34 a’clock] Qb (a clocke), F (a Clocke); o’ clock Theobald 36 letter] Qb; Letters F 40 it.] Qb; it? F 45 God] Qb; Heauen F

  53–6 *O … die! Found only in Qb, these lines were probably interpolated, perhaps as a marginal addition, in MS copy (Ard2, lxxxii). The fact that without them, as in F, the half-line at 53 (‘With divers liquors!’) joins the half-line at 57 (‘’Tis not ten years gone’) to yield an iambic pentameter – and further, a line which marks a logical transition in thought – supports this conjecture. Their inclusion, however, allows Henry to voice an almost suicidal despair (‘sit him down and die’) akin to Richard’s meditation on the deaths of kings and thus marks an effective transition into Henry’s recollection of Richard’s fortunes beginning at 57 (Oxf1). Alternatively, though less likely, these lines may have been edited out of the copy-text used for F, as happened with the reference to Blunt at 31.1.

  55 crosses trials or misfortunes (OED cross sb. 10), derived from Jesus’s bearing the Cross (e.g. in Matthew, 16.24)

  51 chances, mocks,] chances mockes, Qb; Chances mocks F; chances mock Rowe; chances mock us (Vaughan); chance’s mocks Cam1 53–6 O … die!] Qb; not in F 54–5 through – … ensue – ] this edn; through, … ensue? Qb; not in F

  60 eight years Henry’s placement of Richard II’s deposition (1399) eight years earlier would put the present scene at 1407. But as the Battle of Shrewsbury, news of which opens this play, was fought in 1403, and as the Gaultree episode (1405) dramatized in 4.1 had not yet occurred, Shakespeare clearly is not attending carefully to historical time. See 103n. on that … dead.

  64 even … eyes i.e. in person and without fear, in spite of Richard’s claim to divine right

  66 cousin Neville Henry misremembers, or Shakespeare does. No Earl of Warwick appears in R2, and the family name of Warwick in this play was Beauchamp, not Neville. On the other hand the Earl of Westmorland, who plays a key role at Gaultree, was named Rafe Neuill in both Holinshed (3.529) and Stow (Annales, 529); and, as Wilson reports (Cam1), an Earl of Warwick named Richard Neville plays a king-making role in 3H6 (see 1n.). Thus there was ample reason for confusion, and it is likely that Shakespeare meant to include Westmorland in this scene, not Warwick. The term cousin was used both for blood relatives (as at 71) and as a mark of intimacy among people who were not related.

  67–79 A conflation of scenes in R2. Richard is checked and rated in the deposition scene (R2 4.1.222–52) when Northumberland attempts to get him to confess his crimes against the state. The lines Henry quotes, however, are from R2 5.1.55–65, a confrontation scene from which he was absent. Furthermore, the lines themselves are misquoted: ‘The mounting Bolingbroke’, with its overtones of predatory ambition, here becomes the familiar ‘My cousin Bolingbroke’; and Richard’s poetic ‘The time shall not be many hours of age / More than it is’ becomes a more prosaic ‘The time shall come’. Various explanations for the misquotation are possible, from the exculpatory (Henry was not present and therefore is simply reporting hearsay) to the machiavellian (Henry calculatedly revises Richard’s words to play down his own role as usurper). In any case, the effect of these snatches of misremembered quotation is of thought-in-process, so that Henry’s speech, with its self-interruptions akin to those in Hamlet’s first soliloquy, has a veneer of authenticity. This recollection of events in R2 also contributes to the network of reports by which this play interrogates the nature of historical truth and invention.

  59 year] Qb; yeeres F 66 SD] Rowe; not in QbF 67 eye brimful] eye-brimme full Qb; Eye, brim-full F

  68 checked and rated reprimanded (cf. 1.2.196) and berated (cf. 5.2.69)

  73 necessity Henry invokes the principle of necessity, of inevitable cause and effect, to justify his usurpation – a principle which had gained popularity in post-Machiavellian Europe. Whether he is sincere is debatable, despite his appeal to God as witness (72). In R2 he swears that he has returned from banishment only to claim his father’s dukedom (2.3.113–14), yet simply by returning, he has challenged royal authority; furthermore, he proceeds to raise an army and sentence Richard’s favourites to death before proffering Richard ‘allegiance and true faith of heart’ (3.3.37) at Flint castle. Davison cites a speech made by Oliver Cromwell to Parliament in 1654 as a gloss on such principle: ‘Necessity hath no law. Feigned necessities, imaginary necessities … are the greatest cozenage that men can put upon the Providence of God, and make pretences to break known rules by’. Such cozenages are sanctioned by Warwick’s speech at 80 and embraced by Henry as necessities at 92–3.

