Post by Jim F.Post by Jim F.Falstaff dies not on the stage but words of mistress Quickly, who witnesses his last moment. The first clue starts from line 8 to 11, "for after . . . I knew there was but one way." What makes Falstaff to "smile upon his finger's end" [10] is the key.
MISTRESS QUICKLY.
[2] he's in {Arthur}'s Bosom,
[4] a made a finer end, and went away,
[6] a parted even just between Twelve and One,
[8] for after I saw him fumble with the Sheets,
[9] and play with Flowers,
[10] and smile upon his finger's end,
[12] for his Nose was as sharp as a Pen,
[13] and a Table of green fields.
[14] "How now Sir {John}" (quoth I?) "what man? be a good cheer:"
[16] now I, to comfort him, bid him a should not think of God;
[17] I hoped there was no need to trouble himself
[20] I put my hand into the Bed, and felt them,
[22] then I felt to his knees, and so up-peered, and upward,
[23] and all was as cold as any stone.
The word groin (groyne) appears only once in the 1623 folio.
***
• if ever man went to Arthur's Bosom [3],
• a Table of green fields [13],
• rheumatic, and talked of the Whore of Babylon [32],
• a Flea stick upon Bardolph's Nose [33].
[24] NYM. They say he cried out of Sack.
[25] QUICKLY. Ay, that a did.
[26] BARDOLPH. And of Women.
[27] QUICKLY. Nay, that a did not.
[28] BOY. Yes, that a did, and said they were Devils incarnate.
[29] QUICKLY. A could never abide Carnation, it was a Colour he never liked.
[30] BOY. A said once, the Devil would have him about Women.
[32] but then he was rheumatic, and talked of the Whore of Babylon.
[33] BOY. Do you not remember a saw a Flea stick upon Bardolph's Nose,
[34] and a said it was a black Soul burning in Hell.
***
"Whore of Babylon" in line 32 indicates Doll Tear-sheet. Falstaff is hurt in the groin for protecting Doll Tear-sheet the whore, who then praises Falstaff greatly: "Thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy, worth five of Agamemnon, and ten times better than the nine Worthies." Doll Tear-sheet is as great as the Whore of Babylon for Falstaff.
And in her forehead was a name written
A mysterie, that *great Babylon*,
that *mother of whoredomes*,
and abominations of the earth. (Revelation 17:5)
And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee
a *wife* of whoredoms and *children* of whoredoms:
for the land hath committed great whoredom,
departing from the LORD. (Hosea 1:2)
Rheumatic has the usage of consisting of rheum or watery secretion. Falstaff is rheumatic, teary, for Doll Tear-sheet and their child in the drama world. Doll Tear-sheet is shrewd but not a liar. At the end of Henry IV, Part 2, she claims that she carries a child. Quickly's "Sir John were come" suggests that it's Falstaff's child.
DOLL TEAR-SHEET.
if the Child I now go with, do miscarry,
thou had'st better thou had'st strook thy Mother,
thou Paper-faced Villain.
QUICKLY.
O, that Sir John were come,
he would make this a bloody day to somebody.
But *I would* the Fruit of her Womb might miscarry.
OFFICER.
If it do, you shall have a dozen of Cushions *again*,
you have but eleven now.
This dialogue raises two issues: (1) Why Quickly would prefer a miscarriage? (2) Why a dozen of cushions again?