314–15 ’A came … fashion either (1) he wore styles only after they had gone out of fashion, or (2) he was always socially inept. Partridge suggests that ‘came … in the rearward’ may also hint that Shallow was ‘perverted in his sexual practices’ (145) – that is, he practised buggery.

  315–17 tunes … goodnights melodies whistled in the street by car-men (drivers of carts, wagons or carriages) that Shallow passed off as his own impromptus (fancies) and serenades (goodnights) to the whores he wished to impress. Henry Chettle in Kind-Heartes Dreame lists ‘The Carman’s Whistle’ as a popular bawdy song of this era; and Duffin (90–4) prints lyrics for two different ballads about the car-man, the tune for which is found in several settings of this period. In a manner similar to Shallow, young Bartholomew Cokes in Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair (1.4.77–81) picks up ‘vile tunes’ from carters ‘which hee will sing at supper, and in the sermon-times’: ‘if hee meete but a Carman i’ the streete, … hee will whistle him, and all his tunes ouer, at night in his sleepe!’

  309 radish] Q (reddish), F 310 ’A] Q; Hee F 312 invincible] QF; invisible Rowe ’A] Q; Hee F genius] Q(corr), F; gemies Q(uncorr) 313–14 yet … mandrake] Q; not in F 314 ’A] Q; hee F ever] F; ouer Q 315–17 and sung … goodnights.] Q; not in F

  315–16 overscutched housewives washed-up whores. Pronounced ‘hussies’ or ‘hussifs’, housewives was a common term for prostitutes; and overscutched meant either thoroughly whipped, as is to be Doll’s punishment at 5.4.5, or simply used up, with a possible play on the word ‘scut’, the tail of a hare, which became a slang term equivalent to cunt. Falstaff reveals that Shallow consorted not with the bona robas he brags about at 23–4, but with the lowest, and perhaps oldest, of the profession.

  318 Vice’s dagger an allusion to the dagger of lath (thin, flat wood) comically brandished by the Vice figure in Moralities and Tudor Interludes. Cf. 1H4, where Falstaff threatens to ‘beat [Hal] out of [his] kingdom with a dagger of lath’ (2.4.130–1), and Feste’s song in TN: ‘like to the old Vice / … Who with dagger of lath, in his rage and his wrath, / Cries ‘Aha!’ to the devil’ (4.2.123–6). Falstaff mocks Shallow for his wraith-like appearance.

  319 John a’Gaunt Ironically, Falstaff himself claims such familiarity at 322–3. As page to Mowbray, he might at times have been in the company of John of Gaunt: see 25–6n.

  319–20 sworn brother companion-in-arms; one who has taken a vow of friendship

  321 tilt-yard a ground for tournaments and jousts close to Whitehall in Westminster

  321–2 he … men Shallow appears to have been beaten about the head for trying to enter an area of the tilt-yard reserved for tournament officials – clear proof that he held no sway with John of Gaunt. The antecedent of he, however, is unclear and might possibly refer to Gaunt, who thus would have beaten Shallow himself. For discussion of the marshal’s function, see 1.3.4n.

  323 he … name strained Falstaffian wordplay. Shallow surpassed (beat) Gaunt by being even more gaunt (emaciated) than the name suggests.

  324 thrust stuffed

  eel-skin used as a tight-fitting sheath, thus suggestive of comically exaggerated thinness. In 1H4 Falstaff calls Harry ‘you starveling, you eel-skin’ (2.4.238), and in KJ Faulconbridge’s skinny arms are mocked as ‘eel-skins stuff’d’ (1.1.141).

  325 case … hautboy The treble was the slenderest of the three Elizabethan hautboys (ancestor of the oboe), its case, like the eel-skin, long and narrow.

  319, 323 a’Gaunt] Q (a Gaunt); of Gaunt F 320 ’a ne’er] Q (a nere); hee neuer F 324 thrust] Q; truss’d F eel-skin] Q(corr), F; eele-shin Q(uncorr) 325 hautboy] Q (hoboy), F (Hoeboy)

  326 beefs cattle, oxen

  326–7 be acquainted with find occasion to swindle; an ominous recasting of Shallow’s invitation to ‘let our old acquaintance be renewed’ (294) which implies that Falstaff will make himself acquainted with Shallow’s wealth. Cf. ‘I will fetch off these justices’ (300).

