Nym. They say, he cried out of sack. Quick. Ay, that 'a did. 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;o '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 rheumatick;9 and talked of the whore of Babylon. that we should receive more entertainment. It happened to Shakspeare, as to other writers, to have his imagination crowded with a tumultuary confusion of images, which, while they were yet unsorted and unexamined, seemed sufficient to furnish a long train of incidents, and a new variety of merriment; but which, when he was to produce them to view, shrunk suddenly from him, or could not be accommodated to his general design. That he once designed to have brought Falstaff on the scene again, we know from himself; but whether he could contrive no train of adventures suitable to his character, or could match him with no companions likely to quicken his humour, or could open no new vein of pleasantry, and was afraid to continue the same strain lest it should not find the same reception, he has here for ever discarded him, and made haste to despatch him, perhaps for the same reason for which Addison killed Sir Roger, that no other hand might attempt to exhibit him. Let meaner authors learn from this example, that it is dan gerous to sell the bear which is yet not hunted; to promise to the publick what they have not written. This disappointment probably inclined Queen Elizabeth to command the poet to produce him once again, and to show him in love or courtship. This was, indeed, a new source of humour, and produced a new play from the former characters. Johnson. incarnate. carnation;] Mrs. Quickly blunders, mistaking the word incarnate for a colour. In Questions of Love, 1566, we have, "Yelowe, pale, redde, blue, whyte, graye, and incarnate." Henderson. 8 Again, in the Inventory of the Furniture to be provided for the Reception of the Royal Family, at the Restoration, 1660, we find-"For repairing, with some additions, of the rich incarnate velvet bed, being for the reception of his majesty, before the other can be made, 107." Again-"For 12 new fustian and Holland quilts for his majesty's incarnate velvet bed and the two dukes beds, 48/." Parliamentary History, Vol. XXII, p. 306. Reed. Boy. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose; and 'a said, it was a black soul burning in hell-fire? 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? Southampton. Pist. Come, let 's away. the king will be gone from My love, give me thy lips. Look to my chattels, and my moveables: Let senses rule;1 the word is, Pitch and pay;2 Trust none; For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor.4 9 rheumatick;] This word is elsewhere used by our author for peevish, or splenetick, as scorbutico is in Italian. Mrs. Quickly however probably means lunatick. Malone. 1 Let senses rule;] I think this is wrong, but how to reform it I do not see. Perhaps we may read: Let sense us rule. Pistol is taking leave of his wife, and giving her advice as he kisses her; he sees her rather weeping than attending, and, supposing that in her heart she is still longing to go with him part of the way, he cries, Let sense us rule, that is, let us not give way to foolish fondness but be ruled by our better understanding. then continues his directions for her conduct in his absence. Johnson. He Let senses rule evidently means, let prudence govern you: conduct yourself sensibly; and it agrees with what precedes and what follows. Mr. M. Mason would read-" Let sentences rule;" by which he means sayings, or proverbs; and accordingly (says he) Pistol gives us a string of them in the remainder of his speech. Steevens. 2 Pitch and pay;] The caution was a very proper one to Mrs. Quickly, who had suffered before, by letting Falstaff run in her debt. The same expression occurs in Blurt Master Constable, 1602: I will commit you, signior, to my house; but will you pitch and pay, or will your worship run? -" So again, in Herod and Antipater, 1622: he that will purchase this, "Must pitch and pay." Steevens. 3 And hold-fast is the only dog,] Alluding to the proverbial saying-" Brag is a good dog, but holdfast is a better." Douce. 4 Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor.] The old quartos read: Therefore Cophetua be thy counsellor. Steevens. The reading of the text is that of the folio. Malone. Go, clear thy crystals."-Yoke-fellows in arms, Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they say. [Kissing her. Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu. Pist. