FAL. Hoftefs, I forgive thee: Go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy fervants, cherish thy guefts: thou fhalt find me tractable to any honest reason: thou feeft, I am pacified.Still?-Nay, pr'ythee, be gone. [Exit Hoftefs.] Now, Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad,-How is that answer'd? P. HEN. O, my fweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee:-The money is paid back again. FAL. O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double labour. P. HEN. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing. FAL. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou do'ft, and do it with unwash'd hands too. BARD. Do, my lord. P. HEN. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. FAL. I would, it had been of horse. Where fhall I find one that can steal well? O for a fine thief, of the age of two and twenty, or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I laud them, I praise them. 8 P. HEN. Bardolph, BARD. My lord. do it with unwash'd hands too.] i. e. Do it immediately, or the first thing in the morning, even without staying to wash your hands. So, in The More the Merrier, a collection of Epigrams, 1608: as a school-boy dares "Fall to ere wash'd his hands, or faid his prayers." Perhaps, however, Falstaff alludes to the ancient adage:-Illotis manibus tractare facra. I find the fame expreffion in Acolafius, a comedy, 1540:"Why be thefe holy thynges to be medled with with unwashed hands?" STEEVENS. P. HEN. Go bear this letter to lord John of Lancaster, My brother John; this to my lord of Weftmore land. Go, Poins, to horse,' to horfe; for thou, and I, Meet me to-morrow i' the Temple-hall At two o'clock i'the afternoon: There fhalt thou know thy charge; and there receive Money, and order for their furniture. The land is burning; Percy ftands on high; [Exeunt Prince, POINS, and BARDOLPH. FAL. Rare words! brave world!-Hoftefs, my breakfast; come: O, I could wish, this tavern were my drum! [Exit. 9 Poins, to horfe,] I cannot but think that Peto is again put for Poins. I fuppofe the old copy had only a P. We have Peto afterwards, not riding with the Prince, but lieutenant to Falftaff. JOHNSON. I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation. STEEVENS. The old copies read-Go, Peto, to horfe. In further fupport of Dr. Johnson's emendation, it may be obferved, that Poins fuits the metre of the line, which would be deftroyed by a word of two fyllables. MALONE. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS. Hor. Well faid, my noble Scot: If fpeaking truth, In this fine age, were not thought flattery, The tongues of foothers; but a braver place 2 the Douglas-] This expreffion is frequent in Holinfhed, and is always applied by way of pre-eminence to the head of the Douglas family. STEEVENS. 3 But I will beard him.] To beard is to oppofe face to face in a hoftile or daring manner. So, in Drayton's Queft of Cynthia; "That it with woodbine durft compare "And beard the eglantine." Again, in Macbeth: met them dareful, beard to beard." This phrafe, which foon loft its original fignification, appears to have been adopted from romance. In ancient language, to head a man, was to cut off his head, and to beard him, fignified to cut off his beard; a punishment which was frequently inflicted by giants on fuch unfortunate princes as fell into their hands. So, Drayton in his Polyolbion, Song 4: "And for a trophy brought the giant's coat away, Hor. Do fo, and 'tis well: Enter a Meffenger, with Letters. What letters haft thou there?--I can but thank you. MESS. These letters come from your father,Hor. Letters from him! why comes he not himfelf? MESS. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous fick. Hor. 'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be fick, In fuch a juftling time? Who leads his power? MESS. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.* 4 Meff. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.] The old copies-not I my mind, and—not I his mind. STEEVENS. The line fhould be read and divided thus: Meff. His letters bear his mind, not I. Hot. His mind! Hotfpur had afked, who leads his powers? The Meffenger anfwers, His letters bear his mind. The other replies, His mind! As much as to fay, I enquire not about his mind, I want to know where his powers are. This is natural, and perfectly in character. WARBURTON. The earlieft quarto, 1598, reads-not I my mind;-the compofitor having inadvertently repeated the word mind, which had occurred immediately before; an error which often happens at the prefs. The printer of the third quarto, in 1604, not feeing how the miftake had arifen, in order to obtain fome fenfe, changed my to his, reading, "not I his mind," which was followed in all the fubfequent ancient editions. The prefent correction, which is certainly right, was made by Mr. Capell. In two of the other fpeeches fpoken by the meffenger, he uses the fame language, nor is it likely that he fhould addrefs Hotfpur, without this mark of refpect. In his firft fpeech the meffenger is interrupted by the impetuofity of the perfon whom he addreffes, to whom, it may be fuppofed, he would otherwise have there alfo given his title. MALONE. WOR. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? MESS. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And at the time of my departure thence, He was much fear'd by his physicians. WOR. I would, the ftate of time had first been whole, Ere he by fickness had been vifited; His health was never better worth than now. Hor. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect -- The very life-blood of our enterprize; For, as he writes, there is no quailing now; I have followed Mr. Malone in printing this firft fpeech with a break after-father,. At the fame time I fufpect that the word-come, which deprives the fentence of all pretenfions to harmony, was a playhouse interpolation, and that the paffage originally ran as follows: loft. Thefe letters from your father. STEEVENS. -that inward fickness-] A line, probably, has here been MALONE. I fufpect no omiffion. Hotfpur is abruptly enumerating the principal topicks of the letter he has before him. STEEVENS. 5 On any foul remov'd,] On any less near to himself; on any whose interest is remote. JOHNSON. So, in As you Like it: "Your accent is fomething finer than you could purchase in so removed a dwelling." STEEVENS. 6 no quailing now;] To quail is to languish, to fink into dejection. So, in Cymbeline: "For whom my heart drops blood, and my falfe fpirits "Quail to remember,-.' STEEVENS. |