Shakespeare Henry V query

[mikeymike99]

Maybe someone can help as googling just throws up examples, not the explanation.
In Henry V - during a protacted scene of mind-numbing puns comparing mistresses to horses a character says:
"I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his own hair".

The copy I'm reading has full notes, and mentions this implies that the mistress of the person he's talking to doesn't have any hair (as she's got syphilis). In the margins it says that some editions had "her" instead of "his". But it doesn't explain why the mistress's hair is ever referred to as "his" (as it is in most online versions of the play). Maybe a learned user could shed some light on this.

[jno]

he's saying his horse is his mistress - if the horse is in fact male, then it would be 'his' hair, because he's thinking of the real horse rather than an imaginary woman. (Actually, today it would more often be 'its' hair, but I don't think that was always the case in Shakespeare's day.)

[jno]

PS it may not imply syphilis - he might just mean his mistress doesn't go around dolled up in wigs as real women sometimes did.

[mikeymike99]

Thank you jno! That makes perfect sense.