wine first with him; I'll make him dance." Will you go, gentles?

7 Host. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

Ford. [Aside.] I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance.] To drink in pipe-wine is a phrase which I cannot understand. May we not suppose that Shakspeare rather wrote, I think I shall drink HORN-PIPE wine first with him: I'll make him dance?

Canary is the name of a dance, as well as of a wine. Ford lays hold of both senses; but, for an obvious reason, makes the dance a horn-pipe. It has been already remarked, that Shakspeare has frequent allusions to a cuckold's horns. TYRWHITT. So, in Pasquil's Night-cap, 1612, p. 118:

"It is great comfort to a cuckold's chance

“That many thousands doe the Hornepipe dance."

STEEVENS. Pipe is known to be a vessel of wine, now containing two hogsheads. Pipe-wine is therefore wine, not from the bottle, but the pipe; and the jest consists in the ambiguity of the word, which signifies both a cask of wine, and a musical instrument.

JOHNSON.

The jest here lies in a mere play of words. "I'll give him pipe-wine, which shall make him dance." Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

The phrase," to drink in pipe-wine"-always seemed to me a very strange one, till I met with the following passage in King James's first speech to his parliament, in 1604; by which it appears that "to drink in" was the phraseology of the time: "—who either, being old, have retained their first drunken-in liquor," &c. MALONE.

I have seen the phrase often in books of Shakspeare's time, but neglected to mark down the passages. One of them I have lately recovered: "If he goe to the taverne they will not onely make him paie for the wine, but for all he drinks in besides." Greene's Ghost haunting Conicatchers, 1602, Sign. B 4.—The following also, though of somewhat later authority, will confirm Mr. Malone's observation: "A player acting upon a stage a man killed; but being troubled with an extream cold, as he was lying upon the stage fell a coughing; the people laughing, he rushed up, ran off the stage, saying, thus it is for a man to drink in porridg, for then he will be sure to cough in his grave." Jocabella, or a Cabinet of Conceits, by Robert Chamberlaine, 1640, No 84. REED.

ALL. Have with you, to see this monster.

SCENE III.

A Room in Ford's House.

Enter Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE.

[Exeunt.

MRS. FORD. What, John! what, Robert!' MRS. PAGE. Quickly, quickly: Is the buckbasket

MRS. FORD. I warrant :-What, Robin, I say.

Enter Servants with a Basket.

MRS. PAGE. Come, come, come.

MRS. FORD. Here, set it down.

MRS. PAGE. Give your men the charge; we must be brief.

MRS. FORD. Marry, as I told you before, John, and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brewhouse; and when I suddenly call you, come forth, and (without any pause, or staggering,) take this basket on your shoulders: that done, trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters in Datchet mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames side.

MRS. PAGE. You will do it?

MRS. FORD. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction: Be gone, and come when you are called. [Exeunt Servants.

8

the whitsters-1 i. e. the blanchers of linen.

DOUCE.

wine first with him; I'll make him dance." Will you go, gentles?

7 Host. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

Ford. [Aside.] I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance.] To drink in pipe-wine is a phrase which I cannot understand. May we not suppose that Shakspeare rather wrote, I think I shall drink HORN-PIPE wine first with him: I'll make him dance?

Canary is the name of a dance, as well as of a wine. Ford lays hold of both senses; but, for an obvious reason, makes the dance a horn-pipe. It has been already remarked, that Shakspeare has frequent allusions to a cuckold's horns. TYRWHITT. So, in Pasquil's Night-cap, 1612, p. 118:

"It is great comfort to a cuckold's chance

"That many thousands doe the Hornepipe dance."

STEEVENS. Pipe is known to be a vessel of wine, now containing two hogsheads. Pipe-wine is therefore wine, not from the bottle, but the pipe; and the jest consists in the ambiguity of the word, which signifies both a cask of wine, and a musical instrument.

JOHNSON.

The jest here lies in a mere play of words. "I'll give him pipe-wine, which shall make him dance." Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

The phrase," to drink in pipe-wine"-always seemed to me a very strange one, till I met with the following passage in King James's first speech to his parliament, in 1604; by which it appears that "to drink in" was the phraseology of the time: "—who either, being old, have retained their first drunken-in liquor," &c. MALONE.

