NYм. They say, he cried out of sack. BARD. And of women. QUICK. Nay, that 'a did not. Boy. Yes, that 'a did; and said, they were devils incarnate. QUICK. 'A could never abide carnation2; 'twas a colour he never liked. Bor. 'A said once, the devil would have him about women. pened to Shakspeare, as to other writers, to have his imagination crouded with a tumultuary confusion of images, which, while they were yet unsorted and unexamined, seemed sufficient to furnish a long train of incidents, and a new variety of merriment; but which, when he was to produce them to view, shrunk suddenly from him, or could not be accommodated to his general design. That he once designed to have brought Falstaff on the scene again, we know from himself; but whether he could contrive no train of adventures suitable to his character, or could match him with no companions likely to quicken his humour, or could open no new vein of pleasantry, and was afraid to continue the same strain lest it should not find the same reception, he has here for ever discarded him, and made haste to despatch him, perhaps for the same reason for which Addison killed Sir Roger, that no other hand might attempt to exhibit him. Let meaner authors learn from this example, that it is dangerous to sell the bear which is yet not hunted; to promise to the publick what they have not written. This disappointment probably inclined Queen Elizabeth to command the poet to produce him once again, and to show him in love or courtship. This was, indeed, a new source of humour, and produced a new play from the former characters. JOHNSON. incarnate.carnation;] Mrs. Quickly blunders, mistaking the word incarnate for a colour. In Questions of Love, 1566, we have, "Yelowe, pale, redde, blue, whyte, graye, and incarnate." HENDERSON. 2 Again, in the Inventory of the Furniture to be provided for the Reception of the Royal Family, at the Restoration, 1660, we find" For repairing, with some additions, of the rich incarnate velvet bed, being for the reception of his majesty, before the other can be made, 101." Again," For 12 new fustian and Holland quilts for his majesty's incarnate velvet bed and the two dukes beds, 481." Parliamentary History, vol. xxii. p. 306. REED. QUICK. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women: but then he was rheumatick; and talked of the whore of Babylon. Bor. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose; and 'a said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire? BARD. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintained that fire: that's all the riches I got in his service. NYм. Shall we shog off; the king will be gone from Southampton. PIST. Come, let's away.-My love, give me thy lips. Look to my chattels, and my moveables: 3 rheumatick ;] This word is elsewhere used by our author for peevish, or splenetick, as scorbutico is in Italian. See p. 75, Mrs. Quickly however probably means lunatick. MALONE. Let senses rule ;] I think this is wrong, but how to reform it I do not see. Perhaps we may read : "Let sense us rule." 66 Pistol is taking leave of his wife, and giving her advice as he kisses her; he sees her rather weeping than attending, and, supposing that in her heart she is still longing to go with him part of the way, he cries, Let sense us rule," that is, let us not give way to foolish fondness, but be ruled by our better understanding.' He then continues his directions for her conduct in his absence. JOHNSON. "Let senses rule" evidently means, let prudence govern you: conduct yourself sensibly; and it agrees with what precedes and what follows. Mr. M. Mason would read-" Let sentences rule;" by which he means sayings, or proverbs; and accordingly (says he) Pistol gives us a string of them in the remainder of his speech. STEEVENS. 5 Pitch and pay ;] The caution was a very proper one to Mrs. Quickly, who had suffered before, by letting Falstaff run in her debt. The same expression occurs in Blurt Master Constable, 1602: "I will commit you, signior, to my house; but will you pitch and pay, or will your worship run—? » 66 So again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622: For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck; Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor". 8 Go, clear thy chrystals .-Yoke-fellows in arms, Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they say, Again, in The Mastive, an ancient collection of epigrams : 66 "Had for one night a French crown, pitch and pay.” STEEVENS. Old Tusser, in his description of Norwich, tells us it is "A city trim "Where strangers well, may seeme to dwell, "That pitch and paie, or keepe their daye." John Florio says, "Pitch and paie, and go your waie." One of the old laws of Blackwell-hall was, that "a penny be paid by the owner of every bale of cloth for pitching." FARMER. And HOLD-FAST is the only DOG,] Alluding to the proverbial saying-" Brag is a good dog, but holdfast is a better." DOUCE. The old quartos 7 Therefore, CAVETO be thy counsellor.] read : "Therefore Cophetua be thy counsellor." The reading of the text is that of the folio. 8 STEevens. MALONE. clear thy CHRYSTALS.] Dry thine eyes: but I think it may better mean, in this place, wash thy glasses. JOHNSON. The first explanation is certainly the true one. So, in The Gentleman Usher, by Chapman, 1602: 66 an old wife's eye "Is a blue chrystal full of sorcery." Again, in A Match at Midnight, 1633: "ten thousand Cupids "Methought, sat playing on that pair of chrystals." Again, in The Double Marriage, by Beaumont and Fletcher : sleep, you sweet glasses, "An everlasting slumber close those chrystals!" Again, in Coriolanus, Act III. Sc. II. : "The glasses of my sight." The old quartos, 1600 and 1608, read: BARD. Farewell, hostess. [Kissing her. NYM. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu. PIST. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command. QUICK. Farewell; adieu. 9- keep close,] The quartos 1600 and 1608 read: -keep fast thy buggle boe;" [Exeunt. Which certainly is not nonsense, as the same expression is used by Shirley, in his Gentleman of Venice: 66 the courtisans of Venice, "Shall keep their bugle bowes for thee, dear uncle." Perhaps, indeed, it is a Scotch term; for in Ane very excellent and delectabill Treatise intitulit Philotus, &c. printed at Edinburgh, 1603, I find it again : "What reck to tak the bogill-bo, 66 My bonie burd, for anes." The reader may suppose buggle-boe to be just what he pleases. STEEVENS. Whatever covert sense Pistol may have annexed to this word, it appears from Cole's Latin Dictionary, 1678, that "bogle-bo" (now corruptly sounded bugabow) signified an ugly wide-mouthed picture, carried about with May-games.' Cole renders it by the Latin words, manducus terriculamentum. The interpretation of the former word has been just given. The latter he renders thus: "A terrible spectacle; a fearful thing; a scare-crow." T. C. An anonymous writer supposes that by the words--" keep close," Pistol means, keep within doors.' That this was not the meaning, is proved decisively by the words of the quarto. MALONE. Perhaps, the words-"keep close," were rendered perfectly intelligible by the action that accompanied them on the stage. STEEVENS. The inquisitive reader will best collect the sense in which buggle boe is here used, from a perusal of La Fontaine's tale of Le Diable de Pape-Figuiere. DOUCE. SCENE IV. France. A Room in the French King's Palace. Enter the French King attended; the Dauphin, the Duke of BURGUNDY, the Constable, and Others. FR. KING. Thus come the English with full And more than carefully it us concerns', Therefore the dukes of Berry, and of Bretagne, With men of courage, and with means defendant: It fits us then to be as provident As fear may teach us, out of late examples DAU. My most redoubted father, It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe: For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom 2, (Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in question,) But that defences, musters, preparations, Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected, 1 And more than CAREFULLY it us concerns,] "More than carefully" is with more than common care;' a phrase of the same kind with "better than well." JOHNSON. 2 SO DULL a kingdom,] i. e. render it callous, insensible. So, in Hamlet: "But do not dull thy palm," &c. STEEVENS. |