242 of] Q; on F SD] Capell; not in QF 244 the other] Q; th’other F ’Tis] Q (Tis); It is F 245 matter if] Q; matter, if F halt] Q (hault), F 248 SD] Capell; Exeunt F; not in Q 1.3] Scene III. / Steevens; Scena Quarta. F; not in Q 0.1–3] Capell subst.; Enter th’Archbishop, Thomas Mowbray (Earle Marshall) the Lord Hastings, Fauconbridge, and Bardolfe. Q; Enter Archbishop, Hastings, Mowbray, and Lord Bardolfe. F 1 cause] Q; causes F known] Q (knowne); kno F; know F2–4

  0.1–3 *Q reproduces verbatim the names in Holinshed, including Fauconbridge, a ghost character who is duly excised from F.

  1 The scene begins in the middle of a debate, the Archbishop’s cause (reason for rebellion) and means (military strength) having already been discussed.

  4 Lord Marshal an officer charged with arranging ceremonies, especially with regulating combats in the lists. The son of the first Duke of Norfolk who had been banished by Richard II as a result of his quarrel with Henry Bolingbroke (see R2 1.3.148–53), Thomas Mowbray did not inherit his father’s dukedom and was allowed to keep the title Earl Marshal only in name, the office having been granted to Westmorland. See 4.1.111n.

  5 well … arms grant that we have good reason to take up arms

  7 in our means with the forces at our disposal

  8 forehead figuratively, a commanding countenance; assurance (OED sb. 2). Dent cites ‘To have an impudent forehead’ as proverbial (F590.1). Cf. the ‘moody frontier’ of defiance put up by the Percys in 1H4 1.3.19.

  9 puissance strength

  10 musters soldiers assembled for service

  upon the file according to the enlistment roll (OED sb. 3c)

  12 supplies reinforcement of troops (OED sb. 5)

  live largely depend to a great extent. With reference to troop reinforcement, however, largely could also refer to large numbers of soldiers (which the rebels hope Northumberland will provide).

  14 incensed figuratively, angered or enraged; incensèd. The line also plays on the literal meaning ‘kindled’, applied to the fire of injuries.

  5 SP] Mow. F; Marsh. Q

  15–17 Shaheen draws a parallel between these lines and Luke, 14.31–2, which becomes even more explicit at 41–62.

  17 hold up head maintain self-respect (OED hold v. 30b); so, encounter the King’s forces with confidence. Cf. ‘look with forehead bold’ (8) for earlier anthropomorphizing of the rebel force.

  18 marry See 1.2.197n.

  21–4, 36–55 *The reason for Q’s failure to include these passages is unclear. Neither is of a particularly political nature, making censorship unlikely. Perhaps they were cut in an attempt to reduce the role of Lord Bardolph.

  22 theme so bloody-faced action so likely to cause bloodshed

  23 An echo of Rumour’s self-anatomy in Ind.16.

  26 young Hotspur’s cause the reason for Hotspur’s death. Q’s cause, meaning ‘the case as it concerns anyone’ (OED sb. 10), is probably correct, though F’s ‘case’, adopted by many editors, averts a repetition of cause at 37. The Archbishop attributes Hotspur’s death to his waging war before he had assurance of support: he relied too much on the expectation of aid. With Q’s omission of 21–4, his attribution grows more pointed: Hotspur’s death is blamed directly on Northumberland’s failure to come to his assistance.

  27 who lined himself who (referring to Hotspur) fortified himself: the metaphor is drawn from clothing, with lining as the reinforcement of a garment. Cf. Lady Percy’s asking Hotspur whether her brother Mortimer ‘hath sent for you / To line his enterprise’ (1H4 2.3.79–80), and the French King’s instructing the Dauphin ‘To line and new-repair our towns of war’ (H5 2.4.7).

  18 Yea] Q; I F 19 too] Q; to F 21–4] F; not in Q 24 incertain] F1–2; uncertain F3–4 26 cause] Q; case F 27 was, my lord,] was (my Lord) F; was my Lord, Q

  28 Eating … promise ‘A man cannot live upon air’ is proverbial for feeding on false hopes (Dent, M226). Hotspur’s hope lay in the promise of supplies from his father (see 12n.) which never arrived. Q’s and yokes air and promise in a hendiadys as if they were the same thing, the promise no more substantial than air, where F’s ‘on’ more conventionally makes promise the cause of Hotspur’s false hope. Cf. Ham 3.2.89–90: ‘I eat the air, promise-crammed’.

