Act II Sc. 1
“But with nobility and tranquillity.”
To all appearance, gentility would be more correct; but he may be playing on the ignorance of the Chamberlain, to whom the word was unknown. He then says ‘great-onyers’ for great-ones.
Sc. 2
“Away, good Ned. Fat Falstaff sweats to death.”
So also Capell.
Sc. 3
“One horse, my lord, he hath brought even now.”
Sc. 4
“Ned, prythee come out of that fat room.”
I suspect we should read hot room.
“Pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the sweet tale of the son’s.”
So I read, with the two earliest 4tos; the others and the folio have sun for ‘son’s’; and, with Malone, I see a reference to the Tale of Phaethon. Of the double genitive there are many instances. Theobald, who is followed by Singer, read butter for ‘Titan,’ thinking there was an incongruity. But the Prince, in the exuberance of his spirits, spoke rather at random, heedless of the unconnectedness of his discourse.
“If thou didst, then behold that compound.”
It may be that never has been omitted before ‘didst.’
“Away, you starveling, you elf-skin.”
Hanmer and Warburton were right, I think, in reading eel for ‘elf.’
“You dried neat’s tongue, you bull’s pizzle, you stock-fish.”
“There is virtue in that Falstaff; him keep with.”
The poet probably wrote ‘him keep with thee.’
“Misleader of youth, Falstaff, that old, white-bearded Satan.”
It would be better, both for emphasis and metre, to read ‘that Falstaff.’