go enquire for my mafter; I doubt, he be not well, that he comes not home:-and down, down, adown-a, &c. [Sings.

Enter Doctor CAIUS.7

CAIUS. Vat is you fing? I do not like dese toys; Pray you, go and vetch me in my clofet un boitier verd; a box, a green-a box; Do intend vat I speak? a green-a box.

6

and down, down, adown-a, &c.] To deceive her mafter, the fings as if at her work. SIR J. HAWKINS.

This appears to have been the burden of fome fong then well known. In Every Woman in her Humour, 1609, fign. E 1, one of the characters fays, Hey good boies! i'faith now a three man's fong, or the old downe adowne: well, things muft be as they may; fil's the other quart: muskadine with an egg is fine; there's a time for all things, bonos nochios." REED.

7 Enter Doctor Caius.] It has been thought strange that our author should take the name of Caius [an eminent phyfician who flourished in the reign of Elizabeth, and founder of Caius College in our univerfity] for his Frenchman in this comedy; but Shakspeare was little acquainted with literary hiftory; and without doubt, from this unusual name, fuppofed him to have been a foreign quack. Add to this, that the doctor was handed down as a kind of Roficrucian: Mr. Ames had in MS. one of the "Secret Writings of Dr. Caius." FARMER.

This character of Dr. Caius might have been drawn from the life; as in Jacke of Dover's Queft of Enquirie, 1604, (perhaps a republication,) a ftory called The Foole of Winfor begins thus: "Upon a time there was in Winfor a certain fimple outlandishe doctor of phyficke belonging to the deane," &c. STEEVENS.

8

un boitier verd ;] Boitier in French fignifies a case of furgeon's inftruments. GREY.

I believe it rather means a box of falve, or cafe to hold fimples, for which Caius profeffes to feek. The fame word, fomewhat curtailed, is ufed by Chaucer, in The Pardoneres Prologue,

v. 12,241:

"And every boift ful of thy letuarie."

QUICK. Ay, forfooth, I'll fetch it you. I am glad he went not in himself: if he had found the young man, he would have been horn-mad. [Afide.

CAIUS. Fe, fe fe, fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais à la Cour,-la grand affaire. QUICK. Is it this, fir?

CAIUS. Ouy; mette le au mon pocket; Depeche, quickly-Vere is dat knave Rugby?

QUICK. What, John Rugby! John!

RUG. Here, fir.

CAIUS. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby: Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to de court.

RUG. 'Tis ready, fir, here in the porch.

CAIUS. By my trot, I tarry too long:-Od's me! Qu'ay j'oublié? dere is fome fimples in my closet, dat I vill not for the varld I fhall leave behind.

QUICK. Ah me! he'll find the young man there, and be mad.

CAIUS. O diable, diable! vat is in my clofet ?Villainy! larron! [Pulling SIMPLE out,] Rugby, my rapier.

QUICK. Good mafter, be content.

CAIUS. Verefore fhall I be content-a?

QUICK. The young man is an honest man.

CAIUS. Vat fhall the honeft man do in my clofet? dere is no honeft man dat fhall come in my closet.

Again, in The Skynners' Play, in the Chefter Collection of Myfteries, MS. Harl. p. 149, Mary Magdalen fays:

"To balme his bodye that is fo brighte,
"Boyfte here have I brought." STEEVENS.

QUICK. I beseech you, be not fo flegmatick; hear the truth of it: He came of an errand to me from parfon Hugh.

CAIUS. Vell.

SIM. Ay, forfooth, to defire her to-

QUICK. Peace, I pray you.

CAIUS. Peace-a your tongue :--Speak-a your

tale.

SIM. To defire this honeft 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 fome paper: Tarry you a little-a while. [Writes.

QUICK. I am glad he is fo quiet: if he had been thoroughly moved, you fhould have heard him fo loud, and fo melancholy;-But notwithstanding, man, I'll do your mafter what good I can: and the very yea and the no is, the French Doctor, my mafter, I may call him my mafter, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash, wring, brew, bake, fcour, drefs meat and drink,' make the beds, and do all myfelf;

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

QUICK. Are you avis'd o'that? you fhall find it a great charge and to be up early and down late; --but notwithstanding, (to tell you in your ear; I

9 drefs meat and drink,] Dr. Warburton thought the word drink ought to be expunged; but by drink Dame Quickly might have intended potage and foup, of which her master may be fuppofed to have been as fond as the reft of his countrymen. MALONE.

would have no words of it;) my mafter 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 fhallenge: I vill cut his troat in de park; and I vill teach a fcurvy 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 ftones; by gar, he fhall not have a ftone to trow at his dog. [Exit SIMPLE. QUICK. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.

CAIUS. It is no matter-a for dat:-do not you tell-a me dat I fhall have Anne Page for myself?by gar, I vill kill de Jack prieft; and I have appointed mine hoft 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! 2

CAIUS. Rugby, come to the court vit me ;-By

de Jack prieft;] Jack, in our author's time, was a term of contempt: "So, faucy Jack," &c. See K. Henry IV. P. I. A&t III. fc. iii: "The prince is a Jack, a fneak-cup ;" and Much Ado about Nothing, A& I. fc. i: “ -do you play the flouting Jack?" MALONE.

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

"The goujeres fhall devour them."

See Hanmer's note, King Lear, A&t V. fc. iii. STEEVENS. Mrs. Quickly fcarcely 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.

gar, if I have not Anne Page, I fhall turn your head out of my door :-Follow my heels, Rugby. [Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY,

QUICK. You fhall have An fools-head 3 of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windfor knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more than I do with her, I thank heaven.

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

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

Enter FENTON.

FENT. How now, good woman; how doft thou? QUICK. The better, that it pleases your good worship to ask.

FENT. What news? how does pretty mistress Anne?

QUICK. In truth, fir, and she is pretty, and honest, and gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by the way; I praife heaven for it.

FENT. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou? Shall I not lofe my fuit?

QUICK. Troth, fir, all is in his hands above: but notwithstanding, mafter Fenton, I'll be sworn on a

3 You Shall have An fool's-head-] Mrs. Quickly, I believe, intends a quibble between Ann, founded broad, and one, which was formerly fometimes pronounced on, or with nearly the fame found. 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.