Tear and havoc

priate to the effect of a mouse's depredations. are rather strong for the results of a mouse's nibbling; but perhaps the weasel is really uppermost in Westmoreland's mind.

175 A crush'd necessity; i.e. 'one that can be overcome.' No more satisfactory explanation or reading has been suggested. Curst is hardly an improvement.

177 Pretty. Perhaps a misprint for petty.

179 Advised. 'Well-advised,' 'judicious.' Cf. Richard III. ii. 1. 107, "Kneeled at my feet, and bade me be advised."

180 For government, &c. "For government, while it has various functions, some higher and some lower, is consistent with itself in performing all, and is harmonious, like music." The whole metaphor is taken from the construction of part-songs. 181 Consent. 'Agreement,' ''concord.'

182 Congreeing. Agreeing.' The word does not occur elsewhere. Perhaps we should read congruing.

186 To which, &c.; i.e. of all which endeavour, obedience, i.q. ordered subordination, is the purpose'; meaning that individual endeavour is subordinated to and used to promote public weal.

187 The honey-bees. Lyly, in his Euphues, has a passage of very similar bearing, and it is very probable that Shakespeare had read it. But there is no reason to suppose that he had it consciously in his mind when he wrote these lines.

189 The act of order. Orderly action.'

194 Boot.

'Booty,' 'gain.' Cf. Shrew, v. 2. 176, "Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot"; and such phrases as "It boots not," ""To boot" (='into the bargain').

205 That many things, &c. "That many things, all in fact working harmoniously to one end, act along different lines." 213 Well borne = 'successfully carried through.'

217 Withal 'therewith.' Cf. 1. 81, note.

221 Name' reputation.'

226 Or there will sit . . . or lay. For or . . . or, cf. line 12, "Or should or should not bar us in our claim.'

230 Tombless; i.e. 'without a monument.' Tomb='monument,' is common. Cf. Sonnet, ci. II, "To make him much outlive a gilded tomb."

234 Not worshipped, &c.; i.e. the alternatives are complete triumph or complete annihilation: the praise that lives for a day only, "the worship of a waxen epitaph", is not worth having. If there is to be a monument, it shall be 66 aere perennius. The Quarto has "Paper epitaph," which would be explained as an allusion to the practice of attaching a copy of elegiac or laudatory verses to the tomb, for which cf. Much Ado, v. 3, Claudio before the supposed tomb of Hero.

pendix, § 1, and Prol. 9, note.

Globe are. See Ap

246 In few. 'In a few words.' Cf. Hamlet, i. 3. 126—

"In few, Ophelia,

Do not believe his vows.'

247 Some certain Dukedoms. "The entier Duchies of Aquitain, Normandy, and Aniowe (Anjou), with the countrees of Poytieu and Mayne." (HALL.)

252 Advised. 'Warned,' 'instructed.' So 2 Henry IV., i. I. 172"You were advised his flesh was capable Of wounds and scars.

galliard, knight?

253 Galliard. 'A dance.' Cf. Twelfth Night, i. 3. 126— "SIR TOBY. What is thy excellence in a SIR ANDREW. Faith, I can cut a caper.' 259 Tennis-balls. "Here I ouerpasse howe some writers saie that the Dolphyn thinkyng kyng Henry to be geuen stil to such plaies and light folies as he exercised and used before the time that he was exalted to the croune sent to hym a tunne of tennisballes to plaie with, as who said that he could better skil of tennis than of war, and was more expert in light games than marciall policy." (HALL.) Holinshed mentions the story at a different place, though he has copied the sentences on either side of the above almost word for word.

262-267 These lines are full of plays upon technical phrases in the game of tennis.

263 In France. Mr. Aldis Wright quotes Nott (on Decker's Gull's Hornbook) to the effect that a particular part of the Tennis-court used to be called France.

264 Hazard. The name of a part of the tennis-court; but apparently bearing a different meaning at different periods. In any case a stroke into the hazard would be a winning stroke.' Here there is a farther play on the word in the sense of 'risk'= 'will endanger his father's crown.'

