88 Althaea] Q (Althear), F dreamt] Q (dreampt); dream’d F 91 ’tis] Q; it is F 91, 93 SDs] this edn 92 this] Q; this good F 94 An] Q; If F him] Q; him be F 95 have wrong] Q; be wrong’d F 97 my] Q; my good F 98 SD] this edn

  102–3 the immortal … not a humorous allusion to Matthew, 9.12: ‘They that be whole, nede not a phisition, but they that are sicke’. The implication is that Falstaff’s soul is in peril.

  103 moves troubles, disquiets, motivates to change (OED v. 9a, 10a), with a possible pun on bodily motion. Physical rather than spiritual health would be responsible for ‘moving’ Falstaff.

  104 wen lump, wart or fatty tumour; thus, as Johnson glosses, ‘a swoln excrescence of a man’ (Ard1)

  105 dog a reversal of 1.2.147, where Falstaff calls the Prince his dog

  holds his place insists upon his rank

  107 SP *Some editors assign this speech to the Prince as a continuation of his previous lines, but there is no reason to think that Poins should not read the salutation himself. Conceivably, he takes the letter from the Prince when invited to ‘look … how he writes’ (105–6), only to have the Prince snatch it back at 116 when he tires of Poins’s lengthy commentary. Alternatively, Poins may simply be reading over Harry’s shoulder.

  107–9 Every … himself As F’s punctuation makes clear, that is the object of know and refers to Falstaff’s knighthood, which title he uses whenever he names himself. In Q, the lack of a comma between that and what follows makes the syntax ambiguous, allowing one to read that as the beginning of a relative clause which is never completed. As in 1.2.180, this line may contain an implicit reference to the name by which Falstaff was known originally, Oldcastle.

  112 takes … conceive pretends not to understand

  105 how] Q; not in F 106 SD] this edn 107 SP] QF; not in Sisson SD] Rowe; Letter. F; not in Q Every] QF; Poins. Every Sisson 108 that, as] F; that as Q has] Q; hath F 110 There’s] Q; there is F 111–12 that?’ … that] F4 subst., Rowe; that (saies he) that Q, F1–3 subst. 112 conceive. The] F4 subst., Rowe; conceiue? the F1–3; conceiue the Q

  113 *borrower’s cap Warburton’s conjecture has been widely accepted, because it is customary to think of a borrower as always having cap in hand: cf. Tim 2.1.16–19. Poins argues that those who claim kinship with the King predictably find excuses to broadcast the relationship. QF’s ‘borrowed cap’ makes little sense.

  115–16 fetch … Japheth If they cannot claim royal kinship, they will fetch their lineage from Japheth, third son of Noah, from whom all Europeans (or Gentiles) were thought to have descended (Genesis, 10.2–5).

  119 a certificate In a letter, the name of the addressee should come before that of the writer. By putting his own name before that of the Prince, Falstaff not only shows presumption, but adopts the form of a licence or patent (certificate) issued by a sovereign to a subject.

  121 Romans The allusion is disputed. It may refer to Pliny the Younger, whose style was epigrammatic; or to Brutus, who, according to Plutarch, affected the ‘brief compendious manner of speech of the Lacedaemonians’; or to Julius Caesar, whose terse summary of his victory at Zela, used in his address to the senate in 47 BC, Falstaff parodies at 123–4 and translates at 4.2.41–2. Given the plural, Romans, Falstaff is probably alluding not to an individual but to a general trait, though Warburton’s emendation to a singular ‘Roman’ better introduces Falstaff’s parody of Caesar.

  123 SP *As Q and F omit this SP, it appears that Poins continues to speak here, but certainly this is an error. Not only would the Prince probably read his own letter, but Q prints ‘Poynes’ in the SP at 132, evidence that someone else has been speaking the previous lines. Without an intervening SP, printing ‘Poynes’ at 132 would be unnecessary. Cf. 107 SPn.

  123–4 1I commend … 2thee In his version of Roman brevity, Falstaff parodies the Latin tricolon known by every schoolboy, veni, vidi, vici (‘I came, I saw, I conquered’), which Julius Caesar used in addressing the senate. See 121n., and cf. 1.1.21n. and 4.2.41–2.

  113 borrower’s] Theobald (Warburton); borowed Q; borrowed F 115 or] Q; but F 116 Japheth] QF (Iaphet) But] Q; But to F letter: [Reads.] Sir] Oxf1 subst.; letter, Sir Q; Letter: – Sir F; letter. / Poin. Reads. Sir / Betterton; letter. / Poins. Sir Hanmer 119 SP] QF; not in Betterton 120 SD] McEachern 121 Romans] Q (Romanes), F (Romaines); Roman Warburton 122 He sure] Q; Sure he F 123 SP] Theobald; not in QF SD] McEachern

  126 at idle times at your leisure; or possibly, for your idleness (Cam2). Falstaff parodies the pious wishes common in letters of the time.

