|
|
| directory |
| home | contact |
|
|||||||||||||||
| search | |||||||||||||||
King Henry IV, Part IIPlease see the bottom of the page for extensive explanatory notes and other helpful resources.
Continue to 2 Henry IV, Act 2, Scene 2 _________ Explanatory Notes for Act 2, Scene 1 From King Henry the Fourth, second part. Ed. K. Deighton. London: Macmillan. 1. entered the action, set in motion the legal process against Falstaff; though the Hostess's language is of doubtful accuracy. As in 1. 27 below, the Hostess uses the corruption "exion," Dyce substitutes that form here. 3. yeoman, bailiff's follower, tipstaff. 3, 4. will a' ... it? will he boldly execute the arrest? 9, 10. I have entered . . . all, I have taken all the necessary steps for the action against him. 13. Alas the day! sorrow on the day! though the words the day add little to the force of the exclamation; alas is from the "O. F. a, ah! and las, wretched (that I am)" (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). The commoner form of the expression was "Alackaday," or "Alack the day." 15. foin, thrust, lunge, with his sword; O. F. fouine, an eel-spear. 19, 20. An I but fist ... vice, — if I can only lay my grasp upon him, if only he comes within reach of my vice-like clutch. 21. I am ... going, if he once gets away, I shall be undone, for there will be no further hope of recovering what he owes me. 21, 2. an infinitive ... score, he is infinitely in my debt. 23. continuantly, continually, constantly: Pie-corner, near Giltspur Street, afterwards famous as the point at which the Great Fire ended. 24. saving your manhoods. An apologetic expression, as though she had said something that she ought not. 25. indited, invited: Lubber's-head, the Hostess's corruption of "Libbard's (i.e. leopard's) head." In former days houses were not numbered, but in place of numbers they had over their doors some sign or emblem, a custom still prevailing in inns in country towns and villages. 26. Lumbert street, Lombard Street, which derived its name from the Lombardy merchants who frequented it in early times. silk-man, silk-mercer. 27. exion, the Hostess's corruption of action. 28. 9. A hundred mark ... one, a hundred marks is a long score, debt, to run up; with a play on the word mark in the sense of a coin of that name and of a mark made as a reckoning. For one, Theobald conjectured loan; Collier, score; Grant White, own'n, i.e. owing: lone, solitary, single; Steevens points out that in Pt. I. Mistress Quickly had a husband alive. 30. fubbed off, put off with excuses; cp. Cor. i. 1. 97, "to fob off our disgrace with a tale"; the two forms being only varieties of spelling. Halliwell, Arch. and. Prov. Dict., gives to "fub, to put off, deceive. At marbles, an irregular mode of projecting the taw by an effort of the whole hand, instead of the thumb only." 33, 4. unless a woman . . . wrong, unless women are to be made mere beasts of burden to be treated in any shameful way that knaves may choose. 35. malmsey-nose knave, red -nosed villain; the redness being due to the amount of malmsey wine he had drunk: malmsey, a strong sweet wine, from Malvasia, a town on the east coast of the Morea. 35, 6. your offices, the duty of arresting Falstaff. 37. do me, i. e. in my behalf. 38. whose mare's dead? What, is all this fuss about nothing? So, in Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, iv. I, Wellbred, entering upon a dispute, exclaims "How now! who's cow has calved?" 40. cut me, as above, 1. 37, "Do me." 41. quean, hussy, jade, vile woman; originally the same word as queen, the sense being "woman": channel, gutter of the street, kennel. In former days these "channels" with running water in them commonly fringed the kerb of the pathway at the sides of streets, and they are still to be seen in old towns. 44. honey-suckle, the Hostess's corruption of "homicidal," as honey-seed is of "homicide." 46. a man-queller, a man-slayer, homicide; the old verb to "quell" meaning to kill, subdue; A.S. cwellan. 48. A rescue! a rescue! the usual cry for assistance when the king's officers were resisted by force; the phrase was originally "at rescue," i.e. "to the rescue!" The Hostess takes the word to be some weapon that the officer called for. To "make a rescue" was to deliver a captured man from the custody of an officer, as in C. E. iv. 4. 114, "Thou, gaoler, thou, I am thy prisoner: wilt thou suffer them To make a rescue." 51. hemp-seed! generally taken as another of the Hostess's corruptions of 'homicide,' which seems unlikely. More probably, it seems to me, she means 'you rascal born for a halter,' halters being woven out of hemp. Cp. ii. H. VI. iv. 7. 95, "Ye shall have a hempen caudle then and the help of hatchet"; H. V. iii. 6. 45, "And let not hemp his wind-pipe suffocate." 