SHAL. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, sir John :-marry, good air-Spread, Davy; spread, Davy; well said, Davy. FAL. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serving-man, and your husbandman'. SHAL. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, sir John.-By the mass1, I have drunk too much sack at supper:--A good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down :-come, cousin. SIL. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a,-we shall And praise heaven for the merry year; [Singing. were generally part of the desert in Shakspeare's time. See particularly Murrel's Cookery, &c. A late writer however asserts that caraways is the name of an apple as well known to the natural inhabitants of Bath, as nonpareil is in London, and as generally associated with golden pippins. He observes also that if Shakspeare had meant comfits he would have said, "a dish of last year's pippins with carraways."-With a dish, &c. clearly means something distinct from the pippins. Jackson's Thirty Letters, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 42. REED. The following passage in Cogan's Haven of Health, 4to. bl. 1. 1595, will at once settle this important question: "This is a confirmation of our use in England, for the serving of apples and other fruites last after meales. Howbeit we are wont to eate carawaies or biskets, or some other kind of comfits or seedes together with apples, thereby to breake winde ingendred by them: and surely it is a very good way for students." STEEVENS. 8 barren, barren; beggars all,-good air.] Justice Shallow alludes to a witticism frequent among rusticks, who, when talking of a healthy country, pleasantly observe: "Yes, it is a good air, more run away than die." HOLT White. 9 and your HUSBANDMAN.] Old copy-husband. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. I am not sure that the emendation is necessary. "He was a wise man, and a good," was the language of our author's time. See also Falstaff's preceding speech. MALONE. By the mass,] So, in Springes for Woodcocks, a collection of epigrams, 1606, Ep. 221: "In elders' time, as ancient custom was, "Men swore in weighty causes by the masse; "But when the masse went down, (as others note,) "Their oathes were, by the crosse of this same groat," &c, STEEVENS. When flesh is cheap and females dear2, And ever among so merrily3. FAL. There's a merry heart!-Good master Silence, I'll give you a health for that anon. SHAL. Give master Bardolph some wine, Davy. DAVY. Sweet sir, sit; [Seating BARDOLPH and the Page at another table.] I'll be with you anon :most sweet sir, sit.- -Master page, good master page, sit: proface! What you want in meat, we'll 2 and females dear, &c.] This very natural character of Justice Silence is not sufficiently observed. He would scarcely speak a word before, and now there is no possibility of stopping his mouth. He has a catch for every occasion: "When flesh is cheap and females dear." Here the double sense of the word dear must be remembered. FARMER. 3 And EVER AMONG so merrily.] Ever among is used by Chaucer in The Romaunt of the Rose: "Ever among (sothly to saine) "I suffre noie and mochil paine." FARMER. Of the phrase-ever among, I find an example in the old MS. romance of The Sowdon of Babyloyne: "Thai eten and dronken right inowe, "But of the Sowdon speke we nowe It is observable that this phrase, in both instances, is applied to the purpose of festivity. STEEVENS. It occurs in the Not-browne Mayd : "Be it right or wrong, these men among, "On women do complain." Which Dr. Farmer proposed, erroneously, I think, to correct"'tis men among," supposing it a Latinism. See Percy's Reliques, vol. ii. p. 28, edit. 1794. So, Turbervile's Tragical Tales, p. 132, where it is certainly not applied to the purpose of festivity : "And whipt him now and then among." BOSWELL. 4-proface!] Italian, from profaccia; that is, much good may it do you. HANMER. *Sir Thomas Hanmer (says Dr. Farmer) is right, yet it is no argument for his author's Italian knowledge. Old Heywood, the epigrammatist, addressed his readers long before: have in drink. But you must bear; The heart's all 5. [Exit. SHAL. Be merry, master Bardolph ;—and my little soldier there, be merry. SIL. Be merry, be merry, my wife has all ; [Singing. "Readers, reade this thus: for preface, proface, So, Taylor, the Water-poet, in the title of a poem prefixed to his Praise of Hempseed: "A preamble, preatrot, preagallop, preapace, or preface; and proface, my masters, if your stomach serve." Decker, in his comedy of If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, makes Shackle-soule, in the character of Friar Rush, tempt his brethren "with choice of dishes :" "To which proface; with blythe lookes sit yee." I am still much in doubt whether there be such an Italian word as profaccia. Baretti has it not, and it is more probable that we received it from the French; proface being a colloquial abbreviation of the phrase.-" Bon prou leur face," i. e. 'Much good may it do them. See Cotgrave, in voce Prou. To the instances produced by Dr. Farmer, I may add one more from Springes for Woodcocks, a collection of epigrams, 1606, Ep. 110: Proface, quoth Fulvius, fill us t'other quart." 