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POINS. O, Glendower.

FAL. Owen, Owen; the fame;-and his fon-inlaw, Mortimer; and old Northumberland; and that fprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o'horseback up a hill perpendicular.

P. HEN. He that rides at high speed, and with his pistol kills a fparrow flying.

that no man prefume to wear any weapons, especially elb-books and foreft-bills."

Again, in Weftward Hoe, by Deckar and Webster, 1607: it will be as good as a Welsh-hook for you, to keep out the other at ftaves-end.'

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Again, in The Infatiate Countefs, by Marfton, 1613:

"The ancient books of great Cadwallader."

"The Welsh Glaive," (which I take to be the fame weapon under another name,) fays Captain Grofe in his Treatife on ancient Armour, "is a kind of bill, fometimes reckoned among the poleaxes;" a variety perhaps of the fecuris falcata, or probably refembling the Lochaber axe, which was used in the late rebellion. Colonel Gardner was attacked with fuch a one at the battle of Preftonpans. See the reprefentation of an ancient watchman, with a bill on his shoulder, Vol. IV. p. 478. STEEVENS.

The Welsh book, I believe, was pointed, like a fpear, to push or thruft with; and below had a hook to feize on the enemy if he fhould attempt to efcape by flight. I take my ideas from a paffage in Butler's Character of a Justice of the Peace, whom the witty author thus defcribes: "His whole authority is like a Welsh book; for his warrant is a puller to her, and his mittimus a thruster from her." Remains, Vol. II. p. 192. WHALLEY.

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Minfheu in his Dict. 1617, explains a Welsh hook thus: morum genus eft are in falcis modum incurvato, pertice longiffime præfixo. Cotgrave calls it "a long hedging-bill, about the length of a partifan." See alfo Florio's Italian Dict. 1598: Falcione. A bending forreft bill, or Welfh hook.—

"Pennati. Hedge-bills, foreft bills, Welsh books, or weeding hooks." MALONE.

S -piftol] Shakspeare never has any care to preferve the manners of the time. Piftols were not known in the age of Henry. Piftols were, I believe, about our author's time, eminently used by the Scots. Sir Henry Wotton fomewhere makes mention of a Scottish piftol. JOHNSON.

FAL. You have hit it.

P. HEN. So did he never the sparrow.

FAL. Well, that rafcal hath good mettle in him; he will not run.

P. HEN. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him fo for running?

FAL. O'horfeback, ye cuckoo! but, afoot, he will not budge a foot.

P. HEN. Yes, Jack, upon instinct.

FAL. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps more: Worcester is ftolen away to-night; thy father's beard is turned white with the news; you may buy land now as cheap as ftinking mackarel.

Beaumont and Fletcher are ftill more inexcufable. In The Humourous Lieutenant, they have equipped one of the immediate fucceffors of Alexander the Great, with the fame weapon.

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STEEVENS. blue-caps-] A name of ridicule given to the Scots from their blue-bonnets. JOHNSON.

There is an old ballad called Blew Cap for me, or "A Scottish lafs her refolute chusing;

"Shee'll have bonny blew cap all other refufing."

STEEVENS.

7 thy father's beard is turned white with the news;] I think Montaigne mentions a perfon condemned to death, whofe hair turned grey in one night. TOLLET.

Nathe, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596, fays: looke and you fhall find a grey haire for everie line I have writ against him; and you fhall have all his beard white too, by the time he hath read over this book." The reader may find more examples of the fame phænomenon in Grimefton's tranflation of Goulart's Memorable Hiftories. STEEVENS.

8 -you may buy land, &c.] In former times the profperity of the nation was known by the value of land, as now by the price of ftocks. Before Henry the Seventh made it fafe to ferve the King regnant, it was the practice at every revolution, for the conqueror to confifcate the eftates of thofe that oppofed, and perhaps of those who did not affist him. Thofe, therefore, that forefaw the change

P. HEN. Why then, 'tis like, if there come a hot June, and this civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy hob-nails, by the hundreds.

FAL. By the mafs, lad, thou fay'ft true; it is like, we shall have good trading that way.-But, tell me, Hal, art thou not horribly afeard? thou being heir apparent, could the world pick thee out three fuch enemies again, as that fiend Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art thou not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at it?

P. HEN. Not a whit, i'faith; I lack fome of thy instinct.

FAL. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow, when thou comeft to thy father: if thou love me, practise an answer.

P. HEN. Do thou ftand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life."

FAL. Shall I? content:-This chair fhall be my ftate,' this dagger my scepter, and this cushion my

crown.'

of government, and thought their eftates in danger, were defirous to fell them in hafte for fomething that might be carried away.