  74 were compelled Henry’s use of the passive voice – he declines to say by whom he was compelled – illustrates how cunningly he avoids responsibility and evades the charge of usurpation (GWW).

  78 time’s condition Cf. 4.1.101 and 5.2.11.

  80–5 Warwick invokes the classical concept of Historia magistra vitae: history as the teacher of life (Cam2). By giving form (Figuring) to the events of ages past (times deceased), history allows the observant person to predict (prophesy) what is in store (intreasured) for the future.

  83 a near aim reasonable accuracy

  main chance likelihood of occurrence

  69 prophecy?] Capell; prophecie: QbF 71 Bolingbroke] Pope; Bolingbrooke Qb; Bullingbrooke F 72 God] Qb; Heauen F 79 division] Qb (deuision), F 81 natures] Qb; nature F

  84 who a frequent substitution for ‘which’ in personification. Cf. 22.

  in their seeds Cf. Mac 1.3.58: ‘If you can look into the seeds of time’.

  85 intreasured stored safely, as in a treasury (OED entreasure v. 1); intreasurèd

  86 hatch … time a metaphor for offspring, drawn from egg-laying animals; also used to characterize the unknown outcome of Hamlet’s melancholy (Ham 3.1.163–6). The terms hatch and brood are synonymous.

  87 necessary … this inevitable pattern of cause and effect

  90 of that seed from that beginning

  97 double … echo Despite confusing variations in punctuation between Qb and F, voice and echo are most easily explained as parallel objects of like, leaving double as the sole verb: Rumour doubles the number of the enemy, like the voice and its echo.

  100 powers army. Cf. 1.1.133.

  103 instance proof

  that … dead another example of historical inaccuracy. Owen Glendower did not die until 1415–16 (R. Davies, 326 – 7); and even Holinshed’s error in putting his death at 1409 (3.536) does not explain its report here, for this scene is imagined to have occurred before the defeat of the rebels at Gaultree in 1405: see 60n. Holinshed’s account of a Welsh massacre at Usk in 1405 in which Glendower’s son was captured (3.527) could possibly have been the source of confusion (Ard2). I use the spelling of Glendower’s name as it was printed in QF 1.3.72, rather than the variant spelling used by QbF in this scene: see 1.3.72n.

  84 who] Qb; which F 85 beginning] Qb; beginnings F intreasured] Qb, F (entreasured) 97 double, … echo,] Ard2; double like the voice, and eccho Qb; double, like the Voice, and Eccho, F 99 soul] Qb; Life F 100 powers] Qb; Pow’rs F 103 Glendower] F3; Glendour QbF; Glyndŵr Oxf

  104 For earlier references to the King’s illness, see 1.2.104–10 and 2.2.38–48.

  105 unseasoned hours troublesome times

  107 inward domestic, civil

  out of hand resolved, finished

  108 would An additional verb such as ‘go’ or ‘march’ is understood.

  the Holy Land Henry returns to the crusade he proposed at the conclusion of R2 (5.6.49–50) and again at the opening of 1H4 (1.1.19–27) but which rebellion made impossible. Holinshed (3.540–1) reports that Henry assembled ships, men, treasure, munitions ‘and all things necessarie for such a roiall iournie as he pretended to take into the holie land’ ‘to recouer the citie of Jerusalem from the Infidels’ in 1412, significantly later than events depicted here; and Henry alludes to such preparations at 4.3.1–10. This would have been the last crusade. By leading it, Henry presumably would secure absolution from his sin of usurpation. Providence, however, thwarts his plan. For the prophecy that he would die in Jerusalem, see 4.3.360–8n.

  3.2 The comic premise of this scene, Falstaff’s corrupt conscription of soldiers, was probably inspired by a scene in Famous Victories and reflects a growing concern with such abuses at the end of the 16th century. The scene occurs on Justice Shallow’s farm, located – according to evidence at 4.2.79–80 which is reinforced throughout by references to names and places associated with the Cotswolds and their environs – in Gloucestershire. For a discussion of the illogic of Falstaff’s recruiting soldiers in Gloucestershire for wars in the north, and evidence that the scene may have originally been written for 1H4 or for an early draft of a single H4 play which was later divided into two parts.