  128 by … no a mild citizens’ oath derived from Matthew, 5.34–7 – ‘But I say vnto you, Sweare not at all, nether by heauen, for it is ye throne of God … But let your communication be Yea, yea: Nay, nay. For whatsoeuer is more then these, commeth of euil’ – and consistent with Falstaff’s other uses of Puritan pieties: cf. 1.2.37. It may be a vestige of the satire on Oldcastle’s Lollardism, though Shallow uses the same phrase at 3.2.9. For similarly parodic use of the phrase, see J. Cooke, How a Man May Choose a Good Wife from a Bad (Dodsley, 9.61–2).

  129 as … him i.e. depending on how you treat him. Dent cites ‘To use as one is used’ as proverbial (U25.1). Cf. TN 3.4.163–4.

  130 family Though most editors prefer F’s ‘familiars’, Q’s family draws a distinction between his blood relations and those Puritans who call one another brothers and sisters.

  brothers and sisters another possible survival of satire on Puritanism manifest in Oldcastle. That Falstaff’s Puritan brothers and sisters should call him John indicates a formality lacking in the more familiar Jack used by his blood relations.

  131 Sir John Falstaff’s letter ends as it began, by trumpeting his title. Cf. 107–9n.

  132 sack See 1.2.198n. on new … sack, and cf. canaries, 2.4.27.

  133 eat it Cowl cites other plays in which a character is forced to eat a letter or document onstage, though Falstaff is never made to do so (Ard1). Most pertinent, the Summoner in 1 Oldcastle is forced to swallow the summons he has come to serve on Sir John (6.42–76).

  134 twenty a large number (OED adj. 1d)

  135 use abuse

  126 Nell] Q (Nel), F 130 family] Q; Familiars F sisters] Q; Sister F 132 SP] Q; not in F I’ll] Q (Ile); I will F 136 God … wench] Q; May the Wench haue F

  138 thus … time Cf. Son 124.13–14: ‘To this I witness call the fools of time, / Which die for goodness, who have lived for crime’; and Ephesians, 5.15–16: ‘Walke circumspectly, not as fooles, but as wise, redeeming the time’.

  138–9 the … us Cf. Psalms, 2.4: ‘He that dwelleth in heauen shal laugh them to scorne: the Lorde shall haue them in derision’.

  142–3 Doth … frank? possibly proverbial, though Tilley cites this as the earliest instance: ‘He feeds like a boar in a frank’ (B483), a frank being a sty or pig-pen. Falstaff is elsewhere called a brawn (1.1.19; 1H4 2.4.107) and a boar-pig (2.4.232). This line provides the only hint in either part of H4 that the location of Falstaff’s revelry may have been the Boar’s Head – what is called in Famous Victories ‘the old tavern in Eastcheap’ (1.74). Although there is no evidence that a Boar’s Head existed during the reign of Henry IV, several taverns in Tudor London bore the name, the first reference to one dating from a lease in 1537 (Ard2). Sugden writes that ‘[t]his famous hostelry’ was located on the north side of Great Eastcheap and abutted at the back St Michael’s Church in Crooked Lane (66).

  144 Eastcheap See 2.1.68n.

  146 i.e. roistering companions or heavy drinkers; with reference to Paul’s warning to the Ephesians against wickedness and drunkenness (Shaheen cites Ephesians, 5.3–4, 5.7 and 5.18). Cf. MW 4.5.17, where the Host of the Garter Inn calls himself Falstaff’s ‘Ephesian’. The old church most obviously refers to paganism – that is, to the Ephesians’ degeneracy before their conversion; but there may also be a sly glance at ‘the prime church of Ephesus’ which was taken to provide a model of church government for the reform movement (Ard1). Such irreverence informs a comic passage in 1 Oldcastle, 13.129–31: ‘I am neither heretic nor puritan, but of the old church. I’ll swear, drink ale, kiss a wench, go to mass, eat fish all Lent, and fast Fridays with cakes and wine’ – such behaviours as Falstaff and his companions practise religiously. Still another possible reference is to the cult of Diana, called the ‘olde religion’ in marginal notes to the Geneva Bible (Acts, 19.22–4), which was identified with the period’s officially displaced old religion, Roman Catholicism, whose idolatrous practices and grounding in worldly authority could be understood as code for the transgressive behaviours of Falstaff (R. Martin, 225–6).

