V. iii. 46. Turk Gregory. Editors all agree that Falstaff here refers to Pope Gregory VII, Hildebrand, who, as a friar, was famous for military exploits. Attempts to explain the appellation Turk are not very satisfactory. Falstaff perhaps has in mind the phrase 'to fight like a Turk.'
V. iii. 58. Another pun. The -ie- of pierce was pronounced like the -e- of Percy.
V. iv. 65. A reference to Ptolemaic astronomy, according to which each planet was fixed in a crystal sphere with which it revolved.
V. iv. 81-83. 'The glory of the Prince wounds his thoughts; but thought, being dependent on life, must cease with it, and will soon be at an end. Life, on which thought depends, is itself of no great value, being the fool and sport of time; of time, which, with all its dominion over sublunary things, must itself at last be stopped.' (Johnson.)
V. iv. 114. termagant. Name of one of the fabled idols worshipped by Mohammedans, according to the Mediæval Romance.
