40 precise and nice scrupulously or fastidiously (OED precise adj. 2) and strictly or carefully (OED nice adj. 7b): both adjectives have adverbial force. The nearly synonymous terms lend emphasis to Lady Percy’s warning.

  42 Marshal i.e. Thomas Mowbray. See 1.3.4n.

  32 O wondrous him!] Rowe; O wondrous! him, F

  45 Monmouth’s Prince Harry’s: see Ind.29n. This implicit reference to Hotspur’s combat with Prince Harry suggests that Lady Percy, like Morton (1.1.109), may know that the Prince, not Falstaff, killed her husband; but to honour the disparate requirements of comedy and history, Shakespeare allows us to have it both ways.

  Beshrew a mild, sometimes affectionate curse meaning ‘the devil take’ or ‘a plague on’, often spoken before an admission or confession (OED v. 3b)

  46 draw my spirits ‘sap my vital energy’; i.e. depress

  47 With by

  new again, freshly

  ancient past, bygone

  50 provided prepared

  51 armed commons i.e. soldiers; armèd. Lady Northumberland, attentive to rank, distinguishes between those with titles and those without.

  52 of … taste tested their strength

  53 get … of gain a position of superiority or advantage over (OED get v. 5b; vantage sb. 3a); ground and vantage may be a hendiadys for ‘vantage-ground’.

  54 rib of steel The image is of reinforcing a barrel with a steel band: cf. 4.3.43, MA 4.1.151, Ham 1.3.62 and AC 2.2.122. The expression ‘to be hooped with (have ribs of) steel’ had acquired proverbial force (Dent, S844.1).

  55 all our loves both our sakes. For all meaning two, cf. 3.1.35 (Ard1).

  56 try test – that is, without the help of Northumberland. Cf. 50–2.

  56–7 So … so … So thus

  57 suffered forced (i.e. to test his strength unassisted)

  came became

  47 oversights] Q, F (Ouer-sights) 49 another] F, Q (an other)

  59 rain … eyes water with my tears the plant of remembrance (rosemary). Cf. Ham 4.5.169: ‘There’s rosemary: that’s for remembrance’.

  61 For recordation to in memory of

  62 go in Northumberland’s instruction serves as a pretext for the characters to exit. It does not suggest that the scene is meant to take place outdoors, as some editors indicate by locating it ‘Before the castle’ (Ard1) or ‘Outside Northumberland’s castle at Warkworth’ (Norton).

  63 his its

  64 a still stand a standstill, the precise point from which the tide, having reached its height (63), will begin to ebb; possibly, in this context, an impasse

  65 Fain gladly

  67–8 Here, as at Shrewsbury, Northumberland’s abandonment of his allies helps to seal the rebellion’s fate. Cf. 2.3n.

  67 for to flee to

  am I shall I stay: an implied future tense

  68 vantage advantage, opportunity (OED sb. 4b)

  2.4 The scene is located in a room at the Hostess’s tavern in Eastcheap, and in many ways it parallels both the structure and content of the great tavern scene – also 2.4 – in 1H4.

  0.1–2 *Q’s permissive ‘or two’ suggests that in the copy-text, Shakespeare had not yet resolved how many drawers would be involved in the scene, just as there seems to have been similar indecision over how many officers enter at the top of 2.1, and how many strewers of rushes at the top of 5.5. Two drawers might seem warranted, because the Prince and Poins will replace them later in the scene, and clearly two are required at the outset: Francis, the drawer who was humiliated by Harry and Poins in 1H4 2.4, and another drawer whose SP at 4 is ‘Draw.’. Editing is complicated, however, by Q’s SD ‘Enter Will.’ at 18. Most editors take ‘Will’ to be either the name of a third drawer or the name of the actor designated to play him; but as there are no lines assigned to a third drawer, the substance and placement of the SD are open to question. Mahood suggests that a third drawer may have been introduced ‘to give work experience to a new young actor’ (Bit Parts, 19–20). Greg (First Folio, 273), on the contrary, speculates that ‘Will’ might refer to the actor Will Kemp who, playing Falstaff, may be crossing the stage on his way to relieve himself, thus preparing for his entry line, ‘Empty the Jordan!’ (34). Alternatively, the SD might have been mistakenly copied from a marginal note made in the playhouse to anticipate the arrival of Falstaff 14 lines later. F eliminates the confusion in Q by omitting the enigmatic SD and redistributing lines between the two drawers. F designates Francis simply as ‘1. Drawer’, cuts 13–14, assigns Francis’s lines at 15–18 and 21 to ‘2. Draw.’, and assigns those of the second drawer at 19–20 to ‘1. Draw’. F thus streamlines the exchange and clears up the problem of Francis’s asking the drawer to fetch the musicians (10–11) and then doing so himself (21). But this problem is more apparent than real (see 21n.). There is no compelling reason to alter Q or to reassign speeches when the simple deletion of ‘Enter Will.’ allows Francis and the Drawer to proceed with their preparations without editorial intervention.

