Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle.A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses.6-Boy!.

Page. Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse?

Page. Seven groats and two-pence.

Fal. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable.-Go bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and this to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my chin: About it; you know where to find me. [exit Page] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the

5

fillip me with a three-man beetle.] A beetle wielded by three men Pope.

A diversion is common with boys in Warwickshire and the adjoining counties, on finding a toad, to lay a board about two or three feet long, at right angles, over a stick about two or three inches diameter. Then, placing the toad on the end of the board which rests on the ground, the other end is struck by a bat or large stick, which throws the creature forty or fifty feet perpendicular from the earth, and its return in general kills it. This is called Filliping the Toad.-A three-man beetle is an implement used for driving piles; it is made of a log of wood about eighteen or twenty inches diameter, and fourteen or fifteen inches thick, with one short and two long handles. A man at each of the long handles manages the fall of the beetle, and a third man, by the short handle, assists in raising it to strike the blow. Such an implement was, without doubt, very suitable for filliping so corpulent a being as Falstaff.

With this happy illustration, I was favoured by Mr. Johnson, the architect. Steevens.

So, in A World of Wonders, A Mass of Murthers, A Covie of Cosenages, ,&c. 1595, sign. F. "— whilst Arthur Hall was weighing the plate, Bullock goes into the kitchen and fetcheth a heavie washing betle, wherewith he comming behinde Hall, strake him," &c. Reed.

6 prevent my curses.] To prevent means, in this place, to anticipate. So, in the 119th Psalm: "Mine eyes prevent the night watches." Steevens.

wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more reasonable: A good wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity."

SCENE III.

York. A Room in the Archbishop's Palace.

[Exit.

Enter the Archbishop of York, the Lords HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH.

Arch. Thus have you heard our cause, and known our

means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:-
And first, lord marshal, what say you to it?

Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms;
But gladly would be better satisfied,

How, in our means, we should advance ourselves
To look with forehead bold and big enough
Upon the power and puissance of the king.

Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file
To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard. The question then, lord Hastings, standeth thus;

Whether our present five and twenty thousand

May hold up head without Northumberland.

Hast. With him, we may.

Bard.

Ay, marry, there's the point;

But if without him we be thought too feeble,

My judgment is, we should not step too far
Till we had his assistance by the hand:
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
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.

7

to commodity.] i. e. profit, self-interest. See Vol. VII, p. 332, n. 7. Steevens

8 step too far-] The four following lines were added in the second edition. Johnson.

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 thoughts:
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 action,1 (a cause on foot)

9 Much smaller-] i. e. which turned out to be much smaller. Musgrave.

1 Yes, in this present quality of war; &c.] These first twenty lines were first inserted in the folio of 1623.

The first clause of this passage is evidently corrupted. All the folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the same reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus:

Yes, if this present quality of war

Impede the instant act

This has been silently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper, for, in the present reading, Bardolph makes the inconvenience of hope to be that it may cause delay, when, indeed, the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the rest that are too forward. I know not what to propose, and am afraid that something is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requisite is no more than this:

Yes, in this present quality of war,

Indeed of instant action.

It never, says Hastings, did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope. Yes, says Bardolph, it has done harm in this present quality of war, in a state of things such as is now before us, of war, indeed of instant action. This is obscure, but Mr. Pope's reading is still less reasonable. Johnson.

I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I think we might read:

if this present quality of war Impel the instant action

Hastings says, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, says Bardolph, it has in every case like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for supplies, has, without that reinforcement, impelled, or hastily brought on, an immediate action. Steevens. ·

If we may be allowed to read-instanc'd, the text may meanYes, it has done harm in every case like ours; indeed, it did harm in young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury, which the Archbishop of York has just instanced or given as an example. Tollet.

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,2
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,3 desist

To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation; 4

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,

This passage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a slight alteration will, I apprehend, restore the true reading:

Yes, if this present quality of war
Induc'd the instant action. Henley.

Mr. M. Mason has proposed the same reading. Steevens.

in this present quality of war;] This and the following nineteen lines appeared first in the folio. That copy reads:

Yes, if this present &c.

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is lost; but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it makes sense. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to say, "Indeed the present action (our cause being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to say, in general, that all causes once on foot afford no hopes that may securely be relied on; which is certainly not true. Malone.

2

When we mean to build,] Whoever compares the rest of this speech with St. Luke, xiv, 28, &c. will find the former to have been wrought out of the latter. Henley.

3at least,] Perhaps we should read-at last. Steevens. 4 Consent upon a sure foundation;] i. e. agree. So, in As you Like it, Act V, sc. i: " For all your writers do consent that ipse is he." Again, ibid. sc. ii: " consent with both, that we may enjoy each other." Steevens.

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 Bar-

dolph.

For his diversions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,"
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.

Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

5- one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531. Steevens.

6 If he should do so,] This passage is read, in the first edition, thus: If he should do so, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarmed, they baying him at the heels, never fear that. These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suspected to remain.

Johnson.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was the omission of the word to:

To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd,
They baying him at the heels: never fear that. Malone.