192 SD Exeunt] F; not in Q at separate doors] this edn 2.2] Scena Secunda. F; not in Q 0.1] Rowe; Enter the Prince, Poynes, sir Iohn Russel, with other. Q; Enter Prince Henry, Pointz, Bardolfe, and Page. F 1 Before God] Q; Trust me F 2 Is’t] Q; Is it F

  1 I … weary The Prince’s weariness may be a sign of despondency, or it may result from his having just ridden back from Wales. In MV, written perhaps in the same year, both Antonio and Portia open scenes (1.1, 1.2) with similar expressions of weariness.

  3 attached seized, laid hold of (OED v. 3b). The word is used in its legal sense of ‘take into custody’ at 4.1.337.

  3 high blood exalted rank. Poins is making a facetious remark about the exemption of royals from common complaints.

  4–5 discolours … greatness makes my royalty blush in shame

  6 vilely unseemly, meanly (as of rank or social condition)

  small beer weak or watered-down beer, typically only 3% or 4% proof and a staple in the diet of women and children; figuratively, trifling matters, small things (OED beer sb. 1b) – the implication being that a prince should by nature prefer strong drink and manly pursuits

  7 loosely studied badly educated, or dissolute in his habits

  8, 10 remember think of, or recall, with longing (OED v. 2a)

  8 so … composition a brew so low in alcohol content, or a companion so low-born. With more sarcasm than sympathy for Harry’s dilemma, Poins would perhaps include himself among such companions. The play on composition as a literary exercise continues from studied (7).

  9 Belike probably, perhaps

  not princely got that is, adulterated by behaviour (or by low-born companions) unbefitting a prince

  10 creature a substance which ministers to the physical comfort of humankind, and thus, humorously, liquor (OED sb. 1c, 1d). For a similar usage, see Oth. 2.3.304–5: ‘good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used’.

  12 out … greatness unhappy with my exalted position and responsibilities; or, unable to fulfil the expectations of my rank

  12–14 What … tomorrow an allusion to the belief that a member of the royal family should not mix with, or deign to recognize, commoners; but such snobbery was most typical among parvenus, as Shakespeare implies in KJ 1.1.186–7: ‘if his name be George, I’ll call him Peter; / For new-made honour doth forget men’s names’. Cf. Middleton, Your Five Gallants, 2.3.87–9, and Jonson, The Devil Is an Ass, 2.8.6–10.

  4 Faith, it does] Q; It doth F 6 vilely] F4; vildly Q; vildely F1–3 10 by my troth] Q; (in troth) F

  15 with these apart from these which you have on

  15–16 these … once The implication is that Poins has only two pairs of stockings, just as he has only two shirts (17–18): the pair he has on (these) and another pair (those) that used to be peach-coloured – a shade of pink favoured by courtiers – but have faded from wear, the past tense were justifying Q’s once. Though F’s substitution of ‘ones’ for once is elected by most editors, perhaps because thy seems to invite it, Q makes the Prince’s critique of Poins’s wardrobe more pointed.

  16 bear i.e. bear in mind

  17–18 one … use one for a spare, another to wear. Harry may be mocking Poins for owning only two; but like stockings, shirts were costly markers of social status. Stubbes, in Anatomy of Abuses (1583), scathingly censures the extravagance of those who wear them for fashion: ‘Their Shirtes … are eyther of Camericke, Holland, Lawne, or els of the finest cloth that may be got. And of these kinds of Shirts euery one now doth weare alike … I haue heard of shirtes that haue cost, some ten shillings, some twentie, some fourty, some fiue pound, some twenty Nobles & (which is horrible to heare) some ten pound a peece’ (94). Falstaff has earlier bragged, ‘I take but two shirts out with me’ to the wars (1.2.208), a sign that he intends not to exert himself, unlike Poins at tennis.

  18 that direct object of knows

  tennis-court Tennis had become a popular sport in London, and courts abounded, though Puritans tended to frown on them as little different from ale-houses, dicing-houses, brothels and other dens of iniquity. Cf. the anonymous Elizabethan play Lingua: Or, The Combat of the Tongue, 3.4: ‘In truth, sir, I was here before, and missing you, went back into the city, sought you in every alehouse, inn, tavern, dicing-house, tennis-court, stews, and such like places, likely to find your worship in’ (Dodsley, 9.391).

  19–20 it … there only running out of shirts could prevent you from playing there. Tennis players apparently changed shirts frequently during a match: Cowl (Ard1) cites Fletcher, Honest Man’s Fortune, 3.1: ‘How long doth that [a lord’s affection] last? perhaps the changing of some three shirts in the Tennis-Court’, and Jonson, Cynthia’s Revels, 2.1.66–8: ‘he dares tell ’hem, how many shirts he has sweat at tennis that weeke’.

