Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/140

128 Bardolph replies: 'Yes, it does,—if, for example, this present business of war (indeed this very action now contemplated, this cause that is now on foot), lives merely on such desperate hopes as buds which appear too early in the spring; for hope gives less warrant that these buds will become fruit than despair gives that the frosts will destroy them.'

 'Know how well able our estate is to undergo such a work, and how well able it is to balance the power of our opponent.'

 When Dame Quickly says, 'A hundred mark is a long one,' i.e., a long mark, score, or reckoning, she puns on a hundred marks as a debt and a hundred yard mark at archery.

 rampallian. Elizabethan slang, rascal, rapscallion; used also by Beaumont and Fletcher. Fustilarian, a word coined by Falstaff, suggested by the word fustilugs, a fat, frowsy woman. Catastrophe, in the sense of conclusion, end; used jocularly here for the posteriors.

 Falstaff has the legal right to demand protection against the just claims of Mistress Quickly, as he is about to set forth for the north on the King's business. The Chief Justice admits his 'power to do wrong' in this matter, but urges him to answer the poor woman's suit in a manner suitable to his reputation as a gentleman and soldier.

 Falstaff tries to comfort Mistress Quickly for the loss of her plate by assuring her that glasses are much more fashionable and pleasanter to drink from than silver goblets.

 'This is the proper behaviour in fencing.' Falstaff refers to his inattention to the Justice's remarks as a retaliation for the Justice's inattention to his questions in ll. 184 ff.

 Shirts were made of holland linen