Fal. Go to; well.

Shal. Come, sir John, which four will you have?
Fal. Do you choose for me.

Shal. Marry then,-Mouldy, Bull-calf, Feeble, and Shadow.

Fal. Mouldy, and Bull-calf:-For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service: 2-and, for your part, Bull-calf,-grow till you come unto it; I will none of

you.

Shal. Sir John, sir John, do not yourself wrong; they are your likeliest men, and I would have you served with the best.

Fal. Will you tell me, master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes,3 the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man!4 Give me the spirit, master Shallow.-Here 's Wart;-you see what a

2

For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service: The old copies read-For you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service.

Steevens.

This should surely be: "For you, Mouldy, you have stay'd at home," &c. Falstaff has before a similar allusion: "Tis the more time thou wert used."

There is some mistake in the number of recruits: Shallow says, that Falstaff should have four there, but he appears to get but three: Wart, Shadow, and Feeble. Farmer.

I believe, stay at home till you are past service," is right; the subsequent part of the sentence being likewise imperative: and, for your part, Bull-calf, grow till you come unto it.”

66

Malone. Perhaps this passage should be read and pointed thus: For you, Mouldy, stay at home still; you are past service:

Tyrwhitt.

I have admitted Mr. Tyrwhitt's amendment, as it is the least violent of the two proposed, being effected by a slight change in punctuation, and the supplement of a single letter. Steevens.

3

the thewes,] i. e. the muscular strength or appearance of manhood. So, again:

"For nature crescent, does not grow alone

"In thewes and bulk."

In ancient writers this term usually implies manners, or behaviour only. Spenser often employs it; and I find it likewise in Gascoigne's Glass of Government, 1575:

"And honour'd more than bees of better thewes."

Shakspeare is perhaps singular in his application of it to the perfections of the body. Steevens.

assemblance of a man?] Thus the old copies. The mo

dern editors read-assemblage. Steevens.

ragged appearance it is: he shall charge you, and discharge you, with the motion of a pewterer's hammer; come off, and on, swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket. And this same half-faced fellow, Shadow, give me this man; he presents no mark to the enemy; the foeman may with as great aim level at the edge of a penknife: And, for a retreat,-how swiftly will this Feeble, the woman's tailor, run off? O, give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones.-Put me a caliver into Wart's hand, Bardolph.

5

swifter than he that gibbets-on the brewer's bucket.] Swifter than he that carries beer from the vat to the barrel, in buckets hung upon a gibbet or beam crossing his shoulders. Johnson.

I do not think Johnson's explanation of this passage just. The carrying beer from the vat to the barrel, must be a matter that requires more labour than swiftness. Falstaff seems to mean, "swifter than he that puts the buckets on the gibbet;" for as the buckets at each end of the gibbet must be put on at the same instant, it necessarily requires a quick motion. M. Mason. 6 - foeman -] This is an obsolete term for an enemy in war. Steevens.

So, in Selimus, 1594:

"For he that never saw his foeman's face,

"But alwaies slept upon a ladies lap" &c. Henderson.

7 caliver- A hand-gun. Johnson.

So, in The Masque of Flowers, 1613: "The serjeant of Kawasha carried on his shoulders a great tobacco-pipe as big as a caliver."

It is singular that Shakspeare who has so often derived his sources of merriment from recent customs or fashionable follies, should not once líave mentioned tobacco, though at a time when all his contemporaries were active in its praise or its condemna

tion.

It is equally remarkable (as Dr. Farmer observes to me) that he has written no lines on the death of any poetical friend, nor commendatory verses on any living author, which was the constant practice of Jonson, Fletcher, &c. Perhaps the singular modesty of Shakspeare hindered him from attempting to decide on the merits of others, while his liberal turn of mind forbade him to express such gross and indiscriminate praises as too often disgrace the names of many of his contemporaries. Our author, indeed, seems to condemn this practice, through a sentiment given to Rosaline, in Love's Labour 's Lost, where, speaking of the Princess, she says:

"My lady (to the manner of these days)

"In courtesy, gives undeserving praise.' Steevens.

