thou clay-brain'd guts, thou knotty-pated fool; thou whorfon obfcene greafy 3 tallow-catch Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth, the truth? P. Lenry, Why, how could'ft thou know thefe men in Kendal green, when it was fo dark, thou could'st not fee thy hand? come, tell us your reason. What fay'st thou to this? Peins. Come, your reafon, Jack, your reason. Fal. What, upon compulfion? No; were I at the ftrappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulfion. Give you a reafon on compulfion! if reafons were as plenty as black-berries, I would give no man a reafon upon compulfion,-I! P. Henry, I'll be no longer guilty of this fin.-This fanguine coward, this bed-preffer, this horfe-backbreaker, this huge hill of flesh,———— Fal. Away, 4 you ftarveling, you elf-skin, you dry'd neats tongue, bull's pizzle, you ftock-fish-O for breath to utter what is like thee!-You taylor's 3 tallory-catch-] This word is in all editions, but having no meaning, cannot be underfood. In fome parts of the kingdom, a cake or mufs of wax or tallow, is called a keech, which is doubtlefs the word intended here, unless we read tallow-ketch, that is, tub of tallow. JOHNSON. -tallow-ketch-] May mean a fhip loaded with tallow. In Henry VIII. Shakespeare ufes the word ketch for a veffel: "That fuch a ketch can with his very bulk "Take up the rays of the beneficial fun." We fill fay a bomb-ketch for a veffel loaded with the implements of bombardment. STEEVENS. 4 - you farveling, you elf-fkin,-] For elf-kin Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read eel-fkin. The true reading, I believe, is elf-kin, or little fairy: for though the Baftard in King John compares his brother's two legs to two eel-fkins ftuff'd, yet an eel-fkin fimply bears no great refemblance to a man. JOHNSON. you farveling, &c.] Shakespeare had historical authority for the leannefs of the prince of Wales. Stowe, fpeaking of him, fays, "he exceeded the mean stature of men, his "neck long, body flender and lean, and his bones small," &c. STEEVENS. yard, yard, you fheath, you bow-cafe, you vile standing tuck. P. Henry. Well, breathe a while, and then to't again and when thou haft tir'd thyself in base comparifons, hear me speak but this. Poins. Mark, Jack. P. Henry. We two faw you four set on four; you bound them, and were mafters of their wealth. Mark now, how a plain tale fhall put you down.Then did we two fet on you four; and, with a word, out-fac'd you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can fhew it you here in the house. And, Falftaff, you carry'd your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roar'd for mercy, and still ran and roar'd, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a flave art thou, to hack thy fword as thou haft done, and then fay it was in fight! What trick? what device? what starting hole, canft thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack: what trick haft thou now? Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye, my mafters: Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knoweft I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince. Inftinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself, and thee, during my life; I, for a valiant lion, and thou, for a true prince. But, by the lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to the doors; watch to-night, pray to-morrow.-Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, fhall we be merry? fhall we have a play extempore? P. Henry. Content:-and the argument shall be thy running away. me. Fal. Ah!-no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest Enter Enter Hoftefs. Hoft. My lord the prince! P. Henry. How now, my lady the hoftefs? what fay'ft thou to me? Hoft. Marry, my lord, 5 there is a nobleman of the court at door, would speak with you: he fays, he comes from your father. P. Henry. 5 Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and fend him back again to my mother. Fal. What manner of man is he? Hoft. An old man. Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give him his answer? P. Henry. Pr'ythee do, Jack. Fal. Faith, and I'll fend him packing. [Exit. P. Henry. Now, Sirs, by'r lady, you fought fair fo did you, Peto; fo did you, Bardolph: you are lions too; you ran away upon inftinct; you will not touch the true prince; no,-Fie! Bard. 