Which he in this adventure hath surpriz❜d, WEST. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcefter, Malevolent to you in all afpécts; * 2 Which makes him prune himself,3 and bristle up The creft of youth against your dignity. K. HEN. But I have fent for him to answer this; Coufin, on Wednesday next our council we WEST. I will, my liege. [Exeunt. 2 Malevolent to you in all aspects;] An aftrological allufion. Worcester is reprefented as a malignant ftar that influenced the conduct of Hotspur. HENLEY. 3 Which makes him prune himself,] The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride prunes himself; that is, picks off the loose feathers to fmooth the reft. To prune and to plume, spoken of a bird, is the fame. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon is certainly right in his choice of the reading. So, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "Sith now thou dost but prune thy wings, "And make thy feathers gay." Again, in Green's Metamorphofis, 1613: "Pride makes the fowl to prune his feathers fo." But I am not certain that the verb to prune is justly interpreted. In The Booke of Haukynge, &c. (commonly called The Booke of St. Albans) is the following account of it: "The hauke proineth when the fetcheth oyle with her beake over the taile, and anointeth her feet and her fethers. She plumeth when the pulleth fethers of anie foule and cafteth them from her." STEEVENS. 4 Than out of anger can be uttered.] That is, " More is to be faid than anger will fuffer me to fay: more than can issue from a mind difturbed like mine." JOHNSON. The fame. Another Room in the Palace. Enter HENRY, Prince of Wales, and FALSTAFF. FAL. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? P. HEN. Thou art fo fat-witted, with drinking of old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches after noon, that thou haft forgotten to demand that truly which thou would'st truly know. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? unlefs hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houfes, and the bleffed fun himself a fair hot wench in flamecolour'd taffata; I see no reason, why thou should'st be fo fuperfluous to demand the time of the day. FAL. Indeed, you come near me, now Hal: for we, that take purfes, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus,-he, that wandering knight fo fair. And, I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art to demand that truly which thou would'ft truly know.] The Prince's objection to the queftion feems to be, that Falstaff had afked in the night what was the time of the day. JOHNSON. This cannot be well received as the objection of the Prince; for prefently after, the Prince himself says: "Good morrow, Ned," and Poins replies: "Good morrow, fweet lad." The truth may be, that when Shakspeare makes the Prince with Poins a good morrow, he had forgot that the scene commenced at night. STEEVENS. 6 Phœbus,-he, that wandering knight fo fair.] Falstaff starts the idea of Phabus, i. e. the fun; but deviates into an allufion to El Donzel del Febo, the knight of the fun in a Spanish romance tranflated (under the title of The Mirror of Knighthood, &c.) during the age of Shakspeare. This illuftrious perfonage was "moft excellently faire," and a great wanderer, as thofe who travel after him throughout three thick volumes in 4to. will difcover. Perhaps the words "that wandering knight fo fair," are part of fome for I king, as, God fave thy grace, (majefty, I fhouldfay; for grace thou wilt have none,) P. HEN. What! none? FAL. No, by my troth; not so much as will ferve to be prologue to an egg and butter. P. HEN. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. FAL. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us, that are fquires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's beauty; let us be-Diana's forefters, gentlemen of the fhade, gotten ballad on the subject of this marvellous hero's adventures. In Peele's Old Wives Tale, Com. 1595, Eumenides, the wandering knight, is a character. STEEVENS. 7 let not us, that are Squires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's beauty;] This conveys no manner of idea to me. How could they be called thieves of the day's beauty? They robbed by moonshine; they could not fteal the fair day-light. I have ventured to fubftitute booty: and this I take to be the meaning. Let us not be called thieves, the purloiners of that booty, which, to the proprietors, was the purchase of honest labour and industry by day. THEOBALD. It is true, as Mr. Theobald has obferved, that they could not fteal the fair day-light; but I believe our poet by the expreffion, thieves of the day's beauty, meant only, let not us who are body fquires to the night, i. e. adorn the night, be called a difgrace to the day. To take away the beauty of the day, may probably mean, to difgrace it. Afquire of the body fignified originally, the attendant on a knight; the perfon who bore his head-piece, fpear, and shield. It became afterwards the cant term for a pimp; and is so used in the fecond part of Decker's Honeft Whore, 1630. Again, in The Witty Fair One, 1633, for a procurefs: "Here comes the Squire of her mistress's body.' Falstaff however puns on the word knight. See the Curialia of Samuel Pegge, Efq. Part I. p. 100. STEEVENS. There is alfo, I have no doubt, a pun on the word beauty, which in the western counties is pronounced nearly in the fame manner as booty. See K. Henry VI. Part III: So triumph thieves upon their conquer'd booty." MALONE. 