Chaces. A term which can hardly be explained to anyone not familiar with the inside of a tennis-court. Here again there is a play on the technical use of the word, and chase='pursuit of a routed foe.'

270 Seat. 'Throne,' as in 1. 88, "The crown and seat of France."

271 Living hence. The whole passage, 270-276, evidently contrasts the " poor seat of England" with the throne of France," Henry implying that he considered himself from home" till he has the latter. To make sense, hence must mean away from France,' though France is not named till five lines on, which is a considerable strain on the language. (2) Steevens

takes hence='away from the court,' which does not fit in either with what precedes or what follows. There is no clue to a different reading in the Quarto.

275 Sail. Jackson conjectures 'seal,' which was probably pronounced like sail; just as in 2 Henry IV. iv. I. 50, greaves should probably be read for 'graves.' Show my sail would mean 'make a display'; the metaphor being from a ship, as in Merchant of Venice, i. 1. 124," Showing a more swelling port. 282 Pleasant. Not agreeable,' but 'merry.'

283 Gun-stones. Cannon-balls were made of stone in the early days of artillery. Steevens quotes the Brut of England, "He anone lette make tenes balles for the Dolfin in all the haste that they myght, and they were great gonnestonnes for the Dolfin to playe with alle."

305 Proportions. Properly calculation of levies,' so apparently here 'levies as calculated.' Cf. ii. 4. 45, "So the proportions of defence are filled." See i. 2. 137, note, and Glossary.

ACT II.

The first act was the CHALLENGE. PREPARATION.

2 Silken dalliance; i.e.

dalliance that go with it.'

PROLOGUE.

The second is the

silken attire, and the thoughts of

66

3 Honour's thought. The objective genitive is rarely expressed by the possessive inflexion. We should generally say, The thought of honour."

9, 10 The idea of the crown encircled sword seems to have been suggested by a woodcut in the first edition of Holinshed. Hilts. So very commonly of a single sword. Cf. ii. 1. 62, "I'll run him up to the hilts."

14 Policy; i.e. 'diplomacy' or 'intrigue.' Cf. As You Like It, v. 1. 62, "I will o'errun thee with policy."

16 Model. 'Miniature;' i.e. so small in proportion to the inward greatness you represent.' Cf. Richard II. i. 2. 28, 'Thy brother, who was the model of thy father's life."

18 That honour would thee do. Would in the sense of 'willed,' 'wished;' to had come into general use as the sign of the infinitive as the inflexion -en dropped out; but its omission or insertion after verbs, which might be regarded as auxiliary, was as yet less definitely regulated than it is with us.

23 Earl of Cambridge. Henry's cousin. See Appendix, § 3. 24 Scroop was connected by marriage with the Earl of Cambridge, whose step-mother he had married.

26 Gilt ..

guilt. The play on these two words is repeated England shall double gild his

from 2 Henry IV. iv. 5. 129, 66

treble guilt." It occurs also in Marlowe's Hero and Leander. The trick of playing upon words without any purpose of jesting is frequent in Shakspeare, and may be freely parallelled from the Greek tragedians (e.g. Aeschylus on the name of Helen, and Sophocles on the name of Ajax), besides Dante and Milton.

28 This grace of kings; i.e. noblest of kings.' Cf. Hamlet (iii. 4. 98) calling his uncle a "Vice of kings.'

""

30-35 This arrangement of the lines is due to Johnson. The order in the Folio is 33, 34, 35, 30, 31, 32. The Folio text can hardly be correct, and the re-arrangement is a little clearer. 34 We'll. Folio well. The emendation, as also that in the

next line, is Pope's.

35 While we. Folio omits. Even as transposed and emended the lines are not clear.

41 Folio reads, "But, till the king come forth, and not till then," which is unintelligible, except by understanding after forth the scene remains in London.' Steevens proposed but for not, the two words being several times printed for each other.