I have seen the phrase often in books of Shakspeare's time, but neglected to mark down the passages. One of them I have lately recovered: "If he goe to the taverne they will not onely make him paie for the wine, but for all he drinks in besides." Greene's Ghost haunting Conicatchers, 1602, Sign. B 4.-The following also, though of somewhat later authority, will confirm Mr. Malone's observation: "A player acting upon a stage a man killed; but being troubled with an extream cold, as he was lying upon the stage fell a coughing; the people laughing, he rushed up, ran off the stage, saying, thus it is for a man to drink in porridg, for then he will be sure to cough in his grave." Jocabella, or a Cabinet of Conceits, by Robert Chamberlaine, 1640, N° 84. REED.

ALL. Have with you, to see this monster.

SCENE III.

A Room in Ford's House.

Enter Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE.

[Exeunt.

MRS. FORD. What, John! what, Robert!

MRS. PAGE. Quickly, quickly: Is the buckbasket

MRS. FORD. I warrant :-What, Robin, I say.

Enter Servants with a Basket.

MRS. PAGE. Come, come, come.

MRS. FORD. Here, set it down.

MRS. PAGE. Give your men the charge; we must be brief.

MRS. FORD. Marry, as I told you before, John, and Robert, be ready here hard by in the brewhouse; and when I suddenly call you, come forth, and (without any pause, or staggering,) take this basket on your shoulders: that done, trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters in Datchet mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch, close by the Thames side.

MRS. PAGE. You will do it?

MRS. FORD. I have told them over and over; they lack no direction: Be gone, and come when you are called. [Exeunt Servants.

8

8

the whitsters - i. e. the blanchers of linen.

DOUCE.

wine first with him; I'll make him dance." Will you go, gentles?

7 Host. Farewell, my hearts: I will to my honest knight Falstaff, and drink canary with him.

Ford. [Aside.] I think, I shall drink in pipe-wine first with him; I'll make him dance.] To drink in pipe-wine is a phrase which I cannot understand. May we not suppose that Shakspeare rather wrote, I think I shall drink HORN-PIPE wine first with him: I'll make him dance?

Canary is the name of a dance, as well as of a wine. Ford lays hold of both senses; but, for an obvious reason, makes the dance a horn-pipe. It has been already remarked, that Shakspeare has frequent allusions to a cuckold's horns. TYRWHITT. So, in Pasquil's Night-cap, 1612, p. 118:

"It is great comfort to a cuckold's chance

"That many thousands doe the Hornepipe dance."

STEEVENS. Pipe is known to be a vessel of wine, now containing two hogsheads. Pipe-wine is therefore wine, not from the bottle, but the pipe; and the jest consists in the ambiguity of the word, which signifies both a cask of wine, and a musical instrument.

JOHNSON.

The jest here lies in a mere play of words. "I'll give him pipe-wine, which shall make him dance." Edinburgh Magazine, Nov. 1786. STEEVENS.

The phrase," to drink in pipe-wine"-always seemed to me a very strange one, till I met with the following passage in King James's first speech to his parliament, in 1604; by which it appears that "to drink in" was the phraseology of the time: -who either, being old, have retained their first drunken-in liquor," &c. MALONE.

66

I have seen the phrase often in books of Shakspeare's time, but neglected to mark down the passages. One of them I have lately recovered: "If he goe to the taverne they will not onely make him paie for the wine, but for all he drinks in besides." Greene's Ghost haunting Conicatchers, 1602, Sign. B 4.-The following also, though of somewhat later authority, will confirm Mr. Malone's observation: "A player acting upon a stage a man killed; but being troubled with an extream cold, as he was lying upon the stage fell a coughing; the people laughing, he rushed up, ran off the stage, saying, thus it is for a man to drink in porridg, for then he will be sure to cough in his grave." Jocabella, or a Cabinet of Conceits, by Robert Chamberlaine, 1640, N° 84. REED.