P. Henry. And yours, most noble Bardolph! Bard. [to the Page.] Come, you virtuous afs, you bafhful fool, muit you be bluthing? Wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it such a matter, to get a pottle-pot's maiden-head? and no, be mifufes thy favours fo much, that he fears, thou Page. He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and 1 could difcern no part of his face from the window: at laft, I ípy'd his eyes; and methought, he had made two holes in the ale-words. wife's new petticoat, and peep'd through. P. Henry. Hath not the boy profited? Bard. Away, you whorefon upright rabbet, away! Page. Away, you rafcally Althea's dream, away! P. Henry. Inftruct us, boy: What dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dream'd the was deliver'd of a firebrand; and therefore I call bim her dream. P. Henry. A crown's worth of good interpretation. There it is, boy. [Gives bim money. Poins. O, that this good bloffom could be kept from cankers!-Well, there is fix-pence to preferve thee. Bard. An you do not make him be hang'd among you, the gallows shall have wrong. P. Henry. And how doth thy master, Bardolph Bard. Well, my good lord. He heard of your grace's coming to town; there's a letter for you. P. Heary. Deliver'd with good respect.-And how doth the martlemas 1 your master? Bard. In bodily health, fir? 1 P. Hen. That's to make him eat twenty of his But do you ufe me thus, Ned? must I marry your fifter? Poins. May the wench have no worse fortune! but I never faid fo. P. Henry. Well, thus we play the fool with the time; and the fpirits of the wife fit in the clouds, and mock us-Is your master here in London? Bard Yes, my lord. P. Henry. Where fups he? doth the old boar Page. Ephefians, my lord; of the old church. P. Henry. What pagan 7 may that be? P. Henry. Even fuch kin, as the parish heifers are to the town bull.-Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at fupper? [you. Poins. I am your fhadow, my lord; I'll follow P. Henry. Sirrah, you boy,-and Bardolph ;~ Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a phyfi-no word to your mafter, that I am yet come to cian: but that moves not him; though that be fick, town: There's for your filence. it dies not. P. Henry. I do allow this wen 2 to be as familiar with me as my dog: and he holds his place; for, look you, how he writes. Poins reads. John Falstaff, knight,-Every man must know that, as oft as he hath occafion to name himself. Even like thofe that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they fay, There is fome of the king's blood spilt.-How comes that? fays he, that takes upon him not to conceive the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap 3; 4 am the king's poor coufin, fir. Bard. I have no tongue, fir. Page. And for mine, fir,-I will govern it. P. Henry. Fare ye well; go.-This Doll Tearfheet fhould be fome road. Poins. I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Alban's and London. P. Henry. How might we fee Falstaff bestow himself to-night in his true colours, and not ourfelves be seen ? Poins. Put on two leather jerkins, and aprons, and wait upon him at his table as drawers. P. Henry. From a god to a bull? a heavy deP. Henry. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they fcenfion! it was Jove's cafe. From a prince to a will fetch it from Japhet. But to the letter::- prentice a low transformation! that fhall be Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the fon of mine: for, in every thing, the purpose must weigh the king, nearest his father, Harry prince of Wales, with the folly. Follow me, Ned. [Exeunt. greeting. Why, this is a certificate. SCENE Lady Percy. III. P. Hen y. Peace! Poins. I will imitate the bonourable Roman 4 in Enter Northumberland, Lady Northumberland, and brevity:-fure he means brevity in breath; shortwinded.-I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins; for North. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter, That is, the autumn, or rather the latter fpring; meaning, the old fellow with juvenile paffioną. Martlemas is corrupted from Martinmas, the feast of St. Martin, the eleventh of November. a i. e. this tumid excrefcence of a man. 3 Warburton explains this allufion by obferving, that a man who goes to borrow money, is of all others the most complaifant; his cap is always at hand. 4 By the honourable Roman is probably intended Julius Cæfar, whose veni, vidi, vici, feems to be alluded to in the beginning of the letter. s Frank is fly. Probably the cant word in thofe times for topers. 