["## SCENE IV.", "## MACBETH.", "357", "Came¹ post with post; and every one did bear\nThy praises in his kingdom's great defence,\nAnd pour'd them down before him.", "Ang.\nWe are sent,\nTo give thee, from our royal master, thanks;\nOnly to herald thee into his sight, not pay thee.", "Rosse. And, for an earnest of a greater honour,\nHe bade me, from him, call thee thane of Cawdor:\nIn which addition, hail, most worthy thane!", "For it is thine.", "Ban. What, can the devil speak true?", "Macb. The thane of Cawdor lives? Why do you\ndress me", "In borrow'd rodes?", "Ang.\nWho was the thane, lives yet;\nBut under heavy judgment bears that life", "Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was com-\nbind?", "With those of Norway, or did line the rebel\nWith hidden help and vantage; or that with both\nHe labour'd in his country's wreck, I know not;\nBut treasons capital, confess'd, and prov'd,\nHave overthrown him.", "Macb.\nGlamis, and thane of Cawdor:", "The greatest is behind.—Thanks for your pains.—\nDo you not hope your children shall be kings,", "When those that gave the thane of Cawdor to me,\nPromis'd no less to them?", "Ban. That, trusted home,²", "Might yet enkindle³ you unto the crown,", "Besides the thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange:", "And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,", "The instruments of darkness tell us truths;", "Win us with honest trrophs, to betray us", "In deepest consequence.—", "Cousins, a word, I pray you.", "Macb.\nTwo truths are told,\nOf happy prologues to the swelling act⁴", "The imperial theme.—I thank you, gentlemen.—\nThis supernatural soliciting⁵", "Cannot be ill; cannot be good:—If ill,", "Why hath it given me earnest of success,", "Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:", "If good, why do I yield to that suggestion⁶", "Of those horrid image doth unfix my hair,", "And make my seated' heart knock at my ribs,", "Against the use of nature? Present fears", "Are less than horrible imaginings:⁷", "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,", "Shakes so my single⁸ state of man, that function", "Is smother'd in surmise;¹⁰ and nothing is,", "But what is not,¹¹", "Ban. Look, how our partner's rapt.", "1 'Came post?' The old copy reads can. Rowe\nmade the emendation.", "5 i. e. entirely, thoroughly relied on.", "3 Enkindle means 'encourage you to expect the\ncrown.'", "4 'As happy prologues to the swelling act.' So in\nthe prologue to King Henry V.:—", "—princes to,\nAnd monarchs to behold the swelling scene.⁹", "5 i. e. incitement.", "6 Suggestion, temptation.", "7 Seated, firmly placed, fixed.", "8 — Present fears", "So in The Tragedie of Crœsus, by Lord Sterling, 1604:", "'For as the shadow of Crœsus, by Lord Sterling:\nThan doth the substance whence it hath the being,", "So th' apprehension of approaching ill", "Seems greater than itself, whilst fears are lying.", "9 By his single state of man, Macbeth means his\nsimple condition of human nature. Single soul, for a\nsimple or weak guileless person, was the phraseology\nof the poet's time. Simplicity and singleness were\nsynonymous,", "10 — that function", "Is smother'd in surmise.", "The powers of action are oppressed by conjecture.", "11 'But what is not?' Shakspeare has something like\nthis sentiment in The Merchant of Venice:—\n'Where every something, being blest together,\nTurns to a wild of nothing.'", "12 Favour is countenance, good will, and not pardon,", "Macb. If chance will have me king, why, chance\nmay crown me,", "Without my stir.", "Ban. New honours come upon him", "Like our strange garments; cleave not to their\nmould;", "But with the aid of use.", "Macb. Come what come may;", "Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.", "Ban. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.", "Macb. Give me your favour:¹²—my dull brain\nwas wrought", "With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains,\nAre register'd where every day I turn", "The leaf to read them—Let us toward the king.—", "Think upon what hath chanc'd: and, at more times,", "The interim having weigh'd it,¹³ let us speak", "Our free hearts each to other.", "Ban. Very gladly.", "Macb. Till then, enough.—Come, friends.", "[Exeunt.]", "## SCENE IV. Fores. A Room in the Palace.\nFlourish. Enter DUNCAN, MALCOLM, DONAL\nBAIN, LENOX, and Attendants.", "Dun. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not\nThose in commission yet return'd?", "Mal. My liege,", "They are not yet come back. But I have spoke", "With one that saw him die: who did report,", "That very frankly he confess'd his treasons;", "Implor'd your highness' pardon; and set forth", "A deep repentance: nothing in his life", "Became him, like the leaving it; he died", "As one that had been studied in his death,¹⁴", "To throw away the dearest thing he ow'd,¹⁵", "As 'twere a careless trifle.", "Dun. There's no art,", "To find the mind's construction in the face:¹⁶", "He was a gentleman on whom I built", "An absolute trust.—O worthiest cousin!", "Enter MACBETH, BANQUO, ROSSE, and ANGUS.", "The sin of my ingratitude even now", "Was heavy on me: Thou art so far before,", "That swiftest wing of recompense is slow", "To overtake thee. 'Would, thou hadst less deserv'd;", "That the proportion both of thanks and payment", "Might have been mine! only I have left to say,", "More is thy due than more than all can pay.¹⁷", "Macb. The service and the loyalty I owe,", "In doing it, pays itself. Your highness' part", "Is to receive our duties: and our duties", "Are to your throne and state, children, and servants;\nWhich do but what they should, by doing every", "thing", "Safe toward your love and honour.¹⁸", "as it has been here interpreted. Vide Hamlet, Act v.\nSc. 2.", "13 'The interim having weigh'd it.' The interim is\nprobably here used adverbially—' You having weighed\nit in the interim?'", "14 *Studied in his death* is well instructed in the art of dying. 'The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate earl of Essex, as related by Stowe, p. 793. His asking the queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold, are minutely described by that histori.", "an.' Steevens thinks that an allusion was intended\n'to the severity of that justice which deprived the age\nof one of its greatest ornaments, and Southampton,\nShakspeare's patron, of his dearest friend", "15 *Ow'd*, owned, possessed.", "16 We cannot construe the disposition of the mind by\nthe lineaments of the face.", "17 i. e. I owe thee more than all; nay, more than all\nwhich I can say or do will require.", "18 'Safe toward your love and honour.' Sir William\nBlackstone would read:—", "Safe toward you love and honour", "which he explains thus:—' Our duties are your child-\nren, and servants or vassals to your throne and state;\nwho do but what they should, by doing every thing with\na saving of their love and honour toward you.' He\nsays that it has reference to the old feudal simple ho-", "ACT I.", "partner\nat prediction", "speak not:\nwill not?", "which\nwill not;\nbe fear.", "greater,\nhigher", {"bbox": [0, 362, 37, 396], "category": "Page-footer",

360

MACBETH.

Act II.

Commends¹ the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
Who should against his murderer shut the door,
Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
So clear in his great office, that his virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking off:
And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Stringing the blast, or heaven's cherubin, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers² of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.—I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition,³ which o'erleaps itself,
And falls on the other—How now, what news?

Enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M. He has almost supp'd: Why have you
left the chamber?

Macb. Hath he ask'd for me?

Lady M.

Macb. We will proceed no further in this business:

He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought
Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
Not cast aside so soon.

Lady M.

Was the hope drunk,
Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?
And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
At what it did so freely? From this time,
Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
To be the same in thine own act and valour,
As thou art in desire? Would'st thou have that
Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
And live a coward in thine own esteem;
Let me dare not wait upon I would,
Like the poor cat i' the adage?⁴

Macb.

Pr'ythee, peace:
I dare do all that may become a man;

Who dares do more,⁵ is none.

Lady M.

What beast was't then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And, to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man. Nor time, nor place,
Did then adhere,⁶ and yet you would make both:
They have made themselves, and that their fitness
now

Does unmake you. I have given suck; and know
How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me:

1 To commend was anciently used in the sense of the
Latin commendo, to commit, to address, to direct, to
recommend.

2 'The sightless couriers of the air' are what the
poet elsewhere calls the viewless winds.

3 So in the tragedy of Cæsar and Pompey, 1607—:

'Why think you, lords, that 'tis ambition's spur

That pricketh Cæsar to these high attempts?

Malone has observed that 'there are two distinct meta-
phors in this passage. I have no spur to prick the sides
of my intent; I have nothing to stimulate me to the
execution of my purpose but ambition, which is apt to
overreach itself; this he expresses by the second image,
of a person meaning to vault into his saddle, who, by
taking too great a leap, will fall on the other side.'

4 This passage is perhaps sufficiently intelligible;
but as Johnson and Steevens thought otherwise, I must
offer a brief explanation.—'Would'st thou have the
crown, that which thou esteem'st the ornament of life,
and yet live a coward in thine own esteem,' &c. The
adage of the cat is among Heywood's Proverbs, 1566:—
'The cat would eate fische, and would not wet her feete.'

5 'Who dares do more is none.' The old copy, in-
stead of 'do more,' reads 'no more.' the emendation is
Rowe's.

6 *Allhere,* in the same sense as coherre.

7 'But screw your courage to the sticking-place.'
Shakspeare seems to have taken his metaphor from the
screwing up the chords of stringed instruments to their
proper degree of tension, when the peg remains fast in
its sticking-place; i. e. in the place from which it is not
to recede, or go back.

I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out, had I so sworn, as you
Have done to this.

Macb.

Lady M.

If we should fail, —

We fail! We fail!

But screw your courage to the sticking-place,⁷
And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep
(Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
Soundly invite him), his two chamberlains⁸

Will I with wine and wassel²² so convince,¹⁶
That memory, the warder of the brain,

Shall be a fume, and the receipt of reason

A limbeck¹¹ only: When in swinish sleep

Their drenched¹² natures lie, as in a death,

What cannot you I perform upon

The unguarded Duncan? what not put upon

His spongy officers; who shall bear the guilt

Of our great quell?¹³

Macb.

Bring forth men-children only! For thy undaunted mettle should compose
Nothing but males. Will it not be receiv'd,¹⁴

When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
Of his own chamber, and us'd their very daggers,
That they have don't?

Lady M.

Who dares receive it other,
As we shall make our griefs and clamour roar
Upon his death?

Macb.

I am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.

Away, and mock the time with fairest show:

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

[Exeunt.]

ACT II.

SCENE I. The same. Court within the Castle.
Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, and a Servant,
with a Torch before them.

Ban. How goes the night, boy !

Flt. The moon is down: I have not heard the
clock.

Ban. And she goes down at twelve.

Flt.

Ban. Hold, take my sword:—There's husbandry¹⁵ in heaven,

Their candles are all out.—Take thee that too.

A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,

And yet I would not sleep: Merciful powers!

Restrain in me the cursed thoughts, that nature

Gives way to in repose:¹⁶—Give me my sword;—

Enter MACBETH, and a Servant with a Torch.

Who's there?

8 The circumstance relative to Macbeth's slaughter
of Duncan's chamberlains is copied from Holinsheff's
account of King Duffe's murder by Donwald.

9 *Wassel* is thus explained by Bullokar in his Ex-
positor, 1616: *Wassail*, a term usual heretofore for
quaffing and carowsing; but more especially signifying
a merry cup (ritually composed, deckt and fill'd with
country liquor) passing about amongst neighbours,
meeting and entertaining one another on the vigil or eve
of the new year, and commonly called the *eussail-bol*?

10 To convince is to overcome.

11 A limbeck is a vessel through which distilled liquors
pass into the recipient. So shall the receipt (i. e. recep-
tacle) of reason be like this empty vessel.

12 i. e. drowned in drink.

13 *Quell is murder*; from the Saxon *quellan*, to kill.

14 i. e. apprehended, understood.

15 *Husbandry here means thrift, frugality.*

16 It is apparent from what Banquo says afterwards,
that he had been solicited in a dream to attempt some-
thing in consequence of the prophecy of the witches,
that his waking senses were shocked at; and Shak-
speare has here most exquisitely contrasted his charac-
ter with that of Macbeth. Banquo is praying against
being tempted to encourage thoughts of guilt even in his
sleep; while Macbeth is hurrying into temptation, and
revolving in his mind every scheme, however flagitious,
that may assist him to complete his purpose.
The one
is unwilling to sleep, lest the same phantoms should
assail his resolution again, while the other is depriving
himself of rest through impatience to commit the mur-
der.

362

MACBETH.

ACT II.

That death and nature do contend about them,
Whether they live or die.

Macb. [Within.] Who's there ?—what, ho !

Lady M. Alack ! I am afraid, they have awak'd,
And 'tis not done:—the attempt, and not the deed,
Confounds us :—Hark !—I laid their daggers ready,
He could not miss them.—Had he not resembled
My father as he slept, I had done't.—My husband ?

Enter MACBETH.

Macb. I have done the deed :—Didst thou not
hear a noise ?

Lady M. I heard the owl scream, and the crick-
ets cry.

Did not you speak ?

Macb. When ?

Lady M. Now.

Macb. As I descended ?

Lady M. Ay.

Macb. Hark !—

Who lies i' the second chamber ?

Lady M. Donalbain.

Macb. This is a sorry sight.

[Looking on his hands.

Lady M. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.

Macb. There's one did laugh in his sleep, and
one cried, murder !

That they did wake each other; I stood and heard
them :

But they did say their prayers, and address'd them
Again to sleep.

Lady M. There are two lodg'd together.

Macb. One cried, God bless us ! and, Amen, the
other ;

As¹ they had seen me, with these hangman's hands.

Listening their fear², I could not say, amen,

When they did say, God bless us.

Lady M. Consider it not so deeply.

Macb. But wherefore could not I pronounce, amen?

I had most need of blessing, and amen

Stuck in my throat.

Lady M. These deeds must not be thought

After these ways; so, it will make us mad.

Macb. Methought, I heard a voice cry, Sleep no
more !

Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep ;

Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd slave's care,

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast;—

Lady M. What do you mean ?

Macb. Still it cried, Sleep no more ! to all the
house ;

Glamis hath murder'd sleep; and therefore Cawdor

Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more!

Lady M. Who was it that thus cried ? (Why,
worthy thane,

You do unbend your noble strength, to think

So brainsickly of things :—Go, get some water,

And wash this filthy witness from your hand :

Why did you bring these daggers from the place ?
They must lie there : Go, carry them ; and smear
The sleepy grooms with blood.

Macb. I'll go no more :

I am afraid to think what I have done ;

Look on't again, I dare not.

Lady M.

Infirm of purpose !

Give me the daggers ; The sleeping, and the dead,
Are but as pictures : 'tis the eye of childhood,
That fears a painted devil. If the do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
For it must seem their guilt.

Macb. [Exit.] Knocking within.
Whence is that knocking ?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me ?
What hands are here ! Ha ! they pluck out mine
eyes !

Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood?

Clean from my hand ? No ; this my hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnardine,

Making the green—one red.

Re-enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M. My hands are of your colour; but I
shame

To wear a heart so white. [Knock.] I hear a
knocking

At the south entry:—retire we to our chamber :

A little water clears us of this deed :

How easy is it then ? Your constancy

Hath left you unattended⁹—[Knocking.] Hark !
more knocking :

Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us,

And show us to be watchers :—Be not lost

So poorly in your thoughts.

Macb. To know my deed,—'twere best not know
myself.¹⁰

Wake Duncan with thy knocking ! I would, thou
could'st ?

[Knock.]

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III. The same. Enter a Porter.

[Knocking within.]

Porter. Here's a knocking, indeed ! If a man
were porter of hell-gate, he should have old¹¹ turn-
ing the key. [Knocking.] Knock, knock, knock:
Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub ? Here's a
farmer,¹² that hanged himself on the expectation of
plenty: Come in time; have napkins¹³ enough about
you; here you'll sweat for't. [Knocking.] Knock,
knock: Who's there i' the other devil's name?
'Faith, here's an equivocator,¹⁴ that could swear in
both the scales against either scale; who committed
treason enough for God's sake, yet could not equi-
vocate to heaven: O, come in, equivocator. [Knock- ing.]
Knock, knock, knock; Who's there ? 'Faith,

Should flow for ever through these guilty hands,
Yet the sanguinolent stain would extant be.'

7 To incarnardine is to stain of a red colour.

8 In the old copy the line stands thus:—

'Making the Green one, Red.'

The punctuation in the text was adopted by Stevens at
the suggestion of Murphy. Malone prefers the old
punctuation. Stevens has well defended the arrange-
ment of his text, which seems to me to deserve the pre-
ference.

9 'Your constancy hath left you unattended.'—Vide
note on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2.

10 This is an answer to Lady Macbeth's reproof.
'While I have the thoughts of this deed, it were best not
know, or be lost to myself.'

11 i. e. frequent.

12 'Here's a farmer that hanged himself on the ex-
pectation of plenty.' So in Hall's Satires, b. iv.
sat. 6:—

'Each muckworme will be rich with lawless gaine,
Altho' he smother up mowes of seven years graine,
and hang'd himself when come the groves cheap againe.'

13 i. e. handkerchiefs. In the dictionaries of the time
sudarium is rendered by 'napkin or handkerchief,
wherewith we wipe away the sweat.'

14 i. e. a Jesuit. That order were troublesome to the state,
and held in odium in the reigns of Elizabeth and
James. They were inventors of the execrable doc-
tine of equivocation.

1 As for as if.

2 i. e. listening to their fear : the particle omitted.

3 *Sleeve* is unwrought silk, sometimes also called *floss* silk. It appears to be the coarse ravelled part separated by passing through the slale (reed comb) of the weaver's loom; and hence called *sleaved* or *sleeded* silk. I suspect that *sleepeless*, which has puzzled the etymologists, is that which cannot be sleaved, sleeded, or unravelled; and therefore useless: thus a *sleeveless* errand would be a *fruitless* one.

4 Steevens observes that this triple menace, accom-
dated to the different titles of Macbeth, is too quaint to be
received as the natural ebullition of a guilty mind; but
Mr. Boswell thinks that there is no ground for his ob-
jection. He thus explains the passage; *Glamis hath
murder'd sleep*; and therefore my lately acquired dig-
nity can afford no comfort to one who suffers the agony
of remorse;—*Cawdor shall sleep no more*; nothing can
restore me to that peace of mind which I enjoyed in a
comparatively humble state; the once innocent Mac-
beth shall sleep no more.

5 This quibble too occurs frequently in old plays.
Shakspere has it in King Henry IV. Part II. Act iv.
Sc. 4:—

'England shall double gild his treble guilt.'

6 Thus in The Insatiate Countess, by Marston, 1613:—

'Although the waves of all the northern sea

## SCENE III.

## MACBETH.

563

here's an English tailor come hither, for stealing out
of a French hose: Come in, tailor; here you
may roast your goose. [Knocking.] Knock, knock:
Never at quiet! What are you?—But this place is
too cold for hell. I'll devil-porter it no further: I
had thought to have let in some of all professions,
that go the primrose way to the everlasting bonfire.¹
[Knocking.] Anon, anon; I pray you, remember
the porter.
[Opens the gate.

### Enter MACDUFF and LENOX.

Mced. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
That you do lie so late?

Port. 'Faith, sir we were carousing till the second cock:² and drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.

Mced. What three things does drink especially provoke?

Port. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: Therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not to: in conclusion, equivocates him in³ a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.
Mced. I believe, drink gave thee the lie, last night.

Port. That it did, sir, i' the very throat o' me:
But I requited him for his lie: and, I think, being too strong for him, though he took up my legs sometime, yet I made a shift to cast him.

Mced. Is thy master stirring?—

Our knocking has awak'd him; here he comes.

### Enter MACBETH.

Len. Good-morrow, noble sir!

Mced. Good-morrow, both!⁴

Mced. Is the king stirring, worthy thane?

Mced. Not yet.
Mced. He did command me to call timely on him;
I have almost slipp'd the hour.

Mced. I'll bring you to him.

Mced. I know, this is a joyful trouble to you;

But yet, 'tis one.

Mced. The labour, we delight in, physics⁵ pain.
This is the door.

Mced. I'll make so bold to call.

For 'tis my limited service.⁶

Mced. Len goes the king hence to-day?

Mced. He does:—he did appoint it so.

Len. The night has been unruly; Where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down: and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i' the air; strange screams of
death;

And prophesying, with accents terrible,
Of dire combustion, and confus'd events,
New hatch'd to the woful time. The obscure bird
Clamour'd the livelong night: some say, the earth
Was feverous, and did shake.

Mced. 'Twas a rough night.

Len. My young remembrance cannot parallel
A fellow to it.

### Re-enter MACDUFF.

Mced. O horror! horror! horror! Tongue, nor
heart,

Cannot conceive, nor name thee!⁷

Mced. Len. What's the matter?

1 So in Hamlet:—

'Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads.'

And in All's Well that Ends Well:—'The flowery way
that leads to the great fire.'

2 i. e. till three o'clock.

3 In for into.

4 i. e. alleviates it.

6 It has been already observed that Shakspeare uses
two negatives, not to make an affirmative, but to deny
more strongly.

7 'The repetition, in a woman's ear,
Would murder as it fell.'

So in Hamlet:—

'I'—He would drown the stage with tears,

And cleave the general ear with horrid speech.'

Mced. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!⁸

Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope
The Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence
The life o' the building.

Mced. What is't you say? the life?

Len. Mean you his majesty?

Mced. Approach the chamber, and destroy your
sight.

With a new Gorgon:—Do not bid me speak:
See and then speak yourselves.—Awake! awake!—

[Exeunt MACBETH and LENOX.

Ring the alarum-bell:—Murder! and treason?

Banquo, and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!

Shake off this drowsy sleep, death's counterfeit,
And look on death itself!—up, up, and see

The great doom's image!—Malcolm! Banquo!⁹

As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprights,

To countenance this horror!—

[Bell rings.

### Enter LADY MACBETH.

Lady M.

What's the business,

That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley

The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak,

Mced. O, gentle lady,

'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:

Would murder as it fell?—O Banquo! Banquo!

### Enter BANQUO.

Our royal master's murder'd!

Lady M. Woe, alas!

What, in our house?

Ban. Too cruel, any where,—

Dear Duff, I pr'thy thee, contradict thyself,

And say, it is not so.

### Re-enter MACBETH and LENOX.

Mced. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
I had liv'd a blessed time; for, from this instant,
There's nothing serious in mortality:

All is but toys: renown, and grace, is dead;

The wine of life is drawn, and the more lees
Is left this vault to brag of.

### Enter MALCOLM and DONALBAIN.

Dow. What is amiss?

Mced. You are, and do not know it:

The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
Is stopp'd; the very source of it is stopp'd.

Mced. Your royal father's murder'd.

Mal. O, by whom?

Len. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had
done't:

Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood,

So were their daggers, which unwip'd, we found

Upon their pillows:

They star'd, and were distracted; no man's life
Was to be trusted with them.

Mced. O, yet, I do repent me of my fury,

That I did kill them.

Mced. Wherefore did you so?

Mced. Who can be wise, amaz'd, temperate, and
furious,

Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man:

The expedition of my violent love

Outran the pauser reason.—Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood;⁹

And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature,

For ruin's wasteful entrance: there, the murderer,
Steep'd in the colours of their trade, their daggers

And in The Puritan, 1607:—' The punishments that
shall follow you in this world would with horror kill the
ear should hear them related.'

⁸ His silver skin lac'd with his golden blood. To
gild with blood is a very common phrase in old plays

See also King John, Act ii. Sc. 2.—Johnson says, 'it is
not improbable that Shakspeare put these forced and
unnatural metaphors into the mouth of Macbeth, as a
mark of artifice and dissimulation, to show the difference
between the studied language of hypocrisy and the natu-
ral outcries of sudden passion.' This whole speech, so

considered, is a remarkable instance of judgment, as it
consists of antithesis only.¹⁰

MACBETH.

ACT II.

364

Unmannerly breech'd with gore:¹ Who could re-
frain,

That had a heart to love, and in that heart

Courage, to make his love known?

Lady M.

Macd. Look to the lady.

Mal.

Help me hence, ho!

Why do we hold our tongues,

That most may claim this argument for ours?

Don. What should be spoken,

Here, where our fate hid in an augur-hole,

May rush, and seize us? Let's away; our tears

Are not yet brew'd.

Mal.

Nor our strong sorrow

Upon the foot of motion.

Ban.

Look to the lady :—

[LADY MACBETH is carried out.

And when we have our naked frailties hid,²

That suffer in exposure, let us meet,

And question this most bloody piece of work,

To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us:

In the great hand of God I stand; and, thence,

Against the undivulg'd pretence³ I fight

Of treasonous malice.

Macb.

And so do I.

All.

Macc. Let's briefly put on manly readiness,

And meet i' the hall together.

All.

Well contented.

[Exeunt all but MAL. and DON.

Mal. What will you do? Let's not consort with them?

To show an unfelt sorrow, is an office

Which the false man does easy: I'll to England.

Don. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune

Shall keep us both the safer; where we are,

There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,

The nearer bloody.¹

Mal.

This murderous shaft that's shot,

Hath not yet lighted;⁵ and our safest way

Is, to avoid the aim. Therefore, to horse;

And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,

But shift away: There's warrant in that theft

Which steals itself, when there's no mercy left.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE IV. Without the Castle. Enter ROSSE and an Old Man.

Old M. Threescore and ten I can remember well:

Within the volume of which time, I have seen

Hours dreadful, and things strange; but this sore
night

Hath trifled former knowings.

Rosse.

Ah, good father,

Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
Threaten his bloody stage: by the clock, 'tis day,
And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp:
Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame,
That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
When living light should kiss it?⁶

Old M.

'Tis unnatural,
Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last,
A falcon, tow'ring in her pride of place,

Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd.

Rosse. And Duncan's horses (a thing most strange
and certain),

Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
War with mankind.

Old M.

'Tis said, they ate each other.

Rosse. They did so; to the amazement of mine
eyes,

That look'd upon't. Here comes the good Mac-
duff:—

Enter MACDUFF.

How goes the world, sir, now?

Macc.

Why, see you not?

Rosse. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?

Macc. Those that Macbeth hath slain.

Rosse.

Alas, the day!

What good could they pretend?

Macc.

Malcolm and Donalban, the king's two sons,
Are stol' away and fled; which puts upon them
Suspicion of the deed.

Rosse.

'Gainst nature still:
Thriftless ambition, that will ravin' up

Thine own life's means!—Then 'tis most like,

The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.

Macc. He is already nam'd; and gone to Scone,

To be invested.

Rosse.

Where is Duncan's body?

Macc. Carried to Colme-kill;¹⁰

And guardian of their bones.

Rosse.

Will you to Scone?

Macc. No, cousin. I'll to Fife.

Rosse.

Well, I will thither.

Macc. Well, may you see things well done
there;—adieu!—

Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!

Rosse. Father, farewell.

Old M. God's bonison go with you: and with those
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!

[Exeunt.]

1 'Breech'd with gore,' covered with blood to their hilts.

2 i. e. when we have clothed our half drest bodies,
which may take cold from being exposed to the air. It
is possible, as Steevens remarks, that in such a cloud of
words, the meaning might escape the reader. The
Porter had already said that this 'place is too cold for
hell,' meaning the court-yard of the castle in which
Banquò and the rest now are.

3 'Pretence is here put for design or intention. It is
so used again in the Winter's Tale:—' The pretence
whereof being by circumstance partly laid open?' Thus
again in this tragedy:—

'What good could they pretend ?'

i. e. intend to themselves. Banquò's meaning is—'in
our present state of doubt and uncertainty about this
murder, I have nothing to do but to put myself under
the direction of God; and, relying on his support, I here
declare myself an eternal enemy to this treason, and to
all its further designs that have not yet come to light.'

4

The nearer bloody.

Meaning that he suspects Macbeth to be the murderer;
for he was the nearest in blood to the two princes, being
the cousin-german of Duncan.

5 The allusion of the *unlighted shaft* appears to be—
the death of the king only could neither insure the crown
to Macbeth, nor accomplish any other purpose, while
his sons were yet living, who had therefore just reason
to apprehend that they should be removed by the same
means. Malcolm therefore means to say, 'The shaft

has not yet done all its intended mischief; I and my
brother are yet to be destroyed before it will light on the
ground and 'do no more harm.'

6 'After the murder of King Duffe,' says Holinshed,
'for the space of six months togither there appeared no
sunne by daye, nor moon by night in anie part of the
realme; but still the sky was covered with continual
clouds; and sometimes such outrageous winds arose,
with lightenings and tempests, that the people were in
great fear of present destruction.'—'—It is evident that
Shakspeare had this passage in his thoughts. Most of
the portents here mentioned are related by Holinshed,
as accompanying King Duffe's death: 'there was a
sparhavk strangled by an owl,' and 'horses of singular
beauty and swiftness did eat their own flesh?'

7 'A falcon tow'ring in her pride of place,' a techni-
cal phrase in falconry for *soaring to the highest pitch*.
Faulcon *haultain* was the French term for a towering or
high flying hawk.

8 'Pretend,' in the sense of the Latin *pretendo*, to
*design*, or 'lay for a thing before it come,' as the old
dictionaries explain it.

9 Macbeth, by his birth, stood next in succession to the
crown, after the sons of Duncan. King Malcolm, Dun-
can's predecessor, had two daughters, the eldest of
whom was the mother of Duncan, the younger the
mother of Macbeth.—Holinshed.

10 Colme-kill is the famous Iona, one of the western
isles mentioned by Holinshed, as the burial place of many
ancient kings of Scotland. Colme-kill means the *cell* or
chapel of St. Columbo.

## ACT I.

## MACBETH.

365

## ACT III.

### SCENE I. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter BANQUO.

Ban. Thou hast it now, King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promis'd; and, I fear,
Thou play'dst most foully for't; yet it was said,
It should not stand in thy posterity:

But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them
(As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine),
Why, by the verities on them made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But, hush; no more.

Senet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as King; LADY MACBETH, as Queen; LENOX, ROSSE, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.

Mab. Here's our chief guest.

Lady M. If he had been forgotten,
It had been as a gap in our great feast,
And all things unbecoming.

Mab. To-night we hold a solemn supper,¹⁴ sir,

And I'll request your presence.

Ban. Let your highness
Command upon me; to the which, my duties
Are with a most indissoluble tie

For ever knit.

Mab. Ride you this afternoon?

Ban. Ay, my good lord.

Mab. We should have else desir'd your good advice

(Which still had been both grave and prosperous,
In this day's council; but we'll take to-morrow.)

Is't far you ride?

Ban. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time

'Twist this and supper: go not my horse the better,²
I must become a borrower of the night,

For a dark hour, or twain.

Mab. Fail not our feast.

Ban. My lord, I will not.

Mab. We hear, our bloody cousins are bestow'd
In England, and in Ireland; not confessing

Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers

With strange invention: But of that to-morrow:

When, therewithal, we shall have cause of state,
Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse: Adieu,

Till you return at night. Goes Flection with you?

Ban. Ay, my good lord; our time does call
upon us.

Mab. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot;
And so I do commend³ you to their backs.

Farewell.

[Exit BANQUO.]

Let every man be master of his time

Till seven at night; to make society

The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself

Till supper-time alone; while then, God be with you.
[Exeunt LADY MACBETH, Lords, Ladies, &c.
Sirrah, a word with you: attend those men

Our pleasure?

Atten. They are, my lord, without the palace-gate.

Mab. Bring them before us.—[Exit Atten.]

To be thus is nothing;

But to be safely thus:—Our fears in Banquo

Stick deep; and in his royalty⁴ of nature

Reigns that, which would be fear'd: 'Tis much he
dares;

And, to⁵ that dauntless temper of his mind,

He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour

To act in safety. There is none, but he

Whose being I do fear; and, under him,

My genius is rebuk'd; as, it is said,

Mark Antony's was by Cæsar. He chid the sisters,

When first they put the name of King upon me,

And bade them speak to him; then, prophetlike,

They hail'd him father to a line of kings:

Upon my head they plac'd a fruitless crown,

And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,

Thence to wrench'd with an unlineal hand,

No son of mine succeeding. If it be so,

For Banquo's issue have I fill'd⁶ my mind;

For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd;

Put rancours in the vessel of my peace

Only for them; and mine eternal jewel

Given to the common enemy of man,⁷

To make them kings; the seed of Banquo kings!

Rather than so, come, fate, into the list,

And champion me to the utterance!—Who's

Re-enter Attendant, with two Murderers.

Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.

[Exit Attendant.

Was it not yesterday we spoke together?

1 Mur. It was, so please your highness.

Mab. Well then, now

Have you considered of my speeches? Know,

That it was he, in the times past, which held you

So under fortune; which, you thought, had been

Our innocent self: this I made good to you.

In our last conference, pass'd in probation⁹ with you,

How you were borne in hand;¹⁰ how cross'd; the
instruments;

Who wrought with them; and all things else, that
might,

To half a soul, and to a notion craz'd,

Say, Thus did Banquo.

1 Mur. You made it known to us.

Mab. I did so; and went further, which is now

Our point of second meeting. Do you find

Your patience so predominant in your nature,

That you can let this go? Are you so gospell'd?

To pray for that good man, and for his issue,

Whose heavy hand has bow'd you to the grave,

And beggar'd yours for ever?

1 Mur. We are men, my liege.

Mab. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men;

Ashounds, and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,

Shoughs,¹² water-rugs, and demi-wolves, are

cleped¹³

All by the name of dogs: the valued file¹⁴

Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,

The house-keeper, the hunter, every one

According to the gift which bounteous nature

Hath in him clos'd; whereby he does receive

Particular addition,¹⁵ from the bill

That writes them all alike: and so of men.

1 'A solemn supper.' This was the phrase of Shakspeare's time for a feast or banquet given on a particular occasion, to solemnize any event, as a birth, marriage, coronation, &c. Howel, in a letter to Sir T. Hawke, 1636, says, 'I was invited yesternight to a solemn supper by B. J.' [Ben Jonson,] where you were deeply remembered.

2 i. e. 'if my horse does not go well?' Shakespear
often uses the comparative for the positive and superlative.

3 i. e. *commit.*

4 Nobleness.

5 'And to that,' i. e. in addition to.

6 For defiled.

7 'The common enemy of man.' Shakspeare repeats
the phrase in Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4: 'Defy the
devil: consider, he's an enemy to mankind?' The
phrase was common among his contemporaries; the
word *fliend*, Johnson remarks, signifies enemy.

8 'To the utterance.' This phrase, which is found in
writers who preceded Shakspeare, is borrowed from the
French; *se battre a l'outrance*, to fight desperately or
to extremity, even to death. The sense therefore is:—

'Let fate, that has foredoomed the exaltation of Banquo's
sons, enter the lists against me in defence of its own
decrees, I will fight against it to the extremity, whatever be
the consequence.'

9 i. e. 'passed in proving to you.'

10 To bear in hand is to delude by encouraging hope
and holding out fair prospects, without any intention of
performance.

11 i. e. 'are you so obedient to the precept of the gospel,
which teaches us to pray for those who despitefully
use us?'

12 Shoughs are probably what we now call shocks.
Nashe, in his Lenten Stuffle, mentions them, 'a trundle-
tail tike or shough or two.'

13 Cleped, called.

14 The valued file is the descriptive list wherein their
value and peculiar qualities are set down; such a list
of dogs may be found in Junius's Nomenclator, by
Fleming, and may have furnished Shakespear with the
idea.

15 Particular addition, title, description.

MACBETH.

366

ACT III.

Serv. Madam, I will.

Lady M.

[Exit.]

Nought's had, all's spent, Where our desire is got without content:

'Tis safer to be that which we destroy,
Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy.

Enter MACBETH.

How now, my lord? why do you keep alone,
Of sorriest⁴ fancies your companions making?

Using those thoughts, which should indeed have died
With them they think on? Things without remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.

Macb. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it;
She'll close, and be herself; whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.

But let the frame of things disjoint,
Both the worlds suffer,

Ere we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep
In the affliction of these terrible dreams
That shake us nightly: Better be with the dead,
Whom we, to gain our place,⁵ have sent to peace,
Than on the torture of the mind to lie
In restless ecstacy.⁶ Duncan is in his grave;
After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well:
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
Can touch him further!

Lady M. Come on, gentle my lord;
Sleek o'er your rugged looks; be bright and jovial
Among your guests to-night.

Macb.

So shall I, love.

And so, I pray, be you: let your remembrance⁷
Apply to Banquo: present him eminence,⁸ both
With eye and tongue: unsafe, the while, that we
Must leave our honours in these flattering streams;
And make our faces wizards to our hearts,
Disguising what they are.⁹

Lady M.

You must leave this,

Macb. O,⁹ full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!

Thou know'st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.

Macb. But in them nature's copy's¹⁰ not eterne.

Macb. There's comfort yet; they are assailable;
Then be thou jocund: Ere the bat hath flown

His cloister'd flight; ere, to black Hecate's sum-
mons,

The shard-borne beetle,¹¹ with his drowsy hums,
Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
A deed of dreadful note.

Lady M.

What's to be done?

Macb. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest
chuck,

Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeing¹² night,

Skarf up the tender eye of pitiful day;

And, with thy bloody and invisible hand,
Cancel and tear to pieces that clear bond

Which keeps me pale.¹³—Light thicks; and the
crow

Makes wing to the rooky wood:¹⁴

confirms this explanation. Many of Shakspeare's al-
lusions are to legal customs.

11 That is, the beetle borne along the air by its shards or scaly wings. Steevens had the merit of first showing that shard or shard was the ancient word for a scale or outward covering, a case or sheath; as appears from the following passage cited by him from Gower's Confessio Amantis, b. vi, fol. 138:—

'She sigh, her thought a dragon tho,

Whose sherds shynen as the sonne.'

And again in book v. speaking of a serpent:—

'He was so sherded all about,

It held all edge-tool without.'

12 i. e. blinding: to seeel up the eyes of a hawk was to
close them by sewing the eyelids together.

13 So in Cymbeline:—

'Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray.'

14 By the expression, light, thickens, Shakspeare
means that it is growing dark. Thus, in Fletcher's
Faithful Shepherdess:—

'Fold your flocks up, for the air

'Gins to thicken, and the sun

Already his great course hath run.'

Spenser, in the Shepherd's Calendar, has—
Notwithstanding Mr. Steevens's ingenious attempts to
explain the rooky wood otherwise, it surely means no-

Now, if you have a station in the file,
Not in the worst rank of manhood, say it;
And I will put that business in your bosoms,
Whose execution takes your enemy off;
Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
Which in his death were perfect.

2 Mur.

I am one, my liege,

Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world

Have so incens'd, that I am reckless what
I do, to spite the world.

1 Mur.

And I another,

So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune
That I would set my life on any chance,
To mend it, or be rid on't.

Macb.

Both of you

Know, Banquo was your enemy.

2 Mur.

True, my lord.

Macb. So is he mine: and in such bloody dist-
tance,¹

That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my near'st of life: And though I could
With barey-fac'd power sweep him from my sight,
And bid my will avouch it; yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Whom I myself struck down: and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love;
Masking the business from the common eye,
For sundry weighty reasons.

2 Mur.

We shall, my lord,

Perform what you command us.

1 Mur.

Though our lives—

Macb. Your spirits shine through you. Within
this hour at most,

I will advise you where to plant yourselves:
Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,²
The moment on't: for't must be done to-night,
And something from the palace; always thought,
That I require a clearness:³ And with him
(To leave no rubs, nor botches, in the work,)²
Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
Whose absence is no less material to me
Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
I'll come to you anon.

2 Mur.

Macb. I'll call upon you straight; abide within.

It is concluded:—Banquo, thy soul's flight,

If it find heaven, must find it out to-night. [Exeunt.

### SCENE II. The same. Another Room. Enter
LADY MACBETH, and a Servant.

Lady M. Is Banquo gone from court?

Serv. Ay, madam, but returns again to-night.

Lady M. Say to the king, I would attend his
leisure

For a few words.

1 'Bloody distance' is mortal enmity.

2 i. e. the exact time when you may look out or lie in
wait for him.

3

— always thought

⁴ Always remembering that I must stand clear of suspicion.⁵

⁵ Sorriest, most melancholy.

⁶ The first folio reads *peace*; the second folio *place*.

⁷ Ecstacy, in its general sense, signifies any violent
emotion or alienation of the mind. The old dictionaries
render it a *trance*, a *dampe*, a *crampe*.

⁸ Remembrance is here employed as a quadrisyl-
lable.

⁹ Present him eminence, do him the highest honour.

10 Ritson has justly observed, that ' Nature's copy'
alludes to copyhold tenure, in which the tenant holds an
estate for life, having nothing but the copy of the rolls
of his lord's court to show for it. A life-hold tenure may
well be said to be not eternal. The subsequent speech
of Macbeth, in which he says,

11 Ritson has justly observed, that ' Nature's copy'
alludes to copyhold tenure, in which the tenant holds an
estate for life, having nothing but the copy of the rolls
of his lord's court to show for it. A life-hold tenure may
well be said to be not eternal. The subsequent speech
of Macbeth, in which he says,

'Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond.'

## SCENE IV.

MACBETH.

367

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

Whiles night's black agents to their preys do
rouse.¹

Thy marvell'st at my words; but hold thee still;

Things, bad begun, make strong themselves by ill:

So, pry'thoe, go with me.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III. The same. A Park or Lawn, with a Gate leading to the Palace. Enter three Murderers.

1 Mur. But who did bid thee join with us?

2 Mur. Macbeth.

2 Mur. He needs not our mistrust; since he de-
livers

Our offices, and what we have to do,

To the direction just.

1 Mur. Then stand with us.

The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day:

Now spurs the lated traveller apace,

To gain the timely inn; and near approaches

The subject of our watch.

3 Mur. Hark! I hear horses.

Ban. [within.] Give us a light there, ho!

2 Mur. Then it is he; the rest

That are within the note of expectation.²

Already are I the court.

1 Mur. His horses go about.

3 Mur. Almost a mile: but he does usually,

So all men do, from hence to the palace gate

Make it their walk.

### Enter BANQUO and FLEANCE, a Servant with a Torch preceding them.

2 Mur. A light, a light!

3 Mur. 'Tis he.

1 Mur. Stand to't.

3 Mur. It will be rain to-night.

1 Mur. Let it come down.

[Assaults BANQUO.]

Ban. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly,
fly!

Thou mayst revenge. O slave!

[Dies. Fleance and Servant escape.³

3 Mur. Who did strike out the light?

1 Mur. Was't not the way?

3 Mur. There's but one down: the son is fled.

2 Mur. We have lost best half of our affair.

1 Mur. Well, let's away, and say how much is
done.

### SCENE IV. A Room of State in the Palace. A Banquet prepared. Enter MACBETH, LADY MACBETH, ROSSE, LENOX, Lords, and Attendants.

### MACB. You know your own degrees, sit down: at first⁴

And last, the hearty welcome.

Lords. Thanks to your majesty.

### Macb. Ourself will mingle with society,

And play the humble host.

Our hostess keeps her name;⁵ but, in best time,

We will require her welcome.

### Lady M. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends;

For my heart speaks, they are welcome.

### Enter first Murderer, to the door

### Macb. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks:—

Both sides are even: Here I'll sit i' the midst:

Be large in birth; anon, we'll drink a measure

The table round.—There's blood upon thy face.

Mur. 'Tis Banquo's, then.

Macb. 'Tis better thee without, than he within.⁶

Is he despatch'd?

Mur. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.

Macb. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats: Yet he's good,

That did the like for Fleance: if thou didst it,

Thou art the nonpareil.

Mur. Most royal sir,

Fleance is 'scap'd.

### Macb. Then comes my fit again: I had else been perfect;

Whole as the marble, founded as the rock;

As broad and general as the casing air:

But now, I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in

To saucy doubts and fears. But Banquo's safe?

Mur. Ay, my good lord: safe in a ditch he bides,

With twenty trenched gashes on his head;

The least a death to nature.

Macb. Thanks for that:—

There the grown serpent lies; the worm, that's fled,

Hath nature that in time will venom breed,

No teeth for the present.—Get thee gone; tomorrow

We'll hear ourselves again.

[Exit Murderer.

### Lady M. My royal lord,

You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold,

That is not often vouch'd while 'tis a making,

'Tis given with welcome: To feed were best at home;

From thence, the sauce to meat is ceremony;

Meeting were bare without it.

Macb. Sweet remembrancer!—

Now, good digestion wait on appetite,

And health on both!

Len. May it please your highness, sit?

[The Ghost of BANQUO rises, and sits in MACBETH's place.]

### Macb. Here had we now our country's honour roof'd;

Were the grac'd person of our Banquo present;

Who may I rather challenge for unkindness,

Than pity for mischance!⁶

Rosse. His absence, sir,

Lays blame upon his promise. Please it your highness

To grace us with your royal company?

### Macb. The table's full.

Len. Here's a place reserv'd, sir?

### Macb. Where?

Len. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?

### Macb. Which of you have done this?

Lords. What, my good lord?

### Macb. Thou canst not say, I did it: never shake

Thy gory locks at me.

### Rosse. Gentlemen, rise; his highness is not well.

### Lady M. Sit, worthy friends:—my lord is often thus,

And hath been from his youth: 'pray you, keep seat';

The fit is momentary; upon a thought⁹

He will again be well: If much you note him,

Banquo, who was equally concerned with Macbeth in the murder of Duncan, as innocent of that crime.

⁴ 'At first and last.' Johnson, with great plausibility, proposes to read, 'To first and last.'

⁵ 'Keeps her state,' continues in her chair of state. A state was a royal chair with a canopy over it.

⁶ 'Tis better thee without than he within,' that is, I am better pleased that the blood of Banquo should be on thy face than in his body. He is put for him.

⁷ With twenty trenched gashes on his head.' From the French trancher, to cut.

⁸ Macbeth betrays himself by an overacted regard for Banquo, of whose absence from the feast he affects to complain, that he may not be suspected of knowing the cause, though at the same time he very un guardedly drops an allusion to that cause. May I seems to imply here a wish, not an assertion.

⁹ i. e. as speedily as thought can be exerted.

thing more than the wood inhabited by rooks. The poet has shown himself a close observer of nature, in marking the return of these birds to their nest-trees when the day is drawing to a close.

1 See note on King Richard III. Act iv. Sc. 1.

2 i. e. they who are set down in the list of guests, and expected to supper.

3 Fleance, after the assassination of his father, fled into Wales, where, by the daughter of the prince of that country, he had a son named Walter, who afterwards became Lord High Steward of Scotland, and from thence assumed the name of Sir Walter Steward. From him, in a direct line, King James I. was descended; in compliment to whom Shakspeare has chosen to describe

["MACBETH.", "Act III", "368", "You shall offend him, and extend his passion;¹", "Feed, and regard him not.—Are you a man?", "Màeb. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that", "Which might appall the devil.", "Lady M.", "O proper stuff!", "This is the very painting of your fear:", "This is the air-drawn dagger, which, you said,\nLed you to Duncan. O, these flaws² and starts", "(Impostors to³ true fear) would well become", "A woman's story at a winter's fire,", "Authoriz'd by her grandam. Shame itself!", "Why do you make such faces? When all's done,\nYou look but on a stool.", "Màeb. Pr'ythee, see there! behold! look! lo!", "how say you?—", "Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.—", "If charnel-houses, and our graves, must send", "Those that we bury; back, our monuments", "Shall be the maws of kites.⁴", "[Ghost disappears.", "Lady M. What! quite unmann'd in folly?", "Màeb. If I stand here, I saw him.", "Lady M.", "Fye, for shame!", "Màeb. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden\ntime,", "Ere human statute purg'd the general weal;", "Ay, and since, too, murders have been perform'd", "Too terrible for the ear: the times have been,", "That, when the brains were out, the man would die,\nAnd there an end: but now, they rise again,", "With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,\nAnd push us from our stools: This is more strange\nThan such a murder is.", "Lady M.", "My worthy lord,", "Your noble friends do lack you.", "Màeb.", "I do forget:—", "Do not muse⁶ at me, my most worthy friends;", "I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing", "To those that know me. Come, love and health to\nall;", "Then I'll sit down:—Give me some wine, fill full:", "I'll drink to the general joy of the whole table,", "Ghost rises.", "And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;", "'Would, he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,\nAnd all to all.⁶", "Lords. Our duties, and the pledge.", "Màeb. Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth\nhide thee!", "Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;", "Thou hast no speculation⁷ in those eyes", "Which thou dost glare with!", "Lady M.", "Think of this, good peers,", "But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;", "Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.", "1 i. e. prolong his suffering, make his fit longer.", "2 *Flaurs* are sudden guests.", "3 'Impostors to true fear.' Warburton's learning serves him not here; his explanation is erroneous. M alone idly suggests that *to* may be used for *of*. Mason has hit the meaning, though his way of accounting for it is wrong. It seems strange that none of the commen tators should be aware that this was a form of elliptic expression, commonly used even at this day, in the phrase 'this is nothing to them,' i. e. *in comparison* to them.", "4 The same thought occurs in Spenser's Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. viii.:—", "'Be not entombed in the raven or the *kight*.'", "5 Shakspeare uses to *muse* for to *wonder*, to be in *amaze*.", "6 That is, 'we *desire to drink* all good wishes to all.", "7 'Thou hast no speculation in those eyes.' Bullokar, in his Expositor, 1616, explains 'Speculation, the in- ward knowledge or *beholding* of a thing.' Thus, in the 115th Psalm:—'Eyes have they, but see not.'", "8 *Hyrcan* for *Hyrcanian* was the mode of expression at that time.", "9 Pope changed *inhabit*, the reading of the old copy, to *inhibit*, and Steevens altered *then* to *thee*, so that in the late editions this line runs:—", "'If trembling I *inhibit* thee, protest me", "To *inhibit* is to *forbid*, a meaning which will not suit with the context of the passage. The original text is", "Màeb. What man dare, I dare:", "Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,", "The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger,", "Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves", "Shall never tremble: Or, be alive again.", "And dare me to the desert with thy sword:", "If trembling I inhabit⁹ then, protest me", "The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!", "[Ghost disappears.\nUnreal mockery, hence! —Why, so;—being gone,\nI am a man again.—'Pray you, sit still.", "Lady M. You have displac'd the mirth, broke the good meeting,", "With most admir'd disorder.", "Màeb.", "Can such things be,", "And overcome¹⁰ us like a summer's cloud,", "Without our special wonder? You make me strange\nEven to the disposition that I owe,¹¹", "When now I think you can behold such sights,¹²", "And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks,", "When mine are blanch'd with fear.", "Rosse.", "What sights, my lord?", "Lady M. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;", "Question enages him: at once, good night:—", "Stand not upon the order of your going,", "But go at once.", "Good night, and better health", "Attend his majesty!", "Lady M. A kind good night to all!", "[Executive Lords and Attendants,\nMàeb. It will have blood; they say, blood will\nhave blood;", "Stones have been known to move, and trees to\nspeak;", "Augures¹³ and understood relations have,", "By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth", "The secret'st man of blood.—What is the night?", "Lady M. Almost at odds with morning, which is\nwhich.", "Màeb. How say'st thou,¹⁴ that Macduff denies his person,", "At our great bidding?", "Lady M.", "Did you send to him, sir?", "Màeb. I hear it by the way; but I will send:", "There's not a one of them, but in his house", "I keep a servant fee'd. I will, to-morrow,", "(And betimes I will,.) to the weird sisters:", "More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,", "By the worst means, to mine own good,", "All causes shall give way: I am in blood", "Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more,", "Returning were as tedious as go o'er:", "sufficiently plain, and much in Shakspeare's manner.\n'Dare me to the desert with thy sword; if then I do not\nmeet thee there; if trembling I stay in my castle, or any\nhabitation; if I then hide my head, or *duell* in any\nplace through fear, protest me the baby of a girl.' If it\nhad not been for the meddling of Pope and others, this\npassage would have hardly required a note.", "10 'Overcome us,' pass over us without wonder, as a casual summer's cloud passes unregarded.", "11 i. e. possess.", "12 'You strike me with amazement, make me scarce know myself, now when I think that you can behold such sights unmoved,' &c.", "13 i. e. *auguries*, divinations; formerly spelt *augures*, as appears by Florio in *voce augurio*. By *understood relations*, probably, connected circumstances relating to the crime are meant. I am inclined to think that the passage should be pointed thus:—", "'Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak", "Augures; and *understood relations* have,", "By magot-pies, and choughs,

ACT III

## SCENE VI.

## MACBETH.

369

Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;

Which must be acted, ere they may be scanned,¹

Lady M. You lack the season² of all natures,
sleep.

Maeb. Come, we'll to sleep: My strange and self- abuse

Is the initiate fear, that wants hard use:—

We are yet but young, in deed.³

[Exeunt.]

## SCENE V. The Heath. Thunder. Enter HECATE,⁴ meeting the three Witches.

1 Witch. Why, how now, Hecate ? you look
anglerly.

Hec. Have I not reason, beldames, as you are,
Saucy, and overbold? How did you dare

To trade and traffic with Macbeth,

In riddles and affairs of death;

And I, the mistress of your charms,

The close contriver of all harms,

Was never call'd to bear my part,

Or show the glory of our art?

And, which is worse, all you have done

Hath been but for a wayward son,

Spiteful, and for wantful; who, as others do,

Loves for his own ends, not for you.

But make amends now: Get you hence,

And at the pit of Acheron

Meet me i' the morning; thither he

Will come to know his destiny.

Your vessels, and your spells, provide,

Your charms, and every thing beside;

I am for the air; this night I'll spend

Unto a dismal and a fatal end.

Great business must be wrought ere noon:

Upon the corner of the moon

There hangs a vaporous drop profound;⁵

I'll catch it ere it come to ground:

And, that, distill'd by magic slights,⁶

Shall raise such artificial sprights,

As, by the strength of their illusion,

Shall draw him on to his confusion:

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear

His hopes 'above wisdom, grace, and fear :

And you all know, security

Is mortal's chiefest enemy.

Song. [Within.] Come away, come away, §c.⁷

Hark, I am call'd; my little spirit, see,

Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. [Exit.]

1 Witch. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again. [Exeunt.]

## SCENE VI. Fores. A Room in the Palace. Enter LENOX and another Lord.

Len. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,

Which can interpret further: only, I say,

1 i. e. examined nicely.

2 'You lack the season of all natures, sleep.' John-
son explains this, 'You want sleep, which seasons or
gives the relish to all natures.' Indigent somni vitæ con-
dimenti. So in All's Well that Ends Well: ' 'Tis the
best brine a maiden can season her praise in.' It has
however, been suggested that the meaning is, 'You
stand in need of the time or season of sleep which all
natures require.' I incline to the last interpretation.

3 The editions previous to Theobald's read:—

We're but young indeed.⁸

The *initiate fear* is the fear that always attends the first initiation into guilt, before the mind becomes callous and insensible by *hard use* or frequent repetition of it.

4 Shakspeare has been unjustly censured for introdu-
cing Hecate among the vulgar witches, and consequen-
tly for confounding ancient with modern superstitions.
But the poet has elsewhere shown himself well ac-
quainted with the classical connexion which this deity
had with witchcraft. Reginald Scot, in his discovery,
mentions it as the common opinion of all writers, that
witches were supposed to have nightly 'meetings with
Herodias and the Pagan gods,' and that 'in the night
time they ride abroad with Diana, the goddess of the
Panas,' &c. Their dame or chief leader seems al-
ways to have been an old Pagan, as 'the Ladie Sibylla,
Minerva, or Diana.'

5 Steevens remarks that Shakspeare's mythological
knowledge on this occasion appears to have deserted
him; for as Hecate is only one of the three names be-

Things have been strangely borne: The gracious
Duncan

Was pitied of Macbeth:—marry, he was dead:—

And the right-valiant Banquo walk'd too late;

Whom you may say, if it please you, Flence
'kill'd,

For Flence fled. Men must not walk too late.

Who cannot⁸ want the thought, how monstrous

It was for Malcolm, and Donalbain,

To kill their gracious father? damned fact!

How it did grieve Macbeth! did he not straight,

In pious rage, the two delinquents tear,

That were the slaves of drink, and thralls of sleep?

Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too;

For, 'twould have anger'd any heart alive,

To hear the men deny it. So that, I say,

He has borne all things well: and I do think,

That, had he Duncan's sons under his key,
(As, an't please heaven, he shall not,) they should
find

What 'twere to kill a father; so should Flence.

But, peace!—for from broad words, and 'cause he
fail'd

His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,
Macduff lives in disgrace: Sir, can you tell
Where he bestows himself?

Lord.

The son of Duncan,

From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,

Lives in the English court; and is receiv'd

Of the most pious Edward with such grace,

That the malevolence of fortune nothing

Takes from his high respect: Thither Macduff

Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid

To wake Northumberland, and warlike Siward:

That, by the help of these, (with Him above

To ratify the work,) we may again

Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights;

Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives;⁹

Do faithful homage, and receive free honours,¹⁰

All which we pine for now: And this report

Hath so exasperate¹¹ the king, that he

Prepares for some attempt of war.

Len.

Sent he to Macduff?

Lord. He did: and with an absolute, *Sir, not I,*
The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
And hums; as who should say, You'll rue the time
That clogs me with this answer.

And that well might
Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel

Fly to the court of England, and unfold

His message ere he come; that a swift blessing

May soon return to this our suffering country

Under a hand accrurs¹².

Lord. I'll send my prayers with him! [Exeunt.]

longing to the same goddess, she could not properly be
employed in one character to catch a drop that fell from
her in another. In a Midsummer Night's Dream, how-
ever, the poet was sufficiently aware of her threefold
capacity:—

'— fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecat's team.'

The *vaporous drop profound* seems to have been meant for the same as the *virus lunare* of the ancients, being a foam which the moon was supposed to shed on particular herbs, or other objects, when strongly solicited by enchantment.

6 *Slights* are arts, subtle practices.

7 This song is to be found entire in The Witch, by
Middleton.

8 'Who cannot want the thought?' &c. The sense requires ' who can want the thought; ' but it is probably a lapse of the poet's pen.

9 'Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives.'
The construction is:—'Free our feasts and banquets
from bloody knives.'

10 Johnson says, 'Free may be either honours freely
bestowed, not purchased by crimes; or honours without
slavery, without dread of a tyrant.' I have shown in a
note on Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 4, that free meant
a pure, чaste, consequently unspotted, which may be
its meaning here. Free also meant *noble*. See note on
the Second Part of King Henry VI. Act iii. Sc. 1.

11 *Exasperate,* for exasperated.

12 The construction is, 'to this our country, suffering
under a hand accrues.'

47

370

MACBETH.

ACT IV.

### SCENE I.
A dark Cave. In the middle, a
Cauldron boiling. Thunder. Enter the three
Witches.¹

1. Witch. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.

2. Witch. Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd.²

3. Witch. Harper cries:—'Tis time, 'tis time.

1. Witch. Round about the cauldron go;

In the poison'd entrails throw.—

Toad, that under coldest³ stone,

Days and nights hast thirty-one

Swelter'd⁴ venom, sleeping got,

Boil thou first i' the charmed pot!

All. Double, double toil and trouble;

Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.

2. Witch. Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake:

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork, and blind-worm's⁵ sting,

Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Fire, burn; and, cauldron bubble.

3. Witch. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf;

Witch's mummy; maw and gulf⁶

Of the ravin'd⁷ salt-sea shark;

Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark;

Liver of blaspheming Jew;

Gall of goat; and slips of yew,

Sliver'd⁸ in the moon's eclipse;

Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;

Finger of birth-strangled babe,

Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab:

Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,⁹

For the ingredients of our cauldron.

2. Witch. Cool it with a baboon's blood,

Then the charm is firm and good.

Enter HECATE, and the other three Witches.

Hec. O, well done! I commend your pains;

And every one shall share i' the gains.

And now about the cauldron sing,

Like elves and fairies in a ring,

Enchanting all that you put in.

ACT IV.

SONG.¹⁰

Black spirits and white,

Red spirits and gray;

Mingle, mingle, mingle,

You that mingle may.

2. Witch. By the pricking of my thumbs,¹¹
Something wicked this way comes: —
Open, locks, whoever knocks.

Enter MACBETH.

Macb. How now, you secret, black, and midnight
hags?

What is't you do?

All. A deed without a name.

Macb. I conjure you, by that which you profess,
(Howe'er you come to know it), answer me:

Though you untie the winds, and let them fight

Against the churches; though the yesty¹² waves

Confold and swallow navigation up;

Though bladed corn be lodg'd,¹³ and trees blown
down;

Though castles topple¹⁴ on their warders' heads;

Though palaces, and pyramids, do slope

Their heads to their foundations; though the
treasure

Of nature's germinations¹⁵ tumble all together,

Even till destruction sicken, answer me

To what I ask you.

1. Witch. Speak.

2. Witch. Demand.

3. Witch. We'll answer.

1. Witch. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our
mouths?

Or from our masters'?

Macb. Call them, let me see them.

1. Witch. Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten

Her nine farrow;¹⁶ grease, that's sweated

From the murderer's gibbet, throw

Into the flame.

All. Come, high, or low;
Thyself, and office, deftly¹⁷ show.

Thunder. An Apparition of an armed Head rises.¹⁸

Macb. Tell me, thou unknown power, —

1. Witch. He knows thy thought;

Hear his speech, but say thou nought.¹⁹
App. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware
Macduff;

Beware the thane of Fife.—Dismiss me:—
Enough,²⁰

Macb. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution,
thanks;

Thou hast harp'd²¹ my fear aright:—But one word
more:—

1. 'Enter the three Witches.' Dr. Johnson has called the reader's attention to the 'judgment with which Shakspeare has selected all the circumstances of his infernal ceremonies, and how exactly he has conformed to common opinions and traditions.'

2. 'Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whin'd?' The urchin or hedgehog, like the toad, for its solitariness, the ugliness of its appearance, and from a popular belief that it sucked or poisoned the udders of cows, was adopted into the demonologic system; and its shape was sometimes supposed to be assumed by mischievous elves. Hence it was one of the plagues of Caliban in the Tempest.

3. 'Coldest stone.' The old copy reads 'cold stone'; the emendation is Steevens's. Mr. Boswell thinks that the alteration was unnecessary.

4. Sweltered. This word is employed to signify that the animal was moistened with its own cold exudations.

5. The blind-worm is the slow-worm.

6. Gulf, the throat.

7. To ravin according to Minshew is to devour, to eat greedily. Ravin'd, therefore, may be glutted with prey. Unless, with Malone, we suppose that Shakspeare used ravin'd for ravenous, the passive participle for the adjective. In Horman's Vulgaria, 1519, occurs 'Thou art a ravenar of delycious.'

8. Sliver is a common word in the north, where it means to cut a piece or slice.

9. i. e. entrails; a word formerly in common use in books of cookery, in one of which, printed in 1597, is a receipt to make a pudding of a calf's chaldron.

10. 'Black spirits and white.' The original edition of this play only contains the two first words of this song; the rest are in the text.

the entire stanza is found in The Witch, by Middleton, and is there called 'A charmee Song about a Vessel.'
11. 'By the pricking of my thumbs.' It is a very client superstition, that all sudden pains of the body, and other sensations which could not naturally be accounted for, were pressages of somewhat that was shortly to happen.

12. i. e. foaming, frothy.

13. i. e. laid flat by wind or rain.

14. Topple, tumble.

15. Germinens, seeds which have begun to sprout or germinate.

16. 'Pour in sow's blood, that hath eaten
Her nine farrow.'

Shakspeare probably caught this idea from the laws of Kenneth II. king of Scotland: —'If a sow eat her pigges, let hyr be stoned to death and buried, that no man eate of hyr flesh.' —Holinshed's History of Scotland, ed. 1577, p. 181.

17. Deftly is adroitly, dexterously.

18. The armed head represents symbolically Macbeth's head cut off and brought to Malcolm by Macduff. The bloody child is Macduff, untimely ripped from his mother's womb. The child, with a crown on his head and a bough in his hand, is the royal Malcolm, who ordered his soldiers to hew them down a bough, and bear it before them to Dunsinane.

19. Silence was necessary during all incantations.

20. Spirits thus evoked were supposed to be impatient of being questioned.

21. Harp'd, touched on a passion as a harper touches a string.

["Aor IV.", "chunders, 11", "k, and midnight", "a name.", "ch you prove,", "swer me:", "et them fight", "yest?¹² waves", "up;", "and trees blown", "arders' heads;", "slope", "s; though I", "mand.", "We'll answer,", "hear it from our", "me see them.", "at that swan", "or low;", "ow.", "d Head rias.¹⁰", "ower, —", "es thy thought;", "et.¹¹", "cheth! bewa", "issim me—", "[Descends]", "y good canton,", "But one word", "by Middlins,", "Bourdon a Vosse.", "It is a very", "the body, and", "ally be accom-", "un to sproot or", "ten", "From the laws of", "a sow enter air", "buried, that", "history of Soc-", "bologically Mac-", "im by Macduff.", "ripped from his", "own on his head", "al, and bear", "rough, and bear", "to be impain", "harper touches", "## SCENE I.", "## MACBETH.", "371", "1. **Witch.** He will not be commanded: Here's another,", "More potent than the first.", "*Thunder. An Apparition of a bloody Child rises.*", "*App.* Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! !—", "*Macb.* Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.¹", "*App.* Be bloody, bold,", "And resolute: laugh to scorn the power of man,\nFor none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.²", "*Macb.* Then live, Macduff; what need I fear of thee?", "But yet I'll make assurance double sure,", "And take a bond of fate: thou shall not live;", "That I may tell pale-hearted fear, it lies,", "And sleep in spite of thunder.—What is this,", "*Thunder. An Apparition of a Child crowned, with a Tree in his Hand, rises.*", "That rises like the issue of a king;", "And wears upon his baby brow the round", "And top of sovereignty?³", "*All.* Listen, but speak not to't.", "*App.* Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care", "Who chafes, who fretts, or where conspirers are;", "Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be, until", "Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill⁴", "*Macb.* Shall come against him.⁵", "*Macb.* That will never be;", "Unfix his earth-bound root? sweet bcemements!", "good!", "Rebellious head,⁶ rise never, till the wood", "Of Birnam rise, and our high-plac'd Macbeth", "Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath", "To time, and mortal custom.—Yet my heart", "Throbs to know one thing; Tell me, (if your art\nCan tell so much,) shall Banquo's issue ever\nReign in this kingdom?", "*All.* Seek to know no more.", "*Macb.* I will be satisfied: deny me this,", "And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know:—\nWhy sinks that cauldron? and what noise?", "¹¹ **Witch.** Show! ² **Witch.** Show! ³ **Witch.** Show!", "", "*All.* Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;⁸", "Come like shadows, so depart.", "*Eight Kings appear, and pass over the Stage in order; the last with a Glass in his Hand; BANQUO following.*", "*Macb.* Thou art too like the spirit of Banquo;", "down!", "Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs:—And thy hair,", "1. 'Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.¹ This singular expression probably means no more than 'I will listen to thee with all attention.'", "2. 'For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth.'\nSo Holmshed:—And surely hereupon he had put Macduff to death, but that a certeine witch, whom he had in great trust, had told him, that he should never be slaine with man borne of anie woman, nor vanquished till the wood of Bername came to the castle of Dunsinane.¹ This prophecy put all fear out of his heart.¹", "3. The round is that part of a crown which encircles the head: the top is the ornament which rises above it.", "4. The present accent of Dunsinane is right. In every subsequent instance the accent is misplaced.", "5. i. e. command it to serve him like a soldier impressed.", "6. 'Rebellious head.' The old copy reads dead; the emendation is Theobald's.", "7. 'Noise in our old poets is often literally synonymous for music.'", "8. 'Show his eyes, and grieve his heart.' 'And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes, and to grieve thine heart.'—1 Samuel, ii. 33.", "9. i. e. the dissolution of nature. Crack and crash were formerly synonymous.", "10. This method of juggling prophecy is referred to in Measure for Measure, Act ii. Sc. 8.—", "¹— and like a prophet", "Looks in a glass, and shows me future evils.", "In an extract from the Penal Laws against witches, it is", "Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first:—", "A third is like the former:—Filthy hags!", "Why do you show me this?—A fourth?—Start,", "eyes!\nWhat! will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?⁹", "Another yet?—A seventh?—I'll see no more:—", "And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass,¹⁰", "Which shows me many more; and some I see,", "That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry;¹¹", "Horrible sight!—Now, I see, 'tis true;", "For the blood-bolter'd¹² Banquo smiles upon me,", "And points at them for his.—What, is this so?", "1. **Witch.** Ay, sir, all this is so:—But why", "Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?—", "Come, sisters, cheer we up his sprights,¹³", "And show the best of our delights;", "I'll charm the air to give a sound,", "While you perform your antique¹⁴ round:", "That this great king may kindly say,", "Our duties did his welcome pay.", "*[Music. The Witches dance, and vanish.]*", "*Macb.* Where are they? Gone?—Let this per- nicious hour", "Stand aye accursed in the calendar!—", "Come in, without there!", "## Enter LENOX.", "*Len.* What's your grace's will?", "*Macb.* Saw you the wild sisters?", "*Len.* No, my lord.", "*Macb.* Came they not by you?", "*Len.* No, indeed, my lord.", {"bbox": [428, 626, 729, 662], "category": "Text", "text":

MACBETH.

ACT IV.

But no more sights! ---Where are these gentlemen? Come, bring me where they are. [Exeunt.]

### SCENE II. Fife. A Room in Macduff's Castle.
Enter LADY MACDUFF, her Son, and ROSSE.

L. Macd. What had he done, to make him fly the land?

Rosse. You must have patience, madam.

L. Macd. He had none; His flight was madness : When our actions do not, Our fears do make us traitors.¹

Rosse. You know not, Whether it was his wisdom, or his fear.

L. Macb. Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes.

His mansion, and his titles, in a place

From whence himself does fly ? He loves us not; He wants the natural touch²:—for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.

All is the fear, and nothing is the love; As little is the wisdom, where the flight So runs against all reason.

Rosse. My dearest coz', I pray you, school yourself: But, for your husband, He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows

The fits o' the season.³ I dare not speak much further:

But cruel are the times, when we are traitors, And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumour From what we fear, yet know not what we fear;⁴ But float upon a wild and violent sea,

Each way, and move.---I take my leave of you: Shall not be long but I'll be here again:

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before.---My pretty cousin,

Blessing upon you!

L. Macd. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless.

Rosse. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, It would be my disgrace, and your discomfort :

I take my leave at once. [Exit Rosse.]
L. Macd. Sirrah,⁵ your father's dead; And what will you do now? How will you live?

Son. As birds do, mother.

L. Macd. What, with worms and flies?

Son. With what I get, I mean, and so do they.

L. Macd. Poor bird! thou'dst never fear the net, nor lime,

The pit-fall, nor the gin.

Son. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for.

My father is not dead, for all your saying.

L. Macd. Yes, he is dead; how wilt thou do for a father?

Son. Nay, how will you do for a husband?

L. Macd. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.

Son. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again.

L. Macd. Thou speak'st with all thy wit; and yet i' faith,

With wit enough for thee.

Son. Was my father a traitor, mother?

L. Macd. Ay, that he was.

Son. What is a traitor?

L. Macd. Why, one that swears and lies.

Son. And be all traitors, that do so?

L. Macd. Every one that does so, is a traitor, and must be hanged.

1 'Our fears do make us traitors.' Our flight is considered as evidence of our treason.

2 *Natural touch*, natural affection.

3 *The fits o' the season* should appear to be the violent disorders of the season, its convulsions: as we still say figuratively *the temper of the times*.

4 'The best I can make of this passage is,' says Steevens:—'The times are cruel when our fears induce us to believe, or take for granted, what we hear rumoured or reported abroad; and yet at the same time, as we live under a tyrannical government, where *will* is substituted for *law*, we know not what we have to fear, because we know not when we offend.' Or, 'when we are led by our fears to believe every rumour of danger we hear, yet are not conscious to ourselves of any crime for which we should be disturbed with fears.'

Son. And must they all be hanged, that swear and lie?

L. Macd. Every one.

Son. Who must have them?

L. Macd. Why, the honest men.

Son. Then the liars and swearers are fools: for there are liars and swearers enough to beat the honest men, and hang them.

L. Macd. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do for a father?

Son. If he were dead, you'd weep for him: if you were not, it were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.

L. Macd. Poor prattler! how thou talk'st!

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,

Though in your state of honour I am perfect.

I doubt, some danger does approach you nearly: If you will take a homely man's advice,

Be not found here; hence, with your little ones, To fright you thus, methinks, I am too savage; Accounted dangerous folly: Why then, alas!

To do worse to you, were fell cruelty,

Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!

I dare abide no longer. [Exit Messenger.]
L. Macd. Whither should I fly?

I have done no harm. But I remember now

I am in this earthly world; where, to do harm,

Is often laudable; to do good, sometime,

Do I put up that womanly defence,

To say, I have done no harm?—What are these faces?

Enter Murderers.

Mur. Where is your husband?

L. Macd. I hope, in no place so unsanctified, Where such as thou mayst find him.

Mur. He's a traitor.

Son. Thou ly'st, st thou shag-ear'd' villan.

Mur. What, you egg! [Stabbing him.]
Young fry of treachery!

Son. He has killed me, mother.

Run away, I pray you. [Dies.]
[Exit LADY MACDUFF, crying murder, and pursued by the Murderers.

### SCENE III. England. A Room in the King's Palace. Enter MALCOLM and MACDUFF.

Mal. Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there

Weep our sad bosoms empty.

Macd. Let us rather Hold fast the mortal sword; and, like good men, Bestride our downfall'n birthrom:⁹ Each new morn, New widows howl; new orphans cry; new sorrows Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds

As if it felt with Scotland, and yell'd out

Like syllable of dolour.

Mal. What I believe, I'll wail; What know, believe; and, if I can redress, As I shall find the time to friend,¹⁰ I will. What you have spoke, it may be so, perchance. This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, Was once thought honest : you have lov'd him well;

5 *Sirrah* was not in our author's time a term of re-
proach, but sometimes used by masters to servants, pa-
rents to children, &c.

6 i. e. I am perfectly acquainted with your rank.

7 'Shag-ear'd' villain.' It has been suggested that we should read *shag-hair'd*, an abusive epithet frequent in our old plays. *Hair* being formerly spelt *heart*, the corruption would easily arise.

8 This scene is almost literally taken from Hollis-
shed's Chronicle, which is in this part an abridgment
of the chronicle of Hector Boece, as translated by John
Bellenden. From the recent reprints of both the Scot-
tish and English chroniclers, quotations from them be-
come the less necessary; they are now accessible to the
reader curious in tracing the poet to his sources of in-
formation.

9 *Birthrom*, for the place of our birth, our native land.
10 i. e. befriend.

["### SCENE III.", "### MACBETH.", "373", "He hath not something you yet. I am young; but\nsomething to touch", "You may deserve¹ of him through me; and wisdom\nTo offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb,\nTo appease an angry god.", "Macd. I am not treacherous.", "Mal.", "But Macbeth is.", "A good and virtuous nature may recoil,", "In an imperial charge.² But I shall crave your\npardon;", "That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose:", "Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell:", "Though all things foul would wear the brows of\ngrace,", "Yet grace must still look so.³", "Macd.", "I have lost my hopes.", "Mal. Perchance, even there, where I did find\nmy doubts.", "Why in that rawness left you wife and child,\n(Those precious motives, those strong knots oflove,)", "Without leave-taking ?—I pray you,", "Let not my jealousies be your dishonours,", "But mine own safeties :—You may be rightly just,\nWhatever I shall think.", "Macd.", "Bleed, bleed, poor country!", "Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,", "For goodness dares not check thee !—wear thy\nwrongs :—", "The title is affeer'd!⁴—Fare thee well, lord:", "I would not be the villain that thou think'st.", "For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp,\nAnd the rich East to boot.", "Mal.", "Be not offended:", "I speak not as in absolute fear of you.", "I think our country sinks beneath the yoke:", "It weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash\nIs added to her wounds: I think, withal,", "There would be hands uplifted in my right:", "And here, from gracious England, have I offer\nOf goodly thousands: But, for all this,", "When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head,", "Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country\nShall have more vices than it had before;", "More suffer, and more sundry ways than ever,", "By him that shall succeed.", "Macd.", "What should he be?", "Mal. It is myself I mean: in whom I know", "All the particulars of vice so grafted,", "That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth", "Will seem as pure as snow; and the poor state\nEsteem him as a lamb, being compar'd", "With my confineless harms.⁵", "Macd.", "Not in the legions", "Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damn'd\nIn evils, to top Macbeth.", "Mal.", "I grant him bloody,", "Luxurious,⁶ avaricious, false, deceitful,", "Sudden,⁷ malicious, smacking of every sin", "That has a name: But there's no bottom, none,", "In my voluptuousness; your wives, your daughters,", "Your matrons, and your maids, could not fill up", "The cistern of my lust; and my desire\nAll continent impediments would o'erbear,", "That did oppose my will: Better Macbeth,\nThan such a one to reign.", "Macd.", "Boundless intemperance", "In nature is a tyranny; it hath been", "The untimely emptying of the happy throne,", "And fall of many kings. But fear not yet", "To take upon you what is yours: you may", "Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty,", "And yet seem cold, the time you may so hood-wink.", "We have willing dames enough: there cannot be", "That vulture in you, to devour so many", "As will to greatness dedicate themselves,\nFinding it so inclin'd.", "Mal.", "With this, there grows,", "In my most ill-compos'd affection, such", "A staunchless avarice, that, were I king,", "I should cut off the nobles for their lands;", "Desire his jewels, and this other's house:", "And my more-having would be as a sauce", "To make me hunger more: that I should forge", "Quarrels unjust against the good, and loyal", "Destroying them for wealth.", "Macd.", "This avarice", "Sticks deeper; grows with more pernicious root", "Than summer-seeming lust:⁸ and it hath been", "The sword of our slain kings: Yet do not fear;", "Scotland hath fysons⁹ to fill up your will,", "Of your mere own: All these are portable,¹⁰", "With other graces weigh'd.", "Mal. But I have none: The king-becoming\ngraces,", "As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,", "Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,", "Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,", "I have no relish of them; but abound", "In the division of each several crime,", "Acting in many ways. Nay, had I power, I should", "Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell", "Uproar the universal peace, confound", "All unity on earth.", "Macd.", "O Scotland! Scotland!", "Mal. If such a one be fit to govern, speak:\nI am as I have spoken.", "Macd.", "Fit to govern!", "No, not to live.—O nation miserable,", "With an untitled¹¹ tyrant bloody-sceptred,", "When shall thou see thy wholesome days again?", "Since that the truest issue of thy throne", "By his own interdiction stands accursed,", "And does blaspheme his breed?—Thy royal father", "Was a most sainted king; the queen, that bore thee,", "Offener upon her knees than on her feet,", "Died every day she lived.¹² Fare thee well!", "These evils, thou repeat'st upon thyself,", "Have banish'd me from Scotland.—O, my breast,", "Thy hope ends here!", "Macd.", "Macduff, this noble passion,", "Child of integrity, hath from my soul", "Wip'd the black scruples, reconcile'd my thoughts", "¹ 'You may deserve discerne. The emendation was made by Théobald. In the subsequent part of the line something is wanted to complete the sense. There is no verb to which wisdom can refer. Steevens conjectured that the line might originally have run thus: — but something", "— but something", "You may deserve me; and wisdom is it\nTo offer, &c.", "² 'A good and virtuous nature may recoil\nin an imperial charge.'", "A good mind may recede from goodness in the execution\nof a royal commission.", "³ This is not very clear. Johnson has thus attempted\nto explain it: 'My suspicions cannot injure you, if\nyou be virtuous, by supposing that a traitor may put on\nyour virtuous appearance. I do not say that your vir-\ntuous appearance proves you a traitor; for virtue must\nwear its proper form, though that form be counterfeited\nby viliarity.'", "⁴ To affeer is a law term, signifying to assess or reduce to certainty. The meaning therefore may be: —\n' The title is confirmed to the usurper.", "My interpretation of the passage is this: 'Bleed, bleed,", "poor country! Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,\nfor goodness dares not check thee !? Then addressing\nMalcolm, Macduff says, 'Wear thou thy wrongs,—the\ntitle to thy crown is now confirmed—to the usurper, he\nwould probably have added, but that he interrupts\nhimself with angry impatience, at being suspected of\ntraitorous double-dealing.", "5 i. e. immeasurable evils

MACBETH.

ACT IV.

374

To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth
By many of these trains hath sought to win me
Into his power; and modest wisdom plucks me
From over-credulous haste;¹ But God above
Deal between thee and me! for even now
I put myself to thy direction, and
Unspeak mine own detraction: here abjure
The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
For strangers to my nature. I am yet
Unknown to woman; never was forsworn;
Scarcely have coveted what was mine own;
At no time broke my faith; would not betray
The devil to his fellow; and delight
No less in truth, than life: my first false speaking
Was this upon myself: What I am truly,
Is thine, and my poor country's to command:
Whither, indeed, before thy here-approach,
Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men,
All ready at a point, was setting forth:
Now we'll together; And the chance, of goodness,
Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?

Mced. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once,
'Tis hard to reconcile.

Enter a Doctor.

M. Well; more anon.—Comes the king forth,
I pray you?

Doct. Ay, sir: there are a crew of wretched souls,
That stay his cure: their malady convinces
The great assay of art; but at his touch,
Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
They presently amend.

Mal. I thank you, doctor.

[Exit.

Mced. What's the disease he means?
Mal. 'Tis call'd the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures:
Hanging a golden stamp³ about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
To speak him full of grace.

Mal.

Mcd. What's the disease he means?
Mal. 'Tis call'd the evil:
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
The mere despair of surgery, he cures:
Hanging a golden stamp³ about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and 'tis spoken,
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction. With this strange virtue,
He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy;
And sundry blessings hang about his throne,
To speak him full of grace.

Enter ROSSE.

Mcd. See, who comes here?
Mal. My countryman; but yet I know him not.
Mcd. My ever-gentle cousin, welcome hither.
Mal. I know him now: Good God, betimes remove
The means that make us strangers !

Ross.

Sir, Amen.

Mcd. Stands Scotland where it did ?

Rosse.

Alas, poor country !

Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot
Be call'd our mother, but our grave: where nothing,

1 Credulous haste, overhasty credulity.

2 i. e. overcomes it. We have before seen this word used in the same Latin sense, Act i. Sc. 7, of this play. 'To convince or convicte, to vanquish and overcome. Evinco.'—Baret.

3 A golden stamp, the coin called an angel; the value of which was ten shillings.

4 'To rent is an ancient verb, which has been long disused,' say the editors; in other words it is the old orthography of the verb to rend.

5 It has been before observed that Shakspeare uses
ecstasy for every species of alienation of mind, whether
proceeding from sorrow, joy, wonder, or any other ex-
citing cause. Modern is generally used by him in the
sense of common. A modern ecstacy is therefore a
common grief.

6 Thus in Antony and Cleopatra:—

1 We use

To say, the dead are well.

7 To doff is to do off, to put off.

8 To latch (in the North) signifies the same as to

But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
Where sighs, and groans, and shrieks that rent⁴
the air,

Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems
A modern ecstacy:⁵ the dead man's knell

Is there scarce ask'd, for who; and good men's
lives

Expire before the flowers in their caps,

Dying, or ere they sicken.

Mcd.

O, relation,

Too nice, and yet too true!

Mal.

What is the newest grief?

Rosse. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker;

Each minute teems a new one,

Mcd.

How does my wife?

Rosse. Why, well.

Mcd. And all my children?

Rosse.

Well too.⁶

Mcd. The tyrant has not battered at their peace?

Rosse. No; they were well at peace, when I did leave them.

Mcd. Be not a niggard of your speech; How goes it?

Rosse. When I came hither to transport the tid-
ings,

Which have been heavily borne, there ran a rumour
Of many worthy fellows that were out;

Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,
For that I saw the tyrant's power a-foot;

Now is the time of help! your eye in Scotland

Would create soldiers, make our women fight,
To doff their dire distresses.

Mal.

Be it their comfort,

We are coming thither: gracious England hath
Lent us good Siward, and ten thousand men;

An older, and a better soldier, none

That Christendom gives out.

Rosse.

'Would, I could answer

This comfort with the like! But I have words,

That would be howl'd out in the desert air,

Where hearing should not latch⁸ them.

Mal.

What concern they?

The general cause ? or is it a fee-grief,⁹

Due to some single breast?

Rosse.

No mind, that's honest,

But in it shares some woe; though the main part
Pertains to you alone.

Mal.

If it be mine,

Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.

Rosse. Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever,

Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
That ever yet they heard.

Mal.

Humph! I guess at it.

Rosse. Your castle is surpris'd; your wife, and babes,

Savagely slaughter'd: to relate the manner,
Were, on the quarry¹⁰ of these murder'd deer,
To add the death of you.

Mal.

Merciful heaven!—

What, man! ne'er pull your hat upon your brows;
Give sorrow words: the grief that does not speak,
Whispers the o'er fraught heart, and bids it break.¹¹

catch. Thus also Golding, in his translation of the first
book of Ovid's Metamorphoses:—

'As though he would, at everie stride, betweene his
teeth hir latch.'

9 'Or is it a fee-grief,' a peculiar sorrow, a grief that hath but a single owner.

10 *Quarry,* the game after it is killed: it is a term used both in hunting and falconry. The old English term *guerre* is used for the *square* spot wherein the dead game was deposited. *Quarry* is also used for the game pursued.

11 *Curæ leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent.*

'Those are killing griefs which dare not speak.'

Vittoria Corombona.

'Light sorrows often speak,
When great, the heart in silence breake.'

Greene's Tragical History of Faire Bellora.

'Striving to tell his woes, words would not come,
For light cares speak, when mighty griefs are dome.'

Daniel's Complaint of Rosamond.

### SCENE III.

MACBETH.

375

Macc. My children, too?
Rosse. Wife, children, servants, all
That could be found.
Macc. And I must be from thence !
My wife kill'd too?
Rosse. I have said.
M. Be comforted:
Let's make us med'cines of our great revenge,
To cure this deadly grief.
Macc. He has no children.—All my pretty ones?
Did you say, all ?—O, hell-kite !—All ?
What, all my pretty chickens, and their dam,
At one fell swoop ?!
M. Dispute it like a man.²
Macc. I shall do so;
But I must also feel it as a man:
I cannot but remember such things were,
That were most precious to me.—Did heaven look
on,
And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee ! naught that I am,
Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
 Fell slaughter on their souls: Heaven rest them
now!
M. Be this the whetstone of your sword: let
grief
Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
Macc. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes,
And braggart with my tongue! —But, gentle
heavens,
Cut short all intermission :³ front to front,
Thou bring this fief of Scotland, and myself,
Within my sword's length set him ; if he⁴ scape,
Heaven forgive him too !
M. This tune⁵ goes manly.
Come, go we to the king: our power is ready ;
Our lack is nothing but our leave : Macbeth
Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
Put on their instruments.⁶ Receive what cheer
you may;
The night is long that never finds the day.
[Exeunt]

### Enter LADY MACBETH, with a Taper.

Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise;
and, upon my life, fast asleep. Observe her;
stand close.

Doct. How came she by that light ?

Gent. Why, it stood by her: she has light by
her continually; 'tis her command.

Doct. You see her eyes are open.

Gent. Ay, but their sense is shut.⁶

Doct. What is it she does now? Look, how she
rubs her hands.

Gent. It is an accustomed action with her, to
seem thus washing her hands; I have known her
continue in this a quarter of an hour.

Lady M. Yet here's a spot.

Doct. Hark, she speaks: I will set down what
comes from her, to satisfy my remembrance the more
strongly.

Lady M. Out, damned spot! out, I say! —One:
Two: Why, then 'tis time to do't: —Hell is
murky !?—Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard?
What need we fear who knows it, when none can
call our power to account ?—Yet who would have
thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?

Doct. Do you mark that?

Lady M. The thane of Fife had a wife: Where
is she now? —What, will these hands ne'er be
clean ?—No more o' that, my lord, no more o' that:
you mar all with this starting.⁸

Doct. Go to, go to: you have known what you
should not.

Gent. She has spoke what she should not, I am
sure of that: Heaven knows what she has known.

Lady M. Here's the smell of the blood still: all
the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
hand. Oh! oh! oh!

Doct. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely
charged.

Gent. I would not have such a heart in my bosom, for all the dignity of the whole body.

Doct. Well, well, well, —

Gent. 'Pray God, it be, sir.

Doct. This disease is beyond my practice: Yet
I have known those which have walked in their
sleep, who have died holly in their beds.

Lady M. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown; look not so pale: —I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out of his grave.

Doct. Even so?

Lady M. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at
the gate. Come, come, come, come, give me your
hand; What's done, cannot be undone: To bed, to
bed, to bed.
[Exit LADY MACBETH.

Doct. Will she go now to bed?

Gent. Directly.

Doct. Foul whisperings are abroad; Unnatural
deeds

Do breed unnatural troubles: Infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.

More needs she the divine, than the physician.—

God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;

Remove from her the means of all annoyance,

And still keep eyes upon her :—So, good night:

My mind she has mated,⁹ and amaz'd my sight:

I think, but dare not speak.

Gent. Good night, good doctor.
[Exeunt.

### ACT V.

#### SCENE I. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.
Enter a Doctor of Physic, and a Waiting Gentlewoman.

Doct. I have two nights watched with you, but
can perceive no truth in your report. When was it
she last walked?

Gent. Since his majesty went into the field, I
have seen her rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her closet, take forth paper,
fold it, write upon it, read it, afterwards seal it, and
again return to bed; yet all this while in a most fast
sleep.

Doct. A great perturbation in nature! to receive
at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of
watching.—In this slumbery agitation, besides her
walking, and other actual performances, what, at
any time, have you heard her say ?

Gent. That, sir, which I will not report after her.
Doct. You may, to me; and 'tis most meet you
should.

Gent. Neither to you, nor any one; having no
witness to confirm my speech.

1 'At one fell swoop.' Swoop, from the verb to
swoop or sweep, is the descent of a bird of prey on his
quarry

2 i. e. contend with your present sorrow like a man.

3 All intermission, all pause, all intervening time.

4 The old copy reads *time*. The emendation is
Rowe's.

5 i. e. encourage, thrust us their instruments forward
against the tyrant.

6 'Ay, but their sense *are* shut.' The old copy reads
'Ay, but their sense *are* shut.' Malone has quoted other
instances of the same inaccurate grammar, according to
modern notions, from Julius Caesar : —

'The posture of his blows *are* yet unknown.'
And from the hundred and twelfth Sonnet of Shak-
speare: —

'In so profound abysm I throw all care

Of others' voices, that my adder's sense

To criticit and to flatterer stopped *are*.

7 Lady Macbeth, in her dream, imagines herself talking to her husband, who (she supposes) had just said *Hell is murky* (i. e. hell is a dismal place to go to in consequence of such a deed.) and repeats his words in contempt of his cowardice.— *Hell is murky*! —Fye, my lord, fye! a soldier, and afeard? This explanation is by Steevens, and appears to me very judicious.

8 'You may all with this starting.' She is here again alluding to the terrors of Macbeth when the Ghost broke in on the festivity of the banquet.

9 'My mind she has mated.' Mated, or amated, from *matte*, old French, signified to *overcome*, *con found*, dismay, or make afraid.

MACBETH.

ACT V

376

### SCENE II. The Country near Dunsinane. Enter,
with Drum and Colours, MENTHET, CATHNESS,
ANGUS, LENOX, and Soldiers.

Ment. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm.

His uncle Siward,¹ and the good Macduff.

Revenues burn in them: for their dear causes

Would, to the bleeding, and the grim alarm,

Excite the mortified man.²

Ang.

Near Birnam wood

Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.

Cath. Who knows, if Donalbain be with his brother?

Len. For certain, sir, he is not: I have a file

Of all the gentry; there is Siward's son,

And many unrough³ youths, that even now

Protest their first of manhood.

Ment.

What does the tyrant?

Cath. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies:

Some say, he's mad; others, that lesser hate him,

Do call it valiant fury: but, for certain,

He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause

Within the belt of rule.

Ang.

Now does he feel

His secret murders sticking on his hands;

Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;

Those he commands, move only in command,

Nothing in love: now does he feel his title

Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe

Upon a dwarfish thief.

Ment.

His pester'd senses to recoil, and start,

When all that is within him does condemn

Itself, for being there!

Cath.

Well, march we on, we on,

To give obedience where 'tis truly ow'd:

Meet we the medecin⁵ of the sickly weal;

And with him pour we, in our country's purge,

Each drop of us.

Len.

Or so much as it needs,

To dew the sovereign flower, and drown the weeds.

Make we our march towards Birnam.

[Exeunt, marching.]

### SCENE III. Dunsinane. A Room in the Castle.
Enter MACBETH, Doctor, and Attendants.

Macb. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all;

Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane,

I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm!

Was he not born of woman ? The spirits that know

All mortal consequence, have pronounc'd me thus:

Fear not, Macbeth; no man, that's born of woman,

Shall e'er have power upon thee.——Then fly, false thanes,

And mingle with the English epicures:⁶

The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear,

Shall never sagg⁷ with doubt, nor shake with fear.

### Enter a Servant.

The devil damn thee black, thou cream-fac'd loon!⁸

Where gott'st thou that goose look?

Serv. There is ten thousand.

Mach.

Geese, villain?

Serv.

Swords, sir.

Mach. Go, prick thy face, and over-red thy fear,

Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?⁹

Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear.¹⁰ What soldiers, whay-
face?

Serv. The English force, so please you.

Macb. Take thy face hence.—Seyton !—I am sick at heart,

When I behold—Seyton, I say!—This push

Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now,

I have liv'd long enough: my way of life

Is fall'n into the sear,¹¹ the yellow leaf:

And that which should accompany old age,

As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,

I must not look to have; but, in their stead,

Curses, not loud, but deep, mouth-honour, breath,

Which the poor heart would fain deny, but dare not.

Seyton !—

### Enter SEYTON.

Sey. What is your gracious pleasure?

Macb.

What news more?

Sey. All is confirm'd my lord, which was reported.

Macb. I'll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hack'd.

Give me my armour.

Sey.

'Tis not needed yet.

Macb. I'll put it on.

Send out more horses, skirr¹² the country round;

Hang those that talk of fear.—Give me mine armour.

How does your patient, doctor?

Doc.

Not so sick, my lord,

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,

That keep her from her rest.

Macb.

Cure her of that:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd;¹³

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow;

Raze out the written troubles of the brain;

And, with some sweet oblivious antidote,

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff,

Which weighs upon the heart?

Doc.

Therein the patient

Must minister to himself.

Macb. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it:

Come, put mine armour on; give me my staff:—
Seyton, send out.—Doctor, the thanes fly from me:

Come, sir, despatch:—If thou couldst, doctor, cast

The water of my land,¹⁴ find her disease,

9. Patch, an appellation of contempt, signifying fool or low wretched.

10. i. e. they infect others who see them with cowardice. In King Henry V, the King says to the conspirators: 'Your cheeks are paper.'

11. 'Sear is dry, withered.' We have the same expression and sentiment in Spenser's Pastoralæ:—

'Also my lustful leaf is drie and steare;'}

For 'way of life?' Johnston would read 'May of life?' in which he was followed by Steevens and others. Warburton contended for the original reading, and was followed by Mason. At a subsequent period Steevens acquiesced in the propriety of the old reading, way of life, which he interprets, with his predecessors, comes or progress. Malone followed the same tract. The fact is that these ingenious writers have mistaken the phrase, which is neither more nor less than a simple

periphrasis for life.

12. i. secund to the country round.

13. The following very remarkable passage in the Admidig of Bernardo Tasso, which bears a striking resemblance to the words of Macbeth, was first pointed out in Mr. Weber's edition of Ford:—

'Ma chi puote con erbe, ed argomenti

Guaruir Pinfernita del intelletto?

Cant. xxxvi. St. 37.

14. To cast the water was the empire phrase for finding out disorders by the inspection of urine.

ACT V

## SCENE VI.

## MACBETH.

377

And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
I would applaud thee to the very echo,
That should applaud again.—Pull't off, I say.—
What rhubarb, senna,¹ or what purgative drug,
Would scour these English hence?—Hearest thou
of them?

Doct. Ay, my good lord; your royal preparation
Makes us hear something.

Mach. Bring it after me.—

I will not be afraid of death and bane,

Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane.

[Exit.]

Doct. Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
Profit again should hardly draw me here.

[Exit.]

### SCENE IV. Country near Dunsinane: A Wood in view.
Enter, with Drum and Colours, MACCOLM, Old SIWARD and his Son, MACDUFF, MENTETH, CATHNESS, ANGUS, LENOX, ROSSE, and Soldiers, marching.

Mal. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
That chambers will be safe.

Ment. We doubt it nothing.

Siw. What wood is this before us?

Ment. The wood of Birnam.
Mal. Let every soldier hew him down a bough,²
And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery

Err in report of our

Sold. It shall be done.

Siw. We learn no other, but the confident tyrant
Keeps still in Dunsinane, and will endure
Our setting down before us.

Mal. 'Tis his main hope:

For where there is advantage to be given,³

Both more and less⁴ have given him the revolt;

And none serve with him but constrained things,

Whose hearts are absent too.

Mach. Let our just censures

Attend the true event, and put we on

Industrious soldiers.

Siw. The time approaches,

That will with due decision make us know

What we shall say we have, and what we owe.⁵

Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate;

But certain issue strokes must arbitrate:⁶

Towards which, advance the war.

[Exeunt, marching.]

### SCENE V. Dunsinane. Within the Castle. Enter, with Drums and Colours, MACBETH, SEYTON, and Soldiers.

Mach. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;

The cry is still, 'They come!' Our castle's strength
Will laugh a siege to scorn: here let them lie,

Till famine and the ague, eat them up!

Were they not forc'd with those that should be ours,

We might have met them careful, beard to beard,

And beat them backward home. What is that

noise?

[A cry within, of women.]

1 'What rhubarb, senna.' The old copy reads cymae.
The emendation is Rowe's.

2 A similar incident is recorded by Olaus Magnus, in his Northern History, lib. vii. cap. xx. De Strategematele Hachonis per Frondes.

3 'For where there is advantage to be given.' Dr. Johnson thought that we should read: —

where there is a *vantage* to be *gone*.

I. e. where there is an opportunity to be gone, all ranks
desert him. We might perhaps read: —

— 'where there is advantage to be *gained*; '

and the sense would be nearly similar, with less violence to the text of the old copy.

4 i. e. Greater and less, or high and low, those of all ranks.

5 'What we shall say we have, and what we owe.' I think, with Mason, that Siward only means to say, in more pompous language, that the time approached which was to decide their fate.

6 *Arbitrate*, determine.

7 It has been understood that local rhymes were introduced in plays to afford an actor the advantage of a more pointed exit, or to close the scene with additional force. Yet, whatever might be Shakespeare's motive for continuing such a practice, he often seems immediately to repent of it; and in this tragedy, as in other places, has repeatedly counteracted by hemistichs, which de-

Sey. It is the cry of women, my good lord.

Macc. I have almost forgot the taste of fears:

The time has been, my senses would have cool'd

To hear a night-shriek; and my fell⁶ of hair

Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir

As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;

Direnness, familiar to my slaught'rous thoughts,

Cannot once start me.—Wherefore was that cry?

Sey. The queen, my lord, is dead.

Macc. She should have died hereafter;

There would have been a time for such a word.⁹

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;¹⁰

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.—

Enter a Messenger.

Thou com'st to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.

Mess. Gracious my lord,

I shall report that which I say I saw,

But know not how to do it.

Mach. Well, say, sir.

Mess. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,

I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,

The wood began to move.

Mach. Liar and slave!¹¹

Mess. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so:

Within this three mile may you see it coming;

I say, a moving grove.

Mach. If thou speak'st false,

Upon the next tree shall thou hang alive,

Till famine cling¹² thee: if thy speech be sooth,

I care not if thou dost for me as much.—

I fall in resolution; and begin

To doubt the equivocation of the fiend,

That lies like truth: *Fear not, till Birnam wood*

*Do come to Dunsinane*;—and now a wood

Comes toward Dunsinane.—Arm, arm, and out!—

If this, which he avouches, does appear,

There is nor flying hence, nor tarrying here.

I'gin to be a-weaky of the sun,

And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.—

Ring the alarum-bell.—Blow, wind! come, wrack!

At least we'll die with harness¹³ on our back.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE VI. The same. A Plain before the Castle. Enter with Drums and Colours, MACCOLM, Old SIWARD, MACDUFF, &c. and their Army, with Boughs.

Mal. Now near enough; your leavy screens
throw down,

stroy the effect, and defeat the supposed purpose of the
antecedent couples.

8 — 'my fell of hair,' my hairy part, *my capillitium*.

Fell is skin, properly a sheep's skin with the wool on it.

9 'There would have been a time for such a word.' Macheth might mean that there would have been a more convenient time for such a word, for such *intelligence*. By a word certainly more than a single one was meant.

10 'The last syllable of recorded time' seems to signify the utmost period fixed in the decrees of heaven for the period of life. The *record of futurity* is indeed no accurate expression; but as we only know transactions, past or present, the language of men affords no term for the volumes of prescience in which future events may be supposed to be written.

11 [Striking him] says the stage direction in the margin of all the modern editions: but this stage direction is not in the old copies: it was first interpolated by Rowe; and is now omitted on the suggestion of the late Mr. Kemble. See his Essay on Macbeth and King Richard III. Lond. 1817, p. 111.

12 To *cling*, in the northern counties, signifies to shrivel, wither, or dry up. *Clung-wood* is wood of which the sap is entirely dried or spent. The same idea is well expressed by Pope in his version of the nineteenth Iliad, 166: —

'Clung with dry famine, and with toils declin'd.'

13 *Harness*, armour.

48

MACBETH.

ACT V.

378

And show like those you are:—You, worthy uncle,
Shall, with my cousin, your right noble son,
Lead our first battle: worthy Macduff, and we,
Shall take upon us¹ what else remains to do,
According to our order.

Siw.

Do we but find the tyrant's power to-night,

Let us be beaten, if we cannot fight.

Macb. Make all our trumpets speak; give them
all breath,

Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.

[Exeunt. Alarums continued.

### SCENE VII. The same. Another part of the
Plain. Enter MACBETH.

Macb. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
But, bearlike, I must fight the course.²—What's he,
That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.

Enter Young SIWARD.

Yo. Siw. What is thy name?

Macb.

Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.

Yo. Siw. No; though thou call'st thyself a hot-
ter name

Than any is in hell.

Macb.

My name's Macbeth.

Yo. Siw. The devil himself could not pronounce
a title

More hateful to mine ear.

Macb.

No, nor more fearful.

Yo. Siw. Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my
sword

I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.

[They fight, and Young Siward is slain.

Macb.

Thou wast born of woman.—
But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born. [Exit.

Alarums. Enter MACDUFF.

Macd. That way the noise is:—Tyrant show
thy face:

If thou be'st slain, and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kernels, whose arms
Are hir'd to bear their staves; either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note,
Seems bruited :3 Let me find him, fortune !

And more I beg not.

[Exit. Alarum.

Enter MALCOLM and Old SIWARD.

Siw. This way, my lord;—the castle's gently
render'd:

The tyrant's people on both sides do fight;

The noble thanes do bravely in the war;

The day almost itself professes yours,

And little is to do.

Mal.

That strike beside us.

Siw.

Enter, sir, the castle.

[Exeunt. Alarum.

Re-enter MACBETH.

Macb. Why should I play the Roman fool, and
die⁴

On mine own sword? whiles I see lives the gashes
Do better upon them.

Re-enter MACDUFF

Macd.

Turn, hell-hound, turn.

Macb. Of all men else I have avoided thee:
But get thee back, my soul is too much charg'd
With blood of thine already.

Macd.

I have no words,

My voice is in my sword;⁵ thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out.

[They fight.

Macb.

Thou lostest labour:

As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air⁶

With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:

Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;

I bear a charmed life,' which must not yield
To one of woman born.

Macd.

Despair thy charm:

And let the angel, whom thou still hast serv'd,
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.

Macb. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man:

And be these juggling fiends no more believ'd,

That palter⁸ with us in a double sense;

That keep the word of promise to our ear,

And break it to our hope.—I'll not fight with thee.

