Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended.

Ch. Just. What's the matter? keep the peace here, ho! Host. Good my lord, be good to me! I beseech you, stand to me!

Ch. Just. How now, sir John? what, are you brawling here?

Doth this become your place, your time, and business? You should have been well on your way to York.Stand from him, fellow; Wherefore hang'st thou on him?

Host. O my most worshipful lord, an 't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.

Ch. Just. For what sum?

Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it is for all, all I have: he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his :but I will have some of it out again, or I 'll ride thee o'nights, like the mare.

8

Fal. I think, I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any vantage of ground to get up.

other from fustis, a club; i. e. a person whose weapon of defence is a cudgel, not being entitled to wear a sword.

The following passage, however, in A new Trick to cheat the Devil, 1639, seems to point out another derivation of rampallian: "And bold rampallian like, swear and drink drunk."

It may therefore mean a ramping riotous strumpet. Thus, in Greene's Ghost haunting Coneycatchers: "Here was Wiley Beguily rightly acted, and an aged rampalion put beside her schoole tricks." Steevens.

Fustilarian is, I believe, a made word, from fusty. Mr. Stee vens's last explanation of rampallian appears the true one.

7

Malone.

I'll tickle your catastrophe.] This expression occurs several times in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: "Bankes your ale is a Philistine; foxe zhart there fire i'th' tail ont; you are a rogue to charge us with mugs i'th' rereward. A plague o' this wind! O, it tickles our catastrophe." Again: " to seduce my blind customers; I'll tickle his catastrophe for this." Steevens. to ride the mare,] The Hostess had threatened to ride Falstaff like the Incubus or Night-Mare; but his allusion, (if it be not a wanton one) is to the Gallows, which is ludicrously called the Timber, or two-legg'd Mare. So, in Like Will to like, quoth the Devil to the Collier, 1587. The Vice is talking of Tyburn:

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"This piece of land whereto you inheritors are,

" Is called the land of the two-legg'd Mare.

Ch. Just. How comes this, sir John? Fy! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed, to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own?

Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

9

Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcelgilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Whitsunweek, when the prince broke thy head for liking his father to a singing-man1 of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow

2

"In this piece of ground there is a Mare indeed,
"Which is the quickest Mare in England for speed."

I think the allusion is only a wanton one. Malone.

9

66

Steevens.

a parcel-gilt goblet,] A parcel-gilt goblet is a goblet gilt only on such parts of it as are embossed. On the books of the Stationers' Company, among their plate, 1560, is the following entry : Item, nine spoynes of silver, whereof vii gylte and ii parcell-gylte." The same records contain fifty instances to the same purpose: of these spoons the saint or other ornament on the handle was the only part gilt. Thus, in Ben Jonson's Alchemist:

"His parcel-gilt to massy gold." Steevens.

Langham, describing a bride-cup, says it was "foormed of a sweet sucket barrell, a faire turn'd foot set too it, all seemly besylvered and parcel-gilt." Again, in The XII merry Iestes of the Widdow Edyth:

"A standyng cup with a cover parcell gilt. Ritson. Parcel-gilt means what is now called by artists party-gilt; that is, where part of the work is gilt, and part left plain or ungilded. Malone.

1

for liking his father to a singing-man -] Such is the reading of the first edition; all the rest have-for likening him to a singing man. The original edition is right; the Prince might allow familiarities with himself, and yet very properly break the knight's head when he ridiculed his father. Johnson.

Liking is the reading of the quarto, 1600, and is better suited to dame Quickly than likening, the word substituted instead of it, in the folio. Malone.

2

goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife,] A Keech is the fat of an ox rolled up by the butcher into a round lump. Steevens.

a mess of vinegar;3 telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some; whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone down stairs, desire me to be no more familiarity with such poor people; saying, that ere long they should call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it, if thou

canst.

Fal. My lord, this is a poor mad soul; and she says, up and down the town, that her eldest son is like you: she hath been in good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.

Ch. Just. Sir John, sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration; you have,4 as it appears to me, practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purse and person

Host. Yea, in troth, my lord.