  3.2] Scena Secunda. F; not in Q 0.1] Qa (Silens), Qb; Enter Shallow and Silence: with Mouldie, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, Bull-calfe. F 1 3come on] Qa F; come on sir Qb 3, 5 doth] Q (dooth), F 3 Silence] QaF; Silens Qb

  0.1 *F’s massed entry may reveal its provenance in a theatrical copy, though it may not necessarily reflect theatrical practice, as the Oxford editors assert (TxC, 352, 361). The grouping of characters at the head of a scene in which they will appear may have served as a convenient annotation for the playhouse, but not as an indication of their actual entry. Alternatively, the massed entry, a tradition in classical drama, may reflect the intervention of a literary scribe who prepared the text for F. Were the five recruits to enter here, they would stand mute onstage for nearly 100 lines. Q, on the other hand, lists only the entry of the two justices: it is understood from Falstaff’s request to see the recruits (96), and from Shallow’s subsequent directive (99–100), that they will enter individually as they are called. Some editors, adapting F, announce a massed entry when Mouldy is called (101), so that the recruits gather onstage and merely step forward as they are named. But this would substitute one comic surprise – the collective appearance of a humorously rag-tag group – for five individual such surprises and thus would make little theatrical sense.

  1 Come … 3on Shallow’s thrice repeated come echoes the Hostess’s bidding Doll to come at the end of 2.4, hinting that these scenes may once have been consecutive, and 3.1 inserted as an afterthought. See 3.1n. The ‘sir’ following the third come on in Qb may have been attracted from the twice repeated sir in the following line.

  2–3 by the rood by the Cross; a mild and already archaic (because Roman Catholic) oath

  3 cousin See 3.1.66n. The exact relationship between the two justices is not established.

  5 bedfellow familiar term for one’s spouse

  8 black woosel black ousel, or blackbird. OED records ‘woosel’ as a 16th-century spelling for ousel. Through it, Q may be indicating Silence’s rustic pronunciation: cf. the spelling ‘Woosell’ in the F version of Bottom’s song about ‘The ousel cock, so black of hue’ (MND 3.1.120). The import of Silence’s remark is his regret, perhaps feigned, that his daughter is dark rather than fair, because blondes traditionally were thought more beautiful, more desirable, and thus more eligible for marriage.

  9 By … no Shallow repeats a mild citizen’s oath which Falstaff has used earlier: see 2.2.128n.

  10 William though not identified as such, presumably Silence’s son. Unless he had his children at an advanced age, Silence must be considerably younger than Shallow, who was a student at Clement’s Inn when Falstaff was just a boy (24–5). On the matter of the age of these characters, see 210n.

  8 woosel] Q; Ouzell F 9 no] Q; nay F

  13–14 Inns … Inn Oxford and Cambridge often sent their best students to study law at the Inns of Court, the intellectual centres of London life where lawyers were trained, tested and called to the bar. Clement’s Inn, at the time Shallow attended it, was one of eight Inns of Chancery, lesser institutions which provided legal training to those students who had not gained admission to the Inns of Court. In Shakespeare’s time, the Inns of Chancery were being taken over by lawyers excluded from the Inns of Court. Shallow thus inadvertently identifies himself, in contrast to the Lord Chief Justice, as a legal mind of no great acuity.

  16 lusty full of life, or lascivious: both meanings reflect ironically on Shallow’s present condition. Underlying the following recollection of his days at Clement’s Inn is the classical trope Ubi sunt?, or ‘Where is the life that late I led?’ See especially 33–4, 211–19 and Pistol’s ironic recapitulation of the theme at 5.3.140–1.

  18 roundly thoroughly, to the full (OED adv. 2)

  19–21 little … man The names of Shallow’s companions are comic. A ‘doit’ is a coin worth half a farthing and so, metaphorically, a trifle; a ‘pickbone’ is a starving or avaricious person; and squealing (Squele) is associated with pigs. Shallow’s mentioning the midland homes of two companions, Staffordshire and the Cotswolds, like his later inclusion of Wart among the recruits (see 137n.), reinforces the placement of the scene in Gloucestershire. Cotsole is a phonetic variant of Cotswold, indicative perhaps of Shallow’s rustic speech.

  22 swinge-bucklers daring adventurers, rowdy mischief-makers

  23 bona robas from the Italian for good dresses, or, as defined by Florio in A World of Wordes (1598), ‘good stuffe, a good wholesome plum-cheeked wench’. Shallow’s assertion that he had the best of the bona robas at commandment implies that they were high-class whores. See also 204n. and cf. Dekker, 2 Honest Whore, 1.1.55–6: ‘our Country Bona Robaes, oh! are the sugrest delicious Rogue’.