  20 keepest not racket a play on (1) holding a tennis racket in hand (i.e. playing a match), and (2) causing a disturbance (racket), further linking tennis to other forms of riotous behaviour (OED keep v. 36)

  21–2 the rest … holland The Prince’s wordplay is as intricate as it is scabrous. The term holland refers both to the Netherlands, where fine linen was made, and to the linen itself. The rest of the low countries which eat up holland may refer to the vexed political relations between Holland and the other Low Countries; but it also may mean that by pawning his shirts (holland), Poins has financed his sexual indulgences in brothels, so that low countries would play bawdily on ‘cunt’ (cf. Ham 3.2.110: ‘Do you think I meant country matters?’, and Jonson, Every Man Out, 3.6.54–5: ‘This rapier, sir, has trauail’d by my side, sir, [to] the best part of France and the low Countrey’). A third alternative suggests that the low countries are Poins’s own genitals which, either dirty from poor hygiene or suppurating from venereal disease, have ruined his undergarments which, like shirts, were sometimes made of linen. In any case, the conclusion is that Poins has not played tennis in a long time.

  15 hast, with] Q; hast? (Viz. F; hast – videlicet Oxf1 16 once] Q; ones F 18 another] Q; one other F 20 keepest] Q; kept’st F 21 the low] Q; thy Low F

  22 made … to a punning phrase clearly authorial and perhaps inadvertently omitted by the Q compositor: without it, eat functions as a past participle; made a shift can be taken to mean both (1) contrived or managed (OED shift sb. 10a, 6b), and (2) changed shirts, or underwear. Cf. Falstaff: ‘I’ll make other shift’ (2.1.155).

  23–7 F omits these lines perhaps not so much on account of their bawdy innuendo as of their profanity. Bringing God into Poins’s dirty linen was beyond the pale.

  23–4 those … linen The children Poins has fathered bawl out of – cry while wrapped in – his ruined linen, suggesting either that their swaddling clothes are made from his discarded shirts or that his pawning of those shirts led directly to the sexual congress by which the bastards were conceived.

  24 inherit His kingdom go to heaven (Matthew, 25.34)

  25–7 *the children … strengthened Most editors adopt Theobald’s punctuation, which oddly disjoins whereupon from fault and gives the final two clauses the force of aphorism: ‘this is the way the world multiplies and families (kindreds) are fortified’. But Q’s lack of punctuation implies a syntactically dependent relationship among the clauses which makes perfectly good sense: that the bastards ‘are not in the fault whereupon’ means that they ‘are not to blame for being the cause that’ the world multiplies.

  28–9 How … idly! Poins upbraids Harry for having so little substance to show for all the effort he has just exerted on witticisms at his expense. In essence, he is retaliating by telling Harry that his humour has failed to hit the mark.

  28 ill unfortunately or unworthily, connoting deficiency of performance (OED adv. 5, 6)

  follows implies consequence or result: such hard labour has yielded such poor results (OED v. 16).

  29 idly vacuously, ineffectively

  22 made … to] F; not in Q 23–7] Q; not in F 23 bawl] Q (bal); Pope out] Q; out of Pope; out from Capell 25 fault whereupon] Q; fault; whereupon Theobald 26 kindreds] Q (kinreds); Pope

  30–1 their … is By bringing up the touchy subject of the Prince’s relationship with his father, Poins continues to retaliate. Though King Henry admits to being ‘shaken’ and ‘wan with care’ at the opening of 1H4 (1.1.1), this the first mention of the King’s illness in either play, and it helps prepare for his eventual death in 4.3. Surprisingly, however, when the King appears at 3.1 – a scene omitted from the first issue of Q – there is no acknowledgement of his illness. See 3.1n.

  33 an … thing i.e. something worthier than your recent quips

  36 Go to an expression of disapproval, remonstrance, protest or incredulity, akin to ‘Come, come!’ (OED go v. 93b)

  stand the push can withstand the mockery. Cf. 1H4 3.2.66.

  38 meet fitting (OED adj. 3). Harry acknowledges that his rebellious behaviour in 1H4, which has so displeased his father, might make his sympathy for him now look hypocritical: cf. 50–1.

  40 fault lack (OED sb. 1c; Dent, F106)

  42 Very hardly with much difficulty (OED hardly adv. 6). Poins is sceptical that Harry feels genuine concern for his father.

