Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him now; a bawd; a cutpurse. Flu. I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave 'ords at the pridge, as you shall see in a summer's day: But it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve. Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue; that now and then goes to the wars, to grace himself, at his return into London, under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in great commanders' names: and they will learn you by rote, where services were done ;—at such and such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: And what a beard of the general's cut, and a "Captain Gower, cannot you hear it lighten and thunder?" Steevens. 6 a sconce,] Appears to have been some hasty, rude, inconsiderable kind of fortification. Sir Thomas Smythe, in one of his Discourses on the Art Military, 1589, mentions them in the following manner: and that certain sconces by them devised, without any bulwarks, flanckers, travasses, mounts, platformes, wet or drie ditches, in forme, with counterscarps, or any other good forme of fortification; but only raised and formed with earth, turfe, trench, and certen poynts, angles, and indents, should be able to hold out the enemie," &c. Steevens. So, Falstaff, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "I will ensconce (i. e. entrench) myself behind the arras.” Blackstone. 7 a beard of the general's cut,] It appears from an old ballad inserted in a Miscellany, entitled Le Prince d'Amour, 8vo. 1660, that our ancestors were very curious in the fashion of their beards, and that a certain cut or form was appropriated to the soldier, the bishop, the judge, the clown, &c. The spade-beard, and perhaps the stiletto-beard also, was appropriated to the first of these characters. It is observable that our author's patron, Henry Earl of Southampton, who spent much of his time in camps, is drawn with the latter of these beards; and his unfortunate friend, Lord Essex, is constantly represented with the former. In the ballad above mentioned the various forms of this fantastick ornament are thus described: "Now of beards there be, "Of fashions such a throng, "That it is very hard "To treat of the beard, "Though it be ne'er so long. horrid suit of the camp, will do among foaming bottles, and ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on! but you must learn to know such slanders of the age,9 or else you may be marvellously mistook. Flu. I tell you what, captain Gower;—I do perceive, he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the 'orld he is; if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind. [drum heard] Hark you, the king is coming; and I must speak with him from the pridge.1 8 ،، The steeletto beard, "It is so sharp beneath; "What wears he in his sheath? "The soldiers beard "Doth match in this herd, ،، With which he will make "To think their grave is made. "Next the clown doth out-rush, Malone. horrid suit of the camp,] Thus the folio. The quartos 1600, &c. read—a horrid shout of the camp. Steevens. Suit, I have no doubt, is the true reading. Soldiers shout in a field of battle, but not in a camp. Suit, in our author's time, appears to have been pronounced shoot: (See Vol. IV, p. 61, n. 7,) hence probably the corrupt reading of the quarto. Malone. 9 • such slanders of the age,] This was a character very trou. blesome to wise men in our author's time. "It is the practice with him (says Ascham) to be warlike, though he never looked enemy in the face; yet some warlike sign must be used, as a slovenly buskin, or an over-staring frownced head, as though out of every hair's top should suddenly start a good big oath." Johnson. Pistol's character seems to have been formed on that of Basilisco, a cowardly braggart in Solyman and Perseda, which was A basilisk is the name of a great gun. performed before 1592. Malone. 1 · I must speak with him from the pridge.] “ Speak with him from the pridge, ( Mr. Pope tells us) is added to the latter editions; but that it is plain, from the sequel, that the scene here continues, and the affair of the bridge is over." This is a most inaccurate criticism. Though the affair of the bridge be over, is that a reason, that the king must receive no intelligence from thence? Fluellen, who comes from the bridge, wants to acquaint the king Enter King HENRY, GLOSTER, and Soldiers.2 Got pless your majesty! K. Hen. How now, Fluellen? camest thou from the bridge? Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The duke of Exeter has very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is gone off, look you; and there is gallant and most prave passages; Marry, th' athversary was have possession of the pridge; but he is enforced to retire, and the duke of Exeter is master of the pridge: I can tell your majesty, the duke is a prave man. K. Hen. What men have you lost, Fluellen? Flu. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very great, very reasonable great: marry, for my part, I think the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty know the man: his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs,3 and flames of fire; and his lips plows at his nose, and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue, and sometimes red; but his nose is executed, and his fire 's out.5 with the transactions that had happened there. This he calls speaking to the king from the bridge. Theobald. With this Dr. Warburton concurs. Johnson. The words, from the bridge, are in the folio, 1623, but not in the quarto; and I suspect that they were caught by the compasitor from King Henry's first speech on his entrance. 2 Malone. and Soldiers.] The direction in the folio is "Enter the King and his poor Soldiers." This was, I suppose, inserted, that their appearance might correspond with the subsequent description in the chorus of Act IV: 3 “The poor condemned English," &c. Malone. and whelks, and knobs,] So, in Chaucer's character of a Sompnour, from which, perhaps, Shakspeare took some hints for his description of Bardolph's face: "A Sompnour was ther with us in that place "That hadde a fire-red cherubinnes face, &c. "Ther n'as quicksilver, litarge, ne brimston, See the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edi tion, v. 628, &c. Steevens. K. Hen. We would have all such offenders so cut off: -and we give express charge, that, in our marches through the country, there be nothing compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for; none of the French upbraided, or abused in disdainful language; For when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner. Tucket sounds. Enter MONTJOY.6 Mont. You know me by my habit.7 K. Hen. Well then, I know thee; What shall I know of thee? Mont. My master's mind. K. Hen. Unfold it. Mont. Thus says my king:-Say thou to Harry of England, Though we seemed dead, we did but sleep; Advantage is a better soldier, than rashness. Tell him, we could have rebuked him at Harfleur; but that we thought not good to bruise an injury, till it were full ripe:-now we speak upon our cue, and our voice is imperial: England shall repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our sufferance. Bid him, therefore, 5 but his nose is executed, &c.] It appears, from what Pistol has just said to Fluellen, that Bardolph was not yet executed; or, at least, that Fluellen did not know that he was executed. But Fluellen's language must not be too strictly examined. Malone, his fire's out.] This is the last time that any sport can be made with the red face of Bardolph, which, to confess the truth, seems to have taken more hold on Shakspeare's imagination than on any other. The conception is very cold to the solitary reader, though it may be somewhat invigorated by the exhibition on the stage. This poet is always more careful about the present than the future, about his audience than his readers. Johnson. 6 Enter Montjoy.] Mont-joie is the title of the first king at arms in France, as Garter is in our own country. Steevens. 7- by my habit.] That is, by his herald's coat. The person of a herald being inviolable, was distinguished in those times of formality by a peculiar dress, which is likewise yet worn on particular occasions. Johnson. 8 Though we seemed dead we did but sleep;] So, in Measure for Measure: 9 "The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept." Malone. upon our cue,] In our turn. This phrase the author learn ed among players, and has imparted it to kings. Johnson. consider of his ransome; which must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we have lost, the disgrace we have digested; which, in weight to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. For our losses, his exchequer is too poor; for the effusion of our blood, the muster of his kingdom too faint a number; and for our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our feet, but a weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add-defiance: and tell him, for conclusion, he hath betrayed his followers, whose condemnation is pronounced. So far my king and master; so much my office.1 K. Hen. What is thy name? I know thy quality. K. Hen. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee back, My people are with sickness much enfeebled; Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, Did march three Frenchmen.-Yet, forgive me, God, Go, therefore, tell thy master, here I am; 1 — so much my office.] This speech, as well as another preceding it, was compressed into verse by Mr. Pope. Where he wanted a syllable, he supplied it, and where there were too many for his purpose, he made suitable omissions. Shakspeare (if we may believe the most perfect copy of the play, i. e. that in the first folio,) meant both speeches for prose, and as such I have printed them. Steevens. 2 Without impeachment:]i. e. hindrance. Empechement, French. In a book entitled, Miracles lately wrought by the Intercession of the glorious Virgin Marie, at Mont-aigu, nere unto Siche in Brabant," &c. printed at Antwarp, by Arnold Conings, 1606, I meet with this word: "Wherefore he took it and without empeschment, or resistance, placed it againe in the oke." Steevens. Impeachment, in the same sense, has always been used as a legal word in deeds, as-" without impeachment of waste;" i, e. without restraint or hindrance of waste. Reed. |