Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on Montjoy; And let him say to England, that we send To know what willing ransome he will give.— Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain with us.— Now, forth, lord constable, and princes all; And quickly bring us word of England's fall. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. The English Camp in Picardy. Enter GowER and FLUellen. Gow. How now, captain Fluellen? come you from the bridge? Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent service committed at the pridge. Gow. Is the duke of Exeter safe? Flu. The duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my livings, and my uttermost powers: he is not, (Got be praised and plessed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an ensigns there at the pridge,-I think, in my And for achievement offer us his ransome] That is, instead of achieving a victory over us, make a proposal to pay us a certain sum, as a ransom. So, in Henry VI, Part III: 3 "For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom say.” Malone. in Roüen.] Here, and a little higher, we have, in the old copy-Roan, which was, in Shakspeare's time, the mode of spelling Rouen, in Normandy. He probably pronounced the word as a monosyllable, Roan; as indeed most Englishmen do at this day. Malone. 4 · but keeps the pridge most valiantly,] This is not an imaginary circumstance, but founded on an historical fact. After Henry had passed the Some, the French endeavoured to intercept him in his passage to Calais; and for that purpose attempted to break down the only bridge that there was over the small river of Ternois, at Blangi, over which it was necessary for Henry to pass. But Henry, having notice of their design, sent a part of his troops before him, who, attacking and putting the French to flight, preserved the bridge, till the whole English army arrived, and passed over it. Malone. very conscience, he is as valiant as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the 'orld: but I did see him do gallant service. Gow. What do you call him? Flu. He is called-ancient Pistol. Enter PISTOL. Flu. Do you not know him? Here comes the man. Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: The duke of Exeter doth love thee well. Flu. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands. Pist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, Of buxom valour, hath,-by cruel fate, And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel, That stands upon the rolling restless stone,7 --- Flu. By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is plind: And she is painted also 5 There is an ensign -] Thus the quarto. The folio readsthere is an ancient lieutenant. Pistol was not a lieutenant. Malone. 6 Of buxom valour,] i. e. valour under good command, obedient to its superiors. So, in Spenser's Fairy Queen: "Love tyrannizeth in the bitter smarts "Of them that to him are buxom and prone." Steevens. 7 That goddess blind, That stands upon the rolling restless stone,] Fortune is described by Cebes, and by Pacuvius, in the Fragments of Latin Authors, p. 60, and the first Book of the Pieces to Herennius, precisely in these words of our poet. It is unnecessary to quote them. S. W. Rolling restless-] In an Ode to Concord, which concludes the fourth Act of Gascoigne's Focasta, we find the same combination of epithets, though applied to a different object: bred in sacred brest "Of him that rules the restlesse-rolling skie." Steevens. For this idea our author seems indebted to The Spanish Tragedy: "Fortune is blind, "Whose foot is standing on a rolling stone.” Ritson. 8 Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is plind:] Here the fool of a player was for making a joke, as Hamlet says, not set down for him, and showing with a wheel; to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is turning, and inconstant, and variations, and mutabilities: and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls;-In good truth, the poet is make a most excellent description of fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral. Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; a most pitiful ambition to be witty. For Fluellen, though he speaks with his country accent, yet is all the way represented as a man of good plain sense. Therefore, as it appears he knew the meaning of the term plind, by his use of it, he could never have said that Fortune was painted plind, to signify she was plind. He might as well have said afterwards, that she was painted inconstant, to signify she was inconstant. But there he speaks sense; and so, unquestionably, he did here. We should therefore strike out the first plind, and read: Fortune is painted with a muffler, &c. Warburton. The old reading is the true one. Fortune the goddess is represented blind, to show that fortune, or the chance of life, is without discernment. Steevens. The picture of Fortune is taken from the old history of Fortunatus; where she is described to be a fair woman, muffled over the eyes. Farmer. A muffler appears to have been a fold of linen which partially covered a