Macd. Then yield thee, coward,

And live to be the show and gaze o' the time.

We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,

Painted upon a pole; and underwrit,

Here may you see the tyrant.

Macb.

I'll not yield

To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
And to be baited by the rabbile's curse.

Though Birnam wood be come to Dunsinane,

And thou oppos'd, being of no woman born,

Yet I will try the last: Before my body

I throw my warlike shield; lay on, Macduff;

And damn'd be him that first cries, Hold, enough.⁹

[Exeunt, fighting.

Retreat. Flourish. Re-enter, with Drum and Couriers, MALCOLM, Old SIWARD, Rosse, Lexox, ANGUS, CATHNESS, MENTETH, and Soldiers.

Mal. I would, the friends we miss were safe ar-
riv'd.

Siw. Some must go off: and yet, by these I see,
So great a day as this is cheaply bought,

Mal. Macduff is missing, and your noble son,

Rosse. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's
debt;

He only liv'd but till he was a man:

The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd

In the unshrinking station where he fought,

But like a man he died.

Siw.

Then he is dead ?

Rosse. Ay, and brought off the field: your cause
of sorrow

Must not be measur'd by his worth, for then

It hath no end.

Siw.

Had he his hurts before?

Rosse.

Ay, on the front.

Siw.

Why then, God's soldier be he!

Had I as many sons as I have hairs,

I would not wish them to a fairer death:¹⁰

And so his knell is knoll'd.

1 The first folio reads *upon's*.

2 'But, bearlike, I must fight the course.' This was a phrase at bear-baiting. ³ Also you shall see two ten dog courses at the great bear.⁴—Antipodes, by Brome.

3 Bruited is reported, noised abroad; from bruit, Fr.

4 'Why should I play the Roman fool, and die.' Al-
luding probably to the suicide of Cato of Utica.

5 'My voice is in my sword.' Thus Casca, in Julius

Cæsar:—

'Speak, hands, for me.'

6 'The intrenchant air,' the air which cannot be cut.

7 'I bear a charmed life.' In the days of chivalry,
the champion's arms being ceremoniously blessed, each
took an oath that he used no charmed weapons. Mac-
beth, in allusion to this custom, tells Macduff of the se-
curity he had in the prediction of the spirit.

8 'That palter with us in a double sense.' That
shuffle with ambiguous expressions.

9 To cry hold! was the word of yielding (according
to Cæsar's survey of Cornwall, p. 74.) that is when
one of the combatants cries so. To cry hold: when
persons were fighting, was an authoritative way of sep-
arating them, according to the old military laws. This
is shown by the following passage produced by Mr.
Tollet: it declares it to be a capital offence: 'Whosoever
shall strike stroke at his adversary, either in the heat
or otherwise, if a third do cry hold, to the intent to part
them.'—Bellay's Instructions for the Wars, 1599.

10 'When Siward, the martial Earl of Northumberland, understood that his son, whom he had sent against the Scotchmen, was slain, he demanded' whether his wounds were in the fore part or hinder part of his body. When it was answered, 'In the fore part?' he replied, "I am right glad; neither wish I any other death to me or mine."—Cæsarne's Remaines.

KING JOHN.

Act I.

380

pomp; for the very reason that they possess but little
true grandeur. The falsehood and selfishness of the
monarch are evident in the style of the manifesto;
conventional dignity is most indispensable when per-
sonal dignity is wanting. Faulconbridge ridicules the
secret springs of politics without disapproving them, but
frankly confesses that he is endeavouring to make his

fortune by similar means, and wishes rather to belong
to the deceivers and the deceived. Our commiseration
is a little excited for the fallen and degraded monarch
toward the close of the play. The death of the king
and his previous suffering are not among the least im-
pressive parts; they carry a pointed moral.

Malone places the date of the composition in 1596.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING JOHN:

PRINCE HENRY, his Son; afterwards King Henry III.

ARTHUR, Duke of Bretagne, Son of Geoffrey, late
Duke of Bretagne, the elder Brother of King John.

WILLIAM MARESHALL, Earl of Pembroke.

GEFFREY FITZ-PETER, Earl of Essex, chief Jus-
ticiary of England.

WILLIAM LONGSWORD, Earl of Salisbury.

ROBERT BIGOT, Earl of Norfolk.

HUBERT DE BURGH, Chamberlain to the King.

ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE, Son of Sir Robert
Faulconbridge:

PHILIP FAULCONBRIDGE, his Half-brother, Bastard Son to King Richard the First.

JAMES GURNEY, Servant to Lady Faulconbridge.

PETER of Pomfret, a Prophet.

PHILIP, King of France.

LEWIS, the Dauphin.

ARCHDUKE OF AUSTRIA

CARDINAL PANDULPH, the Pope's Legate.

MELUN, a French Lord.

CHATILLON, Ambassador from France to King
John.

ELINOR, the Widow of King Henry II. and Mother
of King John.

CONSTANCE, Mother to Arthur.

BLANCH, Daughter to Alphonso, King of Castile,
and Niece to King John.

LADY FAULCONBRIDGE, Mother to the Bastard and
Robert Faulconbridge.

Lords, Ladies, Citizens of Angiers, Sheriff, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, and other Attendants.

SCENE, sometimes in England, and sometimes in
France.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Northampton. A Room of State in
the Palace. Enter KING JOHN, QUEEN ELINOR,
PEMBROKE, ESSEX, SALISBURY, and others, with
CHATILLON.

King John.

Now, say, Chatillon, what would France with us?

Chat. Thus, after greeting, speaks the king of
France,

In my behaviour,¹ to the majesty,

The borrow'd majesty of England here.

Eli. A strange beginning;—borrow'd majesty!

K. John. Silence, good mother; hear the em-
bassy.

Chat. Philip of France, in right and true behalf

Of thy deceased brother Geoffrey's son,

Arthur Plantagenet, lays most lawful claim

To this fair island, and the territories;

To Ireland, Poictiers, Anjou, Touraine, Maine:

Desiring thee to lay aside the sword,

Which sways usurpingly these several titles;

And put the same into young Arthur's hand,

Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.

K. John. What follows, if we disallow of this?

Chat. The proud control² of fierce and bloody
war,

To enforce these rights so forcibly withheld.

K. John. Here have we war for war, and blood
for blood,

Controlment for controlment: so answer France.

Chat. Then take my king's defiance from my
mouth,

The furthest limit of my embassy.

K. John. Bear mine to him, and so depart in
peace:

Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France;

For ere thou canst report I will be there,

The thunder of my cannon shall be heard:

So, hence! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath,
And sullen³ presage of your own decay.—

An honourable conduct let him have:—

Pembroke, look to't; Farewell, Chatillon.

[Exeunt CHATILLON and PEMBROKE.

Eli. What now, my son? have I not ever said,
How that ambitious Constance would not cease,
Till she had kindled France, and all the world,
Upon the right and party of her son?

This might have been prevented and made whole,

With very easy arguments of love!

Which now the manage² of two kingdoms must

With fearful bloody issue arbitrate.

K. John. Our strong possession, and our right
for us?

Eli. Your strong possession, much more than
your right;

Or else it must go wrong with you, and me:

So much my conscience whispers in your ear;

Which none but heaven, and you, and I, shall hear.

Enter the Sheriff of Northamptonshire, who
whispers Essex.

Essex. My liege, here is the strangest contro-
versy,

Come from the country to be judg'd by you,

That e'er I heard: Shall I produce the men?

K. John. Let them approach.— [Exit Sheriff.

Our abies, and our priories, shall pay

Re-enter Sheriff, with ROBERT FAULCONBRIDGE,
and PHILIP, his bastard Brother.²

This expedition's charge.—What men are you?

Bast. Your faithful subject, I, a gentleman,

Born in Northamptonshire; and eldest son,

As I suppose, to Robert Faulconbridge;

A soldier, by the honour-giving hand

Of Cœur-de-lion knighted in the field.

K. John. What art thou ?

1 In my behaviour probably means ‘In the words and action I am now going to use.’

2 Control here means constraint or compulsion.

3 i. e. gloomy, dismal.

4 i. e. conduct, administration.

5 Shakspeare in adopting the character of Philip
Faulconbridge from the old play, proceeded on the fol-
lowing slight hint :—

‘Next them a bastard of the king’s deceas’d,

A hardie wild-head, rough and venturous.’

The character is compounded of two distinct person-

ages. ‘Sub illius temporis curriculo Falcasius de
Brenſte, Neuteriensi, et spurius ex parte matris, atque
Bastardus, qui in villi jumento manticato ad Regis paulo
ante clientelam descenderat.’ *Matheu Paris.*—Ho-
linshed says that ‘Richard I. had a natural son named
Philip, who, in the year following, killed the Viscount
de Limoges to revenge the death of his father.’ Perhaps
the name of Faulconbridge was suggested by the fol-
lowing passage in the continuation of Harding’s Chron-
cle, 1543, fol. 24, 6:—‘One *Faulconbridge*, the erie
of Kent his *bastarde*, a stoute-hearted man.’

["## SCENE I.", "## KING JOHN.", "381", "Rob. The son and heir to that same Faulcon-\nbridge.", "K. John. Is that the elder, and art thou the heir?\nYou came not of one mother then, it seems.", "Bast. Most certain of one mother, mighty king,\nThat is well known; and, as I think, one father:\nBut, for the certain knowledge of that truth,\nI put you o'er to heaven, and to my mother;\nOf that I doubt, as all men's children may.", "Eli. Out on thee, rude man! thou dost shame\nthy mother,", "And wound her honour with this diffidence.", "Bast. I, madam? no, I have no reason for it;\nThat is my brother's plea, and none of mine;\nThe which if he can prove, 'a pops me out", "At least from fair five hundred pound a year;", "Heaven guard my mother's honour, and my land!", "K. John. A good blunt fellow: —Why, being", "younger born,", "Doth he lay claim to thine inheritance?", "Bast. I know not why, except to get the land.", "But once he slander'd me with bastardy:", "But wher!¹ I be as true begot, or not?", "That still I lay upon my mother's head;", "But, that I am as well begot, my liege,", "(Fair fall the bones that took the pains for me!)", "Compare our faces, and be judge yourself.", "If old Sir Robert did beget me both,", "And were our father, and this son like him; —", "0 old Sir Robert, father, on my knee", "I give heaven thanks, I was not like to thee.", "K. John. Why, what a madeup hath heaven lent\nus here!", "Eli. He hath a trick² of Cœur-de-lion's face,", "The accent of his tongue affecteth him:", "Do you not read some tokens of my son", "In the large composition of this man?", "K. John. Mine eye hath well examined his parts,\nAnd finds them perfect Richard.—Sirrah, speak,\nWhat doth move you to claim your brother's land?", "Bast. Because he hath a half-face, like my father;", "With that half face would he have all my land:\nA half-faced groat³ five hundred pound a year!", "Rob. My gracious liege, when that my father liv'd,", "Your brother did employ my father much; —", "Bast. Well, sir, by this you cannot get my land;", "Your tale must be how he employ'd my mother.", "Rob. And once despatch'd him in an embassy\nTo Germany, there, with the emperor,", "To treat of high affairs touching that time:", "The advantage of his absence took the king,", "And in the mean time sojourn'd at my father's;", "Where how he did prevail, I shame to speak:", "But truth is truth; large lengths of seas and shores⁴", "Between my father and my mother lay", "(As I have heard my father speak himself!)", "When this same lusty gentleman was got.", "Upon his death-bed he by will bequeath'd", "His lands to me; and took it, on his death,", "That this my mother's son was none of his;", "And, if he were, he came into the world", "Full fourteen weeks before the course of time.", "Then, good my liege, let me have what is mine,", "My father's land, as was my father's will.", "1 Whether.", "2 Shakspeare uses the word *trick* generally in the sense of 'a peculiar air or cast of countenance or feature.'", "3 The poet makes Faulconbridge allude to the silver groats of Henry VII. and Henry VIII. which had on them a half-face or profile. In the reign of John there were no groats at all, the first being coined in the reign of Edward III.", "4 This is Homeric, and is thus rendered by Chapman in the first Iliad: —", "— '— hills enow, and farre-resounding seas", "Powre out their shades and deepes betweene.'", "5 i.e. 'this is a decisive argument.'", "6 *Lord of thy presence* means *possessor of thy own dignified and manly appearance*, resembling thy great progenitor.", "7 *Sir Robert his for ' Sir Robert's ; his*, according to a mistaken notion formerly received, being the sign of the genitive case.", "K. John. Sirrah, your brother in legitimate;", "Your father's wife did after wedlock bear him:", "And, if she did play false, the fault was hers;", "Which fault lies on the hazards of all husbands", "That marry wives. Tell me, how if my brother,", "Who, as you say, took pains to get this son,", "Had of your father claim'd this son for his?", "In smooth, good friend, your father might have kept", "This calf, bred from his cow, from all the world;", "In smooth, he might: then, if he were my brother's,", "My brother might not claim him; nor your father,", "Being none of his, refuse him: This concludes,⁵—", "My mother's son did get your father's heir;", "Your father's heir must have your father's land.", "Rob. Shall then my father's will be of no force,", "To dispossess that child which is not his?", "Bast. Of no more force to dispossess me, sir,", "Than was his will to get me, as I think.", "Eli. Whether hadst thou rather,—be a Faulcon-\nbridge,", "And like thy brother, to enjoy thy land;", "Or the reputed son of Cœur-de-lion,", "Lord of thy presence,⁶ and no land beside?", "Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape,", "And I had him, Sir Robert his,⁷ like him:", "And if my legs were too such riding-rods,", "My arms such cel-skins stuff'd; my face so thin,", "That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,", "Lest men should say, Look, where three-farthings⁸\ngoes!", "And, to his shape, were heir to all this land,", "'Would, I might never stir from off this place,", "I'd give it every foot to have this face;", "I would not be sir Nob!⁹ in any case.", "Eli. I like thee well; Wilt thou forsake thy fortune,", "Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me?", "I am a soldier, and now bound to France.", "Bast. Brother, take you my land, I'll take my", "chance:", "Your face hath got five hundred pounds a year;", "Yet sell your face for five pence, and 'tis dear.", "Madam, I'll follow you unto the death.", "Eli. Nay, I would have you go before me thither.", "Bast. Our country manners give our betters way.", "K. John. What is thy name?", "Bast. Philip, my liege; so is my name begun;", "Philip, good old Sir Robert's wife's eldest son.", "K. John. From henceforth bear his name whose", "hand;", "My father gave me honour, yours gave land:", "Now blessed be the hour by night or day,", "When I was got, Sir Robert was away.", "Eli. The very spirit of Plantagenet! —", "I am thy grandame, Richard; call me so.", "Bast. Madam, by chance, but not by truth:", "What though?", "Something about, a little from the right,", "In at the window, or else o'er the hatch :¹³", "Who dares not stir by day, must walk by night;", "And haye is haye, however men do catch:", "Near or far off, well won is still well shot;", "And I am I, howe'er I was begot.", "8 Queen Elizabeth coined threepenny, threehalf-\npenny, and threefarthing pieces; these pieces all had\nher head on the obverse, and some of them a rose on\nthe reverse. Being of silver, they were extremely thin;\nand hence the allusion. The roses stuck in the ear, or\nin a lock near it, were generally of ribbon; but Burton\nsays that it was once the fashion to

["392", "KING JOHN.", "ACT I.", "K. John. Go, Faulconbridge; now hast thou thy", "desire,", "A landless knight makes thee a landed squire.—\nCome, madam, and come, Richard; we must speed\nFor France, for France; for it is more than need.", "Bast. Brother, adieu! Good fortune come to thee!\nFor thou wast got i' the way of honesty.", "[Exeunt all but the Bastard.", "A foot of honour better than I was;", "But many a many foot of land the worse.\nWell, now can I make any Joan a lady:—", "Good den,<sup>1</sup> Sir Richard,—God-a-mercy, fellow;", "And if his name be George, I'll call him Peter:\nFor new-made honour doth forget men's names;\n'Tis too respective,<sup>2</sup> and too sociable,", "For your conversion.<sup>3</sup> Now your traveller,<sup>4</sup>—", "He and his toothpick at my worship's mess;<sup>5</sup>", "And when my knightly stomach is suffic'd,", "Why then I suck my teeth, and catechise", "My picked man of countries:<sup>6</sup>—My dear sir\n(Thus, leaning on my elbow, I begin.)", "I shall beseech you—That is question now;", "And then comes answer like an A B C-book:—", "O sir, says answer, at your best command;", "At your employment; at your service, sir:—", "No, sir, says question, I, sweet sir, at yours;", "And, so, ere answer knows what question would\n(Saving in dialogue of compliment;", "And talking of the Alps, and Apennines,", "The Pyrenean, and the river Po<sup>7</sup>.)", "It draws towards supper in conclusion so.\nBut this is worshipful society,", "And fits the mounting spirit, like myself:", "For he is but a bastard to the time,", "That doth not smack of observation:<sup>8</sup>", "(And so am I, whether I smack, or no;)", "And not alone in habit and device,", "Exterior form, outward accoutrement;", "But from the inward motion to deliver", "Sweet, sweet, sweet poison for the age's tooth:", "Which, though I will not practise to deceive,", "Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn;", "For it shall strew the footsteps of my rising.—", "But who comes in such haste, in riding robes?", "That woman-post is this? hath she no husband,", "That will take pains to blow a horn before her?<sup>9</sup>", "Enter LADY FAULCONBRIDGE and JAMES\nGURNEY.", "O me! it is my mother;—How now, good lady?", "What brings you here to court so hastily?", "Lady F. Where is that slave, thy mother? where\nis he?", "That holds in chase mine honour up and down?", "1 Good evening.", "2 Respective does not here mean *respectful*, as the\ncommentators have explained it, but *considerative*, *re-\ngardful*.", "3 Change of condition.", "4 It is said, in All's Well that Ends Well, that 'a\ntraveller is a good thing after dinner.' In that age of\nnewly excited curiosity, one of the entertainments at\ngreat tables seems to have been the discourse of a travel-\ner. To use a toothpick seems to have been one of the\ncharacteristics of a travelled man who affected foreign\nfashions.", "5 'At my worship's mess' means at that part of the\ntable where I, as a *knight*, shall be placed. See note\non All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. Sc. 2.—'Your\nworship' was the regular address to a knight or esquire,\nBasilisco swear upon his dagger to the contents, and in\nthe terms he dictates; thus:—", "6 My picked man of countries may be equivalent to\nmy travelled fop: picked generally signified affected,\nover nice, or curious in dress. Conquisite is explained\nin the dictionaries exquisitely, pikedly: so that our\nmodern exquisities and dandies are of the same race.", "7 An ABC or *absey-book*, as it was then called, is a\n*catechism*.", "8 I. e. he is accounted but a mean man, in the pre-\nsent age, who does not show by his dress, deportment,\nand talk, that he has travelled and made observations\nin foreign countries.", "9 Shakspeare probably meant to insinuate that a\nwoman who travels about like a *post* was likely to horn\nher husband.", "10 Colbrand was a Danish giant, whom Guy of War-", "Bast. My brother Robert? old Sir Robert's son?\nColbrand the giant,<sup>10</sup> that same mighty man?", "Is it Sir Robert's son, that you seek so?", "Lady F. Sir Robert's son! Ay, thou unreverend boy,\nSir Robert's son! Why scorn'st thou at Sir Robert?\nHe is Sir Robert's son; and so art thou.", "Bast. James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave\nawhile!", "Gur. Good leave, good Philip.", "Philip ?—sparrow!—James,\nThere's toys abroad;<sup>12</sup> anon I'll tell thee more.", "[Exit GURNEY.", "Madam, I was not old Sir Robert's son;", "Sir Robert might have eat his part in me", "Upon Good Friday, and ne'er broke his fast;", "Sir Robert could do well; Marry, (to confess!)", "Could he get me? Sir Robert could not do it;", "We know his handy-work:—Therefore, good mother,", "To whom am I beholden for these limbs?", "Sir Robert never hollp to make this leg.", "Lady F. Hast thou conspired with thy brother too,", "That for thine own gain should'st defend mine\nhonour?", "What means this scorn, thou most untoward knave?", "Bast. Knight, knight, good mother,—Basilisco-\nlike:<sup>13</sup>", "What! I am dubb'd; I have it on my shoulder.", "But, mother, I am not Sir Robert's son;", "I have disclaim'd Sir Robert, and my land;", "Legitimation, name, and all is gone;", "Then, good my mother, let me know my father;", "Some proper man, I hope; Who was it, mother?", "Lady F. Hast thou denied thyself a Faulconbridge?", "Bast. As faithfully as I deny the devil.", "Lady F. King Richard Cœur-de-lion was thy\nfather;", "By long and vehement suit I was seduc'd", "To make room for him in my husband's bed:—", "Heaven, lay not my transgression to my charge!", "Thou art the issue of my dear offence,", "Which was so strongly urg'd, past my defence.", "Bast. Now, by this light, were I to get again,", "Madam, I would not wish a better father.", "Some sins do bear their privilege on earth,", "And so doth yours; your fault was not your folly:", "Needs must you lay your heart at his dispose—", "Subjected tribute to commanding love,", "Against whose fury and unmatched force", "The awless lion could not wade the fight,", "Nor keep his princely heart from Richard's hand.", "He, that performs robps lions of their hearts,<sup>14</sup>", "May easily win a woman's. Ay, my mother,", "With all my heart I thank thee! for my father!", "wick discomfited in the presence of King Athelstan. The\nHistory of Guy was a popular book in the poet's age.\nDrayton has described the combat very pomposly in\nhis Polybolion.", "11 The Bastard means 'Philip! Do you take me for a\nsparrow?' The sparrow was called Philip from its\nnote, which was supposed to have some resemblance to\nthat word, 'Philip Philip the sparrows as they fly.'—'Lily's\nMother Bombie.'", "12 I. e. rumours, idle reports.", "13 This is a piece of satire in the stupid old drama of\nSoliman and Perseda, printed in 1599, which had proba-\nbly become the butt for stage sarcasm. In this piece\nthere is a bragging cowardly knight called Basilisco.\nHis pretension to valour is so blown and seen through\nthat Piston, a buffoon servant in the play, jumps upon\nhis back, and will not disengage him till he makes\nBasilisco swear upon his dagger to the contents, and in\nthe terms he dictates; thus:—", "Bas. O, I swear, I swear.", "Pist. By the contents of this blade,—", "Bas. By the contents of this blade,—", "Pist. I, the aforesaid Basilisco—", "Bas. I, the aforesaid Basilisco,—knight, good fellow,", "Pist. Knave, good fellow, knave.", "14 Shakspeare alludes to the fabulous history of King\nRichard I. which says that he derived his appellation of\n*Cœur de Lion* from having plucked out a lion's heart,\nto whose fury he had been exposed by the Duke of\nAustria for having slain his son with a blow of his fist.\nThe story is related in several of

["ACT I.", "Robert's son\na'ty son\n? I was got, I'll send his soul to hell.\nCome, lady, I will show thee to my kin;\nAnd they shall say, when Richard me begot,\nIf thou hadst said him nay, it had been sin:\nWho says it was, he lies; I say, 'twas not.", "### SCENE I.", "KING JOHN.", "393", "", "", "", "", "", "[Exeunt.]", "### ACT II.", "#### SCENE I. France. Before the Walls of Angiers.", "*Enter, on one side, the Archduke of Austria,¹ and Forces; on the other, PHILIP, King of France, and Forces; LEWIS, CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and Attendants.*", "*Lew. Before Angiers well met, brave Austria.—Arthur, that great forerunner of thy blood, Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart, And fought the holy wars in Palestine, By this brave duke came early to his grave: And, for amends to his posterity, At our importance,² hither is he come, To spread his colours, boy, in thy behalf; And to rebuke the usurpation Of thy unnatural uncle, English John:*", "*Embrace him, love him, give him welcome hither.*", "*Arth. God shall forgive you Cœur-de-lion's death, The rather, that you give his offspring life, Shadowing their right under your wings of war I give you welcome with a powerless hand, But with a heart full of unstained love:*", "*Welcome before the gates of Angiers, duke.*", "*Lew. A noble boy! Who would not do the right?*", "*Aust. Upon thy cheek lay I this zealous kiss,*", "*As seal to this indenture of my love;*", "*That to my home I would no more return,*", "*Till Angiers, and the right thou hast in France,*", "*Together with that pale, that white-fac'd shore,*", "*Whose foot spurns back the ocean's floating tides,*", "*And coops from other lands her islanders,*", "*Even till that England, hedg'd in with the main,*", "*That water-walled bulwark, still secure*", "*And confident from foreign purposes,*", "*Even till that utmost corner of the west*", "*Salute thee for her king: till then, fair boy,*", "*Will I not think of home, but follow arms.*", "*Const. O, take his mother's thanks, a widow's thanks,*", "*Till your strong hand shall help to give him strength, To make a more³ requital to your love.*", "*Aust. The peace of heaven is theirs, that lift their swords*", "*In such a just and charitable war.*", "*K. Phi. Well then, to work; our cannon shall be bent*", "*Against the brows of this resisting town.*", "*Call for our chiefest men of discipline,*", "*To cull the plots of best advantages:⁴⁻⁶*", "*We'll lay before this town our royal bones,*", "*Wade to the market-place in Frenchmen's blood,*", "*But we will make it subject to this boy.*", "*Const. Stay for an Answer to your embassy, Lest unadvis'd you stain your swords with blood:*", "*My lord Chatillon may from England bring*", "*That right in peace, which here we urge in war:*", "*And then we shall repent each drop of blood,*", "*That hot rash haste so indirectly shed.*", "#### Enter CHATILLON.", "*K. Phi. A wonder, lady!—lo, upon thy wish,*", "*Our messenger Chatillon is arriv'd.—*", "*What England says, say briefly, gentle lord,*", "*We coldly pause for thee; Chatillon, speak.*", "*Chat. Then turn your forces from this paltry siege,*", "1 Leopold Duke of Austria, by whom Richard had been thrown into prison in 1193, died in consequence of a fall from his horse, in 1195, some years before the date of the events upon which this play turns. The cause of the enmity between Richard and the Duke of Austria is variously related by the old chroniclers. Shakespeare has been led into this anachronism by the old play of King John.", "And stir them up against a mightier task.", "England, impatient of your just demands,", "Hath put himself in arms; the adverse winds,", "Whose leisure I have staid, have given him time", "To land his legions all as soon as I:", "His marches are expedient⁵ to this town,", "His forces strong, his soldiers confident.", "With him along is come the mother-queen.", "An Ate,⁶ stirring him to blood and strife:", "With her her niece, the Lady Blanch of Spain;", "With them a bastard of the king's deceas'd:", "And all the unsettled humours of the land,—", "Rash, inconsiderate, fiery volunaries,", "With ladies' faces, and fierce dragons' spleens,—", "Have sold their fortunes at their native homes,", "Bearing their birthrights proudly on their backs,", "To make a hazard of new fortunes here.", "In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits,", "Than now, the English bottoms have waft' o'er,", "Did never float upon the swelling tide,", "To do offence and scath⁸ in Christendom.", "The interruption of their churlish drums", "*[Drums beat.]*", "Cuts off more circumstance; they are at hand,", "To parley, or to fight; therefore, prepare.", "*K. Phi. How much unlock'd for this expedition!*", "*Aust. By how much unexpected, by so much*", "We must awake endeavour for defence;", "For courage mounteth with occasion:", "Let us welcome then, we are prepar'd.", "#### Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, BLANCH, the Bastard, PEMBROKE, and Forces.", "*K. John. Peace be to France: if France in peace permit*", "Our just and lineal entrance to our own!", "If not, bleed France, and peace ascend to heaven!", "Whiles we, God's wrathful agent, do correct", "Their proud contempt that beat his peace to heaven.", "*K. Phi. Peace be to England; if that war return*", "From France to England, there to live in peace!", "England we love; and, for that England's sake,", "With burden of our armour here we sweat:", "This toil of ours should be a work of thine;", "But thou from loving England art so far,", "That thou hast under-wrought⁹ his lawful king,", "Cut off the sequence¹⁰ of posterity,", "Outfaced infant state, and done a rape", "Upon the maiden virtue of the crown.", "Look here upon thy brother Geoffrey's face:—", "These eyes, these brows, were moulded out of his:", "This little abstract doth contain that large,", "Which died in Geoffrey; and the hand of time", "Shall draw this brief¹¹ into as huge a volume.", "That Geoffrey was thy elder brother born,", "And this his son; England was Geoffrey's right,", "And this is Geoffrey's: In the name of God,", "How comes it then, that thou art call'd a king,", "When living blood doth in these temples beat,\nWhich owe the crown that thou o'ermasterest?", "*K. John. From whom hast thou this great commission, France,*", "To draw my answer from thy articles?", "*K. Phi. From that supernal¹² judge, that stirs good thoughts*", "In any breast of strong authority,", "To look into the blots and stains of right.", "That judge hath made me guardian to this boy:", "Under whose warrant, I impeach thy wrong;", "And, by whose help, I mean to chastise it.", "*K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority.*", "*K. Phi. Excuse; it is to beat usurping down.*", "*Eli. Who is it, thou dost call usurper, France?*", "*Const. Let me make answer;—thy usurping son.*", "2 Importunity.", "3 i. e. greater.", {"bbox": [443, 1220, 713,

["KING JOHN.", "ACT II.", "384", "Eli. Out, insolent! thy bastard shall be king;\nThat thou mayst be a queen, and check the world!¹", "Const. My bed was ever to thy son as true,\nAs thine was to thy husband; and this boy", "Liker in feature to his father Geoffrey,\nThan thou and John in manners; being as like,", "As rain to water, or devil to his dam.\nMy boy a bastard! By my soul, I think,", "His father never was so true begot;", "It cannot be, an if thou wert his mother.²\nEli. There's a good mother, boy, that blots thy\nfather.", "Const. There's a good grandam, boy, that would\nblot thee.", "Const. There's a good grandam, boy, that would\nblot thee.", "Aust. Peace!", "Aust. Hear the crier.³", "Aust.", "Aust. What the devil art thou?", "Bast. One that will play the devil, sir, with you,\nAn 'a may catch your hide and you alone.⁴", "You are the hare of whom the proverb goes,", "Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard;⁵\nI'll smoke your skin-coat, an I catch you right;\nSirrah, look to't; i' faith, I will, i' faith.", "Blanch. O, well did he become that lion's robe,\nThat did disrobe the lion of that robe!", "Bast. It lies as slightly on the back of him,\nAs great Alcides' shoes⁶ upon an ass:—", "But, ass, I'll take that burden from your back;", "Or lay on that shall make your shoulders crack.", "Aust. What cracker is this same, that deads our\nears", "With this abundance of superfluous breath?", "K. Phi. Lewis, determine what we shall do\nstraight.", "Lew. Women and fools, break off your conference.—", "King John, this is the very sum of all,—", "England, and Ireland, Anjou, Touraine, Maine,\nIn right of Arthur do I claim of thee:", "Wilt thou resign them, and lay down thy arms?", "K. John. My life as soon:—I do defy thee, France.", "Arthur of Bretagne, yield thee to my hand;", "And, out of my dear love, I'll give thee more", "than e'er the coward hand of France can win:", "Submit thee, boy.", "Eli. Come to thy grandam, child.", "Const. Do, child, go to it! grandam, child;", "Give grandam kingdom, and it' grandam will", "Give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig:", "There's a good grandam.", "Arth. Good my mother, peace!", "I would, that I were low laid in my grave;", "I am not worth this coil' that's made for me.", "Eli. His mother shames him so, poor boy, he\nweeps.", "Const. Now shame upon you, who'er⁹ she does\nor no!", "His grandam's wrongs, and not his mother's shames,\nDraw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes,\nWhich heaven shall take in nature of a fee;", "1 'Surely (says Holinshed,) Queen Eleanor, the king's mother, was sore against her nephew Arthur, rather moved thereto by envy conceyed against his mother, than upon any just occasion, given in behalfe of the childe; for that she saw, if he were king, *how his mother Constance would looke to beare the most rule within the realm of England*, till her son should come of lawful age to governe of himselfe. So hard a thing it is to bring women to agree in one minde, their natures commonly being so contrary.²", "2 Constance alludes to Elinor's infidelity to her husband, Louis the VIth, when they were in the Holy Land; on account of which he was divorced from her. She afterwards, in 1151, married our King Henry II.", "3 Alluding to the usual proclamation for silence made by criers in the courts of justice, beginning *Oyez*, corruptly pronounced *O-yes*. Austria had just said *Peace*.\n\n4 Austria, who had killed King Richard Cœur-de-lion, wore, as the spoil of that prince, a lion's hide, which had belonged to him. This was the ground of the Bastard's quarrel.", "5 The proverb alluded to is 'Mortuo leoni et lepores insultant.'—Erasmi Alagia.", "6 Theobald thought that we should read *Alcides' shows*; but Malone has shown that the shoes of Her-", "A, ay, with these crystal beads heaven shall be brib'd\nTo do him justice, and revenge on you.", "Eli. Thou monstrous slanderer of heaven and\nearth!", "Const. Thou monstrous injurer of heaven and\nearth;", "Call not me slanderer; thou, and thine, usurp", "The dominations, royalties, and rights,", "Of this oppressed boy: This is thy eldest son's, son,\nInfortunate in nothing but in thee;", "Thy sins are visited in this poor child;", "The canon of the law is laid on him,", "Being but the second generation", "Removed from thy sin-conceiving womb.", "K. John. Bedlam, have done.", "Const.", "I have but this to say,—", "That he's not only plagued for her sin,\nBut God hath made her sin and her the plague", "On this removed issue, plagu'd for her,", "And with her plague, her sin; her injury", "Her injury, the beadle to her sin:⁹", "All punish'd in the person of this child,", "And all for her; a plague upon her!", "Eli. Thou unadvised scold, I can produce", "A will, that bars the title of thy son.", "Const. Ay, who doubts that? a will! a wicked\nwill;", "A woman's will; a canker'd grandam's will!", "K. Phi. Peace, lady; pause, or be more temperate.", "It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim¹⁰", "To these ill-tuned repetitions.—", "Some trumpet summon hither to the walls", "These men of Angiers; let us hear them speak,", "Whose title they admit, Arthur's or John's.", "Trumpets sound. Enter Citizens upon the Walls.", "1 Cit. Who is it that hath warn'd us to the walls?", "K. Phi. 'Tis France, for England.", "K. John.", "England, for itself:", "You men of Angiers, and my loving subjects,—\nK. Phi. You loving men of Angiers, Arthur's\nsubjects,", "Our trumpet call'd you to this gentle parle.¹¹", "K. John. For our advantage;—Therefore, hear\nus first.—", "These flags of France, that are advanced here", "Before the eye and prospect of your town,", "Have hither march'd to your endowment:", "The cannons have their bowels full of wrath;", "And ready mounted are they, to spit forth", "Their iron indignation 'gainst your walls:", "All preparation for a bloody siege,", "And merciless proceeding by these French,", "Confront your city's eyes, your winking gates;", "And, but for our approach, those sleeping stones,", "That as a waist do girdle you about,", "By the compulsion of their ordnance", "By this time from their fixed beds of lime", "Had been dishabited, and wide havoc made", "For bloody power to rush upon your peace.", "cules were very frequently introduced in the old com-\ndies on much the same occasions. Theobald supposed\nthat the shoes must be placed on the back of the ass,\ninstead of upon his hoofs, and therefore proposed his\nalteration.", "7 Butle.", "8 Whether.", "9 The key to this obscure passage is contained in\nthe last speech of Constance, where she alludes to the\ndenunciation of the second commandment of 'visiting\nthe iouquies of the parents upon the children unto the\nthird and fourth generation.' Young Arthur is here\nrepresented as not only suffering from the gulf of his\ngrandmother, but also by her in person, she being made\nthe very instrument of his sufferings. So that he is\nplagued on her account, and with her plague, which is\nplagued on her sin, i. e. (taking by a common figure the cause for\nher sin, i. e. (taking by a

## SCENE II.

## KING JOHN.

385

But, on the sight of us, your lawful king,—
Who painfully, with much expedient march,
Have brought a countercheck before your gates;
To save unscratch'd your city's threaten'd cheeks,—
Behold, the French, amaz'd, vouchsafe a parle:
And now, instead of bullets wrapp'd in fire,
To make a shaking fever in your walls,
They shoot but calm words, folded up in smoke,
To make a faithless error in your ears:
Which trust accordingly, kind citizens,
And let us in, your king; whose labour'd spirits,
Foreweared' in this action of swift speed,
Crave harbourage within your city walls.

K. Phi. When I have said, make answer to us both.

Lo, in this right hand, whose protection
Is most divinely yow'd upon the right
Of him it holds, stands young Plantagenet;
Son to the elder brother of this man,
And king o'er him, and all that he enjoys:
For this down-trodden equity, we tread
In warlike march these greens before your town,
Being no further enemy to you,
Than the constraint of hospitable zeal,
In the relief of this oppressed child,
Religiously provokes. Be pleased then
To pay that duty, which you truly owe,
To him that owes² it; (namely, this young prince;)

And then our arms, like to a muzzled bear,
Save in aspect, have all offence seal'd up;
Our cannons' malice vainly shall be spent.
Against the invulnérable clouds of heaven;
And, with a blessed and unvex'd retire,

With unhack'd swords, and helmets all unbruis'd,
We will bear home that lusty blood again,
Which here we come to spout against your town,
And leave your children, wives, and you, in peace.
But if you fondly pass our profer'd offer,

'Tis not the roundure³ of your old-fac'd walls
Can hide you from our messengers of war;
Though all these English, and their discipline,
Were harbour'd in their rude circumference.

Then, tell us, shall your city call us lord,
In that behalf which we have challeng'd it?

Or shall we give the signal to our rage?

And stalk in blood to our possession? ¹

For him, and in his right, we hold this town.

K. John. Acknowledge then the king, and let me in.

1 Cit. That we can not: but he that proves the king,
To him will we prove loyal; till that time,
Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world.

K. John. Doth not the crown of England prove the king?

And, if not that, I bring you witnesses,

Twice fifteen thousand hearts of England's breed,—
Bast. Bastards, and else,

K. John. To verify our title with their lives.

K. Phi. As many, and as well born bloods as
those,

Bast. Some bastards too.

K. Phi. Stand in his face, to contradict his claim.

1 Cit. Till you compound whose right is worthiest,
We, for the worthiest, hold the right from both.

K. John. Then God forgive the sin of all those
souls,

That to their everlasting residence,

Before the dew of evening fall, shall fleet,

In dreadful trial of our kingdom's king!

K. Phi. Amen, Amen!—Mount chevaliers! to
arms!

1 Worn out. 2 Owns.

3 Roundure, from *rondure*, Fr.; circle.

4 So in the old play of King John:—

'But let the frolic Frenchman take no scorn
If Philip fronts him with an English horn.'

5 Johnson observes ' This speech is very poetical and smooth, and, except the conceit of the widow's husband embracing the earth, is just and beautiful.'

6 Shakspeare has used this image in Macbeth, Act. ii.

Sc. 3.—

Bast. St. George,—that swing'd the dragon, and
e'er since,

Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door,

Teach us some fence;—Sirrah, were I at home,
At your den, sirrah [To Austria], with your lioness,
I'd set an ox-head to your lion's hide,

And make a monster of you.

Aust.

Peace; no more.

Bast. O, tremble; for you hear the lion roar.

K. John. Up higher to the plain; where we'll
set forth,

In best appointment, all our regiments.

Bast. Speed then, to take advantage of the field.

K. Phi. It shall be so;—[To Lewis] and at the
other hill

Command the rest to stand.—God, and our right!

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE II.
The same. Alarums and Excursions;
then a Retreat. Enter a French Herald, with
trumpets to the gates.

F. Her. You men of Angiers, open wide your gates.

And let young Arthur, Duke of Bretagne, in;
Who, by the hand of France, this day hath made
Much work for tears in many an English mother,
Whose sons lie scattered on the bleeding ground:
Many a widow's husband grovelling lies,

Coldly embracing the discolour'd earth;

And victory, with little loss, doth play

Upon the dancing banners of the French;

Who are at hand, triumphantly display'd,

To enter conquerors, and to proclaim

Arthur of Bretagne, England's king, and yours.

Enter an English Herald, with trumpets.

E. Her. Rejoice, you men of Angiers, ring your
bells!

King John, your king and England's doth approach,
Commander of this hot malicious day!

Their armours, that march'd hence so silver-bright,
Hither return all gilt with Frenchmen's blood,

There stuck no plume in any English crest,

That is removed by a staff of France;

Our colours do return in those same hands

That did display them when we first march'd forth;

And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen,⁶ come

Our lusty English, all with purpled hands,

Dyed in the dying slaughter of their foes:

Open your gates, and give the victors way.

Cit. Heralds, from off our towers we might be-
hold,

From first to last, the onset and retire.

Of both your armies; whose equality

By our best eyes cannot be censured:⁸

Blood hath bought blood, and blows have answer'd
blows.

Strength match'd with strength, and power con-
fronted power:

Both are alike; and both alike we like.

One must prove greatest; while they weigh so even,

We hold our town for neither; yet for both.

Enter, at one side, KING JOHN, with his Power;

ELINOR, BLANCH, and the Bastard; at the other,
KING PHILIP, LEWIS, AUSTRIA, and Forces.

K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to
cast away?

Say, shall the current of our right run⁹ on?

Whose passage, vex'd with thy impediment,

Shall leave his native channel, and o'erswell

With course disturb'd even thy confining shores;

Unless thou let his silver water keep

A peaceful progress to the ocean.

Here lay Duncan,

His silver skin laced with his golden blood.

7 It was anciently one of the savage practices of the
chase for all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer
as a trophy.

8 Estimated, judged, determined. Shakspeare should
have written, ' whose superiority, or whose inequality
cannot be censured.'

9 The first folio reads *roam*: the change was made
in the second folio.

49

["KING JOHN.", "ACT II.", "396", "K. Phi. England, thou hast not sav'd one drop of blood,", "of blood,", "In this hot trial, more than we of France ;", "Rather, lost more : And by this hand I swear,", "That sways the earth this climate overlooks,—", "Before we will lay down our just-borne arms,", "We'll put thee down, 'gainst whom these arms we bear,", "", "Or add a royal number to the dead ;", "Gracing the scroll, that tells of this war's loss,", "With slaughter coupled to the name of kings.", "Bast. Ha, majesty! how high thy glory towers,", "When the rich blood of kings is set on fire !", "O, now doth death line his dead chaps with steel ;", "The swords of soldiers are his teeth, his fangs ;", "And now he feasts, mousing' the flesh of men,", "In undetermin'd differences of kings.—", "Why stand these royal fronts amazed thus ?", "Cry, hayock, kings! back to the stained field,", "You equal potents,² fiery-kindled spirits !", "Then let confusion of one part confirm", "The other's peace; till then, blows, blood, and death !", "K. John. Whose party do the townsmen yet admit?", "K. Phi. Speak, citizens, for England; who's your king ?", "1 Cit. The king of England, when we know the king.", "K. Phi. Know him in us, that here hold up his right.", "K. John. In us, that are our own great deputy,", "And bear possession of our person here ;", "Lord of our presence, Angiers, and of you.", "1. Cit. A greater power than we, denies all this ;", "And, till it be undoubted, we do lock", "Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates :", "King'd of our fears ;³ until our fears, resolv'd,", "Be by some certain king purg'd and depos'd.", "Bast. By heaven, these scroyles⁴ of Angiers flout you, kings ;", "And stand securely on their battlements,", "As in a theatre, whence they gape and point", "At your industrious scenes and acts of death.", "Your royal presences be rul'd by me ;", "Do like the mutines⁵ of Jerusalem,", "Be friends a while, and both conjointly bend", "Your sharpest deeds of malice on this town :", "By east and west let France and England mount", "Their battering-cannon, charged to the mouths ;", "Till their soul-fearing⁶ clamours have brawl'd down", "The flinty ribs of this contemptuous city :", "I'd play incessantly upon these jades,", "Even till unfenced desolation", "Leave them as naked as the vulgar air.", "That done, dissever your united strength,", "And part your mingled colours once again ;", "Turn face to face, and bloody point to point :", "Then, in a moment, fortune shall cull forth", "Out of one side her happy minion ;", "To whom in favour she shall give the day,", "And kiss him with a glorious victory.", "How like you this wild counsel, mighty states ?", "Smacks it not something of the policy ?", "K. John. Now, by the sky that hangs above our heads,", "I like it well;—France, shall we knit our powers,\nAnd lay this Angiers even with the ground ;\nThen, after, fight who shall be king of it?", "Bast. An if thou hast the mettle of a king—", "Being wrong'd, as we are, by this peevish town,—", "Turn thou the mouth of thy artillery,", "As we will ours, against these saucy walls :", "And when that we have dash'd them to the ground.", "Why, then defy each other; and, pell-mell,", "Make work upon ourselves, for heaven, or hell.", "K. Phi. Let it be so:—Say, where will you as-sault?", "K. John. We from the west will send destruction\nInto this city's bosom.", "Aust. I from the north.", "K. Phi. Our thunder from the south,\nShall rain their drift of bullets on this town.", "Bast. O prudent discipline! From north to south,\nAustria and France shoot in each other's mouth :", "[Ande.", "I'll stir them to't:—Come, away, away!", "1 Cit. Hear us, great kings! vouchsafe a while to stay.", "And I shall show you peace, and fair-fac'd league;\nWin you this city without stroke or wound ;", "Rescue those breathing lives to die in beds,", "That here come sacrifices for the field ;", "Persever not, but hear me, mighty kings.", "K. John. Speak on, with favour; we are bent to hear.", "1 Cit. That daughter there of Spain, the lady Blanch,⁸", "Is near to England; Look upon the years", "Of Lewis the Dauphin, and that lovely maid:", "If lusty love should go in quest of beauty,", "Where should he find it fairer than in Blanch?", "If zealous⁹ love should go in search of virtue,", "Where should he find it purer than in Blanch?", "If love ambitious sought a match of birth,", "Whose veins bound richer blood than Lady Blanch?", "Such as she is, in beauty, virtue, by", "Is the young Dauphin every way complete:", "If not complete, O say, he is not she ;", "And she again wants nothing, to name want,", "If want it be not, that she is not he :", "He is the half part of a blessed man,", "Left to be finished by such a she ;", "And she a fair divided excellence,", "Whose fullness of perfection lies in him.", "O, two such silver currents, when they join,", "Do glorify the banks that bound them in :", "And two such shores to two such streams made one,", "Two such controlling bounds shall you be, kings,", "To these two princes, if you marry them.", "This union shall do more than battery can,", "To our fast-closed gates : for, at this match,", "With swifter spleen¹⁰ than powder can enforce,", "The mouth of passage shall we fling wide ope,", "And give you entrance; but, without this match,", "The sea enraged is not half so deaf,", "Lions more confident, mountains and rocks", "More free from motion ; no, not death himself", "In mortal fury half so peremptory,", "As we to keep this city.", "Bast. Here's a stay,¹¹\nThat shakes the rotten carcass of old death", "1 Mr. Pope changed this to *mouthing*, and was followed by subsequent editors. 'Mousing,' says Malone, 'is mammocking and devouring eagerly, as a cat devours a mouse.' 'Whilst Troy was swilling sack and sugar, and mousing fat venison, the mad Greeks made bonfires of their houses.'—*The Wonderful Year*, by Decker, 1603.—Shakspeare often uses familiar terms in his most serious speeches; and Malone has adduced other instances in this play: but in this very speech 'his dead chaps' is surely not more elevated than *mousing*.", "2 Potentates.", "3 The old copy reads 'Kings of our fear, &c.' The emendation is Mr. Tyrwhitt's. 'King'd of our fears,' i. e. our fears being our kings or rulers. It is manifest that the reading of the old copy is corrupt, and that it must have been so worded, that their fears should be styled their *kings* or masters, and not they kings or", "masters of their fears, because in the next line mention is made of these *fears* being *deposed*.", "4 Escrouelles, Fr. scabby fellows.", "5 The mutines are the mutineers, the sedition.", "6 i. e. *sout-appalling*; From the verb to *

["## SCENE II.", "## KING JOHN.", "Out of his rags! Here's a large mouth, indeed,\nThat spits forth death, and mountains, rocks, and\nseas;", "Talks as familiarly of roaring lions", "As maids of thirteen do of puppy-dogs! What cannoneer begot this lusty blood?", "He speaks plain cannon, fire, and smoke, and\nbounce:", "He gives the bastinado with his tongue;", "Our ears are cudgel'd; not a word of his,", "But buffets better than a fist of France:", "Zounds! I was never so bethump'd with words,\nSince I first call'd my brother's father, dad.", "Eli. Son, list to this conjunction, make this match;", "Give with our niece a dowry large enough:", "For by this knot thou shalt so surely tie", "Thy now unsur'd assurance to the crown,", "That yon green boy shall have no sun to ripe", "The bloom that promiseth a mighty fruit.", "I see a yielding in the looks of France;", "Mark, how they whisper: urge them, while their", "souls.", "Are capable of this ambition:", "Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath", "Of soft petitions, pity, and remorse,", "Cool and congeal again to what it was,", "1 Cit. Why answer not the double majesties", "This friendly treaty of our threaten'd town?", "K. Phi. What England first, that hath been forward best?", "To speak unto this city: what say you?", "K. John. If that the Dauphin there, thy princely son,", "Can in this book of beauty read,¹ I love,", "His dowry shall weigh equal with a queen:", "For Anjou, and fair Touraine, Maine, Poictiers,", "And all that we upon this side the sea", "(Except this city now by us besieged)?", "Find liable to our crown and dignity,", "Shall gild her bridal bed; and make her rich", "In titles, honours, and promotions,", "As she in beauty, education, blood,", "Holds hand with any princess of the world.", "K. Phi. What say'st thou, boy? look in the lady's face.", "Lew. I do, my lord, and in her eye I find", "A wonder, or a wondrous miracle,", "The shadow of myself form'd in her eye;", "Which, being but the shadow of your son,", "Becomes a sun, and makes your son a shadow;", "I do protest, I never lov'd myself,", "Till now infixed I beheld myself", "Drawn in the flattering table² of her eye.", "[Whispers with BLANCH.", "Bast. Drawn in the flattering table of her eye!—\nHang'd in the frowning wrinkle of her brow!—", "And quarter'd in her heart?—he doth essey", "Himself love's traitor: This is pity now,", "That hang'd, and drawn, and quarter'd, there should be,", "In such a state in you, that makes him like,", "Blanch. My uncle's will, in this respect, is mine:", "If he see aught in you, that makes him like,\nThat any thing he sees, which moves his liking,\nI can with ease translate it to my will;", "tum republica by 'the stay, the chiefe mainteyner and succour of,' &c. It has been proposed to read, 'Here's a say,' i. e. a speech; and it must be confessed that it would agree well with the tenor of the subsequent part of Faulconbridge's speech.", "1 So in Pericles:—", "Her face the book of praises,' &c.", "2 The table is the plain surface on which any thing is depicted or written. *Tablette*, Fr. Our ancestors called their memorandum-books a pair of writing tables. Vide Baret's *Alvearie*, 1575, Letter T. No. 2.", "3 Draw this the ancient name for the country now called the *Fexin*, in Latin *Pagus Velocassinus*. That part of it called the *Norman Vexin* was in dispute between Philip and John. This and the subsequent line (except the words 'do I give') are taken from the old play.", "4 See Winter's Tale, Act i. Sc. 2.", "Or, if you will, (to speak more properly,)", "I will enforce it easily to my love.", "Further I will not flatter you, my lord,", "That all I see in you is worthy love,", "Than this,—that nothing do I see in you,", "(Though churlish thoughts themselves should be", "your judge,)", "That I can find should merit any hate.\nK. John. What say these young ones? What say you, my niece?", "Blanch. That she is bound in honour still to do", "What you in wisdom shall vouchsafe to say.", "K. John. Speak, then, prince Dauphin; can you\nlove this lady?", "Lew. Nay, ask me if I can refrain from love;", "For I do love her most unfeignedly.", "K. John. Then do I give Volquessen,³ Touraine, Maine,", "Poictiers, and Anjou, these five provinces,", "With her to thee; and this addition more,", "Full thirty thousand marks of English coin.—", "Philip of France, if thou be pleas'd withal,", "Command thy son and daughter to join hands.", "K. Phi. It likes us well;—Young princes, close your hands.⁴", "Aust. And your lips, too; for I am well assur'd", "That I did so, when I was first assur'd.⁵", "K. Phi. Now, citizens of Angiers, ope your gates,", "Let the rites of marriage shall be solemniz'd.—", "Is not the Lady Constance in this troop?—", "I know, she is not; for this match, made up,", "Her presence would have interrupted much:—", "Where is she and her son? tell me, who knows", "Lew. She is sad and passionate⁶ at your highness' tent.", "K. Phi. And, by my faith, this league, that we have made,", "Will give her sadness very little cure.—", "Brother of England, how may we content", "This widow lady? In her right we came;", "Which we, God knows, have turn'd another way,", "To our own vantage,⁷", "K. John. We will heal up all;", "For we'll create young Arthur duke of Bretagne,", "And earl of Richmond; and this rich fair town", "We make him lord of.—Call the Lady Constance;", "Some speedy messenger bid her repair", "To our solemnity:—I trust we shall,", "If not fill up the measure of her will,", "Yet in some measure satisfy her so,", "That we shall stop her exclamation.", "Go we, as well as haste will suffer us,", "To this unlook'd for, unprepared pomp.", "[Exeunt all but the Bastard.—The Citizens retire from the Walls.", "Bast. Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole,", "Hath willingly departed⁸ with a part:", "And France (whose armour conscience buckled on;", "Whom zeal and charity brought to the field,", "As God's own soldier,⁹ rounded⁹ in the ear", "With that same purpose-changer, that sly devil;", "That broker, that still breaks the pate of faith;", "That daily break-vow; he that wins of all,", "5 Affianced, contracted.", "6 *Passionate* here means *agitated, perturbed*, a prey to mournful sensations, not moved or disposed to anger. Thus in the old play, entitled, *The true Tragedie of Richard Duke of York*, 1600:—", "'—Tell me, good madam,", "Why is your grace so *passionate* of late?", "7 Advantage.", "8 To *part* and *depart* were formerly synonymous. So in Cooper's Dictionary, v. 'communico, to communicate or *departe* a thing I have with another.", "9 To *round or row* in the ear is to *whisper*; from the Saxon *runian*, susurrate. The word and its etymology is fully illustrated by Casaubon,

388

KING JOHN.

ACT III.

Of kings, of beggars, old men, young men, maids,—
Who having no external thing to lose
But the word maid,—cheats the poor maid of that;
That smooth-faced gentleman, tickling commo-
dity;—

Commodity, the bias of the world;
The world, who of itself is peised well,
Made to run even, upon even ground;
Till this advantage, this vile drawing bias,
This sway of motion, this commodity,
Makes it take head from all indifferency,
From all direction, purpose, course, intent:
And this same bias, this commodity,
This bawd, this broker, this all-changing word,
Clapp'd on the outward eye of fickle France,
Hath drawn him from his own determin'd aid,
From a resolv'd and honourable war,
To a most base and vile-concluded peace.—
And why rail I on this commodity?
But for because he hath not woo'd me yet:
Not that I have the power to clutch² my hand,
When his fair angels³ would salute my palm:
But for⁴ my hand, as unatempted yet,
Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich.
Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail,
And say,—there is no sin, but to be rich;
And being rich, my virtue then shall be,
To say,—there is no vice, but beggary:
Since kings break faith upon commodity,
Gain, be my lord! for I will worship thee!

[Exit.]

ACT III.

### SCENE I. The same. The French King's Tent.
Enter CONSTANCE, ARTHUR, and SALISBURY.

Const. Gone to be married! gone to swear a peace!

False blood to false blood join'd! Gone to be friends! Shall Lewis have Blanch? and Blanch those provinces?

It is not so; thou hast misspoke, misheard;
Be well advised, tell o'er thy tale again:
It cannot be; thou dost but say, 'tis so:
I trust, I may not trust thee; for thy word
Is but the vain breath of a common man;
Believe me, I do not believe thee, man;
I have a king's oath to the contrary.
Thou shall be punish'd for thus frightening me,
For I am sick, and capable⁶ of fears.
Oppress'd with wrongs, and therefore full of fears;
A widow, husbandless, subject to fears;
A woman, naturally born to fears;
And though thou now confess, thou didst but jest,
With my vex'd spirits I cannot take a truce,
But they will quake and tremble all this day.
What dost thou mean by shaking of thy head?
Why dost thou look so sadly on my son?
What means that hand upon that breast of thine?
Why holds thine eye that lamentable rheum,
Like a proud river peering' o'er his bounds?
Be these sad signs confirmers of thy words?
Then speak again; not all thy former tale,
But this one word, whether thy tale be true,
Sal. As true, as, I believe, you think them false,
That give you cause to prove my saying true.

Const. O, if thou teach me to believe this sorrow,

Teach this thy sorrow how to make me die;
And let belief and life encounter so,
As doth the fury of two desperate men,
Which, in the very meeting, fall, and die.—
Lewis marry Blanch! O, boy, then where art thou?
France friend with England? what becomes of me?
Fellow, be gone; I cannot brook thy sight;
This news hath made me a most ugly man.

Sal. What other harm have I, good lady, done,
But spoke the harm that is by others done?
Const. Which harm within itself so heinous is,
As it makes harmful all that speak of it.

Arth. I do beseech you, madam, be content,
Const. If thou, that bidd'st me be content, wert grim,

Ugly, and bland'rous to thy mother's womb,
Full of unpleasing blots, and sightlessª stains,
Lame, foolish, crooked, swart,⁹ prodigious,
Patch'd with foul moles, and eye-offending marks,
I would not care, I then would be content;
For then I should not love thee; no, nor thou
Become thy great birth, nor deserve a crown.
But thou art fair; and at thy birth, dear boy!
Nature and fortune join'd to make thee great:
Of nature's gifts thou mayst with lilies boast,
And with the half-blown rose: but fortune, O!
She is corrupted, chang'd, and won from thee;
She adulterates hourly with thine uncle John;
And with her golden hand hath pluck'd on France
To tread down fair respect of sovereignty,
And made his majesty the bawd to theirs.
France is a bawd to fortune, and King John!

Sal. That strumpet fortune, that usurping John!—

Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn?
Envenom him with words; or get thee gone,
And leave those woes alone, which I alone
Am bound to under-bear.

Am bound to under-bear.
France is a bawd to fortune, and King John;
That strumpet fortune, that usurping John:—
Tell me, thou fellow, is not France forsworn?
Envenom him with words; or get thee gone,
And leave those woes alone, which I alone
Am bound to under-bear.
Sal. Pardon me, madam,
I may not go without you to the kings.

Const. Thou mayst,⁹ thou shall, I will not go with thee:

I will instruct my sorrows to be proud:
For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout.¹⁰

To me, and to the state of my great grief,
Let kings assemble; for my grief's so great,
That no supporter but the huge firm earth
Can hold it up: here I and sorrow sit;
Here is my throne, bid kings come bow to it.

Ever in France shall be kept festival:
To solemnize this day, the glorious sun
Stays in his course, and plays the alchemist;
Turning, with splendour of his precious eye,
The meagre cloddy earth to glittering gold:
The yearly course, that brings this day about,
Shall never see it but a holiday.

Const. A wick'd day, and not a holiday!—
[*Rising,*
What hath this day deserv'd? what hath it done;
That it in golden letters should be set
Among the high tides,¹¹ in the calendar?
Nay, rather, turn this day out of the week;¹²
This day of shame, oppression, perjury:

¹ Commodity is interest, advantage. So Baret:—
'What fruite or commoditie had he by this his friend-
ship? 'Allearie, Letter C. 867. The construction of
this passage, though harsh to modern ears, is—'Com-
modity,' he that wins of all,—he that cheats the poor
maid of that only external thing she has to lose, namely
the word maid, i. e. her chastity.'

Henderson has adduced a passage from Cupid's
Whirling, 1607; which happily illustrates the word 'bias
in this passage:

'O, the world is like a byas bowle, and it runs
All on the rich men's sides.'

2 Clasp.

3 Coin.

4 i. e. but cause.

5 In the old copy, the Second Act extends to the end
of the speech of Lady Constance, in the next scene, at
the conclusion of which she throws herself on the

ground. The present division, which was made by
Theobald, is certainly right.

6 *Capable is susceptible.*

7 This seems to have been imitated by Marston, in
his Insatiate Countesses, 1603:—

'Then how much more in me, whose youthful veins,
Like a proud river, overflow their bounds.'

8 Unsightly.

9 *Steart is dark, dusky. Prodigious is portentous
so deformed as to be taken for a foretoken of evil.*

10 The old copy reads, 'makes its owner stopt.' The
emendation is Sir T. Hamner's.

11 Solemn seasons, times to be observed above others
and v. 6, 'Let it not be joined to the days of the year, let
it not come into the number of the months.'

## SCENE I.

## KING JOHN,

Or, if it must stand still, let wives with child
Pray, that their burdens may not fall this day,
Lest that their hopes prodigiously be cross'd;¹
But² on this day, let seamen fear no wreck;
No bargains break, that are not this day made:
This day, all things begun come to ill end;
Yea, faith itself to hollow falsehood change!

K. Phi. By heaven, lady, you shall have no cause
To curse the fair proceedings of this day;
Have I not pawn'd to you my majesty?

Const. You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit,³
Resembling majesty; which, being touch'd, and
tried,

Proves valueless: You are forsworn, forsworn;
You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,
But now in arms you strengthen it with yours:
The grappling vigour and rough frown of war
Is cold in amity and painted peace,

And our oppression hath made up this league :-
Arm, arm, you heavens, against these perjur'd
kings!

A widow cries; be husband to me, heavens!

Let not the hours of this ungodly day

Wear out the day in peace; but, ere sunset,

Set mated discord 'twixt these perjur'd kings!

Hear me, O, hear me!

Aust. Lady Constance, peace.

Const. War! war! no peace! peace is to me a
war,

O Lymoges! O Austria!⁴ that thou dost shame

That bloody spoil: Thou slave, thou wretch, thou
coward,

Thou little valiant, great in villany!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!

Thou fortune's champion, that dost never fight
But when her humorous ladyship is by

To teach thee safety! thou art perjur'd, too,
And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thou,
A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp, and swear,
Upon thy party! thou cold-blooded slave,
Hast thou not spoke like thunder on my side?

Been sworn my soldier? bidding me depend
Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength?

And dost thou now fall over to my foes?

Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame,

And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant limbs.⁵
Aust. O, that a man should speak those words
to me!

Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant
limbs.

Aust. Thou dar'st not say so, villain, for thy life.

Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on those recreant
limbs.⁶

K. John. We like not this; thou dost forget
thyself.

## Enter PANDULPH.

K. Phi. Here comes the holy legate of the pope.

Pand. Hail, you anointed deputies of heaven:--

1. i. e. be disappointed by the production of a prodigy, a monster.

2. But for *unless*; its exceptional sense of *be out*. In the ancient almanacs the days supposed to be favourable or unfavourable to bargains are distinguished, among a number of particulars of the like importance.

3. i. e. a false coin; a representation of the king being usually impressed on his coin. A counterfeit formerly signified also a *portrait*. The word seems to be here used equivocally.

4. Shakespeare, in the person of Austria, has conjointly the two well known enemies of Richard Cœur-de-lion. Leopold, duke of Austria, threw him into prison in a former expedition (in 1193); but the castle of Chalus, before which he fell (in 1199), belonged to Vidomar, viscount of Lymoges. The archer who pierced his shoulder with an arrow (of which wound he died) was Bertrand de Gourdon. Austria in the old play is called Lymoges, the Austrich duke. Holinshed says, 'The same year Philip, bastard sonne to King Richard, to whom his father had given the castell and honour of his father's death,' &c.

5. Sir John Hawkins thought that there was here a sarcastic intention of calling Austria a fool; he says that a calf-skin coat was anciently the dress of a fool. It is more probable, as Ritson observes, that she means

To thee, King John, my holy errand is.
I Pandulph, of fair Milan cardinal,

And from Pope Innocent the legate here,

Do, in his name, religiously demand,

Why thou against the church, our holy mother,
So wilfully dost spurn; and, force perforce,
Keep Stephen Langton, chosen archbishop
Of Canterbury, from that holy see?

This, in our 'foresaid holy father's name,

Pope Innocent, I do demand of thee.

K. John. What earthly name to interrogatories,⁷
Can task the free breath of a sacred king?

Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name

So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous,

To charge me to an answer, as the pope,
Tell him this tale; and from the mouth of England,

Add thus much more,—That no Italian priest

Shall tithe or toll in our dominions;

But as we under heaven are supreme head,

So under him, that great supremacy,

Where we do reign, we will alone uphold,

Without the assistance of a mortal hand :

So tell the pope: all reverence set apart,

To him and his usurp'd authority.

K. Phi. Brother of England, you blaspheme in
this.

K. John. Though you, and all the kings of Cris-
tendom,

Are led so grossly by this meddling priest,

Dreading the curse that money may buy out .

And, by the merit of vile gold, dress, dust,

Purchase corrupted pardon of a man,

Who, in that sale, sells pardon from himself:

Though you, and all the rest, so grossly led,

This juggling witchcraft with revenue cherish ;

Yet I, alone, alone do me oppose

Against the pope, and count his friends my foes.

Pand. Then, by the lawful power that I have,

Thou shall stand curs'd, and excommunicate :

And blessed shall he be, that doth revolt

From his allegiance to an heretic ;

And meritorious shall that hand be call'd,

Canonized, and worship'd as a saint,

That takes away by any secret course

Thy hateful life.

Const. O, lawful let it be,

That I have room with Rome to curse a while!

Good father cardinal, cry thou, amen,

To my keen curses; for, without my wrong,

There is no tongue hath power to curse him right.

Pand. There's law and warrant, lady, for my
curse.

Const. And for mine too; when law can do no
right,

Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong:

Law cannot give my child his kingdom here;

For he that holds his kingdom, holds the law:

Therefore, since law itself is perfect wrong,

to call him a coward; she tells him that a calf's-skin
would suit his recreant limbs better than a lion's. A
calf-hearted fellow is still used for a dastardly person.

6. Pope inserted the following lines from the old play
here, which he thought necessary 'to explain the ground
of the Bastard's quarrel with Austria':--

‘Aust. Methinks that Richard's pride, and Richard's
fall,

Should be a precedent to fright you all.

Faulc. What words are these? How do my sinews
shake!

My father's foe clad in my father's spoil;

How doth Alecto whisper in my ears,

Delay not, Richard, kill the villain straight;

Disrobde him of the matchless monument;

Thy father's triumph o'er the savages!

Now by his soul I swear, my father's soul,

Twice will I not review the morning's rise,

Till I have torn that trophy from thy back,

And split thy heart for wearing it so long.

7. What earthly name subjoined to interrogatories,
can force a king to speak and answer them? The old

copy reads early. The emendation was Pope's. It
has also *tash* instead of *task* in the next line, which was
substituted by Theobald. Johnson observes that this
must have been a very captivating scene at the time of
our struggles with popery.

389

["390", "KING JOHN.", "ACT III.", "How can the law forbid my tongue to curse ?", "Pand. Philip of France, on peril of a curse,", "Let go the hand of that arch-heretic ;", "And raise the power of France upon his head,", "Unless he do submit himself to Rome.", "Eli. Look'st thou pale, France ? do not let go thy hand.", "Const. Look to that, devil ! lest that France repent,", "And, by disjoining hands, hell lose a soul.", "Aust. King Philip, listen to the cardinal.", "Bast. And hang a calf's-skin on his recreant limbs.", "Aust. Well, ruffian, I must pocket up these wrongs,", "Because—", "Bast. Your breeches best may carry them.¹", "K. John. Philip, what say'st thou to the cardinal ?", "Const. What should he say, but as the cardinal ?", "Lew. Bethink you, father; for the difference", "Is, purchase of a heavy curse from Rome,", "Or the light loss of England for a friend:", "Forgo the easier.", "Blanch. That's the curse of Rome.", "Const. O Lewis, stand fast; the devil tempts thee here,", "In likeness of a new untrimmed² bride.", "Blanch. The Lady Constance speaks not from her faith,", "But from her need.", "Const. O, if thou grant my need,", "Which only lives but by the death of faith,", "That need must needs infer this principle,", "That faith would live again by death of need;", "O, then, tread down my need, and faith mounts up;", "Keep my need up, and faith is trodden down.", "K. John. The king is mov'd, and answers not to this.", "Const. O, be remov'd from him, and answer well.", "Aust. Do so, King Philip; hang no more in doubt.", "Bast. Hang nothing but a calf's-skin, most sweet lout.", "K. Phi. I am perplex'd, and know not what to say.", "Pand. What canst thou say, but will perplex thee more,", "If thou stand excommunicate, and curs'd?", "K. Phi. Good reverend father, make my person yours,", "And tell me how you would bestow yourself.", "This royal hand and mine are newly knit;", "And the conjunction of our inward souls", "Married in league, coupled and link'd together", "With all religious strength and sacred vows;", "The latest breath that gave the sound of words,", "Was deep-sworn faith, peace, amity, true love,", "Between our kingdoms, and our royal selves;", "And even before this truce, but new before,—", "No longer than we well could wash our hands,", "To clap this royal bargain up of peace,", "Heaven knows, they were besmeard and overstain'd", "With slaughter's pencil; where revenge did paint", "The fearful difference of incensed kings:—", "And shall these hands, so lately purg'd of blood,", "So newly join'd in love, so strong in both,³", "Unyoke this seizure, and this kind regret?⁴", "Play fast and loose with faith? so jest with heaven,\nMake such unconstant children of ourselves,", "As now again to snatch our palm from palm:", "Unswear faith sworn; and on the marriage bed", "Of smiling peace to march a bloody host,", "And make a riot on the gentle brow", "Of true sincerity? O holy sir,", "My reverend father, let it not be so:", "Out of your grace, devise, ordain, impose", "Some gentle order; and then we shall be bless'd\nTo do your pleasure, and continue friends.", "Pand. All form is formless, order orderless,", "Save that is opposite to England's love,", "Therefore, to arms! be champion of our church!\nOr let the church, our mother, breathe her curse,\nA mother's curse, on her revolting son.", "France, thou mayst hold a serpent by the tongue,", "A cased² lion by the mortal paw,", "A fasting tiger safer by the tooth,", "Than keep in peace that hand which thou dost hold.", "K. Phi. I may disjoin my hand, but not my faith.", "Pand. So mak'st thou faith an enemy to faith;", "And, like a civil war, sett'st oath to oath,", "Thy tongue against thy tongue. O, let thy vow", "First made to heaven, first be to heaven perform'd;", "That is to be the champion of our church!", "What since thou swor'st, is sworn against thyself,", "And may not be performed by thyself:", "For that, which thou hast sworn to do amiss,", "Is not amiss when it is truly done;", "And being not done, where doing tends to ill,", "The truth is then most done not doing it:", "The better act of purposes mistook", "Is, to mistake again: though indirect,", "Yet indirection thereby grows direct,", "And falsehood falsehood cures; as fire cools fire,", "Within the scorched veins of one new burn'd.", "It is religion, that doth make vows kept;", "But thou hast sworn against religion;", "By what thou swear'st, against the thing thou swear'st;", "And mak'st an oath the surety for thy truth", "Against an oath: The truth thou art unsure", "To swear, swear only not to be forsworn;⁷", "Else, what a mockery should it be to swear?", "But thou dost swear only to be forsworn;", "And most forsworn, to keep what thou dost swear.", "Therefore, thy latter vows, against thy first:", "Is in myself rebellion to thyself:", "And better conquest never canst thou make,", "Than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts", "Against those giddy loose suggestions:", "Upon which better part our prayers come in,", "If thou vouchsafe them: but, if not, then know,", "The peril of our curses light on thee;", "So heavy, as thou shall not shake them off,", "But, in despair, die under their black weight.", "Aust. Rebellion, flat rebellion!", "Bast.", "Will't not be?", "Will not a calf-skin stop that mouth of thine?", "Lew. Father, to arms!", "Blanch.", "Upon thy wedding day?", "Against the blood that thou hast married?", "What, shall our feast be kept with slaughter'd men?", "Shall braying trumpets, and loud churlish drums,—", "Clamours of hell,—be measures to our pomp?", "O husband, hear me!—ah, alack! how new", "Is husband in my mouth? even for that name,", "Which till this time my tongue did ne'er pronounce,", "Upon my knee I beg, go not to arms", "Against mine uncle.", "Const.", "O, upon my knee,", "Made hard with kneeling, I do pray to thee,", "Thou virtuous Dauphin, alter not the doom", "Fore

### SCENE III.

### KING JOHN.

391

Lew. I muse, your majesty doth seem so cold,

shall such profound respects do pull you on.

Pand. I will denounce a curse upon his head.

K. Phi. Thou shall not need :—England, I'll fall from thee.

Const. O fair return of banish'd majesty!

Eli. O foul revolt of French inconstancy !

K. John. France, thou shall rue this hour within
this hour.

Bast. Old time the clock-setter, that bald sexton,
time,

Is it as he will? well, then, France shall rue.

Blanch. The sun's o'ercast with blood: Fair day,
adieu !

Which is the side that I must go withal ?

I am with both : each army hath a hand ;

And in their rage, I having hold of both,
They whirr asunder, and dismember me.

Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst win;

Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst lose ;

Father, I may now wish the fortune thine ;

Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes thrive :

Whoever wins, on that side shall I lose ;

Assured loss, before the match be play'd.

Lew. Lady, with me; with me thy fortune lies.

Blanch. There where my fortune lives, there my life dies.

K. John. Cousin, go draw our puissance together,—

France, I am burn'd up with inflaming wrath !

A rage, whose heat hath this condition,

That nothing can alloy, nothing but blood,

The blood, and dearest valued blood, of France,

K. Phi. Thy rage shall burn thee up, and thou
shalt turn

To ashes, ere our blood shall quench that fire :

Look to thyself, thou art in jeopardy.

K. John. No more than he threats.—To arms

let's hie !

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE II.
The same. Plains near Angiers.
Alarums; Excursions. Enter the Bastard, with
AUSTRIA's Head.

Bast. Now, by my life, this day grows wondrous
hot

Some airy devil¹ hovers in the sky,

And pours down mischief. Austria's head, lie there,
While Philip breathes.

Enter KING JOHN, ARTHUR, and HUBERT.

K. John. Hubert, keep this boy:—Philip,² make up:

My mother is assailed in our tent,

And ta'en, I fear.

Bast.

My lord, I rescu'd her ;

Her highness is in safety, fear you not :

But on, my liege: for very little pains

Will bring this labour to a happy end.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III.
The same. Alarums; Excursions;
Retreat. Enter KING JOHN, ELINOR, ARTHUR,
the Bastard, HUBERT, and LORDS.

K. John. So shall it be; your grace shall stay
behind,

So strongly guarded.—Cousin, look not sad :

[To ARTHUR.]

1. There is a minute description of numerous devils or spirits, and their different functions, in Nash's Pierce Penninlesse his Supplication, 1592, where we find the following passage :—² The spirits of the *aire* will mix themselves with thunder and lightning, and so infect the clyme where they raise any tempest, that sodainly great mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The spirits of *fire* have their mansions under the regions of the moone.³

2. Here the king, who had knighted him by the name of Sir Richard, calls him by his former name. Shak- speare has followed the old plays, and the best authen- ticated history. The queen of England, whom King John had made regent in Anjou, was in possession of the town of Mirabeau, in that province. On the approach of the French army, with Arthur at their head, she sent letters to King John to come to her relief, which he imme- diately did. As he advanced to the town he encoun- tered the army that lay before it, routed them, and took Arthur prisoner. The queen in the mean while re- mained in perfect security in the castle of Mirabeau.

Thy grandam loves thee, and thy uncle will
As dear be to thee as thy father was.

Arth. O, this will make my mother die with grief.

K. John. Cousin, [To the Bastard,] away for
England; haste before:

And, ere our coming, see thou shake the bags

Of hoarding abbots: angels² imprisoned

Set thou at liberty; the fat ribs of peace

Must by the hungry now be fed upon :

Use our commission in his utmost force.

Bast. Bell, book, and candle⁴ shall not drive me
back;

When gold and silver becks me to come on.

I leave your highness :—Grandam, I will pray
(If ever I remember to be holy)

For your fair safety: so I kiss your hand.

Eli. Farewell, my gentle cousin.

K. John.

Coz, farewell.
[Exit Bastard.

Eli. Come hither, little kinsman; hark, a word.

[She takes ARTHUR aside.

K. John. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle
Hubert,

We owe thee much; within this wall of flesh

There is a soul counts thee her creditor,

And with advantage means to pay thy love :

And, my good friend, thy voluntary oath

Lives in this bosom, dearly cherished.

Give me thy hand. I had a thing to say,—

But I will fit it with some better time.

By heaven, Hubert, I am almost asham'd

To say what good respect I have of thee.

Hub. I am much bounden to your majesty.

K. John. Good friend, thou hast no cause to say
so yet:

But thou shall have; and creep time ne'er so slow,
Yet it shall come, for me to do thee good.

I had a thing to say,—But let it go:

The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day,

Attended with the pleasures of the world,

Is all too wanton, and too full of gawds,⁵

To give me audience :—If the midnight bell

Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth,

Sound one unto⁶ the drowsy race of night ;

If this same were a churchyard where we stand,

And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs;

Or if that surly spirit, melancholy,

Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick,

(Which, else, runs tickling up and down the veins,

Making that idiot, laughter, keep men's eyes,

And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,

A passion hateful to my purposes;)

Or if that thou couldst'st see me without eyes,

Hear me without thine ears, and make reply

Without a tongue, using conceit⁷ alone,

Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words ;

Then, in despite of brooded⁸ watchful day,

I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts :

But ah, I will not :—Yet, I love thee well ;

And, by my troth, I think, thou lov'st me well.

Hub. So well, that what you bid me undertake,

Though that my death were adjunct to my act,
By heaven, Pd do't.

3. Gold coin of that name.

4. It appears from Johnson's Ecclesiastical Laws, that sentence of excommunication was to be ⁴ explained in order in English, with bells tolling and candles lighted, that it may cause the greater dread; for laymen have greater regard to this solemnity than to the effect of such sentences.³

5. Showy ornaments.

6. The old copy reads into, the emendation is Theo-
bald's.

7. Conception.

8. Pope proposed to read broad-eyed, instead of brood-
ed. The alteration, it must be confessed, is elegant,
but unnecessary. The allusion is to the vigilance of
animals while brooding, or with a brood of young ones
under their protection. Brood may be used for brood-
ing, as delighted for delighting, and disentertained for
discontenting, in other places of these plays. To sit on
brood, or abrood, is the old term applied to birds during
the period of incubation. All the metaphorical uses of
the verb to brood are common to the Latin incubo.

["KING JOHN.", "ACT III.", "392", "K. John. Do not I know, thou would'st?", "Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye\nOn yon young boy: I'll tell thee what, my friend,\nHe is a very serpent in my way;", "And, wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread,\nHe lies before me: Dost thou understand me?\nThou art his keeper.", "Hub.", "And I will keep him so,", "That he shall not offend your majesty.", "K. John. Death.", "Hub.", "My lord?", "K. John.", "A grave.", "Hub.", "He shall not live.", "K. John.", "Enough.", "I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee;", "Well, I'll not say what I intend for thee;", "Remember.—Madam, fare you well!", "I'll send those powers o'er to your majesty.", "Eli. My blessing go with thee!", "K. John.", "For England, cousin:", "Hubert shall be your man, attend on you", "With all true duty.—On toward Calais, ho!", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE IV. The same. The French King's Tent.\nEnter KING PHILIP, LEWIS, PANDULPH, and\nAttendants.", "K. Phi. So, by a roaring tempest on the flood,", "A whole armado² of convicted³ sail", "Is scatter'd and disjoin'd from fellowship,", "Pand. Courage and comfort! all shall yet go\nwell.", "K. Phi. What can go well, when we have run\nso ill?", "Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost?", "Arthur ta'en prisoner? divers dear friends slain?", "And bloody England into England gone,", "O'erbearing interruption, spite of France?", "Lew. What he hath won, that hath he fortified:", "So hot a speed with such advice dispos'd,", "Such temperate order in so fierce a cause,", "Doth want example; Who hath read, or heard,", "Of any kindred action like to this?", "K. Phi. Well could I bear that England had\nthis praise,", "So we could find some pattern of our shame.", "Enter CONSTANCE.", "Look, who comes here! a grave unto a soul;", "Holding the eternal spirit, against her will,", "In the vile prison of afflicted breath:—⁵", "I pr'ythee, lady, go away with me.", "Const. Lo, now! now see the issue of your\npeace!", "K. Phi. Patience, good lady! comfort, gentle\nConstance!", "Const. No, I defy⁶ all counsel, all redress,", "But that which ends all counsel, true redress,", "Death, death: —O amiable lovely death!", "Thou odoriferous stench! sound rottenness!", "Arise forth from the couch of lasting night,", "Thou hate and terror to prosperity,", "And I will kiss thy detestable bones;", "And put my eyeballs in thy valetty brows;", "And ring these fingers with thy household worms;", "And stop this gap of breath⁷ with fulsome dust,", "And be a carrion monster like thyself:", "Come, grin on me; and I will think thou smilest,\nAnd buss thee as thy wife! Misery's love,\nO, come to me!", "K. Phi.", "O fair affliction, peace.", "Const. No, no, I will not, having breath to cry:—\nO, that my tongue were in the thunder's mouth!", "Then with a passion would I shake the world!", "And rouse from sleep that fell anatomy,\nWhich cannot hear a lady's feeble voice,\nWhich scorns a modern⁸ invocation.", "Pand. Lady, you utter madness, and not sorrow.", "Const. Thou art not holy to belie me so;", "I am not mad: this hair I tear is mine;", "My name is Constance: I was Geoffrey's wife;", "Young Arthur is my son, and he is lost:", "I am not mad: —I would to heaven, I were!", "For then, 'tis like I should forget myself:", "O, if I could, what grief should I forget!—", "Preach some philosophy to make me mad,", "And thou, shall I say, canonized,²⁰, cardinal:", "For, being not mad, but sensible of grief,", "My reasonable part produces reason", "How I may be deliver'd of these woes,", "And teaches me to kill or hang myself:", "If I were mad, I should forget my son,", "Or madly think, a babe of clouts were he:", "I am not mad; too well, too well I feel", "The different plague of each calamity.", "K. Phi. Bind up those tresses; O, what love I\nnote", "In the fair multitude of those her hairs!", "Where but by chance a silver drop has fallen,", "Even to that drop ten thousand wiry friends", "Do glew themselves in sociable grief;", "Like true, inseparable, faithful loves,", "Sticking together in calamity.", "Const. To England, if you will.⁹", "K. Phi.", "Bind up your hairs.", "Const. Yes, that I will; and wherefore will I do\nit?", "I tore them from their bonds; and cried aloud,", "O that these hands could so redeem my son", "As they have given these hairs their liberty!", "But now I envy at their liberty,", "And will again commit them to their bonds,", "Because my poor child is a prisoner.—", "And, father cardinal, I have heard you say,", "That we shall see and know our friends in heaven,", "If that be true, I shall see my boy again:", "For, since the birth of Cain, the first male child,", "To him that did but yesterday suspire,¹⁰", "There was not such a gracious¹¹ creature born,", "But now will canker sorrow eat my bud,", "And chase the native beauty from his cheek,", "And he will look as hollow as a ghost;", "As dim and meagre as an age's fit;", "And so he'll die; and, rising so again,", "When I shall meet him in the court of heaven", "I shall not know him: therefore never, never", "Must I behold my pretty Arthur more.", "Pand. You hold too heinous a respect of grief.", "Const. He talks to me, that never had a son.¹²", "K. Phi. You are as fond of grief, as of your child.", "Const. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,¹³", "5 '—the vile prison of afflicted breath' is *the body*; the same vile prison in which the breath is confined.", "6 To defy formerly signified to *refuse*, to *reject*.", "'I do defy thy commiseration.'—*Romeo and Juliet*.", "7 i. e. this mouth.", "9 Probably Constance in despair means to apostro-\nphize the absent King John: —'Take my son to Eng-\nland if you will?'", "1

["## SCENE IV.", "## KING JOHN.", "Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me;\nPuts in his pretty looks, repeats his words,\nRemembers me of all his gracious parts,\nStuffs out his vacant garments with his form;\nThen, have I reason to be fond of grief.\nFare you well: had you such a loss as I,\nI could give better comfort than you do.—\nI will not keep this form upon my head,", "[Tearing off her head-dress.", "When there is such disorder in my wit.", "O lord, my boy, my Arthur, my fair son!", "My life, my boy, my food, my all the world!", "My widow-comfort, and my sorrow's cure!", "K. Phi. I fear some outrage, and I'll follow her.", "Lew. There's nothing in this world can make me joy;", "Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,", "Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man;", "And bitter shame hath spoiled the sweet world's2\nsense,", "That it yields nought, but shame, and bitterness.\nPand. Before the curing of a strong disease,", "Even in the instant of repair and health,", "The fit is strongest; evils, that take leave,", "On their departure most of all show evil:", "What have you lost by losing of this day?", "Lew. All days of glory, joy, and happiness.", "Pand. If you had won it, certainly, you had.", "No, so when fortune means to men most good,\nShe looks upon them with a threatening eye.", "'Tis strange, to think how much King John hath lost\nIn this which he accounts so clearly won:", "Are not you griev'd, that Arthur is his prisoner?", "Lew. As heartily, as he is glad he hath him.", "Pand. Your mind is all as youthful as your blood.", "Now hear me speak, with a prophetic spirit;", "For even the breath of what I meant to speak\nShall blow each dust, each straw, each little rub,", "Out of the path which shall directly lead\nThy foot to England's throne; and, therefore, mark.", "John hath seiz'd Arthur's life; and it cannot be,\nThat, whiles warm life plays in that infant's veins,", "The misplaced John should entertain an hour,\nOne minute, nay, one quiet breath of rest:", "A sceptre, snatch'd with an unruly hand,", "Must be, as boisterously maintain'd as gain'd:", "And he, that stands upon a slippery place,", "Makes nice of any place to stay him up:", "That John may stand, then Arthur needs must fall;\nSo be it, for it cannot be but so.", "Lew. But what shall I gain by young Arthur's fall?", "Pand. You, in the right of Lady Blanch your wife.", "May then make all the claim that Arthur did.", "Lew. And lose him, life and all, as Arthur did.", "Pand. How green are you, and fresh in this old world!", "John lays you plots;3 the time conspires with you:\nFor he, that steeps his safety in true blood,\nShall find but bloody safety, and untrue.", "This act, so evilly born, shall cool the zeal\nOf all his people, and freeze up their hearts;", "That none so small advantage shall step forth,", "To check his reign, but they will cherish it:\nNo natural exhalation in the sky,", "No scape⁴ of nature, no distemper'd day,", "No common wind, no customed event,", "But they will pluck away his natural cause,", "And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs,", "Abortives, presages, and tongues of heaven,", "Plainly denouncing vengeance upon John.", "Lew. May be, he will not touch young Arthur's\nlife,", "But hold himself safe in his prisonment.", "Pand. O, sir, when he shall hear of your approach,\nIf that young Arthur be not gone already,", "Of all his people shall revolt from him,", "And kiss the lips of unacquainted change;", "And pick strong matter of revolt, and wrath,", "Out of the bloody fingers' ends of John.", "Methinks, I see this hurly² all on foot;", "And, O, what better matter breeds for you,", "Than I have nam'd!—The bastard Faулconbridge", "Is now in England, ransacking the church,", "Offending charity: If but a dozen French", "Were there in arms, they would be as a call⁶", "To train ten thousand English to their side;", "Or, as a little snow,⁷ tumbled about,", "Anon, becomes a mountain. O noble Dauphin,", "Go with me to the king: 'Tis wonderful,", "What may be wrought out of their discontent:", "Now that their souls are topfull of offence,", "For England go; I will whet on the king.", "Lew. Strong reasons make strong⁸ actions: Let us go;", "If you say, ay, the king will not say, no. [Exeunt.", "## ACT IV.", "### SCENE I. Northampton.⁹ A Room in the Castle.", "Enter HUBERT and two Attendants.", "Hub. Heat me these irons hot: and, look thou stand", "Within the arras:¹⁰ when I strike my foot", "Upon the bosom of the ground, rush forth:", "And bind the boy, which you shall find with me,", "Fast to the chair: be heedful: hence, and watch.", "1 **Attendant.** I hope, your warrant will bear out the deed.", "Hub. Uncleanly scruples! Fear not you: look to't.—", "Young lad, come forth; I have to say with you.", "#### Enter ARTHUR.", "Arth. Good morrow, Hubert.", "Hub. Good morrow, little prince.", "Arth. As little prince (having so great a title", "To be more prince,) as may be.—You are sad.", "Hub. Indeed, I have been merrier.", "Arth. Mercy on me!", "Methinks nobody should be sad but I!", "Yet, I remember, when I was in France,", "Young gentlemen would be as sad as night,", "Only for wantonness.¹¹ By my christendom,¹²", "are sometimes caught; one being placed for the purpose of drawing others to the net by his note or call.", "7 Bacon, in his History of Henry VII. speaking of Simnel's march, observes that their snowball did not gather as it went.", "8 The first folio reads *strange*; the second folio *strong*.", "9 There is no circumstance, either in the original play or in this of Shakspeare, to point out the particular castle in which Arthur is supposed to be confined. The castle of Northampton has been mentioned merely because, in the first act, King John seems to have been in that town. It has already been stated that Arthur was in fact confined at Falaise, and afterwards at Rouen, where he was put to death.", "10 Tapestry.", "11 This is a satirical glance at the fashionable affectation of his time by Shakspeare: which Lyly also ridicules in his Midas:—'Now every base companion, being in his multe-fubles, says he is melancholy.' Again: 'Melancholy is the crest of courtiers, and now every base companion says he is melancholy.'", "12 i. e. by my *baptism*. The use of this word for", "1 For when thou art angry, all our days are gone,\nwe bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.'—Psalm xc.", "2 The old copy reads *word's*. The alteration was made by Pope. Malone thinks that it is unnecessary; and that by the *sweet word*, *life* is meant. Steevens prefers Pope's emendation, which is countenanced by Hamlet's", "⁴ How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable", "Seem to me all the uses of this world!", "3 John lays you plots.⁵ A similar phrase occurs in the First Part of King Henry VI.—", "'He writes me here.'", "4 The old copy reads *scope*. The emendation is Pope's. Shakspeare finely calls a monstrous birth an *escape of nature*, as if it were produced while she was busy elsewhere, or intent upon some other thing.", "5 *Hurly* is *tumult*.", "6 The image is taken from the manner in which birds", "50", "## ACT III.\n\nI am not soildier,", "I am not soildier,", {"bbox": [0, 379, 58, 406], "category": "Page-header", "text":

["KING JOHN.", "ACT IV.", "594", "So I were out of prison, and kept sheep,\nI should be as merry as the day is long;\nAnd so I would be here, but that I doubt\nMy uncle practises more harm to me :", "He is afraid of me, and I of him:", "Is it my fault that I was Geoffrey's son?", "No, indeed, is't not; And I would to heaven,\nI were your son, so you would love me, Hubert.\nHub. If I talk to him, with his innocent prate", "He will awake my mercy, which lies dead :", "Therefore I will be sudden, and despatch. [Aside.", "Arth. Are you sick, Hubert? you look pale to-day:—\nIn sooth, I would you were a little sick;", "That I might sit all night, and watch with you :", "I warrant, I love you more than you do me.\nHub. His words do take possession of my bo-", "som.—\nRead here, young Arthur. [Showing a paper.] [Aside.\nHow now, foolish rheum !", "Turning dispirited torture out of door !\nI must be brief, lest resolution drop.", "Out at mine eyes, in tender womanish tears.—", "Can you not read it? is it not fair writ ?\nArth. Too fairly, Hubert, for so foul effect:", "Must you with hot irons burn out both mine eyes?\nHub. Young boy, I must.", "Arth. And will you ?", "Hub. And I will.", "Arth. Have you the heart ? When your head did but ake,", "I knit my handkerchief about your brows", "(The best I had, a princess wrought it me.)", "And I did never ask it you again :", "And with my hand at midnight held your head ;", "And, like the watchful minutes to the hour,", "Still and anon cheer'd up the heavy time ;", "Saying, What lack you? and, Where lies your grief?", "Or, What good love may I perform for you?", "Many a poor man's son would have lain still,", "And ne'er have spoke a loving word to you ;", "But you at your sick service had a prince.", "Nay, you may think my love was crafty love,", "And call it cunning; Do, an if you will :", "If heaven be pleas'd that you must use me ill,", "Why, then you must.—Will you put out mine eyes?", "These eyes, that never did, nor never shall,", "So much as frown on you?", "Hub. I have sworn to do it;\nAnd with hot irons must I burn them out.", "Arth. Ah, none, but in this iron age, would do it !", "The iron of itself, though heat's red-hot,", "Approaching near these eyes, would drink my tears,", "And quench his fiery indignation", "Even in the matter of mine innocence :", "Nay, after that, consume away in rust,", "But for containing fire to harm mine eye.", "Are you more stubborn-hard than hammer'd iron ?", "An if an angel should have come to me,", "And told me, Hubert should put out mine eyes,", "I would not have believ'd him ; no tongue, but Hu-\nbert's.", "Hub. Come forth. [Stamps.", "Re-enter Attendants, with Cord<sub>s</sub>, Irons, &c.", "Do as I bid you do.", "Arth. O, save me, Hubert, save me; my eyes are out,", "Even with the fierce looks of these bloody men.", "Hub. Give me the iron I say, and bind him here.", "Arth. Alas! what need you be so boist'rous-\nrough?", "I will not struggle, I will stand stone-still.", "For heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound !", "Nay, hear me, Hubert! drive these men away,", "christening or baptism is not peculiar to Shakspeare; it\nwas common in his time. Hearne has published a\n*Prone* from a MS. of Henry the Seventh's time, in the\nglossary to Robert of Gloucester in a note on the word\nmidewinter, by which it appears that it was the ancient\northography. 'The childer ryzt schape & *chystyn-\ndome*. It is also used by Lyly, Fanshaw, Harington,\nand Fairfax.", "And I will sit as quiet as a lamb :", "I will not stir, nor wince, nor speak a word;", "Nor look upon the iron angrily:", "Thrust but these men away, and I'll forgive you,\nWhatever torment you do put me to.", "Hub. Go, stand within ; let me alone with him.", "I Attendant. I am best pleas'd to be from such a\ndeed. [Exeunt Attendants.", "Arth. Alas! I then have chid away my friend;", "He hath a stern look, but a gentle heart;—", "Let him come back, that his compassion may\ngive life to yours.", "Hub. Come, boy, prepare yourself.\nArth. Is there no remedy?", "Hub. None, but to lose your eyes.", "Arth. O heaven!—that there were but a mote in\nyours,", "A grain, a dust, a gnat, a wand'ring hair,", "Any annoyance in that precious sense!", "Then, feeling what small things are boist'rous there,\nYour vile intent must needs seem horrible.", "Hub. Is this your promise ? go to, hold your\ntongue.", "Arth. Hubert, the utterance of a brace of tongues", "Must needs want pleading for a pair of eyes;", "Let me not hold my tongue ; let me not, Hubert!", "Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,²", "So I may keep mine eyes: O, spare mine eyes,", "Though to no use, but still to look on you!", "Lo, by my troth, the instrument is cold,", "And would not harm me.", "Hub. I can heat it, boy.", "Arth. No<sub>2</sub> in good silk; the fire is dead with\ngrief,", "Being create for comfort, to be us'd", "In undeserv'd extremes:³ See else yourself;", "There is no malice in this burning coal;", "The breath of heaven hath blown his spirit out,", "And strew'd repentant ashes on his head.", "Hub. But with my breath I can revive it, boy.", "Arth. And if you do, you will but make it blish,", "And glow with shame of your proceedings, Hubert:", "Nay, it, perchance, will sparkle in your eyes;", "And, like a dog that is compell'd to fight,", "Snatch at his master that doth tarrè<sub>3</sub> him on.", "All things, that you should use to do me wrong,", "Deny their office : only you do lack", "That mercy, which fierce fire, and iron, extends\nCreatures of note for mercy-lacking uses.", "Hub. Well, see to live ; I will not touch thine eyes", "For all the treasure that thine uncle owes;³", "Yet am I sworn, and I did purpose, boy,", "With this same very iron to burn them out.", "Arth. O, now you look like Hubert! all this while\nYou were disguis'd.", "Hub. Peace: no more. Adieu:", "Your uncle must not know but you are dead:", "I'll fill these dogged spies with false reports.", "And, pretty child, sleep doubtless, and secure,", "That Hubert, for the wealth of all the world,", "Will not offend thee.", "Arth. O heaven!—I thank you, Hubert.", "Hub. Silence; no more: Go closely⁴ in with me;", "Much danger do I undergo for thee. [Exeunt.", "SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the Palace. Enter KING JOHN, crowned; PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and other Lords. The King takes his State.", "K. John. Here once again we sit, once again\ncrown'd,", "And look'd upon, I hope, with cheerful eyes.", "1 The participle heat, though now obsolete, was in\nuse in Shakspeare's time. ' He commanded that they\nshould heat the furnace one seven times more than it\nwas wont to be heat?'—*Daniel*, III

ACT IV.

### SCENE II.

KING JOHN.

Pem. This once again, but that your highness
pleas'd,

Was once superfluous:¹ you were crown'd before,
And that high royalty was ne'er pluck'd off;
The faiths of men ne'er stained with revolt;
Fresh expectation troubled not the land,
With any long'd-for change, or better state.

Sal. Therefore, to be possess'd with double pomp,
To guard² a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light
To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful, and ridiculous excess.

Pem. But that your royal pleasure must be done,
This act is as an ancient tale new told;³
And, in the last repeating, troublesome,
Being urged at a time unseasonable.

Sal. In this, the antique and well- noted face

Of plain old form is much disfigured :

And, like a shifted wind unto a sail :

It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about :

Startles and frights consideration ;

Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected,

For putting on so new a fashion'd robe.

Pem. When workmen strive to do better than well?

They do confound their skill in covetousness :⁴

And, oftentimes, excusing of a fault,

Doth make the fault the worse by the excuse ;

As patches, set upon a little breach,

Discredit more in hiding of the fault,⁵

Than did the fault before it was so patch'd.

Sal. To this effect, before you were new-crown'd,
We breath'd our counsel : but it pleas'd your highness

To overbear it; and we are all well pleas'd;

Since all and every part of what we would,⁶

Doth make a stand at what your highness will.

K. John. Some reasons of this double coronation
I have possess'd you with, and think them strong;
And more, more strong (when lesser is my fear,)
I shall induceth you with: Mean time, but ask
What you would have reform'd, that is not well;
And well shall you perceive, how willingly
I will both hear and grant you your requests.

Pem. Then I (as one that am the tongue of these,
To sound? the purposes of all their hearts,)²
Both for myself and them (but, chief of all,
Your safety, for the which myself and them
Bend their best studies), heartily request
The enfanchisement⁶ of Arthur; whose restraint
Doth move the murmuring lips of discontent
To break into this dangerous argument,—
If, what in rest you have, in right you hold,
Why then your fears (which, as they say, attend
The steps of wrong), should move you to mew up⁹
Your tender kinsman, and to choke his days
With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth
The rich advantage of good exercise?¹⁰
That the time's enemies may not have this
To grace occasions, let it be our suit,
That you have bid us ask his liberty;
Which for our goods we do no further ask,

1. i. this one time more, was one time more than enough. It should be remembered that King John was now crowned for the fourth time.

2 To guard is to ornament.

3 Shakspeare has here repeated an idea which he had first put into the mouth of the Dauphin:—

¹ Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,

² Vexing the dull ear of a drowdy man.

4 i. e. not by their avarice, but in an eager desire of
excelling.

5 Fault means blemish.

6 Since the whole and each particular part of our
wishes, &c.

7 To declare, to publish the purposes of all, &c.

8 Releasement.

9 The construction of this passage is: 'If you have a good title to what you have now in rest (i. e. quiet), why then is it that your fears should move you?' &c.

Than whereupon our weal, on you depending,
Counts it your weal, he have his liberty.

K. John. Let it be so; I do commit his youth

Enter HUBERT.

To your direction.—Hubert, what news with you ?

Pem. This is the man should do the bloody deed;
He show'd his warrant to a friend of mine:

The image of a wicked heinous fault

Lives in his eye, that close aspect of his

Does show the mood of a much troubled breast;

And I do fearfully believe, 'tis done,

What we so fear'd he had a charge to do.

Sal. The colour of the king doth come and go,

Between his purpose and his conscience,

Like heralds 'twixt two dreadful battles set:

His passion is so ripe it needs must break.

Pem. And when it breaks, I fear, will issue thence
The foul corruption of a sweet child's death.

K. John. We cannot hold mortality's strong
hand:—

Good lords, although my will to give is living,

The suit which you demand is gone and dead:

He tells us, Arthur is deceased to-night.

Sal. Indeed, we fear'd his sickness was past cure.

Pem. Indeed, we heard how near his death he was,

Before the child himself felt he was sick:

This must be answered, either here, or hence.

K. John. Why do you bend such solemn brows
on me?

Think you, I bear the shears of destiny?

Have I commandment on the pulse of life?

Sal. It is apparent foul-play; and 'tis shame,

That greatness should be so grossly offer it:

So thrive it in your game! and so farewell.

Pem. Stay yet, Lord Salisbury; I'll go with thee,
And find the inheritance of this poor child,
His little kingdom of a forced grave.

That blood, which ow'd¹² the breadth of all this isle,

Three foot of it doth hold; Bad world the while!

This must not be thus borne: this will break out

To all our sorrows, and ere long, I doubt.

(Exeunt Lords.

K. John. They burn in indignation; I repent;

There is no sure foundation set on blood;

No certain life achiev'd by others' death —

Enter a Messenger.

A fearful eye thou hast; Where is that blood,

That I have seen inhabit in those cheeks?

So foul a sky clears not without a storm:

Pour down thy weather:—How goes all in France?

Mess. From France to England.¹³—Never such a power

For any foreign preparation,

Was levied in the body of a land!

The copy of your speed is learn'd by them;

For, when you should be told they do prepare,

The tidings come that they are all arriv'd.

K. John. O, where hath our intelligence been
drunk?

Where hath it slept?¹⁴ Where is my mother's care?

That such an army could be drawn in France,

And she not hear of it?

Mess. My liege, her ear

Is stopp'd with dust; the first of April, died

10 In the middle ages, the whole education of princes
and noble youths consisted in martial exercises, &c.
Mental improvement might have been had in a prison
as well as any where else.

11 The purpose of the king, to which Salisbury alludes,
is that of putting Arthur to death, which he considers as
not yet accomplished, and therefore supposes that there
might be still a conflict in the king's mind—

'Between his purpose and his conscience.'

12 i. e. 'own't the breadth of all this isle.' The two
last variorum editions erroneously read 'breath for
breadth,' which is found in the old copy.

13 The king asks how all goes in France; the messer
senger catches the word goes, and answers, that what-
ever is in France goes now into England.

14 So in Macbeth:—

'—Was the hope drunk
Wherein you drest yourself? hath it slept since?'

396

KING JOHN

Act IV.

Your noble mother; And, as I hear, my lord,
The Lady Constance in a frenzy died
Three days before: but this from rumour's tongue
I idly heard; if true, or false, I know not.

K. John. Withhold thy speed, dreadful occasion!

O, make a league with me, till I have pleas'd
My discontented peers!—What! mother dead?
How wildly then walks my estate in France!¹¹—
Under whose conduct came those powers of France,
That thou for truth giv'd out, are landed here?

Mess. Under the Dauphin.

Enter the Bastard and PETER of POMFRET.

K. John.

Thou hast made me giddy
With these ill tidings.—Now, what says the world
To your proceedings? do not seek to stuff
My head with more ill news, for it is full.

Bast. But if you be afeard to hear the worst,
Then let the worst, unheard, fall on your head.

