Enter Miftrefs Page and Mistress Ford.

Page. How now, Meg?

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George?-Hark you. Mrs. Ford. How now, fweet Frank? why art thou melancholy?

Ford.

attempting the north-weft paffage, and bringing home a black ftone, as he thought, full of gold ore: that it proved not fo, and that therefore Cataians and Frobishers became by-words for vain boafters.- -The whole is an idle dream. All the mystery of the term Cataian, for a liar, is only this. China was anciently called Cataia or Cathay, by the firft adventurers that travelled thither; fuch as M. Paulo, and our Mandeville, who told fuch incredible wonders of this new discovered empire (in which they have not been outdone even by the Jefuits themfelves, who followed them) that a notorious liar was usually called a Cataian. WARBURTON.

Mr. Theobald and Dr. Warburton have both told their stories with confidence, I am afraid, very difproportionate to any evidence that can be produced. That Cataian was a word ofhatred or contempt is plain, but that it fignified a boafter or a liar has not been proved. Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night, fays of the Lady Olivia to her maid, "thy Lady's a Cataian ;" but there is no reason to think he means to call her liar. Befides, Page intends to give Ford a reason why Piftol fhould not be credited. He therefore does not fay, I would not believe fuch a liar for that he is a liar is yet to be made probable: but he fays, I would not believe fuch a Cataian on any teftimony of his veracity. That is, "This fellow has fuch an odd appearance; "is fo unlike a man civilized, and taught the duties of life, "that I cannot credit him." To be a foreigner was always in England, and I fuppofe every where elfe, a reafon of diflike. So Pitol calls Slender in the first act, a mountain foreigner; that is, a fellow uneducated, and of grofs behaviour; and again in his anger calls Bardolph, Hungarian wight. JOHNSON.

I believe that neither of the commentators are in the right, but am far from profeffing, with any great degree of confidence, that I am happier in my own explanation. It is remarkable, that in Shakespeare, this expreffion—a true man is always put in oppofition (as it is in this inftance) to a thief.

So in Hen. IV. Part I.

66 -now the thieves have bound the true men." The Chinese (anciently called Catalans) are faid to be the moft dextrous of all the nimble-finger'd tribe. Pistol was known

Ford. I melancholy! I am not melancholy.-Get you home, go.

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now. Will you go, mistress Page?

Mrs. Page. Have with you.-You'll come to dinner, George?-Look, who comes yonder: fhe fhall be our meffenger to this paltry knight.

[Afide to Mrs. Ford.

Enter Mistress Quickly.

Mrs. Ford. Trust me, I thought on her: fhe'll fit it. Mrs. Page. You are come to fee my daughter Anne? Quic. Ay, forfooth; and, I pray, how does good mistress Anne?

Mrs. Page. Go in with us, and see; we have an hour's talk with you.

[Ex. Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford, and Mrs. Quickly. Page. How now, mafter Ford?

Ford. You heard what this knave told me; did you not?

Page. Yes; and you heard what the other told me ? Ford. Do you think there is truth in them?

Page. Hang 'em, flaves! I do not think the knight would offer it: but thefe that accufe him in his intent towards our wives, are a yoke of his discarded men ; very rogues, now they be out of fervice.

at Windfor to have had a hand in picking Slender's pocket, and therefore might be called a Cataian with propriety, if my explanation be admitted. From the ufe Sir Toby Belch makes of the word, little can be inferred with any certainty. Sir Toby is drunk, calls Malvolio by the name of an old fong, and talks, in fhort, nonfenfe. Cathaia is mentioned in The Tamer Tamed, of B. and Fletcher.

"I'll with you in the Indies, or Cathaia.”

The tricks of the Cataians are hinted at in one of the old bl. letter hiftories of that country. STEEVENS.

4 Very rogues, now they be out of Service.] A rogue is a wanderer or vagabond, and, in its confequential fignification, a cheat. JOHNSON.

Ford.

Ford. Were they his men?

Page. Marry, were they.

Ford. I like it never the better for that.-Does he lie at the Garter?

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend his voyage towards my wife, I would turn her loofe to him; and what he gets more of her than fharp words, let it lie on my head.

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loth to turn them together: a man may be too confident: I would have nothing lie on my head: I cannot be thus fatisfied.

