2. induction: beginning. prosperous hope: hope of prospering.
8. Lancaster: i.e., King Henry IV, formerly Duke of Lancaster.
13. at my nativity: Holinshed recounts the happening of portents at Glendower's birth; Shakespeare has developed his vanity and strange rapt quality.
14. front: forehead.
15. cressets: beacons; fire-baskets mounted on poles; here, meteors.
26-34. Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth / In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth / Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd / By the imprisoning of unruly wind / Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving, / Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down / Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth / Our grandam earth, having this distemperature, / In passion shook: These lines give the explanation of earthquakes current in Shakespeare's time.
30. enlargement: release.
31. beldam: grandmother, aged woman.
34. passion: pain.
35. crossings: contradictions.
43. clipp'd in with: enclosed by.
45. read to: i.e., taught, instructed.
47. trace me in the tedious ways of art: follow me in the laborious ways of magic.
48. hold me pace: keep up with me. deep: occult.
49. better Welsh: i.e., more boastfully and incomprehensibly.
52. vasty deep: lower world.
63. made head: raised a force.
64. power: armed followers.
66. Bootless: without advantage; i.e., unsuccessful.
69. right: rightful possessions.
71-78. The Archdeacon hath divided it / Into three limits very equally: / England, from Trent and Severn hitherto, / By south and east is to my part assign'd: / All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore, / And all the fertile land within that bound, / To Owen Glendower: and, dear coz, to you / The remnant northward, lying off from Trent: According to Holinshed the rebels "by their deputies in the house of the archdeacon of Bangor, divided the realme amongst them, causing a tripartite indenture to be made and sealed with their seales, by the covenants whereof, all England from Severne and Trent, south and eastward, was assigned to the earle of March: all Wales, & the lands beyond Severne westward, were appointed to Owen Glendouer: and all the remnant from Trent northward, to the lord Percy."
72. limits: regions defined by a boundary.
73. hitherto: to this point.
79. our indentures tripartite are drawn: our agreement is now drawn up in triplicate.
86. father: i.e., father-in-law.
91. conduct: escort.
95. moiety: share.
97. comes me cranking in: comes bending or winding in on my share; me is an ethical dative.
99. cantle: piece, segment.
101. smug: smooth.
102. fair and evenly: i.e., in a straight course.
104. bottom: valley.
109. Gelding the opposed continent: cutting off from the opposite bank.
111. charge: expense.
120. For I was train'd up in the English court: According to Holinshed (Bullough, IV, 180), Glendower "was first set to studie the lawes of the realme, and became an utter barrester, or an apprentise of the law (as they terme him) and served king Richard at Flint castell, when he was taken by Henrie duke of Lancaster, though other have written that he served this king Henry the fourth, before he came to atteine the crowne, in roome of an esquier."
123. gave the tongue a helpful ornament: i.e., not only adorned the words with music but also enriched the language with poetry.
124. virtue: accomplishment.
129. canstick turn'd: candlestick turned on a lathe.
133. shuffling: hobbled.
141. writer: the scrivener who would be drawing the indentures. withal: also.
142. Break with: inform, communicate with.
146-153. sometime he angers me / With telling me of the mouldwarp and the ant, / Of the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies, / And of the dragon and a finless fish, / A clip-wing'd griffin and a moulten raven, / A couching lion and a ramping cat, / And such a deal of skimble-skamble stuff / As puts me from my faith: According to Holinshed (Bullough, IV, 185), the rebels laid their plans "through a foolish credit given to a vaine prophesie, as though king Henrie was the moldwarpe, cursed of Gods owne mouth, and they three were the dragon, the lion, and the woolfe, which should divide this realme betweene them. Such is the deviation (saith Hall) and not divination of those blind and fantasticall dreames of the Welsh prophesiers." So, the division was arranged because of a prophecy which represented King Henry as the mole and the others as the dragon, the lion, and the wolf, who should divide the land among them.
147. moldwarp: mole.
148. Merlin: famous prophet and magician of Arthurian legend.
150. griffin: fabulous beast, half lion and half eagle.
151. couching lion and a ramping cat: parodies of the heraldic terms which Glendower holds so dear couchant (lying down with the head raised) and rampant (rearing, advancing on its hind legs).
152. skimble-skamble: nonsensical, confused, and foolish.
153. puts me from my faith: i.e., kills my confidence (in Glendower).
155. several: various.
161. cates: delicacies.
164. profited: proficient.
165. concealments: occult arts.
169. scope: freedom of speech.
172. tempted: irritated.
175. willful-blame: willfully to blame. Or, to blame for excessive willfulness.
177. besides: out of.
179. blood: spirit.
180. dearest grace: main distinction; best credit.
181. present: indicate, represent.
182. government: self-control.
183. opinion: self-conceit.
186. all parts besides: all other (good) qualities.
187. Beguiling: depriving.
188. be your speed: give you success and good fortune.
190. spite: vexation.
193. she'll to: she wants to go to.
194. my aunt Percy: i.e., Hotspur's wife, who was actually the sister, not the aunt, of Glendower's son-in-law. See notes to 1.1.38 and 1.3.80.
196. She is desperate here; a peevish self-wind harlotry: she is hopeless on this point, a willful hussy or a silly wench.
198. That pretty Welsh: your language, i.e., your tears.
199. heavens: i.e., eyes.
200. perfect in: well acquainted with, proficient.
201. In such a parley: i.e., in the same language; by weeping.
203. a feeling disputation: conversation; i.e., an exchange of sentiments, not of language.
208. division: embellishment, variation (in music).
211. wanton: soft, luxurious, comfortable.
215. heaviness: drowsiness.
221. book: document; i.e., the "indentures tripartite" of line 79.
229-230. Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh; / And 'tis no marvel he is so humorous: i.e., since the devil understands Welsh (which is incomprehensible), it's no wonder that he's so whimsical and capricious (humorous).
233. humors: whims.
236. brach: bitch hound.
240. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault: I won't be silent either, for that's a woman's trait (and I'm a man).
246. sooth: truth.
247. Heart: by God's (Christ's) heart.
248. comfit-maker's: confectioner's.
251. sarcenet: i.e., soft, flimsy, insubstantial (from the name of a very fine, soft material made of silk).
252. Finsbury: An archery ground outside Moorgate. A district much frequented by London citizens and their families. Hotspur implies that his wife's genteel and colorless language makes her sound like a burgher's wife.
255. such protest of pepper-gingerbread: i.e., such namby-pamby protestations.
256. velvet-guards: velvet trimmings such as citizens' wives wore on their Sunday finery.
259. next: quickest. tailor: Tailors were noted for singing.