'Faith, I ran when I saw others run. P. Henry. Tell me now in earnest; how came Falftaff's fword fo hack'd? Peto. Why, he hack'd it with his dagger; and faid, he would fwear truth out of England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and perfuaded us to do the like. Bard. Yea, and to tickle our noses with fpear-grafs, to make them bleed; and then beslubber our garments with it, and swear it was the blood of true men. I there is a nobleman—Give him as much as will make him a royal man,-] I believe here is a kind of jeft intended. He that received a noble was, in cant language, called a nobleman: in this fenfe the prince catches the word, and bids the landlady give him as much as will make him a royal man, that is, a real or royal man, and send him away. JOHNSON. 6 the blood of true men.] That is, of the men with whom they fought, of honeft men, oppofed to thieves. JOHNS. did that I did not do thefe feven years before, I blush'd to hear his monftrous devices. P. Henry. O villain, thou ftoleft a cup of fack eighteen years ago, and wert 7 taken with the manner, and ever fince thou haft blufh'd extempore. Thou hadst 8 fire and fword on thy fide, and yet thou rannest away; what inftinct hadft thou for it? Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold thefe exhalations? P. Henry. I do. Bard. What think you they portend? Re-enter Falstaff. Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How now, my fweet creature of bombaft? How long is't ago, Jack, fince thou faw'ft thy own knee? 7 Fal. taken in the manner, -] The quarto and folio read with the manner, which is right. Taken with the manner is a law phrase, and then in common ufe, to fignify taken in the fact. But the Oxford Editor alters it, for better fecurity of the fenfe, to i. e. I fuppofe, by the lord of it, as a tray. WARBURTON. -taken in the MANOR. The expreffion-taken in the manner, or with the manner, is common to many of our old dramatic writers. So in B. and Fletcher's Rule a Wife and have a Wife, "How like a theep-biting rogue, taken in the manner, STEEVENS. Thou hadst fire and fword, &c.] The fire was in his face. A red face is termed a fiery face. While I affirm a fiery face Legend of Capt. Jones. JOHNSON. 9 Hot livers and cold purfes.] That is, drunkenness and poverty. To drink was, in the language of thofe times, to beat the liver. JOHNSON. bombaft Is the ftuffing of cloaths. JOHNSON. Stubbs, in his Anatomie of Abujes, 1595, obferves, that in his time the doublettes were fo hard quilted, fluffed, bem 66 bafted, Fal. My own knee! When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waift; I could 2 have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring. A plague on fighing and grief! it blows up a man like a bladder. There's villainous news abroad; here was Sir John Braby from your father; you must go to the court in the morning. That fame mad fellow of the north, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave Amaimon the baftinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and fwore the devil his true liegeman 3 upon the cross of a Welsh hook what a plague call you him Poins. O, Glendower. Fal. Owen, Owen; the fame; and his fon-in-law Mortimer, and old Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs a horfcback up a hill perpendicular. "bafted, and fewed, as they could neither worke, nor yet well play in them." And again, in the fame chapter, he adds, that they were" ftuffed with foure, five, or fixe pound of bom"baft at least." Bombaft is cotton. STEEVENS. 2 I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring.] Ariftophanes has the fame thought, 3 Διὰ δακτυλία μὲν ἂν ἐμέ γ ̓ ἂν διελκύσαις, Plutus, v. 1037. upon the cross of a Welsh book:] A Weljh book appears to have been fome inftrument of the offenfive kind. It is mentioned in the play of Sir John Oldcastle, 66 that no man prefume to wear any weapons, efpecially welb-books and forest-bills." Again, in Weftward Hoe, by Decker and Webiter, 1607, -it will be as good as a Welch-back for you, to keep out the other at ftaves-end." Again, in Northward Hoe, by the fame, 1607, a captain fays, -I know what kiffes be, as well as I know a Welch "book." So in Ben Jonfon's Mafque for the Honour of Wales: Owen Glendower, with a Welje booke, and a goat"kin on his back." The Welch book is probably a weapon of the fame kind with the Lochabar axe, which was used in the late rebellion. Colonel Gardner was attacked with this weapon at the battle of Preston pans. STEEVENS. P. Henry. |