Chapter XXIII: Epilogue: Spoken by a Dancer.4500

First my fear; then my courtesy; last my speech. My[4501]
fear is, your displeasure; my courtesy, my duty; and my
speech, to beg your pardons. If you look for a good speech
now, you undo me: for what I have to say is of mine own
making; and what indeed I should say will, I doubt, prove[4502] 5
mine own marring. But to the purpose, and so to the
venture. Be it known to you, as it is very well, I was
lately here in the end of a displeasing play, to pray your
patience for it and to promise you a better. I meant[4503]
indeed to pay you with this; which, if like an ill venture 10
it come unluckily home, I break, and you, my gentle
creditors, lose. Here I promised you I would be and
here I commit my body to your mercies: bate me some
and I will pay you some and, as most debtors do, promise
you infinitely.[4504] 15

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me, will you
command me to use my legs? and yet that were but light
payment, to dance out of your debt. But a good conscience
will make any possible satisfaction, and so would I. All[4505]
the gentlewomen here have forgiven me: if the gentlemen[4506] 20
will not, then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen,
which was never seen before in such an assembly.[4507]

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too
much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author will continue
the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry 25
with fair Katharine of France: where, for anything I know,
Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a' be killed[4508]
with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and[4509]
this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs
are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down[4510] 30
before you; but, indeed, to pray for the queen.[4510]

FOOTNOTES:

[4500] EPILOGUE. Spoken by a Dancer.] Pope. Epilogue. QFf.

[4501] _courtesy_] _curtsie_ F₁. _curtesie_ F₂ F₃ F₄. _cursie_ Q.

[4502] _should_] _shall_ S. Walker conj.

[4503] _meant_] Q. _did meane_ Ff.

[4504] _infinitely._] Ff. _infinitely: and so I kneele downe before you; but indeed, to pray for the Queene._ Q.

[4505] _would_] Q. _will_ Ff.

[4506] _forgiven_] QF₁. _forgotten_ F₂ F₃ F₄.

_gentlemen_] QF₁. _genilewomen_ F₂. _gentlewomen_ F₃ F₄.

[4507] _before_] Ff. om. Q.

[4508] _a'_] _a_ Q. _he_ Ff.

[4509] _a martyr_] Ff. _martyre_ Q.

[4510] _and so ... queen_] Ff. Omitted in Q.

NOTES.

NOTE I.

The list of Dramatis Personæ given in the first Folio differs but slightly from that prefixed to our text. Thus Northumberland, &c. are classed as 'Opposites against King Henrie the Fourth:' Warwick, &c. as 'Of the king's partie,' and Pointz, &c. as 'Irregular Humorists.' The Dancer who speaks the Epilogue is called 'Epilogue.' As Blunt is mentioned as present (iv. 3. 73), we have inserted his name in the list. Coleridge, with an especial reference to II. 2. 153, proposes to change 'Doll Tearsheet,' into 'Doll Tearstreet,' and Sidney Walker approves of the suggestion (_Criticisms_, III. 135). The Servant of the Lord Chief-Justice, called by Capell his 'Gentleman,' is not in the list of the Folio.

NOTE II.

INDUCTION. As usual in the Quarto there is no division into acts and scenes. In the Folios the 'Induction' is reckoned as the first scene, the second scene beginning with the entry of Lord Bardolph. We have followed Pope.

NOTE III.

I. 2. 113. Theobald refers to the stage direction of the Quarto in this place as a proof that Falstaff was originally called Oldcastle, and that 'the play being printed from the stage-manuscript, Oldcastle had been all along alter'd into Falstaff, except in this single place by an oversight: of which the printers not being aware, continued these initial traces of the original name.' Steevens suggested that _Old._ might have been the beginning of some actor's name, but this supposition is rejected by Malone, who maintains that 'there is no proof whatsoever that Falstaff ever was called Oldcastle in these plays.' 'The letters prefixed to this speech crept into the first Quarto copy,' he adds, 'I have no doubt, merely from Oldcastle being, behind the scenes, the familiar theatrical appellation of Falstaff, who was his stage-successor.'

NOTE IV.

I. 3. 36-38. We have left this passage as it stands in the Folios, agreeing with Mr Staunton that something has been lost or misprinted. Pope read:

'Yes, if this present quality of war
Impede the instant act; a cause on foot
Lives &c.'

Johnson suggested:

'Yes, in this present quality of war,
Indeed of instant action. A cause &c.'

Capell read:

'Yes, if the present quality of war
Impede the present action. A cause &c.'

Malone, partially adopting Johnson's emendation:

'Yes, in this present quality of war;--
Indeed the instant action, (a cause on foot)
Lives &c.'

