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Derry Wives of Windsor.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Slen. All his successors, gone before him, have don't: and all his ancestors, that come after him, may they may give the dozen white luces in their coat.

Shal. It is an old coat.

Evans. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; it agrees well, passant: it is a familiar beast to man, and signifies-love.

Shal. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.

The luce, &c. I see no consequence in this answer. Perhaps we may read the salt fish is not an old coat. That is, the fresh fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the salt fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the sea. JOHN.

Shakspeare, by hinting that the arms of the Shallows and the Lucy's were the same, shews he could not forget his old friend Sir Thomas Lucy, pointing at him under the character of Justice Shallow. But to put the matter out of all doubt, Shakspeare has here given us a distinguishing mark, whereby it appears that Sir Thomas was the very person represented by Shallow. To set blundering parson Evans right, Shallow tells him, the luce is not the louse, but the fresh fish, or pike, the salt fish (indeed) is an old coat. The plain English of which is (if I am not greatly mistaken) the family of the Charlcotts had for their arms a sult fish origi nally; but when William, son of Walker de Charlcott, assumed the name of Lucy, in the time of Henry III. he took the arins of the Lucys. This is not at all improbable; for we find, when Maud Lucy bequeathed her estates to the Percys, it was upon condition they joined her arms with their own. Says Dugdale, "it is likely William de Charlcott took the

name of Lucy to oblige his mother." And I say farther, it is likely he took the arms of the Lucys at the same time." SMITH.

Shakspeare seems to frolick here in his heraldry, with a design not to be easily understood. In Leland's Collectanea, vol. I. p. ii. p. 615. the arms of Geffrey de Lucy are "de goules poudre a croisil dor a treis luz dor." Can the poet mean to quibble upon the word roudré, that is powdered, which signifies salted; or strewed and sprinkled with any thing? In Measure for Measure, Lucio says—“ Ever your fresh whore and your powder'd bawd." TOLLET.

"The luce,' &c. What do the commentators mean by talking of a salt fish being used in armorial bearings! Is there really a fish with such a name? does the nomenclature of the Ichthyologist exhibit it? or if they do not intend to set down the name or species of fish, but merely to speak of a salted fish, how is this salted fish to be depicted by the herald-painter? There is a quibble on the words luce and luche (fr.) Luce is the pike, and called by Shallow the fresh (i. e. fresh water) fish. Luche is a lewd beggarly fellow; and by a figure he is made to stand for salt fish. The whole may be explained thus. Slender is boasting of the family arms or coat. Shallow says "it is an old coat,” i. e. The family is ancient: armorial ensigns have always belonged to it." In his reply to Evans it is merely to remove his error respecting old coat as if speaking of wearing apparel, and the louses (as the Parson calls them) which may be supposed to be lodged in it. When, in consequence of Slender's remark, Shallow says ours is an old coat (our armorial bearings are ancient); he would insinuate that the luces in it are flower-de-luces. When he replies to Evans he drops the flowers for the sake of the quibble. "You are mistaken," cries the Justice, “ Luces are pikes: the pike is a fresh fish ; the luche, the leurd fellow is the salt fish, and as he is likewise beggarly, his coat must of course be old." B.

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Slen. Mistress Anne Page: she has brown hair, and speaks small like a woman.

speaks SMALL 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 expression is highly humourous, as making her speaking small like a woman, one of her marks of distinction; and the ambiguity of small, which signifies little as well as low, makes the expression still more pleasant. WARB.

Dr. Warburton has found more pleasantry here than I believe was intended. Small was, I think, not used in an ambiguous sense, but simply for weak, slender, feminine; and the only pleasantry of the passage seems to be, that poor Slender should characterise his mistress by a general quality belonging to her whole sex. In The Midsummer Night's Dream, Quince tells Flute, who objects to playing a woınan's part, “You shall play it in a mask, and you may speak as small as you will." MAL.

Speaks, small like a woman,' means, speaks in a low and gentle manner as a woman should do. There is no pleasantry intended : and Mr. Malone's remark is quite out of point when he says that Anne Page is characterised by a quality common to her whole sex: or that she is made to speak like a woman because she is a woman.

Pleasant indeed! But Mr. Malone must be little acquainted with the character of women to maintain that smallness of speech is common to all; in whatever sense we may consider the word.

Pist. He hears with ears.

B.

Evans. The tevil and his tam! what phrase is this, He hears with ear? Why, it is affectations.

-what phrase is this. Sir Hugh is justified in his censure of this passage by Pecham, who in his Garden of Eloquence, 1577, places this very mode of expression under the article Pleonasmus. HEN.

The tevil and his tam! He hears with ears --what phrase is this? why it is affectations."

Pistol by "hears with ears" means that he listens attentively : that he will take account of what he hears, and not behave like many, of whom it may be said, in vulgar language, that what they hear is in at one ear, and out at the other. "Receive in thine heart, and hear with thine ears." Ezek. B.

Pist. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner!--Sir John, and master mine,

I combat challenge of this latten hilboe:

I combat challenge of this Latin bilboe: Our modern editors have distinguished this word Latin in Italic characters, as if it was addressed to Sir Hugh, and meant to call him pedantic blade, on account of his being schoolmaster, and teaching Latin: But I'll be bold to say, in this they do not take the poet's conceit. Pistol barely calls Sir Hugh mountainforeigner, because he had interposed in the dispute: but then immediately demands the combat of Slender, for having charged him with picking his pocket. The old quartos write it latten, as it should be, in the common characters: and as a proof that the author designed this should be addressed to Slender, Sir Hugh does not there interpose one word in the quarrel. But what then signifies--latten bilboe? Why, Pistol, seeing Ślender such a slim, puny wight, would intimate that he is as thin as a plate of that compound metal, which is called latten and which was, as we are told, the old orichalc. THEOB.

