And let him fay to England, that we send Fr. King. Be patient, for you hall remain with us.' Now forth, Lord Conftable, and Princes all; And quickly bring us word of England's fall. [Exeunt. SCENE VII. The English Camp. Enter Gower and Fluellen. Gow. H from the bridge? OW now, captain Fluellen, come you Flu. I affure you, there is very excellent fervices committed at the pridge. Gow. Is the Duke of Exeter safe? Flu. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon, and a man that I love and honour with my foul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my living, and my uttermoft power. He is not, God be praised and pleffed, any hurt in the world; he is maintain the pridge most valiantly, with excellent difcipline. There is an Antient lieutenant there at the pridge, I think, in my very confcience, he is as valiant a man as Mark Anthony, and he is a man of no estimation in the world, but I did fee him do gallant fervices. Gow. What do you call him? Flu. He is call'd Ancient Piftol. Enter Piftol. Flu. Here is the man. Pift. Captain, I thee befeech to do me favours: The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. Flu. I, I praife God, and I have merited fome love at his hands. Pift. Bardolph, a foldier firm and found of heart, And buxom valour, hath by cruel fate, And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel, That Goddess blind that ftands upon the rolling reftlefs ftone 7 Flu. By your patience, Ancient Piftol: Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, ' to fignify to you that fortune is plind; and fhe is painted alfo with a wheel, to fignify to you, which is the moral of it, that he is turning and inconftant and mutabilities and variations; and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rowles, and rowles, and rowles; in good truth, the Poet makes a most excellent description of it. Fortune is an excellent moral. Pift. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him, For he hath ftol'n as Pix, and hanged muft a' be, Damned death! 7 Fortune is painted PLIND, avith a muffler before her eyes, to fignify to you that fortune is plind ;] Here the fool of a player was for making a joke, as Hamlet fays, not fet down for him, and fhewing a moft pitiful ambition to be witty. For Fluellen, though he fpeaks with his country accent, yet is all the way reprefented as a man of good plain fenfe. Therefore, as it appears he knew the meaning of the term plind, by his use of it, he could never have faid that Fortune was painted plind, to fignify fe was plind. He might as well have faid afterwards, that he was painted inconftant, to fignify The u as inconftant. But there he fpeaks fenfe, and fo unqueftion. Let ably, he did here. We fhould therefore ftrike out the firft plind, and read, Fortune is painted with a muffler, &c. WARBURTON. 8 The old editions, For he hath ftol'n a Pax,]" And "this is conformable to Hiftory, "(fays Mr. Pope) a Soldier (as "Hall tell us) being hang'd at "this Time for fuch a Fact." Both Hall and Holing head agree as to the point of the Theft ; but as to the Thing folen, there is not thatConformity betwixt them and Mr. Pope. It was an ancient cuftom, at the Celebration of Mafs, that when the Priest pronounc'd thefe Words, Pax Domini fit femper vobifcum! both Clergy and People kiss'd one another. Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free, And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut Pift. Why then rejoice therefore. Flu. Certainly, Ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at; for if, look you, he were my brother, I would defire the Duke to use his good pleasure, and put him to executions; for difciplines ought to be used. Pift. Die and be damn'd, and Figo for thy friendfhip! Flu. It is well. Pift. The fig of Spain- [Exit Pift. Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rafcal, I remember him now; a bawd, a cut-purse. Flu. I'll affure you, he utter'd as prave words at the pridge, as you fhall in a fummer's day but it is very well; what he has fpoke 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 re another. And this was call'd Ofculum Pacis, the Kifs of Peace. But that custom being abrogated, a certain Image is now prefented to be kiss'd, which is call'd a Pax. But it was not this Image which Bardolph stole; it was a Pix; or little Cheft (from the Latin Word, Pixis, a Box); in which the confecrated Hoft was ufed to be kept. "A foolish "Soldier (fays Hall exprefsly, "and Holing head after him ;) "ftole a Pix out of a Church.' THEOBALD. What Theobald fays is true, but might have been told in fewer words: I have examined the paffage in Hall. Yet Dr. Warburton rejected the emendation, and continued Pope's note without animadverfion. E e 3 turn turn into London, under the form of a foldier. Such fellows are perfect in the great commanders' names, and they will learn you by rote where fervices were done; at fuch and fuch a fconce, at fuch a breach, at fuch a convoy; who came off bravely, who was fhot, who difgrac'd, what terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-turn'd oaths; and what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid fuite of the camp, will do among foaming bottles and ale-wafh'd wits, is wonderful to be thought on! But you must learn to know fuch flanders of the age, 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 fhew to the world he is; if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind. Hear you, the King is coming, and I must speak with him from the pridge 1. Drum and Colours. Enter the King, and his poor foldiers. Flu. God pless your Majefty. K. Henry. How now, Fluellen, cam'st thou from the bridge? Flu. I, fo please your Majefty: the Duke of Exeter has very gallantly maintain'd the pridge; the French is gone off, look you, and there is gallant and most prave paffages; marry, th' athverfary was have poffeffion of the pridge, but he is enforced to retire, and the Duke of Exeter is mafter of the pridge. I can tell your Majefty, the Duke is a prave man. K. Henry. What men have you loft, Fluellen ? Flu. The perdition of th' athversary hath been very great, very reasonably great; marry, for my part, I think, the Duke hath loft never a man but one that is like to be executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your Majefty know the man; his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and knobs, and flames of fire; and his lips blows at his nofe, and it is like a coal of fire; fometimes plue, and fometimes red; but his nofe is executed, and his fire's out. * K. Henry. We would have fuch offenders fo cut off; And give exprefs charge, that in all our march There fhall be nothing taken from the villages, But shall be paid for; and no French upbraided, Or yet abused in difdainful language; When lenity and cruelty play for kingdoms, The gentler gamefter is the fooneft winner. *his fire's out.] This is the laft time that any fport can be made with the red face of Bardolph, which, to confefs the truth, feems to have taken more hold on Shakespeare's imagination than on any other. The conception is very cold to the folitary reader, though it may be fomewhat invigorated by the exhibition on the ftage. This poet is always more careful about the prefent than the future, about his audience than his readers. Ee 4 Tucket |