It would be better, both for emphasis and metre, to read 'that Falstaff.'
So I think we should read with Steevens and Malone. "I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence" (Rich. III. i. 1).
So Pope also. The usual correction is that of Capell, 'as is a tired horse.'
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).
The Cambridge editors and myself have independently transposed in 'pourest down.' We might also read "Which from those," etc.
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.
So it should be arranged.
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.
The two last lines should, I think, be transposed.
The 4to, 1598, reads capring, i.e. capering. The choice is difficult.
Both 4tos and folio have Peto. Johnson made the change.
Something seems wanting here. I have added precisely.
I can make no sense of 'read'; we might read reach.
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:—
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.
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.
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.
The word in 4tos and folio is Supposition, which may be right; the correction is Pope's.
This is so abrupt and prosaic that I think we should read 'pray go you.'
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.
The aposiopesis here is in character with Hotspur, but there may be a line or more lost.
March is here, as so frequently in Spenser and others, simply the French marcher.
Ham. i. 1.
Collier's folio reads masking; but it was only the face that was masked. Gifford, without hesitation, read march'd in
Mass. Bondman, v. 3.
Collier's folio has diseases for 'degrees.'
There may be a line lost here; I make in preference an aposiopesis.
I read draw or 'and draw' for 'and.'
Capell proposed 'at last.'
For 'cost' we should perhaps read house or some such word; yet in Son. xiv. cost seems to be used in the sense of costly edifice.
It might be better to read 'Thou, wouldest,' and 'Art,' to accord with the rest of the speech.
I suspect that the poet wrote look, not 'long.'
From Doll's reply, and the fact of Falstaff's being the only man present, I incline to think that we should read mistress for 'masters.' See on Tam. of Shr. i. 2.
By simply adding ben we get rid of all difficulty without altering the text, as is usually done.
So Cavalier Shift in Jonson's Every Man out, etc. iii. 1, says to his rapier "No, my dear, I will not be divorced from thee."
What the poet seems to mean is, that the billows though hung in the clouds, would not adhere to them, on account of their slippery nature, but fell back into the sea. Shrouds, the reading of Collier's folio, seems poor and trivial.
For 'low, lie down,' Warburton read lowly clown. But it is of a ship-boy the poet is speaking, and he would hardly make so sudden a transition.
There may be some doubt about 'bloody'; for 'rage' Sidney Walker and Collier's folio read rags, which seems confirmed by the following line.
For 'graves' Warburton and Hanmer read glaives, Steevens, greaves. Neither of these words occurs in Shakespeare, and I rather suspect that the poet's word was braves, i.e. bravadoes, boasts. "I will not bear these braves of thine" (Tam. of Shr. iii. 1). "Now where's the Bastard's braves?" (1 Hen. VI. iii. 2).
For 'there' Warburton read sphere; perhaps we might read haven. But, as in Lear (i. 1) we have "Thou losest here a better where to find," 'there' is probably the poet's word, both it, here and where being used as nouns signifying place.
The second line is not in the folio, and there may be, as some critics think, a line lost; but my punctuation removes all difficulty. We have only to understand makes his quarrel; yet how strangely critics have puzzled over this not very difficult passage! We should perhaps read 'generals'; for Hastings and Bardolph seem to have equal authority with Mowbray. Lord Scroop had been put to death at Bristol, 1 Hen. IV. i. 3.
Thirlby conjectured indeed for 'and did.' I rather think there was, as usual, an effacement at the end of the line.
This is a strange use of 'think'; we should perhaps read hint, were it not that this verb does not occur in Shakespeare.
For 'confin'd' Hanmer read confirm'd; Johnson, consign'd. I confess I do not clearly understand the passage.
Hanmer and Johnson read loyal; but Malone makes a good defence of 'royal.'
I think it was thus the poet wrote, but that such was effaced and then 'of' transposed on account of the metre.
I would read seal, in which I am supported by Sidney Walker and Collier's folio. In iv. 1 we have
For 'whose,' I read without hesitation, who, his, probably written who's.
Collier's folio reads purchase, which is very plausible.
This is nonsense, produced in the usual way (Introd. p. 64). Tyrwhitt proposed 'my friends,' i.e. those who are regarded as such. For the first 'my friends,' we may read my, thy, or the foes.
Hen. V. ii. 2.
Mason's reading some seems to be certain.
