Fran. O lord, sir, who do you mean? P. Hen. Why then, your brown bastard' is your only drink: for, look you, Francis, your white canvass doublet will sully: in Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much. Fran. What, sir? P. Hen. Away, you rogue; Dost thou not hear them call? [Here they both call him; the Drawer stands Enter Vintner. Vint. What! stand'st thou still, and hear'st such a calling? Look to the guests within. [Exit FRAN.] My lord, old Sir John, with half a dozen more, at the door; Shall I let them in? are P. Hen. Let them alone awhile, and then open the door. [Exit Vintner.] Poins! Re-enter POINS. Poins. Anon, anon, sir. P. Hen. Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door; Shall we be merry? Poins. As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; What cunning match have you made with this jest of the drawer? come, what's the issue? P. Hen. I am now of all humours, that have show'd themselves humours, since the old days of good man Adam, to the pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight. [Re-enter FRANCIS with wine.] What's o'clock, Francis? Fran. Anon, anon, sir. P. Hen. That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman! -His industry is-up-stairs, and down-stairs; his eloquence, the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the north: he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife,Fye upon this quiet life! I want work. O my sweet Harry, says she, how many hast thou killed to-day? Give my roan horse a drench, says he; and answers, Some fourteen, an hour after; a trifle, a trifle. pr'ythee, call in Falstaff; I'll play Percy, and that damned brawn shall play dame Mortimer his wife. Rivo, says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call in tallow. Enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO. of butter? pitiful-hearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the sun! if thou didst, then behold that compound. Fal. You rogue, here's limes in this sack too: There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it; a villainous coward.-Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. There lives not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old: God help the while! a bad world, I say! I would, I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or any thing: A plague of all cowards, I say still. P. Hen. How now, wool-sack? what mutter you? Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath," and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You prince of Wales! P. Hen. Why, you whoreson round man! what's the matter? Fal. Are you not a coward? answer me to that; and Poins there? Poins. 'Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, I'll stab thee. Fal. I call thee coward! I'll see thee damned ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound, I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back: Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me.-Give me a cup of sack:I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day. P. Hen. O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk'st last. Fal. All's one for that. A plague of all cowards, still stay I. [He drinks. P. Hen. What's the matter? Fal. What's the matter? there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this morning. P. Hen. Where is it, Jack? where is it? Fal. Where is it? taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four of us. P. Hen. What, a hundred, man? Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have Poins. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been? 'scap'd by miracle. I am eight times thrust through Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a ven- the doublet; four, through the hose; my buckler geance too! marry, and amen!-Give me a cup of cut through and through; my sword hacked like sack, boy.-Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew nether- a hand-saw, ecce signum. I never dealt better since stocks, and mend them, and foot them too. AI was a man: all would not do. A plague of all plague of all cowards!-Give me a cup of sack, cowards!-Let them speak; if they speak more or rogue.-Is there no virtue extant? [He drinks. P. Hen. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish 1 A kind of sweet Spanish wine, of which there were two sorts, brown and white. Baret says that 'bastarde is muscadel, swcete wine, mulsum.' Bastard wines are said to be Spanish wines in general, by Olaus Magnus. He speaks of them with almost as much enthusiasm as Falstaff does of sack, and concludes by saying, Nullum vinum majoris pretií est, quam bastardum, ob dulcedinis nobilitatem.'-De Gent. Septent. p. 521. 2 Of this exclamation, which was frequently used in Bacchanalian revelry, the origin or derivation has not been discovered. 2 Stockings. chaunted from market to market to a vile tune and a worse throat; whilst the poor country wench melts like butter to hear them.' 5 Eliot, in his Orthoepia, 1593, speaking of sack and rhenish, says, 'The vintners of London put in lime; thence proceed infinite maladies, specially the goutes.' 6 This is the reading of the first quarto, 1599. The folio reads 'I could sing all manner of songs. The passage was probably altered to avoid the penalty of the ers of music in the Twelfth Night Weavers are mentioned as lovstatute, 3 Jac. I. cxxi. who fled from the persecutions of the duke of Alva were The protestants mostly weavers, and, being Calvinists, were distinguished for their love of psalmody. Weavers were sup. 4Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter?posed to be generally good singers: their trade being alludes to Falstaff's entering in a great heat, melting sedentary, they had an opportunity of practising, and with the motion, like butter with the heat of the sun. sometimes in parts, while they were at work. 