Bard. Yea, sir. The rascal's drunk: you have hurt him, sir, o' the shoulder. Fal. A rascal! to brave me! Dol. Ah, you sweet little rogue, you! Alas, poor ape, how thou sweatest! come, let me 240 wipe thy face; come on, you whoreson chops: ah, rogue! i' faith, I love thee: thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than the Nine Worthies: ah, villain! Fal. A rascally slave! I will toss the rogue in a blanket. Dol. Do, an thou darest for thy heart: an thou dost, I'll canvass thee between a pair of sheets. Enter Music. Page. The music is come, sir. Fal. Let them play. Play, sirs. Sit on my knee, Doll. A rascal bragging slave! the rogue fled from me like quicksilver. Dol. I' faith, and thou followedst him like a church. Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig, when wilt thou leave fighting o' days and foining o' nights, and begin to patch up thine old body for heaven? 250 Enter, behind, Prince Henry and Poins, disguised. Fal. Peace, good Doll! do not speak like a 260 death's-head; do not bid me remember mine end. 256. "thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig"; Doll says this in coaxing playful ridicule of Falstaff's enormous bulk. It was a common subject of allusion.-H. N. H. Dol. Sirrah, what humor 's the prince of? Dol. They say Poins has a good wit. Fal. He a good wit? hang him, baboon! his wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there's no more conceit in him than is in a 270 Dol. Why does the prince love him so, then? and a' plays at quoits well; and eats conger Prince. Would not this nave of a wheel have his 279. "the sign of the leg"; suspended over shoemakers' shops.C. H. H. 280. “discreet”; Poins, it is insinuated tells indiscreet (i. e. indecent) stories.-C. H. H. 287. "nave of a wheel"; Falstaff is humorously called nave of a wheel, from his rotundity of figure. The equivoque between nave and knave is obvious.-H. N. H. Poins. Let's beat him before his whore. Prince. Look, whether the withered elder hath 290 not his poll clawed like a parrot. Poins. Is it not strange that desire should so many years outlive performance? Fal. Kiss me, Doll. Prince. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! what says the almanac to that? Poins. And, look, whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not lisping to his master's old tables, his note-book, his counsel-keeper. Fal. Thou dost give me flattering busses. Dol. By my troth, I kiss thee with a most constant heart. Fal. I am old, I am old. Dol. I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of them all. Fal. What stuff wilt have a kirtle of? I shall 300 295. This was indeed a prodigy. The astrologers, says Ficinus, remark that Saturn and Venus are never conjoined.-H. N. H. 297. "Fiery Trigon"; alluding to the astrological division of the zodiacal signs into four trigons or triplicities; one consisting of the three fiery signs (Aries, Leo, and Sagittarius); the others, respectively, of three airy, three watery, and three earthy signs. When the three superior planets were in the three fiery signs they formed a fiery trigon; when in Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces, a watery one, etc. -I. G. Poins of course refers to Bardolph, who is supposed to be whispering to the Hostess, Sir John's counsel-keeper.-H. N. H. 306. "kirtle"; few words, as Mr. Gifford observes, have occasioned such controversy as kirtle. The most familiar terms are often the most baffling to the antiquary; for, being in general use, they were clearly understood by our ancestors, and therefore are not accurately defined in the dictionaries. A kirtle, from the Saxon cyrtel, to gird, was undoubtedly a petticoat, which sometimes had a body without sleeves attached to it. "Vasquine," says Cotgrave, "a kirtle or petticoat." "Surcot, an upper kirtle, or garment worn over a receive money o' Thursday: shalt have a cap to-morrow. A merry song, come: it grows late; we 'll to bed. Thou 'lt forget me when I am gone. Dol. By my troth, thou 'lt set me a-weeping, an thou sayest so: prove that ever I dress myself handsome till thy return: well, hearken at the end. Fal. Some sack, Francis. 310 [Coming forward. Fal. Ha! a bastard son of the king's? And art not thou Poins his brother? Prince. Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou lead! Fal. A better than thou: I am a gentleman; thou art a drawer. Prince. Very true, sir; and I come to draw you out by the ears. Host. O, the Lord preserve thy good grace! by my troth, welcome to London. Now, the Fal. Thou whoreson mad compound of maj 320 kirtle." Also, "cotte de femme, a kirtle." Chaucer also uses kirtle for a tunic or sleeveless coat for a man. Florio explains Tonaca "a coate or jacket, or a sleeveless coate. Also, a woman's petticoat or kirtle, an upper safeguard." Cotgrave also translates "un devant de robe, a kirtle or apron." Minsheu renders the Spanish word “vasquina, a woman's petticoat or kirtle." And, finally, Torriano defines "grembiale, an apron, a fore-kirtle." All this dictionary learning may appear very ridiculous, but at least it has put an end to doubt upon the subject.-H. N. H. 818."Poins his"; Poins's.-C. H. H. esty, by this light flesh and corrupt blood, 380 thou art welcome. Dol. How, you fat fool! I scorn you. Poins. My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat. Prince. You whoreson candle-mine, you, how Fal. Didst thou hear me? at your back, and spoke it on purpose to try Fal. No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou Prince. I shall drive you then to confess the willful abuse; and then I know how to han dle you. Fal. No abuse, Hal, o' mine honor; no abuse. Prince. Not to dispraise me, and call me pantler and bread-chipper and I know not what? Fal. No abuse, Hal. Poins. No abuse? Fal. No abuse, Ned, i̇' the world; honest Ned, none. 340 350 that the wicked might not fall in love with |