  2.4] Scaena Quarta. F; not in Q 0.1 Enter two Drawers] F; Enter a Drawer or two. Q 0.1–2 FRANCIS … apple-johns] Oxf1 subst. 1, 10 SPs] Q; 1. Drawer. F the devil] Q; not in F

  1–2 Apple-johns apples, possibly so named because ripe around St John’s Day (27 December), that are not eaten until they are shrivelled. They are said to keep for up to two years.

  4–9 OED cites Phillips’s Cider (1708) on the metaphoric significance of an apple-john, ‘whose wither’d rind, entrench’d by many a furrow, aptly represents Decrepid age’. Cf. 1H4 3.3.3–4: ‘I am withered like an old apple-john’. Wilson (Cam1) suggests that the apple-john may also signify impotence, thus exacerbating Harry’s insult and Falstaff’s anger.

  4 Mass See 2.2.66n.

  6 putting … hat removing his hat, a gesture here of mock deference

  10 cover spread a cloth on the table. Diners at a tavern would often conclude their meal with an ‘after-supper’, a course of fruit and wine taken in a different room. This would appear to be the case with Falstaff and Doll.

  11 find out fetch, discover the whereabouts of (OED find v. 20b)

  Sneak’s noise Sneak’s band: noise was a term for a group of musicians (OED sb. 5b). In Famous Victories, the Prince three times sends for ‘a noise of musicians’ (2.83, 4.72, 5.82). Lindley observes that noise was most often associated in the theatre with the viol or fiddle and cites John Cooke, Green’s Tu Quoque – ‘there will be good company, a noise of choice Fidlers’ (Dodsley, 11.190) – though a mixed consort may have been employed, always likely to contain players on the treble and tenor viol as well as woodwinds. It is uncertain whether the noise here was made up of actors working in the Lord Chamberlain’s company or was instead a pick-up band hired for performances (Lindley, ‘Sneak?’). If the latter, then Sneak may have been the actual name of a person who had such a band; otherwise, it may have been a generic name. Either way, its endurance is proven by Heywood’s allusion to ‘Sneakes noise’ in 1 Iron Age, 3.1 (c. 1613). The musicians do not arrive until 226.

  4 SP] Draw. Q; 2. Draw. F Mass,] Q (Mas); not in F 7–8 old, withered] Q; old-wither’d F 12 hear] Q; haue F

  13 Dispatch! ‘Hurry up!’ This command would make more sense if spoken by a third drawer who bursts in with news of Falstaff and Doll’s imminent arrival – cf. the Third Strewer’s similar injunction at 5.5.4 – and it provides further evidence that Shakespeare left this portion of the scene to be tidied in performance. See also 0.1–2n.

  16 anon at once, straight away (OED adv. 4), a term the Prince and Poins mercilessly mock Francis for using in 1H4 (2.4.28–66) and which they themselves adopt when disguised as drawers later in this scene (285).

  jerkins See 2.2.168.

  18 Q’s SD ‘Enter Will.’ may have signalled that Will Kemp, as Falstaff, was to cross the stage at this point, or it may have been mistakenly copied from a marginal note scribbled in the playhouse to anticipate the entrance of Kemp at 32: see 0.1–2n. Q2 and Q3 of RJ similarly list an entrance for Will Kemp instead of Peter, the character he played (4.5.99); and the Q of 2H4 lists actor John Sincklo instead of the Beadle, the character he played, in the SD at 5.4.0.

  19 By the mass a mild oath invoking the ‘old religion’, Catholicism, whose rituals and practices were often identified with the festive calendar: cf. old utas, below.

  old utas rare sport (Ard1); a high old time (Ard2); a time of festivity or merriment. OED gives ‘utis’ as a variant of ‘utas’ (sb. 1c), a reduced form of the plural ‘utaves’, or octaves, referring to the eight days of a (Catholic) festival. The aberrant spelling ‘utis’ is found only in 2H4; and without a good reason for preserving it, I revert to the normal spelling. The adjective old serves as an intensifier but also gestures nostalgically to days gone by – here, to the merry tavern scenes of 1H4.

  20 stratagem scheme, trick

  13–14] Q; not in F, Oxf 14 straight.] Q; straight. Enter WILL. Cam2 15 SP] Q; 2. Draw. F; WILL Cam2 18 word.] F; word. Enter Will. Q; word. Enter Third Drawer. / Alexander (Ridley) 19 SP] Q; 1. Draw. F; 3 Draw. / Alexander (Ridley); FRANCIS Davison By the mass,] Q; Then F old] Q(corr)F; oll Q(uncorr) utas] this edn; utis QF

  21 Perhaps Francis’s decision to find Sneak’s noise himself after he has already told the Second Drawer to do so (10–12) is motivated by the Drawer’s news that Falstaff and Doll are to enter imminently.

