the sharp point of the pen. Somewhat similar is the proposal "a pen upon a table of green fells," i.e. a tablet or pocket-book bound with green skin. Pope thought that the words and a Table of greene fields represented a stage-direction which had got foisted into the text, as did sometimes occur. "A table" (he says) 66 was here directed to be brought in (it being a scene in a tavern where they drink at parting), and this direction crept into the text from the margin. Greenfield was the name of the property-man in that time, who furnished implements, etc. for the actors": and the direction really was A table of Greenfield's. But this Greenfield is a purely imaginary person, and a more awkward moment in the scene for bringing in a table (even if one were wanted) could not have been selected. A very few editors retain the Folios' reading on the ground that it may be one of the Hostess's blunders which we cannot hope to fathom. Practically, however, Theobald's 'a babbled has established itself as what Shakespeare wrote, or would have been willing to write. Henry V. III. 5. 13. "That nook-shotten isle of Albion." The Century Dictionary defines nook-shotten thus: "having many nooks and corners; having a coast indented with gulfs, bays, friths etc.' Compare Professor Herford's note: "nook-shotten. Probably 'full of sharp angles and. corners,' i. e. invaded on all sides by estuaries and inlets of the sea, so as to be naturally watery and 'slobbery.' This is a well attested meaning of nook-shotten in dialects." Thus interpreted, the word has reference to the irregular shape of England on the map, which the speaker contrasts mentally with the compact, square shape of his own country (Herford): just as he and the Constable contrast the moist English climate with the drier, sunnier climate of France. Editors quote from a rare 17th century work on heraldry, called The Academy of Armory, or a storehouse of Armory and Blazon (1688), the expression "a nook-shotten pane” (of glass), which probably means an irregular-shape pane "made to suit the peculiar nooks and odd angles of Gothic window-panes." As regards the form shotten, it is, of course, the obsolete past participle Middle E. shoten, A. S. scoten, p.p. of scéotan, 'to shoot! Being the passive participle it cannot be taken in the active sense 'shooting out into capes, necks of land, angles' etc. I suppose that shotten in this compound has the same sense as shot in such a phrase as shot silk, i.e. that nook-shotten literally means 'nook-variegated,' 'diversified with nooks,' hence full of nooks.' Mr Deighton notes that the form shotten is frequent in Elizabethan writers-e.g. that Marlowe has blood-shotten; cf. a "shotten herring," i.e. one that has spawned, I Henry IV. II. 4. 143. Other explanations of nook-shotten isle are: 'an island shot into a nook;' and 'an island spawned in a nook or corner' (a figurative interpretation suggested by 1 Henry IV. II. 4. 143). In either case the word is presumed to have reference, not to the shape of England, but to its remote situation, away from the Continent. But the interpretation 'full of nooks and corners' may be taken to represent the current view as to this much-discussed word. Henry V. Prologue IV. 43-47. "A largess universal like the sun His liberal eye doth give to every one, Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all Behold, as may unworthiness define, A little touch of Harry in the night." There is no satisfactory explanation of the latter part of this passage. The text given above is that of the Folios. interpreted as in the note on pp. 156, 157. Theobald changed the middle line thus : It may perhaps be best 'Thawing cold fear. Then, mean and gentle, all" etc. He said, "The poet first expatiates on the real influence that Harry's eye had on his camp; and then addressing himself to every degree of his audience, he tells them he'll shew (as well as his unworthy pen and powers can describe it) a little touch or sketch of this hero in the night; a faint resemblance of that cheerfulness and resolution which this brave prince expressed in himself and inspired in his followers." Many editors adopt the emendation. Undoubtedly, it gives an admirable sense to the whole passage, strictly in harmony with the appeals to the audience in other Prologues (e.g. in 111. 10, 14, 26, V. 22) and it places a far more natural interpretation on the words as may unworthiness define. Nor is there much force in the objection that though the Chorus is twice made to address the audience as "gentles" (Prol. I. 8, 11. 35), it does not follow that the poet would address them as mean and gentle." The phrase is an equivalent to 'high and low,' 'rich and poor-all classes alike. We have mean used thus in 66 III. I. 29. Still, though the emendation may point to the true interpretation of the last two lines and a half, it is not (like Theobald's great masterpiece, 11. 3. 