K. John. Bear with me, cousin; for I was
amaz'd².

Under the tide; but now I breathe again
Aloft the flood; and can give audience
To any tongue, speak it of what it will,
Bast. How I have sped among the clergymen,
The sums I have collected shall express.
But, as I travelled hither through the land,
I find the people strangely fantasized:
Possess'd with rumours, full of idle dreams;
Not knowing what they fear, but full of fear:
And here's a prophet,³ that I brought with me
From the streets of Pomfret, whom I found
With many hundreds treading on his heels;

To whom he sung, in rude harsh sounding rhymes,
That, ere the next Ascension-day at noon,
Your highness should deliver up your crown.

K. John. Thou idle dreamer, wherefore didst
thou so?

Peter. Foreknowing that the truth will fall out so,

K. John. Hubert, away with him; imprisonment him;
And on that day at noon, whereon, he says,

I shall yield up my crown, let him be hang'd:
Deliver him to safety,⁴ and return,
For I must use thee.—O my gentle cousin,

Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are
full of it:

Hear'st thou the news abroad, who are arriv'd?
Bast. The French, my lord; men's mouths are
full of it:

Besides, I met Lord Bigot, and Lord Salisbury
(With eyes as red as new-enkindled fire),
And others more, going to seek the grave
Of Arthur, who, they say, is kill'd to-night
On your suggestion.

K. John.

Gentle kinsman, go,

And thrust thyself into their companies:
I have a way to win their loves again;

Bring them before me.

Bast.

I will seek them out.

K. John. Nay, but make haste; the better foot
before.—

O, let me have no subject enemies,
When adverse foreigners affright my towns
With dreadful pomp of stout invasion!—
Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels;
And fly, like thought, from them to me again.

Bast. The spirit of the time shall teach me speed.

[Exit.]

1 i. e. how ill my affairs go in France.

2 Astonied, stunned, confounded, are the ancient synonyms of *amazed*, obstupscos.

3 This man was a hermit in great repute with the common people. Notwithstanding the event is said to have fallen out as he prophesied, the poor fellow was inhumanly dragged at horses' tails through the streets of Warham, and, together with his son, who appears to have been even more innocent than his father, hanged afterwards upon a gibbet. Holstnæd, in anno 1213.—Speed says that Peter the hermit was suborned by the pope's legate, the French king, and the barons for this purpose.

4 i. e. to safe custody.

5 This may be compared with a spirited passage in Edward III. Capel's Prolusions, p. 757.
'Our men, with open mouths and staring eyes,
Look on each other, as they did attend.

K. John. Spoke like a spriteful noble gentleman.—

Go after him; for he, perhaps, shall need
Some messenger betwixt me and the peers;
And be thou he.

Mess.

With all my heart, my liege.

[Exit.]

K. John. My mother dead!

Re-enter HUBERT.

Hub. My lord, they say, five moons were seen
to-night:

Four fixed; and the fifth did whirl about
The other four, in wondrous motion.

K. John. Five moons?

Hub. Old men, and beldams, in the streets
Do prophesy upon it dangerously:

Young Arthur's death is common in their mouths;
And when they talk of him, they shake their heads,
And whisper one another in the ear;

And he, that speaks, doth gripe the hearer's wrist;
Whilst he, that hears, makes fearful action,

With wrinkled brows, with nods, with rolling eyes,⁵
I saw a smith stand with his hammer thus,

The whilst his iron did on the anvil cool,
With open mouth swallowing a tailor's news;

Who, with his shears and measure in his hand,
Standing on slippers (which his nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet).⁶

Told of a thousand warlike French,
That were embattailed and rank'd in Kent:

Another lean unwash'd artificer

Cuts off his tale, and talks of Arthur's death.

K. John. Why seek'st thou to possess me with
these fears?

Why urgent thou so oft young Arthur's death?
Thy hand hath murder'd him; I had a mighty cause
To wish him dead, but thou hadst none to kill him.

Hub. Had none, my lord! why, did you not pro-
voke me?

K. John. It is the curse of kings to be attended
By slaves, that take their humours for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life:

And, on the winking of authority,
To understand a law; to know the meaning
Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humour than advis'd respect.

Hub. Here is your hand and seal for what I did.

K. John. O, when the last seal 'twixt heaven
and earth

Is to be made, then shall this hand and seal
Witness against us to damnation!

How oft the sight of means to do ill deeds,
Make deeds ill done! Hadest not thou been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature mark'd,

Quoted,⁸ and sign'd, to do a deed of shame,
This murder had not come into my mind:

But, taking note of thy abhorr'd aspect,
Finding thee fit for bloody villany,

Apt, liable, to be employ'd in danger,

I famtly broke with thee of Arthur's death;

And thou, to be endeared to a king,

Made it no conscience to destroy a prince.

Hub. My lord,—

K. John. Hadst thou but shook thy head, or made
a pause,⁹

Each other's words, and yet no creature speaks;

A tongue-tied fear hath made a midnight hour,
And speeches sleep through all the waking region.

6 This passage, which called forth the antiquarian
knowledge of so many learned commentators, is now,
from the return of the fashion of right and left shoes,
become intelligible without a note.

7 Deliberate consideration.

8 To quote is to note or mark.

9 There are many touches of nature in this conference
of John with Hubert. A man engaged in wickedness
would keep the profit to himself, and transfer the guilt
to his accomplice. These reproaches vented against
Hubert are not words of art or policy, but the eruptions
of a mind swelling with consciousness of a crime, and
desirous of discharging its misery on another. This
account of the timidity of guilt is drawn, ab ipse rece-
sibus mentis, from the intimate knowledge of mankind:
particularly that line in which he says, that to have bid

### SCENE III.

### KING JOHN.

397

When I spake darkly what I purposed;
Or turn'd an eye of doubt upon my face,
And¹ bid me tell my tale in express words;
Deep shame had struck me dumb, made me break off;
And those their fears might have wrought fears in me:
But thou didst understand me by my signs,
And didst in signs again parley with sin;
Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent,
And, consequently, thy rude hand to act
The deed, which both our tongues held vile to
name.—

Out of my sight, and never see me more!
My nobles leave me; and my state is brav'd,
Even at my gates, with ranks of foreign powers;
Nay, in the body of this fleshly land,
This kingdom, this confine of blood and breath,
Hostility and civil tumult reigns
Between my conscience, and my cousin's death.

 Hub. Arm you against your other enemies,
I'll make a peace between your soul and you.
Young Arthur is alive: This hand of mine
Is yet a maiden and an innocent hand,
Not painted with the crimson spots of blood.
Within this bosom never enter'd yet
The dreadful motion of a murd'rous thought,
And you have slander'd nature in my form;
Which, howsoever rude exteriorly,
Is yet the cover of a fairer mind
Than to be butcher of an innocent child.

K. John. Doth Arthur live? O, haste thee to the peers,

Throw this report on their incensed rage,
And make them tame to their obedience!
Forgive the comment that my passion made
Upon thy feature; for my rage was blind,
And foul imaginary eyes of blood
Presented thee more hideous than thou art.
O, answer not; but to my closet bring
The angry lords, with all expedient² haste:
I concur thee but slowly; run more fast.³

### SCENE III. The same. Before the Castle. Enter ARTHUR, on the Walls.

ARTH. The wall is high; and yet will I leap down:⁴—

Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not!—
There's few, or none, do know me; if they did,
This ship-boy's semblance hath disguised me quite.
I am afraid; and yet I'll venture it.
If I get down, and 'do not break my limbs,
I'll find a thousand shifts to get away:
As good to die, and go, as die, and stay.

[Leaps down.

O me! my uncle's spirit is in these stones.—
Heaven take my soul, and England keep my bones!

[Dies.

Enter PEMBROKE, SALISBURY, and BIGOT.

Sal. Lords, I will meet him at Saint Edmund's
Bury;

It is our safety, and we must embrace
This gentle offer of the perilous time.

Pem. Who brought that letter from the cardinal?

him tell his tale in express words would have struck him dumb: nothing is more certain than that bad men use all the arts of fallacy upon themselves, palliate their actions to their own minds by gentle terms, and hide themselves from their own detection in ambiguities and subterfuges.—Johnson

1 The old copy reads ‘As bid me,’ &c. Malone made the correction, in which I concur; though as frequently is used for that, which. See Julius Cæsar, Act. i. Sc. 2.

2 Expeditious.

3 The old play of The Troublesome Raisne of King John is divided into two parts; the first of which concludes with the king's despatch of Hubert on this message; the second begins with Enter Arthur, &c. as in the following scene.

4 Shakspeare has followed the old play. In what manner Arthur was deprived of his life is not ascertained. Matthew Paris relating the event, uses the word evanuit; and it appears to have been conducted with impenetrable secrecy. The French historians say that

Sal. The Count Melun, a noble lord of France;
Whose private with me,⁵ of the Dauphin's love,
Is much more general than these lines import.

Big. To-morrow morning let us meet him then.

Sal. Or, rather then set forward: for 'twill be
Two long days' journey, lords, or e'er⁶ we meet.

Enter the Bastard.

Bast. Once more to-day well met, distemper'd⁷
lords!

The king, by me, requests your presence straight.

Sal. The king hath dispossess'd himself of us;

We will not line his thin bestamented cloak

With our pure honours, nor attend the foot

That leaves the print of blood where'er it walks:

Return, and tell him so; we know the worst.

Bast. Whate'er you think, good words, I think,
were best.

Sal. Our griefs, and not our manners, reason⁸
now.

Bast. But there is little reason in your grief;

Therefore, 'twere reason, you had manners now.

Pem. Sir, sir, impatience hath its privilege.

Bast. 'Tis true: to hurt his master, no man else.

Sal. This is the prison: What is he lies here?

[Seeing ARTHUR.

Pem. O death, made proud with pure and prince-
ly beauty!

The earth had not a hole to hide this deed.

Sal. Murder, as hating what himself hath done,

Doth lay it open, to urge on revenge.

Big. Or, when he doom'd this beauty to a grave,

Found it too precious-princely for a grave.

Bast. Sir Richard, what think you? Have you
beheld,

Or have you read, or heard? or could you think?

Or do you almost think, although you see,

That you do see? could thought, without this ob-
ject,

Form such another? This is the very top,

The height, the crest, or crest unto the crest,

Of murder's arms: this is the bloodiest shame,

The wildest savag'ry, the vilest stroke,

That ever wall-ey'd wrath, or staring rage,
Presented to the tears of soft remorse.⁹

Bast. All murders past do stand excus'd in this:

And this, so sole, and so unmatchable,

Shall give a holiness, a purity,

To the yet unbegotten sins of time,¹⁰

And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest,

Exampl'd by this heinous spectacle.

Bast. It is a damned and a bloody work;

The graceless action of a heavy hand,

If that it be the work of any hand.

Sal. If that it be the work of any hand?—

We had a kind of light, what would ensue:

It is the shameful work of Hubert's hand;

The practice, and the purpose, of the king:—

From whose obedience I forbid my soul,

Kneeling before this ruin of sweet life,

And breathing to his breathless excellence

The incense of a vow, a holy vow;

Never to taste the pleasures of the world,

Never to be infected with delight,

Nor conversant with ease and idleness,

John, coming in a boat during the night to the castle of Rouen, where the young prince was confined, stabbed him while supplicating for mercy, fastened a stone to the body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give some colour to a report, which he caused to be spread, that the prince, attempting to escape out of a window, fell into the river, and was drowned.

5 Private account.

6 The use of or for ere, before, is at least as old as Chaucer's time. Ere ever, or ever, or ere, is, in modern English, sooner than at any time; before ever: and this is the sense in which Shakspeare and our elder writers constantly use the phrase.

7 i. e. ruffled, out of humour.

8 To reason, in Shakspeare, is not so often to argue as to talk.

9 Pity.

10 The old copy reads sin of times. The emendation is Pope's.

["398", "KING JOHN.", "ACT V.", "'Till I have set a glory to this head,'", "By giving it the worship of revenge.", "*Pem. Big.* Our souls religiously confirm thy words.", "*Enter HUBERT.*", "*Hub.* Lords, I am hot with haste in seeking you: Arthur doth live; the king hath sent for you.", "*Sal.* O, he is bold, and blushes not at death:—", "Avaunt, thou hateful villain, get thee gone!", "*Hub.* I am no villain.", "*Sal.*", "Must I rob the law?", "*[Drawing his sword]*", "*Bast.* Your sword is bright, sir; put it up again.²", "*Sal.* Not till I sheath it in a murderer's skin.", "*Hub.* Stand back, Lord Salisbury, stand back, I say;", "By heaven, I think my sword's as sharp as yours: I would not have you, lord, forget yourself,", "Nor tempt the danger of my true³ defence;", "Lest I, by marking of your rage, forget", "Your worth, your greatness, and nobility.", "*Big.* Out, dunghill! dar'st thou brave a nobleman?", "*Hub.* Not for my life: but yet I dare defend", "My innocent life against an emperor.", "*Sal.* Thou art a murderer.", "*Hub.*", "Do not prove me so;⁴", "Yet I am none: Whose tongue so'er speaks false,", "Not truly speaks; who speaks not truly, lies.", "*Pem.* Cut him to pieces.", "*Bast.*", "Keep the peace, I say.", "*Sal.* Stand by, or I shall gall you, Faulconbridge.", "*Bast.* Thou wert better gall the devil, Salisbury:", "If thou but frown on me, or stir thy foot,", "Or teach thy hasty spleen to do me shame,", "I'll strike thee dead. Put up thy sword betime;", "Or I'll so maul you and your toasting-iron,", "That you shall think the devil is come from hell.", "*Big.* What wilt thou do, renowned Faulconbridge?", "Second a villain, and a murderer?", "*Hub.* Lord Bigot, I am none.", "*Big.*", "Who kill'd this prince?", "*Hub.* 'Tis not an hour since I left him well:", "I honour'd him, I lov'd him; and will weep", "My date of life out, for his sweet life's loss.", "*Sal.* Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes,", "For villany is not without such rheum;", "And he, long traded in it, makes it seem", "Like rivers of remorse⁵ and innocency.", "Away, with me, all you, whose souls abhor", "The uncleanly savours of a slaughter-house,", "For I am stifled with this smell of sin.", "*Big.* Away, toward Bury, to the Dauphin there!", "*Pem.* There, tell the king, he must inquire us out.", "*[Exeunt. Lords]*", "*Bast.* Here's a good world!—Knew you of this fair work?", "Beyond the infinite and boundless reach", "Of mercy, if thou didst this deed of death,", "Art thou damn'd, Hubert.", "*Hub.*", "Do but hear me, sir.", "*Bast.* Ha! I'll tell thee what;", "Thou art damn'd as black—nay, nothing is so black;", "Thou art more deep damn'd than prince Lucifer;⁶", "There is not yet so ugly a fiend of hell", "As thou shall be, if thou shall kill this child.", "*Hub.* Upon my soul,—", "*Bast.*", "If thou didst but consent", "To this most cruel act, do but despair,", "And, if thou want'st a cord, the smallest thread", "That ever spider twisted from her womb,", "Will serve to strangle thee; a rush will be", "A beam to hang thee on; or would'st thou drown\nthyselvethyself,", "Put but a little water in a spoon,", "And it shall be as all the ocean,", "Enough to stifle such a villain up.—", "I do suspect thee very grievously.", "*Hub.* If I in act, consent, or sin of thought", "Be guilty of the stealing that sweet breath", "Which was embowered in this beauteous clay,", "Let hell want pains enough to torture me!", "I left him well.", "*Bast.*", "Go, bear him in thine arms.—", "I am amaz'd,⁷ methinks; and lose my way", "Among the thorns and dangers of this world.—", "How easy dost thou take all England up!", "From forth this morsel of dead royalty.", "The life, the right, and truth of all this realm", "Is fled to heaven: and England now is left.", "To tug and scumble, and to part by the teeth", "The unowed interest⁸ of proud-swelling state.", "Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty,", "Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest,", "And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace:", "Now powers from home, and discontents at home,", "Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits", "(As doth a raven on a sick-fall'n beast.)", "The imminent decay of wrested pomp.", "Now happy he, whose cloak and cincture⁹ can", "Hold out this tempest. Bear away that child,", "And follow me with speed; I'll to the king:", "A thousand businesses are brief in hand,", "And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.", "*[Exeunt.]*", "ACT V.", "### SCENE I. The same. A Room in the Palace.\n*Enter KING JOHN, PANDULPH, with the Crow, and Attendants.*", "*K. John.* Thus have I yielded up into your hand\nThe circle of my glory.", "*Pand.*", "Take again", "*[Giving JOHN the Crow.]*", "From this my hand, as holding of the pope,", "Your sovereign greatness and authority.", "*K. John.* Now keep your holy word: go meet\nthe French;", "And from his holiness use all your power", "To stop their marches, 'fore we are inflam'd.", "Our discontented counties¹⁰ do revolt;", "Our people quarrel with obedience;", "Swearing allegiance, and the love of soul,", "To stranger blood, to foreign royalty.", "1 The old copy reads, 'Till I have set a glory to this hand.' This is a copy of the vows made in the ages of superstition and chivalry. Pope thought that we should read 'a glory to this head,' pointing to the head of the dead prince, and using worship in its common acceptance. A glory is a circle of rays, such as is represented surrounding the heads of saints and other holy persons. The solemn confirmation of the other lords seems to require this sense. Gray, the poet (says Dr. Farmer,) was much pleased with this correction. The old reading has been explained, 'till I have famed and renowned my own hand by giving it the honour of revenge for so foul a deed.'", "2 So in Othello:—' Keep up your bright swords; for the dew will rust them.' Both Faulconbridge and Othello speak contemptuously. 'You have shown that your sword is bright, and now you may put it up again; you shall not use it?'", "3 Honest defence, defence in a good cause.", "4 Dr. Johnson has, I think, mistaken the sense of", "this, passare, which he explains—'Do not make me a murderer, by compelling me to kill you; I am hitherto not a murderer.' By

KING JOHN.

ACT V.

400

Lew. A noble temper dost thou show in this;
And great affections, wrestling in thy bosom,
Do make an earthquake of nobility.
O, what a noble combat hast thou fought,
Between compulsion and a brave respect
Let me wipe off this honourable dew,
That silvery doth progress on thy cheeks:
My heart hath melted to a lady's tears,
Being an ordinary inundation;
But this effusion of such manly drops,
This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul,
Startles mine eyes, and makes me more amaz'd
Than had I seen the vaulty top of heaven
Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors.
Lift up thy brow, renowned Salisbury,
And with a great heart heave away this storm:
Commend these waters to those baby eyes,
That never saw the giant world enrag'd;
Nor met with fortune other than at feasts,
Full warm of blood, of mirth, of gossiping.
Come, come; for thou shall thrust thy hand as deep
Into the purse of rich prosperity,
As Lewis himself:—so, nobles, shall you all,
That knit your sinews to the strength of mine.

Enter PANDULPH, attended.

And even there, methinks, an angel spake :*
Look, where the holy legate comes apace,
To give us warrant from the hand of heaven;
And on our actions set the name of right,
With holy breath.

Pand.

Hail, noble prince of France!
The next is this,—King John hath reconciled
Himself to Rome; his spirit is come in,
That so stood out against the holy church,
The great metropolis and see of Rome:
Therefore thy threat'ning colours now wind up,
And tame the savage spirit of wild war;
That, like a lion foster'd up at hand,
It may lie gently at the foot of peace,
And be no further harmful than in show.

Lew. Your grace shall pardon me, I will not back;
I am too high-born to be propertied,⁴
To be a secondary at control,
Or useful serving-man, and instrument,
To any sovereign state throughout the world.
Your breath first kindled the dead coal of wars,
Between this chastis'd kingdom and myself,
And brought in matter that should feed this fire;
And now 'tis far too huge to be blown out
With that same weak wind which enkindled it.
You taught me how to know the face of right,
Acquainted me with interest to⁵ this land,
Yea, thrust this enterprise into my heart;
And come you now to tell me, John hath made
His peace with Rome? What is that peace to me?
I, by the honour of my marriage-bed,
After young Arthur, claim this land for mine;
And, now it is half-conquer'd, must I back,
Because that John hath made his peace with Rome?
Am I Rome's slave? What penny hath Rome borne,
What men provided, what munition sent,
To underprop this action? is't not I,
That undergo this charge? who else but I,
And such as to my claim are liable,
Sweat in this business, and maintain this war?

1 This compulsion was the necessity of a reforma-
tion in the state; which according to Salisbury's opinion
(who in his preceding speech calls it an enforced
cause) could only be procured by foreign arms; and the
brave respect was the love of country.

2 'This windy tempest till it blow up rain
Held back his sorrow's tide.'—Rape of Lucrece.

3 In what I have now said an angel spake: for see,
the holy legate approaches to give a warrant from hea-
ven, and the name of right, to our cause.
4 Appropriated.

5 This was the phraseology of the time :—
'He hath more worthy interest to the state,
Than thou the shadow of succession.'

King Henry IV. Part ii.

6 i. e. passed along the banks of the river. Thus in
the old play :—

'— from the hollow holes of Thamesis
Echo apace replied, *Vive le roit*!

Have I not heard these islanders shout out,
Vive le roy ! as I have bank'd their towns ?⁶
Have I not here the best cards for the game,
To win this easy match play'd for a crown ?
And shall I now give o'er the yielded set?
No, no, on my soul, it never shall be said.

Pand. You look but on the outside of this work.
Lew. Outside or inside, I will not return
Till my attempt so much be glorified
As to my ample hope was promised
Before I drew this gallant head of war,
And cull'd these fiery spirits from the world,
To outlook⁸ conquest, and to win renown
Even in the jaws of danger and of death.—

[Trumpet sounds.
What luscious trumpet thus doth summon us?

Enter the Bastard, attended.

Bast. According to the fair play of the world,
Let me have audience; I am sent to speak;—
My holy lord of Milan, from the king
I come to learn how you have dealt for him;
And, as you answer, I do know the scope
And warrant limited unto my tongue.

Pand. The Dauphin is too wilful-opposite,
And will not temporize with my entreaties;
He flatly says, he'll not lay down his arms.

Bast. By all the blood that ever firy breath'd,
The youth says well :—Now hear our English king:
For thus his royalty doth speak in me.
He is prepar'd; and reason too, he should:

This apish and unmannerly approach,
This harness'd masque, and unadvised revel,
This unhair'd¹⁹ sauciness, and boyish troops,
The king doth smile at; and is well prepar'd
To whip this dwarfish war, these pigmy arms,
From out the circle of his territories.
That hand, which had the strength, even at your door,
To cudgel you, and make you take the hatch;¹⁹
To dive, like buckets, in concealed wells;
To crouch in litter of your stable planks;
To lie, like pawns, lock'd up in chests and trunks;
To hug with swine; to seek sweet safety out
In vaults and prisons; and to thrill, and shake,
Even at the crying of your nation's crow,¹¹
Thinking his voice an armed Englishman—
That that victorious hand be feebled here,
That in your chambers gave you chastisement?
No: Know, the gallant monarch is in arms;
And like an eagle o'er his aery¹² towers,
To souse annoyance that comes near his nest.—
And you degenerate, you ingrate revolts,
You bloody Neros, ripping up the wound
Of your dear mother England, blush for shame:
For your own ladies, and pale-visag'd maids,
Like Amazons, come tripping after druids;
Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change,
Their needles¹³ to lances, and their gentle hearts
To fierce and bloody inclination.

Lew. There end thy brave,¹⁴ and turn thy face in
peace :

We grant, thou canst outscold us: fare thee well;
We hold our time too precious to be spent
With such a brabbler.

Pand.
Give me leave to speak.
Bast. No, I will speak.

From thence along the wanton rolling glade
To Troynovant, young and comely, and to flank; and to bank has no
less propriety, though not reconciled to us by modern
usage.

7 i. e. *assembled it*, drew it out of the field.

S Face down, bear down by a show of magnanimity.
So before :—
' Out of bracing horror.'

Of bracing horror.

9 The old copies read *unheard*: the emendation is
Theobald's. It should be remarked that *hair* was often
spelt *hear*.

10 To take, for to leap. Hunters still say to take a
hedge or gate, meaning to leap over them. Baret has
'to take horse, to leap on horseback.'
11 i. e. the crowing of a cock; *Gallus* being both a
cock and a Frenchman.

12 Nest

13 Needles.

14 Boast

["### SCENE V.", "### KING JOHN.", "401", "Lew. We will attend to neither:—", "Strike up the drums; and let the tongue of war\nPlead for our interest; and our being here.", "Bast. Indeed, your drums, being beaten, will cry\nout;", "And so shall you, being beaten: Do but start", "An echo with the clamour of thy drum,", "And even at hand a drum is ready brac'd,", "That shall reverberate all as loud as thine;", "Sound but another, and another shall,", "As loud as thine, rattle the welkin's ear,", "And mock the deep-mouth'd thunder: for at hand\n(Not trusting to this halting legate here,\nWhom he hath us'd rather for sport than need.)", "Is warlike John; and in his forehead sits", "A bare-ribb'd death, whose office is this day", "To feast upon whole thousands of the French.", "Lew. Strike up our drums, to find this danger out.", "Bast. And thou shall find it, Dauphin, do not\ndoubt.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE III. The same. A Field of Battle.\nAlarums. Enter KING JOHN and HUBERT.", "K. John. How goes the day with us? O, tell me,\nHubert.", "Hub. Badly, I fear: How fares your majesty?", "K. John. This fever, that hath troubled me so long,\nLies heavy on me: O, my heart is sick!", "Enter a Messenger.", "Mess. My lord, your valiant kinsman, Faulcon-\nbridge,", "Desires your majesty to leave the field;", "And send him word by me, which way you go.", "K. John. Tell him, toward Swinstead, to the ab-\nby there.", "Mess. Be of good comfort; for the great supply,\nThat was expected by the Dauphin here,", "Are weck'd three nights ago with Goodwin Sands.", "This news was brought to Richard? but even now:\nThe French fight coldly, and retire themselves.", "K. John. Ah me! this tyrant fever burns me up,\nAnd will not let me welcome this good news,", "Set on toward Swinstead: to my litter straight;", "Weakness possesseth me, and I am faint.", "### SCENE IV. The same. Another part of the same.\nEnter SALISBURY, PEMBROKE, BIGOT, and others.", "Sal. I did not think the king so stor'd with friends.", "Pem. Up once again; put spirit in the French;", "If they miscarry, we miscarry too.", "Sal. That misbegotten devil, Faulconbridge,", "In spite of spite, alone upholds the day.", "Pem. They say, King John, sore sick, hath left\nthe field.", "Enter MELUN wounded, and led by Soldiers.", "Mel. Lead me to the revolts of England here.", "Sal. When we were happy, we had other names.", "Pem. It is the Count Melun.", "Sal.", "Mel. Fly, noble English, you are bought and sold;", "Unthread the rude eye of rebellion,", "And welcome home again discarded faith.", "Seek out King John, and fall before his feet:", "For, if the French be lords of this loud day,", "He¹ means to recompense the pains you take,", "By cutting off your heads: Thus hath he sworn,", "And with him, and many more with me,", "Upon the altar of Saint Edmund's Bury;", "¹ Supply is here used as a noun of multitude, as it is again in scene v.", "² The king had not long since called him by his original name of Philip, but the messenger could not take the same liberty.", "³ A proverbial expression intimating treachery.", "⁴ The Frenchman, i. e. Lewis means, &c.", "⁵ i. e. dissolvente.", "⁶ Rankness, as applied to a river, here signifies exuberant, ready to overflow; as applied to the actions of the speaker and his party it signifies *wanton wilderness*. Petulania.", "⁷ Rain added to a river that is *rank*", "⁸ Perforce will force it overflow the bank.", "Even on that altar, where we swore to you\nDear amity and everlasting love.", "Sal. May this be possible? may this be true?", "Mel. Have I not hideous death within my view,\nRetaining but a quantity of life;", "Which bleeds away, even as a form of wax", "Resolveth¹ from his figure 'gainst the fire?", "What in the world should make me now deceive,", "Since I must lose the use of all deceit?", "Why should I then be false; since it is true", "That I must die here, and live hence by truth?", "I say again, if Lewis do win the day,", "He is forsworn, if e'er those eyes of yours", "Behold another day break in the east:", "But even this night,—whose black contagious breath", "Already smokes about the burning crest", "Of the old, feeble, and day-wearied sun,—", "Even this ill night, your breathing shall expire;", "Paying the fine of rated treachery,", "Even with a treacherous fine of all your lives,", "If Lewis by your assistance win the day.", "Commend me to one Hubert, with your king;", "The love of him,—and this respect besides,", "For that my grandesse¹ and irregular course,", "Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd,", "And calmly run on in obedience,", "Even to our ocean, to our great King John.", "My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence;", "For I do see the cruel pangs of death", "Right' in thine eye.—Away, my friends! New\nflight!", "And happy newness,⁸ that intends old right.", "[Exeunt, leading off MELUN.", "But I do love the favour and the form", "Of this most fair occasion, by the which", "We will untread the steps of damned flight;", "And, like a bated and retired flood,", "Leaving our rankness¹ and irregular course,", "Stoop low within those bounds we have o'erlook'd,", "And calmly run on in obedience,", "Even to our ocean, to our great King John.", "My arm shall give thee help to bear thee hence;\nFor I do see the cruel pangs of death\nRight' in thine eye.—Away, my friends! New\nflight!", "And happy newness,⁸ that intends old right.", "[Exeunt, leading off MELUN.", "### SCENE V. The same. The French Camp. Enter\nLEWIS and his Train.", "Lew. The sun of heaven, methought, was loath\nto set;", "But stay'd, and made the western welkin blush,", "When the English measur'd backward their own\nground,", "In faint retire: O, bravely came we off,", "When with a volley of our needless shot,", "After such bloody toil, we bid good night;", "And wound our totteringª colours clearly up,", "Last in the field, and almost lords of it!", "Enter a Messenger.", "Mess. Where is my prince, the Dauphin?", "Lew. Here:—What news?", "Mess. The Count Melun is slain; the English\nlords,", "By his persuasion, are again fallen off:", "And your supply, which you have wish'd so long,", "Are cast away, and sunk, on Goodwin Sands.", "Lew. Ah, foul shrewd news!—Beshrew thy very\nheart!", "I did not think to be so sad to-night,", "As this hath made me.—Who was he, that said,", "King John did fly, an hour or two before", "The stumbling night did part our weary powers?", "

["402", "KING JOHN", "ACT V.", "Mess. Whoever spoke it, it is true, my lord.", "Lew. Well; keep good quarter,¹ and good care to-night;", "The day shall not be up so soon as I,", "To try the fair adventure of to-morrow.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE VI. An open Place in the neighbourhood of Swinstead-Abbey. Enter the Bastard and HUBERT, meeting.", "Hub. Who's there ? speak, ho ! speak quickly, or I shoot.", "Bast. A friend :—What art thou ?", "Hub.", "Of the part of England.", "Bast. Whither dost thou go ?", "Hub. What's that to thee ? Why may not I demand", "Of thine affairs, as well as thou of mine ?", "Bast. Hubert, I think.", "Hub.", "Thou hast a perfect² thought :", "I will, upon all hazards, well believe,", "Thou art my friend, that know'st my tongue so well : Who art thou ?", "Bast.", "Who thou wilt : an if thou please,", "Thou may't befriend me so much, as to think", "I come one way of the Plantagenets.", "Hub. Unkind remembrance! thou, and eyeless night,³", "Have done me shame :—Brave soldier, pardon me,\nThat any accent, breaking from thy tongue,", "Should 'scape the true acquaintance of mine ear.", "Bast. Come, come ; sans compliment, what news abroad ?", "Hub. Why, here walk I, in the black brow of night,", "To find you out.", "Bast.", "Brief, then ; and what's the news ?", "Hub. O, my sweet sir, news fitting to the night,", "Black, fearful, comfortless, and horrible.", "Bast. Show me the very wound of this ill news ;", "I am no woman, I'll not swoon at it.", "Hub. The king, I fear, is poison'd by a monk :⁴", "I left him almost speechless, and broke out", "To acquaint you with this evil; that you might", "The better arm you to the sudden time,", "Than if you had 'at leisure⁵ known of this.", "Bast. How did he take it ? who did taste to him ?", "Hub. A monk, I tell you ; a resolved villain,", "Whose bowels suddenly burst out : the king", "Yet speaks, and, peradventure, may recover.", "Bast. Who didst thou leave to tend his majesty ?", "Hub. Why, know you not ? the lords are all come back,", "And brought prince Henry in their company ;", "At whose request the king hath pardon'd them,", "And they are all about his majesty.", "Bast. Withhold thine indignation, mighty heaven,", "And tempt us not to bear above our power !—", "I'll tell thee, Hubert, half my power this night,", "Passing these flats, are taken by the tide,", "These Lincoln washes have devoured them ;", "Myself, well mounted, hardly have escap'd.", "Away, before ! conduct me to the king;", "I doubt, he will be dead, or ere I come.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE VII. The Orchard of Swinstead-Abbey. Enter PRINCE HENRY, SALISBURY, and BIGOT.", "P. Hen. It is too late ; the life of all his blood", "Is touch'd corruptly ; and his pure brain", "(Which some suppose the soul's frail dwelling-house,)", "Doth, by the idle comments that it makes,", "Foretell the ending of mortality.", "Enter PEMBROKE.", "Pem. His highness yet doth speak : and holds belief,", "That, being brought into the open air,", "It would allay the burning quality", "Of that fell poison which asaileth him.", "P. Hen. Let him be brought into the orchard here.", "Doth he still rage ?", "[Exit BIGOT.", "Pem.", "He is more patient", "Than when you left him ; even now he sung.", "P. Hen. O vanity of sickness ! fierce extremes,\nIn their continuance,⁷ will not feel themselves.", "Death, having prey'd upon the outward parts,\nLeaves them insensible;⁸ and his siege is now", "Against the mind, which he pricks and wounds\nWith many legions of strange fantasies ;", "Which, in their throng and press to that last hold,\nConfound themselves.⁹ 'Tis strange, that death should sing.—", "I am the cygnet to this pale faint swan,\nWho chants a doleful hymn to his own death;", "And, from the organ-pipe of frailty, sings", "His soul and body to their lasting rest.", "Sal. Be of good comfort, prince ; for you are born", "To set a form upon that indigest", "Which he hath left so shapeless and so rude.⁹", "Re-enter BIGOT and Attendants, who bring in KING JOHN in a Chair.", "K. John. Ay, marry, now, my soul hath elbow-room ;", "It would not out at windows, nor at doors.", "There is so hot a summer in my bosom,", "That all my bowels crumble up to dust :", "I am a scribbled form, drawn with a pen", "Upon a parchment; and against this fire", "Do I shrink up.", "P. Hen.", "How fares your majesty ?", "K. John. Poison'd,—ill fare;—dead, forsook,\ncast off;", "And none of you will bid the winter come,", "To thrust his icy fingers in my maw;¹⁰", "Nor let my kingdom's rivers take their course", "Through my burn'd bosom ; nor entreat the north", "To make his bleak winds kiss my parched lips,", "And comfort me with cold :—I do not ask you much,", "the variorium editions for his argument, and Steevens's\nvein of pleasant irony upon it.", "9 A description of Chaos, almost in the very words of Ovid :—", "Quem dixere Chaos rudos indigestaque moles.—Met. i.", "Which Chaos hight a huge rude heap :—", "No sunne as yet with lightsome beames the shapeless\nworld did view.", "Golding's Translation.", "10 This scene has been imitated by Beaumont and Fletcher, in A Wife for a Month, Act iv. Decker, in the Gull's Hornbook, has the same thought :—'the morning waxing cold thrust his frosty fingers into thy bosom,' Perhaps Shakspeare was acquainted with the following passages in two of Marlowe's plays, which must both have been written previous to King John, for Marlowe died in 1593 :—", "'I am dull, and the cold hand of sleep", "Hath thrust his icy fingers in my breast,", "And made a frost within me.²—Lust's Dominion.", "'O poor Zabina, O my queen, my queen,", "Fetch some water for my burning breast,", "To cool and comfort me with longer date.³", "Tamburlaine, 1591.", "The corresponding passage in the old play runs thus:—\n'Philip, some drink. O for the frozen Alps\nTo tumble on, and cool this inward heat\nThat rageth as a furnace seven-fold.⁴", "1 i. e. keep in your allotted posts or stations.", "2 i. e. a *well informed* one.", "3 The old copy reads 'endless night.' The emendation was made by Theobald.", "4 Not one of the historians who wrote within sixty years of the event mentions this improbable story. The tale is, that a monk, to revenge himself on the king for a saying at which he took offence, poisoned a cup of ale, and having brought it to his majesty, drank some of it himself, to induce the King to taste it, and soon afterwards expired. Thomas Wylkes is the first who men-tions it in his Chronicle as a *report*. According to the best accounts John died at Newark, of a fever.", {"bbox": [415, 1127, 611, 1143], "category": "Footnote", "text":

["KING RICHARD II.", "403", "I beg cold comfort: and you are so strait,¹\nAnd so ingrateful, you deny me that.", "P. Hen. O, that there were some virtue in my tears,", "That might relieve you!", "K. John.", "The salt in them is hot.—", "Within me is a hell; and there the poison", "Is, as a fiend, confin'd to tyrannize", "On unreprievable condemned blood.", "Enter the Bastard.", "Bast. O, I am scalded with my violent emotion,\nAnd spleen of speed to see your majesty.", "K. John. O cousin, thou art come to set mine eye:", "The tackle of my heart is crack'd and burn'd;", "And all the shrouds, wherewith my life should sail,", "Are turned to one thread, one little hair:", "My heart hath one poor string to stay it by,", "Which holds but till thy news be uttered:", "And then all this thou seest, is but a clod,", "And module² of confounded royalty.", "Bast. The Dauphin is preparing hitherto:", "Where, heaven he knows, how we shall answer him:", "For, in a night, the best part of my power,", "As I upon advantage did remove,", "Were in the washes, all unwarily,", "Devoured by the unexpected flood.³ [The King dies.", "Sal. You breathe these dead news in as dead an ear.—", "My liege¹ my lord! —But now a king,—now thus.", "P. Hen. Even so must I run on, and even so stop.", "What surety of the world, what hope, what stay,\nWhen this was now a king, and now is clay!", "Bast. Art thou gone so? I do but stay behind,", "To do the office for thee of revenge;", "And then my soul shall wait on thee to heaven,", "As on earth hath been thy servant still.—", "Now, now, you stars, that move in your right spheres,\nWhere be your powers? Show now your mended faiths;", "And instantly return with me again,", "To push destruction and perpetual shame", "Out of the weak door of our fainting land :", "Straight let us seek, or straight we shall be sought;", "The Dauphin rages at our very heels.", "Sal. It seems, you know not then so much as we:\nThe cardinal Pandulph is within at rest,", "1 Narrow,avaricious.", "2 *Module* and model were only different modes of\nspelling the same word. Model signified not an arche-\ntype, after which something was to be formed, but the\nthing formed after an *archetype*, a *copy*. Bullokar, in\nhis Expositor, 1616, explains *model*, the platform, or\nform of any thing.", "3 This untoward accident really happened to King John himself. As he passed from Lynn to Lincolnshire he lost by an inundation all his treasure, carriages, baggage, and regalia.", "4 In crastino S. Lucæ Johannes Rex Angliæ in cas-\ntro de Newark oblit, et sepultus est in ecclesia Wigor-", "Who half an hour since came from the dauphin ;", "And brings from him such offers of our peace", "As we with honour and respect may take,", "With purpose presently to leave this war.", "Bast. He will the rather do it, when he sees", "Ourselves well sinewed to our defence.", "Sal. Nay, it is in a manner done already ;", "For many carriages he hath despatch'd", "To the seaside, and put his cause and quarrel", "To the disposing of the cardinal :", "With whom yourself, myself, and other lords,", "If you think meet, this afternoon will post", "To consummate this business happily.", "Bast. Let it be so :—And you, my noble prince,", "With other princes that may best be spared,", "Shall wait upon your father's funeral.", "P. Hen. At Worcester must his body be in-\nterr'd :4", "For so he will'd it.", "Bast.", "Thither shall it then.", "And happily may your sweet self put on", "The linear state and glory of the land !", "To whom, with all submission, on my knee,", "I do bequeath my faithful services", "And true subjection everlastingly.", "Sal. And the like tender of our love we make,", "To rest without a spot for evermore.", "P. Hen. I have a kind soul, that would give you thanks,", "And knows not how to do it, but with tears.", "Bast. O, let us pay the time but needful woe,", "Since it hath been beforehand with our griefs.—⁵", "This England never did (nor never shall)", "Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,", "But when it first did help to wound itself.", "Now these her princes are come home again,", "Come the three corners of the world in arms,", "And we shall shock them : Nought shall make us rue,\nIf England to itself do rest but true.⁶ [Exeunt.]", "THE tragedy of King John, though not written with the\nutmost power of Shakspeare, is varied with a very\npleasing interchange of incidents and characters. The\nlady's grief is very affecting; and the character of the\nBastard contains that mixture of greatness and levity\nwhich this author delighted to exhibit. JOHNSON.", "THE LIFE AND DEATH OF\nKING RICHARD THE SECOND.", "PRELIMINARY REMARKS.", "IN the construction of this play Shakspeare has fol-\nlowed Holinshed, his usual historical authority, some\npassages of the Chronicle he has transplanted into the\ndrama with very little alteration.", "It has been suspected that there was an old play on\nthe subject of King Richard II. which the poet might\nhave seen. Sir Gillie Merrick, who was concerned in\nthe harebrained business of the Earl of Essex, is accused\nof having procured to be played before the conspirators\nof having procured to be played

404

KING RICHARD II.

ACT I.

been represented after Shakspeare's drama on the same
subject had been printed: the reason undoubtedly was,
that in the old play the deposing of King Richard II.
made a part of the exibition: but in the first edition of
Shakspeare's play, one hundred and fifty-four lines,
describing a kind of trial of the king, and his actual
deposition in parliament, were omitted: nor was it pro-
bably represented on the stage. Merrick, Cufo, and
the rest of Essex's train, and naturally preferred the play in
which his deposition was represented, their plot not
aiming at the life of the queen. It is, I know, commonly
thought that the parliament scene, as it is called, which
was first printed in the 4to of 1608, was an addition
made by Shakspeare to this play after its first represent-
ation; but it seems to me more probable that it was
written with the rest, and suppressed in the printed copy
of 1597, from the fear of offending Elizabeth; against
whom the Pope had published a bull in the preceding
year, exhorting her subjects to take up arms against him.
In 1599 Hayward published his History of the first year
of King Henry IV, which is in fact nothing more than a
history of the deposing of King Richard II. The dis-
pense which that book excited at court sufficiently
accounts for the omitted lines not being inserted in the
copy of this play, which was published in 1602.* Hay-
ward was heavily censured in the Star Chamber, and
committed to prison. In 1608, when James was quietly
and firmly settled on the throne, and the fear of internal
commotion, or foreign invasion, no longer subsisted,
neither the author, the managers of the theatre, nor the
bookseller, could entertain any apprehension of giving
offence to the sovereign; the rejected scene was there-
fore restored without scruple, and from some playhouse
copy probably found its way to the press.†

In King Richard the Second the poet exhibits to us a
noble kingly nature, at first obscured by levity and the
errors of unbridled youth, and afterwards purified by
misfortune, and rendered more highly splendid and
illustrious. When he is lost the love and reverence
of his subjects, and is on the point of losing also his
throne, he then feels with painful inspiration the elevated
vocation of the kingly dignity, and its prerogatives over
personal merit and changeable institutions.
The earthy crown has fallen from off his head, he first
appears as a king whose innate nobility no humiliation
can annihilate. This is felt by a poor groom: he is
shocked that his master's favourite horse should have
carried the proud Bolingbroke at his coronation; he visits
the captive king in his prison, and shames the desertion
of the great. The political history of the deposition is
represented with extraordinary knowledge of the world;
—the eb of fortune on the one hand, and the swelling
on the other, which carries every thing along with it;
while Bolingbroke acts as a king, and his adherents
behave towards him as if he really were so, he still
continues to give out that he comes with an armed band,
merely for the sake of demanding his birthright and the
demolition of abuses. The usurpation has been long
completed before the word is pronounced, and the thing
publicly avowed. John of Gaunt is a model of chival-
rous truth: he stands there like a pillar of the olden
time which he had outlived.‡

Malone places the date of its composition in 1593; Mr. Chalmers in 1596. The play was first entered on the stationers' books by Andrew Wise, August 29, 1597; and there were four quarto editions published during the life of Shakspeare, viz. in 1597, 1598, 1603, and 1615.

This play may be considered the first link in the chain

* This is a mistake of Mr. Malone's, there is no
quarto copy of the date of 1602, he probably meant the
edition of 1598.

of Shakspeare's historical dramas, which Schlegel
thinks the poet designed to form one great whole, 'it is
were an historical heroic poem, of which the separate
plays constitute the rhapsodies.'

In King Richard the Second the poet exhibits to us a
noble kingly nature, at first obscured by levity and the
errors of unbridled youth, and afterwards purified by
misfortune, and rendered more highly splendid and
illustrious. When he is lost the love and reverence
of his subjects, and is on the point of losing also his
throne, he then feels with painful inspiration the elevated
vocation of the kingly dignity, and its prerogatives over
personal merit and changeable institutions.
The earthy crown has fallen from off his head, he first
appears as a king whose innate nobility no humiliation
can annihilate. This is felt by a poor groom: he is
shocked that his master's favourite horse should have
carried the proud Bolingbroke at his coronation; he visits
the captive king in his prison, and shames the desertion
of the great. The political history of the deposition is
represented with extraordinary knowledge of the world;
—the eb of fortune on the one hand, and the swelling
on the other, which carries every thing along with it;
while Bolingbroke acts as a king, and his adherents
behave towards him as if he really were so, he still
continues to give out that he comes with an armed band,
merely for the sake of demanding his birthright and the
demolition of abuses. The usurpation has been long
completed before the word is pronounced, and the thing
publicly avowed. John of Gaunt is a model of chival-
rous truth: he stands there like a pillar of the olden
time which he had outlived.†

This drama abounds in passages of eminent poetical
beauty; among which every reader will recollect the
pathetic description of Richard's entrance into London
with Bolingbroke, of which Dryden said that 'he knew
nothing comparable to it in any other language; John
of Gaunt's praise of England,

Dear for her reputation through the world ;
and Mowbray's complaint at being banished for life.

† Malone's Chronology of Shakspeare's plays.

‡ Schlegel's Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii.
p. 224.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

KING RICHARD THE SECOND.

EDMUND of Langley, Duke of York, { Uncles to the
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, { King.

HENRY, surnamed BOLINGBROKE, Duke of Hereford, Son to John of Gaunt; afterwards King Henry IV.

Duke of Aumerle, Son to the Duke of York.

MOWBRAY, Duke of Norfolk.

Duke of Surrey.

Earl of Salisbury, Earl Berkley.

BUSHY,

BAGOT,

GREEN,

Earl of Northumberland.

HENRY PERCY, his Son.

Lord Ross. Lord Willoughby, Lord Fitzwater.

Bishop of Carlisle. Abbot of Westminster.

Lord Marshall; and another Lord.

SIR PIERCE of Exton. SIR STEPHEN SCROOP.

Captain of a Band of Welshmen.

Queen to King Richard.

Duchess of Gloster.

Duchess of York.

Lady attending on the Queen.

Lords, Heralds, Officers, Soldiers, two Gardeners,

Keeper, Messenger, Groom, and other Attendants.

SCENE, dispersedly in England and Wales.

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. A Room in the Palace. Enter
KING RICHARD, attended; JOHN of GAUNT, and
other Nobles with him.

King Richard,

OLD¹ John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster,
Hast thou, according to thy oath and band,²
Brought hither Henry Hereford³ thy bold son;
Here to make good the boisterous late appeal,
Which then our leisure would not let us hear,

Against the Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray?

Gaunt. I have, my liege.

K. Rich. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded
him,

If he appeal the duke on ancient malice;

Or worthily as a good subject should,

On some known ground of treachery in him?

Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argu-
ment,—

On some apparent danger seen in him,

Aim'd at your highness; no inveterate malice.

an earlier period than we do now. Those who married
at fifteen, had at fifty been masters of a house and
family for thirty-five years.

2 When these public challenges were accepted, each combatant found a pledge for his appearance. The time and place appointed. Band and bond were formerly synonymous.

3 In the old play, and in Harding's Chronicle, Bolingbroke's title is written Herford and Harford. This was the pronunciation of our poet's time, and he therefore uses this word as a disyllable,

1 'Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster.'
Our ancestors, in their estimate of old age, appear to
have reckoned somewhat differently from us, and to
have considered men as old whom we should now es-
teem as middle-aged. With them, every man that had
passed fifty seems to have been accounted an old man.
John of Gaunt, at the period when the commencement
of this play is laid (1398), was only fifty-eight years old;
he died in 1399, aged fifty-nine. This may have arisen
from its being customary in former times to enter life at

## SCENE I.

## KING RICHARD II.

405

K. Rich. Then call them to our presence, face to face,
And frowning brow to brow, ourselves will hear
The accuser, and the accused, freely speak:—

[Ezekialt some Attendants.
High stomach'd are they both, and full of ire,
In rage deaf as the sea, hasty as fire.

Re-enter Attendants, with BOLINGBROKE¹ and NORFOLK.

Boling. May many years of happy days befall
My gracious sovereign, my most loving liege!

Nor. Each day still better other's happiness;
Until the heavens, envying earth's good hap,
Add an immortal title to your crown!

K. Rich. We thank you both: yet one but flatters us,
As well appeareth by the cause you come:²

Namely, to appeal each other of high treason.—
Cousin of Hereford, what dost thou object

Boling. First, (heaven be the record of my speech!³)

In the devotion of a subject's love,
Tendering the precious safety of my prince,
And free from other misbegotten hate,

Come I appellant to this prescience.—
Now, Thomas Mowbray, do I turn to thee,
And mark my greeting well; for what I speak,
My body shall make good upon this earth,
My divine soul answer me in heaven.

Thou art a traitor, and a miscreant;

Too good to be so, and too bad to live:
Since, the more fair and crystal is the sky,
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly.

Once more, the more to aggravate the note,
With a foul traitor's name stuff I thy throat;
And wish (so please my sovereign), ere I move,

What my tongue speaks, my right-drawn sword⁴ may prove.

Nor. Let not my cold words here accuse my zeal:
'Tis not the trial of a woman's war,

The bitter clamour of two eager tongues,
Can arbitrate this cause betwixt us twain:

The blood is hot that must be cool'd for this:

Yet can I not of such tame patience boast,

As to be hush'd, and nought at all to say:

First, the fair reverence of your highness curbs me

From giving reins and spurs to my free speech;

Which else would post, until it had return'd

These terms of treason doubled down his throat.

Setting aside his high blood's royalty,

And let him be no kinsman to my liege,

I do defy him, and I spat at him; and

Call him—a slanderous coward, and a villain :

Which to maintain, I would allow him odds ;

And meet him, were I tied to run a-foot

Even to the frozen tiedges of the Alps,
Or any other ground inhabitable⁵

Wherever Englishman durst set his foot.

Mean time, let this defend my loyalty,—

By all my hopes, most falsely doth he lie.

Boling. Pale trembling coward, there I throw my gage,

Disclaiming here the kindred of the king;

And lay aside my high blood's royalty,

Which fear, not reverence, makes thee to except:

If guilty dread hath left thee so much strength,
As to take up mine honour's pawn, then stoop;
By that, and all the rites of knighthood else,
Will I make good against thee, arm to arm,

What I have spoke, or thou canst worst devise.

Nor. I take it up; and, by that sword I swear,
Which gently lay'd my knighthood on my shoulder,
Pill answer thee in any fair degree,

Or chivalrous design of knightly trial;

And, when I mount, alive may I not light,

If I be a traitor, or unjustly fight!

K. Rich. What doth our cousin lay to Mowbray⁶
charge?

It must be great, that can inherit⁷ us
So much as of a thought of ill in him.

Boling. Look, what I speak my life shall prove it

true:—

That Mowbray hath receiv'd eight thousand nobles,
In name of lendings for your highness⁸ soldiers;

The which he hath detain'd for lewd⁹ employments,
Like a false traitor, and injurious villain.

Besides I say, and will in battle prove,—

Or here, or elsewhere, to the furthest verge

That ever was survey'd by English eye,—

That all the treasons for these eighteen years

Complotted and contrived in this land,

Fetch from false Mowbray their first head and
spring.

Further I say,—and further will maintain

Upon his bad life, to make all this good,—

That he did plot the Duke of Gloster's death;⁷

Suggest⁸ his soon-believing adversaries;

And, consequently, like a traitor coward,

Sluic'd out his innocent soul through streams of
blood:

Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries,

Even from the tongueless caverns of the earth,

To me for justice, and rough chastisement;

And by the glorious worth of my descent,

This arm shall do it, or this life be spent.

K. Rich. How high a pitch his resolution soars!—
Thomas of Norfolk, what say'st thou to this?

Nor. O, let my sovereign turn away his face,

And bid his ears a little while be deaf,

Till I have told this slander of his blood,⁹

How God, and good men, hate so foul a liar.

K. Rich. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes, and
ears:

Were he my brother, nay, my kingdom's heir

(As he is but my father's brother's son.)

Now by my sceptre's awe I make a vow,

Such neighbour nearness to our sacred blood

Should nothing privilege him, nor partialize

The unstooing firmness of my upright soul;

He is our subject, Mowbray, so art thou;

Free speech, and fearless, I to thee allow.

Nor. Then, Bolingbroke, as low as to thy heart,

Through the false passage of thy throat, thou hiest!

Three parts of that receipt I had for Calais,

Disburs'd I duly to his highness' soldiers :

The other part reserv'd I by consent;

For that my sovereign liege was in my debt,

Upon remainder of a dear account,

Since last I went to France to fetch his queen:¹⁰
Now swallow down that lie.—For Gloster's
death,—

I slew him not; but to my own disgrace,

Neglected my sworn duty in that case.—

1 Drayton asserts that Henry Plantagenet, the eldest son of John of Gaunt, was not distinguished by the name of Bolingbroke till after he had assumed the crown. He is called earl of Hereford by the old historians, and was surnamed Bolingbroke from having been born at the town of that name in Lincolnshire, about 1366.
2 i. e. by the cause you come on? The suppression of the preposition has been shown to have been frequent with Shakspeare.

3 My right-drawn sword is my sword drawn in a right or just cause.

4 i. e., uninhabitable.

5 To inherit, in the language of Shakspeare, is to possess.

6 Lewd formerly signified knavish, ungracious, naughty, idle, beside its now general acceptation.

7 Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III. who was murdered at Calais in 1397. See Froissart, chap ccxxvi.

8 i. e. prompt them, set them on by injurious hints.

9 Reproach to his ancestry.

10 The duke of Norfolk was joined in commission with Edward Earl of Rutland (the Aumerle of this play) to go to France in the year 1395, to demand in marriage Isabel, eldest daughter of Charles VI. then between seven and eight years of age. Richard was married to his young consort in November 1396, at Calais; his first wife, Anne, daughter of Charles IV. emperor of Germany, died at Shene on Whit Sunday, 1394. His marriage with Isabella was merely political, it was accompanied with an agreement for a truce between France and England for thirty years.

["406", "KING RICHARD II.", "ACT I.", "For you, my noble lord of Lancaster,\nThe honourable father to my foe,\nOnce did I lay in ambush for your life,\nA trespass that doth vex my grieved soul :", "But, ere I last receiv'd the sacrament,\nI did confess it: and exactly begg'd.", "Your grace's pardon, and, I hope, I had it.\nThis is my fault: As for the rest appeal'd,¹", "It issues from the rancour of a villain,", "A recreant and most degenerate traitor:\nWhich in myself I boldly will defend ;", "And interchangeably hurl down my gage", "Upon this overweening² traitor's foot,", "To prove myself a loyal gentleman.", "Even in the best blood chamber'd in his bosom:", "In haste whereof, most heartily I pray", "Your highness to assign our trial day.", "K. Rich. Wrath-kindled gentlemen, be rul'd by", "me:", "Let's purge this choler without letting blood:", "This we prescribe, though no physician ;³", "Deep malice makes too deep incision:", "Forget, forgive; conclude, and be agreed;", "Our doctors say, this is no time to bleed.—", "Good uncle, let this end where it begun:", "We'll calm the duke of Norfolk, you your son.", "Gaunt. To be a make-peace shall become my age:", "Throw down, my son, the duke of Norfolk's gage.", "K. Rich. And, Norfolk, throw down his.", "Gaunt. When, Harry ? when ?⁴", "Obedience bids, I should not bid again.", "K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down ; we bid ; there is no boot.⁵", "Nor. Myself I throw, dread sovereign, at thy foot:", "My life thou shall command, but not my shame:", "The one my duty owes; but my fair name", "(Despite of death, that lives upon my grave),⁶", "To dark dishonour's use thou shall not have.", "I am disgrac'd, impeach'd, and baffled⁷ here;", "Pierc'd to the soul with slander's venom'd spear;", "The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood", "K. Rich.", "Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage :—", "Nor. Yea, but not change their⁸ spots: take but my shame,", "And I resign my gage. My dear, dear lord,", "The purest treasure mortal times afford,", "Is—spotless reputation; that away,", "Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay.", "A jewel in a ten times barr'd up chest", "Is—a bold spirit in a loyal breast.", "Mine honour is my life; both grow in one ;", "Take honour from me, and my life is done :", "Then, dear my liege, mine honour let me try ;", "In that I live, and for that will I die.", "K. Rich. Cousin, throw down your gage; do you begin.", "Boling. O, God defend my soul from such foul sin!", "Shall I seem crest-fallen in my father's sight?", "Or with pale beggar-fear impeach my height", "Before this out-dar'd dastard! Ere my tongue", "Shall wound mine honour with such feeble wrong,\nOr sound so base a parle, my teeth shall tear", "The slavish motive of recanting fear;", "And spit it bleeding in his high disgrace,", "Where shame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's", "face.", "K. Rich. We were not born to sue, but to command:", "Which since we cannot do to make you friends,", "Be ready, as your lives shall answer it,", "At Coventry, upon Saint Lambert's day;", "There shall your swords and lances arbitrate", "The swelling difference of your settled hate;", "Since we cannot atone¹⁰ you, we shall see", "Justice design¹¹ the victor's chivalry.—", "Lord Marshal, command our officers at arms", "Be ready to direct these home alarms.", "[Ezeunt,", "### SCENE II.\nThe same. A Room in the Duke of Lancaster's Palace. Enter GAUNT, and Ducheſs of Gloster.¹²", "Gaunt. Alas ! the part¹³ I had in Gloster's blood\nDoth more solicit me, than your exclaims,\nTo stir against the butchers of his life.", "But since correction lieth in those hands,\nWhich made the fault that we cannot correct,", "Put our quarrel to the will of heaven;", "Who when he sees¹⁴ the hours ripe on earth,", "Will rain hot vengeance on offenders' heads.", "Duch. Finds brotherhood in thee no sharper spur?", "Hath love in thy old blood no living fire ?", "Edward's seven sons, whereof thyself art one,", "Were as seven phials of his sacred blood,", "Or seven fair branches springing from one root:", "Some of those seven are dried by nature's course,", "Some of those branches by the destinies cut:", "But Thomas, my dear lord, my life, my Gloster,—", "One phial full of Edward's sacred blood,", "One flourishing branch of his most royal root,—", "Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor spilt ;", "Is hack'd down, and his summer leaves all faded,", "By envy's hand, and murder's bloody axe.", "Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine ; that bed, that", "womb,", "That mettle, that self-mould, that fashion'd thee,\nMade him a man ; and though thou liv'st, and", "breath'st!", "Yet art thou slain in him : to thine consent¹⁵", "In some large measure to thy father's death,", "In that thou seest thy wretched brother die,", "Who was the model of thy father's life.", "Call it not patience, Gaunt, it is despair.", "In suffering thus thy brother to be slaughtered,", "Thou show'st the naked pathway to thy life,", "Teaching stern murder how to butcher thee:", "That which in men mean we entitle—patience,", "Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.", "What shall I say ? to safeguard thine own life,", "The best way is—to 'venge my Gloster's death.", "Gaunt. Heaven's is the quarrel; for heaven's substitute,", "His deputy anointed in his sight,", "Hath caus'd his death ; the which if wrongfully,", "Let heaven revenge ; for I may never lift", "An angry arm against his minister.", "1 Charged.", "2 Agrogant.", "3 Pope thought that some of the rhyming verses in this play were not from the hand of Shakspeare.", "4 This abrupt elliptical exclamation of impatience is again used in the Taming of a Shrew :—' Why when, I say ! Nay, good sweet Kate, be merry.' It appears to be equivalent to ' when will such a thing be done?'", "5 'There is no boot,² or it boodeth not, is as much as to say 'there is no help,' resistance would be vain, or profitless.", "6 i. e. my name that lives on my grave in despite of death.", "7 Baffled in this place signifies 'abused, reviled, re-proached in base terms; which was the ancient signification of the word, as well as to deceive or circumvent.", "8 There is an allusion here to the crest of Norfolk, which was a golden leopard.", "9 The old copies have 'his spots.' The alteration was made by Pope.", "10 i. e. make them friends, 'to make agreement or atonement, to reconcile them to each other.'", "11 To design is to mark out, to show by a token. It is the sense of the Latin designio. I may here take occasion to remark that Shakspeare's learning appears to me to have been underrated; it is almost always evident in his choice of expressive terms derived from the Latin, and used in their original sense. The propriety of this expression here will be obvious, when we recollect that designator was 'a marshal, a master of the play or prize, who appointed every one his place, and adjudged the victory.'", {"bbox": [703, 1

### SCENE III.

## KING RICHARD II

407

Duch. Where then, alas! may I complain myself?¹

Gaunt. To heaven, the widow's champion and
defence.

Duch. Why then, I will. Farewell, old Gaunt.
Thou go'st to Coventry, there to behold

Our cousin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight:
O, sit my husband's wrongs on Hereford's spear,
That it may enter butcher Mowbray's breast!

Or, if misfortune miss the first career,
Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom,
That they may break his foaming courser's back,
And throw the rider headlong in the lists,
A caitiff recreant to my cousin Hereford!

Farewell, old Gaunt; thy sometime brother's wife,
With her companion grief must end her life.

Gaunt. Sister, farewell: I must to Coventry:
As much good stay with thee, as go with me!

Duch. Yet one word more;—Grief boundeth
where it falls,

Not with the empty hollowness, but weight:

I take my leave before I have begun;
For sorrow ends not when it seemeth done.

Commend me to my brother, Edmund York,
Lo, this is all.—Nay, yet depart not so:

Though this be all, do not so quickly go;

I shall remember more. Bid him—O, what?—

With all good speed at Plashy² visit there,

Alack, and what shall good old York there see,
But empty lodgings and unfurnish'd walls?

Unpeopled offices, untrocken stones?

And what cheer there for welcome, but my groans?
Therefore command me; let him not come there,

To seek out sorrow that dwells every where:

Desolate, desolate, will I hence, and die;

The last leave of thee takes my weeping eye,

[Exeunt]

### SCENE III. Gosford Green, near Coventry. Lists set out, and a Throne. Heralds, &c. attending. Enter the Lord Enter the Lord, and AUMERLE.⁴

Mar. My lord Aumerle, is Harry Hereford arm'd?

Aum. Yea, at all points: and longs to enter in.

Mar. The duke of Norfolk, spightfully and bold,
Stays but the summons of the appellant's trumpet.

Aum. Why then, the champions are prepar'd,
and stay.

For nothing but his majesty's approach.

Flourish of Trumpets. Enter KING RICHARD, who takes his seat on his THRONE; GAUNT, and several Noblemen, who take their places. A Trumpet is sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within. Then enter NORFOLK in armour, preceded by a Lord.

K. Rich. Marshal, demand of yonder champion
The cause of his arrival here in arms:

Ask him his name; and orderly proceed

To swear him in the justice of his cause.

Mar. In God's name, and the king's, say who

And why thou com'st, thus knightly clad in arms?

1. To complain is commonly a verb neuter; but it is here used as a verb active. It is a literal translation of the old French phrase, *me complaintre*; and is not peculiar to Shakspeare.

2. Her house in Essex.

3. In our ancient castles the naked stone walls were only covered with tapestry or arras, hung upon tenter-hooks, from which it was easily taken down on every removal of the family. (See the Preface to the Northumberland Household Book, by Dr. Percy.) The offices of our old English mansions were the rooms designed for keeping the various stores of provisions, bread, wine, ale, &c. and for culinary purposes. They were always situate within the house, on the ground-floor (for there were no subterraneous rooms till about the middle of the reign of Charles L.), and nearly adjoining each other. When dinner had been set on the board by the sewers, the proper officers attended in each of these offices. Sometimes, on occasions of great festivity, these offices were all thrown open, and unlimited licence given to all comers to eat and drink at their pleasure. The duchess therefore laments that, in

Against what man thou com'st, and what thy quarrel?

Speak truly, on thy knighthood, and thy oath;

As so defend thee heaven, and thy valour!

Nor. My name is Thomas Mowbray, duke of
Norfolk;⁵

Who hither come engaged by my oath,
(Which heaven defend a knight should violate !)
Both to defend my loyalty and truth,

To God, my king, and my⁶ succeeding issue,

Against the duke of Hereford that appeals me;

And, by the grace of God, and this mine arm,
To prove him, in defending of myself,

A traitor to my God, my king, and me:

And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven

[He takes his seat.

Trumpet sounds. Enter BOLINGBROKE, in armour; preceded by a Herald.

K. Rich. Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms,

Both who he is, and why he cometh hither

Thus plated in habiliments of war;

And formally according to our law;

Depose him in the justice of his cause.

Mar. What is thy name? and wherefore com'st
thou hither,

Before king Richard, in his royal lists?

Against whom comest thou; and what's thy quarrel?

Speak like a true knight, so defend thee heaven!

Boling. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,

Am I; who ready here do stand in arms,

To prove, by heaven's grace, and my body's valour,

In lists, on Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk,

That he's a traitor, foul and dangerous,

To God of heaven, King Richard, and to me;

And, as I truly fight, defend me heaven!

Mar. On pain of death, no person so be bold,

Or daring-hardy, as to touch the lists;

Except the marshal, and such officers

Appointed to direct these fair designs.

Boling. Lord marshal, let me kiss my sovereign's
hand,

And bow my knee before his majesty:

For Mowbray, and myself, are like two men

That vow a long and weary pilgrimage;

Then let us take a ceremonious leave,

And loving farewell, of our several friends.

Mar. The appellant in all duty greets your highness,

And craves to kiss your hand and take his leave.

K. Rich. We will descend, and fold him in our arms.

Cousin of Hereford, as thy cause is right,

Be thy fortune in this royal fight!

Farewell, my blood; which if to-day thou shed
Lament we may, but not revenge thee dead.

Boling. O, let no noble eye profane a tear

For me, if I be gored with Mowbray's spear;

As confident, as is the falcon's flight

Against a bird, do I with Mowbray fight.

My loving lord [To Lord Marshal,] I take my leave of you;—

Of you, my noble cousin, Lord Aumerle;—

Not sick, although I have to do with death;

consequence of the murder of her husband, all the hospitality of plenty is at an end;⁴ the walls are unfurnished, the lodging rooms empty, and the offices unoccupied. All is solitude and silence; her groans are the only cheer that her guests can expect.⁵

4. The Duke of Norfolk was Earl Marshal of England; but being himself one of the combatants, the Duke of Surry, (Thomas Holland) officiated. Shakespeare has made a slight mistake by introducing that nobleman as a distinct person from the marshal in the present drama. Edward duke of Aumerle (so created by his cousin-german Richard II. in 1397, was the eldest son of Edward duke of York, fifth son of Edward III.) officiated as high constable at the lists of Coventry. He was killed at the battle of Agincourt, in 1415.

5. The duke of Hereford, being the appellant, entered the lists first, according to the historians.

6. His succeeding issue? is the reading of the first folio: the quartos all read *my*.

KING RICHARD II.

ACT I.

408

But lusty, young, and cheerly drawing breath.—
Lo, as at English feasts, so I regret
The daintiest last, to make the end most sweet:
O thou, the earthly author of my blood,—

[To GAUNT.

Whose youthful spirit, in me regenerate,
Doth with a twofold vigour lift me up
To reach at victory above my head,—
Add proof unto mine armour with thy prayers;
And with thy blessings steel my lance's point,
That it may enter Mowbray's waxen coat,
And furbish new the name of John of Gaunt,
Even in the lusty 'haviour of his son.

Gaunt. Heaven in thy good cause make thee
prosperous!
Be swift like lightning in the execution;
And let thy blows, doubly redoubled,
Fall like amazing thunder on the casque
Of thy adverse pernicious enemy;
Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant and live.

Boling. Mine innocency, and Saint George to
thrive! [He takes his seat.

Nor. [Rising.] However heaven, or fortune, cast
my lot,
There lives or dies, true to King Richard's throne,
A loyal, just, and upright gentleman:
Never did captive with a freer heart

Cast off his chains of bondage, and embrace
His golden uncontroll'd enfranchisement,
More than my dancing soul doth celebrate
This feast of 'battle with mine adversary.—

Most mighty liege,—and my companion peers,—
Take from my mouth the wish of happy years :
As gentle and as jocund as to jest,¹

Go I to fight; Truth hath a quiet breast.

K. Rich. Farewell, my lord: securely I espy
Virtue with valour couched in thine eye.—
The trial, marshal, and begin.

[The King and the Lords return to their seats.

Mar. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Receive thy lance; and God defend the right!

Boling. [Rising.] Strong as a tower in hope, I
cry—amen.

Mar. Go bear this lance [To an Officer] to Thomas duke of Norfolk.

1 Her. Harry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
Stands here for God, his sovereign, and himself;
On pain to be found false and recreant,
To prove the duke of Norfolk, Thomas Mowbray,
A traitor to his God, his king, and him,
And dares him to set forward to the fight.

2 Her. Here standeth Thomas Mowbray, duke
of Norfolk,

On pain to be found false and recreant,
Both to defend himself, and to approve
Henry of Hereford, Lancaster, and Derby,
To God, his sovereign, and to him, disloyal;
Courageously, and with a free desire,
Attending but the signal to begin.

Mar. Sound, trumpets; and set forward, combats.
[Charge sounded.

Stay, the king hath thrown his warder² down.

K. Rich. Let them lay by their helmets and their spears,

And both return back to their chairs again:
Withdraw with us;—and let the trumpets sound,
While we return these dukes what we decree.—

[A long Flourish.]
[To the Combatants.

Draw near,
And list, what with our council we have done.
For that our kingdom's earth should not be soil'd
With that dear blood which it hath fostered;
And for our eyes do hate the dire aspect
Of civil³ wounds plough'd up with neighbours'

[And for we think the eagle-winged pride
Of sky-aspiring and ambitious thoughts,
With rival-hating envy, set you on
To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle
Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep;⁴]
Which so rous'd up with boisterous untun'd drums,
With harsh resounding trumpets' dreadful bray,
And grating shock of wrathful iron arms,
Might from our quiet confines fright fair peace,
And make us wade even in our kindred's blood;—
Therefore, we banish you our territories:⁵

You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death,
Till twice five summers have enlrich'd our fields,
Shall not regret our fair dominions,

But tread the stranger paths of banishment.
Boling. Your will be done: this must my comfort be,

That sun, that warms you here, shall shine on me;
And those his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment.

K. Rich. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier
doom,

Which I with some unwillingness pronounce:
The fly-slow⁶ hours shall not determine
The dateless limit of thy dear exile;—
The hopeless word⁷ of—never to return
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life,

Nor. A heavy sentence, my most sovereign liege,
And all allook'd for from your highness' mouth:
A dearer merit;⁸ not so deep a maim
As to be cast forth in the common air,
Have I deserved at your highness' hand.

The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:

And now my tongue's use is to me no more,
Than an unstrung viol or a harp:
Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands
Which knows no touch to tune the harmony.

Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
Double portcullis'd, with my teeth, and lips;
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance

Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy sentence then, but speechless death,
Which robs my tongue from breathing native
breath?

K. Rich. It boots thee not to be compassionate;⁹
After our sentence plaining comes too late.

Nor. Then thus I turn me from my country's
light,

To dwell in solemn shades of endless night.

[Retiring.

1 To jest in old language sometimes signified to play a part in a masque.

2 A warder was a kind of truncheon or staff carried by persons who presided at these single combats; the throwing down of which seems to have been a solemn act of prohibition to stay proceedings. A different movement of the warder had an opposite effect. In Drayton's Battle of Agincourt, Erpingham is represented throwing it up as a signal for a charge.

3 Capel's copy of the quarto edition of this play reads 'Of cruel wounds,' &c. Malone's copy of the same edition, and all the other editions, read 'Of civil wounds,' &c.

4 The five lines in brackets are omitted in the folio.

5 The old copies read 'fly-slow hours.' Pope reads 'fly-slow hours,' which has been admitted into the text, and conveys an image highly beautiful and just. It is however remarkable that Pope, in the fourth book of his Essay on Man, v. 226, has employed the epithet

which, in the present instance, he has rejected.—

'All fly-slow things with circumspect eyes.'

6 Word, for sentence; any short phrase was called a
word. Thus Ascham, in a Letter to Queen Elizabeth,
'Saving that one unpleasant word in that Patent
called 'Daringe pleasure,' turned me after to great
displeasure.—Conicay Papers.

7 As Shakspeare used merit, in this place, in the
sense of reward, he frequently uses the word meed,
which properly signifies reward, to express merit.

8 Compassionate is apparently here used in the
sense of complaining, plaintive; but no other instance
of the word in this sense has occurred to the comments
tors. May it not be an error of the press, for 'so pas-
sionate?' which would give the required meaning to the
passage: 'passionate being frequently used for to ex-
press passion or grief, to complain. 'Now leave us
this amorous hermit to passionate and playne his mis-
fortune.'—Palace of Pleasure, vol. ii. LL. 5.

["### ACT III.\n#### SCENE III.", "### KING RICHARD II.", "409", "K. Rich. Return again, and take an oath with thee.", "Lay on our royal sword your banish'd hands;", "Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven\n(Our part therein we banish with yourselves.)", "To keep the oath that we administer:—\nYou never shall (so help you truth and heaven!)", "Embrace each other's love in banishment;", "Nor never look upon each other's face;", "Nor never write, regret, nor reconcile", "This lowering tempest of your home-bred hate;", "Nor never by advised¹ purpose meet,\nTo plot, contrive, or complot any ill;", "'Gainst us, our state, our subjects, or our land!", "Boling. I swear.", "Nor. And I, to keep all this.", "Boling. Norfolk, so far as to mine enemy;²", "By this time, had the king permitted us,", "One of our souls had wander'd in the air,\nBanish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh;", "As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:", "Confess thy treasons, ere thou fly the realm;\nSince thou hast far to go, bear not along", "The clogging burden of a guilty soul.", "The Banish'd banish'd, as from hence:", "Nor. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,", "My name be bloited from the book of life,", "And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence;", "But what that art, heaven, thou, and I do know;", "And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.—", "Farewell, my liege:—Now no way can I stray;", "Save back to England, all the world's my way.", "[Exit.³]", "K. Rich. Uncle, even in the glasses of thine eyes\nI see thy grieved heart: thy sad aspect\nHath from the number of his banish'd years", "Pluck'd four away;—Six frozen winters spent,\nReturn [To Boling.] with welcome home from\nbanishment.", "Boling. How long a time lies in one little word!\nFour lagging winters, and four wanton springs,\nEnd in a word; Such is the breath of kings.", "Gaunt. I thank my liege, that, in regard of me,\nHe shortens four years of my son's exile :", "But little vantage shall I reap thereby;\nFor, ere the six years, that he hath to spend,\nCan change their moons, and bring their times about,", "My oil-dried lamp, and time-bewasted light,\nShall be extinct with age, and endless night;", "My inch of taper will be burnt and done,\nAnd blindfold death not let me see my son.", "K. Rich. Why, uncle, thou hast many years to\nlive;\nGaunt. But not a minute, king, that thou canst\ngive:", "Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,\nAnd pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:⁴", "Thou canst help time to furrow me with age,\nBut stop noinkle in his pilgrimage;", "Thy word is current with him for my death;", "But dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.", "K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,⁵\nWherefore thy tongue a party⁶ verdict gave;", "Thereto my liege, and thy son, and thy son.", "Why at our justice seem'st thou then to lower?\nGaunt. Things sweet to taste, prove in digestion\nsour.", "", "", "", "", "", "K. Rich. Thy son is banish'd upon good advice,⁵\nWherefore thy tongue a party⁶ verdict gave;", "", "", "", "", "You urg'd me as a judge; but I had rather,\nYou would have bid me argue like a father:—", "O, had it been a stranger, not my child,", "To smooth his fault I should have been more mild:⁷", "A partial slander⁸ sought I to avoid,", "And in the sentence my own life destroy'd.", "Alas, I look'd, when some of you should say", "I was too strict, to make mine own away;", "But you gave leave to my unwilling tongue,\nAgainst my will, to do myself this wrong.", "K. Rich. Cousin, farewell;—and, uncle, bid him\nso;", "Six years we banish him, and he shall go.", "[Flourish. Exeunt K. Rich. and Train.]", "Aum. Cousin, farewell; what presence must not\nknow,", "From where you do remain, let paper show.", "Mar. My lord, no leave take I: for I will ride,", "As far as land will let me, by your side.", "Gaunt. O, to what purpose dost thou hoard thy\nwords,", "That thou return'st no greeting to thy friends?", "Boling. I have too few to take my leave of you,", "When the tongue's office should be prodigal", "To breathe the abundant dolour of the heart.", "Gaunt. Thy grief is but thy absence for a time,", "Boling. Joy absent, grief is present for that time.", "Gaunt. What is six winters? they are quickly\ngone.", "Boling. To men in joy; but grief makes one hour\nshall come an hour; no more", "Gaunt. Call it a travel that thou tak'st for pleasure.", "Boling. My heart will sigh, when I miscall it so,", "Which finds it an enforced pilgrimage.", "Gaunt. The sullen passage of thy weary steps", "Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set", "The precious jewel of thy home-return.", "Boling. Nay, rather, every tedious stride I\nmake⁹", "Will but remember me, what a deal of world", "I wander from the jewels that I love.", "Must I not serve a long apprenticeship", "To foreign passages; and in the end,", "Having my freedom, boast of nothing else,", "But that I was a journeyman to grief?", "Gaunt. All places that the eye of heaven¹⁰ visits,", "Are to a wise man ports and happy havens", "Teach thy necessity to reason thus;", "There is no virtue like necessity.", "Think not the king did banish thee;", "But thou the king:¹¹ Woe doth the heavier sit,", "Where it perceives it is but faintly borne.", "Go, say—I sent thee forth to purchase honour,", "And not—the king exil'd thee: or suppose,", "Devouring pestilence hangs in our air,", "And thou art flying to a fresher climate.", "Look, what thy soul holds dear, imagine it", "To lie that way thou go'st, not whence thou com'st:", "Suppose the singing birds, musicians;", "The grass wherein thou tread'st, the presence\nstrew'd;¹²", "The flowers, fair ladies; and thy steps, no more", "Than a delightful measure, or a dance:", "For gnarling sorrow hath less power to bite", "The man that mocks at it, and sets it light.", "1 Premeditated, deliberated.", "2 The first folio reads 'So fare.' This line seems to\nbe addressed by way of caution to Mowbray, lest he\nshould think that Bolingbroke was about to conciliate\nhim.", "3 The duke of Norfolk went to Venice, ' where for\nthought and melancholy he deceased.'—Holinshed.", "4 It is a matter of very melancholy consideration, that all human advantages confer more power of doing evil than good.", "5 Consideration.", "6 Had a part or share in it.", "7 This couplet is wanting in the folio.", "8 i. e. the reproach of partiality.", "9 This speech and that which follows are not in the\nfolio.", "10 i. e. the sun.", "11 Shakspeare probably remembered Euphues' exhortation to Botonio to take his exile patiently. 'Nature hath given to man a country no more than she hath a house, or lands, or livings. Socrates would neither call himself an Athenian, neither a Grecian, but a citizen of the world. Plato would never accompt him banished, that had the sunne, fire, ayre, water, and earth, that he had before; where he felt the winter's blast, and the summer's blaze; where the same sunne and same moone shined; whereby he noted

KING RICHARD II.

410

ACT II.

*Boling.* O, who can hold a fire in his hand,¹
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,

By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow,

By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?

O, no! the apprehension of the good,

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse:

Fell sorrow's tooth doth never rankle more,

Than when it bites, but lanceth not the sore.

*Gaunt.* Come, come, my son, I'll bring thee on thy way:

Had I thy youth, and cause, I would not stay.

*Boling.* Then, England's ground, farewell; sweet soil, adieu;

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet!

Where'er I wander, boast of this I can,

Though banish'd, yet a trueborn Englishman.²

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE IV. The same. A Room in the King's Castle. Enter KING RICHARD, BAGOT, and GREEN; AUMERLE following.

*K. Rich.* We did observe.³—Cousin Aumerle,
How far brought you high Hereford on his way?

*Aum.* I brought high Hereford, if you call him so,
But to the next highway, and there I left him.

*K. Rich.* And, say, what store of parting tears were shed?

*Aum.* 'Faith, none by⁴ me: except the north-east wind,

Which then blew bitterly against our faces,

Awak'd the sleeping rheum; and so, by chance,

Did grace our hollow parting with a tear.

*K. Rich.* What said our cousin, when you parted with him?

*Aum.* Farewell:

And, for my heart disdained that my tongue

Should so profane the word, that taught me craft

To counterfeit oppression of such grief,

That words seemed buried in my sorrow's grave.

Marry, would the word farewell have lengthen'd hours,

And added years to his short banishment,

He should have had a volume of farewells;

But, since it would not, he had none of me.

* K. Rich. He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt,
When time shall call him home from banishment,
Whether our kinsman come to see his friends.

Ourself, and Bushy,⁵ Bagot here, and Green,

Observ'd his courtship to the common people:—

How he did seem to dive into their hearts,

With humble and familiar courtesy;

What reverence he did throw away on slaves;

Wooing poor craftsmen, with the craft of smiles,

And patient underbearing of his fortune,

As 'twere, to banish their affects with him.

Off goes his bonnet to an oyster-wench;

A brace of draymen bid—God speed him well,

And had the tribute of his supple knee,⁶

With—*Thanks, my countrymen, my loving friends*;

¹ There is a passage resembling this in the fifth book of Cicero's Tusculan Questions, which were translated and published by John Dolman, in 1561. There is also something which might serve for a hint in Euphuus.

² Dr. Johnson thought that the First Act should end here.

³ The king here addressed Green and Bagot, who, we may suppose, had been talking to him of Boling-broke's 'courtship to the common people,' at the time of his departure. 'Yes,' says Richard, 'we did observe it.'

⁴ The first folio and the quarto of 1597 read 'Faith, none for me.' The emendation was made in the folio, 1632.

⁵ The earlier quarto copies read, 'Ourself and Bushy,' and no more. The folio:

⁶ 'Ourself, and Bushy here, Bagot, and Greene.' In the quarto, the stage-direction says, 'Enter the King, with Bushie,' &c.; but in the folio, 'Enter the King, Aumerle,' &c. because it was observed that Bushy comes in afterward. On this account we have adopted a transposition made in the quarto of 1634.

As were our England in reversion his,

And he our subjects' next degree in hope.⁷

*Green.* Well, he is gone; and with him go these thoughts.

Now for the rebels, which stand out in Ireland Expedient⁸ management must be made, my liege; Ere further leisure yield them further means For their advantage, and your highness' loss.

*K. Rich.* We will ourself in person to this war. And, for⁹ our coffers—with too great a court, And liberal largess—are grown somewhat light, We are enfured to farm our royal realm; The revenue whereof shall furnish us

For our affairs in hand: If that come short,

Our substitutes at home shall have blank charters;

Whereeto, when they shall know what men are rich,

They shall subscribe them for large sums of gold,

And send them after to supply our wants;

For we will make for Ireland presently.

*Enter BUSHY.*

Bushy, what news?

*Bushy.* Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord;

Suddenly taken; and hath sent post-haste,

To entreat your majesty to visit him.

*K. Rich.* Where lies he?

*Bushy.* At Ely-house.

*K. Rich.* Now put it, heaven, in his physician's mind,

To help him to his grave immediately!

The lining of his coffers shall make coats

To deck our soldiers for these Irish wars.—

Come, gentlemen, let's all go visit him:

'Pray God, we may make haste, and come too late.

[Exeunt.]

## ACT II.

### SCENE I. London. A Room in Ely-house.
GAUNT on a Couch; the DUKE OF YORK,¹⁰ and others standing by him.

*Gaunt.* Will the king come? that I may breathe my last

In wholesome counsel to his unstaid youth.

*York.* Vex not yourself, nor strive not with your breath;

For all in vain comes counsel to his ear.

*Gaunt.* O, but they say, the tongues of dying men

Enforce attention, like deep harmony:

Where words are scarce, they are seldom spent in vain.

For they breathe truth, that breathe their words in pain.

He, that no more must say, is listen'd more

Than they whom youth and ease have taught to close,¹¹

More are men's ends mark'd, than their lives before:

The setting sun, and music at the close,¹²

As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last;

Writ in remembrance, more than things long past:

⁶ To illustrate this, it should be remembered that courtesying (the act of reverence now confined to women) was anciently practised by men.

⁷ 'Spes altera Romæ.'—*Virg.*

⁸ Shakspeare often uses expedient for expeditions; but here its ordinary signification of *fit*, *proper*, will suit the context equally well.

⁹ i. e. cause.

¹⁰ Edmond duke of York was the fifth son of Edward III. and was born, in 1441, at Langley, near St. Albans, Herts; from whence he had his surname. 'He was of an indolent disposition, a lover of pleasure, and averse to business; easily prevailed upon to lie still and consult his own quiet, and never acting with spirit upon any occasion.'—*Loweth's William of Wykeham*, p. 205.

¹¹ To insinuate, to lie, to flatter.

¹² 'This I suppose to be a musical term,' says Steevens. So in Lingua, 1607:—

¹³ 'I dare engage my ears the close will jar.'

Surely this is a supererogatory conclusion. Shakespeare evidently means no more than that music is sweetest in its close, or when the last sweet sounds rest on the de

["## SCENE I.", "Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear,\nMy death's sad tale may yet undeaf his ear.", "York. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering\nsounds,", "As, praises of his state: then, there are found", "Lascivious metres; to whose venom sound", "The open ear of youth doth always listen :", "Report of fashions in proud Italy ;¹¹", "Whose manners still our tardy apish nation", "Limps after, in base inclination,", "Where doth the world thrust forth a vanity,\n(So it be new, and there's no respect how vile,)", "That is not quickly buzz'd into his ears ?", "Then all too late comes counsel to be heard,", "Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.²", "Direct not him, whose way himself will choose ;\n'Tis breath thou lack'st, and that breath wilt thou\nlose.", "Gaunt. Methinks, I am a prophet new inspir'd;", "And thus, expiring, do foretell of him :", "His rash² fierce blaze of riot cannot last;", "For violent fires soon burn out themselves;", "Small showers last long, but sudden storms are\nshort;", "He fires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes ;", "With eager feeding, food doth choke the feeder :", "Light vanity, insatiate corromant,", "Consuming means, soon preys upon itself.", "This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,", "This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,", "This other Eden, demi-paradise ;", "This fortress, built by nature for herself,", "Against infection,⁴ and the hand of war;", "This happy breed of men, this little world;", "This precious stone set in the silver sea,", "Which serves it in the office of a wall,", "Or as a moat defensive to a house.", "Against the dryness of less happier lands ;", "This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, of war,", "This nurse, this teeming wand of royal kings,\nFear'd by their breed,² and famous for their war,\nRenowned for their deeds as far from home,", "(For Christian service, and true chivalry,)", "As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry,", "Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's son :", "This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,", "Dear for her reputation through the world,", "Is now leas'd out, (I die pronouncing it),", "England, bound in with the triumphant sea,", "Whose rocky shore beats backs the envious siege", "Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,", "With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds ;", "That England, that was wont to conquer others,", "Hath made a shameful conquest of itself;", "O, would the scandal vanish with my life,\nHow happy then were my ensuing death!", "Enter KING Richard, and Queen;⁷ AUMERLE, BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, ROSS,⁸ and WILLOWGBETH.⁹", "York. The king is come: deal mildly with his\nyouth?", "For young hot colts, being rag'd,¹⁰ do rage the more.", "lighted ear. But Steevens's soul, like that of his great\ncoadujor, does not seem to have been attuned to har-\nmony. The context might, however, have shown him\nhow superfluous his supposition was; and I have to\napologize for diverting the attention of the reader from\nthis beautiful passage for a moment.", "1. The poet has charged the times of King Richard II. with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in his own time, and much lamented by the wisest of our ancestors.", "2 Where the will rebels against the notices of the un-\nderstanding.", "3 I. e. hasty, violent.", "4 Johnson raised a doubt whether we should not read\ninvasion here. Farmer and Malone, upon the authority\nof a misprint in Allot's England's Parnassus, where this\npassage is quoted, 'Against intestin,' &c. propose to\nread *infection*, a word of their own coinage. Malone's\nlong note proves nothing: he thinks that we could re-", "## KING RICHARD II.", "Queen. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster?", "K. Rich. What comfort, man? How isn't with\naged Gaunt?", "Gaunt. O, how that name befits my composition!", "Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt¹¹ in being old:", "Within me grief hath kept a tedious fast;", "And who abstains from meat, that is not gaunt?", "For sleeping England long time have I watch'd;", "Watching breeds leanness, leanness is all gaunt:", "The pleasure, that some fathers feed upon,", "Is my strict fast, I mean—my children's looks;", "And, there's no fasting, hast thou made me gaunt?", "Gaunt am I for the grave, gaunt as a grave,", "Whose hollow womb inhabits nought but bones.\nK. Rich. Can sick men play so nicely with their\nnames?", "Gaunt. No, misery makes sport to mock itself:", "Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me,\nI mock my name, great king, to flatter thee.", "K. Rich. Should dying men flatter with those that\nlive?", "Gaunt. No, no; men living flatter those that die.", "K. Rich. Thou, now a dying, say'st—thou flat-\nter'st me.", "Gaunt. O, no; thou diest, though I the sicker be.", "K. Rich. I am in health, I breathe, and see thee\nill.", "Gaunt. Now, He that made me, knows I see\nthou ill;", "Ill in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.", "Thy deathbed is no lesser than thy land,", "Wherein thou liest in reputation sick :", "And thou, too careless patient as thou art,", "Committ'st thy anointed body to the cure", "Of those physicians that first wounded thee :", "A thousand flatterers sit within thy crown,", "Whose compass is no bigger than thy head;", "And yet, incased in so small a verge,", "The waste is no whit lesser than thy land ;", "O, had thy grandesse with a prophet's eye,", "Seen how his son's should destroy his sons,", "From forth thy reach he would have laid thy shame,", "Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd.", "Which art possess'd¹² now to depose thyself.", "Why, cousin, wert thou regent of the world,", "It were a shame to let this land by lease :", "But, for thy world, enjoying but this land,", "Is it not more than shame, to shame it so !", "Landlord of England art thou now, not king", "Thy state of law is bondslave to the law;¹³", "And thou—\nK. Rich. —a lunatic lean-witted fool,", "Presuming on an ague's privilege,\n\nceive no other *infection* from abroad than the *plague*; but it is evident that the poet may allude to the *infection* of vicious manners and customs. It is true that *infection* was in use for 'a troubling, molesting, or disturbing;' but as all the old copies read *infection*, there seems to be no sufficient reason for disturbing the text.", "5 i. e. by reason of their breed. The quarto of 1598 reads thus—", "'Fear'd by their breed, and famous *for* their birth.'", "6 'In this 22d year of King Richard, the common fame ranne that the king had *leiten* to *farme* the realm unto Sir William Scrope, earle of Wiltshire, and then treasurer of England, to Syr John Bushey, Sir John Bagot, and Sir Henry Greene, Knights.'—*Fabian. Peeling* is paltry, pitiful, petty.", "7 Shakspeare has deviated from historical truth in the introduction of Richard's queen as a woman; for Anne, his first wife, was dead before the period at which the commencement of the play is laid; and Isabella, his second wife, was a child at the time of his death.", "8 i. e. William Lord Ross, of Hamlake, afterwards\nlord treasurer to Henry IV.", "9 William Lord Willoughby, of Eresby.", "10 Ritson proposes to read:—", "11 Meagre, thin. 12 Mad.", "13 'Thy legal state, that rank in the state and these large desmesnes, which the constitution allotted thee, are now bondslave to the law; being subject to the same legal restrictions as every ordinary pelting farm that has been let on lease.'", "## ACT II.", "ion his,", "ee in hope,", "nd with him go", "out in Ireland", "ade, my leg;", "further means", "highness' loss.", "person to this w", {"bbox": [35, 290, 62, 309

["412", "KING RICHARD II.", "ACT II.", "Darst with thy frozen admonition", "Make pale our cheek; chasing the royal blood,\nWith fury, from his native residence.", "Now by my seat's right royal majesty,", "Wert thou not brother to great Edward's son,", "This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head,", "Should run thy head from thy unreverent shoulders.", "Gaunt. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's", "son,", "For that I was his father Edward's son;", "That blood already, like the pelican,", "Hast thou tapp'd out, and drunkenly carous'd:", "My brother Gloster, plain well-meaning soul,\n(Whom fair befall in heaven 'mongst happy souls!)", "May be a precedent and won good,", "That thou respect'st not spilling Edward's blood :", "Join with the present sickness that I have,", "And thy unkindness be like crooked age,", "To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.", "Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee !—", "These words hereafter thy tormentors be—", "Convey me to my bed, then to my grave :", "Love they¹ to live, that love and honour have.", "[Exit, borne out by his Attendants.", "K. Rich. And let them die, that age and sullens\nhave;", "For both hast thou, and both become the grave.", "York. 'Beseech your majesty, impute his words", "To wayward sickness and age in him :", "He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear", "As Harry duke of Hereford, were he here.", "K. Rich. Right; you say true: as Hereford's\nlove, so his:", "As theirs, so mine; and all be as it is.", "Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.", "North. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to\nyour majesty.", "K. Rich. What says he?", "North. Nay, nothing; all is said:", "His tongue is now a stringless instrument;", "Words, life, and all, old Lancaster hath spent.", "York. Be York the next that must be bankrupt so!", "Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe.", "K. Rich. The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he;", "His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be :²", "So much for that.—Now for our Irish wars :", "We must supplant those rough rug-headed kernes ;³", "Which live like venom, where no venom else,\nBut only they, hath privilege to live.⁴", "And for these great affairs do ask some charge,", "Towards our assistance, we do seize to us", "The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables,", "Whereof our uncle Gaunt did stand possess'd.", "York. How long shall I be patient? Ah, how long\nShall tender duty make me suffer wrong?", "Not Gloster's death, nor Hereford's banishment,", "Not Gaunt's rebukes, nor England's private wrongs,", "Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke", "About his marriage,⁵ nor my own disgrace,", "Have ever made me sour my patient cheek,", "Or bend one wrinkle on my sovereign's face.—", "I am the last of noble Edward's sons,", "Of whom thy father, prince of Wales, was first;", "In war, was never lion rag'd more fierce,", "In peace was never gentle lamb more mild,", "Than was that young and princely gentleman :", "His face thou hast, for even so look'd he,", "Accomplish'd with the number of thy hours;⁶", "But, when he frown'd, it was against the French,", "And not against his friends: his noble hand\nDid win what he did spend, and spent not that", "which his triumphant father's hand had won:", "His hands were guilty of no kindred's blood,\nBut bloody with the enemies of his kin.", "O, Richard! York is too far gone with grief,", "Or else he never would compare between.", "K. Rich. Why, uncle, what's the matter?", "York.", "Pardon me, if you please ; if not, I, pleas'd\nNot to be pardon'd, am content withal.", "Seek you to seize, and gripe into your hands,", "The royalties and rights ofnish'd Hereford?", "Is not Gaunt dead? and doth not Hereford live?", "Was not Gaunt just? and is not Harry true?", "Did not the one deserve to have an heir?", "Is not his heir a well-deserving son?", "Take Hereford's rights away, and take from time\nHis charters, and his customary rights;", "Let not to-morrow then ensue to-day;", "Be not thyself, for how art thou a king,", "But by fair sequence and succession ?", "Now, afore God (God forbid, I say true!)", "If you do wrongfully seize Hereford's rights,", "Call in the letters patents that he hath", "By his attorneys-general to sue", "His livery,⁷ and deny his offer'd homage,", "You pluck a thousand dangers on your head,", "You lose a thousand well-disposed hearts,", "And prick my tender patience to those thoughts", "Which honour and allegiance cannot think.", "K. Rich. Think what you will; we seize into our\nhands", "His plate, his goods, his money, and his lands.", "York. 'I'll not be by the while: My liege, farewell:", "What will ensue hereof, there's none can tell;", "But by bad courses may be understood,", "That their events can never fall out good. [Exit.", "K. Rich. Go, Bushy, to the earl of Wiltshire\nstraight;", "Bid him repair to us to Ely-house,", "To see this business : To-morrow next", "We will for Ireland; and 'tis time, I trow;", "And we create, in absence of ourself,", "Our uncle York lord governor of England,", "For he is just, and always lov'd us well.—", "Come on, our queen: to-morrow must we part;", "Be merry, for our time of stay is short. [Proust.", "[Exeunt, King, Queen, BUSN'Y, AUMERLE,\nGREEN, and BAGOT.", "North. Well, lords, the duke of Lancaster is dead.", "Ross. And living too; for now his son is duke.", "Wilo. Barely in title, not in revenue.", "North. Richly in both, if justice had her right.", "Ross. My heart is great; but it must break with\nsilence.", "Ere't be disburden'd with a liberal⁸ tongue.", "North. Nay, speak thy mind; and let him ne'er\nspeak more,", "That speaks thy words again, to do thee harm!", "Wilo. Tends that thou would'st speak, to the\nduke of Hereford?", "If it be so, out with it boldly, man;", "Quick is mine ear to hear of good towards him", "Ross. No good at all, that I can do for him;", "Unless you call it good to pity him,", "Bereft and gelded of his patrimony.", "North. Now, afore heaven, 'tis shame, such\nwrongs are borne,", "In him a royal prince, and many more", "Of noble blood in this declining land.", "The king is not himself, but basely led", "1 i. e. *let them love to live, &c.*", {"bbox": [416, 1147, 644, 1163

## SCENE II.

# KING RICHARD II.

413

By flatterers; and what they will inform,

Merely in hate 'gainst any of us all,

That will the king severely prosecute

'Gainst us, our lives, our children, and our heirs.

Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes,

And quite lost their hearts: the nobles hath he fin'd
For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts.

Willo. And daily new exactions are devis'd; &

As blanks,²⁵ benevolences, and I wot not what:
But what, o' God's name, doth become of this ?

North. Wars have not wasted it, for warr'd he hath not,

But basely yielded upon compromise

That which his ancestors achiev'd with blows:

More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars.

Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm.

Willo. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken man.

North. Reproach, and dissolution, hangeth over him.

Ross. He hath not lost, but securely perish.⁴
His burdened taxations notwithstanding,

But by the robbing of the banish'd duke.

North. His noble kinsman; most degenerate king!

But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,³

Yet see no shelter to avoid the storm:

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,

And yet we strike not, but securely perish.⁴

Ross. We see the very wreck that we must suffer;

And unavoidable is the danger now,

For suffering so the causes of our wreck.

North. Not so; even through the hollow eyes of death,

I spy life peering; but I dare not say

How near the tidings of our comfort is.

Willo. Nay, let us share thy thoughts, as thou dost ours.

Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland:

We three are but thyself; and, speaking so,

Thy words are but thy thoughts; therefore, be bold.

North. Then thus:—I have from Port le Blanc, a bay

In Brittany, receiv'd intelligence,

That Harry Hereford, Reignold Lord Cobham,

[The son of Richard earl of Arundel],⁵

That late broke from the duke of Exeter,

His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury,

Sir Thomas Erpingham, Sir John Ramston,

Sir John Norbery, Sir Robert Waterton, and Francis Quoint,⁷

All these well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne,
With eight tall⁶ ships, three thousand men of war,
Are making hither with all due expedience,⁷

And shortly mean to touch our northern shore:

Perhaps, they had ere this; but that they stay

The first departing of the king for Ireland.

If then we shall shake off our slavish yoke,

Imps⁸ out our drooping country's broken wing,

Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown,
Wipe off the dust that hides our sceptre's gilt,⁹

And make high majesty look like itself,

Away, with me, in post to Ravenspurg:

But if you faint, as fearing to do so,

Stay, and be secret, and myself will go.

Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that fear.

Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there.

[Exeunt.]

## SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Palace.

Enter QUEEN, BUSHY, and BAGOT.

Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad:

You promis'd, when you parted with the king,
To lay aside life-harming heaviness,

And entertain a cheerful disposition.

Queen. To please the king, I did; to please myself,

I cannot do it; yet I know no cause

Why I should welcome such a guest as grief,

Save bidding farewell to so sweet a guest

As my sweet Richard: Yet, again, methinks,

Some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb,

Is coming towards me; and my inward soul

With nothing trembles: at something it grieves,

More than with parting from my lord the king.

Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows,

Which show like grief itself, but are not so:

For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears,

Divides one thing entire to many objects;

Like perspectives,¹⁰ which, rightly gaz'd upon,

Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry,

Distinguish form: so your sweet majesty

Looking awry upon your lord's departure,

Finds shapes of grief, more than himself, to wail; Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but shadows

Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,

More than your lord's departure weep not; more's not seen:

Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye,

Which, for things true, weeps things imaginary.

Queen. It may be so; but yet my inward soul Persuades me, it is otherwise: How'er it be,

I cannot but be sad; so heavy sad,

As,—though, in thinking, on no thought I think,¹¹—

Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink.

Bushy. 'Tis nothing but conceit,¹² my gracious lady.

Queen. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd From some fore-father's grief; mine is not so;

For nothing hath begot my something grief;

Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:

'Tis in reversion that I do possess;

But what it is, that is not yet known; what

I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot.

1 Pillaged.

2 Stow records that Richard II. 'compelled all the religious, gentlemen, and commons, to set their seals to blankes, to the end he might, if it pleased him, oppress them severally, or all at once; some of the commons paid him 1000 marks, some 1000 pounds;⁸ &c.

3 So in the Tempest:—

'—another storm brewing, I hear it sing in the wind.'

4 'And yet we strike not our sails, but perish by too great confidence in our security.'⁵ this is another Latinism.

5 The line in brackets, which was necessary to complete the sense, has been supplied upon the authority of Hollinshed. Something of a similar import must have been omitted by accident in the old copies.

6 Stout.

7 Expedition.

8 When the wing feathers of a hawk were dropped or forced out by any accident, it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called 'to imp a hawk.' It is often used metaphorically, as in this instance. The word is said to come from the Saxon *tampan*, to graft, or inoculate.

9 Gilding.

10 It has been shown in a former note that *perspective*

meant optical glasses, to assist the sight in any way. Mr. Henley says that 'the perspectives here mentioned were round crystal glasses, the convex surface of which was cut into faces like those of the rose-diamond; the concave left uniformly smooth; which if placed as here represented, would exhibit the different appearances described by the poet.' But it may have reference to that kind of optical delusion called *anamorphosis*; which is a *perspective* projection of a picture, so that at one point of view it shall appear a confused mass, or different to what it really is, in another, an exact and regular representation. Sometimes it is made to appear confused to the naked eye, and regular when viewed in a *glass* or *mirror* of a certain form. 'A picture of a chancellor of France, presented to the common beholder a multitude of little faces; but if one did look at it through a *perspective*, there appeared only the single pourpouture of the chancellor.'—*Humane Industry*, 1651.

