With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,

As you have done 'gainst me.

There is my hand;

You shall be as a father to my youth:

My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear;
And I will stoop and humble my intents

To your well-practis'd, wise directions.

6

And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;-
My father is gone wild' into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
To mock the expectation of the world;
To frustrate prophecies; and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now:
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea;
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,"

5 My father is gone wild-] Mr. Pope, by substituting wail'd for wild, without sufficient consideration, afforded Mr. Theobald much matter of ostentatious triumph. Johnson.

The meaning is-My wild dispositions having ceased on my father's death, and being now as it were buried in his tomb, he and wildness are interred in the same grave.

A passage in King Henry V, Act I, sc. i, very strongly confirms this interpretation:

"The courses of his youth promis'd it not:
"The breath no sooner left his father's body,
"But that his wildness, mortified in him,
"Seem'd to die too."

So, in King Henry VIII:

"And when old time shall lead him to his end,
"Goodness and he, fill up one monument."

A kindred thought is found in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:
"And so suppose am I; for in his grave

"Assure thyself my love is buried." Malone.

with his spirit sadly I survive,] Sadly is the same as soberly, seriously, gravely. Sad is opposed to wild. Johnson. The quarto and first folio have spirits. The correction was made by the editor of the third folio. Malone.

7

the state of floods,] i. e. the assembly, or general meeting of the floods: for all rivers, running to the sea, are there represented as holding their sessions. This thought naturally intro duced the following:

"Now call we our high court of parliament." But the Oxford editor, much a stranger to the phraseology of

And flow henceforth in formal majesty,
Now call we our high court of parliament:
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;-
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.-
[To the Ld. Ch. Just.

Our coronation done, we will accite,

As I before remember'd, all our state:

And (God consigning to my good intents)

No prince, nor peer, shall have just cause to say,— Heaven shorten Harry's happy life one day. [Exeunt.

Glostershire.

SCENE III.

The Garden of Shallow's House.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, SILENCE, BARDOLPH, the Page, and DAVY.

Shal. Nay, you shall see mine orchard: where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways, and so forth;3-come, cousin Silence; and then to bed.

that time in general, and to his author's in particular, out of mere loss for his meaning, reads it backwards, the floods of state. Warburton.

The objection to Warburton's explanation is, that the word state, in the singular, does not imply the sense he contends for: we say an assembly of the states, not of the state. I believe we must either adopt Hanmer's amendment, or suppose that state means dignity; and that, "to mingle with the state of floods," is to partake of the dignity of floods. I should prefer the amendment to this interpretation. M. Mason.

I prefer the interpretation to the amendment. State most evidently means dignity. So, in The Tempest:

Highest queen of state,

"Great Juno comes." Steevens.

with the state of floods,] With the majestick dignity of the ocean, the chief of floods. So before, in this scene:

"And, as you are a king, speak in your state, -."

State and estate, however, were used in our author's time for a person of high dignity, and may in that sense be applied to the sea, supposing it to be personified. Malone.

Fal. 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich.

Shal. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all, sir John:-marry, good air.9-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 mass, 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

8 a dish of caraways, &c.] A comfit or confection so called in our author's time. A passage in De Vigneul Marville's Melanges d'Histoire et de Litt. will explain this odd treat: "Dans le dernier siecle ou l'on avoit le gout delicat, on ne croioit pas pouvoir vivre sans Dragées. Il n'etoit fils de bonne mere, qui n'eut son Dragier; et il est reporté dans l'histoire du duc de Guise, que quand il fut tué à Blois, il avoit son Dragier à la main." Warburton.

Mr. Edwards has diverted himself with this note of Dr. Warburton's, but without producing a happy illustration of the passage. The dish of caraways here mentioned was a dish of apples of that name. Goldsmith.

It would be easy to prove, by several instances, that caraways 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.

9 - 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." H. White.

Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,
And praise heaven for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,1
And lusty lads roam here and there,
So merrily,

And ever among so merrily.2

[Singing.

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 BARD. and the Page at another table] I'll be with you anon:—most sweet sir, sit.. -Master page, good master page, sit: proface! 3

1 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.Ever among is used by Chaucer in The Romaunt of the Rose: "Ever among (sothly to saine)

"I suffre noie and mochil paine." Farmer.

2 And ever among so merrily.] Of the phrase ever among, I find an example in the old MS. romance of The Sowdon of Baby

Loyne:

"Thai eten and dronken right inowe,
"And made myrth ever among :

"But of the Sowdon speke we nowe
"Howe of sorowe was his songe."

It is observable that this phrase, in both instances, is applied to the purpose of festivity. Steevens.

3 - 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:

"Readers, reade this thus: for preface, proface,
"Much good may it do you," &c.

I am 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. Steevens.

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

What you want in meat, we 'll have in drink. But you must bear; The heart 's all.4

[Exit.

Shal. Be merry, master Bardolph;-and my little soldier there, be merry.

Sil. Be merry, be merry, my wife's as all;5 [Singing. 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.

6

common people in Italy, though it is not inserted in the best Italian dictionaries. Malone.

the heart's all.] That is, the intention with which the entertainment is given. The humour consists in making Davy act as master of the house. Johnson.

5 - my wife's as all;] Old copy-has all. Dr. Farmer very acutely observes, that we should read-my wife's as all, i. e. as all women are. This affords a natural introduction to what follows. Steevens.

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:

"Merry swithe it is in halle,

Steevens.

"When the berdes waveth alle." This song is mentioned by a contemporary author: “ which 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, sign. 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.

7 And welcome merry shrove-tide.] Shrove-tide was formerly 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.