And tell the pleasant prince,-this mock of his Hath turn'd his bails to gun-stones; and his soul Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance That shall fly with them: for many a thousand widows Were all thy children kind and natural! men, Shall this his mock mock out of their dear hus-One, Richard earl of Cambridge; and the second, bands; Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. So, get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin, ACT II. Enter CHORUS. [Exeunt. Cho. Now all the youth of England are on fire, O England!-model to thy inward greatness, 1 Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones. When ordnance was first used they discharged balls not of iron but of stone. 2Task his thought. We have this phrase before. n horror.' In ancient representations of trophies, &c. it is common to see swords encircled with crowns. Shakspeare's image is supposed to be taken from a wood cut in the first edition of Holinshed. 4 Richard earl of Cambridge' was Richard de Conisbury, younger son of Edmund Langley, duke of York. He was father of Richard duke of York, and grandfather of Edward the Fourth. Henry Lord Scroop of Masham; and the third, 5 Henry Lord Scroop' was a third husband of Joan, duchess of York, mother in law of Richard earl of Cambridge. 6 Gilt for golden money. 7 The old copy reads: Linger your patience on, and we'll digest The abuse of distance; force a play.' The alteration was made by Pope. 8 But till the king come forth, and but till then, Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.' The old copy reads: But till the king come forth, and not till then.' [Ex. Bard. Well met, Corporal Nym. Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph." Bard. What, are ancient Pistol and you friends yet? Nym. For my part, I care not: I say little: but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles;10—but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; bet I will wink, and hold out mine iron: It is a simple one but what though? it will toast cheese; and it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's the humour of it. Bard. I will bestow a breakfast, to make you friends; and we'll be all three sworn brothers to France; let it be so, good Corporal Nym. Nym. 'Faith, I will live so long as Í may, that's the certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may: that is my rest, 12 that is the rendezvous of it. Bard. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly: and, certainly, she did you wrong; for you were troth-plight to her. Nym. I cannot tell; things must be as they may: men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time; and, some say, knives have edges. It must be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell." shown that it is a common typographical error. The objection is, that a scene in London intervenes ; but this may be obviated by transposing that scene to the end of the first act. The division into acts and scenes, it should be recollected, is the arbitrary work of Mr. Rowe and the subsequent editors; and the first act of this play, as it is now divided, is unusually short. This chorus has slipped out of its place. 9 At this scene begins the connexion of this play with the latter part of King Henry IV. The characters would be indistinct and the incidents unintelligible without the knowledge of what passed in the two former plays. 10 When time shall serve, there shall be smulet' Dr. Farmer thought that this was an error of the press for smites, i, e. blows, a word used in the poet's ag has been explained:-1 care not whether we are and still provincially current. The passage, as it stan's friends at present; however, when time shall serve, shall be in good humour with each other; but be it as it may.' 11 Sworn brothers. In the times of adventure i was usual for two or more chiefs to bind themselves to share in each other's fortunes, and divide their acquis tions between them. They were called fratres rrah These cut-purses set out for France as if they were go ing to make a conquest of the kingdom. 12 That is my rest; that is my determination this phrase amply illustrated in Mr. Gifford's Ben Jon 13 i. e. I know not what to say or think of it? See deserves admission into the text. Malone has plainly I son, vol. i. p. 125. No phrase is more common in cu KING HENRY V. Enter PISTOL and MRS. QUICKLY. Bard. Here comes ancient Pistol, and his wife: good corporal, be patient here.-How now, mine host Pistol? Pist. Base tike,' call'st thou me-host? Now, by this hand I swear, I scorn the term; Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. Quick. No, by my troth, not long: for we cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen, that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight. [NYM draws his sword.] O well-i-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now !2 we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed. Good Lieutenant Bardolph,-good corporal, offer nothing here. Nym. Pish! Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prickeared cur of Iceland! Quick. Good Corporal Nym, show the valour of a man, and put up thy sword. Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. Nym. I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give; Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms; that is the humour of it. Pist. Coupe le gorge, that's the word ?-I thee O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? And from the powdering-tub of infamy Enter the Boy. Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, hostess ;-he is very sick, and would to bed.-Good Bardolph, put thy nose be old dramatic writers; yet it had escaped the commentators on Shakspeare. 1 i. e. base fellow. Still used in the north; where a tike is also a dog of a large common breed; as a mastiff, or shepherd's dog. 497 tween his sheets, and do the office of a warmingpan: 'faith, he's very ill. Bard. Away, you rogue. Quick. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days: the king has killed his heart.-Good husband, come home presently. [Exeunt MRS. QUICKLY and Boy. Bard. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together; Why, the devil, should we keep knives to cut one another's throats? Pist. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! Nym. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? Pist. Base is the slave that Nym. That now I will have; that's the humour of it. pays. Pist. As manhood shall compound; Push home. Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. Pist. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. Bard. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends: an thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Pr'ythee, put up. Nym. I shall have my eight shillings, I won of you at betting? Pist. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood; Nym. I shall have my noble? shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most it Pist. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; His heart is fracted and corroborate. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Southampton. A Council Chamber. traitors. Exe. They shall be apprehended by and by. As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, Bed. The king hath note of all that they intend, Exe. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,10 4 For I can take. Malone would change this, withunderstand, or comprehend you.' It is still common in out necessity, to 'I can talk. Pistol only means, I can the plebeian phrase: "Do.you take me? for Do you know my meaning? 5 Barbason is the name of a demon mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The unmeaning tumour of Pistol's speech very naturally reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers. 6 By erhale, Pistol, in his fantastic language, probably 2O well-i-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now!' The folio has O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not hewn now an evident error of the press. The quarto reads O Lord! here's Corporal Nym's-now,' &c. 3' Iceland dogges, curled and rough all over, which, by reason of the length of their heare, make show nei-means die or breathe your last. Malone suggests that ther of face nor of body. And yet thes curres, for- he may only mean draw, haul, or lug out.' soothe, because they are so strange, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up, and made of, many times instead nature, see the play of Troilus and Cressida. 7 The lazar kite of Cressid's kind.' Of Cressida's of the spaniell gentle or comforter.-Abraham Fleming's translation of Caius de Canibus, 1576, Of English Dog8 Formerly. ges. Island cur is again used as a term of contempt in Epigrams served out in Fifty-two several Dishes; no date: 'He wears a gown lac'd round, laid down with furre, 63 9 The noble was worth six shillings and eight-pence. The said Lord Scroop was in such favour with the king, 10 That was his bedfellow. Thus Hoiinshed:This familiar appellation of bedfellow was common that he admitted him sometimes to be his bedfellow. among the ancient nobility. This custom, which now appears so strange and unseemly to us, continued to Whom he hath cloy'd' and grac'd with princely | That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell K. Hen. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. My lord of Cambridge,—and my kind lord of Masham, And you, my gentle knight,-give me your Think you not, that the powers we bear with us, For which we have in head assembled them? best. K. Hen. I doubt not that: since we are well We carry not a heart with us from hence, Cam. Never was monarch better fear'd, and lov'd, Grey. Even those that were your father's enemies, K. Hen. We therefore have great cause of thank- And shall forget the office of our hand, Grey. And me, my royal sovereign. K. Hen. Then, Richard, earl of Cambridge, there is yours; men ? There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham;—and, sir Cam. K. Hen. The mercy, that was quick in us but By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd: here, You know, how apt our love was, to accord Scroop. So service shall with steeled sinews toil; Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature! And labour shall refresh itself with hope, K. Hen. We judge no less.-Uncle of Exeter, Scroop. That's mercy, but too much security: Cam. So may your highness, and yet punish too. Grey. Sir, you show great mercy, if you give him life, After the taste of much correction. 6 Thou, that didst bear the key of all my counsels, Could out of thee extract one spark of evil K. Hen. Alas, your too much love and care of me And whatsoever cunning fiend it was, Appear before us?-We'll yet enlarge that man, And tender preservation of our person, That wrought upon thee so preposterously, Would have him punish'd. And now to our French If that same demon, that hath gull'd thee thus, causes; Who are the late commissioners ? Cam. I one, my lord; Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. the middle of the seventeenth century, if not later. 1 Whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd.' The quarto reads 'dull'd and cloy'd." 2 For which we have in head assembled them.' In head seems equivalent to the modern military term in force. 3 Consent is accord, agreement. 4i. e. hearts compounded or made up of duty and zeal.' Should with his lion gait walk the whole world 12He that temper'd thee.' That is, he that ruled thee. Temperator, he that tempereth, or moderateth: he that knoweth how to rule and order.-Cooper. 13 i. e. Tartarus, the fabled place of future punish ment. Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful? To mark the full-fraught man, and best indued, Exe. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard earl of Cambridge. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland. Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd; And I repent my fault more than my death; Which I beseech your highness to forgive, Although my body pay the price of it. every [Exeunt. SCENE III. London. Mrs. Quickly's House in Quick. Pr'ythee, honey-sweet husband, let me brings thee to Staines. yearn. Pist. No; for my manly heart doth veins. And we must yearn therefore. Bard. 