36 whoreson See 15n.

  Achitophel the Old Testament counsellor who deserted King David for Absolom (2 Samuel, 15–16). Falstaff implicitly accuses the tailor of treachery.

  30 Dommelton] Q; Dombledon F 31 my] Q; not in F 33 bond] F (Bond); band Q 35–6 Pray God] Q; may F

  37 *rascal … knave – Q’s punctuation is ambiguous: the colon after ‘rascall’ may suggest that the next phrase is a direct address to the Page (the ‘knaue’), in which case Falstaff’s use of the mild oath yea forsooth may be a vestige of his original incarnation as the proto-Puritan Oldcastle; yet the colon also may be meant to set off yea forsooth as mimicry of the tradesman’s obsequious manner of speaking, and to place ‘knaue’ in apposition to ‘rascall’: that is the option selected here. In F, ‘Rascally-yea-forsooth’ becomes an adjectival phrase modifying ‘knaue’, here unambiguously referring to the tailor, whose use of such oaths Falstaff mocks as a sign of his fawning respectability. GWW’s conjecture that the article ‘a’ should precede knave would allow knave to stand in apposition to both rascal and Achitophel.

  forsooth in truth

  37–8 bear … hand keep a man in expectation; assure him or lead him on (OED bear v. 3e). Falstaff insists on his status as a gentleman – a man of gentle birth, entitled to bear arms and so to be extended credit without putting up collateral – in contrast to a bourgeois shopkeeper.

  38 stand upon insist upon, demand (OED stand v. 78m)

  39 smoothy-pates Puritan tradesmen who, in contempt of fashion, cropped their hair short and later came to be known as Roundheads. Falstaff’s attack on Puritan hypocrisy allows Shakespeare to satirize the smug, increasingly vocal London merchants who were opposed to the theatre. See also 28n.

  high shoes High cork-soled shoes were a sign of pride and would reveal the tradesmen’s social aspirations – especially ironic if the tradesmen are identified as Puritans (see Linthicum, 252–3).

  40 bunches of keys i.e. as tokens of weighty business affairs; another wry glance at the self-importance of the emergent tradesmen class

  girdles belts worn around the waist to secure garments, and to which articles could be fastened

  40–1 is … up has come to an agreement (OED through adv. 3b) with them to make an honest puchase on credit (OED take v. 93d)

  42 had as lief would be just as glad if. Q’s ‘liue’ is a variant spelling of F’s ‘lieve’ or ‘liefe’ (lief).

  43 ratsbane rat poison

  offer to stop presume to fill

  44 looked expected

  ’a the colloquial form of ‘he’, regularly used by Falstaff

  44–5 two … yards an extravagant amount of satin; see 30–1n.

  37 rascal … knave – ] Q (rascall: yea forsooth knaue,); Rascally-yea-forsooth-knaue, F knave] a knave (conj. GWW) 39 smoothy-pates] Q; smooth-pates F 42 lief] F (liefe), Q (liue) 44 ’a] Q; hee F

  45 a true knight Falstaff’s staking his word on his knighthood is defensive, for he is often demeaned by the social inferiors with whom he keeps company – and here, by a lowly tailor. He represents a class of knight, common in Elizabeth’s reign, who had a title but no land or money; yet by claiming true knighthood, he protests his credit-worthiness. His claim to gentility at 37–8 is similar. On the status of knighthood in Elizabethan England, see Stone, 71–81; on the failure of knights, as gentlemen soldiers, to prosper under Elizabeth, see A. Ferguson, 101–5; and on the economic anxiety of war veterans for whom pensions were not assured, see Jorgensen, World, 210–13.

  46 Well he Q’s punctuation preserves the irony of a husband’s sleeping soundly (Well) in ignorance of his wife’s infidelity; F’s does not.

  2security here used in a triple sense, each one different from its meaning earlier in the scene (cf. 34n., 42, 43): (1) freedom from care, (2) financial well-being, and (3) certainty of his wife’s fidelity. Falstaff may once again be using an ecclesiastical idiom, for, as Humphreys notes, Archbishop Sandys in his eleventh sermon harps on ‘[t]he sleep of error, or sin, and of security’ as tantamount to spiritual lethargy (Sermons, 208, 210–12).

