116. 't is my vocation.

Falstaff is ridiculing here a phrase

frequently found in the mouths of the Puritans.

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118. With Poins' entrance we hear of the plot to rob the Canterbury Pilgrims, which Falstaff joins; also of the counterplot to rob Falstaff and his friends of their spoil; the prince (see l. 214) will join the second, but not the first. It is noteworthy that Shakespeare, contrary to modern dramatic usage, does not mind letting his audience know of all these proposed incidents before they happen; he relies for his main interest on character and dialogue, not on plot" (Collins).

119. set a match, plot a robbery.

119-120. saved by merit. Falstaff as a Protestant bases his belief upon faith and not upon good works. His reflection upon Poins' neglect of good deeds suggests that he was as unmindful as was Poins in that direction. However, as we are told by Dame Quickly, who in Henry V gives an account of his last words, he made a good end and at the last moment escaped the “hot hole in hell" by crying out against the Devil and all his works.

122. true, honest.

126-127. agrees. . . thee. The use of thee for thou and of the singular form of the verb for the plural is not unusual in Shakespeare.

128. Good-Friday, a total fast-day.

133. his due, i.e. his soul.

136. cozening, cheating. See Glossary.

139. Gadshill. Besides being the name of a character in the play, it is also the name of a hill near Rochester, on the road to London. It was a notorious spot for highway robberies.

140-141. rich offerings. These were doubtless intended for the shrine of Thomas à Becket. The traders would probably be returning to London from the Continent.

145. in Eastcheap, i.e. at the tavern of Dame Quickly. 149. Yedward, for Edward, Poins' Christian name.

150. I'll hang you. I'll have you hanged.

157-158. if thou stand for ten shillings. "If you will not take your place with the rest of us and rob these travelers. There is also a secondary meaning implied: If you are not good for a paltry ten shillings robbery." A royal was a coin of the value of ten shillings.

175. want countenance, need patronage.

177-178. the latter spring ... summer. Falstaff is thus addressed because of the youthful sprightliness and sunshine of his

nature, which he has preserved with advancing years. All Hallows or All Saints' Day is the first of November.

R. P. Cowl (Methuen ed., p. 22) shows that Pope's change of the to thou is contrary to the idiom of sixteenth century English.

179. my good. . . lord. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 530:

"My fair, sweet honey monarch."

181-182. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto and Gadshill. This is Theobald's emendation for the reading of the Qq and Ff: "Falstaff, Harvey, Rossill, and Gadshill." There is no mention of Harvey and Rossill elsewhere in the play, whereas in the account of the robbery in Act ii the robbers are Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill. Harvey and Rossill are probably the names of the actors who took the parts of Bardolph and Peto.

221. contagious, injurious. The image is similar to that of Shakespeare's thirty-third Sonnet:

Full many a glorious morning have I seen

Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,

Anon permit the basest clouds to ride
With ugly rack on his celestial face."

224. wanted, needed.

230. accidents, occurrences, incidents.

234. falsify men's hopes, deceive men's expectations. This purpose of the prince is continually before his mind, and by making him insist on it, Shakespeare prepares us for the reformation which comes with his accession to the throne. In 2 Henry IV, v. 2, when the prince is at last king, he once more utters in his address to the nobles the thought set forth in these verses:

239. I'll so offend . . . skill, “I will offend in such a way as to make my offence seem a piece of good policy." Note the use of the couplet rounding off the scene, and indicating its close to the spectators.

SCENE 3

In this scene the action advances rapidly. The seeds of discord revealed in scene 1 have now germinated, and as the scene comes to an end we find that the conspiracy, the working out of which is the theme of the play, is fully planned. The arch-conspirator is not the hesitating Northumberland, nor yet the impetuous Hotspur, but Worcester, who, dismissed from the king's presence early in the scene, rejoins his brother and nephew after the audience is over, and inoculates them with the virus of rebellion. While Hotspur blusters, Worcester schemes and calculates, and finds no difficulty in winning Hotspur's approval of all his designs.

