SHAL. Tut, fir, I could have told you more: In thefe times you ftand on distance, your paffes, ftoccadoes, and I know not what: 'tis the heart, mafter Page; 'tis here, 'tis here. I have seen the time, with my long fword, I would have made you four tall. fellows fkip like rats,

my long fword,] Before the introduction of rapiers, the fwords in ufe were of an enormous length, and fometimes raised with both hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, cenfures the innovation by which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have done with his long Sword, and ridicules the terms and rules of the rapier. JOHNSON.

The two handed fword is mentioned in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date :

"Somtyme he ferveth me at borde,

"Somtyme he bereth my two-hand fword."

See a note to The First Part of K. Henry IV. A& II.

STEEVENS,

Dr. Johnfon's explanation of the long fword is certainly right; for the early quarto reads my two-hand word; fo that they appear to have been synonymous.

Carleton, in his Thankful Remembrance of God's Mercy, 1625, fpeaking of the treachery of one Rowland York, in betraying the town of Deventer to the Spaniards in 1587, fays: " he was a Londoner, famous among the cutters in his time, for bringing in a new kind of fight - to run the point of the rapier into a man's body. This manner of fight he brought first into England, with great admiration of his audacioufnefs: when in England before that time, the ule was, with little bucklers, and with broad fwords, to ftrike, and not to thruft; and it was accounted unmanly to ftrike under the girdle."

The Continuator of Stowe's Annals, p. 1024, edit. 1631, fuppofes the rapier to have been introduced fomewhat fooner, viz. about the 20th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, [1578] at which time, he fays, Sword and Bucklers began to be difufed. Shakspeare has here been guilty of a great anachronifm in making Shallow ridicule the terms of the rapier in the time of Henry IV. an hundred and feventy years before it was ufed in England. MALONE.

It fhould feem from a paffage in Nash's Life of Jacke Wilton, 1549, that rapiers were ufed in the reign of Henry VIII: « At that time I was no common fquire, &c. my rapier pendant like a round ftick faftned in the tacklings, for fkippers the better to climbe by." Sig. C 4. RITSON.

HOST. Here, boys, here, here! fhall we wag ? PAGE. Have with you :--I had rather hear them fcold than fight.

[Exeunt Hoft, SHALLOW, and PAGE. FORD. Though Page be a fecure fool, and ftands fo firmly on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion fo eafily: She was in his company at

tall fellows-] A tall fellow, in the time of our author, meant a flout, bold, or courageous perfon. In A Difcourfe on Ufury, by Dr. Wilfon, 1584, he fays, " Here in England, he that can rob a man on the high-way, is called a tall fellow." Lord Bacon fays, that bishop Fox caufed his saftle of Norham to be fortified, and manned it likewife with a very great number of tall foldiers."

The elder quarto reads-tall fencers.

STEEVENS.

ftands so firmly on his wife's frailty,] Thus all the copies. But Mr. Theobald has no conception how any man could ftand firmly on his wife's frailty, And why? Because he had no conception how he could ftand upon it, without knowing what it was. But if I tell a franger, that the bridge he is about to crofs is rotten, and he believes it not, but will go on, may I not fay, when I fee him upon it, that he ftands firmly on a rotten plank? Yet he has changed frailty for fealty, and the Oxford editor has followed him. But they took the phrase, to ftand firmly on, to fignify to infift upon; whereas it fignifies to rest upon, which the chara&er of a fecure fool, given to him, fhews. So that the common reading has an elegance that would be loft in the alteration. WARBURTON.

To fland on any thing, does fignify to infift on it. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: All captains, and ftand upon the honesty of your wives." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, Book VI. chap. 30:

"For ftoutly on their honefties dae wylie harlots fland," The jealous Ford is the fpeaker, and all chastity in women appears to him as frailty. He fuppofes Page therefore to infift on that virtue as feady, which he himself fufpe&ts to be without foundation. STEEVENS,

and ftands fo firmly on his wife's frailty, ]i. e. has fuch perfe& confidence in his unchafte wife. His wife's frailty is the fame as - his frail wife. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, we meet with death and honour, for an honourable death. MALONE.

Page's house; and, what they made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into't: and I have a disguise to found Falstaff: If I find her honeft, I lofe not my labour; if fhe be other wife, 'tis labour well beftow'd.

SCENE II.

A Room in the Garter Inn.

Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL.

[Exit.

FAL. I will not lend thee a penny.
PIST. Why, then the world's mine oyfter,"
Which I with fword will open.

I will retort the fum in equipage.

