poor fhow doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had to fee him. SHAL. It doth fo. FAL. It shows my earnestness of affection. SHAL. It doth fo. FAL. My devotion. SHAL. It doth, it doth, it doth.' FAL. As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me. SHAL. It is most certain. FAL. But to ftand stained with travel,+ and fweating with defire to fee him: thinking of nothing elfe; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were nothing else to be done, but to see him. PIST. 'Tis femper idem, for abfque hoc nihil eft: 'Tis all in every part.' It doth, it doth, it doth.] The two little anfwers which are given to Pistol in the old copy, are transferred by Sir Thomas Hanmer to Shallow. The repetition of it doth fuits Shallow beft. JOHNSON. In the quarto Shallow's firft fpeech in this fcene as well as thefe two, is erroneously given to Piftol. The editors of the folio corrected the former, but overlooked thefe. They likewife, in my apprehenfion, overlooked an error in the end of Falstaff's fpeech, below, though they corrected one in the beginning of it. See note 5. MALONE. 4 — to ftand stained with travel,] So, in King Henry IV. Part I: "Stain'd with the variation of each foil, "Betwixt that Holmedon and this feat of ours." 'Tis all in every part.] The fentence alluded to is: MALONE. And fo doubtlefs it fhould be read. 'Tis a common way of expreffing one's approbation of a right meafure to fay, 'tis all in all. SHAL. 'Tis fo, indeed. PIST. My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver, And make thee rage. Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts, By moft mechanical and dirty hand: Rouze up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's fnake, For Doll is in; Piftol fpeaks nought but truth. [Shouts within, and the trumpets found. PIST. There roar'd the fea, and trumpet-clangor founds. To which this fantastick character adds, with fome humour, and all in every part: which, both together, make up the philofophick fentence, and complete the abfurdity of Piftol's phrafeology. WARBURTON. I ftrongly fufpect that these words belong to Falstaff's speech. They have nothing of Piftol's manner. In the original copy in quarto, the fpeeches in this fcene are all in confufion. The two fpeeches preceding this, which are jumbled together, are given to Shallow, and ftand thus: "Sh. It is beft certain: but to ftand ftained with travel," &c. The allufion, if any allufion there be, is to the defcription of the foul. So, in Nofce Teipfum, by Sir John Davies, 4to. 1599: "Some fay, he's all in all, and all in every part." Again; in Drayton's Mortimeriados, 4to. 1596: "And as his foul poffeffeth head and heart, "She's all in all, and all in every part." MALONE. In my opinion, this fpeech accords but little with the phrafeology of Falftaff; and, on the contrary, agrees well with that of Piftol, who (as Moth in Love's Labour's Loft fays of Holofernes) appears to" have been at a great feast of languages, and ftolen the fcraps." See his concluding words in the fcene before us. STEEVENS. Enter the King, and his train, the Chief Juftice among them. FAL. God fave thy grace, king Hal!" my royal Hal! PIST. The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!" FAL. God fave thee, my fweet boy! KING. My lord chief justice, speak to that vain man. CH. JUST. Have you your wits? know you what 'tis you speak? God fave thy grace, king Hal!] A fimilar fcene occurs in the anonymous Henry V. Falftaff and his companions addrefs the king in the fame manner, and are difmiffed as in this play of Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 7 moft royal imp of fame!] The word imp is perpetually ufed by Ulpian Fulwell, and other ancient writers, for progeny: And were it not thy royal impe " Did mitigate our pain 32 Here Fulwell addreffes Anne Boleyn, and speaks of the young Elizabeth. Again, in the Battle of Alcazar, 1594: "Amurath, mighty emperor of the east, Again, in Fuimus Troes, 1633: From hence I bring "A pair of martial imps Imp-yn is a Welsh word, and primitively fignifics a sprout, a fucker. So, in the tragedy of Darius, 1603: Like th' ancient trunk of fome difbranched tree "Which Æol's rage hath to confufion brought, "Difarm'd of all thofe imps that fprung from me, Unprofitable stock, I ferve for nought." Again in Thomas Newton's Herball to the Bible, 8vo. 1587, there is a chapter on "fhrubs, fhootes, flippes, graffes, fets, fprigges, boughs, branches, twigs, yoong imps, fprayes, and buds." See Vol. V. p. 198, n. 4. STEEVENS. FAL. My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart! KING. I know thee not, old man: Fall to thy How ill white hairs become a fool, and jester! 3 My king! my Jove!] It appears from many paffages both in our author's plays and poems that he had diligently read the earlier pieces of Daniel. When he wrote the fpeech before us, he perhaps remembered these lines in Daniel's Complaint of Rofamond, 1594 "Dooft thou not fee, how that thy king, thy Jove, 66 Lightens forth glory on thy dark eftate?" MALONE. 9-profane ;] In our author it often fignifies love of talk, without the particular idea now given it. So, in Othello: Is he not a profane and very liberal counfellor." JOHNSON, 2 3 bence,] i. e. henceforward, from this time, in the future. STEEVENS. know, the grave doth gape For thee thrice wider than for other men :— Reply not to me with a fool-born jeft;] Nature is highly touched in this paffage. The king having fhaken off his vanities, fchools his old companion for his follies with great feverity: he affumes the air of a preacher; bids him fall to his prayers, feek grace, and leave gormandizing. But that word unluckily prefenting him with a pleasant idea, he cannot forbear pursuing it. Know, the doth grave gape for thee thrice wider, &c. and is juft falling back into Hal, by an humorous allufion to Falstaff's bulk ; but he perceives it immediately, and fearing Sir John should take the advantage of it, checks both himself and the knight, with Reply not to me with a fool-born jeft; and fo refumes the thread of his difcourfe, and goes moralizing on to the end of the chapter. Thus the poct copies nature with great skill, Prefume not, that I am the thing I was: For heaven doth know, fo fhall the world perceive, Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,- and shows us how apt men are to fall back into their old customs, when the change is not made by degrees, and brought into a habit, but determined of at once on the motives of honour, intereft, or reason. WARBURTON. 3 Not to come near our perfon by ten mile.] Mr. Rowe obferves, that many readers lament to fee Falftaff fo hardly used by his old friend. But if it be confidered, that the fat knight has never uttered one fentiment of generofity, and with all his power of exciting mirth, has nothing in him that can be esteemed, no great pain will be fuffered from the reflection that he is compelled to live honeftly, and maintained by the king, with a promise of advancement when he fhall deferve it. I think the poet more blameable for Poins, who is always reprefented as joining fome virtues with his vices, and is therefore treated by the prince with apparent diftinction, yet he does nothing in the time of action; and though after the bustle is over he is again a favourite, at laft vanishes without notice. Shakspeare certainly loft him by heedleffnefs, in the multiplicity of his characters, the variety of his action, and his eagerness to end the play. " JOHNSON. The difmiffion of Falftaff was founded on a hiftorical fact. Stowe fays, that King Henry, after his coronation, called unto him all those young lords and gentlemen that were the followers of his young acts, to every one of whom he gave rich gifts; and then commanded, that as many as would change their manners, as he intended to do, should abide with him in his court; and to all that would perfevere in their former like converfation, he gave exprefs commandment, upon pain of their heads, never after that day to come in his prefence." STEEVENS. |