Monck Mason proposes:

'Yes, if this prescient quality of war
Induc'd the instant action &c.'

Becket:

'Yes, in this present quality of war
Instance the instant action &c.'

Mr Knight retains the old reading with a new punctuation:

'Yes;--if this present quality of war,--
(Indeed the instant action, a cause on foot,)
Lives &c.'

Mr Collier, following the MS. corrector, in his second edition, reads:

'Yes, in this present quality of war:
Indeed the instant act and cause on foot
Lives &c.'

For 'Indeed' Steevens suggested 'Impel,' and Mason and Henley 'Induc'd.' For 'instant' Tollet would read 'instanc'd.' Delius thinks emendation unnecessary.

NOTE V.

II. 2. 101. In the quarto no distinction is made between the letter of Falstaff and the speaker's remarks, but in the Folios the letter is printed in italics.

NOTE VI.

II. 4. 166. As the quotation is made by Pistol, who has just spoken of 'Cannibals' (for 'Hannibals') and of 'Trojan Greeks,' we have left it uncorrected. It would be scarcely consistent to put correct Italian, or Spanish, into his mouth. All the editors assume that Italian is the language meant, and give it, as such, more or less correctly. If Pistol's sword were a Toledo blade, the motto would be Spanish. In that case 'Si' and 'me' would need no alteration. Mr Douce mentions a sword inscribed with a French version of the motto. On the same ground we have left 'obsque,' for 'absque,' (v. 5. 28).

NOTE VII.

II. 4. 221 sqq. We follow the Quarto in writing _'s_ for _is, i'_ for _in, 'll_ for _will, an_ for _if, a'_ for _he_, &c. as it seems to represent better the language of the speakers, and from this point we cease to record such minute discrepancies between it and the Folios.

NOTE VIII.

II. 4. 342. At this point commences an important variation between different copies of the Quarto. In the earlier impression, which we call Q₁, the whole of Act III. Sc. 1, was omitted, but inserted in the latter (Q₂), and in order to make room for this insertion two new leaves were added to sheet E, but as the new matter did not exactly fill up the two leaves required, the pagination was altered. Hence in Q₂, Sig. E 3 recto is made to terminate at 'how now, what's the matter?' (II. 4. 342) which is seven lines from the bottom in Q₁. The two become again identical at 'strong and of good friends' (III. 2. 99), the first line of Sig. F.

NOTE IX.

III. 2. 126. We retain the reading of the Quarto, understanding 'much' in the ironical sense in which it is often found. See _As You Like It_, IV. 3. 2, and the present play, II. 4. 121.

NOTE X.

III. 2. 293 and 310. Here there are variations in different copies of the Quarto, in line 293, between _genius_ and _gemies_, and, in line 310, between _Let_ and _Till_. A variation is found also, V. 2. 140, between _you_ and _your_.

NOTE XI.

IV. I. 93, 95. These lines are omitted in the Folios and in some copies of the Quarto. With regard to the former line, Theobald says that his copy of the Quarto read, 'And consecrate Commotion's _civil_ Edge:' in his text he altered 'civil edge' to 'civil page.'

IV. I. 94. Mr Singer supposed that after _commonwealth_ a line had been lost, something to the following effect:

'Whose wrongs do loudly call out for redress.'

Mr Julius Lloyd writes to us: "I am sure the lines are transposed and should be read thus:

'I make my quarrel in particular
My brother; general, the commonwealth.'

"The transposition is proved, further, by the separation of the doubtful lines:

'And consecrate commotion's bitter edge
To brother born an household cruelty,'

which are plainly continuous."

Mr Spedding writes: "I think some lines have been lost. If

'And consecrate commotion's bitter edge'

belongs to Westmoreland's speech, there must have been another line following, to complete the cadence both in sound and sense. And again, if

'There is no need of any such redress'

is the beginning of his next speech, it is equally clear that something about 'redress' must have been said between. The opposition between 'brother general' and 'brother born' reads to me like Shakespeare, and not likely to have come in by accident: and though the transposition of the lines [as suggested by Mr Lloyd] is ingenious and intelligible and in another context might be natural, it does not come naturally in the context proposed. Conjecture seems hopeless in such a case."

On the whole, we are of opinion that several lines have been omitted, and those which remain displaced, and that this is one of the many passages in which the true text is irrecoverable.

NOTE XII.

IV. 2. 27. The reading 'seal,' which has been attributed to Mr Collier's MS. corrector, we have assigned to Capell, considering that we are justified in doing so, because in his _Various Readings_ (part I. p. 52) he has the note 'Seal 1ˢᵗ F.--.' We think it clear that he inadvertently attributed a conjecture of his own to the first and following Folios. The manner in which the entry is made in his MS., which we have consulted, confirms this view.

