O Lord! here's corporal Nym's-now shall we have wilful adultery and murder committed. Good lieutenant Bardolph,-good corporal, offer nothing here. If he be not hewn must signify, if he be not cut down; and in that case the very thing is supposed which Quickly was apprehensive of. But I rather think her fright arises upon seeing the swords drawn, and I have ventured to make a slight alteration accordingly. If he be not drawn, for, if he has not his sword drawn, is an expression familiar to our poet. Theobald. The quarto omits this obscure passage, and only gives us,O Lord! here's corporal Nym's But as it cannot be ascertained which words (or whether any) were designedly excluded, I have left both exclamations in the text. Mrs. Quickly, without deviation from her character, may be supposed to utter repeated outcries on the same alarm. And yet I think we might read,if he be not hewing. To hack and hew is a common vulgar expression. So, in If you know not me you know Nobody, by Heywood, 1606: "- Bones o' me, he would hew it." The late Mr. Guthrie observed, to be hewn might mean, to be drunk. There is yet a low phrase in use on the same occasion, which is not much unlike it; viz. "he is cut."- "Such a one was cut a little last night." So, in The Witty Fair One, by Shirley, 1633: "Then, sir, there is the cut of your leg. 66 that's when a man is drunk is it not? "Do not stagger in your judgment, for this cut is the grace of your body." Steevens. I have followed the quarto, because it requires no emendation. Here's corporal Nym's sword drawn, the Hostess would say, but she breaks off abruptly. The editor of the folio here, as in many other places, not understanding an abrupt passage, I believe, made out something that he conceived might have been intended. Instead of "O Lord," to avoid the penalty of the statute, he inserted, "O well a-day, lady," and added,-if he be not hewn now." The latter word is evidently corrupt, and was probably printed, as Mr. Steevens conjectures, for hewing. But, for the reason already given, I have adhered to the quarto. Malone. How would the editor of the folio have escaped profaneness by substituting Lady for Lord? for Lady is an exclamation on our blessed Lady, the Virgin Mary. Steevens. 5 Good lieutenant &c.] This sentence (except the word Bardolph) is in the folio given to Bardolph, to whom it is evident these words cannot belong, for he is himself, in this play, the lieutenant. Mr. Steevens proposes to solve the difficulty by reading-good ancient, supposing Pistol to be the person addressed. But it is clear, I think, from the quarto, that these words belong to the speech of the Hostess, who, seeing Nym's sword drawn, conjures him and his friend Bardolph to use no violence. In the Nym. Pish! Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog!" thou prick-eared 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. [Sheathing his sword. quarto, the words, "Good corporal Nym show the valour of a man," are immediately subjoined to-"now shall we have wilful adultery and murder committed." Bardolph was probably an interlineation, and erroneously inserted before the words, "good lieutenant," instead of being placed, as it now is, after them. Hence, he was considered as the speaker, instead of the person addressed. Malone. 6 Iceland dog!] In the folio the word is spelt Island; in the quarto, Iseland. Malone. I believe we should read, Iceland dog. He seems to allude to an account credited in Elizabeth's time, that in the north there was a nation with human bodies and dogs' heads. Johnson. The quartos confirm Dr. Johnson's conjecture. Steevens. Iceland dog is probably the true reading; yet in Hakluyt's Voyages we often meet with island. Drayton, in his Moon-calf, mentions water-dogs, and islands. And John Taylor dedicates his Sculler "To the whole kennel of Antichrist's hounds, priests, friars, monks, and jesuites, mastiffs, mongrels, islands, bloodhounds, bob-taile tikes." Farmer. Perhaps this kind of dog was then in vogue for the ladies te carry about with them. So, in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: 66 you shall have jewels, "A baboon, a parrot, and an Izeland dog." Again, in Two Wise Men, and all the rest Fools, 1619: "Enter Levitia, cum Pedisequa, her periwig of dog's hair white, &c. "Insa. A woman? 'tis not a woman. The head is a dog; 'tis a mermaid, half dog, half woman. "Par No, 'tis but the hair of a dog in fashion, pulled from these Iceland dogs." Steevens. 7 -prick-eared cur-] A prick-eared cur is likewise in the list of dogs enumerated in The Booke of Huntyng, &c. bl. 1. no date: -trundle-tails and prick-eared curs." Steevens. "There were newly come to the citie two young men that were Romans, which ranged up and downe the streetes, with their ears upright." Painter's Palace of Pleasure. This is said of two sharpers, and seems to explain the term prick-eared. Henderson. 