my sonne in the presence of his wife lent me Tenne
pound. I desire him and pray him to take the overplus of the said Ring
in parte of payment, as also a leaden Ceasterne which hee hath of myne
standing in his yard at his London-house that cost mee at a porte-sale
fortie shillings, as also a silver candle cup with a cover worth about
forty shillings which I left at his house being sicke there; desiring my
sonne and daughter that their whole debt may bee made up and they
satisfied with selling the lease of my house in Shoe lane, and soe
accquitt and discharge my poore wife who as yet knoweth nothing of his
debt. Moreover I entreat my deare wife that if at my death my servant
Artur [_blank_] shall chance to bee with mee and in my service, that for
my sake she give him such poore doubletts, breeches, hattes, and bootes
as I shall leave, and therwithall one of my ould cloakes soe it bee not
lyned with velvett. In witnesse whereof I the said John Florio to this
my last will and Testament (written every sillable with myne owne hande,
and with long and mature deliberation digested, contayning foure sheetes
of paper, the first of eight and twenty lines, the second of nine and
twenty, the third of nyne and twenty and the fourth of six lines) have
putt, sett, written and affixed my name and usual seale of my armes. The
twentyth day of July in the yeare of our Lord and Savyour Jesus Christ
1625, and in the first yeare of the raigne of our Soveraigne Lord and
King (whom God preserve) Charles the First of that name of England,
Scotland, France and Ireland King. By mee John Florio being, thankes bee
ever given to my most gracious God, in perfect sence and memory.

Proved 1 June 1626 by Rose Florio the relict, the executors named in the
Will for certain reasons renouncing execution.

NOTE

Florio was eighty years of age at his death in 1625. From significant
references by Shakespeare, in _Henry IV._, to Falstaff's age, I have
long been of the opinion that Florio was more than forty-five years
old in 1598, when the _First Part_ of this play was revised and the
_Second Part_ written; yet if the age of fifty-eight, which Florio
gives himself in the medallion round his picture in the 1611 edition
of his _Worlde of Wordes_ is to be believed, he was only forty-five
in 1598. I have now found Anthony Wood's authority for dating his
birth in 1545.

In _Registrium Universitalus Oxon._, vol. ii., by Andrew Clar