  29 project anticipation

  29, 32, 71 power, powers army, troops

  30 Much smaller i.e. which turned out to be much smaller

  32 Proper to madmen befitting madmen. Cf. MND 5.1.7–8: ‘The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of imagination all compact’. Hotspur’s crazed imagination of heroic exploits elicits comment from his confederates in 1H4: ‘Imagination of some great exploit / Drives him beyond the bounds of patience’ (1.3.198–9); ‘He apprehends a world of figures here, / But not the form of what he should attend’ (208–9).

  33 winking closing his eyes to the truth; perhaps suggested by the proverbial ‘Look ere you leap’ (Dent, L429)

  35 lay down consider

  forms of hope estimates of what we may hope for

  36–41 *Yes … them These lines have caused consternation among readers and editors alike, in part because the first two may be corrupt, possibly damaged when 36–55 was marked for deletion in the Q copy. The more important editorial interventions are recorded in the textual notes. I have adhered to F, changing the punctuation slightly to clarify what I take to be Lord Bardolph’s rejoinder to Hastings’s assertion that it does not hurt to nurse hopes: ‘Yes, it does hurt, if the war we are contemplating – indeed, the impending campaign of foot – is grounded in hopes no surer than those we entertain of an early spring when we see the first buds, fully aware that they are likely to be blighted by frost before they have a chance to blossom.’ It is possible to read Lord Bardolph’s admonition as somewhat more conciliatory, with Yes, if understood differently: ‘I agree, provided the war we are contemplating … is not grounded on hopes as unreasonable as those …’.

  28 and] Q; on F 29 in] Q; with F 36–55 Yes … else] F; not in Q 36–7] F (Yes, if … warre, / Indeed … action: a … foot); Yes, if … war / Impede … act; a … foot Pope; Yes, if the … war / Impede the present action. A … foot Capell; Yes, in … war; – / Indeed … action, (a … foot) Malone

  36 quality occasion, cause (OED sb. 8b)

  37 instant imminent, impending (OED adj. 3)

  cause on foot business (OED cause sb. 10) involving foot-soldiers (OED foot sb. 4); therefore, a campaign of foot. Oxf1 reads the phrase more idiomatically: ‘the matter that is now afoot’.

  38 so … as F’s punctuation suggests that as begins a new sentence, where I take it to introduce a simile which explains so in hope.

  39–41 to prove … them Structured as an antithesis, these lines argue that hope for the buds’ ripening (to prove fruit) is less warranted than despair that frost will kill them. Both Hope and despair are subjects of the verb gives.

  41–62 When … tyranny This elaborate analogy between preparing for war and constructing a building draws on the parable of the builder in Luke, 14.28–32.

  42 model architectural plans or elevations (OED sb. 1)

  43 figure design

  44 rate calculate (OED v.1 2)

  45 ability i.e. to meet expenses

  47 In fewer offices with fewer rooms; specifically, perhaps, those rooms devoted to household work or service (OED office sb. 9)

  at least at worst

  48 this great work i.e. the war we are undertaking

  49 pluck pull by force

  51 plot of situation a play on (1) land site for building, and (2) plan of action

  52 Consent agree

  38 hope as] Globe; hope: As F; hope, as Rowe 39–40 fruit … as] F (fruit, … warrant, as) 47 offices, or] Collier2; offices? Or F least] F; last Capell

  53 surveyors those who superintend the construction; contractors (OED sb. 2)

  estate money, property, possessions; in this case, resources for war

  54 ‘whether we are able to undertake, our resources to support, such a work’

  55 weigh against counterbalance, countervail (OED weigh v.1 16d)

  his opposite adverse conditions, or the resources of our enemy; his = its, and estate (53) its antecedent

  56–62 *Although these lines provide an apt summary and conclusion of the analogy developed above, they stand on their own quite effectively. Q’s omission of 36–55, therefore, a case of skilful splicing, does not disrupt the logic of the scene.

  56 fortify strengthen structurally (a building), or augment (our forces)

  in paper … figures a hendiadys: by means of figures on paper; figures are numerical estimates backed by no actual support of troops, but may also refer to designs, as at 43.

  59 power means

  60 part-created cost metonymic for the half-finished house, cost referring to the money already spent on it

  61–2 The rebels’ concern about their own political disenfranchisement by an ungrateful king may lie behind the metaphor of the house as a naked subject abused by winter’s tyranny.