15, 16) one of those corrections which look like the original reading of what is supposed to be corrupt in the reading of the Folios. One does not see how, if Theobald's line really was Shakespeare's, any printer could have turned it into the Folios' line. Personally I am not sure that Theobald's interpretation may not be got from the Folios' reading, with the slighter of his changes, viz. placing mean and gentle between the commas so as to make it a direct address to the audience-thus: 'his eye sheds abroad an inspiring, enkindling light; so that (=therefore) all you present here, behold, we beg you, the meagre representation of Henry which we shall offer, to the best of our unworthy powers.' Still, this is strained. Some think that between all and Behold a line or more has been lost, containing some verb to which mean and gentle (=all classes of soldiers) is the subject, and introducing an address to the audience of which Behold etc. is a part. Altogether the passage is a riddle. Henry V. IV. 4. 4. "Qualtitie calmie custure me." There was an Elizabethan refrain or ballad-burden, Calen O custure me, taken from a popular Irish Song. This refrain is said to be a phonetic way of reproducing in English the sound of the proper Irish words colleen oge astore, 'young girl, my treasure.' The refrain seems to have been used with different songs (as was often the case). Thus in an Elizabethan song-book called Robinson's Handful of Pleasant Delights, 1584 (to which Shakespeare may have owed a hint or two for the story of Pyramus and Thisbe in A Midsummer-Night's Dream) there is “A Sonet,” [i.e. Song] of a Lover in the Praise of his Lady, to Calen O custure me, sung at every line's end. Apparently, Pistol echoes the Frenchman's qualité in Qualtitie, and then is reminded, by their jingling sound, of Calen O in this well-known refrain, which he thereupon quotes (or misquotes) by way of ridiculing the French that is as unintelligible to him as the Irish is to both of them. Note how he catches up the Frenchman's last word again in 7, 13, 18, 21, 27; also his taste for ballad-scraps, as shown earlier (III. 2. 7—10, 14-16). It seems best to retain the Folio's reading-whether calmie be Pistol's or the printer's mistake-rather than correct the Irish in any way. Of the suggested alterations far the best is the slight change caline for calmie. Caline might well be Pistol's blundering version of Calen O, while calmie is almost too remote from it. And if caline was in Shakespeare's MS., the printer, not knowing the words at all, might easily misread in as m. Of course, to make Pistol quote an Elizabethan at all is an anachronism; but the poet never troubled about such trifles. This part is wanting in the Quartos. See Variorum Shakespeare, PP. 424-426. Henry V. IV. 4. 13. "I will have forty moys." According to Skeat, a moy is strictly ‘a piece of money,' derived through O. F. moi, 'money,' from Portuguese moeda, Lat. moneta, 'money'; cf. Port. moeda d' ouro, literally 'money of gold,' and F. moidore a Portuguese coin worth about 27s. now obsolete. This F. word moidore=moi d'or, 'money of gold,' shows that the French had a word moi= 'money,' though it does not seem to be found except in the compound moidore. While we must not, therefore, say that moy is short for moidore, it is identical with the first part (moi) of that compound. Pistol obviously means 'pieces of money.' Formerly moy in this line was said to mean 'a measure of corn,' from O. F. muy or muid, 'a measure,' Lat. modius; 27 moys were equal to two tons. Elizabethans often use forty to imply a large number, where no precise reckoning is needed. Cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor, I. I. 205, "I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of Songs here"; and Sonnet 2, "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow.” Other numbers, e.g. 3 and 13, have become significant through some ancient belief or historical event; and perhaps 40 gained some mysterious import through the Scripture. Thus the wanderings of the Israelites lasted forty years, the fast of our Lord forty days—likewise the fast of Elijah (1 Kings xix. 8), and the stay of Moses on the Mount (Exod. xxiv. 18). EXTRACTS FROM HOLINSHED THAT ACT I. "That self bill is urged." Scene 1. I—20. 1. In the second yeare of his reigne, king Henrie called his high court of parlement, the last daie of Aprill, in the towne of Leicester; in which parlement manie profitable lawes were concluded, and manie petitions mooued were for that time deferred. Amongst which, one was, that a bill exhibited1 in the parlement holden at Westminster, in the eleventh yeare of king Henrie the fourth (which by reason the king was then troubled with ciuill discord, came to none effect), might now with good deliberation be pondered, and brought to some good conclusion. The effect of which supplication was, that the temporall lands (deuoutlie giuen, and disordinatlie spent by religious, and other spirituall persons) should be seized into the kings hands; sith3 the same might suffice to mainteine, to the honor of the king, and defense of the realme, fifteene earles, fifteene hundred knights, six thousand and two hundred esquiers, and a hundred almesse-houses, for reliefe onelie of the poore, impotent, and needie persons; and the king to haue cleerelie to his coffers twentie thousand pounds: with manie other prouisions and values of religious houses, which I passe ouer.' "How now for mitigation of this bill?" Scene 1. 70-89. 2. This bill was much noted, and more feared, among the religious sort, whom suerlie it touched verie neere; and therefore to find remedie against it, they determined to assaie1 all waies to put by and ouerthrow 1 presented, brought forward. The italics here and in the other paragraphs'emphasise verbal resemblances between Holinshed and Henry V. 2 the monastic orders="the religious sort" in 2. 3 since. 4 try. |