and you took it like a sensible lord. I have checked him for it, and the young lion repents; marry, not in ashes, and sackcloth, but in new silk, and old sack. Ch. Just. Well, God send the prince a better companion! Fal. God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him. Ch. Just. Well, the king hath severed you and prince Harry". I hear, you are going with lord John of Lancaster against the archbishop, and the earl of Northumberland. Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kiss my lady peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day; for, by the Lord, I take but two shirts' out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily if it be a hot day, and I brandish any thing but my bottle, I would I might never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it: well, I cannot last ever. [But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. If you will needs say I am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God, my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is I were better to be eaten to death with rust, than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion'.] Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; and God bless your expedition. 6 and prince Harry :] These words are only in the folio: they are not absolutely necessary. 7 - I take but two shirts-] The folio inserts if before "I take." 8 - I would I might never SPIT WHITE again.] Steevens thus explains this expression :-"May I never have my stomach inflamed again with liquor; for, to spit white is the consequence of inward heat." It may however be doubted, whether Falstaff would wish to "spit white," that being the result of disease; and the expression may merely have reference to his exertions and wounds in the expected conflict, which might compel him to spit blood. 9-than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.] The passage within brackets, ending with these words, is not in the folio. Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth? Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny: you are too impatient to bear crosses'. Fare you well: commend me to my cousin Westmoreland. [Exeunt Chief Justice and Attendant. Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle2. A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young limbs and lechery; but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other, and so both the degrees prevent my curses3.-Boy! Page. Sir? Fal. What money is in my purse? Page. Seven groats and two-pence. Fal. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.-Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and this to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair of my chin'. About it: you know where to find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my great toe. "Tis no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more reasonable. A good wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity. [Exit. 1 -you are too impatient to bear CROSSES.] We have had the same pun in "Love's Labour's Lost," Vol. ii. p. 94. Crosses were pieces of money. 2 If I do, fillip me with a THREE-MAN BEETLE.] A beetle is a large wooden mallet, and "a three-man beetle" is a beetle with three handles, so heavy that it required three men to use it. 3 both the degrees PREVENT my curses.] i. e. come before, or anticipate my curses. Pope uses the word in this sense, and it was its most usual meaning of old. 4 since I perceived the first white hair or my chin.] "Of" was frequently used for on in the time of Shakespeare. The quarto, 1600, has " of," and the folio, 1623, on. See Vol. iii. pp. 165. 196. 267. 384. In "Twelfth Night," Vol. iii. p. 352, we have "on" used for of in the line, "And I, poor monster, fond as much on him." SCENE III. York. A Room in the Archbishop's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of YORK, the Lords HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, Earl Marshal, and BARDOLPH. Arch. Thus have you heard our cause, and known our means; And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms; Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file Bard. The question then, lord Hastings, standeth thus: Whether our present five and twenty thousand May hold up head without Northumberland. Hast. With him, we may. Bard. Ay, marry, there's the point: But if without him we be thought too feeble, My judgment is, we should not step too far, Of aids incertain should not be admitted'. Of aids incertain should not be admitted.] This and the three preceding lines are only in the folio. Arch. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury. Bard. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the air on promise of supply", Flattering himself with project of a power Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts; And so, with great imagination, Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, Hast. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, We see th' appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model, And, when we see the figure of the house, What do we then, but draw anew the model In fewer offices, or, at least, desist To build at all? Much more, in this great work, The plot of situation, and the model; Question surveyors, know our own estate, To weigh against his opposite; or else, 6 Eating the air on promise of supply,] The quarto, 1600, reads and for 66 Ion," which last, from the folio, seems preferable. In the next line, the quarto has in, and the folio "with." 7 Yes, if this present quality of war,] This and the nineteen lines following are only to be found in the folio. Using the names of men, instead of men: Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, A naked subject to the weeping clouds, Hast. Grant, that our hopes, yet likely of fair birth, I think we are a body strong enough, Even as we are, to equal with the king. Bard. What is the king but five-and-twenty thousand? Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bardolph. For his divisions, as the times do brawl, Are in three heads': one power against the French, In three divided, and his coffers sound With hollow poverty and emptiness. Arch. That he should draw his several strengths together, And come against us in full puissance, Need not be dreaded. Hast. If he should do so, He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither? I think we are a body strong enough,] The quarto has so for "a," an error of the press. Possibly the line originally ran thus : "I think we 're so a body strong enough." 9 ARE in three heads :] The quarto, 1600, “ And in three heads." - 1 never fear that.] This speech is given in the folio as we have printed it. As Capel observed, there is an omission of a preposition in the quarto, to having probably dropped out with that deficiency supplied, it runs intelligibly thus in prose, although meant for verse :-" If he should do so, [to] French and Welsh he leaves his back unarmed, they baying him at the heels: never fear that." |