  327–8 ’t shall … I’ll ‘it will be to my discredit if I don’t’ (OED hard adv. 2c); more colloquially, ‘I’ll be damned if I don’t’

  328 philosopher’s two stones Alchemists believed that one of these stones would confer eternal youth; the other – presumably the one Falstaff is more interested in – would transmute base metals into gold. Falstaff thus intends to grow rich by Shallow, and in Act 5 he manages to secure his first instalment. The mention of two stones (when he is really interested in only one) increases the likelihood that Falstaff is also playing on stones as slang for testicles, a double entendre in line with his other dismissive characterizations of Shallow.

  329–30 If … him The law of nature to which Falstaff alludes is epitomized in a proverb, ‘The great fish eat the small’ (Dent, F111). The dace is a small fresh-water fish used for bait.

  330 but I may that says I shouldn’t

  *Let While corrected Q’s ‘till’ may make colloquial sense if regarded as an extension of the previous clause – Falstaff will snap at Shallow until time shapes his destiny – uncorrected Q’s and F’s introduction of an independent clause with ‘let’ rounds out Falstaff’s speech more aphoristically, an option preferred by most editors.

  4.1.0.1–3 *Q indicates Lord Bardolph’s entrance here, though he plays no part in the scene and, according to Holinshed (3.530), had fled to Scotland with Northumberland. F deletes Bardolph’s name from the SD but adds those of Westmorland, who does not enter until 24, and Collevile, who does not speak until his encounter with Falstaff in 4.2. Though one could argue that Collevile’s inclusion is justified because he is a famous rebel (4.2.61) worthy of participating in the councils of war (see TxC, 363, and Oxf1), F’s listing of Westmorland and Collevile in the SD is more likely anticipatory: cf. the massed entry at F 3.2.0. For evidence of scribal error in F, see 4.2n.

  325–6 for … court;] for him: a Court: F; for him a Court. Q 326 has] Q; hath F beefs] Q; Beeues F I’ll] Q (ile); I will F 327 ’t] Q; it F 328 I’ll] Q (ile); I will F 330 him. Let] F, Q(uncorr)(him: let); him, till Q(corr) 331 SD] Capell; Exeunt. F; not in Q 4.1] Actus Quartus. Scena Prima. F; not in Q 0.1–3] Q (Enter the Archbishop, Mowbray, Bardolfe, Hastings, within the forrest of Gaultree.); Enter the Arch-bishop, Mowbray, Hastings, Westmerland, Coleuile. F 0.1 and a Captain] this edn

  0.3 Holinshed places this episode on ‘a plaine within the forrest of Galtree’ (3.529). Originally spelled ‘Galtres’, the forest, established by Norman kings, lay just to the north of York and by the time of Henry IV’s reign covered 100,000 acres. Identification of a locale in an introductory SD is rare in Shakespeare; here, the opening lines of the scene make it superfluous.

  2 an’t shall please if it suits; an expression of deference

  3 discoverers scouts

  8 New-dated recent. The letters are Shakespeare’s invention.

  9 cold chilling, dispiriting (OED adj. 9, 10a)

  10 powers forces, troops. Cf. 1.1.133.

  11 hold sortance with be appropriate for

  quality rank

  12 whereupon for which reason. Northumberland’s excuse is patently false: cf. 2.3.65–8.

  13–14 to ripe … Scotland The meaning of growing fortunes is ambiguous. It may imply optimism that Scotland will yield Northumberland such powers as he could not levy in England, but the Archbishop’s account may be tinged with sarcasm.

  2 Gaultree] Q; Gualtree F an’t] QF (and’t) 9 tenor] tenure QF; tenour Theobald 12 could] Q(corr)F; would Q(uncorr)

  15 attempts enterprise

  overlive survive, outlive

  15–16 hazard … meeting probably a hendiadys: ‘the peril (hazard) and fear-inducing (fearful) risk of encountering’

  16 opposite adversary

  17 touch ground run aground; a metaphor from shipwrecks (OED ground sb. 2b)

  20 goodly form proper formation, used of the military (OED form sb. 8)

  21 ground they hide amount of space they take up

  22 Upon close to

  rate total

  23 ‘The exact number we estimated.’