Mr. Grose, in A Treatise on ancient Armour and Weapons, 4to.

8

Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.

Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So:-very well: -go to:-very good:-exceeding good.-O, give me always a little, lean, old, chapped, bald shot.9-Well said, i' faith Wart; thou 'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.

Shal. He is not his craft's-master, he doth not do it right. I remember at Mile-end green,1 (when I lay at

p. 67, says: "That a caliver was less and lighter than a musquet, as is evident from its being fired without a rest. This is shown in a Military Treatise, containing the Exercise of the Musket, Caliver, and Pike, with figures finely engraved by J. de Gheyn." And, in a note in loc. Mr. Grose also observes, "That this is confirmed by Shakspeare, where Falstaff, reviewing his recruits, says of Wart, a poor, weak, undersized fellow, 'put me a caliver into Wart's hands,'-meaning, that although Wart is unfit for a musquetteer, yet, if armed with a lighter piece, he may do good service." Vaillant.

8

traverse -] An ancient term in military exercise. So,

in Othello:

9

"Traverse; go; provide thy money." Steevens.

bald shot.] Shot is used for shooter, one who is to fight by shooting. Johnson.

So, in The Exercise of Armes for Calivres, Muskettes, and Pykes, 1619: "First of all is in this figure showed to every shot how he shall stand and marche, and carry his caliver," &c. With this instance I was furnished by Dr. Farmer. We still say of a skilful sportsman or game-keeper, that he is a good shot. Steevens.

Again, in Stowe's Annales, 1631: "men with armour, ensignes, drums, fifes, and other furniture for wars, the greater part whereof were shot, the other were pikes and halberts, in faire corslets." Malone.

1

Mile-end green,] We learn from Stowe's Chronicle, (edit. 1615, p. 702) that in the year 1585, 4000 citizens were trained and exercised at Mile-end. It appears, however, that the pupils of this military school were but slightly thought of; for, in Barnabie Riche's Souldiers Wishe to Britons Welfare, or Captaine Skill and Captaine Pill, 1604, is the following passage: "Skill. God blesse me, my countrey, and frendes, from his direction that hath no better experience than what hee hath atteyned unto at the fetching home of a Maye-pole, at a Midsomer sighte, or from a tr ayning at Mile-end-greene." Steevens.

From the same Chronicle, p. 789, edit. 1631, it appears that "thirty thousand citizens-shewed on the 27th of August, 1599, on the Miles-end, where they trained all that day, and other dayes, under their captaines, (also citizens) until the 4th of September."

Malane.

Clement's-inn,-I was then sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,) there was a little quiver fellow, and 'a would

4

2 I remember at Mile-end green, (when I lay at Clement's-inn,] "When I lay," here signifies, when I lodged or lived. So, Leland: "An old manor place where in tymes paste sum of the Moulbrays lay for a starte;” i. e. lived for a time, or sometimes. Itin. Vol. I, fol. 119. T. Warton.

Again, in Marston's What you will, a comedy, 1607:

3

"Survey'd with wonder by me, when I lay

"Factor in London." Malone.

I was then sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,] The story of Sir Dagonet is to be found in La Morte d'Arthure, an old romance much celebrated in our author's time, or a little before it. "When papistry (says Ascham, in his Schoolmaster,) as a standing pool, overflowed all England, few books were read in our tongue, saving certaine books of chivalry, as they said, for pastime and pleasure; which books, as some say, were made in monasteries by idle monks. As one for example La Mort d'Arthure." In this romance Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's fool. Shakspeare would not have shown his justice capable of representing any higher character. Johnson.