  47 horn of abundance plays on various meanings. As a cornucopia, it signifies the tailor’s financial prosperity. Horns also provided the translucent material used to make lanterns, or, in Shakespeare’s preferred spelling, ‘lanthorns’ (49). Most suggestively, the horn was metonymic for a cuckold, a derisive epithet for a husband whose wife had committed adultery. The man who has a horn of abundance is therefore one who bears the shame of having a promiscuous wife. Falstaff, however, intimates that the tailor’s prosperity may be due to his willingness to turn a blind eye to his wife’s infidelities. The cuckolding of fastidious tradesmen by their sexually unsatisfied wives was a common jest in city comedy.

  47–50 the lightness … him The light which shines through the lantern also betokens the wantonness (OED lightness sb. 7b) of a wife which metaphorically illuminates her husband’s horn; yet despite having such a light on his own head, he remains blind to his situation. QF’s spelling of lantern as lanthorn preserves the play on horn and continues the passage’s ridicule of the tailor as a cuckold: pronouncing the word as written would have made the point clear.

  48 where’s Bardolph? F moves this question to the end of Falstaff’s speech, but, as Melchiori argues, Q’s placement of it is more subtle: it suggests an interruption spurred by Falstaff’s unconscious association of Bardolph with the imagery of lighted lanterns, hell-fire and the parable of Dives he has been using to characterize the tailor. Cf. his speech to Bardolph in 1H4: ‘[T]hou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp… . I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that lived in purple: for there he is in his robes, burning, burning… . Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern’ (3.3.25–43).

  45 a] Q; not in F 46 Well he] Q; Well, he F 48 it … and] Q (it: wheres Bardolf, &); it, and F

  51 in to

  Smithfield from early times to 1855, the market for horses, cattle and sheep occupying a level or smooth (smethe) field of five to six acres north of Newgate and west of Aldgate. Smithfield horses were frequently the butt of jokes: cf. 53–5n.

  53–5 Falstaff echoes a proverb first recorded in Simon Robson’s Choise of Change (1585): ‘A man must not make choice of three things in three places: of a wife in Westminster, of a servant in Paul’s, of a horse in Smithfield, least he choose a quean, a knave or a jade.’ See Dent, W276.

  53 Paul’s The nave of St Paul’s Cathedral had become a kind of employment office where servants without masters would advertise their services.

  54 An if

  55 stews brothels. For an explanation of the term, see 2.4.146–7n.

  55.1 *and Servant Q’s omission is clearly an oversight, since the Servant has a speaking role. The Lord Chief Justice is traditionally followed by a tipstaff (a court officer or bailiff) whenever he appears in public.

  56–7 Elyot’s Gouernour (2.6) and Stow’s Annales (547–8) record that Prince Henry threatened but did not in fact strike the Lord Chief Justice. The legendary incident, a later accretion, was dramatized in Famous Victories, 4.69 – ‘He giveth him a box on the ear’ – and Shakespeare’s audience undoubtedly was familiar with it. Only here, however, is Bardolph named as the cause of the altercation; sources identify him merely as a servant to the Prince.

  56 committed imprisoned

  58 Wait close ‘Let’s wait nearby.’ That Falstaff is referring to himself rather than commanding his Page is evident from ‘I will not [do not wish to] see him’.

  59 What’s who’s

  60 an’t if it, conventionally followed by ‘please you’ as a deferential phrase spoken to those of higher rank

  49 lanthorn] QF (lanthorne) 50 him.] Q; him. Where’s Bardolfe? F 51 in] Q; into F 54 An] Q (and); If F but] Q; not in F 55.1 Lord] Q; not in F and Servant] F; not in Q

  61 in … robbery under judicial inquiry for the robbery at Gad’s Hill. Cf. 1H4 2.4.492–510.

  62–3 good … Shrewsbury a reference to his (unearned) reputation for having killed Hotspur; see 0.1n.

  64 charge troops under his command. Cf. 1H4 3.3.185: ‘a charge of foot’.

  65 to York information fleshed out at 200–2 and consistent with 1H4, where the King dispatches Prince John and Westmorland ‘Towards York … /To meet Northumberland and the prelate Scrope’ (5.5.36–7).

  70 pluck grab; not a decorous way of getting one’s attention

  73–4 What … wars? As a ruse to ignore the Lord Chief Justice, Falstaff pretends to mistake the servant for a young beggar who, because the country is at war, could easily find gainful employment as a soldier. Beholding such sloth, he feigns moral indignation. On the use of the singular verb Is with the plural noun wars, see 1.1.33n.