'Pitiful-hearted is used in the sense which Cotgrave gives to misericordieur, merciful, pitiful, compassionate, tender. Theobald reads 'pitiful-hearted but ter,' which is countenanced by none of the old copies, but affords a clear sense. Malone and Steevens have each given a reading, founded upon the quarto of 1599, which has at the sweet tale of the sonnes : but they differ in their explanations of the passage. Their arguments are too long for this place, and are the less necessary as I do not adopt the readings upon which they are founded. Bishop Earle, in his Microcosmography, giving the character of a pot poet, says, 'His frequentest works go out in single sheets, and are the Old Moralities. In the second part of this play Fal7 A dagger of lath is the weapon given to the Vice in staff calls Shallow a Vice's dagger. Women of Abingdon, (1599) that this method of defence 8 It appears from the old comedy of The Two Angry and fight was then going out of fashion:-'I see by this dearth of good swords that sword and buckler fight begins to grow out. I am sorry for it; I shall never see good manhood again. If it be once gone, this poking fight of rapier and dagger will come up then: then a tall man and a good sword-and-buckler-man will be spitted like a cat or a coney: then a boy will be as good as a man,' &c. less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of could'st not see thy hand? come tell us your reason; What sayest thou to this? darkness. P. Hen. Speak, sirs; how was it? Peto. No, no, they were not bound. Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.1 Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us, Fal. And unbound the rest, and then come in the other. P. Hen. What, fought you with them all? Fal. All? I know not what ye call, all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then I am no two-legged crea ture. Poins. 'Pray God, you have not murdered some of them. Fal. Nay, that's past praying for: for I have peppered two of them: two, I am sure, I have paid; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward;-here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me, P. Hen. What, four? thou saidst but two, even now. Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four. Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. Fal. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target thus. P. Hen. Seven? why, there were but four, even now. Fal. In buckram. Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits. Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. more anon. Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal? P. Hen. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack. Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. Fal. What, upon compulsion? No; were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. P. Hen. I'll be no longer guilty of this sin: this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-backbreaker, this huge hill of flesh; Fal. Away, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neats-tongue, bull's pizzle, you stock-fish,O, for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck; P. Hen. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again: and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. Poins. Mark, Jack. P. Hen. We two saw you four set on four; you bound them, and were masters of their wealth.Mark now, how plain a tale shall put you down.— Then did we two set on you four: and, with a word out-faced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house :-and, Fal. staff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still ran and roared, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as thou hast done; and then say, it was in fight? What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou now find out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame ? Poins. Come let's hear, Jack; What trick hast thou now? Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye, as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye, my masters: Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest, I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct; the lon will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee, during my life; 1, for Fal. Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by nine in buckram, that I told thee of, P. Hen. So, two more already. Fal. Began to give me ground: But I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid. P. Hen. O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! Fal. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves, in Kendal green, came at my back, and let drive at me ;-for it was so dark, Hal, that thou could'st not see thy hand. P. Hen. These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts; thou knotty-pated fool; thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallowkeech4 Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth, the truth? P. Hen. Why, how could'st thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou 1 So in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :-Thou art an Hebrew, a Jew, and not worth the name of a Christian.' 2 The same jest bas already occurred in Twelfth Night, Act i. Sc. 5. To understand it, the double meaning of point must be remembered, which signifies a tagged lace used by our ancestors to fasten their garments, as well as the sharp end of a weapon. So in Sir Giles Goosecap, a comedy, 1606-Help me to truss my points. I had rather see your hose about your heels than I would help you to truss a point.' the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money.Hostess, clap to the doors; watch to-night, pray to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry? shall we have a play exten pore? P. Hen. Content;—and the argument shall be, thy running away. Fal. Ah no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest 4 A keech is a round lump of fat, rolled up by the butcher in order to be carried to the chandler, and in its form resembles the rotundity of a fat man's belly. The old editions read catch. 5 The strappado was a dreadful punishment inflicted on soldiers and criminals, by drawing them up on high with their arms tied backward. Randle Holme saya that they were suddenly let fall half way with a jerk, which not only broke the arms but shook all the joints out of joint. He adds, which punishment it is better to be hanged than for a man to undergo." Academy of Arms and Blazon, b. iii. p. 310. 