FR. KING. Therefore, lord conftable, hafte on And let him fay to England, that we fend FR. KING. Be patient, for you shall remain with Now, forth, lord conftable, and princes all; [Exeunt. editors understood them, fince they have paffed them by unnoticed. I have little doubt but the words his and for, in the last line, have been mifplaced, and that the line fhould run thus: And his achievement offer us for ransom. And accordingly the king of France fends to Henry to know what ranfom he will give. By his achievement is meant the town of Harfleur, which Henry had taken. In the former part of this act he fays: "I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur, "Till in her afhes fhe be buried." M. MASON. The first of the two lines which appear fo obfcure to Mr. M. Mafon, is to me at leaft fufficiently intelligible; yet as the idea defigned to be communicated by it, is not only contemptible but dirty, I ftill choose to avoid explanation. STEEVENS. And for achievement offer us his ransom.] That is, inftead of achieving a victory over us, make a propofal to pay us a certain fum, as a ranfom. So, in Henry VI. Part III: 7 "For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom fay." MALONE. in Roüen.] Here and a little higher we have in the old copy-Roan, which was in Shakspeare's time the mode of spelling Rouen in Normandy. He probably pronounced the word as a monofyllable, Roan; as indeed moft Englishmen do at this day. MALONE. Gow. How now, captain Fluellen? came you from the bridge? FLU. I affure you, there is very excellent fervice committed at the pridge. Gow. Is the duke of Exeter fafe? 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 livings, and my uttermoft powers: he is not, (God be praised and pleffed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the pridge most valiantly, with excellent difcipline. There is an enfign there at the pridge,-I think, in my very confcience, he is as valiant as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the 'orld; but I did fee him do gallant fervice. This is not an 8but keeps the pridge moft valiantly,] imaginary circumftance, but founded on an hiftorical fact. After Henry had pait the Some, the French endeavoured to intercept. him in his paffage to Calais; and for that purpose attempted to break down the only bridge that there was over the fmall river of Ternois at Blangi, over which it was neceffary for Henry to pafs. But Henry having notice of their defign, fent a part of his troops before him, who attacking and putting the French to flight, preferved the bridge, till the whole English army arrived, and paffed over it. MALONE. enfign-] 9 There is an there is an ancient lieutenant. Thus the quarto. The folio reads- MALONE. Gow. What do you call him? FLU. He is call'd-ancient Pistol. Gow. I know him not. Enter PISTOL. FLU. Do you not know him? Here comes the man. PIST. Captain, I thee befeech to do me favours: The duke of Exeter doth love thee well. FLU. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands. PIST. Bardolph, a foldier, firm and found of heart, Of buxom valour, hath,-by cruel fate, That stands upon the rolling restless stone,'— FLU. By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler before her eyes, to fignify to you that fortune is plind: And the is 2 Of buxom valour,] i. e. valour under good command, obedient to its fuperiors. So, in Spenfer's Faery Queen: "Love tyrannizeth in the bitter fmarts "Of them that to him are buxom and prone." 3 That goddess blind, STEEVENS. That flands upon the rolling reftlefs ftone,] Fortune is defcribed by Cebes, and by Pacuvius in the fragments of Latin authors, p. 60, and the firft book of the Pieces to Herennius, precifely in thefe words of our poet. It is unneceffary to quote them. S. W. For this idea our author feems indebted to the Spanish Tragedy: "Fortune is blind, "Whose foot is ftanding on a rolling flone." RITSON. 4 Fortune is painted plind, with 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 showing painted also with a wheel; to fignify to you, which is the moral of it, that fhe is turning, and inconftant, and variation, and mutabilities: and her foot, look you, is fixed upon a spherical ftone, which a moft pitiful ambition to be witty. For Fluellen, though he speaks 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 fhe was plind. He might as well have faid afterwards, that he was painted inconftant, to fignify She was inconftant. But there he speaks sense; and fo, unquestionably, he did here. We fhould therefore ftrike out the first plind, and read: Fortune is painted with a muffler, &c. WARBURTON. The old reading is the true one. Fortune the Goddess is reprefented blind, to fhow that fortune, or the chance of life, is without difcernment. STEEVENS. This picture of Fortune is taken from the old history of Fortunatus; where he is defcribed to be a fair woman, muffled over the eyes. FARMER. A muffler appears to have been a fold of linen which partially covered a woman's face. So, in Monfieur Thomas, 1639: On with my muffler." See The Merry Wives of Windfor, Vol. III. p. 454, n. 8. STEEVENS. Minfheu in his Dictionary, 1617, explains " a woman's muffler," by the French word cachenez, which Cotgrave defines "a kind of mask for the face;" yet, I believe it was made of linen, and that Minfheu only means to compare it to a mask, because they both might conceal part of the face. It was, I believe, a kind of hood, of the fame form as the riding-hood now fometimes worn by men, that covered the fhoulders, and a great part of the face. This agrees with the only other paffage in which the word occurs in thefe plays: "I fpy a great beard under her muffler." Merry Wives of Windfor, See alfo the verses cited in Vol. : Now is the barefaft to be feene, ftraight on her muffler goes; "Now is the hufft up to the crowne, straight nuzled to the nofe." MALONE. • Mr. Malone's reference being erroneous, a blank is here neceffarily left. rolls, and rolls, and rolls;-In good truth,' the poet is make a moft excellent defcription of fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral. PIST. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him; For he hath ftol'n a pix, and hanged must ‘a be. 5 In good truth, &c.] The reading here is made out of two copies, the quarto, and the first folio. MALONE. 6 For he bath fol'n a pix,] The old editions read-pax. "And this is conformable to hiftory," fays Mr. Pope, "a foldier (as Hall tells us) being hang'd at this time for fuch a fact."- -Both Hall and Holinfhed agree as to the point of the theft; but as to the thing ftolen, there is not that conformity betwixt them and Mr. Pope. It was an ancient cuftom, at the celebration of mafs, that when the priest pronounced these words, Pax Domini fit femper vobifcum! both clergy and people kifs'd one another. And this was called Ofculum Pacis, the kifs of Peace. But that custom being abrogated, a certain image is now prefented to be kiffed, which is called 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 used to be kept. "A foolish foldier," fays Hall exprefsly, and Holinfhed after him, "ftole a pix out of a church, and unreverently did eat the holy hoftes within the fame contained." 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 that emendation, and continued Pope's note without animadverfion. It is pax in the folio, 1623, but altered to pix by Theobald and Sir T. Hanmer. They fignified the fame thing. See Pax at Mafs, Minshew's Guide into the Tongues. Pix or pax was a little box in which were kept the confecrated wafers. JOHNSON. Kifs So, in May Day, a comedy, by Chapman, 1611" the pax, and be quiet, like your other neighbours." So, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "Then with this hallow'd crucifix, "This holy wafer, and this pix." That a pix and a pax were different things, may also be seen from the following paffage in the hiftory of our Bleed Lady of Loretto, 12mo. 1608, p. 595: a cup, and a fprinkle for holy water, a pix and a pax, all of excellent chryftal, gold and amber." |