are for the town's end, to beg during life. But who comes here? Enter Prince HENRY. P. HEN. What, stand'st thou idle here? lend me Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff FAL. O Hal, I pr'ythee, give me leave to breathe a while.-Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms", as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him sure. P. HEN. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee. I pr'ythee lend me thy sword. old copies have "There's not three," &c. They are evidently erroneous. The same mistake has already happened in this play, where it has been rightly corrected. See p. 370, n. 2. So again, in Coriolanus, 1623: "Cor. Ay, but mine own desire? 66 "1 Cit. How, not your own desire?" MALONE, I see no objection to the old reading. Why might not Falstaff's ragamuffins have been reduced to two. BosWELL. 6 Pr'ythee, lend thy sword.] Old copies, redundantly, Pr'ythee, lend me thy sword." STEEVENS. 66 7 -TURK GREGORY never did such deeds in arms,] Meaning Gregory the Seventh, called Hildebrand. This furious friar surmounted almost invincible obstacles to deprive the Emperor of his right of investiture of bishops, which his predecessors had long attempted in vain. Fox, in his History, hath made Gregory so odious, that I don't doubt but the good Protestants of that time were well pleased to hear him thus characterized, as uniting the attributes of their two great enemies, the Turk and Pope, in one. WARBURTON. On the subject of Hildebrand's exploits an ancient tragedy was written, though the title of it only has reached us. Hence, perhaps, our author's acquaintance with Turk Gregory. 8 I have paid Percy, I have made him SURE. STEEVENS. P. Hen. He is, indeed; and, &c.] The Prince's answer, which is apparently connected with Falstaff's last words, does not cohere so well as if the knight had said— FAL. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. P. HEN. Give it me: What, is it in the case? FAL. Ay, Hal; 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will sack a city 9. [The Prince draws out a bottle of sack'. P. HEN. What, is't a time to jest and dally now? [Throws it at him, and exit. FAL. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him2. If "I have made him sure; Percy's safe enough." Perhaps a word or two like these may be lost. JOHNSON. Sure has two significations; certainly disposed of, and safe. Falstaff uses it in the former sense, the Prince replies to it in the latter. STEEVENS. 9 SACK a city.] A quibble on the word sack. JOHNSON. The same quibble may be found in Aristippus, or the Jovial Philosospher, 1630: "it may justly seem to have taken the name of sack from the sacking of cities." STEEVENS. I a bottle of sack.] The same comic circumstance occurs in the ancient Interlude of Nature, (written long before the time of Shakspeare,) bl. 1. no date: 66 Glotony. We shall have a warfare it ys told me. "Man. Ye; where is thy harnes ? 66 Wrath. Why hast thou none other harnes but thys ? "Glotony. What the devyll harnes should I mys, "Without it be a bottell? "Another bottell I wyll go purvey, "Lest that drynk be scarce in the way, "Or happely none to sell." STEEVENS. 2-if Percy be alive, I'll PIERCE him.] Certainly, "he'll pierce him," i. e. Prince Henry will, who is just gone out to seek him. Besides, "I'll pierce him," contradicts the whole turn and humour of the speech. WARburton. I rather take the conceit to be this: To pierce a vessel is to tap it. Falstaff takes up his bottle, which the Prince had tossed at his head, and being about to animate himself with a draught, cries: "If Percy be alive, I'll pierce him." and so draws the cork. I do not propose this with much confidence. JOHNSON. Ben Jonson has the same quibble in his New Inn, Act III. : I believe Falstaff makes this boast that the Prince may hear he do come in my way, so: if he do not, if I come in his, willingly, let him make a carbonado of me3. I like not such grinning honour as sir Walter hath: Give me life which if I can save, so; if not, honour comes unlooked for, and there's an end. [Exit. SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Alarums. Excursions. Enter the King, Prince Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too much':- P. JOHN. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. P. HEN. I beseech your majesty, make up, Lest your retirement do amaze your friends". K. HEN. I will do so : My lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent. it; and continues the rest of the speech in a lower accent, or when he is out of hearing. Shakspeare has the same play on words in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV. Sc. II. vol. iv. p. 358, n. 2. STEEVENS. Shakspeare was not aware that he here ridiculed the serious etymology of the Scottish historian: "Piercy a penetrando oculum Regis Scotorum, ut fabulatur Boetius." Skinner. HOLT WHITE. 3 -a CARBONADO of me.] A carbonado is a piece of meat cut cross-wise for the gridiron, JOHNSON. 4 So, in The Spanish Gypsie, by Middleton and Rowley, 1653: "Carbonado thou the old rogue my father, "While you slice into collops the rusty gammon his man." thou bleed'st too much :] wounded in the face by an arrow. 5 AMAZE your friends.] i. e. STEEVENS. WEST. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent. P. HEN. Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help: And heaven forbid, a shallow scratch should drive And rebels' arms triumph in massacres! P. JOHN. We breathe too long:-Come, cousin Our duty this way lies: for God's sake, come. I did not think thee lord of such a spirit: K. HEN. I saw him hold lord Percy at the point, P. HEN. Lends mettle to us all! O, this boy [Exit. Alarums. Enter DOUGLAS. DOUG. Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads : I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them.-What art thou, K. HEN. The king himself; who, Douglas, So many of his shadows thou hast met, 6 I saw him hold lord Percy at the point, With lustier maintenance than I did look for, &c.] So, Holinshed, p. 759: the earle of Richmond withstood his violence, and kept him at the sword's point without advantage, longer than his companions either thought or judged." STEEVENS. And not the very king. I have two boys, DOUG. I fear thou art another counterfeit ; [They fight; the King being in danger, enter P. HENRY. P. HEN. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like Never to hold it up again! the spirits Of valiant Shirley 7, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms: It is the prince of Wales, that threatens thee; Who never promiseth, but he means to pay. [They fight; DOUGLAS flies. Cheerly, my lord; How fares your grace ?- K. HEN. Stay, and breathe a while :- 7 Of Shirley, &c.] The old copies, redundantly: 66 Of valiant Shirley," &c. STEEVENS. 8 Who never promiseth, but HE means to pay.] We should certainly read: "Who never promiseth, but means to pay." which agrees with what the Prince says in the first Act: "And pay the debts I never promised." M. MASON. 9 Thou hast redeem'd thy lost OPINION ;] i. e. thy lost reputation; for in that sense the word was then used. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Thierry and Theodoret : "What opinion will the managing "Of this affair bring to my wisdom! my invention Again, in The Gamester, by Shirley, 1637: Patience! I mean you have the opinion of a valiant gentle man; one that dares fight and maintain your honour against odds." REED. |