All the important characters of the play are now before us, and in this scene we are permitted to gain a very deep insight into the personality of the famous Hotspur. It is in keeping with the deeper character of Prince Henry that his individuality becomes only very gradually revealed, whereas his rival, Hotspur, comes swiftly into full view. Most of the outstanding traits in his character are set forth in this scene: we realize his impetuousness, his impatience of all opposition, his chivalrous worship of honor, and his romanticism. How vivid a presentation of the man is set before us in his own account of the conversation which took place between him and King Henry's carpet-knight! The splendid contempt of the bluff man of action for the effeminate fopperies of the courtier enables us to see the high qualities from which this contempt springs. The incident is Shakespeare's own invention. Holinshed's foundation for this highly dramatic scene is as follows:

"Henrie earle of Northumberland, with his brother Thomas, earle of Worcester, and his sonne the lord Henrie Persie, surnamed Hotspur, which were to king Henrie in the beginning of his reigne both faithfull freends, and earnest aiders, began now to envie his wealth and felicitie; and especiallie they were greeved, because the king

demanded of the earle and his sonne such Scotish prisoners as were taken at Homeldon and Nesbit: for of all the captives which were taken in the conflicts foughten in those two places, there was delivered to the kings possession onlie Mordake earle of Fife, the duke of Albanies sonne, though the king did divers and sundrie times require deliverance of the residue, and that with great threatnings: wherewith the Persies being sore offended, for that they claimed them as their owne proper prisoners, and their peculiar preies, by the counsell of the lord Thomas Persie earle of Worcester, whose studie was ever (as some write) to procure malice, and set things in a broile, came to the king unto Windsore (upon a purpose to proove him) and there required of him, that either by ransome or otherwise, he would cause to be delivered out of prison Edmund Mortimer, earle of March, their cousine germane, whome (as they reported) Owen Glendower kept in filthie prison, shakled with irons, onlie for that he tooke his part, and was to him faithfull and

true.

“The king began not a little to muse at this request, and not without cause: for indeed it touched him somewhat neere, sith this Edmund was sonne to Roger earle of March, sonne to the ladie Philip, daughter of Lionell duke of Clarence, the third sonne of King Edward the third; which Edmund at King Richards going into Ireland, was proclaimed heire apparant to the crowne and realme. and therefore King Henrie could not well heare that anie man should be earnest about the advancement of that linage. The king when he had studied on the matter, made answer that the earle of March was not taken prisoner for his cause, nor in his service, but willinglie suffered himselfe to be taken, bicause he would not withstand the attempts of Owen Glendouer and his complices, and therefore he would neither ransome him nor releeve him.

"The Persies with this answer and fraudulent excuse were not a little fumed, insomuch that Henrie Hotspur said openlie: 'Behold the heire of the relme is robbed of his right, and yet the robber with his owne will not redeeme him.' So in this furie the Persies departed, minding nothing more than to depose King Henrie from the high type of his roialtie, and to place in his seat their cousine Edmund, earle of March, whom they did not onlie deliver out of captivitie, but also (to the high displeasure of King Henrie) entered in league with the foresaid Owen Glendouer."

London. The palace. In Holinshed's narrative this scene between the king and the Percies takes place at Windsor.

3. And you have found me, found me out, taken my measure; so

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in Othello, ii. 1. 252-253: a pestilent complete knave; and the woman hath found him already.”

6. my condition, my natural self.

10-13. Our house, my liege . . . so portly. Worcester's speech is deliberately intended to rouse the king to anger. Worcester, as we learn later, has formed his conspiracy, and is in correspondence with Archbishop Scroop. What he desires is to stir up a quarrel between the king and Hotspur, and by so doing to win the wholehearted support of Hotspur and his father for the plans which he has formed. Nothing could irritate Henry so much as a bold reminder of his indebtedness to the house of Percy. The king knows the scheming nature of Worcester and dismisses him from his presence.

13. portly, important, imposing.

15. Worcester. Here the word is a trisyllable.

17. peremptory, audacious. The word must here be read as a dissyllable. See Appendix.

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18-19. And majesty. . . brow. Kings have never been willing to endure sullen opposition from their subjects." Frontier is not forehead, for that would cause redundance with brow; it is a term borrowed from military science, and denotes an outwork or line of fortification. Cf. ii. 3. 55: Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets." From this literal meaning is derived the abstract idea of opposition. 20. good leave, full permission.

21. use, assistance.

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25-26. not with such strength. . . majesty, were not so resolutely refused as report has told you.

27. envy, ill-will, malice.

misprision, misapprehension.

34. his chin new reap'd. The beard was worn short by men of fashion at the date of this play.

36. milliner. In Shakespeare's day the milliners were men; cf. The Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 192:

"No milliner can

So fit his customers with gloves.”

The word means originally one who dealt in wares of Milan.

38. pouncet-box, a perfume-box, which was perforated at the top with small holes.

41. Took it in snuff. The double entendre is (1) snuffed it up, and (2) took offence at it.

46. With many .

terms. Hotspur is impatient because the