  62 waste for something wasted or destroyed by (OED sb. 6c)

  63 yet … birth still likely to yield the desired results

  65 ‘all the men we can expect’

  66 a body understood as corporate: an organized force (OED sb. 16). Q’s ‘so’ is probably a compositorial error.

  55 To] F; How Capell; And Hudson (Staunton) opposite;] Theobald; Opposite? F 57 instead] F, Q (in steed) 58 one] F; on Q an] Q; a F 59 through] F; thorough Q 66 we are a] F; we are so, Q; we’re so a (Collier)

  69 To us so far as concerns us

  nay … much a phrase echoed in Ham 1.2.138

  70 as … brawl responding to the present disturbances: brawl = wrangle, squabble (OED v. 1)

  71 Are F’s alternative to Q’s ‘And’ is reasonable in view of the frequent r/n and e/d misreadings in Elizabethan secretary hand.

  heads gatherings of forces (OED sb. 30)

  against the French probably referring to the expedition led by the Earl of Kent and the Duke of Clarence in the summer of 1405 (Holinshed, 3.528–9)

  72 Glendower I adopt the QF spelling Glendower, which until recently has been sanctioned by editors, because it probably indicates the anglicized pronunciation of the Welsh Glyndŵr (pronounced Glin-dᵫr’), the authentic form embraced by recent editors. The spelling Glendour used at QbF 3.1.103 is a variant of Glendower and no doubt pronounced the same.

  73 take up encounter, oppose (OED take v. 93p)

  74 sound possibly from the proverb ‘Empty vessels sound most’ (Dent, V36). Holinshed refers numerous times to Henry’s impecuniousness and to his desperate requests for funds from the clergy and laity alike (e.g. 3.525, 530). For similar use of the proverb, see H5 4.4.69 and KL 1.1.154–5.

  76 strengths forces, armies

  79–80 *the French … heels F corrects an obvious error in Q, in which the printer apparently misunderstood an intended substitution in the copy-text. ‘French and Welch’ had probably been written in the margin or interlined between 78 and 79 to replace ‘they’, but instead was inserted by the printer in the line above, resulting in nonsense.

  68 What,] Q; What F 71 Are] F; And Q 72 Glendower] QF; Glyndŵr Oxf 78 to] Q; not in F 78–80 If … that.] F; prose Q 79] F; French and Welch he leaues his back vnarmde, they Q; To French, and Welsh, he leaves his back unarm’d, / They Capell

  80 Baying … heels Hastings metaphorically views war as a hunt, with the King as the fox and the French and Welsh as hounds in close pursuit.

  81 an anomalous line: Lord Bardolph asks for information already provided him by Morton at 1.1.132–5. For Shakespeare’s probable conflation of two roles – Bardolph’s and Umfreville’s – during the process of revision, and the resulting confusion of which this line is evidence, see 1.1.34n.

  82 Duke of Lancaster a mistaken designation for Prince John, who, though born at Lancaster and so designated by Holinshed – ‘the lord Iohn of Lancaster’ (3.529) – was actually created Duke of Bedford in 1411 (Holinshed, 3.546), after the events dramatized in this play, and is so named in H5. Shakespeare’s confusion may have originated in Stow, who in describing Henry’s coronation reports that ‘his second sonne was there made duke of Lancast[er]’ (Annales, 513). Shakespeare apparently thinks of John as next in line to Harry, but Henry’s second son was Thomas, also called the Duke of Clarence (Ard2). John is referred to as ‘Lancaster’ in 1H4 as well (5.4.0.2, 2, 16).

  84 substituted deputed, delegated (OED v. 1c). GWW defends Ridley’s reading by conjecturing that ‘substitute’ was a noun meant to parallel the proper names in the preceding lines: i.e. Lancaster and Westmorland against the northern rebels, the King and Prince Henry against the Welsh, and some substitute against the French. F’s ‘’gainst’ may have been intended to regularize the metrics of the line.

  85 notice information

  85–108 *ARCHBISHOP … worst The Archbishop’s speech appears only in F, but the fact that the first three words (Let us on) complete 85 as a line of iambic pentameter, which in Q remains an irregular line, suggests that the speech, rather than being a later addition, was cut from Q. It may have been cut for political reasons, or possibly to shorten the play for performance when it was not deemed essential to draw historical connections between 2H4 and R2..

  85 on proceed

  86 publish … arms make known the reasons for our insurrection

  84 substituted against] Q; substituted ’gainst F; substitute against Ridley 85–108 ARCHBISHOP Let … worst.] F; not in Q

  88 i.e. the people’s allegiance (love) to Henry, excessive in its self-interest (over-greedy), has made them sick. The idea of surfeiting was commonly used to figure political disaffection; here, the Archbishop claims that the people have only themselves to blame.