  43 By this hand a mild oath

  43–4 in … book possibly a reference to the superstition that the devil kept a register with the names of all those subject to him; but more likely derived from ‘in a person’s books’, meaning to be in favour with (here) the devil (OED book sb. 15; Tilley, B534)

  44–5 obduracy and persistency i.e. persistence in evil. The OED defines both words similarly and quotes this line as the earliest example of each.

  45 Let … man Judge things by their final outcome; proverbial: ‘The end tries all’ (Dent, E116.1). Cf. Ecclesiasticus, 111.27, ‘In a mans ende, his workes are discouered’.

  30 being] Q; lying F 31 at this time] Q; not in F 33 faith,] Q; not in F 36–7 you will] Q; you’l F 38 Marry,] Q (Mary); Why, F 43 By this hand,] Q; not in F thinkest] Q; think’st F

  47 vile unsuitably mean, of low rank. Cf. 1.2.18.

  47–8 in reason accordingly, justifiably (OED reason sb. 13b)

  48 ostentation show, outward appearance (OED sb. 2)

  50–1 from the aphorism ‘The weeping of an heir is laughter under a visor’ (Dent, W248.1), which can be traced to the Latin author Aulus Gellius (Ard1)

  52 princely an allusion both to Harry’s title and, as an intensifier, to the magnitude of his hypocrisy

  53–4 thou … thinks Harry’s phrase blessed fellow is contemptuous, for he knows that every man’s thought is wrong and he perhaps feels disappointment that Poins, whom he calls friend (40–1), should so misconstrue him.

  55 man’s … world The prepositional phrase in the world belongs with man’s rather than with thought.

  keeps the roadway is more predictable

  57 accites induces, incites; also a legal term meaning to cite or to summon (cf. 5.2.140) which leads to further punning below

  57–8 your … thought Continuing the sarcasm begun at blessed (54), the Prince invents a title of mock respect for Poins’s thought, representing it as ‘a magistrate … sitting in judgment on Hal’s conduct’ (Cam1).

  59 lewd vulgar, base

  60 engraffed closely attached; an image from gardening (cf. 5.3.3)

  62 By this light sometimes ‘by this heavenly light’; a mild oath

  on of

  47 vile] Q; vild F 62 By this light] Q; Nay F spoke on] Q; spoken of F

  64 a second brother Younger sons of the gentry, according to the laws of primogeniture, inherited nothing of substance and therefore had to eke out a living for themselves.

  64–5 a proper … hands good with my fists (or with a sword). Dent (M163) cites as proverbial: ‘He’s a tall man of his hands.’ In context, this phrase could metaphorically define a man of valour, skill or practical ability (OED hand sb. 30a).

  66 By the mass a mild oath, referring to the celebration of the Eucharist

  67–8 ’A … Christian i.e. the Page looked like a normal boy (Christian) when Harry gave him to Falstaff. ’A = he.

  69 transformed him ape dressed him up fantastically as one would a performing ape, with a hint that the Page is now an imitator (ape) of Falstaff’s own wit and manners

  71 And yours The Prince plays on your grace as a mock form of address for Bardolph, and in so doing may express comic concern that Bardolph is a soul whom God has not chosen to receive grace.

  72 SP *Although some editors, following Theobald and Johnson, attribute this speech to Bardolph as an attack on the Page for being a ‘maidenly man at arms’, a phrase which paradoxically grants him soldiership and yet genders him female (a demeaning emasculation commonly used to characterize pre-pubescent boys), the QF attribution of the speech to Poins need not be changed, for it mercilessly mocks Bardolph’s blushing – the red face which is his most noteworthy feature (cf. 1.2.48n.) – as a sign not of his excessive drinking, but of his bashful modesty in deflowering a pot of ale (see 75–6n.). The Page confirms the import of Poins’s joke in the following speech.

  72 virtuous preferable to F’s ‘pernitious’ in its proverbial association with blushing: ‘Blushing (Bashfulness) … is virtue’s color’ (Tilley, B480)

  66 By the mass,] Q; Looke, looke, F 66.1] Q; Enter Bardolfe. F (after 69); Enter Bardolph, and Page. / Rowe (after 69) 67 ’A] Q; he F 68 look] Q; see F 70 God] Q; not in F 72 SP] QF; Bard. / Theobald SD] Ard2; to the Boy / Johnson virtuous] Q; pernitious F

  75 matter momentous act, big thing

  75–6 get … maidenhead open and consume a pot of ale. Cf. Mucedorus, 3.5: ‘I call’d for three pots of ale, as ’tis the manner of us courtiers. Now, sirrah, I had taken the maidenhead of two of them’ (Dodsley, 7.234). Poins continues to belittle Bardolph, implying that the only deflowering he is capable of is breaking the seal of an ale-pot.

