Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

8 Word of denial in thy Labra's here;

Word of denial. Froth and fcum, thou ly'ft.
Slen. By these gloves, then 'twas he.

Nym. Be advis'd, Sir, and pass good humours: I will fay, 9 marry trap, with you, if you run the hook's humour on me; that is the very note of it.

nut

Slen. By this hat then he in the red face had it: for though I cannot remember what I did when you made me drunk, yet I am not altogether an afs.

Fal. What fay you, 2 Scarlet and John?

Bard. Why, Sir, for my part, I fay, the gentleman had drunk himself out of his five fentences.

may fignify no more than as thin as a lath. The word in fome counties is ftill pronounced as if there was no b in it; and Ray, in his Dict. of North Country Words, affirms it to be spelt lat in the north of England.

Falstaff threatens, in another play, to drive prince Henry out of his kingdom, with a dagger of lath. A latten bilboe means therefore, I believe, no more than a blade as thin as a lath-a vice's dagger. STEEVENS.

8 Word of denial in thy Labra's here;] I fuppose it should rather be read,

Word of denial in my Labra's hear;

that is, bear the word of denial in my lips. Thou lyft.

JOHNSON. We often talk of giving the lie in a man's teeth, or in his throat. Pistol chooses to throw the word of denial in the lips of his adverfary. STEEVENS.

9 marry trap,-] When a man was caught in his own ftratagem, I fuppofe the exclamation of infult was marry, trap! JOHNSON.

1-nutbook's humour-]Read, pafs the nuthook's humour. Nutbook was a term of reproach in the vulgar way, and in cant ftrain. In The Second Part of Hen. IV. Dol Tearsheet fays to the beadle, Nut hook, Nutbook, you lie. Probably it was a name given to a bailiff or catchpole, very odious to the common people. HANMER.

Nutbook is the reading of the folio, and the third quarto. The fecond quarto reads, base humour. STEEVENS.

7 -Scarlet and fohn?] The names of two of Robin Hood's companions; but the humour confifts in the allufion to Bardolph's red face; concerning which fee The Second Part of Heu. IV. WARBURTON.

Eva. It is his five senses: fie, what the ignorance is! Bard. And being fap, Sir, was, as they fay, cafhier'd; and so conclufions pafs'd the 3 careires.

Slen. Ay, you fpake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter: I'll never be drunk whilst I live again, but in honeft, civil, godly company, for this trick: if I be drunk, I'll be drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves.

Eva. So Got 'udge me, that is a virtuous mind. Fal. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen; you hear it.

Enter mistress Ann Page with wine.

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within. [Exit Ann Page. Slen. O heaven! this is mistress Ann Page.

Enter mistress Ford and mistress Page.

Page. How now, miftrefs Ford?

Fal. Miftrefs Ford, by my troth, you are very well met by your leave, good mistress. [Kiffing her. Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome: 'come, we have a hot venifon pafty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink down all unkindness.

[Exe. all but Shal. Slend. and Evans. Slen. I had rather than forty fhillings I had my book of fongs and fonnets here.

Enter Simple.

How now, Simple, where have you been? I must

3-careires-] I believe this ftrange word is nothing but the French cariere; and the expreffion means, that the common bounds of good behaviour were overpaffed. JOHNSON.

-To pass the cariere was a military phrafe. I find it in one of Sir John Smythe's Difcourfes, 1589. where, fpeaking of horfes wounded, he fays" they after the first shrink at the entering of the bullet doo pass their carriere, as though they had verie little hurt." STEEVENS.

wait on myself, muft I? You have not the book of riddles about you, have you?

Sim. Book of riddles! why, did you not lend it to Alice Shortcake + upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?

Shal. Come, coz; come, coz; we ftay for you. A word with you, coz: marry, this, coz; there is, as 'twere, a tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here ;-do you understand me?

Slen. Ay, Sir, you shall find me reasonable: if it be fo, I fhall do that that is reason.

Shal. Nay, but understand me.

Slen. So I do, Sir.

Eva. Give ear to his motions, mafter Slender: I will defcription the matter to you, of it.

I

if you be capacity

Slen. Nay, I will do, as my coufin Shallow fays: pray you, pardon me; he's a juftice of peace in his country, fimple though I ftand here.

Eva. But that is not the queftion; the question is concerning your marriage.

Shal. Ay, there's the point, Sir.

