PIST. Doth fortune play the huswife' with me now? News have I, that my Nell is dead2 i̇'the spital And there my rendezvous is quite cut off. And swear, I got them in the Gallia wars. [Exit3. mind. So, in The Merchant of Venice: if he have the condition of a saint, with the complexion of a devil." STEEVENS. Doth fortune play the HUSWIFE-] That is, the jilt. Hus wife is here used in an ill sense. JOHNSON. 2 News have I, that my NELL is dead, &c.] Old copy-Doll. STEEVENS. We must read-" my Nell is dead." In a former scene Pistol says: "Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers." MALONE. Doll Tearsheet was so little the favourite of Pistol, that he offered her in contempt to Nym. Nor would her death have "cut off his rendezvous," that is, 'deprived him of a home.' Perhaps the poet forgot his plan. 66 In the quartos 1600 and 1608 the lines are read thus: "Doth fortune playe the huswyfe with me now? "Is honour cudgel'd from my warlike lines [loins]? Well, France farewell. News have I certainly "That Doll is sick one [on] mallydie of France. "The warres affordeth nought; home will I trug, "Bawd will I turne, and use the slyte of hand; "To England will I steal, and there I'll steal; "And patches will I get unto these skarres, "And I swear I gat them in the Gallia wars.' 3 [Exit.] The comick scenes of The History of Henry the Fourth and Fifth are now at an end, and all the comick personages are now dismissed. Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly are dead; Nym and Bardolph are hanged; Gadshill was lost immediately after the robbery; Poins and Peto have vanished since, one knows not how; and Pistol is now beaten into obscurity. I believe every reader regrets their departure. JOHNSON. JOHNSON. SCENE II. Troyes in Champagne. An Apartment in the French King's Palace. Enter, at one Door, King HENRY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords; at another the French King, Queen ISABEL, the Princess KATHARINE, Lords, Ladies, &c. the Duke of BURGUNDY, and his Train. K. HEN. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met 5 ! Unto our brother France,-and to our sister, Health and fair time of day:-joy and good wishes 4 Troyes in Champagne.] Henry, some time before his marriage with Katharine, accompanied by his brothers, uncles, &c. had a conference with her, the French King and Queen, the Duke of Burgundy, &c. in a field near Melun, where two pavilions were erected for the royal families, and a third between them for the council to assemble in and deliberate on the articles of peace. "The Frenchmen, (says the Chronicle,) ditched, trenched, and paled their lodgings for fear of after-clappes; but the Englishmen had their parte of the field only barred and parted." But the treaty was then broken off. Some time afterwards they again met in St. Peter's church at Troyes in Champagne, where Katharine was affianced to Henry, and the articles of peace between France and England finally concluded.-Shakspeare, having mentioned, in the course of this scene, "a bar and royal interview," seems to have had the former place of meeting in his thoughts; the description of the field near Melun, in the Chronicle, somewhat corresponding to that of a bar or barriers. But the place of the present scene is certainly Troyes in Champagne. However, as St. Peter's Church would not admit of the French King and Queen, &c. retiring, and then appearing again on the scene, I have supposed, with the former editors, the interview to take place in a palace. MALOne. 5 Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!] Peace, for which we are here met, be to this meeting. Here, after the chorus, the fifth Act seems naturally to begin. JOHNSON. To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine; And, princes French, and peers, health to you all! Q. Is. So happy be the issue, brother England, With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours, To bring your most imperial majesties Unto this bar and royal interview, Your mightiness on both parts best can witness. You have congreeted; let it not disgrace me, "The FATAL BALLS of murdering BASILISKS :] Winter's Tale : "Make me not sighted like the basilisk.” So, in The It was anciently supposed that this serpent could destroy the object of its vengeance by merely looking at it. See Henry VI. Part II. Act III. Sc. II. STEEVENS. A basilisk was also a great gun. See Johnson's Dict. in voce. BOSWELL. 7 Unto this BAR-] To this barrier; to this place of congress. JOHNSON. If I demand, before this royal view, Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, 8 Unpruned DIES:] We must read, lies; for neglect of pruning does not kill the vine, but causes it to ramify immoderately, and grow wild; by which the requisite nourishment is withdrawn from its fruit. WARBURTON. This emendation is physically right, but poetically the vine may be well enough said to die, which ceases to bear fruit. JOHNSON. 9 her hedges even-pleached, Like prisoners wildly over-grown with hair, &c.] This image of prisoners is oddly introduced. A "hedge even-pleached" is more properly imprisoned than when it luxuriates in unpruned exuberance. JOHNSON. Johnson's criticism on this passage has no just foundation. The King compares the disorderly shoots of an unclipped hedge, to the hair and beard of a prisoner, which he has neglected to trim; a neglect natural to a person who lives alone, and in a dejected state of mind. M. MASON. The learned commentator [Dr. Johnson] misapprehended, I believe, our author's sentiment. Hedges are pleached, that is, their long branches being cut off, are twisted and woven through the lower part of the hedge, in order to thicken and strengthen the fence. The following year, when the hedge shoots out, it is customary, in many places, to clip the shoots, so as to render them even. The Duke of Burgundy, therefore, among other instances of the neglect of husbandry, mentions this; that the hedges, which were even-pleached, for want of trimming, put forth irregular twigs; like prisoners, who in their confinement have neglected the use of the razor, and in consequence are wildly overgrown with hair. The hedge, in its cultivated state, when it is even-pleached, is compared to the prisoner in its Put forth disorder'd twigs; her fallow leas The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, "wild exuberance," it resembles the prisoner "overgrown with hair." As a hedge, however, that is even-pleached or woven together, and one that is clipt, are alike reduced to an even surface, our author, with his usual licence, might have meant only by evenpleached, "our hedges which were heretofore clipp'd smooth and even." The line "Like prisoners," &c. it should be observed, relates to the one which follows, and not to that which precedes it. The construction is, Her even-pleached hedges put forth disordered twigs, resembling persons in prison, whose faces are from neglect over-grown with hair.' MALONE. coulter-] The ploughshare. See Johnson's Dict. in voce. REED. 2 deracinate] To deracinate is to force up by the roots. So, in Troilus and Cressida : 3 66 rend and deracinate "The unity," &c. MALONE. all-] Old copy, unmetrically-withall. STEEvens. 4 And as our vineyards,] The old copy reads-And all our vineyards. The emendation was made by Mr. Roderick. MALONE. 5 Defective in their NATURES,] Nature had been changed by some of the editors into nurture; but, as Mr. Upton observes, unnecessarily. "Sua deficiuntur natura." They were not defective in their crescive nature, for they grew to wildness; but they were defective in their proper and favourable nature, which was to bring forth food for man. STEEVENS. |