minions of the moon: And let men say, we be men of good government; being govern'd as the sea is, by our noble and chafte mistress the moon, under whofe countenance we-fteal. P. HEN. Thou fay'ft well; and it holds well too: for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the fea; being govern'd as the fea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: A purfe of gold most resolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and moft diffolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing-lay by; and spent with crying-bring in: now, in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and, by and by, in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows. 9 FAL. By the Lord, thou fay'ft true, lad. And is not my hoftefs of the tavern a moft fweet wench?3 So lamenteth Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, in The Mirror for Magiftrates. HENDERSON. We learn from Hall, that certain perfons who appeared as forefters in a pageant exhibited in the reign of King Henry VIII. were called Diana's knights. MALONE. 9 got with fwearing-lay by;] i. e. fwearing at the pasfengers they robbed, lay by your arms; or rather, lay by was a phrafe that then fignified ftand ftill, addreffed to thofe who were preparing to rush forward. But the Oxford editor kindly accommodates thefe old thieves with a new cant phrafe, taken from Bagfhot-heath or Finchley-common, of lug out. WARBURTON. To lay by, is a phrase adopted from navigation, and fignifies, by flackening fail to become stationary. It occurs again in King Henry VIII: 2 3 "Even the billows of the fea 66 Hung their heads, and then lay by." STEEVENS. and spent with crying, bring in:] i. e. more wine. MALONE. And is not my hoftefs of the tavern &c.] We meet with the fame kind of humour as is contained in this and the three following speeches, in The Moftellaria of Plautus, A& I. fc. ii: "Jampridem ecaftor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter, "Nec unde me melius, mea Scapha, rear effe defocatam, B b VOL. VIII. P. HEN. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? Sca." Eventus rebus omnibus, velut horno meffis magna fuit. In the want of connection to what went before, probably confists the humour of the Prince's queftion. STEEVENS. This kind of humour is often met with in old plays. In The Gallathea of Lyly, Phillida fays: "It is a pittie that nature framed you not a woman. "Gall. There is a tree in Tylos, &c. "Phill. What a toy it is to tell me of that tree, being nothing to the purpose," &c. Ben Jonfon calls it a game at vapours. FARMER. 4 As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle.] Mr. Rowe took notice of a tradition, that this part of Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle. An ingenious correfpondent hints to me, that the paffage above quoted from our author, proves what Mr. Rowe tells us was a tradition. Old lad of the caftle feems to have a reference to Oldcastle. Befides, if this had not been the fact, why, in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. where our author promifes to continue his ftory with Sir John in it, fhould he fay, Where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a fweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." This looks like declining a point that had been made an objection to him. I'll give a farther matter in proof, which feems almost to fix the charge. I have read an old play, called, The famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, containing the honourable battle of Agincourt.-The action of this piece commences about the 14th year of K. Henry the Fourth's reign, and ends with Henry the Fifth's marrying Princefs Catharine of France. The fcene opens with Prince Henry's robberies. Sir John Oldcastle is one of the gang, and called Jockie; and Ned and Gadhill are two other comrades. From this old imperfect sketch, I have a fufpicion, Shakspeare might form his two parts of Henry IV. and his history of Henry V.; and confequently it is not improbable, that he might continue the mention of Sir John Oldcastle, till fome defcendant of that family moved Queen Elizabeth to command him to change the name. THEOBALD. my old lad of the caftle.] This alludes to the name Shakfpeare first gave to this buffoon character, which was Sir John Öldcastle; and when he changed the name he forgot to strike out 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 Falstaff, 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 History :-" 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. 66 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. Nash, 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 firft 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? Did you never fee "The play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle, 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 chaunce 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 roaft beefe."-Signor Kickshawe replies: "Let's have it, let's tafte on it, mine hoft, my noble fat actor." The caufe 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 Conversions hath made Oldcaftle a ruffian, a robber, and a rebel, and his authority taken from the ftage players." Oldcastle is reprefented 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 Falstaff 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 subject.-" Sir John Faftolfe, 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 |