Enter prince Henry and Poins.

Fal. Peace, good Doll, do not speak 7 like a death's head; do not bid me remember mine end.

Dol. Sirrah, what humour is the prince of?

Fal. A good fhallow young fellow: he would have made a good pantler, he would have chipp'd bread well.

Dol. They fay, Poins has a good wit.

Fal. He a good wit? hang him, baboon!—his wit is as thick as Tewksbury muftard, there is no more conceit in him, than is in a mallet.

Dol. Why doth the prince love him fo then?

Fal. Because their legs are both of a bignefs; and he plays at quoits well, and 9 eats conger and fennel;

7

and

like a death's head;] It appears from the following paffage in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, 1605, that it was the custom for the bawds of that age to wear a death's head in a ring, very probably with the common motto, memento mori. Cocledemoy, fpeaking of fome of thefe, fays," as for their death, how can it be bad, fince their wickedness is always before their (6 eyes, and a death's head most commonly on their middle "finger." Again, in Malinger's Old Law," fell fome of my cloaths to buy thee a death's head and put upon thy mid"dle finger: your least confidering bawds do fo much."

8

STEEVENS. Tewksbury mustard, &c.] Tewksbury is a market-town in the county of Gloucester, formerly noted for mustard-balls made there, and fent into other parts. Dr. GRAY.

9

- eats conger and fennel; and drinks off candles' ends, &c.] Thefe qualifications I do not underftand. JOHNSON.

Conger with fennel was formerly regarded as a provocative. It is mentioned by B. Jonfon in his Bartholomew-Fair,-" like "a long lac'd conger with green fennel in the joll of it."

The qualification that follows; viz. that of fwallowing candles ends by way of flap-dragons, feems to indicate no more than that the prince loved him, because he was always ready to do any thing for his amufement, however abfurd or unnatural. Nath, in Pierce Pennylefs his Supplication to the Devil, advises hard drinkers," to have fome fhooing horne to pull on their wine, as a rafher on the coals, or a red herring; or to "ftir it about with a candle's end to make it taste better," &c.

and drinks off candles' ends for flap-dragons; and rides the wild mare with the boys; and jumps upon joint-ftools; and fwears with a good grace; and wears his boot very smooth like unto the fign of the leg; and breeds no bate with telling of difcreet stories: and fuch other gambol faculties he hath, that fhew a weak mind and an able body, for the which the prince admits him for the prince himself is fuch another, the weight of an hair will turn the scales between their averdupois.

P. Henry. Would not this * nave of a wheel have his ears cut off?

Poins. Let us beat him before his whore.

P. Henry. Look, if the wither'd elder hath not his poll claw'd like a parrot.

Poins. Is it not ftrange, that defire should fo many years out-live performance?

Fal. Kifs me, Doll.

In Rowley's Match at Midnight, 1633, a captain fays, that his corporal was lately choak'd at Delf by fwallowing a flap"dragon."

So in Shirley's Conftant Maid, 1640,-" or he might spit flap-dragons from his fire of fack, to light us."

Again, in TEKNOTAMIA; or, TheMarriages of the Arts, 1618, -"like a flap-dragon, or a piece of bread fop'd in aqua vitæ,

"and fet a fire."

Again, in Marfton's Dutch Courtezan, 1605, " have I not "been drunk to your health, fwallow'd flap-dragons, eat glaffes, drank urine, ftab'd arms, and done all the offices of protefted gallantry for your fake ?"

"

..

So in The Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612, "as familiarly as pikes do gudgeons, and with as much facility as Dutchmen "fwallow flap-dragons." STEEVENS.

A flap-dragon is fome fmall combustible body, fired at one end, and put afloat in a glafs of liquor. It is an act of topers' dexterity to tofs off the glafs in fuch a manner as to prevent the flap-dragon from doing mischief. JOHNSON.

difcreet ftories :-] We fhould read indifcreet. WARB. nave of a wheel-] Nave and knave are easily reconciled, but why nave of a wheel? I fuppofe from his roundnefs. He was called round man in contempt before. JOHNSON.

P. Henry.

P. Henry. Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction! what fays the almanack to that?

Poins. And, look, whether the fiery Trigon, his man, be not 3 lifping to his master's old tables; his note-book, his counfel-keeper?

Fal. Thou doft give me flattering buffes.

Dol. By my troth, I kifs thee with a most constant heart.

Fal. I am old, I am old.

Dol. I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of them all.

