6

(or Puck); but we cannot for a moment suppose that Shakespeare meant Pistol to figure here. Malone says: It is highly probable (as a modern editor [Capell] has observed) that the performer who had represented Pistol was afterwards, from necessity, employed among the fairies, and that his name thus crept into the copies.'

“I subjoin what is said about the appearance of Mrs. Quickly and Pistol in this scene by Capell (who reasons better than he writes): But how .. if the person who bears her [Mrs. Quickly's] name in the masque, bears it wrongfully, being only the actor who had presented her, brought on in a second part, when his first was over, through his stage's penuriousness? Yet this is the editor's opinion, who cannot persuade himself that a part, the bare repeating of which could with no propriety have been put into such a mouth, was intended for it by Shakespeare; and what he says of her he says also of Pistol, whose name occurs likewise. And to this argu

ment from impropriety (incapacity, indeed), which seems strong enough of itself, may be added, that there is no mention of their concern in the masque where its actors are spoke of by Mrs. Ford [v. 3. 11]; that their characters break out nowhere, as does Sir Hugh's; nor are they speakers, as he is, after the eclarcissement. All things to be expected, had they been upon the scene,' etc. (Notes, ii. iii. 95)."

37. You orphan heirs. Warburton's conjecture," You ouphen heirs," has been adopted by several editors.

41, 42. Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap : Where fires thou find’st unrak’d and hearths unswept.

So the folio; and the quartos 1602, 1619, though very

different from the folio throughout this scene, have, in a speech assigned to Sir Hugh,—

"And when you finde a slut that lies a sleepe,

And all her dishes foule, and roome vnswept,” etc.

Walker reads "unswep,” which he considers as an old form of "unswept " (see his Crit. Exam. iii. 15). Collier's Ms. Corrector alters the first line, violently and awkwardly, to "Cricket, to Windsor chimneys when thou'st leapt; " and Mr. Singer, still more violently and awkwardly, to “Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou, having leapt."

47. Bede? So the folio. Dyce (and quartos 1602, 1619) reads "Pead." Capell (Notes, ii. iii. 96) says: “ Bead is the word meant, a most proper name for a being of this size." Steevens says: "It is remarkable that, throughout this metrical business, Sir Hugh appears to drop his Welsh pronunciation, though he resumes it as soon as he speaks in his own character. As Falstaff, however, supposes him to be a Welsh fairy, his peculiarity of utterance must have been preserved on the stage, though it be not distinguished in the printed copies."

49. Raise up. So the folio. Dyce adopts the conjecture of Warburton, and reads " rein " for “raise,' -a conjecture called "highly plausible" by Steevens, and adopted by Hanmer, Capell, and Grant White.

57. In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit. So the folio. Dyce reads "In seat,” etc. "We ought probably to read In seat as wholesome,' referring to the healthy situation of the castle," says Walker (Crit. Exam. i. 284),

- where the Editor observes in a note, "Hanmer, with his usual acuteness, saw this, and in consequence read site, which is an Elizabethan, though not, I think, a Shakespearian word." Capell, defending the old reading, says:

"State' in this [first] member, and 'state' in the next, have different senses; in the first, 'tis condition, in the other, magnificence," etc. (Notes, ii. iii. 97.)

68. emerald tufts. The folio has " Emrold-tuffes; " and here Mr. Halliwell retains "tuffs' as being "the old and authentic form." But the folio has in The Winter's Tale, ii. 1, "the tuft of Pines," and in As You Like It, iii. 5, "the tufft of Oliues." And see the various spelling of the word in the quotations given by Dr. Richardson in his Dict. sub "Tuft."

105. these fair yokes. So the folio. Dyce adopts the reading of the second folio, "fair oaks.” Theobald and several much more recent editors prefer "yokes,” out of which Jackson has made "these fairy jokes," and Grant White "these fairy oaks." The allusion, of course, is to Falstaff's horns; and Mason observes that "the horns of a deer are called in French les bois."

.

111. which must be paid to Master Brook. Malone says: "We ought rather to read with the old quarto, 'which must be paid to master Ford;' for as Ford, to mortify Falstaff, addresses him throughout his speech by the name of Brook, the describing himself by the same name creates a confusion. A modern editor [Capell] plausibly enough reads which must be paid too, Master Brook;' but the first sketch shows that to is right, for the sentence as it stands in the quarto will not admit too." What can Malone mean by stating that here "Ford addresses Falstaff by the name of Brook"?

145. a hodge-pudding? Altered by Pope to "a hog'spudding," and by Collier's Ms. Corrector to "a hogpudding."

156. ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me. Farmer conjectured" a planet o'er me.”

162. Here Theobald inserted from the quartos 1602, 1619,

"Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband, let that go to make amends;

Forgive that sum, and so we'll all be friends.

Ford. Well, here's my hand: all is forgiven at last.”

186. white. The folio has "greene."

190. green.

The folio has "white."

196. green? The folio has "white?"

214.

title. So the folio. Dyce has "wile." Collier's Ms. Corrector reads "guile."

1

GLOSSARY

ΤΟ

THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR

A-BIRDING, bird-catching; iii. 3. | ALLOWED, approved; ii. 2. 205.