7 The cant word perhaps for proflitute. Give even way unto my rough affairs: L. North. I have given over, I will fpeak no more: Do what you will; your wifdom be your guide. North. Alas, fweet wife, my honour is at pawn; And, but my going, nothing can redeem it. L. Percy. Oh, yet, for heaven's fake, go not to The time was, father, that you broke your word In the grey vault of heaven: and, by his light, And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, In military rules, humours of blood, He was the mark and glafs, copy and book, Natth. Befhrew your heart, 1 Draw. What the devil haft thou brought there? apple-Johns? Thou know'st, Sir John cannot endure an apple-John 3. 2 Draw. Mafs, thou fay'st true: The prince once set a dish of apple-Johns before him, and told him, there were five more Sir Johns: and, putting off his hat, faid, Iwill now take my leave of these fix dry, round, old, wither'd knights. It anger'd him to the heart; but he hath forgot that. i Draw. Why, then, cover, and set them down: And fee if thou can't find out Sneak's 4 noise : miftrefs Tear-fheet would fain hear fome music. Difpatch: The room where they fupp'd is too hot; they'll come in straight. 2 Draw. Sirrah, here will be the prince and mafter Poins anon: and they will put on two of our jerkins, and aprons; and Sir John muft not know of it: Bardolph hath brought word. I Draw. Then here will be old utis 5: It will be an excellent stratagem. 2 Draw. I'll fee, if I can find out Sneak. [Exit. Enter Hoftefs and Doll Tearsheet. Hoft. Sweet-heart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temperality: your pulfidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would defire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any role: But, 'faith, you have drank too much canaries; and Fair daughter! you do draw my fpirits from me, that's a marvellous fearching wine, and it perfumes Have of their puiffance made a little taste. Fal. When Arthur firft in court-Empty the jor L. Percy. If they get ground and vantage of the dan-and was a worthy king: How now, mistress king, Doll? [Exit Drawer! Theobald conjectures that the poet wrote look in vain. 2 Alluding to the plant, rosemary, fo called, and ufed in funerals. 3 This apple will keep two years, but becomes very wrinkled and fhrivelled. 4 Dr. Johnson fays, Sneak was a street minstrel, and therefore the drawer goes out to liften if he can hear him in the neighbourhood. A noife of musicians anciently fignified a concert or company of them. Falstaff addrefles them as a company in another fcene of this play. s Utis, a word yet in ufe in fome counties, fignifying a merry feftival, from the French huit, offo, ab A. §. Çahta, oltavæ fefti alicujus. Old utis fignifies feftivity in a great degree. Heft. Sick of a calm: yea, good footh. Hof. Tilly-folly, Sir John, never tell me; your Fal. So is all her fect2; if they be once in a ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before mafter Tifick, the deputy, the other day: calm, they are fick. Dol. You muddy rafcal, is that all the comfort and, as he faid to me,--it was no longer ago than you give me? Fal. You make fat rafcals, mistress Doll. Dol. I make them! gluttony and difeafes make them; I make them not.. Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the difcafes, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtus, grant that. Dol. Ay, marry; our chains, and our jewels. Wednesday laft,-Neighbour Quickly, says he - Fal. Your broobes, pearls, and owches+;-for tono, I'll no fwaggerers. ferve bravely, is to come halting off, you know :, Ful. He's no iwaggerer, hofteis; a tame cheatTo come off the breach with his pike bent brave-er, he; you may ftroak him as gently as a puply, and to furgery bravely; to venture upon the ry-greyhound: he will not fwagger with a Barbacharg'd chambers 5 bravely ry hen, if her feathers turn back in any fhew of Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang refistance.-----Call him up, drawer. yourself! Hof. Why, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to fome difcord: you are - both, in good troth, as rheumatic as two dry toafts 7; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-jere! one muit bear, and that must be you: you are the weaker veila, as they fay, the emptier vellel. Hal. