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

Re-enter PAGE.

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

fir:

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

8

PAGE. By cock and pye, you shall not choose,

: come, come.

SLEN. Nay, pray you, lead the way.

PAGE. Come on, fir..

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

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

hot do

ANNE. I pray you, fir

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

7 -that it pafs'd:] it pafs'd, or this paffes, was a way of fpeaking cuftomary heretofore, to fignify the excefs, or extraordinary degree of any thing. The fentence completed would be, This paffes all expreffion, or perhaps, This paffes all things. We ftill use paffing well, paffing ftrange. WARBURTON.

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

VOL. V.

D

SCENE II.

The fame.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE.

EVA, Go your ways, and ask of Dodor 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, his washer, and his wringer.

SIMP. Well, fir.

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 master'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.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

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

FAL. Mine hoft of the Garter,

2

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

9 that altogether's acquaintance-] The old copy reads— altogethers acquaintance; but fhould 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.
my bully-rook?] The fpelling of this word is corrupted,

2

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

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

FAL. I fit at ten pounds a week.

4

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

FAL. Do fo, good mine hoft.

and thereby its primitive meaning is loft. The old plays have generally bally-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 some 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 thefe men, which is foftened or corrupted into rook. There is feemingly more humour in bully-rock. WHALLEY.

3 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.

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

MALONE.

5 faid I well,] The learned editor of the Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, in 5 vols. 8vo. 1775, obferves, that this phrafe is given to the hot in the Pardonere's Prologue:

The

"Said I not wel? I cannot ipeke in terme:" v. 12246. and adds, it may be fufficient with the other circumftances of general refemblance, to make us believe, that Shakspeare, when he drew that character, had not forgotten his Chaucer." fame gentleman has fince informed me, that the paffage is not found in any of the ancient printed éditions, but only in the MSS. STEEVENS.

I imagine this phrase must have reached our author in some other way; for I fufpe& he did not devote much time to the perusal of old Mfs. MALONE,

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 fervingman, a fresh tapfter: Go; adieu.

BARD. It is a life that I have defired; I will thrive. [Exit BARD. PIST. O bafe Gongarian wight! wilt thou the fpigot wield?

5 ——Let me see thee froth, and lime:] Thus the quarto; the folio reads and live." This paffage had paffed through all the editions without suspicion 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 practifed in the time of Shakspeare. The first 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 so we muft 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. Falstaff himfelf complains of limed fack. STEEVENS.

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

70 bufe Gongarian wight! &c. This is a parody on taken from one of the old bombaft plays, beginning,

"O base Gongarian, wilt thou the diftaff wield?"

a line

I had marked the paffage down, but forgot to note the play. The folio reads-Hungarian.

Hungarian is likewife a cant term. Edmonton, 1608, the merry Hoft fays, lonels in my house, and muft tend the Again:

"Come ye Hungarian pilchers."

Again, in Weftward Hoe, 1607:

66

Play, you louzy Hungarians."

So, in The Merry Devil of "I have knights and coHungarians."

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.

NYM. He was gotten in drink: Is not the humour conceited? His mind is not heroick, and there's the humour of it.

FAL. I am glad, I am fo acquit of this tinderbox; his thefts were too open: his filching was like an unfkilful finger, he kept not time.

NYм. The good humour is, to fteal at a minute's reft.?

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 Colle&anea, Vol. I. p. 610, fpell it Hongarian (which might be misprinted 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 allufion. FARMER.

8 --humour of it.] This fpeech is partly taken from the corrected copy, and partly from the light fketch in 1602. I mention it, that those who do not find it in either of the common old editions, may not fufped it to be fpurious. STEEVENS.

9 at a minute's ref.] Our author probably wrote:

"at a minim's reft." LANGTON.

This conjecture feems confirmed by a passage in Romeo and Juliet : refts his minim," &c. It may, however, mean, that, like a fkilful 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& II. fc. iv. Mercutio fays of Tibalt, that in fighting herefts 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 fay, that the perfection of ftealing is to do it in the fhortest time poffible. SIR J. HAWKINS.

'Tis true fays Nym) Bardolph did not keep time; did not feal at the critical and exact feafon, when he would probably be leaft obferved. The true method is, to fieal just at the inftant when watchfulness is off its guard, and repofes but for a moment.