Page:The Plays of William Shakspeare (1778).djvu/324

[ 308 ] Henry V. Nym and Bardolph are both hanged in K. Henry V. yet appear in Tht Merry Wives of Windor. Falltaff is digraced in the Second Part of K. Henry IV. and dies in K. Henry V. But in the Merry Wives of Windor he talks as if he were yet in favour at court; “ If it should come to the ear of the court how I have been transformed, &c.:” and Mr. Page dicountenances Fenton’s addreSS undefinedes to his daughter, becaue he kept company with the wild Prince and with Pointz. Thee circumtances eem to favour the uppoition that this play was written between the Firt and Second Parts of K. Henry IV. But that it was not written then, may be collected from the tradition above mentioned. If it hould be placed (as Dr. Johnon oberves it hould be read) between the Second Part of K. Henry IV and Henry V. it mut be remembered, that Mrs. Quickly, who is half-bawd half-hotes in K. Henry IV. is,in the Merry Wives of Windor, Dr. Caius’s houekeeper, and makes a decent appearance; and in K. Henry V. is Pitol’s wife, and dies in an hopital; a progreSS undefinedion that is not very natural. Beides on Mrs. Quickly’s firt appearance in the Merry Wives of Windor, Falltaff does not know her, nor does he know Pitol nor Bardolph. The truth, I believe, is, that it was written after K. Henry V. and after Shakpeare had killed Faltaff. In obedience to the royal commands, having revived him, he found it neceSS undefinedary at the ame time to revive all thoe perons with whom he was wont to be exhibited; Nym, Pitol, Bardolph and the Page: and dipoed of them as he found it convenient, without a trict regard to their ituations or catatrophes in former plays.

There is reaon to believe that The Merry Wives of Windsor was revied and coniderably enlarged by the author, after its firt production. The old edition in 1602, like that of Romeo and Juliet, is apparently a rough draught, and not a mutilated or imperfect copy. At what time the alterations and additions were made, is uncertain. Mr. Warton uppoes them to have been made in 1607. Dr. Farmer concurs with him in that opinion, though he does not think the argument on which it is founded, concluive. I have not met with any information on this head.

This comedy was not printed in its preent tate, till 1623, when it was publihed with the ret of our author’s plays in folio.