abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through 45 it and yet cannot he see, though he hath his own lanthorn to light him. Where's Bardolph ? Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse. Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in 50 Smithfield an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived. 47. Where's Bardolph ?] wheres Bardolf, Q (after it: in line 46). in Q. 45. lightness] infidelity (cf. Measure for Measure, II. ii. 170). For the play on the senses wantonness and "light," cf. Middleton, A Mad World, My Masters, v. i: "I called for light; here come in two [courtesans] are light enough for a whole house." 46. cannot he see] For a commentary on the invisibility of "the horn," see Chapman, All Fools, v. ii. 46-47. his own lanthorn] For this jest, cf. Brome, The City Wit, 1. ii: "I shall . . . wish that your owne Lanthorne may be your direction, and that, where ever you travell, the cornu copia, may accompany you." Also Marston, Chapman and Jonson, Eastward Hoe, Iv. i: "Farewell, thou horn of abundance, that adornest the headsman of the commonwealth! Farewell, thou horn of direction, that is the city lanthorn!" and Chapman, Monsieur D'Olive, I. i: "Go to. follow the lanthorn of your forefathers," i.e. the horn. Warburton traced the jest to Plautus, Amphitruo, 1. i. 185: "Quo ambulas tu, qui Vulcanum in cornu conclusum geris?" 48. Smithfield] or Smoothfield (cf. J. Stow, A Svrvay of London, ed. 1598, p. 61: "a plain field, both in name and deede"), an open space outside the city walls, a little north of Newgate and west of Aldersgate, used as a market for horses, cattle, etc. W. Fitzstephen (Stow's Survay, p. 61) gives a glowing account of the amblers, trotters, etc., that were offered for sale in Smithfield in his time (twelfth century). The allusions, however, to the horses sold in Smithfield that occur in the drama are 51. but] om. Ff. 48. into] not generally flattering. In W. Rowley, A Woman Never Vexed, 11. i, Smithfield is described as "well furnished with sows, cows, and old trotting jades." Dekker and Middleton, The Roaring Girl, III. i: "Laxton. Are we fitted with good phrampel [ = mettlesome] jades? Coach. The best in Smithfield, I warrant you, sir," and W. Wycherley, The Country Wife, 1. i: "a deceitful pampered Smithfield jade." See Madden, Diary of Master William Silence, pp. 254, 255. 50. bought him in Paul's] So in J. Shirley, The Witty Fair One, 11. i, Sir Nicholas Treedle describes one of his tutors as "the wit that I took up in Paul's." A large concourse of people assembled daily in the middle aisle of St. Paul's Church for the purposes of business and recreation. Serving-men seeking employment affixed to the pillars bills setting forth their qualifications and requirements. In Greene, James the Fourth (1598), 1. ii, Slipper, Nano and Andrew enter with "their billes readie written in their hands "; one of the bills reads: "If any gentleman . . . will entertaine . . . a young strippling . . . that can. I let him enter his name and goe his way, and attendance shall be given." Blakeway quotes the letter of a servant, in Harl. MS. 2050: “yf... I sett my bill in Paules, in one or two dayes I cannot want a servisse." The scene in Middleton's Michaelmas Term, 1. i, and in Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, III. i, is laid in the Middle Aisle of St. Paul's. 51, 52. an .. wived] Reed quotes The Choice of Change, 1598: “a man must not make choice of three things in three places: of a wife in Westminster; of Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT. Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph. Fal. Wait close; I will not see him. Ch. Just. What's he that goes there? Ch. Just. He that was in question for the robbery? Serv. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service 55 at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with 60 some charge to the Lord John of Lancaster. Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again. Serv. Sir John Falstaff! Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf. Page. You must speak louder; my master is deaf. Ch. Just. I am sure he is, to the hearing of any thing good. Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him. Serv. Sir John! 65 Fal. What! a young knave, and begging! Is there not 70 wars? is there not employment? doth not the king 53. Enter... Servant] Enter Chiefe Iustice, and Servant. Ff; Enter Lord chiefe Iustice. Q. 56. Ch. Just.] Iustice Q. 57. an 't] Hanmer; and 't Q, Ff. 58. Ch. Just.] Iust. Q (passim). K. Ff 1-3. a servant in Paules; of a horse in Smithfield, lest he chuse a queane, a knave, and a jade." For "horsed" cf. Chapman, Monsieur D'Olive, Iv. ii: "myself will horse you." 55. Wait close] attend close to my heels. So in Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, Induction: "your beggar begins to wait close"; and ib. iv. i: “Ay, he 'll wait close, you shall see, though the beggar may off a while," and again, "'twere good you did wait closer.' Cf. lines 14, 15 ante: "to wait at my heels," Falstaff bids the Page to follow him closely so that the pair should attract as little attention as possible. 58. in question] under judicial examination (as in Winter's Tale, v. i. 198); or the meaning may be simply "talked about," as the affair on Gadshill does not seem to have been the subject of judicial inquiry. 61. charge] commission. 64. tell... deaf] Cf. The Play of Studley (School of Shakspere, i. 230): 70. begging] beg Ff. 71. king] "Stucl. I cannot hear, I would you would speak louder. Her. Dost thou deride me?" 67. pluck... elbow] An unceremonious summons to halt, the rudeness of which might fairly be resented by Falstaff. See Middleton, Father Hubburds Tales (Bullen, viii. 93): "shaking me by the sleeve as familiarly as if we had been acquainted seven years together"; Field, A Woman is a Weathercock, 1. ii: "I should follow you. . . pluck you by the sleeue, Whoeuer were with you, in the open street With the impudency of a drunken oyster-wife." Also Middleton, The Spanish Gipsy, Iv. iii, and J. Cooke, Greene's Tu Quoque (Haz. Dods., xi. 215). 