162 SP *Q assigns this line to Lord Bardolph, and F follows suit; but in Q the line ends with a comma, evidence that it belongs both syntactically and logically with the three lines that follow (which Q and F assign to Morton) and should be spoken by the same character. There may have been confusion if ‘Bard.’ was written in the margin of the MS against 161–2 but was not understood as a substitution for ‘Vmfr.’, causing Q compositors to assign one line to each of them and to postpone Morton’s SP to 163. Editors of F, or of the copy on which it was based, apparently realized that the SP ‘Vmfr.’ was anomalous and so omitted 161 entirely but kept 162 and 163 as they are in Q. Most modern editors dismiss F and divide the SPs as I do here; but Melchiori assigns 161 to Morton and 162–5 to Lord Bardolph, and the Oxford editors (Oxf, TxC), reasoning that 162 was a marginal addition intended to replace 161, omit 161, and assign 162 to Lord Bardolph and 163ff. to Morton.

  163 complices confederates, comrades (OED sb. 1)

  161 SP] Pope (L. Bard.); Vmfr. Q; Tra. / Capell; MORTON Cam2; not in F 161 This … lord.] Q; not in F 162 SP] Cam1 (Daniel); Bard. Q; L. Bar. F 163 The] Cam1 (Daniel); Mour. The Q; Mor. The F 164 Lean on your] F; Leaue on you Q which,] Theobald; which QF 164–5 o’er … passion,] F subst.; ore, … passion Q

  166–79 *lines omitted from Q, possibly in an attempt to lighten Morton’s role, which suffers a more substantial and problematic cut at 189–209

  166 cast th’event calculated the risk, or forecast the outcome; cast introduces a gambling metaphor appropriate to the discussion of rebellion and developed in the following lines.

  167 summed … chance added up figures to obtain a balance, thereby to reckon the odds of winning

  168 make head raise an army. Cf. 1H4 3.1.62.

  presurmise presupposition

  169 dole distribution (OED sb. 5b) or dealing out; a continuation of the gambling metaphor, with a possible pun on dole as ‘sorrow’ as in MND 5.1.267: ‘What dreadful dole is here?’

  170 edge likely a metonymy for sword, as in Cor 5.6.112: ‘Stain all your edges on me’. Humphreys finds in this passage an allusion to the perilous sword-bridges of medieval romance which also, apparently, inform a passage in 1H4, wherein Worcester comments to Hotspur that rebellion is ‘As full of peril and adventurous spirit / As to o’erwalk a current roaring loud / On the unsteadfast footing of a spear’ (1.3.190–2). The association of Hotspur with risk and even foolhardiness in Morton’s speech may deliberately recall imagery used by Worcester.

  172 advised aware

  172–3 capable / Of susceptible or open to (OED adj. 3b)

  173 forward ardent, eager, zealous (OED adj. 6a)

  174 trade of trafficking in – another commercial term

  176 apprehended understood, anticipated with fear or dread (OED apprehend v. 3, 11)

  177 stiff-borne resolutely or obstinately undertaken

  178 *hath … brought F’s ‘hath … bring’ is clearly wrong. Keeping ‘hath’ requires that ‘bring’ be changed to ‘brought’, as in F2. Alternatively, the Oxford editors (TxC) speculate that F’s original word was ‘doth’, but that ‘doth’ was contaminated during the printing by hath in 177: replacing hath with ‘doth’ allows F’s ‘bring’ to remain unchanged. While F2 has no particular authority, the presence of parallel hath phrases in 177 and 178 seems more defensible than an awkward shift in verb tense from hath … befall’n to ‘doth … bring’.

  166–79] F; not in Q 166 You] F; MORTON You Cam2 178 hath … brought] F2; hath … bring F; did … bring Riv; doth … bring Oxf

  179 ‘more than the outcome (that being) that was anticipated anyway’ (like to be = likely to have occurred)

  180–6 Lord Bardolph extends Morton’s gambling metaphor (166–74) by alluding to the voyages of Elizabethan merchant venturers, evidence that Morton’s lines were probably cut from Q or its source MS rather than added later.

  180 engaged to involved in, committed to (OED engage v. 13); engagèd

  loss invokes the idea of financial indebtedness

  182 wrought out life survived to the end (OED work v. 38f)

  ten to one i.e. the long odds of coming back alive. Rebellion is figured as the perilous voyage of a merchant ship.

  183–5 *Capell’s punctuation, by making gain the subject of a subordinate clause beginning for and meaning ‘because the proposed gain overcame our fear of likely peril’ (note its neat pairing of participles in proposed and feared), creates an effective rhetorical balance between the two verbs remaining in the main clause: ‘we ventured … And … venture again’. Like most editors, I prefer Capell’s alternative to the less artful punctuation on which Q and F agree; but as that original punctuation also makes sense, with we serving as the subject of three verbs – ventured, Choked and venture – there is no compelling reason to change it.

