Weft. It is a conqueft for a prince to boast of. In envy, that my lord Northumberland A fon who is the theme of honour's tongue; Of my young Harry. O that it could be prov'd, Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners, Weft. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all aspects; 2 Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up The creft of youth against your dignity. the prifoners,] Percy had an exclufive right to these prifoners, except the earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whofe redemption did not exceed ten thoufand crowns, had him clearly for himself, either to acquit or ranfom at his pleafure. It feems from Camden's Brit. that Pounouny-caftle in Scotland was built out of the ransom of this verv Henry Percy, when taken prifoner at the battle of Otterbourne by an ancestor of the prefent earl of Eglington. TOLLET. ] Doubtlefs ShakeAnd to this the Oxford Editor gives his 2 Which makes him PRUNE himself, fpeare wrote PLUME. fiat. WARBURTON. I am not fo confident as those two editors. The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride prunes himself; that is, picks off the loofe feathers to fmooth the rest. To prune and to plume, fpoken of a bird, is the fame. JOHNSON. K. Henry. K. Henry. But I have fent for him to answer this; Coufin, on Wednesday next our council we SCENE [Exeunt. II. An apartment of the prince's. Enter Henry prince of Wales and Sir John Falstaff. P. Henry. Thou art fo fat-witted with drinking old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches after noon, that thou haft forgotten 4 to demand that truly, which thou would't truly know. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houses, and the bleffed fun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata. I fee no reason why thou should'st be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal. For we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus, be, that wand'ring knight fo fair. And I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art kingas God fave thy grace (majefty, I fhould fay; for grace thou wilt have none) 3 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. 4 to demand that truly, which thou wouldst truly know.-] The prince's objection to the question feems to be, that Falstaff had asked in the night what was the time of day. JOHNSON. P. Henry. What! none? Fal. No, by my troth; not fo much as will ferve to be prologue to an egg and butter. P. Henry. Well, how then?-comeroundly. -roundly, Fal. Marry, then, fweet wag, when thou art king, 5 let not us, that are fquires of the night's body, be called thieves of the day's beauty. Let us be Diana's forefters, gentlemen of the fhade, minions of the moon: and let men fay, we be men of good government; being governed, as the fea is, by our noble and chafte miftrefs the moon, under whofe countenance wefteal. P. Henry. 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 governed as the fea is, by the moon. As for proof, now: a purse of gold moft refolutely fnatched on Monday night, and moft diffolutely fpent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing, lay by; and spent with crying, bring me. 5 In former editions, 6 let not us, that are Squires of the night's body, be called thieves of the day's beauty.] This conveys no manner of idea to How could they be called thieves of the day's beauty? They robbed by moonfhine; they could not fteal the fair daylight. 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 honeft labour and industry by day. THEOBALD. It is true, as Theobald has obferved, that they could not steal 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. STEEVENS. 6 -got with fwearing, lay by ;] i. e. Swearing at the paffengers they robbed, lay by your arms; or rather, lay by was a phrase that then fignified ftand fill, addreffed to thofe who were preparing to rush forward. But the Oxford Editor kindly accommodates thefe old thieves with a new cant phrafe, taken from Bagfhot-heath or Finchly-common, of LUG OUT, WARB. 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'st true, lad. 7 And is not mine hoftefs of the tavern a moft fweet wench? P. Henry. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the And is not mine hoftefs of the tavern, &c.] We meet with the fame kind of humour, as is contained in this and the three following speeches, in the Moftellaria of Plautus, act. 1. fc. 2. Philematium. "Jampridem ecaftor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter, "Nec unde me melius, mea Scapha, rear effe defœcatam." Sca." Eventus rebus omnibus, velut horno meffis magna fuit.” Phi." Quid ea mellis attinet ad meam lavationem ?" Sca." Nihilo plus, quam lavatio tua ad meflim.” In the want of connection to what went before, probably confifts the humour of the prince's queftion. STEEVENS. As the boney of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle;] Mr. Rowe took notice of a tradition, that this part of Faltaff 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 castle feems to have a reference to Oldcastle. Besides, if this had not been the fact, why, in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. where our author promiles to continue his ftory with Sir John in it, fhould he fay, Where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a fweat, unlefs 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 bonourable 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 Oldcastle is one of the gang, and called Jockie; and Ned and Gadhill are two other comrades. From this old imperfect sketch, I have a fufpicion, Shakefpeare might form his two parts of Henry the Fourth, and his history of Henry the Fifth; and confequently it is not improbable, that he might continue the mention of Sir John Old P 4 caille, the castle; 9 and is not a buff-jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? Fal. cafile, till feme defcendants of that family moved queen Elizabeth to command him to change the name. THEOBALD. my old lad of the cafile;] This alludes to the name Shakespeare first gave to this buffoon character, which was Sir John Oldcastle; and when he changed the name he forgot to frike out this expreffion that alluded to it. The reafon of the change was this; one Sir John Oldcastle having fuffered in the time of Henry the Fifth for the opinions of Wickliffe, it gave offence, and therefore the poet altered it to Falftaff, and endeavours to remove the fcandal in the epilogue to The Second Part of Henry IV. Fuller takes notice of this matter in his Church Hiftory- Stage-poets have themselves been very bold with, "and others very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, "whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royster, "and a coward to boot. The best is, Sir John Falstaff hath "relieved the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, and of late is fubftituted buffoon in his place." Book 4. p. 168. But, to be candid, I believe there was no malice in the matter. Shakefpeare wanted a droll name to his character, and never confidered whom it belonged to: we have a like inftance in The merry Wives of Windfor, where he calls his French quack, Caius, a name at that time very refpectable, as belonging to an eminent and learned phyfician, one of the founders of Caius College in Cambridge. WARBURTON. The propriety of this note the reader will find contested at the beginning of Henry V. Sir John Oldcastle was not a character ever introduced by Shakespeare, nor did he ever occupy the place of Falltaff. The play in which Oldcastle's name occurs was not the work of our poet. STEEVENS. 9 and is not a buff-jerkin a moft fweet robe of durance ?] To understand the propriety of the prince's anfwer, it must be remarked that the fheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff afks, whether his hoftefs is not a fweet wench, the prince afks in return, whether it will not be a fweet thing to go to prifon by running in debt to this fweet wench. JOHNSON. The following paflage, from the old play of Ram-Alley, may ferve to confirm Dr. Johnfon's obfervation: "Look I have certain goblins in buff-jerkins, So in The Comedy of Errors, act 4. "A devil in an everlasting garment hath him. "A fellow all in buff." In Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webster, 1607, I meet with 2 a paffage |