upon the pate.-Soft! who art thou? Sir Walter Blunt ;-there's honour for you: Here's no vanity! s -I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: God keep lead out of me! I need no more weight than mine own bowels.-I have led my raggamuffins where they are pepper'd: there's but three of my hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to beg during life. But who comes here? Again, Heywood, in his Epigrams on Proverbs: "And it is yll commynge, I have heard say, STEEVENS. Here's no vanity!] In our author's time the negative, in common fpeech, was used to design, ironically, the excess of a thing. Thus, Ben Jonfon, in Every Man in his Humour, fays: "O here's no foppery! "'Death, I can endure the stocks better." Meaning, as the paffage fhews, that the foppery was exceffive. And fo in many other places. WARBURTON. I am in doubt whether this interpretation, though ingenious and well fupported, is true. The words may mean, here is real honour, no vanity, or empty appearance. JOHNSON. I believe Dr. Warburton is right:, the fame ironical kind of expreffion occurs in The Mad Lover of Beaumont and Fletcher: Here's no villainy! 66 "I am glad I came to the hearing." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Tale of a Tub: "Here was no fubtle device to get a wench!" Again, in the first part of Jeronimo, &c. 1605: "Here's no fine villainy! no damned brother!" Again, in our author's Taming of the Shrew: “Here's no knavery!" STEEVENS. 6 there's but three of my hundred and fifty-] All the old copies have-There's not three, &c. They are evidently erroneous. The fame mistake has already happened in this play, where it has been rightly corrected. See p. 553, n. 7. So again, in Coriolanus, 1623: "Cor. Av, but mine own defire? "I Cit. How, not your own defire?" MALONE. Enter Prince HENRY. P. HEN. What, ftand'ft thou idle here? lend me thy fword: Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff Whose deaths are unreveng'd: Pr'ythee, lend thy fword." FAL. O Hal, I pr'ythee, give me leave to breathe a while. Turk Gregory never did fuch deeds in arms, as I have done this day. I have paid Percy, I have made him fure. 8 P. HEN. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee.' I pr'ythee, lend me thy fword. FAL. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive, thou get'st not my fword; but take my pistol, if thou wilt. 7-Prythee, lend thy faword.] Old copies, redundantly, Prythee, lend me thy fword. STEEVENS. Turk Gregory never did fuch deeds in arms,] Meaning Gregory the Seventh, called Hildebrand. This furious friar furmounted almost invincible obftacles to deprive the Emperor of his right of inveftiture of bifhops, which his predeceffors had long attempted in vain. Fox, in his history, hath made Gregory fo odious, that I don't doubt but the good Proteftants 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. 9 I have paid Percy, I have made him fure. P. Hen. He is, indeed; and &c.] The Prince's anfwer, which is apparently connected with Falftaff's laft words, does not cohere fo well as if the knight had faid I have made him fure; Percy's fafe enough. Perhaps a word or two like thefe may be loft. JOHNSON. Sure has two fignifications; certainly difpofed of, and fafe. Falstaff ufes it in the former fenfe, the Prince replies to it in the latter. STEEVENS. P. HEN. Give it me: What, is it in the cafe? FAL. Ay, Hal; 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will fack a city." [The Prince draws out a bottle of fack.3 P. HEN. What, is't a time to jeft and dally now? [Throws it at him, and exit. FAL. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him. If he do come in my way, fo: if he do not, if I come 2 fack a city.] A quibble on the word fack. JOHNSON. The fame quibble may be found in Ariftippus, or the Jovial Philofopher, 1630: "it may juftly feem to have taken the name of fack from the facking of cities." STEEVENS. 3 ―a bottle of fack.] The fame comic circumftance occurs in the ancient Interlude of Nature, (written long before the time of Shakspeare,) bl. 1, no date: 66 Glotony. We fhall have a warfare it ys told me. "Man. Ye; where is thy harnes? 66 Glotony. Mary, here may ye fe, "Here ys harnes inow. "Wrath. Why haft thou none other harnes but thys? "Another bottell I wyll go purvey, "Left that drynk be fcarce in the way, "Or happely none to fell." STEEVENS. if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him.] Certainly, he'll pierce him, i. e. Prince Henry will, who is juft gone out to feek him. Befides, I'll pierce him, contradicts the whole turn and humour of the fpeech. WARBURTON. I rather take the conceit to be this: To pierce a veffel is to tup it. Falstaff takes up his bottle which the Prince had toffed at his head, and being about to animate himself with a draught, cries: If Percy be alive, I'll pierce him, and fo draws the cork. I do not propofe this with much confidence. JOHNSON. Ben Jonfon has the fame quibble in his New Inn, A& III ¡ in his, willingly, let him make a carbonado of me.3 I like not fuch grinning honour as fir Walter hath : Give me life: which if I can fave, fo; if not, honour comes unlook'd for, and there's an end. [Exit. SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Alarums. Excursions. Enter the King, Prince HENRY, Prince JoнN, and WESTMORELAND. K. HEN. I pr'ythee, Harry, withdraw thyfelf; thou bleed'ft too much: 4Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him. P. JOHN. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too. P. HEN. I do befeech your majefty, make up, Left your retirement do amaze your friends.' I believe Falstaff makes this boaft that the Prince may hear it; and continues the rest of the fpeech in a lower accent, or when he is out of hearing. Shakspeare has the fame play on words in Love's Labour's Loft, A&t IV. sc. ii. Vol. V. J .p. 265, n. 8. STEEVENS. Shakspeare was not aware that he here ridiculed the ferious etymology of the Scottish historian: " Piercy a penetrando oculum Regis Scotorum, ut fabulatur Boetius." Skinner. HOLT WHITE. 3 —a carbonado of me. e.] A carbonado is a piece of meat cut cross-wife for the gridiron. JOHNSON. So, in The Spanish Gypfie by Middleton and Rowley, 1653: "Carbonado thou the old rogue my father, "While you flice into collops the rufty gammon his man.” STEEVENS. -thou bleed'ft too much:] wounded in the face by an arrow. 5 Hiftory fays, the Prince was amaze your friends.] i. e. throw them into confternation. STEEVENS. K. HEN. I will do fo: My lord of Weftmoreland, lead him to his tent. WEST. Come, my lord, I will lead you to your tent. P. HEN. Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help: And heaven forbid, a fhallow fcratch fhould drive The prince of Wales from fuch a field as this; Where ftain'd nobility lies trodden on, And rebels' arms triumph in maffacres ! P. JOHN. We breathe too long:-Come, coufin Weftmoreland, Our duty this way lies; for God's fake, come. I did not think thee lord of fuch a spirit: K. HEN. I faw him hold lord Percy at the point, With luftier maintenance than I did look for Of fuch an ungrown warrior." P. HEN. Lends mettle to us all! 6 I faw him hold lord Percy at the point, 66 O, this boy [Exit. With luftier maintenance than I did look for &c.] So, Holinfhed, p. 759; the earle of Richmond withstood his violence, and kept him at the faword's point without advantage, longer than his companions either thought or judged." STEEVENS. |