11 The old copies have 'on thinking,' which is an evident error: we should read, 'As though *in thinking*; i. e. 'though musing, I have no idea of calamity.' The involuntary and unaccountable depression of the mind which every one has sometimes felt, is here very forcibly described.

12 Fanciful conception.

414

KING RICHARD II.

ACT II.

Enter GREEN.

Green. God save your majesty!—and well met,
gentlemen:—

I hope, the king is not yet shipp'd for Ireland.

Queen. Why hop'st thou so? 'tis better hope, he is;

For his designs crave haste, his haste good hope :
Then wherefore dost thou hope, he is not shipp'd?

Green. That he, our hope, might have reti'd his
power,¹

And driven into despair an enemy's hope,
Who strongly hath set footing in this land :
The banish'd Bolingbroke repeals himself,

And with uplifted arms is safe arriv'd
At Ravenspurg.

Queen. Now, God in heaven forbid!

Green. O, madam, 'tis too true: and that is
worse,—

The Lord Northumberland, his young son Henry
Percy,

The lords of Ross, Beaumond, and Willoughby,
With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.

Bushing. Why have you not proclaim'd Northumberland,

And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors ?²

Green. We have: whereon the earl of Worcester

Hath broke his staff, resign'd his stewardship,
And all the household servants fled with him

To Bolingbroke.

Green. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my
woe,

And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir :³
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy ;

And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,

Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.

Bushing. Despair not, madam.

Queen. Who shall hinder me?

I will despair, and be at enmity

With cozening hope; he is a flatterer,

A parasite, a keeper-back of death,

Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,

Which false hope lingers in extremity.

Enter YORK.

Green. Here comes the duke of York.

Queen. With signs of war about his aged neck;

O, full of careful business are his looks !—
Uncle,

For heaven's sake, speak comfortable words.

York. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts :

Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,

Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief.

Your husband he is gone to save far off,

Whilst others come to make him lose at home :

Here am I left to underprop his land ;

Who, weak with age, cannot support myself:—
Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made ;

Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him,

Enter a Servant.

Serv. My lord, your son was gone before I came.

York. He was !—Why, so!—go all which way
it will !—

The nobles they are fled, the commons they are
cold,

And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side.—

Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster ;

Bid her send me presently a thousand pound :—

Hold, take my ring.

Serv. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship :

To-day, as I came by, I called there ;

But I shall grieve you to report the rest.

York. What is it, knave ?

1 Reti'd, i. e. drawn it back; a French sense.

2 The first quarto, 1597, reads:—

' And all the rest of the revolted faction, traitors ?

The folio, and the quarto of 1598 and 1608:—

' And the rest of the revolting faction, traitors ?

3 The queen had said before, that 'some unborn sor-
row, ripe in fortune's womb, was coming toward her.'
She talks afterward of her unknown griefs 'being be-
gotten'; she calls Green 'the midwife of her woe ?' and
then means to say in the same metaphorical style, that
the arrival of Bolingbroke was the dismal offspring that
her foreboding sorrow was big of; which she expresses

Serv. An hour before I came, the duchess died.
York. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes
Comes rushing on this woeful land at once !

I know not what to do:—I would to God

(So my untruly⁴ had not provoked him to it.)

The king had cut off my head with my brother's.—

What, are there no posts despatch'd for Ireland?—

How shall we do for money for these wars?—

Come, sister,⁶—cousin, I would say: pray, pardon
me,

Go, fellow [To the Servant.] get thee home, provide
some carts,

And bring away the armour that is there.—

[Exit Servant.
Gentlemen, will you go muster men? if I know

How, or which way, to order these affairs,

Thus disorderly thrust into my hands,

Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen ;

The one's my sovereign, whom both my oath

And duty bids defend ; the other again,

Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd ;

Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right.

Well, somewhat that we must do.—Come, cousin, I'll

Dispose of you :—Gentlemen, go, muster up your
men,

And meet me presently at Berkley-castle.

I should to Plashy too;—

But time will not permit :—All is uneven,

And every thing is left at six and seven.

[Exeunt YORK and Queen.

Bushing. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ireland,
But none returns. For us to levy power,

Proportionable to the enemy,

Is all impossible.

Green. Besides, our nearness to the king in love,
Is near the hate of those love not the king.

Bagot. And that's the wavering commons: for
their love

Lies in their pures; and whoso empties them,

By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate.

Bushing. Wherein the king stands generally con-
demn'd.

Bagot. If judgment lie in them, then so do we,
Because we ever have been near the king.

Green. Well, I'll for refuge straight to Bristol
Castle;

The earl of Wiltshire is already there.

Bushing. Thither will I with you: for little office

Will the hateful commons perform for us;

Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.—

Will you go along with us?

Bagot. No; I'll to Ireland to his majesty.

Farewell: if heart's presages be not vain,
We three here part, that ne'er shall meet again.

Bushing. That's as York thrives to beat back Bo-
lingbroke.

Green. Alas, poor duke! the task he undertakes
Is—numb'ring sands, and drinking oceans dry;

Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly.
Bushing.earwell at once; for once, for all, and
ever.

Green. Well, we may meet again.

Bagot. I fear me, never.
[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The Wilds in Glostershire. Enter
BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, with
Forces.

Boling. How far is it, my lord, to Berkley now?
North. Believe me, noble lord,

I am a stranger here in Glostershire.

These high wild hills, and rough uneven ways,

by calling him her 'sorrow's dismal heir,' and explains
more fully in the following line:—

'Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy.'

4 Disloyalty, treachery.

5 Not one of York's brothers had his head cut off,
either by the king or any one else. Gloster, to whose
death he probably alludes, was smothered between two
beds at Calais.

6 This is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature.
York is talking to the queen, his cousin, but the recent
death of his sister is uppermost in his mind.

["### SCENE III.", "### KING RICHARD II.", "Draw out our miles, and make them wearisome: ", "And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,\nMaking the hard way sweet and delectable.", "But, Ibethink me, what a weary way", "From Ravensburg to Cotswold, will be found", "In Ross and Willoughby, wanting your company:", "Which, I protest, hath very much beguïl'd", "The tediousness and process of my travel:", "But theirs is sweeten'd with the hope to have", "The present benefit which I possess :", "And hope to joy,¹ is little less in joy,", "Than hope enjoy'd: by this the weary lords", "Shall make their way seem short; as mine hath done\nBy sight of what I have, your noble company.", "Boling. Of much less value is my company,", "Than your good words. But who comes here?", "#### Enter HARRY PERCY.", "North. It is my son, young Harry Percy,", "Sent from my brother Worcester, whenceseever.—\nHarry, how fares your uncle?", "Percy. I had thought, my lord, to have learn'd his\nhealth of you.", "North. Why, is he not with the queen?", "Percy. No, my good lord; he hath forsook the\ncourt,", "Broken his staff of office, and dispers'd", "The household of the king.", "North.", "What was his reason ? He was not so resolv'd, when last we spake together.", "Percy. Because your lordship was proclaimed traitor.", "But he, my lord, is gone to Ravensburg,", "To offer service to the duke of Hereford;", "And sent me o'er by Berkley, to discover", "What power the duke of York had levied there;", "Then with direction to repair to Ravensburg.", "North. Have you forgot the duke of Hereford, boy?", "Percy. No, my good lord; for that is not forgot,", "Which ne'er I did remember : to my knowledge,\nI never in my life did look on him.", "North. Then learn to know him now; this is the\nduke.", "Percy. My gracious lord, I tender you my service,\nSuch as it is, being tender, raw, and young;", "Which elder day shall ripen and confirm", "To more approved service and desert.", "Boling. I thank thee, gentle Percy; and be sure,\nI count myself in nothing else so happy,", "As in a soul remebring my good friends;", "And, as my fortune ripens with thy love,", "It shall be still thy true love's recompense.", "My heart this covenant makes, my hand thus seals it.", "North. How far is it to Berkley? And what stir", "Keeps good old York there, with his men of war ?", "Percy. There stands the castle, by yon tuft of trees,", "Mann'd with three hundred men, as I have heard :", "And in it are the lords of York, Berkley, and Sey-\nmour;", "None else of name, and noble estimate.", "#### Enter Ross and WILLOUGHBY.", "North. Here come the lords of Ross and Wil-\nloughby,", "Bloody with spurring, fiery-red with haste.", "Boling. Welcome, my lords: I wot your love pursues", "1 To joy is here used as a verb; it is equivalent with to rejoice. 'To joy, to clap hands, to rejoice.' Baret. Shakspeare very frequently uses it in this sense. 2 'Your message, you say, is to my lord of Hereford. My answer is, It is not to him, it is to the Duke of Lancaster.'", "3 'How the names of them which for capital crimes against majestie were erased out of the publicke records, tables, and registers, or forbidden to be borne by their posterity, when their memory was damned, I could show at large.'—Camden's *Remaines*, 1605, p. 136.", "4 Time of the king's absence.", "A banish'd traitor: all my treasury", "Is yet but unfelt thanks, which, more enrich'd,", "Shall be your love and labour's recompense.", "Ross. Your presence makes us rich, most noble lord.", "Willo. And far surmounts our labour to attain it.", "Boling. Evermore thanks, the exchequer of the poor;", "Which, till my infant fortune comes to years,\nStands for my bounty. But who comes here?", "#### Enter BERKLEY.", "North. It is my lord of Berkley, as I guess.", "Berk. My lord of Hereford, my message is to you", "Boling. My lord, my answer is—to Lancaster;⁴", "And I am come to seek that name in England:", "And I must find that title in your tongue,\nBefore I make reply to aught you say.", "Berk. Mistake me not, my lord; 'tis not my meaning,", "To raz e one title of your honour out :³—", "To you, my lord, I come (what lord you will),", "From the most gracious regent of this land,", "The duke of York; to know, what pricks you on", "To take advantage of the absent time,⁴", "And fright our native peace with self-born arms.", "#### Enter YORK, attended.", "Boling. I shall not need transport my words by you;", "Here comes his grace in person.—My noble uncle !", "York. Show me thy humble heart, and not thy knee,", "Whose duty is deivable and false.", "Boling. My gracious uncle !—", "York. Tut, tut!", "Grace me no grace, nor uncle me no uncle:⁵", "I am no traitor's banish'd; and that word—grace,", "In an ungracious mouth, is but profane.", "Why have those banish'd and forbidden legs", "Dar'd once to touch a dust of England's ground ?", "But then more why ?—Why have they dar'd to march", "So many miles upon her peaceful bosom;", "Frighting her pale-fac'd villages with war,", "And ostentation of despised⁶ arms?", "Com'st thou because the anointed king is hence ?", "Why, foolish boy, the king is left behind,", "And in my loyal bosom lies his power.", "As I but now the lord of such hot youth,", "As when brave Gaunt, thy father, and myself,", "Rescued the Black Prince, that young Mars of men,", "From forth the ranks of many thousand French;", "O, then, how quickly should this arm of mine,", "Now prisoner to the palsy, chastise thee,", "And minister correction to thy fault!", "Boling. My gracious uncle, let me know my fault;", "On what condition stands it, and wherein?", "York. Even in condition of the worst degree,—", "In gross rebellion, and detested treason:", "Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come,", "Before the expiration of thy time,", "In braving arms against thy sovereign.", "Boling. As I was banish'd, I was banish'd Hereford;", "But as I come, I come for Lancaster,", "5 In Romeo and Juliet we have the same kind of phraseology:—", "'Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no proudes;⁷", "6 Perhaps Shakspeare here uses despised for hated or hateful arms? Sir Thomas Hanmer changed it to despiteful, but the old copies all agree in reading despised. Shakspeare uses the word again in a singular sense in Othello, Act i. Sc. 1, where Brabantio exclaims upon the loss of his daughter:—", "'—what's to come of my despised time", "is nought but bitterness.'", "It has been suggested that 'despised' is used to denote the general contempt in which the British held the French forces. The duke of Bretagne furnished Bo-lingbroke with three thousand French soldiers.'", "### Act III.", "the duchess did", "at a time of woe", "at once!", "to God", "to him, it is", "with my brother's—", {"bbox": [1,

416

KING RICHARD II.

ACT III.

And, noble uncle, I beseech your grace,
Look on my wrongs with an indifferent¹ eye:
You are my father, for, methinks, in you
I see old Gaunt alive; O, then, my father!
Will you permit that I shall stand condemn'd.
A wand'ring vagabond; my rights and royalties
Pluck'd from my arms perforce, and given away
To upstart unthrifts? Wherefore was I born?
If that my cousin king be king of England,
It must be granted, I am duke of Lancaster.
You have a son, Aumerle, my noble kinsman;
Had you first died, and he been thus trod down,
He should have found his uncle Gaunt a father,
To rouse his wrongs,² and chase them to the bay.
I am denied to sue my livery³ here,
And yet my letters patent give me leave:
My father's goods are all distrain'd, and sold;
And these, and all, are all amiss employ'd.
What would you have me do? I am a subject,
And challenge law: Attornies are denied me;
And therefore personally I lay my claim
To my inheritance of free descent.

North. The noble duke hath been too much abus'd.

Ross. It stands your grace upon⁴ to do him right.

Willo. Base men by his endowments are made great.

York. My lords of England, let me tell you this,—
I have had feeling of my cousin's wrongs,
And labour'd all I could to do him right:
But in this kind to come, in braving arms,
Be his own carver, and cut out his way,
To find out right with wrong,—it may not be;
And you, that do abet him in this kind,
Cherish rebellion, and are rebels all.

North. The noble duke hath sworn, his coming is
But for his own: and, for the right of that,
We all have strongly sworn to give him aid;
And let him ne'er see joy, that breaks that oath.
York. Well, well, I see the issue of these arms;

I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Because my power is weak, and all ill left:
But, if I could,—by him that gave me life!—
I would attach you all, and make you stoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
But, since I cannot, be it known to you,
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well;—
Unless you please to enter in the castle,
And there repose you for this night.

Boling. An offer, uncle, that we will accept.
But we must win your grace, to go with us
To Bristol Castle; which, they say, is held
By Bushy, Bagot, and their complices,
The caterpillars of the commonwealth,
Which I have sworn to weed, and pluck away.

York. It may be, I will go with you :—but yet I'll pause;
For I am loath to break our country's laws.
Nor friends, nor foes, to me welcome you are:
Things past redress, are now with me past care.⁵

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV.⁶ A Camp in Wales. Enter SALISBURY,⁷ and a Captain.

Cap. My lord of Salisbury, we have staid ten days,

1 *Indifferent* is impartial. The instances of this use of the word among the poet's contemporaries are very numerous.

2 *Wrongs* is probably here used for *wrongers*.

3 See the former scene, p. 412, n. 7.

4 Steevens explains the phrase, 'It stands your grace upon,' to mean, 'it is your interest; it is matter of consequence to you.' But hear Baret, 'The heyre is bound; the heyre ought, or it is the heyre's part to defend; it standeth him upon; or is in his charge. In cumbit defensio mortis hæredi.' The phrase is therefore equivalent to it is incumbent upon your grace.

5 *— Things without remedy*

Should be without regard.

6 Johnson thought this scene had been by some accident transposed, and that it should stand as the second scene in the third act.

7 John Montacute, earl of Salisbury,

And hardly kept our countrymen together,
And yet we hear no tidings from the king;
Therefore we will disperse ourselves: farewell.
Sal. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welshman:

The king reposeth all his confidence

In thee.

Cap. 'Tis thought, the king is dead: we will not stay.

The bay-trees in our country are all winter'd,⁶
And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven;
The pale-fac'd moon looks bloody on the earth,
And lean-look'd prophets whisper fearful change;
Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance and leap,—
The one in fear to lose what they enjoy,
The other, to enjoy by rage and war:
These signs forerun the death or fall of kings.
Farewell; our countrymen are gone and fled,
As well assur'd, Richard their king is dead. [Exit.

Sal. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind,
I see thy glory, like a shooting star,
Fall to the base earth from the firmament!
Thy sun sets weeping in the lowly west,
Witnessing storms to come, woe, and unrest;
Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes:
And crossly to thy good all fortune goes.
[Exit.]

ACT III.

### SCENE I. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol. Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners.

Boling. Bring forth these men.—

Bushy and Green, I will not vex your souls
(Since presently your souls must part your bodies,)
With too much urging your pernicious lives,
For 'twere no charity: yet, to wash your blood
From off my hands, here, in the view of men,
I will unfold some causes of your deaths.

You have misled a prince, a royal king,
A happy gentleman in blood and lineaments,
By you unhappied and disfigur'd clean.⁹

You have, in manner, with your sinful hours,
Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him;
Broke the possession of a royal bed,¹⁰

And stain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks
With tears drawn from her eyes by your foul wrongs.

Myself—a prince, by fortune of my birth,
Near to the king in blood; and near in love,
Till you did make him misinterpret me;—

Have stoop'd my neck under your injuries,
And sigh'd my English breath in foreign clouds,
Eating the bitter bread of banishment:

Whilst you have fed upon my signories,
Dispark'd¹¹ my parks, and fell'd my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Raz'd out my impress,¹² leaving me no sign;—

⁵ This enumeration of 'prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking.' The poet received the hint from Holinshed: 'In this yeare, in a manner throughout all the realm of England, old bay trees withered, &c.' This, as it appears from T. Lupton's Syxt Books of Notable Things, bl. 4to. was esteemed a bad omen. 'Neyther falling sickness, neyther deyll, wyll infest or hurt one in that place whereas a bay tree is.' The Romaynes call it the plant of the good angel, &c.' See also Evelyn's Sylva, 4to. 1776, p. 396.

⁶ i. e. quite, completely.

¹⁰ There seems to be no authority for this. Isbel. Richard's second queen, was but nine years old at this period; his first queen, Anne, died in 1392, and he was

¹¹ To *dispark* signifies to divest a park of its name and character, by destroying the enclosures, and the vert (or whatever bears green leaves, whether wood or underwood,) and the beasts of the chase therein; laying it open.

¹² The *impress* was a device, or motto. Ferne, in his Blazon of Gentry, 1588, observes that 'the arms, &c. of traitors and rebels may be defaced and removed wheresoever they are fixed or set.' For the punishment of a base knight see Spenser's Faerie Queen, b. v. c. iii. st. 37.

["## SCENE II.", "## KING RICHARD II", "417", "Save men's opinions, and my living blood,—", "To show the world I am a gentleman,", "This, and much more, much more than twice all\nthis,", "Condemns you to the death:—See them deliver'd\nover", "To execution and the hand of death.", "Bushy. More welcome is the stroke of death to me,", "Than Bolingbroke to England.—Lords, farewell.", "Green. My comfort is,—that heaven will take our\nsouls,", "And plague injustice with the pears of hell.", "Boling. My Lord Northumberland, see them\ndespatch'd.", "[Exeunt NORTHBERLAND, and others, with\nPrisoners.", "Uncle, you say, the queen is at your house;", "For heaven's sake, fairly let her be entreated:", "Tell her, I send to her my kind commends ;¹", "Take special care my greetings be deliver'd.", "York. A gentleman of mine I have despatch'd", "With letters of your love to her at large.", "Boling. Thanks, gentle uncle.—Come, lords,\naway:", "To fight with Glendower and his complices;", "Awhile to work, and, after, holiday. [Exeunt.²", "### SCENE II. The Coast of Wales. A Castle in view. Flourish: Drums and Trumpets. Enter KING RICHARD, Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, and Soldiers.", "K. Rich. Barkloughly Castle call you² this at\nhand?", "Aum. Yea, my lord: How brooks your grace the\nair,", "After your late tossing on the breaking seas?", "K. Rich. Needs must I like it well; I weep for\njoy,", "To stand upon my kingdom once again.—", "Dear earth, I do salute thee with my hand,", "Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs:", "As a long parted mother with her child", "Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles, in meeting;", "So, weeping, smiling, greet thee, my earth,\nAnd do thee favour with my royal hands.", "Feed not thy sovereign's foe, my gentle earth,", "Nor with thy sweets comfort his ravenous sense :", "But let thy spiders, that suck up thy venom,\nAnd heavy-gaited toads, lie in their way;", "Doing annoyance to the treacherous feet,", "Which with usurping steps do trample thee.", "Yield stinging nettles to my enemyes :", "And when they from thy bosom pluck a flower,\nGuard it, I pray thee, with a lurking adder;", "Whose double tongue may with a mortal touch\nThrow death upon thy sovereign's enemies.—", "Mock not my senseless conjunction, lords;", "This earth shall have a feeling, and these stones\nArmed at thy great glory.—Look not to the ground,", "Ye favours of a king; Are we not high?", "High be our thoughts : I know, my uncle York", "Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who\nComes here?", "Shall falter under foul rebellious king", "Bishop. Fear not, my lord; that Power, that made\nyou king,", "Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all,", "The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd,", "Not neglected; else, if heaven would,", "And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse;", "The proffer'd means of succour and redress.", "Aum. He means, my lord, that we are too remiss;", "Whilst Bolingbroke, through our security,", "Grows strong and great, in substance, and in friends.", "K. Rich. Discomfortable cousin! know'st thou\nnot,", "That when the searching eye of heaven is hid", "Behind the globe, and⁴ lights the lower world,", "Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen,", "In murders, and in outrage, bloody here;", "But when, from under this terrestrial ball,", "He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,⁵", "And darts his light through every guilty hole,", "Then murders, treasons, and detested sins,", "The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs,", "Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves?", "So when this thief, this traitor, Bolingbroke,—", "Who all this while hath revell'd in the night,", "Whilst we were wand'ring with the antipodes,—", "Shall see us rising in our throne the east,", "His treasons will sit blushing in his face,", "Not able to endure the sight of day;", "But, self-affrighted, tremble at his sin.", "Not all the water in the rough rude sea", "Can wash the balm from an anointed king:", "The breath of worldly men cannot depose", "The deputy elected by the Lord :⁶", "For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd,", "To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,", "God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay", "A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,", "Weak men must fall; for heaven still guards the\nright.", "### Enter SALISBURY.", "Welcome, my lord; How far off lies your power?⁷", "Sal. Nor near, nor further off, my gracious lord,", "Than this weak arm: Discomfort guides my tongue,", "And bids me speak of nothing but despair.", "One day too late, I fear, my noble lord,", "Hath clouded all thy happy days on earth:", "O, call back yesterday, bid time return,", "And thou shall have twelve thousand fighting men!", "To-day, to-day, unhappy day, too late,", "O'erthrows thy joys, friends, fortune, and thy state;", "For all the Welshmen, hearing thou wert dead,", "Are gone to Bolingbroke, dispers'd, and fled.", "Aum. Comfort, my liege: why looks your grace\nso pale?", "K. Rich. But now, the blood of twenty thousand\nmen", "Did triumph in my face, and they are fled;", "And, till so much blood thither come again,", "Have I not reason to look pale and dead?", "All souls that will be safe, fly from my side;", "For time hath set a blot upon my pride.", "Aum. Comfort, my liege: remember who you\nare.", "K. Rich. I had forgot myself: Am I not who?", "Awake thou sluggard⁸ majesty! thou sleep'st.", "Is not the king's name forty thousand names?⁹", "Arm, arm, my name! a puny subject strikes", "At thy great glory.—Look not to the ground,", "Ye favours of a king; Are we not high?", "High be our thoughts: I know, my uncle York", "Hath power enough to serve our turn. But who\nComes here?", "### Enter SCROOP.", "Scroop. More health and happiness betide my\nliege,", "Than can my care-tun'd tongue deliver him.", "K. Rich. Mine ear is open, and my heart pre-\npar'd :¹⁰", "have been taught to think false or foolish to the reign of\nKing James I. But this doctrine was never carried further\nin any country, than in this island, while the\nhouse of Tudor sat on the throne.", "7 Force.", "8 The first quarto reads 'covard majesty.'", "9 So in King Richard III. :—", "'Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength.'", "10 'It seems to be the design of the poet to raise Rich-\nard to esteem in his fall, and consequently to interest\nthe reader in his favour. He gives him only passive\nfortitude, the virtue of a confessor, rather than of a king.", "In his prosperity we saw him imperial and oppressive;\nbut in his distress he is wise, patient, and pious.'—", "Johnson.", "1 Commendations.", {"bbox": [135,

["418", "KING RICHARD II.", "ACT III.", "The worst is worldly loss, thou canst unfold.\nSay, is my kingdom lost? why, 'twas my care!\nAnd what loss is it, to be rid of care?", "Strives Bolingbroke to be as great as we?", "Greater he shall not be; if he serve God,", "We'll serve him too, and be his fellow so:", "Revolt our subjects? that we cannot mend;", "They break their faith to God, as well as us:", "Cry woe, destruction, ruin, loss, decay:", "The worst is—death, and death will have his day.", "*Scroop.* Glad am I, that your highness is so arm'd", "To bear the tidings of calamity", "Like an unseasonable stormy day,", "Which makes the silver rivers drown their shores,", "As if the world were all dissolv'd to tears;", "So high above his limits swells the rage", "Of Bolingbroke, covering your fearful land", "With hard bright steel, and hearts harder than steel.", "White-beards have arm'd their thin and hairless scalps", "Against the majesty; and boys, with women's voices,", "Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints", "In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown:", "The very beadsmen learn to bend their bows", "Of double-fatal yew¹ against thy state;", "Yea, distaff-women manage rusty hills", "Against thy seat: both young and old rebel,", "And all goes worse than I have power to tell.", "*K. Rich.* Too well, too well, thou tell'st a tale so ill:", "Where is the earl of Wiltshire? where is Bagot ?²", "What is become of Bushy ? where is Green?", "That they have let the dangerous enemy", "Measure our confines with such peaceful steps?", "If we prevail, their heads shall pay for it.", "I warrant, they have made peace with Bolingbroke.", "*Scroop.* Peace have they made with him, indeed, my lord.", "*K. Rich.* O villains, vipers, damn'd without redemption!", "Dogs, easily won to fawn on any man!", "Snakes, in my heart-blood warm'd, that sting my heart!", "Three Judases, each one thrice worse than Judas!", "Would they make peace? terrible hell make war", "Upon their spotted souls for this offence!", "*Scroop.* Sweet love, I see, changing his property,", "Turns to the sourest and most deadly hate;—", "Again uncurse their souls; their peace is made", "With heads, and not with hands: those whom you curse,", "Have felt the worst of death's destroying wound,", "And lie full low, grav'd³ in the hollow ground.", "*Aum.* Is Bushy, Green, and the earl of Wiltshire dead?", "*Scroop.* Yea, all of them at Bristol lost their heads.", "*Aum.* Where is the duke, my father, with his power?", "*K. Rich.* No matter where; of comfort no man speak:", "Let's talk of graves, of worms, and epitaphs;", "Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyes", "Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth.", "Let's choose executors, and talk of wills:", "And yet not so,—for what can we bequeath,\nSave our deposed bodies to the ground?", "Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,", "And nothing can we call our own, but death;", "And that small model⁴ of the barren earth,", "Which serves as paste and cover to our bones.", "For heaven's sake, let us sit upon the ground,", "And tell sad stories of the death of kings:—", "How some have been depos'd, some slain in war;", "Some haunted by the ghosts they have depos'd;", "Some poison'd by their wives, some sleeping kill'd;", "All murder'd:—For within the hollow crown,", "That rounds the mortal temples of a king,", "Keeps death his court; and there the antick sits,", "Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp;", "Allowing him a breath, a little scene", "To monarchise, be fear'd, and kill with looks;", "Infusing him with self and vain conceit,", "As if this flesh, which walls about our life,", "Were brass impregnable; and humour'd thus,", "Comes at the last, and with a little pin", "Bores through his castle wall, and—farewell, king!", "Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood", "With solemn reference; throw away respect,", "Tradition,⁵ form, and ceremonious duty,", "For you have but mistook me all this while:", "I live with bread like you, feel want, taste grief,", "Need friends :—Subjected thus,", "How can you say to me—I am a king?", "*Car.* My lord, wise men ne'er wail their present woes,", "But presently prevent the ways to wail.", "To fear the foe, since fear oppreßeth strength,", "Gives, in your weakness, strength unto your foe,", "And so your follies fight against yourself.", "Fear, and be slain; no worse can come, to fight:", "And fight and die, is death destroying death;⁷", "Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.", "*Aum.* My father hath a power, inquire of him;", "And learn to make a body of a limb.", "*K. Rich.* Thou chid'st me well:—Proud Bolingbroke, I come", "To change blows with thee for our day of doom.", "This ague-fit of fear is over-blown;", "An easy task it is, to win our own.", "Say, Scroop, where lies our uncle with his power?", "Speak sweetly, man, although thy looks be sour.", "*Scroop.* Men judge by the complexion of the sky", "The state and inclination of the day:", "So may you by my dull and heavy eye,", "My tongue hath but a heavier tale to say.", "I play the torturer, by small and small,", "To lengthen out the worst that must be spoken:—", "Your uncle York hath join'd with Bolingbroke;", "And all your northern castles yielded up,", "And all your southern gentlemen in arms", "Upon his party.", "*K. Rich.* Thou hast said enough.—", "Breshrew thee, cousin, which did lead me forth", "[To AUMERLE.", "Of that sweet way I was in to despair!", "What say you now? What comfort have we now?", "By heaven, I'll hate him everlastingly,", "That bids me be of comfort anymore.⁸", "Go, to Flint Castle; there I'll pine away;", "¹ *Yew* is called *double-fatal*, because of the poisonous quality of the leaves, and on account of the wood being used for instruments of death. From some ancient statutes it appears that every Englishman, while archery was practised, was obliged to keep in his house either a bow of *yew* or some other wood. It has been supposed that *yews* were anciently planted in churchyards not only to defend the church from the wind, but on account of their use in making bows; while their poisonous quality was kept from doing mischief to the cattle, in that sacred enclosure.", "² The mention of Bagot here is a lapse of the poet or the king; but perhaps it may have been intended to mark more strongly the perturbation of the king's mind, by making him inquire at first for Bagot, whose loyalty, on further recollection, might show him the impropriety of the question.", "³ *i.e.* *buried*. The verb is not peculiar to Shakspeare,", "⁴ A *small model*, or *module*, for they were the same in Shakspeare's time, seems to mean in this place a small portion or quantity. It is a Latinism, from *模*ula, the measure or quantity of a thing?", "⁵ It is not impossible that Shakespeare borrowed this idea from that most exquisite emblematic book of engravings on wood, the Dance of Death, or Imagines Mortis, attributed to Hollein. See the seventh print.", {"bbox": [708, 1168, 98

### SCENE III.

### KING RICHARD II.

419

A king, woe's slave, shall kingly woe obey.
That power I have, discharge; and let them go
To ear¹ the land that hath some hope to grow,
For I have none:—Let no man speak again
To alter this, for counsel is but vain.

Aum. My liege, one word.

K. Rich.

He does me double wrong, that wounds me with the flatteries of his tongue.
Discharge my followers, let them hence:—Away,
From Richard's night, to Bolingbroke's fair day.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III. Wales.
A Plain before Flint Castle.
**Enter, with Drum and Colours, BOLINGBROKE and Forces; YORK, NORTHERNBERLAND, and others.**

Boling. So that by this intelligence we learn,
The Welshmen are dispers'd; and Salisbury
Is gone to meet the king, who lately landed,
With some few private friends, upon this coast.

North. The news is very fair and good, my lord;
Richard not far from hence, hath hid his head.

York. It would beseem the lord Northumberland,
To say—King Richard:—Alack the heavy day,
When such a sacred grace should hide his head!

North. Your grace mistakes me;² only to be
brief,

Left I his title out.

York.

The time hath been,

Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you

For taking so the head, your whole head's length.

Boling. Mistake not, uncle, further than you
should.

York. Take not, good cousin, further than you
should,

Lest you mis-take: The heavens are o'er your
head.

Boling. I know it, uncle; and oppose not

Yourself against their will.—But who comes here?

### Enter PERCY.

Well,³ Harry; what, not this castle yield?

Percy. The castle royalty is mann'd, my lord,
Against thy entrance.

Boling. Royally!

Why, it contains no king?

Percy.

Yes, my good lord,

It doth contain a king: King Richard lies

Within the limits of yon lime and stone:

And with him are the Lord Aumerle, Lord Salis-
bury,

Sir Stephen Scroop; besides a clergyman

Of holy reverence; who, I cannot learn.

North. Belike; it is the bishop of Carlisle.

Boling. Noble lord,

⁴ To NORTHERN.

Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle;

Through brazen trumpet send the breath of parle
Into his ruin'd ears, and thus deliver:

Harry Bolingbroke

On both his knees doth kiss King Richard's hand;

And sends allegiance, and true faith of heart,

To his most royal person; hither come

Even at his feet to lay my arms and power;

Provided that, my banishment repeal'd,

And lands restor'd again, be freely granted:

If not, I'll use the advantage of my power,

And lay the summer's dust with showers of blood,
Rain'd from the wounds of slaughter'd Englishmen:
The which, how far off from the mind of Bolingbroke
It is, such crimson tempest should bedrench

The fresh green lap of fair King Richard's land,

My stooping duty tenderly shall show.

1 To ear the land is to till it, to plough it.

2 The word *me*, which is wanting in the old copies,
was supplied by Hanmer.

3 The old copy reads, ‘Welcome, Harry: the eme-
dation is Hanmer’s.

4 Shakspeare frequently, in his addresses to persons,
beginning with an hemistich; and sometimes blends short
prosaic sentences with his metrical dialogues.

5 *Totterd*, the reading of the two first quartos, is
here probably used for *tattering*, according to the fre-
quent usage of our poet. The other copies read *tatterd*.

Go, signify as much; while here we march
Upon the grassy carpet of this plain.—

### [NORTHUMBERLAND advances to the Castle, with a Trumpet.

Let's march without the noise of threatening drum,
That from the castle's totter'd battlements
Our fair appointments may be well perused.

Methinks, King Richard and myself should meet

With no less terror than the elements

Of fire and water, when their thund'ring shock

At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.

Be he the fire, I'll be the yielding water:

The rage be his, while on the earth I rain

My waters; on the earth, and not on him.

March on, and mark King Richard how he looks.

A Parley sounded, and answered by another Trumpet within.
Flourish. Enter on the walls KING RICHARD, the Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, SCROOP, and SALISBURY.

York. See, see, King Richard doth himself appear.

As doth the blushing discontented sun

From out the fiery portal of the east;

When he perceives the envious clouds are bent

To dim his glory, and to stain the track

Of his bright passage to the occident.

Yet looks he like a king; behold, his eye,

As bright as is the eagle's, lightens forth

Controlling majesty; Alack, alack, for woe,

That any harm should stain so fair a show!

K. Rich. We are amaz'd; and thus long have we stood

To watch the fearful bending of thy knee,

### [To NORTHUMBERLAND.

Because we thought ourself the lawful king:

And if we be, how dare thy joints forget

To pay your awful duty to our presence?

If we be not, show me the hand of God

That hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship;

For well we know, no hand of blood and bone

Can gripe the sacred handle of our sceptre,

Unless he do profane, steal, or usurp.

And though you think, that all, as you have done,

Have torn their souls, by turning them from us,

And we are barren, and bereft of friends;—

Yet know,—my master, God omnipotent,

Is must'ring in his clouds, on our behalf,

Armies of pestilence; and they shall strike

Your children yet unborn, and unbegot,

That lift your vassal hands against my head,

And threat the glory of my precious crown.

Tell Bolingbroke (for yond',) methinks, he is,

That every stride he makes upon my land,

Is dangerous treason: He is come to ope

The purple testament⁵ of bleeding war;

But ere the crown he looks for live in peace,

Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons

Shall ill become the flower of England's face;

Change the complexion of her maid-pale peace

To scarlet indignation, and bedew

Her pastures' grass with faithful English blood.

North. The king of heaven forbid, our lord the
king

Should so with civil and uncivil arms

Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin,

Harry Bolingbroke, doth humbly kiss thy hand:

And by the honourable tomb he swears,

That stands upon thy royal grandsire's bones;

And by the royalties of both your bloods,

Current that spring from one most gracious head;

And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt;

And by the worth and honour of himself,

6 The six first lines of this speech are erroneously given to Bolingbroke in the old copies.

7 Shakspeare uses the word testament in its legal
sense. Bolingbroke is come to open the testament of
war, that he may peruse what is decreed there in his
favour. Purple is an epithet referring to the future
effusion of blood.

8 i.e. England's flowery face, the flowery surface of
England's soil.

["420", "KING RICHARD II.", "Act III.", "Comprising all that may be sworn or said,—", "His coming hither hath no further scope,\nThan for his linear royalties, and to beg", "Enfranchisement immediate on his knees :", "Which on the royal party granted once,", "His glittering arms he will commend¹ to rust,", "His barbed steeds to stables, and his heart", "To faithful service of your majesty.", "This swears he, as he is a prince, is just;", "And, as I am a gentleman, I credit him.", "K. Rich. Northumberland, say,—thus the king returns;", "His noble cousin is right welcome hither;", "And all the number of his fair demands", "Shall be accomplish'd without contradiction :", "With all the gracious utterance thou hast,", "Speak to his gentle hearing kind commends.—", "We do debase ourself, cousin, do we not,", "[To AUMERLE.", "To look so poorly, and to speak so fair?", "Shall we call back Northumberland, and send", "Defiance to the traitor, and so die?", "Aum. No, good my lord; let's fight with gentle words,", "Till time lend friends, and friends their helpful swords.", "K. Rich. O God! O God! that e'er this tongue of mine,", "That laid the sentence of dread banishment", "On yon proud man, should take it off again", "With words of sooth¹² O, that I were as great", "As is my grief, or lesser than my name!", "Or that I could forget what I have been!", "Or not remember what I must be now!", "Swell'st thou, proud heart? I'll give thee scope to", "beat,", "Since foes have scope to beat both thee and me.\nK. Rich. Northumberland comes back from Boling-broke.", "The king shall do it. Must he be depos'd?", "The king shall be contented : Must he lose", "The name of king? o'God's name, let it go ;", "I'll give my jewels, for a set of heads ;", "My gorgeous palace, for a hermitage ;", "My gay apparel,³ for an alms-man's gown ;", "My figur'd goblets, for a dish of wood ;", "My sceptre, for a palmer's walking-staff;", "My subjects, for a pair of carved saints ;", "And my large kingdom for a little grave,", "A little, little grave, an obscure grave :—", "Or I'll be buried in the king's highway,", "Some way of common trade,⁴ where subjects' feet", "May hourly trample on their sovereign's head :", "For on my heart they tread, now whilst I live ;", "And, buried once, why not upon my head ?", "Aumerle, thou weep'st ; My tender-hearted cousin !—", "We'll make foul weather with despised tears ;", "Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the summer corn,\nAnd make a dearth in this revolting land.", "Or shall we play the wantons with our woes,", "And make some pretty match with shedding tears :", "As thus :—To drop them still upon one place,\nTill they have fretted us a pair of graves", "1 *Commend for commit.*", "2 *Sooth is sweet, as well as true.* In this place *sooth* means *sweetness* or *softness*. Thus to *soothe* still means to calm and sweeten the mind.", "3 *Richard's expense in regard to dress was very extraordinary.* 4 *He had one coate which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 3000 marks.* —*Holinshed.*", "4 'Some way of common trade' is some way of frequent resort, a common course ; as, at present, 'a road of much traffic,' i. e. frequent resort.", "5 *A how.*", "6 *It should be remembered that the affirmative particle ay was formerly written and sounded I, which rhymed well with dié.*", "7 *Lower.*", "8 *That is the lower court of the castle ; basse cour, Fr. Thus in Cavendish's Life of Wolsey :—* 'My lord", "Within the earth; and, therein laid,—", "*Two kinsmen, digg'd their graves with weeping eyes?*", "Would not this ill do well ?—Well, well, I see", "I talk but idly, and you knock at me.—", "Most mighty prince, my Lord Northumberland,", "What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty\nGive Richard leave to live till Richard die?", "You make a leg,⁵ and Bolingbroke says—ay,⁶", "North. My lord, in the base¹⁰ court he doth attend", "To speak with you ; may't please you to come down ?\nK. Rich. Down, down, I come ; like glistering Phaeton,", "Wanting the manage of unruly jades,", "[NORTH. retires to BOLING.", "In the base court? Base court,⁶ where kings grow base,", "To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.", "In the base court? Come down ? Down, court! down, king!", "For night-owls shriek, where mounting larks should sing.", "[Exeunt from above.", "Boling. What says his majesty?", "North.", "Sorrow and grief of heart", "Makes him speak fondly,⁹ like a frantic man :", "Yet he is come.", "Enter KING RICHARD, and his Attendants, below.", "Boling. Stand all apart,", "And show fair duty to his majesty.—", "My gracious lord.—", "[Kneeling. K. Rich. Fair cousin, you debase your princely", "knee ;", "To make the base earth proud with kissing it :", "Me rather had, my heart might feel your love,\nThan my unpleas'd eye see your courtesy.", "Up, cousin, up; your heart is up, I know,", "Thus high at least [touching his own head], although\nyour knee be low.", "Boling. My gracious lord, I come but for mine own.", "K. Rich. Your own is yours, and I am yours, and all.", "Boling. So far be mine, my most redoubted lord,", "As my true service shall deserve your love.", "K. Rich. Well you deserve :—They well deserve to have,", "That know the strong'st and surest way to get.—", "Uncle, give me your hand : nay, dry your eyes;", "Tears show their love, but want their remedies.—", "Cousin, I am too young to be your father,", "Though you are old enough to be my heir", "What you will have, I'll give, and willing too ;", "For do we must, what force will have us do.—", "Set on towards London :—Cousin, is it so?", "[Flourish. Exeunt.", "### SCENE IV. Langley.\nDuke of York's Garden,\nEnter the Queen, and two Ladies.", "Queen. What sport shall we devise here in this garden,", "To drive away the heavy thought of care?", "1 *Lady. Madam, we'll play at bowls.*", "Queen.", "'Twill make me think,", "The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune", "Runs 'gainst the bias.¹¹", "1 *Lady.*", "Madam, we will dance.", "being advertised that the duke was coming, even at\nhand, he caused all his gentlemen to wait upon him\ndown through the hall into the base court.'—Edition\n1825, p. 211.", "9 *Foolishly.*", "10 'The duke, with a sharpe high vocey bade bring forth\nthe king's horses; and then two little nagges, not worth\nforty franks, were brought forth : the king was set on\none, and the earle of Salisbury on the other; and thus\nthe duke brought the king from Flint to Chester, where\nhe was delivered to the duke of Gloucester's sonne (that\nloved him but little, for

## SCENE IV.

## KING RICHARD II.

421

*Queen.* My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief;
Therefore, no dancing, girl; some other sport.

1 Lady. Madam, we'll tell tales.

*Queen.*

Of sorrow, or of joy?¹

1 Lady. Of either, madam.

*Queen.*

Of neither, girl:

For if of joy, being altogether wanting,
It doth remember me the more of sorrow;
Or if of grief, being altogether had,
It adds more sorrow to my want of joy:

For what I have, I need not to repeat;

And what I want, it boots² not to complain.³

1 Lady. Madam, I'll sing.

*Queen.*

'Tis well, that thou hast cause;

But thou shouldst⁴ please me better, wouldst thou
weep.

1 Lady. could weep, madam, would it do you good?

Queen. And I could weep,⁴ would weeping do me good?

And never borrow any tear of thee.

But stay, here come the gardeners:

Let's step into the shadow of these trees.—

*Enter a Gardener, and two Servants.*

My wretched unto a row of pins,

They'll talk of state; for every one doth so

Against a change: woe is forerun with woe.⁵

*[Queen and Ladies retire.]*

*Gard.* Go, bind thou up yon dangling apricots,
Which, like unruly children, make their ire
Stoop with oppression of their prodigal weight:

Give some supportance to the bending twigs.—

Go thou, and, like an executioner,

Cut off the heads of too fast growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth:
All must be even in our government.—

You thus employ'd, I will go root away.

The noisome weeds, that without profit suck

The soil's fertility from wholesome flowers.

1 *Serv.* Why should we, in the compass of a pale,
Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm estate?

When our sea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her fairest flowers chok'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots⁶ disorder'd, and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?

*Gard.* Hold thy peace:—

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring,

Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:

The weeds, that his broad-spreading leaves did
shelter,

That seem'd in eating him to hold him up,
Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;

I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.

1 *Serv.* What, are they dead?

*Gard.*

They are; and Bolingbroke

That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land,
As we this garden! We⁷ at time of year
Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit trees;⁸

Lest, being over-proud with sap and blood,

With too much riches it confound itself;

Had he done so to great and growing men,

They might have liv'd to bear, and he to taste

Their fruits of duty. All superfluous branches

We loep away, that bearing boughs may live:

Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,

Which waste of idle hours hath quite thrown down.

¹ All the old copies read ‘of sorrow or of grief.’ Pope made the necessary alteration.

² Proofs.

³ The old copies read ‘and I could sing.’ The emendation is Pope's.

⁴ The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognostication, supposes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of sorrow when any great disaster is impending.

⁵ *Koate* are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently intersect each other in the old fashion of gardening.

⁷ *We* is not in the old copy. It was added by Malone,

1 *Serv.* What, think you then, the king shall be
depos'd?

*Gard.* Depress'd he is already; and depos'd,

“Tis doubt,⁶ he will be: Letters came last night
To a dear friend of the good duke of York's,
That tell black tidings.

*Queen.*

O, I am press'd to death,
Through want of speaking!—Thou, old Adam's
likeness,

*[Coming from her concealment. Set to dress this garden, how dares]*

Thy harsh rude tongue sounds this unpleasing news?

What Eve, what serpent hath suggested thee
To make a second fall of cursed man?

Why dost thou say, King Richard is depos'd?

Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth,
Divine his downfall? Say, where, when, and how,
Cam'st thou by these ill tidings? speak, thou wretch.

*Gard.* Pardon me, madam: little joy have I,
To breathe this news; yet, what I say is true.

King Richard, he is in the mighty hold
Of Bolingbroke: their fortunes both are weigh'd:

In your lord's scale is nothing but himself,
And some few vanities that make him light;

But in the balance of great Bolingbroke,

Besides himself, are all the English peers,
And with that odds he weighs King Richard down.

Post you to London, and you'll find it so;

I speak no more than every one doth know.

*Queen.* Nimble mischeance, that art so light of foot,
Doth not my embassade belong to me,
And am I last that knows it? O, thou think'st
To serve me last, that I may longest keep

Thy sorrow in my breast.—Come, ladies, go,

To meet at London London's king in woe.—

What, was I born to this! that my sad look

Should grace the triumph of great Bolingbroke?—

Gardener, for telling me this news of woe,
I would, the plants thou graft'st, may never grow.

*[Exeunt Queen and Ladies. Gard. Poor queen! so that thy state might be no worse.]*

I would, my skill were subject to thy curse.—

Here did she drop⁹ a tear; here, in this place,

I'll set a bank of rue, sour herb of grace:

Rue, even for ruth, here shortly shall be seen,

In the remembrance of a weeping queen. [Exeunt

## ACT IV.

### SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall.¹⁰

*The Lords spiritual on the right side of the Throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below.*

*Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY,¹¹ NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with BAGOT.*

*Boling. Call forth Bagot:—*

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind;

What thou dost know of noble Gloster's death;

Who brought it with the king, and who perform'd

The bloody office of his timeless¹² end.

Bago't. Then set before my face the Lord Aumerle.

*Boling.* Cousin, stand forth, and look upon that man.

*Bagot.* My Lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue

8 This uncommon phraseology has already occurred in the present play:—

¹ He is our cousin, cousin; but 'tis doubt

When time shall call him home,' &c.

9 The quarto of 1597 reads *fall*. The quarto of 1598 and the folio read *drop*.

10 The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of depositing him.

11 Thomas Holland, earl of Kent, brother to John Holland, earl of Exeter, was created Duke of Surrey in 1597. He was half brother to the king, by his mother Joan, who married Edward the Black Prince after the death of her second husband Thomas Lord Holland.

12 i. e. untimely.

KING RICHARD II.

ACT IV.

422

Scorns to unsay what once it hath deliver'd.
In that dead time when Gloster's death was plotted,
I heard you say,—Is not my arm of length,
That reacheth from the restful English court
As far as Calais, to my uncle's head?
Amongst much other talk, that very time,
I heard you say, that you had rather refuse
The offer of a hundred thousand crowns,
Than Bolingbroke's return to England;
Adding withal, how blest this land would be,
In this your cousin's death.

Aum.
Princes, and noble lords,
What answer shall I make to this base man?
Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars,
On equal terms to give him chastisement?
Either I must, or have mine honour soil'd
With the attainder of his sland'rous lips.
—
There is my gage, the manual seal of death,
That marks thee out for hell; I say, thou liest,
And will maintain, what thou hast said, is false,
In thy heart-blood, though being all too base,
To stain the temper of my knightly sword.

Boling.
Bagot, forbear, thou shall not take it up.

Aum. Excepting one, I would he were the best
In all this presence, that hath mov'd me so.

Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies,²
There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:
By that fair sun that shows me where thou stand'st,
I heard thee say, and vauntingly thou spak'st it,
That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death.
If thou deny'st it, twenty times thou liest;
And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,
Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.

Aum. Thou dar'st not, coward, live to see that
day.

Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour.

Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this.

Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true,
In this appeal, as thou art all unjust:
And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage,
To prove it on thee to the extremest point
Of mortal breathing; seize it, if thou dar'st.

Aum. And if I do not, may my hands rot off,

And never brandish more revengeful steel
Over the glittering helmet of my foe!

Lord. I task the earth to the like, forsworn
Aumerle;

And spur thee on with full as many lies
As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear
From sun to sun:³ there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw
at all:

I have a thousand spirits in one breast,⁴

To answer twenty thousand such as you.

Surrey. My Lord Fitzwater, I do remember well
The very time Aumerle and you did talk.

Fitz. 'Tis very true: you were in presence then;

And you can witness with me, this is true.

Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself
is true.

Fitz. Aum, thou liest.

Surrey. Dismourable boy!

That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword,

1 The birth is supposed to be influenced by stars; therefore the poet, with his allowed licence, takes stars for birth. We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hist. that the vulgar error assigned the brightest and fairest stars to the rich and great:—'Sidera singulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus,' &c. lib. i. c. viii.

2 This is a translated sense much harsher than that of stars, explained in the preceding note. Fitzwater throws down his gage as a pledge of battle, and tells Aumerle that if he stands upon sympathies, that is upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incipient at once to two subjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature; and hence the poet transferred the term to equality of blood.

3 i. e. from sunrise to sunset.

4 'A thousand hearts are great within my bosom.'

King Richard III.

5 I dare meet him where no help can be had by me
against him

That it shall render vengeance and revenge
Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie, do lie
In earth as quiet as thy father's scull.
In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn;
Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'st.

Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse!
If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live,
I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,⁵
And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies,
And lies, and lies: there is my bond of faith,
To tie the rich to thy strong correction.—
As I intend to thrive in this new world,⁶
Aumerle is guilty of my true appeal:
Besides, I heard the banish'd Norfolk say,
That thou, Aumerle, didst send two of thy men
To execute the noble duke at Calais.

Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a
gage,
That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this,⁷
If he may be repeal'd to try his honour.

Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage,
Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be,
And, though mine enemy, restor'd again.
To all his land and signories; when he's return'd,
Against Aumerle we will enforce his trial.

Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.—
Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought
For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field
Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross,
Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens:
And, toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself
To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave
His body to that pleasant country's earth,
And his pure soul unto his captain Christ,
Under whose colours he had fought so long.

Boling. Why, bishop, is Norfolk dead?

Car. As sure as I live, my lord.

Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom

Of good old Abraham!—Lords appellants,
Your differences shall all rest under gage,
Till we assign you to your days of trial.

Enter YORK, attended.

York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee
From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul
Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields
To the possession of thy royal hand:
Ascend his throne, descending now from him,—
And long live Henry, of that name the fourth!

Boling. In God's name, I'll ascend the regal
throne.⁹

Car. Marry, God forbid!—

Worst in this royal presence, may I speak;
Yet best beseeching me to speak the truth.

'Would God that any in this noble presence
Were enough noble; then to be upright judge

Of noble Richard; then give nobleless¹⁰ would
Learn him forbearance from so foul a wrong.

What subject can give sentence on his king?
And who sits here, that is not Richard's subject?

Thieves are not judg'd, but they are by to hear,
Although apparent guilt be seen in them:

And shall the figure of God's majesty,¹¹

6 i. e. in this world, where I have just begun to be an
actor. Surrey has just called him boy.

7 Holinshed says that on this occasion he threw down
a hood that he had borrowed.
8 This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's
death did not take place till after Richard's murder.

9 Hume gives the words that Henry actually spoke
on this occasion, which he copied from Knyghton, and
accompanies them by a very ingenious commentary—
*Hist. of Eng.* 4to ed. vol. ix. p. 50.

10 i. e. nobility, a word now obsolete, but common
in Shakespeare's time.

11 This speech, which contains in the most expres-
sive terms the doctrine of passive obedience, is founded
upon Holinshed's account. The sentiments would not
in the reign of Elizabeth or James have been regarded
as novel or unconstitutional. It is observable that
usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of divinity
right as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacred-
ness of their persons, and the sanctity of their charac-

### SCENE I.

### KING RICHARD II.

His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, croned, planted many years,
Be judg'd by subject and inferior breath,
And he himself not present? O, forbid¹ it, God,
That, in a Christian climate, souls refin'd
Should show his heinous, black, obscene a deed !
I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks,
Stirr'd up by heaven, thus boldly for his king.
My lord of Hereford here, whom you call king,
Is a foul traitor to proud Hereford's king:
And if you crown him, let me prophesy,
The blood of English shall manure the ground,
And future ages groan for this foul act:
Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels,
And, in this seat of peace, tumultuous wars
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound:
Shall kin with kin, and kind with kind confound:
Disorder, horror, fear, and mutiny
Shall here inhabit, and this land be call'd
The field of Golgotha, and dead men's sculls.
O, if you rear² this house against this house,
It will the wofullest division prove,
That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child's child's children³ cry against you—woe!
North. Well have you argu'd, sir; and, for your
pains,

That ever fell upon this cursed earth:
Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,
Lest child's child's children³ cry against you—woe!
North. Well have you argu'd, sir; and, for your
pains,
Of capital treason for your arrest you here:—
My lord of Westminster, be it your charge
To keep him safely till his day of trial.—
May't please you, lords, to grant the commons' suit.⁴

Boling. Fetch hither Richard, that in common view
He may surrender; so we shall proceed
Without suspicion.

York. I will be his conduct.⁵ [Exit].

Boling. Lords, you that are here under our arrest, and little look'd for at your helping hands.

Procure our sureties for your days of answer:—
Little are we beholden to your love, [To CAR.
And little look'd for at your helping hands.

Re-enter YORK, with KING RICHARD, and Officers
bearing the Crown, &c.

K. Rich. Alack, why am I sent for to a king,
Before I have shook off the regal thoughts
Whereafter I reign'd? I hardly yet have learn'd
To insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend my knee:—⁶
Give sorrow leave a while to tutor me
To this submission. Yet I well remember
The favours' of these men: Were they not mine?
Did they not sometime cry, all hail! to me?
So Judas did to Christ: but he, in twelve,
Found truth in all but one; I, in twelve thousand,
none.

God save the king!—Will no man say, amen?

Am I both priest and clerk? well then, amen.
God save the king! although I be not he:

And yet, amen, if heaven do think him me. —

To do what service am I sent for hither?

York. To do that office, of thine own good will,
Which tired majesty did make thee offer,—
The resignation of thy state and crown
To Henry Bolingbroke.

K. Rich. Give me the crown;—Here, cousin,
seize the crown;
On this side, my hand; and on that side, yours.
Now is this golden crown like a deep well,

ter. Even that 'cut—purse of the empire,' Claudius, in
Hamlet, affects to believe that—
'—such divinity doth hedge a king.'

1. The quarto reads *forfend*.

2. The quarto reads *raise*.

3. i. e. grandchildren. Pope altered it to 'children's children,' and was followed by others. The old copies read, 'Lest child, chilfs children.'

4. What follows, almost to the end of the act, is not found in the first two quarto's. The addition was made in the quarto of 1608. In the quarto, 1597, after the words 'his day of trial,' the scene thus closes:—
' Bol. Let it be so: and lo! on Wednesday next

We solemnly proclaim our coronation.

Lords, be ready all.

That owes⁹ two buckets filling one another;

The emptier ever dancing in the air,

The other down, unseen, and full of water :

That bucket down, and full of tears am I,

Drinking my griefs, whilst you mount up on high.

Boling. I thought, you had been willing to resign.

K. Rich. My crown, I am; but still my griefs
are mine:

You may my glories and my state depose,

But not my griefs; still am I king of those.

Boling. Part of your cares you give me with your
crown.

K. Rich. Your cares set up, do not pluck my
cares down.

My care is—loss of care, by old care done;⁹

Your care is—gain of care, by new care won:

The cares I give, I have, though given away;

They tend¹⁰ the crown, yet still with me they stay,

Boling. Are you contented to resign the crown?

K. Rich. Ay, no; —no, ay; —for I must nothing be;

Therefore no no, for I resign to thee.

Now mark me how I will undo myself:—

I give this heavy weight from off my head,

And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand,

The pride of kingly sway from out my heart;

With mine own tears I wash away my balm,¹¹

With mine own hands I give away my crown,

With mine own tongue deny my sacred state,

With mine own breath release all duteous oaths:¹²

All pomp and majesty I do forswear;

My manors, rents, revenues, I forego;

My acts, decrees, and statutes, I deny:

God pardon all oaths, that are broke to me!

God keep all vows unbroke, are made¹³ to thee!

Make me, that nothing have, with nothing griev'd;

And thou with all pleas'd, that hast all achiev'd!

Long mayst thou live in Richard's seat to sit,

And soon lie Richard in an earthly pit!

God save King Henry, unking'd Richard says,

And send him many days of sunshine days!—

What more remains?

North. No more, but that you read

[Offering a Paper.

These accusations, and these grievous crimes,

Committed by your person, and your followers,

Against the state and profit of this land;

That, by confessing them, the souls of men
May deem that you are worthily depos'd.

K. Rich. Must I do so? and must I ravel out

My weav'd up follies? Gentle Northumberland,

If thy offences were upon record,

Would it not shame thee in so fair a troop,

To read a lecture of them? If thou would'st,¹⁴

There should'st thou find one heinous article,—

Containing the deposing of a king,

And cracking the strong warrant of an oath,—

Mark'd with a blot, damn'd in the book of heaven:—

Nay, all of you, that stand and look upon me,

Whilst that my wretchedness doth bait myself;

Though some of you, with Pilate, wash your hands,

Showing an outward pity; yet you Pilates

Have you delivered me to my sour cross,

And water cannot wash away your sin.

North. My lord, despatch; read o'er these articles.

K. Rich. Mine eyes are full of tears, I cannot
see:

And yet salt water blinds them not so much,

5. i. e. conductor.

6. The quarto reads *limbs*.

7. Countenances, features. 8 O owns.

9. Shakspeare often obscures his meaning by playing with sounds. Richard seems to say here that 'his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares?—' his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of care to which he had been accustomed.'

10. Attend. 11 Oil of consecration.

12. The first quarto reads *duty's rites*.

13. Thus the folio. The quarto reads *that speak*.

14. That is, if thou would'st read over a list of thy own deeds.

KING RICHARD II.

424

ACT V.

But they can see a sort¹ of traitors here.
Nay, if I turn mine eyes upon myself,
I find myself a traitor with the rest:
For I have given here my soul's consent,
To undec the pompous body of a king;
Make glory base; and sovereignty, a slave;
Proud majesty, a subject; state; a peasant.

North. My lord,—

K. Rich. No lord of thine, thou haught,² insulting man,

Nor no man's lord; I have no name, no title,—
No, not that name was given me at the font,—
But 'tis usurp'd:—Alack the heavy day,
That I have worn so many winters out,
And know not now what name to call myself!

O, that I were a mockery king of snow,
Standing before the sun of Bolingbroke,
To melt myself away in water-drops!—

Good king,—great king,—(and yet not greatly
good.)

An if my word be sterling yet in England,
Let it command a mirror hither straight;
That it may show me what a face I have,
Since it is bankrupt of his³ majesty.

Boling. Go some of you, and fetch a looking-glass.

North. Read o'er this paper, while the glass doth come.

K. Rich. Friend! thou torment'st me ere I come to hell.

Boling. Urge it no more, my Lord Northumberland.

North. The commons will not then be satisfied.

K. Rich. They shall be satisfied: I'll read enough, When I do see the very book indeed Where all my sins are writ, and that's—myself.

Re-enter Attendant, with a Glass.

Give me that glass, and therein will I read.—
No deeper wrinkles yet? Hath sorrow struck
So many blows upon this face of mine,
And made no deeper wounds?—O, flattering glass,
Like to my followers in prosperity,
Thou dost beguile me! Was this face the face,
That every day under his household roof
Did keep ten thousand men?² Was this the face,
That, like the sun, did make beholders wink:³
Was this the face, that fac'd so many follies,
And was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke?

A brittle glory shineth in this face :
As brittle as the glory is the face;

[Dashes the Glass against the ground.

For there it is, crack'd in a hundred shivers.—
Mark, silent king, the moral of this sport,—
How soon my sorrow hath destroy'd my face.

Boling. The shadow of your sorrow hath destroyed it.

The shadow of your face.

K. Rich. Say that again.

The shadow of my sorrow? Ha! let's see:—
'Tis very true, my grief lies all within;⁶

And these external manners of lament

Are merely shadows to the unseen grief,

That smells with silence in the torturd soul;

There lies the substance: and I thank thee, king,
For thy great bounty, that not only giv'st

Me cause to wail, but teachest me the way

How to lament the cause. I'll beg one boon,

1 A *sort* is a *set* or *company*.

2 i. e. haughty.

3 *His for its.* It was common in the poet's time to use the personal for the neutral pronoun.

4 'To his household came every day to meate ten thousand men.'—*Chronicle History*.

5 The quarto omits this line and the four preceding words.

6 'But I have that within which passeth show.'

These but the trappings and the suits of woe.'—
*Hamlet*.

7 To convey was formerly often used in an ill sense. Pistol says of stealing, 'convey the wise it call; 'and 'to convey' is the word for slight of hand or juggling. Richard means that it is a term of contempt, 'jugglers are you all,'

And then be gone, and trouble you no more.
Shall I obtain it?

Boling. Name it, fair cousin.

K. Rich. Fair cousin! I am greater than a king:
For, when I was a king, my flatterers

Were then but subjects: being now a subject,
I have a king here to my flatterer.

Being so great, I have no need to beg.

Boling. Yet ask.

K. Rich. And shall I have?

Boling. You shall.

K. Rich. Then give me leave to go.

Boling. Whither?

K. Rich. Whither you will, so I were from your sights.

Boling. Go, some of you, convey him to the Tower.

K. Rich. O, good! Convey?—Conveyers⁷ are you all,

That rise thus nimbly by a true king's fall.⁸

[Exeunt K. Rich. some Lords, and a Guard.

Boling. On Wednesday next we solemnly set down

Our coronation: lords, prepare yourselves.

[Exeunt all but the Abbot, Bishop of Carlisle, and AUMERLE.

Abbot. A wotful pageant have we here beheld.

Car. The woe's to come: the children yet un-born

Shall feel this day as sharp to them as thorn.

Aum. You holy clergymen, is there no plot

To rid the realm of this pernicious blot?

Abbot. Before I freely speak my mind herein,

You shall not only take the sacrament

To bury mine intents, but also to effect

Whatever I shall happen to devise :—

I see your brows are full of discontent,

Your hearts of sorrow, and your eyes of tears;

Come home with me to supper; I will lay

A plot, shall show us all a merry day.

[Exeunt.]

## ACT V.

### SCENE I. London. A Street leading to the Tower.
Enter Queen, and Ladies.

Queen. This way the king will come; this is the way

To Julius Caesar's ill-erected tower,⁹

To whose flint bosom my condemned lord

Is doom'd a prisoner, by proud Bolingbroke:

Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth

Have any rest for her true king's queen.

Enter KING RICHARD, and Guards.

But soft, but see, or rather do not see,

My fair rose wether: Yet look up; behold;

That you in pity may dissolve to dew,

And wash him fresh again with true-love tears.

Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand;

Thou map¹⁰ of honour; thou King Richard's tomb,

And not King Richard; thou most beauteous inn,¹¹

Why should hard-favour'd grief be lodg'd in thee,

When triumph is become an ale-house guest?

K. Rich. Join not with grief, fair woman, do not so,

To make my end too sudden: learn, good soul

To think our former state a happy dream;

From which awak'd, the truth of what we are

Shows us but this; I am sworn brother,¹² sweet,

⁸ This is the last of the additional lines first printed in the quarto of 1608. In the first editions there is no personal appearance of King Richard.

⁹ By ill-erected is probably meant *erected for evil purposes*.

¹⁰ Model ancient signified, according to the dictionsries, 'the platform or form of any thing.' And map is used for picture resemblance. In the Rape of Lucrece Shakspeare calls sleep 'the map of death.'

¹¹ *Inn* does not probably here mean a house of public entertainment, but a *dwelling* or *lodging* generally. In which sense the word was anciently used.

¹² *Sworn brother* alludes to the *fratres jurati*, who, in the age of adventure, bound themselves by mutual oaths to share fortunes together.

## SCENE II.

## KING RICHARD II.

To grim necessity; and he and I

Will keep a league till death. Hie thee to France,
And cloister there in some religious house:

Our holy lives must win a new world's crown,
Which our profane hours here have stricken down.

Queen. What, is my Richard both in shape and
mind

Transform'd and weakened ? Hath Bolingbroke
Depos'd thine intellect ? hath he been in thy heart?

The lion, dying, thrusteth forth his paw,
And wounds the earth, if nothing else, with rage

To be o'erpower'd; and with power, pupil-like,

Take thy correction mildly ? kiss the rod,

And fawn on rage with base humility,

Which art a lion, and a king of beasts ?

K. Rich. A king of beasts, indeed: if aught but
beasts,

I had been still a happy king of men.

Good sometime queen, prepare thee hence for
France:

Think, I am dead; and that even here thou tak'st,
As from my death-bed, my last living leave.

In winter's tedious nights, sit by the fire
With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales

Of woful ages, long ago betid :¹

And, ere thou bid good night, to quit² their grief,
Tell them the lamentable fall³ of me,
And send the hearers weeping to their beds.

For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
The heavy accent of thy moving tongue,

And, in compassion, weep the fire out :

And some will mourn in ashes, some coal-black,
For the depositing of a rightful king.

### Enter NORTHERNBERLAND, attended.

North. My lord, the mind of Bolingbroke is
chang'd;

You must to Pomfret, not unto the Tower.—

And, madam, there is order ta'en for you:⁴

With all my speed you must away to France.

K. Rich. Northumberland, thou ladder where-
withal

The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne,—

The time shall not be many hours of age

More than it is, ere foul sin, gathering head,

Shall break into corruption: thou shall think,

Though he divide the realm, and give thee half,

It is too little, helping me to all;

And he shall think, that thou, which know'st the
way

To plant unrightful kings, wilt know again,

Being ne'er so little urg'd, another way

To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne.

The love of wicked friends converts to fear ;

That fear, to hate; and hate turns one, or both,

To worthy danger, and deserved death.

North. My guilt be on my head, and there an
end.

Take leave and part; for you must part forthwith.

K. Rich. Doubly divorced?—Bad men, ye violate

A twofold marriage: 'twixt my crown and me;

And then, betwixt me and my married wife.—

Let me unkiss the oath 'twixt thee and me;

And yet not so, for with a kiss 'twas made.⁵

Part us, Northumberland: I towards the north,

Where shivering cold and sickness pines the clime;

My wife to France; from whence, set forth in
pomp,

She came adorned hither like sweet May,

Sent back like Hollowam,⁶ or short'st of day.

Queen. And must we be divided ? must we part?

K. Rich. Ay, hand from hand, my love, and
heart from heart.

Queen. Banish us both, and send the king with me,

North. 'That were some love, but little policy.

Queen. Then whither he goes, thither let me go?

K. Rich. So two, together weeping, make one
woe.

Weep thou for me in France, I for thee here;

Better far off, than—near, be ne'er the near.⁸

Go, count thy way with sighs; I, mine with groans.

Queen. So longest way shall have the longest
moans.

K. Rich. Twice for one step I'll groan, the way
being short,

And piece the way out with a heavy heart.

Come, come, in wooing sorrow let's be brief,

Since, wedding it, there is such length in grief.

One kiss shall stop our mouths, and dumbly part :

Thus give I mine, and thus I take thy heart.

Queen. Give me mine own again; 'twere no good
part,

To take on me to keep, and kill thy heart.⁹

So now I have mine own again, begone,

That I may strive to kill it with a groan.

K. Rich. We make woe wanton with this fond
delay :

Once more, adieu; the rest let sorrow say. [Exeunt.

### SCENE II. The same. A Room in the Duke of York's Palace. Enter YORK, and his Duchess.¹⁰

Duch. My lord, you told me, you would tell the
rest,

When weeping made you break the story off

Of our two cousins coming into London.

York. Where did I leave?

Duch.

At that sad stop, my lord,
Where rude misgov'n'd hands, from windows' tops,

Threw dust and rubbish on King Richard's head.

York. Then, as I said, the duke, great Boling-
broke,—

Mounted upon a hot and fiery steed,

Which his aspiring rider seem'd to know,—

With slow, but stately pace, kept on his course,

While all tongues cried—God save thee, Boling-
broke!

You would have thought the very windows spake,

So many greedy looks of young and old

Through casements darted their desiring eyes

Upon his visage; and that all the walls,

With painted imag'ry, had said at once,—

Jesus preserve thee! welcome, Bolingbroke!

Whilst he, from one side to the other turning,

Bare-headed, lower than his proud steed's neck,

Bespake them thus,—I thank you, countrymen:

And thus still doing, thus he pass'd along.

Duch. Alas, poor Richard! where rides he the
while?

York. As in a theatre, the eyes of men,¹¹

After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage,

Are idly bent on him that enters next,

Thinking his prattle to be tedious:

Even so, or with much more contempt, men's eyes

Did scowl on Richard; no man cried, God save him ;

1 Passed.

2 To repute their mournful stories.

3 The quartos of 1597 reads tale.

4 Thus in Othello: 'Honest Iago hath ta'en order for it.'

5 A kiss appears to have been an established circumstance in our ancient marriage ceremonies.

6 All Hallows, i. e. All Saints, Nov. 1.

7 The quartos give this speech to the king.

8 Never the higher, i. e. 'it is better to be at a great distance than being near each other, to find that we are yet not likely to be peaceably and happily united.'

9 So in King Henry V Act ii. Sc. 2:—
'—the king hath kill'd his heart.'

10 The first wife of Edward duke of York was Isabel, a daughter of Peter the Cruel, king of Castile and Leon. He married her in 1372, and had by her the duke of Aumerle, and all his other children. In introducing her the poet has departed widely from history: for she died in 1394, four or five years before the events related in the present play. After her death York married Joan, daughter of John Holland, earl of Kent, who survived him about thirty-four years, and had three other husbands.

11 'The painting of this description is so lively, and the words so moving, that I have scarce read any thing comparable to it in any other language.'—Dryden; Pref. to Troilus and Cressida.

54

426

KING RICHARD II.

ACT V.

No joyful tongue gave him his welcome home:
But dust was thrown upon his sacred head;
Which with such gentle sorrow he shook off,—
His face still combating with tears and smiles,
The badges of his grief and patience,—
That had not God, for some strong purpose, steel'd
The hearts of men, they must perforce have melted,
And barbarism itself have pitied him.
But heaven hath a hand in these events;
To whose high will we bound our calm contents.
To Bolingbroke are we sworn subjects now,
Whose state and honour I for aye allow.

*Enter AUMERLE.*

*Duch. Here comes my son Aumerle.*

*York.* Aumerle that was;

But that is lost, for being Richard's friend;
And, madam, you must call him Rutland¹ now:
I am in parliament pledge for his truth,
And lasting fealty to the new-made king.

*Duch. Welcome, my son: Who are the violets now,*

That strew the green lap of the new-come spring?²
*Aum. Madam, I know not, nor I greatly care not;

God knows, I had as lief be none as one.

*York. Well, bear you well in this new spring of time,*

Lest you be cropp'd before you come to prime.

What news from Oxford? hold those justs and triumphs?

*Aum. For aught I know, my lord, they do.*

*York. You will be there, I know.*

*Aum. If God prevent it not; I purpose so.*

*York. What seal is that, that hangs without thy bosom?³*

Yea, look'st thou pale? let me see the writing.

*Aum. My lord, 'tis nothing.*

*York. No matter then who sees it; I will be satisfied, let me see the writing.*

*Aum. I do beseech your grace to pardon me;*

It is a matter of small consequence,

Which for some reasons I would not have seen.

*York. Which for some reasons, sir, I mean to see.*

I fear, I fear,— What should you fear?
*York. 'Tis nothing but some bond that he is enter'd into For gay apparel, 'gainst the triumph day.

*York. Bound to himself? what doth he with a bond That he is bound to? Wife, thou art a fool.—*

Boy, let me see the writing.

*Aum. I do beseech you, pardon me; I may not show it.*

*York. I will be satisfied; let me see it, I say.*

*[Snatches it, and reads.]*

Treason! foul treason!—villain! traitor! slave!¹

*Duch. What is the matter, my lord?*

*York. Ho! who is within there? [Enter a Servant.] Saddle my horse.*

God for his mercy! what treachery is here!

*Duch. Why, what is it, my lord?*

*York. Give me my boots, I say; saddle my horse:—*

Now by mine honour, by my life, my troth,

I will appeach the villain. [Exit Servant.]

*Duch. What's the matter?*

*York. Peace, foolish woman.*

*Duch. I will not peace:—What is the matter, son?*

*Aum. Good mother, be content; it is no more Than my poor life must answer.*

*Duch. Thy life answer?*

*Re-enter Servant, with Boots.*

*York. Bring me my boots, I will unto the king.*

1. 'The dukes of Aumerle, Surrey, and Exeter were deprived of their dukedoms by an act of Henry's first parliament, but were allowed to retain the earldoms of Rutland, Kent, and Huntingdon.'—Holinshed.

2. So in Milton's Song on May Morning:—

*— who from her green lap throws The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose.*

3. The seals of deeds were formerly impressed on slips or labels of parchment appellation to them.

*Duch. Strike him, Aumerle.—Poor boy, thou art amaz'd:*

Hence, villain; never more come in my sight.—

[To the Servant]

*York. Give me my boots, I say.*

*Duch. Why, York, what wilt thou do?*

Wilt thou not hide the trespass of thine own?

Have we more sons? or are we like to have?

Is not my teeming date drunk up with time?

And wilt thou pluck my fair son from mine age,
And rob me of a happy mother's name?

Is he not like thee? is he not thine own?

*York. What would mad woman,*

Wilt thou conceal this dark conspiracy?

A dozen of them here have ta'en the sacrament,

And interchangeably set down their hands,
To kill the king at Oxford.

*Duch. He shall be none; We'll keep him here: Then what is that to him?*

*York. Away,*

Fond woman! were he twenty times my son,
I would affeek him.

*Duch. Hadst thou groan'd for him,*

As I have done, thou'dst be more pitiful.

But now I know thy mind; thou dost suspect,

That I have been disloyal to thy bed,

And that he is a bastard, not thy son:

Sweet York, sweet husband, be not of that mind:

He is as like thee as a man may be,

Not like to me, or any of my kin,

And yet I love him.

*York. Make way, unruly woman.*

*Duch. After, Aumerle; mount thee upon his horse;*

Spur, post; and get before him to the king,

And beg thy pardon ere he do accuse thee.

I'll not be long behind; though I be old,
I doubt not but to ride as fast as York:

And never will I rise up from the ground,

Till Bolingbroke have pardon'd thee: Away;

Begone.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III. Windsor. A Room in the Castle.
*Enter BOLINGBROKE as King; PERCY, and other Lords.*

*Boling. Can no man tell of my unthrifty son?*

'Tis full three months since I did see him last:—

If any plague hang over us, 'tis he.

I would to God, my lords, he might be found:

Inquire at London, 'mongst the taverners there,

For there, they say, he daily doth frequent,

With unrestrained loose companions;

Even such, they say, as stand in narrow lanes,

And beat our watch, and rob our passengers;

While he, young, wanton, and effeminate boy,

Takes on the point of honour, to support

So dissolute a crew.⁴

*Percy. My lord, some two days since I saw the prince;*

And told him of these triumphs held at Oxford.

*Boling. And what said the gallant?*

*Percy. His answer was,—he would unto the stews;*

And from the commonest creature pluck a glove,

And wear it as a favour; and with that

He would unhorse the lustiest challenger.

*Boling. As dissolute, as desperate: yet, through both

I see some sparkles⁵ of a better hope,

Which elder days may happily bring forth.

But who comes here?

*Enter AUMERLE, hastily.*

*Aum. Where is the king?*

4. This is a very proper introduction to the future character of King Henry V. to his debaucheries in his youth, and his greatness in his manhood, as the poet has described them. But it has been ably contended by Mr. Luders that the whole story of his dissipation was a fiction. At this period (i. e. 1400) he was but twelve years old, being born in 1388.

5. The folio reads *sparks*.

["### SCENE III.", "### KING RICHARD II.", "427", "**Boling.** What means", "Our cousin, that he stares and looks so wildly ?", "**Aum.** God save your grace. I do beseech your majesty,", "To have some conference with your grace alone.", "**Boling.** Withdraw yourselves, and leave us here alone.—", "[Ezeunt PERCY and Lords.", "What is the matter with our cousin now?", "**Aum.** For ever may my knees grow to the earth,", "[Kneels.", "My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth,\nUnless a pardon, ere I rise, or speak.", "**Boling.** Intended, or committed, was this fault ?", "If but¹ the first, how heinous e'er it be,", "To win thy after-love, I pardon thee.", "**Aum.** Then give me leave that I may turn the key,", "That no man enter till my tale be done.", "**Boling.** Have thy desire. [AUM. locks the door.", "**York.** [Within.] My liege, beware; look to thyself;", "Thou hast a traitor in thy presence there.", "**Boling.** Villain, I'll make thee safe. [Drawing.", "**Aum.** Stay thy revengeful hand;", "Thou hast no cause to fear.", "**York.** [Within.] Open the door, secure, fool-hardy king:", "Shall I, for love, speak treason to thy face ?", "Open the door, or I will break it open.", "[BOLINGBROKE opens the door.", "Enter YORK.", "**Boling.** What is the matter, uncle ? speak;", "Recover breach ; tell me how near is danger,", "That we may arm us to encounter it.", "**York.** Peruse this writing here, and thou shall know", "The treason that my haste forbids me show.", "**Aum.** Remember, as thou read'st, thy promise past:", "I do repent me; read not my name there,", "My heart is not confederate with my hand.", "**York.** 'Twas, villain, ere thy hand did set it down.", "I tore it from the traitor's bosom, king:", "Fear, and not love, begets his penitence:", "Forget to say him, lest thy pity prove", "A serpent that will strew thee to the heart.", "**Boling.** O heinous, strong, and bold conspiracy !", "O loyal father of a treacherous son !", "Thou sheer,² inaccurate, and silver fountain,", "From whence this stream through muddy passages,\nHath held his current, and defil'd himself!", "Thy overflow of good converts to bad;", "And thy abundant goodness shall excuse", "This deadly blot in thy digressing³ son.", "**York.** So shall my virtue be his vice's bawd;", "And he shall spend mine honour with his shame,\nAs thriftless sons their scraping fathers' gold.", "Mine honour lives when his dishonour dies,", "Or my sham'd life in his dishonour lies :", "Thou kill'st me in his life; giving him breath,", "The traitor lives, the true man's put to death.\nDuch. [Within.] What ho, my liege! for God's sake let me in.", "**Boling.** What shrill-voic'd suppliant makes this eager cry?", "**Duch.** A woman, and thine aunt, great king; 'tis I.", "Speak with me, pity me, open the door;", "A beggar begs, that never begg'd before.", "**Boling.** Our scene is alter'd,—from a serious thing,", "And now chang'd to The Beggar and the King.—⁴", "My dangerous cousin, let your mother in;", "I know, she's come to pray for your foul sin.", "**York.** If thou do pardon, whosoever pray,", "More sins, for his forgiveness, prosper may.", "This fester'd joint cut off, the rest rests sound,", "This let alone, will all the rest confound.", "Enter Duchess.", "**Duch.** O king, believe not this hard-hearted man;", "Love, loving not itself, none other can.", "**York.** Thou fractic woman, what dost thou make⁵ here?", "Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear ?", "**Duch.** Sweet York, be patient: Hear me, gentle liege.", "**Boling.** Rise up, good aunt.", "**Duch.** Not yet, I thee beseech:", "For ever will I kneel⁶ upon my knees,", "And never see day that the happy sees,", "Till thou give joy; until thou bid me joy,", "By pardoning Rutland, my transgressing boy.", "**Aum.** Unto my mother's prayers, I bend my knee,", "**York.** Against them both, my true joints bended be.", "I'll may'st thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!", "**Duch.** Pledges he in earnest? look upon his face;", "His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest;", "His words come from his mouth, ours from our breast;", "He prays but faintly, and would be denied;", "We pray with heart, and soul, and all beside;", "His weaky joints would gladly rise, I know;", "Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow:", "His prayers are full of false hypocrisy;", "Ours, of true zeal and deep integrity.", "Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have", "That mercy, which true prayers ought to have.", "**Boling.** Good aunt, stand up.", "**Duch.** Nay, do not say—stand up;", "But, pardon, first; and afterwards, stand up.", "An if I were thy nurse, thy tongue to teach,", "Pardon—should be the first word of his speech.", "I never long'd to hear a word till now;", "Say—pardon, king; let pity teach thee how?", "The word is short, but not so short as sweet;", "No word like pardon, for kings' mouths so meet.", "**York.** Speak it in French, king; say, pardonnez moy.⁸", "**Duch.** Dost thou teach pardon pardon to destroy?", "Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord,", "That sett'st the word itself against the word!—", "Speak, pardon, as 'tis current in our land :", "The chopping⁹ French we do not understand.", "Thine eye begins to speak, set thy tongue there,", "Or, in thy piteous heart plant thou thine ear;", "That, hearing how our plaints and prayers do pierce,", "Pity may move thee, pardon to rehearse.", "**Boling.** Good aunt, stand up.", "**Duch.** I do not sue to stand,", "Pardon is all the suit I have in hand.", "**Boling.** I pardon him, as God shall pardon me.", "**Duch.** O happy vantage of a kneeling knee!", "Yet am I sick for fear: speak it again;", "Twice saying pardon, doth not pardon twain,", "But makes one pardon strong.", "**Boling.**", "I pardon him.¹⁰", "**Duch.**", "A god on earth thou art.", "1 The old copies read 'If on,' &c. Pope made the alteration.", "2 Sheer is pellucid, transparent.", "3 Thus in Romeo and Juliet :—", "'Digressing' from the valour of a man.⁷", "4 It is

429

KING RICHARD II.

Boling. But for our trusty brother-in-law,¹—and
the abbot,²

With all the rest of that consorted crew,—
Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels,—
Good uncle, help to order several powers
To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are:
They shall not live within this world, I swear,
But I will have them, if I once know where.
Uncle, farewell,—and cousin too,⁴ adieu:
Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true.
Duch. Come, my old son;—I pray God make
thee new.
[Exeunt.]

### SCENE IV. Enter Exton, and a Servant.

Exton. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake?

Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?

Was it not so?

Serv.

Those were his very words.

Exton. Have I no friend? quoth he; he spake it twice,

And urg'd it twice together; did he not?

Serv. He did.

Exton. And, speaking it, he wistfully look'd on me;
As who should say,—I would, thou wert the man
That would divorce this terror from my heart;
Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go;
I am the king's friend, and will rid⁵ his foe.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE V. Pomfret. The Dungeon of the Castle.
Enter KING RICHARD.

K. Rich. I have been studying how I may compare
this prison, where I live, unto the world:

And, for because the world is populous,
And here is not a creature but myself,
I cannot do it;—Yet I'll hammer it out.
My brain I'll prove the female to my soul;
My soul, the father: and these two beget
A generation of still-breeding thoughts,
And these same thoughts people this little world;⁶
In humours, like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better sort,—
As thoughts of things divine,—are intermix'd
With scruples, and do set the word itself
Against the word:⁷
As thus, Come, little ones; and then again,—
It is as hard to come, as for a camel
To thread the postern of a needle's eye.
Thoughts tending to ambition, they do plot
Unlikely wonders: how these vain weak nails
May tear a passage through the flinty ribs
Of this hard world, my ragged prison walls;
And, for they cannot, die in their own pride.
Thoughts tending to content, flatter themselves,—
That they are not the first of fortune's slaves,
Nor shall not be the last; like silly beggars,
Who, sitting in the stocks, refuge their shame,—
That many have, and others must sit there:

1 The brother-in-law meant was John duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon (own brother to Edward II.) who had married the Lady Elizabeth, Bolingbroke's sister.

2 i. e. the abbot of Westminster.

3 'Death and destruction dog thee at the heels.'

King Richard III.

4 Too, which is not in the old copies, was added by Theobald for the sake of the metre.

5 To rid and to dispatch were formerly synonymous, as may be seen in the old Dictionaries, 'To riddo or dispatche himself of any man.'—To dispatche or riddo one quickly.' Vide Baret's Alvearie, 1576, in Ridde and Dispatche.

6 i. e. his own body.

7 By the word is meant the Holy Scriptures. The folio reads the faith itself against the faith.

8 This is the reading of the quarto, 1597; alluding, perhaps, to the custom of our early theatres. The title pages of some of our Moralsities show that three or four characters were frequently represented by one person. The folio, and other copies, read 'in one prison.'

9 The folio reads 'to hear.'

10 Tick.

11 It should be recollected that there are three ways in which a clock notices the progress of time, viz. by the

ACT V.

And in this thought they find a kind of ease,
Bearing their own misfortune on the back
Of such as have before endur'd the like:
Thus play I, in one person, many people,⁸
And none contented: Sometimes am I king:
Then treason makes me wish myself a beggar,
And so I am: Then crushing penury
Persuades me, I was better when a king:
Then am I king'd again: and, by-and-by,
Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke,
And straight am nothing:—But, whate'er I am,
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,
With nothing shall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd
With being nothing.—Music do I hear? [Music.
Ha, ha! keep time:—How sour sweet music is,
When time is broke, and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear
To check⁹ time broke in a disorder'd string;
But for the concord of my state and time,
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wasted time, and now doth time waste me.
For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs, they jar¹⁰
Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward
watch,¹¹

Whereeto my finger, like a dial's point,
Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears.
Now, sir, the sound, that tells what hour it is,¹²
Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: So sighs, and tears, and groans,
Show minutes, times, and hours;—but my time
Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I stand fooling here, his Jack o' the clock.¹³
This music mads me, let it sound no more;
For, though it have hopp madmen to their wits,¹⁴
In me, it seems, it will make wise men mad;
Yet blessing on his heart that gives it me!
For 'tis a sign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch¹⁵ in this all hating world.

Enter Groom.

Groom. Hail, royal prince!

K. Rich.

Thanks, noble peer;

The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear.
What art thou? and how comest thou hither,
Where no man never comes, but that sad dog
That brings me food, to make misfortune live?

Groom. I was a poor grom of thy stable, king,
When thou wert king; who, travelling towards
York,

With much ado, at length have gotten leave
To look upon my sometimes¹⁶ master's face.
O, how it yearn'd my heart, when I beheld,
In London streets, that coronation day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary!
That horse, that thou so often hast bestrid;
That horse, that I so carefully have dress'd!¹⁷

K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle
friend,

How went he under him?

vibration of the pendulum, the index on the dial, and the striking of the hour. To these the king, in his comparison, severally alludes; his sighs corresponding to the jarring or ticking of the pendulum, which, at the same time that it watches or numbers the seconds, marks also their progress in minutes on the dial-plate, or outward watch, to which the king compares his eyes; and their want of figures is supplied by a succession of tears (or minute drops, to use an expression of Milton,) his finger, by as regularly wiping these away, performs the office of the dial's point: his clamorous groans are the sounds that tell the hour.

12 Should we not read—

'Now, sir, the sounds that tell what hour it is
Are clamorous groans?' &c.

13 That is, I strike for him. One of these automatisons is alluded to in King Richard III. Act. iv. Sec. 2:—'Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke Between thy begging and my meditation.'

14 See Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, part ii. sec.2.

15 Brooch, an ornamented buckle, and also a jewel in general, here figuratively used for jewel.

16 Sometimes was used for former, as well as sometime. Aliquando.

["## SCENE VI.", "## KING RICHARD II.", "429", "Groom. So proudly, so if he disdain'd the ground.¹\nK.Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!\nThat jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;\nThis hand made me his proud with clapping him.\nWould he not stumble ? Would he not fall down\n(Since pride must have a fall), and break the neck\nOf that proud man that did usurp his back?\nForgiveness, horse ! why do I rail on thee,\nSince thou, created to be awed by man,\nWast born to bear ? I was not made a horse?\nAnd yet I bear a burden like an ass,\nSpur-gall'd and tir'd by jauncing² Bolingbroke.", "*Enter Keeper, with a Dish.*", "Keep. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay.", "*To the Groom.*", "K. Rich. If thou love me, 'tis time thou wert away.\nGroom. What my tongue dares not, that my\nheart shall say. [Exit.]", "Keep. My lord, will't please you to fall to ?", "K. Rich. Taste of it first, as thou art w Cant to do.", "Keep. My lord, I dare not; Sir Pierce of Exton, who", "Lately came from the king, commands the contrary.", "K. Rich. The devil take you Henry of Lancaster, and\nthem", "Patience is stale, and I am weary of it.", "*[Beats the Keeper.*", "Keep. Help, help, help!", "*Enter EXTON, and Servants, armed.*", "K. Rich. How now? what means death in this\nrude assault?", "Villain, thy own hand yields thy death's instrument.", "*[Snatching a weapon and killing one.*", "Go thou, and fill another room in hell.", "*[He kills another, and then EXTON strikes him down.³*", "That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire,", "That staggers thus my person.—Exton, thy fierce\nhand", "[land.]", "Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own\nMount, mount, my soul ! thy seat is up on high,\nWhilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die.", "*[Dies.⁴*", "Exton. As full of valour, as of royal blood:", "Both have I spit! O, 'would the deed were good!", "Say for now the devil, that told me—I did well,", "But that said dog misfet me in his time.", "This dead king to the living king I'll bear;—", "Take hence the rest, and give them burial here.", "*[Exeunt.*", "## SCENE VI. Windsor. A Room in the Castle.\nFlourish. Bolingbroke, and York, with Lords and Attendants.", "Boling. Kind uncle York, the latest news we hear\nIs—that the rebels have consum'd with fire\nOur town of Cicester in Gloucestershire;\nBut whether they be ta'en, or slain, we hear not.", "*Enter NORTHERN LAND.*", "Welcome, my lord: What is the news? [ness.]", "North. First, to thy sacred state wish I all happi-\nThe next news is,—I have to London sent", "1 Froissart relates a yet more silly tale of a greyhound\nof King Richard's, 'who was wont to leape on the\nKing, but left the king and came to the erle of Derby,\nduke of Lancaster, and made to him the same friendly\ncountenance and chere as he was wont to do to the king.'\n—*Froissart, by Berners, v. 11. fo. cccxxx.*", "2 Jancing is hard riding, from the old French word\njancer, which Cotgrave explains 'To stir a horse in\nthe stable till he sweat withal; or (as our) to jaunt.'", "3 These stage directions are not in the old copies.", "4 The representation here given of the king's death is\nperfectly agreeable to Hall and Holinshed (who copied\nfrom Fianab, with whom the story of Exton is thought to\nhave its origin.) But the fact was otherwise. He\nrefused food for several days, and died of abstinence\nand a broken heart. See Walsingham, Otterburne, the\nmonk of Evesham, the Continuator of the History of\nCroyland, and the Godstow Chronicle. His body, after\nbeing submitted to public inspection in the church of\nPomfret, was brought to London, and exposed in Cheap-\nside for two hours, 'his heade on a black cushion, and\nhis visage open,' when it was viewed, says Froissart,\nby twenty thousand persons, and finally in St. Paul's", "The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent:⁵\nThe manner of their taking may appear\nAt large discoursed in this paper here.", "*[Presenting a paper.*", "Boling. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy\npains;", "And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.", "*Enter FITZWATER.*", "Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford sent to London\nThe heads of Brocas and from BENNET Seely:\nTwo of the dangerous consorted traitors,\nThat sought at Oxford thy dire overthrow.", "Boling. Thy pains, Fitzwater, shall not be forgot;\nRight noble is thy merit, well I wot.", "*Enter PERCY, with the Bishop of Carlisle.*", "Percy. The grand conspirator, abbot of West-\nminster,⁶", "With clog of conscience, and sour melancholy,\nHath yielded up his body to the grave:\nBut here is Carlisle living to abide", "Thy kingly doom, and sentence of his pride.", "Boling. This is your doom:—", "Choose out some secret place, some reverend room,\nMore than thou hast, and with it 'joy thy life;\nSo, as thou liv'st in peace, die free from strife:\nFor though mine enemy thou hast ever been,\nHigh sparks of honour in thee have I seen.", "*Enter EXTON, with Attendants bearing a Coffin.*", "Exton. Great king, within this coffin I present", "Thy buried fear: herein all breathless lies", "The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,", "Richard of Bourdeaux, by me hither brought.", "Boling. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou hast\nwrought", "A deed of slander, with thy fatal hand,", "Upon my head, and all this famous land. [deed.]", "Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this", "Boling. They love not poison that do poison need,\nNor do I thee; though I did wish him dead,\nI hate the murderer, love him murdered.", "The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour,", "But neither my good word nor princely favour:\nWith Cain go wander through the shade of night,", "And never show thy head by day nor light.—", "Lords, I protest, my soul is full of woe,", "That blood should sprinkle me, to make me grow:", "Come, mourn with me for what I do lament,", "And put on sullen black incontinent:⁸", "I'll make a voyage to the Holy Land,", "To wash this blood off from my guilty hand:—", "March sadly after; grace my mournings here,", "In weeping after this untimely bier. [Exeunt.]", "THIS play is one of those which Shakespeare has\napparently revised; but as success in works of in-\nvention is not always proportionate to labour, it is not\nfinished at last with the happy force of some other of his\ntragedies, nor can it be said much to affect the passions,\nor enlarge the understanding. JOHNSON.", "Cathedral. Stowe seems to have had before him a\nmanuscript history of the latter part of King Richard's\nlife, written by a person who was with him in Wales.\nHe says 'he was imprisoned in Pomfrait Castle, where\nxy dayes and nighetes they vexed him with continual\nhunger, thirst, and cold, and finally bereft him of his\nlife with such a kind of death as never before that time\nwas known in England.'", "5 So the folio. The quarto reads of *Oxford, Salisbury*, Blunt, and Kent. The folio is right according to the histories.", "6 This abbot of Westminster was William de Col-\nchester. The relation, which is taken from Holinshed,\nis untrue, as he survived the king many years; and\nthough called 'the grand conspirator,' it is very doubtful\nwhether he had any concern in the conspiracy; at least\nnothing was proved against him.", "7 The bishop of Carlisle was committed to the Tower,\nbut on the intercession of his friends obtained leave to\nchange his prison for Westminster Abbey. In order to\ndeprive him of his see, the pope, at the king's instance,\ntranslated him to a bishopric in *partibus infidelium*;\nand the only preferment he could ever obtain was\na rectory in Gloucestershire.", "8 Immediately.", "the king, on the day, in his one-\nhour's time, the corrector of the\nhymn, and the editor of the\nhymn, and the editor of the\nlyric, and the editor of the

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY IV.

431

Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil buchery,
Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
(Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engag'd to fight,)¹
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy,¹
Whose arms were moulded in their mother's womb,
To chase these pagans, in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose is a twelvemonth old,
And boodless 'tis to tell you—we will go;
Therefore we meet not now:—Then let me hear
Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What westernight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.²
*West.* My liege, this haste was hot in question,
But many limits³ of the charge set down
And yesternight: when, all atwart, there
A post from Wales, loaded with heavy news;
Whose worst was,—that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered:
Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
Such beastly, shameless transformation,
By those Welshwomen⁴ done, as may not be,
Without much shame, retold or spoken of.

*K. Hen.* It seems, then, that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

*West.* This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news
Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On Holyrood-day,⁵ the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy,⁶ and brave Archibald,⁷
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met,
Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour;
As by discharge of their artillery,
And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the issue any way.

*K. Hen.* Here is a dear and true-industrious friend,

from that of Malone:—¹ No more shall this soil have the lips of her thirsty entrance (i. e. surface) dauber'd, with the blood of her own children.' The soil is personified, and called the *mother* of those who live upon her surface; as in the following passage of King Richard II.:—

—'— sweet soil, adieu,

My mother and my nurse, that bears me yet.'

1 To levy a power *to* a place has been shown by Mr. Gifford to be neither unexamined nor corrupt, but good authorized English. 'Scipio, before he *levied* his force *to* the walls of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the city on a cake to be devoured.'—*Gosson's School of Abuse*, 1587, E. 4.

2 *Expedition.*

3 *Limits here seem to mean appointments or determinations.*

4 See Thomas of Walsingham, p. 557, or Holinshed, p. 528.

5 i. e. September 14th.

6 'This Harry Percy was surnamed, for his often pricking, Henry Hotspur, as one that seldom times rested, if there were anie service to be done abroad.'—*Holinshed's Hist. of Scotland*, p. 240.

7 *Archibald Douglas, Earl Douglas.*

8 No circumstance could have been better chosen to mark the expedition of Sir Walter. It is used by Falstaff in a similar manner,—'to stand *stained with trave*; &c.

9 *Balk'd* in their own blood, is heaped, or laid on heaps, in their own blood. A *balk* was a ridge or bank of earth standing up between two furrows and to *balk*

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd⁸ with the variation of each soil
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The earl of Douglas is discomfited;
Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
Balk'd⁹ in their own blood, did Sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains: Of prisoners, Hotspur took
Mordake earl of Fife,¹⁰ and eldest son
To beaten Douglas,¹⁰ and the earls of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.¹¹
And is not this an honourable spoil ?
A gallant prize ? ha, cousin, is it not ?
*West.* In faith,

It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

*K. Hen.* Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin

In envy that my lord Northumberland
Should be the father of so blest a son:
A son, who is the theme of honour's tongue;
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet fortune's minion, and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow
Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine—Percy, his—Plantagenet !
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts:—What think you,
coz,
Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,¹²
Which he in this adventure hath surprised,¹³
To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife.
*West.* That is his uncle's teaching, this is Wor-

West. That is his uncle's teaching, this is Wor-
ster, c

Malevolent to you in all aspects;¹³

Which makes him prune¹⁴ himself, and bristle up
The crest of youth against your dignity.

*K. Hen.* But I have sent for him to answer this:

And, for this cause, awhile we must neglect
Our holy welcome to Jerusalem.
Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor; so inform the lords;
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be said, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered,¹⁵

*West.* I will, my liege.

[Exeunt.]

## SCENE II. The same. Another Room in the Palace. Enter HENRY, Prince of Wales, and FALSTAFF.

*Fal.* Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

was to throw up the earth so as to form those heaps or banks. It was sometimes used in the sense of *monceau*, Fr. for a heap or hill.

10 Mordake, earl of Fife, who was son to the duke of Albany, regent of Scotland, is here called the son of Earl Douglas, through a mistake, into which the poet was led by the omission of a comma in the passage from whence he took this account of the Scottish prisoners.

11 This is a mistake of Holinshed in his English History, for in that of Scotland, pp. 259, 262, 419, he speaks of the earl of Fife and Menteith as one and the same person.

12 Percy had an exclusive right to these prisoners, except the earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whose redemption did not exceed ten thousand crowns, had him clearly to himself to acquit or ransom at his pleasure. But Percy could not refuse the earl of Fife to the king; for, being a prince of the royal blood, (son to the duke of Albany, brother to King Robert III.) Henry might justly claim him, by his acknowledged military prerogative.

13 An astrological allusion. Worcester is represented as a malignant star, that influenced the conduct of Hotspur.

14 The metaphor is borrowed from falconry. A hawk is said to *prune* herself when she picks off the loose feathers and smooths the rest: it is applied to other birds, and is perhaps so familiar as hardly to require a note.

15 That is, more is to be said than anger will suffer me to say; more than can issue from a mind disturbed like mine.

TH.

make the expersing
conspicuous. What on
an individual befall
to shallow and stony
the scenes in which Fic-
fy the family and safety of
the

["434", "FIRST PART OF", "ACT I.", "P. Hen. I know you all, and will a while uphold\nThe unyok'd humour of your idleness :", "Yet herein will I imitate the sun ;", "Who doth permit the base contagious clouds¹", "To smother up his beauty from the world,", "That, when he please again to be himself,", "Being wanted, he may be more wondered at,", "By breaking through the foul and ugly mists", "Of vapours, that did seem to strangle² him.", "If all the year were playing holidays,", "To sport would be as tedious as to work ;", "But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,", "And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.", "So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,", "And pay the debt I never promised,", "By how much better than my word I am,", "By so much shall I falsify men's hopes³;", "And, like bright metal on a sullen⁴ ground,", "My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,", "Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,", "Than that which hath no foil to set it off.", "I'll so offend, to make offence a skill ;", "Redeeming time, when men think least I will.", "[Exit.]", "SCENE III. The same. Another Room in the\nPalace. Enter KING HENRY, NORTHERNBER-\nLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR, SIR WALTER\nBLUNT, and others.", "K. Hen. My blood hath been too cold and tem-\nperate,", "Unapt to stir at these indignities,", "And you have found me; for, accordingly,", "You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,", "I will from henceforth rather be myself,", "Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition,⁵", "Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,", "And therefore lost that title of respect,", "Which the proud soul ne'er pays, but to the proud.", "Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little de-\nserves", "The scourge of greatness to be used on it;", "And that same greatness too which our own hands", "Have help to make so portly.", "North. My lord,—", "K. Hen. Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see", "Danger and disobedience in thine eye :", "O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,", "And majesty might never yet endure", "The moody frontier⁶ of a servant brow.", "You have good leave to leave us; when we need", "Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.—", "[Exit WORCESTER.", "You were about to speak.", "North.", "[To NORTH.", "Yea, my good lord.", "Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,", "Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,", "1 'Full many a glorious morning have I seen,\nFlatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye,—\nAnon permit the basest clouds to ride\nWith ugly rack on his celestial face.'", "Shakspeare's 33d Sonnet.", "2 Thus in Macheth—", "'And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp.'", "3 *Hopes* is used simply for *expectations*, no uncommon use of the word even at the present day.", "4 So in King Richard II. :—", "'The sullen passage of thy weary steps", "Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set", "The precious jewel of thy home return.'", "5 *Condition* is used for *nature*, *disposition*, as well as *estate* or fortune. It is so interpreted by Philips, in his World of Words. And we find it most frequently used in this sense by Shakspeare and his contemporaries.", "6 *Frontier* is said anciently to have meant *forehead*, to prove which the following quotation has been added from *Stubbes' Anatomy of Abuses*: 'Then on round their frontiers, and hangeth over their brow.' Mr. Nares has justly observed, that 'this does not seem to explain the above passage, ''The moody forehead of a servant brow;'' is not sense.' Surely it may be better interpreted 'the moody or threatening outwork; ' in which sense *frontier* is used in Act ii. Sc. 3.", "Were, as he says, not with such strength denied\nAs is deliver'd to your majesty:", "Either envy, therefore, or misprision", "Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.", "Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners,\nBut, I remember, when the fight was done,\nWhen I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,\nBreathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,\nCame there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd,\nFresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,\nShow'd like a stubble-land at harvest home;?", "He was perfumed like a milliner:", "And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held", "A pounct-box,⁸ which ever and anon", "He gave his nose, and took't away again;—", "Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,", "Took it in snuff:⁹—and still he smil'd, and talk'd;", "And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,", "He could them—untaught knaves, unmannerly,\nTo bring a slovenly unhandsome corse", "Betwixt the wind and his nobility.", "With many holiday and lady terms", "He question'd me; among the rest demanded", "My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.", "I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold,", "To be so pester'd with a popinjay,¹⁰", "Out of my grief¹¹ and my impatience,", "Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what;", "He should, or he should not;—for he made me mad,", "To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,", "And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman,", "Of guns, and drums, and wounds (God save the\nmark!)", "And telling me the sovereign'st thing on earth", "Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise;¹²", "And that it was great pity, so it was,", "That villanous salt-petre should be digg'd", "Out of the bowels of the harmless earth", "Which many a good tall fellow have destroyed", "So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,", "He would himself have been a soldierer.", "This bald unjointed, chat of his, my lord,", "I answer'd indirectly as I said;", "And, I beseech you, let not his report", "Come current for an accusation,", "Betwixt my love and your high majesty.", "Blunt. The circumstance consider'd, good my\nlord,", "Whatever Harry Percy then had said,", "To such a person, and in such a place,", "At such a time, with all the rest re-told,", "May reasonably die, and never rise", "To do him wrong, or any way impeach", "What then he said, so he unsay it now.", "K. Hen. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners;", "But with proviso, and exception,—", "That we, at our own charge, shall ransom straight\nHis brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;¹³", "7 To completely understand this simile the reader should bear in mind that the courtier's beard, according to the fashion in the poet's time, would not be closely shaved, but *shorn* or *trimmed*, and would therefore show like a stubble land new reap'd.", "8 A box perforated with small holes, for carrying perfumes; *quasi pounced-box*.", "9 *Took it in snuff* means no more than *snuffed it up*, but there is a quibble on the phrase, which was equivalent to *taking huff at it*, in familiar modern speech; to be angry, to take offence; *To take in snuff*, Piglar ombra, Pigliar in mala parte.—*Torriano*.", "10 *A popinjay* or *popingay* is a parrot.", "11 i. e. *pain*, *dolor ventris* is rendered *belly-grief* in the old dictionaries.", "12 So in Sir T. Overburie's Characters, 1616 [An Or-\ndinarie

Ayl T.

