  Act ii. sc. 2— “P. Hen. Sup any women with him? Page. None, my lord, but old mistress Quickly, and mistress Doll Tear-sheet. P. Hen. This Doll Tear-sheet should be some road.” I am sometimes disposed to think that this respectable young lady's name is a very old corruption for Tear-street—street-walker, terere stratam (viam). Does not the Prince's question rather show this?— “This Doll Tear-street should be some road?” Act iii. sc. 1. King Henry's speech:— ... “Then, happy low, lie down; Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” I know no argument by which to persuade any one to be of my opinion, or rather of my feeling; but yet I cannot help feeling that “Happy low-lie-down!” is either a proverbial expression, or the burthen of some old song, and means, “Happy the man, who lays himself down on his straw bed or chaff pallet on the ground or floor!” Ib. sc. 2. Shallow's speech:— “Rah, tah, tah, would 'a say; bounce, would 'a say,” &c. That Beaumont and Fletcher have more than once been guilty of sneering at their great master, cannot, I fear, be denied; but the passage quoted by Theobald from the Knight of the Burning Pestle is an imitation. If it be chargeable with any fault, it is with plagiarism, not with sarcasm. |
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