KING HENRY IV.—PART I.
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"Forthwith a power of English shall we levy."
We might incline to read lead; but the text is right. Gifford quotes "Scipio before he levied his forces to the walls of Carthage," from Gosson's School of Abuse, and other passages in its defence.
"Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own blood did sir Walter see."
The explanations given of 'Balk'd' do not satisfy me. Steevens has given some good authority for Bak'd, the conjecture of Grey; but on the whole I incline to Heath's Bath'd. Still I have made no alteration.
"Mordake, the earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas, and the earls of Athol,
Of Murray, and of Angus and Menteith."
Sc. 2.
"If thou darest not stand for ten shillings."
Pope also read, as I do, 'cry stand.'
Sc. 3.
"And you have found me; for accordingly
You tread upon my patience."
I read 'have found me so. Accordingly.' In Com. of Err. i. 1. and elsewhere we have so for for.
"I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition."
What is the difference between 'myself' and 'my condition,' i.e. natural disposition? I read 'my condition past.'
"Out of my grief and my impatience
To be so pestered with a popinjay."
So Edwards and Johnson properly transposed these lines.
"Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, from henceforth."
"By Richard that dead is, the next of blood."
It is so printed in both 4tos and folio; but we surely should read 'is dead.'
"As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud."
Perhaps the poet used the more forceable term, torrent.
"But not the form of what he should attend to."
"Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own."
Perhaps 'Tying' was not the poet's word. It may have been Turning, or some other.
"Will easily be granted. You, my lord," etc.
Such is the proper punctuation, also proposed by Thirlby.
"I'll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer."
There is evidently a line lost after this.
Act II.
Sc. 1.
"But with nobility and tranquillity."
To all appearance, gentility would be more correct; but he may be playing on the ignorance of the Chamberlain, to whom the word was unknown. He then says 'great-onyers' for great-ones.
Sc. 2.
"Away, good Ned. Fat Falstaff sweats to death."
So also Capell.
Sc. 3.
"One horse, my lord, he hath brought even now."
Sc. 4.
"Ned, prythee come out of that fat room."
I suspect we should read hot room.
"Pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the sweet tale of the son's."
So I read, with the two earliest 4tos; the others and the folio have sun for 'son's'; and, with Malone, I see a reference to the Tale of Phaethon. Of the double genitive there are many instances. Theobald, who is followed by Singer, read butter for 'Titan,' thinking there was an incongruity. But the Prince, in the exuberance of his spirits, spoke rather at random, heedless of the unconnectedness of his discourse.
"If thou didst, then behold that compound."
It may be that never has been omitted before 'didst.'
"Away, you starveling, you elf-skin."
Hanmer and Warburton were right, I think, in reading eel for 'elf.'
"You dried neat's tongue, you bull's pizzle, you stock-fish."
"There is virtue in that Falstaff; him keep with."
The poet probably wrote 'him keep with thee.'
"Misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old, white-bearded Satan."
It would be better, both for emphasis and metre, to read 'that Falstaff.'
Act III.
Sc. 1.
"The arch-deacon hath divided it for us."
"And then he runs you straight and evenly."
"I'll in and haste the writer and withal."
So I think we should read with Steevens and Malone. "I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence" (Rich. III. i. 1).
"He held me last night at the least nine hours."
"As a tired horse or as a railing wife."
So Pope also. The usual correction is that of Capell, 'as is a tired horse.'
"In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blameable."
We have "wilful-opposite" (K. John, v. 2), "wilful-negligent" (Wint. Tale, i. 2), "wilful-slow" (Son. li.), and "wilful-ignorant" (Fletcher, Woman-hater, v. 2). For my part, I regard it as a convincing proof of the truth of my theory of effacement (Introd. p. [57]).
"Which thou pourest down from those swelling heavens."
The Cambridge editors and myself have independently transposed in 'pourest down.' We might also read "Which from those," etc.
"Nay, nay, if you melt, then will she run mad."
"Come, Kate, come; thou art perfect in lying down."
"I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in Irish."
So, after all the editors, I have printed it, in accordance with the 4tos; the folio applies 'Lady' to Lady Percy. I, however, strongly suspect that we should read 'my lady-brach,' as in Lear, i. 4, which would also accord better with the metre. See Index s. v. [Brach].
"Come sing.—I will not sing.—'Tis the next way
To turn tailor or be redbreast-teacher."
So it should be arranged.
"By this our book is drawn; we'll but seal and then
To horse immediately. With all my heart."
