And I will die a hundred thousand deaths, K. HEN. A hundred thousand rebels die in this:Thou shalt have charge, and fovereign truft, herein. Enter BLUNT. How now, good Blunt? thy looks are full of speed. BLUNT. So hath the business that I come to speak of." Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath fent word,8- Shakspeare has the fame allufion in Macbeth: "Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond," &c. Again, in Cymbeline: "And cancel thefe cold bonds." STEEVENS. 7 So hath the business that I come to speak of.] So alfo the business that I come to fpeak of, hath speed; i. e. requires immediate attention and dispatch. Mr. Pope changed hath to is, and the alteration has been adopted, in my opinion unneceffarily, by the subsequent editors. MALONE. 8 Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath fent word,] There was no fuch perfon as lord Mortimer of Scotland; but there was a lord March of Scotland, (George Dunbar,) who having quitted his own country in difguft, attached himself fo warmly to the English, and did them fuch fignal fervices in their wars with Scotland, that the Parliament petitioned the King to bestow fome reward on him. He fought on the fide of Henry in this rebellion, and was the means of faving his life at the battle of Shrewsbury, as is related by Holinshed. This, no doubt, was the lord whom Shakspeare defigned to reprefent in the act of fending friendly intelligence to the King. Our author had a recollection that there was in these wars a Scottish lord on the King's fide, who bore the fame title with the English family, on the rebel fide, (one being the Earl of March in England, the other Earl of March in Scotland,) but his memory deceived him as to the particular name which was common to both. He took it to be Mortimer, instead of March. STEEVENS. If promises be kept on every hand, As ever offer'd foul play in a state. K. HEN. The earl of Weftmoreland fet forth today; With him my fon, lord John of Lancaster; Our business valued, fome twelve days hence [Exeunt. SCENE III. Eaftcheap. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern. Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH. FAL. Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely fince this laft action? do I not bate? do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's loofe gown; I am wither'd like an old apple-John. Well, 2 9 Advantage feeds him fat,] i. e. feeds himself. MALONE. So, in The Taming of a Shrew: 2 "Who, for twice feven years, hath esteemed him STEEVENS. my fkin hangs about me like an old lady's loofe gown;] Pope has in the Dunciad availed himfelf of this idea: "In a dun night-gown of his own loose skin." MALONE. I'll repent, and that fuddenly, while I am in fome liking;' I fhall be out of heart fhortly, and then I shall have no strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the infide of a church is made of, I am a pepper-corn, a brewer's horfe: the infide of a church: Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me. BARD. Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot live long. FAL. Why, there is it :-come, fing me a bawdy fong; make me merry. I was as virtuously given, as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough: fwore little; diced, not above seven times a week; went 3 while I am in fome liking;] While I have fome flesh, fome fubftance. We have had well-liking in the fame sense in a former play. MALONE. So, in the book of Job, xxxix. in good liking." STEEVENS. 4 -a brewer's horfe:] I fuppofe a brewer's horse was apt to be lean with hard work. JOHNSON. A brewer's horfe does not, perhaps, mean a dray-horfe, but the crofs-beam on which beer-barrels, are carried into cellars, &c. The allufion may be to the taper form of this machine. A brewer's horfe, however, is mentioned in Ariftippus, or The Jovial Philofopher, 1630: " to think Helicon a barrel of beer, is as great a fin as to call Pegafus a brewer's horfe." STEEVENS. The commentators feem not to be aware, that, in assertions of this fort, Falstaff does not mean to point out any fimilitude to his own condition, but on the contrary, fome ftriking diffimilitude. He fays here, I am a pepper-corn, a brewer's horfe; juft as in Act II. fc. iv. he afferts the truth of feveral parts of his narrative, on pain of being confidered as a rogue-a Jew-an Ebrew Jew-a bunch of raddish-a horfe, TYRWHITT. 3 the infide of a church:] The latter words (the infide of a church) were, I fufpect, repeated by the mistake of the compofitor. Or Falstaff may be here only repeating his former wordsThe infide of a church!-without any connection with the words immediately preceding. My firft conjecture appears to me the most probable. MALONE. to a bawdy-house, not above once in a quarter-of an hour; paid money that I borrow'd, three or four times; lived well, and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compafs. BARD. Why, you are fo fat, fir John, that you muft needs be out of all compafs; out of all reafonable compafs, fir John. FAL. Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life: Thou art our admiral,' thou beareft the lantern in the poop,-but 'tis in the nose of thee; thou art the knight of the burning lamp." BARD. Why, fir John, my face does you no harm. FAL. No, I'll be fworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a death's head, or a memento mori: I never fee thy face, but I think 5 up Thou art our admiral, &c.] Decker, in his Wonderful Yeare, 1603, has the fame thought. He is defcribing the Host of a country inn: An antiquary might have pickt rare matter out of his nofe.- -The Hamburgers offered I know not how many dollars for his companie in an Eaft-Indian voyage, to have floode a nightes in the Poope of their Admirall, onely to fave the charges of candles." STEEVENS. This appears to have been a very old joke. So, in A Dialogue both pleajaunt and pietifull, &c. by Wm. Bulleyne, 1564: " Marie, this friar, though he did rife to the quere by darcke night, he needed no candell, his nofe was fo redd and brighte; and although he had but little money in ftore in his purfe, yet his nofe and cheeks were well fet with curral and rubies." MALONE. 6the knight of the burning lamp.] This is a natural picture. Every man who feels in himfelf the pain of deformity, however, like this merry knight, he may affect to make sport with it among thofe whom it is his intereft to pleafe, is ready to revenge any hint of contempt upon one whom he can ufe with freedom. JOHNSON. The knight of the burning lamp, and the knight of the burning peftle, are both names invented with a defign to ridicule the titles of heroes in ancient romances. STEEVENS. on hell-fire, and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would fwear by thy face; my oath fhould be, By this fire:" but thou art altogether given over; and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the fon of utter darknefs. When thou ran'ft up Gads-hill in the night to catch my horfe, if I did not think thou hadft been an ignis fatuus, or a ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light! Thou haft faved me a thousand marks in links and torches, 8 7 By this fire:] Here the quartos 1599, and 1608, very profanely add :-that's God's angel. This paffage is perhaps alluded to in Hiftriomaftrix, 1610, where Afinius fays: "By this candle (which. is none of God's angels) I remember you ftarted back at sprite and flame." Mr. Henley, however obferves, that "by the extrufion of the words now omitted, the intended antithefis is loft." 8 Part III: STEEVENS. -thou art a perpetual triumph,] So, in King Henry VI. "And what now refts but that we spend the time A Triumph was a general term for any public exhibition, fuch as a royal marriage, a grand proceffion, &c. &c. which commonly being at night, were attended by multitudes of torch-bearers. STEEVENS. 9 Thou haft faved me a thousand marks &c.] This paffage ftands in need of no explanation; but I cannot help feizing the opportunity to mention that in Shakspeare's time, (long before the streets were illuminated with lamps,) candles and lanthorns to let, were cried about London. So, in Decker's Satiromaffix: " roar? thou haft a good rouncival voice to cry lantern and candle light." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, among the Cries of London: "Lanthorn and candlelight here, "Maid ha' light here. "Thus go the cries," &c. Again, in K. Edward IV. 1626: "No more calling of lanthorn and candlelight." doft |