FAL. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening,

Fal. Very well, my lord, very well:] In the quarto edition, printed in 1609, this fpeech stands thus:

Old. Very well, my lord, very well:

I had not obferved this, when I wrote my note to The First Part of Henry IV. concerning the tradition of Falftaff's character having been first called Oldcastle. This almoft amounts to a felf-evident proof of the thing being fo: and that the play being printed from the ftage manufcript, Oldcastle had been all along altered into Falstaff, except in this fingle place by an overfight; of which the printers not being aware, continued thefe initial traces of the original name. THEOBALD.

I am unconvinced by Mr. Theobald's remark. Old. might have been the beginning of fome actor's name. Thus we have Kempe and Cowley, instead of Dogberry and Verges, in the 4to. edit. of Much Ado about Nothing, 1600.

Names utterly unconnected with the perfonæ dramatis of Shakfpeare, are fometimes introduced as entering on the ftage. Thus, in The Second Part of King Henry IV. edit. 1600: "Enter th' Archbishop, Thomas Mowbray, (Earle Marshall) the Lord Haftings, Fauconbridge, and Bardolfe." Sig. B. 4.-Again: "Enter the Prince, Poynes, Sir John Ruffell, with others." Sig. C 3.Again, in King Henry V. 1600: "Enter Burbon, Conftable, Orleance, Gebon." Sig. D 2.

Old might have been inferted by a mistake of the fame kind; or indeed through the lazinefs of compofitors, who occafionally permit the letters that form fuch names as frequently occur, to remain together, when the reft of the page is diftributed. Thus it will fometimes happen that one name is fubftituted for another. This obfervation will be well understood by thofe who have been engaged in long attendance on a printing-houfe; and those to whom my remark appears obfcure, need not to lament their ignorance, as this kind of knowledge is ufually purchased at the expence of much time, patience, and difappointment.

In 1778, when the foregoing obfervations first appeared, they had been abundantly provoked. Juftice, however, obliges me to fubjoin, that no part of the fame cenfure can equitably fall on the printing-office or compofitors engaged in our prefent republication.

STEEVENS.

I entirely agree with Mr. Steevens in thinking that Mr. Theobald's remark is of no weight. Having already difcuffed the fubject very fully, it is here only neceffary to refer the reader to Vel. VIII. p. 371, et feq, in which I think I have fhewn that there is no proof what

the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.

CH. JUST. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not, if I do become your physician.

FAL. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not fo patient: your lordship may minifter the potion of imprisonment to me, in refpect of poverty; but how I fhould be your patient to follow your prefcriptions, the wife may make fome dram of a fcruple, or, indeed, a fcruple itself.

CH. JUST. I fent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me.

FAL. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-fervice, I did not

come.

CH. JUST. Well, the truth is, fir John, you live in great infamy.

FAL. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in lefs.

foever that Falstaff ever was called Oldcastle in thefe plays. The letters prefixed to this fpeech crept into the firft quarto copy, I have no doubt, merely from Oldcastle being, behind the scenes, the familiar theatrical appellation of Falftaff, who was his ftage-fucceffor. All the actors, copyifts, &c. were undoubtedly well acquainted with the former character, and probably used the two names indifcriminately.-Mr. Steevens's fuggeftion that Old. might have been the beginning of fome actor's name does not appear to me probable; because in the lift of " the names of the principal actors in all these plays" prefixed to the first folio, there is no actor whose name begins with this fyllable; and we may be fure that the part of Falstaff was performed by a principal actor.

MALONE.

Principal actors, as at prefent, might have been often changing from one play-house to another; and the names of fuch of them as had quitted the company of Hemings and Condell, might therefore have been purposfely omitted, when the lift prefixed to the folio 1623 was drawn up. STEEVENS.

CH. JUST. Your means are very slender, and your wafte is great.

FAL. I would it were otherwife; I would my means were greater, and my waist flenderer.

CH. JUST. You have misled the youthful prince. FAL. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog.'

CH. JUST. Well, I am loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's fervice at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-pofting that action.

FAL. My lord?

CH. JUST. But fince all is well, keep it fo: wake not a fleeping wolf.

FAL. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox. CH. JUST. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.

