Mrs. Ann Page, daughter to Mr. Page, in love with

Fenton.

Mrs. Quickly, fervant to Dr. Caius.

Servants to Page, Ford, &c.

SCENE, Windfor; and the parts adjacent.

Before Page's house in Windfor.

Enter Justice Shallow, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans.

S

SHALLOW.

IR Hugh, perfuade me not; I will make 3 a Star-chamber matter of it. If he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, he fhall not abuse Robert Shallow, Esquire.

Slen.

A few of the incidents in this comedy might have been, taken from fome old tranflation of the Il Pecorone of Giovanni' Fiorentino. I have lately met with the fame ftory in a very contemptible performance, intitled, The fortunate, the deceived, and the unfortunate Lovers. Of this book, as I am told, there are feveral impreffions; but that in which I read it, was published in 1632, quarto. A fomething fimilar ftory occurs in The Piacevoli Notti di Straparola. Nott. 42. Fav. 4. STEEV. 2 The Merry Wives of Windfor.] Queen Elizabeth was fo well pleased with the admirable character of Falftaff in The Two Parts of Henry IV. that, as Mr. Rowe informs us, the commanded Shakespeare to continue it for one play more, and to fhew him in love. To this command we owe The Merry Wives. of Windfor which, Mr. Gildon fays, he was very well affured, VOL. I.

N

our

Slen. In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace, and Coram.

Shal. Ay, coufin Slender, and 4 Cuftalorum.

Slen. Ay, and Ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, mafter parfon; who writes himself Armigero; in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, Armigero. Shal. Ay, that I do; and have done any time thefe three hundred years.

Slen. All his fucceffors, 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.

Eva. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; it agrees well, paffant: it is a familiar beaft to man, and fignifies-love.

Shal. 5 The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat.

Slen.

our author finished in a fortnight. But this must be meant only of the first imperfect sketch of this comedy; an old quarto edition which I have feen, printed in 1602; which fays in the title-page-As it hath been divers times acted both before her majefty, and elsewhere. Pope. THEOBALD.

3

a Star-chamber matter of it.] Ben Jonfon intimates, that the Star-chamber had a right to take cognizance of such See The Magnetick Lady, A&t 3. Sc. 4.

matters.

"There is a court above, of the Star-chamber,
"To punish routs and riots." STEEVENS.

Cuftalorum.] This is, I fuppofe, intended for a corruption of Cuftos Rotulorum. The mistake was hardly defigned by the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read:

Shal. Ay, coufin Slender, and Cuftos Rotulorum.

It follows naturally:

Slen. Ay, and Ratalorum too. JOHNSON.

5 The luce, &c.] I fee no confequence in this anfwer. Perhaps we may read, the falt fish is not an old coat. That is, the fresh fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the falt fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the fea. JOHNSON. Shakespeare, by hinting that the arms of the Shallows and the Lucys were the fame, fhews he could not forget his old friend Sir Tho. Lucy, pointing at him under the character of

Juftice

Slen. I may quarter, coz.

Shal. You may, by marrying.

Eva. It is marring, indeed, if he quarter it.
Shal. Not a whit.

Eva. Yes, py'r-lady; if he has a quarter of your coat, there is but three fkirts for yourself, in iny fimple conjectures. But that is all one: if Sir John Falltaff have committed difparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and compromifes between you.

Shal. The council fhall hear it; it is a riot.

Eva.

Juftice Shallow. But to put the matter out of all doubt, Shakefpeare has here given us a diftinguishing mark, whereby it appears that Sir Thomas was the very perfon reprefented by Shallow. To fet blundering parfon Evans right, Shallow tells him, the luce is not the loufe, but the fresh fish, or pike, the falt 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 falt fif originally; but when William, fon of Walter de Charlcott, affumed the name of Lucy, in the the time of Henry III. he took the arms of the Lucys. This is not at all improbable; for we find, when Maud Lucy bequeathed her eftates to the Pefcys, 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 fay further, it is likely he took the arms of the Lucys at the fame time. SMITH.

The luce is a pike or jack.

Many a fair partriche had he in mewe,

"And many a breme, and many a luce in ftewe."

Chaucer's Prol. of the Cant. Tales, 351, 352. In Ferne's Blazon of Gentry, 1586, quarto, the arms of the Lucy family are reprefented as an inftance, that "figns of the "coat fhould fomething agree with the name. It is the coat "of Geffray Lord Lucy. He did bear gules, three lucies “hariant, argent." STEEVENS.

6 The council fhall hear it; it is a riot.] He alludes to a statute made in the reign of K. Henry IV. (13 chap. 7.) by which it is enacted, "That the juftices, three, or two of them, and "the fheriff, fhall certify before the king, and his counfelle, "all the deeds and circumftances thereof (namely the riot) which certification fhould be of the like force as the pre

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«fent

Eva. It is not meet the council hear of a riot; there is no fear of Got in a riot: the council, look you, shall defire to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your viza-ments in that.

Shal. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the fword fhould end it.

Eva. It is petter that friends is the fword, and end it and there is also another device in my prain, which, peradventure, prings goot difcretions with it: there is Ann Page, 7 which is daughter to mafter George Page, which is pretty virginity.

Slen. Mrs. Ann Page? fhe has brown hair, and 8 fpeaks finall like a woman.

Eva. It is that very perfon for all the 'orld, as just as you will defire; and feven hundred pounds of monies, and gold, and filver, is her grandfire, upon his death's-bed (Got deliver to a joyful refurrections !) give, when fhe is able to overtake feventeen years old: it were a goot motion, if we leave our pribbles and prabbles, and defire a marriage between master Abraham and miftrefs Ann Page.

Slen. Did her grandfire leave her feven hundred pounds?

Eva. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. Slen. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good gifts.

"fentment of twelve: upon which certificate the trefpaffers "and offenders fhall be put to anfwer, and they which be "found guilty fhall be punished, according the discretion of the kinge and counselle." Dr. GRAY.

8

7-which is daughter to mafter Thomas Page,] The whole ' fet of editions have negligently blundered one after another in Page's Chriflian name in this place; though Mrs. Page calls him George afterwards in at least fix feveral paffages. THEOB. peaks SMALL like a woman.] This is from the folio of 1623, and is the true reading. He admires her for the sweetnefs of her voice. But the expreffion is highly humourous, as making her speaking fmall like a woman one of her marks of diflinction; and the ambiguity of small, which fignifies little as well as low, makes the expreffion ftill more pleasant.

WARBURTON.

Shal.