to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if 95 a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over: by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain : I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom. Prince. Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack? 100 Fal. 'Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain and baffle me. Prince. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying to purse-taking. Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a 105 man to labour in his vocation. 94. upon] Q I; unto the rest. omitted Ff. an] Pope; and Qq, Ff. 2; and the rest. ་་ said. Johnson explains as a wicked trick of repeating and applying holy texts," and Malone as "citation or recitation" (i.e. a damnable way of reciting the Scriptures). 92, 93. able. . . saint] Perhaps a proverbial saying. So in Burton, Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. 1634, p. 482: "able to overcome a saint." Cf. also Sonnets, cxliv. 7. 93, 94. done. harm upon] So in Heywood, The Wise-Woman of Hogsdon, v. iv: " Young Chartley . I was as virtuously given as any youth in Europe till I fell into one Boyster's company; 'tis he that hath done all the harm upon me." Cf. Brome, The Queens Exchange, IV. i; "These rigorous courses have done hurt upon him." Qq, with the exception of Q1, and Ff read done. . . harm unto. 96, 97. one of the wicked] In mimicry of the Puritans Falstaff here employs one of their canting expressions. See Overbury, Characters, A Button-Maker of Amsterdam: " though most of the wicked (as he calls them) be there." 99. be damned] See Overbury, Characters, A Button-Maker of Amsterdam: "he cries out, 'Tis impossible for any man to be damn'd that liues in his Religion." Another instance of mimicry of Puritan cant. 102. baffle] deride, treat with contumely. Beaumont and Fletcher, Love's Cure, v. i: "he That yesternight 95. am I] I am Ff. 98. by the Lord] 101. 'Zounds] omitted Ff." an] Qq 1, was baffled and disgrac'd," and Marston, What You Will, Iv.i: “ Bar mee my house; beate mee,-baffle mee,-scoffe mee,-deride me.' In a letter dated 22 May, 1570, Sir George Carey writes to Lord Flemming, "I will baffull your good name "; and his correspondent replies, "yee may rayle vpon my honourable name as yee please." Nares: "Baffle was originally a punishment of infamy, inflicted on recreant knights, one part of which was hanging them up by the heels." 103. amendment of life]" Amendment of life" is the Genevan rendering of the word rendered by "repentance" in the Authorised Version. Falstaff is again ridiculing the Puritans. 105. 'tis my vocation] Falstaff here repeats in ridicule another of the Puritan shibboleths. See Middleton, The Family of Love, 111. ii: “Lipsalve. 'Tis my vocation, boy; we must never be weary of well-doing: love's as proper to a courtier as preciseness to a puritan." 105, 106. 'tis no ... vocation] An allusion to 1 Corinthians vii. 20: "Let every man abide in the same vocation wherein he was called." This text was often quoted and constantly commended by protestant divines. Latimer, Sermons: "Let every man therefore labour in his vocation" (ed. Corrie, p. 359), and the same author: "we must labour and do our business every one in his vocation " (Remains, ed. Corrie, p. 154). Enter POINS. Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a This is the most omnipotent villain than ever cried "Stand" to IIO a true man. Prince. Good morrow, Ned. Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur 108. 107. Enter Poins] omitted Ff. 107. Poins!] See note infra. match] Qq; Watch Ff. 114, 115. Sugar? Jack !] Rowe; Sugar Iacke? Qq 1-4; Sugar, Iacke? Qq 5-8; Sugar: Iacke? F. Cf. Nashe, Christ's Tears over Jerusalem, 1593 (Grosart, iv. 95): 'He held it as lawful for hym (since all labouring in a mans vocation is but getting) to gette wealth as wel with his Sword by the Highway side, as the Laborer with his Spade or Mattock"; and Wilkins, Miseries of Enforced Marriage (Hazlitt's Dodsley, ix. 528): "this honest and needful calling of pursetaking." 107. Poins!] Qq 3-8 and F print Poines or Pointz in italics, as if the words Now shall we true man were spoken by him. ... 