### SCENE III.

### KING HENRY IV.

455

Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damn'd Glendower;
Whose daughter, as we hear, the earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
Be emptied, to redeem a traitor home?

Shall we buy treason ? and indent¹ with fears,
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve ;
For I shall never hold that man my friend,
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.

Hot. Revolted Mortimer!
He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
But by the chance of war;—To prove that true,
Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,
Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
In wide opposition, hand to hand,
He did confound² the best part of an hour

In changing hardiment with great Glendower:
Three times they breath'd, and three times did they
drinky.
Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
Who, then affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And his crisp³ head in the hollow bank,
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did bare⁴ and rotten policy
Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor ever could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly:
Then let him not be slander'd with revolt.

K. Hen. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost
belie him ;
He never did encounter with Glendower ;
I tell thee,
He durst as well have met the devil alone,
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
Art thou not asham'd? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer :
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me,
As will displease you.—My Lord Northumberland,
We license your departure with your son :—
Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

¹ [Exeunt KING HENRY, BLUNT, and Train.]

**Hot.** And if the devil come and roar for them,
I will not send them;—I will after straight,
And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,
Although it be with hazard of my head.

North. What, drunk with choler? stay, and pause
while;
Here comes your uncle.

### Re-enter WORCESTER.

Hot. Speak of Mortimer ?
'Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul
Want mercy, if I do not join with him :

Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins,
And shed my dear blood drop by drop i' the dust,
But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
As high i' the air as this unthankful king,
As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.

This ins consistent may be accounted for as follows: it
appears from Dugdale and Sandford's account of the
Mortimer family, that there were two of them taken pri-
soners at different times by Glendower, each of them
bearing the name of Edmund; one being Edmund,
*earl of March*, nephew to *Lady Percy*, and the proper
Mortimer of this play; the other Sir Edmund Mortimer,
uncle to the former, and *brother to Lady Percy*. The
poet has confounded the two persons.

1 To indent with fears is to enter into compact with
cowards. 'To make a covenant or to indent with one.
Pascrior.'—Baret.

2 Shakspeare uses *confound* for *spending* or losing time.

3 *Crisp* is *curled*. Thus in Kyd's Cornelia, 1595:—
> 'O beauteous Tyber, with thine easy streams
> That glide as smoothly as a Parthenian shaft,
> Turn not thy *crispy* tides, like silver *curls*,
> Back to thy grass-green banks to welcome us.'

4 Some of the quarto copies read base.

North. Brother, the king hath made your nephew
mad. [To WORCESTER.]
Wor. Who struck this heat up, after I was gone?

Hot. He will, forsook, have all my prisoners ;
And when I urg'd the ransom once again

And when I urg'd the ransom once again
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale ;
And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,

And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.

Wor. I cannot blame him: Was he not pro-
claim'd,

By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?

North. He was; I heard the proclamation :
And then it was, when the unhappy king
(Whose wrongs in us God pardon!) did set forth
Upon his Irish expedition ;
From whence he, intercepted, did return
To be depos'd, and shortly, murdered.
Wor. And for whose death, we in the world's

Wor. And for whose death, we in the world's
depos'd, and shortly, murdered.
Live scandal'd, and foully spoken of.

Hot. But, soft, I pray you; Did King Richard
then

Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer

Heir to the crown?
North. He did; myself did hear it.
Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,
That wish'd him on the barren mountains starv'd.
But shall it be, that you,—that set the crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man ;
And, for his sake, wear the detested blot
Of murd'rous subornation,—shall it be,
That you a world of curses undergo;
Being the agents, or base second means,
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather ?—
O, pardon me, that I descend so low,
To show the line, and the predicament,
Wherein you range under this subtle king.—
Shall it, for shame, be spoken in these days,
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your nobility and power,
Did gage them both in an unjust behalf,—
As both of you, God pardon it! have done,—
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker,⁶ Bolingbroke?
And shall it, in more shame, be further spoken,
That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
By him, for whom these shames ye underwent?
No; yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again :
Revenge the jeering, and disdain'd⁷ contempt,
Of this proud king; who studies, day and night,
To answer all the debt he owes to you,
Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.

Therefore, I say,—
Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more:
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous.
As full of peril, and advent'rous spirit,
As to o'erwalk a current, roaring loud,
On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

5 Roger Mortimer, earl of March, was declared
heir apparent to the crown in 1385; but he was killed
in Ireland in 1398. The person who was proclaimed
heir apparent by Richard II. previous to his last voyage
to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer, son of Roger, who
was then but seven years old: he was not Lady Percy's
brother, but her nephew. He was the undoubted heir
to the crown after the death of Richard. Thomas
Walsingham asserts that he married a daughter of Owen
Glendower, and the subsequent historians copied him.
Sandford says that he married Anne Stafford, daughter
of Edmund earl of Stafford. Glendower's daughter was
married to his antagonist Lord Grey of Ruthven. Ho-
linshed led Shakspeare into the error. This Edmund,
who is the Mortimer of the present play, was born in
1392, and consequently, at the time when this play is
supposed to commence, was little more than ten years
old. The prince of Wales was not fifteen.

6 The *canker-rose* is the dog-rose, the *flower of the Cynosbaton*. So in Much Ado about Nothing:—'I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace.'

7 I. e. disdainful.

["436", "FIRST PART OF", "Hot. If he fall in, good night:—or sink or swim;\nSend danger from the east unto the west,\nSo honour cross it from the north to south,\nAnd let them grapple:—O! the blood more stirs,\nTo rouse a lion, than to start a hare.", "North. Imagination of some great exploit", "Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.", "Hot. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,\nTo pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;\nOr dive into the bottom of the deep;\nWhere fathom-line could never touch the ground,\nAnd pluck up drowned honour by the locks;\nSo he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear,\nWithout coronal, all her dignities.", "But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!²", "Wor. He apprehends a world of figures³ here,", "But not the form of what he should attend.—", "Good cousin, give me audience for a while.", "Hot. I cry you mercy.", "Wor.", "Those same noble Scots,", "That are your prisoners,—", "Hot.", "I'll keep them all;", "By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them:", "No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not:", "I'll keep them, by this hand.", "Wor.", "You start away,", "And lend no ear unto my purposes.—", "Those prisoners you shall keep.", "Hot.", "Nay, I will; that's flat:—", "He said, he would not ransom Mortimer;", "Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;", "But I will find him when he lies asleep,", "And in his ear I'll holla—Mortimer!", "Nay,", "I'll have a starling shall be taught to speak", "Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,", "To keep his anger still in motion.", "Wor.", "Hear you,", "Cousin; a word.", "Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy,⁴", "Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke:", "And that same sword-and-buckler³ prince of\nWales,—", "But that I think his father loves him not,", "And would be glad he met with some mischance,", "I'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale.⁶", "Wor. Farewell, kinsman! I will talk to you,", "When you are better temper'd to attend.", "North. Why, what a wasp-tongue⁷ and impatient\nfool", "Art thou, to break into this woman's mood;", "Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own?", "1 Warburton observes that Euripides has put the same sentiment into the mouth of Eteocles:—'I will not, madam, disguise my thoughts; I would scale heaven, I would descend to the very entrails of the earth, if so be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom.' Johnson says, 'Though I am far from condemning this speech, with Gildon and Theobald, as absolute madness, yet I cannot find in it that profundity of reflection, and beauty of allegory, which Warburton endeavoured to display. This sally of Hotspur may be, I think, soberly and rationally vindicated as the violent eruption of a mind inflamed with ambition and fired with resentment; as the boasted clamour of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the dark expression of indetermined thoughts. The passage from Euripides is surely not allegorical; yet it is produced, and properly, as paral lel.'—In the Knight of the Burning Pestle, Beaumont and Fletcher have put this rant into the mouth of Ralph the apprentice, who, like Bottom, appears to be fond of acting parts to tear a cat in.", "2 *Half-faced*, which has puzzled the commentators, seems here meant to convey a contemptuous idea of something imperfect. As in Nashe's *Apology of Pierce Pennilesse*:—' With all other ends of your half-faced English.'", "³ Shapes created by his imagination.", "4 To defy was sometimes used in the sense of to renounce, reject, refuse, by Shakspeare and his cotem poraries.", "5 'Sword and buckler prince' is here used as a term of contempt. The following extracts will help us to the precise meaning of the epithet:—'This field, commonly", "ACT I.", "Hot. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd\nwith rods,", "Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear\nOf this vile politician, Bolingbroke.", "In Richard's time, What do you call the place?—", "'Twas where the mad-scap duke his uncle kept:", "His uncle York;—where I first bow'd my knee", "Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,", "When you and he came back from Ravenspurg.", "North. At Berkley castle.", "Hot. You say true:—", "Why, what a candy⁸ deal of courtesy", "This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!", "Look,—when his infant fortune came to age,", "And—gentle Harry Percy,—and, kind cousin,—\nO, the devil take such cozeners!—God forgive\nme!—", "Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.", "Wor. Nay, if you have not, to't again;", "We'll stay your leisure.", "Hot.", "Wor. I have done, if'think.", "Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.", "Deliver them up without their ransom straight,", "And make the Douglas⁹ son your only mean", "For powers in Scotland; which, for divers reasons,", "Which I shall send you written,—be assur'd,", "Will easily be granted.—You, my lord,—", "To NORTHERNLAND.", "Your son in Scotland being thus employed,—", "Shall secretly into the bosom creep", "Of that same noble prelate, well beloved,", "The archbishop.", "Hot. Of York, is't not?", "Wor. True; who bears hard", "His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.", "I speak not this in estimation,⁹", "As what I think might be, but what I know", "Is ruminated, plotted, and set down;", "And only stays but to behold the face", "Of that occasion that shall bring it on.", "Hot. I smell it; upon my life, it will do well.", "North. Before the game's a-foot, thou still let's slip.¹⁰", "Hot. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot:—", "And then the power of Scotland, and of York,—", "To join with Mortimer, ha?", "Wor.", "And so they shall.", "Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd.", "Wor. And 'tis no little reason bids us speed,", "To save our heads by raising of a head;¹¹", "For, bear ourselves as even as we can,", "The king will always think him in our debt;¹²", "And think we think ourselves unsatisfied,", "Till he may pay a time to pay us home.", "called West Smithfield, was for many years called Rufian's Hall, by reason it was the usual place for trays and common fighting, during the time that sword and bucklers were in use; when every *serving man*, from the base to the best, carried a *buckler* at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his *sword*.—Steeve's *Survey of London*.", "6 This is said in allusion to low house company, with which the prince associated.", "7 The first quarto, 1598, reads *wasp-stung*, which Steevens thought the true reading. The quarto of 1699 reads *wasp-tongue*, which Malone strenuously contends for; and I think with Mr. Nares that he is right. 'He who is stung by wasps has a real cause for impatience; but *waspish*, which is often used by Shakspeare, is pe-tulant from temper; and *wasp-tongue* therefore very naturally means *petulant-tongue*, which was exactly the accusation meant to be urged.' The folio altered it unnecessarily to *wasp-tongued*.", "8 i. e. 'what a deal of candy courtesy.", "9 Conjecture.", "10 This phrase is taken from hunting. To let slip is to lose a greyhound.", "11 A body of forces.", "12 This is a natural description of the state of mind between those that have conferred, and those that have received obligations too great to be satisfied. That this would be the event of Northumberland's disloyalty was predicted by King Richard in the former play.", "1", "This is a", "1", "2", "

### SCENE III.

### KING HENRY IV.

437

And see already, how he doth begin

To make us strangers to his looks of love.

**Hot.** He does, he does; we'll be reveng'd on him.

**Wor.** Cousin,¹ farewell:—No further go in this, but I by letters shall direct your course.

When time is ripe (which will be suddenly),

I'll steal to Glendower, and Lord Mortimer;

Where you and Douglas, and our powers at once
(As I will fashion it,) shall happily meet,

To bear our fortunes in our own strong arms,

Which now we hold at much uncertainty.

**North.** Farewell, good brother :—we shall thrive,

I trust.

**Hot.** Uncle, adieu:—O, let the hours be short,

Till fields, and blows, and groans applaud our

sport!

[Exeunt.]

### ACT II.

#### SCENE I. Rochester. An Inn Yard. Enter a Carrier, with a lantern in his hand.

1. Car. Heigh ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hanged: Charles' wain² is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not packed. What, ostler!

**Ost.** [Within.] Anon, anon.

1. Car. I pr'ythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point: the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.³

*Enter another Carrier.*

2. Car. Pease and beans are as dank⁴ as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the bots:⁵ this house is turned upside down, since Robin ostler died.

1. Car. Poor fellow! never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him.

2. Car. I think, this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas: I am stung like a trench.⁶

1. Car. Like a trench? by the mass, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the first cock.

2. Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jorden, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach.⁷

1. Car. What, ostler! come away and be hanged, come away.

2. Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two rares⁹ of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charing Cross.

1. Car. 'Odsbody! the turkeys in my pannier are

quite starved.⁹—What, ostler !—A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the page of thee, I am a very villain.—Come, and be hanged!—Hast no faith in thee?

*Enter GADSHILL.¹⁰*

**Gads.** Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock?

1. Car. I think it be two o'clock.

**Gads.** I pr'ythee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable.

1. Car. Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a tric worth two of that, i'faith.

**Gads.** I pr'ythee, lend me thine.

2. Car. Ay, when? canst tell?—Lend me thy lantern, quoth a?—marry, I'll see thee hanged first.

**Gads.** Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?

2. Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.—Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge.

[Exeunt Carriers.]

**Gads.** What, ho! chamberlain!

**Cham.** [Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse.¹¹

**Gads.** That's even as fair as—at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou variest no more from picking of fleas, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'st the plot how.¹²

*Enter Chamberlain.*

Cham. Good morrow, master Gadshill. It holds current, that I told you yesternight: There's a franklin¹³ in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: They will away presently.

1. Car. Gads, they meet not with Saint Nicholas' clerks,¹⁴ I'll give thee this neck.

**Cham.** No, I'll none of it: I pr'ythee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou worship'st Saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may.

**Gads.** What talkest thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows: for, if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me; and, thou knowest, he's no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dreamest not of, the which, for sport sake, are content to do the profession some grace; that would, if matters should be looked into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am joined with no foot land-rakers,¹⁵ no long-staff, sixpenny strikers;¹⁶ none of these mad, mustachio, purple-

1. This was a common address in Shakspeare's time to nephews, nieces, and grand-children. See Holinsed, *passim*. Hotspur was Worcester's nephew.

2. Charles' wain was the vulgar name for the constellation called the great bear. It is a corruption of *Charles or Charl's wain*. *Chorl* is frequently used for a *countrman* in old books, from the *Saxon cern*.

3. 'Out of cess' is 'out of all measure.' Excessively, *præter modum*. To cess, or assess, was to number, muster, value, *measure*, or appraise.

4. *Dank* is moist, wet, and consequently *mouldy*.

5. *Bots* are *worms*; a disease to which horses are very subject.

6. Dr. Farmer thought *tench* a mistake for *trout*; probably alluding to the red spots with which the trout is covered, having some resemblance to the spots on the skin of a flea-bitten person.

7. It appears from a passage in Holland's translation of Pliny's *Nat. Hist.* b. ix. c. xlvii. that anciently fishes were supposed to be infested with fleas. 'Last of all some fishes there be which of themselves are given to breed fleas and lice; among which the chalcis, a kind of turgot, is one.' Mason suggests that 'breeds fleas as fast as a loach breeds loaches,' may be the meaning of the passage; the loach being reckoned a peculiarly prolific fish.

8. The commentators have puzzled themselves and their readers about this word *races*: Theobald asserts that a *raze* is the Indian term for a *bale*. I have somewhere seen the word used for a *frail*, or little rush basket, such as figs, raisins, &c. are usually packed in; but I cannot now recall the book to memory in which it occurred.

Such a package was much more likely to be meant than a bale. The poet perhaps intended to mark the *petty importance* of the carrier's business.

9. This is one of the poet's anachronisms. Turkeys were not brought into England until the reign of Henry VIII.

10. Gadshill has his name from a place on the Kentish Road, where robberies were very frequent. A curious narrative of a gang, who appear to have infested that neighbourhood in 1590, is printed from a MS. paper of Sir Roger Manwood's in Boswell's Shakspeare, vol. xvi. p. 431.

11. This is a proverbial phrase, frequently used in old plays.

12. Thus in the life and death of Gamaliel Ratsey, 1603:—'—he dealt with the *chamberlaine* of the house, to learn which way they went in the morning, which the *chamberlaine* performed accordingly, and that with great care and diligence, for he knew he should partake of their fortunes if they sped.'

13. A freeholder or yeoman, a man above a vassal or villain, but not a gentleman. This was the *Franklin of the age of Elizabeth*. In earlier times he was a person of much more dignity. See Canterbury Tales, v. 333, and Mr. Tyrwhitt's note upon it.

14. In a note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii. Sc. 1, is an account of the origin of this expression as applied to scholars; and as Nicholas or old Nick is a cant name for the devil, so thieves are equivocally called *Saint Nicholas' clerks*.

15. Footpads.

16. A striker was a thief.

Ad 1.
whipp'd and scold'ng

1. When I hear
broke,
you call the place looestrers:—
like his uncler:
1st bow'd not his kise
Bolingbrode,
from Ravensbrode.

courtesy
I did profile my
ne came to 62,
and, kind coun-
ers !—God hagis

or I have done,
ot, to't again;
I have done, Thayl
your Scottish primers,
random straight,
your only mean
ich, for divers rans
on,—assur'd,
u, my lord,
NORTHUMBERLAND,
thus employed,
I have well behel'd,

ard
al, the Lord Smup,
9
what I know
up to day
the face
ing it on,
life, it will do well,
a-foot, thou still left'st

but be a noble pit—
and, of Yorl—
and so they shall
well pay an aim'd

and so they shall
well pay an aim'd
nition his speed,
s in our debt, 12
unstatised,
you up home.

many years called Bif-
usual place for troye
the time that award and
ery erroring of the
sword at his back, which
sword.—Stoner's di-
w pock-house comp
is reas-stang, which
The quanter is 188
the rest he is right. He
cause for impuritie
by Shakspeare, in ye
longue therefore it
which, was exactly
the folio alixed a
courting.

out of the air
of the state of mind
and those that are
and those that are
Ravensbrode's diabolical
the former play.

FIRST PART OF

ACT II.

hued malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneers;¹¹ such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray: And yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.²

Cham. What, the commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way?

Gads. She will, she will; justice hath liquored her.³ We steal as in a castle,⁴ cock-sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible.

Cham. Nay, by my faith, I think you are more beholden to the night, than to fern-seed,⁵ for your walking invisible.

Gads. Give me thy hand: thou shall have a share of our purchase,⁶ as I am a true man.

Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.

Gads. Go to; *Homo* is a common name to all men. Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave. [Exeunt.]

### SCENE II. The Road by Gadshill.
*Enter PRINCE HENRY, and POINS; BARDOLPH and PETO, at some distance.*

Poins. Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.⁷

P. Hen. Stand close.

### Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal; What a brawling dost thou keep?

Fal. Where's Poins, Hal?

P. Hen. He is walked up to the top of the hill, I'll go seek him. [Pretends to seek Poins.]

Fal. I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squire⁸ further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly, any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines⁹ to make me love him, I'll be hang'd; it could not be else; I have drunk medicines.—Poins!—Hal!—a plague upon you both!—Bardolph!—Peto!—I'll starve, ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man, and leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground, is threescore and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough: A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true to one another! [They whistle.] Whew! —A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hang'd.

1 Some of the commentators have been at great pains to conjecture what class of persons were meant by great oneers. One proposed to read *moneysers*; another *mynheers*; and Malone coins a word, *oneers*, which he says may mean a *public accountant*, from the term *o-ni*, used in the exchequer. The ludicrous nature of the appellations which Gadshill bestows upon his associates might have sufficiently shown them that such attempts must be futile; † nobility and tranquillity, burgomasters and great oneers.¹¹ Johnson has judiciously explained it. 'Gadshill tells the chamberlain that he is joined with no mean wretches, but with 'burgomasters and great ones,' or, as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great *one-y-ers*, or great *one-eers*, as we say *privateer*, auctioneer, *circuiteer*.'

2 A quibble upon *boots* and *booty*. *Boot* is *profit*, *advantage*.

3 Alluding to *boots* in the preceding passage. In the *Merry Wives of Windsor*, Falstaff says:—'They would melt me out of my fat drop by drop, and *liquor fisher-men's boots* with me.'

4 *As in a castle* was a proverbial phrase for security. Stevens has adduced several examples of its use in co-temporary writers.

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thin eard close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.

Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? †Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again, for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt¹⁰ me thus?

P. Hen. Thou liesi, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Fal. I pr'ythee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse: good king's son.

P. Hen. Out, you rogue! shall I be your ostler!

Fal. Go, hang thyself in thy own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: When a jest is so forward, and afoot too,—I hate it.

### Enter GADSHILL.

Gads. Stand.

Fal. So I do, against my will.

Poins. O, †is our setter: I know his voice.

### Enter BARDOLPH.

Bard. What news?

Gads. Case ye, case ye; on with your visors; there's money of the king's coming down the hill; †tis going to the king's exchequer.

Fal. You lie, you rogue; †tis going to the king's tavern.

Gads. There's enough to make us all.

Fal. To be hanged.

P. Hen. Sirs, you four shall fall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins and I will walk lower; if they 'scape from your encounter, they light on us.

Peto. How many be there of them?

Gads. Some eight, or ten.

Fal. Zounds! will they not rob us?

P. Hen. What, a coward, Sir John Panch?

Fal. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no coward, Hal.

P. Hen. Well, we leave that to the proof.

Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge; when thou needest him, there thou shall find him. Farewell, and stand fast.

Fal. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.

P. Hen. Ned, where are our disguises?

Poins. Here, hard by; stand close.

Fal. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole,¹¹ say I; every man to his business.

### Enter Travellers.

1 *Trav.* Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down the hill: we'll walk afoot a while, and ease our legs.

Thieves. Stand.

Trav. Jesu bless us!

Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats: Ah! whoreson caterpillars! *bacon-fed*.

5 *Fern-seed* was supposed to have the power of rendering persons invisible: the seed of fern is itself invisible; therefore to find it was a magic operation, and in the use it was supposed to communicate its own property. 6 *Purchase* was anciently understood in the sense of *gain, profit*, whether legally or illegally obtained. The commentators are wrong in saying that it meant stolen goods.

7 This allusion we often meet with in the old comedies. Thus in *The Malecontent*, 1604—*I'll come among you, like *grum* into taffeta, to *fret, fret*.* Velvet and taffeta were sometimes stiffened with gum; but the consequence was, that the stuff being thus hardened, quickly rubbed and fretted itself out.

8 I. e. the *square* or measure. A carpenter's rule was called a *square*; from *espieterre*, *Fr.*

9 Alluding to the vulgar notion of *love-powers*. 10 *To colt* is to *trick, fool, or deceive*; perhaps from the wild tricks of a colt.

11 I. e. be his lot or portion happiness. This proverbial phrase has been already explained in the notes on *The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew*, and *Winter's Tale*.

## SCENE IV.

## KING HENRY IV.

443

**Fal.** What manner of man is he?

Jack, your reason.

**Fal.** What doth gravity out of his bed at mid-
night?—Shall I give him his answer?

**P. Hen.** 'Pr'ythee, do, Jack.

**Fal.** 'Faith, and I'll send him packing.

*[Exit.]*

**P. Hen.** Now, sirs; by'r lady, you fought fair; —so did you, Peto;—so did you, Bardolph: you are lions too, you can away from instinct; you will not touch the true prince, no,—ye!

**Bard.** 'Faith, I ran when I saw others.

**P. Hen.** Tell me now in earnest, How came Fal-
staff's word so hacked?

**Peto.** Why, he hacked it with his dagger; and
said, he would swear truth out of England, but he
would make you believe it was done in fight; and
persuaded us to do the like.

**Bard.** Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-
grass, to make them bleed; and then to beslubber
our garments with it, and to swear it was the blood
of true men. I did that I did not this seven year
before, I blushed to hear his monstrous devices.

**P. Hen.** O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack
eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the man-
ner,¹ and ever since thou hast blushed extempore:
Thou hast fire² and sword on thy side, and yet
thy ran'st away; What instinct hast thou for it?

**Bard.** My lord, do you see these meteors? do
you behold these exhalations?

**P. Hen.** I do.

**Bard.** What think you they portend?

**P. Hen.** Hot livers and cold purses.³

**Bard.** Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.

**P. Hen.** No, if rightly taken, halter.

*Re-enter FALSTAFF.*

Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How
now, my sweet creature of bombast?⁴ How long
is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?

**Fal.** My own knee? when I was about thy years,
Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; I
could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring:⁵
A plague of sighing and grief! it blows a man up
like a bladder. There's villainous news abroad:
here was Sir John Bracy from your father; you
must to the court in the morning. That same
mad fellow of the north, Percy; and he of Wales,
that gave Amaimon⁶ the bastinado, and made Luci-
fericknung, and swore the devil his true liegeman
upon the cross of a Welsh hook?—What, a plague,
call you him?—

**Potts.** O, Glendower.

**Fal.** Owen, Owen; the same;—and his son-in-
law, Mortimer; and old Northumberland; and that
spightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o'horse-
back up a hill perpendicular.

**P. Hen.** He that rides at high speed, and with
his pistol⁷ kills a sparrow flying.

**Fal.** You have hit it.

John Blower, in a sermon before her majesty, first
said:—'My royal queen,' and a little after, 'My noble
queen.' Upon which says the queen, 'What, am I ten
groats worse than I was?—'Hearne's Discourse of some
aniquities between Windsor and Oxford.'

1. i. e. taken in the fact. See Love's Labour's Lost,
Act i. Sc. 1.

2. The fire in Bardolph's face.

3. i. e. drunkenness and poverty.

4. i. e. 'my sweet stuffed creature?' Bombast is cotton. Gerard calls the cotton plant the bombast tree. It is here used for the stuffing of clothes. See a note on Love's Labour's Lost, Act v. Sc. 2.

5. The custom of wearing a ring upon the thumb is
very ancient. The rider of the brazen horse in Chau-
cer's Squiers Tale:—

'—upon his thombe he had a ring of gold.'

Grave personages, citizens, and aldermen wore a plain
had gold ring upon the thumb, which often had a
motto engraved in the inside of it. An alderman's
thumb-ring, and its motto, is mentioned in The Antipo-
des, by B्रömæ.

6. A demon; who is described as one of the four kings
who rule over all the demons in the world.

7. The Welsh hook was a kind of hedging bill made
with a hook at the end, and a long handle like the par-

**P. Hen.** So did he never the sparrow.

**Fal.** Well, that rascal hath some mettle in him;
he will not run.

**P. Hen.** Why, what a rascal art thou then, to
praise him so for running?

**Fal.** O'horseback, ye cuckoo! but, afoot, he will
not budge a foot.

**P. Hen.** Yes, Jack, upon instinct.

**Fal.** I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there
too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue-caps⁹
more: Worcester is stolen away to-night; thy fa-
ther's beard is turned white with the news: you
may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackarel,

**P. Hen.** Why then, 'tis like, if there come a hot
June, and this civil buffeting hold, we should buy
maidenheads as they buy hob-nails, by the hun-
dreds.

**Fal.** By the mass, lad, thou sayest true; it is
like, we shall have good trading that way.—But,
tell me, Hal, art thou not horribly afraid? thou
being his apparent, couldst the world pick thee out
three such enemies again, as that fiend Douglas,
that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower? — Art
thou not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill
at it?

**P. Hen.** Not a whit, i'faith; I lack some of thy
instinct.

**Fal.** Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow,
when thou comest to thy father: if thou love me,
practise an answer.

**P. Hen.** Do thou stand for my father, and exa-
mine me upon the particulars of my life.

**Fal.** Shall I? content:—This chair shall be my
state,¹⁰ this dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my
crown.

**P. Hen.** Thy state is taken for a joint-stool, thy
golden sceptre for a leaden dagger, and thy preci-
ous rich crown, for a pitiful bald crown!

**Fal.** Well, an the fire of grace he not quite out
of thee, now shall thou be moved.—Give me a cup
of sack, to make mine eyes look red, that it may be
thought I have wept; for I must speak in passion,
and I will do it in King Cambyses¹¹ vein.

**P. Hen.** Well, here is my leg.¹²

**Fal.** And here is my speech:—Stand aside, no-
bility.

**Host.** This is excellent sport, i'faith.

**Fal.** Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears
are vain.

**Host.** O, the father, how he holds his counte-
nance!

**Fal.** For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful
queen,

For tears do stop the flood-gates of her eyes.¹³

**Host.** O rare! he doth it as like one of these
harlotry players, as I ever see.

**Fal.** Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-
brain.—Harry, I do not only marvel where thou

tisan or halbert. 'The Welsh glaive,' (which appears
to be the same thing.) Grose says, 'is a kind of bill some-
times reckoned among the pole-axes.'

8. Pistols were not in use in the age of Henry IV.
They are said to have been much used by the Scotch in
Shakespeare's time.

9. Scotsmen, on account of their blue bonnets.

10. In the old anonymous play of King Henry V. the
same strain of humour is discoverable:—'Thou shall
be my lord chief justice, and shall sit in this chair; and
I'll be the young prince, and hit thee a box of the ear,'
&c. A state is a chair with a canopy over it.

11. The banter is here upon the play called A Lamen-
table Tragédie mixed full of pleasant Mirth, contain-
ing the Life of Cambises, King of Persia, by Thomas
Preston [1570.] There is a marginal direction in this play,
'At this tale tolde, let the queen weep,' which is prob-
ably alluded to, though the measure in the parody is
not the same with that of the original.

12. i. e. my obediæs.

13. Thus in Cambyses:—

'Queen. These words to hear makes stilling tears
issue from crystal eyes.'

Ritson thinks that the following passage in Soliman and
Perseda is glanced at:—

'How can mine eyes dart forth a pleasant look,

When they are slopp'd with floods of flowing tears?'

444

FIRST PART OF

ACT II.

spendest thy time, but also how thou art accom-
panied: for though the camomile, the more it is
trodden on, the faster it grows, yet youth, the more
it is wasted, the sooner it wears, that thou art my
son, I have partly thy mother's word, partly my
own opinion; but chiefly, a villainous trick of thine
eye, and a foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that
doth warrant me. If then thou be son to me, here
lies the point;—Why, being son to me, art thou so
doth pointed at? Shall the blessed sun of heaven prove
a micher,¹ and eat blackberries? a question not to
be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief,
and tako purses? a question to be asked. There is
a thing, Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and
it is known to many in our land by the name of
pitch: this pitch, as ancient writers do report, doth
defile; so doth the company thou keepest: for,
Harry, now I do not speak to thee in drink, but in
tears; not in pleasure, but in passion; not in words
only, but in woes also:—And yet there is a virtu-
ous man, whom I have often noted in thy company,
but I know not his name.

P. Hen. What manner of man, an it like your
majesty?

Fal. A good portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent
of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble
carriage; and, as I think, his age some fifty, or
by'r-lady, inclining to threescore; And now I re-
member me, his name is Falstaff: if that man should
be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I
see virtue in his looks. If then the tree may be
known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then,
peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that
Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. And tell
me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where hast
thou been this month?

P. Hen. Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and I'll play my father.

Fal. Depose me? if thou dost it half so gravely,
so majestically, both in word and matter, hang me
up by the heels for a rabbet-sucker,² or a poulter's
hare.

P. Hen. Well, here I am set.

Fal. And here I stand:—judge, my masters.

P. Hen. Now, Harry? whence come you?

Fal. My noble lord, from Eastcheap.

P. Hen. The complaints I hear of thee are griev-
ous.

Fd. 'Sblood, my lord, they are false:—nay, I'll
tickle ye for a young prince, i'faith.

P. Hen. Swear'st thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. 'Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts thee, in the likeness of a fat old man: a tun of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch³ of beastliness, that swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard⁴ of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree⁵ ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that gray iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to taste sack and drink it? wherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon and eat it? wherein cunning, but in craft? wherein crafty, but in villainy? wherein villainous, but in all things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?

1 A *micher* here signifies a *truant*. So in an old phrase book, Hormanni Bulgaria, 1509:—'He is a *mychar* vagus est non discolus.' To *mich* was to skulk, to hide; and hence the word sometimes also signified a *skulking thief*, and sometimes a *miser*. In Lyly's Mother Bomble, 1594, we have: 'How like a *micher* he stands, as if he had *truanted* from honesty.'

2 A young rabbit.

3 The machine which separates flour from bran.

4 A *bombard* was a very large leathern vessel to hold drink, perhaps so called from its similarity to a sort of cannon of the same name. That it was not a barrel, as some have supposed, is evident from the following passage:—

'His boots as wide as the black jacks,
Or *bombard's* toss'd by the king's guards.'

*Shirley's Martyr'd Soldier.*

5 *Manningtree*, in Essex, formerly enjoyed the privi-

Fal. I would, your grace would take me with you;⁶ Whom means your grace?

P. Hen. That villainous abominable misleader of
youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.

Fal. My lord, the man I know.

P. Hen. I know, thou dost.

Fal. But to say, I know more harm in him than
in myself, were to say more than I know. 'That he
is old (the more the pity,) his white hairs do witness
it: but that he is (saving your reverence) a whore-
master, that I utterly deny. If sack and sugar be
a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and
merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know,
is damned: if to be fat be to be hated, then Pha-
raoh's lean kine are to be loved. No, my good
lord; banish Peto, banish Bardolph, banish Poins;
but for sweet Jack Falstaff; kind Jack Falstaff;
true Jack Falstaff, valiant Jack Falstaff; and there-
fore more valiant, being as he is, old Jack Falstaff,
banish not him thy Harry's company; banish plump
Jack, and banish all the world.

P. Hen. I do, I will.

[A knocking heard.

[Ezekialt Hostess, FRANCIS, and BARDOLPH.

Re-enter BARDOLPH, running.

Bard. O, my lord, my lord; the sheriff, with a
most monstrous watch, is at the door.

Fal. Out, you rogue! play out the play; I have
much to say in the behalf of that Falstaff.

Re-enter Hostess, hastily.

Host. O Jesu, my lord! my lord!—

Fal. Heigh, heigh! the devil rides upon a fiddlestick: What's the matter?

Host. The sheriff and all the watch are at the
door: they are come to search the house: Shall I
let them in?

Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? never call a true
piece of gold, a counterfeit: thou art essentially
mad, without seeming so.

P. Hen. And thou a natural coward, without
instinct.

Fal. I deny your major: if you will deny the
sheriff so; if not, let him enter: if I become not a
cart as well as another man, a plague on my bring-
ing up! I hope, I shall as soon be strangled with a
halter as another.

P. Hen. Go, hide thee behind the arras;—the
rest walk up above. Now, my masters, for a true
face, and good conscience.

Fal. Both which I have had: but their date is
out, and therefore I'll hide me.

[Ezekialt all but the Prince and Poins.

P. Hen. Call in the sheriff.—

Enter Sheriff and Carrier.

Now, master Sheriff; what's your will with me?

Sher. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
Hath follow'd certain men unto this house.

P. Hen. What men?

Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord,
a gross fat man.

Car. As fat as butter.

P. Hen. The man, I do assure you, is not here;
For I myself at this time have employ'd him.

And, Sheriff, I will engage you to that,
That I will, by to-morrow dinner time,

Send him to answer thee, or any man,

For any thing he shall be charg'd withal:

And so let me entreat you leave the house.

lege of fairs, by exhibiting a certain number of stage
plays yearly. It appears from other intimations that
there were great festivities there, and much good eating
at Whitsun ales, &c.

6 I. e. go no faster than I can follow.

7 When arras was first brought into England, it was
suspended on small hooks driven into the walls of hou-
es and castles; but this practice was soon discontinued.
After the damp of the stone and brickwork had been
found to rot the tapestry, it was fixed on frames of wood
at such distance from the wall as prevented the damp
from being injurious; large spaces were thus left be-
tween the arras and the walls, sufficient to contain even
one of Falstaff's bulk. Our old dramatists avail them-
selves of this convenient hiding place upon all occasions.

["FIRST PART OF", "Act II.", "446", "England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,¹", "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.", "And our indentures tripartite are drawn:", "Which being sealed interchangeably,", "(A business that this night may execute.)", "To-morrow, cousin Percy, you, and I,", "And my good lord of Worcester, will set forth,", "To meet your father, and the Scottish power,", "As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury.", "My father Glendower is not ready yet,", "Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days:--", "Within that space [To GLEND.] you may have drawn together", "Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen.", "Glend. A shorter time shall send me to you, lords,\nAnd in my conduct shall your ladies come:", "From whom you now must steal, and take no leave ;", "For there will be a world of water shed,", "Upon the parting of your wives and you.", "Hot. Methinks, my moiety,² north from Burton here,", "In quantity equals not one of yours :", "See, how this river comes me cranking³ in,", "And cuts me from the best of all my land,", "A huge half moon, and monstrous cantle⁴ out.", "I'll have the current in this place damm'd up ;", "And here the smug and silver Trent shall run,", "In a new channel, fair and evenly :", "It shall not wind with such a deep indent,", "To rob me of so rich a bottom here.", "Glend. Not wind ? it shall, it must ; you see, it\ndoth.", "Mort. Yea,", "But mark, how he bears his course, and runs me up", "With like advantage on the other side ;", "Gelding the opposed continent as much,", "As on the other side it takes from you.", "Wor. Yea, but a little charge will trench him here,", "And on this north side win this cape of land ;", "And then he runs straight and even.", "Hot. I'll have it so ; a little charge will do it.", "Glend. I will not have it alter'd.", "Hot.", "Will not you ?", "Glend. No, nor you shall not.", "Hot.", "Who shall say me any ?", "Glend. Why, that will I.", "Hot.", "Let me not understand you then,", "Speak it in Welsh.", "Glend. I can speak English, lord, as well as you ;\nFor I was train'd up in the English court ;⁵", "Where, being but young, I framed to the harp", "Many an English ditty, lovely well,", "And gave the tongue a helpful ornament ;⁶", "A virtue that was never seen in you.", "Hot. Marry, and I'm glad of it with all my heart ;\nI had rather be a kitten, and cry—mew,", "Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers :", "I had rather hear a brazen canstick² turn'd,", "Or a dry wheel grate on an axle-tree ;", "And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,", "Nothing so much as mincing poetry ;", "“Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag.", "1 i. e. to this spot (pointing to the map.)", "2 A *moiety* was frequently used by the writers of Shakspeare's age as a portion of any thing, though not divided into equal parts.", "3 To crank is to crook, to turn in and out. *Crankling* is used by Drayton in the same sense: speaking of a river, he says that Meander:", "⁴Hath not so many turns and *crankling* nooks as she ;", "4 A *cante* is a portion, a part, a corner or fragment of any thing. The French had *chantear* and *chantel*, and the Italians *canto* and *cantone* in the same sense.", "5 Owen Glendower's real name was Owen ap-Gryf-fyth Vaughan. He took the name of Glendower from the lordship of which he was the owner.", "6 This disputed passage seems to me to mean that he gave to the language the helpful ornament of *verse*. Hotspur's answer shows that he took it in that sense.", "Glend. Come, you shall have Trent turn'd.", "Hot. I do not care: I'll give thrice so much land\nTo any well-deserving friend;", "But, in the way of bargain, mark ye me,", "I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.", "Are the indentures drawn ? shall we be gone?", "Glend. The moon shines fair, you may away by\nnight:", "I'll in and haste the writer,⁸ and, withal,", "Break with your wives of your departure hence:", "I am afraid, my daughter will run mad,", "So much she doteth on her Mortimer.", "Mort. Fye, cousin Percy! how you cross my father!", "Hot. I cannot choose: sometimes he angers me,\nWith telling me of the moldwarp⁹ and the ant,\nOf the dreamer Merlin and his prophecies ;\nAnd of a 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. I tell you what,—", "He held me, last night, at least nine hours,", "In reckoning up the several devils' names,", "That were his lackeys: I cried, humph,—and well,\n—go to,—", "But mark'd him not a word. O, he's as tedious", "As is a tired horse, a railing wife;", "Worse than a smoky house ;—I had rather live", "With cheese and garlick, in a windmill, far,", "Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me,", "In any summer-house in christendom.", "Mort. In faith, he is a worthy gentleman;", "Exceedingly well read, and profited", "In strange concealments;¹⁰ valiant as a lion,", "And wondrous affable: and as bountiful", "As mines of India. Shall I tell you, cousin?", "He holds your temper in a high respect,", "And curbs himself even of his natural scope,", "When you do cross his humour ; 'faith, he does :", "I warrant you, that man is not alive,", "Might so have tempted him as you have done,", "Without the taste of danger and reproof;", "But do not use it oft, let me entreat you.", "Hot. Well, in faith, my lord, you are too wilful-\nblame;¹¹", "And since your coming hither, have done enough\nTo put him quite beside his patience.", "You must needs learn, lord, to amend this fault:", "Though sometimes it show greatness, courage, blood,", "(And that's the dearest grace it renders you.)", "Yet oftentimes it doth present harsh rage,", "Defect of manners, want of government,", "Pride, haughtiness, opinion,¹³ and disdain:", "The least of which, haunting a nobleman,", "Loseth men's hearts; and leaves behind a stain", "Upon the beauty of all parts besides,\nBeguiling them of commendation.", "Here come our wives, and let us take our leave.", "Re-enter GLENDOWER, with the Ladies.", "Mort. This is the deadly spite that angers me,—\nMy wife can speak

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY IV.

447

Glend. My daughter weeps; she will not part with you,

She'll be a soldier too, she'll to the wars.

Mort. Good father, tell her,—that she, and my aunt Percy,

Shall follow in your conduct¹ speedily.

[Glend. speaks to his daughter in Welsh, and she answers him in the same.

Glend. She's desperate here; a peevish self-will'd harlotry,²

One that no persuasion can do good upon.

[LADY M. speaks to MORTIMER in Welsh.

Mort. I understand his looks: that pretty Welsh Which thou pourest down from these swelling hearts,³

I am too perfect in; and, but for shame,

In such a parley would I answer thee.

[LADY M. speaks.

I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,

And that's a feeling disputation:

But I will never be a truant, love,

Till I have learn'd thy language; for thy tongue

Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,

Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,

With ravishing division, to her lute.⁴

Glend. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.

[LADY M. speaks again.

Mort. O, I am ignorance itself in this.

Glend. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down,⁵

And rest your gentle head upon her lap,

And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,

And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,⁶

Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness;

Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep,

As is the difference betwixt day and night,

The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team

Begins his golden progress in the east.

Mort. With all my heart I'll sit, and hear her sing:

By that time will our book,⁷ I think, be drawn.

Glend. Do so.

And those musicians that shall play to you,

Hang in the air a thousand leagues hence;

And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.

Mort. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down: Come, quick, quick; that I may lay my head in thy lap.

Lady P. Go, ye giddy goose.

[Glendenower speaks some Welsh words, and then the Music plays.

Hot. Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh;

And 'tis no marvel, he's so humorous.

By'r-lady, he's a good musician.

Lady P. Then should you be nothing but musical; for you are altogether governed by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.

Hot. I had rather hear *Lady*, my brach,⁹ howl in Irish.

Lady P. Would'st thou have thy head broken?

Hot. No.

Lady P. Then be still.

Hot. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault.⁹

Lady P. Now God help thee!

Hot. To the Welsh lady's bed.

Lady P. What's that?

Hot. Peace! she sings.

[A Welsh song sung by LADY M.

Hot. Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.

Lady P. Not mine, in good sooth.

Hot. Not yours, in good sooth! 'Heart, you swear like a confit-maker's wife! Not you, in good sooth: and, As true as I live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day:

And giy'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,

As if thou never walk'st further than Finsbury.¹⁰

Swear me, Kate, like a lady, as thou art,

A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in oath,

And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,

To velvet-guards,¹¹ and Sunday-citizens.

Come, sing.

Lady P. I will not sing.

Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be red-breast teacher.¹² An the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours; and so come in when ye will.

[Exit.]

Glend. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow,

As hot lord Percy is on fire to go.

By this our book's drawn; we'll but seal, and then To horse immediately.

Mort. With all my heart. [Exeunt.]

### SCENE II. London.
*A Room in the Palace. Enter KING HENRY, Prince of Wales, and Lords.*

K. Hen. Lords, give us leave: the Prince of Wales and I

Must have some private conference: But be near at hand,

For we shall presently have need of you.

[Exeunt Lords.

I know not whether God will have it so,

For some displeasing service¹³ I have done,

That in his secret doon, out of my blood

He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;

But thou dost, in thy passages of life,

Make me believe,—that thou art only mark'd

For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven,

To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,

Could such inordinate, and low desires,

Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean at-tempts,¹⁴

Such barren pleasures, rude society,

As thou art match'd withal, and grafted to,

nant, &c.—In a MS. letter from Sir Richard Sackville, in 1560, to Lady Throckmorton, announcing a *grant* of some land to her husband Sir Nicholas, he says, 'I hath pleased the queen's majesty to sign Mr. Frogmorton's book.'—*Conway Papers.*

8 Hound.

9 That this is spoken ironically is sufficiently obvious, as Mr. Pye has observed; but the strange attempts to misunderstand the passage made by some commentators, make the observation in some measure necessary.

10 *Finsbury*, being then open walks and fields, was the common resort of the citizens, as appears from many old plays.

11 *Velvet-guards*, or *trimmings of velvet*, being the city fashion in Shakspeare's time, the term was used metaphorically to designate such persons.

12 Tailors, like weavers, have ever been remarkable for their vocal skill. Percy is jocular in his mode of persuading his wife to sing; and this is a humorous turn which he gives to his argument, 'Come, sing.'—'I will not sing.'—'Tis the next (i. e. readiest, nearest) way to turn tailor or redbreast teacher.' The meaning is, 'to sing is to put yourself upon a level with tailors and teachers of birds.'

13 *Service*, for action.

14 *Mean attempts are mean, unworthy undertakings.*

*Levd*, in this place, has its original signification of *idle, ungracious, naughty*.

1 Guard, escort.

2 Capulet, in Romeo and Juliet, reproaches his daughter in the same words:

3 It seems extraordinary that Steevens could for a moment conceive that Mortimer meant his *lady's* two *prominent lips*! It is obvious, as Mr. Douce has remarked, that *her eyes swollen with tears* are meant, whose language he is too perfect in, and could answer with the like if it were not for shame.

4 A compliment to Queen Elizabeth was perhaps here intended, who was a performer on the lute and virginals. See Melvill's *Memoirs*, folio, p. 50. *Divisions*, which were then uncommon in vocal music, are *variations of melody from some given fundamental harmony*.

5 It has been already remarked, that it was long the custom in this country to strew the floors with rushes, as we now do then with carpets.

6 So in Beaumont and Fletcher's *Pilaster*:

— who shall take his lute,

And touch it till he *crown a silent sleep Upon his eyelid*.

The God of Sleep is not only to sit on Mortimer's eyelids, but to *sit crowned*, that is, with sovereign dominion.

7 It was usual to call any manuscript of bulk a *book* in ancient times, such as patents, grants, articles, cove-

FIRST PART OF

ACT III

448

Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
And hold their level with thy princely heart?

P. Hen. So please your majesty, I would I could
Quit all offences with as clear excuse,
As well as, I am doubtless, I can purge
Myself of many I am charg'd withal:
Yet such extenuation let me beg,¹
As, in reproof of many tales devis'd,—
Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,—
By smiling pickthanks² and base newsmongers,
I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander'd and irregular,
Find pardon on my true submission.

K. Hen. God pardon thee!—yet let me wonder,
Harry

At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost,³
Which by thy younger brother is supplied;
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd; and the soul of every man
Prophetically does forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession;⁴
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at:
That men would tell their children, *This is he*;
Others would say,—*Where? which is Bolingbroke*?
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,⁵
And dress'd myself in such humility,
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh, and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Nè'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom, but sumptuous, showed like a feast;
And won, by rareness, such solemnity.
The skipping king, he ambled up and down.
With shallow jesters, and rash bavin'⁶ wits,
Soon kindled, and soon burn'd: carded⁷ his state;
Mingled his royalty with carping⁸ fools;
Had his great name profaned with their scorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
Of every beardless vain comparative:⁹
Grew a companion to the common streets,

1 The construction of this passage is somewhat obscure. Johnson thus explains it:—'Let me beg so much extenuation, that *upon confutation of many false charges, I may be pardoned some which are true.*' Re-proof means *disproof*.

2 A sycophant, a flatterer, one who is studious to gain favour, or to *pick* occasions for obtaining *thanks*.

3 This appears to be an anachronism. The prince's removal from council, in consequence of his striking the Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne, was some years after the battle of Shrewsbury, (1403.). His brother the duke of Clarence was appointed president in his room, and he was not created a duke till 1411.

4 True to him that had then possession of the crown.

5 Massinger, in The Great Duke of Florence, has adopted this expression:—

'—_________ Giovanni,'

A prince in expectation, when he lived here
*Stole courtesy from heaven*; and would not to

The meanest servant in my father's house
Have kept such distance.

Mr. Gifford, in the following note on this passage, gives the best explanation of the phrase, which the commen-tators have altogether mistaken:—'The plain meaning of the phrase is, that the affability and sweetness of Gio-vanni were of a heavenly kind, i. e. more perfect than was usually found among men, resembling that divine condescension which excludes none from its regard, and, therefore, immediately derived or *stolen* from heaven, from whence all good proceeds. The word *stolen* here

Enfooff'd¹⁰ himself to popularity:
That being daily swallow'd by men's eyes,
They surfeited with honey; and began
To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much.
So, when he had occasion to be seen,
He was but as the cuckoo is in June,
Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes,
As, sick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze,
Such as is bent on sunlikeness,
When it shines seldom in admiring eyes;
But rather drowz'd; and hung their eyelids down,
Slept in his face, and render'd such aspect
As cloudy men use to their adversaries;
Being with his presence glutted, gorg'd, and full.
And in that very line, Harry, standest thou:
For thou hast lost thy princely privilege,
With vile participation; not an eye
But is a-weaky of thy common sight,
Save mine, which hath desir'd to see thee more;
Which now doth that I would not have it do,
Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

P. Hen. I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord,
Be more myself.

K. Hen. For all the world,
As thou art to this hour, was Richard then
When I from France set foot at Ravenspurg;
And even as I was then, is Percy now.
Now by my sceptre, and my soul to boot,
He hath more worthy interest to the state,¹¹
Than thou, the shadow of succession:
For, of no right, nor colour like to right,
He doth field fields with harness in the realm;
Turns head against the lion's armed jaws;
And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on,
To bloody battles, and to bruising arms.
What never-dying honour hath he got.
Against renowned Douglas; whose high deeds,
Whose hot incursions, and great name in arms,
Holds from all soldiers chief majority,
And military title capital;
Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ?
Thrice hath this Hotspur Mars in swathing clothes,
This infant warrior, in his enterprises
Discomfited great Douglas; ta'en him once,
Enlarged him, and made a friend of him,
To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,
And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland,
The archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer,
Capitulate¹² against us, and be up.
But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?

means little else than *to win by imperceptible progression, by gentle violence*.

6 Bavins are brushwood, or small fagots used for lighting fires.

7 To card is to mix, or debase by mixing. The me-taphor is probably taken from mingling *coarse* wool with *fine*, and *carding* them together, thereby unminishing the value of the latter. The phrase is used by other writers for to mingle or mix.

8 The quarto, 1598, reads *capring*. The quarto, 1599, and subsequent old copies, read *carping*, which I am inclined to think from the context is the word which Shakespeare wrote. 'A carping momus,' and 'a car-ping fool,' were very common expressions in that age.

9 i. e. every beardless vain young fellow who affected wit, or was a *dealer in comparisons*. Vide Act i. Sc. 2.

10 i. e. *gave himself up*, absolutely and entirely, *to popularity*. To enfoff is a law term, signifying *to give or grant any thing to another in fee simple*.

11 'Interest to the state.' We should now write *in the state*; but this was the phraseology of the poet's time. So in The Winter's Tale, 'he is less frequent to his princely exercises than formerly.' 'Thou hast but the shadow of succession, compared with the more worthy interest in the state (i. e. great popularity) which he pos-sesses.'

12 To capitulate, according to the old dictionaries, formerly signified *to make articles of agreement*. The nobles enumerated had entered into such articles, or *confederated* against the king.

SCIENCE

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### SCENE III.

### KING HENRY IV.

Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,
Which art my near'st and dearest¹ enemy?
Thou that art like enough,—through vassal fear,
Base inclination, and the start of spleen—
To fight against me under Percy's pay,
To dog his heels, and court'sy at his frowns,
To show how much degenerate thou art.

P. Hen. Do not think so, you shall not find it so;
And God forgive them, that have so much sway'd
Your majesty's good thoughts away from me!
I will redeem all this on Percy's head,
And, in the closing of some glorious day,
Be bold to tell you, that I am your son;
When I will wear a garment all of blood,
And stain my favours² in a bloody mask,
Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it.
And that shall be the day, whenè'er it lights,
That this same child of honour and renown,
This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,
And your unthought-of Harry, chance to meet:
For every honour sitting on his helm,
'Would they were multitudes; and on my head
My shames redoubled! for the time will come,
That I shall make this northern youth exchange
His glorious deeds for my indignities.
Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
And I will call him to so strict account,
That he shall render every glory up,
Yea, even the slightest worship of his time,
Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
This, in the name of God, I promise here:
The which if he be pleas'd I shall perform,
I must beesech your majesty, may salve
The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:
If not, the end of life parcels all bands;³
And I break the smallest parcel⁴ of this vow.

K. Hen. A hundred thousand rebels die in this:—
Thou shall have charge, and sovereign trust, herein.

### Enter BLUNT.

How now, good Blunt? thy looks are full of speed.

Blunt. So hath the business that I come to
speak of.

Lord Mortimer of Scotland⁵ hath sent word,—
That Douglas, and the English rebels, met,
The eleventh of this month, at Shrewsbury:
A mighty and a fearful head they are,
If promises be kept on every hand,
As ever offered'd foul play in a state.

K. Hen. The earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day;
With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster;
For this advertisement⁶ is five days old:—

On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set
Forward; on Thursday, we ourselves will march:
Our meeting is Bridgnorth: and, Harry, you

1 See p. 119, note 5.

2 Favouries is probably here used for colours; the scarf by which a knight of rank was distinguished.

3 Bonds.

4 Part.

3 There was no such person as Lord Mortimer of
Scotland; but there was a Lord March of Scotland,
(George Dunbar,) who having quitted his own country,
in disgust, attached himself so warmly to the English,
and did them such signal services in their wars with
Scotland, that the parliament petitioned the king to be-
stow some reward on him. He fought on the side of
King Henry in this rebellion, and was the means of
saving his life at the battle of Shrewsbury. The poet
recollected that there was a Scottish lord on the king's
side, who bore the same title with the English family on
the rebels' side, (one being earl of March in England,
the other earl of March in Scotland,) but his memory
deceived him as to the particular name which was com-
mon to both. He took it to be Mortimer instead of
Mortimer.

4 Intelligence.

7 Feeds himself fat.

8 Liking is condition, plight of body. 'If one be in
better plight of body, or better liking?

9 That Falstaff was unlike a brewer's horse may be
collected from a conundrum in The Devil's Cabinet
Opened:—'What is the difference between a drunkard
and a brewer's horse?—Because one carries all his

Shall march through Glostershire; by which account,

Our business valued, some twelve days hence
Our general forces at Bridgnorth shall meet.
Our hands are full of business: let's away;
Advantage feeds him? fat, while men depart.

### [Exeunt.]

### SCENE III. Eastcheap.
A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern. Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH.

Fal. Bardolph, am I not fallen away viley since
this last action? do I not bate? do I not dwindle ?
Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady's
loose gown; I am wither'd like an old apple-John.
Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in
some liking;⁹ I shall be out of heart shortly, and
then I shall have no strength to repent. An I have
not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of,
I am a pepper-corn, a brewer's horse:¹⁰ the inside
of a church! Company, villanous company, hath
been the spoil of me.

Bard. Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot
live long.

Fal. Why, there is it :—come, sing me a bawdy
song; make me merry. I was as virtuously given,
as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough: swore
little; diced, not above seven times a week; went
to a bawdy-house, not above once in a quarter—of
an hour; paid money that I borrowed, three or four
times; lived well, and in good compass: and now I
live out of all order, out of all compass.

Bard. Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you
must needs be out of all compass; out of all reason-
able compass, Sir John.

Fal. Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my
life: Thou art our admiral,¹¹ thou bearest the lantern
in the poop,—but 'tis in the nose of thee: thou art
the knight of the burning lamp.

Bard. Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm.

Fal. No, I'll be sworn; I make as good use of
it as any a man doth of a death's head, or a
memento mori: I never see thy face, but I think
upon hell-fire, and Dives that lived in purple; for
there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou
wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy
face; my oath should be, By this fire: but thou art
altogether given over; and wert indeed, but for
the light in thy face, the son of utter darkness. When
thou ranst up Gads-hill in the night to catch my
horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis
fatuus, or a ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in
money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an ever-
lasting bonfire-light! Thou hast saved me a thousand
marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the
night betwixt tavern and tavern:¹¹ but the sack
that thou hast drunk me, would have bought me
lights as good cheap,¹² at the dearest chandler's in

liquor on his back, and the other in his belly. Malt
horse, which is the same thing, was a common term of
reproach, and is used elsewhere by Shakspeare, and by
Ben Jonson.

10 So Decker, in his Wonderful Year, 1605:—'An an-
tiquary might have pickt rare matter out of his nose,—
The Hamburghers offered I know not how many dollars
for his company in an East Indian voyage, to have stood
a nights in the poope of their admiral, only to save the
charges of candles.' That it was an old joke appears
from a passage in Bullein's Dialogue against the Fever
Pestilence, 1578, cited by Malone.

11 Stevens has taken occasion here to mention that
candles and lanterns to let were then cried about Lon-
don, the streets not being then lighted.

12 Cheap being derived from KAVPON, Gothic, is the
past participle of cypan, Sax. to traffic, to bargain, to
buy and sell. Good cheap was therefore a good bar-
gain. Our ancestors not only used good cheap, but
better cheap, in the sense which we now use cheap and
cheaper. Tooke thinks that bad-cheap was also used,
but has adduced no example. Baret translates the ova
vilia of Horace by good cheap eggs; and the minoris
vendere aliquid, of Plautus, to sell better-cheap.
Cheap and cheaping therefore came to signify a market,
which led Johnson to suppose that good-cheap was de-
rived from a bon marche. All the northern dialects

57

450

FIRST PART OF

ACT III.

Europe. I have maintained that salamander of
yours with fire, any time this two and thirty years;
Heaven reward me for it!

Bard. 'Sblood, I would my face were in your
belly!

Fal. God-a-mercy! so should I be sure to be
heart-burned.

Enter Hostess.

How now, dame Quartlet the hen ? have you inquired
yet, who picked my pocket?

Host. Why, Sir John ! what do you think, Sir
John? Do you think I keep thieves in my house?
I have searched, I have inquired, so has my hus-
band, man by man, boy by boy, servant by ser-
vant: the tithe of a hair was never lost in my house
before.

Fal. You lie, hostess; Bardolph was shaved and
lost many a hair: and I'll be sworn, my pocket was
picked: Go to, you are a woman, go.

Host. Who I! I defy thee: I was never called so
in mine own house before.

Fal. Go to, I know you well enough.

Host. No, Sir John; you do not know me, Sir
John: I know you, Sir John: you owe me money,
Sir John, and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me
of it: I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back.

Fal. Dowlas, filthy dowlas: I have given them
away to bakers' wives, and they have made bolters
of them.

Host. Now, as I am a true woman, holland
of eight shillings an ell.¹ You owe money here be-
sides, Sir John, for your diet, and by-drinkings, and
money lent you, four and twenty pound.

Fal. He had his part of it; let him pay.

Host. He? alas, he is poor; he hath nothing.

Fal. How! poor? look upon his face; What call
you rich? let them coin his nose, let them coin his
cheeks; I'll not pay a denier. What, will you
make a younker² of me? shall I not take mine ease
in mine inn,³ but I shall have my pocket picked? I
have lost a seal-ring of my grandfather's worth forty
mark.

Host. O Jesu! I have heard the prince tell him,
I know not how oft, that that ring was copper.

Fal. How! the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup;
and, if he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog,
if he would say so.

Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS, marching.

FALSTAFF meets the Prince, playing on his
truncheon like a fife.

Fal. How now, lad? is the wind in that door,
i'faith? must we all march?

Bard. Yea, two and two, Newgate-fashion?

Host. My lord, I pray you, hear me.

P. Hen. What sayest thou, mistress Quickly?
How does thy husband? I love him well, he is an
honest man.

Host. Good my lord, hear me.

Fal. Pr'ythee, let her alone, and list to me.

P. Hen. What sayest thou, Jack?

have the same form of speech that our ancestors used;
thus *godt-kop*, *betre kop*, in Swedish; *got kiob*, *better
kiob*, in Danish, &c. Florio has 'buon-mercato, *good-
cheape*, a good bargaine.'

1 *Eight shillings an ell*, for holland linen, appears a
high price for the time, but hear Stubbes in his Anatomie
of Abuses:—'In so much as I have heard of shirts that
have cost some ten shillinges, some twentie, some fortie,
some five pound, some twentie nobles, and (which is
horrible to heare) some ten pound a peece, yea the
meaneest shirte that commoely is worn of any does cost
the a crowne or a noble at the least; and yet that is scarcely
tought fine enough for the simplest person.'

2 *Younker* is here used for a novice, a dupe, or a per-
son thoughtless through inexperience.

3 This was a common phrase for *enjoying one's self
in quiet, as if at home*; not very different in its applica-
tion from that maxim, *Every man's house is his castle*.
*Inne* originally signified a house or habitation. When
the word began to change its meaning, and to be used
for a house of public entertainment, the proverb still
continuing in force, was applied in the latter sense.
Falstaff puns upon the word *inn* in order to represent

Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the
arras, and had my pocket picked: this house is turned
bawdy-house, they pick pockets.

P. Hen. What didst thou lose, Jack?

Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four
bonds of forty pound a-piece, and a seal-ring of my
grandfather's.

P. Hen. A trifle, some eight-penny matter.

Host. So I told him, my lord; and I said I heard
your grace say so: And, my lord, he speaks most
viely of you, like a foul-mouthed man as he is; and
said, he would cudgel you.

P. Hen. What! he did not?

Host. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood
in me else.

Fal. There's no more faith in thee than in a
stewed prune;⁴ nor no more truth in thee, than in
a drawn fox; and for womanhood, maid Marian³
may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go,
you thinking, go.

Host. Say, what thing? what thing?

Fal. What thing? why a thing to thank God on.

Host. I am no thing to thank God on, I would
thou should'st know it; I am an honest man's wife:
and, setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave
to call me so.

Fal. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a
beast to say otherwise.

Host. Say, what beast, thou knave thou?

Fal. What beast? why an otter.

P. Hen. An otter, Sir John! why an otter?

Host. Why? she's neither fish, nor flesh; a man
knows not where to have her.

Host. Thou art an unjust man in saying so; thou
or any man knows where to have me, thou knave
thou.

P. Hen. You sayest true, hostess; and he slanders
thesee most grossly.

Host. So he doth you, my lord; and, will that
other day, you ought him a thousand pound.

P. Hen. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound.

Fal. A thousand pound, Hal? a million: thy love
is worth a million; thou owest me thy love.

Host. Nay, my lord, he called you Jack, and
said, he would cudgel you.

Fal. Did I, Bardolph?

Bard. Indeed, Sir John, you so said.

Fal. Yea; if he said, my ring was copper.

P. Hen. I say, 'tis copper: Darest thou be as
good as thy word now?

Fal. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but
man, I dare: but, as thou art prince, I fear thee, as
I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp.

P. Hen. And why not, as the lion?

Fal. The king himself is to be feared as the lion:
Dost thou think, I'll fear thee as I fear thy father?
nay, an I do, I pray God, my girdle break?⁶

P. Hen. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall
about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for
faith, truth, nor honesty, in this bosom of thine; it
is filled up with guts, and midriff. Charge an honest
woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou shere-


the wrong done him the more strongly. Old Heywood
has one or two epigrams which turn upon this phrase.

4 *Steevens* has been too abundantly copious on the
subject of *stewed prunes*. They were a reflection par-
ticularly common in brothels in Shakspeare's time, per-
haps from mistaken notions of their antisyphilitic prop-
erties. It is not easy to understand Falstaff's similes,
perhaps he means as faithless as a *strumpet* or a *baid*.

*A drawn fox* is surely neither an *exenterated fox* nor
a fox drawn over the grounds to exercise the hounds; en-
but a *hunted fox*, a fox drawn from his cover, whose
cunning in doubling and deceiving the hounds makes
the simile perfectly appropriate.

5 One of the characters in the ancient morris dance,
generally a man dressed like a woman, sometimes a
strumpet; and therefore forms an allusion to describe
women of a masculine character. A curious tract, en-
titled 'Old Meg of Herefordshire for the hounds.' Mayd Marian,
and Hereford Town for a Morris-dance, 1609,' was
reprinted by Mr. Trihook in 1816.

6 This *imprecision* is supposed to have reference to
the old adage, ' *Ungart, unblest.*' It appears to have
been also proverbial.

### SCENE III.

son, impudent, embossed¹ rascal, if there were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor penny-worth of sugar-candy to make thee long-winded; if thy pocket were enriched with any other injuries but these, I am a villain. And yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong; Art thou not ashamed?

Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou knowest, in the state of innocency, Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do, in the days of villany? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man; and therefore more frailty.—You confess then, you picked my pocket?

P. Hen. It appears so by the story.

Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee: Go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shall find me tractable to any honest reason: thou seest, I am pacified.—Still?—Nay, pr'ythee, be gone. [Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad,—How is that answered?

P. Hen. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee!—The money is paid back again.

Fal. O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double labour.

P. Hen. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing.

Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with unwashed hands too.

Bard. Do, my lord.

P. Hen. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.

Fal. I would, it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well? O for a fine thief, of the age of two and twenty, or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I laud them, I praise them.

P. Hen. Bardolph!

Bard. My lord.

P. Hen. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,—my brother John;—this to my lord of Westmoreland.—Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou, and I, have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.—Jack, meet me to-morrow i'the Templehall at two o'clock i'the afternoon: there shall thou know thy charge; and there receive money, and order for their furniture.²

The land is burning; Percy stands on high; and either they, or we, must lower lie.

[Eecuent prince, Poins, and BARDOLPH.]
Fal. Rare words! brave world!—Hostess, my breakfast; come:—

O, I could wish, this tavern were my drum. [Exit.]

### ACT IV.

#### SCENE I. The rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.
Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS.

Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: If speaking truth, In this fine age, were not thought flattery, Such attribution should the Douglas have,³

As not a soldier of this season's stamp
Should go so general current through the world.

By heaven, I cannot flatter; I defy⁴

The tongues of soothers; but a braver place

1 Swoln, puffy, blown up.

2 I have followed Mr. Douce's suggestion in printing thus much of this speech in prose. No correct ear will ever receive it as blank verse, notwithstanding the efforts by omission, &c, to convert it into metre.

3 This expression is frequent in Hollinshed, and is applied by way of preeminence to the head of the Douglas family.

4 Disain.

5 To beard is to oppose face to face, in a daring and hostile manner, to threaten even to the beard.

6 Epaminondas being told, on the evening before the battle of Leuctra, that an officer of distinction had died in his tent, exclaimed, 'Good gods! how could any body find time to die in such a conjuncture.'—Xenophon Hellenic, vi. l.

### KING HENRY IV.

In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself; Nay, task me to the word; approve me, lord.

Doug. Thou art the king of honour: No man so potent breathes upon the ground, But I will beard⁵ him.

Hot. Do so, and 'tis well:—

Enter a Messenger, with Letters.

What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you, Mess. These letters come from your father,—

Hot. Letters from him! why comes he not himself?

Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous sick.

Hot. 'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick,⁶ In such a justling time? Who leads his power?

Under whose government come they along?

Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.⁷

Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?

Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth?

And at the time of my departure thence,
He was much fear'd by his physicians.

Wor. I would, the state of time had first been whole,

Ere he by sickness had been visited;
His health was never better worth than now.

Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect

The very life-blood of our enterprise;
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.

He writes me here,—that inward sickness;
And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet,

To lay so dangerous and dear a trust

On any soul remov'd,⁸ but on his own.

Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,—

That with our small conjunction, we should on,
To see how fortune is dispos'd to us;

For, as he writes, there is no quailing⁹ now;

Because the king is certainly possess'd¹⁰

Of all our purposes. What say you to it?

Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us.

Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopp'd off:—
And yet, in faith, 'tis not; his present want

Seems more than we shall find it:—Were it good,
To set the exact wealth of all our states

All at one cast? to set so rich a main

On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?

It were not good; for therein should we read

The very bottom and the soul of hope:

The very list, the very utmost bound
Of all our fortunes.

Doug. 'Faith, and so we should;

Where¹¹ now remains a sweet reversion;

We may boldly spend upon the hope of what

Is to come in:

A comfort of retirement¹² lives in this.

Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto,
If that the devil and mischance look big
Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here.
The quality and hair¹³ of our attempt

Brooks no division: It will be thought

By some, that know not why he is away,

That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike

Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence;

And think, how such an apprehension

May turn the tide of fearful faction,

And breed a kind of question in our cause:

7 The folio reads 'not I his mind.' The quarto, 1598, 'not I my mind.' The emendation is Capell's.

8 That is, on any less near to himself, or whose interest is remote.

9 Quailing is fainting, slackening, flagging; or failing in vigour or resolution; going back. Cotgrave renders it by *alachissement*.

10 Informed.

11 Where, for whereas.

12 l. e., 'a support to which we may have recourse.'

13 'Hair was anciently used metaphorically for the colour, complexion, or nature of a thing. Pelo (in the countenance of a man: and *poil*, in French, has the same significations, *esser d'un pelo*, *estre d'un poil*. To be of the same hair, quality, or condition.

["452", "FIRST PART OF", "ACT IV.", "For, well you know, we of the offering¹ side\nMust keep aloof from strict arbitrage;\nAnd stop all sight-holes, every loop, from whence\nThe eye of reason may pry in upon us :\nThis absence of your father's draws a curtain,²\nThat shows the ignorant a kind of fear\nBefore not dreamt of.", "**Hot.** You strain too far.\nI, rather, of his absence make this use;—\nIt lends a lustre, and more great opinion,\nA larger dare to our great enterprise,\nThan if the earl were here: for men must think,\nIf we, without his help, can make a head,\nTo push against the kingdom; with his help,\nWe shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.—\nYet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.\n**Doug.** As heart can think: there is not such a\nword", "", "Spoke of in Scotland, as this term³ of fear.", "Enter SIR RICHARD VERNON.", "**Hot.** My cousin Vernon ! welcome, by my soul.\n**Ver.** 'Pray God, my news be worth a welcome,\nlord.", "The earl of Westmorland, seven thousand strong,\nIs marching hitherwards; with him, Prince John.", "**Doug.** No harm: What more? And further, I have learn'd,\nthe king himself in person is set forth,\nOr hitherwards intended speedily,\nWith strong and mighty preparation.", "**Hot.** He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,\nThe nimble-footed⁴ mad-cap prince of Wales,\nAnd his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,\nAnd bid it pass?", "**Ver.** All furnish'd, all in arms,\nAll plum'd: like estridges that the wind\nBated, like eagles having lately bath'd;⁵\nGlittering in golden coats, like images;\nAs full of spirit as the month of May,\nAnd gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;\nWanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.\nI saw young Harry,—with his beaver⁶ on,\nHis cuisses⁷ on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,—\nRise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,\nAnd vaulted with such ease into his seat,\nAs if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,\nTo turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,\nAnd witch the world with noble horsemanship.", "**Hot.** No more, no more; worse than the sun in\nMarch,", "1 The offering side is the assailing side. Baret renders 'Attentante pudicitium puellæ, to assaille a maydens chastitude: to offer.'", "2 To draw a curtain had anciently the same meaning as to undraw one at present. Thus in the Second Part of King Henry VI. quarto, 1600.—'Then the curtains being drawne, Duke Humphrey is discovered in his bed.'", "The folio reads 'dream of fear.'", "Shakspeare rarely bestows his epithets at random. Stowe says of the prince :—' He was passing swift in running, insomuch that he, with two other of his lords, without hounds, bow, or other engine, would take a wilde bucke, or doe, in a large parke.'", "5 This is the reading of all the old copies, which Hanmer not understanding, altered to—", "'All plum'd like estridges, and with the wind", "Bating like eagles, &c.'", "Then came Johnson, who supposed that there must be necessity for emendation, as it had already been attempted: he changed it thus:—", "'All plum'd like estridges, that wing the wind;", "Bated like eagles, &c.'", "This reading has been adopted by Malone, and by Steevens, with a voluminous commentary to show its necessity. But surely, if a clear sense can be deduced from the passage as it stands, no conjectural alteration of the text should be admitted. The meaning of the passage is obviously this:—'The prince and his comrades were all furnish'd, all in arms, all plum'd: like estridges (ostriches) that bated (i. e. flutter or beat) the wind with their wings; like eagles having lately bathed.' Johnson's reading is exceptional, if it was not an unwarrantable innovation, because to wing the wind and to bate are the same thing; and the difficul-", "This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come;\nThey come like sacrifices in their trim,\nAnd to the fire-ey'd maid of smoky war,\nAll hot, and bleeding, will we offer them:\nThe mailed Mars shall on his altar sit,\nUp to the ears in blood. I am on fire,\nTo hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,\nAnd yet not ours:—Come, let me take⁸ my horse,\nWho is to bear me, like a thunderbolt,\nAgainst the bosom of the prince of Wales:\nHarry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,\nMeet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corse.—\nO, that Glendower were come!", "**Ver.** There is more news:\nI learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,\nHe cannot draw his power this fourteen days.", "**Doug.** That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.", "**Wor.** Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.\n**Hot.** What may the king's whole battle reach\nunto?", "**Ver.** To thirty thousand.\n**Hot.** Forty let it be;", "My father and Glendower being both away,\nThe powers of us may serve so great a day.", "Come, let us make a muster speedily.", "Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.", "Doug's. Talk not of dying; I am out of fear", "Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE II. A Public Road near Coventry. Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH.", "**Fal.** Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack; our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Sutton-Colfield to-night.", "**Bard.** Will you give me money, captain?", "**Fal.** Lay out, lay out.", "**Bard.** This bottle makes an angel.", "**Fal.** And if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end.", "**Bard.** I will, captain: farewell.", "[Exit.]", "**Fal.** If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet.⁹ I have misused the king's press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, women's sons: inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the bans; such a commo-", "ties of an elliptical construction are not avoided by it. Malone's notion, that a line had been omitted, by not my concurrence. Nor do I think with Mr. Douce, that by 'estriges, estridge' falcons are here meant, though the word may be used in that sense in Antony and Cleopatra. The ostrich's plumage would be more likely to occur to the poet, from the circumstance of its being the cognizance of the prince of Wales. So in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 25:—", "⁹ Prince Edward all in gold, as he great Jove had been, The Mountford's all in plumes like estridges were seen.' Bating, or to bate, in falconry, is the unquiet fluttering of a hawk. To beat the wing, batter v'ale, It all birds bate, i. e. flutter, beat, or flap their wings to dry their feathers after bathing; and the mode in which the ostrich uses its wings, to assist itself in running with the wind, is of this character; it is a fluttering or a flapping, not a flight. The fluttering motion and flapping of the plumed crests of the prince and his associates naturally excited these images. Bated refers both to the flapping of the plumes, and of the wings of the ostrich; the plumage of that bird is displayed to more advantage when its wings are in motion, than when at rest; and hence the propriety of representing the fliers of the helmets flouting the air to the plumage of the ostrich when its wings were in motion, or when it 'bated the air, like eagles lately bathed.'", "6 The beaver of a helmet was a moveable piece, which lifted up or down to enable the wearer to drink or take breath more freely. It is frequently, though improperly, used to express the helmet itself.", "7 Armour for the thigh.", "8 The quartos of 1595 and 1599 read taste.", "9 The gurnet, or gurnard, was a fish of the piper kind. It was probably deemed a vulgar dish when soused or pickled, hence soused gurnet was a common term of reproach.", "SCENE\nday of the drum, or the drum, or the drum, or a drum, or a drum, or a

["## SCENE III.", "## KING HENRY IV.", "453", "dity of warm slaves, as had as lief hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver,¹ worse than a struck fowl, or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but such toasts and butter,² with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and such as, indeed, were never soldiers; but discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen; the cankers of a calm world, and a long peace; ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient:³ and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think, that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals, lately come from swine keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all the gibbets, and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scare-crows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat: —Nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gives⁴ on; for indeed, I had the most of them out of prison. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company: and the half-shirt is two napkins, tacked together, and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Albans, or the red-nose inn-keeper of Daintrey.⁵ But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge.", "### Enter PRINCE HENRY and WESTMORELAND.", "P. Hen. How now, blown Jack? how now, quit? quit?", "Fal. What, Hal? How now, mad wag? what a devil dost thou in Warwickshire? —My good lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy; I thought, your honour had already been at Shrewsbury.", "West. 'Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that we were there, and you too; but my powers are there already: the king, I can tell you, looks for us all: we must away all night.", "Fal. Tut, never fear me; I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.", "P. Hen. I think, to steal cream indeed; for thy theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack; Whose fellows are these that come after?", "Fal. Mine, Hal, mine.", "P. Hen. I did never see such pitiful rascals.", "Fal. Tut, tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit, as well as better: tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.", "West. Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare; too beggarly.", "Fal. 'Faith, for their poverty,—I know not where they had that: and for their bareness,—I am sure, they never learned that of me.", "P. Hen. No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on the ribs, bare. But, sirrah, make haste; Percy is already in the field.", "Fal. What, is the king encamped?", "West. He is, Sir John; I fear, we shall stay too long.", "Fal. Well,", "To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast,", "Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest.", "[Exeunt.]", "1 A gun.", "2 Londoners, and all within the sound of Bow bell, are in reproach called cockneys, and *eaters of buttered toasts*.—*Moryson's Itin.* 1617.", "3 An old *faced ancient* is an old *patched standard*. To face a garment was to *line or trim it*. Thus in the present plate—", "⁴ To *face* the garment of rebellion\nwith some fine colour.", "4 Fetters.", "5 Daventry.", "6 The old copies read 'that *this day* lives'; but the words, as Mason observes, weaken the sense and destroy the measure.", "### SCENE III. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.\nEnter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, DOUGLAS, and VERNON.", "Hot. We'll fight with him to-night.", "Wor.", "It may not be.", "Doug. You give him then advantage.", "Ver.", "Not a whit.", "Hot. Why say you so ? looks he not for supply ?", "Ver. So do we.", "Hot.", "His is certain, ours is doubtful.", "Wor. Good cousin, be advis'd; stir not to-night.", "Ver. Do not, my lord.", "Doug.", "You do not counsel well;", "You speak it out of fear, and cold heart.", "Ver. Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life\n(And I dare well maintain it with my life),", "If well-respected honour bid me on,", "I hold as little counsel with weak fear,", "As you, my lord, or any Scot that lives:⁶—", "Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle,\nWhich of us fears.", "Doug.", "Yea, or to-night.", "Ver.", "Content.", "Hot. To-night, say I.", "Ver.", "Come, come, it may not be.", "I wonder much, being men of such great leading,⁷", "That you foresee not what impediments", "Drag back our expedition: Certain horse", "Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:", "Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day;", "And now their pride and mettle is asleep,", "Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,", "That not a horse is half the half of himself.", "Hot. So are the horses of the enemy", "In general, journey-bated, and brought low;", "The better part of ours is full of rest.", "Wor. The number of the king exceedeth ours:\nFor God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.", "[The trumpet sounds a parley.]", "### Enter SIR WALTER BLUNT.", "Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king,\nIf you vouchsafe me hearing, and respect.", "Hot. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; And 'would to God,", "You were of our determination!", "Some of us love you well: and even those some", "Envy your great deserving, and good name;", "Because you are not of our quality,", "But stand against us like an enemy.", "Blunt. And God defend, but still I should stand so,\nSo long as, out of limit, and true rule,", "You stand against anointed majesty!", "But, to my charge.—The king hath sent to know", "The nature of your griefs;⁹ and whereupon", "You conjure from the breast of civil peace", "Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land", "Audacious cruelty: If that the king", "Have any way your good deserts forgot,—", "Which he confesseth to be manifold,—", "He bids you name your griefs; and, with all speed,", "You shall have your desires, with interest;", "And pardon absolute for yourself, and these,", "Herein misled by your suggestion.", "Hot. The king is kind; and, well we know, the king", "Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.", "My father, and my uncle, and myself,", "Did give him that same royalty he wears:", "And,—when he was not six and twenty strong,", "Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,", "A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,", "My father gave him welcome to the shore:", "And,—when he heard him swear, and vow to God,", "7 Leading is experience in the conduct of armies. The old copies have 'such leading as you are?' but the superfluous words serve only to destroy the metre.", "8 *Quality*, in its general sense, anciently signified *profession, occupation*. Shakspeare here gives it metaphorically for one of the same *fraternity* or *fellowship*.", "9 Grievances.", "Act IV.\n\nles. Let then come;\ntheir trim,\nsmoky then:\nbe offer then,\nis altar sit,\nam on fire,\nso far\nlet me take my lons,\nhunderbolt,\nince of Wales:\nhorse to horse,\nthe drop down a cou-\nme!", "There is more new:\nI rode along,\nthis fourteen days,\nholdings that I hear of,\nthat bears a forty sound,\nthe whole battle trac-", "Fotly let it be;\nbeing both away,\nso great a day;\nso very\nspeedy,\ndie mercially,\nI am out of fur\nfor this one half year.", "[Exeunt]\n\nand near Coventry. Be\nBARDOLPH.", "an angel,\nfor his labour; and if\nI'll answer the cry,\nI'll answer the cry at the top\nof my voice.", "[Exeunt]\n\nand near Coventry. Be\nBARDOLPH.", "Before to Coventry; till\nar soldiers shall march\noffold to captain,\nmoneys to pay.", "[Exeunt]\n\nan angel,\nfor his labour; and if\nI'll answer the cry,\nI'll answer the cry at the top\nof my voice.", "[Exeunt]\n\nand near Coventry. Be\nBARDOLPH.", "The great Jove had lads,\nlike estrades were sent:\nthe unique Jove, better,\nbetter than Jove himself

454

FIRST PART OF

He came but to be duke of Lancaster;
To sue his livery,¹ and beg his peace;
With tears of innocency, and terms of zeal,—
My father, in kind heart and pity mov'd,
Swore him assistance, and perform'd it too.
Now, when the lords, and barons of the realm
Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him,
The more and less² came in with cap and knee;
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages;
Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
Gave him their heirs as pages; follow'd him,
Even at the heels, in golden multitudes.

He presently,—as greatness knows itself,—

Steps me a little higher than his vow
Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg:³
And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees,
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth:
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face,
This seeming brow of justice, did he win
The hearts of all that he did angle for.
Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
Of all the favourites, that the absent king
In deputation left behind him here,
When he was personal in the Irish war.

Blunt. Tut, I came not to hear this.

Hot.

Then, to the point.—

In short time after, he depos'd the king;
Soon after that, depriv'd him of his life;
And, in the neck of that,⁴ task'd the whole state:
To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March
(Who is, if every owner were well plac'd,
Indeed his king) to be engag'd⁵ in Wales,
There without ransom to lie forfeited:

Disgrac'd me in my happy victories.

Sought to entrap me by intelligence:

Rated my uncle from the council-board;

In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;

Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong:
And, in conclusion, drove us to seek out

This head of safety; and, withal, to pry

Into his title, the which we find

Too indirect for long continuance.

Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king?

Hot. Not so, Sir Walter; we'll withdraw awhile.

Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd

Some surety for a safe return again,

And in the morning early shall mine uncle

Bring him our purposes: and so farewell.

Blunt. I would, you would accept of grace and
love.

Hot. And, may be, so we shall.

Blunt.

Pray heaven, you do!⁶

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE IV. A Room in the Archbishop's House.
Enter the Archbishop of York, and a Gentleman.

Arch. Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed
brief,⁷

With winged haste, to the lord marshal;⁸

This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest

To whom they are directed: if you knew

How much they do import, you would make haste.

1 That is, to sue out the delivery or possession of his lands. This law term has been already explained in King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. I.

2 The greater and the less.

3 The whole of this speech alludes to passages in King Richard II.

4 So in Painter's Palace of Pleasure: 'Great mischies succedying one in another's necke.' Task'd is here used for *taxed*: it was common to use these words indiscriminately, says Steevens. *Taskes* were tributes or subsidies, and should not be confounded with *taxes*, which are carefully distinguished by Baret. He interprets ' *telonium*, the place where *tasks* or *tributes* are pared.' Philips, in his World of Words, says, ' *Tasck* is an old British word, signifying *tribute*, from whence haply cometh our word *task*, which is a duty or labour *imposed* upon any one.'

### ACT V.

Gent. My good lord,
I guess their tenor.

Arch.

Like enough, you do.

To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day,
Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
Must 'bide the touch: For, sir, at Shrewsbury,
As I am truly given to understand,

The king, with mighty and quick-raised power,
Meets with Lord Harry: and I fear, Sir Michael,—
What with the sickness of Northumberland
(Whose power was in the first proportion.)
And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
(Who with them was a rated sinew too.⁸)

And comes not in, o'er-ruled by prophecies),—

I fear, the power of Percy is too weak

To wage an instant trial with the king.

Gent. Why, good my lord, you need not fear.
there's Douglas,

And Lord Mortimer.

Arch.

No, Mortimer's not there.

Gent. But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry
Percy,

And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head

Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.

Arch. And so there is: but yet the king hath drawn

The special head of all the land together:—

The prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,

The noble Westmoreland, and warlike Blunt;

And many more cor-rivals, and dear Blunt

Of estimation and command in arms.

Gent. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well opposed.

Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear;

And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed:

For, if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the king

Dismiss his power, he means to visit us,—

For he hath heard of our confederacy.—

And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him;

Therefore, make haste: I must go write again

To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael.

[Exeunt severally.]

### ACT V.

### SCENE I. The King's Camp near Shrewsbury.
Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE HENRY, PRINCE
JOHN of Lancaster, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and
SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

K. Hen. How bloodily the sun begins to peer

Above yon busky⁹ hill! 'tis the day looks pale

At his distemperance.

P. Hen.

The southern wind

Doth play the trumpet to his purposes:

And, by his hollow whistling in the leaves,

Foretells a tempest, and a blustering day.

K. Hen. Then with the losers let it sympathize;
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.—

Trumpet. Enter WORCESTER and VERNON.

How now, my lord of Worcester? 'tis not well,

That you and I should meet upon such terms

As now we meet: You have deceiv'd our trust;

And made us doff our easy robes of peace,

To crush our old limbs¹⁰ in ungentle steel;

5 The old copies read *engag'd*, which Theobald altered to *incag'd*, without reason: to be engaged is to be pledged as an hostage.

6 A *brief* is any short writing, as a *letter*, &c.

7 Thomas Lord Mowbray.

8 A strength on which we reckoned, a help of which we made account.

9 'I do not know (says Mr. Blakeway) whether Shakspeare ever surveyed the ground of Battlefield, but he has described the sun's rising over Haughmound Hill from that spot as accurately as if he had. It still merits the name of a *busky* hill.' Milton writes the word, perhaps more properly, *bosky*, it is from the French *bos-cageur*, woody.

10 Shakspear forgot that he was not at this time old, it was only four years since the deposition of King Richard.

1 A chivalrous character of the chivalrous.
2 'I would not do that which were not necessary to a dimension in size.'
3 'The kind of chivalry which we celebrate.'
4 'The chivalry of the past.'
5 'The chivalry of the present.'
6 'The chivalry of the future.'
7 'The chivalry of the past.'
8 'The chivalry of the present.'
9 'The chivalry of the future.'
10 'The chivalry of the present.'

["FIRST PART OF", "456", "ACT V.", "### SCENE II.\nThe Rebel Camp. Enter WORCESTER and VERNON.", "Wor. O, no, my nephew must not know, Sir Richard,", "The liberal kind offer of the king.", "Ver. 'Twere best, he did.", "Wor. Then we are all undone.", "It is not possible, it cannot be,\nThe king should keep his word in loving us;\nHe will suspect us still, and find a time\nTo punish this offence in other faults:\nSuspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes:", "For treason is but trusted like the fox;\nWho, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd, and lock'd up,\nWill have a wild trick of his ancestors.\nLook how we can, or sad, or merrily,\nInterpretation will misquote our looks;\nAnd we shall feed like oxen at a stall,\nThe better cherish'd, still the nearer death.", "My nephew's trespass may be well forgot.\nIt hath the excuse of youth, and heat of blood;\nAnd an adopted name of privilege,—\nA hare-brain'd Hotspur, govern'd by a spleen:\nAll his offences live upon my head,\nAnd on his father's;—we did train him on;\nAnd, his corruption being ta'en from us,\nWe, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.\nTherefore, good cousin, let not Harry know,\nIn any case, the offer of the king.", "Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll say, 'tis so.\nHere comes your cousin.", "Enter HOTSPUR and DOUGLAS; and Officers and Soldiers, behind.\n\n**Hot.** My uncle is return'd:—Deliver up\nMy lord of Westmoreland.¹—Uncle, what news?", "Wor. The king will bid you battle presently.", "Doug. Defy him by the lord of Westmoreland.", "Hot. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so.", "Doug. Marry, and shall, and very willingly. [Exit].", "Wor. There is no seeming mercy in the king.", "Hot. Did you beg any? God forbid!", "Wor. I told him gently of our grievances,", "Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,—\nBy now forswearing that he is forsworn:\nHe calls us rebels, traitors; and will scourge\nWith haughty arms this hateful name in us.", "Re-enter DOUGLAS.", "Doug. Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have\nthrown", "A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,\nAnd Westmoreland, but bear it; and\nWhich cannot choose but bring him quickly on.\nWor. The prince of Wales stepp'd forth before the king,", "And, nephew, challeng'd you to single fight.", "Hot. O, 'would the quarrel lay upon our heads;\nAnd that no man might draw short breath to-day,\nBut I, and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,\nHow show'd his tasking?² seem'd it in contempt?", "Ver. No, by my soul; I never in my life\nDid hear a challenge urg'd more modestly,\nUnless a brother should a brother dare\nTo gentle exercise and proof of arms.\nHe gave you all the duties of a man;", "Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue;\nSpoke your deservings like a chronicle;\nMaking you ever better than his praise,\nBy still dispraisring praise, valued with you:\nAnd, which became him like a prince indeed,", "1 Westmoreland was impawned as a surety for the safe return of Worcester. See Act iv. Sc. 3.", "2 Tasking as well as taxing was used for reproof. We still say 'he took him to task.'", "3 i. e. 'mention of himself.' To cite is to quote, allege, or mention any passage or incident. The mistakes of Pope and others have induced me to give an explanation of this word, which I should otherwise have thought sufficiently intelligible.", "4 That is, was master of.", "5 Own.", "6 So wild at liberty may mean so wild and licentious, or loose in his conduct. Johnson misunderstood and", "He made a blushing cital³ of himself;", "And chid his truant youth with such a grace,", "As if he master'd⁴ there a double spirit,", "Of teaching, and of learning, instantly.", "There did he pause: But let me tell the world,—", "If he outlive the envy of this day,", "England did never owe² so sweet a hope,", "So much misconstrued in his wantonness.", "Hot. Cousin, I think thou art enamoured\nUpon his follies; never did I hear\nOf any prince, so wild at liberty:⁶\nBut, be he as he will, yet once ere night\nI will embrace him with a soldier's arm,\nThat he shall shrink under my courtesy.—", "Arm, arm, with speed:—And, fellows, soldiers,\nfriends,", "Better consider what you have to do,\nThan I, that have not well the gift of tongue,\nCan lift your blood up with persuasion.", "Enter another Messenger.", "Mess. My lord, here are letters for you.", "Hot. I cannot read them now.—", "O gentlemen, the time of life is short;", "To spend that shortness basely, were too long,\nIf life did ride upon a dial's point,", "Still ending at the arrival of an hour.", "An if we live, we live to tread on kings;", "If die, brave death, when princes die with us", "Now for our consciences,—the arms are fair,\nWhen the intent of bearing them is just.", "Enter another Messenger.", "Mess. My lord, prepare: the king comes on apace.", "Hot. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale,\nFor I profess not talking; Only this—", "Let each man do his best: and here draw I\nA sword, whose temper I intend to stain", "With the best blood that I can meet withal", "In the adventure of this perilous day.\nNow,—Esperance!¹—Percy!—and set on,—", "Sound all the lofty instruments of war,\nAnd by that music let us all embrace;", "", "For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall\nA second time do such a courtesy.", "[The Trumpets sound. They embrace, and exclaim.\n\n### SCENE III.\nPlain near Shrewsbury. Excursions, and Parties fighting. Alarum to the Battle. Then enter DOUGLAS and BLUNT, meeting.", "Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle thus\nThou crossest me? what honour dost thou seek\nUpon my head?", "Doug. Know then, my name is Douglas;\nAnd I do haunt thee in the battle thus,\nBecause some tell me that thou art a king.", "Blunt. They tell thee true.", "Doug. The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought\nThy likeness: for, instead of thee, King Harry,\nThis sword hath ended him: so shall it thee,\nUnless thou yield thee as my prisoner.", "", "Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot;⁹\nAnd thou shall find a king that will revenge\nLord Stafford's death.", "[They fight, and BLUNT is slain.", "Enter HOTSPUR.", "Hot. O Douglas, hadst thou fought at Holmedon\nthus,", "I never had triumph'd upon a Scot.", "Doug. All's done, all's won; here breathless lies\nthe king,", "Hot, Where?", "wrong pointed this passage. The quarto copies most of them read 'so whil a libertie.' Stevens suggests that perhaps the author wrote 'so wild a libertine;' to which reading I very much incline.", "7 Esperance, or Esperanza, has always been the motto of the Percy family. Shakspeare uses esperance as a word of four syllables, the e final having the same power as in French verse.", "8 The folio reads:—", "¹I was not born to yield that haughty Scot.'", "SCENE I.", "Dow.", "H.", "H.", "Dow.", "H.", "Dow.", "H.", "Dow.", "H.", {"bbox": [1071, 717, 1092, 735], "category": "Page-footer",

## SCENE IV.

## KING HENRY IV.

457

Doug. Here.

Hot. This? Douglas? no, I know this face full well :

A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt ;

Semblyably' furnish'd like the king himself.

Doug. A fool go with thy soul, whither? it goes !

A sorrow'd title hast thou bought too dear.

Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a king?

Hot. The king hath many marching in his coats.

Doug. Now, by my sword, I will kill all his coats.

I'll murder all his wardrobe, piece by piece,
Until I meet the king.

Hot.

Up, and away ;

Our soldiers stand full fairly for the day. [Exeunt.

Other Alarums. Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Though I could 'scape shot-free at London,
I fear the shot here ; here's no scoring, but upon the
pate.—Soft! who art thou ? Sir Walter Blunt ;—
there's honour for you : Here's no vanity!—I am
as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too : God keep
lead out of me ! I need no more weight than mine
own bowels.—I have led my raggamuffins where
they are peppered : there's but three of my hundred
and fifty left alive ; and they are for the town's end,
to beg during life. But who comes here !

Enter PRINCE HENRY.

P. Hen. What, stand'st thou idle here ? lend me
thy sword :

Many a nobleman lies stark and stiff

Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,

Whose deaths are unreveng'd: Pr'ythee, lend me
my sword.

Fal. O Hal, I pr'ythee give me leave to breathe
a while.—Turk Gregory⁴ never did such deeds in
arms, as I have done this day. I have paid Percy,
I have made him sure.

P. Hen. He is, indeed; and living to kill thee.

I pr'ythee, lend me thy sword.

Fal. Nay, before God, Hal, if Percy be alive,
thou get'st not my sword; but take my pistol, or
thou wilt.

P. Hen. Give it me: What, is it in the case?

Fal. Ay, Hal : 'tis hot, 'tis hot; there's that will
sack a city. [The Prince draws out a bottle of sack.

P. Hen. What, is a time to jest and dally now?

[Throws it at him, and exit.]

Fal. Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him.⁵ If
he do in my way, so : if he do not, if I come
in his, willingly, let him make a carbonado⁶ of me.
I like not such grinning honour as Sir Walter hath:
Give me life: which if I can save, so ; if not, honour
comes unlocked for, and there's an end. [Exit.]

## SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Alarums:

Excursions. Enter the KING, PRINCE HENRY, PRINCE JOHN, and WESTMORELAND.

K. Hen. I pr'ythee,

Harry, withdraw thyself; thou bleed'st too much :—

Lord John of Lancaster, go you with him.

P. John. Not I, my lord, unless I did bleed too.

P. Hen. I beseech your majesty, make up,

Lest your retirement do amaze your friends.

K. Hen. I will do so.

My lord of Westmoreland, lead him to his tent.

West. Come, my lord, I'll lead you to your tent.

P. Hen. Lead me, my lord? I do not need your help.

1 That is in seeming or outward appearance.

2 Whither for whithersoever. Thus Baret, 'Whe-
ther, or to what place you will. Quovis.' Any-whether
also signified to any person. In the last scene of the
second act, Hotspur says to his wife :—

'Whither I go, thither shall I go too?'

3 'Here's no vanity,' the negative is here used ironi-
cally, to designate the excess of a thing.

4 'Turk Gregory' means Gregory the Seventh, call-
ed Hildebrand. This furious friar surmounted almost
invincible obstacles to deprive the emperor of his right
of investiture of bishops, which his predecessors had
long attempted in vain. Fox, in his Martyrology, has
made Gregory so odious that the Protestants would be
well pleased to hear him thus characterized, as uniting
the attributes of their two great enemies, the Turk and
the Pope, in one. There was an old tragedy on the

And heaven forbid, a shallow scratch should drive

The prince of Wales from such a field as this ;

Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on,

And rebels' arms triumph in massacres !

P. John. We breathe too long :—Come, cousin
Westmoreland.

Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come.

[Exeunt P. JOHN and WESTMORELAND.

P. Hen. By heaven, thou hast deceiv'd me, Lan-
caster,

I did not think thee lord of such a spirit ;

Before, I lov'd thee as a brother, John ;

But now, I do respect thee as my soul.

K. Hen. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point,
With lustier maintenance than I did look for
Of such an ungrown warrior.⁶

P. Hen.

O, this boy

Lends mettle to us all !

[Exit.]

Alarums. Enter DOUGLAS.

Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra's
heads ;

I am the Douglas, fatal to all those

That wear those colours on them.—What art thou,

That counterfeit'st the person of a king ?

K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves
at heart,

So many of his shadows thou hast met,

And not the very king. I have two boys,

Seek Percy, and thyself, about the field ;

But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,

I will assay thee ; so defend thyself.

Doug. I fear, thou art another counterfeit ;

And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thyself like a king :

But I am sure, thou art, whoe'er thou be,

And thus I win thee.

[They fight; the King being in danger, enter
PRINCE HENRY.

P. Hen. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art
like

Never to hold it up again ! the spirits

Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms :

It is the prince of Wales, that threatens thee ;

Who never promiseth, but he means to pay.—

[They fight; DOUGLAS flies.

Cheerly, my lord: How fares your grace?—

Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,

And so hath Clifton ; I'll to Clifton straight.

K. Hen. Stay, and breathe a while :—

Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion;⁹

And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my life,

In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.

P. Hen. O heaven! they did me too much injury,
That ever said, I hearken'd for your death.

If it were so, I might have let alone

The insulting hand of Douglas over you ;

Which would have been as speedy in your end,

As all the poisonous potions in the world,

And sav'd the treacherous labour of your son.

K. Hen. Make up to Clifton, I'll to Sir Nicholas
Gawsey. [Exit KING HENRY.

Enter HOTSPUR.

Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth.

P. Hen. My thou speak'st as if I would deny my
name.

subject of Hildebrand, but not even the title of it has
come down to us.

5 'Well, if Percy be alive, I'll pierce him,' is ad-
dressed to the prince as he goes out; the rest of the
speech is a soliloquy. Shakspeare was not aware that
he ridiculed the serious etymology of the Scottish his-
torian:—'Piercy a penetrando oculum Regis Scotorum
ut fabulatur Boetius.'—Skinner.

6 A rasher or collop of meat cut crosswise for the
diiron.

7 History says that the prince was wounded in the
face by an arrow.

8 '—the earle of Richmond withstood his violence,
and kept him at the sword's point, without advantage,
longer than his companions either thought or judged.³—
Holinshed, p. 759.

9 Opinion for estimation, reputation, the opinion of
the world. The word was then used in that sense.

The quarto copies most of
the second edition, and
the first, were printed
in the year 1595, and
there has always been
the appearance of a
mistake in the typeset
and final copy.

58

FIRST PART OF

ACT V.

458

Hot. My name is Harry Percy.

P. Hen.

Why, then I see

A very valiant rebel of the name.

I am the prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,

To share with me in glory any more:

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;

Nor can one England brook a double reign,

Of Harry Percy, and the prince of Wales.

Hot. Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come

To end the one of us; And 'would to God,

Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!

P. Hen. I'll make it greater, ere I part from thee;

And all the budding honours on thy crest

I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.

Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities.

[They fight.]

Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal!—Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you.

Enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls.¹

Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth !
I better brook the loss of brittle life,

Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;

They wound my thoughts, worse than thy sword
my flesh: —

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool;

And time, that takes survey of all the world,

Must have a stop.² O, I could prophesy,

But that the earthy and cold hand of death

Lies on my tongue: —No, Percy, thou art dust,

And food for —

[Dies.]

P. Hen. For worms, brave Percy: Fare thee well, great heart !—

Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk !

When that this body did contain a spirit,

A kingdom for it was too small a bound;³

But now, two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough: —This earth, that bears thee dead,

Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.