Page. Look, where my ranting Hoft of the Garter comes: there is either liquor in his pate, or money in his purfe, when he looks fo merrily. How, now, mine Hoft?

Enter Hoft and Shallow.

Hoft. How, now, bully Rock? thou'rt a gentleman cavalero-juftice, I fay.

Shal. I follow, mine Hoft, I follow.-Good even, and twenty, good mafter Page! Mafter Page, will you go with us? we have fport in hand.

Hoft. Tell him, cavalero-juftice; tell him, bully Rock?

Shal. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh the Welch priest, and Caius the French doctor, Ford. Good mine Hoft o' the Garter, a word with

you.

Hoft. What fay'ft thou, bully Rock?

[They go a little afide. Shal. [To Page.] Will you go with us to behold it? My merry Hoft hath had the measuring of their weapons; and, I think, he hath appointed them contrary places for, believe me, I hear, the parfon is no jefter. Hark, I will tell you what our sport fhall be. Hoft. Haft thou no fuit against my knight, my guest-cavalier?

P 3

Ford.

1

Ford. None, I proteft: but I'll give you a pottle of burnt fack to give me recourfe to him, 5 and tell him, my name is Brook; only for a jest.

Hoft. My hand, bully. Thou fhalt have egrefs and regrefs; faid I well? and thy name fhall be Brook. It is a merry knight.-6 Will you go an-heirs? Shal. Have with you, mine hoft.

Page. I have heard, the Frenchman hath good skill in his rapier.

Shal. Tut, Sir, I could have told you more. In these times you ftand on distance, your paffes, ftoccado's, and I know not what. 'Tis the heart, mafter Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have feen the time with my 7 long fword, I would have made you four tall fellows fkip like rats.

5 -and tell him, my name is Brook ;] Thus both the old quartos; and thus moit certainly the poet wrote. We need no better evidence than the pun that Faltaf anon makes on the name, when Brook fends him fome burnt fack.

Such Brooks are welcome to me, that overflow with fuch liquor. The players, in their editions, altered the name to Broom.

6

THEOBALD.

-Will you go AN HEIRS?] This nonfenfe is fpoken to Shallow. We fhould read, Will you go ON, HERIS? i, e. Will you go on, mafter. Heris, an old Scotch word for mafter. WARBURTON.

The merry Hoft has already faluted them feparately by titles of diftinction; he therefore probably now addreffes them collectively by a general one-Will you go on, heroes? or, as probably-Will you go on, hearts? He calls Dr. Caius Heart of Elder; and adds, in a fubfequent fcene of this play, Farewell, my hearts. Hanmer reads-Mynheers. My brave hearts, or my bold hearts, is a common word of encouragement. A heart of gold expreffes the more foft and amiable qualities, the Mores aurei of Horace; and a heart of oak is a frequent encomium of rugged honefly. STEEVENS.

7my long word,] Not long before the introduction of rapiers, the words in ufe were of an enormous length, and fometimes raifed with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, cenfures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long Sword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON. See a note to the First Part of K. Hen. IV. p. 280. STEEV,

Hoft,

Hoft. Here, boys, here, here! fhall we wag? Page. Have with you: I had rather hear them fcold than fight. [Exeunt Hoft, Shallow, and Page. Ford. Though Page be a fecure fool, and ftand fo firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily. She was in his company at Page's houfe; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't: and I have a disguise to found Falstaff: if I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if fhe be otherwise, 'tis labour well bestow'd.

[Exit.

8 and ftand fo firmly on bis wife's frailty,] No, furely; Page stood tightly to the opinion of her honefty, and would not entertain a thought of her being frail. I have therefore ventured to fubftitute a word correfpondent to the fenfe required; and one, which our poet frequently uses to fignify conjugal faith. THEOBALD.

ftand fo firmly on his wife's frailty,-] Thus all the copies. But Mr. Theobald had no conception how any man could ftand firmly on his wife's frailty. And why? Because he had no conception how he could stand upon it, without knowing what it was. But if I tell a ftranger, that the bridge he is about to cross is rotten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not fay, when I fee him upon it, that he ftands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford editor has followed him. But they took the phrafe, to ftand firmly on, to fignify to infift upon; whereas it fignifies to reft upon, which the character of a fecure fool, given to him, fhews. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be loft in the alteration. WARBURTON.