P. 134. And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes; for they will pluck
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads,
And turn them out of service. If they do this,-

As, if God please, they shall, —my ransom then

Will soon be levied. Herald, save thy labour. In the second of these lines, the old text has or instead of for. I can make no sense out of or there, and the two words were in fact often confounded. The correction is Hanmer's. In the last line, again, the old text reads 66 save thou thy labour." I have no doubt of thou being an interpolation: it spoils the metre, without helping the sense.

-

P. 134. I fear thou'lt come once more again for ransom. - The old text has "for a Ransome." One of the many instances of a interpolated.

ACT IV., SCENE 4.

P. 135. Quality! Callino, castore me! - Art thou a gentleman ?· The old text has "Qualtitie calmie custure me." The reading in the text is derived from an old Irish song preserved in Playford's Musical Companion, 1673. Warburton gave the reading, "Quality! cality! construe me," which Staunton adopts, pronouncing the common reading and explanation "too preposterous." See foot-note I.

P. 135. Moy shall not serve; I will have forty moys;

Or I will pluck thy rim out of thy throat.—The old text For instead of Or. See the last but one of the Critical Notes on the preceding scene.

P. 138. The French might have a good prey of us, if they knew of it. - So Collier's second folio. The old text reads "if he knew of it." The change, it seems to me, is fairly required.

66

ACT IV., SCENE 5.

P. 138. Reproach, reproach, and everlasting shame

Sit mocking on our plumes.—So Capell. The old text has Reproach, and everlasting shame." Walker notes upon the passage, “I suspect that another substantive (contempt? or possibly some word

beginning with re) has dropt out after reproach." Why not rebuke ? At all events, I can hardly think the old text complete. And perhaps, after all, the repetition is more emphatic than any variation would be.

P. 138. Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice?—The old text reads "plaid at dice for." Lettsom thought that for ought to be omitted. So in the Chorus, page 112, "The confident and over-lusty French Do the low-rated English play at dice."

P. 138. Let's die in honour: once more back again. — The folio reads "Let us dye in once more backe againe." Knight corrected the text by introducing honour from the corresponding matter of the quartos.

ACT IV., SCENE 6.

P. 139. My soul shall keep thine company to Heaven. - The old text reads "shall thine keep company." Walker's correction.

P. 140. But I had not so much of man in me

But all my mother came into mine eyes, &c. So Pope, from the quartos. The folio has "And all my mother." I find it not easy to fix a choice here between the two readings. Lettsom proposed For. Perhaps rightly.

P. 140. For, hearing this, I must perforce compound

With mistful eyes. - The old text has "With mixful eyes."

Warburton's correction.

ACT IV., SCENE 7.

P. 143. That we may wander o'er the bloody field

To look our dead, and then to bury them. - So Collier's second folio. The old text has "To booke our dead." Shakespeare has many instances of to look used transitively. And White observes that "to book our dead" is "a phrase entirely inconsistent with the customs and necessities of the field of battle."

P. 143. So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs

In blood of princes; and the wounded steeds

Fret fetlock deep in gore.-The old text has "and with wounded steeds." A very palpable error, which Malone corrected by substituting their for with. The reasons for preferring the are obvious enough. The correction is Capell's.

P. 145. Who if'a live, and ever dare to challenge this glove, &c.So Capell. The old text reads "who if alive, and ever dare."

P. 146. I would fain see the man, that has but two legs, that shall find himself aggrief'd at this glove, this is all; I would fain but see it once, &c. The old text reads "but I would fain see it once." The correction is Dyce's.

ACT IV., SCENE 9.