If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

I should not make so dear a show of zeal: —

But let my favours⁴ hide thy mangled face;

And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself

For doing these fair rites of tenderness.

Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!

Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,

But not remember'd in thy epitaph!

[He sees FALSTAFF on the ground.]

What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh

Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!

I could have better spar'd a better man.

O, I should have a heavy miss of thee,

If I were much in love with vanity,

Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,

Though many dearer, in this bloody fray: —

Embowell'd⁵ will I see thee by and by;

Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie.

[Exit.]

Fal. [Rising slowly.] Embowelled! if thou em-
bowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder⁷
me, and eat me too, to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas
time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had
paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am
no counterfeit: To die, is to be a counterfeit; for
he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not
the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a
man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the
true and perfect image of life indeed. The better

1 Shakspeare had no authority for making Hotspur fall by the hand of the prince. Holinshed says, 'The king slew that day with his own hand six and thirty persons of his enemies. The other of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and slew the Lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur.' Speed says that Percy was killed by an unknown hand.

2 Hotspur, in his last moments endeavours to console himself. 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

part of valour is—discretion; in which better part, I have saved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: How, if he should counterfeit too, and rise? I am afraid, he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure: yea, and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah [stabbing him.] with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

[*Takes HOTSPUR on his back.*]

Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and PRINCE JOHN.

P. Hen. Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou flesh'd

Thy maiden sword.

P. John. But, soft! whom have we here?

Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead?

P. Hen. I did; I saw him dead, breathless and
bleeding

On the ground. —

Art thou alive? or is it phantasy

That plays upon our eyesight? I pr'ythee, speak;

We will not trust our eyes, without our ears: —

Thou art not what thou seem'st.

Fal. No, that's certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy [throwing the body down:] if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

P. Hen. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.

Fal. Didst thou ?—Lord, lord, how this world is given to lying !—I grant you, I was down, and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both in an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them, that should reward valour, bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive, and would deny it, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

P. John. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard.

P. Hen. This is the strangest fellow, brother John.—

Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back:

For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,

I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

[A Retreat is sounded.]

The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is ours.

Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field.

To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt P. HEN. and P. JOHN.]

Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.

[Exit bearing off the Body.]

### SCENE V. Another Part of the Field. The Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE HENRY, PRINCE JOHN, WESTMORELAND, and others, with WORCESTER, and VERNON, prisoners.

K. Hen. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.—
Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace,
Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
And would'st thou turn our offers contrary?

sublunary things, *must* itself at last be stopped.—
Johnson.

3 'Carminibus confide bonis—jacet ecce Tullibus;

Vix manet e toto parva quod urna capit.—Oed.

4 His scarf, with which he covers Percy's face.

5 Thus the folio. The quartos read *ignominy*.

6 To imbowell was the old term for embalming the body, as was usually done by those of persons of rank. Thus in Aulicus Coquinariæ, 1650:—'The next day was solemnly appointed for imbowelling the corps, in the presence of some of the counsell, all the physicians, chirurgions, apothecaries, and the Palgrave's physicians.'

7 Salt.

SCENE I.
Mussel
Three
A nobler
Had I
Bewail
And I
Since I
K. H.

Other
Hog
P. L.

The for
The no
Upon us
And, fa
That the
Do I say
I may be

"THE"
prime
count of
clauses
of his
nation of
these two
Fars of
with his
by the
for the
end, he
lights of
a

KING HENRY.
HENRY, KING
THOMAS.
PRINCE
(2 Hs)
PRINCE
words
End of
End of
Gover
Lord Ch
A Gent
End of
Scroop.
Lord M
Lord B.
VILE.

460

SECOND PART OF

ACT I.

INDUCTION.

Warkworth. *Before Northumberland's Castle.*
*Enter RUMOUR painted full of Tongues.¹*

Rum. Open your ears; For which of you will stop
The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks? I,
I, from the orient to the drooping² west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence;
Whilst the big ear, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,³
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus

1 This was the common way of representing this personage, no unfrequent character in the masques of the poet's time. In a masque on St. Stephen's Night, 1614, by Thomas Campion, *Rumour* comes on a skin coat full of winged tongues. Several other instances are cited in the *Variorum Shakspeare*.

My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household? Why is rumour here?
I run before King Harry's victory;
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
to speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad,—that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death,
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,⁴
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me; from Rumour's
tongues
They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true
wrongs.
[Exil.

2 The force of this epithet will best explained by the following passage in Machetti:—
' Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, And night's black agents to their preys do rouse '
3 The stops are the holes in a flute or pipe.
4 Northumberland's castle.

ACT I.

### SCENE I. The same. The Porter before the Gate.
Enter LORD BARDOLPH.

*Bardolph.*

Who keeps the gate here, ho?—Where is the earl?
*Port.* What shall I say you are?
*Bard.* Tell thou the earl,
That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
*Port.* His lordship is walk'd forth into the or-
chard;
Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,
And he himself will answer.

*Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.*

*Bard.* Here comes the earl.

*North.* What news, Lord Bardolph? every mi-
nute now.

Should be the father of some stratagem;
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

*Bard.* Noble earl,
I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.

*North.* Good, an heaven will!

*Bard.* As good as heart can wish:—
The king is almost wounded to the death;
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,

Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts
Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John,
At Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day,
So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won,
Came not, till now, to dignify the times,
Since Caësar's fortunes !

*North.* How is this deriv'd?'
Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?

*Bard.* I spake with one, my lord, that came from
thence;

A gentleman well bred, and of good name,
That freely render'd me these news for true.

*North.* Here comes my servant, Travers, whom I sent

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

*Bard.* My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
And he is furnish'd with no certainties,
More than he haply may retail from me.

*Enter TRAVERS.*

*North.* Now, Travers, what good tidings come
with you?

*Tra.* My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
Outrode me. After him, came, spurring hard,
A gentleman almost forsent¹ with speed,
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse:
He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold:
With that he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade²
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting so,
He seem'd in running to devour the way,³
Staying no longer question.

*North.* Ha!—Again.

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
Of Hotspur,⁴ coldspur? that rebellion
Had met ill luck!

*Bard.* My lord, I'll tell you what;
If my young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point⁵
I'll give my barony: never talk of it.

1 Exhausted.

2 *Jade* is not used by Shakspeare as a *term of contempt*; for King Richard II. gives this appellation to his favourite horse Roan Barbary, which Henry IV. rode at his coronation:—

³ That *jade* hath eat bread from my royal hand.

⁴ The commentators suppose that a *jade* meant a horse

kept for drudgery, a hackney; but this is not the fact
It was only another name for a horse, as *nag* since.

⁵ So in the book of Job, ch. xxxix:—He *swalloweth the ground* in fierceness and rage.

⁶ Hotspur seems to have been a very common term for a man of vehemence and precipitation.

⁷ A *silken point* is a tagged lace.

Act I.

## SCENE I.

## KING HENRY IV.

461

**North.** Why should the gentleman, that rode by Travers,
Give then such instances of loss? Bard.

Who, he? He was some hilding¹ fellow, that had stol'n
The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.

### Enter MORTON.

**North.** Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume:

So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.²—

Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?

**Mor.** I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask,
To fright our party.

**North.**

How doth thy son, and brother? Thou tremblest: and the whiteness in thy cheek

Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.

Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,³

Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,

And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd: But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue,

And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it.

This thou would'st say,—Your son did thus, and thus;

Thy brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas;
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:

But in the end, to stop man ear indeed,

Thou hast to sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with—brother, son, and all are dead.

**Mor.** Douglas is living, and your brother, yet:

But, for my lord your son,—

**North.**

Why, he is dead. See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath!

He, that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes,

That what he fear'd is chanc'd. Yet speak, Morton;
Tell thou the earl, his divination lies;

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,

And make thee rich for doing me this wrong.

**Mor.** You are too great to be by me gainsaid:

Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

**North.** Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.

I see a strange confession in thine eye:

Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin,
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so:

The tongue offends not, that reports his death:
And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead;

Not he, which says the dead is not alive.

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue

Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

Remember'd knolling a departing friend.⁴

**Bard.** I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.

**Mor.** I am sorry, I should force you to believe

That, which I would to heaven I had not seen:

But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend'ring faint quittance,⁵ wearied and out-breath'd,

1 i. e. *Hilderling*, base, low fellow.

2 An attestation of its ravage.

3 Dr. Bently is said to have thought this passage corrupt; and therefore (with a greater degree of gravity than the reader will probably express) proposed the following emendation:—

⁴So dead, so dull in look *Ucalegon*, Drew Priam's curtain, etc.

The name of *Ualegon* occurs in the third Iliad, and in the Æneid.

4 So in Shakspeare's seventy-first Sonnet:—

⁵—You shall hear the surly *sullen* bell

Milton has adopted this expressive epithet:—

¹⁰I hear the far-off curfew sound

Over some wide-water'd shore,

Swinging slow with *sullen* roar.⁹

The *bell* anciently was rung before the dying person had expired, and thence was called the *passing* bell. Mr. Douce thinks it probable that this bell might have been originally used to drive away demons, who were supposed to watch for the parting soul.

To Harry Monmouth: whose swift wrath beat down
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

From whence with life he never more sprung up.

In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire

Even to the dullest peasant in his camp.)

Being bruited⁶ once, took fire and heat away

From the best temper'd courage in his troops:

For from his metal was his party steel'd;

Which once in him abated, all the rest

Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.

And as the thing that's heavy in itself,

Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;

So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,

Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear,

That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,

Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,

Fly from the field: Then was that noble Worcester

Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,

The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword

Had three times slain the appearance of the king,

'Gan vail' his stomach, and did grace the shame

Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,

Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all

Is,—that the king hath won; and hath sent out

A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,

Under the conduct of young Lancaster,

And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.

**North.** For this I shall have time enough to mourn.

In poison there is physic; and these news,

Having been well, that would have made me sick,

Being sick, have in some measure made me well:

And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,

Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,

Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,

Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with

grief,⁹

Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice⁹

crutch;

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,

Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif;

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,

Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.

Now bind my brows with iron; and approach

The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring,

To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!

And let this world no longer be a stage,

To feed contention in a lingering act;

But let one spirit of the first-born Cain

Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set

On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,

And darkness be the burier of the dead.¹⁰

**Tra.** This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.¹¹

**Bard.** Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from you honour.

8 i. e. reported, noised abroad.

7 i. e. begato fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under his fortune. To *vail* is to *lower*, to cast down.

8 *Grief*, in the latter part of this line, is used, in its present sense, for *sorrow*; in the former part for *bodily pain*.

9 Steevens explains *nice* here by *trifling*; but Shakspeare, like his contemporaries, uses it in the sense of *effeminate*, *delicate*, *tender*.

10 The conclusion of this noble speech (says Johnson) is extremely striking. There is no need to suppose it exactly philosophical; *darkness*, in poetry, may be *absence of eyes*, as well as privation of light. Yet we may remark that, by an ancient opinion, it has been held that if the human race, for whom the world was made, were extirpated, the whole system of sublunary nature would cease at once.¹¹

11 This line in the quarto is by mistake given to *Um-freville*, who is spoken of in this very scene as absent. It is given to *Travers* at Steevens's suggestion.

["462", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT I.", "You cast the event of war, my noble lord,¹\nAnd summ'd the account of chance, before you\nsaid.", "Let us make head. It was your presurmise,\nThat in the dole² of blows your son might drop:\nYou knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,\nMore likely to fall in, than to get o'er:³\nYou were advis'd,⁴ his flesh was capable\nOf wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit\nWould lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;\nYet did you say,—Go forth; and none of this,\nThough strongly apprehended, could restrain\nThe stiff-borne action: What hath then befallen,\nOr what hath this bold enterprise brought forth,\nMore than that being which was like to be?", "Bard. We all, that are engaged to this loss,⁵\nKnew that we ventur'd on such dangerous seas,\nThat, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:\nAnd yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd\nChok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;\nAnd, since we are o'erset, venture again.\nCome, we will all put forth; body, and goods.", "Mor. 'Tis more than time: And, my most noble\nlord,", "I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,—\nThe gentle archbishop of York is up,⁶\nWith well-appointed powers; he is a man,\nWho with a double surety binds his followers.\nMy lord your son had only but the corps,\nBut shadows, and the shows of men, to fight:\nFor that same word, rebellion, did divide\nThe action of their bodies from their souls;\nAnd they did fight with queasiness,⁷ constrain'd,⁸\nAs men drink potions; that their weapons only\nSeem'd on our side, but, for their spirits and souls,\nThis word, rebellion, it had froze them up,\nAs fish are in a pond: But now the bishop\nTurns insurrection to religion:\nSuppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,\nHe's follow'd both with body and with mind;\nAnd doth enlarge his rising with the blood\nOf fair King Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones:\nDerives from heaven his quarrel, and his cause;\nTells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land,⁹\nGasping for life under great Bolingbroke;\nAnd more¹⁰ and less do flock to follow him.", "North. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,\nThis present grief had wip'd it from my mind.\nGo in with me; and counsel every man\nThe aptest way for safety, and revenge:\nGet posts, and letters, and make friends with speed;\nNever so few, and never yet more need. [Exeunt.", "1 The fourteen following lines, and a number of others in this play, were not in the quarto edition.", "2 Dealing, or distribution.", "3 So in King Henry IV. Part 1:—", "'As full of peril and adventurous spirit,\nAs to o'erwalk a current roaring loud,\nOn the unsteadfast footing of a spear.'", "4 That is, you were *warned* or *aware*.", "5 This mode of expression has before been noticed.", "6 This and the following twenty lines are not found in the quarto.", "7 Against their stomachs.", "8 That is, 'stand over his country, as she lies bleeding and prostrate, to protect her.' It was the office of a friend to protect his fallen comrade in battle in this manner. Shakspeare has alluded to it in other places.", "9 i. e. great and small, *all ranks*.", "10 This quackery was once so much in fashion that Linacre, the founder of the College of Physicians, formed a statute to restrain apothecaries from carrying the water of their patients to a doctor, and afterwards giving medicines in consequence of the opinions pronounced concerning it. This statute was followed by another, which forbade the doctors themselves to pronounce on any disorder from such an uncertain diagnostic. But this did not extinguish the practice, which has even its dupes in these enlightened times.", "11 Owned.", "12 'Gird' (Mr. Gifford says) is a mere metathesis of *gride*, and means a thrust, a blow; the metaphorical use of the word for a smartstroke of wit, taunt, reproachful retort, &c. is justified by a similar application of kindred terms in all languages.", "### SCENE II. London. A Street. Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, with his Page bearing his Sword and Buckler.", "Fal. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?¹¹⁰", "Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water: but for the party that owed¹¹¹ it, he might have more diseases than he knew for.", "Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird¹²³ at me: the brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to vent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou whoresor mandrake,¹³ thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never manned with an agate¹⁴ till now: but I will set you neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal,¹⁵ the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fledged. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; and yet he will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal: God well finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal,¹⁶ for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, and can assure him. What said master Dumbleton about the satin for my short cloak, and slops?", "Page. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he liked not the security.", "Fal. Let him be damned like the glutton! may his tongue be hotter!¹⁷—A whoresor Achitophel! a rascally yea-forssack knave! to bear a gentleman in hand,¹⁸ and then stand upon security!—The whoresor smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough¹⁹ with them in honest taking up, then they must stand upon—security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. I looked he should have sent me two and twenty yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security. Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it; and yet cannot he see, though he have", "13 A root supposed to have the shape of a man. Quacks and impostors counterfeited, with the root bribery, figures resembling parts of the human body, which were sold to the credulous as ended with specific virtues. See Sir Thomas Brown's Vulgar Errors, p. 72, edit. 1686, for some very curious particulars.", "14 An *agate* is used metaphorically for a very diminutive person, in allusion to the small figures cut in agate for rings and broaches. Thus Florio explains 'Formagery: ouches, broaches, or tablets and jewels, that yet some old men wear in their hats, with agathstones, cut and graven with some forms and images on them, namely, of famous men's heads.'", "15 *Juvenal* occurs in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and in Love's Labour's Lost. It is also used in many places by Chaucer for a *young man*.", "16 Johnson says that, by a *face-royal*, Falstaff means a face exempt from the touch of vulgar hands. As a *stag-royal* is not to be hunted, a *mine-royal* is not to be dug. Steevens imagines that there may be a quibble intended on the coin called a real, or *royal*; that a barber can no more earn sixpence by his face, than by the face stamped on the coin, the one requiring as little shaving as the other. Mason thinks that Falstaff's conceit is, 'If nothing be taken out of a *royal*, it will remain a *royal* still, as it was.' The reader will decide for himself. I have nothing better in the way of conjecture to offer.", "17 An allusion to the fate of the rich man, who had fared sumptuously every day, when he requested a drop of water to cool his tongue, being tormented with flames.", "18 To *bear in hand* is to keep in expectation by false promises.", "19 i. e. in their debt, by taking up goods on credit.", "SCENE", "His own", "dolph?", "Page:", " Page:", " horse in the", "Enter:", " Page:", " Enter:", {"bbox": [1058, 1044, 1092, 1058],

["## SCENE II", "## KING HENRY IV.", "463", "his own lantern to light him. — Where's Bardolph?", "Page. He's gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse.", "Fal. I bought him in Paul's,¹ and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get him but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.", "Enter the Lord Chief Justice,² and an Attendant.", "Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph.", "Fal. Wait close, I will not see him.", "Ch. Just. What's he that goes there?", "Atten. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.", "Ch. Just. He that was in question for the robbery?", "Atten. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the lord John of Lan-caster.", "Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again.", "Atten. Sir John Falstaff!", "Fal. Boy, tell him, I am deaf.", "Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf.", "Ch. Just. I am sure he is, to the hearing of any thing good.—Go, pluck him by the elbow: I must speak with him.", "Atten. Sir John,", "Fal. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebel-lion can tell how to make it.", "Atten. You mistake me, sir.", "Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest man? setting my knighthood' and my soldiery aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so.", "Atten. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiery aside; and give me leave to tell you, lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.", "Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou takest leave, thou wert better be hanged; thou hunt counter,³ hence! avunt!", "Atten. Sir, my lord would speak with you.", "Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.", "Fal. My good lord!—God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard say, your lordship was sick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relief of the saltness of time, and I most humbly beseech your lordship, to have a reverent care of your health.", "Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury.", "Fal. An't please your lordship, I hear, his majesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales.", "Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty:—You would not come when I sent for.", "1 The body of old St. Paul's Church, in London, was a constant place of resort for business and amusement, and consequently frequented by idle people of all descriptions. Advertisements were fixed up there, bar-gains made, servants hired, &c.", "2 This judge was Sir Wm. Gascoigne, chief justice of the King's Bench. He died Dec. 17, 1413, and was buried in Harewood Church, in Yorkshire. His effigy is on his monument, and may be seen in Gough's Se-pulchral Monuments, vol. ii.", "3 To hunt counter was to hunt the wrong way, to trace the scent backwards: to hunt it by the heel is the technical phrase. Falstaff means to tell the man that he is on a wrong scent. The folio and the modern editions print hunt-counter and the modern editions appear like a name; but in the quartos the words are disjoiuted—hunt counter. Cotgrave explains *contre-pied*, that which we call counter in hunting ?; and *tenir contre-pied*, to set or hold his foot against another man's, thereby to stop him from going any further; to cross or impeach the designes or enterprises of another.¹ There", "Fal. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson apoplexy.", "Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you.", "Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy: an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson tingling.", "Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is.", "Fal. It hath its original from much grief; from study, and perturbation of the brain: I have read the cause of its effects in Galen; it is a kind of deafness.", "Ch. Just. I think, you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I say to you.", "Fal.⁴ Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal.", "Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not, if I do become your physician.", "Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, in respect to poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself.", "Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me.", "Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did not come.", "Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.", "Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in less.", "Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.", "Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer.", "Ch. Just. You have misled the youthful prince.", "Fal. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog.", "Ch. Just. Well, I am loath to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gad's-hill; you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting that action.", "Fal. My lord?", "Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf.", "Fal. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox.", "Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the better part burnt out.", "Fal. A wassel candle,⁵ my lord; all tallow: if I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth.", "Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face, but should have his effect of gravity.", "Fal. His effect of gravity, gravity.", "Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.", "Fal. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is light;⁶ but, I hope, he that looks upon me, will take me without weighing: and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell:⁷ Virtue is of so", "does not seem to be any allusion to the Counter prison here; though such allusions were very common in the poet's age.", "⁴ In the quarto edition this speech stands thus:—", "¹⁰ Old. Very well, my lord, very well.", "This is a strong corroboration of the tradition that Falstaff was first called Oldcastle.", "⁵ A wassel candle is a large candle lighted up at a feast. There is a poor quibble upon the word wax, which signifies increase as well as the matter of the honeycomb.", "⁶ As light as a clift angel? is a comparison frequent in the old comedies.", "⁷ I cannot tell, Johnson explains, 'I cannot be taken in a reckoning, I cannot pass current.' Mr. Gifford objects to this explanation, and says that it merely means 'I cannot tell what to think of it.' The phrase with that signification, was certainly common (says Mr. Boswell) ; but as it will also bear the sense which Dr. Johnson assigned to it, his interpretation appears to me to suit the context better. Let the reader judge.", "Act I.\n\nSt. Street. East Sun\nPage bearing his Stand.\n\nthat says the doctor to\n\nwater itself was a god\nparty that owed it, if,\nany thing that tends to\nor, is invented on not\nshe, but the cause that\nhere walk before him,\nwhenever all her little bit\ninto my service for her\noff, why then I have an\nof manlands,¹⁲ that is not\nthan to wait at my looke\nan age!⁴ all now: but I\nhad no silver, but in\nck again to your master,\nthe prince your master.\nI will sooner suffer\nmy hand, than he fell\nyet he will not suffer\nGod may finish it when\nsinn yet: he may let it\na barber shall never can\net he will be growing\nsince his father was a\nhis own grace, and it is\nassure him.—What\nout the sin for my dot", "", "should procure him behel-d: he would not take any security. He'd say, 'I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I

464

SECOND PART OF

ACT I.

little regard in these coster-monger times,¹ that true
valour is turned bear-herd: Pregnancy² is made a
tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving
reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man,
as the malice of this age shapes them, are not
worth a gooseberry. You, that are old, consider
not the capacities of us that are young: you mea-
sure the heat of our lives with the bitterness of
your galls: and we that are in the vaward of our
youth, I must confess, are wags too.

Ch. *Just.* Do you set down your name in the
scroll of youth, that are written down with all
the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye?
a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a
decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your
voice broken? your wind short? your chin double?
your wit single?³ and every part about you blasted
with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young?
Fye, fye, fye, Sir John!

Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the
clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and
something a round belly. For my voice,—I have
lost it with hollauing, and singing of anthems. To
approve my youth further, I will not: the truth is, I
am only old in judgment and understanding: and
he that will caper with me for a thousand marks,
let him lend me the money, and have at him. For
the box o' the ear that the prince gave you,—he
gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a
sensible lord. I have checked him for it; and the
young lion repents; marry, not in ashes, and sack-
cloth; but in new silk and old sack.

Ch. *Just.* Well, heaven send the companion a better companion!

Fal. Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.

Ch. *Just.* Well, the king hath severed you and
Prince Harry: I hear, you are going with Lord
John of Lancaster, against the archbishop, and the
earl of Northumberland.

Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it.
But look you pray, all you that kiss my lady peace
at home, that our armies join not in a hot day! for,
by the Lord, I take but two shirts out with me, and
I mean not to sweat extraordinarily: if it be a hot
day, an I brandish any thing but my bottle, I would
I might never spit white again. There is not a
dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am
thrust upon it: Well, I cannot last ever:⁴ But it
was always yet the trick of our English nation, if
they have a good thing, to make it too common. If
you will needs say, I am an old man, you should
give me rest. I would to God, my name were not
so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to
be eaten to death with rust, than to be scoured to
nothing with perpetual motion.

Ch. *Just.* Well, be honest, be honest; and God
bless your expedition!

Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand
pounds, to furnish me forth?

Ch. *Just.* Not a penny, not a penny; you are too
impatient to bear crosses,⁵ Fare you well: Com-
mand me to my cousin Westmoreland.

[Exeunt Chief Justice and Attendant.

Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle.⁶

¹ *Coster-monger times* are *petty peddling times*; when the prevalence of trade has produced that meaness that rates the merit of every thing to money.

² *Pregnancy is readiness.*

³ *Single is simple, silly.* How much has been written about this phrase, and to how little purpose! *Single-witted* and *single-souled* were common epithets with our ancestors, to designate simple persons.

⁴ The rest of this speech, which is not in the folio, is restored from the quarto copy.

⁵ A quibble is here intended between crosses, contraryings, and the sort of money so called.

⁶ This alludes to a common but cruel diversion of boys, called *filipping* the toad. They lay a board, two or three feet long, at right angles, over a transverse piece, two or three inches thick; then placing the toad at one end of the board, the other end is struck by a bat or large stick, which throws the poor toad forty or fifty feet perpendicular from the earth: and the fall

—A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young limbs and lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox pinches the other; and so both the degrees prevent⁷ my curses.

—Boy!—

Page: Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse?

Page. Seven groats and two-pence.

Fal. I can get no remedy against this consump-
tion of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lin-
gers it out, but the disease is incurable.—Go bear
this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the
prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and this
to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly sworn
to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my
chin: About it; you know, where to find me. [Exit
Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox!
for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my
great toe. It is no matter: If I do halt; I have the
wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the
more reasonable: A good wit will make use of any
thing; I will turn diseases to commodity.⁸ [Exit.

### SCENE III. York. A Room in the Archbishop's

Palace. Enter the Archbishop of York; the LORDS HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH.

Arch. Thus have you heard our cause, and known our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,

Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:—

And first, lord marshal, what say you to it?

Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms;

But gladly would be better satisfied,

How, in our means, we should advance ourselves

To look with forehead bold and big enough

Upon the power and puissance of the king.

Hast. Our present masters grow upon the file

To five and twenty thousand men of choice;

And our supplies five largely in the hope

Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns

With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard. The question then, Lord Hastings, standeth

thus: —

Whether our present five and twenty thousand

May hold up head without Northumberland.

Hast. With him, we may.

Bard.

Ay, marry, there's the point:

But if without him we be thought too feeble,

My judgment is, we should not step too far

Till we had his assistance by the hand:

For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,

Conjecture, expectation, and surmise

Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted.

Arch. 'Tis very true, Lord Bardolph; for, indeed,
It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.

Bard. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope,

Eating the air on promise of supply,

Flattering himself with project of a power

Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:⁹

And so, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,

And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

Hast. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.

Bard. Yes, in this present quality of war;—

Indeed the instant action,¹⁰ (a cause on foot),

generally kills it. A three-man beetle is a heavy beetle, with three handles, used in driving piles, &c.

⁷ To prevent is to anticipate.

⁸ *Mine eyes prevent the night watches.*—Ps. cxix.
One of our old translators renders the 'Noctem que instabat interpræcapere; to prevent the night that was at hand.

⁹ *Commodity is profit, interest.*

¹⁰ The first twenty lines of this speech were first inserted in the folio, 1623. This passage has perplexed the editors. The old copies read:

1. 'Yes, if this present quality of war,'

Indeed the instant action: a cause on foot

Lives so in hope: As in, &c.

It has been proposed to read:—

1. 'Yes, if this present quality of war;—

SCENE

Lives
We so
Hope
That

We first
And we
Then who
What was
In love
To him
(Which is
And so
The plan
Question
How at
To wot
We for
Using it
Like on
Beyond
Gives a
ake
And wa

Should
The ut
I think,
Even so
Bard.

Hast.

For his
Are in it
And one
Must tak
With loa
Arch.

And con
Need no
Hast.
Heave
Buying
Bard.

Hast.

Against
But who
I have no
Arch.
And publ
The com
Their ov
An aban
Hsh. he
0 ou th
Dit his
Before h

Inde
Lives
The read
Johnsor
affords a
of Bardol
is done to
1. Agre
2. Durh
3. Archb
Index at
See Holin
This was no
of his br
Hary was
not mis
made his

## SCENE III.

## KING HENRY IV.

Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to
build,

We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist
To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent¹ upon a sure foundation;
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men instead of men:
Like one, that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

Hast. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,)

Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,

Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Bard. What! is the king but five and twenty thousand?

Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, Lord Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,²

One against Glendower; perforce, a third

Must take up us: So is the uniform king

In three divided; and his coffers sound

With hollow poverty and emptiness.

Arch. That he should draw his several strengths together,

And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

Hast. If he should do so,

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh

Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

Hast. The duke of Lancaster,³ and Westmoreland.

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth:

But who is substituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

Arch. Let us on;⁴

And publish the occasion of our arms.

The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,

Their over-greedy love hath surfeited:—

An habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

O thou fond many!¹ with what loud applause

Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'st have him be?

Indu'd the instant action: a cause on foot

Lives so in hope, as in, &c.

The reading adopted by Steevens and Malone, from
Johnson's suggestion, is that which I have given; it
affords a clear sense, and agrees with the whole tenor
of Bardolph's argument; at the same time little violence
is done to the text, two letters only being changed.

1 Agree.

2 During this rebellion of Northumberland and the
Archbishop a French army of twelve thousand men
landed at Milford Haven in aid of Owen Glendower.
See Holinshed, p. 531.

3 This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster
was not created a duke till the second year of the reign
of his brother, King Henry V. At this time Prince
Henry was actually duke of Lancaster. Shakspeare
was misled by Stowe, who, speaking of the first parlia-
ment of King Henry IV. says, 'Then the king rose, and
made his eldest sonne prince of Wales, &c.: his second

And being now trimm'd⁶ in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
Through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, O earth, yield us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.
Mowb. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on?
Hast. We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
[Exeunt.

## ACT II.

### SCENE I. London.
A Street. Enter Hostess; FANG, and his Boy, with her; and SNARE following.

Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action?

Fang. It is, &c.

Host. Where is your yeoman?⁷ Is it a lusty yeoman? will a' stand to't?

Fang. Sirrah, where's Snare?

Host. O lord, ay: good master Snare.

Snare. Here, here.

Fang. Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff.

Host. Yea, good master Snare; I have entered him and all.

Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives,
for he will stab.

Host. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stABBed
me in mine own house, and that most beastly:
in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth, if
his weapon be the unfl'ood; he will foin⁸ like any devil; he
will spare neither man, woman, nor child.

Fang. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust.

Host. No, nor I neither: I'll be at your elbow.

Fang. An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice;⁹—

Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant him,
he's an infinitive thing upon my score:—Good mas-
ter Fang, hold him sure;—good master Snare, let
him not 'scape. He comes continually to Pic-
corner (saving your manhoods,) to buy a saddle;
and he's invited to dinner to the lubbar's head in
Lumbert-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I
pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so
openly known to the world, let him be brought in
to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan¹⁰
for a poor lone woman to bear: and I have borne,
and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off,
and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to
that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There
is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman
should be made an ass, and a beast, to bear every
knave's wrong.—

sonne was there made duke of Lancaster.' Annales,
1631.—He seems to have consulted Stowe (p. 323) be-
tween the times of finishing the last play and beginning
of the present.

4 This speech first appeared in the folio.

5 Many or meyny; from the French mesnie, a mul-
titude.

6 Dressed.

7 A bailiff's follower was formerly called a serjeant's yeoman.

8 Thrust.

9 The quarto reads vien. Vice is used for grasp or clutch. The fist is vulgarly called the vice in the west of England.

10 The old copies read 'long one; which Theobald
supposed was a corruption of lone or loan. Mr. Douce
thinks the alteration unnecessary; and that the hostess
means to say that a hundred mark is a long score, or
reckoning, for her to bear.

59

["466", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT II.", "Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and\nBARDOLPH.", "Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose\nknave, Bardolph, with him. Do your offices, do\nyour offices, master Fang, and master Snare; do\nme, do me, do me your offices.", "Ful. How now ? whose mare's dead ? what's the matter?", "Fang. Sir John, I arrest you at the suit of Mistress Quickly.", "Ful. Away, varlets !—Draw, Bardolph; cut me off the villain's head; throw the quean in the channel.", "Host. Throw me in the channel? I'll throw thee in the channel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou bastardly rogue!—Murder, murder! O thou honey-suckle¹ villain! wilt thou kill God's officers, and the king's? O thou honey-seed¹ rogue! thou art a honey-seed; a man-queller,² and a woman-queller.", "Ful. Keep them off, Bardolph.", "Fang. A rescue! a rescue!", "Host. Good people, bring a rescue or two.—\nThou wo't, wo't thou? thou wo't, wo't thou? do,\ndo, thou rogue! do, thou hemp-seed!", "Ful. Away, you scullion! you rampallian! you fustilarian! I'll tickle your catastrophe.", "Enter the Lord Chief Justice, attended.", "Ch. Just. What's the matter? keep the peace here, ho!", "Host. Good my lord, be good to me! I beseech you, stand to me!", "Ch. Just. How now, Sir John? what, are you brawling here?", "Doth this become your place, your time, and business?", "You should have been well on your way to York—\nStand from him, fellow; wherefore hang'st thou on him?", "Host. O my most worshipful lord, an't please your grace, I am a poor widow of Eastcheap, and he is arrested at my suit.", "Ch. Just. For what sum?", "Host. It is more than for some, my lord: it is for all, all I have: he hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his;—but I will have some of it out again, or I'll ride thee o' nights, like the mare.", "Ful. I think I am as like to ride the mare, if I have any vantage of ground to get up.", "Ch. Just. How comes this, Sir John? Fye! what man of good temper would endure this tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to come by her own?", "Ful. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?", "Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man, thyself, and the money too. Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel-gilt³ goblet, sitting in my Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-coal fire, upon Wednesday in Wheeson-week,⁴ when the prince broke thy head for liking his father⁵ to a singing-man of Windsor; thou didst swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound, to marry me, and make me my lady thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech, the butcher's wife, come in then, and call me gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us, she had a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some;", "1 It is scarce necessary to remark that honey-suckle and honey-seed are Daine Quickly's corruptions of homicidal and homicide.", "2 To quell was anciently used for to kill. 'A man-queller, a manslayer, or murderer; homicida.'—Ju-\nnius's Nomenclator, 1555.", "3 Parcel-gilt is partly gilt, or gilt only in parts. Lane-ham, in his Letter from Kenilworth, describing a bride-cup, says, 'It was formed of a sweet socket barrel, a faire turn'd foot set to it, all seemly be-sylvered and par-cel-gilt.' The expression is too common in old writers to need further illustration.", "4 The folio reads Whitsun-week: but the corruption is in the hostess's manner.", "5 The folio has 'for likening him to,' &c.", "whereby I told thee, they were ill for a green wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone down stars, desire me to be no more so familiarity with such poor people; saying that ere long they should call me madam? And didst thou not kiss me, and bid me fetch thee thirty shillings? I put thee now to thy book-oath; deny it if thou canst.", "Ful. My lord, this is a poor mad soul; and she says, up and down the channel, that her eldest son is like you: she hath been in good case, and, the truth is, poverty hath distracted her. But for these foolish officers, I beseech you, I may have redress against them.", "Ch. Just. Sir John, Sir John, I am well acquainted with your manner of wrenching the true cause the false way. It is not a confident brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration: you have, as it appears to me, practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this man, and made her serve your uses both in purse and person.", "Host. Yea, in troth, my lord.", "Ch. Just. 'Pr'ythee, peace:—Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villany you have done with her; the one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current rentance.", "Ful. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap⁶ without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent sauciness: if a man will make court'sy, and say nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble duty remembered, I will not be your suitor; I say to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs.", "Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do wrong: but answer in the effect of your reputation,⁷ and satisfy the poor woman.", "Ful. Come hither, hostess.", "[Taking her aside,", "Enter GOWER.", "Ch. Just. Now, master Gower; what news?", "Gow. The king, my lord, and Harry prince of Wales,", "Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells.", "Ful. As I am a gentleman:—", "Host. Nay, you said so before.", "Ful. As I am a gentleman;—Come, no more words of it.", "Host. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.", "Ful. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking: and for thy walls,—a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work,⁹ is worth a thousand of these bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canst. Come, and it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go wash thy face, and 'draw'⁹ thy wench: Come, thou must not be in this humour with me! dost not know me? Come, come, I know thou wast set on to this?", "Host. 'Pray thee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; 'faith I am loath to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la,", "6 Sneap is reproof, rebuke. Thus in Brome's Anti-podes:—", "'Do you sneap me, my lord?'", "And again:—", "'No need to come hither to be sneap'd'", "—even as now I was not,", "When you sneap'd me, my lord?", "Snip, snib, sneb, and snub, are different forms of the same word. To sneap was originally to check or pinch by frost. Shakspeare has sneaping frost and sneaping winds in other places.", "7 Suitably to your character.", "8 Water work is water colour paintings or hangings. The painted cloth was generally oil colour; but a cheaper sort, probably resembling in their execution some modern paper-hangings, was brought from Holland or Germany, executed in water colour, or distemper. The German hunting, or wild boar hunt, would consequently be a prevalent subject.", "9 Withdraw.", "The English\nCompany\nA. P.\nHodgson\nHodgson\nHodgson

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY IV.

**Fal.** Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll be a fool still.

**Host.** Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope you'll come to supper; you'll pay me altogether.

**Fal.** Will I live?—Go, with her, with her; [To BARDOLPH.] hook on, hook on.

**Host.** Will you have Doll Tear-sheet meet you at supper?

**Fal.** No more words; let's have her.

[Exeunt Hostess, BARDOLPH, Officers, and Page.

**Ch. Just.** I have heard better news.

**Fal.** What's the news, my good lord?

**Ch. Just.** Where lay the king last night?

**Gow.** At Basingstoke, my lord.

**Fal.** I hope, my lord, all's well: What's the news, my lord?

**Ch. Just.** Come all his forces back?

**Gow.** No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse,

Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,
Against Northumberland and the archbishop.

**Fal.** Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord?

**Ch. Just.** You shall have letters of me presently:
Come, go along with me, good master Gower.

**Fal.** My lord!

**Ch. Just.** What's the matter?

**Fal.** Master Gower, shall I entreat you with me to dinner?

**Gow.** I must wait upon my good lord here: I
thank you, good Sir John.

**Ch. Just.** Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take soldiers up in counties as you go.

**Fal.** Will you sup with me, master Gower?

**Ch. Just.** What foolish master taught you these manners, my lord?

**Fal.** Master Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that taught them me.—This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair.

**Ch. Just.** Now the lord lightens thee! thou art a great fool.

[Exeunt]

## SCENE II. The same. Another Street. Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS.

**P. Hen.** Trust me, I am exceeding weary.

**Pains.** Is it come to that? I had thought, weariness durst not have attached one of so high blood.

**P. Hen.** 'Faith, it does me; though it discolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?

**Pains.** Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied, as to remember so weak a composition.

**P. Hen.** Belike then, my appetite was not principally got; for, by my troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast; viz.: these and those that were the peach-colour'd ones? or to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity, and one other for use?—but that the tennis-court keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not a racket there; as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of thy low-countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland: and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen,¹ shall inherit his kingdom: but the midwives say, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily strengthened.

1 His bastard children, wrapt up in his old shirts. The ellipsis out for out of, Steevens says, is sometimes used.

2 Oestentation is not here used for *boastful* show, but for *outward show*:

¹ Like one well studied in a sad ostent

To please his grandam.'—Merchant of Venice.

3 A proper fellow of my hands is the same as a tall fellow of his hands, which has been already explained

467

**Poins.** How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you should talk so idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this time is?

**P. Hen.** Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?

**Poins.** Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing.

**P. Hen.** It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

**Poins.** Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell.

**P. Hen.** Why, I tell thee,—it is not meet that I should be sad, now my father is sick: albeit I could tell to thee (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too.

**Poins.** Very hardly, upon such a subject.

**P. Hen.** By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the devil's book, as thou, and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency: Let the end try the man. But I tell thee,—my heart bleeds inwardly, that my father is so sick: and keeping such vile company as thou art, hath in reason taken from me all oestentation² of sorrow.

**Poins.** The reason?

**P. Hen.** What would'st thou think of me, if I should weep?

**Poins.** I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.

**P. Hen.** It would be every man's thought: and thou art a blessed fellow, to think as every man thinks; never a man's thoughts in the world keeps the road-way better than thine: every man would think me a hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful thought to think so?

**Poins.** Why, because you have been so lewd, and so much engrafted to Falstaff!

**P. Hen.** And to thee,

**Poins.** By this light, I am well spoken of, I can hear it with mine own ears: the worst that they can say of me is, that I am a second brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands;³ and those two things, I confess, I cannot help. By the mass, here comes Bardolph.

**P. Hen.** And the boy that I gave Falstaff: he had him from me Christian; and look, if the fat villain have not transformed him ape.

Enter BARDOLPH and Page.

**Bard.** 'Save your grace!

**P. Hen.** And yours, most noble Bardolph!

**Bard.** Come, you virtuous ass [To the Page], you bashful fool, must you be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man at arms are you become! Is it such a matter, to get a pot-pielet's maidenhead?

**Page.** He called me even now, my lord, through a red-lattice,⁴ and I could discern no part of his face from the window: at last, I spied his eyes; and, methought, he had made two holes in the ale-wife's new petticoat, and peeped through.

**P. Hen.** Hath not the boy profited?

**Bard.** Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away!

**Page.** Away, you rascally Althea's dream, away!

**P. Hen.** Instruct us, boy: What dream, boy?

**Page.** Marry, my lord, Althea dreamed she was delivered of a firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream.

**P. Hen.** A crown's worth of, good interpretation.
—There it is, boy.

[Gives him money.

**Poins.** O, that this good blossom could be kept from cankers!—Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.

in a note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 4. That a tall or a proper fellow was sometimes used in an equivocal sense for a *thief*, there can be no doubt. Cotgrave has a proverb, 'Les beaux hommes au gibeut.' The gibbet makes an end of proper men.' A striker is one of its meanings, according to Cotgrave, 'who taking a proper youth to be his apprentice, to teach him the order of striking and foisting.'—Greene's Art of Cony-Catching.

4 An alehouse window.

468

SECOND PART OF

Act II.

Bard. An you do not make him be hanged among
you, the gallows shall have wrong.

P. Hen. And how doth thy master, Bardolph?

Bard. Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's
coming to town; there's a letter for you.

Poins. Delivered with good respect.—And how
doth the martlemas,¹ your master?

Bard. In bodily health, sir.

Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a physi-
ian; but that moves not him; though that be sick,
it dies not.

P. Hen. I do allow this wen² to be as familiar
with me as my dog; and he holds his place; for,
look you, how he writes.

Poins. [Reads.] John Falstaff, knight,—Every man must know that, as oft as he has occasion to name himself. Even like those that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they say, *There is some of the king's blood spilt: How comes that?* says he that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer is as ready as a borrower's³ cap; I am the king's poor cousin, sir.

P. Hen. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will
fetch it from Japhet. But the letter:—

Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of the
king, nearest his father, Harry, Prince of Wales,
greeting.—Why, this is a certificate.

P. Hen. Peace!

Poins. I will imitate the honourable Roman⁴ in
brevity:—he sure means brevity in breath; short-
winded.—I commend me to thee, I commend thee,
and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins:
for he misuses thy favours so much, that he swears,
thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent at idle
times as thou mayst, and so farewell.

Thine, by yea and no (which is as
much as to say, as thou usest him),
Jack Falstaff, with my familiars;
John with my brothers and sisters;
and Sir John, with all Europe.

My lord, I will steep this letter in sack, and make
him eat it.

P. Hen. That's to make him eat twenty of his
words. But do you use me thus, Ned? must I marry
your sister?

Poins. May the wench have no worse fortune! but I never said so.

P. Hen. Well, thus we play the fools with the time: and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds, and mock us.—Is your master here in London?

Bard. Yes, my lord.

P. Hen. Where sups he? doth the old boar feed
in the old frank?⁵

Bard. At the old place, my lord; in Eastcheap.

P. Hen. What company?

Page. Ephesians, my lord; of the old church.⁶

P. Hen. Sup any women with him?

Page. None, my lord, but old mistress Quickly,
and mistress Doll Tear-sheet.

P. Hen. What pagan² may that be?

Page. A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kins-
woman of my master's.

P. Hen. Even such kin as the parish heifers are
to the town bull. Shall we steal upon them, Ned,
at supper?

1 Falstaff is before called 'thou latter spring, all-hal-
town summer,' and Poins now calls him martlemas,
a corruption of martimmas, which means the same thing.
The feast of St. Martin being considered the latter end of
autumn. *Este de St. Martin* is a French proverb for a
late summer. It means therefore an old fellow with
juvenile passions.

2 Swinl exprescencie.

3 The old copy reads a borrowed cap. The emenda-
tion is Warburton's.

4 That is Julius Cæsar. Falstaff alludes to the veni,
vidi, pici, which he afterwards quotes.

5 *I sty*, a place to fatten a boar in.

6 A cant phrase probably signifying topers, or jolly
companions of the old sort.

7 Massinger, in The City Madam, has used this
phrase for a wench:—

¹ In all these places

I've had my several pagans billeted.¹

Poins. I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow
you.

P. Hen. Sirrah, you boy,—and Bardolph;—no
word to your master, that I am yet come to town:
There's for your silence.

Bard. I have no tongue, sir.

Page. And for mine, sir;—I will govern it.

P. Hen. Fare ye well; go. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.]—This Doll Tear-sheet should be some road.

Poins. I warrant you, as common as the way be-
tween Saint Albans and London.

P. Hen. How might we see Falstaff bestow
himself to-night in his true colours, and not our-
elves be seen?

Poins. Put on two leather jerkins, and aprons,
and wait upon him at his table as drawers.

P. Hen. From a god to a bull? a heavy descent?¹⁹ it was Jove's case. From a prince to a prentice? a low transformation! that shall be mine: for, in every thing, the purpose must weigh with the folly. Follow me, Ned. [Exeunt,

### SCENE III. Warkworth. Before the Castle.

Enter NORTHERNBERLAND, LADY NORTHERNBERLAND, and LADY PERCY.

North. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle
daughter, give

Give even way unto my rough affairs;

Put not on the visage of the times,
And be, like them, to Percy troublesome.

Lady N. I have given over, I will speak no more:
Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide.

North. Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn;
And, but my going, nothing can redeem it.

Lady P. O, yet, for God's sake, go not to these
wars!

The time was, father, that you broke your word,
When you were more endear'd to it than now;
When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry,
Threw many a northward look, to see his father
Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.

Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours lost; yours, and your son's.
For yours,—may heavenly glory brighten it!

For his,—it stuck upon him, as the

In the grey vault of heaven: and, by his light,
Did all the chivalry of England move

To do brave acts; he was, indeed, the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.

He had no legs, that practis'd not his gait;¹⁰

And speaking thick,¹¹ which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant:

For those that could speak low, and tardily,

Would turn their own perfection to abuse,

To seem like him: So that, in speech, in gait,

In Diet, in affections of delight,

In military rules, humours of blood,

He was the mark and glass, copy and book,¹²

That fashion'd others. And him,—O wondrous him!

O miracle of men!—him did you leave

(Second to none, unsecluded by you.)

To look upon the hideous god of war

In disadvantage; to abide a field,

Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
Did seem defensible:¹³—so you left him:

S. i. e. *act*. In a MS. letter from Secretary Conway to Buckingham, at the Isle of Ree, 'also what the lords have advanced for the expedition towards you, since Saturday that they returned from Windsor with charge to tobowe themselves seriously in it.'—*Comway Papers*.

9 The folio reads *Declension*.

10 The twenty-two following lines were first given in
the folio.
11 Speaking *thick* is speaking *quick*, rapidity of utter-
ance. Baret translates the *anhilitus creber* of Virgil
*thieke-breathing*.

12 Thus in the Rape of Lucrece:—

⁴ For princes are the *glass*, the school, the *book*

⁵ Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look.¹

¹³ *Defensible* does not in this place mean *capable of
defence*, but *bearing strength*, furnishing the means
of *defence*: the passive for the active participle.

### SCENE IV.

Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong,
To hold your honour more precise and nice
With others, than with him; let them alone;
The marshal, and the archbishop, are strong:
Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck,
Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.

North. Beshrew¹ your heart,
Fair daughter! you do draw my spirits from me,
With new lamenting ancient oversights.

But I must go, and meet with danger there;
Or it will seek me in another place,
And find me worse provided.

Lady N. O, fly to Scotland,
Till that the nobles, and the armed commons,
Have of their puissance made a little taste.

Lady P. If they get ground and vantage of the
king,

Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,
To make strength stronger; but, for all our loves,
First let them try themselves: So did your son;
He was so suffer'd; so came I a widow;
And never shall have length of life enough,

To rain upon remembrance² with mine eyes,
That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven,
For recordation to my noble husband.

North. Come, come, go in with me: 'tis with my
kindred.

As with the tide swell'd up unto its height,
That makes a still-stand, running neither way.

Fain would I meet the archbishop,
But many thousand reasons hold me back:—
I'll resolve for Scotland; there am I,

Till time and vantage crave my company. [Exeunt.

### SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap. Enter Two Drawers.

1. Draw. What the devil hast thou brought there?
apple-Johns? thou know'st, Sir John cannot endure
an apple-John.³

2. Draw. Mass, thou sayest best: The prince once set a dish of apple-Johns before him, and told him, there were five more Sir Johns: and, putting off his hat, said, I will now take my leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights. It angered him to the heart; but he hath forgot that.

1. Draw. Why then, cover, and set them down:
And see if thou canst find out Sneak's noise;⁴
mistress Tear-sheet would fain hear some music.
Despatch.—The room where they supped is too hot;
they'll come in straight.

2. Draw. Sirrah, here will be the prince, and master
Poinks anon: and they will put on two of our jer-
kins, and aprons; and Sir John must not know of
it: Bardolph hath brought word.

1. Draw. By the mass, here will be old utis.⁵ It
will be an excellent stratagem.

2. Draw. I'll see if I can find out Sneak. [Exit.

Enter Hostess and DOLL TEAR-SHEET.

Host. If faith, sweet heart, methinks now you are

1 Ill-betide.

2. Alluding to the plant rosemary, so called because
it was the symbol of remembrance, and therefore used
at weddings and funerals.

3. This apple, which was said to keep two years, is
well described by Philips:—

Nor John-apple, whose wither'd rind entrench'd
By many a furrow, aptly represents
Decrepid age.

Falstaff has already said of himself, 'I am withered
like an old apple-John.'

4. A noise, or a consort, was used for a set or company of musicians. Sneak was a street minstrel, and therefore the drawer goes out to listen for his band. Falstaff addresses them as a company in another scene. In the old play of King Henry IV. 'There came the young prince, and two or three more of his companyes, and called for wine good store, and then sent for a noyse of musitants,' &c.

5. Old utis is old festivity, or merry doings. Utis, or utas, being the eighth day after any festival; any day between the feast and the eighth day was said to be within the utas. So Sir Thomas More, in the last letter

### KING HENRY IV.

in an excellent good temperality: your pulsidge
beats as extraordinarily as your heart would desire; and
your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose;
But, i'faith, you have drunk too much canaries; and
that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes
the blood ere one can say,—What's this? How do
you now?

Dol. Better than I was. Hem.

Host. Why, that's well said; a good heart's worth
gold. Look, here comes Sir John.

Enter FALSTAFF, singing.

Fal. When Arthur first in court,⁶—Empty the
jordan.—And was a worthy king: [Exit Drawer.]
How now, mistress Doll?

Host. Sick of a calm: yea, good sooth.

Fal. So is all her sect;⁷ an they be once in a
calm, they are sick.

Dol. You muddy rascal, is that all the comfort
you give me?

Dol. You make fat rascals,⁸ mistress Doll.

Dol. I make them! gluttony and diseases make
them; I make them not.

Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you
help to make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you,
Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue,
grant that.

Dol. Ay, marry; our chains, and our jewels.

Your brooches, pearls, and oieces;⁹—for to
serve bravely, is to come halting off, you know: To
come off the breach with his pike bent bravely, and
to surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged
chambers¹⁰ bravely:—

Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang
yourself!

Host. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you
two never meet, but you fall to some discord: you
are both, in good truth, as rheumatic¹¹ as two dry
toasts; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities.
What the good-year! one must bear, and that
must be you: [To DöLL.] you are the weaker vessel,
as they say, the emptier vessel.

Dol. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge
full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture
of Bordeaux stuff in him: you have not seen a hulk
better stuffed in the hold.—Come, I'll be friends
with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and
whether I shall ever see thee again, or no, there is
nobody cares.

Re-enter Drawer.

Draw. Sir, ancient¹² Pistol's below, and would
speak with you.

Dol. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not
come hither: it is the foul-mouth'dst rogue in Eng-
land.

Host. If he swagger, let him not come here; no,
by my faith; I must live amongst my neighbours;

he wrote to his daughter the day before his execution,
desires to die on the morrow. 'For it is Saint Thomas'
even, and the utas of Saint Peter.'

6 The entire ballad is in the first volume of Dr. Per-
cy's Reliques of Ancient Poetry.

7 Stevens is right in his assertion that *sect* and *sex*
were anciently synonymous; the instances of the use
of the one for the other are too numerous for it to have
been a mere vulgar corruption.

8 Falstaff alludes to a phrase of the forest. 'Rascall
(says Puttenham, p. 150) is properly the hunting term
given to young deer *teare* and out of season, and not to
people.'

9 Falstaff gives these splendid names to something
very different from gems and ornaments, as we still use
carbuncle. The passage, as Johnson observed, is not
deserving of further illustration.

10 To understand this quibble it is necessary to re-
member that a chamber signifies not only an apartment,
but a small piece of ordnance.

11 Mrs. Quickly means splenetic. It should be re-
marked, however, that *rheum* seems to have been a
cant word for *spleen*.

12 That is, 'he that carrieth the colours to a company
of foot soldiers, an ensign bearer.'—*Philips*. Falstaff
was captain, Peto lieutenant, and *Pistol ensign*. I have
met with the word in old MSS. written *ansine*.

["470", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT II.", "I'll no swaggerers: I am in good name and fame\nwith the very best:—Shut the door;—there comes\nno swaggerers here: I have not lived all this while\nto have swaggering now:—shut the door, I pray you.", "Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess?", "Host. 'Pray you, pacify yourself, Sir John; there comes no swaggerers here.", "Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient.", "Host. Tilly-fally, Sir John, never tell me; I was\nancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was\nbefore master Tisick,¹ the deputy, the other day;\nand, as he said to me,—it was no longer ago than\nWednesday last,—*Neighbour Quickly*, says he;—\nmaster Dumb, our minister, was by then;—*Neighbour Quickly*, says he, *receive those that are civil; for*, saith he, *you are in an ill name*;—now he said so, I can tell whereupon; *for*, says he, *you are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive, says he, no swaggering companions*.—There comes none here; —you would bless you to hear what he said: —no, I'll no swaggerers.", "Fal. He's no swaggerer, hostess; a tame cheater,² he, you may stroke him as gently as a puppy greyhound: he will not swagger with a Barbary hen, if her feathers turn back in any show of resistance.—Call him up, drawer.", "Host. Cheater, call you him? I will bar no honest man my house, nor no cheater:³ But I do not love swaggering; by my troth, I am the worse, when one says—*swagger*—feel, masters, how I shake; look you, I warrant you.", "Dol. So you do, hostess.", "Host. Do I? yea, in very truth, do I, an 'twere an aspen leaf: I cannot abide swaggerers.", "Enter PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and Page.", "Pist. 'Save you, Sir John!", "Fal. Welcome, ancient Pistol. Here, Pistol, I\ncharge you with a cup of sack: do you discharge\nupon mine hostess.", "Pist. I will discharge upon her, Sir John, with\ntwo bullets.", "Fal. She is pistol-proof, sir; you shall hardly\noffend her.", "Host. Come, I'll drink no proofs, nor no bullets: I'll drink no more than will do me good, for no man's pleasure, I.", "Pist. Then to you, mistress Dorothy; I will\ncharge you.", "Dol. Charge me? I scorn you, scurvy companion.", "1 The names of Master Tisick and Master Dumb are\nludriciously intended to denote that the deputy was pursy\nand short-winded; the minister one of those who preach-\ned only the homilies set forth by authority. The puri-\ntans nicknamed them Dumb-dogs, and the opprobrious\nepithet continued in use as late as the reign of King\nCharles II. See *Burnet's Own Times*, vol. i. p. 395.", "2 A *cheater* sometimes meant an *unfair gamester*.\nBut *tame cheater* seems to have meant a *rogue* in\ngeneral.", "3 The humour consists in Mrs. Quickly's mistaking\na *cheater* for an *escheator*, or officer of the exchequer.\nGreene, in his Mihil Munchaunce, has the following\npassage, which gives the origin of the phrase:—'They\ncall their art by a new found name as *cheating*, them-\nselves *cheators*, and the dice cheters: borrowing the\nterm from among our lawyers, with whom all such\ncasuals as fall to the lord, at the holding of his leets, as\nwaifes, straies, and such like, be called *chetes*, and are\naccusably to be *escheated* to the lord's use.' Lord\nCoke, in his Charge at Norwich, 1607, puns upon the\nequioque:—'But if you will be content to let the *es-\ncheator* alone, and not look into his actions, he will be\ncontented by deceiving you to change his name, taking\nunto himself the last syllables only, with the *es* left\nout, and so turn *cheater*.'", "4 To nip a *bung*, in the cant of thievess, was to *cut\na purse*. 'Bung' is now used for a *pocket*, heretofore\nfor a *purse*.—*Belman of London*, 1610. Doll means\nto call him *pick-pocket*. *Cuttle*, and *cuttle-bung*,\nwere also cant terms for the knife used by cutpurses. These\nterms are therefore used by metonymy for a thief.", "5 Laces, marks of his commission.", "6 An expression of disdain.", "7 There is a personage of the same stamp with Pistol", "What! you poor, base, rascally, cheating, lack-\nlinen mate! Away, you mouldy rogue; away! I\nam meat for your master.", "Pist. I know you, mistress Dorothy.", "Dol. Away, you cut-purse rascal! you filthy\nbung,⁴ away! by this wine, I'll thrust my knife in\nyour mouldy chaps, or you play the saucy cuttle\nwith me. Away, you bottle-ale rascal! you basket-\nhilt Stale juggler, you! Since when, I pray you,\nsir?—What, with two points⁵ on your shoulder?\nmuch!⁶", "Pist. I will murder your ruff for this.", "Dol. No more, Pistol; I would not have you go\noff here: discharge yourself of our company, Pistol.\nHost. No, good captain Pistol; not here, sweet\ncaptain.", "Dol. Captain! thou abominable damned cheater,\nart thou not ashamed to be called—captain? If\ncaptains were of my mind, they would truncheon\nyou out, for taking their names upon you before you\nhave earned them. You a captain, you slave! for\nwhat? for tearing a poor whore's ruff in a bawdy-\nhouse?—He a captain! Hang him, rogue! He lives\nupon mouldy stewed prunes, and dried cakes.' A\ncaptain! these villains will make the word captain\nas odious as the word occupy;⁸ which was an ex-\ncellent good word before it was ill-sorted; therefore\ncaptains had need look to it.", "Dol. 'Pray thee, go down, good ancient.", "Fal. Hark thee hither, mistress Doll.", "Pist. Not I: tell thee what, corporal Bardolph;\nI could tear her:—I'll be revenged on her.", "Page. 'Pray thee, go down.'", "Pist. I'll see her damned first;—to Pluto's damned\nlake, to the infernal deep, with Erebus and tortures\nvile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down! down,\ndogs! down, faltors!¹⁹ Have we not Hiren here?¹⁰⁰", "Host. Good captain Peesel, be quiet; it is very\nlate, if'faith: I beseech you now, aggravate your\ncholer.", "Pist. These be good humours, indeed! Shall\npackhorses,", "And hollow packard'jades of Asia,", "Which cannot go but thirty miles a day,¹¹", "Compare with *Caesars* and *Cannibals*,¹²", "And *Trojan Greeks* ? nay, rather damn them with\nKing Cerberus; and let the welkin roar.", "Shall we fall foul of toys?", "Host. By my troth, captain, these are very bit-\nter words.", "In a Woman's a Weathercock, by Nat. Field, 1612\nwho is thus described:—", "'Thou unspeakable rascal, thou a soldier!", "'That with thy slopes and cat-a-mountain face,\nThy blather-chaps, and thy robustious words,\nFright'st the poor pore, and terribly dost exact", "A weekly subsidy, twelve pence a piece,", "Whereon thou livest; and on my conscience\nThou snap'st besides with cheats and cutpurses.", "'Mouldy steamed prunes and dried cakes?' are put for\nthe refuse of brothels.", "This word had been perverted to an obscene mean-\ning. An *occupant* was also a term for a woman of\nthe town, and an *occupier* meant a *wencher*. Ben Jonson,\nin his Discoveries, says:—'Many, out of their own ob-\nscene apprehensions, refuse proper and fit words, as\n*occupy*, nature,' &c.", "9 Traitors, rascals.", "10 Shakespeare has put into the mouth of Pistol a tissue\nof absurd and fustian passages from many ridiculous old\nplays. Part of this speech is parodied from The Battle of\nAlcazar, 1594. *Have we not Hiren here*, is probably\na line from a play of George Peele's, called The Turk-\nish Mahomet and Hiren the fair Greek. It is often used\nludricously by subsequent dramatists. *Hiren*, from its\nresemblance to siren, was used for a seducing woman,\nand consequently for a courtesan. Pistol, in his rants,\ntwice brings in the same words, but apparently mean-\ning to give his word the name of *Hiren*. Mrs. Quickly,\nwith admirable simplicity, supposes him to ask for a\nwoman.", "11 This is a parody of the lines addressed by Tamber-\nlane to the captive princes who draw his chariot, in\nMarlowe's *Tamberlaine*, 1590.", "12 A blunder for Hannibal.", "Sex IV.", "Bard.", "Bard. 'Dost you, my lord?", "Bard. Have we any more?", "Bard. Here, here.", "Bard. 'Tis a good one.", "Bard. 'Tis a fine one.", "Bard. Come, give me a drink.", "Bard. 'Good for you, my lord.'", {"bbox": [1053, 763, 1092,

["472", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT II.", "*Poins.* And, look, whether the fiery Trigon,¹ his man, be not lisping to his master's old tables, his note-book, his counsel-keeper.", "*Fal.* Thou dost give me flattering busses.", "*Dol.* Nay, truly: I kiss thee with a most constant heart.", "*Fal.* I am old, I am old.", "*Dol.* I love thee better than I love e'er a scurvy young boy of them all.", "*Fal.* What stuff wilt have a kirtle² of? I shall receive money on Thursday: thou shall have a cap to-morrow. A merry song, come: it grows late, we'll to bed. Thou'lt forget me, when I am gone.", "*Dol.* By my troth thou'lt set me a weeping, an thou sayest so: prove that ever I dress myself handsome till thy return.—Well, hearken the end.", "*Fal.* Some sack, Francis.", "*P. Hen.* *Poins.* Anon, anon, sir. [Advancing.*", "*Fal.* Ha! a bastard son of the king's?—And art not thou Poins his brother?", "*P. Hen.* Why, thou globe of sinful continents, what a life dost thou lead?", "*Fal.* A better than thou; I am a gentleman, thou art a drawer.", "*P. Hen.* Very true, sir: and I come to draw you out by the ears.", "*Host.* O, the Lord preserve thy good grace! by my troth, welcome to London.—Now the Lord bless that sweet face of thine! O Jesu, are you come from Wales?", "*Fal.* Thou whoreson mad compound of majesty, —by this light flesh and corrupt blood, thou art welcome. [Leaning his hand upon DOLL.*", "*Dol.* How! you fat fool, I scorn you.", "*Poins.* My lord, he will drive you out of your revenge, and turn all to a merriment, if you take not the heat.", "*P. Hen.* You whoreson candle-mine, you, how vilely did you speak of me even now, before this honest, virtuous, civil gentlewoman?", "*Host.* 'Blessing o' your good heart! and so she is, by my troth.", "*Fal.* Didst thou hear me?", "*P. Hen.* Yes; and you knew me, as you did when you ran away by Gads-hill: you knew, I was at your back; and spoke it on purpose, to try my patience.", "*Fal.* No, no, no; not so; I did not think thou wast within hearing.", "*P. Hen.* I shall drive thee then to confess the wilful abuse; and then I know how to handle you.", "*Fal.* No abuse, Hal, on mine honour; no abuse.", "*P. Hen.* Not! to dispraise me; and call me—pantler, and bread-chipper, and I know not what?", "*Fal.* No abuse, Hal.", "*Poins.* No abuse!", "*Fal.* No abuse, Ned, in the world; honest Ned, none. I dispraised him before the wicked, that the wicked might not fall in love with him:—in which doing, I have done the part of a careful friend, and a true subject, and thy father is to give me thanks for it. No abuse, Hal;—none, Ned, none;—no, boys, none.", "*P. Hen.* See now, whether pure fear, and entire cowardice, doth not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman to close with us? Is she of the wicked? Is thine hostess here of the wicked? Or is the boy of the wicked? Or honest Bardolph, whose zeal burns in his nose, of the wicked?", "*Poins.* Answer, thou dead elm, answer.", "*Fal.* The fleud hath pricked down Bardolph irrecoverable; and his face is Lucifer's privy-kitchen, where he doth nothing but roast malt-worms. For the boy,—there is a good angel about him; but the devil outbids him too.³", "¹ *Trigon* or triangle, a term in the old judicial assembly. They called it a *fiery trigon* when the three upper planets met in a fiery sign; which was thought to denote rage and contention.", "² Few words, as Mr. Gifford observes, have occasioned such controversy among the commentators as", "*P. Hen.* For the women,—", "*Fal.* For one of them,—she is in hell already, and burns, poor soul! For the other,—I owe her money; and whether she be damned for that, I know not.", "*Host.* No, I warrant you.", "*Fal.* No, I think thou art not; I think, thou art quit for that: Marry, there is another indictment upon thee, for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house, contrary to the law;⁴ for which, I think, thou wilt howl.", "*Host.* All victuallers do so: What's a joint of mutton or two in a whole Lent?", "*P. Hen.* You, gentlewoman,—", "*Dol.* What says your grace?", "*Fal.* His grace says that which his flesh rebels against.", "*Host.* Who knocks so loud at door? look to the door there, Francis.", "*Enter PETO.*", "*P. Hen.* Peto, how now? what news", "*Peto.* The king your father is at Westminster: And there are twenty weak and wearied posts, Come from the north: and, as I came along, I met, and overtook, a dozen captains, Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns, And asking every one for Sir John Falstaff.", "*P. Hen.* By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame,", "So idly to profane the precious time; When tempest of commotion, like the south Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt, And drop upon our bare unarm ed heads. Give me my sword, and cloak:—Falstaff, good night.", "*[Exeunt PRINCE HENRY, POINS, PETO, and BARDOLPH.]*", "*Fal.* Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we must hence, and leave it unpick'd. [Knocking heard.] More knocking at the door?", "*Re-enter BARDOLPH.*", "How now? what's the matter?", "*Bard.* You must away to court, sir, presently; a dozen captains stay at door for you.", "*Fal.* Pay the musicians, sirrah. [To the Page.]—Farewell, hostess;—farewell, Doll.—You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is called on. Farewell, good wenches: If I be not sent away post, I will see you again ere I go.", "*Dol.* I cannot speak;—if my heart be not ready to burst;—Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.", "*Fal.* Farewell, farewell.", "*[Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH.]*", "*Host.* Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these twenty-nine years, come peacod-time; but an honester, and truer-hearted man,—Well, fare thee well.", "*Bard.* [Within.] Mistress Tear-sheet,—", "*Host.* What's the matter?", "*Bard.* [Within.] Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my master.", "*Host.* O run, Doll, run; run, good Doll.", "*[Exeunt.]*", "### ACT III.", "#### SCENE I. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING HENRY in his Nightgown, with a Page.", "*K. Hen.* Go, call the earls of Surrey and of Warwick;", "But ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters, kirtle.", "These familiar terms frequently are the most baffling to the antiquary, for being in general use they were clearly understood by our ancestors, and are not therefore accurately defined in the dictionaries. A kirtle was undoubtedly a *petticoat*, which sometimes had a body without sleeves attached to it.", "³ The quarto reads 'and the devil blinds him too?'", "⁴ Barc defines, a 'victualling house,' a tavern where", "SCENE I.\nAnd we see him come, and stand by the door.\nHow now? what's the matter?", "War.\nK. H.\nWar.\nK. H.", "Have you any more?", "And how long have you been there?", "And see me make some money. The bea\nToo witt", "means is made in the play, and the title of the play is, as it were, a mask. The broad sense of the word 'play' is, of course, to be understood according to the meaning of the word 'play' as used in the play. It is not a mask, but a play, and, as such, it may be acted, or not acted, as the play may seem to be acted. It is not a mask, but a play, and, as such, it may be acted, or not acted, as the play may seem to be acted, or not acted, as it were. It is not a mask, but a play, and, as such, it may be acted,

Act II.

Is he in hell already,
the other,—ow he
damned for that, I,
not; I think, he is
another induration
sh to be ene in
for the which, I land,
What's a jist of
intend
an
the
which his flash reles
at door? look to the

What news
is it at Westminster:
and wearied pos,
As I came along,
captains
locking at the tares,
John Falsaff,
Ims, I feel me much

ous time ;
In, like the south
which begin to mel,
armed heads.
clowk:—Falsaff, gu

sweetest motion of the
and leave in unprick
locking at the door !

HEDDLPH.
I did not know
for you.

 court, sir, presently; a
for you.
irrah. (T'he Pap.—)
I'll, Doll.—You, my
merit are sought after:
when the man of act
and the women of
you again are I, g,
my heart to be not mait
have a care of him.

## SCENE I.

## KING HENRY IV.

And well consider of them: Make good speed.—

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep!—O sleep, O gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh thy eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?
Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,
And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber;
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,
And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody ?
O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch,
A watch-case,¹ or a common 'larum bell?

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;
And in the visitation of the winds,
Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,²
That, with the hurly,³ death itself awakes?
Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low,⁴ lie down
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

### Enter WARWICK and SURREY.

War. Many good morrows to your majesty!

K. Hen. Is it good morrow, lords?

War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past.

K. Hen. Why then, good morrow⁵ to you all, my
lords,

Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you ?

War. We have, my liege.

K. Hen. Then you perceive, the body of our
kingdom

How foul it is; what rank diseases grow,
And with what danger, near the heart of it.

War. It is but as a body, yet, distemper'd,⁶

Which to his former strength may be restor'd,

With good advice, and little medicine :—

My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd.

K. Hen. O heaven! that one might read the book
of rumet;

And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level, and the continent
(Weary of solid firmness) melt itself
Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune's hips;⁷ how chances mock,
mate is eaten out of due season.⁸

By several statutes
made in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James
I. for the regulation and observance of fish days, victu-
allers were expressly forbidden to utter *flesh in Lent*.
The brothels were formerly shut up under the pre-
ference of being victualling-houses and taverns.

1. A watch case here may mean the case of a watchlight; but the following article, cited by Strutt in his Manners and Customs, vol. iii. p. 70, from an old inventory, may throw some light upon it:—'Item, a laume (larum) or watche of iron, in an iron case, with two leaden plumets.'

2. Some of the officious modern editors altered clouds to shrouds, meaning the rope ladders of a ship, thus marring the poet's noble image. Steevens judiciously opposed himself to this alteration, but was wrong in asserting that *shrouds* had anciently the same meaning as clouds. Shroudes were covertures, hiding plates of any kind, aerial or otherwise. This will be found the meaning of the word in all the passages cited by Steevens. That clouds was the poet's word there can be no doubt.

3. *Hurly is a noise or tumult.* As hurly-burly in the first scene of Macbeth. See note there.

4. *Warburton's conjecture, that this is a corrupt reading for happy lovely cloven, deserves attention.*

5. This mode of phraseology, where two persons are addressed, is not very correct; but Shakspeare has used it again in King Henry VI. Part 2, where York addresses his two friends Salisbury and Warwick.

And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,⁹
The happiest youth,—viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,¹⁰
Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.
'Tis not ten years gone,

Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends,
Did feast together, and, in two years after,
Were they at wars: It is but eight years since
This Percy was the man nearest my soul;¹¹
Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs,
And laid his love and life under my foot;
Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard,
Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,¹²
(You, cousin Nevil,¹³ as I may remember,¹⁴

¹⁴ To WARWICK.
When Richard,—with his eyes brimfull of tears,
Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,—
Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy ?
Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which
My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne;—

Though then, heaven knows, I had no such intent;
But that necessity so bow'd the state,
That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss:—
The time shall come, thus did he follow it,
The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption;—so went on,
Foretelling this same time's condition,
And the division of our amity.

War. There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the time's deceas'd:
The which observ'd, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life; which in their seeds,
And weak beginnings, lie intreasured.
Such things become the hatch and brood of time,

And, by the necessary form of this,
King Richard might create a perfect guess,
That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falesness;
Which should not find a ground to root upon,
Unless on you.

K. Hen. Are these things then necessities?

Then let us meet them like necessities :—

And that same word even now cries out on us;

They say, the bishop and Northumberland
Are fifty thousand strong.

War. Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the fear'd;—Please it your grace
To go to bed; upon my life, my lord,
The powers that you already have sent forth,
Shall bring this prize in very easily.
To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd
A certain instance, that Glendower is dead.¹⁵

¹⁵ Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill;

6. *Distempered* means *disordered, sick*; being only in that state which foreruns or produces diseases.

7. 'When I have seen the hungry ocean gain

Advantage on the kingdom of the shore,
And the firm soil win of the wat'ry main,
Increasing store with loss, and loss with store,
When I have seen such interchange of state,' &c.

### Shakspeare's sixty-fourth Sonnet

8. This and the three following lines are from the quarto copy. Johnson having misunderstood the line :—

'What perils past, what crosses to ensue;—'

it may be necessary to remark that the perils are spoken of prospectively, as seen by the youth in the book of fate. The construction is, 'What perils having been past, what crosses are to ensue?'

9. The reference is to King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 2: but neither Warwick nor the king were present at that conversation. Henry had then ascended the throne; either the king's or the poet's memory failed him.

10. The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after: when Anne, the daughter of this earl, married Richard Nevil, son of the earl of Salisbury, who makes a conspicuous figure in the Third Part of King Henry VI. under the title of Earl of Warwick.

11. Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinshed. Vide note on the First Part of King Henry IV. Act iii. Sc. 1.

60

["SECOND PART OF", "Act III.", "474", "And these unseason'd hours, perforce, must add\nUnto your sickness.", "K. Hen.", "I will take your counsel:\nAnd, were these inward wars once out of hand,\nWe would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.\n[Exeunt.", "### SCENE II. Court before Justice Shallow's House in Gloucestershire. Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEBBLE, BULL-CALF, and Servants, behind.", "Shal. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by the rood.¹ And how doth my good cousin Silence?", "Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.", "Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? and your fairest daughter, and mine, my god-daughter Ellen?", "Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow.", "Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin William is become a good scholar: He is at Oxford, still, is he not?", "Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost.", "Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly: I was once of Clement's inn, where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet.", "Sil. You were called—lusty Shallow, then, cousin.", "Shal. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotswold man,²—you had not four swinge-bucklers³ in all the inns of court again: and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas⁴ were; and had the best of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy: and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk.", "Sil. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?", "Shal. The same Sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's⁵ head at the court gate, when he was a crack,⁶ not thus high: and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead!", "Sil. We shall all follow, cousin.", "Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all: all must die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?", "Sil. Truly, cousin, I was not there.", "Shal. Death is certain.—Is old Double of your town living yet?", "Sil. Dead, sir.", "Shal. Dead!—See, see!—he drew a good bow;—And dead!—he shot a fine shoot:—John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead!—he would have clapped i'the clout at twelve score;⁷ and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen", "1 The *rood* is the cross or crucifix. *Rode*, Sax.", "2 The Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire were famous for rural sports of all kinds; by distinguishing Will Squele as a Cotswold man, Shallow meant to have it understood that he was well versed in manly exercises, and consequently of a daring spirit and athletic constitution.", "3 *Swinge-bucklers* and *swash-bucklers* were terms implying *rakes* and *rioters* in the time of Shakspeare. See a note on sword and buckler men in the First Part of King Henry IV. Act i. Sc. 3.", "4 'Buona-robas as we say, good stuff; a good wholesome plump-cheeked wench.' *Florio*.", "5 There has been a doughty dispute between Messieurs Ritson and Malone whether there were two Scogans, Henry and John, or only one. Shakspeare probably got his idea of Scogan from his jests, which were published by Andrew Borde in the reign of King Henry VIII. Holinshed, speaking of the distinguished persons of King Edward the Fourth's time, mentions ' Scogan, a learned gentleman, and student for a time in Oxford, of a pleasaunte witte, and bent to mery devises, in respect whereof he was called into the courte, where giving himself to his natural inclination of mirthe and plea-", "and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see.—How a score of ewes now?", "Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.", "Shal. And is old Double dead!", "Enter BARDOLPH, and one with him.", "Sil. Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.", "Bard. Good morrow, honest gentlemen: I believe you, which is Justice Shallow?", "Shal. I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, and one of the king's justices of the peace: What is your good pleasure with me?", "Bard. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, Sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman, by heaven, and a most gallant leader.", "Shal. He greets me well, sir; I knew him a good backword-man: How doth the good knight? may I ask, how my lady his wife doth?", "Bard. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated, than with a wife.", "Shal. It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said indeed too. Better accommodated!—it is good: yea, indeed, it is: good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated!—it comes from *accommodo*: very good; a good phrase.⁸", "Bard. Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase, call you it? By this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word with my sword, to be a soldierlike word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated: That is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is,—being;—whereby,—he may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing.", "Enter FALSTAFF.", "Shal. It is very just:—Look, here comes good Sir John.—Give me your good hand, give me your worship's good hand: By my troth, you look well, and bear your years very well: welcome, good Sir John.", "Fal. I am glad to see you well, good master Robert Shallow: —Master Sure-card, as I think.", "Shal. No, Sir John; it is my cousin Silence, in commission with me.", "Fal. Good master Silence, it well befits you should be of the peace.", "Sil. Your good worship is welcome.", "Fal. Fye! this is hot weather.—Gentlemen, have you provided me here half a dozen sufficient jests?", "Shal. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit?", "Fal. Let me see them, I beseech you.", "Shal. Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the roll?—Let me see, let me see. So, so, so: Yea, marry, sir:—Ralph Mouldy:—let them appear as I call; let them do so, let them do so.—Let me see; Where is Mouldy?", "saunt pastime, he plaid many sporting parts, although not in such uncivil reports as hath bene of hym reported.' The uncivil reports have relation to the above jests. Ben Jonson introduces Scogan with Skelton in his Masque of The Fortunate Isles, and describes him thus:—", "—\n—\n—\n—\n—\n—\n—\n—\n—\n—\n—\

["## SCENE I.", "## KING HENRY IV.", "a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law\nof nature, but I may snap at him. Let time shape,\nand there an end.\n[Exit.]", "## ACT IV.", "### SCENE I. A Forest in Yorkshire. Enter the Archbishop of York, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and others.", "Arch. What is this forest called?", "Hast. 'Tis Gualtree forest, an't shall please your grace.", "Arch. Here stand, my lords; and send discoveries forth,", "To know the numbers of our enemies.", "Hast. We have sent forth already.", "Arch.", "Tis well done. My friends, and brethren in these great affairs,", "I must acquaint you that I have receiv'd\nNew-dated letters from Northumberland;\nTheir cold intent, tenour, and substance, thus :—", "Here doth he wish his person, with such powers\nAs might hold sortance¹ with his quality,", "The which he could not rely; whereupon", "He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,", "To Scotland : and concludes in hearty prayers,\nThat your attempts may overlie the hazard,", "And fearful meeting of their opposite.", "Mouv. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground,", "And dash themselves to pieces.", "### Enter a Messenger.", "Hast.", "Now, what news? Mess.", "West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,\nIn goodly form comes on the enemy:", "And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number\nUpon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand.", "Mouv. The just proportion that we gave them out.\nLet us sway² on, and face them in the field.", "### Enter WESTMORELAND.", "Arch. What well-appointed³ leader fronts us here?", "Mouv. I think, it is my lord of Westmoreland.", "West. Health and fair greeting from our general,\nThe prince, Lord John and duke of Lancaster.", "Arch. Say on, my lord of Westmoreland, in peace?", "West. What doth concern your coming?", "Unto your grace do I in chief address\nThe substance of my speech. If that rebellion", "Came like itself, in base and abject routs,\nLed on by bloody⁴ youth, guarded⁵ with rage,", "And countenanc'd⁶ by boys, and beggarly;\nI say, if damn't commotion so appear'd", "In his true, native, and most proper shape,\nYou, reverend father, and these noble lords", "1. Be suitable.", "2. That is, *let us pass on with our armament*. To sway was sometimes used for a rushing hastylement.", "3. Completely accoutred.", "4. Baret carefully distinguishes between *bloody*, full of blood, *sanguineous*, and *bloody*, desirous of blood, *sanguinarius*. In this speech Shakspeare uses the word in both senses.", "5. *Guarded.* Is a metaphor taken from dress; *to guard* being to ornament with guards or facings.", "6. 'Formerly all bishops wore white, even when they travelled.'—*Hody's History of Convocations*, p. 141. This white investment was the episcopal rochet.", "7. Warburton very plausibly reads *glavees*; Stevens proposed *greaves*; and this emendation has my full concurrence. It should be remarked that *greaves*, or leg-armour, is sometimes spelt *greaves*.", "8. Grievances.", "9. The old copies read 'from my most quiet there.' Warburton made the alteration; I am not quite persuaded that it was necessary.", "10. In Holinshed the Archbishop says, 'Where he and his company were in arms, it was for fear of the king, to whom he could have no free accesse, by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him.'", "Had not been here, to dress the ugly form\nOf base and bloody insurrection.", "With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,—", "Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd;", "Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd:\nWhose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd;", "Whose white investments⁶ figure innocence,\nThe dove and very blessed spirit of peace,—", "Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself;\nOut of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,", "Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war?", "Turning your books to graves,⁷ your ink to blood,\nYour pens to lances; and your tongue divine", "To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?", "Arch. Wherefore do I this?—so the question stands.", "Briefly to this end:—We are all diseas'd;", "And, with our surfeiting, and wanton hours,\nHave brought ourselves into a burning fever,", "And we must bleed for it: of which disease\nOur late king, Richard, being infected, died.", "But, my most noble lord of Westmoreland,\nI take not on me here as a physician;", "Nor do I, as an enemy to peace,", "Troop in the thongs of military men:", "But, rather, show a while like fearful war,\nTo diet rank minds, sick of happiness;", "And purge the obstructions, which begin to stop\nOur very veins of-life. Hear me more plainly.", "I have in equal balance justly weigh'd\nWhat wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer.", "And find our griefs⁸ heavier than our offences.", "We see which way the stream of time doth run,\nAnd are enforc'd from our most quiet sphere⁹.", "By the rough torrent of occasion:", "And have the summary of all our griefs,", "When time shall serve, to show in articles;", "Which, long ere this, we offer'd to the king,", "And might by no suit gain our audience:\nWhen we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs.", "We are denied access unto his person¹⁰.", "Even by those men that most have done us wrong\nThe dangers of the days but newly gone,", "(Whose memory is written on the earth\nWith yet-appearing blood,) and the examples", "Of every minute's instance¹¹ (present now,)", "Have put us in these ill-beseeming arms:", "Not to break peace, or any branch of it;", "But to establish here a peace indeed,", "Concurring both in name and quality.", "West. When ever yet was your appeal denied?", "Wherein have you been galled by the king?", "What peer hath been suborn'd to grate on you?", "That you should seal this lawless bloody book,\nOf forg'd rebellion with a seal divine,", "And consecrate commotion's bitter edge?¹²", "Arch. My brother general, the commonwealth,", "To brother born an household cruelty,\nI make my quarrel in particular.¹³", "11 'Examples of every minute's instance,' are 'Examples which every minute instances or supplies.' Which even the present minute presses on their notice.", "12 'Commutation's bitter edge?' that is, the edge of bitter strife and commotion; the sword of rebellion. This line is omitted in the folio.", "13 The second line of this very obscure speech is omitted in the folio. As the passage stands I can make nothing of it; nor do any of the explanations which have been offered appear to me satisfactory. I think with Malone that a line has been lost, though I do not agree with him in the sense he would give to it. It is with all proper humility I offer the following reading:—", "'My quarrel general, the commonwealth,", "'Whose wrongs do loudly call out for redress ;", "To brother born an household cruelty,", "I make my quarrel in particular.", "i.e. my general cause of discontent are public wrongs, my particular cause the death of my own brother, who was beheaded by the king's order. This circumstance is referred to in the first part of this play :—", "'The archbishop—who bears hard", "His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.", "The answer of Westmoreland makes it obvious that", "Act III.", "well, master Shallow,\nence; I will not use\nyou well, gentleman,\nlozenge mile to night—\nons.", "less you, and prose\nance. As you return,\nquaintness is reme-\nyou to the court.\nmaster Shallow.", "ke, at a word. Far\nALLOW and STICKER,\ngentlemen. On his\n[Exeunt BARDOLIN,\nwill fetch off these\nmen of Justice Shallow,\nold men are to this vice\njustice hath done to\nwellness of his youth,\nhout Turnbull Street;\npaid to the lazer\nnot remember him as\nmade after supper of a\nnaked, he was, for al\nal, with a head fatta-\n knife; he was so for\nany night thick were\nry Gemins of fire,\nand the whores called\never in the rear-way\nsee tunes to the over-\nheard the earner whis\nfances, or his go-\nvice's dagg'ry¹¹ become\nlurdy of John of Grant,\nto him; and he\nonce in the Tillo-\nur, for crowding al\nit; and told John da\namo;¹² for if you\nis apparel, into an eis-\nant-baby was a manor\nas he land and bores,\nwith him, if I know\nwill make him a phis-\nIf the young date to", "in Shallow's entity\nin this parenthesis this\none of the knits,⁹ as\nKing Anthoni,²¹\nRichard Mulcahy (who\nhas been situate in his ear\nto the south)\nwas a corruption\nkenwell; ancyent the\nother ditties, the\ncentury of Boffins' flot-\nhatch. A celebrant\nbeen situate in his ear", "all-street, is a corruption\nkenwell; ancyent the\nditties, the\ncentury of Boffins' flot-\nhatch. A celebrant\nbeen situate in his ear\nto the south)\nwas a corruption\nkenwell; ancyent the\nditties, the\ncentury of Boffins' flot-\nhatch. A celebrant\nbeen situate in his ear\nto the south)\nwas a corruption\nkenwell; ancyent the\nditties, the\ncentury of Boffins' flot-\nhatch. A celebrant\nbeen situate in his ear\nto the south)\nwas a corruption\nkenwell; ancyent the\nditties, the\ncentury of Boffins' flot-\nhatch. A celebrant\nbeen situate in his ear\nto the south)", " alteration of this word,\n necessity. The word is\n the master of the tal

["478", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT IV.", "*West.* There is no need of any such redress;\nOr, if there were, it not belongs to you.", "*Mowb.* Why not to him, in part; and to us all,\nThat feel the bruises of the days before;\nAnd suffer the condition of these times\nTo lay a heavy and unequal hand\nUpon our honours?", "*West.* O my good lord Mowbray,\nConstrue the times to their necessities,\nAnd you shall say indeed,—it is the time,\nAnd not the king, that doth you injuries.\nYet, for your part, it not appears to me,\nEither from the king, or in the present time,\nThat you should have an inch of any ground\nTo build a grief on: Were you not restor'd\nTo all the duke of Norfolk's signories,\nYour noble and right well remember'd father's?", "*Mowb.* What thing in honour had my father lost,\nThat need to be reviv'd and breath'd in me?\nThe king, that lov'd him, as the state stood then,\nWas, force perforce, compell'd to banish him:\nAnd then, when Harry Bolingbroke, and he,—\nBeing mounted, and both roused in their seats,\nTheir neighing courser's daring of the spur,\nTheir armed staves² in charge, their beavers³ down,\nTheir eyes of fire sparkling through sights⁴ of steel,\nAnd the loud trumpet blowing them together;\nThen, then, when there was nothing could have\nstaid", "My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,\nO, when the king did throw his warder⁵ down,\nHis own life hung upon the staff he threw:\nThen threw he down himself; and all their lives,\nThat by indictment, and by dint of sword,\nHave since miscarried under Bolingbroke.", "*West.* You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know not what:\nThe earl of Hereford⁶ was reputed then\nIn England the most valiant gentleman;\nWho knows, on whom fortune would then have smil'd?", "But, if your father had been victor there,\nHe ne'er had borne it out of Coventry:\nFor all the country, in a general voice,\nCried hate upon him; and all their prayers, and\nlove,", "Were set on Hereford, whom they dotted on,\nAnd bless'd, and grac'd indeed, more than the king.\nBut this is mere disgression from my purpose.—\nHere come I from our princely general,\nTo know your griefs; to tell you from his grace,\nThat he will give you audience: and wherein\nIt shall appear that your demands are just,\nYou shall enjoy them; every thing set off,\nThat might so much as think you enemies.", "*Mowb.* But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;\nAnd it proceeds from policy, not love.", "*West.* Mowbray, you overween, to take it so;\nThis offer comes from mercy, not from fear;\nFor, lo! within a ken our army lies;\nUpon mine honour, all too confident\nTo give admittance to a thought of fear.\nOur battle is more full of names than yours,\nOur men more perfect in the use of arms,\nOur armour all as strong, our cause the best;\nThen reason wills, our hearts should be as good:—\nSay you not then, our offer is compell'd.", "something about redress of public wrongs should have fallen from the archbishop. Johnson proposed to read *guarrel* instead of *brother* in the first line, and explained the passage much as I have done. I have merely superadded the line, which seems to me necessary to complete the sense, and make Westmoreland's reply intelligible.", "1. The thirty-seven following lines are not in the quarto.", "2. i. e. their *lances* fixed in the rest for the encounter.", "3. It has been already observed that the *bearer* was a moveable piece of the helmet, which lifted up or down, to enable the bearer to drink or breathe more freely.", "4. The perforated part of the helmets, through which they could see to direct their aim. *Visiere, Fr.*", "5. Truncheon.", "*Mowb.* Well, by my will, we shall admit no parley.", "*West.* That agues but the shame of your offence:\nA rotten case abides no handling.", "*Hast.* Hath the Prince John a full commission,\nIn very ample virtue of his father,\nTo hear, and absolutely determine\nOf what conditions we shall stand upon?", "*West.* That is intended⁷ in the general's name:\nI muse, you make so slight a question.", "*Arch.* Then take, my lord of Westmoreland, this schedule;", "For this contains our general grievances;—", "Each several article herein redress'd;\nAll members of our cause, both here and hence,\nThat are insinew'd to this action,\nAcquitted by a true substantial form;", "And present execution of our wills\nTo us, and to our purposes, consign'd;⁸\nWe come within our awful⁹ banks again,\nAnd knit our powers to the arm of peace.", "*West.* This will I show the general. Please you,\nlords,", "In sight of both our battles we may meet:\nAnd either end in peace, which heaven so frame;\nOr to the place of difference call the swords\nWhich must decide it.", "*Arch.* My lord, we will do so.", "[Exit WEST.", "*Mowb.* There is a thing within my bosom, tells me,\nThat no conditions of our peace can stand.", "*Hast.* Fear you not that: if we can make our peace", "Upon such large terms, and so absolute,\nAs our conditions shall consist¹⁰ upon,\nOur peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.", "*Mowb.* Ay, but our valuation shall be such,", "That every slight and false-derived cause,\nYea, every idle, nice,¹¹ and wanton reason,\nShall, to the king, taste of this action:\nThat, were our royal faiths¹² martyrs in love,\nWe shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind,\nThat even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,\nAnd good from bad find no partition.", "*Arch.* No, no, my lord; Note this, the king is weary", "Of dainty and such picking¹³ grievances:\nFor he hath found,—to end one doubt by death,\nRevives two greater in the heirs of life.", "And therefore will he wipe his tables¹⁴ clean;", "And keep no tell-tale to his memory,", "That may repeat and history his loss", "To new-remembrance: For full well he knows", "He cannot so precisely weed this land,", "As his misdeeds present occasion:", "His foes are so enrooted with his friends,\nThat, plucking to unfix an enemy, ...", "He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend.", "So that this land, like an offensive wife,", "That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes;", "As he is striking, holds his infant up,", "And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm", "That was uprear'd to execution.", "*Hast.* Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods\nOn late offenders, that he now doth lack", "6. This is a mistake: he was duke of Hereford.", "7. *Intended is understood,* i. e. meant without exprest sing it. *Entendu, Fr.; subauditur, Lat.*", "8. The old copy reads *confiv'd*. Johnson proposed to read *consign'd*; which must be understood in the Latin sense, *consignatus, signed, sealed, ratified, confirm'd*; which was indeed the old meaning according to the dictionaries. Shakspeare uses *consign* and *consigning* in other places in this sense.", "9. *Awful for lawful*; or under the due awe of au thority.", "10. *To consist, to rest; consisto.*—Baret.", "11. *Trivial.*", "12. The faith due to a king. So in King Henry VIII.:—\n*—The citizens have shown at full their royal minds,* i.\ne. their minds well affected to the king.", "13. *Piddling, insignificant.*", "14. Alluding to the table books of slate, ivory, &c. used by our ancestors.", "SCENE II.", "The very\nSo that his\nMay offer,\nArch.", "And therefor\nIf we do not\nOur peace\nGrow strong\nHere is re:", "*West.*", "*To meet his", "*Mowb.* lo", "*Arch.* B", "SCENE I.", "from one", "JOYs,\nan", "And Att", "P. John.", "Good day to", "And so to", "My lord of", "When that", "Encircled", "Your ex", "po\n\nThan now to", "Clerking", "The", "Tuning", "the", "Alack,", "what", "in shadow", "bis", "is even so", "How deep", "Toys, the", "To us, the", "My very", "op", "Between", "the", "And our dull", "But you", "mis\n\nEmploy the", "As a false", "In deeds", "dise", "Under the", "the cor", "And, both", "And here u", "*Arch.*", "I am not her", {"bbox

["## SCENE II.", "## KING HENRY IV.", "479", "The very instruments of chastisement:", "To that his power, like to a fangless lion,\nMay offer, but not hold.", "Arch.", "'Tis very true;—", "And therefore be assur'd, my good lord marshal,\nIf we do now make our atonement well,\nOur peace will, like a broken limb united,\nGrow stronger for the breaking.", "Mowb.", "Be it so.", "Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland.", "### Re-enter WESTMORELAND.", "West. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth your\nlordship,", "To meet his grace just distance? between our armies?", "Mowb. Your grace of York, in God's name then\nset forward.", "Arch. Before, and greet his grace: my lord, we\ncome.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE II. Another Part of the Forest. Enter,\nfrom one side, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop, HAST-\nINGS, and others: from the other side, PRINCE\nJOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORELAND, Officers,\nand Attendants.", "P. John. You are well encounter'd here, my\ncousin Mowbray;—", "Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop;—\nAnd so to you, Lord Hastings,—and to all.—", "My lord of York, it better show'd with you,\nWhen that your flock, assembled by the bell,\nEncircled you, to hear with reverence", "Your exposition on the holy text;", "Than now to see you here an iron man,¹\nCheering a rout of rebels with your drum,", "Turning the word to sword, and life to death.\nThat man that sits within a monarch's heart,\nAnd ripens in the sunshine of his favour,", "Would he abuse the countenance of the king,\nAlack, what mischiefs might he set abroad,", "In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord\nbishop,", "It is even so:—Who hath not heard it spoken,\nHow deep you were within the books of God?", "To us, the speaker in his parliament:", "To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself:\nAnd the very opener, the miserauge,", "Between the grace, the sanctities² of heaven,\nAnd our dull", "And our dull\nThe time misorder'd doth, in common sense,⁵\nBut you misuse the reverence of your place;", "Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,\nAs a false favourite doth his prince's name,\nIn deeds dishonourable? You have taken up;⁶", "Under the counterfeited zeal of God,", "The subjects of the substitute, my father;", "And, both against the peace of heaven and him,\nHave here up-swarm'd them.", "Arch.", "Good, my lord of Lancaster,\nI am not here against your father's peace:\nBut, as I told my lord of Westmoreland,\nThe time misorder'd doth, in common sense,⁵\nCrowd us, and crush us, to this monstrous form,\nTo hold our safety up. I sent your grace\nThe parcels and particulars of our grief;\nThe which hath been with scorn shov'd from the\ncourt,", "", "Whereon this Hydra son of war is born:", "Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd\nasleep,⁶", "With grant of our most just and right desires:", "And true obedience of this madness cur'd,\nStoop tamerly to the foot of majesty.", "Mowb. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes\nTo the last man.", "Hast.", "And though we here fall down,\nWe have supplies to second our attempt;", "If they miscarry, theirs shall second them:", "And so, success⁷ of mischief shall be born;", "And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up,", "Whiles England shall have this quarrel.", "P. John. You are too shallow, Hastings, much\ntoo shallow,", "To sound the bottom of the after-times.", "West. Pleaseth your grace to answer them directly,", "How far-forth do you like their articles?", "P. John. I like them all, and do allow⁸ them well:", "And swear here by the honour of my blood,", "My father's purposes have been mistook;", "And some about him have too lavishly", "Wrested his meaning, and authority.—", "My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;\nUpon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,", "Discharge your powers⁹ unto their several counties,\nAs we will ours: and here, between the armies,\nLet's drink together friendly, and embrace;", "That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,", "Of our restored love and amity.", "Arch. I take your princely word for these re-\ndresses.", "P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word;", "And thereupon I drink unto your grace.", "Hast. Go, captain! [To an Officer,] and deliver to\nthe army.", "This news of peace; let them have pay, and part;\nI know, it will well please them; Hie thee, captain.", "[Exit Officer.", "Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland.", "West. I pledge your grace: And, if you knew\nwhat pains", "I have bestow'd to breed this present peace,\nYou would drink freely: but my love to you\nShall show itself more openly hereafter.", "Arch. I do not doubt you.", "West.", "I am glad of it.—\nHealth to my lord, and gentle cousin, Mowbray.", "Mowb. You wish me health in very happy season;", "For I am, on the sudden, something ill.", "Arch. Against ill chances, men are ever merry;", "But heaviness foreruns the good event.", "West. Therefore be merry, coz: since sudden\nsorrow", "Serves to say thus,—Some good thing, comes to-\nmorrow.", "Arch. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.", "Mowb. So much the worse, if your own rule be\ntrue.", "[Shouts within.", "P. John. The word of peace is render'd; Hark,\nhow they shout!", "Mowb. This had been cheerful, after victory.", "Arch. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;", "For then both parties nobly are subdued,\nAnd neither party loser.", "P. John.", "Go, my lord,", "And let our army be discharged too.—", "[Exit WESTMORELAND.", "And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains", "March by us; that we may peruse the men", "We should have cop'd withal.", "Arch.", "Go, good Lord Hastings,", "And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by.", "[Exit HASTINGS.", "P. John. I trust, my lords, we shall lie to-night\ntogether.—", "6. Alluding to the dragon charmed to rest by the spells of Medea.", "7. Succession.", "8. Approve.", "9. It was Westmoreland who made this deceptible proposal, as appears from Holinshed:—¹ The earl of Westmoreland, using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: In the mean time let us drink together in signe of agreement, that the people on both sides may see it, and know that it is true, that we be light at a point.¹", "1 Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that, 'coming forth amongst them clad in armour, he encouraged and pricked them forth to take the enterprize in hand.'", "2 This expression has been adopted by Milton:—", "⁶ Around him all the sanctities of heaven\nStood thick as stars.", "3 Dull workings are labours of thought.", "4 Raised up in arms.", "5 Common sense is the general sense of general\ndanger.", "Act IV.\n\nAll, we shall admit no\nshame of your office:", "dying.", "In a full commission,\ndetermine", "stand upon?\nin the general's name:", "a question.\nof Westmoreland, this", "al grievances;—", "redress'd;—", "both here and hence,\naction,", "tial form;—", "our wills\nconsist'd;⁴", "banks again,\narm of the general. Please you,", "we may meet:\nrich heaven so frame;", "call the swords\nin the field.", {"bbox": [0,

["480", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT IV.", "Re-enter WESTMORELAND.", "Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?", "*West.* The leaders, having charge from you to stand,", "Will not go off until they hear you speak.", "*P. John.* They know their duties.", "Re-enter HASTINGS.", "*Hast.* My lord, our army is dispers'd already: Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up, Each hurries toward his home, and sporting-place. *West.* Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the which", "I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason:—", "And you, lord archbishop,—and you, Lord Mowbray,", "Of capital treason I attach you both.", "*Mowb.* Is this proceeding just and honourable?", "*West.* Is your assembly so?", "*Arch.* Will you thus break your faith?", "*P. John.*", "I pawn't thee none: I promis'd you redress of these same grievances, Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour, I will perform with a most Christian care.", "But, for you, rebels,—look to taste the due", "Meet for rebellion, and such acts as yours.", "Most shallowly did you these arms commence,", "Fondly¹ brought here, and foolishly sent hence.—", "Strike up our drums, pursue the scatter'd stray;", "Heaven, and not we, have safely fought to-day.—", "Some guard these traitors to the block of death;", "Treason's true bed, and yisher up of breath.", "[Exeunt,²", "### SCENE III. Another Part of the Forest. Alarums:", "*Excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting.*", "*Fal.* What's your name, sir ? of what condition are you : and of what place, I pray ?", "*Cole.* I am a knight, sir ; and my name is—Colevile of the dale.", "*Fal.* Well then, Colevile is your name ; a knight is your degree ; and your place, the dale : Colevile shall still be your name ; a traitor your degree ; and the dungeon your place,—a place deep enough : so shall you still be Colevile of the dale.", "*Cole.* Are not you Sir John Falstaff?", "*Fal.* As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do ye yield, sir ? or shall I sweat for you ? If I do sweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death : therefore rouse up fear and trembling, and do observance to my mercy.", "*Cole.* I think, you are Sir John Falstaff; and in that thought, yield me.", "*Fal.* I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe: My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.—Here comes our general.", "### Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORELAND, and others.", "*P. John.* The heat is past, follow no further now;—", "Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.—", "[Exit WEST.", "1 i. e. foolishly.", "2 It cannot but raise some indignation to find this horrid violation of faith passed over thus slightly by the poet without any note of censure or detestation.’—Johnson. That Shakspeare followed the historians is no excuse; for it is the duty of a poet always to take the side of virtue.—I had some doubt whether I should re-tain this reflection upon the poetical justice of Shakspeare; but I have been determined to do so by the hope that it may lead to the discussion of the passage. I would not willingly believe that the poet approved this abominable piece of treachery.", "3 Caesar.", "4 A ludicrous term for the stars.", "5 It appears that Colevile was designed to be pronounced as a trisyllable; it is often spelt Colleville in the old copies.", "Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while ? When every thing is ended, then you come:", "These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, One time or other break some gallows' back.", "*Fal.* I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus; I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet ? have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought ? I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility; I have foundered nine score and odd posts: and here, travel-tainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy: But what of that ? he has seen me, and yielded; that I may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome,³ I came, saw, and overcame.", "*P. John.* It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.", "*Fal.* I know not; here he is, and here I yield him: and I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture on the top of it, Colevile kissing my foot: To the which course, if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt two-pences to me; and I do in the clear sky of fame, o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element,⁴ which show like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the noble : Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount.", "*P. John.* Thine's too heavy to mount,", "*Cole.* Let it shine then.", "*P. John.* Thine's too thick to shine.", "*Fal.* Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me good, and call it what you will.", "*P. John.* Is thy name Colevile ?⁵", "*Cole.*", "It is, my lord.", "*P. John.* A famous rebel art thou, Colevile,", "*Fal.* And a famous true subject took him.", "*Cole.* I am, my lord, but as my betters are, That led me hither: had they been rul'd by me, You should have won them dearer than you have.", "*Fal.* I know not how they sold themselves: but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away; and I thank thee for thee.", "Re-enter WESTMORELAND.", "*P. John.* Now, have you left pursuit?", "*West.* Retreat is made, and execution stay'd.", "*P. John.* Send Colevile, with his confederates,", "To York, to present execution:⁶—\nBlunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.", "[Exeunt some with COLEVILE.", "And now despast we toward the court, my lords; I hear, the king my father is sore sick:", "His good shall go before us to his majesty,", "Which, cousin, you shall bear,—to comfort him;", "And with sober speed will follow you.", "*Fal.* My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through Glostershire: and, when you come to, stand my good lord,⁷ 'pray, in your good report.", "6 At the king's coming to Durham the Lord Hastings, Sir John Colevile of the dale, &c., being convicted of the conspiracy, were there beheaded.—Holinshed, p. 530. It is to be observed that there are two accounts of the termination of the archbishop of York's conspiracy, both of which are given by Holinshed. He states that on the archbishop and earl marshal submitting to the king and to his son Prince John, there present, 'their troops skaled and fledded their wayes; but being pursued, many were taken, many slain, &c.; the archbishop and earl marshal were brought to Pomfret to the king, who from thence went to Yorke, whither the prisoners were also brought, and there beheaded.' It is this last account that Shakspeare has followed, but with some variation; for the names of Colevile and Hastings are not mentioned among those who were beheaded at York.", "7 Johnson was so much unacquainted with ancient phraseology as to make difficulties about this phrase, which is one of the most common petitionary forms of our ancestors. Stand my good lord, or be my good", "SENEC\nP. John", "Bud.", "Shall better", "be", "than your", "brothel", "no", "drinks no", "more boys", "over-cos", "meals, that", "and", "they are", "of his", "shariss", "sacred", "sends me", "foolish and", "it:", "makes", "nimbly,", "ferve", "o'er", "herb,", "become", "of your", "excuse", "blood; whi", "white and", "and", "crowd", "is from", "illumineth", "to a", "arm:", "and", "petty", "spurts", {"bbox": [10

## SCENE IV.

## KING HENRY IV.

481

P. John. Fare you well, Falstaff': I, in my condition,¹

Shall better speak of you than you deserve. [Exit.]