  23 temporality, pulsidge Quicklyisms for ‘temper’ and ‘pulse’, each word made to sound richer and more Latinate by the addition of syllables

  24 extraordinarily ordinarily, regularly. The Hostess cannot seem to control the contradictory work done by her extra prefixes and suffixes.

  27 canaries a sweet wine from the Canary Islands – hence, the plural. Cowl (Ard1) speculates that the Hostess may be confusing wine with a lively dance called ‘canaries’.

  searching potent; capable of finding out one’s weak points – i.e. making one drunk (OED ppl.a. 1b)

  28 perfumes The Hostess either conflates ‘suffuses’ and ‘permeates’ or else means ‘perfuses’ (permeates): the fragrance of her malapropism adds an olfactory agency to the inebriating power of wine.

  ‘What’s this?’ ‘What’s happened to me?’

  30 Hem! conventional notation for a vulgar noise such as a belch or hiccup which Doll, having eaten and drunk her fill, would be prone to make. Elsewhere in the play, the word is used as a call to drink a draught, akin to ‘Drink up!’ (cf. 3.2.217–18 and 1H4 2.4.16). In some performances, however, Hem has been taken as a cue for Doll to vomit into a chamber pot, allowing Falstaff to make comic business of the line he speaks on entering, Empty the jordan! (34).

  31–2 A … gold confusion of two aphorisms: ‘A good heart conquers ill fortunes’ and ‘A good name is better than gold’ (Tilley, H305, N22). Cf. Proverbs, 22.1.

  21 SP] Q; 2. Draw. F; DRAWER Cam2 SD] QF; Exit with third drawer. / Alexander; Exit [with Francis] Cam2; Exeunt / Rowe 21.1–2] Q (Enter mistris Quickly, and Doll Tere-sheet.); Enter Hostesse, and Dol. F 22 I’faith] Q (Yfaith); not in F 25–6 in … la!] Q (in … law:); not in F 26 i’faith] Q (yfaith); not in F 28 one] Q; wee F 31 that’s] Q; that was F 32 Lo] Q (loe); Looke F

  33–5 ‘When … king’ The lines from the popular ballad Sir Lancelot du Lake, according to the first extant version printed in Thomas Deloney’s Garland of Good Will (1586), are not quite as Falstaff remembers: ‘When Arthur first in court began / And was approved king, / By force of arms great victories won / And conquest home did bring’. For those who knew the song, Falstaff’s singing even a garbled version might have seemed evidence of his revived bravado. See Duffin, 435–7, and Lindley, Music, 147.

  34 jordan chamber pot. Tavern rooms were furnished with such necessities, according to Earle’s Microcosmographie (1628), and Falstaff has probably filled one. He shouts the command either to someone offstage or, as I take it, to the Drawer onstage, who exits to do Falstaff’s bidding. For an alternative staging possibility, see 30n.

  35 How now elliptical for ‘How are you now?’

  37, 38 calm The Hostess means its homophone ‘qualm’ (a sudden fit of faintness or illness), but Falstaff pretends to understand her to mean ‘calm waters’.

  38 her sect Another of the Hostess’s malapropisms, sect seems to mean both ‘sex’ (OED sect sb. 1d) and ‘profession’ – that is, prostitution – with a wry glance at its reference to a group of adherents to a particular religious faith (OED sect sb. 4). Calvinist banter about the state of Doll’s soul resumes at 323–44.

  38–9 An … sick a paradoxical metaphor: ‘if they are ever in calm waters, they get seasick’. Falstaff seems to mean one of the following: (1) women who are quiet must be sick, because otherwise they would be talking, or (2) prostitutes fail to ply their trade only when sick, or (3) prostitutes who aren’t doing any business feel out of sorts (Ard2).

  40 A pox an imprecation akin to ‘the plague’: pox = syphilis

  muddy rascal abusive epithet meaning ‘dirty rogue’ but originally referring to a young male deer (rascal), lean and sluggish (muddy) because out of season (Puttenham, 3.17). There may be a further implication that the rascal is sexually inferior to the full-grown antlered buck, the term derived from the Italian rascaglione, a man without testicles (Williams, Dictionary, 3.1143–4): cf. Hamlet’s self-chastisement as ‘[a] dull and muddy-mettled rascal’ (2.2.502). Doll uses muddy in a different sense at 55.

