FAL. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy quips, and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?

this expreffion that alluded to it. The reafon of the change was this; one Sir John Oldcastle having fuffered in the time of Henry the Fifth for the opinions of Wickliffe, it gave offence, and therefore the poet altered it to Falftaff, and endeavours to remove the fcandal in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. Fuller takes notice of this matter in his Church Hiftory:-" Stage-poets have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of fir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royfter, and a coward to boot. The best is, fir John Falstaff hath relieved the memory of fir John Oldcastle, and of late is fubftituted buffoon in his place." Book IV. p. 168. But, to be candid, I believe there was no malice in the matter. Shakspeare wanted a droll name to his character, and never confidered whom it belonged to. We have a like inftance in The Merry Wives of Windfor, where he calls his French quack, Caius, a name at that time very refpectable, as belonging to an eminent and learned phyfician, one of the founders of Caius College in Cambridge. WARBURTON.

The propriety of this note the reader will find contested at the beginning of K. Henry V. Sir John Oldcastle was not a character ever introduced by Shakspeare, nor did he ever occupy the place of Falftaff. The play in which Oldcastle's name occurs, was not the work of our poet.

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Old lad is likewife a familiar compellation to be found in fome of our most ancient dramatick pieces. So, in The Trial of Treasure, 1567: What, Inclination, old lad art thou there?" In the dedication to Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. by T. Nath, 1598, old Dick of the caftle is mentioned.

Again, in Pierce's Supererogation, or a New Praife of the Old Affe, 1593: "And here's a lufty ladd of the caftell, that will binde beares, and ride golden affes to death." STEEVENS.

Old lad of the caftle, is the fame with Old lad of Caftile, a Caftilian. Meres reckons Oliver of the caftle amongst his romances: and Gabriel Harvey tells us of "Old lads of the caftell with their rapping babble."-roaring boys.-This is therefore no argument for Falftaff's appearing first under the name of Oldcastle. There is however a paffage in a play called Amends for Ladies, by Field the player, 1618, which may feem to prove it, unless he confounded the different performances:

P. HEN. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hoftefs of the tavern?

"The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle,
"Did tell you truly what this honour was?"

FARMER.

Fuller, befides the words cited in the note, has in his Worthies, p. 253, the following paffage: "Sir John Oldcastle was firft made a thrafonical puff, an emblem of mock valour, a make-sport in all plays, for a coward." Speed, likewife, in his Chronicle, edit. 2. p. 178, fays: "The author of The Three Converfions (i. e. Parfons the Jefuit), hath made Oldcastle a ruffian, a robber, and a rebel, and his authority, taken from the flage players, is more befitting the pen of his flanderous report, than the credit of the judicious, being only grounded from the papift and the poet, of like confcience for lies, the one ever feigning, and the other ever falfifying the truth." RITSON.

From the following paffage in The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinaire, or the Walkes in Powles, quarto, 1604, it appears that Sir John Oldcastle was reprefented on the ftage as a very fat man (certainly not in the play printed with that title in 1600):-" Now, figniors, how like you mine hoft? did I not tell you he was a madde round knave and a merrie one too? and if you chance to talke of fatte Sir John Oldcastle, he will tell you, he was his great grand-father, and not much unlike him in paunch."-The hoft, who is here defcribed, returns to the gallants, and entertains them with telling them ftories. After his firft tale, he fays: "Nay gallants, I'll fit you, and now I will ferve in another, as good as vinegar and pepper to your roast beefe."-Signor Kickshawe replies: "Let's have it, let's tafte on it, mine hoft, my noble fat

actor."

The cause of all the confufion relative to these two characters, and of the tradition mentioned by Mr. Rowe, that our author changed the name from Oldcastle to Falftaff, (to which I do not give the fmalleft credit,) feems to have been this. Shakspeare appears evidently to have caught the idea of the character of Falstaff from a wretched play entitled The famous Victories of King Henry V. (which had been exhibited before 1589,) in which Henry Prince of Wales is a principal character. He is accompanied in his revels and his robberies by Sir John Oldcastle, (" a pamper'd glutton, and a debauchee," as he is called in a piece of that age,) who appears to be the character alluded to in the paffage above quoted from The Meeting of Gallants, &c. To this character undoubtedly it is that

FAL. Well, thou haft call'd her to a reckoning, many a time and oft.

Fuller alludes in his Church Hiftory, 1656, when he fays, " Stage poets have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royfter, and a coward to boot." Speed in his Hiftory, which was firft published in 1611, alludes both to this" boon companion" of the anonymous K. Henry V. and to the Sir John Oldcastle exhibited in a play of the fame name, which was printed in 1600: "The author of The Three Converfions hath made Oldcastle a ruffian, a robber, and a rebel, and his authority taken. from the ftage players." Oldcastle is represented as a rebel in the play laft mentioned alone; in the former play as "a ruffian and a robber."

Shakspeare probably never intended to ridicule the real Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham, in any refpect; but thought proper to make Falstaff, in imitation of his proto-type, the Oldcastle of the old K. Henry V. a mad round knave alfo. From the first appearance of our author's King Henry IV. the old play in which Sir John Oldcastle had been exhibited, (which was printed in 1598,) was probably never performed. Hence, I conceive, it is, that Fuller fays, "Sir John Falftaff has relieved the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, and of late is fubftituted buffoon in his place;" which being mifunderstood, probably gave rife to the story, that Shakspeare changed the name of his character.