Fal. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom.—Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me: nor a man cannot make him laugh;—but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof: for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools and cowards;—which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris sack² hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it: makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive,³ full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice (the tongue,) which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is,—the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice:—but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illuminates the face: which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital commoners, and inland petty spirits, muster me all to their valour, the heart; who, great, and puffed up with this retinence, doth any deed of courage; and that valour comes of sherris: So that skill in the weapon is nothing, without sack; for that sets it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil;⁴ till sack commences it,⁵ and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it, that Prince Harry is valiant: for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent endeavour of drinking good, and good store of fertile sherris; that he is become very hot, and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them, should be,—to forswear thin potations, and addict themselves to sack.

### Enter BARDOLPH.

How now, Bardolph?

Bard. The army is discharged all, and gone.

Fal. Let them go. I'll through Glostershire; and there will I visit master Robert Shallow, esquire: I have him already tempering⁶ between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come away.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE IV. Westminster.
A Room in the Palace. Enter KING HENRY, CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHRY, WARWICK, and others.

K. Hen. Now, lords, if heaven doth give successful end

To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,

We will our youth lead on to higher fields,

lord, means stand my friend, be my patron or benefactor, report well of me.

1 Condition is most frequently used by Shakspeare for nature, disposition. The prince may therefore mean, 'I shall in my good nature speak better of you than you deserve.'

2 Vide note on King Henry IV. Part 1. Act. i. Sc. ii.

3 Inventive, imaginative.

4 It was anciently supposed that all the mines of gold, &c. were guarded by evil spirits. See the Secret Wonders of Nature and Art, by Edw. Fenton, 1569, p. 91.

5 Commences it, that is, *brings it into action*. Tyrwhitt thinks it is probable that there is an allusion to the commencement and act of the universities, which give to students a complete authority to use those hoards of learning which have entitled them to their degrees. As the dictionaries of the poet's time explain this matter, the conjecture seems probable.

6 A pleasant allusion to the old use of *soft wax* for sealing.

7 Ready, prepared.

8 To-morrow for our march are we *address'd*.

King Henry V.

And draw no swords but what are sanctified.

Our navy is *address'd*,⁷ our power collected,

Our substitutes in absence well invested,

And every thing lies level to our wish:

Only, we want a little personal strength;

And pause us, till those rebels, now afoot,

Come underneath the yoke of government.

War. Both which, we doubt not but your majesty

Shall soon enjoy.

K. Hen.

Humphrey, my son of Gloster,

Where is the prince your brother?

P. Humph. I think, he's gone to hunt, my lord,

at Windsor.

K. Hen. And how accompanied?

P. Humph.

I do not know, my lord.

K. Hen. Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence, with him?

P. Humph. No, my good lord; he is in presence here.

Cla. What would my lord and father?

K. Hen. Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Clarence.
How chance, thou art not with the prince thy brother?

He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas;

Thou hast a better place in his affection,

Than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy;

And noble offices thou mayst effect

Of mediation, after I am dead,

Between his greatness and thy other brethren:—

Therefore, omit him not: blunt not his love:

Nor lose the good advantage of his grace,

By seeming cold or careless of his will,

For he is gracious, if he be observ'd;⁸

He hath a tear for pity, and a hand

Open as day for melting charity:

Yet, notwithstanding, being incens'd, he's flint;

As *humorous*⁹ as winter, and as sudden

As flaws congealed in the spring of day.¹⁰

His temper, therefore, must be well observ'd:

Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,

When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth:

But, being moody, give him line and scope;

Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,

Confound themselves with working. Learn this, Thomas,

And thou shall prove a shelter to thy friends;

A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in;

That the united vessel of their blood,

Mingled with venom of suggestion,¹¹

(As, force perforce, the age will pour it in.)

Shall never leak, though it do work as strong

As *aconitum*,¹² or rash gunpowder.

Cla. I shall observe him with all care and love.

K. Hen. Why art thou not at Windsor with him, Thomas?

Cla. He is not there to-day; he dines in London.

K. Hen. And how accompanied? canst thou tell that?

Cla. With Poins, and other his continual followers.

8 j. e. if he has *respectful attention shown him*.

9 His qualities were beauteous as his form.

For maiden-tongu'd he was, and therefore free;

Yet *if men mov'd him*, was he such a *storm*

As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,

When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be,

Shakspeare's *Lover's Complaint*.

Humorous was used for *capricious*, as *humoursome* now is.

10 A *flaw* is a sudden gust of violent wind; alluding to the opinion of some philosophers, that the vapours being congealed in the air by cold (which is the most intense in the morning,) and being afterwards rarefied and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous gusts of wind which are called *flaws*. Shakspeare uses the word again in King Henry VI. and in his Venus and Adonis.

11 Though their blood be inflamed by the *temptations* to which youth is peculiarly subject.

12 *Aconitum*, or acidon, *wolfs-bane*, a poisonous herb.

*Rash* is sudden, hasty, violent.

61

["SECOND PART OF", "ACT IV.", "482", "K. Hen. Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds;\nAnd he, the noble image of my youth,\nIs overspread with them: Therefore my grief\nStretches itself beyond the hour of death:\nThe blood weeps from my heart, when I do shape,\nIn forms imaginary, the unguided days,\nAnd rotten times, that you shall look upon,\nWhen I am sleeping with my ancestors.\nFor when his headstrong riot hath no curb,\nWhen rage and hot blood are his counsellors,\nWhen means and lavish manners meet together,\nO, with what wings shall his affections¹ fly\nTowards fronting peril and oppos'd decay!", "War. My gracious lord, you look beyond him\nquite:", "The prince but studies his companions,", "Like a strange tongue: wherein, to gain the lan-\nguage,", "'Tis needful, that the most immodest word\nBe look'd upon, and learn'd: which once attain'd,\nYour highness knows, comes to no further use,\nBut to be known, and hated.² So, like gross\nterms,", "The prince will, in the perfectness of time,", "Cast off his followers: and their memory", "Shall as a pattern or a measure live,", "By which his grace must mete the lives of others;", "Turning past evils to advantages.", "K. Hen. 'Tis seldom—when the bee doth leave her comb", "In the dead carrion.³—Who's here? Westmore-\nland?", "Enter WESTMORELAND.", "West. Health to my sovereign! and new hap-\npiness", "Added to that that I am to deliver!", "Prince John, your son, doth kiss your grace's hand:", "Mowbray, the bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all,", "Are brought to the correction of your law;", "There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd,", "But peace puts forth her olive every where.", "The manner how this action hath been borne,\nHere at more leisure may your highness read;", "With every course, in his particular.⁴", "K. Hen. O Westmoreland, thou art a summer bird,", "Which ever in the haunch of winter sings", "The lifting up of day. Look! here's more news.", "Enter HARCOURT.", "Har. From enemies heaven keep your majesty;\nAnd, when they stand against you, may they fall", "As those that I am come to tell you of!", "The Earl Northumberland, and the Lord Bardolph,", "With a great power of English, and of Scots,", "Are by the sheriff of Yorkshire overthrown :", "The manner and true order of the fight,", "This packet, please it you, contains at large.", "1 *Affections*, in the language of Shakspeare's time, are *passions, desires*. Appetitus animi.", "2 A parallel passage occurs in Terence:—", "⁴ quo modo adolescentulus", "Meretrium ingeni et mores posset noscere", "Mature ut cum cognovit, perpetuo oderit.'", "3 As the bee, having once placed her comb in a car-\ncass, stays by her honey, so he that has once taken\npleasure in bad company will continue to associate with\nthose that have the art of pleasing him.", "4 The detail contained in Prince John's letter.", "5 Mure for wall is another of Shakspeare's Latin-\nisms. It was not in frequent use by his cotemporaries.\n*Wrought it thin is made it thin by gradual detriment:\nWrought being the preterite of *swork*.*", "6 To fear anciently signified to make afraid, as well as to dread. 'A vengeance light on thee that so doth feare me, or make me so feared?'—Baret.", "7 That is, equivocal births, monsters.", "8 i. e. as if the year.", "9 An historical fact. On Oct. 12, 1411, this happened.", "10 Johnson asserts that *dull* here signifies 'melan-\ncholy, gentle, soothing.' Malone says that it means\n'producing dullness or heaviness.' The fact is that", "K. Hen. And wherefore should these good news\nmake me sick?", "Will fortune never come with both hands full,", "But write her fair words still in foulest letters?", "She either gives a stomach, and no food,—", "Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,", "And takes away the stomach,—such are the rich,\nThat have abundance, and enjoy it not.", "I should rejoice now at this happy news;", "And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy:\nO me! come near me, now I am much ill.", "P. Humph. Comfort, your majesty!", "Cla. O my royal father!", "West. My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself,\nlook up!", "War. Be patient, princes; you do know, these\nfits", "Are with his highness very ordinary.", "Stand from him, give him air; he'll straight be\nwell.", "Cla. No, no; he cannot long hold out these\npangs;", "The incessant care and labour of his mind", "Hath wrought the mure,⁵ that should confine it in,", "So thin, that life looks through, and will break out.", "P. Humph. The people fear me;⁶ for they do\nobserve", "Unfatther'd heirs?⁷ and loathly birds of nature:", "The seasons change their manners, as the year⁸", "Had found some months asleep, and leap'd them over.", "Cla. The river hath thrice flow'd, no ebb be-\ntween:⁹", "And the old folk, time's doting chronicles,", "Say, it did so, a little time before", "That our great grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.", "War. Speak lower, princes, for the king recovers.", "P. Humph. This apoplex will, certain, be his end.", "K. Hen. I pray you, take me up, and bear me hence", "Into some other chamber: softly, 'pray.'", "*[They convey the King into an inner part of the Room, and place him on a Bed.*", "Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;", "Unless some dull¹⁰ and favourable hand", "Will whisper music to my weary spirit.", "War. Call for the music in the other room.", "K. Hen. Set me the crown upon my pillow here.", "Cla. His eye is hollow, and he changes much.", "War. Less noise, less noise.", "Enter PRINCE HENRY.", "P. Hen. Who saw the Duke of Clarence?", "Cla. I am here, brother, full of heaviness.", "P. Hen. How now ! rain within doors, and none\nabroad !", "How doth the king?", "P. Humph. Exceeding ill.", "P. Hen. Heard he the good news yet?", "Tell it him.", "dull and slow were synonymous. 'Dullness, slow-\nness; tarditas, tardivete. Somewhat *dull* or *slow*;\ntardiusculus, tardelet; says *Baret*. But Shakspeare\nuses *dulness* for *drouiness* in the Tempest. And *Baret*\nhas also this sense:—'Slow, dull, sleeepe, drousie, as-\ntonied, heavie; torpidus.' It has always been thought\nthat *slow* music induces sleep. Ariel enters playing\n*solemn music* to produce this effect, in the Tempest. The\nnotion is not peculiar to our great poet, as the following\nexquisite lines, almost worthy of his hand, may wit-\nness:—", "'Oh, lull me, lull me, charming air,", "My senses rock'd with wonder sweet;", "Like snow on wooly thy fallings are,", "Soft like a spirit are thy feet.", "Grief who need fear", "That hath an ear?", "Down let him lie,", "And slumbering die,", "And change his soul for harmony.'", "(From *Wit Restored*, 1658.) They are attributed to Dr. Strode, who died in 1644.", "SCENE", "P.", "P.", "Within\nWar.", "The kit\nCla.", "War.", "P.", "Why do\nBeing\nO pollute\nThat kee\nTo mar\nYet not\nAs he\nSnores\nWhen a\nLike a\nThat so\nThere be\nDid he\nPerforce", "This slo\nThat from\nSo many\nIs tears,\nWhich\nShall,\nMy due,\nAnd so\nDives,", "Which", "A\nH\nK", {"bbox

["### SCENE IV.", "### KING HENRY IV.", "483", "P. *Humph.* He altered much upon the hearing it.", "P. *Hen.* If he be sick", "With joy, he will recover without physic.", "War. Not so much noise, my lords;—sweet prince, speak low;", "The king your father is dispos'd to sleep.", "Cla. Let us withdraw into the other room.", "War. Will't please your grace to go along with us?", "P. *Hen.* No; I will sit and watch here by the king.", "[Exeunt all but P. HENRY.", "Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow,\nBeing so troublesome a bedfellow?", "O polish'd perturbation! golden care!", "That keeps the ports² of slumber open wide\nTo many a watchful night!—sleep with it now!", "Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet,\nAs he, whose brow, with homely biggin³ bound,", "Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!", "When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit", "Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,", "That scalds with safety. By his gates of breath", "There lies a downy feather, that stirs not:", "Thou didst inspire, that light and weightless down\nPerforce must move.—My gracious lord!—my father!—", "This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep,\nThat from this golden rigol³ hath divorc'd", "So many English kings. Thy due, from me,\nIs tears, and heavy sorrows of the blood;", "Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,", "Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously:", "My due, from thee, is this imperial crown;", "Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,\nDerives itself to me. Lo, here it sits,", "[Putting it on his head.", "Which heaven shall guard: And put the world's whole strength", "Into one giant arm, it shall not force", "This linear honour from me: This from thee", "Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me.", "[Exit.]", "K. Hen. Warwick! Gloster! Clarence!", "Re-enter WARWICK, and the rest.", "Cla.", "Doth the king call!", "War. What would your majesty? How fares\nyour grace?", "K. Hen. Why did you leave me here alone, my\nlords?", "Cla. We left the prince my brother here, my\nliege.", "Who undertook to sit and watch by you.", "K. Hen. The prince of Wales? Where is he?\nlet me see him?", "He is not here.", "War. This door is open; he is gone this way.", "P. *Humph.* He came not through the chamber where we stay'd.", "K. Hen. Where is the crown? who took it from\nmy pillow?", "War. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it\nhere.", "K. Hen. The prince hath ta'en it hence:—go,\nseek him out;", "Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose", "My sleep my death?", "Find him, my lord of Warwick; chide him hither.", "[Exit WARWICK.", "This part of his conjoin with my disease,\nAnd helps to end me.—See, sons, what things you\nare!", "How quickly nature falls into revolt,", "When gold becomes her object!", "", "", "1 The hint only of this beautiful scene is taken from Holinshed, p. 541. The poet has wrought up the bare bald narration of the chronicler in the most pathetic and poetical manner.\n2 Gates.", "", "3 A biggin was a head-band of coarse cloth; so called because such a forehead-cloth was worn by the Beguines, an order of nuns. 'Upon his head he wore a filthy coarse biggin,' and next it a garnish of night-caps.' *Nash*, speaking of a miser in his *Pierce Penniless*.", "For this the foolish over-careful fathers", "Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains\nwith care,", "Their bones with industry;", "For this they have engrossed and pil'd up", "The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold;", "For they have been thoughtful to invest", "Their sons with arts, and martial exercises:", "When, like the bee, tolling⁵ from every flower", "The virtuous sweets;", "Our thigh's pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey,\nWe bring it to the hive; and, like the bees,\nAre murder'd for our pains. This bitter taste", "Yields his engrossments⁶ to the ending father.", "### Re-enter WARWICK.", "Now, where is he that will not stay so long", "Till his friend sickness hath determin'd? me?", "War. My lord, I found the prince in the next room.", "Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks;", "With such a deep demeanor in great sorrow,", "That tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood,", "Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife", "With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.", "K. Hen. But wherefore did he take away the crown?", "### Re-enter PRINCE HENRY.", "Lo, where he comes.—Come hither to me, Harry :—", "Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.", "[Exeunt WARRENCES, PRINCE HUMPHREY, Lords, &c.]", "P. Hen. I never thought to hear you speak again.", "K. Hen. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:", "I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.", "Dost thou so hunger for my empty chair,", "That thou wilt needs invest thee with mine honours", "Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!", "Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm\nthem.", "Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity", "Is held from falling with so weak a wind,", "That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.", "Thou hast stol'n that, which, after some few hours,", "Were thine without offence; and, at my death,", "Thou hast seal'd up my expectation:⁷", "Thy life did manifest, thou lov'dst me not,", "And thou wilt have me die assured of it.", "Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts;", "Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,", "To stab at half an hour⁸ of my life.", "What! cannot thou not forbear me half an hour?", "Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyself;", "And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear,", "That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.", "Let all the tears that should bewed my hearse,", "Be drops of balm, to sanctify thy head:", "Only compound me with forgotten dust;", "Give that, which gave thee life, unto the worms.", "Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;", "For now a time is come to mock at form,", "Harry the fifth is crown'd;—Up, vanity!", "Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence!", "And to the English court assemble now,", "From every region, apes of idleness!", "Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum:", "Have you a ruffian, that will wear, drink, dance,", "Revel the night; rob, murder, and commit", "The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?", "Be happy, he will trouble you no more:", "England shall double gild his treble guilt;¹⁰", "4 i. e. *circle*; probably from the old Italian *rigolo*, a small wheel.", "5 Taking toll.", "6 Accumulations

["484", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT IV.", "England shall give him office, honour, might:", "For the fifth Harry, from curb'd licence plucks\nThe muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog\nShall flesh his tooth in every innocent.", "O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!\nWhen that my care could not withhold thy riots,\nWhat wilt thou do, when riot is thy care?\nO, wilt thou be a wilderness again,\nPeopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!", "P. Hen. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears,", "The moist impediments unto my speech,\nI had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke,\nEre you with grief had spoke, and I had heard\nThe course of it so far. There is your crown;\nAnd he that wears the crown immortally,\nLong guard it yours! If I affect it more,\nThan as your honour, and as your renown,\nLet me no more from this obedience rise,\nWhich my most true and inward-duteous spirit\nTeacheth this prostrate and exterior bending!¹¹\nHeaven witness with me, when I here came in,\nAnd found no course of breath within your ma-\njesty,", "How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,\nO, let me in my present wildness die;\nAnd never live to show the incredulous world\nThe noble change that I have purposed!\nComing to look on you, thinking you were,\nI spake unto the crown as having sense,\nAnd thus upbraided it: The care on thee depending,\nHath fed upon the body of my father;\nTherefore, thou, best of gold, art worst of gold.\nOther, less fine in carat, is more precious,\nPreserving life in med'cine potable:²", "But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd,\nHast eat thy bearer up. Thus, my most royal liege,\nAccusing it, I put it on my head;\nTo try with it,—as with an enemy,\nThat had before my face murder'd my father,—\nThe quarrel of a true inheritor.", "But if it did infect my blood with joy,\nOr swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;\nIf any rebel or vain spirit of mine\nDid, with the least affection of a welcome,\nGive entertainment to the might of it,\nLet God for ever keep it from my head !\nAnd make me as the poorest vassal is,\nThat doth with awe and terror kneel to it!", "K. Hen. O my son!\nHeaven put it in thy mind, to take it hence,\nThat thou might't win the more thy father's love,\nPleading so wisely in excuse of it.\nCome hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed;\nAnd hear, I think, the very latest counsel\nThat ever I shall breathe. Heaven knows, my\nson,", "By what by-paths, and indirect crook'd ways,\nI met this crown; and I myself know well,", "1 The *Variorium Shakspeare* reads—:", "'Let me no more from this obedience rise", "(Which my most true and inward duteous spirit", "Teacheth,) this prostrate and exterior bending?!¹²\nJohnson and others have considered this passage as ob-\nscure in the construction; but it was only made so by\ntheir wrong pointing. The obvious sense is, 'Let me\nno more rise from this *obeisance*, which my most *loyal*\nand inwardly duteous spirit teacheth this prostrate and\nexterior bending.' *Obeisance* and *obedience* were for-\nmerly used indiscriminately the one for the other. *Truth*\nis always used for *loyalty*.", "2 It was long a prevailing opinion that a solution of\ngold had great medicinal virtues; and that the incorrupti-\nibility of the metal might be communicated to the body\nimpregnated with it. *Potable gold* was one of the, pa-\nnacea of ancient quacks.", "3 *Soil is stain, spot, blemish.*", "4 *Supposed peace is imagined peace, counterfeit, not real.*", "5 *Fears are objects of fear; terrors.*", "6 *The mode is the state or form of things.*", "7 *Purchas'd here signifies obtained by eager pursuit.*\nIt is from the French *pourchas*, and was sometimes so\nspelled when used to signify the obtaining of lands or", "How troublesome it sat upon my head:", "To thee it shall descend with better quiet,", "Better opinion, better confirmation;", "For all the soil³ of the achievement goes", "With me into the earth. It seem'd in me,", "But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand;", "And I had many living, to upbraid", "My gain of it by their assistances;", "Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed,\nWounding supposed peace:⁴ all these bold fears,", "Thou see'st with peril I have answered:", "For all my reign hath been but as a scene", "Acting that argument; and now my death", "Changes the mode:⁵ for what in me was *purchas'd*,", "Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort;", "So thou the garland wear'st successively.⁶", "Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,", "Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green:\nAnd all thy friends, which thou must make thy\nfriends,", "Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;", "By whose fell working I was first advanc'd,", "And by whose power I well might lodge a fear", "To be again displaced: which to avoid,", "I cut them⁷ off; and had a purpose now", "To lead out many to the Holy Land;", "Rest, least and lying still, might make them look", "Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,", "Be it thy course, to busy giddy minds", "With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne\nout,", "May waste the memory of the former days.", "More would I, but my lungs are wasted so,", "That strength of speech is utterly denied me,", "How I came by the crown, O God, forgive¹⁰", "And grant it may with thee in true peace live!", "P. Hen. My gracious liege,", "You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;", "Then plain, and right, must my possession be:", "Which I, with more than with a common pain,", "'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.", "Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WARWICK,\nLords, and others.", "K. Hen. Look, look, here comes my John of\nLancaster.", "P. John. Health, peace, and happiness, to my\nroyal father!", "K. Hen. Thou bring'st me happiness, and peace,\nson John;", "But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown", "From this bare, wither'd trunk : upon thy sight,", "My worldly business makes a period.—", "Where is my lord of Warwick?", "P. Hen. My lord of Warwick!", "K. Hen. Doth any name particular belong", "Unto the lodging where I first sought away", "War. 'Tis call'd Jerusalem, my noble lord.", "K. Hen. Laud be to God!—even there my life\nmust end.¹¹", "honours by any other means than by title or descent.\nSee Spelman's *Glossary*, in *purchaciac*; and Minshew's\n*Guide to the Tongues*, in *pourchas*.", "5. *i. e. by order of succession.* Johnson observes that\n'every usurper snatches a claim of hereditary right as\nsoon as he can.' So did Richard Cromwell in his\nfirst speech to parliament:—'For my own part being,\nby the providence of God, and the disposition of the\nlaw, my father's successor, and bearing the place in the\ngovernment that I do,' &c.—Harleian *Miscellany*, vol.\ni. p. 21.", "9. *Mason proposes to read 'I cut some off,' which\nseems to indicate necessary. The sense would then be,*\n* 'Some I have cut off, and many I intended to lead to the\nHoly Land.'*", "10. This is a true picture of a mind divided between\nheaven and earth. He prays for the prosperity of guilt,\nwhile he deprecates its punishment.", "11. 'At length he recovered his speech and understand-\ning, and perceiving himself in a strange place, which\nhe knew not, he willied to know if the chamber had anie\nparticular name, whereunto answer was made, that it\nwas called *Jerusalem*. Then said the king, *Lauds be\ngiven to the Father of Heaven, for now I know that I\nshall die here in this chamber, according to the prophesie,", "SCENE", "It hath not\nI should\nWhich be\nBut, in that J", "SCENE\nHOUSE.", "DOLPH.", "Shal.", "to-night.", "Ful.", "low.", "Shal.", "exused\nno exces-\nWhy, Do", "Davy.", "Shal.", "let me\ncomethit", "Davy.", "be se-\nland with", "Shal.", "cook—", "Davy.", "note, for", "Shal.", "shall\nnot", "Davy.", "needs be\nof Willi", "other\ndays.", "Davy.", "Shal.", "mutton;", "William", "Davy.", "Shal.", "'the cou-\nhis men\nwill back", {"bbox": [1035, 782, 1064, 7

["### SCENE IV.", "It hath been prophesied to me many years,\nI should not die but in Jerusalem;\nWhich vainly I supposed, the Holy Land—\nBut, bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;\nIn that Jerusalem shall Harry die.", "[Exeunt.]", "### ACT V.", "#### SCENE I. Glostershire. A Hall in Shallow's House. Enter SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and Page.", "Shal. By cock and pye,¹ sir, you shall not away to-night.—What, Davy, I say!", "Ful. You must excuse me, master Robert Shal-low.", "Shal. I will not excuse you; you shall not be excused; excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse shall serve; you shall not be excused.—Why, Davy!", "#### Enter DAVY.", "Davy. Here, sir.", "Shal. Davy, Davy, Davy,—let me see, Davy; let me see:—yea, marry, William cook, bid him come hither.—Sir John, you shall not be excused.", "Davy. Marry, sir, thus ²;—those precepts²² cannot be served: and, again, sir,—Shall we sow the head-land with wheat?", "Shal. With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook:—Are there no young pigeons?", "Davy. Yes, sir.—Here is now the smith's note, for shoeing, and plough-irons.", "Shal. Let it be cast,³ and paid:—Sir John, you shall not be excused.", "Davy. Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must need be had;—And, sir, do you mean to stop any of William's wages, about the sack he lost the other day at Hinckley fair?", "Shal. He shall answer it:—Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens; a joint of meat; and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William's took.", "Davy. Doth the man of war stay all night, sir?", "Shal. Yes, Davy. I will use him well; A friend 't is the court is better than a penny in purse.⁴ Use his men well, Davy; for they are arrant knaves, and will backbite.", "Davy. No worse than they are back-bitten, sir; for they are marvellous foul linen.", "Shal. Well conceited, Davy. About thy busi-ness, Davy.", "Davy. I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of Wincot⁵ against Clement Perkes of the hill.", "Shal. There are many complaints, Davy, against that Visor; that Visor is an arrant knave on my knowledge.", "of me declared, that I should depart this life in Jerusalem.²²—Holinshed, p. 541.", "The late Dr. Vincent pointed out a remarkable coin-cidence in a passage of Anna Comnena (Alexias, lib. vi. p. 162, ed. Paris, 1658,) relating to the death of Robert Guiscard, king of Sicily, in a place called Jerusalem, at Cephalonia. In Lodge's *Devil Conjured* is a similar story of Pope Sylvester; but the Pope outwitted the Devil. And Fuller, in his Church History, b. v. p. 178, relates something of the same kind about Cardinal Wolsey, of whom it had been predicted that he should have his end at Kingston. Which was thought to be fulfilled by his dying in the custody of Sir William Kingston.", "I This adjuration, which seems to have been a pop-ular substitute for profane swearing, occurs in several old plays. By cock is supposed to be a corruption or disguise of the name of God in favour of pious ears: but the addition of pie has not yet been satisfactorily accounted for. It has been conjectured that it may be only a ludicrous oath by the common sign of an ale-house, *The Cock and Magpie*, or *Cock and Pie*, being a pop-ular favourite sign. It should appear from the following passage, in A Catechisme containing the Summe of Religions, by George Giffard, 1583, that it was not considered as a corruption of the sacred name.", "⁶ Men suppose that they do not offend when they do not sare falsely; and because they will not take the name of God to abuse it, they sare by small things;", "### KING HENRY IV.", "485", "Davy. I grant your worship, that he is a knave, sir: but yet, God forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his friend's request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. I have served your worship truly, sir, this eight years; and if I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against an honest man, I have but a very little credit with your worship.⁶ The knave is mine honest friend, sir; therefore, I beseech your worship, let him be countenanced.", "Shal. Go to, I say, he shall have no wrong. Look about, Davy. [Exit DAVY.] Where are you, Sir John? Come, off with your boots.—Give me your hand, master Bardolph.", "Bard. I am glad to see your worship.", "Shal. I thank thee with all my heart, kind master Bardolph:—and welcome, my tall fellow. [To the Page.] Come, Sir John.", "[Exit SHALLOW.]", "Fal. I'll follow you, good master Robert Shallow. Bardolph, look to our horses. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.] If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four dozen of such bearded hermit's-staves as master Shallow. It is a wonderful thing, to see the semblable coherence of his men's spirits and his: By observing him, do bear themselves like foolish justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a justicelike serving-man; their spirits are so married in conjunction with the participation of society, that they flock together in consent,⁷ like so many wild geese. If I had a suit to master Shallow, I would honour his men, with the imputation of being near their master:⁸ if to his men, I would curry with master Shallow, that no man could better command his servants. It is certain, that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company. I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow, to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter, the wearing-out of six fashions (which is four terms, or two actions,⁹) and he shall laugh without intervallums.¹⁰ O, it is much, that a lie, with a slight oath, and a jest, with a sad brow,¹¹ will do with a fellow that never had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shall see him laugh, till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up.", "Shal. [Within.] Sir John!", "Shal. I come, master Shallow; I come, master Shallow. [Exit FALSTAFF.]", "#### SCENE II. Westminster. A Room in the Palace.", "Enter WARWICK and the Lord Chief Justice.", "War. How now, my lord chief justice? whither away?", "Ch. Just. How doth the king?", "as by cock and pie, by the mousefoot, and many such like.", "2 Precepts are warrants. Davy has almost as many employments as Scrub in the Beaux Stratagem.", "3 i. e. cast up, computed.", "4 'A friend in court is worth a penny in purse,' is one of Camden's proverbial sentences. See his *Remaines, 4to, 1605*.", "5 Wilnecote or Wincot, is a village in Warwickshire, near Stratford. The old copies read *Wincot*.", "6 This is no exaggerated picture of the course of justice in Shakspeare's time. Sir Nicholas Bacon, in a speech to parliament, 1559, says, 'Is it not a monstrous disguising to have a justice a maintainer, acquitting some for gain, ending others for malice, bearing with him as his servant, overthrowing the other as his enemy?' *D'Ewes*, p. 34. He repeats the same words again in 1571. *Ib.* 153. A member of the house of commons, in 1601, says, 'A justice of peace is a living creature, that for half a dozen chickens will dispense with a dozen of penal statutes,' 8c.", "7 Consent is accord, agreement; a combination for any particular purpose. Baret renders *secta*, a divers consente in sundry wilful opinions.'", "8 i. e. admitted to their master's confidence.", "9 There is something humorous in making a spend-thrift computer time by the operation of an action for debt.", "10 i. e. a serious face.", "### Act IV.", "To my head; but better head; or, if not, betteration;", "ation; and to bloodied, and to bloodied, all these bold fiefs;", "e answered; or as a scene", "now my death", "with hoistorous land; and", "alpbrahms; and", "al and to bloodied, and to bloodied, all these bold fiefs;", "e answered; or as a scene", "now my death", "in his was purdah's", "airer sort; or", "succeeding; or", "more sure than I could", "since grays is green; and", "thou must make thy", "eth now taky to out; us", "as first advan'd;", "I might lodge a bear", "uch to avoid a bear", "purpuse now", "only Land;", "night make them look", "Therefore, my Harry,", "daddy minds", "at point, hence bone", "the former days.", "ges are wasted so, utterly denied me.", "O God, forgive ¹⁰ in true peace now.", "ge, gave it me;", "my possession be:", "in a common place,", "rightfully maintain.", "Ancaster, WARWICK,", "others.", "ere comes my John d", "and happiness, to my", "the happiness, and peace,", "thful wings is flown", "unk: upon thy night,", "a period.", "My lord of Warwick,", "particular belog", "d last did swoon?", "my noble lord,", "d—even there my life", "than to title or descent,", "urcholyn; and Miseraies,", "chas.", "a. Johnson observes that", "im of hereditary title as", "richard Crowell, in his", "For my own part, beiing", "old bearing the place in the", "lararian Miscellanei,", "I cut come off, which", "e sense would then be.", "I listened to led to the",

["486", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT V.", "*War.* Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended.", "*Ch. Just.* I hope, not dead.", "*War.* He's walk'd the way of nature;", "And, to our purposes, he lives no more.", "*Ch. Just.* I would, his majesty had call'd me with him:", "The service that I truly did his life,", "Hath left me open to all injuries.", "*War.* Indeed, I think, the young king loves you not.", "*Ch. Just.* I know, he doth not; and do arm myself,", "To welcome the condition of the time;", "Which cannot look more hideously upon me", "Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.", "*Enter PRINCE JOHN, PRINCE HUMPHREY, CLARENCE, WESTMORELAND, and others.*", "*War.* Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry:", "O, that the living Harry had the temper", "Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!", "How many nobles then should hold their places,", "That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort !", "*Ch. Just.* Alas! I fear, all will be overturned.", "*P. John.* Good morrow, cousin Warwick.", "*P. Humph. Cla.* Good morrow, cousin.", "*P. John.* We meet like men that had forgot to speak.", "*War.* We do remember; but our argument", "Is all too heavy to admit much talk.", "*P. John.* Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy !", "*Ch. Just.* Peace be with us, lest we be heavier !", "*P. Humph.* O, good my lord, you have lost a friend, indeed:", "And I dare swear, you borrow not that face", "Of seeming sorrow; it is, sure, your own.", "*P. John.* Though no man be assur'd what grace to find,", "You stand in coldest expectation :", "I am the sorrier; 'would, 'twere otherwise.", "*Cla.* Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaffe fair;", "Which swims against your stream of quality.", "*Ch. Just.* Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,", "Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;", "And never shall you see, that I will beg", "A ragged and forestall'd remission.—¹", "If truth and upright innocency fail me,", "I'll to the king my master that is dead,", "And tell him who hath sent me after him.", "*War.* Here comes the prince.", "*Enter KING HENRY V.*", "*Ch. Just.* Good morrow; and heaven save your majesty!", "*King.* This new and gorgeous garment, majesty,", "Sits not so easy on me as you think.—", "Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear;", "This is the English, not the Turkish court;", "Not Amurath an Amurath?² succeeds,", "But Harry Harry: Yet be sad, good brothers,", "For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you;", "Sorrow so royally in you appears,", "That I will deeply put the fashion on,", "¹ 'A ragged and forestalled remission' is a remission or pardon obtained by beggarly supplication. *Forestalling* is prevention. In a former scene the prince says to his father:—", "'But for my tears, &c.", "¹ I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke.³", "² Amurath IV, emperor of the Turks, died in 1596; his second son, Amurath, who succeeded him, had all his brothers strangled at a feast, to which he invited them, while yet ignorant of their father's death. It is highly probable that Shakspeare alludes to this transaction. The play may have been written while the fact was still recent.", "³ *Was this easy?* was this a *light offence*?", "⁴ It has already been remarked that Sir William Gascoigne, the chief justice in this play, died in the reign of Henry IV.; and consequently this scene has", "no foundation in fact. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, or probably was careless about the matter. While Gascoigne was at the bar, Henry of Bolingbroke", "was his client, who appointed him his attorney to sue", "out his livery in the Court of Wards; but Richard II.", "defeated his purpose. When Bolingbroke became", "Henry IV. he appointed Gascoigne chief justice. In", "that station he acquired the character of a learned, up-", "right, wise, and intrepid judge. The story of his com-", "miting the prince is told by Sir Thomas Elyot, in his book entitled *The Governor*; but Shakspeare followed the Chronicles.", "⁵ Treat with contempt your acts executed by a representative.", "*P. John, &c.* You hope no other from your majesty.", "⁶ I think, assur'd I love you not.", "*Ch. Just.* I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly, Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.", "*King. No!*", "⁷ How might a prince of my great hopes forget So great indignities you laid upon me?", "⁸ What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison", "The immediate heir of England?¹ Was this easy?²", "⁹ May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?", "*Ch. Just.* I then did use the person of your father; The image of his power lay then in me:", "And, in the administration of his law,", "Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,", "Your highness pleased to forget my place,", "The majesty and power of law and justice,", "The image of the king whom I presented,", "And struck me in my very seat of judgment;⁵", "Whereon, as an offender to your father,", "I gave bold way to my authority,", "And did commit you. If the deed were ill,", "Be you contented, wearing now the garland,", "To have a son set your decrees at nought;", "To pluck down justice from your awful bench;", "To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword", "That guards the peace and safety of your person;", "Nay, more; to spurn at your most royal image,", "And mock your workings in a second body.⁶", "Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;", "Be now the father, and propose a son:", "⁷ Hear your own dignity so much profan'd,", "See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,", "Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;", "And then imagine me taking your part,", "And, in your power, soft silencing your son:", "After this cold consideration, sentence me;", "And, as you are a king, speak in your state,⁷", "What I have done, that misbecame my place,", "My person, or my liege's sovereignty.", "*King.* You are right, justice, and you weigh this well!", "Therefore still bear the balance and the sword: I do wish your honours may increase,", "Till you do live to see a son of mine", "Offend you, and obey you, as I did.", "⁸ So shall I live to speak my father's words:—", "*Happy am I,* that have a man so bold,", "*That dares dae justice on my proper son:*", "⁹ And not less happy, having such a son,", "*That would deliver up his greatness so*", "*Into the hands of justice*.—You did commit me:", "For which, I do commit into your hand", "The unstain'd sword that you have us'd to bear;", "With this remembrance,⁹—That you use the same", "With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,", "⁵ Treat with contempt your acts executed by a representative.\n⁶ I.e. image to yourself that you have a son.\n⁷ In your regal character and office.\n⁸ *Remembrance*; that is *admonition* or *warning*", "⁶ I.e. image to yourself that you have a son.", "⁷ In your regal character and

Act V.

When then, be said:
Good brothers,
on us all,
be the assured,
brother too;
I'll bear your care,
and so will I:
convert those tears,
Napless,
no other from your me-
ngly on me;—and you
[To the Chief Justice,
here you see,
if I be measured rigidly,
cause to hate me.

great hopes forget
upon me;
roughly send to prison
and land;— Was this easy to
him then in me;
of his law,
uncommonly,
forget my place,
and law and justice,
on I presented,
seal of judgment;—
by your father,
kindly,
the deed were ill,
now the garland,
creases in naught;
the one a wilful beach;
and blunt the sword
in a second body;
make the case your;
so a son;—
uch profaned;
us so loosely slighted,
and disdained;
by your part,
lingering your son;
a sentence me;
so in your state;
became my place,
overright.
And the words,
and you weigh this
as the sword;
may increase,
so of mine
as I did.
father's words;—
no bold,
proper son;
uch a son,
beauty not
you did commit me;
your hand
you have used to bear;
That you use the same
impalpable,
unbearable
as Shakespeare was milled by
the senseless about the name
Hear, Henry of Bolingbroke
him his
Warde; but Richard II.
hen Bolingbroke became
a college chief justice.
A character of a learned, vir-
S. The story of his con-
Sir Thomas Elvies, in his
out Shakespeare followed
by the rest.
acts executed by a repre-
son of the law.
office,
monition or warning

## SCENE III.

## KING HENRY IV.

487

As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand; You shall be done as a father to your youth: My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear; And I will stoop and humble my intentions To your well practis'd, wise directions.— And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;— My father is gone wild into his grave,¹ For in his tomb lie my affections; And with his spirit sadly² I survive, To mock the expectation of the world; To frustrate prophecies; and to raze out Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down After my seeming. The tide of blood in me Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now: Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea; Where to choose with the state³ of floods, And flow henceforward in formal majesty. Now call we our high court of parliament: And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel, That the meaningful body of our state may go In equal rank with the best-government nation; That war, or peace, or both at once, may be As things acquainted and familiar to us;— In things you, father, shall have foremost hand.—

[To the Lord Chief Justice.

Our coronation done, we will accite,⁴ As I before remember'd, all our state: And (God consigning to my good intents,) No prince, nor peer, shall have just cause to say, Heaven shorten Harry's happy life one day.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III.
Glostershire. The Garden of Shal-
low's House. Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW,
SILENCE, BARDOLPH, the Page, and DAVY.

Shal. Nay, you shall see mine orchard: where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of carraways,⁵ and so forth:—come, cousin Silence;—and then to dwell.

Ful. 'Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich, Shal. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggers all, Sir John:—merry, good air.—Spread, Davy; spread, Davy; well said, Davy.

Shal. This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serving-man, and your husbandman.

Shal. A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir John.—By the mass, I have drunk too much sach at supper:—a good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down:—come, cousin.

Sil. Ah, sirral! quoth-a,— we shall

Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,

[Singing.]

And praise heaven for the merry year;

When flesh is cheap, and females dear,⁶

And lusty lads roam here and there,

So merrily,

And ever among so merrily.

1 The meaning is, My wild dispositions having ceased on my father's death, and being now as it were buried in his tomb, he and wellness are interred in the same grave.

2 Sadly is soberly, seriously; sad is opposed toild.

3 That is, with the majestic dignity of the ocean, the chief of floods.

5 This passage, which was long a subject of dispute, some pertinaciously maintaining that carraways meant apples of that name, has been at length properly explained by the following quotations from Cogan's Haven of Health, 1599:—'For the same purpose carway seeds are used to be made in comfits, and to be eaten with apples, and surely very good for that purpose, for all such things as breed wind, would be eaten with other things that breake wind.' Again:—'Howbeit we are wont to eate carrawaies, or biskets, or some other kind of comfits or seedes, together with apples, thereby to breake winde ingendred by them; and surely this is a verie good way for students.' The truth is, that apples and carraways were formerly always eaten together, and it is said that they are still served up on particular days at Trinity College, Cambridge.

6 The character of Silence is admirably sustained; he would scarcely speak a word before, and now there is no end to his garrulity. He has a catch for every occasion:—

Ful. There's a merry heart!—Good master Sil-
lence, I'll give you a health for that anon.

Shal. Give master Bardolph some wine, Davy.

Davy. Sweet sir, sit; [Seating BARDOLPH and the Page at another table.] I'll be with you anon:— most sweet sir, sit.—Master page, good master page, sit: profa!⁷ What you want in meat, we'll have in drink. But you must bear; The heart's all.

[Exit.]

Shal. Be merry, master Bardolph;—and my little soldier there, be merry.

Sil. Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;

[Singing.]

For women are shrews, both short and tall:

'Tis merry in hall, when beards wad all,⁹

And welcome merry shrove-tide,⁹

Be merry, be merry, &c.

Ful. I did not think, master Silence had been a man of this mettle.

Sil. Who I? I have been merry twice and once, ere now.

### Re-enter DAVY.

Davy. There is a dish of leather-coats¹⁰ for you. [Setting them before BARDOLPH.

Shal. Davy,—

Davy. Your worship?—I'll be with you straight.

[To BARD.]—A cup of wine, sir?

Sil. A cup of wine, that's brisk and fine,

And drink unto the leman mine;

[Singing.]

And a merry heart lives long-a.

Sil. Well said, master Silence.

Sil. And we shall be merry;—now comes in the sweet of the night.

Sil. Health and long life to you, master Silence.

Sil. Fill the cup, and let it come;

I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.

Silent. Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou wantest any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart.— Welcome, my little tiny thief; [To the Page.] and welcome, indeed, too.—I'll drink to master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleroes about London.

Davy. I hope to see London once ere I die.

Bard. An I might see you there, Davy;—
Shal. By the mass, you'll crack a quart together.
Ha! will you not, master Bardolph?

Bard. Yes, sir, in a potble pot.

Shal. I thank thee:—The knave will stick by thee, I can assure thee that: he will not out; he is true bred.

Bard. And I'll stick by him, sir.

Shal. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be silence. [Knocking in.] Look who's at door there: Ho! who knocks? [Exit DAVY.

Shal. Why, you now have done me right.

[To SILENCE, who drinks a bumper.

Sil. Do me right,¹¹

[Singing.]

2

'When flesh is cheap and females dear.'

Here the double sense of dear must be remembered.

7 An expression of welcome equivalent to Much good may it do you!

8 This proverbial rhyme is of great antiquity; it is found in Adam Davie's Life of Alexander:—

'Merrie swithe it is in hall.'

When the berdes waveth alle.—
9 Shrovetide was the ancient carnival; 'In most places where the Romish religion is generally profess ed, it is a time wherein more than ordinary liberty is tolerated, as it were in recompense of the abstinence (penance which is to be undergone for a time) for the future; whence by a metaphor it may be taken for any time of rioting or licence.'—Philips's World of Words. T. Warton does not seem to have known that shrovetide and carnival were the same, or that carnscapium and carnisprivium were the low Latin terms for the latter. Shrovetide was a season of such mirth that shroving, or to shrove, signified to be merry.

10 Apples commonly called russetines.

11 To do a man right and to do him reason were for merly the usual expressions in pledging healths; he who drank a bumper expected that a bumper should be drunk to his toast. To this Bishop Hall alludes in his Quo Vadis:—'Those formes of ceremonious quaffing, in which men have learned to make gods of others and

["489", "SECOND PART OF", "ACT V.", "And dub me knight :¹", "Samingo.²", "Is't not so ?", "Ful. 'Tis so.", "Sil. Is't not ? Why, then say, an old man can do somewhat.", "Re-enter DAVY.", "Davy. An it please your worship, there's one\nPistol come from the court with news.", "Ful. From the court, let him come in.—", "Enter PISTOL.", "Ful. How now, Pistol ?", "Pist. God save you, Sir John!", "Ful. What wind blew you hither, Pistol?", "Pist. Not the ill wind which blows no man to good.³—Sweet knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in the realm.", "Sil. By'r lady, I think 'a be ; but goodman Puff of Barson.⁴", "Pist. Puff?", "Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base !—\nSir John, I am thy Pistol, and thy friend,\nAnd helter-skelter have I rode to thee ;", "And tidings do I bring, and 'lucky joys,", "And golden times, and happy news of price.", "Sil. I pr'ythye now, deliver them like a man of this world.", "Pist. A foutra for the world, and worldlings base !", "I speak of Africa, and golden joys.", "Ful. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?", "Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof.", "Sil. And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John. [Sings.", "Pist. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons ?", "And shall good news be baffled ?", "Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies? lap.", "Shal. Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding.", "Pist. Why then, lament therefore.", "Shal. Give me pardon, sir :—If, sir, you come with news from the court, I take it, there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal them. I am, sir, under the king, in some authority.", "Pist. Under which king, Bezonian ?⁵ speak, or die.", "Shal. Under King Harry.", "Pist. Harry the Fourth ? or Fifth ?", "Shal. Harry the Fourth.", "Pist. A foutra for thine office !—", "Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king;", "Harry the Fifth's the man. I speak the truth:", "When Pistol lies, do this ; and fig me,⁶ like", "The bragging Spaniard.", "beasts of themselves : and lose their reason, whiles they pretend to do reason.⁷", "1 He who drank a bumper on his knees to the health of his mistress, was dubbed a knight for the evening.", "2 In Nashe's play called Summer's Last Will and Testament, 1600, Bacchus sings the following catch :—", "'Monsieur Mingo for quaffing doth surpass", "In cup, or can, or glass;", "God Bacchus, do me right,", "And dub me knight,", "Domingo.⁸", "In Rowland's Epigrams, 1600, Monsieur Domingo is celebrated as a toper. It has been supposed that the introduction of Domingo as a burthen to a drinking song was intended as a satire on the luxury of the Dominicans; but whether the change to Samingo was a blunder of Silence in his cups, or was a real contraction of San Domingo, is uncertain. Why Saint Dominick should be the patron of topers does not appear.", "3 So in Bulleine's Dialogue of the Fever Pestilence, 1564.—", "'No winde but it doth turn some man to good.'", "4 Barston is a village in Warwickshire, lying between Coventry and Solihull.", "5 Bezonian, according to Florio a bisogno, is 'a new levied souldier, such as comes needy to the wars.' Cotgrave, in bisongne, says 'a filthie knave, or clowne, a raskall, a bisonian, base humoured scoundrel.' Its original sense is a beggar, a needy person; it is often met with very differently spelt in the old comedies.", "6 An expression of contempt or insult by putting the thumb between the fore and middle finger, and forming a coarse representation of a disease to which the name of ficus has always been given. The custom has been regarded as originally Spanish, but without foundation,", "Ful. What! is the old king dead?", "Pist. As nail in door :' The things I speak, are just.", "Ful. Away, Bardolph; saddle my horse.—Master Robert Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine.—Pistol, I will double charge thee with dignities.", "Bard. O joyful day!—I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.", "Pist. What? I do bring good news?", "Ful. Carry master Silence to bed.—Master Shallow, my Lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I am fortune's steward. Get on thy boots; we'll ride all night:—O, sweet Pistol:—Away, Bardolph. [Exit BARD.]—Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something to do thyself good.—Boot, boot, master Shallow; I know, the young king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends; and woe to my lord chief justice!", "Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!", "Where is the life that late I led, say they :", "Why, here it is ; Welcome these pleasant days.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE IV. London. A Street. Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess QUICKLY, and DOLL TEARSHEET.⁹", "Host. No, thou arrant knave; I would I might die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.", "1 Bead. The constables have delivered her over to me; and she have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: There hath been a man or two lately killed against her.", "Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hooks,⁹ you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damned tripe-visaged rascal; an the child I now go with do miscarry, thou hast better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain.", "Host. O the Lord, that Sir John were come ! he would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God, this her womb miscarry!", "1 Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions¹⁰ again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me ; for the man is dead, that you and Pistol beat among you.", "Doll. I'll tell thee what, thou thin man in a censer!¹¹ I will have you as soundly swinged for this,", "they most probably had it from the Romans. Pistol seems to accompany the phrase with an appropriate gesticulation. In explaining the *higas dar* of the Spaniards, Minshew says, after describing it, 'a manner as they use in England to bore the nose with the finger, as *douce*.¹² The phrase is amply explained in Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 492.", "7 Steevens remarks that this proverbial expression is ofenner used than understood. The door nail is the nail in ancient doors on which the knocker strikes. It is therefore used as a comparison for one irrecoverably dead, one who has fallen (as Virgil says) *multa morte*, i. e. with abundant death, such as reiterated strokes on the head would produce.", "8 In the quarto, 1600, we have 'Enter Sincklo, and three or four officers.' And the name of Sincklo is prefixed to the Beadle's speeches. Sincklo is also introduced in The Taming of the Shrew, he was an actor in the same company with Shakspeare.", "9 It has already been observed (Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. Sc. 1) that *nut-hook* was a term of reproach for a bailiff or constable. Cleveland says of a committee-man:—'He is the devil's *nut-hook*, the sign with him is always in the clutches.'", "10 That is to stuff her out, that she might counterfeit pregnancy. In Greene's Dispute between a He Conycatcher, c. 1592— to wear a cushion under her own kirtle, and to fairene herself with child.", "11 Doll humorously compares the beadle's spare figure to the embossed figures in the middle of the pierced convex lid of a censer made of thin metal. The sluttishy of rush-strewed chambers rendered censers or fire pans in which coarse perfumes were burnt most necessary utensils. In Much Ado About Nothing, Bora-chio says that he had been entertained for a perfumer to smoke a *musty room* at Leonato's.", "SCENE V.", "your blue-bloede-", "rechorist :", "kittles.²", "1 Bond. O,", "Host. O,", "Well; of", "Dol. Con-", "rice.", "Host. Ay,", "Dol. Go.", "Host. Hot.", "Dol. Con.", "1 Bond.", "SCENE V.", "Abbey.", "1 Groom.", "2 Groom.", "1 Groom.", "from the cor-", "Ent. FALS.", "Ful. Stan.", "I will make", "him, as 'a", "tenance that", "Pist. God.", "Ful. Con.", "if I had bad", "large besto-", {"bbox": [1022, 739, 1064, 761], "category": "Page-footer", "

### SCENE V.

### KING HENRY IV.

489

you blue-bottle rogue!¹¹ you filthy famished cor-
reactioner ! if you be not swinging, I'll forswear half-
kirtles.¹²

1. **Bead.** Come, come, you she knight-errant, come.
2. **Host.** O, that right should thus overcome might!
Well; of sufferance comes ease.

3. **Dol.** Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.

4. **Host.** Ay; come, you starved blood-hound.

5. **Dol.** Goodman help! goodman bones!

6. **Host.** Thou atomy³ thou!

7. **Dol.** Come, you young thing; come, you rascal! ¹

1. **Bead.** Very well.

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE V.
A public Place near Westminster
Abbey. Enter Two Grooms, strewing Rushes.

1. **Groom.** More rushes, more rushes.

2. **Groom.** The trumpets have sounded twice.

3. **Groom.** It will be two o'clock ere they come
from the coronation: Despatch, despatch.

[Exeunt Grooms,

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL, BARDOLPH, and the Page.

4. **Fal.** Stand here by me, master Robert Shallow;
I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon
him, as 'a comes by; and do but mark the coun-
tenance that he will give me.

5. **Fal.** God bless thy lungs, good knight.

6. **Fal.** Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.—O,

I had had time to see how made new liversies, I would
have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed upon
you. [To SHALLOW.] But 'tis no matter; this
poor show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had
to see him.

7. **Shal.** It doth so.

8. **Fal.** It shows my earnestness of affection.

9. **Shal.** It doth so.

10. **Fal.** My devotion.

11. **Shal.** It doth, it doth, it doth.

12. **Fal.** As it were, to ride day and night; and not
to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience
to shift me.

13. **Shal.** It is most certain.

14. **Fal.** But to stand stained with travel, and sweat-
ing with desire to see him: thinking of nothing else;
putting all affairs else in oblivion; as if there were
nothing else to be done, but to see him.

15. **Fal.** 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est:
'Tis all in every part.⁴

16. **Shal.** 'Tis so, indeed.

17. **Pist.** My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,
And make thee rage.

18. **Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,**

19. In base durance, and contagious prison;

20. Haul'd thither.

21. By most mechanical and dirty hand:—

22. Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto's
snake.

23. For Doll is in; Pistol speaks nought but truth.

24. **Fal.** I will deliver her.

[Shouts within, and the Trumpets sound.]

25. **Pist.** There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-clanger
sounds.

26. Enter the King and his Train, the Chief Justice
among them.

27. **Fal.** God save thy grace, King Hal! my royal
Hal!¹

1. Beadles usually wore a blue livery.

2. A half kirtle was a kind of apron or fore part of
the dress of a woman. It could not be a cloak, as Ma-
lone supposed; nor a short bedgown, as Steevens ima-
gined.

3. The hostess's corruption of anatomy.

4. Warburton thought that we should read:—

5. 'Tis all in all and all in every part.

6. A similar scene occurs in the anonymous old play
of King Henry V. Falstaff and his companions ad-
dress the king in the same manner, and are dismissed
as in this play.

7. Child, offspring.

8. Profane (says Johnson) in our author often signi-
fies love of talk.

1. **Pist.** The heavens thee guard and keep, most
royal imp⁶ of fame!

2. **Fal.** God save thee, my sweet boy!

3. **King.** My lord chief justice, speak to that vain
man.

4. **Ch. Just.** Have you your wits? know you what
'tis you speak?

5. **Fal.** My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my
heart!

6. **King.** I have thee not, old man: Fall to thy
prayers;

How ill white hairs become a fool, and jester!

I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,

So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;⁷

But, being awake, I do despise my dream.

Make less thy body hence,⁸ and more thy grace;

Leave gormandizing; know, the grave doth gape

For thee thrice wider than for other men:—

Reply not to me with a fool-born jest;

Presume not, that I am the thing I was:

For heaven doth know, so shall the world perceive,

That I have turn'd away my former self;

So will I those that kept me company.

When thou dost hear I am as I have been,

Approach me; and thou shall be as thou wast,

The tutor and the feeder of my riots:

Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,—

As I have done the rest of my misleaders,—

Not to come near our person by ten mile.

For competence of life, I will allow you,

That lack of means enforce you not to evil:

And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,

We will,—according to your strength, and quali-
ties,—

Give you advancement.⁹—Be it your charge, my
lord,

To see perform'd the tenor of our word.

[Exeunt King, and his Train.]

10. **Fal.** Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound

11. **Shal.** Ay, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you
to let me have home with me.

12. **Fal.** That can hardly be, master Shallow. Do
not you grieve at this; I shall be sent for in private
to him: look you, he must seem thus to the world.
Fear not your advancement; I will be the man yet,
that shall make you great.

13. **Fal.** I cannot perceive how; unless you give
me your doublet, and stuff me out with straw. I
beseech you, good Sir John, let me have five hun-
dred of my thousand.

14. **Fal.** Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that
you heard, was but a colour.

15. **Shal.** A colour, I fear, that you will die in, Sir
John.

16. **Fal.** Fear no colours; go with me to dinner.
Come, lieutenant Pistol;—come, Bardolph:—I
shall be sent for soon at night.

17. Enter PRINCE JOHN, the Chief Justice, Officers,
&c.

18. **Ch. Just.** Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the
Fleet;¹⁰

Take all his company along with him.

19. **Fal.** My lord, my lord,—

20. **Ch. Just.** I cannot now speak: I will hear you
soon. Take them away.

8. Henceforward.

9. This circumstance Shakspeare may have derived
from the old play of King Henry V. But Hall, Holin-
shed, and Stowe give nearly the same account of the
dismissal of Henry's loose companions. Every reader
regrets to see Falstaff so hardly used, and Johnson's
vindication of the king does not diminish that feeling.
Poins, Johnson thinks, ought to have figured in the con-
clusion of the play, but I do not believe that any one
had ever been sensible of the poet's neglect of him until
Johnson pointed it out.

10. Johnson confesses that he does not see 'why Fal-
staff is carried to the Fleet; he has committed no new
fault, and therefore incurred no punishment; but the
different agitations of fear, anger, and surprise in him
and his company, made a good scene to the eye; and
our author, who wanted them no longer on the stage,
was glad to find this method of sweeping them away.'

62

["490", "KING HENRY IV.", "Act V.", "Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero me contenta.\n[Exeunt FAL. SHAL. PIST. BARD. Page,\nand Officers.", "P. John. I like this fair proceeding of the king's:\nHe hath intent, his wonted followers", "Shall all be very well provided for ;", "But all are banish'd, till their conversations", "Appear more wise and modest to the world.", "Ch. Just. And so they are.", "P. John. The king hath call'd his parliament, my\nlord.", "Ch. Just. He hath.", "P. John. I will lay odds,—that, ere this year\nexpire,", "We bear our civil swords, and native fire,", "As far as France : I heard a bird so sing,", "Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.", "Come, will you hence?", "[Exeunt.", "EPILOGUE.", "Spoken by a Dancer.", "FIRST, my fear; then, my court'sy; last, my speech.\nMy fear is, your displeasure; my court'sy, my duty;\nand my speech, to beg your pardons. If you look\nfor a good speech now, you undo me : for what I\nhave to say, is of mine own making; and what, in-\ndeed, I should say, will, I doubt, prove mine own\nmarring. But to the purpose, and so to the ven-\nture.—Be it known to you (as it is very well,) I\nwas lately here in the end of a displeasing play,\nto pray your patience for it, and to promise you a\nbetter. I did mean, indeed, to pay you with this:\nwhich, if, like an ill venture, it come unluckily home,\nI break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here,\nI promised you, I would be, and here I commit my\nbody to your mercies: bate me some, and I will\npay you some, and, as most debtors do, promise\nyou infinitely.", "If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me,\nwill you command me to use my legs ? and yet that\nwere but light payment,—to dance out of your debt.\nBut a good conscience will make any possible satis-\nfaction, and so will I. All the gentlewomen here\nhave forgiven me; if the gentlemen will not, then\nthe gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen,\nwhich was never seen before in such an assembly.", "One word more, I beseech you. If you be not\ntoo much cloyed with fat meat, our humble author\nwill continue the story, with Sir John in it, and\nmake you merry with fair Katharine of France:\nwhere, for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of\na sweat, unless already he be killed with your hard\nopinions; for Oldecastle died a martyr, and this is\nnot the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs\nare too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel\ndown before you;—but, indeed, to pray for the\nqueen.¹", "I FANCY every reader, when he ends this play, cries\nout with Desdemona, ' O most lame and impotent con-\nclusion!' As this play was not, to our knowledge, divi-\nded into acts by the author, I could be content to con-\nclude it with the death of Henry the Fourth :—", "'In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.'", "1 Most of the ancient interludes conclude with a pray-\ner for the king or queen. Hence perhaps, the *Vivant\nRex et Regina*, at the bottom of our modern play bills.", "These scenes, which now make the fifth act of Henry\nthe Fourth, might then be the first of Henry the Fifth;\nbut the truth is, that they do not unite very commodious-\nly to either play. When these plays were represented,\nI believe they ended as they are now ended in the books;\nbut Shakspeare seems to have designed that the whole\nseries of action, from the beginning of Richard the Se-\ncond to the end of Henry the Fifth, should be consid-\nered by the reader as one work upon one plan, only\nbroken into parts by the necessity of exhibition.\nNone of Shakspeare's plays are more read than the\nFirst and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth. Per-\nhaps no author has ever, in two plays, afforded so much\ndelight. The great events are interesting, for the fate\nof kingdoms depends upon them; the slighter occur-\nrences are diverting; and, except one or two, sufficiently\nprobable; the incidents are multiplied with wonder-\nfulness of invention, and the characters diversified\nwith the utmost nicety of discernment, and the profoundest\nskill in the nature of man.", "The prince, who is the hero both of the comic and\ntragic part, is a young man of great abilities and violent\npassions, whose sentiments are right, though his ac-\ntions are wrong; whose virtues are obscured by negli-\ngence, and whose understanding is dissipated by levity.\nIn his idle hours he is rather loose without wicked; and\nwhen the occasion forces out his latent qualities, he is\ngreat without effort, and brave without tumult. The\ntrifler is roused into a hero, and the hero again reposes\nin the trifler. The character is great, original, and just.\nPercy is a rugged soldier, choleric and quarrelsome,\nand has only the soldier's virtues, generosity and cou-\nrage.", "But Falstaff, unmitigated, unmittable Falstaff, how\nshall I describe thee? thou compound of sense and vice;\nof sense which may be admired, but not esteemed; of\nvice which may be despised, but hardly detested. Fal-\nstaff is a character loaded with faults, and with those\nfaults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief\nand a glutton, a coward and a boaster, always ready to\ncheat the weak, and prey upon the poor; to terrify the\ntimorous, and insult the defenceless. At once obsequi-\nous and malignant, he satirizes in their absence those\nwhom he lives by flattering. He is familiar with the\nprince only as an agent of vice, but of this familiarity he\nis so proud, as not only to be supercilious and haughty\nwith his men, but to think his interest of import-\nance to the Duke of Lancaster. Yet the man thus cor-\nrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the\nprince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all\nqualities, perpetual gaiety; by an unfailing power of ex-\nciting laughter; which is more frequently indulged, as\nhis wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but con-\nsists in easy scapes and saliences of levity, which make\nsport, but raise no envy. It must be observed, that he\nis stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so\nthat his licentiousness is not so offensive but that it may\nbe borne for his mirth.", "The moral to be drawn from this representation is,\nthat no man is more dangerous than he that with a will\nto corrupt, hath the power to please; and that neither\nwit nor honesty ought to think themselves safe with\nsuch a companion, when they see Henry seduced by\nFalstaff.", "Mr. Upton thinks these two plays improperly called\nthe *First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth*. The\nfirst play ends, he says, with the peaceful settlement of\nHenry in the kingdom by the defeat of the rebels. This\nis hardly true; for the rebels are not yet finally sup-\npressed. The second, he tells us, shows Henry the\nFifth in the various lights of a good-natured rake, till,\non his father's death, he assumes a more manly char-\nacter. This is true; but this representation gives us no\nidea of a dramatic action. These two plays will appear\nto every reader, who shall peruse them without ambi-\ntion of 'critical discoveries, to be so connected, that the\nsecond is merely a sequel to the first; to be two only\nbecause they are too long to be one.", "JOHNSON.", "THE\nEIGHT\nKATHARINE\nBEDES\nThis\nChronicle\nbeen the\ndramas.\nBourdon.\n\nThe\nAval\n\nThe\npieces\nof\nthe\nplay\nare\nformed\nby\nmiles,\nheis\nhe\nhe\nhe\nhe\nhe\n

["492", "KING HENRY V.", "ACT I.", "PERSONS REPRESENTED.", "KING HENRY THE FIFTH.\nDUKE of GLOSTER, { Brothers to the King.\nDUKE of BEDFORD, { \nDUKE of EXETER, Uncle to the King.\nDUKE of YORK, Cousin to the King.\nEARL of SALISBURY,\nEARL of WESTMORELAND,\nEARL of WARWICK.\nARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY.\nBISHOP of ELY.\nEARL of CAMBRIDGE, { Conspirators against the\nLORD SCROOP, } King.\nSIR THOMAS GREY, }\nSIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM,\nGOWER,\nFLUELLEN,\nMACMORRIS,\nJAMY,\nBATES,\nCOURT,\nWILLIAMS,\nNYM,\nBARDOLPH\nPISTOL,\n}\n{ Officers in King\nHenry's Army.\n\n{ Soldiers in the same.\n\n{ Formerly Servants to Falstaff,\nnow Soldiers in the same.", "Enter CHORUS.", "O, FOR a muse of fire, that would ascend\nThe brightest heaven of invention!\nA kingdom for a stage, princes to act,\nAnd monarchs to behold the swelling scene!\nThen should the warlike Harry, like himself,\nAssume the port of Mars: and, at his heels,\nLeash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and\nfire,", "Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,\nThe flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd,\nOn this unworthy scaffold, to bring forth\nSo great an object: Can this cockpit hold\nThe vasty fields of France? or may we cram\nWithin this wooden O, the very casques,¹\nThat did affright the air at Agincourt?", "O, pardon! since a crooked figure may\nAttest, in little place, a million ;", "And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,", "On your imaginary forces² work :", "Suppose, within the girdle of these walls", "Are now confin'd two mighty monarchies,", "Whose high upreared and abutting fronts", "The perilous, narrow ocean parts asunder.", "Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ;", "Into a thousand parts divide one man,", "And make imaginary puissance :", "Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them", "Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth:", "For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our\nkings,", "Carry them here and there ; jumping o'er times ;", "Turning the accomplishment of many years", "Into an hour-glass; For the which supply,", "Admit me chorus to this history ;", "Who, prologue like, your humble patience pray", "Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.", "ACT I.", "SCENE I. London.³ *An Antechamber in the King's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.*⁴", "*Canterbury.*", "My lord, I'll tell you,—that self bill is urg'd,", "1 O for circle, alluding to the circular form of the\ntheatre. The very casques does not mean the identical\ncasques, but the casques alone, or merely the casques.", "2. Imaginary forces.³ Imaginary for imaginative, or\nyour powers of fancy. The active and passive are of-\nten confounded by old writers.", "3 This first scene was added in the folio, together with\nthe choruses, and other amplifications. It appears", "Boy, Servant to them.\nA Herald. Chorus.", "CHARLES THE SIXTH, King of France.", "LEWIS, the Dauphin.", "Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, and Bourbon.", "The Constable of France.", "RAMEUPS, { } French Lords\nGRANDFREE, { }", "Governor of Harleff.", "MONTJOY, a French Herald.", "Ambassadors to the King of England.", "ISABEL, Queen of France.", "KATHARINE, Daughter of Charles and Isabel.", "ALICE, a Lady attending on the Princess Katharine.", "QUICKLY, Pistol's Wife, an Hostess.", "Lords, Ladies, Officers, French and English Sol-\ndiers, Messengers, and Attendants.", "The SCENE, at the beginning of the Play, lies in\nEngland; but afterwards wholly in France.", "Which in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign\nWas like, and had indeed against us pass'd,\nBut that the scambling² and unquiet time\nDid push it out of further question.⁶", "Eli. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?", "Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us,\nWe lose the better half of our possession :", "For all the temporal lands, which men devout", "By testament have given to the church,", "Would they strip from us : being valued thus,—", "As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,", "Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights :", "Six thousand and two hundred good esquires ;", "And, to relief of lzarcs, and weak age,", "Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,", "A hundred alms-houses, right well supplied;", "And to the coffers of the king beside,", "A thousand pounds by the year: Thus runs the bill.", "Ely. This would drink deep.", "Cant. 'Twould drink the cup and all.", "Ely. But what prevention?", "Cant. The king is full of grace, and fair regard.", "Ely. And a true lover of the holy church.", "Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not", "The breath no sooner left his father's body,", "But that his wildness, mortified in him,", "Seem'd to die too: ' yea, at that very moment,", "Consideration like an angel came,", "And whipped the offending Adam out of him :", "Leaving his body as a paradise,", "To envelop and contain celestial spirits.", "Never was such a sudden scholar made :", "Never came reformation in a flood,", "With such a heady current, scouring faults ;", "Nor never hydra-headed wilfulness", "So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,", "As in this king.", "Ely. We are blessed in the change.", "Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity\nAnd, all admiring, with an inward wish", "from Hall and Holinshed that the events passed at Lei-\ncester, where King Henry V. held a parliament in the\nsecond year of his reign. But the chorus at the begin-\nning of the second act shows that the poet intended to\nmake London the place of his first scene.", "4 'Canterbury and Ely.' Henry Chicheley, a Carthu-\nsian monk, recently promoted to the see of Canterbury.\nJohn Fordham, bishop of Ely, consecrated 1388, died\n1426.", "5 i. e. *scrambling*.", "6 Question is debate.", "7 The same thought occurs in the preceding play,\nwhere King Henry V. says—", "For in his tomb lie my affections.⁷", "SOME\nLAYS", "You\nwou", "Hear\nhim", "You\nwo", "List\nhis", "A\nfear\nul", "Turn\nhi", "The\nGor", "Fami\nlar", "The\nair,", "And\nth", "To\nsteal", "So\nth", "Whic\nh is", "Since\nhis", "His\ncom", "His\nbou", "And\nne", "Any\nreli", "From\nth", "Ely.", "To\nth", "And\nwh", "Neigh\nbor", "And\nth", "Under", "Grew\nlik", "Usen,\n", "Cont.\nand", "And\nth", "How\nth", {"bbox": [1028,

["Act I.", "### SCENE II.", "### KING HENRY V.", "493", "You would desire, the king were made a prelate:", "Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,", "You would say,—it hath been all in all his study:", "List his discourse of war, and you shall hear", "A fearful battle render'd you in music:", "Turn him to any cause of policy,", "The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,", "Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks,", "The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,¹", "And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,", "To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;", "So that the art and practic part of life", "Must be the mistress of his theoric:²", "Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it;", "Since his addiction was to courses vain:", "His companies³ unletter'd, rude, and shallow;", "His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;", "And never noted in him any study,", "Any retirement, any sequestration", "From open haunts and popularity.⁴", "Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle;", "And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best,", "Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:", "And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation", "Under the veil of wildness; which, no doubt,", "Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,", "Unseen, yet crescive⁵ in his faculty.", "Cant. It must be so: for miracles are ceased;", "And therefore we must needs admit the means,", "How things are perfected.", "Ely.", "But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill?", "Urg'd by the commons? Doth his majesty", "Incline to it, or no?", "Cant. He seems indifferent;", "Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,", "Than cherishing the exhibitors against us;", "For I have made an offer to his majesty,—", "Upon our spiritual convocation:", "And in regard of causes now in hand,", "Which I have open'd to his grace at large,", "As touching France,—to give a greater sum", "Than ever at one time the clergy yet", "Did to his predecessors part withal.", "Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord?", "Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty;", "Save, that there was not time enough to hear", "(As, I perceiv'd, his grace would fain have done)", "The severals, and unhidden passages⁶", "Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;", "And, generally, to the crown and seat of France,", "Deriv'd from Edward his great grandfather.", "Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off?", "Cant. The French ambassador upon that instant", "Crav'd audience: and the hour I think is come,", "To give him hearing: Is it four o'clock?", "Ely.", "[Exeunt.]", "2", "1 Johnson has noticed the exquisite beauty of this line.", "2 So that the art and practice part of life\nMust be the minister to his theorie.\nHe discourses with so much skill on all subjects, 'that\nhis theory must have been taught by art and practice,'\nwhich is strange, since he could see little of the true art\nor practice among his loose companions, nor ever re-\ntired to digest his practice into theory. *Practic* and\n*theorie*, or rather *practique* and *theorique*, was the old\northography of practice and the *theory*.", "3 *Companies*, for companions.", "4 *Popularity* meant familiarity with the common people, as well as popular favour or applause.", "5 This expressive word is used by Drant, in his\nTranslation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567.", "6 'The several, and *unhidden passages*. The *particulars* and *clear unconcealed circumstances* of his true titles, &c.", "7 'Send for him, good uncle.' The person here ad-\ndressed was Thomas Beaufort, half brother to King\nHenry IV. being one of the sons of John of Gaunt by", "### SCENE II. The same. A Room of State in the same.\n*Enter KING HENRY, GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.*", "K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?", "Eze. Not here in presence.", "K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.", "West. Shall we call in the ambassador my liege?", "K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd,", "Before we hear of him, of some things of weight,", "That task our thoughts,⁶ concerning us and France.", "*Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.*", "Cant. God, and his angels, guard your sacred\nthrone,", "And make you long become it!", "K. Hen.", "Sure, we thank you.", "My learned lord, we pray you to proceed;", "And justly and religiously unfold,", "Why the law Salique, that they have in France,", "Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim.", "And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,", "That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,", "Or nicely charge your understanding soul,", "With opening titles miscreate,⁸ whose right", "Suits not in native colours with the truth;", "For God doth know, how many, now in health,", "Shall drop their blood in approbation¹⁰", "Of what your reverence shall incite us to:", "Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,¹¹", "How you awake the sleeping sword of war;", "We charge you in the name of God, take heed:", "For never two such kingships did contend,", "Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops", "Are every one a woe, a sore complaint,", "'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the", "swords.", "That make such waste in brief mortality.", "Under this conjunction, speak, my lord:", "And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,", "That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd", "As pure as sin with baptism.", "Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,—and\nyou peers,", "That owe your lives, your faith, and services,", "To this imperial throne:—There is no bar¹²", "To make against his highness' claim to France,", "But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—", "In terram Salicam mulieres ne sucedant,", "No woman shall succeed in Salique land;", "Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze,¹³", "To be the realm of France, and Pharamond", "The founder of this law and female bar.", "Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,", "That the land Salique lies in Germany,", "Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe:", "Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,", "There left behind and settled certain French;", "Who, holding in disdain the German women,", "Katharine Swynford. He was not made duke of Exeter\ntill the year after the battle of Agincourt, 1416. He was\nproperly now only cart of Dorset. Shakspeare may\nhave confounded this character with John Holland,\nduke of Exeter, who married Elizabeth, the king's aunt.\nHe was executed at Plashey, in 1400. The old play be-\ngan with the next speech.", "S i. e. keep our thoughts busied.", "9 Or burthen your knowing or conscious soul with\ndisplaying false titles in a specious manner or opening\npretensions, which, if shown in their native colours,\nwould appear to

494

KING HENRY V.

ACT I.

For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd there this law,—to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land;
Which Salique, as I said, 'twight Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd—Meisen.
Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Untill four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of king Pharamond,
Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;
Who died with inthe year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala in the year
Eight hundred five, Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,
Did, as their general, being descended
Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,—that usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,—
To fine¹ his title with some show of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught)
Convey'd² himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,³
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorain:
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the
Great
Was reunited to the crown of France.
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,
King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbare⁴ their crooked titles
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
K. Hen. May I, with right and conscience, make
this claim?
Cant. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!¹
For in the book of Numbers is it writ,—
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb,
From whom you claim: invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the Black Prince;
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France;
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling; to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.⁵
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France;
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!¹⁶

1 'To fine his title with some show of truth.' To fine is to embellish, to trim, to make showy or specious: Limare.

2 'Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare.' Shakspeare found this expression in Holinshed; and, though it sounds odd to modern ears, it is classical.

3 'Lewis the Tenth.' This should be Lewis the Ninth, as it stands in Hall's Chronicle. Shakspeare has been led into the error by Holinshed, whose Chronicle he followed.

4 'Than amply to imbare their crooked titles.' The folio reads imbare; the quarto imbare. As there is no other example of such a word, I cannot but think that this is an error of the press for unbare.

5 This alludes to the battle of Cressy; as described by Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 372.

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puissant arm renew their feats:
You are their heir, you sit upon their throne;
The blood and courage that renowned them,
Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,
Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the
carth,
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

West. They know, your grace hath cause, and
means, and might;
So hath your highness;¹⁷ never king of England
Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects;
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in Eng-
land,

And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege,
With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your right:
In aid whereof, we of the spirituality
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,
As never did the clergy at one time
Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the
French;

But lay down our proportions to defend
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

Cant. They of those marches,¹⁸ gracious sovereign,
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend
Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

K. Hen. We do not mean the coursing snatchers

only,

But fear the main intendment⁹ of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brimfulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays;
Girding with grievous siege, castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,

Hath shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood.¹⁰
Cant. She hath been then more fear'd¹¹ than
harm'd, my liege:

For hear her but exempled by herself,—
When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken, and impounded as a stray,
The king of Scots; whom she did send to France,
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings;
And make your chronicle as rich with praise,
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

West. But there's a saying, very old and true,—
'If you will France win,
Then with Scotland first begin :

For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguaranteed nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs:
Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,
To spoil and havoc more than she can eat.

Exe. It follows, then, the cat must stay at home:
Yet that is but a crush'd necessity;¹²

6 'Cold for action,' want of action being the cause of their being cold.

7 i. e. your highness hath indeed what they think and know you have.

8 'They of those marches.' The marches are the
borders.

9 'But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us.'
The main intendment is the principal purpose, that he will bend his whole force against us: the Bellum in aliquem intendere, of Livy. A giddy neighbour is an unstable, inconstant one.

10 The quarto reads 'at the bruit thereof.'

11 'Fear'd here means frightened.

12 'Yet that is but a crush'd necessity.' This is the reading of the folio. The editors of late editions have adopted the reading of the quarto copy, 'curs'd neces-

SCENE

Since we
And pre
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The poor
Their hea
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Deliver
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And your
France be
Or break
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Or lay the
Tombless,

sity; and
passage
at expan-
1 Conce
confused
congest
voices or
chorus or
2 'The
as years
as years
that by aw
that by aw
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press for a
4 'The
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ob-

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY V.

Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries,
And pretty traps to catch the pretty thieves.
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
The advised head defends itself at home:
For government, though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth keep in one conduct;
Congruing in a full and natural close,
Like music.

**Cant.** True: therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act²⁰ of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:³
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home;
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds;
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their emperor.

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil⁴ citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding into
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors⁵ pale
The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,—
That many things, having full reference
To one concent, may work contrariously;
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark;
As many several ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams run in one self-sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So may a thousand actions, once afoot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat.⁶ Therefore to France, my liege.
Divide your happy England into four;
Whereof take you one quarter into France,
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
If we, with thrice that power left at home,
Cannot defend our own door from the dog,
Let us be worried; and our nation lose
The name of hardiness, and policy.

**K. Hen.** Call in the messengers sent from the Dauphin.

[Exit an Attendant. The King ascends his Throne.

Now are we well resolv'd: and by God's help;
And yours, the noble sinews of our power,—
France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe,
Or break it all to pieces: Or there we'll sit,
Ruling, in large and ample empire,⁷
O'er France, and all her almost kingly dukedoms;
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn,
Tombless, with no remembrance over them :

sity,⁸ and by so doing have certainly not rendered the passage more intelligible; indeed none of the attempts at explanation are satisfactory.

1. *Concent* is connected harmony in general, and not confined to any specific consonance. *Concentio* and *concentus* are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments, in what we should now call a *chorus* or *concert*.

2. 'The *act* of order' is the *statute* or *law* of order; as appears from the reading of the quarto. 'Creatures that by awe *ordain* an *act* of order to a peopled kingdom.'

3. e. of different degrees: if it be not an error of the press for *sorta*, e. rank.

4. 'The civil citizens kneading up the honey.' *Civil* is *grave*. See Twelfth Night, Act iii. Sc. 4. Johnson observes, to knead the honey is not physically true. The bees do, in fact, knead the wax more than the honey.

5. *Executors* for executioners. Thus also Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 38, ed. 1632: 'Tremble at an *executor*, and yet not feare hell-fire.'

6. 'Without defeat.' The *quartos* read, 'Without de-fect.'

7. *Empiry.* This word, which signifies dominion, is now obsolete, though once in general use.

Either our history shall, with full mouth,
Speak freely of our acts; or else our grave,
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,
Not worship'd with a waxen epitaph.⁹

*Enter Ambassadors of France.*

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure
Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for, we hear,
Your greeting is from him, not from the king.
*Amb.* May it please your majesty, to give us leave

Freely to render what we have in charge;
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin's meaning, and our embassy ?

**K. Hen.** We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject,
As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons:
Therefore, with frank and with uncurbed plainness,
Tell us the Dauphin's mind.

*Amb.* Thus then, in few
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third.
In answer of which claim, the prince our master
Says,—that you savour too much of your youth;
And bids you advis'd, there's nought in France,
That can be with a nimble galliard³⁰ won;
You cannot revel into dukedoms there:
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This tun of treasure: and, in lieu of this,
Desires you, let the dukedoms, that you claim,
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks.

**K. Hen.** What treasure, uncle?

*Exe.* Tennis-balls, my liege.¹⁰

**K. Hen.** We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

His present, and your pains, we thank you for:
When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set,
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard:¹¹
Tell him, he hath made a match with such a wrangler,

That all the courts of France will be disturb'd
With chaces.¹² And we understand him well,
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days,
Not measuring what use we made of them.
We never valu'd this poor seat.¹³ of England;
And therefore, living hence,¹⁴ did give ourself
To barbarous license; As 'tis ever common,
That men are merriest when they are from home.
But tell the Dauphin,—I will keep my state;
Be like a king, and show my sail of greatness,
When I do rouse me in my throne of France:
For that I have laid by my majesty,¹⁵
And plodded like a man for working-days;
But I will rise there with so full a glory,
That I will dazzle all the eyes of France,
Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us.

8. 'Not worship'd with a *waxen* epitaph.' The quartos read '— with a *paper* epitaph.' Either a *paper* or a *waxen* epitaph is an epitaph easily destroyed; one that can confer no lasting honour on the dead. Steevens thinks that the allusion is to *waxen tablets*, as any thing written upon them was easily effaced. Mr. Gifford says that a *waxen epitaph* was an epitaph affixed to the hearse or grave with wax. But it appears to me that the expression may be merely metaphorical, and not allusive to either.

9. A *galliard* was an ancient spritely dance, as its name implies.

10. In the old play of King Henry V. this present consists of a *gilded tun* of *tennis balls*, and a carpet.

11. The *bazard* is a place in the tennis-court, into which the ball is sometimes struck.

12. A *chace* at tennis is that spot where a ball falls, beyond which the adversary must strike his ball to gain a point or *chace*. At long tennis it is the spot where the ball leaves off rolling. We see therefore why the king has called himself a *wrangler*.

13. i. e. the throne.

14. 'And therefore living hence ;' that is from hence,
away from this seat or throne.

15. 'For that I have laid by my majesty.' To qualify myself for this undertaking, I have descended from my station, and studied the arts of life in a lower character.

["KING HENRY V.", "ACT II.", "496", "And tell the pleasant prince,—this mock of his\nHath turn'd his balls to gun-stones;¹ and his soul\nShall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance\nThat shall fly with them: for many a thousand\nwidows", "Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands;", "Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down;\nAnd some are yet ungotten, and unborn;\nThat shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn.\nBut this lies all within the will of God,\nTo whom I do appeal; and in whose name,\nTell you the Dauphin, I am coming on,\nTo venge me as I may, and to put forth\nMy rightful hand in a well hallow'd cause.", "So, get you hence in peace; and tell the Dauphin,\nHis jest will savour but of shallow wit,\nWhen thousands weep, more than did laugh at it.—\nConvey them with safe conduct.—Fare you well.", "[Exeunt Ambassadors.", "Exe. This was a merry message.", "K. Hen. We hope to make the sender blush at it.", "[Descends from his THRONE.", "Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour,\nThat may give furtherance to our expedition:\nFor we have now no thought in us but France;\nSave those that run, or that run until our business.\nTherefore, let our proportions for these wars\nBe soon collected; and all things thought upon,\nThat may, with reasonable swiftness, add\nMore feathers to our wings; for, God before,\nWe'll chide this Dauphin at his father's door.\nTherefore, let every man now task his thought,²\nThat this fair action may on foot be brought.", "[Exeunt.", "ACT II.", "Enter CHORUS.", "Cho. Now all the youth of England are on fire,\nAnd silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies;\nNow thrive the armourers, and honour's thought\nReigns solely in the breast of every man:\nThey sell the pasture now, to buy the horse;\nFollowing the mirror of all Christian kings,\nWith winged heels, as English Mercuries.", "For now sits Expectation in the air;\nAnd hides a sword, from hilt unto the point,\nWith crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets,³\nPromis'd to Harry, and his followers.", "The French, advis'd by good intelligence\nOf this most dreadful preparation,\nShake in their fear; and with pale policy\nSeek to divert the English purposes.", "O England!—model to thy inward greatness,\nLike little body with a mighty heart,—\nWhat might'st thou do, that honour would thee do,", "1 'Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones?' When ordinance was first used they discharged balls not of iron but of stone.", "2 'Task his thought?' We have this phrase before.", "3 'Expectation is also personified by Milton :—\nwhile Expectation stood", "In horror.'—", "In ancient representations of trophies, &c. it is common\nto see swords encircled with crowns. Shakspeare's im-\nage is supposed to be taken from a wood cut in the first\nedition of Holinshed.", "4 'Richard earl of Cambridge' was Richard de Cobiensburg, younger son of Edmund Langley, duke of York. He was father of Richard duke of York, and grandfather of Edward the Fourth.", "5 'Henry Lord Scroop' was a third husband of Joan, duchess of York, mother in law of Richard earl of Cambridge.", "6 'Gilt for golden money.'", "7 The old copy reads :—", "'Linger your patience on, and we'll digest\nThe abuse of distance; force a play.'", "The alteration was made by Pope.", "8 'But till the king come forth, and but till then,\nUnto Southampton do we shift our scene.'", "The old copy reads :—", "'But till the king come forth, and not till then.'", "The emendation was proposed by Mr. Roderick,\nand deserves admission into the text. Malone has plainly", "Were all thy children kind and natural!", "But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out\nA nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills", "With treacherous crowns: and three corrupted\nmen,—", "One, Richard earl of Cambridge;⁴ and the second,\nHenry Lord Scroop⁵ of Masham; and the third,\nSir Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland,—\nHave, for the gilt⁶ of France, (O gilt, indeed!)\nConfirm'd conspiracy with fearful France;\nAnd by their hands this grace of kings must die\n(If hell and treason hold their promises),⁷\nEre he take ship for France, and in Southampton.", "Linger your patience on; and well digest\nThe abuse of distance, while we force a play.\nThe sum is paid; the traitors are agreed;\nThe king is set from London; and the scene\nIs now transported, gentles, to Southampton:\nThere is the playhouse now, there must you sit:\nAnd thence to France shall we convey you safe,\nAnd bring you back, charming the narrow seas\nTo give you gentle pass; for, if we may,\nWe'll not offend one stomach with our play.", "But, till the king come forth, and but till then,\nUnto Southampton do we shift our scene.⁸ [Exit.", "### SCENE I. The same. Eastcheap. Enter NYM and BARDOLPH.", "Bard. Well met, Corporal Nym.", "Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph.⁹", "Bard. What, are ancient Pistol and you friends\nyet?", "Nym. For my part, I care not: I say little: but when time shall serve, there shall be smiles;¹⁰—but that shall be as it may. I dare not fight; but I will wink, and hold out mine iron: It is a simple one; but what though? it will toast cheese; and it will endure cold as another man's sword will: and there's the humour of it.", "Bard. I will bestow a breakfast, to make you friends; and we'll be all three sworn brothers¹¹ to France; let it be so, good Corporal Nym.", "Nym. 'Faith, I will live so long as I may, that's the certain of it; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as I may: that is my rest,¹² that is the rendezvous of it.", "Bard. It is certain, corporal, that he is married\nto Nell Quickly: and, certainly, she did you wrong;\nfor you were troth-plight to her.", "Nym. I cannot tell; things must be as they may:\nmen may sleep, and they may have their throats\nabout them at that time; and, some say, knives\nhave edges. It must be as it may: though pa-\ntience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. There\nmust be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell.¹³", "shown that it is a common typographical error. The objection is, that a scene in London intervenes; but this may be obviated by transposing that scene to the end of the first act. The division into acts and scenes, it should be recollected, is the arbitrary work of Mr. Rowe and the suitors. The first act of the play, and the first act of this play, as it is now divided, is unusually short. This chorus has slipped out of its place.", "9 At this scene begins the connexion of this play with the latter part of King Henry IV. The characters would be indistinct and the incidents unintelligible without the knowledge of what passed in the two former plays.", "10 'When time shall serve, there shall be smiles.'\nDr. Farmer thought that this was an error of the press for *smites*, i. e. *blows*, a word used in the poet's age, and still provincially current. The passage, as it stands, has been explained:—'I care not whether we are friends at present; however, when time shall serve, we shall be in good humour with each other: but be it as it may.'", "11 'Sworn brothers.' In the times of adventure it was usual for two or more chiefs to bind themselves to share in each other's fortunes, and divide their acquisitions between them. They were called *fratres furati*. These cut-purses set out for France as if they were going to make a conquest of the kingdom.", "12 'That is my rest,' that is my *determination*.", "13 i. e. I know not what to say or think of it. See\nthis phrase amply illustrated in Mr. Gifford's Ben Jon-\nson, vol. i. p. 125. No phrase is more common in our", "Gifford's Ben Jon-\nson, vol. i. p. 125. No", "SCENE II.", "Bard.", "Bard.", "Bard.", "Bard.", "Bard.", "Boy. Min-\nmaster, an-\nwold to be", "old dramatic\ntrons on Shak", "1 i. e. base\nlike

["## SCENE II.", "## KING HENRY V.", "Enter PISTOL and MRS. QUICKLY.", "Bard. Here comes ancient Pistol, and his wife:\n—good corporal, be patient here.—How now, mine host Pistol?", "—Pist. Base tike,¹ call'st thou me—host?", "Now, by this hand I swear, I scorn the term;", "Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers.", "Quick. No, by my troth, not long: for we cannot lodge and board a dozen or fourteen gentlewomen, that live honestly by the prick of their needles, but it will be thought we keep a bawdy-house straight. [Nym draws his sword.] O well-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now.¹² we shall see willful adulteries and murder committed. Good Lieutenant Bardolph,—good corporal, offer nothing here.", "Nym. Pish!", "Pist. Pish for thee, Iceland dog!¹³ thou prickeread cur of Iceland!", "Quick. Good Corporal Nym, show the valour of a man, and put up thy sword.", "Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus.", "[Sheathing his sword.]", "Pist. Solus, egregious dog? O viper vile!", "The solus in thy most marvellous face;", "The solus in thy teeth, and in thy throat,", "And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perd;", "And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth!", "I do retort the solus in their bows:", "For I can take,⁴ and Pistol's cock is up,", "And flashing fire will follow.", "Nym. I am not Barbason;⁵ you cannot conjure me have a humour to knock you indifferently well: If you grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, as may, in fair terms: if you would walk off, I would prick your guts a little, in good terms, as Nym; and that's my thrust.", "Pist. O braggard vile, and damned furious wight!", "The grave doth gang, and doting death is near;", "Therefore exhale.⁶", "[PISTOL and NYM draw.]", "Bard. Hear me, hear me what I say:—he that strikes the first stroke, I'll run him up to the hilts, as I am a soldier.", "[Draves.]", "Pist. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall", "shalt", "Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give;", "thy spirits are most tall.", "Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms; that's the humour of it.", "Pist. Coupe le gorge, that's the word?—I thee deface again.", "O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?", "No; to the spiral go,", "And from the powdering-tub of infamy", "Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,", "Doll Tear-sheet she by name, and her espouse:", "I have, and I will hold, the *quondam*⁸ Quickly", "For the only she; and—Paucæ, there's enough.", "## Enter the Boy.", "Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master,—and you, hostess,—he is very sick, and would to bed. ...Good Bardolph, put thy nose be-", "old dramatic writers; yet it had escaped the commentators on Shakespeare:", "1. i. e. base fellow. Still used in the north; where a tike is also a dog of a large common breed; as a mastiff, or shepherd's dog.", "2. 'O well-day, Lady, if he be not drawn now!' The folio has 'O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not hewn now;' an evident error of the press. The quarto reads 'O Lord; here's Corporal Nym's—now,' &c.", "3. *Iceland dogges*, curled and rough all over, which, by reason of the length of their heare, make show neither of face nor of body. And yet these curres, forsoothe, because they are so strange, are greatly set by, esteemed, taken up, and made of, many times instead of the spaniel gentle or comforter.—Abraham Fleming's translation of Caius de Canibus, 1576, *Of English Dogges. Island cur* is again used as a term of contempt in *Epigrams* served out in Fifty-two several Dishes; *no date*—", "'He wears a gown lac'd round, laid down with furre, Or, miser-like, a pouch where never man", "Could thrust his finger, but this *island curre*.'", "tween his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan: 'faith, he's very ill.", "Bard. Away, you rogue,", "Quick. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days: the king has killed his heart.—Good husband, come home presently.", "[Exeunt MRS. QUICKLY and Boy.", "Bard. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together; Why, the devil, should we keep knives to cut one another's throats?", "Pist. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!", "Nym. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?", "Pist. Base is the slave that pays.", "Nym. That now I will have; that's the humour of it.", "Pist. As manhood shall compound; Push home.", "Bard. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will.", "Pist. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.", "Bard. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends: an thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Pr'ythee, put up.", "Nym. I shall have my eight shillings, I won of you at betting?", "Pist. A noble⁹ shall thou have, and present pay;", "And liquor likewise will I give to thee,", "And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood;", "I'll live by Nym, and Nym must live by me;—", "Is not this just?—for I shall sutler be", "Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.", "Give me thy hand.", "Nym. I shall have my noble?", "Pist. In cash most justly paid.", "Nym. Well then, that's the humour of it.", "## Re-enter MRS. QUICKLY.", "Quick. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir John: Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him.", "Nym. The king hath run bad humours on the knight, that's the even of it.", "Pist. Nym, thou hast spoke the right,", "His heart is fracted and corroborate.", "Nym. The king is a good king: but it must be as it may; he passes some humours, and careers.", "Pist. Use us condole the knight; for, lambkins, we will live.", "[Exeunt.]", "## SCENE II. Southampton. A Council Chamber.\nEnter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND.", "Bed. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.", "Exe. They shall be apprehended by and by.", "Bed. How smooth and even they do bear themselves!", "As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,", "Crowned with faith, and constant loyalty.", "Bed. The king hath note of all that they intend,", "By interception which they dream not of.", "Exe. Nay, but the man that has his bedfellow,¹⁰", "4. 'For I can take.' Malone would change this, without necessity, to 'I can talk.' Pistol only means, 'I can understand, or comiewtend you.' It is still common in the plebeian phrase: 'Do you take me?' for Do you know my meaning?", "5. *Barbason* is the name of a demon mentioned in The Merry Wives of Windsor. The unmeaning tумour of Pistol's speech very naturally reminds Nym of the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers.", "6. *By exhale*, Pistol, in his fantastic language, probably means *die* or *breathe your last*. Malone suggests that he may only mean *draw, haul, or lug out*.", "7. 'The lazar kite of Cressid's kind.' Of Cressida's nature, see the play of Troilus and Cressida.", "8. Formerly.", "9. The *noble* was worth six shillings and eight-pence.", "10. 'That was his *bedfellow*. ' Thus Holinshed:—", "The said Lord Scroop was in such favour with the king, that he admitted him sometimes to be his *bedfellow*. This familiar appellation of *bedfellow* was common among the ancient nobility. This custom, which now appears so strange and unseemly to us, continued to", "my determination", "say or think of it? ¹². In Mr. Gifford's Ben June is more common in our", "Act II.", "and natural!\nath in thee found out\nhich he fills", "and three corrupted\nridges⁴ and the second,\nsham; and the third,\nNorthumberland,\n'the (O guil, indeed)'\nferal France", "ce of kings must die\ntheir promises,", "and well digest\nle force a play.", "ors are agreed:\nand the scene", "s to Southampton:\nthere must you sit.", "we convey you safe,\nthe narrow seas", "or, if we may,\nwith our play.", "ch, and but till then,\nshift our scene.", "[End of] Eastcheap. Enter Nym.", "Nym. Lieutenant Bardolph?", {"bbox": [0

["KING HENRY V.", "ACT II.", "498", "Whom he hath cloy'd¹ and grac'd with princely\nfavours.—", "That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell\nHis sovereign's life to death and treachery!", "*Trumpet sounds.* Enter KING HENRY, SCROOP,\nCAMBRIDGE, GREY, Lords, and Attendants.", "*K. Hen.* Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard.\nMy lord of Cambridge,—and my kind lord of Ma-\nsham,—", "And you, my gentle knight,—give me your thoughts;", "Think you not, that the powers we bear with us,\nWill cut their passage through the force of France;\nDoing the execution, and the act,", "For which we have in head² assembled them?", "*Scroop.* No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.", "*K. Hen.* I doubt not that: since we are well persuaded,", "We carry not a heart with us from hence,", "That grows not in a fair consent³ with ours;", "Nor leave not one behind, that doth not wish", "Success and conquest to attend on us.", "*Cam.* Never was monarch better fear'd, and lov'd,\nThan is your majesty; there's not, I think, a subject,\nThat sits in heart-grief and uneasiness", "Under the sweet shade of your government.", "*Grey.* Even those that were your father's enemies,\nHave steep'd their galls in honey; and do serve you\nWith hearts create⁴ of duty and of zeal.", "*K. Hen.* We therefore have great cause of thank-\nfulness;", "And shall forget the office of our hand,", "Sooner than quittance of desert and merit,", "According to the weight and worthiness.", "*Scroop.* So service shall with steeled sinews toil;", "And labour shall refresh itself with hope,", "To do your grace incessant services.", "*K. Hen.* We judge no less.—Uncle of Exeter,", "Enlarge the man committed yesterday,", "That rail'd against our person: we consider,", "It was excess of wine that set him on;", "And, on his more advice,⁵ we pardon him.", "*Scroop.* That's mercy, but too much security:", "Let him be punish'd, sovereign; lest example", "Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.", "*K. Hen.* O, let us yet be merciful.", "*Cam.* So may your highness, and yet punish too.", "*Grey.* Sir, you show great mercy, if you give him life,", "After the taste of much correction.", "*K. Hen.* Alas, your too much love and care of me\nAre heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch.", "If little faults, proceeding on distemper,⁶", "Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye,", "When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and di-\ngested,", "Appear before us?—We'll yet enlarge that man,", "Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey,—in their dear care,", "And tender preservation of our person,—", "Would have him punish'd. And now to our French\ncauses;", "Who are the late⁷ commissioners?", "*Cam.* I one, my lord;", "Your highness bade me ask for it to-day.", "*Scroop.* So did you me, my liege.", "the middle of the seventeenth century, if not later.\nCromwell obtained much of his intelligence during the\ncivil wars from the mean men with whom he slept.", "1 'Whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd.' The quarto\nreads 'dull'd and cloy'd.'", "2 'For which we have in head assembled them.' In\nhead seems equivalent to the modern military term in\nforce.", "3 'Consent' is accord, agreement.", "4 'i. e. hearts compounded or made up of duty and\nzeal.'", "5 i. e. his better consideration, or more circumspect\nbehaviour.", "6 'Distemper' here put for intemperance, or riotous\nexcess.", "*Grey.* And me, my royal sovereign.", "*K. Hen.* Then, Richard, earl of Cambridge, there\nis yours;—", "There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham;—and, sir\nknight,", "Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:—", "Read them; and know, I know your worthiness.—", "My lord of Westmoreland,—and uncle Exeter,—", "We will aboard to-night.—Why, how now, gentle-\nmen?", "What see you in those papers, that you lose", "So much complexion?—look ye, how they change!\nTheir cheeks are paper.—Why, what read you there,", "That hath so cowarded and chased your blood", "Out of appearance?", "*Cam.* I do confess my fault;", "And do submit me to your highness' mercy.", "*Grey.* Scroop. To which we all appeal.", "*K. Hen.* The mercy, that was quick⁸ in us but\nlate,", "By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd:", "You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy;", "For your own reasons turn into your bosoms,", "As dogs upon their masters, worrying them.—", "See you, my princes, and my noble peers,", "These English monsters! My lord of Cambridge\nhere,—", "You know, how apt our love was, to accord", "To furnish him with our appertiments", "Belonging to his honour; and this man", "Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd,", "And sworn unto the practices of France,", "To kill us here in Hampton: to the which,", "This knight, no less for bounty bound to us", "Than Cambridge is,—hath likewise sworn—But O!", "What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop; thou cruel,", "Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature!", "Thou, that didst bear the key of all my counsels,", "That knew't the very bottom of my soul,", "That almost might't have coind me into gold,", "That sthout thou have practis'd on me for thy use?", "May it be possible, that foreign hire", "Could out of thee extract one spark of evil", "That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange,", "That though the truth of it stands off as gross", "As black from white,⁹ my eye will scarcely see it.", "Treason and murder, ever kept together,", "As two yoke-devil's swore to either's purpose,", "Working so grossly¹⁰ in a natural cause,", "That admiration did not whoop at them:¹¹", "But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in", "Wonder, to wait on treason, and on murder:", "And whatsoever cunning fiend it was,", "That wrought upon thee so preposterously,", "'Hath got the voice in hell for excellence.", "And other devils, that suggest by treasons,", "Do bochet and bangle up damnation", "With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd", "From glistering semblances of piety;", "But he, that temper'd thee,¹² bade thee stand up,\nGave thee no instance why thou shouldst'do treason,\nUnless to dub thee with the name of traitor.", "If that same demon, that hath gull'd thee thus,", "Should with his lion gait walk the whole world", "He might return to vasty Tartar¹³ back,", "And tell the legions—I can never win", "A soul so easy as that Englishman's.", "O, how hast thou with jealousy infected", "7 i. e. those lately appointed.", "8 i. e. living.", "9 'Though the truth of it stands off as gross", "As black from white.'", "Though the truth be as apparent and visible as black\nand white contiguous to each other. To stand off is to\nbe prominent.", "10 i. e. plainly, evidently.", "11 'Did not whoop

### SCENE III.

### KING HENRY V.

499

The sweetness of affiance!¹ Show men dutiful? What, so didst thou: Seem they grave and learned?