  75 pottle-pot two-quart pot or tankard

  77 ’A … now ‘He called me just a little while ago.’ The Page’s use of the historic present (Sisson, 2.45) embellishes Poins’s mockery of Bardolph by providing a scatological context for it. Q’s ‘enow’, the plural form of ‘enough’, for ‘e’en now’ may have been a compositorial misreading.

  my lord The Page addresses the Prince specifically, not Poins, probably out of deference.

  77–8 red lattice i.e. from inside an ale-house. Red lattice windows were traditional at taverns: the Page implies that he could not distinguish (discern) the colour of Bardolph’s face from that of the window. Cowl (Ard1) cites George Wilkins, The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, 3.1: ‘Be mild in a tavern? ’tis treason to the red lattice, enemy to their sign-post, and slave to humour’ (Dodsley, 9.510); and Humphreys (Ard2) cites Marston, Antonio and Mellida, 5.2.124–5: ‘I am not as well knowne by my wit, as an alehouse by a red lattice’ (Marston, 1.58).

  80 ale-wife’s petticoat The Page intimates that Bardolph was underneath the petticoat of the barmaid, and thus perhaps engaged in a sexual act. Characterized as a prostitute by such activity, she may possibly be identified as Mistress Quickly, whose tavern was the favourite haunt of Falstaff and his companions.

  82 profited i.e. from Falstaff’s teaching, for the Page has just demonstrated a budding Falstaffian wit. The Prince is probably more sarcastic than admiring: see 69n.

  83 whoreson See 1.2.15n.

  84 *rabbit F’s substitution of rabbit for ‘rabble’ may correct a misreading by the Q compositor: a rabbit walking upright offers a humorous image of the Page, where Q’s ‘rabble’, a contemptuous term usually used collectively for a mob, would make little sense.

  85 Althaea’s dream Shakespeare’s conflation of two classical myths demonstrates the Page’s ignorance: (1) Hecuba, when pregnant with Paris, prophetically dreamt that she gave birth to a firebrand that set fire to Troy (Ovid, Heroides, 16; cf. TC 2.2.110); and (2) Althaea, at the birth of her son Meleager, was told by the Fates that he would live so long as the brand they had placed on the fire was not burned. Althaea quenched the flame; but when Meleager, as an adult, killed her brothers, she in revenge threw the brand into the fire and Meleager expired (Ovid, Met., 8.425–525; cf. 2H6 1.1.231–2). In either case, the Page intends the firebrand to be a disparaging reference to Bardolph’s red face.

  75 Is’t] Q; Is it F 77 ’A calls] Q; He call’d F e’en now] Cam; euen now F; enow Q 80 ale-wife’s] Capell; ale wiues Q; Ale-wiues F petticoat] Q; new Petticoat F; new red petticoat (Collier); red peticote Oxf 81 so] Q; not in F 82, 83, 85 SDs] this edn 82 Has] Q; Hath F 84 rabbit] F (Rabbet); rabble Q

  90–1 Harry’s praise for the Page’s scholarship is gently ironic. A crown, a coin worth five shillings, was a not insignificant reward.

  92 cankers pests or diseases which destroy plants; figurative here for Falstaff, Bardolph and the other roisterers who are corrupting the Page. From the proverbial ‘The canker soonest eats the fairest rose’ (Dent, C56).

  93 sixpence … thee an anachronistic allusion to the cross stamped on Elizabethan sixpenny coins

  94–5 An … you ‘if your collective influence doesn’t manage to get him hanged’. Bardolph is counter-attacking.

  95 have wrong suffer an injustice. F’s ‘be wrong’d’ means the same thing.

  99 good respect due deference. Poins uses irony to criticize the unceremonious way Bardolph delivers the letter to the Prince. The letter is one of those Falstaff gave to the Page at 1.2.238–42.

  100 Martlemas a reference to Falstaff. The feast of St Martin, or Martinmas (11 November), was associated with the slaughter of hogs and cattle to ensure sufficient meat for the winter. References to Martlemas beef abound in writings of this period, and Harry’s labelling Falstaff ‘my sweet beef’ in 1H4 (3.3.176) suggests that Martlemas may similarly, if contemptuously, invoke Falstaff’s corpulence and gluttony. The term possibly alludes as well to Falstaff’s being in the autumn of his life.