  184 Choked the respect blocked or smothered the contemplation

  185 o’erset turned bottom up (continuing the nautical imagery), defeated, overwhelmed

  186 *Q’s punctuation unambiguously turns body and goods into direct objects – ‘All of us shall put forth our bodies and our goods’ – and better preserves the mercantile metaphor than F does. By separating the last three words from the rest of the line with a comma, causing ‘we will all put forth’ to be read as a complete clause, F sets body and goods in ambiguous apposition either to the subject we (if all modifies the subject) or to the direct object all.

  put forth hazard, invest (as venture capital); if F’s punctuation is adopted, possibly set out, as to sea

  182 ’twas] Q (twas); was F 183 ventured … proposed,] QF; ventur’d, … propos’d Capell 186 forth body] Q; forth; Body, F

  189–209 *lines omitted from Q, possibly for their political content, though they may have been deemed unnecessary because they anticipate 1.3. Their omission leaves Morton with only two lines of an unfinished sentence and makes Northumberland’s reply at 210 unfathomable. The omitted lines telescope historical time and conflate Holinshed’s accounts: Morton’s report of the Archbishop’s being ‘up / With well-appointed powers’ alludes to the Prelate’s Rebellion – the result of deliberations dramatized in 1.3 – which occurred in May 1405, nearly two years after the Battle of Shrewsbury was fought on 21 July 1403.

  189 gentle well-born and genteel, of noble character

  Archbishop of York Richard Scrope, who, according to Worcester in 1H4 1.3.265–6, ‘bears hard / His brother’s death at Bristol, the Lord [William] Scrope’ – presumably at the hands of Bolingbroke. Shakespeare follows Holinshed in making the two Scropes brothers, although they were in fact distant cousins. See List of Roles, 9n.

  190 well-appointed powers a well-equipped army

  191 double surety both temporal and spiritual authority. Hotspur’s authority, in contrast, was only temporal, as the following lines explain.

  192 corpse bodies without souls. F’s ‘Corpes’ is an obsolete spelling of the plural form of ‘corps’, meaning body.

  196–7 constrained … potions like men forced to take medicine

  197–8 that … Seemed only probably modifies weapons, and that implies consequence: ‘so that only their weapons seemed on our side’. This reading would contrast the physical alliance of bodies (195) and weapons, constrained to fight for the rebel cause, with the spirits and souls at odds with rebellion. Alternatively, if only modifies Seemed, the implication would be that the men’s weapons, despite appearances, were not really engaged on our side because their souls were not in the fight.

  188 dare] Q; do F 189–209] F; not in Q 192 corpse] F (Corpes); corpse’s Dyce; corpses Collier3

  198–9 but … up two possible readings: (1) As for their spirits and souls, rebellion had frozen them, or (2) Had it not been for their spirits and souls, rebellion would have frozen the men; word, rebellion and it are all in apposition.

  201–2 *F’s punctuation requires Supposed to look back syntactically and modify either insurrection (i.e. the Archbishop considers the insurrection to be sincere and holy) or Bishop (200), where Rowe’s punctuation requires it to look forward and modify He (203). While most editors follow Rowe, F makes perfectly good sense.

  202 Supposed considered (with no suggestion of scepticism)

  204 enlarge his rising extend the scope of his uprising (OED enlarge v. 3a); or increase his own power and status

  204–5 with … stones by invoking the murder of Richard II at Pomfret (Pontefract) Castle; see R2 5.5. The Archbishop may also use Richard’s blood as a holy relic to attract more followers.

  206 Derives traces, obtains (OED v. 6a). The Archbishop claims that his quarrel is sanctioned by God.

  207 bestride stand over so as to protect or defend. Cf. 1H4, where Falstaff asks Hal to bestride him if he falls down in battle (5.1.121–2).

  208 Bolingbroke the surname given to Henry Plantagenet in R2 before he becomes King Henry IV

  209 more and less people of all ranks, referring to social standing rather than numbers

  210 I … before On the conflation of time, see 189–209n.

  212 counsel every man let each man consider

  213 safety and revenge These would seem to be incompatible goals, as Northumberland’s behaviour in 2.3 demonstrates.

  201–2 religion, … thoughts.] F subst. (Religion, … Thoughts:); religion, … thoughts, Rowe 208 Bolingbroke] Pope; Bullingbrooke F

  214 posts express couriers; see Ind.4n. and 37.

  make … speed either (1) make friends (i.e. gather support) quickly, or (2) a personification: make speed your friend

  215 Never … few hyperbolic for the small number of rebels. This lends weight to the first reading of make friends (214) as gathering more support.

