Donald Trump, referring to Joe Biden, addressed the crowd, “He was a hale and hearty guy, well met. Did you ever hear of Shakespeare? He was hale and hearty and well met.”
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“Hale and hearty” is an expression, meaning “healthy and energetic.” The word “hale” (whole, healthy, healed) is truly ancient, dating back to Saxon days. The word “hearty” existed in Shakespeare’s day, but Shakespeare did not use the word very often, and never in a context similar to the one Trump cited. You can research this here.
The actual phrase “hale and hearty” seems to have appeared as late as the 19th century, long after Shakespeare’s time, but a very similar phrase, “hartie-hale,” was used by Spenser, Shakespeare’s contemporary.
“Hale and Hearty” is now the name of a soup chain.
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Trump has that confused with “hail fellow well met,” an expression dating back at least a bit before Shakespeare’s time, possibly much further, that means “a friendly, approachable, down-to-earth guy.” The first attribution in the OED is from George Pettie’s 1581 translation of an Italian work, “Civil Conversation.”
The maister ‥being, as you say, “haile fellow well met” with his servant.
In other words, the master conversed with his servant in a friendly, informal way, as if speaking to an equal on casual or intimate terms. The use of “as you say” indicates that this was already an established expression at the time it was written, when Will Shakespeare was only 17 years old. In other words, it was already a common expression in Shakespeare’s time, so he might have used it, but did not.
As for the separate parts:
- “Hail, fellow” was an intimate, familiar greeting, the equivalent of “Hey, buddy!” The word “Hail” appears as a greeting more than 70 times in the Bard’s works, but never followed by “fellow.” “Hail, Caesar” and “Hail, Macbeth” are probably the two most famous.
- “Well met” was the equivalent of “It’s good to see you.” The expression “well met” was a common one in Shakespeare’s time and appears several times in the Bard’s works.
