALONE.

-faid I well,] The learned editor of the Canterbury

FAL. Do fo, good mine hoft.

HOST. I have spoke; let him follow: Let me fee thee froth, and lime: I am at a word; follow. [Exit Hoft.

FAL. Bardolph, follow him; a tapfter is a good trade: An old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered servingman, a fresh tapfter:3 Go; adieu.

BARD. It is a life that I have defired; I will thrive. [Exit BARD.

Tales of Chaucer, in 5 vols. 8vo. 1775, obferves, that this phrase is given to the hoft in the Pardonere's Prologue:

"Said I not wel? I cannot speke in terme:" v. 12,246. and adds, "it may be fufficient with the other circumstances of general resemblance, to make us believe that Shakspeare, when he drew that character, had not forgotten his Chaucer." The fame gentleman has fince informed me, that the paffage is not found in any of the ancient printed editions, but only in the MSS. STEEVENS.

I imagine this phrase must have reached our author in fome other way; for I fufpect he did not devote much time to the perufal of old MSS. MALONE.

2

Let me fee thee froth, and lime:] Thus the quarto; the folio reads- "and live." This paffage had paffed through all the editions without fufpicion of being corrupted; but the reading of the old quartos of 1602 and 1619, Let me fee thee froth and lime, I take to be the true one. The Hoft calls for an immediate fpecimen of Bardolph's abilities as a tapfter; and frothing beer and liming fack were tricks practised in the time of Shakspeare. The firft was done by putting foap into the bottom of the tankard when they drew the beer; the other, by mixing lime with the fack (i. e. fherry) to make it fparkle in the glafs. Froth and live is fenfe, but a little forced; and to make it fo we must fuppofe the Hoft could guefs by his dexterity in frothing a pot to make it appear fuller than it was, how he would afterwards fucceed in the world. Falftaff himself complains of limed fack. STEEVENS.

3a withered fervingman, a fresh tapfter:] This is not improbably a parody on the old proverb- A broken apothecary, a new doctor." See Ray's Proverbs, 3d edit. p. 2.

STEEVENS.