P. Hen. 'Faith, it does me; though it discolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me, to desire small beer? Poins. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied, as to remember so weak a composition. P. Hen. Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast; viz. these, and those that were the peach-colour'd ones? or to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity, and one other for use? but that, the tennis-court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of thy low-countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland: and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen, shall inherit his and God knows, &c.] This passage Mr. Pope restored from the first edition. I think it may as well be omitted. It is omitted in the first folio, and in all subsequent editions before Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the author. The editors, unwilling to lose any thing of Shakspeare's, not only insert what he has added, but recall what he has rejected. Johnson. I have not met with positive evidence that Shakspeare rejected any passages whatever. Such proof may indeed be inferred from the quartos which were published in his life-time, and are declared (in their titles) to have been enlarged and corrected by his own hand. These I would follow, in preference to the folio, and should at all times be cautious of opposing its authority to that of the elder copies. Of the play in question, there is no quarto extant but that in 1600, and therefore we are unauthorized to assert that a single passage was omitted by consent of the poet himself. I do not think I have a right to expunge what Shakspeare should seem to have written, on the bare authority of the player-editors. I have therefore restored the passage in question to the text. Steevens. This and many other similar passages were undoubtedly struck out of the playhouse copies by the Master of the Revels. 5 Malone. that bawl out the ruins of thy linen,] I suspect we should read-that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen; i. e. his bastard children, wrapt up in his old shirts. The latter part of this speech, "And God knows," &c. is omitted in the folio. Malone. kingdom: but the midwives say, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily strengthened. Poins. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is? P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Hen. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine. Poins. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell. T P. Hen. Why, I tell thee, it is not meet that I should be sad, now my father is sick: albeit I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too. Poins. Very hardly, upon such a subject. P. Hen. By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the devil's book, as thou, and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency: Let the end try the man. But I tell thee,my heart bleeds inwardly, that my father is so sick and keeping such vile company as thou art, hath in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow." Poins. The reason? : P. Hen. What wouldst thou think of me, if I should weep? Poins. I would think thee a most princely hypocrite. P. Hen. It would be every man's thought: and thou art a blessed fellow, to think as every man thinks; never a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way better than thine every man would think me an hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful thought, to think so? Poins. Why, because you have been so lewd, and so much engraffed to Falstaff. "Out the ruins" is the same as "out of" &c. Of this elliptical phraseology I have seen instances, though I omitted to note Steevens. them. 6 all ostentation of sorrow.] Ostentation is here not boastful show, but simply show. Merchant of Venice. one well studied in a sad ostent "To please his grandame." Johnson. P. Hen. And to thee. Poins. By this light, I am well spoken of, I can hear it with my own ears: the worst that they can say of me is, that I am a second brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands; and those two things, I confess, I cannot help. By the mass, here comes Bardolph. P. Hen. And the boy that I gave Falstaff: he had him from me christian; and look, if the fat villain have not transformed him ape. Enter BARDOLPH and Page. Bard. 'Save your grace! P. Hen. And yours, most noble Bardolph! 8 Bard. Come, you virtuous ass, [to the Page] you bashful fool, must you be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it such a matter, to get a pottle-pot's maidenhead? 9 Page. He called me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could discern no part of his face from the window: at last, I spied his eyes; and, methought, he had made two holes in the alewife's new petticoat, and peeped through. P. Hen. Hath not the boy profited? Bard. Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away! 7 - proper fellow of my hands;] A tall or proper fellow of his hands was a stout fighting man. Johnson. In this place, however, it means a good looking, well made, personable man. Poins might certainly have helped his being a fighting fellow. Ritson. A handsome fellow of my size; or of my inches, as we should now express it. M. Mason. Proper, it has been already observed, in our author's time, signified handsome. "As tall a man of his hands" has already occurred in The Merry Wives of Windsor. See Vol. III, p. 41, n. 2. Malone. 8 Bard. Come, you virtuous ass, &c.] Though all the editions give this speech to Poins, it seems evident, by the Page's immediate reply, that it must be placed to Bardolph: for Bardolph had called to the boy from an ale-house, and it is likely, made him half-drunk; and, the boy being ashamed of it, it is natural for Bardolph, a bold unbred fellow, to banter him on his awkward bashfulness. Theobald. ง through a red lattice,] i. e. from an ale-house window. VOL. IX. E Malone. P. Hen. Instruct us, boy; What dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dreamed she was delivered of a fire-brand;1 and therefore I call him her dream. P. Hen. A crown's worth of good interpretation.There it is, boy. [Gives him money. Poins. O, that this good blossom could be kept from cankers!-Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee. Bard. An you do not make him be hanged among you, the gallows shall have wrong. P. Hen. And how doth thy master, Bardolph? Bard. Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's coming to town; there's a letter for you. Poins. Delivered with good respect. And how doth the martlemas, your master?2 Bard. In bodily health, sir. Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician: but that moves not him; though that be sick, it dies not. P. Hen. I do allow this wen3 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 has occasion to name himself. Even like those that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they say, There is some of the king's blood spilt: How comes that? says he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap; I am the king's poor cousin, sir. 1 Althea dreamed &c.] Shakspeare is here mistaken in his mythology, and has confounded ́Althea's firebrand with Hecuba's. The firebrand of Althea was real; but Hecuba, when she was big with Paris, dreamed that she was delivered of a firebrand that consumed the kingdom. Johnson. 2 the martlemas, your master?] That is, the autumn, or rather the latter spring. The old fellow with juvenile passions. Johnson. In The First Part of King Henry IV, the Prince calls Falstaff "the latter spring,-all-hallown summer." Malone. Martlemas is corrupted from Martinmas, the feast of St. Martin, the eleventh of November. The corruption is general in the old plays. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599: 3 "A piece of beef hung up since Martlemas." Steevens. this wen -] This swoln excrescence of a man. Johnson. P. Hen. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. But the letter: Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of the king, nearest his father, Harry prince of Wales, greeting.-Why, this is a certificate. P. Hen.5 Peace! Poins. I will imitate the honourable Roman in brevity : -he sure means brevity in breath; short-winded.-I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins; for he misuses thy favours so much, that he swears, thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent at idle times as thou may'st, and so farewel. Thine, by yea and no, (which is as much as to say, as thou usest him,) Jack Falstaff, with my familiars; John, with my brothers and sisters; and sir John with all Europe. the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap;] Old copy-a borrowed cap. Steevens. But how is a borrowed cap so ready? Read, a borrower's cap, and then there is some humour in it: for a man that goes to borrow money, is of all others, the most complaisant; his cap is always at hand. Warburton. Falstaff's followers, when they stole any thing, called it a pur· chase. A borrowed cap, in the same dialect, might be a stolen one; which is sufficiently ready, being as Falstaff says, "to be found on every hedge." Malone. Such caps as were worn by men in our author's age, were made of silk, velvet, or woollen; not of linen; and consequently would not be hung out to dry on hedges." Steevens. I think Dr. Warburton's correction is right. A cap is not a thing likely to be borrowed, in the common sense of the word: and in the sense of stealing, the sense should be a cap to be borrowed. Besides, conveying was the cant phrase for stealing. Farmer. 5 P. Hen.] All the editors, except Sir Thomas Hanmer, have left this letter in confusion, making the Prince read part, and Poins part. I have followed his correction. Johnson. 6 I will imitate the honourable Roman in brevity:] The old copy reads Romans, which Dr. Warburton very properly corrected, though he is wrong when he appropriates the character to M. Brutus, who affected great brevity of style. I suppose by the honourable Roman is intended Julius Cæsar, whose veni, vidi, vici, seems to be alluded to in the beginning of the letter. I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. The very words of Cæsar are afterwards quoted by Falstaff. Heath. |