  75 lack subjects i.e. owing to the number of rebels

  76 any … one that is, the King’s

  78–9 were … it ‘even if that side were worse than rebellion itself could devise’

  80 mistake me are wrong about what I am: i.e. I am not a beggar.

  61 robbery] F, Q (rob’ry) 69 anything] QF (any thing) 70 SD] Oxf1 subst. 72 John?] Q; Iohn. F 73 begging] Q; beg F 75 need] Q; want F soldiers?] F; souldiers, Q

  81 Falstaff deliberately misinterprets mistake me by claiming that he has not misjudged the servant’s character.

  82 Setting … aside i.e. because it is inconceivable that knights and soldiers would ever lie – a typically Falstaffian hyperbole. Cf. 1H4 3.3.119–20: ‘setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so’.

  83 had … throat would have lied egregiously. To lie in one’s throat was a familiar tag of which Tilley (T268) records numerous instances dating from 1590, and Wilson, Dictionary, from 1576 (460a).

  85 give me leave allow me (leave = permission, liberty)

  88–9 *I give … me? Q’s punctuation is problematic. It makes sense only if the two clauses can be seen to imply a subjunctive followed by a condition: ‘If I were to give … , so I would lay aside … .’; and GWW speculates that an initial ‘If’ may indeed have been omitted in the copy-text for Q. F attempts to clarify the relationship between the two clauses by turning them both into questions in which Falstaff responds with mock outrage to each of the things the Servant asks him to do: set aside his knighthood, and give him leave to call Falstaff a liar.

  89 grows to belongs to, is an integral part of (that is, his dignity as a knight and soldier)

  90 2thou … be it would be better for you to be

  91 You hunt counter in effect, ‘You’re barking up the wrong tree’. Dogs were said to hunt counter if they followed the scent in a direction opposite that in which the game had gone: in CE, for example, Antipholus of Ephesus is jailed by ‘A hound that runs counter’ (4.2.39). F’s hyphenation, however, makes ‘Hunt-counter’ unambiguously an epithet meaning a catchpole, a petty officer in charge of arresting debtors. Equally derogatory, both alternatives – the verb phrase and the epithet – work in this context.

  Avaunt! ‘Begone! Away!’

  95 abroad out of doors

  81 sir, did] Q; sir? Did F man?] F; man, Q 88 me so?] F; me, so Q 89 me? If] F; me, if Q 91 hunt counter] Q; Hunt-counter F 94 God] Q; not in F 95 of] Q; of the F

  97 by advice with the permission of a doctor

  98 clean entirely

  98–9 smack … ague lingering signs of sickness; that is, he does not look well. Falstaff’s impudent strategy in these lines is to deflect the Justice’s interrogation by projecting his own infirmities onto him. F’s ‘smack of age’, however, stands in more precise apposition to the saltness of time (99) in contrast to youth (98).

  99 relish trace. Both smack and relish invoke taste.

  saltness of unknown origin, but probably referring to the tang of meat preserved in brine; saltness of time would thus be an unflattering metaphor for old age.

  102–3 The Lord Chief Justice had summoned Falstaff to appear before the King’s Bench on charges of robbery before Falstaff was given a military command: see 61n.

  104–5 his majesty … Wales probably a conflation of (1) a march into Wales against the forces of Glendower and the Earl of March announced by the King after the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 (see 1H4 5.5.39–40) – a march which never took place owing to lack of funds (Holinshed, 3.524), and (2) the luckless Welsh expedition made two years later, as a follow-up to Gaultree, during which the King lost fifty of his cannon in bad weather (Holinshed, 3.530). Falstaff once again attempts to divert the Justice’s interrogation, this time by discussing yet another sick old man, the King; and he succeeds in doing so until 132.

  109 whoreson apoplexy King Henry’s illness, a paralysis whose symptoms and causes Falstaff aptly catalogues at 112–18, was chronicled by Otterbourne in 1408. Some writers identified the disease as leprosy, inflicted on Henry as divine punishment for his murder of Richard II or execution of Archbishop Scrope, but Hall dismisses this as falsehood, as does Holinshed, who argues that the King suffered ‘a sore sickness, which was not a leprosy stricken by the hand of God … as foolish friars imagined, but a very apoplexy, of the which he languished till his appointed hour’ (3.541). For whoreson, see 15n.