66 And another from Heywood's Epigrams: 66 I came to be merry, wherewith merrily Proface. Have among you," &c. Again, in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 528: " the cardinall came in booted and spurred, all sodainly amongst them, and bade them proface." STEEVENS. So, in Nashe's Apologie for Pierce Penniless, 1593: "A preface to courteous minds,- -as much as to say proface, much good may it do you! would it were better for you!" Sir T. Hanmer, (as an ingenious friend observes to me,) was mistaken in supposing profaccia a regular Italian word; the proper expression being buon pro vi faccia, much good may it do you! Profaccia is, however, as I am informed, a cant term used by the common people in Italy, though it is not inserted in the best Italian dictionaries. MALONE. That is, the intention with which the The humour consists in making Davy JOHNSON. 5 - The heart's all.] entertainment is given. act as master of the house. my wife's as all ;] 6 Old copy-has all. Dr. Farmer very acutely observes, that we should read-my wife's as all, i. e. as all This affords a natural introduction to what follows. women are. STEEVENS, For women are shrews, both short and tall: 'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all, And welcome merry shrove-tide". Be merry, be merry, &c. FAL. I did not think, master Silence had been a man of this mettle. SIL. Who I? I have been merry twice and once, ere now. "My wife has all" is an equally good introduction to what follows. It is a proof that she is a shrew. Boswell. 6'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all,] Mr. Warton, in his History of English Poetry, observes, that this rhyme is found in a poem by Adam Davie, called The Life of Alexander : 66 Merry swithe it is in halle, STEEVENS. which This song is mentioned by a contemporary author: done, grace said, and the table taken up, the plate presently conveyed into the pantrie, the hall summons this consort of companions (upon payne to dyne with duke Humphfrie, or to kisse the hare's foot) to appear at the first call: where a song is to be sung, the under song or holding whereof is, It is merrie in haul where beards wag all." The Serving-man's Comfort, 1598, sig. C. Again: "It is a common proverbe It is merry in hall, when beardes wag all." Briefe Conceipte of English Pollicye, by William Stafford, 1581. Reprinted 1751, as a work of Shakspeare's. REED. Shrove-tide was for 7 And welcome merry SHROVE-TIDE.] merly a season of extraordinary sport and feasting. In the Romish church there was anciently a feast immediately preceding Lent, which lasted many days, called Carniscapium. See Carpentier in v. Supp. Lat. Gloss. Du Cange, tom. i. p. 381. In some cities of France, an officer was annually chosen, called Le Prince D'Amoreux, who presided over the sports of the youth for six days before Ash-Wednesday. Ibid. v. Amoratus, p. 195; and v. Cardinalis, p. 818. Also, v. Spinetum, tom. iii. 848. Some traces of these festivities still remain in our universities. In The Percy Houshold-book, 1512, it appears, "that the clergy and officers of Lord Percy's chapel performed a play before his lordship upon Shrowftewesday at night." P. 345. T. WARTON. See also Dodsley's Collection of Old Plays, vol. xii. p. 403, last edition. REED. Re-enter DAVY. DAVY. There is a dish of leather-coats for you, [Setting them before BARDOLPH. SHAL. Davy, DAVY. Your worship?-I'll be with you straight. [TO BARD.]-A cup of wine, sir? SIL. A cup of wine, that's brisk and fine, And a merry heart lives long-ao. FAL. Well said, master Silence. [Singing. SIL. And we shall be merry ;-now comes in the sweet of the night1. FAL. Health and long life to you, master Silence. S. Fill the cup, and let it come"; I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom. SHAL. Honest Bardolph, welcome: If thou wantest any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart.-Welcome, my little tiny thief; [To the Page.] and welcome, indeed, too. I'll drink to 8-leather-coats-] The apple commonly denominated russetine, in Devonshire, is called the buff-coat. HENLEY. 9 a merry heart lives long-a.] the flesh." Proverbs, xiv. 30. “A merry heart is the life of Eccles. xxx. 22. STEEVENS. the night.] So Falstaff, in a Gladness prolongs his days." I - now comes in the sweet of former scene of this play: Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night." STEEVENS. I believe the latter words [those in the speech of Silence] make part of some old ballad. In one of Autolycus's songs we find 66 Why then comes in the sweet of the year." The words, "And we shall be merry," have a reference to a song, of which Silence has already sung a stanza. His speeches in this scene are, for the most part, fragments of ballads. Though his imagination did not furnish him with any thing original to say, he could repeat the verses of others. MALONE. Fill the cup, &c.] This passage has hitherto been printed as prose, but I am told that it makes a part of an old song, and have therefore restored it to its metrical form. STEEVENS, |