JOHNSON.

9 Do thou ftand for my father, and examine me upon the particulars of my life.] In the old anonymous play of Henry V. the fame ftrain of humour is difcoverable:

"Thou shalt be my lord chief justice, and shall fit in the chair, and I'll be the young prince and hit thee a box on the ear," &c. STEEVENS.

This chair fhall be my ftate,] A ftate is a chair with a canopy over it. So, in Macbeth:

"Our hoftefs keeps her state."

See alfo Vol. IV. p. 84, n. 7.

This, as well as a following paffage, was perhaps defigned to ridicule the mock majefty of Cambyfes, the hero of a play which appears from Deckar's Gul's Hornbook, 1609, to have been exhibited with fome degree of theatrical pomp. Deckar is ridiculing

P. HEN. Thy state is taken for a joint-ftool, thy golden fcepter for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown, for a pitiful bald crown!*

FAL. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now fhalt thou be moved.-Give me a cup of fack, to make mine eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in paffion, and I will do it in king Cambyfes'' vein. P. HEN. Well, here is my leg."

FAL. And here is my fpeech:-Stand afide, nobility.

the impertinence of young gallants who fat or ftood on the ftage; "on the very ruthes where the commedy is to daunce, yea and under the state of Cambifes bimfelfe." STEEVENS.

3 this cushion my crown.] Dr. Letherland, in a MS. note, obferves that the country people in Warwickshire use a cushion for a crown, at their harvest-home diverfions; and in the play of King Edward IV. P. 2. 1619, is the following paffage:

"Then comes a flave, one of thofe drunken fots,
"In with a tavern reck'ning for a fupplication.

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Disguised with a cushion on his head." STEEVENS.

4 Thy ftate &c.] This anfwer might, I think, have better been omitted: it contains only a repetition of Falftaff's mock-royalty. JOHNSON. This is an apoftrophe of the Prince to his absent father, not an anfwer to Falstaff. FARMER.

Rather a ludicrous description of Falftaff's mock regalia.

RITSON.

king Cambyfes'] The banter is here upon a play called, A lamentable tragedie, mixed full of plefant mirth, containing the life of Cambifes king of Perfia. By Thomas Prefton. [1570.]

THEOBALD.

I queftion if Shakspeare had ever feen this tragedy; for there is a remarkable peculiarity of meafure, which, when he profeffed to fpeak in king Cambyfes' vein, he would hardly have miffed, if he had known it. JOHNSON.

There is a marginal direction in the old play of King Cambifes: "At this tale tolde, let the queen weep;" which I fancy is alluded to, though the measure is not preferved. FARMER.

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my leg.] That is, my obeifance to my father. JOHNSON.

Host. This is excellent sport, i'faith.

FAL. Weep not, fweet queen, for trickling tears are vain.

Host. O the father, how he holds his countenance!

FAL. For God's fake, lords, convey my triftful queen,'

For tears do ftop the flood-gates of her eyes.

HOST. O rare! he doth it as like one of thefe harlotry players," as I ever fee.

FAL. Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good ticklebrain. Harry, I do not only marvel where thou fpendeft thy time, but also how thou art accompanied: for though the camomile,' the more it

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-my triftful queen,] Old copies-trustful. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. The word triftful is again ufed in Hamlet. MALONE. the flood-gates of her eyes.] This paffage is probably a burlefque on the following in Prefton's Cambyfes:

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Queen. Thefe words to hear makes filling teares iffue from chryftall eyes."

Perhaps, fays Dr. Farmer, we fhould read-do ope the floodgates, &c. STEEVENS.

The allufion may be to the following paffage in Soliman and Perfeda:

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"How can mine eyes dart forth a pleasant look,

"When they are ftop'd with floods of flowing tears?" RITSON. -harlotry players,] This word is ufed in The Plowman's Tale: "Soche harlotre men," &c. Again, in P. P. fol. 27: “I had lever hear an barlotry, or a fomer's game." Junius explains the word by " inhonefta paupertinæ fortis fœditas."

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STEEVENS.

tickle-brain.] This appears to have been the nick name of fome ftrong liquor. So, in A new Trick to cheat the Devil, 1636: "A cup of Nipfitate brifk and neat,

"The drawers call it tickle-brain."

In The Antipodes, 1640, fettle-brain is mentioned as another potation. STEEVENS.

3 - though the camomile, &c.] This whole fpeech is fupremely comic. The fimile of camomile used to illuftrate a contrary effect,

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