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P. Hen. For the women,

Fal. For one of them,-she is in hell already, and burns, poor soul! For the other, I owe her money; and whether she be damned for that, I know not.

Host. 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 suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house,1 contrary to the law; for the which, I think, thou wilt howl.

Host. All victuallers do so:2 What's a joint of mutton or two, in a whole Lent?3

P. Hen. You, gentlewoman,
Dol. What says your grace?

Fal. His grace says that which his flesh rebels against. Host. Who knocks so loud at door? look to the door there, Francis.

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outbids him too.] Thus the folio. The quarto readsblinds him too; and perhaps it is right. Malone.

9 and burns, poor soul!] This is Sir T. Hanmer's reading. Undoubtedly right The other editions had-she is in hell already, and burns poor souls. The venereal disease was called, in those times, the brennynge, or burning. Johnson.

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-for suffering flesh to be eaten &c.] By several statues made in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I, for the regulation and observance of fish-days, victuallers were expressly forbidden to utter flesh in Lent, and to these Falstaff alludes. I conceive that the Hostess, by her answer, understands him literally, without the covert allusion suspected by Mr. Malone; [see n. 3] for she must have been too well acquainted with the law to mistake his meaning, and wit seems not to have been her talent. Douce.

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all victuallers do so:] The brothels were formerly screened, under pretext of being victualling houses and taverns.

So, in Webster and Rowley's Cure for a Cuckold: "This informer comes into Turnbull Street to a victualling house, and there falls in league with a wench, &c.-Now, Sir, this fellow, in revenge, informs against the bawd that kept the house," &c.

Again, in Gascoigne's Glass of Government, 1575: "—at a house with a red lattice you shall find an old bawd called Panderina, and a young damsel called Lamia."

Barrett, in his Alvearie, 1580, defines a victualling house thus "A tavern where meate is eaten out of due season.' Steevens.

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What's a joint of mutton or two, in a whole Lent?] Perhaps a covert allusion is couched under these words. See Vol. II, p. 147, n. 2. Malone.

Enter PETO.

P. Hen. Peto, how now? what news?

Peto. The king your father is at Westminster;
And there are twenty weak and wearied posts,
Come from the north: and, as I came along,

I met, and overtook, a dozen captains,
Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns,
And asking every one for sir John Falstaff.

P. Hen. By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame, So idly to profane the precious time;

When tempest of commotion, like the south
Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt,
And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.

Give me my sword and cloak :-Falstaff, good night.
[Exeunt P. HEN. POINS, PETO, and BARD.
Fal. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night,
and we must hence, and leave it unpicked. [knocking
heard] More knocking at the door?

Re-enter BARDOLPH.

How now? what's the matter?

Bard. You must away to court, sir, presently; a dozen captains stay at door for you.

Fal. Pay the musicians, sirrah. [to the Page]-Farewel, hostess;-farewel, Doll.-You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is called on. Farewel, good wenches:-If I be not sent away post, I will see you again ere I go.

Dol. I cannot speak;-If my heart be not ready to burst:-Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.

Fal. Farewel, farewel.

[Exeunt FAL. and BARD.

Host. Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these twenty nine years, come peascod-time; but an honester, and truer-hearted man,-Well, fare thee well.

Bard. [within] Mistress Tear-sheet,

Host. What's the matter?

Bard. [within] Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my

master.

Host. O run, Doll, run; run, good Doll.4

[Exeunt.

40 run, Doll, run, run, good Doll.] Thus the folio. The quarto reads-0 run, Doll run; run: Good Doll, come: she comes blubber'd: Yea, will you come, Doll? Steevens.

ACT III.....SCENE 1.5

A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, in his Nightgown, with a Page.

K. Hen. Go, call the earls of Surrey and of Warwick; But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters, And well consider of them: Make good speed.—

[Exit Page.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep!-Sleep, gentle sleep,"
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber;
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody?

O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch,
A watch-case, or a common 'larum bell?7

* Scene I.] This first scene is not in my copy of the first edition. Johnson. There are two copies of the same date, and in one of these the scene has been added. They are in all other respects, alike. It should seem as if the defect in this quarto was undiscovered till most of the copies of it were sold, for only one that I have seen contains the addition. Signature E consists of six leaves. Four of these, exclusive of the two additional ones, were re-printed to make room for the omission. Steevens.

