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nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields. "How now, Sir John!" quoth I: "what, man! be o' good cheer." So a' cried out "God, God, God!" three or four times. Now I, to comfort him, bid him a' should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble 20 himself with any such thoughts yet. So a' bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and they were as cold as any stone, and so upward and upward, and all was as cold as any stone. NYм. They say he cried out of sack.

HOST. Ay, that a' did.

BARD. And of women.

HOST. Nay, that a' did not.

Boy. Yes, that a' did; and said they were devils in

carnate.

HOST. A' could never abide carnation; 't was a colour he never liked.

Boy. A' said once, the devil would have him about

women.

HOST. A' did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then he was rheumatic, and talked of the whore of Babylon.

16-17 and a' babbled of green fields] Theobald's famous emendation (suggested by an anonymous acquaintance) of the Folio unintelligible reading and a Table of greene fields. The words do not appear in the Quarto. But the Quarto text reads above in line 14 talk of flowers for the Folio reading play with flowers, an expression which supports Theobald's change.

27 cried out of exclaimed against.

38 rheumatic] blunder for "lunatic."

30

Boy. Do you not remember, a' saw a flea stick upon 40 Bardolph's nose, and a' said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?

BARD. Well, the fuel is gone that maintained that fire: that's all the riches I got in his service.

NYм. Shall we shog? the king will be gone from Southampton.

PIST. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips.
Look to my chattels and my movables:

Let senses rule; the word is "Pitch and Pay:"
Trust none;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes,
And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck:

Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor.

Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,

Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,

To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!

Boy. And that's but unwholesome food, they say.
PIST. Touch her soft mouth, and march.

BARD. Farewell, hostess.

[Kissing her.

50

NYM. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but, 60 adieu.

PIST. Let housewifery appear: keep close, I thee command.

HOST. Farewell; adieu.

45 shog] be off. Cf. II, i, 43, supra.

[Exeunt.

49 "Pitch and Pay"] a colloquial phrase for "pay ready money." 52 hold-fast... dog] Cf. the old proverb "Brag is a good dog, but

holdfast a better."

54 clear thy crystals] dry thine eyes.

62 keep close] keep at home.

SCENE IV-FRANCE

THE KING'S PALACE

Flourish. Enter the FRENCH KING, the DAUPHIN, the DUKES of BERRI and BRETAGNE, the CONSTABLE, and others

FR. KING. Thus comes the English with full power

upon us;

And more than carefully it us concerns
To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne,
Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch,
To line and new repair our towns of war
With men of courage and with means defendant;
For England his approaches makes as fierce
As waters to the sucking of a gulf.

It fits us then to be as provident

As fear may teach us out of late examples
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

DAU.

My most redoubted father, It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe;

2 more than carefully] with more than common care. 7 line] support, strengthen.

10 As waters gulf] As waters drawn to a whirlpool.

...

13 the fatal and neglected English] the English whom we have fatally

neglected, neglected to our ruin.

10

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
But that defences, musters, preparations,

Should be maintain'd, assembled and collected,

As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say 't is meet we all go forth
To view the sick and feeble parts of France:
And let us do it with no show of fear;

No, with no more than if we heard that England
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,
Her sceptre so fantastically borne

By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

CON.
O peace, Prince Dauphin!
You are too much mistaken in this king:
Question your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state he heard their embassy,
How well supplied with noble counsellors,
How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in constant resolution,

And shall find his vanities forespent

you

Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,
Covering discretion with a coat of folly;

16 so dull] render so callous.

25 Whitsun morris-dance] An ancient dance associated with Whitsuntide festivities. The dancers performed in grotesque costume.

28 humorous] capricious, frolicsome.

34 modest in exception] diffident in expressions of dissent.

37-38 Brutus . . . folly] Lucius Junius Brutus, the founder of Republican Rome, according to Livy, by feigning idiocy escaped ruin at

20

80

As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots
That shall first spring and be most delicate.

DAU. Well, 't is not so, my lord high constable;
But though we think it so, it is no matter:
In cases of defence 't is best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems:
So the proportions of defence are fill'd;
Which of a weak and niggardly projection
Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting
A little cloth.

FR. KING. Think we King Harry strong;
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;
And he is bred out of that bloody strain
That haunted us in our familiar paths:
Witness our too much memorable shame
When Cressy battle fatally was struck,
And all our princes captived by the hand

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;

the hands of his foe, King Tarquinius Superbus, whose rule he ultimately brought to an end. According to Shakespeare's Lucrece, 1812-1814, L. Junius Brutus, when he was conspiring against Tarquin," with the Romans was esteemed so, As silly-jeering idiots are with kings, For sportive words and uttering foolish things." 45 the proportions] the appropriate needs.

46 Which... projection] the provision of which on a weak and niggardly plan. This clause forms the subject of "doth spoil" in the next line.

50 The kindred

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upon us] His family gained its first military experience in conflict with us. A hound was said to be "fleshed," when it first tasted blood in the chase. Cf. III, iii, 11, infra.

54 Cressy battle] Cf. I, ii, 106, supra.

40

50

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