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command. Quick. Farewel; adieu. SCENE IV. 6 [Exeunt. France. A Room in the French King's Palace. Enter the French King attended; the Dauphin, the duke of Burgundy, the Constable, and Others. Fr. King. Thus come the English with full power 5--- upon us; clear thy chrystals.] Dry thine eyes: but I think it may better mean, in this place, wash thy glasses. Johnson. The first explanation is certainly the true one. So, in The Gentleman Usher, by Chapman, 1602: 66 - an old wife's eye "Is a blue chrystal full of sorcery." The old quartos 1600, and 1608, read: 6 Clear up thy chrystals. Steevens. keep close,] The quartos 1600, and 1608, read: - keep fast thy buggle boe; which certainly is not nonsense, as the same expression is used by Shirley, in his Gentleman of Venice: 66 the courtisans of Venice, "Shall keep their bugle bowes for thee, dear uncle." Steevens. Whatever covert sense Pistol may have annexed to this word, it appears from Cole's Latin Dictionary, 1678, that bogle-bo (now corruptly sounded bugabow) signified "an ugly wide-mouthed picture, carried about with May-games." Cole renders it by the Latin words, manducus terriculamentum. The interpretation of the former word has been just given. The latter he renders thus: "A terrible spectacle; a fearful thing; a scare-crow.” T. C. An anonymous writer supposes that by the words-keep close, Pistol means, keep within doors. That this was not the meaning, is proved decisively by the words of the quarto. Malone. The inquisitive reader will best collect the sense in which buggle boe is here used, from a perusal of La Fontaine's tale of Le Diable de pape-figuiere. Douce. 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. My most redoubted father, It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe: For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,8 (Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in question,) But that defences, musters, preparations, Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected, As were a war in expectation. 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 Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance: Her sceptre so fantastically borne By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, Con. O peace, prince Dauphin! You are too much mistaken in this king:2 7 And more than carefully it us concerns,] More than carefully is with more than common care; a phrase of the same kind with better than well. Johnson. 8 so dull a kingdom,] i. e. render it callous, insensibly. So, in Hamlet: "But do not dull thy palm," &c. Steevens. 9 Were busied -] The quarto 1600, reads-were troubled. 1 Steevens. so idly king'd,] Shakspeare is not singular in his use of this verb-to king. I find it in Warner's Albion's England, B. VIII, chap. xlii: Question your grace the late ambassadors,- 2 You are too much mistaken in this king;] This part is much enlarged since the first writing. Pope. 3 How modest in exception,] How diffident and decent in making objections. Johnson. And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, Covering discretion with a coat of folly ;] Shakspeare not having given us, in the First or Second Part of King Henry IV, or in any other place but this, the remotest hint of the circumstance here alluded to, the comparison must needs be a little obscure to those who do not know or reflect that some historians have told us, that Henry IV had entertained a deep jealousy of his son's aspiring superior genius. Therefore, to prevent all umbrage, the prince withdrew from public affairs, and amused himself in consorting with a dissolute crew of robbers. It seems to me, that Shakspeare was ignorant of this circumstance when he wrote the two parts of Henry IV, for it might have been so managed as to have given new beauties to the character of Hal, and great improvements to the plot. And with regard to these matters, Shakspeare generally tells us all he knew, and as soon as he knew it. Warburton. Dr. Warburton, as usual, appears to me to refine too much. I believe, Shakspeare meant no more than that Henry, in his external appearance, was like the elder Brutus, wild and giddy, while in fact his understanding was good. Thomas Otterbourne, and the translator of Titus Livius, indeed, say, that Henry the Fourth, in his latter days, was jealous of his son, and apprehended that he would attempt to depose him; to remove which suspicion, the prince is said (from the relation of an earl of Ormond, who was an eye witness of the fact,) to have gone with a great party of his friends to his father, in the twelfth year of his reign, and to have presented him with a dagger, which he desired the king to plunge into his breast, if he still entertained any doubts of his loyalty: but, I believe, it is no where said, that he threw himself into the company of dissolute persons to avoid giving umbrage to his father, or betook himself to irregular courses with a political view of quieting his suspicions. Malone. |