  98 have] Q; hath F 99 an ague] Q; age F 100 in you] Q; not in F 102 for] Q; not in F 102–3 expedition] Q; Expedition, F 104 An’t] Q (Andt); If it F 107 you.] Q; you? F

  113–14 sleeping … blood deprivation of sense or motion

  115 What why

  116 it original its origin. Shakespeare never used the possessive pronoun ‘its’; ‘it’ as a possessive was common. But ‘his’ was the usual possessive, as at 118.

  study worry, stress (OED sb. 3a)

  117 perturbation disturbance. In Elizabethan treatises on physiology, ‘perturbation’ usually applies to the soul rather than the body. Cf. 4.3.154, and R3 5.3.160–2, MA 2.1.238–9 and Mac 5.1.9–10.

  118 his its

  Galen Claudius Galen, Greek physician (AD 129–99), regarded as the foremost authority on medicine as late as the 16th century

  121 SP The survival of ‘Old.’ in Q suggests that Shakespeare may have begun writing 2H4 before Oldcastle’s name was changed to Falstaff or, alternatively, that he simply forgot.

  123 marking paying attention

  124 punish … heels put you in irons or in the stocks (OED heel sb.1 18)

  126 physician with an implication that a judge, like a doctor, administers corrective medicine. Falstaff plays on the analogy at 128–32.

  127–8 as poor … patient a conflation of two proverbs drawn from Job, 1–2: ‘As poor as Job’ and ‘As patient as Job’ (Dent, J60, 59). Falstaff puns on patient as someone under a physician’s care.

  110 God] Q; heauen F you] Q; not in F 112 as … is] Q (as I take it? is); is (as I take it) F 113 an’t … lordship] Q; not in F in] Q; of F 115 it? Be] F; it, be Q 116 it] QF1–2; its F3–4 121 SP] F (Fal.); Old. Q 125 do become] Q; be F

  128 minister the potion administer the medicine

  129 in … poverty i.e. because I have no money to pay any fine. Falstaff may be implying that the practice of imprisoning debtors is unfair.

  how in what way or manner, why (OED adv. 1a, 1c)

  131 make … scruple The OED cites this as the first instance of ‘scruple’ being used to mean ‘hesitate to believe’ (sb.2 2b), but the sense of hesitation with regard to right and wrong – ‘scruple’ indicating moral compunction (sb.2 1) – also obtains. In the first reading, Falstaff would imply that the Justice’s prescriptions have no power to reform him, because Falstaff’s nature is unregenerate. In the second, he would aver that the wise doubt whether the Justice should administer corrective measures to him, because such punishment is undeserved. In these two readings, the force of how (129) would change accordingly, from the degree to which Falstaff could be reformed to why or whether he should be so. With dram and scruple he continues the play on medical terminology: a dram in apothecaries’ weight was 60 grains, or one-eighth of an ounce, and a scruple was one-third of a dram. Cf. Malvolio in TN: ‘no dram of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple’ (3.4.76).

  133–4 matters … life charges brought against you (for the robbery at Gad’s Hill) which might, if proved, lead to the death penalty

  135–6 learned … land-service Falstaff may point to his sword and buckler as the learned counsel who advised him on the laws of war, according to which a military command, or land-service to the King, took precedence over the Justice’s summons.

  139–40 Falstaff quibbles on the Justice’s phrase live in … infamy as if it referred to wearing garments, in which case great at 137 would refer to clothing size.

  136 land-service] F; land seruice Q 139 himself] Q; him F 141 are] Q; is F waste] Q; wast F 142 is] Q; not in F

  144 greater Following Betterton, Berger and Williams (Notes, 3.240 ff.) argue that ‘great’ provides a better rhetorical balance with slender – and a closer echo of the Justice’s wording – than greater does, that QF are therefore in error, and that the error originated when the Q compositor changed the term ‘great’ in MS copy to accord with what he assumed to be the comparative form slender (= slenderer) in the same line.

  *waist slender As the pun on waist is homophonic, the QF spelling offers no contradiction. Falstaff attempts to reverse the Justice’s appraisal of his character with clever wordplay. Although F’s use of the comparative form ‘slenderer’ balances greater more exactly than Q’s slender does, it is also consistent with the scribe’s attempt throughout the copy-text for F to regularize grammar and to clear up minor inconsistencies. Q’s slender makes perfectly good sense.