editions of the present play invariably call Fastolfe Sir John Falstaffe, a fact which suggests that, in the minds of the editors of the First Folio, at least, the two were identified. J. B. Henneman (Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc., xv, 1900) gives a number of reasons for assuming that when Shakespeare chose the name Falstaff for the fat knight of Henry IV and The Merry Wives of Windsor (originally called Sir John Oldcastle), he was actuated by reminiscence of Fastolfe in the present play. L. W. V. Harcourt identifies Falstaff with another Sir John Fastolf. See the articles on Fastolf mentioned in Appendix E.

I. i. 132. in the vaward,-plac'd behind. Almost a contradiction in terms, which editors have sought to harmonize by emendation ('rearward' for vaward) or by casuistry. The most reasonable interpretation is perhaps that of H. C. Hart: 'Fastolfe was in support (placed behind) of the vanguard, which was probably led by Talbot himself.'

I. i. 148. His ransom there is none but I shall pay. An ambiguous line which may be paraphrased in two ways: (1) 'I will pay any ransom that may be named'; (2) 'I alone will pay his ransom,' i.e., leave it to me.

I. i. 154. Saint George's feast. Properly, April 23 (the day of Shakespeare's death and traditionally his birthday). Bonfires in honor of St. George, however, would be appropriate on any day of English victory.

I. i. 162. your oaths to Henry sworn. Holinshed relates how Henry V on his deathbed admonished the Dukes of Bedford and Gloucester and the Earls of Salisbury and Warwick never to make a treaty with the Dauphin by which any part of France might be relinquished, and how he commanded Bedford as Regent of France 'with fire and sword to persecute the Dolphin, till he had either brought him to reason and obeisance, or else to driue and expell him out of

the realme of France.' He adds: "The noble men present promised to obserue his precepts, and to performe his desires.'

I. i. 170. Eltham. A village nine miles southeast of London, on the road to Dartford and Canterbury. The Palace, of which picturesque remains still exist, was a favorite residence of the English sovereigns from the thirteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century. In line 176, steal is a modern emendation (by Mason) for 'send' of the Folios. Though not inevitable, the change is supported by the rime, frequent at the close of scenes, and it has been adopted in most recent texts. On the other hand, support for the Folio reading may perhaps be found in the words of Holinshed, who refers to Winchester's alleged purpose 'to set hand on the kings person, and to haue remooued him from Eltham, the place that he was in, to Windsor.'

I. ii. 1. Mars his true moving. The planet Mars has a very eccentric orbit, and his apparently irregular course puzzled astronomers till explained by Kepler in 1609. Editors have noted a strikingly similar allusion in Thomas Nashe's preface to Have with you to Saffron Walden (1596): 'you are as ignorant . . as the Astronomers are in the true mouings of Mars, which to this day they could neuer attaine too.' (McKerrow's Nashe, iii. 20.)

The

I. ii. 56. the nine sibyls of old Rome. Cumaan Sibyl offered King Tarquin nine books. The poet has transferred the number to the sibyls themselves, of whom various numbers (but not nine) are reckoned.

I. ii. 105. the sword of Deborah. Cf. Judges, chapters 4 and 5.

I. ii. 110. Excellent Pucelle, if thy name be so. Holinshed's Chronicle introduces Joan of Arc as 'Ione Are' or more fully, 'Ione de Are, Pusell de dieu.' The Folio text of the play usually refers to

her simply as Pucelle (spelled 'Puzel' or 'Pucell'). The stage direction after line 63 of this scene calls her 'Ioane Puzel,' that after line 103 'Ioane de Puzel' (so also in I. vi. 3 and V. iii. S. d.). In II. i and V. iv she appears as 'Ioane,' but is only twice called Joan of Arc ('Acre' or 'Aire' in the Folio; cf. II. ii. 20 and V. iv. 49). Mr. Fleay attempted to find in these differences of name a clue to the play's authorship.

I. ii. 131.

Saint Martin's summer. Summer in the midst of autumn. The reference is to the unseasonably warm weather often occurring about St. Martin's Day (November 11).