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no boneft men my houfe, nor, no cheater 10: But I do not love fwaggering, by my troth; I am the worse, when one fays-twagger: feel, mafters, how I thake; look you, I warrant you. Dol. So you do, hoftefs. Hal. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere 'Pi. 'Save you, Sir John! [To Dilan Del. Can a weak empty vefiel bear fuch a huge • full hogshead? There's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux ftuff in him; you have not feen a hulk better stuff'd in the hold.---Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack: thou art going to the jupon mine hofters, wars; and whether I fhall ever fee thee again, or í no, there is nobody cares. Be-erter Drawer. Draw. Sir, ancient Speak with you. Fal. Welcome, ancient Piftol. Here, Piftol, I charge you with a cup of fack: do you discharge Pif. I will dricharge upon her, Sir John, with two bullets. Fal. She is piftol-proof, fir; you shall hardly Piftol's below, and would offend her. Dal.. Hang him, fwaggering rafcal! let him not come hither it is the foul-mouth'dit rogue in England. left. If he fwagger, let him not come here no, by my faith: 1 mat live amongit my neigirhoors; I'll no twaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the very beft:-Shut the door ;-there comes no fwaggerers here: I have not liv'd all this while, to have twaggering now ;-fhut the door, I pray you. Fal. Doft thou hear, hoftefs? Hoft. Pray you, pacify yourself, Sir John: there knife in your mouldy chaps, an you play the faucy comes nofwaggerers here. Fal. Doft thou hear it is mine ancient. cuttle 13 with me. Away! you bottle-ale rafcal! you basket-hilt itale juggler, you!-Since when, I I Meaning, probably, of a quolm. 2 That is, her profeflion; or perhaps fex may be meant. 3 ralitat alludes to a phrafe of the forcit. Lean deer are called rafcal decr. He tells her the calls him wrong, for being fat, he cannot be a rascal. 4 This is a line in an old fong. Brooches were chains of gold that women wore formerly about their necks. Ouches were bosses of gold set with diamonds. > To understand this quibble, it is neceffary to obferve, that a chamber fignifies not only an apartment, but a piece of ordnance. A chamber is likewife that part of a mine where the powder is ledged. Richmates, in the cant language of thofe times, fignified capricious, humourfome. 7 Whichi cannot meet but they grate one another. 8 Ancient Piftol is the fame as Enfign Pistol. 9 Gamefter and heater were, in Shakspeare's age, fynonimous terms. 10 The humour of this confifts in the women's iniftaking the title of cheater (or gamefter) for that officer of the exchequer called an cottater, well known to the common people of that time; and named, either corruptly or fatirically, a chester. 11 The duplication of the pronoun was very common. The French till use this idiom- Je fuis Parifien, moi 12 In the cant of thievery, to nip a bung was to cut a purfe. 13 Cuttle and cuttle-boog were the cant terms for the knife ufed by the harpers of that age to cut the bottoms of puries, which were then woin harging at the girdle. pray Pist. Die men, like dogs; give crowns like pins ; H.ft. O my word, captain, there's none fuch Fal. No more, Piftol; I would not have you here. go off here: discharge yourself of our company, deny her? I pray, be quiet. Piftol. Hoft. No, good captain Piftol; not here, fweet captain. Pif. Then, Feed, and be fat, my fair Calipolis 11: Come, give's fome fack. there. nothing? →Si fortuna me tormenta, fperato me contentu.--Del. Captain! thou abominable damn'd cheater, Fear we broad-fides? no, let the fiend give fire : art thou not asham'd to be call'd-captain? If cap-Give me fome fack;-and, fweet-heart, lye thou tains were of my mind, they would truncheon you [Laying down his fworde out, for taking their names upon you before you Come we to full points 12 here; and are et ceterat have earn'd them. You a captain, you flave! for what? for tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdyhoufe-He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives upon mouldy ftew'd prunes, and dry'd cakes 3. A captain! thefe villains will make the word captain as odious as the word occupy 4; which was an excellent good word before it