FAL. But to fay, I know more harm of him than in myself, were to fay more than I know. That he is old, (the more the pity,) his white hairs do witnefs it: but that he is (faving your reverence,) a whoremafter, that I utterly deny. If fack and fugar be a fault,' God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a fin, then many an old host that I know, is damn'd: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins: but for fweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being as he is, old Jack Falstaff, ba If fack and fugar be a fault,] Sack with fugar was a favourite liquor in Shakspeare's time. In a letter defcribing Queen Elizabeth's entertainment at Killingworth caftle, 1575, by R. L. [Langham] bl. 1. 12mo. the writer fays, (p. 86,)" fipt I no more Jack and Jugar than I do malmzey, I fhould not blush fo much a dayz az I doo." And in another place, defcribing a minstrel, who, being fomewhat irafcible, had been offended at the company, he adds: "at laft, by fum entreaty, and many fair woords, with fack and fugar, we fweeten him again." P. 52. In an old MS. book of the chamberlain's account belonging to the city of Worcester, I alfo find the following article, which points out the origin of our word fack, [Fr. fec.] viz. " · Anno Eliz. xxxiiij. [1592] Item, For a gallon of clarett wyne, and feck, and a pound of fugar, geven to fir John Ruffell, iiij. s.' This Sir John Ruffell, I believe, was their reprefentative in parliament, or at leaft had profecuted fome fuit for them at the court. In the fame book is another article, which illustrates the history of the stage at that time, viz. "A. Eliz. xxxiiij. Item, Bestowed upon the queen's trumpeters and players, iiij. lb." PERCY. This liquor is likewife mentioned in Monfieur Thomas, by Beaumont and Fletcher, 1639, and in The Wild Goose Chase of the fame authors: You fhall find us at the tavern, Again, in Northward Hoe, 1607: "I use not to be drunk with fack and fugar." STEEVENS. nish not him thy Harry's company, banish not him thy Harry's company; banish plump Jack, and banifh all the world. P. HEN. I do, I will. [A knocking heard. Exeunt Hoftefs, Francis, and BARDOLPH. Re-enter BARDOLPH, running. BARD. O, my lord, my lord; the sheriff, with a most monstrous watch, is at the door. FAL. Out, you rogue! play out the play: I have much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff. Re-enter Hoftefs, haftily. HOST. O Jefu, my lord, my lord! FAL. Heigh, heigh! the devil rides upon a fiddleftick: What's the matter? Host. The sheriff and all the watch are at the door: they are come to fearch the houfe; Shall I let them in? FAL. Doft thou hear, Hal? never call a true piece of gold, a counterfeit: thou art effentially mad,' without seeming fo. 6 a fiddle-ftick:] I fuppofe this phrafe is proverbial. It occurs in The Humorous Lieutenant of Beaumont and Fletcher: 7 for certain, gentlemen, The fiend rides on a fiddle-flick." STEEVENS. mad,] Old copies-made. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. I am not fure that I understand this fpeech. Perhaps Falstaff means to fay, We must now look to ourselves; never call that which is real danger, fictitious or imaginary. If you do, you are a madman, though you are not reckoned one. Should you admit the fheriff to enter here, you will deferve that appellation. The firit words, however, "Never call," &c. may allude, not to real and imaginary danger, but to the fubfequent words only, effential and feeming madnefs. MALONE. P. HEN. And thou a natural coward, without inftinct. 8 FAL. I deny your major: if you will deny the fheriff, fo; if not, let him enter: if I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up! I hope, I fhall as foon be ftrangled with a halter, as another. P. HEN. Go, hide thee behind the arras;—the 8 I deny your major: if you will deny the fheriff, fo;] Falstaff clearly intends a quibble between the principal officer of a corporation, now called a mayor, to whom the Sheriff is generally next in rank, and one of the parts of a logical propofition. RITSON. To render this fuppofition probable, it fhould be proved that the mayor of a corporation was called in Shakspeare's time ma-jor. That he was not called fo at an earlier period, appears from several old books, among others from The Hiftory of Edward V. annexed to Hardynge's Chronicle, 1543, where we find the old spelling was maire: he beeyng at the haveryng at the bower, fent for the maire and aldermen of London." Fol. 307, b.