FAL. A waffel candle, my lord; all tallow:

3 he my dog.] I do not understand this joke. Dogs lead the blind, but why does a dog lead the fat? JOHNSON.

If the fellow's great belly prevented him from seeing his way, he would want a dog as well as a blind man. FARMER.

And though he had no abfolute occafion for him, Shakspeare would ftill have fupplied him with one. He feems to have been very little folicitous that his comparisons fhould anfwer completely on both fides. It was enough for him that men were fometimes led by dogs. MALONE.

A waffel candle, &c.] A waffel candle is a large candle lighted up at a feaft. There is a poor quibble upon the word wax, which fignifies increase as well as the matter of the honey-comb.

JOHNSON.

The fame quibble has already occurred in Love's Labour's Loft, A&t V. fc. ii:

"That was the way to make his godhead wax."

See Vol. V. p. 333, n. 5. MALONE.

STEEVENS.

if I did fay of wax, my growth would approve the truth.

CH. JUST. There is not a white hair on your face, but fhould have his effect of gravity.

FAL. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.

CH. JUST. You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.'

FAL. Not fo, my lord; your ill angel is light;. but, I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing: and yet, in fome refpects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell: Virtue is of fo little regard in thefe cofter-monger times,' that true

You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.] Thus the quarto, 1600. Mr. Pope reads with the folio, 1623,evil angel. STEEVENS.

What a precious collator has Mr. Pope approved himself in this paffage! Befides, if this were the true reading, Falftaff could not have made the witty and humorous evafion he has done in his reply. I have reftored the reading of the oldeft quarto. The Lord Chief Juftice calls Falstaff the Prince's ill angel or genius: which Falitaff turns off by faying, an ill angel (meaning the coin called an angel) is light; but, furely, it cannot be faid that he wants weight: ergothe inference is obvious. Now money may be called ill, or bad; but it is never called evil, with regard to its being under weight. This Mr. Pope will facetioufly call reftoring loft puns: but if the author wrote a pun, and it happens to be loft in an editor's indolence, I fhall, in fpite of his grimace, venture at bringing it back to light. THEOBALD.

"As light as a clipt angel," is a comparison frequently used in the old comedies. So, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: The law fpeaks profit, does it not?

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"Faith, fome bad angels haunt us now and then." STEEVENS. I cannot go, I cannot tell:] I cannot be taken in a reckoning; I cannot pass current. JOHNSON.

7in thefe cofter-monger times,] In thefe times when the prevalence of trade has produced that meannefs that rates the merit of every thing by money. JOHNSON.

A cofter-monger is a coftard-monger, a dealer in apples called by that name, because they are fhaped like a coffard, i. c. man's head. See Vol. V. p. 229, n. 8; and p. 233, n. 5. STELVENS.

valour is turn'd bear-herd: Pregnancy is made a tapfter, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age fhapes them, are not worth a gooseberry. You, that are old, confider not the capacities of us that are young; you meafure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confefs, are wags too.

CH. JUST. Do you fet down your name in the fcroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moift eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreafing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind fhort? your chin double? your wit fingle? and every part about you blafted with

9

Pregnancy-] Pregnancy is readinefs. So, in Hamlet:
"How pregnant his replies are?" STEEVENS.

-your wit fingle?] We call a man fingle-witted, who attains but one fpecies of knowledge. This fenfe I know not how to apply to Falstaff, and rather think that the Chief Juftice hints at a calamity always incident to a grey-hair'd wit, whofe misfortune is, that his merriment is unfashionable. His allufions are to forgotten facts; his illuftrations are drawn from notions obfcured by time; his wit is therefore fingle, fuch as none has any part in but himself. JOHNSON.

I believe all that Shakspeare meant was, that he had more fat than wit; that though his body was bloated by intemperance to twice its original fize, yet his wit was not increased in proportion to it.

In ancient language, however, fingle often means fmall, as in the inftance of beer; the ftrong and weak being denominated double and fingle beer. So, in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "fufficient fingle beer, as cold as chryftal." Macbeth alfo speaks of his "fingle state of man." See Vol. VII. p. 360, n. 5. STEEVENS.

Johnfon's explanation of this paffage is not conceived with his ufual judgement. It does not appear that Falstaff's merriment was antiquated or unfafhionable; for if that had been the cafe, the