6 It has been proposed to read eel-skin, with great 3 Kendal Green was the livery of Robert earl of plausibility. Shakspeare had historical authority for Huntingdon and his followers, when in a state of outlaw the leanness of the prince. Stowe speaking of him, says, ry, under the name of Robin Hood and his men. The 'He exceeded the mean stature of men, his neck long, colour took its name from Kendal, in Westmoreland, body slender and lean, and his bones small,' &c. formerly celebrated for its cloth manufacture. Green 7 This is a kind of a joke upon noble and royal, two still continues the colour of woodmen and gamekeepers, coins, one of the value of 68. 8d. the other 108. Mr. Fal. What manner of man is he? Host. An old man. P. Hen. So did he never the sparrow. Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at mid- he will not run. night?-Shall I give him his answer? P. Hen. 'Pr'ythee, do, Jack. [Exit. P. Hen. Now, sirs; by'r lady, you fought fair; so did you, Peto;-so did you, Bardolph: you are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince, no,-fye! Bard. 'Faith, I ran when I saw others run. P. Hen. Tell me now in earnest, How came Falstaff's sword so hacked? Peto. Why, he hacked it with his dagger; and said, he would swear truth out of England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and persuaded us to do the like. Bard. Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass, to make them bleed; and then to beslubber our garments with it, and to swear it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year before, I blushed to hear his monstrous devices. P. Hen. O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast blushed extempore: Thou hast fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou ran'st away; What instinct hast thou for it? Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations? P. Hen. I do. Bard. What think you they portend? P. Hen. Hot livers and cold' purses.3 Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken. P. Hen. No, if rightly taken, halter. Re-enter FALSTAFF. Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How now, my sweet creature of bombast 14 How long is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee? Fal. My own knce? when I was about thy years Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring: A plague of sighing and grief! it blows a man up like a bladder. There's villainous news abroad: here was Sir John Bracy from your father; you must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the north, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave Amaimon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook'-What, a plague, call you him? Poins. O, Glendower. Fal. Owen, Owen; the same ;-and his son-inlaw, Mortimer; and old Northumberland; and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o'horseback up a hill perpendicular. P. Hen. He that rides at high speed, and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying. Fal. You have hit it. John Blower, in a sermon before her majesty, first said: My royal queen,' and a little after, My noble queen. Upon which says the queen, What, am I ten grouts worse than I was?-Hearne's Discourse of some Antiquities between Windsor and Oxford. 1 i. e. taken in the fact. See Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. 1. P. Hen. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for running? Fal. O'horseback, ye cuckoo! but, afoot, he will not budge a foot. P. Hen. Yes, Jack, upon instinct. Fal. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more: Worcester is stolen away to-night ;- thy father's beard is turned white with the news; you may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackarel, P. Hon. Why then, 'tis like, if there come a hot June, and this civil buffeting hold, we should buy maidenheads as they buy hob-nails, by the hundreds. Fal. By the mass, lad, thou sayest true; it is like, we shall have good trading that way.-But, tell me, Hal, art thou not horribly afeard? thou being heir apparent, could the world pick thee out three such enemies again, as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower? thou not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at it? Art P. Hen. Not a whit, i'faith; I lack some of thy instinct. Fal. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow, when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me, practise an answer. P. Hen. Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life. Fal. Shall I content:-This chair shall be my state," this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown. P. Hen. Thy state is taken for a joint-stool, thy golden sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy precíous rich crown, for a pitiful bald crown! Ful. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now shalt thou be moved.-Give me a cup of sack, to make mine eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein." P. Hen. Well, here is my leg.12 Fal. And here is my speech:-Stand aside, nobility. Host. This is excellent sport, i'faith. Fal. Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears 10 In the old anonymous play of King Henry V. the 2 The fire in Bardolph's face. same strain of humour is discoverable:-Thou shalt 3 i. e. drunkenness and poverty. be my lord chief justice, and shalt sit in this chair; and 4 i. e. my sweet stuffed creature.' Bombast is cot-I'll be the young prince, and hit thee a box of the ear,' ton. Gerard calls the cotton plant the bombast tree. It &c. A state is a chair with a canopy over it. is here used for the stuffing of clothes. See a note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. Sc. 2. 5 The custom of wearing a ring upon the thumb is very ancient. The rider of the brazen horse in Chaucer's Squiers Tale : -upon his thombe he had a ring of gold.' Grave personages, citizens, and aldermen wore a plain broad gold ring upon the thumb, which often had a motto engraved in the inside of it. An alderman's thumb-ring, and its motto, is mentioned in The Antipodes, by Brome. 