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I believe Theobald has given the true sense of latten, though he is wrong in supposing that the allusion is to Slender's thinness. It is rather to his softness or weakness. TYRWH.

I combat challenge of this latin bilboe. It appears to me that this speech of Pistol is totally misunderstood by the commentators. I do not remember that "Bilboe" has ever been applied personally. By a rhetorical figure it will stand for sword: Bilboa in Spain having been long famed for the tempering of sword blades. With respect to "latten," I am of opinion that it signifies neither slim nor puny as Theobald supposes: nor yet soft or weak as Mr. Tyrwhitt has set down properties and qualities, indeed, which no way belong to it. 1 rather conceive that it means made up, counterfeit, since latten, which, thus spoken of, appears but one particular metal, contains, in reality, two or three. There should be a break at latten. Pistol in his anger says: "I ask combat of this latten," (he would add

perhaps rascal)" I challenge this counterfeit, this rascal, this semblance of a man. He then exclaims Bilboe!' i. e. the sword! "That is the word by which I gainsay all that thou hast advanced respecting me. Thou liest, &c." This vapouring manner will be found perfectly consonant to the character as exhibited in other parts of the play and in Henry IV. B.

Nym. The anchor is deep! Will that humor pass?

The anchor is deep: Will that humor pass? I see not what relation the anchor has to translation. Perhaps we may read, the author is deep; or perhaps the line is out of its place, and should be inserted lower after Falstaff has said,

Sail like my pinnace to those golden shores.

It may be observed, that in the tracts of that time ancher and author could hardly be distinguished. JOHN. The anchor is deep. Dr. Johnson very acutely proposes "the author is deep." He reads with the first copy," he hath study'd her well." And from this equivocal word, Nym catches the idea of deepness. FARM.

The anchor is deep. The Commentators have mistaken the meaning of anchor' in this place. Anchor, with the old writers, is anchoret. Pistol so calls Ford on account of the melancholy which marks his character, and which is frequently noticed in the course of the play. The anchor is deep,' i. e. the anchoret is cunning. B.

Nym. The revolt of mien is dangerous: that is my true humour.

-the revolt of mien. The revolt of mine is the old reading. Revolt of mien is change of countenance, one of the effects he has just been ascribing to jealousy. STEEV.

The revolt of mien.' 'Mine' is the French word for countenance. There is no necessity for change. B.

Quic. You shall have An fools-head of your own. No, I know Anne's mind for that: never a woman in Windsor knows more of Anne's mind than I do ;

You shall have ann fool's head. Mrs. Quickly, I believe, intends a quibble between ann, sounded broad, and one, which was formerly sometimes pronounced on. In the Scottish dialect one is written, and I suppose pronounced, ane. MAL.

'An fool's head.' An is used instead of a for the sake of the jingle Anne. B.

Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment, or so, I could be knighted.

Mrs. Page. What!-thou liest! Sir Alice Ford! These knights will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry.

What?-thou liest !-Sir Alice Ford!-These knights will HACK, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. The unintelligible nonsense of this speech is hardly to be matched. The change of a single letter has occasioned it, which is thus easily removed. Read and pointThese knights will LACK, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. The other had said, I could be knighted, meaning, I could have a knight for my lover; her companion took it in the other sense, of conferring the title, and says What ?—thou liest ! -Sir Alice Ford !—These knights will lack a title i. e. risk the punishment of degradation] rather than not make a whore of thee. For we are to observe that—and so thou shouldst not, is a mode of speech, amongst the writers of that time, equivalent to-rather than thou shouldst not. WARB.

Upon this passage the learned editor has tried his strength, in my opinion, with more spirit than success.

I read thus-these knights we'll hack, and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. The punishment of a recreant, or undeserving knight, was to hack off his spurs: the meaning therefore is, it is not worth the while of a gentlewoman to be made a knight, for we'll degrade all these knights in a little time, by the usual form of hacking off their spurs, and thou, if thou art knighted, shalt be hacked with the rest. JOHN.

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'What!-Sir Alice Ford! These Knights will hack,' &c. I am fully persuaded that Warburton has fallen on the right word lack,' but his interpretation of the passage is wrong. Mrs. Page understands Mrs. Ford as saying-that she is to be made a knight: that the honor is to be conferred on her in her own person. In consequence of this belief she replies, 'What? Sir Alice Ford! These Knights will Jack,' i. e. such Knights as these [Lady-Knights] will be wanting, in the essentials to Knighthood, that is to say, in valor and discretion. By which she pleasantly insinuates that these, according to the commonly received opinion, do not belong to the sex. In other words, "a woman cannot be a true Knight; and therefore, in being knighted, thou wouldst not alter the article of thy gentry. Thou must be always plain Mrs. Ford!" B.

Mrs. Ford. For, sure, unless he knew some strain in me, that I know not myself, he would never have boarded me in this fury.

-some strain in me- -Thus the old copies. The modern editors read, "some stain in me," but I think, unnecessarily. A similar expression occurs in The Winter's Tale.

"With what encounter so uncurrent, have I

"Strain'd to appear thus ?"

And again in Timon:

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Some strain in me.' 'Strain' is here used for something running through the blood-inclination, tendency. The passages adduced by Mr. S. are nothing to the purpose. B.

Pist. Hope is a curtail dog in some affairs:

Sir John affects thy wife.

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