Mordake the earl of Fife, and eldest son Of Athol, Murray, Angus, and Menteith". A gallant prize? ha, coufin, is it not? Weft. 'Faith, 'tis a conqueft for a prince to boast of. In envy that, my lord Northumberland Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd, 5 Mordake the earl of Fife, and eldeft fon To beaten Douglas ;· -] Mordake earl of Fife, who was fon to the duke of Albany, regent of Scotland, is here called the fon of earl Douglas, through a mistake into which the poet was led by the omiffion of a comma in the paffage of Holinfhed from whence he took this account of the Scottish prifoners. It ftands thus in the hiftorian: "—and of prifoners, Mordacke earle of Fife, fon to the gouvernour Archembald earle Dowglas, &c." The want of a comma after gouvernour, makes these words appear to be the description of one and the fame person, and fo the poet understood them; but by putting the ftop in the proper place, it will then be manifeft that in this lift Mordake, who was fon to the governour of Scotland, was the first prifoner, and that Archibald earl of Douglas was the fecond, and so on. STEEVENS. 6 and Menteith.] This is a mistake of Holinfhed in his English Hiftory, for in that of Scotland, p. 259, 262, and 419, he speaks of the earl of Fife and Menteith as one and the fame perfon. STEEVENS. VOL. V. S Of Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners, Weft. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all aspects; 8 Which makes him prune himself, and briftle up The creft of youth against your dignity. K. Henry. But I have fent for him to answer this; And, for this caufe, a while we must neglect 7 the prifoners,] Percy had an exclufive right to these prifoners, except the earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whofe redemption did not exceed ten thoufand crowns, had him clearly for himself, either to acquit or ranfom, at his pleasure. It feems from Camden's Brit. that Pounouny-caftle in Scotland was built out of the ranfom of this very Henry Percy, when taken prifoner at the battle of Otterbourne by an ancestor of the prefent earl of Eglington. TOLLET. Percy could not refuse the earl of Fife to the king; for being a prince of the blood royal, (fon to the duke of Albany, brother to king Robert III.) Henry might juftly claim him by his acknowledged military prerogative. STEEVENS. Which makes him prune bimfelf,] Doubtless Shakespeare wrote plume. And to this the Oxford editor gives his fiat. WARBURTON. I am not fo confident as thofe two editors. The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride prunes himself; that is, picks off the loose feathers to fmooth the reft. To prune and to plume,` Ipoken of a bird, is the fame. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon is certainly right in his choice of the reading. So, in Albumazar, 1615: 66 prune yourself fleek." Again, in the Cobler's Prophecy, 1594 : "Sith now thou doft but prune thy wings, "And make thy feathers gay. Again, in Green's Metamorphofis, 1613: "Pride makes the fowl to prune his feathers fo." But I am not certain that the verb to prune is justly interpreted In the Booke of Haukynge &c. (commonly called the Booke of St. Albans) is the following account of it: "The hauke proineth when the fetcheth oyle with her beake over the taile, and anointeth her feet and her fethers. She plumeth when the pulleth fethers of anie foule and cafteth them from her." STEEVENS. Our Our holy purpose to Jerufalem. SCENE II. An apartment belonging to the prince. [Exeunt. Enter Henry, prince of Wales, and Sir John Falstaff. P. Henry. Thou art fo fat-witted, with drinking of old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches after noon, that thou haft forgotten to demand that truly which thou would'st truly know. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houses, and the bleffed fun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata; I fee no reason, why thou should'st be so fuperfluous to demand the time of the day. Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal: for 9 Than out of anger can be uttered.] That is, "More is to be faid than anger will fuffer me to fay more than can iffue from a mind difturbed like mine." JOHNSON. 