Shake in their fear; and with pale policy O England!-model to thy inward greatness, What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do, Were all thy children kind and natural! But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills With treacherous crowns: and three corrupted men, One, Richard earl of Cambridge2; and the second, 2 Richard earl of Cambridge' was Richard de Conisbury, younger son of Edmund Langley, duke of York. He was father of Richard duke of York, and grandfather of Edward the Fourth. 3 Henry Lord Scroop' was a third husband of Joan, duchess of York, mother in law of Richard earl of Cambridge. 4 Gilt for golden money. 5 The old copy reads: 'Linger your patience on, and we'll digest The alteration was made by Pope. We'll not offend one stomach with our play. SCENE I. The same. Eastcheap. Enter NYM and BARDOLPH. Bard. Well met, Corporal Nym. [Exit. Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph 1. Bard. What, are ancient Pistol and you friends yet? Nym. For my part, I care not: I say little: but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles 2;—but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink, and hold out mine iron: It is a simple one: but what though? it will toast cheese; and it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's the humour of it. 6 'But till the king come forth, and but till then, Unto Southampton do we shift our scene.' The old copy reads: 'But till, the king come forth, and not till then.' The emendation was proposed by Mr. Roderick, and deserves admission into the text. Malone has plainly shown that it is a common typographical error. The objection is, that a scene in London intervenes; but this may be obviated by transposing that scene to the end of the first act. The division into acts and scenes, it should be recollected, is the arbitrary work of Mr. Rowe and the subsequent editors; and the first act of this play, as it is now divided, is unusually short. This chorus has slipped out of its place. At this scene begins the connexion of this play with the latter part of King Henry IV. The characters would be indisdinct and the incidents unintelligible without the knowledge of what passed in the two former plays. 2 When time shall serve, there shall be smiles.' Dr. Farmer thought that this was an error of the press for smites, i. e. blows, a word used in the poet's age, and still provincially ourrent. The passage, as it stands, has been explained :-'I care not whether we are friends at present; however, when time shall serve, we shall be in good humour with each other: but be it as it may.' Bard. I will bestow a breakfast, to make you friends; and we'll be all three sworn brothers 3 to France; let it be so, good Corporal Nym. Nym. 'Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may: that is my rest, that is the rendezvous of it. Bard. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to Nell Quickly: and, certainly, she did you wrong; for you were troth-plight to her. Nym. I cannot tell; things must be as they may: men may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at that time; and, some say, knives have edges. It must be as it may: though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell 5. Enter PISTOL and MRS. QUICKLY. Bard. Here comes ancient Pistol, and his wife: —good corporal, be patient here.-How now, mine host Pistol? Pist. Base tike 6, call'st thou me-host? Now, by this hand I swear, I scorn the term; Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. Quick. No, by my troth, not long: for we cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen, 3 Sworn brothers.' In the times of adventure it was usual for two or more chiefs to bind themselves to share in each other's fortunes, and divide their acquisitions between them. They were called fratres jurati. These cutpurses set out for France as if they were going to make a conquest of the kingdom. 4 That is my rest;' that is my determination. Vide note on All's Well that Ends Well, Act ii. Sc. 1. 5 i.e. 'I know not what to say or think of it.' See this phrase amply illustrated in Mr. Gifford's Ben Jonson, vol. i. p. 125. No phrase is more common in our old dramatic writers; yet it had escaped the commentators on Shakspeare. 6 i. e. base fellow. Still used in the north; where a tike is also a dog of a large common breed; as a mastiff, or shepherd's dog. that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight. [NYM draws his sword.] O well-i-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now! we shall see wilful adultery and murder committed. Good Lieutenant Bardolph, -good corporal, offer nothing here. Nym. Pish! Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog! thou prickeared cur of Iceland! Quick. Good Corporal Nym, show the valour of a man, and put up thy sword. Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy; For I can take9, and Pistol's cock is up, And flashing fire will follow. 7'0 well-i-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now!' The folio has O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not hewn now; an evident error of the press. The quarto reads 'O Lord! here's Corporal Nym's-now,' &c. 8 Iceland dogges, curled and rough all over, which, by reason of the length of their heare, make show neither of face nor of body. And yet thes curres, forsoothe, because they are so strange, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up, and made of, many times instead of the spaniell gentle or comforter.-Abraham Fleming's translation of Caius de Canibus, 1576, Of English Dogges. Island cur is again used as a term of contempt in Epigrams served out in Fifty-two several Dishes;' no date:He wears a gown lac'd round, laid down with furre, Or, miser-like, a pouch where never man Could thrust his finger, but this island curre.' 9 For I can take.' cessity, to 'I can talk.' Malone would change this, without ne- or comprehend you.' It is still common in the plebeian phrase: you take me?' for Do you know my meaning? Do you Nym. I am not Barbason 10; you cannot conjure me, I have a humour to knock you indifferently well: If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as I may, in fair terms: if would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as I may; and that's the humour of it. Pist. O braggard vile, and damned furious wight! The grave doth gape, and doting death is near; Therefore exhale 11. [PISTOL and NYм draw. Bard. Hear me, hear me what I say: :-he that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier. [Draws. Pist. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give; Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms; that is the humour of it. Pist. Coupe le gorge, that's the word?—I thee defy again. O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? No; to the spital go, And from the powdering tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind 12, 10 Barbason is the name of a demon mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The unmeaning tumour of Pistol's speech very naturally reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers. 11 By exhale Pistol, in his fantastic language, probably means die or breathe your last. Malone suggests that he may only mean ' draw, haul, or lug out.' 12 The lazar kite of Cressid's kind.' Of Cressida's nature, see the play of Troilus and Cressida. 13 Formerly. |