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was anciently used for forehead. So Stubbs, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595: "Then on the edges of their bolstered hair, which standeth crested round their frontiers, and hanging over their faces," &c. STEEVENS,

Line 385. A pouncet-box,] A small box for musk or other perfumes then in fashion: the lid of which being cut with open work, gave it its name; from poinsoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. WARBURTON. Line 388. Took it in snuff:] Snuff is equivocally used for anger and a powder taken up the nose.

Line 425.

To do him wrong, or any way impeach

STEEVENS.

What then he said, so he unsay it now.] Let what he then said never rise to impeach him, so he unsay it now. JOHNS. Line 437. and indent with fears,] Perhaps we may read : Shall we buy treason? and indent with peers,

When they have lost and forfeited themselves?

Shall we purchase back a traitor? Shall we descend to a composition with Worcester, Northumberland, and young Percy, who by disobedience have lost and forfeited their honours and themselves? JOHNSON.

The king and as he

Line 444. He never did fall off, my sovereign liege, But by the chance of war;] The meaning is, he came not into the enemy's power, but by the chance of war. charged Mortimer, that he wilfully betrayed his army, was then with the enemy, calls him revolted Mortimer. Hotspur replies that he never fell off, that is, fell into Glendower's hands, but by the chance of war. JOHNSON.

Line 451. hardiment-] i. e. courage.

- .455. Who then, affrighted, &c.] This passage has been censured as sounding nonsense, which represents a stream of water as capable of fear. It is misunderstood. Severn is here not the flood, but the tutelary power of the flood, who was affrighted, and hid his head in the hollow bank. JOHNSON.

Line 457. his crisp head-] i. e. curled head.

-498.

-an eye of death,] That is, an eye menacing death. Hotspur seems to describe the king as trembling with rage rather than fear.

JOHNSON.

Line 535. this canker, Bolingbroke ?] The canker-rose is the dog-rose.

Line 542.

553.

JOHNSON.

-disdain'd-] For disdainful.

On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.] That is of a

spear laid across.

WARBURTON.

Line 562. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,

To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;] Euripides has put the very same sentiment into the mouth of Eteocles: "I will not, madam, disguise my thoughts; I would scale heaven, I would descend to the very entrails of the earth, if so be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom.” WARB.

Though I am very far from condemning this speech with Gildon and Theobald, as absolute madness, yet I cannot find in it that profundity of reflection, and beauty of allegory, which Dr. Warburton endeavoured to display. This sally of Hotspur may be, I think, soberly and rationally vindicated as the violent eruption of a mind inflated with ambition, and fired with resentment; as the boasted clamour of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the hasty motion of turbulent desire; as the dark expression of indetermined thoughts. The passage from Euripides is surely not allegorical, yet it is produced, and properly, as parallel. JOHNS.

Line 569. But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!] A coat is said to be faced, when part of it, as the sleeves or bosom, is covered with something finer or more splendid than the main substance. The mantua-makers still use the word. Half-fac'd fellowship is then "partnership but half-adorned, partnership which yet wants half the show of dignities and honours." JOHNSON. Line 570. a world of figures here,] Figure is here used equivocally. As it is applied to Hotspur's speech it is a rhetorical mode; as opposed to form, it means appearance or shape. JOHNSON.

Line 596. And that same sword-and-buckler prince of Wales,] A royster or turbulent fellow, that fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the streets, was called a Swash-buckler. In this sense sword-and-buckler is here used.

Line 619.

JOHNSON.

what a candy deal of courtesy-] i. e. what a

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Line 656.

forces.

-by raising of a head:] A head is a body of

JOHNSON.

Line 658. The king will always &c.] This is a natural description of the state of mind between those that have conferred and those that have received obligations too great to be satisfied.

That this would be the event of Northumberland's disloyalty, was predicted by King Richard in the former play. JOHNSON. Line 664. Cousin,] This was a common address in our author's time to nephews, nieces, and grandchildren. See Holinshed's Chronicle, passim. Hotspur was Worcester's nephew. MALONE.

Line 7.

8.

10.

ACT II. SCENE I.

-out of all cess.] i. e. out of all measure.
-as dank—] i. e. wet, rotten.

WARB.

POPE.

-bots ;] Are worms in the stomach of a horse.

JOHNSON.

24. and two razes of ginger,] As our author in several passages mentions a race of ginger, I thought proper to distinguish it from the raze mentioned here. The former signifies no more than a single root of it; but a raze is the Indian term for a bale of it. THEOBALD.

Line 26.