Fal. What ftuff wilt thou have a kirtle of? I fhall receive money on Thursday. Thou fhalt have a cap A merry fong, come :-it grows late, we will to bed. Thou wilt forget me when I am gone.

to-morrow.

Dol. By my troth, thou wilt fet me a weeping if thou fay'ft fo. Prove, that ever I dress myself handfome till thy return.Well, hearken the end. Fal. Some fack, Francis.

P. Henry. Poins. Anon, anon, Sir.

Fal. 4 Ha! a baftard son of the king's! and art not thou Poins his brother?

P. Henry. Why, thou globe of finful continents, what a life doft thou lead?

2 Saturn and Venus this year in conjunction !] This was indeed a prodigy. The aftrologers, fays Ficinus, remark, that Saturn and Venus are never conjoined. JOHNSON.

3 lifping to his master's old tables, &c.] We fhould read, clafping too his master's old tables, &c. i. e. embracing his master's caft-off whore, and now his bawd [his note-book, his counfelkeeper]. We have the fame phrafe again in Cymbeline,

WARBURTON.

"You clafp young Cupid's tables.' This emendation is very fpecious. I think it right. JOHNS. I believe the old reading to be the true one. Bardolph was very probably drunk, and might lifp a little in his courtship.

STEEVENS.

4 Ha! a baftard, &c.] The improbability of this scene is fcarcely balanced by the humour. JOHNSON.

Fal.

Fal. A better than thou: I am a gentleman, thou art a drawer.

P. Henry. Very true, Sir; and I come to draw you out by the ears.

Hoft. Oh, the Lord preferve thy good grace! Welcome to London.-Now heaven blefs that fweet face of thine! What, are you come from Wales?

Fal. Thou whorfon mad compound of majesty, by this light flesh and corrupt blood, thou art welcome. [Leaning his band upon Dol.

Dol. How! you fat fool, I fcorn you. Poins. My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge, and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat.

P. Henry. You whorfon 5 candle-mine, you; how vilely did you fpeak of me even now, before this honeft, virtuous, civil gentlewoman?

Hoft. Blefling on your good heart, and fo fhe is, by my troth.

Fal. Didit thou hear me?

P. Henry. Yes; and you knew me, as you did when you ran away by Gads-hill: you knew I was at your back, and fpoke it on purpofe to try my pati

ence.

Fal. No, no, no; not fo; I did not think thou waft within hearing.

P. Henry. I fhall drive you then to confefs the wilful abufe, and then I know how to handle you.

Fal. No abufe, Hal, on my honour; no abuse. P. Henry. No! to difpraise me, and call me pantler, and bread chipper, and I know not what!

Fal. No abufe, Hal.

Poins. No abuse!

Fal. No abufe, Ned, in the world; honeft Ned, none. I difprais'd him before the wicked, that the

candle-mine, -] Thou inexhauftible magazine of

tallow. JOHNSON.

wicked might not fall in love with him in which doing, I have done the part of a careful friend, and a true fubject.—And thy father is to give me thanks for it. No abuse, Hal; none, Ned, none; no, boys,

none.

P. Henry. See now, whether pure fear and entire cowardice doth not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman, to clofe with us? Is fhe of the wicked? is thine hoftefs here of the wicked? or is the boy of the wicked? or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his nofe, of the wicked?

Poins. Anfwer, thou dead elm, answer.

Fal. The fiend hath prick'd down Bardolph irrecoverable; and his face is Lucifer's privy kitchen, where he doth nothing but roaft malt worms. For the boy, there is a good angel about him, but the devil out-bids him too.

P. Henry. For the women

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Fal. For one of them, fhe is in hell already, and burns, poor foul! For the other, I owe her money; and whether fhe be damn'd for that, I know not.

Hoft. No, I warrant you.

Fal. No, I think thou art not; I think thou art quit for that. Marry, there is another indictment upon thee, for fuffering fiefh to be eaten in thy houfe contrary to the law; for the which, I think, thou wilt howl.

Hoft. All victuallers do fo. What is a joint of mutton or two in a whole Lent?

P. Henry. You, gentlewoman

Dol. What fays your grace?

Fal. His grace fays that which his flefh rebels againft.

and burns, poor foul!] This is Sir T. Hanmer's reading. Undoubtedly right. The other editions had, he is in bell already, and burns poor fouls. The venereal difeafe was called in thefe times brennynge or burning. JOHNSON.

Hoft.