This last line is difficult. By 'ragged' seems to be meant mean, unworthy, paltry; or it may be the same as rugged, and denote the roughness with which his application would be received; and by 'forestall'd' what has been anticipated, prevented by the efforts of his enemies. Massinger uses forestall'd remission twice apparently in this sense: Duke of Milan, iii. 1, Bondman, iii. 4.
I think Warburton may have been right in reading "'Tis all in all, and all in every part." "Some say she's all in all, and all in every part" (Davis, Nosce Teipsum); "she's all in all, and all in every part" (Drayton, Mortim. 1596); "tota in toto, et tota in qualibet parte" (Phœnix Nest, 1593)—all of the soul. Shakespeare may have read most or all of these passages.
It is really marvellous that for two centuries and a half no critic—not even Theobald or Tyrwhitt—should have discerned that this was the true distribution of the speeches. See Introd. p. 48.
This is no doubt metrical; but it is not easy to make sense of it. I suspect that the poet may have written 'Upon the part of,' the verse still being metrical.
There is an evident aposiopesis.
Collier's folio reads (I think, well) train for 'fame,' and his or her for 'their.'
'Tear' is Rowe's; the 4tos have spoil, the folio tame.
It might seem that 'though' was a misprint for through. In M. for M. iii. 1, the folio has through for though.
We should surely read thence or here for 'hence.'
Perhaps 'sail' should be full; or 'my sail' me full.
Here 'Linger' is a causative verb. (Introd. p. 71). Editors, in their ignorance of the meaning of 'digest,' to regulate, arrange, read well. By 'abuse of distance' is meant the abuse we make of it by transporting the audience from one country to another. For 'force a play,' which makes no sense, and to complete the measure, I read 'as we forge our play,' as we being, I am almost certain, the omitted words; forge is frequent in the sense of shape, form. The confusion of our—the r being hardly sounded—and a was natural; it occurs again, I think, in 2 Hen. VI. iv. 1. At the end of this Chorus we have "We'll not offend one stomach with our play," where, by the way, the allusion is to sea-sickness.
This line is out of place. In my Edition I have put it after "Confirm'd conspiracy," etc., evidently its right place.
For the first 'till,' caused in the usual manner, I read ere; for it is just before the King appears that the scene changes.
Farmer and Collier's folio read smites. "Norfolk, we must have knocks" (R. III. v. 3). In Ant. and Cleop. iii. 2, we have also smile for smite. See also Tr. and Cr. v. 11.
The 4tos read "And there's the humour of it," which is perhaps better.
Theobald reads drawn for 'hewn,' but no change seems necessary; for 'hewn' is i. q. hewing. It may also have been meant to show her ignorance of language.
Collier's folio properly reads our for 'his.'
As they were future, 'late' can hardly be right.
The 2nd folio supplied him.
He may have written bye-treasons.
It might be better to omit 'being.'
The folio reads 'and a table of green fields'; the text is the correction of Theobald, which has been universally accepted; yet talkt would come nearer to table than 'babbled,' and it also better suits the metre; in which I find I had been anticipated by an Anon. ap. Theobald. The Dame afterwards says he "talked of the Whore of Babylon." Collier's folio reads 'for his nose was as sharp as a pen on a table of green freeze,' which is ingenious, but nothing more. The nib of a pen in such a situation is usually black, and so does not strike the eye. 'A table of green fells' has also been conjectured. It has been supposed that Falstaff's mind was wandering, and so may have reverted to his youthful days in the country. But may not he, who must have been a man of some education, have been repeating the 23rd Psalm (so well suited to one in his condition), in which are the words "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures"?
We have already had (i. 2), "Whiles his most mighty father on a hill;" and 'mighty' might be the word here also, instead of the almost oriental 'mountain,' suggested by what followed.
Johnson thought that a line was lost here. I would add In, in! at the end of the first line, and read 'to' for 'unto,' the printer's word. Introd. p. 67.
'Defile' is Pope's correction of desire in the folio; and it probably is right. It makes very good sense.
For 'surrein'd' the 4tos read swolne. Steevens quotes from Jack Drum's Entertainment, 1601:—
'Surrein'd' may mean overriden. In Massinger we have,
Unnat. Comb. iv. 2.
Shakespeare may, however, have written surbeat, or some other word.
Sense and metre seem to require may.
Mr. Staunton proposes 'fore achievement'; but no change need be made.
For 'tuned' Pope read turned; Collier's folio coined.
The metre requires a syllable.
'Then' is Theobald's correction, and a true and good one, of that of the folio. See Introd. p. 68.
It would seem better to read source. Johnson read 'O adoration!'