8 Will you shog off?] This cant word is used in Beaumont and Fletcher's Coxcomb: "Come, pry'thee, let us shog off." Pist. Solus, egregious dog? O viper vile! And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy;" For I can take,† and Pistol's cock is up, Again, in Pasquill and Katharine, 1601: thus it shogges," i. e. thus it goes. Thus, also, in Arthur Hall's translation of the 4th Iliad, 4to. 1581: these fained words agog "So set the goddesses, that they in anger gan to shog." Steevens. † Shog off, is used here as move off. The verb shog means to agitate any thing to and fro, to shake, to move like a pendulum, and here is used as a cant term descriptive of the motion of the body in walking, but does not mean, in itself, walk; but when followed by the adverb off, (shog off) describes the act of walking more accurately than any two words in the English language. 9 Am. Ed. in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy;] Such was the coarse language once in use among vulgar brawlers. So, in The Life and Death of William Summers, &c.: Thou lyest in thy throat and in thy guts." Steevens. thy nasty mouth!] The quartos read: messful mouth. Steevens. 2 For I can take,] I know not well what he can take. The quarto reads talk. In our author to take, is sometimes to blast, which sense may serve in this place. Johnson. The old reading, I can take, is right, and means, I can take fire, Though Pistol's cock was up, yet if he did not take fire, no flashing could ensue. The whole sentence consists in allusions to his name. M. Mason. The folio here, as in two other places, corruptly reads-take. See Vol. VII, p. 121, n. 1. Malone. † Pistol conceives the word solus to be a term of reproach, and is still more enraged because he suspects Nym knows him to be ignorant of its import, and uses it to lower his consequence in the eyes of those present: Rather than appear inferior in knowledge he immediately abuses his antagonist for applying to him what he mistakes for an infamous term. It appears that Pistol suspected the word solus to mean coward, and replied to it in that sense:The situation in which the parties are placed and the vapouring character of Pistol, with the aptness with which the term coward can be used instead of the word solus throughout, renders this conjecture probable; and more than probable if we examine the words used by Nym:-"Will you shog off? I would have you And flashing fire will follow. Nym. I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me.3 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 you 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;4 Therefore exhale."+ [PIST. and NYм draw. solus," which I think Pistol understood to mean I would have you "The coward in thy most marvellous face;" &c.- i. e. I can understand-I am not so ignorant as you may suppose; I know what you mean by calling me solus:-The following quotations will fully establish this to be the true meaning of the word take, as here used, "You take me right, Eupolis; for there is no possibility of an holy war." Bacon's Holy War. "Why, now you take me; these are rites "That grace Love's days, and crown his nights:" This, I take it, Ben Jonson. "Is the main motive of our preparations." Shakspeare. Am. Ed. 3 I am not Barbason; you cannot conjure me.] Barbason is the name of a dæmon mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Vol. III, p. 74, n. 5. The unmeaning tumor of Pistol's speech very naturally reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers. Steevens. 4 doting death is near;] Thus the folio. The quarto has groaning death. Johnson. 5 Therefore exhale.] Exhale, I believe, here signifies draw, or, in Pistol's language, hale or lug out. The stage-direction in the old quarto, [They draw] confirms this explanation Malone. Therefore exhale means only-therefore breathe your last, or die, a threat common enough among dramatick heroes of a higher rank than Pistol, who only expresses this idea in the fantastick language peculiar to his character. In Chapman's version of the eighteenth Iliad, we are told that "Twelve men of greatest strength in Troy, left with their lives exhal'd + Exhale in this place certainly means draw. In the following passage from Henry VI, or Richard III, exhale signifies to draw out: 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; Thy spirits are most tall. 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? And from the powdering tub of infamy Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind," Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you, hostess; -he is very sick, and would to bed. "See, dead Henry's wounds "Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh! "From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells!" Am. Ed. 60 hound of Crete,] He means to insinuate that Nym thirsted for blood. The hounds of Crete, described by our author in A Midsummer Night's Dream, appear to have been blood-hounds. See Vol. II, p. 344, n. 8. Malone. This is an ingenious supposition; and yet I cannot help think. ing that Pistol on the present, as on many other occasions, makes use of words to which he had no determinate meaning. Steevens. the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,] The same expression occurs in Green's Card of Fancy, 1601: "What courtesy is to be found in such kites of Cressid's kind?" 71 Again, in Gascoigne's Dan Bartholomew of Bathe, 1587: "Nor seldom seene in kites of Cressid's kinde." Shakspeare might design a ridicule on the last of these passages. Again, in The Forrest of Fancy, 1579: to. 8 "For such rewardes they dayly fynde "That fyxe their fancy faithfully "On any catte of Cressed's kinde." Steevens. there's enough.] Thus the quarto. The folio adds-to go Steevens. |