  141 Yea] Q; Yes F

  150 pagan heathen, a continued reference to the Ephesians. It could also mean ‘whore’ (OED sb. 2b), though it would then anticipate the exchange between the Prince and Poins at 163–5.

  151 proper gentlewoman woman of good breeding and respectable character

  154 town bull a bull kept at parish or town expense to service the local heifers; used figuratively for promiscuous men or whoremasters. Tilley cites later instances, such as ‘The town bull is as much a bachelor as he’ (B716); Dent dates the phrase from Harington’s 1591 translation of Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso: ‘the towne Bull of the Parish’ (B716).

  steal upon surprise through stealth

  160 ‘I won’t say a word.’

  163 should be is likely to be

  road whore: a woman whose body bears the traffic of men indiscriminately. Cf. Tilley, ‘As common as the highway’ (H457), or Dent, ‘As common as the cartway’ (C109), an expression that dates back at least as far as Piers Plowman, 3.127. Cowl (Ard1) cites Wilkins’s The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, 3.3, in which the Sister complains, ‘Shall I be left then like a common road, / That every beast that can but pay his toll / May travel over?’ (Dodsley, 9.522).

  164–5 the way … London the Great North Road, particularly heavily travelled

  149 Tearsheet] Q (Tere-sheet), F (Teare-sheet) 153–5] prose Q; F lines Towne-Bull? / Supper? / 153 heifers] Q (Heicfors), F (Heyfors) 157–9] prose Q; F lines your / Towne. / silence. / 158 come to] Q; in F 159 SD] Capell subst.; not in QF 162 you] Q; ye F SD] Capell subst.; not in QF 162–3] prose Q; F lines go. / Rode. /

  166 bestow employ, comport (OED v. 5)

  167 in … colours proverbial for ‘according to his real nature’ (Dent, C520.1), ‘colours’ probably originally referring to the distinguishing insignia of a knight (OED colour sb. 6a, b)

  168 jerkins close-fitting jackets or jerseys

  169 drawers tapsters; young men who draw (tap) ale at a tavern, usually apprenticed to a publican. Cf. prentice, 171.

  170–1 From … case an allusion to Ovid, Met., 2.846–76, where Jove transforms himself into a bull to rape Europa. The Prince’s recollection of Ovid may have been prompted by his mention of the town bull at 154.

  170 heavy descension weighty descent, serious falling off

  171 prentice apprentice. See 169n.

  low ignoble or trivial, in contrast to heavy at 170. The Prince envisages his own metamorphosis as a comic reduction of Jove’s.

  173 weigh with be weighed against, counterbalance

  2.3 Like 1.1, this scene presumably takes place in Warkworth Castle, the Earl of Northumberland’s principal residence. According to Holinshed (3.530), ‘too much haste of the Archbishop’ was the primary reason that Northumberland failed to join his confederates at Gaultree Forest, and only after the routing of the rebels there did he resolve to flee north to Berwick in Scotland. By having Northumberland bow to the will of his wife and daughter-in-law and decide for reasons of personal safety not to join forces with the Archbishop (65–7), Shakespeare in this scene fashions his own history, turning the result of defeat at Gaultree into a cause of that defeat and attributing a motive and culpability to Northumberland absent in Holinshed.

  The scene’s most notable feature, however, is the strength of its women. It is the only scene in Shakespeare’s second history tetralogy in which women prevail. Lady Northumberland has clearly tried already to convince her husband to flee; here, Lady Percy chastises her father-in-law for dishonouring his son and shames him into compliance with her will. Shakespeare draws a sharp contrast between these aristocratic women, whose chief concern is honour and family loyalty, and the Hostess of the tavern, who in the scenes that flank this one is obsessed with material goods and bourgeois respectability.

  168 leathern] Q; Leather F 169 as] Q; like F 170 descension] Q; declension F 171 prince] F; pince Q 172 everything] F (euery thing); enery thing Q 2.3] Scena Tertia. F; not in Q 0.1–3] Q (Enter Northumberland his wife, and the wife to Harry Percie.); Enter Northumberland, his Ladie, and Harrie Percies Ladie. F 1 pray thee] Q; prethee F 2 even] Q; an euen F

  1 daughter daughter-in-law, the widow of Harry Percy (Hotspur); also at 46

  2 Give even way Generally, ‘give way’ means to indulge or allow scope to; but even, signifying smooth, plays against rough to activate a reading of way as a passage or access. Northumberland is begging the women to let him join the Archbishop without protest.

  3 not goes with both Put and be (4): ‘Do not put on a mask of cheerfulness and so be troublesome to me.’