I. ii. 138, 139. The allusion is to a common but probably unhistoric story recorded in Plutarch's Life of Cæsar. During the war with Pompey, when the latter's navy commanded the sea, Cæsar embarked on a small pinnace incognito 'as if he had bene some poore man of meane condition,' with the idea of crossing to his army at Brundisium. A storm arose and the commander of the vessel ordered his men to put back. 'Cæsar, hearing that, straight discouered himselfe vnto the Maister of the pynnase, who at the first was amazed when he saw him: but Cæsar then taking him by the hand sayd vnto him, Good fellow, be of good cheare, and forwards hardily, feare not, for thou hast Cæsar & his fortune with thee.' (North's translation, 1579.) Peele mentions the episode in a similar manner in his Farewell to Norris and Drake (1589):

'and let me say

To you, my mates, as Cæsar said to his,

Striving with Neptune's hills; you bear, quoth he,
Cæsar, and Cæsar's fortune in your ships.'

I. ii. 140. Was Mahomet inspired with a dove? This alludes to a trick ascribed to Mahomet by several Elizabethan writers. Thomas Nashe has two references to it, and Nashe's most recent editor quotes the

following from an earlier work, Strange Things out of Seb. Munster (1574): 'For he [Mahomet] accustomed and taught a Doue to be fedde and fetch meate [i.e., food] at his eares, the which Doue his moste subtile and craftye maister called the holy Ghoste. He preached openly, and made his bragges like a most lying villen that this Doue did shew vnto him the most secrete counsel of God, as often as the simple fowle did flye vnto his eares for nourishment.' (McKerrow's Nashe, iv. 200.)

I. ii. 142. Helen, the mother of great Constantine. The reputed discoverer of the True Cross. Two frescoes representing this legend adorned the Guild Chapel at Stratford in Shakespeare's time. See reproductions in Ward, Shakespeare's Town and Times, p. 88.

I. ii. 143. Saint Philip's daughters. Referred to in Acts 21. 9 as 'virgins, which did prophesy.'

I. iii. 19. The Cardinal of Winchester. Editors have pointed out that the mention of Winchester's cardinalate in this scene is inconsistent with the fact that he is represented as only just made cardinal in V. i. 28 ff. and is called bishop in III. i. 53 and IV. i. Winchester became cardinal in 1427, but the chroniclers report that there had been much previous talk of his probable elevation.

1.

I. iii. 22. Woodvile. Holinshed records that when Gloucester wished to enter the Tower, 'Richard Wooduile esquier (hauing at that time the charge of the keeping of the Tower) refused his desire; and kept the same Tower against him vndulie and against reason, by the commandement of my said lord of Winchester.' Woodvile became a person of great consequence upon the marriage, nearly forty years later, of his daughter to Edward IV, and in 1466 was created Earl Rivers.

I. iii. 34. dead lord.

Thou that contriv'dst to murder our The fourth of five charges brought

against Winchester by Gloucester (in 1426) relates to the former's alleged complicity in an attempt to murder the Prince of Wales, later Henry V. The same scandal has been more obscurely insinuated by Gloucester in I. i. 33, 34.

I. iii. 35. The disorderly houses on the South

wark bank of the Thames were under the control of the Bishop of Winchester and paid him a revenue. The proximity of these houses to the Rose Theatre, where this play appears to have been first acted (and to the later Globe), doubtless gave point to the allusion.

I. iii. 39. This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain. Several popular medieval works (Mandeville's Travels, Higden's Polychronicon) gave currency to the belief that Abel was slain on the site of Damascus.

I. iv. 23-56. This passage involves several anachronisms. Salisbury's mortal wound was received at Orleans in October, 1428. Talbot was captured at Patay in June, 1429, and was not released by exchange with Santrailles till 1433.

I. iv. 95. Plantagenet. Montacute, not Plantagenet, was Salisbury's name. Furthermore, the appellation Plantagenet was not adopted by the English royal family till after Salisbury's death. It first appears in public records in 1460, being revived by one of the characters in this play, Richard Duke of York, as a means of expressing superiority of descent over the Lancastrian line (cf. D. N. B. s. v. Plantagenet).

like thee. The reading of the First Folio, meaning 'I will be as unconcernedly remorseless as you have been.' The next line carries with it a subordinate reminiscence of the well-known story of Nero, which led the later Folios to alter like thee to 'Nero-like will.' Malone then blended the two readings into the vapid 'like thee, Nero,' a perversion which nearly all modern editors have unfortunately accepted.