was ill forted: therefore captains had need look to it. Bard. Pray thee, go down, good ancient. Fal. Piftol, I would be quiet. Pift. Sweet knight, I kits thy neif 13: What we have feen the seven stars. Dol. Thruft him down ftairs; I cannot endure fuch a fuftian rafcal. Pift. Thruft him down stairs! know we not Galloway nags 14 ? Fal. Quoit him down, Bardolph, like a fhovegroat fhilling 5: nay, if he do nothing but speak Pift. Not I: I tell thee what, corporal Bar-nothing, he thall be nothing here. dolph ;-I could tear her :- -I'll be reveng'd on her. Page. Pray thee, go down. Bard. Come, get you down stairs. Piji. What! fhail we have incifion ? fhall we imbrew ?Then death Pist. I'll fee her damn'd first ;-To Pluto's dam-Rock me afleep 6, abridge my doleful days! ned lake, to the infernal deep, where Erebus and tortures vile alfo. Hold hook and line, tay I. Down! down, dogs! down, faitors! Have we hot Hiren 7 here? Heft. Good captain Peefel, be quiet; it is very And hollow-pamper'd jades of Asia 8, Why then, let grievous, ghaftiy, gaping wounds Hoff. Here's goodly ftu: toward ! [Drawing, and driving Pistol out. Dol. I pray thee, Jack, be quiet; the raícal is Hoff. By my troth, captain, thefe are very bitter gone. Ah, you whoreton little valiant villain, you! words. Hof. Are you not hurt i' the groin? methought Bard. Be gone, good ancient: this will grow to he made a fhrewd thruit at your belly. a brawl anon. [Re-enter Bardolph. 1 As a mark of his commiffion. 2 Mach was a common expreffion of difdain at that time, of the fame fenfe with that more modern ons, Marry come up. 3 Meaning, that he liv'd on the refute provisions of bawdy-houfes and paftry-cooks fhops. The allufion to flew'd prunes, and all that is neceifary to be known on that fubject, has been already explained in our notes on other passages of thefe Plays. 4 Occupant feems to have been formerly a term for a woman of the town, as occupier was for a wencher. 5 Thele words are introduced in ridicule of fome abfurd and fuftian pallages from plays, in which Shakspeare had been a performer, and from which the greater part of Piftel's character feems to be compofed. i. e. traitors, rafcals. 7 Hiren was fometimes a cant term for a miftrefs or harlot; Piftol may therefore mean, "Have we not a fumtet here? and why am I thus uled by her p 8 Thefe lins are in part a quotation out of an old abfurd fuitian play, entitled, Tambur Tan's Conquefls; or, The Scythian Shepherd. 9 Cannibal is uied by a blunder for Hannibal. 10 Mr. Steevens oblerves, that as Hiren was fometimes ufed to denɔte a myjtress or harlot, Pittol may be fuppofed to give it on this occafion, as an endearing name, to his fword, in the fame fpirit of fondnels that he prefently calls it facet-heart. Piftol delights in beltowing titles on his weapon. fcene he alfo calls it - Atropos. A burlesque on a line in an old play, called The Battel of Alcaz ir, &c. 12 That is, fhall we ftop here? 13. e. I kits thy fift. 14 That is, common hackneys. 15 Mr. Steevens fuppofes this expreflion to mean a piece of polished metal made ufe of in the play of fhovel-board. 16 This is a fragment of an ancient fong, fuppofed to have been written by Anne Boleyn; for which fee Sir John Hawkins's General History of Mutic, vol. III. p. 31. 113 In this Fai Fal. Have you turn'd him out of doors? faculties he hath, that fhew a weak mind and an Bard. Yes, fir. The rafcal's drunk: you have able body, for the which the prince admits him : hurt him, fr, in the fhoulder. for the prince himself is fuch another; the weight of a hair will turn the fcales between their aver→ dupois. Fal. A rafcal! to brave me ! Dol. Ah, you fweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou fweat'st? Come, let me wipe thy face;-come on, you whorefon chops :-Ah, rogue! I love thee.-Thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than the nine worthies: Ah, villain ! Fai. A rafcally flave! I will tofs the rogue in any years out-live performance ? blanket. P. Henry. Would not this nave of a wheel 7 have his ears cut off? Dol. Do, if thou dar'ft for thy heart: if thou do'ft, I'll canvass thee between a pair of theets. Enter Mufick. Page. The mufick is come, fir. Fal. Let them play ;—Play, firs.—Sit on my knee, Doll. A rafcal bragging flave! the rogue fied from me, like quickfilver. Poins. Let's beat him before his whore. P. Henry. Look, if the wither'd elder hath not his poll claw'd like a parrot. Poins. Is it not fstrange, that defire should so ma Fal. Kifs me, Doll. P. Henry. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction what fays the almanack to that? Poins. And, look, whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not lifping to his master's old tables 10; his note-book, his counsel-keeper. Fal. Thou doft give me flattering buffes. Dol. Nay, truly; I kifs thee with a moft con Fal. I am old, I am old. Dol. I' faith, and thou followd'ft him like aftant heart. church. Thou whorefon little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave fighting o' days, and foining of nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven? Drawers. Dol. I love thee better than I love e'er a fcurvy young boy of them all. Fal. What ftuff wilt have a kirtle I of? I shall Enter, behind, Prince Henry and Pains, difguifed like receive money on Thursday: thou fhalt have a cap to-morrow. A merry fong, come it grows late, we'll to bed. Thou'lt forget me, when I am gone. Dol. By my troth, thou'lt fet me a weeping, an thou fay'ft fo: prove that ever I drefs myself hand, fome 'till thy return.-Well, hearken the end, Fal. Some fack, Francis. Fal. Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a death's head 2; do not bid me remember mine end. Dol. Sirrah, what humour is the prince of? Fal. A good fhallow young fellow he would have made a good pantler, he would have chipp'd bread well. Dol. They fay, Poins hath a good wit. Fal. He a good wit? hang him, baboon !-his wit is as thick as Tewksbury 3 mustard; there is no more conceit in him, than is in a mallet. P. Henry. Poins. Anon, anon, fir. Fal. Ha a bastard son of the king's and art not thou Poins, his brother? P. Henry. Why, thou globe of finful continents, what a life doft thou lead? Fal. A better than thou; I am a gentleman, thou art a drawer. Dol. Why doth the prince love him fo then? Fal. Because their legs are both of a bignefs; and he plays at quoits well; and eats conger and fennel 4 and drinks off candles' ends for flap-you out by the ears. dragons; and rides the wild mare with the boys; P. Henry. Very true, fir; and I come to draw Hoft. O, the Lord preferve thy good grace I and jumps upon joint-ftools; and fwears with a welcome to London.Now heaven blefs that good grace; and wears his boot very smooth, like fweet face of thine! what, are you come from unto the fign of the leg; and breeds no bate with Wales? telling of difcreet ftories: and fuch other gambol Fal. Thou whorefon mad compound of ma 1 For tidy Sir Thomas Hanmer reads tiny; but they are both words of endearment, and equally proper. Bartholomew boar-pig is a little pig made of pafte, fold at Bartholomew-fair, and given to children for a fairing. 2 Mr. Steevens fays, it was the custom for the bawds of that age to wear a death's head in a ring, upon their middle finger, 3 Tewksbury, a market-town in Gloucefterfhire, was formerly noted for mustard-balls made there, and fent into other parts. 4 Conger with fennel was formerly regarded as a provocative. 5 A fap-dragon is fome fmall combustible body, fired at one end, and put afloat in a glafs of liquor. It is an act of a toper's dexterity to tofs off the glafs in fuch a manner as to prevent the flap-dragon from doing mifchief. Ben Jonfon fpeaks of thofe who eat candles ends, as an act of love and gallantry. But perhaps our author, by Poins fwallowing candles ends by way of flap-dragons, meant to indicate no more than that the prince loved him because he was always ready to do any thing for his amusement, however abfurd or unnatural. This expreffion may not perhaps be improperly elucidated by a paffage in The Merry Wives of Windfor, where Mrs. Quickly, enumerating the virtues of John Rugby, adds, that he is no tell-tale, no breed-bate." 7 Alluding to the roundness of Falstaff, who was called round man in contempt before. Meaning, that this was indeed a prodigy; aftrologers having remarked, that Saturn and Venus are never conjoined. 9 Trigonum igneum is the aftronomical term when the upper planets meet in a fiery fign, 10 Dr. Warburton thinks, we should read, clafping too his master's old tables, &c. i. c. embracing his master's caft-off whore, and now his bawd [his note-book, his counset-keeper]. 11 Mr. Steevens conjectures, that kirtle here means a petticoat, jesty, |