  24 at commandment at our beck and call

  13 ’A] Q; Hee F a’Court] Q (a court); of Court F 17 By the mass] Q; not in F 19 Doyt] Q; Doit F 20 Barnes] Q; Bare F 21 Cotsole man] Q; Cot-sal-man F; Cot’swold man Pope 22 a’Court] Q (a court); of Court F 23 bona robas] Q (bona robes), F (Bona-Roba’s)

  25–6 page … Norfolk Shakespeare creates a fictional history for Falstaff that eventually attached itself to both the historical John Fastolfe and John Oldcastle. Mowbray, banished in R2 (1.3), was the enemy of Bolingbroke, now Henry IV, so that Falstaff by association stands once again in opposition to Bolingbroke. There is no evidence that Falstaff’s original, Sir John Oldcastle, was in any way connected to Mowbray.

  29 see saw. On the use of the ‘complete present’ tense for the past, see Abbott, 346, and Hope, 149–50.

  30 Scoggin’s Henry Scogan, friend to Chaucer and court poet to Henry IV, reportedly sent a ballad to Prince Harry when he and his brothers were dining in London (Stow, Survey, 1.214). Shakespeare’s audience, however, would have been more familiar with John Scoggin, jester to Edward IV, whose name, owing to the publication of an apocryphal jestbook called Scoggin, his iestes in 1565–6, came to be synonymous with ‘buffoon’. Falstaff apparently has always brawled with fools.

  31 crack lively lad, rogue or wag (OED sb.3 11)

  32 Samson Stockfish a humorously paradoxical name. The biblical hero Samson is yoked to a stockfish, a dried, salted cod which needed to be beaten before cooking and which had come to signify cowardice: ‘To beat one like a stockfish’ was proverbial (Dent, S867). Falstaff used the term to insult the Prince in 1H4 – ‘you bull’s pizzle, you stock-fish!’ (2.4.239); and see similar uses in MM 3.2.105 and Tem 3.2.69. Shallow’s courage is thus no greater than Falstaff’s, and his adversary’s being a fruit-seller adds to the comedy.

  32–3 behind Gray’s Inn i.e. in Gray’s Inn Fields, which stretched north of Gray’s Inn, one of the Inns of Court

  37 Death … all The closest reference is to Psalms, 89.47: ‘What man is he that lyueth, and shall not see death’, but the sentiment was a commonplace: cf. Dent, D142: ‘Death is common to all.’

  38 How how much for; what is the price of

  yoke of bullocks A yoke is a contrivance by which animals are coupled together to draw a plough; here, it is metonymic for a pair. Shallow’s incongruous leap from considering mortality to expressing a lively interest in bullocks may have been inspired by Ecclesiasticus, 38.24–5: ‘How can he get wisdome that holdeth the plough … and his talke is but of the breeding of bullocks?’ (Geneva Bible).

  27 This … cousin] QaF; Coosin, this Sir Iohn Qb 29 see] Q; saw F 30 Scoggin’s] Q (Skoggins), F (Scoggan’s) ’a] Q; hee F 32 Samson] Q, F (Sampson) 33 Jesu, Jesu] Q; Oh F 34 my] Q; mine F 37 as … saith] Q; not in F 38 Stamford] F; Samforth Q

  Stamford fair Stamford, a market town in Lincolnshire 90 miles from London on the Great North Road, was noted for its horse and cattle fairs held each February, Lent and August.

  39 By my troth by my faith: a mild oath, omitted in F

  40, 52 Dooble Q’s spelling is a variant of, and may indicate Shallow’s rustic pronunciation of, ‘double’.

  43 ’A … bow He was a good archer; bow possibly means a longbow, the weapon of choice used against the French during the time of John of Gaunt, who here is said to have bet money on Dooble’s ability (44–5). Shallow prefers ’a to he throughout.

  44 John a’Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, who figures prominently in R2; fourth son of Edward III and father of Henry IV. For a disparaging gloss on Shallow’s presumed familiarity with him, see Falstaff at 318–24.

  46–8 clapped … half According to Shallow, Dooble was an skilled archer. He hit (clapped) the bullseye (a clout was a piece of cloth marking the centre of the target) from a distance of 240 yards (twelve score) and, by shooting the arrow straight ahead rather than in a high arc – keeping the target in sight above his bow hand (a forehand shaft) – could hit the target even from 280 or 290 yards away, a remarkable feat. Shallow is no doubt exaggerating Dooble’s skills, his memory of a youthful companion coloured by the same hyperbole with which he describes his own conquest of women.