Ch. Just. Pr'ythee, peace:-Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done with her; the one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.

3 a mess of vinegar;] So, in Mucedorus:

"I tell you all the messes are on the table already,
"There wants not so much as a mess of mustard.”

Again, in an ancient interlude published by Rastel; no title or date :

"Ye mary sometyme in a messe of vergesse."

A mess seems to have been the common term for a small proportion of any thing belonging to the kitchen. Steevens.

So the scriptural term: "a mess of pottage." Malone.

4

-you have, &c.] In the first quarto it is read thus:-You have, as it appears to me, practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman, and made her serve your uses both in purse and perWithout this, the following exhortation of the Chief Justice is less proper. Johnson.

son.

In the folio the words-" and made her serve" &c. were omitted. And in the subsequent speech "the villainy you have done with her," is improperly changed to "the villainy you have done her." Malone.

Fal. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap5 without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent sauciness: if a man will make court'sy, and say nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble duty remembered, I will not be your suitor; I say to you, I do desire de◄ liverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs.

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Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do wrong: but answer in the effect of your reputation, and satisfy the poor woman.

Fal. Come hither, hostess.

Enter GowER.

[Taking her aside.

Ch. Just. Now, master Gower; What news?

Gow. The king, my lord, and Harry prince of Wales Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells.

Fal. As I am a gentleman;

Host. Nay, you said so before.
Fal. As I am a gentleman;·

of it.

-Come, no more words

Host. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.

Fal. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking:7 and for thy walls, a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work, is worth

5 this sneap-] A Yorkshire word for rebuke. Pope. Sneap signifies to check; as children easily sneaped; herbs and fruits sneaped with cold weather. See Ray's Collection. Again, in Brome's Antipodes, 1638:

"Do you sneap me too, my lord?"

This word is derived from snyb, Scotch. We still use snub in the same sense. Steevens.

6

answer in the effect of your reputation,] That is, answer in a manner suitable to your character. Johnson.

7 - I must be fain to pawn

Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking:] Mrs. Quickly is here in the same state as the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, not having been paid for the diet, &c. of Mary Queen of Scots, while she was in his custody, in 1580, writes as follows to Thomas Bawdewyn: "I wold have you bye me glasses to drink in: Send me word what olde plat yeldes the ounce, for I wyll not leve me a cuppe of sylvare to drink in, but I wyll see the next terme my creditors payde." See Lodge's Illustrations of English History, Vol. II, p. 252. Steevens.

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a thousand of these bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canst. Come, an it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and 'draw thy action:1 Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; dost not know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this.

Host. Pray thee, sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; i' faith I am loth to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la. Fal. Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll be a fool still.

Host. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you 'll come to supper: You'll pay me all together?

Fal. Will I live?-Go, with her, with her; [to BARDOLPH2] hook on, hook on.

Host. Will you have Doll Tear-sheet meet you at supper?

German hunting in water-work,] i. e. in water colours.

Warburton.

So, in Holinshed, p. 819: "The king for himself had a house of timber, &c. and for his other lodgings he had great and goodlie tents of blew waterwork garnished with yellow and white." It appears also from the same Chronicle, p. 840, that these painted cloths were brought from Holland. The German hunting was therefore a subject very likely to be adopted by the artists of that country. Steevens.

The German hunting is, I suppose, hunting the wild boar. Shakspeare, in another place, speaks of "a full-acorn'd boar, a German one." Farmer.

9 these bed-hangings,] We should read dead-hangings, i. e. faded. Warburton.

I think the present reading may well stand. He recommends painted canvas instead of tapestry, which he calls bed-hangings, in contempt, as fitter to make curtains than to hang walls.

1 -'draw thy action:] Draw means here withdraw.

Johnson.

M. Mason.

2 to Bardolph] In former editions the marginal direction isto the Officers. Malone.

I rather suspect that the words hook on, hook on, are addressed to Bardolph, and mean, go you with her, hang upon her, and keep her in the same humour. In this sense the expression is used in The Guardian, by Massinger:

"Hook on; follow him, harpies." Steevens.