107, 108. set a match] "To set a match" signified in the argot of thieves to plot a robbery. So in Jonson, Bartholomew Fair (1614), V. iii: "they'll be angry if they hear you eavesdropping, now they are setting their match." See Greene, Art of Conny-Catching, 1591 (Grosart, x. 40): "ye high lawier [highwayman] when he hath no set match to ride about "; Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-Light (Grosart, iii. 232): "The match being then agreed upon "; and The Misfortunes of Arthur (Hazlitt's Dodsley, iv. 311). "Match" sometimes occurs in the sense of plunder, theft, as in Pasquils Fests with the Merriments of Mother Bunch (quoted in Ashton's Humour, Wit, and Satire of the Seventeenth Century): "which match [a stolen purse] the fellow for feare of hanging, willingly condescended to surrender." Wright refers to Harrison's Description of England (ii. 16, ed. 1587): "Seldome. are... waifaring men robbed without the consent of the chamberleine, tapster, or ostler where they bait & lie, who... giue intimation to some one or other attendant dailie in the yard or house, or dwelling hard by vpon such matches, whether the preie be worth the following or no.' The set a Watch of F was also a cant phrase in use among thieves. See Greene, Art of Conny-Catching (Grosart, x. 15): “The theefe is called a High lawier, He that setteth the watch, a scripper," and Dekker, Belman of London (Grosart, iii. 151). 110. omnipotent] capable of anything, arrant. New Eng. Dict. quotes Nashe, Have with you (Grosart, iii. 51): "Farre more boystrous and cumbersome than a pair of Swissers omnipotent galeaze breeches." III. a true man] an honest man, as opposed to a thief. See 11. i. 93 post. 114. Sir Sugar] Wright compares S. Rowlands, The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head-vaine (Hunterian Club ed., p. 28): “signeur Sacke and Suger drinke-drown'd reeles." Simon Eyre, in Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday, III. v, appears to speak of sack and sugar as an old man's drink: "old age, Sacke and Sugar will steal upon us ere we be aware." Hentzner, Moryson and others observed it as a peculiarity of the English that they sweetened their wines with sugar. Malone quotes Dr. Venner, Via Řecta ad Vitam Longam, 1622: "Some affect to drink sack with sugar, and some without, and upon no other grounds, as I thinke, but as it is best pleasing to their palates." Sugar, in Venner's opinion, allayed the heat of sack and retarded its penetrative quality. Sack, which, according to Douce, is not mentioned earlier than the twenty-third year of Henry Jack! how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, 115 Prince. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of pro- Poins. Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with Prince. Else he had been damned for cozening the devil. 120 four o'clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims 125 Fal. Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not, 120. he ... due] in italics Ff. night] to morrow Ff. VIII., appears to have been a dry Spanish wine. The best qualities are said to have been made at Xeres, and Falstaff himself has much to say in praise of "sherris-sack" in 2 Henry IV. IV. iii. 104. Span. secco, dry. Sherwood, Eng. French Dict. : "Sack... Vin d'Espagne, vin sec." ... 115. agrees thee] Pope would emend the syntax by reading agree and thou, but the use of a singular verb preceding a plural subject and of "thee " for "thou " accords with Elizabethan idiom. 116. Good Friday] Good Friday was a black or total fast-day. Heywood, Proverbs, Part I. xi: "he may his part on Good Friday eat and fast never the worse." Skelton (Why Come ye nat to Courte) accuses Wolsey of eating capons stewed, Fesaunt and partriche mewed," as a repast in Lent. 66 119, 120. breaker of proverbs] Cf. R. Davenport, The City-Night-Cap, 1. ii: so you break one Proverbs pate, and give the other a plaister." To break a proverb was to cross or gainsay it; 46 135 123. been] omitted F. 130. to-morrow 125. Gadshill] A hill on the London road about two miles north-west of Rochester. The place had an ill repute for robberies. Dekker and Webster, West-ward Hoe, 11. ii: "as the way lies over Gads-hill, very dangerous." 