for thy walls, a pretty flight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in waterwork, is worth a thousand of thefe bed-hangings,' and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canft. Come, an it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and 'draw thy action: Come, thou muft not be in this humour with me; dost not know me? Come, come, I know thou waft set on to this.

Host. Pray thee, fir John, let it be but twenty nobles; i'faith I am loth to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la.

olde plat yeldes the ounce, for I wyll not leve me a cuppe of fyluare to drink in, butt I wyll fee the next terme my creditors payde." See Lodge's Illuftrations of English Hiftory, Vol. II. p. 252.

STEEVENS.

2 German hunting in water-work,] i. e. in water colours.

WARBURTON.

So, in Holinfhed, p. 819: "The king for himself had a house of timber, &c. and for his other lodgings he had great and goodlie tents of blew waterwork garnished with yellow and white." It appears alfo from the fame Chronicle, p. 840, that these painted cloths were brought from Holland. The German hunting was therefore a fubject very likely to be adopted by the artists of that country.

Drayton, in his 4th Eclogue, fpeaks contemptuously of fuch hangings:

"Nor painted rags then cover'd rotten walls." STEEVENS. The German hunting, is, I fuppofe, hunting the wild boar. Shakspeare in another place fpeaks of " a full-acorn'd boar, a German one." FARMER.

3-thefe bed-hangings,] We fhould read dead-hangings, i. e. faded.

WARBURTON.

I think the prefent reading may well ftand. He recommends painted canvas inftead of tapestry, which he calls bed-hangings, in contempt, as fitter to make curtains than to hang walls.

JOHNSON.

-'draw thy action:] Draw means here withdraw.

FAL. Let it alone; I'll make other fhift: you'll be a fool ftill.

Host. Well, you fhall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to fupper: You'll pay me all together?

FAL. Will I live?-Go, with her, with her; [To BARDOLPH.] hook on, hook on.

HOST. Will you have Doll Tear-sheet meet you at fupper?

FAL. No more words; let's have her.

[Exeunt Hoftefs, BARDOLPH, Officers, and Boy. CH. JUST. I have heard better news.

FAL. What's the news, my good lord?
CH. JUST. Where lay the king last night?
Gow. At Basingstoke," my lord.

FAL. I hope, my lord, all's well: What's the news, my lord?

CH. JUST. Come all his forces back?

Gow. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse,

Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,
Against Northumberland, and the archbishop.
FAL. Comes the king back from Wales, my no-
ble lord?

5 To Bardolph.] In former editions the marginal direction isTo the Officers. MALONE.

I rather fufpect that the words book on, hook on, are addreffed to Bardolph, and mean, go you with her, hang upon her, and keep her in the fame humour. In this fenfe the expreffion is used in The Guardian, by Maffinger:

"Hook on; follow him, harpies." STEEVENS.

6 At Bafingftoke,] The quarto reads at Billingsgate. The players fet down the name of the place which was the most familiar to them. STEEVENS.

CH. JUST. You fhall have letters of me prefently: Come, go along with me, good mafter Gower. FAL. My lord!

CH. JUST. What's the matter?

FAL. Mafter Gower, fhall I entreat you with me to dinner?

Gow. I must wait upon my good lord here: I thank you, good fir John.

CH. JUST. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take foldiers up in counties as you go.

FAL. Will you fup with me, master Gower?

CH. JUST. What foolish mafter taught you these manners, fir John?

FAL. Mafter Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that taught them me.-This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair.

CH. JUST. Now the Lord lighten thee! thou art a great fool.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The fame. Another Street.

Enter Prince HENRY and POINS.

P. HEN. Trust me, I am exceeding weary. POINS. Is it come to that? I had thought, wearinefs durft not have attach'd one of fo high blood.

P. HEN. 'Faith, it does me; though it difcolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me, to defire fmall beer?

POINS. Why, a prince should not be fo loosely ftudied, as to remember fo weak a compofition,

P. HEN. Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, fmall beer. But, indeed, thefe humble confiderations make me out of love with my greatnefs. What a difgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of filk stockings thou haft; viz. these, and those that were the peachcolour'd ones? or to bear the inventory of thy fhirts; as, one for fuperfluity, and one other for ufe?-but that, the tennis-court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou haft not done a great while, because the rest of thy lowcountries have made a shift to eat up thy holland: and God knows, whether those that bawl out the

7

and God knows, &c.] This paffage Mr. Pope restored from the first edition. I think it may as well be omitted. It is

8

ruins of thy linen, fhall inherit his kingdom: but the midwives fay, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily ftrengthen'd.

POINS. How ill it follows, after you have labour'd fo hard, you should talk fo idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do fo, their fathers being fo fick as yours at this time is?

P. HEN. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?

POINS. Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing.

omitted in the first folio, and in all fubfequent editions before Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the author. The editors, unwilling to lofe any thing of Shakspeare's, not only infert what he has added, but recall what he has rejected.

JOHNSON.

I have not met with pofitive evidence that Shakspeare rejected any paffages whatever. Such proof may indeed be inferred from the quartos which were published in his life-time, and are declared (in their titles) to have been enlarged and corrected by his own hand. Thefe I would follow, in preference to the folio, and fhould at all times be cautious of oppofing its authority to that of the elder copies. Of the play in question, there is no quarto extant but that in 1600, and therefore we are unauthorized to affert that a fingle paffage was omitted by confent of the poet himfelf. I do not think I have a right to expunge what Shakspeare fhould feem to have written, on the bare authority of the playereditors. I have therefore restored the paffage in question, to the text. STEEVENS.

This and many other fimilar paffages were undoubtedly struck out of the playhoufe copies by the Mafter of the Revels."

MALONE.

—that bawl out the ruins of thy linen,] I fufpect we should. read-that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen; i. e. his baftard children, wrapt up in his old fhirts. The fubfequent words confirm this emendation. The latter part of this fpeech, "And God knows," &c. is omitted in the folio. MALONE.

"Out the ruins" is the fame as "out of" &c. Of this elliptical phrafeology I have feen inftances, though I omitted to note them. STEEVENS.