-If it shall be objected, that afterwards the pronunciation was changed to ma-jor, the following couplet in Jordan's Poems (no date, but printed about 1661,) may ferve to fhow that it is very unlikely that should have been the cafe, the pronunciation being at the Restoration the same as it is now : 66 and the major "Shall juftle zealous Ifaac from the chaire." MALONE. Major is the Latin word, and occurs, with the requifite pronunciation, as a diffyllable, in King Henry VI. Part I. (folio edition): 66 Major, farewell; thou doft but what thou may'st." RITSON. 9 hide thee behind the arras;] The bulk of Falftaff made him not the fittest to be concealed behind the hangings, but every poet facrifices fomething to the fcenery. If Falstaff had not been hidden, he could not have been found asleep, nor had his pockets fearched. JOHNSON. When arras was firft brought into England, it was fufpended on fmall hooks driven into the bare walls of houfes and caftles. But this practice was foon difcontinued; for after the damp of the ftone or brickwork had been found to rot the tapestry, it was fixed VOL. VIII. I i reft walk up above. Now, my mafters, for a true face, and good confcience. FAL. Both which I have had: but their date is out, and therefore I'll hide me. [Exeunt all but the Prince and PoINS. P. HEN. Call in the sheriff. Enter Sheriff, and Carrier. Now, master sheriff; what's your will with me? SHER. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry Hath follow'd certain men into this house. P. HEN. What men? SHER. One of them is well known, my gracious lord; 2 on frames of wood at fuch a distance from the wall, as prevented the latter from being injurious to the former. In old houses therefore, long before the time of Shakspeare, there were large spaces left between the arras and the walls, fufficient to contain even one of Falftaff's bulk. Such are thofe which Fantome mentions in The Drummer. Again, in The Bird in a Cage, 1633: "Does not the arras laugh at me? it thakes methinks. "Kat. It cannot choofe, there's one behind doth tickle it." Again, in Northward Hoe, 1607: " but foftly as a gentleman courts a wench behind the arras." Again, in King John, Act IV. fc. i: "Heat me these irons hot, and look thou stand "Within the arras." In Much Ado about Nothing, Borachio fays, "I whipp'd me behind the arras." Polonius is killed behind the arras. See likewife Holinfhed, Vol. III. p. 594. See alfo my note on the second scene of the first Act of King Richard II. p. 204. STEEVENS. So, in Brathwaite's Survey of Hiftories, 1614: " Pyrrhus, to terrifie Fabius, commanded his guard to place an elephant behind the arras." MALONE. 2my gracious lard;] We have here, I believe, another A grofs fat man. CAR. As fat as butter.' P. HEN. The man, I do affure you, is not here; * For I myself at this time have employ'd him. And, fheriff, I will engage my word to thee, That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time, Send him to answer thee, or any man, For any thing he shall be charg'd withal: And fo let me entreat you leave the house. SHER. I will, my lord: There are two gentle men Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks. men, He shall be answerable; and so, farewell. SHER. Good night, my noble lord. P. HɛN. I think, it is good morrow; Is it not? SHER. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock. [Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier. P. HEN. This oily rafcal is known as well as Paul's. Go, call him forth. playhouse intrufion. Strike out the word gracious, and the metre becomes perfect; P. Hen. What men? One of them is well known, my lord. 3 As fat as butter.] I fuppofe our author, to complete the verse, originally wrote-- A man as fat as butter. STEEVENS. 4 The man, I do affure you, is not here ;] Every reader must regret that Shakspeare would not give himfelf the trouble to furnish prince Henry with fome more pardonable excufe; without obliging him to have recourse to an abfolute falfehood, and that too uttered under the fanction of fo ftrong an affurance. STEEVENS. |