6 A demon; who is described as one of the four kings who rule over all the demons in the world. 7 The Welsh hook was a kind of hedging bill made with a hook at the end, and a long handle like the par 11 The banter is here upon the play called A Lamen. table Tragedie mixed full of pleasant Mirthe, Containing the Life of Cambises, King of Persia, by Thomas Preston [1570.] There is a marginal direction in this play, "At this tale tolde, let the queen weep, which is prob ably alluded to, though the measure in the parody is not the same with that of the original. 12 i. e. my obeisance. 13 Thus in Cambyses : 'Queen. These words to hear makes stilling tears issue from chystall eyes." Ritson thinks that he following passage in Soliman and Perseda is glared at: How can mine eyes dart forth a pleasant look, When they are stopp'd with floods of flowing lears?' 444 FIRST PART OF spendest thy time, but also how thou art accompanied: for though the camomile, the more it is trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more it is wasted, the sooner it wears. That thou art my son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own opinion; but chiefly, a villainous trick of thine eye, and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here lies the point;-Why, being son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove a micher, and eat blackberries? a question not to be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief, and take purses? a question to be asked. There is a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is known to many in our land by the name of pitch: this pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the company thou keepest for, Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in words only, but in woes also:-And yet there is a virtuous man, whom I have often noted in thy company, but I know not his name. P. Hen. What manner of man, an it like your majesty ? Fal. A good portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or by'r-lady, inclining to threescore; And now I remen ber me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, may see virtue in his looks. If then the tree known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that And tell Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast thou been this month? be P. Hen. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll play my father. Fal. Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely, so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the heels for a rabbet-sucker, or a poulter's hare. P. Hen. Well, here I am set. Fal. And here I stand :-judge, my masters. P. Hen. The complaints I hear of thee are griev ous. Fal, 'Sblood, my lord, they are false:-nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i'faith. P. Hen. Swear'st thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee, in the likeness of a fat old man: a tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bomguts, that bard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of roasted Manningtree' ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villainy? wherein villainous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing? 1 A micher here signifies a truant. So in an old phrase 3 The machine which separates flour from bran. Fal. I would, your grace would take me with P. Hen. That villainous abominable misleader of you; Whom means your grace? youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan. Fal. My lord, the man I know. P. Hen. I know, thou dost. Fal. But to say, I know more harm in him than in myself, were to say more than I know. That be is old (the more the pity,) his white hairs do witness it: but that he is (saving your reverence) a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know, is damned: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Pons; but for sweet Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant, being as he is, old Jack Faistaff, banish not him thy Harry's company; banish plump [A knocking heard. Jack, and banish all the world. P. Hen. I do, I will. [Exeunt Hostess, FRANCIS, and BARDOLPH. Re-enter BARDOLPH, running. Bard. O, my lord, my lord; the sheriff, with a most monstrous watch, is at the door. Fal. Out, you rogue! play out the play; I have much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff. Re-enter Hostess, hastily. Host. O Jesu, my lord! my lord! Fal. Heigh, heigh! the devil rides upon a fiddlestick: What's the matter? Host. The sheriff and all the watch are at the door: they are come to search the house: Shall I let them in? Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? never call a true piece of gold, a counterfeit thou art essentially mad, without seeming so. P. Hen. And thou a natural coward, without instinct. Fal. I deny your major: if you will deny the sheriff, so; if not, let him enter: if I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up! I hope, I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another. P. Hen. Go, hide thee behind the arras;-the rest walk up above. Now, my masters, for a true face, and good conscience. Fal. Both which I have had: but their date is out, and therefore I'll hide me. [Exeunt all but the Prince and POINS. P. Hen. Call in the sheriff.— Enter Sheriff and Carrier. Now, master Sheriff; what's your will with me? P. Hen. What men? Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord, A gross fat man. Car. As fat as butter. P. Hen. The man, I do assure you, is not here; For I myself at this time have employ'd him. And, Sheriff, I will engage my word to thee, That I will, by to-morrow dinner time, Send him to answer thee, or any man, For any thing he shall be charg'd withal: And so let me entreat you leave the house. lege of fairs, by exhibiting a certain number of stage plays yearly. It appears from other intimations that there were great festivities there, and much good eating at Whitsun ales, &c. 6 i. e. go no faster than I can follow. 