8 Diana's forefters, &c.] "Exile and flander are juftly mee awarded, 66 My wife and heire lacke lands and lawful right; "And me their lord made dame Diana's knight.” minions of the moon: And let men say, we be men of good government; being govern'd as the fea is, by our noble and chafte mistress the moon, under whose countenance we-fteal. P. HEN. Thou fay'ft well; and it holds well too: for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the fea; being govern'd as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: A purse of gold most resolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and moft diffolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing-lay by; and spent with crying-bring in: now, in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and, by and by, in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows. FAL. By the Lord, thou fay'ft true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a moft fweet wench?' So lamenteth Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk, in The Mirror for Magiftrates. HENDERSON. We learn from Hall, that certain perfons who appeared as forefters in a pageant exhibited in the reign of King Henry VIII. were called Diana's knights. MALONE. 9 got with fwearing-lay by ;] i. e. fwearing at the pasfengers they robbed, lay by your arms; or rather, lay by was a phrafe that then fignified ftand ftill, addreffed to thofe who were preparing to rush forward. But the Oxford editor kindly accommodates thefe old thieves with a new cant phrase, taken from Bagfhot-heath or Finchley-common, of lug out. WARBURTON. To lay by, is a phrafe adopted from navigation, and fignifies, by flackening fail to become stationary. It occurs again in King Henry VIII: "Even the billows of the fea 2 3 66 Hung their heads, and then lay by." STEEVENS. and spent with crying, bring in:] i. e. more wine. MALONE. And is not my hoftefs of the tavern &c.] We meet with the fame kind of humour as is contained in this and the three following fpeeches, in The Moftellaria of Plautus, Act I. fc. ii: Jampridem ecaftor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter, "Nec unde me melius, mea Scapha, rear effe defœcatam. .. P. HEN. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?' the castle. Sca." Eventus rebus omnibus, velut horno meffis magna fuit. Phi. " Quid ea meffis attinet ad meam lavationem? Sca. "Nihilo plus, quam lavatio tua ad meffim." In the want of connection to what went before, probably consists the humour of the Prince's queftion. STEEVENS. This kind of humour is often met with in old plays. In The Gallathea of Lyly, Phillida fays: "It is a pittie that nature framed you not a woman. "Gall. There is a tree in Tylos, &c. "Phill. What a toy it is to tell me of that tree, being nothing to the purpose," &c. Ben Jonfon calls it a game at vapours. FARMER. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle.] Mr. Rowe took notice of a tradition, that this part of Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle. An ingenious correfpondent hints to me, that the paffage above quoted from our author, proves what Mr. Rowe tells us was a tradition. Old lad of the caftle feems to have a reference to Oldcastle. Befides, if this had not been the fact, why, in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. where our author promifes to continue his ftory with Sir John in it, fhould he fay, "Where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a fweat, unless already he be killed with your hard opinions for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man." This looks like declining a point that had been made an objection to him. I'll give a farther matter in proof, which feems almost to fix the charge. I have read an old play, called, The famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, containing the honourable battle of Agincourt.- -The action of this piece commences about the 14th year of K. Henry the Fourth's reign, and ends with Henry the Fifth's marrying Princefs Catharine of France. The fcene opens with Prince Henry's robberies. Sir John Oldcaftle is one of the gang, and called Jockie; and Ned and Gadfhill are two other comrades. From this old imperfect sketch, I have a fufpicion, Shakfpeare might form his two parts of Henry IV. and his hiftory of Henry V.; and confequently it is not improbable, that he might continue the mention of Sir John Oldcastle, till fome defcendant of that family moved Queen Elizabeth to command him to change the name. THEOBALD. my old lad of the caftle.] This alludes to the name Shakfpeare first gave to this buffoon character, which was Sir John Öldcastle; and when he changed the name he forgot to strike out |
