HOST. I have fpoke; let him follow: Let me fee thee froth, and lime:2 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 fervingman, 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 phrafe is given to the hoft in the Pardonere's Prologue: "Said I not wel? I cannot fpeke in terme:" v. 12,246. and adds, "it may be fufficient with the other circumftances 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 some 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 sparkle in the glafs. Froth and live is sense, but a little forced; and to make it fo we muft fuppofe the Hoft could guess by his dexterity in frothing a pot to make it appear fuller than it was, how he would afterwards fucceed in the world. Falstaff 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. PIST. O bafe Gongarian wight! 4 wilt thou the fpigot wield ? NYм. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it.5 FAL. I am glad, I am fo acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unskilful finger, he kept not time. 4 O base Gongarian wight! &c.] This is a parody on a line taken from one of the old bombaft plays, beginning: "O bafe Gongarian, wilt thou the diftaff wield?" I had marked the paffage down, but forgot to note the play. The folio reads-Hungarian. Hungarian is likewife a cant term. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608, the merry Hoft fays, "I have knights and colonels in my houfe, and muft tend the Hungarians.' Again : "Come ye Hungarian pilchers." Again, in Westward Hoe, 1607: "Play, you louzy Hungarians." Again, in News from Hell, brought by the Devil's Carrier, by Thomas Decker, 1606: the leane-jaw'd Hungarian would not lay out a penny pot of fack for himself.” STEEVENS. The Hungarians, when infidels, over-ran Germany and France, and would have invaded England, if they could have come to it. See Stowe, in the year 930, and Holinfhed's invafions of Ireland, p. 56. Hence their name might become a proverb of baseness. Stowe's Chronicle, in the year 1492, and Leland's Collectanea, Vol. I. p. 610, fpell it Hongarian (which might be mifprinted Gongarian ;) and this is right according to their own etymology. Hongyars, i. e. domus fuæ ftrenui defenfores. TOLLET. The word is Gongarian in the first edition, and should be continued, the better to fix the allusion. FARMER. 3 humour of it.] This fpeech is partly taken from the corrected copy, and partly from the flight fketch in 1602. I mention it, that those who do not find it in either of the common old editions, may not fufpect it to be fpurious. STEEVENS. Nгм. The good humour is, to steal at a minute's rest." PIST. Convey, the wife it call: Steal! foh; a fico for the phrafe !8 FAL. Well, firs, I am almoft out at heels. 66 at a minute's reft.] Our author probably wrote: at a minim's reft." LANGTON. This conjecture feems confirmed by a paffage in Romeo and Juliet: " -refts his minim," &c. It may, however, mean, that, like a skilful harquebuzier, he takes a good aim, though he has refted his piece for a minute only. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. B.VI: "To fet up's reft to venture now for all." STEEVENS. A minim was anciently, as the term imports, the shortest note in mufick. Its measure was afterwards, as it is now, as long as while two may be moderately counted. In Romeo and Juliet, A&t II. fc. iv. Mercutio fays of Tibalt, that in fighting he "refts his minim, one, two, and the third in your bofom.' A minute contains fixty feconds, and is a long time for an action fuppofed to be inftantaneous. Nym means to say, that the perfection of stealing is to do it in the shortest time poffible. SIR J. HAWKINS. 'Tis true (fays Nym) Bardolph did not keep time; did not fteal at the critical and exact feafon, when he would probably be leaft obferved. The true method is, to steal juft at the inftant when watchfulness is off its guard, and reposes but for a moment. The reading propofed by Mr. Langton certainly corresponds more exactly with the preceding speech; but Shakspeare scarcely ever pursues his metaphors far. MALONE. 7 Convey, the wife it call:] So, in the old morality of Hycke Scorner, bl. 1. no date : Syr, the horefons could not convaye clene; "For an they could have carried by craft as I can," &c. STEEVENS. a fico for the phrafe !] i. e. a fig for it. Piftol uses the fame phrafeology in King Henry V: "Die and be damn'd; and fico for thy friendship." STEEVENS. FAL. There is no remedy; I must coney-catch; I muft fhift. PIST. Young ravens must have food.9 FAL. Which of you know Ford of this town? PIST. I ken the wight; he is of fubftance good. FAL. My honeft lads, I will tell you what I am about. PIST. Two yards, and more. I 2 FAL. No quips now, Piftol; Indeed I am in the waift two yards about: but I am now about no wafte; I am about thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife; I spy entertainment in her; fhe discourses, the carves, the gives the leer of invitation: I can conftrue the action of her familiar ftyle; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be English'd rightly, is, I am fir John Falfaff's. PIST. He hath ftudied her well, and tranflated her well;3 out of honefty into English. 9 Young ravens must have food.] An adage. See Ray's Proverbs. STEEVENS. I about no wafte;] I find the fame play on words in Heywood's Epigrams, 1562: "Where am I least husband? quoth he, in the waist; "Which cometh of this, thou art vengeance strait lac'd. "Where am I biggeft, wife? in the wafte, quoth fhe, "For all is wafte in you, as far as I fee." And again, in The Wedding, a comedy, by Shirley, 1629: "He's a great man indeed; "Something given to the waft, for he lives within no reasonable compafs." STEEVENS. 2 the -The carves,] It should be remembered, that anciently young of both fexes were inftructed in carving, as a necef fary accomplishment. In 1508, Wynkyn de Worde published "A Boke of Kerving." So, in Love's Labour's Loft, Biron fays of Boyet, the French courtier: "He can carve too, and lifp." STEEVENS. 3 -Studied her well, and tranflated her well;] Thus the Nrм. The anchor is deep: 4 Will that humour país? first quarto. The folio, 1623, reads-" ftudied her will, and tranflated her will." Mr. Malone obferves, that there is a fimilar corruption in the folio copy of King Lear. In the quarto, 1608, fignat. B, we find-" fince what I well intend;" inftead of which the folio exhibits-“ since what I will intend,” &c. Tranflation is not used in its common acceptation, but means to explain, as one language is explained by another. So, in Hamlet: thefe profound heaves 66 "You muft tranflate; 'tis fit we understand them." Again, in Troilus and Creffida: "Did in great Ilion thus tranflate him to me." STEEVENS. • The anchor is deep :] I fee not what relation the anchor has to tranflation. Perhaps we may read-the author is deep; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and fhould be inserted lower, after Falstaff has faid: It "Sail like my pinnace to thofe golden fhores." may be observed, that in the hands of that time anchor and author could hardly be diftinguished. JOHNSON. "The anchor is deep," may mean-his hopes are well founded. So, in The Knight of the Burning Peftle, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Now my latest hope, "Forfake me not, but fling thy anchor out, Again, as Mr. M. Mason observes, in Fletcher's Woman-Hater: "Farewell, my hopes; my anchor now is broken." In the year 1558 a ballad, intitled “Hold the ancer fast," is entered on the books of the Stationers' Company. STEEVENS. Dr. Johnson very acutely propofes" the author is deep." He reads with the first copy, he hath ftudied her well.”—And from this equivocal word, Nym catches the idea of deepness. But it is almoft impoffible to ascertain the diction of this whimfical character and I meet with a phrase in Fenner's Comptor's Commonwealth, 1617, which may perhaps fupport the old reading: "Mafter Decker's Bellman of London, hath fet forth the vices of the time fo lively, that it is impoffible the anchor of any other man's braine could found the fea of a more deepe and dreadful mifcheefe." FARMER. : Nym, I believe, only means to fay, the scheme for debauching Ford's wife is deep; well laid. MALONE. |