  24 sway on advance, move ahead (OED sway v. 4b)

  25 well-appointed ‘in full military regalia’ (Cam2). Cf. 1.1.190 and H5 3.Chorus.4.

  fronts confronts, meets (us) face to face (OED v. 3a)

  15 overlive] QF (ouer-liue) 18 SD Enter] Q; Enter a F 24.1] F, Q (after 25)

  30 What … coming ‘why you have come’

  32 If that if

  33 like itself in its true colours

  routs disorderly mobs, rabble

  34 bloody passionate, excitable, possibly bloodthirsty

  guarded with rage extends the personification of rebellion as a figure progressing through a mob, led by youth, protected (OED guard v. 7) by rage, and attended by beggary. In similar fashion, rage and hot blood are said to be the Prince’s counsellors at 4.3.63. Although Q and F agree on rage, some editors, arguing that the word is an error springing from a common source, prefer Singer’s emendation ‘guarded with rags’, because ‘rags’ would sort well with beggary and guarded would assume its sartorial meaning of trimmed or ornamented with lace and embroidery (OED ppl.a. 3a), thus yielding a metaphor picked up in ‘dress the ugly form / Of … insurrection’ at 39–40.

  35 countenanced approved

  by boys by no one but boys. Westmorland implies that only the young would be taken in by the Archbishop’s hypocrisy.

  36 commotion rebellion, insurrection. Cf. 2.4.368.

  appear were to appear: the subjunctive mood

  37 his its

  true … proper a redundancy typical of Westmorland, as in the If clauses beginning at 32 and 36, the four Whose clauses at 42–5, and the four parallel phrases at 50–2. Westmorland’s habit of syntactical repetition is reminiscent of John of Gaunt’s in R2.

  39 Had not been would not be

  40 bloody Unlike its use at 34, bloody here signifies the bloodshed for which these rebels will be responsible.

  41 fair honours refers to the rebels’ exalted ranks, but glances ironically at their dishonourable motives as well. As the culmination of the sartorial metaphor begun at 39, fair honours would mean handsome garments.

  30–1 Then … address] F; one line Q(corr) 30 Then, my lord] Q(corr)F; not in Q(uncorr) 34 rage] QF; rags Singer2 (W.Walker) 36 appear] QF; appear’d Pope

  44 good letters erudition

  45 white investments figure ‘ecclesiastical robes symbolize’. On the sacrilege of the Bishop’s support of rebellion against the King, see 1.1.200–9.

  46 dove See Matthew, 3.16: ‘the spirite of God descendying lyke a doue’.

  47 translate a triple pun: (1) translate one language (peace) into another (war), (2) transform (from a cleric to a soldier), and (3) transfer your See (from church to battlefield), a technical meaning of translate used for the movement of bishops (Ard2).

  52 point of war short phrase sounded on a trumpet or bugle as a signal in the field (OED point sb. A 9a)

  55–79 *The omission of these lines from Q is probably the result of censorship (self- or enforced) owing to political sensitivities surrounding either the deposition of Richard II or the treachery of an Archbishop. Without them, the imagery of disease introduced at 54 – and with it, the Archbishop’s promised justification for rebellion – go undeveloped, and the movement from 54 to 80 is abrupt.

  55–8 The Archbishop’s comparison of the rebels’ situation to that of Richard works two ways: (1) he admonishes them for having wasted their time, like Richard, in ‘surfeiting and wanton hours’ – here meaning not excess and debauchery, but inattention to their political purpose – which may, as a result, bring about their deaths; (2) he ironically identifies them as targets of an ambitious Bolingbroke who, as he did with Richard, will fabricate charges of corruption (disease) in order to eliminate them. The withering sarcasm with which Richard’s fate is phrased – he being infected, died – occludes the fact that he was killed.

  45 figure] Q(corr)F; figures Q(uncorr) 54 end: we] F; end we Q 55–79] F; not in Q

  57 bleed play on blood-letting as a medical cure, and shedding blood in battle. Throughout this passage (54–66) the Archbishop uses imagery of curing the sick body as a metaphor for purging the state of its ills through civil war.

  60 take … physician do not assume the role (OED take v. 16a) of physician – i.e. military commander (cf. 57n.). The Archbishop is being disingenuous here, for lines 64 – 5 confirm that he is indeed acting as a physician (Ard2). This passage was influenced by the Archbishop’s claim in Holinshed ‘that he tooke nothing in hand against the kings peace, but that whatsoeuer he did, tended rather to aduance the peace and quiet of the common-wealth … and therefore he maintained that his purpose to be good & profitable, as well for the king himself, as for the realme’ (3.529).

  62 Troop march

  63 show … war temporarily put on the frightening mask of war

  64 Continuing the imagery of ‘surfeiting and wanton hours’ in 55–8, this line probably means ‘to discipline minds bloated, and thus sickened, with excess’: diet = regulate, return to health; rank = swollen, puffed up (OED adj. 6); sick of = sick with; happiness = excess.