  32.1] Q; Enter Falstaffe. F; Enter Falstaff, singing. Capell 33 SD] Capell (singing); not in QF 34 jordan] Q (iourdan), F (Iordan) SD] Capell; Exit Francis / Alexander; Exit Will / Davison; not in QF 37 good faith] Q; good-sooth F 38 An] Q (and); if F 40 A … you,] Q; not in F

  42 make fat rascals continues the play on rascal as a lean deer, which Falstaff says Doll fattens (fat rascals has the force of an oxymoron). Figuratively, he is alluding to the bloating which may result from the sexually transmitted diseases (43) she bequeaths to her customers.

  43 diseases make F’s provision of ‘them’ as a direct object here may suggest an inadvertent omission by the Q compositor.

  46 catch of catch (the diseases) from

  47 poor virtue poor was a term of endearment; virtue meant ‘virtuous person’ (cf. Tim 3.6.7).

  49 *Yea, Jesu F’s substitution of ‘I [Ay] marry’ for Q’s innocuous ‘Yea ioy’ suggests to Ridley that ‘ioy’ may have been a compositor’s misreading of the profane ‘Iesu’ which appeared in the copy-texts of Q and F but was altered following the Act of 1606. The Oxford editors accept Jesu as the probable reading. See similar uses of Jesu by the Hostess at 296 and by Shallow at 3.2.33 and 43: pronounced Jē-zū.

  our chains … jewels understood to be the object of ‘We catch of you’ (46): Doll turns Falstaff’s wit back on him by accusing him of stealing (‘catching’) her valuables.

  50 Falstaff makes light of Doll’s accusation by turning it into a line from a song, perhaps a snatch of a loosely remembered ballad such as ‘The Boy and the Mantle’ which contains the phrase, ‘With brauches and ringes’. Falstaff’s brooches, pearls and ouches are all types of jewellery, an ‘ouch’ being a clasp or brooch often set with precious stones; but they also are euphemisms for the carbuncles, skin sores and pimples or pustules caused by sexually transmitted diseases. Falstaff thus continues to slander Doll as a carrier of disease. For comparison, Oxf1 cites Nicholas Udall’s translation of The Apophthegmes of Erasmus (1564): ‘little pimples … in the noses and faces … are called the Saphires and Rubies of the Tauern’.

  43 make;] Q; make them. F 45 cook … make] Q; Cooke make F 49 Yea, Jesu] Oxf (conj. Ridley); Yea joy Q; I marry F 50 SD] this edn ouches] Q, F (Owches)

  51 to serve … off Falstaff introduces an elaborate network of military double entendres to defend his potency which reaches a climax in the conversation he has with Doll and Pistol at 110–39. ‘Brave service’ can be taken in both a military and a sexual sense, as either distinction in battle or skilful copulation. In asserting that the proof of such bravery is to come halting off, Falstaff refers both to a wound that makes one limp off the field and to ejaculation (‘coming off’) which leaves a penis limp and unable to stand. On come as slang for achieving orgasm, see 2.1.20n.

  52 to come … bent makes the point of the previous double entendre even more explicit. In a military sense, a breach is a gap in a fortification made during an assault from which the soldier returns with his pike – a weapon with a wooden shaft and a pointed head of steel or iron – bent after engaging the enemy. In a sexual sense, the breach is the vagina, from which the penis (pike) emerges bent from vigorous copulation.

  53 surgery medical treatment, necessary for both the war wound and the pox

  53–4 to venture … chambers either (1) to dare to face the loaded guns of the enemy (OED venture v. 9), or (2) to penetrate a woman’s vagina (chambers) which is charged because filled with discharged semen (Partridge). Weis notes that while charged chambers – as a loaded piece of ordnance – might seem more obviously to be a phallic reference, a cannon has a bore-hole in front of its breech, and a loaded cannon would therefore be seen as a dangerous hole, signifying ‘infected female genitalia’. Cf. similar punning on women as the vector of sexually transmitted disease in Sonnet 144: ‘Till my bad angel fire my good one out’ (14).

  55 muddy conger An abusive epithet Doll likes to apply to Falstaff (see 40n.), muddy here refers to the muddy shallows that large sea-eels (congers) inhabit. But the phrase is bawdy: since conger was a slang term for penis, she in effect calls him a ‘dirty prick’: cf. Dekker, Shoemakers’ Holiday, 1.4.111: ‘you sowsed cunger’. The line is omitted in F.

  58 rheumatic … toasts another Quicklyism. A rheumatic humour is cold and wet: the Hostess means ‘choleric’, and makes the same error in H5 2.3.36. Because the choleric humour is hot and dry, Doll and Falstaff are bound to ‘grate one another’ (Johnson). ‘As hot as toast’ was proverbial (Dent, T363).

  59 confirmities a malapropism for ‘infirmities’. The Hostess abuses the language of the Geneva Bible: ‘We that are strong, ought to beare the infirmities of the weake’ (Romans, 15.1).