PIST. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat. Bor. Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites vous prest; car ce soldat icy est disposé tout à cette heure de couper vostre gorge. PIST. Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pesant, FR. SOL. O, je vous supplie pour l'amour de Dieu, me pardonner! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison; gardez ma vie, et je vous donneray deux cents escus. PIST. What are his words? Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gentleman of a good house; and, for his ransom, he will give you two hundred crowns. PIST. Tell him,—my fury shall abate, and I The crowns will take. FR. SOL. Petit monsieur, que dit-il? Bor. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement, de pardonner aucun prisonnier; neantmoins, pour les escus que vous l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner la liberté, le franchisement. FR. SOL. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille remerciemens: et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, valiant, et tres distingué seigneur d'Angleterre. PIST. Expound unto me, boy. Bor. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the hands of (as he thinks) the most brave, valorous, and thrice-worthy signieur of England. PIST. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.Follow me, cur. [Exit PISTOL. Bor. Suivez vous le grand capitaine. [Exit French Soldier. I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart but the saying is true,-The empty vessel makes the greatest sound. Bardolph, and Nym, had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger; and they are both hanged; and so would this be, if he durst steal any thing 9 this roaring devil i' the old play,] In modern puppetshows, which seem to be copied from the old farces, Punch sometimes fights the devil, and always overcomes him. I suppose the vice of the old farce, to whom Punch succeeds, used to fight the devil with a wooden dagger. JOHNSON. In the old moralities the devil was always attacked by the Vice, who belaboured him with his lath, and sent him roaring off the stage. So, in Twelfth-Night: "C In a trice, "Like to the old vice, "Who, with dagger of lath, "Cries ah! ha! to the devil.” And in the old Taming of a Shrew, one of the players says, my lord, we must have-a little vinegar to make our devil roar." The reason of the Vice's endeavouring to entertain the audience, by attempting to pare the devil's nails, has been already assigned in a note on Twelfth-Night, vol. xi. p. 479, n. 1. MALONE. See also a note on King Richard III. Act III. Sc. I. and Mr. Upton's Dissertation at the end of the same play. MALONE. The devil, in the old mysteries, is as turbulent and vain-glorious as Pistol. So, in one of the Coventry Whitsun Plays, preserved in the British Museum. Vespasian. D. VIII. p. 136: I am your lord Lucifer that out of helle cam, "Prince of this world, and gret duke of helle; "Wherfore my name is clepyd ser Satan, "Whech aperyth among you a mater to spelle." And perhaps the character was always performed in the most clamorous manner. In the ancient tragedy, or rather morality, called All for Money, by T. Lupton, 1578, Sin says: I knew I would make him soon change his note, "I will make him sing the Black Sanctus, I hold him a [Here Satan shall cry and roar.” groat. Again, a little after : "Here he roareth and crieth." See Taming of the Shrew, vol. v. p. 370. STEEVENS. adventurously. I must stay with the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp: the French might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none to guard it, but boys. [Exit. SCENE V. Another Part of the Field of Battle. Alarums. Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, Bourbon, CON. O diable? ORL. O seigneur !-le jour est perdu, tout est perdu! DAU. Mort de ma vie! all is confounded, all! Reproach and everlasting shame Sits mocking in our plumes.-O meschante for tune! Do not run away. [A short Alarum. CON. Why, all our ranks are broke. DAU. O perdurable shame1!-let's stab ourselves. Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for ? ORL. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom? BOUR. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame! Let us die in fight: Once more back again 2; I O PERDURABLE shame!] Perdurable is lasting, long to continue. So, in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. : "Triumphant arcs of perdurable might." STEEVENS. 2 Let us die INSTANT: Once more back again;] This verse, which is quite left out in Mr. Pope's editions, stands imperfect in the first folio. By the addition of a syllable, I think, I have retrieved the poet's sense. It is thus in the old copy: 66 "Let us die in once more back again." THEOBALD, Let us die in fight." For the insertion of the word fight, which (as I observed in my Second Appendix, 8vo. 1783,) appears to have been omitted by the negligence of the transcriber or compositor, I am answerable. So Bourbon says afterwards; And he that will not follow Bourbon now, 4 5 CON. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now! "I'll to the throng; Let life be short." Macbeth utters the same sentiment: "At least we'll die with harness on our backs." Mr. Theobald corrected the text by reading instant instead of in: but (as I have already remarked) it is highly improbable that a printer should omit half a word; nor indeed does the word instant suit the context. Bourbon probably did not wish to die more than other men; but if we are conquered, (says he) if we are to die, let us bravely die in combat with our foes, and make their victory as dear to them as we can. The editor of the second folio, who always cuts a knot instead of untying it, substituted fly for die, and absurdly reads-Let us fly in; leaving the metre, which was destroyed by the omission of a word, still imperfect, and at the same time rendering the passage nonsense. The lines stand thus in the quarto, 1600: "Con. We are enough yet living in the field "To smother up the English, "If any order might be thought upon. "Bour. A plague of order! once more to the field: "And he that will not follow," &c. MALONE. I have not adopted Mr. Malone's emendation, because, when I read it, I cannot suppose myself to be reading the beginning of a verse. Instant may be an adjective used adverbially. In the course of this publication my compositors will not deny their occasional omission of several half words. STEEVENS. 3 Like a base PANDER,] The quartos read: "Like a base leno." STEEVENS. 4 — no GENTLER -] Who has no more gentility. MALONE. 5 — is CONTAMINATE.] The quarto has-contamuracke, which corrupted word, however, is sufficient to lead us to the true reading now inserted in the text: It is also supported by the metre and the usage of our author and his contemporaries. We have had in this play "hearts create" for hearts created: so, elsewhere, combinate, for combin'd; consummate, for consummated, &c. The folio reads-contaminated. MALONE. Let us, in heaps, go offer up our lives ORL. We are enough, yet living in the field, BOUR. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng; Let life be short; else, shame will be too long. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Another Part of the Field. Alarums. Enter King HENRY and Forces; EXETER, and Others. K. HEN. Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen : But all's not done, yet keep the French the field. EXE. The duke of York commends him to your majesty. K. HEN. Lives he, good uncle? thrice, within this hour, I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; EXE. In which array, (brave soldier,) doth he lie, Suffolk first died: and York, all haggled over, Unto these English, or else die with fame,] This line I have restored from the quartos, 1600 and 1608. The Constable of France is throughout the play represented as a brave and generous enemy, and therefore we should not deprive him of a resolution which agrees so well with his character. STEEVENS. 7 Larding the plain:] So, in King Henry IV. Part I.: 66 And lards the lean earth as he walks along." STEEVENS. |