70. What! and begging!] Cf. The Return from Parnassus, IV. ii: "is it not a shame that a gallant cannot walk the street quietly for needy fellows, and that, after there is a statute come out against begging? " and Jonson, lack subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers? Serv. You mistake me, sir. Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat, if I had said so. Serv. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man. 80 Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that 85 Serv. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Fal. My good lord! God give your lordship good time 90 72. need] want Ff. 78. sir,... man ?] sir, . . . man, Q; sir? . . . man? Ff. 88. hunt counter :] hunt coûter, Q; Hunt-counter, Ff. 91. God] om. Ff. Every Man in his Humour, 11. ii: 78, 79. setting... aside] saving, or divesting myself, for the nonce, of, my knighthood and my soldiership. So in Wilkins, Miseries of Enforced Marriage (Haz. Dods., ix. 530): "(setting thy worship's knighthood aside) he lies in his throat that says so." 80. in my throat] as deep as the throat, "damnably." Hamlet, II. ii. 609 "the lie i' the throat, As deep as to the lungs," and Jonson, A Tale of a Tub, Iv. iii. : 86. grows to] has become incorporated with me, is a part of me. Pericles, IV. vi. 45: "that which grows to the stalk; never plucked yet.' Cf. All's Well, II. i. 37, and Jonson, The Sad Shepherd, 1. ii. 88. hunt counter] are on the wrong scent; with, perhaps, a quibbling allusion to the "Counter," or debtors' prison, as in Comedy of Errors, Iv. ii. of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition Fal. An't please your lordship, I hear his majesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales. Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty: you would not come when I sent for you. 100 Fal. And I hear, moreover, his highness is fallen into this 105 same whoreson apoplexy. Ch. Just. Well, God mend him! I pray you, let me speak with you. Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an 't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the 110 blood, a whoreson tingling. Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is. Fal. It hath it original from much grief, from study and 95. hath] haue Q. 97. 96. age] an ague Q. 92. day] the day Ff. time] time in you Q. 99. for you] you F 1. If it Ff. pray Ff. ship] Pope; and't lordship Q; om. Ff. 110. kind of] om. Ff. in] of Ff. 112. it?] it, Q. 113. it] its Ff 3, 4. 103. you.] you? Ff. 107. God] heauen Ff. 107. pray you] 109. is, as I take it,] as I take it? is Q. ... 94-96. Your ... hath you] For the concord, cf. Jonson, A Tale of a Tub, Iv. v: 66 your ladyship forgets yourself," Q reads haue. 96, 97. saltness. time] Cf. Middleton, The Spanish Gipsy, III. i: "Rod. The freshness of the morning be upon you both! San. The saltness of the evening be upon you single!" 98. reverend] reverent, as frequently. 101. Fal. An 't . . .] For Falstaff's irrelevant replies, cf. Jonson, The Devil is an Ass, v. ii, where Pug baffles Ambler with answers "from purpose." IIO. an 't . lord IIO. 102. discomfort] grief of mind; cf. Macbeth, IV. ii. 29. Capell proposed to read discomfit. 106. whoreson] An intensive epithet of little meaning, as in III. ii. 177 post. 106. apoplexy] paralysis; cf. Hamlet, III. iv. 73. 107. mend] restore to health. So in Sir Thomas Wyat (Pearson's Dekker, iii. 84): "The King is sick, God mend him;" and Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, iv. iv: "God amende that mad Hieronimo." 109. apoplexy Coriolanus, IV. V. 240. lethargy] Cf. 112. What] why, as in Coriolanus, 1. i. 315. 113. it original] its origin. Chapman, All Fools, v. ii: "their original perturbation of the brain: I have read the cause of Ch. Just. I think you are fallen into the disease; for you Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your physician. 115 I 20 Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprison- 125 ment to me in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or indeed a scruple itself. Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were matters against 130 you for your life, to come speak with me. 115. his] its F 4. 118. Fal.] Old. Q. 118. an 't] and 't Q. become] be Ff. 131. come speak] speak Ff 2-4. is unsearchable." For "it," cf. Tempest, II. i. 170, and Jonson, The Silent Woman, II. iii: "all it friends." 115. Galen] Claudius Galenus, a famous Greek physician, born at Pergamus, 131 A.D. He wrote numerous treatises on anatomy, physiology and medicine, including De Anatomicis Administrationibus and De Usu Partium Corporis Humani. Galen's authority as a physician was still great in the sixteenth century; he is frequently mentioned in the drama: cf. Jonson, The Fox, 11. i: "old Hippocrates or Galen," and The Magnetic Lady, III. iii: “The doctor. with his conjuring names, Hippocrates, Galen or Rasis, Avicen, Averroes." 119, 120. it . . . marking] Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, 1. i. 288. 122. do the heels all the days of thy life"; and The Play of Stucley (Simpson, School of Shakspere, i. 223): "the unciuil Lord clapt iron on my heels, And in a dungeon. . . his purpose was to famish me." 122. attention] Capell read inattention. 124. poor... Job] Craig cites Sherwood: "Poore as Iob: Povre comme Iob," and Marston and Webster, The Malcontent, III. ii: "Men. Thou art very poor. Mal. As Job." 124. so patient] Epistle of S. James, V. II: "the patience of Job." 127. the wise] Cf. 11. ii. 137 post. 128, 129. make . . . itself hesitate to believe, or, in fact, doubt. Cf. Cymbeline, v. v. 183. Dram, 60 gr. in apothecary's weight; hence used fig. for a very small quantity (as in All's Well, 11. iii. 232). Scruple, feeling of doubt; with a play on" scruple," 20 gr. in apothecary's weight, hence fig. a very small quantity. 131. for] touching; cf. the use of "for" in expressions denoting an object risked, as in Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 726. |