  1.2 The scene occurs on a London street, most probably in Eastcheap, where Mistress Quickly keeps her tavern.

  0.1 alone Q’s ‘alone’ may be a vestige of an early draft of the scene in which Falstaff entered without his Page, though more probably ‘alone’ signifies ‘in advance of an attendant’ (Shaaber, Variorium). Cf. the entry of the King at Qb 3.1.0, who also, while ‘alone’, is accompanied by his Page. The physical contrast of the diminutive Page and the fat knight is potentially humorous, and this humour is often magnified in performance when the Page struggles to drag onto the stage a sword and buckler as large as he is. The sword and buckler borne by the Page attest to both Falstaff’s military exploits at Shrewsbury, where he is given credit for killing Hotspur (see 1H4 5.5.156–8), and his status as a knight, which is at issue in this scene. In some productions Falstaff, hobbled by gout (see 229–30, 243–4), enters leaning on a walking stick in a sly parody of Northumberland’s entrance with his nice crutch (see 1.1.145) at 1.1.6.

  0.2 buckler small round shield, usually carried by a handle at the back; sometimes generalized to mean a larger shield

  1 Sirrah a form of address to inferiors, sometimes contemptuous but usually less so when spoken to children (OED sb. 1). Compare its use at 2.1.5, 2.2.157 and 2.4.15, 378.

  giant spoken ironically. Justice Shallow alludes to the Page’s diminutive stature three times, once with similar irony: ‘And welcome, my tall fellow!’ (5.1.56; see also 5.3.30–1, 57). The fact that in TN, too, humorous reference is made to Maria’s size – ‘Some mollification for your giant’ (1.5.199) – suggests that a small boy was acting in Shakespeare’s company.

  to about

  2 water urine. It was common practice for doctors to diagnose disease by inspecting the urine.

  4 party … it person to whom it belonged

  5 knew for was aware of (OED know v. 17)

  215 and] Q; nor F 1.2] Scene II. / Steevens; Scena Tertia. F; not in Q 0.1–2] Q (Enter sir Iohn alone, … buckler.); Enter Falstaffe, and Page. F 5 more] F, Q (moe)

  6 to gird jesting or gibing (OED v.2 4), but, considering Falstaff’s girth, a possible play on confining with a belt or girdle (OED v.1 1)

  6–11 The brain … men As in 1H4 2.4.466–7, Falstaff universalizes himself as the wellspring of humour and humanity.

  7 foolish … clay-man Man, whose flesh is clay, is made of folly. Pope’s emendation to put clay and man in apposition has been widely adopted, but QF’s agreement on the rarely used hyphen to form a compound noun is significant and should be preserved. The Bible regularly refers to flesh as clay: e.g. Isaiah, 64.8: ‘we are the clay, and thou art our potter’, and Job, 13.12: ‘Your memories may be compared vnto ashes, and your bodies to bodies of clay’.

  8 intends to tends to incite. The Oxford editors argue that intends tangles with the three uses of invent on 8–9 and was replaced by the more usual Shakespearean word ‘tends’ in F.

  12 overwhelmed crushed under her body

  14 set … off set in relief, as if a foil, here with reference to discrepant sizes; make conspicuous by contrast (OED set v.1 147e[a])

  15 whoreson son of a whore, used as a coarsely abusive epithet (OED sb. b) but often with jocular familiarity. One of Falstaff’s favourite words.

  mandrake poisonous plant whose forked roots were thought to resemble a man, especially his legs and lower torso; here, probably a glance at the Page’s diminutive size – thus, midget. See 3.2.314n.

  15–16 worn … cap another reference to the Page’s size. Falstaff alludes anachronistically to the Elizabethan fashion of wearing a jewel as decoration on the hat. Cf. Tim 3.7.110–11: ‘He gave me a jewel th’other day, and now he has beat it out of my hat’.

  16 manned attended, but here used ironically, for Falstaff regards his Page as less than a man

  17 agate a semi-precious stone, at times carved with tiny figures, used for seals or set in brooches worn on the hat (see 15–16n.). For an analogous use of agate to signify size, see Mercutio’s description of Queen Mab, who comes ‘In shape no bigger than an agate-stone’ (RJ 1.4.55).

  inset wordplay: either to set a jewel (agate) in a bezel, or rim, of precious metal; or to dress the Page (inset you = set you in)

  7 foolish … clay-man] QF; foolish-compounded-clay, Man Pope 8 intends] Q; tends F 12 overwhelmed] Q (ouerwhelmd); o’rewhelm’d F 14 judgement. Thou] F; iudgement thou Q 17 inset] Q (in-set); sette F

  18 vile suitable for a person of low rank

  18–19 send … jewel Falstaff will return the Page, meanly attired, to the Prince as a badly worked piece of jewellery: for means ‘as’. Cf. 2.2.68–9, where the Prince observes that Falstaff has transformed the Page into an ape.

