Page:Henry V (1918) Yale.djvu/137

Henry the Fifth  Linger your patience on, etc. 'Extend your patience, and we will overcome the ordinary limitations of distance and produce a play by pressing widely separated events into a narrow compass.'

 But, till scene. The meaning is quite obvious here, in spite of the curiously perverted construction: 'We shall shift our scene to Southampton; but not until the king comes forth.'

 there shall be smiles. Probably Nym means that when the time is ripe, the quarrel shall end in good humor.

 there's an end. Nym's language is a patchwork of the current phrases of the day, which he uses without any particular regard to their relevancy: 'that's the certain of it,' 'that is my rest,' 'things must be as they may,' 'there must be conclusions,' etc.

 rest. A technical term in the old game of Primero, meaning 'stake' or 'wager.'

 that is the rendezvous of it. This is but one more of Nym's current phrases, and it is not necessary to suppose that it carries any more meaning than the others.

 Iceland dog. Obviously Pistol means this to be a very scathing term of abuse. There are frequent references, in early seventeenth-century books, to the shaggy, snappish dogs brought over from Iceland to serve as lap-dogs. Whether Pistol had in mind their unhandsome appearance or their evil temper is uncertain.

 Barbason. Nym, unimpressed by the sound and fury of Pistol's speech, assures him that he cannot dispose of him, as conjurers dealt with fiends, by uttering high-sounding words.

 hound of Crete. Although some editors believe that Pistol means to imply that Nym is as bloodthirsty as a Cretan bloodhound, such an implication seems far-fetched and out of place here. Like