Conjecture, expectation, and surmise

Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted.

Arch. 'Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.

Bard. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the air on promise of supply,

Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts1:
And so, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

Hast. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope. Bard. Yes, in this present quality of war;Indeed the instant action2 (a cause on foot), Lives so in hope, as in an early spring

We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist

To build at all? Much more, in this great work

That is, which turned out to be much smaller than, &c. The first twenty lines of this speech were first inserted in the folio, 1623. This passage has perplexed the editors. The old copies read :

"Yes, if this present quality of war,

Indeed the instant action; a cause on foot,

Lives so in hope: As in,' &c.

It has been proposed to read :

"Yes, if this present quality of war

Induc'd the instant action: a cause on foot

Lives so in hope, as in,' &c.

The reading adopted by Steevens and Malone, from Johnson's suggestion, is that which I have given; it affords a clear sense, and agrees with the whole tenor of Bardolph's argument; at the same time little violence is done to the text, two letters only being changed.

Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down, And set another up), should we survey The plot of situation, and the model; Consents upon a sure foundation; Question surveyors; know our own estate, How able such a work to undergo, To weigh against his opposite; or else, We fortify in paper, and in figures, Using the names of men instead of men: Like one, that draws the model of a house Beyond his power to build it; who, half through, Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost A naked subject to the weeping clouds, And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

Hast. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth), Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Bard. What is the king but five and twenty thousand?

Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French4,
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Must take up us: So is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers sound
With hollow poverty and emptiness.

Arch. That he should draw his several strengths together,

And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

Hast.

If he should do so,

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

Agree. How

During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven in aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531.

Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither? Hast. The duke of Lancaster5, and Westmoreland: Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is substituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

Arch.

Let us on;

And publish the occasion of our arms.

The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over greedy love hath surfeited:-
An habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many! with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be?
And being now trimm'ds in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke, ome
Cry'st now, O earth, yield us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year of the reign of brother, King Henry V. At this time Prince Henry was actually duke of Lancaster. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who, speaking of the first parliament of King Henry IV. says, "Then the king rose, and ade his eldest sonne prince of Wales, &c.; his second sonne was there made duke of Lancaster. Annales, 1631.-He seems to have consulted Stowe (p. 323) between the times of finishing the last play and beginning of the present.

6 This speech first appeared in the folio.

Many or meyny; from the French mesnie, a multitude. Dryden uses the word

"The many read the skies with loud applause."

8 Dressed.

Mowb. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on? Hast. We are time's subjects, and time bids be

gone.

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I. London. A Street.

Enter Hostess; FANG, and his Boy, with her; and SNARE following.

Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action? Fang. It is entered.

Host. Where is your yeoman1? Is it a lusty yeoman? will a' stand to't?

Fang. Sirrah, where's Snare?

Host. O lord, ay: good master Snare, E
Snare. Here, here.g

Fang. Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff. Host. Yea, good master Snare; I have entered him and all.

Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

Host. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabbed me mine own house, and that most beastly: in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin2 like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child. Fang. If I can close with him, I care not for thrust.

his

Host. No,

Fang, Aor I neither: I'll be at your elbow.

Fang. An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice3 ;

1 A bailiff's follower was formerly called a serjeant's yeoman. 2 Thrust.

3 The quarto reads view. Vice is used for grasp or clutch. The fist is vulgarly called the vice in the west of England.

Vol. V.

12

Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he's an infinitive thing upon my score: Good master Fang, hold him sure;-good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continually to Piecorner (saving your manhoods), to buy a saddle; and he's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan1 for a poor lone woman to bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, to $, and a bear every knave's wrong. R

Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH.

Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose Yonder he comes; h him. Do knave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do your offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do me, do me, do me your offices.

Fal. How now? whose mare's dead? what's the matter?

Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly.

Fal. Away, varlets!-Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the channel.

Host. Throw me in the channel? I'll throw thee in the channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou?

tardly rogue-Murde

murder! O hou bas

thou honeysuckle villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and

The old copies read long one; which Theobald supposed was a corruption of lone, or loan. Mr. Douce thinks the alteration unnecessary; and that the hostess means to say that a hundred mark is a long score, or reckoning, for her to bear.

5 It is scarce necessary to remark that honey-suckle and honeyseed are Dame Quickly's corruptions of homicidal and homicide.