127. vizards] Highwaymen wore vizards or masks. Earle, Microcosmographie, A Younger Brother: "others take a more croked path, yet the Kings high-way; where at length their vizzard is pluck't off, and they strike faire for Tiborne." Bailey's Dict. (Canting Words): "High-Pads . . have a Vizor-Mask, and two or three Perukes of different Colours and Makes, the better to conceal themselves." 134. Yedward] A dialectal form of Edward. So we find Yead in Merry 1 i Poins. You will, chops? Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one? Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith. Fal. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellow- Prince. Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap. Prince. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home. Fal. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art 145 king. Prince. I care not. Poins. Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go. 150 Fal. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move and what he hears may be believed, that the true prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want counten- 155 Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap. Prince. Farewell, the latter spring! farewell, All-hallown ance. summer! [Exit Falstaff. 138. Who,] Who, I? Anon. conj. (apud Cambridge). by my faith] omitted Ff. 145. By the Lord] omitted Ff. 151. God give thee.. haue... and he Ff. 154. true] omitted Qq 5-8. the Qq, Ff; Farewell, thou Pope and many editors. 2-4; omitted Qq, F. Wives of Windsor, 1. i. 160. Dyce quotes an example of Yedward in the Lancashire dialect from Shadwell's Lancashire Witches, I. 136. chops] fat or chubby cheeks. Cotgrave: "Fafelu Puffed up; fat cheeked; a chops." Cf. Marlowe, Few of Malta, 11: "'tis not a stone of beef a-day will maintain you in these chops. Let me see one that's somewhat leaner." 140, 141. camest shillings] The points of this jest are that a royal was a coin of the value of ten shillings and that "stand for" signified (1) to represent, stand in the place of, and (2) to make a fight for. For the latter meaning Brome, Covent Garden Weeded, III. i: "Nick. 40. sh. and 3.d. you'l bate the 3.d. will you not? Drawer. We'll not much stand for that Sir, though our master sits at a deare rent," and R, Brathwaite, The and him] maist thou 157. Farewell, the] Farewel 158. Exit Falstaff] Ff. English Gentleman: "as you have on 157, the latter spring] Pope, followed by many editors, substituted thou for Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to- Prince. How shall we part with them in setting forth? 165 the exploit themselves; which they shall have no 170 Prince. Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our 161. Bardolph, Peto] Theobald; Haruey, Rossill Qq, Ff. omitted Qq 3-8, Ff. 166. How] But how Ff. the, but the change is unnecessary. was Con. You enjoy the best of time: Than that whose date is only By the music of the cuckoo." 157, 158. All-hallown summer] New Eng. Dict.: "a season of fine weather in the late autumn [about November 1st or All Saints' Day]; also fig. brightness or beauty lingering or reappearing in 172. Yea] I Ff. 165. off] 159. honey] A common term of endearment, as in Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 530. 161. Bardolph, Peto] The Haruey and Rossill of Qq and Ff were perhaps the names of dramatis personæ in the play as originally produced, afterwards altered to Bardolph and Peto; or, as Theobald suggested, the names of the actors who performed the parts of Bardolph and Peto. As in II. iv. 176, 178, 182, the Qq have Ross. for Gad. i.e. Gadshill, Wright suggests that the minor parts may have been taken sometimes by one actor and sometimes by another. The names Harvey and Rossill are not found in any list of actors of the period. It is perhaps worth noting that in 2 Henry IV. 11. ii., Q has a stage-direction: "Enter the Prince, Poynes, sir Iohn Russel, with other," where F gives: "Enter Prince Henry, Pointz, Bardolfe, and Page." 162. that... waylaid] for whom we have set an ambush, for whom the ways are "laid" or watched. Cf. R. Brome, A Jovial Crew, III: "The Search is every way; the Country all laid for you.” 168, 169, wherein |