SCENE I.

Nym, with his oracular speeches, did not appear in Henry IV.; the remaining characters in this scene are all old friends. The contrast between Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol must be observed. The first affects the character of a bluff, hearty soldier; Nym is the man of few words, and those darkly suggestive of much more that might be said; Pistol is the "roaring blade," a man of parts," whose language consists chiefly of tags caught at the popular melodramas, and reproduced in a scarcely recognisable. form.

99.66

2 Lieutenant. Bardolph was only corporal in 2 Henry IV. 5 Smiles. Nym is wont to veil his meaning in dark sayings. Probably some particularly grim threat is supposed to be conveyed here. Farmer's conjecture smites is ingenious and possible. 6 Wink. 'Shut my eyes.'

9 The humour of it.

A favourite phrase of Nym's in the Merry Wives, as a hit at the affectation with which the word was used in the fashionable "euphuism," which found "conceits and "humours" in everything.

'We'll be

II We'll be all three sworn brothers to France. sworn brothers, and go to France.' "To be to a place”=‘to go to a place and be there,' is in common use only in the past tense, as "I have been to London; " the to seems to be just like the Greek eis in Φίλιππος δὲ εὑρθέη εἰς ̓́Αζωτον.

Sworn brothers. In burlesque of the medieval and primitive Teutonic practice of chiefs swearing brotherhood as a preliminary to a joint expedition. 'Sworn brothers' made an even

division of their spoils. When the Conqueror invaded England, Robert de Oily and Roger de Ivery were fratres jurati.

15 Rest. To "set up your rest," translated into the corresponding slang of to-day, is 'to stake your pile.' So "to be resolved at any price." Thus my rest my final resolve.' Cf. Lancelot Gobbo in Merchant of Venice, "I have set up my rest

to run away.

17 Nell Quickly. Mrs. Quickly had quite recently expected to become "my lady," with Sir John Falstaff for her husband. 29 Tike.

Cur.

34 If he be not hewn; i.e. 'if he is not going to be hewn ;' i.q. hacked in pieces.' So the Folio, which I can see no sufficient reason for changing. Theobald and the Cambridge editors read drawn. "If the hostess had used hewd, which to this day may be heard in Suffolk as the equivalent of 'held,' the printers might easily have altered it to hewn." (Clar. Press Ed.) 36 Lieutenant. A slip of the pen, Pistol being an ancient or ensign, and Bardolph himself a lieutenant-perhaps. Malone, on the strength of the slip, gives the sentence to Mrs. Quickly. 39 Iceland dog. Folio Island dog. A breed of small longhaired white dogs from Iceland seems to have been imported a good deal in Shakspeare's time, and to have been in favour with ladies.

43 Shog off. A slang expression. 47 Maw.

50 Take.

'Stomach.'

Take fire.' Pistol is punning on his name. 52 Barbason. The name of a fiend. Bardolph means that he cannot be "conjured" by sounding language. Cf. Merry · Wives, ii. 2. 311, "Amaimon sounds well: Lucifer well: Barbason well; yet they are devils' additions, the names of fiends." 54 Foul. A quibble on 'foul-mouthed' and 'foul like a dirty pot.'

60 Exhale. 'Breathe your last,' or 'draw your sword.' We can never lay down the law as to what Pistol may happen to mean by a sounding word; but in Shakspeare exhale generally means 'draw' or rather 'suck,' being applied to the action of the sun upon vapours. See Glossary.

69 Couple a gorge. Couper la gorge.'

72 Spital. Hospital.'

76 I have and I will hold. A reminiscence of the trothplight in the marriage service, "to have and to hold."

95 As manhood shall compound; i.e. 'as fighting the quarrel out shall settle it.'

98 Sword is an oath ; i.e. ' swearing by the sword' = 'swearing by the cross formed by the hilt.'

104 Noble.

1=

A coin worth 6s. 8d.

Present pay cash down,'