Coat of Arms with Luce
A luce is a pike, a freshwater fish. The design for a coat of arms employed the use of animals and objects to indicate different family lines.
Slender is offering this information as evidence that Shallow is aristocratically equal to Falstaff. Shallow then adds to Slender’s comment by saying, “It is an old coat” (15). Shallow means that the Coat of Arms has been in his family for generations.
Hugh Evans, who speaks with a strong Welsh accent and has more than a little difficulty in understanding and speaking the English of England, misunderstands Slender’s meaning. Evans thinks that luces are louses (that is, lice, the tiny insects that get into one’s hair and skin) and that a coat simply refers to a jacket. Thus, he responds, “The dozen white louses do become an old coad well” (16). He is saying that lice are typically found in old coats.
Shakespeare plays with language throughout Merry Wives, and linguistic muddles such as this one contribute to the humor of the play.