L

and, what they made there, ] An obfolete phrafe fignifying what they did there. MALONE,

So, in As you like it, A& I. fc. i:

66

"Now, fir, what make you here?" STEEVENS. the world's mine oyfter, &c.] Dr. Grey fuppofes Shak fpeare to allude to an old proverb, The mayor of Northampton opens oyfters with his dagger."-i. e. to keep them at a fufficient distance from his nofe, that town being fourfcorce miles from the fea. STEEVENS.

6 I will retort the fum in equipage. ] This is added from the old quarto of 1619, and means, I will pay you again in ftolen goods. WARBURTON.

I rather believe he means, that he will pay him by waiting on him for nothing. So, in Love's Pilgrimage, by Beaumont and

Fletcher:

And boy, be you my guide,

"For I will make a full defcent in equipage."

That equipage ever meant stolen goods, I am yet to learn.

STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton may be right; for I find equipage was one of the cant words of the time. In Davies Papers Complaint, (a poem which has erroneoufly been afcribed to Donne) we have feveral of them :

"Embellish, blandifhment, and equipage."

Which words, he tells us in the margin, overmuch favour of witleffe affectation. FARMER.

7

FAL. Not a penny. I have been content, fir, you should lay my countenance to pawn: I have grated upon my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow, Nym; or elfe you had look'd through the grate, like a geminy of baboons. I am damnn'd in hell, for fwearing to gentlemen my friends, you were good foldiers, and tall fellows : and when mifirefs Bridget loft the handle of her fan,' I took't upon mine honour, thou hadft it not.

Dr. Warburton's interpretation is, I think, right. Equipage indeed does not per fe fignify ftolen goods, but fuch goods a Pistol promises to return, we may fairly fuppofe, would be ftolen. Equi. page, which, as Dr. Farmer obferves, had been but newly intro duced into our language, is defined by Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616.: Furniture, or provifion for horfemanship, especially in triumphs or tournaments.' Hence the modern ufe of this word. MALONE. "

7

-your coach-fellow, Nym; ] Thus the old copies. Coachfellow has an obvious meaning; but the modern editors read, couch fellow. The following paffage from Ben Jonfon's Cynthia's Revels may juftify the reading I have chofen: " 'Tis the fwaggering coach-horfe Anaides, that draws with him there.

Again, in Monfieur D'Olive, 1606: "Are you he my page here makes choice of to be his fellow coach-horse?" Again, in a True Narrative of the entertainment of his Royal Majeftie, from the time of his departure from Edinburgh, till his receiving in London, &c. 1603: -a bafe pilfering theefe was taken, who plaid the cutpurfe in the court: his fellow was ill mift, for no doubt he had a walking-mate: they drew together like coach horses, and it is pitie they did not ha together." Again, in Every Woman in her humour, 1609:

"For wit, ye may be coach'd together."

Again, in 10th Book of Chapman's Tranflation of Homer: "their chariot horfe, as they coach-fellows were.

93

STEEVENS,

your coach-fellow, Nym;] i. e. he, who draws along with you; who is joined with you in all your knavery. So before, Page, fpeaking of Nym and Piftol, calls them a "yoke of Falstaff's difcarded men. MALONE.

8 —tail fellows: ] See p. 73. STEEVENS.

9 -loft the handle of her fan, ] It should be remembered,

that

PIST. Didft thou not fhare? hadft thou not fif teen pence?

fans, in our author's time, were more coftly than they are at prefent. as well as of a different conftru&ion. They confifted of oftrich fea- ' thers (or others of equal length and flexiblity,) which were fuck into handles. The richer fort of these were compofed of gold, filver, or Ivory of curious workmanship. One of them is mentioned in The Fleire, Com. 1610:"fhe hath a fan with a Jhort filver handle, about the length of a barber's fyringe. Again, in Love and Honour, by Sir W. D'Avenant, 1649: "All your plate, Vafco, is the filver handle of your old prifoner's fan. Again, in Marlton's III. Satyre, edit. 1598:

"How can he keepe a lazie waiting man,

And buy a hoode and filver-handled fan "With fortie pound ?"

In the frontispiece to a play, called Englishmen for my Money, or Apleafant Comedy of a Woman will have her Will, 1616, is a portrait of a lady with one of thefe fans, which, after all, may prove the best commentary on the paffage. The three other fpecimens are taken from the Habiti Antichi e Moderni di tutto il Mondo, published at Venice, 1598, from the drawings of Titian, and Cefare. Vecelli, his brother. This fashion was perhaps imported from Italy, together with many others, in the reign of King Henry VIII. if not in that of King Richard II.