  65 purge th’obstructions medically, cleanse the blood of impurities; politically, rid the state of corrupting influences. For a similar metaphor of purging, with the same use of rank, see Sonnet 118: ‘to prevent our maladies unseen / We sicken to shun sickness when we purge’, bringing ‘to medicine a healthful state / Which, rank of goodness, would by ill be cured’ (3–4, 11–12).

  stop block, close up

  66 Hear … plainly Aware that his heavily metaphoric speech may not have been fully understood, the Archbishop here offers to translate it.

  67 justly precisely (OED adv. 5)

  70 which … run probably a reference to speed rather than direction: ‘how things are going’. The line echoes a proverb, ‘How runs the stream?’ (Dent, S925). Cf. TN 4.1.59.

  71 enforced driven by force (OED v. 7a)

  most quiet there With most functioning as an adjective and there referring to the stream of time (70), F’s phrase suggests that the pressure of political circumstance (torrent of occasion) has driven the rebels from a state of calm (most quiet) into action. Some editors have adopted Hanmer’s emendation of there to ‘sphere’, and Wilson’s (Cam1) ‘shore’ has also won adherents, assuming a compositor’s (unlikely) misreading of s for t and o for e.

  72 rough torrent a violent onrush of water which sweeps the rebels out of their calm. The image of a river flooding its banks is answered at 175–6.

  occasion events, circumstance

  74 When … serve when the time is appropriate; when the occasion arises

  articles written complaints

  76 suit supplication, entreaty

  audience i.e. with the King. Shakespeare strengthens the rebels’ case beyond what sources warrant. Holinshed (3.529) writes that the rebels took their grievances to the nobility and even published them ‘in the publike streets of the citie of Yorke’; but no evidence of their taking articles to the King and being turned away is recorded.

  77–9 The Archbishop’s sudden shift to the present tense emphasizes the urgency of his case.

  77 unfold make clear, explain

  79 Cf. the Archbishop’s complaint in Holinshed that ‘he could have no free accesse’ to the King ‘by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him’ (3.529).

  Even … men by those very men

  80 dangers conflicts, probably referring to the battle at Shrewsbury

  newly recently

  82 yet-appearing blood either (1) blood shed during past conflicts has indelibly stained the earth as a portent, or (2) those conflicts have continued to result in the spilling of more blood

  82–3 examples … now a crux for which Steevens’s gloss is as good as any: ‘examples (of injustice) which every minute press on our notice, even this very moment’ (Steevens4)

  71 there] F; sphere Hanmer; chair Collier2 (Theobald); shore Cam1 (Vaughan); flow Sisson 80 days] F; daie’s Q

  84 Hath Use of a singular verb with a plural subject (dangers, 80) was common conversational practice from the mid-16th century to the mid-17th.

  ill-beseeming unseemly, inappropriate

  87 i.e. so that peace will exist both in name and in reality

  89 galled annoyed, perhaps with overtones of abuse or injury; gallèd

  90 suborned bribed, treacherously induced

  grate on harass, oppress

  91–2 seal … divine a possible allusion to the function of bishops as licensers, or censors, of published books; seal = authorize

  92 forged organized, with an implication of fraudulence

  93, 95 *These two lines, which appear only in uncorrected Q, are problematic. Their omission from corrected Q may indicate that they were marked for deletion; their omission from F, if F used an independent copy-text, would corroborate corrected Q. Why 93 should have been marked for deletion is puzzling, because it makes sense as a culmination of Westmorland’s reproof to the Archbishop. Line 95, however, appears to be corrupt. It is unlikely that a compositor would have been asked to delete these two lines during the printing of Q, because it is much more difficult to remove two lines of type from either side of an intervening line than to remove two adjacent lines. This has led to speculation (Walker, ‘Cancelled’, 115–16, and Textual, 104 – 5) that a proofreader who had been instructed to cut 101–2, which directly precede the long deletion of Westmorland’s speech (103–39), mistakenly cut 93 and 95 instead, perhaps because they begin with the same words as 101–2 (And and To). Alternatively, Weis speculates that Shakespeare himself marked 93 and 95 for deletion before the book of the play was copied from his holograph, but that the compositor of uncorrected Q carelessly reintroduced them. The deletion of 95, however, does not make 94 and 96, which now become consecutive, any more sensible a reply to Westmorland’s questions; and the lack of an adequate referent for any such redress (97) adds to the enigmatic nature of the passage, suggesting that at some stage more lines must have been cut.