  19 juvenal juvenile, youth. If pronounced ‘juv’nal’, it might create a homophony sufficient to pun on jewel, in which case, as Weis notes, Falstaff uses a chiasmus: ‘master … jewel … juvenal … master’.

  20 fledge covered with feathers or down; so, figuratively, a beard (OED v. 4). The present here has adjectival force, standing in for the past participle.

  21–2 a beard … hand Falstaff may be alluding to the old wives’ tale that males who masturbate grow hair on their palms, in which case he is bragging that he doesn’t need such an outlet to achieve sexual satisfaction.

  22 off from. Collier’s ‘of’ would have meant the same as ‘on’ when applied to parts of the body.

  23 stick hesitate, scruple (OED v. 15)

  23, 25 a face royal an excellent face, but with a double pun on (1) the face of a king or prince, and (2) the image of the monarch’s face stamped on a coin, called a royal, worth ten shillings

  24 finish it complete the face by giving it a beard

  ’tis … yet because it has no hair on it: Falstaff’s quibble is humorous because a hairless face cannot, of course, have a hair out of place; not a hair also conventionally meant ‘not a whit’.

  25 He … still The Prince’s face will retain its full value – of a royal, or ten shillings – because he will have no need to pay a barber sixpence for a shave.

  26–8 and … bachelor Falstaff may be insinuating, outrageously, that the Prince is a bastard.

  27 writ man attained manhood (OED write v. 11b)

  28 grace a pun on (1) his royal title, and (2) favour, with a possible glance at the Puritans’ assumption of grace which Falstaff implicitly mocks in his comments on London tradesmen, many of whom were Puritans, at 35–42. Cf. 39n. on smoothy-pates.

  18 vile] Q; vilde F 19 jewel – the juvenal] iewel, the iuuenall Q; Iewell. The Iuuenall F 20 fledge] Q; fledg’d F 22 off] Q; on F; of Sisson (Collier) and] Q; not in F 23 God] Q; Heauen F 24 ’tis] Q; it is F 26 he’ll] Q (heele); he will F 28 he’s] Q (hees); he is F

  29–31 What … slops Falstaff, in musing about the Prince, seems to have been half talking to himself; now, he fully addresses the Page.

  29–30 Master Dommelton The tailor’s name is derived from ‘dommel’ (or its variant ‘dumble’, as in F’s ‘Dombledon’), a slang term for a blockhead.

  30–1 satin … slops evidence that Falstaff wishes to cut a proud figure in the world in the wake of winning honours at Shrewsbury. The clothing he has ordered is both fashionable and beyond his means: a short cloak was probably the waist-length, full-sleeved garment known as a Dutch cloak; slops were baggy knee-breeches; and the satin of which they are to be made was extraordinarily expensive. In Annales, Stow remarks that Henry IV’s reign took ‘exceeding pride in garments, gowns with deepe and broade sleeves’ (519); but as Humphreys notes, the sartorial extravagance of which Falstaff is guilty was common in Elizabeth’s reign as well. Her Privy Council periodically inveighed against ‘excesse in apparell’ because it led to ‘the confusion of degrees of all estates … and finally to the impoverishing of the Realme’ (Dyson, entries for 13 February 1597 and 6 July 1597).

  32 procure acquire or obtain, here with the force of offer (OED v. 1)

  32–3 better … Bardolph i.e. collateral; a pledge of payment more reliable than Bardolph’s

  33 bond promissory note; a legal agreement to pay at some future date

  34 security something deposited as a guarantee of future payment, to be forfeited in case of default. Master Dommelton clearly is no dumb-bell.

  35–6 Let … hotter! Falstaff alludes to the parable of Dives, the rich man who for the sin of gluttony is damned to hell, where he cries, ‘sende Lazarus that he may dippe the tippe of his fynger in water, and coole my tongue; for I am tormented in this flambe’ (Luke, 16.24). Falstaff invokes this parable to comment on Bardolph’s fiery nose in 1H4 (3.3.31 – 5: see 48n. below) and again to condemn his recruits as ‘slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth where the glutton’s dogs licked his sores’ (4.2.24 – 6). His readiness to attribute gluttony to others may be an unconscious projection of his own propensity to excess: in damning Bardolph, he ironically damns himself.