'Would, I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in heaven, or in hell! Quick. Nay, sure, he's not in hell; he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had Cam. For me, the gold of France did not se- been any christom child; 'a parted even just be duce; 5 Although I did admit it as a motive, Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice sentence. tween twelve and one, e'en at turning o' the tide ;10 for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields.11 How now, Sir John? quoth I: what, man! be of good cheer. So 'a cried out-God, God, God! three or four times: now I, to comfort him, bid him, 'a should not think of God; I hoped, there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet: So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed, and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and so upward, and upward, and all was as You have conspir'd against our royal person, coffers Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death; Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, 1 The sweetness of affiance! Shakspeare uses this aggravation of the guilt of treachery with great judgment. One of the worst consequences of breach of trust is the diminution of that confidence which makes the happiness of life, and the dissemination of suspicion, which is the poison of society.-Johnson. 2 Complement has here the same meaning as in Love's Labour's Lost, Act. i. Sc. 1. Bullokar defines it, Court ship, [i. e. courtiership,] fulness, perfection, fine behaviour. The gradual change of this word, to its meaning of ceremonious words, may be traced in Blount's Glossography. 3 Bolted is the same as sifted, and has consequently the meaning of refined. i. e. endowed, or gifted. Nym. They say, he cried out of sack. Bard. And of women. Quick. Nay, that 'a did not. Boy. Yes, that 'a did; and said, they were devils incarnate. Quick. 'A could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never liked. Boy. 'A said once, the devil would have him about women. Quick. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women: but then he was rheumatic;12 and talked of the whore of Babylon. corrupted by the French king, lest the earl of March should have tasted of the same cuppe that he had drunken, and what should have come to his own children he much doubted,' &c.-Holinshed. 6 i. e. at which prevention, in suffering, I will hear tily rejoice.' 7The signs of war advance. Phaer, in rendering the first line of the eighth Eneid, Ut belle signum &c. has When signe of war from Laurent townes, &c.' 8 i. e. let me accompany thee. 9 i. e. chrisom child: which was one that died within the month of birth, because during that time they wore the chrisom cloth, a white cloth put upon a child newly christened, wherewith women used to shroud the child, if dying within the month; otherwise it was brought to church at the day of purification. 10 Even at the turning o' the tide.' It has been a very old opinion, which Mead, De Imperio Solis, quotes, as if he believed it, that nobody dies but in the time of ebb. 5 For me, the gold of France did not seduce." ". diverse write that Richard earle of Cambridge did not conspire with the Lord Scroope, &c. for the murthering of King Henrie, to please the French king withall, but onlie to the intent to exalt the crowne to his brother-in- 11 And a babbled of green fields.' The first follo law Edmund earle of Marche, as heir to Lionel duke of reads For his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a TaClarence, who being for diverse secret impediments not ble of green fields.' Theobald gave the present reading able to have issue, the earl of Cambridge was sure that of the text, which, though entirely conjectural, is better the crowne should come to him by his wife, and to his than any thing which has been offered in the idle babble children of her begotten. And therefore (as was thought) of the numerous notes on this passage. he rather confessed himselfe for neede of money to be 12 Rheumatic. Mrs. Quickly means lunatic Boy. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, upon Bardolph's nose; and 'a said, it was a black That fear attends her not. soul burning in hell-fire? Con. Bard. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintained that fire; that's all the riches I got in his service. Nym. Shall we shog off? the king will be gone from Southampton. Pist. Come, let's away.-My love, give me thy lips. Look to my chattels, and my moveables: Let senses rule; the word is, Pitch and Pay; For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, Go, clear thy crystals.-Yoke-fellows in arms, upon us; And more than carefully it us concerns, Therefore the dukes of Berry and of Bretagne, It fits us then, to be as provident As fear may teach us, out of late examples Dau. But that defences, musters, preparations, Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth, To view the sick and feeble parts of France: No, with no more, than if we heard that England Shall keep their bugle bowes for thee, dear uncle.' 4 For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom.' To dull is to render torpid, insensible, or inactive; to disspirit. In idleness to wax dull and without spirit: Torpescere.'-Baret. 5How modest in exception.' How diffident and decent in making objections. 5 O peace, Prince Dauphin! Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable, Whiles that his mountain sire,-on mountain stand- Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,- Mess. Ambassadors from Henry king of England Fr. King. We'll give them present audience. [Exeunt Mess, and certain Lords. Most spend their mouths, 11 when what they seem to threaten, Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and Train. Began to clothe his wit in state and pride, he throws that shallow habit by? 9 'Whiles that his mountain sire,-on mountain standing, Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun. There is much childish. misunderstanding of this pas sage in the notes. Steevens is right when he says that, 6 the outside of the Roman Brutus.' Warbur-divested of its poetical finery, it means that the king ton has a strained explanation of this passage. Shakspeare's meaning is explained by the following lines in The Rape of Lucrece : Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' side, Seeing such emulation in their woe, stood upon a hill, with the sun shining over his head, to 10 i. e. what is allotted him by destiny. |