52. scullion, properly one of the lowest menials in a household who wiped out the pots and dishes; here merely a term of abuse: rampallian, a term of abuse common in the old dramatists, and more commonly spelled "rampallion," possibly with some connection in the mind of the speaker with a ramping lion, one who springs upon a person as a bailiff might. Cp. the more modern term "rapscallion": fustilarian, apparently a coinage of Falstaff's mint, and possibly from Lat. fustis, a cudgel, or one who carries a cudgel, as a bailiff's follower did. 59. Stand from him, let go of him. 63. some, the Hostess does not understand the Chief-Justice's "sum." 67. the mare, the night-mare; an incubus to whose agency horrible dreams, accompanied by oppression of the breast, were supposed to be due; the word in this sense is, says Skeat, from the root mar, to pound, crush. 68, 9. what man ... exclamation? how could any man of a noble nature so wrong a woman as to provoke her to such a tempest of reproaches as those with which she justly assails you? 71. to come by her own, to recover what is due to her. 73, 4. thyself ... too, you would admit that you owe me not only the money I claim but yourself in marriage: Steevens says that in articles parcel-gilt, i,e. partly gilt, the gilding was upon those parts only that were embossed, i.e. in relief. 75. Dolphin-chamber. It was customary to give particular names to each room in an inn; cp. Ft. I. ii. 4. 30, "Score a pint of bastard in the Half- Moon"; 1. 42, "look down into the Pomgarnet." 76. Wheeson, Whitsun; the week beginning with Whit-Sunday, i.e. white Sunday, seven weeks after Easter. The origin of the term is supposed to be from that season being specially appointed for christenings and ordinations, at which ceremonies white garments were worn. For the minute prolixity of the Hostess's speech here compare that of the garrulous old Nurse in R. J. i. 2. 16 et seqq. 77. broke this head, cracked the skin of your head, so that the blood flowed from it; cp. R. J. i. 3. 38, "she broke her BROW," i.e. bruised her forehead: liking, likening; cp. i. H. VI. iv. 6. 48, "like me to the peasant boys of France." 79. my lady. As a knight, Falstaff could bring that title to the woman he married; cp. K. J. i. 1. 184, "Well, now can I make any Joan a lady," said by the newly knighted Faulconbridge. 80. goodwife Keech, my gossip Keech; the word Keech means the fat of an ox or a cow, rolled up by the butcher in a round lump, and so is appropriately given here to the wife of a butcher, as in H. VIII. i. 1. 55, it is applied to Wolsey, a butcher's son. 81. gossip, literally 'related in God,' i.e. one who stands sponsor in baptism for a child. "Gossips, then," says Trench, Eng. Past and Present, "are first the sponsors, brought by the act of a common sponsorship into affinity and near familiarity with one another; secondly, these sponsors, who being thus brought together, allow themselves with one another in familiar, and then in trivial and idle, talk; thirdly, they are any who allow themselves in this trivial and idle talk" ... so cronies, intimate friends; nowadays the word is used only of the idle talk of such cronies. 82. a mess of vinegar, a portion, small quantity of vinegar; properly that which is set on the table, from O. F. mes, Low Lat. mittere, to place; Malone compares the Scriptural phrase "a mess of pottage." 83. whereby, whereupon. 84. a green wound, a fresh, not yet healed, wound. 85. 6. to be ... people, not to allow such low people to be on such familiar terms with me as to call me "gossip Quickly" and borrow trifles of me in this way. 87. call me madam, call me "my lady," use terms of respect to me. 88. I put thee ... book-oath, I call upon you to answer, taking your Bible-oath to the truth of your words. 90, 1. up and down the town, publicly, wherever she goes. 92. in good case, comfortably off, not the poor woman she now is: distracted her, driven her out of her senses. 93, 4. I may ... against them, I may be set free and they be punished for having dared to arrest me. 98. such more ... sauciness, such impudence as deserves a stronger term than sauciness. 98, 9. can thrust ... consideration, can deter me from taking a fair view of the case and seeing justice done to the poor woman. 105, 6. with sterling ... repentance. The Chief-Justice puns upon the words sterling and current, which are used of coin that passes as of good, full, recognised, value; sterling, a shortened form of "easterling," the Easterlings or North German merchants being the first moneyers in England. 107. sneap, rebuke, reprimand; to "sneap" = to pinch, check, is connected with to "snub"; for its literal sense, cp. L. L. L. i. 1. 100, "Biron is like an envious sneaping frost That bites the first-born infants of the spring"; W. T. i. 2. 13, "that may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say 'This is put forth too truly.'" 109. make courtesy, show deference, humility; the 'courtesy,' modern 'curtsy,' was formerly used of men as well as of women; nowadays the word is used of women only, and especially of those of humbler rank showing deference to their superiors, the word "bow" having taken its place for a salutation between equals. 