I of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a Fal. How now, how now, mad wag! what, in Prince. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern? Fal. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft. Prince. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? 60 Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there. Prince. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not, I have used my credit. Fal. Yea, and so used it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent-But, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is with the 70 rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. Prince. No; thou shalt. Fal. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge. Prince. Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humor as well as waiting in the 80 court, I can tell you. 67. “heir"; the h was still pronounced.-C. H. H. I Prince. For obtaining of suits? Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the I am as melancholy as a gib cat or a lugged Prince. Or an old lion, or a lover's lute. Prince. What sayest thou to a hare, or the mel- 90 ancholy of Moor-ditch? Fal. Thou hast the most unsavory similes, and art indeed the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince. But, Hal, I prithee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought. An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir, but I marked him not; and yet he talked very wisely, but I 100 88. "Lincolnshire bagpipes” is a proverbial saying; the allusion is as yet unexplained. Perhaps it was a favorite instrument in that county, as well as in the north.-H. N. H. 90. The "hare" was esteemed a melancholy animal, from her solitary sitting in her form; and, according to the physic of the times, the flesh of it was supposed to generate melancholy. So in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song, ii.: "The melancholy hare is form'd in brakes and briers." Pierius, in his Hieroglyphics, says that the Egyptians expressed melancholy by a hare sitting in her form.-"Moorditch," a part of the ditch surrounding the city of London, between Bishopsgate and Cripplegate, opened to an unwholesome, impassable morass, and was consequently not frequented by the citizens, like other suburban fields, and therefore had an air of melancholy. Thus in Taylor's Penny lesse Pilgrimage, 1618: "My body being tired with travel, and my mind attired with moody muddy, "Mooreditch melancholy."-H. N. H. I regarded him not; and yet he talked wisely, Prince. Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out Fal. O, thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of 110 the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over: by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain: I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom. Prince. Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack? Fal. 'Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain and baffle me. Prince. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying to purse-taking. Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labor in his vocation. 120 103, 104. "For wisdom cries out in the street, and no man regards it"; an adaptation of Proverbs i. 20, omitted in Ff.-I. G. 105. "damnable iteration, (profane) quotation of Scripture. "You are able, like the devil, to cite Scripture to your purpose."-C. H. H. 121. We shall err greatly, if we believe all that Shakespeare's characters say of themselves; for, like other men, they do not see themselves as others see them, nor indeed as they are. And this especially in case of Sir John, who seldom speaks of himself even as he sees himself; that is, he speaks for art, not for truth: and a part of his humor lies in all sorts of caricatures and exaggerations about himself; what he says being often designed on purpose to make himself a laughing-stock, that he may join in the laughter. Such appears to be the case in what he here charges himself with. I Enter Poins. Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand' to a true man. Prince. Good morrow, Ned. Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse? what says Sir John 130 Prince. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet For his vocation throughout the play is that of a soldier, which is also the vocation of the prince. But the trade of a soldier was at that time notoriously trimmed and adorned with habits of plundering: so that to set it forth as a purse-taking vocation, was but a stroke of humorous exaggeration, finely spiced with satire, both as regarded the prince and himself. The exploit at Gads-hill is the only one of the kind that we hear of in the play.-H. N. H. 124. So in all the quartos; in the folio, "set a watch," which does not agree with the event, as they do not set a watch, but concert a stratagem of robbery. Setting a match appears to have been one of the technicalities of thievery. Thus in Ratsey's Ghost, a tract printed about 1606, and pointed out by Farmer: "I have been many times beholding to tapsters and chamberlains for directions and setting of matches." Likewise in Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, the phrase is used for making an appointment: "Peace, sir; they'll be angry if they hear you eavesdropping, now they are setting their match."-H. N. H. 130. "what says Sir John Sack and Sugar?"; a great deal of learned ink has been used in discussing what Sir John's favorite beverage might be. The very learned archdeacon Nares has pretty much proved it to have been the Spanish wine now called Sherry. Thus in Blount's Glossographia: "Sherry sack, so called from Xeres, a town of Corduba in Spain, where that kind of sack is made."-H. N. H. I a breaker of proverbs: he will give the devil his due. Poins. Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil. Prince. Else he had been damned for cozening the devil. 140 Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: I have vizards for you all; you have horses for yourselves: Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester: I have bespoke supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we 150 may do it as secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home and be hanged. Fal. Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not, I'll hang you for going. Poins. You will, chops? Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one? Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith. Fal. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor 160 good fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings. Prince. Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap. Fal. Why, that's well said. 162. "stand for"; be good for.-C. H. H. |