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reads:

Sleep, gentle sleep,] The old copy, in defiance of metre,

O sleep, O gentle sleep.

The repeated tragic O was probably a playhouse intrusion.

Steevens.

7 A watch-case, &c.] This alludes to the watchman set in garrison-towns upon some eminence, attending upon an alarum-bell, which was to ring out in case of fire, or any approaching danger. He had a case or box to shelter him from the weather, but at his utmost peril he was not to sleep whilst he was upon duty. These alarum-bells are mentioned in several other places of Shakspeare.

Hanmer.

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;

And in the visitation of the winds,

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Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
Can'st thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,

In an ancient inventory cited in Strutt's ponda Angel cynnan, Vol. III, p. 70, there is the following article: "Item, a laume OF WATCHE of iron, in an iron CASE, with 2 leaden plumets." Strutt supposes, and no doubt rightly, that laume is an error for larum. Something of this kind, I believe, is here intended by watch-case, since this speech does not afford any other expressions to induce the supposition that the King had a sentry-box in his thoughts. H. White.

8 slippery clouds,] The modern editors read shrowds, meaning the rope ladders by which the masts of ships are ascended. The old copy-in the slippery clouds; but I know not what advantage is gained by the alteration, for shrouds had anciently the same meaning as clouds. I could bring many instances of this use of the word from Drayton. So, in his Miracles of Moses: "And the sterne thunder from the airy shrouds, "To the sad world, in fear and horror spake."

Again, in Ben Jonson's Poem on Inigo Jones:

"And peering forth of Iris in the shrowds."

Again, in Chapman's version of the twentieth Iliad: casting all thicke mantles made of clouds,

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"On their bright shoulders. T'oppos'd gods sat hid in other shrouds."

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A moderate tempest would hang the waves in the shrowds of a ship; a great one might poetically be said to suspend them on the clouds, which were too slippery to retain them.

So, in Julius Cæsar:

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"Th' ambitious ocean swell, and rage and foam
"To be exalted with the threatening clouds."

Again, in Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book XI:

"The surges mounting up aloft did seeme to mate the skie, "And with their sprinkling for to wet the clouds that hang on hie." Steevens.

9 That, with the hurly,] Hurly is noise, derived from the French hurler. to howl, as hurly-burly from Hurtuberlu, Fr. Steevens.

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With all appliances and means to boot,

Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! &
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Enter WARWICK and SURREY.

War. Many good morrows to your majesty!
K. Hen. Is it good morrow, lords?

War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past.

K. Hen. Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.3

1 Deny it to a king?] Surely, for the sake of metre, we should read

Deny 't a king? Steevens.

2 Then, happy low, lie down!] Evidently corrupted from happy lowly clown. These two lines making the just conclusion from what preceded. "If sleep will fly a king and consort itself with beggars, then happy the lowly clown, and uneasy the crowned head." Warburton.

Dr. Warburton has not admitted this emendation into his text: I am glad to do it the justice which its author has neglected. Johnson.

The sense of the old reading seems to be this: "You, who are happy in your humble situations, lay down your heads to rest! the head that wears a crown lies too uneasy to expect such a blessing." Had not Shakspeare thought it necessary to subject himself to the tyranny of rhyme, he would probably have said: "then happy low, sleep on!"

Sir W. D'Avenant has the same thought in his Law for Lovers:

"How soundly they sleep, whose pillows lie low!"

Steevens.

3 Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.] In my regulation of this passage I have followed the late editors; but I am now persuaded the first line should be pointed thus:

Why then good morrow to you all, my lords.

This mode of phraseology, where only two persons are addressed, is not very correct, but there is no ground for reading

Why, then, good morrow to you. Well, my lords, &c. as Theobald and all the subsequent editors do; for Shakspeare, in King Henry VI, Part II, sc. ii, has put the same expression into the mouth of York, when he addresses only his two friends, Salisbury and Warwick; though the author of the original play, printed in 1600, on which The Second Part of King Henry VI, was founded, had, in the corresponding place, employed the word both : 66 Where as all you know,

"Harmless Richard was murder'd traiterously."

This is one of the numerous circumstances that contribute to prove that Shakspeare's Henries were formed on the work of a preceding writer." Malone.

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