  89–90 a proverb from Luke, 6.49: ‘But he that heareth and doeth not, is lyke a man, that without foundation, built an house vpon the earth, agaynst which the fludde dyd beate, and it fel immediatly: And the fall of that house was great’.

  89 giddy foolish, mad

  90 vulgar common, as opposed to aristocratic

  91–3 possibly an echo of Daniel’s account of the fickleness of the populace in changing their allegiance from Richard to Bolingbroke: ‘the malecontented sort / That loue kings best before they haue them still’ (CW, 1.71). Cf. the Duke of York’s account of Bolingbroke’s entry into London (R2 5.2.7–21).

  91 fond many foolish multitude

  93 what … be i.e. king

  94 trimmed … desires dressed in the garments you yourselves wanted (OED trim v. 7); or possibly, in view of the imagery of feeding in 95–6, a reference to dressing food for the table (Cam2). In brief: ‘Now that you have got what you wanted’.

  95–6 The imagery of animal gluttony, incarnated in this play by Falstaff, returns to that of surfeit introduced at 87–8.

  96 cast him up vomit him up, purge yourself of him; provok’st thyself implies that the vomiting is self-induced; cf. H5 3.2.60. These lines about surfeiting and sickness would have brought to mind Falstaff, whose fatness was emblematic of the kingdom’s ills.

  97–100 So … it a common proverb (see Dent, D455) deriving from Proverbs, 26.11: ‘Like as the dogge turneth agayne to his owne vomite: euen so a foole beginneth his foolishness agayne afresh’. It is repeated in 2 Peter, 2.22, which in turn is quoted in French by the Dauphin in H5 3.7.65–6. The portrayal of the multitude as a common or mongrel dog eager to devour the dead king it has just disgorged registers a disgust at the fickleness of the mob equalled in Shakespeare only by Coriolanus.

  94 trimmed] F (trimm’d); trimm’d up F2–4

  98 bosom stomach; but also a figurative play on the breast as the seat of desire, where first Richard, then Bolingbroke, has been lodged in popular affection (OED bosom sb. 6)

  99 dead vomit The adjective, rightfully belonging to Richard (98) and therefore a hypallage, or transferred epithet, yields a grotesque personification of vomit. Cf. 1.1.147n.

  102 on of

  103–5 a further recollection of the Duke of York’s report in R2 5.2 (cf. 91–3n.), where ‘rude misgoverned hands from windows’ tops / Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard’s head’ (5–6), and ‘dust was thrown upon his sacred head’ (30) as he followed the triumphant Bolingbroke through London. An echo of 2 Samuel, 16.13, is also possible (Ard2).

  105 th’admired th’admirèd

  107 accursed modifies either thoughts or men

  108 F’s italicization of and opening quotation marks for this line lend it the force of an aphorism; furthermore, the line completes a couplet, signalling the end of the speech. As such, it might make an appropriate exit line for the Archbishop: he has begun his speech with Let us on (85) and would logically exit at its conclusion, expecting the others to follow immediately. But they do not: Mowbray’s Shall we … set on? (109) seems to question whether they should follow the Archbishop, just as he has earlier doubted the wisdom of proceeding against the King (5–9), while Hastings’s reply (110) affirms his obedience to a force greater than himself. The absence of a final exit SD in F leaves open the possibility of staggered exits. Q precludes this possibility: see 109n.

  seems For a singular verb used with a plural subject, see 1.1.33n.

  109 draw our numbers assemble our army. Q, having omitted the Archbishop’s long speech at 85–108, assigns this final line to him as the senior ranking person present.

  106 Cry’st] Ard2; Cri’st F; Criest Dyce 108] italicized and with opening quotation marks F 109 SP] Mow. F; Bish. Q 110 SD] Q (ex.); Theobald; not in F

  2.1 Like 1.2, this scene takes place on a street, presumably near the Hostess’s tavern in Eastcheap

  0.1 *Q’s permissive ‘an Officer or two’ makes it likely that the compositor was working from a holograph: Shakespeare intended the appearance of a second officer, Snare, but had not yet decided when to have him enter. F solves the problem with its massed entry, but the Hostess’s questioning Snare’s whereabouts at 3 and Fang’s asking for him at 5 suggest than he has not yet entered. Alternatively, he may merely be lagging behind and make his presence known at 7.