T.Thornton Del.

Fub. Juni 17.1792 by EHarding

HERNES OAK.

the Merry Wives of Windsor. Act III.S cone! .

Midland Sal

MRS. PAGE. They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak,+ with obfcured lights; which, at the very inftant of Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the night.

MRS. FORD. That cannot choose but amaze him.

MRS. PAGE. If he be not amazed, he will be mock'd; if he be amazed, he will every way be mock'd.

MRS. FORD. We'll betray him finely.

MRS. PAGE. Against fuch lewdfters, and their lechery,

Those that betray them do no treachery.

MRS. FORD. The hour draws on; To the oak, to the oak!

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

Windfor Park.

Enter Sir HUGH EVANS, and Fairies.

EVA. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts: be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I pid you; Come, come; trib, trib. [Exeunt.

I fuppofe only the letter H. was fet down in the MS; and therefore, inftead of Hugh (which feems to be the true reading,) the editors fubftituted Herne. STEEVENS.

So, afterwards: "Well faid, fairy Hugh." MALONE.

4 in a pit hard by Herne's oak,] An oak, which may be that alluded to by Shakspeare, is ftill ftanding clofe to a pit in Windfor foreft. It is yet fhown as the oak of Herne. STEEVENS.

SCENE V.

Another part of the Park.

Enter FALSTAFF difguifed, with a buck's head on.

FAL. The Windfor bell hath ftruck twelve; the minute draws on: Now, the hot-blooded gods affift me!-Remember, Jove, thou waft a bull for thy Europa; love fet on thy horns.-O powerful love! that, in some respects, makes a beast a man; in some other, a man a beast. You were also, Jupiter, a fwan, for the love of Leda ;-O, omnipotent love! how near the god drew to the complexion of a goofe?-A fault done first in the form of a beaft ;O Jove, a beaftly fault! and then another fault in the femblance of a fowl; think on't, Jove; a foul fault.-When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windfor ftag; and the fatteft, I think, i' the foreft: Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow?" Who comes here? my doe?

5 When gods have hot backs, what shall poor men do?] Shakfpeare had perhaps in his thoughts the argument which Cherea employed in a fimilar fituation. Ter. Eun. A& III. fc. v:

66

-Quia confimilem luferat

"Jam olim ille ludum, impendio magis animus gaudebat mihi "Deum fefe in hominem convertiffe, atque per alienas tegulas "Veniffe clanculum per impluvium, fucum factum mulieri. "At quem deum? qui templa cœli fumma fonitu concutit.

46

Ego homuncio hoc non facerem? Ego vero illud ita feci, ac lubens."

A tranflation of Terence was published in 1598.

The fame thought is found in Lily's Euphues, 1580: "I think in thofe days love was well ratified on earth, when luft was so full authorized by the gods in heaven." MALONE.

6 Send me a cool rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to pifs my tallow?] This, I find, is technical. In Turberville's Booke of Hunting, 1575: 66 During the time of their rut, the harts live

Enter Mrs. FORD and Mrs. PAGE.

MRS. FORD. Sir John? art thou there, my deer? my male deer?

FAL. My doe with the black fcut?-Let the fky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves; hail kiffing-comfits, and fnow eringoes; let there come a tempeft of provocation, I will fhelter me here. [Embracing her.

with small fuftenance. The red mushroome helpeth well to make them pyffe their greace, they are then in so vehement heate," &c. FARMER.

In Ray's Collection of Proverbs, the phrafe is yet further explained: "He has piss'd his tallow. This is fpoken of bucks who grow lean after rutting-time, and may be applied to men."

The phrafe, however, is of French extraction. Jacques de Fouilloux in his quarto volume entitled La Venerie, alfo tells us that tags in rutting time live chiefly on large red mushrooms, "qui aident fort à leur faire piffer le fuif." STEEVENS.

7 Let the fky rain potatoes ;—hail kiffing-comfits, and now eringoes; let there come a tempeft of provocation,] Potatoes, when they were first introduced in England, were fuppofed to be strong provocatives. See Mr. Collins's note on a paffage in Troilus and Creffida, Act V. fc. ii.

Kiffing-comfits were fugar-plums, perfum'd to make the breath

fweet.

Monfieur Le Grand D'Auffi in his Hiftoire de la vie privée des Français, Vol. II p. 273. obferves" Il y avait auffi de petits drageoirs qu'on portait en poche pour avoir, dans le jour, de quoi fe parfumer la bouche."

So, alfo in Webster's Duchefs of Malfy, 1623:

Sure your piftol holds

"Nothing but perfumes or kiffing comfits."

In Swetnan Arraign'd, 1620, thefe confections are called" kiffing-caules." Their very breath is fophifticated with anber-pellets, and killing-caufes."

Again, in A Very Woman, by Maffinger:

"Comfits of ambergris to help our kiffes."

For eating thefe, queen Mab may be faid, in Romeo and Juliet, to plague their lips with blifters.

Eringoes, like potatoes, were esteemed to be ftimulatives. So, (fays the late Mr. Henderfon,) in Drayton's Polyolbion:

VOL. III.

I i