-the turkies in my pannier are quite starved.] Here is a slight anachronism. Turkies were not brought into England till the time of king Henry VIII.

MALONE.

Line 48. At hand, quoth pick-purse.] This proverbial saying probably arose from the pick-purse always seizing upon the prey nearest him: his maxim being that of Pope's man of gallantry: "The thing at hand is of all things the best." MALONE. -franklin-] Is a little gentleman. JOHNSON.

Line 55.

.61.

-saint Nicholas' clerks,] St. Nicholas was the patron saint of scholars; and Nicholas, or old Nick, is a cant name for the devil. Hence he equivocally calls robbers, St. Nicholas' clerks. WARBURTON.

Line 73. I am joined with no foot land-rakers, &c.] That is, with no padders, no wanderers on foot. No long-staff sixpennystrikers,-no fellows that infest the road with long-staffs, and knock men down for six-pence. None of these mad mustachio, purpled-hued malt-worms—none of those whose faces are red with drinking ale. JOHNSON.

Line 74. sixpenny-strikers;] Probably a cant phrase, with the meaning of which we have not been favoured by our ancestors.

Line 76.

77.

malt-worms:] i. e. tipplers.

-burgomasters, and great oneyers;] Gadshill tells

the Chamberlain, that he is joined with no mean wretches, but with burgomasters and great ones, or, as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great oneyers, or great-one-éers, as we say privateer, auctioneer, circuiteer. JOHNSON.

Line 77.

Line 88.

such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink, &c.] Perhaps the meaning may be,-Men who will knock the traveller down sooner than speak to him; who yet will speak to him and bid him stand, sooner than drink; (to which they are sufficiently well inclined;) and lastly, who will drink sooner than pray. -we have the receipt of fern-seed,] Fern is one of those plants which have their seed on the back of the leaf so small as to escape the sight. Those who perceived that fern was propagated by semination, and yet could never see the seed, were much at a loss for a solution of the difficulty; and as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed to fern-seed many strange properties, some of which the rustick virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded. JOHNSON.

Line 97. -Homo is a common name, &c.] Gadshill had promised as he was a true man; the Chamberlain wills him to promise rather as a false thief; to which Gadshill answers, that though he might have reason to change the word true, he might have spared man, for homo is a name common to all men, and among others to thieves.

JOHNSON.

ACT II. SCENE II.

-medicines to make me love him,] Alluding to

Line 118.

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"By spells and medicines bought of mountebanks."

Line 137.

STEEVENS.

to colt-] Is to fool, to trick; but the prince

taking it in another sense, opposes it by uncolt, that is, unhorse.

JOHNSON.

Line 191. gorbellied-] A gorbelly is a fat paunch, a swelling belly.

ACT II. SCENE III.

Line 274.
And all the 'currents-] i. e. the occurrences.
old language occurrent was used instead of occurrence.
Line 277.
That beads of sweat-] So, in Julius Cæsar:

In

MALONE.

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-mine eyes,

Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine,

"Began to water."

MALONE.

Line 294.

-esperance!] This was the motto of the Percy

family.

MALONE.

Line 316.

-mammets,] Puppets.

JOHNSON.

317.

—crack'd crowns, &c.] Signifies at once cracked

money, and a broken head. Current will apply to both; as it refers to money, its sense is well known; as it is applied to a broken head, it insinuates that a soldier's wounds entitle him to universal reception. JOHNSON.

"

ACT II. SCENE IV.

· Eastcheap.] In the old anonymous play of King Henry V., Eastcheap is the place where Henry and his companions meet: « Henry 5. You know the old tavern in Eastcheap; there is good wine." Shakspeare has hung up a sign for them that he saw daily; for the Boar's Head tavern was very near Black-friars playhouse. See Stowe's Survey, 4to. 1618, p. 686. Line 356. -Corinthian,] A wencher.

MALONE. JOHNSON.

-369. —under-skinker;] A tapster; an under-drawer. Skink is drink, and a skinker is one that serves drink at table. JOHNS. Enter Francis.] This scene, helped by the distraction of the drawer, and grimaces of the Prince, may entertain upon the stage, but affords not much delight to the reader. The author has judiciously made it short. JOHNSON.

Line 417. Wilt thou rob &c.] The Prince intends to ask the drawer whether he will rob his master, whom he denotes by many contemptuous distinctions. JOHNSON.

Line 418. nott-pated,] i. e. the hair cut round and short. —418. —puke-stocking,] I have no doubt that the epithet referred to the dark colour, i. e. between a russet and a black. Black stockings are now worn, as they probably were in Shak

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