Sir Dagonet is King Arthur's 'squire; but does he mean that he acted Sir Dagonet at Mile-end Green, or at Clement's-inn? By the application of a parenthesis only, the passage will be cleared from ambiguity, and the sense I would assign will appear to be just.—I remember at Mile-end Green (when I lay at Clement's-inn, I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show) there was, &c. That is: "I remember when I was a very young man at Clement's-inn, and not fit to act any higher part than Sir Dagonet in the interludes which we used to play in the society, that among the soldiers who were exercised at Mile-end Green, there was," &c. The performance of this part of Sir Dagonet was another of Shallow's feats at Clement's-inn, on which he delights to expatiate; a circumstance, in the mean time, quite foreign to the purpose of what he is saying, but introduced, on that account, to heighten the ridicule of his character. Just as he had told Silence, a little before, that he saw Scogan's head broke by Falstaff at the court-gate, "and the very same day, I did fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-inn." Not to mention the satire implied in making Shallow act Sir Dagonet, who was King Arthur's fool. Arthur's show, here supposed to have been presented at Clement's-inn, was probably an interlude, or masque, which actually existed, and was very popular in Shakspeare's age: and seems to have been compiled from Mallory's Morte Arthur, or the History of King Arthur, then recently published, and the favourite and most fashionable romance.

T. Warton.

A passage in a forgotten book, which has been obligingly communicated to me by the Reverend Mr. Bowle, induces me to

manage you his piece thus: and 'a would about, and

think that the words before us have hitherto been misunderstood; that Arthur's Show was not an interlude, but an EXHIBITION OF ARCHERY; and that Shallow represented Sir Dagonet, not at Clement's Inn, but at Mile-end Green. Instead therefore of placing the words "I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show," in a parenthesis, (as recommended very properly by Mr. Warton on his hypothesis) I have included in a parenthesis the words "when I lay at Clement's Inn." And thus the meaning is,-I remember, when I was student and resided at Clement's Inn, that on a certain exhibition-day at Mile-end Green, when I was Sir Dagonet, &c.

"A society of men, (I now use the words of Mr. Bowle) styling themselves ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS, existed in our poet's time. Richard Mulcaster, Master of St. Paul's School, in his Positions concerning the training up of Children, twice printed in London, 1581 and 1587, in 4to. (my copy wants the title) ch. xxvi, in praising of Archerie as a principal exercise to the preservation of health, says-how can I but pray se them, who professe it thoroughly, and maintain it nobly, the friendly and frank fellowship of Prince ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS, in and about the citie of London? which if I had sacred to silence, would not my good friend in the citie, Maister Hewgh Offly, and the same my noble fellow in that order, SYR LAUNCELET, at our next meeting have given me a soure nodde, being the chief furtherer of the fact which I commend, and the famousest knight of the fellowship which I am of? Nay, would not even Prince ARTHUR himselfe, Maister Thomas Smith, and the whole table of those well-known knights, and most active archers, have laid in their challenge against their fellow-knight, if speaking of their pastime I should have spared their names? This quotation (adds Mr. Bowle) rescues three of them from oblivion; and it is not to be presumed that the whole table of these well-known knights, most probably pretty numerous, could escape the knowledge of Shakspeare.Maister Hewgh Offly was sheriff of London in 1588."

The passage above quoted places Shallow's words in so clear a light that they leave me little to add upon the subject. We see that though he is apt enough to introduce frivolous and foreign circumstances, the mention of Sir Dagonet here is not of that nature, Mile-end Green being probably the place where ARTHUR'S KNIGHTS displayed their skill in archery, or in other words, where ARTHUR'S SHOW was exhibited.

Whether this fellowship existed in the reign of Henry IV, is very unnecessary to enquire. We see in almost every one of his plays how little scrupulous Shakspeare was in ascribing the customs of his own time to preceding ages.

It may perhaps be objected, that the "little quiver fellow," afterwards mentioned, is not described as an archer, but as managing a piece; but various exercises might have been practised at the same time at Mile-end Green. If, however, this objection