FORD. Never.

FAL. Have you importuned her to such a purpose?

FORD. Never.

FAL. Of what quality was your love then?

FORD. Like a fair house, built upon another man's ground; so that I have lost my edifice, by mistak ing the place where I erected it.

FAL. To what purpose have you unfolded this to me?

FORD. When I have told you that, I have told you all. Some say, that, though she appear honest to me, yet, in other places, she enlargeth her mirth so far, that there is shrewd construction made of her. Now, sir John, here is the heart of my purpose: You are a gentleman of excellent breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentick in your place and person, generally allowed for your many war-like, court-like, and learned preparations.

FAL. O, sir!

FORD. Believe it, for you know it :-There is money; spend it, spend it; spend more; spend all I have; only give me so much of your time in exchange of it, as to lay an amiable siege to the

of great admittance,] i. e. admitted into all, or the greatest companies. STEEVENS.

•—generally allowed-] Allowed is approved. So, in King

Lear:

66 if your sweet sway

"Allow obedience," &c. STEEVENS.

to lay an amiable siege-] i. e. a siege of love. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"the siege of loving terms." MALONE.

honesty of this Ford's wife: use your art of wooing, win her to consent to you; if any man may, you may as soon as any.

FAL. Would it apply well to the vehemency of your affection, that I should win what you would enjoy? Methinks, you prescribe to yourself very preposterously.

8

FORD. O, understand my drift! she dwells so securely on the excellency of her honour, that the folly of my soul dares not present itself; she is too bright to be looked against." Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, my desires had instance and argument to commend themselves; I could drive her then from the ward of her purity, her reputation, her marriage vow, and a thousand other her defences, which now are too strongly embattled against me: What say you to't, sir John?

FAL. Master Brook, I will first make bold with your money; next, give me your hand; and last, as I am a gentleman, you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife.

7 She is too bright to be looked against.]

"Nimium lubricus aspici." Hor. MALONE.
instance and argument -] Instance is example.

JOHNSON.

9

the ward of her purity,] i. e. The defence of it.

STEEVENS.

What Ford means to say is, that if he could once detect her in a crime, he should then be able to drive her from those defences with which she would otherwise ward off his addresses, such as her purity, her reputation, her marriage vow, &c.

So, in The Winter's Tale, Hermione, speaking of Polixenes, says to Leontes:

66

Tell him, you're sure
"All in Bohemia's well," &c.
"He's beat from his best ward."

Say this to him,

M. MASON.

FORD. O good sir!

FAL. Master Brook, I say you shall.

FORD. Want no money, sir John, you shall want

none.

FAL. Want no mistress Ford, master Brook, you shall want none. I shall be with her, (I may tell you,) by her own appointment; even as you came in to me, her assistant, or go-between, parted from me: I say, I shall be with her between ten and eleven; for at that time the jealous rascally knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at night; you shall know how I speed.

FORD. I am blest in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford, sir?

FAL. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave! I know him not-yet I wrong him, to call him poor; they say, the jealous wittolly knave hath masses of money; for the which his wife seems to me well-favoured. I will use her as the key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer; and there's my harvest-home.

FORD. I would you knew Ford, sir; that you might avoid him, if you saw him.

FAL. Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue! I will stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel: it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns: master Brook, thou shalt know, I will predominate o'er the peasant, and thou shalt lie with his wife.-Come to me soon at night-Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his stile; thou, master Brook, shalt know him for a knave and cuckold:-come to me soon at night.

1

[Exit.

and I will aggravate his stile;] Stile is a phrase from the Herald's office. Falstaff means, that he will add

VOL. V.

H

FORD. What a damned Epicurean rascal is this! -My heart is ready to crack with impatience.Who says, this is improvident jealousy? My wife hath sent to him, the hour is fixed, the match is made. Would any man have thought this?-See the hell of having a false woman! my bed shall be abused, my coffers ransacked, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall not only receive this villainous wrong, but stand under the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me this wrong. Terms! names!-Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer, well; Barbason,' well; yet they are devils' additions, the names of fiends: but cuckold! wittol-cuckold!3 the devil himself hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust his wife, he will not be jealous: I will rather trust a Fleming with my butter, parson Hugh the

more titles to those he already enjoys. So, in Heywood's Golden Age, 1611:

"I will create lords of a greater style." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. V. c. 2:

2

"As to abandon that which doth contain

"Your honour's stile, that is, your warlike shield." STEEVENS.

Amaimon-Barbason,] The reader who is curious to know any particulars concerning these dæmons, may find them in Reginald Scott's Inventarie of the Names, Shapes, Powers, Governments, and Effects of Devils and Spirits, of their several Segnories and Degrees: a strange Discourse worth the reading, p. 377, &c. From hence it appears that Amaimon was king of the East, and Barbatos a great countie or earle. Randle Holme, however, in his Academy of Armory and Blazon, B. II. ch. 1, informs us, that "Amaymon is the chief whose dominion is on the north part of the infernal gulph; and that Barbatos is like a Sagittarius, and hath 30 legions under him." STEEVENS.

wittol-cuckold! One who knows his wife's falsehood, and is contented with it:-from wittan, Sax. to know.

MALONE,

Welchman with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitæ bottle, or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself: then she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises: and what they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts but they will effect. Heaven be praised for my jealousy!-Eleven o'clock the hour;

-I will prevent this, detect my wife, be revenged on Falstaff, and laugh at Page. I will about it; better three hours too soon, than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold! [Exit.

an Irishman with my aqua-vitæ bottle,] Heywood, in his Challenge for Beauty, 1636, mentions the love of aquavita as characteristick of the Irish:

"The Briton he metheglin quaffs,

"The Irish aqua-vita.

The Irish aqua-vitæ, I believe, was not brandy, but usquebaugh, for which Ireland has been long celebrated. MALONE.

5

Dericke, in The Image of Ireland, 1581, Sign. F 2, mentions Uskebeaghe, and in a note explains it to mean aqua vita. REED. ·Eleven o'clock] Ford should rather have said ten o'clock: the time was between ten and eleven; and his impatient suspicion was not likely to stay beyond the time.

JOHNSON.

It was necessary for the plot that he should mistake the hour, and come too late. M. MASON.

It is necessary for the business of the piece that Falstaff should be at Ford's house before his return. Hence our author made him name the later hour. See Act III. sc. ii: "The clock gives me my cue;-there I shall find Falstaff." When he says above, "I shall prevent this," he means, not the meeting, but his wife's effecting her purpose. MALONE.