me pass for a very sufficient gentleman in Gloucesterehire. . . .
Dumbleton in Gloucestershire
this 27 of December.
(C) Postscript to Letter from Countess of Southampton to her husband, dated Chartley, 8th July.[1]
All the news I can send you that I think will make you merry is that I read in a letter from London that Sir John Falstaff is by his mistress, Dame Pintpot, made father of a goodly miller’s thumb, a boy that’s all head and very little body; but this is a secret.
(D) From anonymous letter in a collection made by Sir Toby Matthews. Approximate date, 1600–1610. The writer is deploring the miscarriage of one of his earlier epistles.
For I must tell you I never dealt so freely with you in any; and (as that excellent author, Sir John Falstaff, says) what for your business, news, device, foolery, and liberty, I never dealt better since I was a man.[2]
VI. Richard II, 1601.
(A) Testimony of Sir Gelly Merrick, one of the participants in the Earl of Essex’s insurrection.
The examination of Sir Gelly Merrick, Knight, taken the 17th of February, 1600 [i.e. 1601]. He saith that upon Saturday last was sennight he dined
- ↑ The year is not indicated. Lady Southampton was residing at Chartley in July 1599.
- ↑ Cf. 1 Henry IV, II. iv. 190: ‘I never dealt better since I was a man.’
