public insisted on identifying the Falstaff who masqueraded at Shrewsbury with the Fastolfe who ran away at Patay, and in the first printed text of 1 Henry VI. it is by the name 'Falstaff' that he is known.1 Nevertheless the name by which Falstaff first became famous did not at once die out. Twenty years after the production of the play Nathaniel Field in his Amends for Ladies (1618) could ask :— Did you never see ་ The Play where the fat knight, hight Oldcastle, page above, p. 249). Shakespeare may have sought to make the inconsiderable difference' more considerable by dropping the l L. 1 If the Epilogue to 2 Henry IV. is Shakespeare's, it would seem that he designed to make Falstaff, like the historical Fastolfe, figure in Henry V.'s wars in France. In that case he may have been led finally to exclude him from Henry V. by the wish to check that identification. But the authenticity of the Epilogue is very doubtful, and it is hardly credible that Shakespeare seriously intended to revoke the banished Falstaff merely in order to make his audience merry. THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH THE ACT I. SCENE I. London. The palace. Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCaster, the EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others. King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; 4. stronds, strands, shores. thy brother's blood from thy hand.' 9. those opposed eyes, the eyes of contending armies; the intent gaze of two forces as they rush together being vividly put for the forces themselves. Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross To chase these pagans in those holy fields But this our purpose now is twelve month And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go : Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, And many limits of the charge set down 13. furious close, fierce hand to-hand grapple. 14. mutual, combined. 30. Therefore, etc., it is not for this that we are met. ΙΟ 20 30 33. this dear expedience, this momentous enterprise. 34. hot in question, being warmly debated. 35. limits of the charge, express and definite instructions. Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer, Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy Land. West. This match'd with other did, my gracious For more uneven and unwelcome news 38. the noble Mortimer. Two historical Edmund Mortimers were confused by Holinshed, and hence by Shakespeare. The Elizabeth, m. H. Percy (Hotspur). 40 50 following table shows their relationship to one another and to Lady Percy : : Edmund Mortimer, 3rd Earl of March. Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl Anne, m. Richard, Earl of Cambridge (Hen. V. ii. 2. 11). In the play the Mortimer who had a title to the crown is identified with Glendower's captive; he is inconsistently spoken of as brother to Hotspur and his wife (1 i. 3. 142, ii. 3. 78), and as their nephew (1 iii. 1. 196). In i. 3. these two Mortimers are further identified with Roger Mortimer, Sir Edmund Mortimer (1376-1409) (def. by Glendower). That ever-valiant and approved Scot, At Holmedon met, Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour, And shape of likelihood, the news was told; King. Here is a dear, a true industrious friend, Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, 60 On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took 70 Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son 57. their artillery. Holinshed says that 'with violence of the English shot [the Scotch] were quite vanquished and put to flight.' Holinshed means arrows, and Mr. Wright suggests that Shakespeare may have misunderstood' the ambiguous word 'shot.' In another account of the battle, however (Hist. of Scotland, ii. 254, quot. Stone, p. 132), Holinshed speaks expressly of the incessant shot of arrows.' It is probable that Shakespeare understood perfectly that Holinshed meant arrows, and chose himself to mean the more impressive discharge of cannon. 62. industrious, active. · 69. Balk'd, lying in 'balks' or level ridges dividing the furrows. 71. Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son, etc. This was Murdoch Stewart, eldest son On |