As this is preceded by a couplet, and the scenes generally end with one, I would read 'then start' for 'and then.' Start being probably effaced, the printer added 'and' to complete the measure. See Introd. p. [67].
Sc. 2.
"As in reproof of many tales devis'd—
Which oft the ear of Greatness needs must hear—
By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers."
The two last lines should, I think, be transposed.
"Mingled his royalty with carping fools."
The 4to, 1598, reads capring, i.e. capering. The choice is difficult.
Sc. 3.
"Go, Poins, to horse, to horse!"
Both 4tos and folio have Peto. Johnson made the change.
"At two o'clock in the afternoon."
Something seems wanting here. I have added precisely.
Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"He writes me hëre that an inward sickness."
"It were not good; for therein should we read
The very bottom and the soul of hope."
I can make no sense of 'read'; we might read reach.
"All plum'd like estriches that with the wind are fann'd."
It is plain that something has been lost here; it may be a line, but I think the slight addition I have made, and in the very place where the loss was most likely to occur, removes all difficulty. "The air of Paradise did fan the house" (All's Well, iii. 2). The poet had in his mind the Prince's plume, which he supposes to have been worn by his companions also; and it is quite evident—or else there is no force in the comparison—that he also supposed that it was on his head the ostrich carried his long bending feathers. So Drayton also: "The Mountfords all in plumes, like ostriches were seen" (Polyolb. xxii.). The following line of Tasso gives us the exact image:—"E ventolar sui gran cimier le penne" (Ger. Lib. xx. 28). Hanmer read 'and with the wind.' Rowe, who has been generally followed, read wing for 'with'; but the verb wing has but one sense in the poets, to fly, and the ostrich no more flies than the greyhound. Mr. Dyce, however, adopts this reading, which, he says, "affords a clear and good meaning," and he quotes in support of it these lines of Claudian, who, he thinks may, as a native of Egypt, be speaking as an eye-witness:—
"Vasta velut Libyæ venantum vocibus ales
Cum premitur calidas cursu transmittit arenas,
Inque modum veli sinuatis flamine pennis
Pulverulenta volat."
In Eutrop. ii. 310.
But surely this is sailing with, not winging the wind; and what has it to do with 'plum'd'? I very much doubt if Claudian ever saw an ostrich running; for that was only to be seen in the desert, which Egyptians rarely visited at any period.
"Baited like eagles having lately bath'd."
I know no sense of the verb bait that will give any tolerable meaning here. To read 'Bated,' as is usually done, from bate, to flap the wings, gives merely a ridiculous sense. I have a strong persuasion that the poet's word was Beated, a term which he also uses in Son. lxii., where, by the way, the critics seem not to have understood it. Bete, beat, beath, is to kindle, heat, dry; and the idea in the poet's mind seems to have been that of eagles, after refreshing themselves by bathing, sitting on rocks for the sun to dry their plumage. To these he likens the young knights, fresh and vigorous, sitting on their war-steeds, under the beams of the sun. Hence he goes on to say "Glittering," etc.
Sc. 2.
"There's not a shirt and a half in all my company."
For 'not,' Rowe, who is usually followed, read but. In my Edition I have given here and in v. 3 'not but' as more forceable. See Index, [But].
Sc. 3.
"Into his title, which we find to be
Too indirect for long continuance."
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"So tell your cousin, and bring me word again
What he will do."
Sc. 2.
"Suspicion, all our lives, shall be stuck full of eyes."
The word in 4tos and folio is Supposition, which may be right; the correction is Pope's.
"Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so."
This is so abrupt and prosaic that I think we should read 'pray go you.'
"Upon his follies; never did I hear
Of any prince so wild a liberty."
So the 4tos. The folio reads 'at liberty'; Capell libertine, which is the reading usually adopted, even by the Cambridge editors. In Com. of Err. (i. 2) we have "such like liberties of sin" of persons.
"If life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour ...
An if we live, we live to tread on kings."
The aposiopesis here is in character with Hotspur, but there may be a line or more lost.
Sc. 3.
"What is thy name that in the battle thus."
"The King hath many marching in his coats."
March is here, as so frequently in Spenser and others, simply the French marcher.
"In which the Majesty of buried Denmark
Did sometimes march."
Ham. i. 1.
Collier's folio reads masking; but it was only the face that was masked. Gifford, without hesitation, read march'd in
"Let fury then disperse these clouds, in which
I long have mask'd disguised."
Mass. Bondman, v. 3.
"I will assay thee, and so defend thyself."