P. 152. SCENE IX. - France. An English Court of Guard. — The folio prints this scene as the opening of the fifth Act, and so of course sets it after the Chorus which here follows it. A piece of disorder very like that which I have already remarked touching what is here printed as the third scene of the first Act. See page 177. Johnson thought the present scene ought to close the fourth Act. It is clearly out of place at the beginning of the fifth; and the matter of it must be supposed to follow close upon the heels of the battle. Perhaps I ought to note further, that in the folio the first Act includes the whole of what modern editions give as the first and second Acts; that the folio has "Actus Secundus" and "Actus Tertius" where modern editions have "ACT III." and "ACT IV."; and that the folio has "Actus Quartus" at the head of what stands in modern editions as the seventh scene in the fourth Act. How the arrangement in the folio came to be so disordered, is a matter about which we can only speculate.

P. 153. I eat, and eke I swear. -So Johnson. The old text has "I eate and eate I sweare." White prints "I eat, and yet I swear," which may be right.

P. 154. News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital

Of malady of France.

Instead of Nell, the old text has Doll; a palpable blunder, since Pistol, as appears in the third scene of the

play, has been married to “Nell Quickly," and is at swords' points with Doll Tear-sheet. The old text also has "Of a malady."

P. 155. And patches will I get unto these scars,

And swear I got them in the Gallia wars. So the quartos. The folio has "unto these cudgeld scarres."

P. 155. Vouchsafe all those that have not read the story,
That I may prompt them: and, for such as have,

-

I humbly pray them to admit th' excuse, &c. So Collier's second folio. The old text has "Vouchsafe to those "; also, "and of such as have." The latter correction was made by Capell also. I adopt both, because I do not understand the old text.

P. 155.

Behold, the English beach

Pales-in the flood with men, with wives, and boys.—So the second folio. The first omits the second with.

er.

P. 156. As, by a lower but loving likelihood,

Were now the general of our gracious Empress, &c.— So WalkThe old text reads "by a lower but by loving."

P. 157. The Emperor coming in behalf of France. - The old text has "The Emperour's coming." The correction is Heath's. Yet I am not sure but the old text may be right; "The Emperor's" meaning "The Emperor is."

ACT V., SCENE I.

P. 159. Dear nurse of arts, plenty, and joyful births. — For plenty, the old text has plenties. Walker notes, "The error arose (ut sæpe) from contagion."

P. 159. The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth

The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover,

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,

Conceives by idleness, &c.— The old text has "withall uncorrected." A very palpable blunder, insomuch as to be hardly worth noting.

P. 159. And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
Defective in their natures, grow to wildness,

Even so our houses, and ourselves and children, &c.
text "And all our Vineyards." Corrected by Roderick.

-

-The old

Pass our accept and peremptory answer. —'
-The meaning here
is obscure, and the reading doubtful, to say the least; though Walker
quotes it as correct, and Lettsom pronounces it to be "right." War-
burton proposed, and Theobald printed, "Pass, or accept," and so it
is in Collier's second folio. Malone conjectured "Pass, or except."
With either of these readings, answer, I suppose, must be taken as a
verb, and peremptory as used adverbially. Mr. Swynfen Jervis pro-
poses Pass our exact," and the same change long ago occurred to
me. This reading would give a natural and fitting sense; and so, I
have little doubt, we ought to read.

P. 162. Cath. Sauf votre Honneur, me understand vell.—I suspect
we ought to read "me understand not vell," as Dyce suggests.

P. 164. Quand j'ai la possession de France. - The old text reads
"Je quand sur le possession."

P. 165. Notwithstanding the poor and untempting effect of my visage.
- So Warburton and Collier's second folio. The old text has " un-
tempering effect." See note on "But he that tempted thee," &c.,
page 179.

66

P. 166. Therefore, queen of all Catharines, &c. The old text has
queen of all, Katharine." The happy correction occurred both to
Capell and to Walker.

P. 166. En baisant la main d'une votre indigne serviteur.—The old
text reads "d'une nostre Seigneur indignie serviteur."

P. 168. For they are all girdled with maiden walls that war hath
never enter'd. The old text lacks never, which was introduced by

-

Rowe. Capell and Collier's second folio insert not.