110. my humble ... remembered, be it said with all mindfulness of the respect due to your position: I will ... suitor, I do not ask it with the humility of a suitor, but claim it as the right of one now acting in the king's behalf in a matter of urgent importance. "Falstaff," observes Knight, "claimed the protection legally called quia profecturus," i.e. as being about to set forth (on the king's affairs). 113. You speak ... wrong, you talk as though your commission on the king's business justified you in robbing a poor woman. 114. answer ... reputation, "act up to what your reputation promises" (Schmidt); effect, tenour, import; cp. H. V. v. 2. 72, "our just demands; Whose tenours and particular effects You have enscheduled briefly in your hands": satisfy, pay her what is due. 120. As I am a gentleman, I promise you on my faith as a gentleman; said aside to the Hostess. 122. no more ... it, let's have no more discussion of the matter. 123. By this ... on. Mrs. Quickly mixes up two forms of oath, "by heaven," and "by this ground": I must be fain to, I shall have to bring myself to, I shall be obliged to consent to; fain, glad, eager; "the sense," says Skeat, "seems to have been originally 'fixed'; hence 'suited,' 'satisfied,' 'content.'"In modern usage, in which however the word is somewhat rare, there is almost always a sense of constraint implied. 124. tapestry, with which walls were formerly hung. The finest tapestry came from Arras, a town in Artois, France, and was often called "arras." 126. Glasses ... drinking, don't bother yourself with regrets about your plate, there is nothing so pleasant to drink out of as glasses. 127. drollery, "a picture or sketch of some scene of low humour" (Dyce, Gloss.). In the Tempest, iii. 3. 21, the word is used of a puppet-show: the Prodigal, i.e. of the parable of the prodigal son in Scripture. 128. the German ... water-work, "the representation of a German boar-hunt, — perhaps some particular boar-hunt, ... executed in water-colour (or distemper?) on cloth" (Dyce, Gloss). 129. these bed-hangings, said contemptuously of her tapestries as being fit for bed curtains only: fly-bitten, fly-blown, mouldy. 129, 30. Let it be ... canst, make up the sum (which she is to lend him) to ten pounds, if you can. 131. humours, fits of ill temper. 132. draw, withdraw. 134. set on, instigated; one so generous as you are could not have thought of such a thing of your own accord. 135. let it be ... nobles, be satisfied with twenty nobles; "noble," a coin worth 6s. 8d. 137, 8, Let it alone ... still, never mind, don't trouble yourself in the matter, I'll manage to get the money in some other quarter; you will be a fool to the end of your life, and never know what is to your own advantage; i.e. you will lose the chance of having me for a husband for the sake of a few pounds. 142. hook on, go with her and do not leave her till she has pawned her goods and got the money. 144. No more words, as you like; do anything you please. 145. I have ... news, this is not as good news as it might be. 148. Basingstoke, in Hampshire, about fifty miles from London. 151. Come ... back? are all his troops returning with him? 156. of me, from me. 160. shall I entreat ... dinner? will you let me persuade you to dine with me? 163, 4. being you are to, ... go, it being your commission to enlist soldiers on your way to join Prince John. For "being that," = since, cp. M. A. iv. 1. 251, "Being that I flow in grief." 168, 9. he was ... me, hinting that he had learnt his politeness from the Chief-Justice: the right ... grace, the perfection of art in fencing, the highest skill in logical combat; cp. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 127, "that 's the right virtue of a medlar." 170. tap ... fair, hit for hit, and so to separate in all good feeling, without any soreness at getting the worst of the encounter. 171. lighten, with a pun on 'enlighten' and on 'make lighter,' i.e. less of a fool. _______ How to cite the explanatory notes:______ Related Articles  Henry IV Overview (with theme analysis) Introduction to Prince Hal Introduction to Falstaff Introduction to Hotspur Introduction to Owen Glendower Henry IV Play History Shakespeare's History Plays: The Ultimate Quiz Henry IV Plot Summary Henry IV: Q & A Sources for Henry IV Essay Topics for Henry IV Famous Quotations from 1 Henry IV Shakespeare's Falstaff and the Queen Characteristics of Elizabethan Drama
Shakespeare's Reputation in Elizabethan England Shakespeare's Impact on Other Writers Shakespeare's Writing Style Words Shakespeare Coined Quotations About William Shakespeare Why Shakespeare is so Important Shakespeare's Language Shakespeare's Boss: The Master of Revels |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
©1999-2011 Amanda Mabillard. All Rights Reserved.