  4 Percy The Earl refers to himself by his family name.

  5 given over given up, ceased trying to persuade him (OED give v. 63a)

  7 at pawn held as a pledge (OED pawn sb.2 2a)

  8 but my going i.e. apart from my joining the other rebel forces

  10 On Northumberland’s broken promise to assist the rebel cause at Shrewsbury, see Ind.37n. and 1H4 4.1.13–84.

  11 endeared bound by obligation – in this case, familial (OED v. 6b)

  13 to see in hopes of seeing. The infinitive implies expectation.

  14 powers Cf. 1.1.133n.

  9 God’s] Q; heauens F 10 that] Q; when F 11 endeared] F (endeer’d); endeere Q 12 heart’s dear Harry] Q; heart-deere-Harry F 14 powers] Q; Powres F

  16 There on that occasion. The honour lost by Northumberland was ethical, for he betrayed his son; that lost by Hotspur was mortal, for with his death, all his ‘proud titles’ were won by Hal (1H4 5.4.78).

  17 the God … it i.e. may God redeem, or allow you to burnish to its former brightness, your tarnished honour.

  18 stuck a verb which indicates the fixity of a heavenly body in its sphere. Cf. AC 5.2.78–9: ‘His face was as the heavens, and therein stuck / A sun and moon’.

  19 grey not dull, but the colour of the light morning sky. Cf. Tit 2.1.1: ‘the morn is bright and grey’; RJ 2.3.1: ‘The grey-eyed morn’; and Son 132.5–6: ‘And truly, not the morning sun of heaven / Better becomes the grey cheeks of the East’.

  light both literal and metaphoric: shining example

  20 Did … move were motivated; but with a continuing play on celestial motion. The chivalry (horsemen, knights) are likened to heavenly bodies proceeding in their course under the influence of Hotspur (OED move v. 16b).

  21 glass mirror. Cf. Ham 3.1.152, ‘The glass of fashion and the mould of form’ (OED sb. 8a).

  23–45 *He … grave This poignant extension of Lady Percy’s eulogy for her dead husband and chastisement of her father-in-law was undoubtedly in the original text: the fact that the opening words of Northumberland’s reply at 45 complete Lady Percy’s partial line makes that clear. Why, then, was her speech cut so drastically for Q? Practically, the cut may have been intended to shorten Lady Percy’s role in performance so that the boy who played her, and who in the next scene was to double as Doll Tearsheet, would have fewer lines to learn. Alternatively, political sensitivity may have been the cause. If Hotspur was identified with the Earl of Essex, whose failed expedition to Ireland in 1599 would have been fresh in the public’s mind when Q was published in 1600, a glorification of Hotspur could have been deemed inappropriate.

  23 i.e. the legs belonging to the noble youth for whom Hotspur provided a role-model

  24 What Shakespeare meant by speaking thick has generated great debate. Probably thick means fast (OED adv. 3) and without pause – appropriate for the impetuous Hotspur – in contrast to those who speak low and tardily, which style is termed perfection (26–7). Nevertheless, the fact that Lady Percy calls speaking thick a blemish of nature has prompted critics to argue that Hotspur must have had a speech defect: Schlegel translated thick as stottern, or stutter, and thus inspired a stage tradition of stuttering German Hotspurs which was imported to England most famously by Laurence Olivier in 1945. Conceivably, too, thick could refer to Hotspur’s northern accent, which would make his speech difficult for London audiences to understand, as has been the case in some recent productions.

  17 the … heaven] Q; may heauenly glory F 23–45 He … grave.] F; not in Q

  25 Became the accents ‘was adopted as the preferred speaking style’. Ironically, those who aspired to be valiant emulated Hotspur’s defects as well as virtues: cf. 26–8.

  26 low and tardily quietly, deliberately, and presumably with clear diction

  27 turn … abuse renounce their decorous manner of speaking

  29 affections of delight disposition or inclination (OED affection n.1 3 – online version) towards pleasure or entertainment

  30 humours of blood disposition or temperament: blood was identified as the seat of emotion or passion (OED sb. 5). For humours, see 2.1.147n.

  31 mark standard; object by which to take one’s bearing, as in ‘sea-mark’ (OED mark sb. 9)

  copy pattern, example (OED sb. 8c)

  book guide, source of instruction (OED sb. 4a). Cf. AYL 2.1.16: ‘books in the running brooks’.

  34 unseconded not reinforced or supported, with a play on Second

  36 abide a field encounter an enemy in battle (OED abide v. 14; field sb. 8)

  38 defensible able to provide defence; or possibly, as an ethical judgment, worth defending