woman's face. So, in Monsieur Thomas, 1639: "On with my muffler." See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Vol. III, p. 125, n. 1. a Steevens. Minshieu, in his Dictionary, 1617, explains "a woman's muffler," by the French word cachenez, which Cotgrave defines " kind of mask for the face;" yet, I believe, it was made of linen, and that Minshieu only means to compare it to a mask, because they both might conceal part of the face. It was, I believe, a kind of hood, of the same form as the riding-hood now sometimes worn by men, that covered the shoulders, and a great part of the face. This agrees with the only other passage in which the word occurs in these plays: "I spy a great beard under her muffler." The Merry Wives of Windsor. See also the verses cited in Vol. 9 * "Now is she barefast to be seene, straight on her muffler goes; "Now is she hufft up to the crowne, straight nuzled to the nose." Malone. In good truth, &c.] The reading here is made out of two copies, the quarto, and the first folio. Malone. * Mr. Malone's reference being erroneous, a blank is here necessarily left. For he hath stol'n a pix,1 and hanged must 'a be. Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free, Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice; With edge of penny cord, and vile reproach: Pist. Why then rejoice therefore.2 1 For he hath stol'n a pix,] The old editions read-pax. "And this is conformable to history," says Mr. Pope, "a soldier (as Hall tells us) being hanged at this time for such a fact." Both Hall and Holinshed agree as to the point of the theft; but as to the thing stolen, there is not that conformity betwixt them and Mr. Pope. It was an ancient custom, at the celebration of mass, that when the priest pronounced these words, Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum! both clergy and people kissed one another. And this was called Osculum Pacis, the Kiss of Peace. But that custom being abrogated, a certain image is now presented to be kissed, which is called a Pax. But it was not this image which Bardolph stole; it was a pix, or little chest, (from the Latin word, pixis, a box) in which the consecrated host was used to be kept. "A foolish soldier," says Hall expressly, and Holinshed after him, "stole a pix out of a church, and unreverently did eat the holy hostes within the same contained." Theobald What Theobald says is true, but might have been told in fewer words: I have examined the passage in Hall. Yet Dr. Warburton rejected that emendation, and continued Pope's note without animadversion. It is pax in the folio, 1623, but altered to pix by Theobald and Sir T. Hanmer. They signified the same thing. See Pax at Mass, Minshieu's Guide into the Tongues. Pix or pax was a little box in which were kept the consecrated wafers Johnson. 2 Why then rejoice therefore.] This passage, with several others in the character of Pistol, is ridiculed by Ben Jonson, in The Poetaster, as follows: Why then lament therefore; damn'd be thy guts "Unto king Pluto's hell, and princely Erebus; "For sparrows must have food." Steevens. The former part of this passage, in The Poetaster, seems rather to be a parody on one of Pistol's in King Henry IV, P. II: "Why then lament therefore." Perhaps in that before us our author had Flu. Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at: for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to executions; for disciplines ought to be used. Pist. Die and be damn'd; and figo for thy friendship!3 Flu. It is well. Pist. The fig of Spain!4 Flu. Very good.5 [Exit PIST. in his thoughts a very contemptible play of Marlowe's, The Massacre of Paris: 3 "The Guise is dead, and I rejoice therefore." Malone. figo for thy friendship!] This expression occurs likewise in Ram-Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1611: Again: water at the dock: "A fico for her dock." 4 The fig of Spain!] This is no allusion to the fico already explained in King Henry IV, Part II, but to the custom of giving poisoned figs to those who were the objects either of Spanish or Italian revenge. The quartos, 1600 and 1608, read: "The fig of Spain within thy jaw." and afterwards: "The fig within thy bowels and thy dirty maw." So, in The Fleire, 1610, a comedy: "Fel. Give them a fig. "Flo. Make them drink their last. 66 "Poison them." Again, in The Brothers, by Shirley, 1652: "I must poison him; one fig sends him to Erebus.” Steevens. I believe the fig of Spain is here used only as a term of contempt. In the old translation of Galateo of Manners and Behaviour, p. 81, we have: "She gave the Spanish figge, "With both her thumbes at once," saith Dant. And a note says, "Fiche is the thrusting of the thumbe betweene the forefinger; which eyther for the worde, or the remembrance of something thereby signified, is reputed amongst the Italians as a word of shame." Reed. And in Fulwell's Art of Flattery: "To lady hope agayne; "And for a token I thee sende "A doting fig of Spayne." Henley. The quarto shews, I think, that Mr. Steevens is right. p. 176, n. 6. Malone. Very good.] Instead of these two words, the quartos read: See |