3 — to demand that truly which thou would'ft truly know. -] The prince's objection to the queftion feems to be, that Falstaff had asked in the night what was the time of day. JOHNSON. This cannot be well received as the objection of the prince; for presently after, the prince himself fays: "Good morrow, Ned," and Poins replies: "Good morrow, fweet lad." The truth may be, that when Shakespeare makes the Prince with Poins a good morrow, he had forgot that the fcene commenced at night. S 2 STEEVENS. we, we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus,-he, that wand'ring knight so fair. And, I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art king,as, God fave thy grace, (majefty, I fhould fay; for grace thou wilt have none.). P. Henry. What! none? Fal. No, by my troth; not fo much as will ferve to be prologue to an egg and butter. P. Henry. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. Fal. Marry, then, fweet wag, when thou art king, * let not us, that are fquires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's beauty; let us be-Diana's forefters, gentlemen of the fhade, minions of the moon: And let men fay, we be men of good government; being govern'd as the fea is, by our noble and chafte mistress the moon, under whofe countenance -fteal. we P. Henry. Thou fay'ft well; and it holds well too : for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the fea; being govern'd as the fea 2 let not us, that are fquires of the night's body, be called thieves of the day's beauty:] This conveys no manner of idea to me. How could they be called thieves of the day's beauty? They robbed by moonshine; they could not steal the fair day-light. I have ventured to substitute booty: and this I take to be the meaning. Let us not be called thieves, the purloiners of that booty, which, to the proprietors, was the purchase of honeft labour and industry by day. THEOBALD. It is true, as Theobald has obferved, that they could not steal the fair day-light; but I believe our poet by the expreffion, thieves of the day's beauty, meant only, let not us, who are body fquires to the night, i. e. adorn the night, be called a difgrace to the day. To take away the beauty of the day, may probably mean, to difgrace it. Afquire of the body fignified originally, the attendant on a knight; the perfon who bore his head-piece, fpear, and shield. It became afterwards the cant term for a pimp; and is fo ufed in the fecond part of Decker's Honeft Whore, 1630. Again, in the Wilty Fair One, 1633, for a procures: "Here comes the fquire of her miitrefs's body." STEFVENS. is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: A purfe of gold moft refolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and moft diffolutely fpent on Tuesday morning; 3 got with fwearing-lay by; and spent with crying-bring in now, in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and, by and by, in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows. not Fal. By the lord, thou fay'ft true, lad. 4 And is the 3 got with fwearing-lay by ;—] i. e. fwearing at the pafsengers they robbed, lay by your arms; or rather, lay by was a phrafe that then fignified ftand ftill, addreffed to those who were preparing to rush forward. But the Oxford editor kindly accommodates thefe old thieves with a new cant phrafe, taken from Bagfhot-heath or Finchly-common, of lug out. WARBURTON. 4 And is not mine hoftefs of the tavern &c.] We meet with the fame kind of humour as is contained in this and the three following fpeeches, in the Moftellaria of Plautus, act I. fc. ii. Jampridem ecastor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter, "Nec unde me melius, mea Scapha, rear effe defœcatam. Sca. "Eventus rebus omnibus, velut horno meffis magna fuit. Phi. "Quid ea meffis attinet ad meam lavationem ? Sca. "Nihilo plus, quam lavatio tua ad meffim." In the want of connection to what went before, probably confifts the humour of the prince's question. STEEVENS. This kind of humour is often met with in old plays. In the Gallathea of Lilly, Phillida fays: "It is a pittie that nature framed you not a woman. "Gall. There is a tree in Tylos, &c. "Phill. What a toy it is to tell me of that tree, being nothing to the purpose, &c." Ben Jonfon calls it a game at vapours. FARMER. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle:-] Mr. Rowe took notice of a tradition, that this part of Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle. An ingenious correfpondent hints to me, that the paffage above quoted from our author, proves what Mr. Rowe tells us was a tradition. Old lad of the caf tle feems to have a reference to Oldcastle. Befides, if this had not been the fact, why, in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. where our author promifes to continue his story with fir John in it, fhould he fay: "Where, for any thing I know, Falstaff fhall die of a fweat, unless already he be killed with your hard S 3 opi |