2

for thy walls, - a pretty flight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in waterwork, is worth a thousand of these 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 : 4 Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; dost not know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this.

Host. Pray thee, sir 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 1 wyll not leve me a cuppe of sylvare to drink in, butt I wyll see the next terme my creditors payde." See Lodge's Illustrations of English History, Vol. II. p. 252.

2

STEEVENS.

WARBURTON.

German hunting in water - work, i. e. in water colours. So, in Holinshed, 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 also 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, speaks contemptuously of such hangings:

" Nor painted rags then cover'd rotten walls."

STEEVENS.

The German hunting, is, I suppose, hunting the wild boar. Shakspeare in another place speaks of " a full-acorn'd boar, a German one. FARMER.

3

- these bed-hangings,) We should read dead-hangings, i. e. faded. WARBURTON.

I think the present 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.

4

'draw thy action:] Draw means here withdraw.

JOHNSON.

M. MASON.

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

HOST. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to supper: You'll pay me all together?

FAL. Will I live? - Go, with her, with her; [To BARDOLPH.5] hook on, hook on.

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

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

[Exeunt Hostess, 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 Bafingstoke, 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

horfe,

Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,
Against Northumberland, and the archbishop.

FAL. Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord?

5 To Bardolph.] In former editions the marginal dire&ion is To the Officers. MALONE.

I rather suspect that the words hook on, hook on, are adressed to Bardolph and mean, go you with her, hang upon her, and keep her in the same humour. In this sense the expression is used in The Guardian, by Maffinger:

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

6 At Basingstoke, ] The quarto reads at Billinsgate. The players set down the name of the place which was the most familiar to

CH. JUST. You shall have letters of me presently: Come, go along with me, good master Gower. FAL. My lord!

CH. JUST. What's the matter?

FAL. Master Gower, shall 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 master taught you these manners, fir John?

FAL. Master 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. HẸN. Trust me, I am exceeding weary. POINS. Is it come to that? I had thought, weariness durst not have attach'd one of fo high blood.

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

POINS. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied, as to remember so weak a composition.

P. HEN. Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble confiderations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace 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 shirts; as, one for fuperfluity, and one other for ufe?but that, the tennis-court-keeper knows better than 1; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast 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 passage Mr. Pope restored from the firft edition. I think it may as well be omitted. It is

،

i

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

POINS. How ill it follows, after you have labour'd so hard, you should talk so idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so 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 subsequent editions before Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the author. The editors, unwilling to lose any thing of Shakspeare's not only infert what he has added, but recall what he has rejected.

JOHNSON.

I have not met with positive evidence that Shakspeare rejected any passages 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. These I would follow, in preference to the folio, and should at all times be cautious of opposing 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 single passage was omitted by consent of the poet himself. I do not think I have a right to expunge what Shakspeare should feem to have written, on the bare authority of the playereditors. I have therefore restored the passage in question, to the text. STEEVENS.

This and many other fimilar passages were undoubtedly struck out of the playhouse copies by the Master of the Revels.

8

read

MALONE,

that bawl out the ruins of thy linen, I suspect we should that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen; i. e. his bastard children, wrapt up in his old shirts. The subsequent words confirm this emendation. The latter part of this speech, " And God knows, &c. is omitted in the folio. MALONE.

"Out the ruins" is the fame as " out of" &c. Of this elliptical phraseology I have seen instances, though I omitted to note them.

STEEVENS,