at home, that our armies join not in a hot day! for, by the Lord, I take but two fhirts out with me, and I mean not to fweat extraordinarily: if it be a hot day, an I brandish any thing but my bottle, I would I might never fpit white again.5 There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thruft upon it: Well, I cannot laft ever: But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. If you will needs fay, I am an old man, you should give me reft. I would to God, my name were not fo. terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be eaten to death with ruft, than to be fcoured to nothing with perpetual motion. CH. JUST. Well, be honest, be honeft; And God blefs your expedition! FAL. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound, to furnish me forth? CH. JUST. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to bear croffes. Fare you well: Commend me to my coufin Weftmoreland. [Exeunt Chief Juftice and Attendant. 5 would I might never fpit white again.] i. e. May I never have my stomach inflamed again with liquor; for, to pit white is the confequence of inward heat. So, in Mother Bombie, a comedy, 1594: "They have fod their livers in fack these forty years; that makes them fpit white broth as they do." Again, in The Virgin Martyr, by Maflinger: -I could not have Spit white for want of drink." 6 But it was always &c.] This fpeech, in the folio, concludes at-I cannot laft ever. All the reft is reftored from the quarto. A clear proof of the fuperior value of thofe editions, when compared with the publication of the players. STEEVENS. -you are too impatient to bear croffes.] I believe a quibble was here intended. Falstaff had juft afked his lordship to lend him a thousand pound, and he tells him in return that 7 FAL. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. -A man can no more feparate age and covetuoufness, than he can part young limbs and lechery : but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and fo both the degrees prevent my curfes.9 -Boy! he is not to be entrusted with money. A cross is a coin fo called, because stamped with a crofs. So, in As you like it: 8 "If I fhould bear you, I fhould bear no crofs." STEEVENS. fillip me with a three-man beetle.] A beetle wielded by three men. POPE. A diverfion is common with boys in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, on finding a toad, to lay a board about two or three feet long, at right angles, over a stick about two or three inches diameter, as per fketch. Then, placing the toad at A, the other end is ftruck by a bat or large ftick, which throws the creature forty or fifty feet perpendicular from the earth, and its return in general kills it. This is called Filliping the Toad.-A three-man beetle is an implement used for driving piles; it is made of a log of wood about eighteen or twenty inches diameter, and fourteen or fifteen inches thick, with one short and two long handles, as per fketch. A man at each of the long handles manages the fall of the beetle, and a third man, by the short handle, affifts in raising it to ftrike the blow. Such an implement was, without doubt, very fuitable for filliping fo corpulent a being as Falstaff. With this happy illuftration, and the drawings annexed, I was favoured by Mr. Johnson, the architect. STEEVENS. So, in A World of Wonders, A Mafs of Murthers, A Covie of Cofenages, &c. 1595, fign. F. “ -whilft Arthur Hall was weighing the plate, Bullock goes into the kitchen and fetcheth a heavie washing betle, wherewith he comming behinde Hall, ftrake him," &c. REED. 9 -prevent my curfes.] To prevent means, in this place, to anticipate. So, in the 119th Pfalm: "Mine eyes prevent the night watches." STEEVENS. PAGE. Sir? FAL. What money is in my purfe? FAL. I can get no remedy against this confumption of the purfe: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the difeafe is incurable.-Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the earl of Weftmoreland; and this to old mistress Urfula, whom I have weekly fworn to marry fince I perceived the firft white hair on my chin: About it; you know where to find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my penfion fhall feem the more reasonable: A good wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity.' [Exit, SCENE III. York. A Room in the Archbishop's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of York, the Lords HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH. ARCH. Thus have you heard our caufe, and known our means; And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, I -to commodity.] i. e. profit, felf-intereft. See Vol. X. p. 408, n. 8. STEEVENS. MoWB. I well allow the occafion of our arms; But gladly would be better satisfied, How, in our means, we fhould advance ourselves To look with forehead bold and big enough Upon the power and puiffance of the king. HAST. Our prefent mufters grow upon the file To five and twenty thousand men of choice; And our supplies live largely in the hope Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns With an incensed fire of injuries. BARD. The queftion then, lord Hastings, standeth thus ; ; Whether our prefent five and twenty thousand Bard. Ay, marry, there's the point; But if without him we be thought too feeble, My judgment is, we should not step too far 2 ARCH. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's cafe at Shrewsbury. BARD. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the air on promife of fupply, Flattering himself with project of a power 2 -Step too far-] The four following lines were added in the fecond edition. JOHNSON. 3 Much Smaller-] i. e. which turned out to be much smaller. Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, HAST. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope. BARD. Yes, in this prefent quality of war;Indeed the inftant action,4 (a caufe on foot,) 4 Yes, in this prefent quality of war; &c.] These first twenty lines were first inferted in the folio of 1623. The first clause of this paffage is evidently corrupted. All the folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the fame reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus: Yes, if this prefent quality of war Impede the infiant a&t. This has been filently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper, for, in the prefent reading, Bardolph makes the inconvenience of hope to be that it may caufe delay, when, indeed, the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the reft that are too forward. I know not what to propose, and am afraid that fomething is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requifite is no more than this: Yes, in this prefent quality of war, Indeed of inftant action. It never, fays Haftings, did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope. Yes, fays Bardolph, it has done harm in this present quality of war, in a ftate of things fuch as is now before us, of war, indeed of inftant action. This is obfcure, but Mr. Pope's reading is ftill lefs reasonable. JOHNSON. I have adopted Dr. Johnfon's emendation, though I think we might read: if this prefent quality of war Impel the inftant a Tion. Haftings fays, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, fays Bardolph, it has in every cafe like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for fupplies, has, without that reinforcement, impelled, or haftily brought on, an immediate action. STEEVENS. If we may be allowed to read-inftanc'd, the text may mean-Yes, it has done harm in every cafe like ours; indeed, it did harm in young Hotfpur's cafe at Shrewsbury, which the Archbishop of York has juft instanced or given as an example. TOLLET. |