Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 2.djvu/8

2 With this reading there is no alternative but to suppose that some fresh understanding had been arrived at between the King and the Lord Chief Justice, and that the latter had been sent back "to take vengeance" for some inexplicable offence on the already crestfallen old man.

In the First Folio edition of the plays, however, the whole forms a continuous and unbroken episode. Not only do we, as Johnson says, "not lose sight of Falstaff till he is carried to the Fleet," but we do not lose sight of the Chief Justice either, as the following exact copy from the Folio will show:—

According to the above, the King alone leaves the stage, while the Chief Justice remains till the procession has passed, keeping Falstaff under observation until he makes a move to depart, when he orders his arrest. How otherwise could he have known where to find Sir John? What guarantee had he that the irrepressible old knight would not once more try to force himself into the King's presence? How tedious might have been the search, involving, perhaps, as once before,

ere he could have assured his royal master that Sir John had been duly escorted to the ten-mile limit, and that arrangements had been made by which he would receive his "competence of life." The words speak, for themselves:—

How would the King have looked if, after receiving this charge, the Chief Justice had calmly continued his course in the procession, leaving Falstaff to the freedom of his will?

One thing, perhaps, the Justice might have done. He might have executed all the arrangements for Falstaff's allowance and banishment immediately; but he was not prepared to sacrifice the festivities of the coronation for the sake of his old antagonist; therefore, having received full authority, he prefers to make his person secure in the meantime, and attend to the details later.

The episode may be looked upon, perhaps, as the revenge of the Lord Chief Justice, and in this light is dramatic enough for Shakespeare's purpose. The two old men have been brought into frequent opposition throughout the Second Part of 'Henry IV.,' and the opposition reaches its climax in the words of Prince Clarence to the Chief Justice after the death of Henry IV.:—

But the tables are turned, and Falstaff can no longer browbeat authority and "speak as having power to do wrong" (II. i. 145). Plain conscientious adherence to duty has