Fal. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap5, without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent sauciness: if a man will make court'sy, and say nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble duty remembered, I will not be your suitor; I say to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs. Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do wrong: but answer in the effect of your reputation, and satisfy the poor woman. Fal. Come hither, hostess. Enter GoWER. [Taking her aside. Ch. Just. Now, master Gower; What news? Gow. The king, my lord, and Harry prince of Wales Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells. Fal. As I am a gentleman; Host. Nay, you said so before. of it. -Come, no more words Host. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining-chambers. Fal. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking: and for thy walls, a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work, is worth 5 -- this sneap-] A Yorkshire word for rebuke. Pope. Sneap signifies to check; as children easily sneaped; herbs and fruits sneaped with cold weather. See Ray's Collection. Again, in Brome's Antipodes, 1638: "Do you sneap me too, my lord?" This word is derived from snyb, Scotch. We still use snub in the same sense. Steevens. 6 — answer in the effect of your reputation,] That is, answer in a manner suitable to your character. Johnson. 7 I must be fain to pawn - my plate, Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking:] Mrs. Quickly is here in the same state as the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, not having been paid for the diet, &c. of Mary Queen of Scots, while she was in his custody, in 1580, writes as follows to Thomas Bawdewyn: "I wold have you bye me glasses to drink in: Send me word what olde plat yeldes the ounce, for I wyll not leve me a cuppe of sylvare to drink in, but I wyll see the next terme my creditors payde." See Lodge's Illustrations of English History, Vol. II, p. 252. Steevens. 9 a thousand of these bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten. tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canst. Come, an it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and 'draw thy action: Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; dost not know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this. Host. Pray thee, sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; i' faith I am loth to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la. Fal. Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll be a fool still. Host. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to supper: You'll pay me all together? Fal. Will I live?-Go, with her, with her; [to BARDOLPH2] hook on, hook on. Host. Will you have Doll Tear-sheet meet you at supper? 8 German hunting in water-work,] i. e. in water colours. Warburton. So, in Holinshed, p. 819: "The king for himself had a house of timber, &c. and for his other lodgings he had great and goodlie tents of blew waterwork garnished with yellow and white." It appears also from the same Chronicle, p. 840, that these painted cloths were brought from Holland. The German hunting was therefore a subject very likely to be adopted by the artists of that country. Steevens. The German hunting is, I suppose, hunting the wild boar. Shakspeare, in another place, speaks of “a full-acorn'd boar, a German one." Farmer. 9 these bed-hangings,] We should read dead-hangings, i. e. faded. Warburton. I think the present reading may well stand. He recommends painted canvas instead of tapestry, which he calls bed-hangings, in contempt, as fitter to make curtains than to hang walls. 1 'draw thy action:] Draw means here withdraw. Johnson. M. Mason. 2 to Bardolph] In former editions the marginal direction isto the Officers. Malone. I rather suspect that the words hook on, hook on, are addressed to Bardolph, and mean, go you with her, hang upon her, and keep her in the same humour. In this sense the expression is used in The Guardian, by Massinger: "Hook on; follow him, harpies." Steevens. Fal. No more words; let's have her. [Exeunt Host. BARD. Officers, and Boy. Ch. Just. I have heard better news. Fal. What's the news, my good lord? Ch. Just. Where lay the king last night? Fal. I hope, my lord, all's well: What's the news, my lord? Ch. Just. Come all his forces back? Gow. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse, Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster, Against Northumberland, and the archbishop. Fal. Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord? Ch. Just. You shall have letters of me presently: Ch. Just. What's the matter? Fal. Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner? Gow. I must wait upon my good lord here: I thank you, good sir John. Ch. Just. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take soldiers up in counties as you go. Fal. Will you sup with me, master Gower? Ch. Just. What foolish master taught you these man. ners, sir John? Fal. Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that taught them me. This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair. Ch. Just. Now the Lord lighten thee! thou art a great [Exeunt. fool. P. Hen. Trust me, I am exceeding weary. Poins. Is it come to that? I had thought, weariness durst not have attached one of so high blood. 3 At Basingstoke,] The quarto reads at Billingsgate. The players set down the name of the place which was the most fami liar to them. Steevens. P. Hen. 'Faith, it does me; though it discolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me, to desire small beer? Poins. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied, as to remember so weak a composition. P. Hen. Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast; viz. these, and those that were the peach-colour'd ones? or to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity, and one other for use?but that, the tennis-court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of thy low-countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland: and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen,5 shall inherit his 4 and God knows, &c.] This passage Mr. Pope restored from the first edition. I think it may as well be omitted. It is omitted in the first folio, and in all subsequent editions before Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the author. The editors, unwilling to lose any thing of Shakspeare's, not only insert what he has added, but recall what he has rejected. Johnson. I have not met with positive evidence that Shakspeare rejected any passages whatever. Such proof may indeed be inferred from the quartos which were published in his life-time, and are declared (in their titles) to have been enlarged and corrected by his own hand. These I would follow, in preference to the folio, and should at all times be cautious of opposing its authority to that of the elder copies. Of the play in question, there is no quarto extant but that in 1600, and therefore we are unauthorized to assert that a single passage was omitted by consent of the poet himself. I do not think I have a right to expunge what Shakspeare should seem to have written, on the bare authority of the player-editors. I have therefore restored the passage in question to the text. Steevens. This and many other similar passages were undoubtedly struck out of the playhouse copies by the Master of the Revels. Malone. 5 that bawl out the ruins of thy linen,] I suspect we should read-that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen; i. e. his bastard children, wrapt up in his old shirts. The latter part of this speech, "And God knows," &c. is omitted in the folio. Malone. kingdom: but the midwives say, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily strengthened. Poins. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is? P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Hen. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine. Poins. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell. P. Hen. Why, I tell thee,—it is not meet that I should be sad, now my father is sick : albeit I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too. Poins. Very hardly, upon such a subject. P. Hen. By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the devil's book, as thou, and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency: Let the end try the man. But I tell thee,my heart bleeds inwardly, that my father is so sick and keeping such vile company as thou art, hath in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.6 Poins. The reason? P. Hen. What wouldst thou think of me, if I should weep? Poins. I would think thee a most princely hypocrite. P. Hen. It would be every man's thought: and thou art a blessed fellow, to think as every man thinks; never a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way better than thine every man would think me an hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful thought, to think so? Poins. Why, because you have been so lewd, and so much engraffed to Falstaff. "Out the ruins" is the same as "out of" &c. Of this elliptical phraseology I have seen instances, though I omitted to note them. Steevens. 6 all ostentation of sorrow.] Ostentation is here not boastful show, but simply show. Merchant of Venice. "one well studied in a sad ostent "To please his grandame." Johnson. |