Eva. Marry, is it; the very point of it; to mistress Ann Page.

Slen. Why, if it be fo, I will marry her upon any reasonable demands.

Eva. But can you affection the 'oman? let us com

4 upon Allhallowmas laft, a fortnight afore Michaelmas ?] Sure, Simple's a little out in his reckoning. Allhallowmas is almost five weeks after Michaelmas. But may it not be urged, it is defigned Simple should appear thus ignorant, to keep up the character? I think not. The fimpleft creatures (nay, even naturals) generally are very precife in the knowledge of feftivals, and marking how the feafons run: and therefore I have ventured to fufpect our poet wrote Martlemas, as the vulgar call it which is near a fortnight after All-Saints day, i. e. eleven days, both inclufive. THEOBALD.

This correction, thus feriously and wifely enforced, is received by Sir Tho. Hanmer; but probably Shakespeare intended a blunder. JOHNSON,

mand

mand to know that of your mouth, or of your lips; for divers philofophers hold, that 5 the lips is parcel of the mouth; therefore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?

Shal. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? Slen. I hope, Sir-I will do, as it fhall become one that would do reason.

Eva. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies, you must fpeak poffitable, if you can carry her your defires towards her.

Shal. That you muft: will you, upon good dowry, marry her?

Slen. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your request, coufin, in any reafon.

Shal. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz ; what I do, is to pleafure you, coz: can you love the maid?

Slen. I will marry her, Sir, at your request; but if there be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance, when we are married, and have more occafion to know one another: I hope, upon familiarity will grow more contempt: but if you fay, marry her, I will marry her, that I am freely diffolved, and diffolutely.

Eva. It is a fery discretion answer; fave, the faul is in the 'ort diffolutely: the 'ort is, according to our meaning, refolutely; his meaning is good.

Shal. Ay, I think, my coufin meant well.

Slen. Ay, or elfe I would I might be hang'd, la.

5-the lips is parcel of the mouth;-] Thus the old copies. The modern editors read-" parcel of the mind." STEEVENS. 6—I hope, upon familiarity will grow more content :-] Certainly, the editors in their fagacity have murdered a jeft here. It is defigned, no doubt, that Slender fhould fay decrease, inftead of increase; and diffolved, diffolutely, inftead of refolved and refolutely but to make him fay, on the prefent occafion, that upon familiarity will grow more content, inftead of contempt, is difarming the fentiment of all its falt and humour, and difappointing the audience of a reasonable caufe for laughter.

:

THEOBALD.

Re-enter

Re-enter Ann Page.

Shal. Here comes fair mistress Ann: 'would I were young for your fake, mistress Ann!

Ann. The dinner is on the table; my father defires your worship's company.

Shal. I will wait on him, fair mistress Ann.

Eva. Od's pleffed will! I will not be absence at the grace. [Ex. Shal. and Evans. Ann. Will't please your worship to come in, Sir? Slen. No, I thank you, forfooth, heartily; I am very well.

Ann. The dinner attends you, Sir.

Slen. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forfooth. Go, firrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my coufin Shallow. [Exit Simple.] A juftice of peace fometime may be beholden to his friend for a man. I keep but three men and a boy yet, till my mother be dead but what though? yet I live like a poor gentleman born.

Ann. I may not go in without your worship: they will not fit till you come.

Slen. I'faith, I'll eat nothing: I thank you as much as though I did.

Ann. I pray you, Sir, walk in.

Slen. I had rather walk here, I thank you: I bruis'd my fhin the other day with playing at fword and dagger with a master of fence, 7 three veneys for a dish

[ocr errors]

7 three veneys for a dish, &c.] i. e. three venues, French. Three different fet-to's, attacks, a technical term. So in B. and Fletcher's Philofter:-" thou wouldst be loth to play half a dozen venies at Wafters with a good fellow for a broken "head." So in Chapman's comedy, The Widow's Tears, 1612. "So there's venie for venie, I have given it him." So in The Two Maids of More-clacke, 1609. This was a pass, 'twas "fencer's play, and for the after veny let me ufe my skill." So in The famous Hift. &c. of Capt. Tho. Stukely, 1605."forfeits and venneys given upon a wager at the ninth button "of your doublet." So in our author's Love's Labour Loft: a quick venew of wit." STEEVENS.

"for

of

« ElőzőTovább »