7 When arras was first brought into England, it was suspended on small hooks driven into the walls of hon ses and castles; but this practice was soon discontinued. After the damp of the stone and brickwork had been found to rot the tapestry, it was fixed on frames of wood at such distance from the wall as prevented the damp from being injurious; large spaces were thus left be tween the arras and the walls, sufficient to contain even one of Falstaff's bulk. Our old dramatists avail them6 Manningtree, in Essex, formerly enjoyed the privi-selves of this convenient hiding place upon all occasions sage: His boots as wide as the Jack jacks, Sher. I will, my lord: There are two gentlemen Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks. P. Hen. It may be so if he have robb'd these men, He shall be answerable; and so, farewell. P. Hen. I think it is good morrow: Is it not? Sher. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock. [Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier. P. Hen. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go call him forth. Poins. Falstaff!-fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a horse. P. Hen. Hark, how hard he fetches breath: Search his pockets. [POINs searches.] What hast thou found? Poins. Nothing but papers, my lord. P. Hen. Let's see what they be: read them. Item, Sauce, 4d. Item, Sack, two gallons, 58. 8d.2 P. Hen. O monstrous! but one halfpenny-worth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack-What there is else, keep close; we'll read it at more advantage: there let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the morning; we must all to the wars, and thy place shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot; and, I know, his death will be a mark of twelve-score. The money shall be paid back again with advantage. Be with me betimes in the morning; and so good morrow, Poins. Poins. Good morrow, good my lord. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. Bangor. A Room in the Archdeacon's House. Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, MORTIMER, and GLENDOWER. Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction full of prosperous hope. Hot. Lord Mortimer,-and cousin Glendower,Will you sit down?— And, uncle Worcester :-A plague upon it! Glend. No, here it is. Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur, Hot. And you in hell, as often as he hears Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity, Hot. 1 St. Paul's Cathedral. 2 In a very curious letter from Thomas Rainolds, vice chancellor of Oxford, in 1566, to Cardinal Pole, among the Conway Papers, he entreats the suppression of some of the wine taverns in Oxford, and states as one of his reasons that they sell Gascony wine at 16d. a gallon, sacke at 28. 4d. per gallon, and Malvoisie at 2s 6d. to the utter ruin of the poor students.' In Florio's First Frutes, 1578:-- Claret wine, red and white, is sold for fivepence the quarte, and sacke for sixpence; muscadel and malmsey for eight. Twenty years afterwards sack had probably risen to eightpence or eightpence halfpenny a quart, which would make the computation of five shillings and eightpence for two gallons correct. To the note on sack, at p. 433, we may add that sack is called Vinum Hispanicum by Coles, and Vin d'Espagne by Sherwood. In Florio's Second Frutes it is Vino de Spagna. 3 A score, in the language Toxopholites, was twenty yards. A mark of twelve score meant a mark at a dislance of two hundred and forty yards. 4 Induction is used by Shakspeare for commence. ment, beginning. The introductory part of a play or poem was called the induction. Such is the prelude of Glend. I say, the earth did shake when I was born. Hot. And I say, the earth was not of my mind, If you suppose, as fearing you it shook. Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble. Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire, And not in fear of your nativity. Cousin, of many men I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me? I'll to dinner. Mort. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make him mad. Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hot. Why, so can I; or so can any man: But will they come, when you do call for them? Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command The devil. Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, By telling truth; Tell truth, and shame the devil.If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, And I'll be sworn, I have power to shame him hence. O, while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil. Mort. Come, come, No more of this unprofitable chat. Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head Against my power: thrice from the banks of Wye, And sandy-bottom'd Severn, have I sent him, Bootless home, and weather-beaten back. Hot. Home without boots, and in foul weather too! How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name? Glend. Come, here's the map: Shall we divide . our right, According to our three-fold order ta'en? Into three limits, very equally : Mort. The archdeacon hath divided it the Tinker to the Taming of the Shrew. Sackville's induction to the Mirror for Magistrates is another instance. 5 Shakspeare has amplified the hint of Holinshed, who says, Strange wonders happened at the nativity of this man; for the same night that he was horn, all his father's horses in the stable were found to stand in blood up to their bellies.' The poet had probably also heard that, in 1402, a blazing star appeared, which the Welsh bards represented as portending good fortune to Owen Glendower. 6 Cressels were open lamps, exhibited on a beacon, carried upon a pole or otherwise suspended. Cotgrave thus describes them under the word falot, a cresset light (such as they use in playhouses,) made of ropes wreathed, pitched, and put into small open cages of iron.' 7 Beldame, and belsire, formerly signified grandmother and grandfather. 8 To topple, in its active sense, is to throw down. 9 Shakspeare has already, in Act ii. Sc. 1, quibbled upon boots and boot, profit. |