PERSONS REPRESENTED. SIR JOHN FALSTAFF. FENTON. SHALLOW, a Country Justice. MR. FORD, MR. PAGE, } Two Gentlemen dwelling at Windsor. WILLIAM PAGE, a Boy, Son to Mr. Page. Host of the Garter Inn. MRS. ANNE PAGE, her Daughter, in love with Fenton. MRS. QUICKLY, Servant to Dr. Caius. Servants to Page, Ford, &c. SCENE, Windsor; and the Parts adjacent. MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. ACT I. SCENE I. Windsor. Before PAGE's House. Enter Justice SHALLOW, SLENDER, and Sir HUGH EVANS. SHAL. Sir Hugh', persuade me not; I will make a Star-chamber matter of it: if he were twenty Sir Hugh,] This is the first, of sundry instances in our poet, where a parson is called Sir. Upon which it may be observed, that anciently it was the common designation both of one in holy orders and a knight. Fuller, somewhere in his Church History, says, that anciently there were in England more sirs than knights; and so lately as temp. W. & Mar. in a deposition in the Exchequer in a case of tythes, the witness speaking of the curate, whom he remembered, styles him, Sir Giles. Vide Gibson's View of the State of the Churches of Door, HomeLacy, &c. p. 36. SIR J. HAWKINS. Sir is the designation of a Bachelor of Arts in the Universities of Cambridge and Dublin; but is there always annexed to the surname ;-Sir Evans, &c. In consequence, however, of this, all the inferior Clergy in England were distinguished by this title affixed to their christian names for many centuries. Hence our author's Sir Hugh in the present play, Sir Topas in Twelfth Night, Sir Oliver in As You Like It, &c. In the register at Cheltenham there is the following entry: "1574, August 31, Sir John Evans, Curate of Cheltenham, buried." MALONE. Sir seems to have been a title formerly appropriated to such of the inferior clergy as were only Readers of the service, and not admitted to be preachers, and therefore were held in the lowest estimation; as appears from a remarkable passage in Machell's MS. Collections for the History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, in six volumes, folio, preserved in the Dean and Chapter's library at Carlisle. The reverend Thomas Machell, author of the Col 5 sir John Falstaff's, he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire. SLEN. In the county of Gloster, justice of peace, and coram. SHAL. Ay, cousin Slender, and Cust-alorum3. lections, lived temp. Car. II. Speaking of the little chapel of Martindale in the mountains of Westmoreland and Cumberland, the writer says, "There is little remarkable in or about it, but a neat chapel-yard, which by the peculiar * Richard Berket, care of the old Reader, Sir Richard *, clean, and as neat as a bowling-green." Within the limits of myne own memory 66 is kept Reader, Æt. 74. all Readers in chapels were called Sirs †, and of old have been writ so; whence, I suppose, such of the laity as received the noble order of knighthood being called Sirs too, for distinction sake had Knight writ after them; which had been superfluous, if the title Sir had been peculiar to them. But now this Sir Richard is the only Knight Templar (if I may so call him) that retains the old style, which in other places is much laid aside, and grown out of use." PERCY. See Mr. Douce's observations on the title, "Sir," (as given to Ecclesiasticks,) at the end of Act V. The length of this curious memoir obliges me to disjoin it from the page to which it naturally belongs. STEEVENS. 2 -a STAR-CHAMBER matter of it :] Ben Jonson intimates, that the Star-chamber had a right to take cognizance of such matters. See the Magnetic Lady, Act III. Se. ÏV.: 3 "There is a court above, of the Star-chamber, 66 To punish routs and riots." STEEVENS. Cust-alorum.] This is, I suppose, intended for a corruption of Custos Rotulorum. The mistake was hardly designed by the author, who, though he gives Shallow folly enough, makes him rather pedantic than illiterate. If we read: "Shal. Ay, cousin Slender, and Custos Rotulorum. It follows naturally: 66 Slen. Ay, and Ratolorum too." JOHNSON. I think, with Dr. Johnson, that this blunder could scarcely be intended. Shallow, we know, had been bred to the law at Clement's Inn. But I would rather read custos only; then In the margin is a MS. note seemingly in the hand-writing of Bp. Nicholson, who gave these volumes to the library. "Since I can remember there was not a reader in any chapel but was called Sir." SLEN. Ay, and ratolorum too; and a gentleman born, master parson; who writes himself armigero*; in any bill, warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero. 5 SHAL. Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three hundred years. SLEN. All his successors, gone before him, hath don't; and all his ancestors, that come after him, may: they may give the dozen white luces in their coat. SHAL. It is an old coat. EVA. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well; it agrees well, passant: it is a familiar beast to man, and signifies-love 7. Slender adds naturally, "Ay, and rotulorum too." He had heard the words custos rotulorum, and supposes them to mean different offices. FARMER. Perhaps Shakspeare might have intended to ridicule the abbreviations sometimes used in writs and other legal instruments, with which his Justice might have been acquainted. In the old copy the word is printed Cust-alorum, as it is now exhibited in the text. If, however, this was atended, it should be Cust-ulorum; and, it must be owned, abbreviation by cutting off the beginning of a word is not authorized by any precedent, except what we may suppose to have existed in Shallow's imagination. MALONE. who writes himself ARMIGERO:] Slender had seen the Justice's attestations, signed -jurat' coram me, Roberto Shallow, Armigero;" and therefore takes the ablative for the nominative case of Armiger. STEEvens. 4 66 5 Ay, that I do; and HAVE DONE-] i. e. all the Shallows have done. Shakspeare has many expressions equally licentious. 66 MALONE. Ay, that we do; " The old copy reads-" that I do.” This emendation was suggested to me by Dr. Farmer. STEEVENS. 6 The dozen white LOUSES do become an OLD COAT well; &c.] So, in The Penniless Parliament of thread-bare Poets, 1608: "But amongst all other decrees and statutes by us here set downe, wee ordaine and commaund, that three thinges (if they be not parted) ever to continue in perpetuall amitie, that is, a Louse in an olde doublet, a painted cloth in a painter's shop, and a foole and his bable." STEEVENS. 7 It is a familiar beast to man, and signifies love.] This little SHAL. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old coat 8. animal, which Sir Hugh speaks of so kindly, is thus complimented, I suppose, for its fidelity to man; as it does not desert him in distress, but rather sticks more close to him in his adversity. In a Latin tragedy on the subject of Nero by Dr. Matthew Gwinne, 1639, the tyrant exclaims, when deserted by his courtiers: O aulicorum perfidum ingratum genus BOSWELL. 8 The luce is the FRESH FISH; the SALT FISH is an old coat.] That is, the fresh fish is the coat of an ancient family, and the salt fish is the coat of a merchant grown rich by trading over the sea. JOHNSON. I am not satisfied with any thing that has been offered on this difficult passage. All that Mr. Smith told us was a mere gratis dictum. [His note, being worthless, is here omitted.] I cannot find that salt fish were ever really borne in heraldry. I fancy the latter part of the speech should be given to Sir Hugh, who is at cross purposes with the Justice. Shallow had said just before, the coat is an old one; and now, that it is the luce, the fresh fish. No, replies the parson, it cannot be old and fresh too"the salt fish is an old coat." I give this with rather the more confidence, as a similar mistake has happened a little lower in the scene," Slice, I say!" cries out Corporal Nym, " Pauca, pauca: Slice! that's my humour." There can be no doubt, but pauca, pauca, should be spoken by Evans. Again, a little before this, the copies give us : 66 Slender. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. 66 "Shallow. That he will not-'tis your fault, 'tis your fault :— 'tis a good dog." Surely it should be thus: "Shallow. You'll not confess, you'll not confess. "Slender. That he will not. "Shallow. 'Tis your fault, 'tis your fault," &c. FARMER. This fugitive scrap of Latin, pauca, &c. is used in several old pieces, by characters who have no more of literature about them than Nym. So, Skinke, in Look About You, 1600: "But pauca verba, Skinke." Again, in Every Man in his Humour, where it is called the bencher's phrase. STEEVENS. Shakspeare seems to frolick here in his heraldry, with a design not to be easily understood. In Leland's Collectanea, vol. i. part ii. p. 615, the arms of Geffrey de Lucy are "de goules poudre a croisil dor a treis luz dor." Can the poet mean to quibble upon the word poudré, that is, powdred, which signi |