A paffage in his Worthies, folio, 1662, p. 253, fhows his meaning ftill more clearly; and will ferve at the fame time to point out the fource of the mistakes on this fubject." Sir John Fastolfe, knight, was a native of this county [Norfolk]. To avouch him by many arguments valiant, is to maintain that the fun is bright; though, fince, the stage has been over-bold with his memory, making him a Thrafonical puff, and emblem of mock-valour.-True it is, Sir John Oldcastle did first bear the brunt of the one, being made the makefport in all plays for a coward. It is eafily known out of what purfe this black penny came. The papifts railing on him for a heretick; and therefore he must be alfo a coward: though indeed he was a man of arms, every inch of him, and as valiant as any of

his age.

"Now as I am glad that Sir John Oldcastle is put out, so I am forry that Sir John Faftolfe is put in, to relieve his memory in this bafe fervice; to be the anvil for every dull wit to strike upon. Nor is our comedian excufable by fome alteration of his name, writing him Sir John Falftafe, (and making him the property and

P. HEN. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? FAL. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou haft paid all there.

pleasure of King Henry V. to abufe,) feeing the vicinity of founds intrench on the memory of that worthy knight."

Here we see the affertion is, not that Sir John Oldcastle did firft bear the brunt in Shakspeare's play, but in all plays, that is, on the stage in general, before Shakspeare's character had appeared; owing to the malevolence of papifts, of which religion it is plain Fuller fuppofed the writers of thofe plays in which Oldcastle was exhibited, to have been; nor does he complain of Shakspeare's altering the name of his character from Oldcastle to Falstaff, but of the metathefis of Faftolfe to Falftaff. Yet I have no doubt that the words above cited, " put out" and "put in," and "by fome alteration of his name," that these words alone, misunderstood, gave rife to the misapprehenfion that has prevailed fince the time of Mr. Rowe, relative to this matter. For what is the plain meaning of Fuller's words?" Sir John Faftolfe was in truth a very brave man, though he is now reprefented on the ftage as a cowardly braggart. Before he was thus ridiculed, Sir John Oldcastle, being hated by the papifts, was exhibited by popish writers, in all plays, as a coward. Since the new character of Falstaff has appeared, Oldcastle has no longer borne the brunt, has no longer been the object of ridicule: but, as on the one hand I am glad that his memory has been relieved,' that the plays in which he was reprefented have been expelled from the fcene, fo on the other, I am forry that fo refpectable a character as Sir John Faftolfe has been brought on it, and fubftituted buffoon in his place;' for however our comick poet [Shakspeare] may have hoped to escape cenfure by altering the name from Faftolfe to Falstaff, he is certainly culpable, fince fome imputation muft neceffarily fall on the brave knight of Norfolk from the fimilitude of the founds."

Falftaff having thus grown out of, and immediately fucceeding, the other character, (the Oldcastle of the old K. Henry V.) having one or two features in common with him, and being probably represented in the fame drefs, and with the fame fictitious belly, as his predeceffor, the two names might have been indifcriminately ufed by Field and others, without any mistake, or intention to deceive. Perhaps, behind the fcenes, in confequence of the circumftances already mentioned, Oldcastle might have been a cant appellation for Falftaff, for a long time. Hence the name might have been prefixed inadvertently, in fome play-house copy, to one of the speeches in The Second Part of K. Henry IV.

P. HEN. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would ftretch; and, where it would not, I have used my credit.

FAL. Yea, and so used it, that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, fweet wag, fhall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and refolution thus fobb'd as it is, with the rufty curb of old father

If the verses be examined, in which the name of Falftaff occurs, it will be found, that Oldcastle could not have ftood in those places. The only answer that can be given to this, is, that Shakspeare newwrote each verfe in which Falstaff's name occurred; a labour which thofe only who are entirely unacquainted with our author's history and works, can fuppofe him to have undergone.-A paffage in the Epilogue to The Second Part of K. Henry IV, rightly underftood, appears to me ftrongly to confirm what has been now fuggefted. See the note there. MALONE.

5 And is not a buff jerkin a moft fweet robe of durance?] To understand the propriety of the Prince's anfwer, it must be remarked that the fheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff afks, whether his hoftefs is not a fweet wench, the Prince asks in return whether it will not be a fweet thing to go to prifon by running in debt to this feet wench. JOHNSON.

The following paffage from the old play of Ram-Alley, may ferve to confirm Dr. Johnfon's observation:

"Look, I have certain goblins in buff jerkins,
Lye ambuscado.'

Again, in The Comedy of Errors, A&t iv:

[Enter Serjeants,

"A devil in an everlasting garment hath him,

"A fellow all in buff."

Durance, however, might also have fignified some lafting kind of ftuff, fuch as we call at prefent, everlafting. So, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webfter, 1607: "Where did'ft thou buy this buff? Let me not live but I will give thee a good fuit of durance, Wilt thou take my bond?" &c.

Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "Varlet of velvet, my moccado villain, old heart of durance, my ftrip'd canvas shoulders, and my perpetuana pander." Again, in The Three Ladies of London, 1584: As the taylor that out of feven yards, ftole one and a half of durance." STEEVENS.