NOTE XIII.

IV. 4, and IV. 5. The Jerusalem Chamber in which the king died belonged, as Holinshed tells us (p. 1162, col. 2, ed. 1577), to the Abbot of Westminster. The same authority states that he was first taken ill not in the Jerusalem Chamber, as Shakespeare says (IV. 5. 233, 234), but when paying his devotions at the shrine of S. Edward.

Although neither the Folios nor any more recent editors make a change of scene after line 132, we have ventured to do so, for, as Mr Dyce says, 'In fact the audience of Shakespeare's time were to suppose that a change of scene took place as soon as the king was laid on the bed.' (On the same principle, all editors except Rowe have made a new scene to begin after IV. I. 228, where no change is marked in the Folios.)

Capell's stage direction is not satisfactory, for it implies a change of scene, though none is indicated in the text. The king's couch would not be placed in a recess at the back of the stage, because he has to make speeches from it of considerable length. He must therefore be lying in front of the stage where he could be seen and heard by the audience.

NOTE XIV.

IV. 5. 60, &c. We give Pope's arrangement of this passage in full:

'_K. Henry._ The Prince hath ta'en it hence; go seek him out.
Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose
My sleep my death? find him, my lord of _Warwick_,
And chide him hither strait; this part of his
Conjoins with my disease, and helps to end me.
See, sons, what things you are! how quickly nature
Falls to revolt, when gold becomes her object?
For this, the foolish over-careful fathers
Have broke their sleeps with thought, their brains with care,
Their bones with industry: for this engrossed
The canker'd heaps of strange-atchieved gold:
For this, they have been thoughtful to invest
Their sons with arts and martial exercises:
When, like the Bee, culling from ev'ry Flow'r,
Our thighs are packt with wax, our mouths with honey &c.'

NOTE XV.

V. 3. 36. This, like all Silence's snatches of song, is printed as prose in the Quarto, and ends _shrovetide, be mery, be mery_. The Folios print these words in te same line, but with a full stop at _Shrovetide_. Rowe, and all subsequent editors to Johnson inclusive, printed the last four words as if they were spoken, not sung. Capell corrected the error, and printed, _Be merry, be merry, &c._ In line 75, the word _Samingo_ is printed as if spoken, and not sung, by all editors down to Malone.

NOTE XVI.

V. 4. 1. 'Sincklo.' See note IV. to _The Taming of the Shrew_.

NOTE XVII.

V. 5. 1. The Quarto prefixes the numbers 1, 2, 3, to the first three speeches of this scene. Mr Dyce conjectures that the speech given to the first groom at line 3, might be distributed thus:

'_Third Groom._ It will be two of the clock ere they come from the
coronation.

_First Groom._ Dispatch, dispatch.'

NOTE XVIII.

V. 5. 4. It seems probable from the stage-direction of the Quarto, that the king first crossed the stage in procession to his coronation, which is supposed to take place during the dialogue between Falstaff and the others, and that on his second entrance he appeared with the crown on his head.

KING HENRY THE FIFTH.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ[L].

KING HENRY the Fifth.
DUKE of GLOUCESTER, } brothers to the King.
DUKE of BEDFORD, }
DUKE of EXETER, uncle to the King.
DUKE of YORK, cousin to the King.
EARLS of SALISBURY, WESTMORELAND, _and_ WARWICK.
ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY.
BISHOP of ELY.
EARL of CAMBRIDGE.
LORD SCROOP.
SIR THOMAS GREY.
SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM, GOWER, FLUELLEN, MACMORRIS, JAMY, officers in
King Henry's army.
BATES, COURT, WILLIAMS, soldiers in the same.
PISTOL, NYM, BARDOLPH.
Boy.
A Herald.

CHARLES the Sixth, king of France.
LEWIS, the Dauphin.
DUKES of BURGUNDY, ORLEANS, _and_ BOURBON.
The Constable of France.
RAMBURES _and_ GRANDPRE, French Lords.
Governor of Harfleur.
MONTJOY, a French Herald.
Ambassadors to the King of England.

ISABEL, Queen of France.
KATHARINE, daughter to Charles and Isabel.
ALICE, a lady attending on her.
Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap, formerly Mistress Quickly, and
now married to Pistol.

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, Citizens, Messengers, and
Attendants.

Chorus.

SCENE: _England; afterwards France._

[L] DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. First given by Rowe. See note (I).

THE LIFE OF

KING HENRY V.