Why, so didst thou: Come they of noble family ? Why, so didst thou: Or are they spare in diet;

Why, so didst thou: Or are they religious ?

Why, so didst thou: Or are they in diet; Free from gross passion, or of birth, or anger;

Constant in spirit, not swerving with the eye; Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement;²

Not working with the eye, without the ear, And, but in purged judgment, trusting neither ?

Such, and so finely bolted,³ didst thou seem?

To mark the high-fraught man, and best indued,⁴ With some suspicion. I will weep for thee;

For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like Another fall of man.—Their faults are open,

Arrest them to the answer of the law;— And God acquit them of their practices!

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Richard earl of Cambridge.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry Lord Scroop of Masham.

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas Grey, knight of Northumberland.

Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discovered;

And I repent my fault more than my death;

Wherein your highness to forgive, Although my body pay the price of it.

Cam. For me,—the gold of France did not se- duce;⁵

Although I did admit it as a motive,

The sooner to effect what I intended; But God be thanked for prevention;

Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice,⁶

Beeching God and you to pardon me.

Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice

At the discovery of most dangerous treason,

Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself;

Prevented by a damned enterprise:

My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign.

K. Hen. God quit you in his mercy! Hear your sentence.

You have conspir'd against our royal person,

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers

Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death;

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter,

His princes and his peers to servitude,

His subjects to oppression and contempt,

And his whole kingdom into desolation.

Touching your person, seek we no revenge;

But we our kingdom's safety must so tender,

Whose you ruin three sought, that to her laws

We do deliver you. Get you therefore hence,

Poor miserable wretches: to your death:

The taste whereof, God, of his mercy, give you

Patience to endure, and true repentance.

Of all your dear offences!—Bear them hence.

¹ 'The sweetness of affiance!' Shakesplaine uses this aggravation of the guilt of treachery with great judg-

ment. One of the worst consequences of breach of trust is the diminution of that confidence which makes the happiness of life, and the dissemination of suspicion, which is the poison of society.—Johnson.

2 'Complement' has here the same meaning as in Love's Labour's Lost, Act i. Sc. i. Bulloker defines it, 'Courtship,' [i. e. courtship] fulness, perfection, fine behaviour.' The gradual change of this word, to its meaning, of 'ceremonious words,' may be traced in Blount's Glossography.

3 'Bolted' is the same as 'sifted,' and has consequently the meaning of 'refined.'

4 i. e. endowed, or gifted.

5 'For me, the gold of France did not seduce.'—' diverse write that Richard earle of Cambridge did not aspire with the Lord Scroope, &c. for the furthering of King Henrie, to please the French king withall, but onlie to the intent to exalt the crowne to his brother-in- law Edmund earle of Marche, as heir to Lionel duke of

Clarence, who being for diverse secret impediments not able to have issue, the earl of Cambridge was sure that the crowne should come to him by his wife, and to his children of her begotten. And therefore (as was thought) he rather confessed himselfe for neede of money to be

Now, lords, for France; the enterprise whereof

Shall be to you, as us, like glorious

We doubt not of a fair and lucky war:

Since God so graciously hath brought to light

This dangerous treason, lurking in our way,

To hinder our beginnings, we doubt not now,

But every rub is smoothed on our way.

Then, forth, dear countrymen; let us deliver

Our puissance into the hand of God,

Putting it straight in expedition.

Cheerfully to sea; the signs of war advance;?

No king of England, if not king of France.

¹[Exeunt.]

### SCENE III.
London. Mrs. Quickly's House in Eastcheap. Enter PISTOL, MRS. QUICKLY, NYM, BARDOLPH, and BOY.

Quick. Pr'ythee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring⁶ thee to Staines.

Pist. No; for my manly heart doth yearn.—

Bardolph, be blithe;—Nym, rouse thy vanting veins.

Boy, bristle thy courage up: for Falstaffe he is dead, And we must yearn therefore.

Bard. 'Would, I were with him, wheresome'er he is, either in heaven, or hell!

Quick. Nay, sure, he's not in hell; he's in Arthur's bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom⁹ child; 'a parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at turning o' the tide;¹⁰ for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers¹¹ ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields.¹¹ How now, Sir John? quoth I: what, man! be of good cheer. So 'a cried out—God, God, God! Three or four times: now I, to comfort him, bid him, 'a should not think of God; I hoped, there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet: So 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed, and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone; then I felt to his knees, and so upward, and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

Nym. They say, he crooked out of sack.

Quick. Ay, that 'a did.

Bard. And of women.

Quick. Nay, that 'a did not.

Boy. Yes, that 'a did; and said, they were devils incarnate.

Quick. 'A could never abide carnation; 'twas a colour he never liked.

Boy. 'A said once, the devil would have him about women.

Quick. 'A did in some sort, indeed, handle women: but then he was rheumatic;¹² and talked of the whores of Babylon.

corrupted by the French king, lest the earl of Marche should have tasted of the same cuppe that he had drunken, and what should have come to his own children he much doubted;¹³ &c.—Holinshed.

6 i. e. 'at which prevention, in suffering, I will heartily rejoice.'

7 'The signs of war advance.' Phaer, in rendering the first line of the eighth Æneid, 'Ut belle signum, &c. has

'When signe of war from Laurent townes, &c.

8 i. e. let me accompany thee.

9 i. e. 'chrisom child; which was one that died within the month of birth, because during that time they wore the chrisom cloth,' a white cloth put upon a child newly christened, wherewith women used to shroud the child if dying within the month; otherwise it was brought to church at the day of purification.

10 'Even at the turning o' the tide.' It has been a very old opinion, which Mead, De Imperio Solis, quotes, as if he believed it, that nobody dies but in the time of ebb.

11 'And 'a babbled of green fields.' The first folio reads 'For his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a Table of green fields.' Theobald gave the present reading of the text, which, though entirely conjectural, is better than any thing which has been offered in the idle babbles of the numerous notes on this passage.

12 Rheumatic. Mrs. Quickly means lunatic.

["500", "KING HEMRY V.", "ACT II.", "Boy. Do you not remember, 'a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose; and 'a said, it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?", "Bard. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintained that fire; that's all the riches I got in his service.", "Nym. Shall we shog off? the king will be gone from Southampton.", "Pist. Come, let's away.—My love, give me thy lips.", "Look to my chattels, and my moveables:", "Let senses rule; the word is, *Pitch and Pay*;", "Trust none;", "For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck;¹", "Therefore, caveto be thy counsellor.", "Go, clear thy crystals.²—Yoke-fellows in arms,", "Let us to France! like horse-leeches, my boys;", "To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!", "Boy. And that is but unwholesome food, they say.", "Pist. Touch her soft mouth, and march.", "Bard. Farewell, hostess.", "[Kissing her.", "Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it; but adieu.", "Pist. Let housewifery appear; keep close,³ I thee command.", "Quick. Farewell: adieu.", "[Exeunt.]", "### SCENE IV. France.\n*A Room in the French King's Palace. Enter the French King attended: the Dauphin, the DUKE of BURGUNDY, the Constable, and others.*", "Fr. King. Thus come the English with full power upon us;", "And more than carefully it us concerns,\nTo answer royalty in our defences.", "Therefore the dukes of Berry and of Bretagne,", "Of Brabant, and of Orleans, shall make forth,—", "And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift despatch,\nTo line, and new repair, our towns of war,", "With men of courage, and with means defendant:\nFor England his approaches makes as fierce,", "As waters to the sucking of a gulf.", "It fits us then, to be as provident", "As fear may teach us, out of late examples", "Left by the fatal and neglected English", "Upon our fields.", "Dau.", "My most redoubted father,", "It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe:", "For peace itself should not so dull⁴ a kingdom", "(Though war, nor no known quarrel, were in question,)", "But that defences, musters, preparations,", "Should be maintain'd, assembled, and collected,", "As were a war in expectation.", "Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth,", "To view the sick and feeble parts of France:", "And let us do it with no show of fear:", "No, with no more, than if we heard that England", "Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance:", "For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd,", "Her sceptre so fantastically borne", "1. Pistol puts forth a string of proverbs. 'Pitch and play, and go your way,' is one in Florio's Collection;", "* Brag is a good dog, and Holdfast a better,* is one of the others to which he alludes.", "2. I, e. dry thine eyes.", "3. The quartos read 'Keep fast thy bugle boe.' The meaning of which may be gathered from the following passage in Shirley's *Gentleman of Venice* :—", "*—the courtisans of Venice*", "Shall keep their bugle bowes for thee, dear uncle.⁵", "4. 'For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom,' To dull is to render torpid, insensible, or inactive; to disspirit. 'In idleness to wax dull and without spirit: Torpescere.'—Baret.", "5. 'How modest in exception.' How diffident and decent in making objections.", "6. '— the outside of the Roman Brutus.' Warburton has a strained explanation of this passage. Shakespeare's meaning is explained by the following lines in The Rape of Lucrece—", "'Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' side,\nSeeing such emulation in their woe,", "By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth,\nThat fear attends her not.", "Con.", "O peace, Prince Dauphin!", "You are too much mistaken in this king:", "Question your grace the late ambassadors,—", "With what great state he heard their embassy,", "How well supplied with noble counsellors,", "How modest in exception,⁶ and, withal,", "How terrible in constant resolution,—", "And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent", "Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus,⁶", "Covering discretion with a coat of folly;", "As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots", "That shall first spring, and be most delicate.", "Dau. Well, 'tis not so, my lord high constable,\nBut though we think it so, it is no matter:", "In cases of defence, 'tls best to weigh", "The enemy more mighty than he seems,", "So the proportions of defence are fill'd;", "Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,⁷", "Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat, with scanting\nA little cloth.", "Fr. King. Think we King Harry strong;", "And, princes, look, you strongly arm to meet him.", "The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us;", "And he is bred out of that bloody strain,⁸", "That haunted us in our familiar paths:", "Witness our too much memorable shame,", "When Cressy battle fatally was struck,", "And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand", "Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales;", "Whiles that his mountain sire,—on mountain standing,", "Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun,—", "Saw his herulous seed, and smil'd to see him", "Mangle the work of nature, and deface", "The patterns that by God and by French fathers", "Had twenty years been made. This is a stem", "Of that victorious stock: and let us fear", "The native mightiness and fate of man.¹⁰", "Enter a Messenger.", "Mess. Ambassadors from Henry king of England", "Do crave admittance to your majesty.", "Fr. King. We'll give them present audience.", "Go, and bring them.", "[Exeunt Mess. and certain Lords.", "You see, this chase is hotly follow'd, friends.", "Dau. Turn head, and stop pursuit; for coward dogs", "Most spend their mouths,¹¹ when what they seem to threaten,", "Runs far before them. Good my sovereign,", "Take up the English short; and let them know", "Of what a monarchy you are the head;", "Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin", "As self-neglecting.", "Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and Train.", "Fr. King.", "From our brother England?", "Exe. From him; and thus he greets your majesty.", "Began to clothe his wit in state and pride,\nBurying in Lucrece' wound his folly's show.", "*—he throws that shallower habit by?*", "7. 'Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,' The construction of this passage is perplexed, and the grammatical concord not according to our present notions; but its meaning appears to be, 'So the proportions of defence are filled; which, to make of a weak and niggardly projection (i. e. contrivance,) is to do like", "a miser who spoils his coat with scanting a little cloth.\n8. *Strain is lineage.*\n9. 'Whiles that his mountain sire,—on mountain standing,'", "", "Up to the air, crown'd with the golden sun.", "There is much childish misunderstanding of this passage in the notes. Steevens is right when he says that, divested of its poetical finery, it means that the king stood upon a hill, with the sun shining over his head, to see the battle; as before described in the first scene of the play.", {"bbox": [658, 122

["Act II.", "SCENE IV.", "KING HENRY V.", "501", "He wills you, in the name of God Almighty,\nThat you divest yourself, and lay apart\nThe borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven,\nBy law of nature, and of nations, 'long\nTo him, and to his heirs: namely, the crown,\nAnd all wide-stretched honours that pertain,\nBy custom and the ordinance of times,\nUnto the crown of France. That you may know,\n'Tis no sinister, nor no awkward claim,\nPick'd from the worm-holes of long varnish'd days,\nNor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd,\nHe sends you this most memorable line,", "[Gives a Paper.", "In every branch truly demonstrative:\nWilling you, overlook this pedigree:\nAnd, when you find him evenly derived\nFrom his most fam'd of famous ancestors,\nEdward the Third, he bids you then resign\nYour crown and kingdom, indirectly held\nFrom him the native and true challenger.\n*Fr. King.* Or else what follows?", "*Exe.* Bloody constraint; for it you hide the\ncrown", "Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it;\nAnd therefore in fierce tempest is he coming,\nIn thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove:\n(That, if requiring fail, he will compel;)\nAnd bids you, in the bowels of the Lord,\nDeliver up the crown; and to take mercy,\nOn the poor souls, for whom this hungry war\nOpens his vasty jaws; and on your head\nTurns he the widows' tears, the orphans' cries,\nThe dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans,\nFor husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers,\nThat shall be swallow'd in this controversy.\nThis is his claim, his threat'ning, and my message:\nUnless the Dauphin be in presence here,\nTo whom expressly I bring greeting too.", "*Fr. King.* For us, we will consider of this further:", "To-morrow shall you bear our full intent\nBack to our brother England.", "*Dau.*", "For the Dauphin,", "I stand here for him; What to him from England?", "*Exe.* Scorn, and defiance; slight regard, contempt,", "And any thing that may not misbecome\nThe mighty sender, doth he prize you at.\nThus says my king: and, if your father's highness\nDo not, in grant of all demands at large,\nSweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty,\nHe'll call you to so hot an answer for it,\nThat caves and womby vultages of France\nShall chide² your trespass, and return your mock\nIn second accord of his ordinance.", "*Dau.* Say, if my father render fair reply,", "It is against my will: for I desire\nNothing but odds with England; to that end,\nAs matching with his youth and vanity,\nI did present him with those Paris balls.", "*Exe.* He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,\nWere it the mistress court of mighty Europe:\nAnd, be assur'd, you'll find a difference\n(As we, his subjects, have in wonder found,)\nBetween the promise of his greener days,\nAnd these he masters now; now he weighs time,\nEven to the utmost grain; which you shall read\nIn your own losses, if he stay in France.", "*Fr. King.* To-morrow shall you know our mind at full.", "¹ *Memorable line;* this genealogy, this deduction of his lineage.", "² *Shall chide your trespass.* To chide is to resound, to echo.", "³ *The well-appointed king at Hampton pier.* 'Well-appointed,' that is, well furnished with all necessaries of war. The old copies read 'Dover pier:' but the poet himself, and all accounts, and even the Chronicles which he followed, say that the king embarked at Southampton. A minute account still exists among the records of the town; and it is remarkable that a low level plain where the army encamped is now covered by the sea, and called Westport.", "*Exe.* Despatch us with all speed, lest that our king", "Come here himself to question our delay;", "For he is footed in this land already.", "*Fr. King.* You shall be soon despatch'd, with fair conditions;", "A night is but small breath, and little pause,", "To answer matters of this consequence. [Exeunt.", "## ACT III.", "### Enter CHORUS.", "*Chor.* Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies,", "In motion of no less celerity", "Than that of thought. Suppose, that you have seen", "The well-appointed king at Hampton pier³", "Embark his royalty; and his brave fleet", "With silken streamers the young Phæbus fanning.", "Play with your fancies; and in them behold,", "Upon the hempen tackle, ship-boys climbing,", "Hear the shrill whistle, which doth order give", "To sounds confus'd: behold the threaden sails,", "Borne with the invisible and creeping wind,", "Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea,", "Breathing the lofty surge: O, do but think,", "You stand upon the rivage,⁴ and behold", "A city on the inconstant billows dancing;", "For so appears this fleet majestical,", "Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!", "Grapple your minds to stagnation of this navy;⁵", "And leave your England, as dead midnight, still", "Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women,", "Either past or not arrived to, pith and puissance:", "For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd", "With one appearing hair, that will not follow", "These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?", "Work, work, your thoughts, and therein see a\nsiege;", "Behold the ordnance on their carriages,", "With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur.", "Suppose the ambassador from the French come back;", "Tells Harry—that the king doth offer him", "Katharine his daughter; and with her, to dowry", "Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms.", "The offer likes not: and the nimble gunner", "With linstock⁶ now the devilish cannon touches,", "[Alarum; and Chambers' go off.]", "And down goes all before them. Still be kind,", "And eke out our performance with your mind.", "[Exit.]\n\n**SCENE I.** *The same. Before Harfleur. Alarums. Enter KING HENRY, EXETER, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, and Soldiers, with Scaling Ladders.**", "*K. Hen.* Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;", "Or close the wall up with our English dead!", "In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man,", "As modest stillness and humility:", "But when the blast of war blows in our ears,", "Then imitate the action of the tiger;", "Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,", "Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage:", "Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;", "Let it pry through the portage of the head,⁸", "Like the brass cannon: let the brow o'erwhelm it,", "As fearfully, as doth a galled rock", "⁴ *Rivage,* the bank, or shore; *rivage,* *Fr.*", "⁵ *To sternage of this navy.* The stern, or sternage, being the hinder part of the ship. The meaning of this passage is, 'Let your minds follow this navy.' The stern was anciently synonymous to rudder. 'The sterne of a ship, gubernaculum.'—Baret.", "⁶ *Linstock* is here put for a *match*, but it was, strictly speaking, the staff to which the match for firing ordnance was fixed.", "⁷ *Chambers,* small pieces of ordnance.", "⁸ *The portage of the head.* Shakspeare uses portage for loop-holes or port-holes.", "umorous youth,", "Prince Duapin!", "in this king:", "ambassadors—\nand their embassies,\nand counsellers,\nand, witall,\n...ion,", "fleshe spent\nRoman Brusil⁹", "coat of foly:¹", "to hide these roots\nis no matter:", "to weigh\nhe seems,\nand are full:", "ardly projection:", "coal, with scalding", "King Harry strong;", "ingy arm to meet him;\nen fleshed upon us;", "boldy path:", "lar paths:", "orable shame,\nwas struck,", "by the band", "ard, Black Prince of", "—on mountain stand—", "the golden sun,¹", "mild to see him\nand deface", "by French fivers\nand fire:", "This is a stem\nd for French", "d let us stem\nate of his.", "the head.", "vile a sin", "Henry king of England", "in present audience.", "less, and certain Lords", "bowed, friends.", "pursuit; for count", "hen what they seem to", "my sovereigns,", "and let them know\nthe head;", {"bbox": [0, 941, 63, 967], "category": "Page-footer", "

["502", "KING HENRY V.", "ACT III.", "O'erhang and jutty! his confounded base,\nSwill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.\nNow set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;\nHold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit\nTo his full height! —On, on, you noble English,²\nWhose blood is fet³ from fathers of war-proof!\nFathers, that, like so many Alexanders,\nHave, in these parts, from morn till even fought,\nAnd sheath'd their swords for lack of argument;⁴\nDishonour not your mothers; now attest,\nThat those, whom you call'd fathers, did beget you!\nBe copy now to men of grosser blood,\nAnd teach them how to war! —And you, good yeomen,\nWhose limbs were made in England, show us here\nThe mettle of your pasture; let us swear\nThat you are worth your breeding: which I doubt\nnot;", "For there is none of you so mean and base,\nThat hath not noble lustre in your eyes.\nI see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,⁵\nStraining upon the start. The game's afoot;\nFollow your spirit: and, upon this charge,\nCry—God for Harry! England! and Saint George!\n[Exeunt. Alarum, and Chambers go off.", "### SCENE II. The same. Forces pass over; then enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy.", "Bard. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach! to the breach!", "Nym. 'Pray thee, corporal,⁶ stay; the knocks\nare too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a\ncase of lives:' the humour of it is too hot, that is\nthe very plain-song of it.", "Pist. The plain-song is most just; for humours\n    do abound;", "Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;\n    And sword and shield,\n    In bloody field,", "Doth win immortal fame.", "Boy. 'Would I were in an alehouse in London!\nI would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and\nsafety.", "Pist. And I:", "If wishes would prevail with me,\nMy purpose should not fail with me,\nBut thither would I hie.", "Boy. As duly, but not as truly,\nAs bird doth sing on bough.", "Enter FLUELLEN.⁸", "Flu. Got's blood! —Up to the preaches, you rascals! will you not up to the preaches?", "[Driving them forward.]", "Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould!¹⁹\nAbate thy rage, abate thy manly rage!\nAbate thy rage, great duke!", "Good bawcock, bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet\nchuck!", "Nym. These be good humours! —your honour\nwins bad humours.", "[Exeunt NYM, PISTOL, and BARDOLPH, followed by FLUELLEN.", "Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these", "1 'O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,\n    Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.'", "To jutty is to project; jutties, or jetties, are projecting\nmoles to break the force of the waves. Confounded is\nneither worn, or wasted, as Johnson tells us; nor destroyed,\nas Malone infers; but vexed, or troubled.\nSwill'd anciently was used for 'washed much, or long,\ndrowned, surrounded by water: Prologue.'", "2 'You noble English.' The folio reads noblish, by\nmistake; the compositor having taken twice the final\nsyllable ish. Steevens reads noblest. This speech is\nnot in the quarto.", "3 'Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof.'\nMr. Pope took the liberty of altering this word to fetch'd.\nThe sacred writings afford us many instances of its use.\nAscita et accepted a Græcis. Pet and taken out of\nGreece.' It is often coupled with far, as in the expres-\nsions 'far-fet and dear bought,' 'affectated and far-fet.'", "", "4 'Argument is matter, subject.'", "5 'Slips are contrivances of leather to start two dogs\nat the same time.'", "three swashers. I am boy to them all three: but\nall they three, though they would serve me, could\nnot be man to me: for, indeed, three such antics\ndo not amount to a man. For Bardolph,—he is\nwhite-liver'd, and red-fac'd; by the means whereof,\n'a faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol,—he hath\na killing tongue, and a quiet sword; by the means\nwhereof 'a breaks words, and keeps whole weapons.\nFor Nym,—he hath heard, that men of few words\nare the best men:¹⁰ and therefore he scorns to\nsay his prayers, lest 'a should be thought a coward;\nbut his few bad words are match'd with as few good\ndeeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his\nown; and that was against a post when he was\ndrunk. They will steal any thing, and call it,—\npurchase.¹¹ Bardolph stole a lute case: bore it\ntwelve leagues, and sold it for three half-pence.\nNym, and Bardolph, are sworn brothers in filching;\nand in Calais they stole a fire-shovel: I knew, by\nthat piece of service the men would carry coals.¹²\nThey would have me as familiar with men's pockets\nas their gloves or their handkerchiefs; which makes\nmuch against my manhood, if I should take from\nanother's pocket to put into mine; for it is plain\npocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them and\nseek some better service: their villany goes against\nmy weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up.", "[Exit Boy.]", "Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following.", "Gow. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently\nto the mines; the duke of Gloster would speak with you.", "Flu. To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not\nso good to come to the mines: For, look you, the\nmines is not according to the disciplines of the war;\nthe concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you,\nth' adversary (you may discuss unto the duke, look\nyou,) is dight himself four yards under the counter-\nmines:¹³ by Cheshu, I think, 'a will plow up all, if\nthere is not better directions.", "Gow. The duke of Gloster, to whom the order\nof the siege is given, is altogether directed by an\nIrishman; a very valiant gentleman, i'faith.", "Flu. It is captain Macmorris, is it not?", "Gow. I think it be.", "Flu. By Chesu, he is an ass, as in the 'world:\nI will verify as much in his peard: he has no more\ndirections in the true disciplines of the wars, look\nyou, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-\ndog.", "Enter MACMORRIS and JAMY, at a distance.", "Gow. Here 'a comes; and the Scots captain,\nCaptain Jamy, with him.", "Flu. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falousor gen-\ntleman, that is certain: and of great expedition,\nand knowledge, in the ancient wars, upon my par-\nticular knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he\nwill maintain his argument as well as any military\nman in the 'world, in the disciplines of the pristine\nwars of the Romans.", "Jamy. I say, gud-day, Captain Fluellen.", "Flu. God-den to your worship, goot Captain\nJamy.", "6 'Corporal.' Bardolph is called lieutenant in a\nformer scene; so that there is a lapse of memory in the\npoet in one or other of these instances.", "7 'A case of lives? that is, a 'pair of lives?' as a 'case\nof pistols,' a 'case of poniards,' a 'case of masks.'", "8 Fluellen is merely the Welsh pronunciation of\nLluellyn, as Floyd is of Lloyd.", "9 e. be merciful, great commander, to men of\nearth, to poor mortal men.' Duke is only a translation\nof the Roman dux. Sylvester, in his Du Bartas, calls\nMoses 'a great duke.'", "10 'The best men.' that is, bravest. So, in the next\nline, good deeds are brave actions.", "11 'Purchase, which anciently signified gain, profit,\nwas the cant term used for any thing obtained by cheat-\ning; as appears by Green's Art of Coneycatching.'", "12 'Carry coals.' See note on the first scene of Romeo\nand Juliet.", "13 'Is right himself; that is, the enemy had digged\nfour yards under the countermines.", "SCENE", "Gow.\nout the gate.\n'Mac\ngive\nhand,\nish\nup\nthe\nbill\nthe\nsh\ndone!\nFlu.\nwill\nyou\nwith\nyour\n\nclinics\nargume\npartly,\nsatisfactory\ndirections\nJamy.\ntains\nI may\nMac\nme,\nand\nthe\ncourse.\ncalls\nup\nwe\ndo\nnot\n'his\nsh\nand\nthe\nand\nthe\nJamy\nthemselves\n'g\npay it\nthat\nis\nfain\nhe\nFlu.\nunder\nnation-\nJamy\nvillain,\nWhat\nFlu.\nthan\nI shall\nas in\nbeing\na\nplines\nand in\nMac\nself:\nGow\nother.\nJamy.", "Gow.\nout the gate.\n'Mac\ngive\nhand,\nish\nup\nthe\nbill\nthe\nsh\ndone!\nFlu.\nwill\nyou\nwith\nyour\n\nclinics\nargume\npartly,\nsatisfactory\ndirections\nJamy.\ntains\nI may\nMac\nme,\nand\nthe\ncourse.\ncalls\nup\nwe\ndo\nnot\n'his\nsh\nand\nthe\nand\nthe\nJamy\nthemselves\n'g\npay it\nthat\nis\nfain\nhe\nFlu.\nunder\nnation-\nJamy\nvillain,\nWhat\nFlu.\nthan\nI shall\nas in\nbeing\na\nplines\nand in\nMac\nself:\nGow\nother.\nJamy.", "Gow.\nout the gate.\n'Mac\ngive\nhand,\nish\nup\nthe\nbill\nthe\nsh\ndone!\nFlu.\nwill\nyou\nwith\nyour\n\nclinics\nargume\npartly,\nsatisfactory\ndirections\nJamy.\ntains\nI may\nMac\nme,\nand\nthe\ncourse.\ncalls\nup\nwe\ndo\nnot\n'his\nsh\nand\nthe\nand\nthe\nJamy\nthemselves\n'g\npay it\nthat\nis\nfain\nhe\nFlu.\nunder\nnation-\nJamy\nvillain,\nWhat\nFlu.\nthan\nI shall\nas in\nbeing\na\nplines\nand in\nMac\nself:\nGow\nother.\nJamy.", "Gow.\nout the gate.\n'Mac\ngive\nhand,\nish\nup\nthe\nbill\nthe\nsh\ndone!\nFlu.\nwill\nyou\nwith\nyour\n\nclinics\nargume\npartly,\nsatisfactory\ndirections\nJamy.\ntains\nI may\nMac\nme,\nand\nthe\ncourse.\ncalls\nup\nwe\ndo\nnot\n'his\nsh\nand\nthe\nand\nthe\nJamy\nthemselves\n'g\npay it\nthat\nis\nfain\nhe\nFlu.\nunder\nnation-\nJamy\nvillain,\nWhat\nFlu.\nthan\nI shall\nas in\nbeing\na\nplines\nand in\nMac\nself:\nGow\nother.\nJamy.", "Gow.\nout the gate.\n'Mac\ngive\nhand,\nish\nup\nthe\nbill\nthe\nsh\ndone!\nFlu.\nwill\nyou\nwith\nyour\n\nclinics\nargume\npartly,\nsatisfactory\ndirections\nJamy.\ntains\nI may\nMac\nme,\nand\nthe\ncourse.\ncalls\nup\nwe\ndo\nnot\n'his\nsh\nand\nthe\nand\nthe\nJamy\nthemselves\n'g\npay it\nthat\nis\nfain\nhe\nFlu.\nunder\nnation-\nJamy\nvillain,\nWhat\nFlu.\nthan\nI shall\nas in\nbeing\na\nplines\nand in\nMac\nself:\nGow\nother.\nJamy.", "Gow.\nout the gate.\n'Mac\ngive\nhand,\nish\nup\nthe\nbill\nthe\nsh\ndone!\nFlu.\nwill\nyou\nwith\nyour\n\nclinics\nargume\npartly,\nsatisfactory\ndirections\nJamy.\ntains\nI may\nMac\nme,\nand\nthe\ncourse.\ncalls\nup\nwe\ndo\nnot\n'his\nsh\nand\nthe\nand\nthe\nJamy\nthemselves\n'g\npay it\nthat\nis\nfain\nhe\nFlu.\nunder\nnation-\nJamy\nvillain,\nWhat\nFlu.\nthan\nI shall\nas in\nbeing\na\nplines\nand in\nMac\nself:\nGow\nother.\nJamy.", "SCENE\nHart\nthe\nKirk\nK.", "1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n1\n

Act III.

## SCENE V.

## KING HENRY V.

503

**Gow.** How now, Captain Macmorris? have you quit the mines? have the pioneers given o’er?

**Mac.** By Chrish la, tish ill done: the work ish give over, the trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand, I swear, and by my father’s soul, the work ish ill done; it isish give over: I would have blomed up the town, so Chrish save me, la, in an hour. O, tish ill done, tish ill done; by my hand, tish ill done!

**Flu.** Captain Macmorris, I peseech you now, will you vouchsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, as partly touching or concerning the disciplines of the war, the Roman wars, in the way of argument, look you, and friendly communication; partly, to satisfy my opinion, and partly, for the satisfaction of you, look of my mind, as touching the direction of the military discipline; that is the point.

**Jamy.** It sall be very gud, gud feith, gud captains bath: and I sall quit¹ you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; that sall I, marry.

**Mac.** It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save me, the day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the king, and the dukes; it is no time to discourse. The town is beseechèd, and the trumpet calls us to the breach; and we talk, and, by Chrish, do nothing; 'tis shame for us all: so God sa’ me, 'tis shame to stand still; it is shame, by my hand: and there is throats to be cut, and works to be done: and there is nothing done, so Chrish sa’ me, la.

**Jamy.** By the mess, ere these eyes of mine take themselves to slumber, aile do gude service, or aile lige² for the Grund for it, aay, or go to death: and aile pay it as valorously as I may, that sall I surely do, that is the breif and the long: Mary, I wad full fain heard some question³ between you 'tway.

**Flu.** Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under your correction, there is not many of your nation.

**Mac.** Of my nation? What ish my nation? ish a villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal? What ish my nation? Who talks of my nation?

**Flu.** Look you, if you take the matter otherwise than is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure, I shall think you do not use me with that affability as in discretion you ought to use me, look you; being as goot a man as yourself, both in the disciplines of wars, and in the derivation of my birth, and in other particularities.

**Mac.** I do not know you so good a man as myself: so Chrish save me, I will cut off your head.

**Gow.** Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other.

**Jamy.** Au! that’s a foul fault.

[A Parley sounded.

**Gow.** The town sounds a parley.

**Flu.** Captain Macmorris, when there is more better opportunity to be required, look you, I will be so bold as to tell you, I know the disciplines of war; and there is an end.

[Exunt.]

### SCENE III. The same. Before the Gates of Harfleur. The Governor and some Citizens on the Walls; the English Forces below. Enter KING HENRY and his Train.

**K. Hen.** How yet resolves the governor of the town?

This is the latest parle we will admit:

Therefore, to our best mercy give yourselves;

Or, like to men proud of destruction,

1. 'I shall quit you; that is, I shall, with your permission, requite you; that is, answer you, or interpose with my arguments, as I shall find opportunity.

2. 'The gates of mercy shall be all shut up.' Gray has borrowed this thought in his Elegy:—

3. 'Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace O’erblows the filthy and contagious clouds.'

To overblow is to drive away, to keep off. Johnson observes that this is a very harsh metathesis.

4. 'Whom of succour we entreated.' See A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III. Sc. 1, in a note on the passage:—'I shall desire you of more acquaintance.'

5. i. e. prepared.

Defy us to our worst; for, as I am a soldier (A name, that, in my thoughts, becomes me best,) if I begin the battery once again,

I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur

Till in her ashes she lie buried.

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up;²

And the flesh’d soldier,—rough and hard of heart,—

In liberty of bloody hand, shall range

With conscience wide as hell; mowing like grass

Your fresh-fair virgins, and your flowering infants.

What is it then to me, if impious war,—

Array’d in flames, like to the prince of fiends,—

Do, with his smirch’d complexion, all fell feats Enlink’d to waste and desolation?

What is’t to me, when you yourselves are cause,

If your pure maidens fall into the hand

Of hot and forcing violation?

What rein can hold licentious wickedness,

When down the hill he holds his fierce career?

We may as bootless spend our vain command

Upon the enraged soldiers in their spoil,

As send precepts to the Leviathan

To come asore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur,

Take pity of your town, and of your people,

Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command;

O’erblows the filthy and contagious clouds³

Of deadly murder, spoil, and vilany.

If not, why, in a moment, look to see

The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand

Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters;

Your fathers taken by the silver beards,

And their most reverend heads dash’d to the walls;

Your naked infants spitted upon pikes;

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus’d

Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry

At Herod’s bloody-hunting slaughtermen.

What say you? will you yield, and this avoid?

Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy’d?

**Gow.** Our expectation hath this day an end:

The Dauphin, whom of succour we entreated,⁴

Returns us—that his powers are not yet ready

To raise so great a siege. Therefore, dread king,

We yield our town, and lives, to thy soft mercy:

Enter our gates; dispose of us, and ours;

For we no longer be defensible.

**K. Henry.** Open your gates.—Come, uncle Exeter,

Go you and enter Harfleur; there remain,

And fortify it strongly against the French:

Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle,—

The winter coming on, and sickness growing

Upon our soldiers,—we’ll retire to Calais.

To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest;

To-morrow for the march are we addrest.⁵

[Flourish. The King, &c. enter the Town.]

### SCENE IV.⁶ Rouen. A Room in the Palace. Enter KATHARINE and Alice.

Kath. Alice, *tu as esté en Angleterre, et tu parles bien le langage.*

Alice. *Un peu, madame.*

Kath. *Je te prie, m’enseignez; il faut que j’apprenne à parler. Comment appellez vous la main, en Anglois?*

Alice. *La main? elle est appellée, de hand.*

Kath. *De hand. Et les doigts?*

Alice. *Les doigts? ma foy, j’oublie les doigts,*

6. Every one must wish with Warburton and Farmer to believe that this scene is an interpolation. Yet as Johnson remarks, the grimaces of the two Frenchwomen, and the odd accent with which they uttered the English, might divert an audience more refined than could be found in the poet’s time. There is in it not only the French language, but the French spirit. Alice compliments the princess upon the knowledge of four words, and tells her that she pronounces like the English themselves. The princess suspects no deficiency in her instructress, nor the instructress in herself. The extraordinary circumstance of introducing a character speaking French in an English drama was no novelty to our early stage.

["504", "KING HENRY V.", "ACT III.", "mais je me souviendray. Les doigts ? je pense, qu'ils\nsont appelé de fingres; ouy, de fingres.", "Kath. La main, de hand; les doigts, de fingres.\nJe pense, que je suis le bon escolier. J'ay gagné\ndeux mots d'Anglois vistement. Comment appellez\nvous les ongles ?", "Alice. Les ongles ? les appellons, de nails.", "Kath. De nails. Escoutez; dites moy, si je parle\nbien: de hand, de fingres, de nails.", "Alice. C'est bien dit, madame; il est fort bon\nAnglois.", "Kath. Dites moy en Anglois, le bras.", "Alice. De arm, madame.", "Kath. Et le coude.", "Alice. De elbow.", "Kath. De elbow. Je m'en fait la répétition de\ntous les mots, que vous m'avez appris dès à present.", "Alice. Il est trop difficile, madame, comme je\npense.", "Kath. Excusez moy, Alice; escoutez: De hand,\nde fingre, de nails, de arm, de bilbow.", "Alice. De elbow, madame.", "Kath. O Seigneur Dieu ! je m'en oublie; De\nelbow. Comment appellez vous le col ?", "Alice. De neck, madame.", "Kath. De neck: Et le menton ?", "Alice. De chin.", "Kath. De sin. Le col, de neck: le menton, de\nsin.", "Alice. Ouy. Sauf vostre honneur; en vérité, vous\nprononcez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'An-\ng letterre.", "Kath. Je ne doute point d'apprendre par la grace\nde Dieu; et en peu de temps.", "Alice. N'avez vous pas déjà oublié ce que je vous\nay enseigné ?", "Kath. Non, je réciteray à vous promptement. De\nhand, de fingre, de mails,—", "Alice. De nails, madame.", "Kath. De nails, de arme, de ilbow.", "Alice. Sauf vostre honneur, de elbow.", "Kath. Ainsi dis je; de elbow, de neck, et de sin;", "Comment appellez vous le pieds et la robe ?", "Alice. De foot, madame; et de con.", "Kath. De foot et de con? O Seigneur Dieu !\nces sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, grosse, et\nimpudique, et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user;\nJe ne voudrais prononcer ces mots devant les Seig-\nneurs de France, pour tout le monde. Il faut de foot,\net de con, neant-moins.", "ma leçon ensemble: De hand, de fingre, de nails,\nde arm, de elbow, de neck, de sin, de foot, de con.", "Alice. Excellent, madame!", "Kath. C'est assez pour une fois; allons nous à\ndisner.\n[Exeunt]", "### SCENE V. The same. Another Room in the\nsame. Enter the French King, the Dauphin,\nDuke of Bourbon, the Constable of France, and\nothers.", "Fr. King. 'Tis certain, he hath pass'd the river\nSome.", "Con. And if he be not fought withal, my lord,\nLet us not live in France; let us quit all,\nAnd give our vineyards to a barbarous people.", "1. Luxury for lust.", "2. 'To't, Luxury, pellmell, for I lack soldiers.'—*Lear*.", "3. 'A drench for sur-rein'd jades.' *Sur-rein'd* is probably over-ridden or over-strained. Steevens observes that it is common to give horses, over-ridden or feverish, ground malt and hot water mixed, which is called a mash. To this the Constable alludes.", "4. 'Lavolts high.' The *lavolta*, or volta, 'a kind of turning French dance,' says Florio; in which the man turns the woman round several times, and then assists her in making a high spring or cabriole. The reader will find a very curious and amusing article on", "", "Dau. *O Dieu vivant!* shall a few sprays of us,—\nThe emptying of our fathers' luxury,¹", "Our scions, put in wild and savage stock,", "Spirit up so suddenly into the clouds,", "And overlook their grafters?", "Bour. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman\nbastards!", "Mort de ma vie! if they march along", "Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom,", "To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm", "In that nook-shotten² isle of Albion.", "Con. *Dieu de battailles!* where have they this\nmettle?", "Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull?", "On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale,", "Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water,", "A drench for sur-rein'd³ jades, their barley broth,", "Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat?", "And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine,", "Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land,", "Let us not hang like roping icicles", "Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty\npeople", "Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields;", "Poor—we may call them, in their native lords.", "Dau. By faith and honour,", "Our madams mock at us; and plainly say,", "Our mettle is bred out; and they will give", "Their bodies to the lust of English youth,", "To new-store France with bastard warriors.", "Bour. They bid us—to the English dancing-schools,", "And teach lavolatas⁴ high, and swift corantos;", "Saying, our grace is only in our heels,", "And that we are most lofty runaways.", "Fr. King. Where is Montjoy, the herald? speed\nhim hence;", "Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.", "Up, princes; and, with spirit of honour eg'd,", "More sharper than your swords, hie to the field:", "Charles De-la-bret,⁵ high constable of France;", "You dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berry,", "Alençon, Brabantian, Bar, and Burgundy:", "Jacques Chatillion, Rambures, Vaudemont,", "Beaumont, Grandpre, Roussi, and Fauconberg,", "Foxy, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolais;", "High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and\nknights,", "For your great seats, now quit you of great shames,\nBar Harry England, that sweeps through our land.", "With pennons⁶ painted in the blood of Harfleur!", "Rush on his host; as doth the melting snow", "Upon the valleys; whose low vassal seat", "The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon:", "Go down upon him,—you have power enough,—", "And in a captive chariot, into Rouen", "Bring him our prisoner.", "Con. This becomes the great.", "Sorry am I, his numbers are so few,", "His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their march;", "For, I am sure, when he shall see our army,", "He'll drop his heart into the sink of death", "And, for achievement, offer us his ransom.⁷", "Fr. King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on\nMontjoy:", "And let him say to England, that we send", "the subject in Mr. Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare,\nvol. i. p. 489.", "5. This should be Charles D'Albret; but the metre would not admit of the of fifty men.⁸—MSS. *Harl. No. 2113.* A banneret was created by cutting off the point of the pennon, and making it a banner, which was peculiar to the nobility.", "6. *Pennons* were flags or streamers, upon which the arms, device, and motto of a knight were painted. *A pennon* must be tow yards and a halfe long, made round att the end, and conteyneth the armes of the owner, and serveth for the conduct of fifty men.*—MSS. *Harl. No. 2113.* A banneret was created by cutting off the point of the pennon, and making it a banner, which was peculiar to the nobility.", "7. 'And for achievement offer us his ransom.' That is, instead of achieving a victory over us, make a proposal to pay us a sum as ransom.", "SCENE", "Non, for\nand qu", "SCEN", "Gou.", "from\nthe\nfla.", "com", "Gou.", "Flu.", "Agamem", "non\nmy\nfl.", {"bbox": [10

## SCENE VI.

## KING HENRY V.

505

To know what willing ransom he will give.—

Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rothen.¹

Dau. Not so, I do beseech your majesty.

Fr. King. Be patient, for you shall remain with us.—

Now, forth, lord constable, and princes all;

And quickly bring us word of England's fall.

[Ezeunt.]

## SCENE VI. The English Camp in Picardy.
Enter GOWER and FLUELLEN.

Gow. How now, Captain Fluellen, come you from the bridge?

Flu. I assure you, there is very excellent service committed at the bridge.

Gow. Is the duke of Exeter safe?

Flu. The duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as Agamemnon; and a man that I love and honour with my soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my livings, and my uttermost powers: he is not (God be praised, and plessed!) any hurt in the 'orld; but keeps the bridge most valiantly,² with excellent discipline. There is an ensign there at the bridge,—I think, in my very conscience, he is as valiant as Mark Antony; and he is a man of no estimation in the 'orld: but I did see him do gallant service.

Gow. What do you call him?

Flu. He is called—ancient Pistol.

Gow. I know him not.

### Enter PISTOL.

Flu. Do you not know him? Here comes the man.

Pist. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours: the goddess of Exeter do love thee well.

Flu. Ay, I praise Got; and I have merited some love at his hands.

Pist. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, Of buxom valour,³ hath,—by cruel fate, And giddy fortune's furious fickle wheel, That stands upon the rolling restless stone.—

Flu. By your patience, ancient Pistol. Fortune is painted plind, with a muffler⁴ before her eyes, to signify to you that fortune is plind: And she is painted also with a wheel; to signify to you, which is the moral of it; that she is turning, and inconstant, and variations, and mutabilities; and her hand, look you, is fixed upon a spherical stone, which rolls, and rolls, and rolls;—In good truth,

1 Rouen is spelt Roan in the old copy. It was pronounced as a monosyllable.

2 'But keeps the bridge most valiantly.' After Henry had passed the Some, the French endeavoured to intercept him in his passage to Calais; and for that purpose attempted to break down the only bridge that there was over the small river of Ternois, at Blangi, over which it was necessary for Henry to pass. But Henry having notice of their design, sent a part of his troops before him, who attacking and putting the French to flight, preserved the bridge till the whole English army arrived and passed over it.

3 'Buxom valour.' It is true that, in the Saxon and our elder English, buxom meant pliant, yielding, obeient; and in this sense Spenser uses it: but as we know it was also used for lusty, rampant, however mistakenly, it was surely very absurd to give the older meaning to it here, as Steevens did. Pistol would be much more likely to take the popular sense, than one founded on etymology. Blount, after giving the old legitimate meaning of buxomeness, says, 'It is now mistaken for lustiness or rampancy.'

4 A muffler was a fold of linen used for concealing the face of a woman.

5 'A pix.' The folio reads pax: but Holinsed, whom Shakespear followed, says, 'A foolish soldier stole a pixe out of a church, for which cause he was apprehended, and the king would not once more yield till the box was restored, and the offender strangled.' It was the box in which the consecrated wafers were kept, originally so named from being made of box; but in later times it was made of gold, silver, and other costly materials.

6 'And figo for thy friendship.' See note on King Henry IV. Part 2. The Spanish fig probably alludes

the poet is make a most excellent description of fortune: fortune, look you, is an excellent moral.

Pist. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him;

For he hath stolen a pixe,⁵ and hanged must 'a be.

A damned death!

Let gallows gape for dog, let man go free,

And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate;

But Exeter hath given the doom of death, For pix of little price.

Therefore, go speak, the duke will hear thy voice;

And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut

With edge of penny cord, and vile reproach:

Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite.

Flu. Ancient Pistol, I do partly understand your meaning.

Pist. Why then rejoice therefore.

Flu. Certainly, ancient, it is not a thing to rejoice at; for if, look you, he were my brother, I would desire the duke to use his goot pleasure, and put him to executions; for disciplines ought to be used.

Pist. Die and be damn'd; and figo⁶ for thy friendship!

Flu. It is well.

Pist. The fig of Spain!

[Exit PISTOL.]

Flu. Very good.

Gow. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I remember him now; a bawd; a cutpurse.

Flu. 'I'll assure you, 'a utter'd as prave 'ords at the pridge, as you shall see in a summer's day: But it is very well; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant you, when time is serve.

Gow. Why, 'tis a gull, a fool, a rogue; that now and then goes to the wars, to grace himself, at his return into London, under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are perfect in great commanders' names: and they will learn you by rote, where services were done :—at such and such a sconce,⁸ at such a breach, at such a convoy; who came off bravely, who was shot, who disgraced, what terms the enemy stood on; and this they con perfectly in the phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tuned oaths: And what a beard of the general's cut,⁹ and a horrid suit of the camp, will do among foaming bottles, and ale-washed wits, is wonderful to be thought on! but you must learn to know such slanders of the age,¹⁰ or else you may be marvellous mistook.

Flu. I tell you what, Captain Gower:—I do perceive, he is not the man that he would gladly make show to the 'orld he is; if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him my mind. [Drum heard.] Hark

to the custom of giving poisoned figs to those who were the objects of either Spanish or Italian revenge; to which custom there are numerous allusions in our old dramas. In the quarto copies of this play we have:— 'The fig of Spain within thy jaw.' And afterwards:— 'The fig of Spain within thy bowels and thy dirty maw.'

7 'Very good.' In the quartos, instead of these two words, we have:—

• 'Captain Gower, cannot you hear it lighten and thunder?—

8 'Such and such a sconce.' Steevens has erroneously explained this, 'a hasty, rude, inconsiderable kind of fortification.' The quotation from Sir Thomas Smythe only described some particularly imperfect sconces. A sconce was a block-house or chief-fortress, for the most part round in fashion of a head; hence the head is ludicrously called a sconce: a lantern was also called a sconce, because of its round form.

9 'A beard of the general's cut.' Our ancestors were very curious in the fashion of their beards; a certain cut was appropriated to certain professions and ranks. They are some of them humourously described in a ballad in The Prince D'Amour, 1660. The spade beard and the stiletto beard appear to have been appropriated to the soldier.

10 'Such slanders of the age.' Nothing was more common than such huffcap pretending braggars as Pistol in the poet's age: they are the continual subject of satire to his contemporaries. To the reader who has any acquaintance with our early writers it would be su-perfluous to cite instances. Steevens mentions Basilico, in Solyman and Perseda, as likely to have given the hint of Pistol's character to Shakespeare.

64

["506", "KING HENRY V.", "Act III.", "you, the king is coming; and I must speak with him\nfrom the pridge.¹", "Enter KING HENRY, GLOSTER, and Soldiers.", "Flu. Got pless your majesty!", "K. Hen. How now, Fluellen? camest thou from the bridge?", "Flu. Ay, so please your majesty. The duke of Exeter has very gallantly maintained the pridge: the French is gone off, look you; and there is gal-lant and most prave passages: Marry, th'athver-l

## SCENE VII.

## KING HENRY V.

507

earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.

Orl. He's of the colour of the nutmeg.

Dau. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for Perseus: he is pure air and fire;¹ and the dull elements of earth and water appear in him, but only in patient stillness, while his rider mounts him: he is, indeed, a horse; and all other jades you may call—beasts.²

Con. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse.

Dau. It is the prince of palfreys; his neigh is like the bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage.

Orl. No more, cousin.

Dau. Nay, the man hath no wit, that cannot, from the rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserved praise on my palfrey: it is a theme as fluent as the sea; turn the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argument for them all: 'tis a subject for a sovereign to reason on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on; and for the world (familiar to us, and unknown,) to lay apart their particular functions, and wonder at him. I once wrote a sonnet in his praise, and began thus: *Wonder of nature,*—

Orl. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress.

Dau. Then did they imitate that which I composed to my courser; for my horse is my mistress.

Orl. Your mistress bears well.

Dau. Me well; and the prescript praise and perfection of a good and particular mistress.

Con. Ma foy! the other day, methought, your mistress shrewdly shook your back.

Dau. So, perhaps, took yours.

Dau. Mine was not bridled.

Dau. O! then, belike, she was old and gentle; and you rode like a Kerne of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait trossers.³

Con. You have good judgment in horsemanship.

Dau. Be warned by me then: they that ride so, and ride not warily, fall into foul bogs; I had rather have my horse to my mistress.

Con. I had as lief have my mistress a jade.

Dau. I tell thee, constable, my mistresses wears her own hair.

Con. I could make as true a boast as that, if I had a sow to my mistress.

Dau. Le chien est retourné à son propre vomissement, et la truie lavée au bourbier:⁴ thou makest use of anything.

Con. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress; or any such proverb, so little kin to the purpose.

Ram. My lord constable, the armour, that I saw in your tent to-night, are those stars, or sums, upon it,

Con. Stars, my lord.

Dau. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope.

Con. And your sky shall not want.

1 'He is pure air and fire.' Thus Cleopatra, speaking of herself:—

'I am air and fire; my other elements

I give to baser life.'

2 'He is, indeed, a horse; and all other jades you may call—beasts.' There has been much foolish contention about this passage; the sense of which is plain enough. I have elsewhere observed that jade is not always used for a tired or contemnible horse. The Dauphin means 'that his charger is indeed a horse, and alone worthy of that name; all others may be called beasts in comparison of him.' Beast is here used in the sense of the Latin *jumentum*, contemptuously to signify an animal only fit for the cart or packsaddle.

3 'Like a Kerne of Ireland, your French hose off, and in your strait trossers.' This expression is here merely figurative, as Theobald longer is indeed a horse, and the heralds do not appoint their own formers; I find that Robert Rolle's *specie of the modern armours of the various infants* jugglers, misirls,

Dau. That may be, for you bear a many superfluously! and 'twere more honour, some were away.

Con. Even as your horse bears your praises; who would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.

Dau. 'Would, I were able to load him with his desert! Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my way shall be paved with English faces.

Con. I will not say so, for fear I should be faced out of my way: But I would it were morning, for I would fain be about the ears of the English.

Ram. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty English prisoners?

Con. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you have them.

Dau. 'Tis midnight. I'll go arm myself. [Exit.]

Orl. The Dauphin longs for morning.

Ram. He longs to eat the English.

Con. I think, he will eat all he kills.

Orl. By the white hand of my lady, he's a gallant prince.

Con. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out the oath.

Orl. He is, simply, the most active gentleman of France.

Con. Doing is activity: and he will still be doing.

Orl. He never did harm, that I heard of.

Con. Nor will do none to-morrow; he will keep that good name still.

Orl. I know him to be valiant.

Con. I was told that, by one that knows him better than you.

Orl. What's he?

Con. Marry, he told me so himself; and he said, he cared not who knew it.

Orl. He needs not, it is no hidden virtue in him.

Con. By my faith, sir, but it is; never any body saw it, but his lackey: 'tis a hooded valour; and, when it appears, it will bate.⁵

Orl. I'll never said well.

Con. I will cap that proverb with—There is flattery in friendship.

Orl. And I will take up that with—Give the devil his due.

Con. Well placed; there stands your friend for the devil: have at the very eye of that proverb, with a pox of the devil.

Orl. You are the better at proverbs, by how much a fool's bolt is soon shot.

Con. You have shot over.

Orl. 'Tis not the first time you were overshot.

### Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord high constable, the English he within fifteen hundred paces of your tent.

Con. Who hath measured the ground?

Mess. The Lord Grandpre.

Con. A valiant and most expert gentleman.—'Would, it were day.'—Alas, poor Harry of England!—He longs not for the dawning, as we do.

I will add that Spenser says Chaucer's description of Sir Thomas gives 'the very manner and fashion of the Irish horseman,—in his long hose, his riding shoes of costly cordwaine, his hacqueton, and his habergeon,' &c.—State of Ireland, p. 115; Ed. Dublin, 1900.

4 It has been remarked that Shakspeare was habitually conversant with his bible: we have here a strong presumptive proof that he read it, at least occasionally, in French. This passage will be found almost literally in the Geneva Bible, 1588. 2 Peter ii. 22.

5 'Tis a hooded valour; and, when it appears, it will bate.⁶ This poor pun depends upon the equivocal use of bate. When a hawk is unhooded, her first action is to bate (i. e. beat her wings, or flutter.) The hawk wants no courage, but invariably bates upon the removability of her hood. The Constable would insinuate by his double entendre that the Dauphin's courage, when it appears (i. e. when he prepares for encounter,) will bate; i. e. soon diminish or evaporate.

6 Instead of this and the succeeding speeches, the quartos conclude this scene with a couplet:—

⁶ Come, come away!

The sun is high, and we wear out the day.

["508", "KING HENRY V.", "Orl. What a wretched and peevish¹ fellow is this\nking of England, to mope with his fat-brained fol-\nlowers so far out of his knowledge!", "Con. If the English had any apprehension, they\nwould run away.", "Orl. That they lack; for if their heads had any\nintellectual armour, they could never wear such\nheavy head-pieces.", "Ram. That island of England breeds very valiant\ncreatures; their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage.", "Orl. Foolish curs! that run winking into the\nmouth of a Russian bear, and have their heads\ncrushed like rotten apples: You may as well say,—\nthat's a valiant flea, that dare eat his breakfast on\nthe lip of a lion.", "Con. Just, just; and the men do sympathise with\nthe mastiffs, in robustious and rough coming on,\nleaving their wits with their wives; and then give\nthem great meals of beef, and iron and steel, they\nwill eat like wolves, and fight like devils.", "Orl. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of\nbeef.", "Con. Then we shall find to-morrow—they have\nonly stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it\ntime to arm: Come, shall we about it?", "Orl. It is now two o'clock: but, let me see,—\nby ten,", "We shall have each a hundred Englishmen.", "[Exeunt.]", "## ACT IV.", "### Enter CHORUS.", "Chor. Now entertain conjecture of a time,\nWhen creeping murmur, and the poring dark,\nFills the wide vessel of the universe,", "From camp to camp, through the foul womb of\nnight,", "The hum of either army stilly sounds,³", "That the fix'd sentinels almost receive", "The secret whispers of each other's watch:⁴", "Fire answers fire; and through their paly flames", "Each battle sees the other's umber'd⁵ face:", "Steed threatens steed in high and boastful neighs,", "Piercing the night's dull ear; and from the tents,", "The armourers, accomplishing the knights,", "With busy hammers closing rivets up,⁶", "Give dreadful note of preparation.", "The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll,", "And the third hour of drowsy morning name.", "Proud of their numbers, and secure in soul,", "1 *Peevish*, i. e. foolish.", "2 'Fills the wide vessel of the universe.' Warburton says *universe* for *horizon*. Upon which Johnson remarks:—'The universe, in its original sense, no more means this globe singly than the circuit of the horizon; but however large in its philosophical sense, it may be poretically used for as much of the world as falls under observation.'", "3 'The hum of either army stilly sounds.' This expression applied to sound is not peculiar to Shakspeare; we have 'a still small voice' in the sacred writings, and Florio's Dictionary in the word *sussura*, has 'a buzzing, a murmuring, a charming, a humming, a soft, a gentle, still noise, as of running water falling with a gentle stream, or as trees make with the wind, &c.' It is the 'murmure tacito' of Ovid.", "4 'The secret whispers of each other's watch.' Holinshed says that the distance between the two armies was but two hundred and fifty paces: and again, 'at their coming into the village, fires were made (by the English) to give light on every side, as there were likewise by the French hoste.'", "5 It has been said that the distant visages of the soldiers would appear of an umber colour when beheld through the light of midnight fires. I suspect that nothing more is meant than ' shadow'd face.' The epithet 'paly flames' is against the other interpretation. *Umbre* for *shadow* is common in our elder writers.", "6 'The armourers, accomplishing the knights,'", "With busy hammers closing rivets up.'", "This does not solely refer to the riveting the plate armour before it was put on, but as to part when it was on. The top of the cuirass had a little projecting bit of", "## ACT IV.", "The confident and over-lusty? French", "Do the low-rated English play at dice;", "And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night,", "Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp", "So tediously away. The poor condemned English,", "Like-sacrifices, by their watchful fires", "Sit patiently, and inly ruminate", "The morning's danger; and their gestures sad,", "Investing lank-lean cheeks,⁶ and war-worn coats,", "Presenteth them unto the gazing moon", "So many horror ghosts. O, now, who will behold", "The royal captain of this ruin'd band,", "Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,", "Let him cry—Praise and glory on his head!", "For forth he goes, and visits all his hosts,", "Bids them good morrow, with a modest smile;", "And calls them—brothers, friends, and countrymen.", "Upon his royal face there is no note,", "How dread an army hath surrounded him;", "Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour", "Unto the weary and all-watched night;", "But freshly looks, and over-bears attain,", "With cheerful semblance, and sweet majesty;", "That every wretch, plucking and pale before,", "Beholding him, pusking comfort from his looks", "A largess universal, like the sun,", "His liberal eye doth give to every one,", "Thawing cold fear. Then, mean and gentle all,", "Behold, as may unworthiness define,", "A little touch of Harry in the night:", "And so our scene must to the battle fly:", "Where (O for pity!) we shall much disgrace—", "With four or five most vile and ragged foils,", "Right ill-dispos'd, in brawl ridiculous,", "The name of Agincourt: Yet, sit and see;", "Minding³ true things, by what their mockeries be.", "[Exit.]", "### SCENE I. The English Camp at Agincourt.\n*Enter KING HENRY, BEDFORD, and GLOSTER.*", "K. Hen. Gloster, 'tis true, that we are in great danger;", "The greater therefore should our courage be.—", "Good morrow, brother Bedford.—God Almighty!", "There is some soul of goodness in things evil,", "Would men observingly distil it out;", "For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers,", "Which is both healthful, and good husbandry;", "Besides, they are our outward consciences,", "And preachers to us all; admonishing,", "That we should dress us fairly for our end.¹⁰", "iron that passed through a hole pierced through the bottom of the casque. When both were put on, the smith or armourer presented himself, with his riveting hammer, to close the *rivet up*; so that the party's head should remain steady, notwithstanding the force of any blow that might be given on the cuirass or helmet. This custom prevailed more particularly in tournaments. See *Varieties Historiques*, 1752, 12mo. tom. ii. p. 73. *Douce.*", "7 'The confident and over-lusty French\nDo the low-rated English play at dice.'", "*Over-lusty*, i. e. *ober-saucy*. Thus in North's *Plutarch*—'Cassius's soldiers did shewe themselves verie stubborn and lustie in the camp.' This is Steevens's explanation; the word *lusty*, however, was synonymous with lively. 'To be *lively* or *lustie*, to be in his force or strength, Vigeo.' It is also meant 'in good plight, jolly.' By 'Do the low-rated English play at dice?' is meant 'do play them away, or play for them at dice.' The circumstance is from Holinshed.", "8 'Anger invests the face with a lovely grace.'", "*Investing lank-lean cheeks,¹¹*", "Thus Sidney, in *Astrophel*, song 2, has—:", "'Anger invests the face with a lovely grace.'", "9 'Minding true things.' To mind is the same as to call to remembrance. Thus Baret:—'I mind me this matter, and thinke still that it is before my eyes; in ocula animoque versatur mihi hæc res.'", "10 'That we should dress us fairly for our end.' Ma-lone took this for an abbreviation of *address* us, and printed it thus, 'dress us. Steevens very reasonably doubted the propriety of the elision, but would take *dress* in its ordinary acceptation. 'To *dress* is to make ready, to *prepare*. Paro, *Lat*.'", "### SCENE\nThus me\nAnd ma-", "Good m\nA good\nWen be\nEvr.\nSino I\nK. H.\nUpon ex\nAnd, wh\nThe org\nBreak up\nWith ca\nLead me\nComme\nDo my\nDesire to\nGlo.", "Sino I\nK. H.", "Upon ex\nAnd, wh\nThe org\nBreak up\nWith ca\nLead me\nComme\nDo my\nDesire to\nGlo.", "Evr.\nK. H.", "Pist.\nK. H.", "Go with\nI and\nAnd the\nEvr.", "K. H.", "K. H.", "K. H.", "K. H.", "K. H.", "K. H.", "K. H.", {"bbox": [1036, 827, 1064, 860], "category": "

KING HENRY V.

ACT IV.

510

owe; some, upon their children rawly¹ left. I am
afard there are few die well, that die in battle; for
how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when
blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not
die well, it will be a black matter for the king that
led them to it; whom to disobey were against its
proportion of subjection.

K. Hen. So, if a son, that is by his father sent
about merchandise, do sinfully miscarry upon the
sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule,
should be imposed upon his father that sent him: or
if a servant, under his master's command, transport-
ing a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, and die
in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
business of the master the author of the servant's
damnation:—But this is not so: the king is not
bound to answer the particular endings of his sol-
diers, the father of his son, nor the master of his
servant; for they purpose not their death, when they
purpose their services. Besides, there is no king,
be his cause never so spotless, if it come to the
arbitration of swords, can try it out with all un-
spotted soldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them
the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
perjury;² some, making the wars their bulwark, that
have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have de-
feated the law, and outrun native punishment,³
though they can outstrip men, they have no wings
to fly from God: war is his beadle, war is his ven-
gence; so that here men are punished, for before-
breach of the king's laws, in now the king's quarrel:
where they feared the death, they have borne life
away; and where they would be safe, they perish:
Then if they die unprovided, no more is the king
guilty of their damnation, than he was before guilty
of those impieties for the which they are now visited.
Every subject's duty is the king's;⁴ but every sub-
ject's soul is his own. Therefore should every sol-
dier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed,
wash every mote out of his conscience: and dying
so, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the
time was blessedly lost, wherein such preparation
was gained: and, in him that advantage, it were not
sin to think, that making God so free an offer, he let
him outlive that day to see his greatness, and to teach
others how they should prepare.

Will. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill
is upon his own head, the king is not to answer for it.

Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me;
and yet I determine to fight lustly for him.

K. Hen. I myself heard the king say, he would
not be ransomed.

Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully:
but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed,
and we ne'er the wiser.

K. Hen. If I live to see it, I will never trust his
word after.

Will. 'Mass, you'll pay⁵ him then! That's a
perilous shot out of an elder gun,⁶ that a poor and
private displeasure can do against a monarch! you
may as well go about to turn the sun to ice, with
fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll
never trust his word after! come, 'tis a foolish
saying.

1 i. e. their children left *immaturely*, left young and
helpless.

2 '— beguiling virgins with the broken seals of per-
jury.' Thus in the song at the beginning of the fourth
act of Measure for Measure:—

'That so sweetly were forsworn—

Seals of love, but seal'd in vain.'

3 i. e. the punishment they are born to.

4 'Every subject's duty is the king's.' This is a very
just distinction, and the whole argument is well followed
and properly concluded.—Johnson.

5 To pay here signifies to bring to account, to punish.

6 'That's a perilous shot out of an elder gun.' In the
quarto the thought is more opened—*It is a great dis-
pleasure that an elder gun can do against a cannon,
or a subject against a monarch.

7 'Too round' is too rough, too unceremonious.

K. Hen. Your reproof is something too round;⁷
I should be angry with you, if the time were con-
venient.

Will. Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.

K. Hen. I embrace it.

Will. How shall I know thee again?

K. Hen. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet: then, if ever thou darest acknowledge it, I will make it a quarrel.

Will. Here's my glove, give me another of thine.

K. Hen. There.

Will. This will I also wear in my cap: if ever
thou come to me and say, after to-morrow, *This is
my glove*, by this hand, I will take thee a box on
the ear.

K. Hen. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

Will. Thou darest as well be hanged.

K. Hen. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in
the king's company.

Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well.

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends;
we have French quarrels enough, if you could tell
how to reckon.

K. Hen. Indeed, the French may lay twenty
French crowns to one, they will beat us; for they
bear them on their shoulders: But it is no English
treason to cut French crowns; and, to-morrow, the
king himself will be a clipper. [Exeunt Soldiers.
Upon the king¹⁸ let us our lives, our souls,
Our debts, our careful wives, our children, and
Our sins, lay on the king:—we must bear all.
O hard condition! twin-born with greatness,
Subjected to the breath of every fool,
Whose sense no more can feel but his own wringing!
What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,
That private men enjoy?

And what have kings, that privates have not too,
Save ceremony, save general ceremony?

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?

What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more

Of mortal griefs, than do thy worshippers?

What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
O ceremony, show me but thy worth!

What is thy soul of adoration?⁹?

Art thou ought else but place, degree, and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?

Wherein thou art less happy, being fear'd,
Than they in fearing.

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage sweet,
But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness,

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!

Think'st thou, the fiery fever will go out

With titles blown from adulation?

Will it give place to flexure and low bending?

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee?

Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose:

I am a king, that find thee; and, I know,

'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The inter-seued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced¹⁰ title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,

8 'Upon the king.' There is something very striking
and solemn in the soliloquy into which the king breaks
immediately as soon as he is left alone. Something like
this every breast has felt. Reflection and seriousness
rush upon the mind upon the separation of gay company,
and especially after forced and unwilling merriment.—
Johnson. This beautiful speech was added after the
first edition.

9 'What is thy soul of adoration?' This is the read-
ing of the old copy, which Malone changed to:—

'What is the soul of adoration?'

I think erroneously. The present reading is sufficiently
intelligible. 'O ceremony, show me what value thou art
of? What is thy soul or essence of external worship or
adoration? Art thou?' &c. If Malone's reading is adopt-
ed, it would be necessary to read 'Are they?' &c. be-
cause ceremony and adoration are then both personified.

10 Farced is stuffed. The tumid puffy titles with which
a king's name is introduced.

SCENE

No, not all
Can sleep
Who, when
gets his
life's sum;
But, like
Sweats
DOTH
Rise
And fall
With pr
And, but
Winding
Had the
The slave
Enjoys
What he
Whose

Ep.

Seek the
K. H.
Collect
I'll be
Ep.

Possess
The sen
Pluck the
O not to
My fath
I RICHARD
And on
Than from
Fire hua
Who two
Toward
Two sing
Choir
Though
Since the
Imploring

Glo.
K. H.
I know
The day

SCENE

Orl.

1.—only
the cl
inly in
the bro
is the
sum: a
2. Apo
3. He
violence
the pe
used by
general

1 The
2 Apo
3 He
4 The
5 To
monks,
religions,
and the
Thou
now cal
6 Via
of Italia
7 To
This
is do
et do
pears to

This is
do do
pears to

Act IV.

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY V.

511

No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave;
Who, with his body fill'd, and vacant mind,
Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
Never sees horrid night, the child of hell;
But, like a lackey, from the rise to set,
Sweats in the eye of Phœbus, and all night
Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn,
Doth rise, and help Hyperion² to his horse;
And follows the ever-running year
With profitable labour, to his grave:
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,
Winding up days with toil, and nights with sleep,
Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.
The slave, a member of the country's peace,
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots,
What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace,
Whose hours the peasant best advantages.³

### Enter ERPINGHAM.

Erp. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,

Seek through your camp to find you.

K. Hen.

Good old knight, Collect them all together at my tent:

I'll be before thee.

Erp.

I shall do't, my lord. [Exit.]

K. Hen. O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts!

Possess them not with fear: take from them now⁴

The sense of reckoning of the opposed numbers:

Pluck their hearts from them not to-day, O Lord!
O not to-day! Think not upon the fault.

My father made in compassing the crown!

I Richard's body have interred new;

And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears,

Than from it issued forced drops of blood.

Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,

Who twice a day their wither'd hand holds up

Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built

Two chansries,⁵ where the sad and solemn priests

Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do:

Though all that I can do, is nothing worth;

Since that my penitence comes after all,

Imploring pardon.

### Enter GLOSTER.

Glo. My liege!

K. Hen. My brother Gloster's voice?—Ay;
I know thy errand, I will go with thee:—

The day, my friends, and all things stay for me.

[Exeunt.]

## SCENE II. The French Camp. Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others.

Orl. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords.

1 '— cramm'd with distressful bread.' However oddly this may sound to modern ears, it was sufficiently intelligible to our ancestors. Distressful bread is the bread or food of poverty; Mensa angusta. John-son observes that these lines are exquisitely pleasing. 'To sweat in the eye of Phœbus,' and 'to sleep in Ely-sium,' are expressions very poetical.

2 Apollo. See Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2.

3 He little knows at the expense of how much royal vigilance that peace, which brings most advantage to the peasantry, is maintained. To advantage is a verb used by Shakspere in other places. It was formerly in general use.

4 The late editions exhibit the passage thus:—

'— take from them now

The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers

Pluck their hearts from them!—Not to-day, O Lord,

O not to-day, think not upon; &c.

5 'Two chansries.' One of these was for Carthusian monks, and was called Bethlehem; the other was for religious men and women of the order of Saint Bridget, and was named Sion. They were on opposite sides of the Thames, and joined the royal manor of Sheen, now called Richmond.

6 Via, an exclamation of encouragement, on, away; of the other origin.

7 'That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,'

And doubt them with superfluous courage.'

This is the reading of the folio; that Malone has altered to *dout*, i. e. *do out* in provincial language. It appears to me that there is no reason for the substitution.

Dau. Montez a cheval: —My horse! *valet* ! lac- *quay* ? ha!

Orl. O brave spirit!

Dau. Via !—les eaux et la terre—

Orl. Rien puis ? *l'air et le feu*—

Dau. Ciel ! cousin Orleans.—

### Enter Constable.

Now, my lord Constable.

Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh.

Con. Mount them, and make incision in their hides;

And doubt them with superfluous courage: Ha!

Ram. What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?

How shall we then behold their natural tears?

### Enter a Messenger.

Mess. The English are embattled, you French peers.

Con. To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse!

Do but behold you poor and starved band,

And your fair show shall suck away their souls,

Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.

There is not work enough for all your hands;

Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins,

To give each naked curtle-ax a stain,

That our French gallants shall to-day draw out,

And sheath for lack of sport: let us but blow on them,

The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them.

'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,

That our superfluous lackeys, and our peasants,—

Who in unnecessary action swarm

About our squares of battle,⁸—were enough

To purge this field of such a hilding⁹ foe;

Though we, upon this mountain's basis by

Took stand for idle speculation:

But that our honours must not What's to say?

A very little little let us do,

And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound

The tucket-sonuance,¹⁰ and the note to mount:

For our approach shall so much dare the field,

That England shall couch down in fear, and yield.

### Enter GRANDFRE.

Grand. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?

Yon island carrions,¹¹ desperate of their bones,

Ill-favour'dly become the morning field:

Their ragged curtains¹² poorly are let loose,

And our air shakes them passing scorinfully.

Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar'd host,

And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps.

8 'About our squares of battle.' Thus in Antony and Cleopatra:—

'— no practice had

In the brave squares of battle.'

9 'A hilding foe' is a paltry, cowardly, base foe. Thus in All's Well that Ends Well, the French lords call Bertram 'a hilding'.

10 'The tucket sonuance,' &c. He uses the terms of the field as if they were going out only to chase for sport. To dare the field is a phrase in falconry. Birds are dared when by the falcon in the air they are terrified from rising so as to be taken by hand. Such an easy capture the lords expected to make of the English. The tucket-sonuance was a flourish on the trumpet as a signal to prepare to march. The phrase is derived from the Italian *toccata*, a prelude to flourish, and *suonanza*, a sound, a resounding. Thus in the Devil's Law Case, 1628, two *tickets* by two several trumpets.

11 'Yon island carrions.' The description of the English is founded on Holinshed's melancholy account, speaking of the march from Harfleur to Agincourt:— 'The Englishmen were brought into great misery in this journey; their vidualt was in a manner all spent, and now could they get none:—rest none could they take, for their enemies were ever at hand to give them allarmes: Daily it rained, and nightly it freezing; of fewel there was great scarcity, but of fluxes great plenty; money they had enough, but wares to bestow it upon, for their releife or comforte, had they little or none.'

12 Their ragged *curtains* are their colours.

KING HENRY V.

ACT IV.

Their horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks,¹
With torch-staves in their hand: and their poor
jades

Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips;
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes;
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal² bit
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless;
And their executors, the knavish crows,
Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour.

Description cannot suit itself in words,
To demonstrate the life of such a battle.

In life so lifeless as it shows itself.
Con. They have said their prayers, and they stay
for death.

Dau. Shall we go send them dinners, and fresh
suits,

And give their fasting horses provender,
And after fight with them?

Con. I stay but for my guard;³ On, to the field:
I will the banner from a trumpet take,
And use it for my haste. Come, come, away!

The sun is high, and we outwear the day. [Exeunt.

### SCENE III.
The English Camp. Enter the English Host; GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, SALISBURY, and WESTMORELAND.

Glo. Where is the king?

Bed. The king himself is rode to view their
battle.

West. Of fighting men they have full threescore
thousand.

Exe. There's five to one; besides, they all are
fresh.

Sal. God's arm strike with us! 'tis a fearful odds,
God be with you, princes all; I'll to my charge;
If be no more meet, till we meet in heaven,
Then, joyfully,—my noble lord of Bedford,—
My dear lord Gloster,—and my good lord Exeter,
And my kind kinsman,⁴—warriors all, adieu!

Bed. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck
go with thee!
Exe. Farewell, kind lord; fight valiantly to-day:
And yet I do thee wrong, to mind thee of it,
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour.

[Exit SALISBURY.

Bed. He is as full of valour, as of kindness;
Princely in both.

West. O that we now had here

Enter KING HENRY.

But one ten thousand of those men in England,
That do no work to-day!

K. Hen.

What's he, that wishes so ?
My cousin Westmoreland ?⁵—No, my fair cousin:
If we are mark'd to die, we are enough
To do our country loss; and if to live,
The fewer men, the greater share of honour.
God's will! I pray thee, wish not one man more.

By Jove, I am not covetous for gold;

Nor care I, who doth feed upon my cost;

1. Ancient candlesticks were often in the form of human figures, holding the socket for the lights, in their extended hands.

2. The *gimmal bit* was probably a bit in which two parts or links were united, as in the *gimmal ring*, so called, because they were double linked, from *gemelits*, Lat.

3. 'I stay but for my *guard*.' Dr. Johnson and Mr. Steevens were of opinion that *guard* here means rather something of ornament, than an attendant or attendants.

4. 'And my kind kinsman.' This is addressed to Westmoreland by the speaker, who was *Thomas Montacute*, earl of Salisbury; he was not in point of fact related to Westmoreland, there was only a kind of connection by marriage between their families.

5. In the quarto this speech is addressed to Warwick. The incongruity of praying like a Christian and swearing like a heathen, which Johnson objects against, arose from the necessary conformation to the statute 3 James I. c. xxi. against introducing the sacred name on the stage. The players omitted it where they could, and where the metre would not allow of the omission they substituted some other word in its place.

6. To *yearn* is to grieve or vex.

7. 'The feast of Crispian.' The battle of Agincourt was fought upon the 25th of October, 1415.

It yearns⁶ me not, if men my garments wear;
Such outward things dwell not in my desires:
But, if it be a sin to covet honour,
I am the most offending soul alive.

No, 'faith, my coz, wish not a man from England:
God's peace! I would not lose so great an honour,
As one man more, methinks, would share from me,
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more.
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host,
That he, which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart; his passport shall be made,
And crowds for convoy put into his purse:
We would not die in that man's company
That fears his fellowship to die with us.

This day is call'd—the feast of Crispian.⁷
He, that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He, that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,
And say—to morrow is Saint Crispian:

Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars,
And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,

But he'll remember, with advantages,⁹

What feats he did that day; Then shall our names,
Familiar in their mouths as household words—

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd:

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,

From this day to the ending of the world,¹⁰

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;

For he, to-day that sheds his blood with me,

Shall be my brother; he be ne'er so vile

This day shall gentle his condition:¹⁰

And gentlemen in England, now a bed,

Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not
here.

And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks,
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Enter SALISBURY.

Sal. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with
speed;

The French are bravely¹¹ in their battles set,
And will with all expediencel²² charge on us.

K. Hen. All things are ready, if our minds be so.

West. Perish the man, whose mind is backward
now!

K. Hen. Thou dost not wish more help from England, cousin?

West. God's will, my liege, 'would you and I
alone,

Without more help, might fight this battle out!

K. Hen. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men;¹³

8. 'With advantages.' Old men, notwithstanding the natural forgetfulness of old age, shall remember their feats of this day, and remember to tell them with advantage. Age is commonly boastful, and inclined to magnify past acts and past times.

9. 'From this day to the ending.' ⁸c. Johnson has a note on this passage, which concludes by saying that 'the civil wars have left in the nation scarcely any tradition of more ancient history.'

10. i. e. shall advance him to the rank of a gentleman. King Henry V. inhibited any person but such as had a right by inheritance or grant, from bearing coats of arms, except those who fought with him at the battle of Agincourt; and these last were allowed the chief seats at all feasts and public meetings.

11. i. e. in a braving manner. 'To go *bravely* is to look aloft; and to go gaily, desiring to have the pre-eminence: *Speciose ingredi; faire le brave*.'

12. i. e. expedition.

13. '— thou hast unwished five thousand men.' By wishing only thyself and me, thou hast wished five thousand men away. The poet, inattentive to numbers, puts five thousand, but in the last scene the French are said to be full three score thousand, which Exeter declares to be five to one; the numbers of the English are variously stated; Holinshed makes them fifteen thousand, others but nine thousand.

## SCENE IV.

## KING HENRY V.

513

Which likes me better, than to wish us one.—
You know your places: God be with you all!

Tucket. Enter MONTJOY.

Mont. Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry,
If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound,
Before thy most assured overthrow:
For, certainly, thou art so near the gulf,
Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy,
The Constable desires thee—thou wilt mind¹
Thy followers of repentance; that their souls
May make a peaceful and a sweet retire
From off these fields, where (wretches) their poor
bodies

Must lie and fester.

K. Hen. Who hath sent thee now?

Mont. The Constable of France.

K. Hen. I pray thee, bear my former answer back;

Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones.

Good God! why should they mock poor fellows thus?

The man, that once did sell the lion's skin
While the beast liv'd, was kill'd with hunting him.
A many of our bodies shall, no doubt,
Find native graves; upon the which, I trust,
Shall witness live in sword² of this day's work:
And those that leave their valiant bones in France,
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills,
They shall be fam'd; for there the sun shall greet them,

And draw their honours reeking up to heaven;
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime,
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France.
Mark then abounding valour in our English;³

That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing,
Break out into a second course of mischief,
Killing in relapse of mortality.

Let me speak proudly;—Tell the Constable,
We are but warriors for the working-day:
Our gayness, and our gilt,⁴ are all besmirch'd
With rainy marching in the painful field;
There's not a piece of officer in our host,
(Good argument, I hope, we shall not fly),⁵

And time hath worn us into slovenly:
But, by the mass, our hearts are in the trim:
And my poor soldiers tell me—yet ere night
They'll be in fresher robes; or they will pluck
The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads,
And turn them out of service. If they do this
(As, if God please, they shall,¹) my ransom then
Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour;
Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald;

They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints;

1 i. e. remind.
2 i. e. in brazen plates, anciently let into tombstones.
3 'Mark then abounding valour in our English; That being dead, like to the bullet's grazing, Break out into a second course of mischief, Killing in relapse of mortality.'

Theobald, with over busy zeal for emendation, changed abounding into a bounding, and found the allusion exceedingly beautiful, comparing the revival of the English valour to the rebounding of a cannon ball. There is, as usual, an idle controversy between Malone and Steevens, the one preferring the old reading; and the other, from a spirit of opposition to his rival, which ever guided him, supporting Theobald's alteration.
4 i. e. golden show, superficial gilding.
5 'The Duke of York.' This Edward duke of York has already appeared in King Richard II. under the title of duke of Æumerle. He was the son of Edmond Langley, the duke of York of the same play, who was the fifth son of King Edward III. Richard, earl of Cambridge, who appears in the second act of this play, was younger brother to this Edward duke of York.

6 The vaward is the vanguard.

7 'Callino, castore me!' The jargon of the old companies where these words are printed *Qualitie calmie custure me*—was changed by former editors into 'Quality, call you me? construe me.' Malone found *Calen o culture me*, mentioned as the burthen of a song in 'A Handful of Pleasant Delites,' 1584. And Mr.

Which if they have, as I will leave 'em to them,
Shall yield them little, tell the Constable.

Mont. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well!

Thou never shall hear herald any more. [Exit.
K. Hen. I fear, thou'lt once more come again for ransom.

Enter the Duke of York.⁶

York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg
The leading of the vaward.⁶

K. Hen. Take it, brave York.—Now, soldiers,
march away:—

And how thou pleasest, God, dispose the day!

[Exeunt.]

### SCENE IV. The Field of Battle.
Alarums: Excursions. Enter French Soldier, PISTOL, and Boy.

Pist. Yield, cur.

Fr. Sol. Je pense, que vous estes le gentilhomme de bonne qualité.

Pist. Quality? Callino, castore me!⁷ art thou a gentleman? What is thy name? discuss me.

Fr. Sol. O signeur Dieu !

Pist. O, signeur Dew should be a gentleman:—
Perpend my words, O signieur Dew, and mark ;—
O signeur Dew, thou diest on point of fox,⁸

Except, O signieur, thou do give to me
Egregious ransom.

Fr. Sol. O, prennez misericorde ! ayez pitié de moy !

Pist. Moy shall not serve, I will have forty moys;
For I will fetch thy rim⁹ out at throat,

In drops of crimson blood.

Fr. Sol. Est-il impossible d'eschapper la force de ton bras?

Pist. Brass, cur!

Thou damned and luxurious mountain goat,
Offer'st me brass?

Fr. Sol. O pardonnez moy !

Pist. Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys?¹⁰

Come hither, boy; Ask me this slave, in French,
What is his name.

Boy. Escoutez; Comment estes-vous appellé ?

Fr. Sol. Monsieur le Fer.

Boy. He says, his name is—master Fer.

Pist. Master Fer! I'll fer him, and firk¹¹ him, and
ferret him:—discuss the same in French unto him.

Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk.

Pist. Bid him prepare, for I will cut his throat.

Fr. Sol. Que dit-il, monsieur ?

Boy. *Il me commande de vous dire que vous faites*

Boswell discovered that it was an old Irish song, which is printed in Playford's Musical Companion, 1667 or 1673:—

'Callino, Callino, Callino, castore me,

Eva ee, eva ee, loo, loo, loo lee.'

The words are said to mean 'Little girl of my heart for ever and ever.' They have, it is true (says Mr. Boswell,) no great connection with the poor Frenchman's supplications, nor were they meant to have any; Pistol, instead of attending to him, contemptuously hums a tune.

8.—thou diest on point of fox.' Fox is an old cant word for a sword. Generally old fox; it was applied to the old English broadsword.

9. For I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat. Pistol is not very scrupulous in the nicety of his language, he uses rim (rymme) for the intestines generally. It is not very clear what our ancestors meant by it; Bishop Wilkins defines it 'the membrane of the belly.' Florio makes it the omeumum, 'a fat pannicle, caule, sewet, rim, or keell, wherein the bowels are lapt.' Holmes, in his Acad. of Armory, calls the *peritoneum* 'the paunch or rim of the belly.' Which is defined by others to be the 'inner rine of the belly.' It was not therefore the diaphragm or midriff, as Steevens supposed.

10. Pistol's *moy* is probably a vulgar corruption of *moydore* (itself a corruption of *moeda* (Gore), at least we have no better solution to offer. The moydore was current in England for about 21s.

11. To firk is to beat or scourge; *fouetster*, to yerk and to jerk are words of the same import.

65

["514", "KING HENRY V.", "ACT IV.", "vous prest; car ce soldat icy est disposé tout à cette\nheure de couper vostre gorge.", "Pist. Ouy, couper gorge, par ma foy, pesant,\nUnless thou give me crowns, brave crowns ;\nOr mangled shard thou be by this my sword.", "Fr. Sol. O, je vous supplie pour l'amour de Dieu,\nme pardonner ! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne maison :\ngardez ma vie, et je vous donnerez deux cents escus.", "Pist. What are his words ?", "Boy. He prays you to save his life: he is a gen-\ntleman of a good house; and, for his ransom, he\nwill give you two hundred crowns.", "Pist. Tell him—my fury shall abate, and I\nThe crowns will take.", "Fr. Sol. Petit monsieur, que dit-il ?", "Boy. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement, de par-\ndonner aucun prisonnier; neantmoins, pour les escus\nque vous l'avez promis, il est content de vous donner\nla liberté, le franchissement.", "Fr. Sol. Sur mes genoux, je vous donne mille\nremerciements; et je m'estime heureux que je suis\ntombé entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le\nplus brave, valiant, et très distingué seigneur d'Angle-\nterre.", "Pist. Expound unto me, boy.", "Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand\nthanks: and he esteemeth himself happy that he hath\nfallen into the hands of (as he thinks) the most brave,\nvalorous, and thrice worthy signieur of England.", "Pist. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show.—\nFollow me, cur.", "Boy. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine.", "[Exit French Soldier.", "I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a\nheart: but the saying is true,—The empty vessel\nmakes the greatest sound. Bardolph, and Nym,\nhad ten times more valour than this roaring devil\ni' the old play, that every one may pare his nails\nwith a wooden dagger;¹ and they are both hanged;\nand so would this be, if he durst steal any thing\nadventuously. I must stay with the lackeys, with\nthe luggage of our camp: the French might have a\ngood prey of us, if he knew of it; for there is none\nto guard it but boys.", "[Exit.", "### SCENE V. Another Part of the Field of Battle.\nAlarums. Enter Dauphin, ORLEANS, BOURBON, Constable, RAMBURES, and others.", "Con. O diable !", "Orl. O seigneur !—le jour est perdu, tout est perdu !", "Dau. Mort de ma vie ! all is confounded, all!", "Reproach and everlasting shame", "Sits mocking in our plumes.—O meschante fortune !—\nDo not run away.", "[A short Alarum.", "Dau. Why, all our ranks are broke.\nOul. O perdurable shame !—let's stab ourselves.", "Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for ?", "Orl. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom ?", "Bour. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but\nshame!", "Let us die in fight :² Once more back again;\nAnd he that will not follow Bourbon now,\nLet him go hence, and with his cap in hand,\nLike a base pander, hold the chamber-door,\nWhilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog,³\nHis fairest daughter is contaminate.", "Con. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now!\nLet us, in heaps, go offer up our lives\nUnto these English, or else die with fame.⁴", "1 '—this roaring devil ?! the old play, that every one\nmay pare his nails with a wooden dagger.⁵ See note\non Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2. In the old play of The\nTaming of a Shrew, one of the players says, 'My lord,\nwe must have a little vinegar to make our devil roar:\nHo! ho! and Ah! ha! seem to have been the excla-\nmations constantly given to the devil, who is, in the old\nmysteries, as turbulent and vainglorious as Pistol. The\nVice or fool, among other indignities, used to threaten\nto pare his nails with his dagger of lath; the devil being\nsupposed from choice to keep his claws long and sharp.", "2 The old copy wants the word fight, which was sup-\nplied by Malone. Theobald proposed 'let us die in-\nstant' which Steevens adopted.", "Orl. We are enough, yet living in the field,\nTo smother up the English in our throats,\nIf any order might be thought upon.", "Bour. The devil take order now! I'll to the throng:\nLet life be short; else, shame will be too long.", "[Exeunt.", "### SCENE VI. Another Part of the Field.\nAlarums. Enter KING HENRY and FORCES; EXETER, and others.", "K. Hen. Well have we done, thrice-valiant countrymen :", "But all's not done, yet keep the French field.", "Exe. The duke of York commends him to your\nmajesty.", "K. Hen. Lives he, good uncle ? thrice, within this\nhour,", "I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting;\nFrom helmet to the spur, all blood he was.", "Exe. In which array (brave soldier) doth he lie,\nLarding the plain: and by his bloody side,\n(Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds)\nThe noble earl of Suffolk also lies.", "Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,\nComes to him, where in gore he lay instead'd,\nAnd takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes,\nThat bloodily did yawn upon his face;", "And cries aloud,—Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!", "My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:", "Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly abreast;", "As, in this glorious and well-foughten field,", "We kept together in our chivalry!", "Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up: He smil'd me in the face, raught³ me his hand, And, with a feeble grip, says, 'Dear my lord, Commend my service to my sovereigns.", "So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck", "He threw his wounded hand, and kiss'd his lips:", "And so, espoys'd to death, with blood he seal'd\nA testament of noble-ending love.", "The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd", "To come from me, which I would have stopp'd: But I had not so much of man in me,", "But⁶ all my mother came into mine eyes,\nAnd gave me up to tears.", "K. Hen.", "I blame you not;", "For, hearing this, I must perforce compound\nWith mistful eyes, or they will issue too.—", "[Alarum.", "But, hark! what new alarum is this same?—", "The French have reinforce'd their scatter'd men:", "Then every soldier kill his prisoners;", "Give the word through.", "[Exeunt.", "### SCENE VII. Another Part of the Field.\nAlarums. Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER.", "Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage ! 'tis expressly\nagainst the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of\nknavery, mark you now, as can be offered in the\n'world: In your conscience now, is it not?", "Gow. 'Tis certain, there's not a boy left alive;\nand the cowardly cascals, that ran from the battle,\nhave done this slaughter: besides, they have burned\nand carried away all that was in the king's tent;\nwherefore the king, most worthily, hath caused\nevery soldier to cut his prisoner's throat.' O, 'tis a\ngallant king!", "Flu. Av, he was porn at Monmouth, captain\nGower: What call you the town's name, where\nAlexander the pig was born?", "3 i. e. who has no more gentleness.", "4 This line is from the quartos.", "5 i. e. reached.", "6 'But all my mother came into my eyes,", "And gave me up to tears. The folio reads 'And all,' &c. But\nThus the quarto. The folio reads 'And all,' &c. But\nhas here the force of that.", "7 'Caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat.\nThe king killed his prisoners (says Johnson) because\nhe expected another battle, and he had not sufficient\nmen to guard one army and fight another. Gower's\nreason is, as we see, different. Shakespeare followed\nHolinshed, who gives both reasons for Henry's conduct,\nbut has chosen to make the king mention one of them\nand Gower the other.", "SCENE", "Gow.", "Flu.", "pig, or", "the mag-\nphrase.", "Gow.", "Macedon,\ndon as", "Flu.", "is porn-\nmaps of\ncompar-\ning the\nsituation\nin the\nriver\nat\nmouth:\nthe\nfingers\nof\nthe\nright\narm\nof\nthe\nflesh\nof\nthe\nflesh\nin\nthe\nmouth\nof\nthe\nflesh\nin\nthe\nright\narm\nof\nthe\nflesh\nin\nthe\nright\narm\nof\nthe\nright\narm\nof

ACT IV,

living in the field,
our thongs,
upon.

now! I'll to the throng;
he will be too long.

[Exeunt]
of the Field. Alarum,
Forces; EXTERD, and

ne, thrice-valiant com-
the French the field.
commends him to your
uncle; thrice, within this

again, and fighting;

blood he was.

he (soldier) does he lie,
his bloody side,
owing wounds

so lies.

all haggled over,

he lay interdied,

kisses the gaiety,

in his face.

ear cross Sukfik!

any to heaven;

hen fly abreet,

foughten field,

alry !

and cheere him up!

sought! me his hands,

ins; 'Dear my lord,

overseer.

folt's neck

and kiss'd his lips;

with blood he seal'd

love.

or of it fored.

I would have stopp'd:

in me,

to mine eyes,

I blame you not;

or force compound

ill issue too.—

[Alarum.

is in this same.—

their seater'd men;

prisoners;

[Exeunt]

art of the Field. Alarum
and Gowra.

and Gowra.

lity.

5 i. reached.

into my eyes,

dids 'and all,' &c. 'Red

at his prisoner's throat.

says Jolinus (Jolinus) because

he had not sufficiently

light another. Gowra.

Shakespeare followed
for Henry's concern.

mention one of them

## SCENE VII.

## KING HENRY V.

515

Gow. Alexander the great.

Flu. Why, I pray you, is not pig, great? The
pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or
the magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the
phrase is a little variations.

Gow. I think, Alexander the great was born in
Macedon; his father was called—Philip of Mace-
don, as I take it.

Flu. I think, it is in Macedon, where Alexander
is porn. I tell you, captain,—if you look in the
maps of the 'world, I warrant, you shall find, in the
comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that
the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a
river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a
river at Monmouth: it is called Wye, at Mon-
mouth: but it is out of my prains, what is the name
of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis so like as my
fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in
both. If you mark Alexander's life well, Harry of
Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well;
for there is figures in all things. Alexander (God
knows, and you know,) in his rages, and his furies,
and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and
his displeasures, and his indignations, and also be-
ing a little intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales
and his angers, look you, kill his best friend, Clytus.

Gow. Our king is not like him in that; he never
killed any of his friends.

Flu. It is not well done, mark you now, to take
tales out of my mouth, ere it is made an end and
finished. I speak but in the figures and compari-
sons of it: As Alexander' is kill his friend Clytus,
being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry Mon-
mouth, being in his right wits and his court judg-
ments, is turn away the fat knight, with the great
pelly-doublet: he was full of jacks, and gipes, and
naveries, and mocks; I am forgot his name.²

Gow. Sir John Falstaff.

Flu. That is he: can tell you, there is goot
men porn at Monmouth.

Gow. Here comes his majesty.

Alarum. Enter KING HENRY, with a Part of the
English Forces; WARWICK,³ GLOSTER, EXE-
TER, and others.

K. Hen. I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant.—Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride you unto the horsemen on yon hill;
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight;
If they'll do neither, we will come to them;
And make them skirr⁴ away, as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:

¹ 'As Alexander,' &c. Steevens thinks that Shaks-
pearce here ridicules the *parallels* of Plutarch: he ap-
pears to have been well read in Sir Thomas North's
Translation.

2 Johnson observes, that this is the last time Falstaff
can make sport. The poet was loath to part with him,
and has continued his memory as long as he could.

3 Richard Beauchamp, earl of Warwick. He did
not, however, obtain that title till 1417, two years after
the era of this play.

4 I. e. scourge. To run swiftly in various direc-
tions. It has the same meaning in Macbeth, Act. v. Sc.
iii. 'Skirr the country round.'

5 'Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have.'
Johnson accuses the poet of having made the king cut
the throats of his prisoners twice over. Malone replies
that the incongruity, if it be one, is Holinshed's, for
thus the matter is stated by him: While the battle was
yet going on, about six hundred horsemen, who were
the first that fled, hearing that the English tents were a
good way distant from the army, without a sufficient
guard, entered and pillaged the king's camp. 'When
the outcry of the *lackies and boys which ran away for
fear of the Frenchmen*, thus spoiling the camp, came
to the king's ears, he doubting lest his enemies should
gather together again and begin a new fieldle, and mis-
trusting further that the *prisoners* would either be an
aidie to his enemies, or very enemies to their takers in-
deed, if they were suffered to live, contrary to his ac-
customed gentleness, commanded by sounde of trumpet
that every man upon pain of death *should incontinent-
ly sangle his prisoner.' This was the first transaction.
Holinshed proceeds, ' When this lamentable slaughter

Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have;⁶
And not a man of them, that we shall take,

Shall taste our mercy :—Go, and tell them so.

Enter MONTJOY.

Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my
liege.

Glo. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.

K. Hen. How now, what means this, herald?
knowst thou not,

That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom?
Com'st thou again for ransom?

Mont.

I come to thee for charitable licence,

That we may wander o'er this bloody field,

To book our dead, and then to bury them;

To sort our nobles from our common men;

For many of our princes (woe the while!)
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood

(So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes;) and their wounded steeds

Fret fetlock deep in gore, and, with wild rage,

Yerk out their armed heels at their dead masters,

Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king,
To view the field in safety, and dispose
Of their dead bodies.

K. Hen. I tell thee truly, herald,

I know not, if the day be ours, or no;

For yet many of your horsemen peer,
And gallop o'er the field.

Mont.

K. Hen. Praised be God, and not our strength,
for it!—

What is this castle call'd, that stands hard by?

Mont. They call it—Agincourt.

K. Hen. Then call we this—the field of Agin-
court,

Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus.

Flu. Your grandfather of famous memory, an't
please your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward
the plack prince of Wales, as I have read in the
chronicles, fought a most brave pattle here in
France.

K. Hen. They did, Fluellen.

Flu. Your majesty says very true: If your ma-
jesties is remember'd of it, the Welshmen did goot
service in a garden where leeks did grow, wearing
leeks in their Monmouth caps;⁶ which, your majesty
knows, to this hour is an honourable page of the
service; and, I do believe, your majesty takes no
scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's⁷ day.

K. Hen. I wear it for a memorable honour:

For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman.

Flu. All the water in Wye cannot wash your

was ended, the Englishmen disposed themselves in or-
der of battayle, ready to abide a new fieldle, and also
to invade and newly set on their enemies.—Some note,
that the king perceiving his *enemies in one parte to as-
semble together*, as though they meant to give a new
battle for preservation of the prisoners, *sent to them a
herault, commanding them either to depart out of his
sight, or else to come forward at once and give battle;
promising herewith, that, if they did offer to fight
against, not only those prisoners, which his people al-
ready had taken, but also so many of them as in this
new conflictle, which *they thus attempted, should fall
into his hands, should die the death without redemp-
tion?* The fact is, that notwithstanding the first order
concerning the prisoners, they were not all put to death,
as appears from a subsequent passage, and the concur-
rent testimony of various historians, upon whose autho-
rity Hume says that Henry, on discovering that his dan-
er was not so great as he at first apprehended from the
attack on his camp, 'stopped the slaughter, and was
still able to save a great number.' It was policy in
Henry to intimidate the French by threatening to kill
his prisoners, and occasioned them, in fact, to lay down
their arms.

6 Monmouth, according to Fuller, was celebrated for
its caps, which were particularly worn by soldiers. The
best caps were formerly made at Monmouth, where the
copper's chapel still remains. He adds, 'If at this
day the phrase of wearing a Monmouth cap be taken in
a bad acceptance, I hope the inhabitants of that town will
endeavour to disprove the occasion.' *Worthies of Eng-
land*, 1660, p. 50.

## SCENE VIII.

## KING HENRY V.

517

mine; for had you been as I took you for, I made no offence; therefore, I beseech your highness, pardon me.

K. Hen. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with crowns,

And give it to this fellow.—Keep it, fellow;

And wear it for an honour in thy cap,

Till I do challenge it.—Give him the crowns :—

And, captain, you must needs be friends with him.

Flu. By this day and this light, the fellow has mettle enough in his pelly ;—Hold, there is twelve pence for you, and I pray you to serve Got, and keep you out of prawns, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions, and, I warrant you, it is the petter for you.

Will. I will none of your money.

Flu. It is with a goot will ; I can tell you, it will serve you to mend your shoes : Come, where-fore should you be so pashful? your shoes is not so goot : 'tis a goot silling, I warrant you, or I will change it.

*Enter an English Herald.*

K. Hen. Now, Herald, are the dead numbered?

Her. Here is the number of the slaughter'd French.

[Delivers a Paper.]

K. Hen. What prisoners of good sort are taken, uncle ?

Eze. Charles duke of Orleans, nephew to the king;

John duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt :

Of other lords, and barons, knights, and 'squires,

Full fifteen hundred, besides common men.

K. Hen. This note doth tell me of ten thousand French,

And that the field lie slain : of princes, in this number,

And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead

One hundred twenty-six : added to these,

Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen,

Eight thousand and three hundred ; of the which,

Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights :¹¹ So that, in these ten thousand they have lost,

There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries ;

The rest are : princes, barons, lords, knights, 'squires,

And gentlemen of blood and quality.

The names of those their nobles that lie dead,—

Charles De-la-bret, high constable of France ;

Jaques de Chatillon, admiral of France ;

The master of the cross-bows, lord Rambures ;

Great-master of France, the brave Sir Guischard Dauphin ;

John duke of Alençon ; Antony duke of Brabant,

The brother to the duke of Burgundy ;

And Edward duke of Bar : of lusty carls,

Grandpre, and Roussi, Fauconberg, and Foix,

Beaumont, and Marle, Vaudemont, and Lestralce.

Here was a royal fellowship of death !—

Where is the number of our English dead?

*[Herald presents another Paper.]*

Edward the duke of York, the earl of Suffolk,
Sir Richard Ketley, Davy Gam, esquire :²

1 'Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights.' In ancient times the distribution of this number appears to have been customary on the eve of a battle.

2 'Davy Gam, esquire.' This gentleman being sent out by Henry, before the battle, to reconnoitre the enemy, and to find out their strength, made this report :—
' May it please you, my liege, there are enough to be killed, enough to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away?' He saved the king's life in the field. Had the poet been apprized of this circumstance, the brave Welshman would probably have been more particularly noticed, and not have been merely a name in a muster roll.—See Drayton's Battle of Agincourt, 1627, p. 50 and 54; and Dunster's Edition of Philips's Cyder, a poem, p. 74.

3 'Do we all holy rites.' 'The king, when he saw no appearance of enemies, caused the retrete to be blown; and, gathering his army together, gave thanks to Almighty God for so happy a victorie, causing his prelates and chapeles to sing this psalme—*In exitu Israel de Egypto*; and commaunding every man to kneele down on the grounde at this verse—*Non nobis*,

None else of name ; and, of all other men,
But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here,
And not to us, but to thy arm alone
Ascribe we all.—When, without stratagem,
But in plain shock, and even play of battle,
Was ever known so great and little loss,
On one part and on the other ?—Take it, God,
For it is only thine !

Eze.

'Tis wonderful !

K. Hen. Come, go we in procession to the village:

And be it death proclaimed through our host,

To boast of this, or take that praise from God

Which is his only.

Flu. Is it not lawful, an please your majesty, to tell how many is killed?

K. Hen. Yes, captain ; but with this acknowledgment,

That God fought for us.

Flu. Yes, my conscience, he did us great goot.

K. Hen. Do we all holy rites ;³

Let there be sung *Non nobis*, and *Te Deum*.

The dead with charity enclos'd in clay,

We'll then to Calais ; and to England then ;

Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men.

*[Exeunt.]*

## ACT V.

*Enter CHORUS.*

Cho. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story,

That I may prompt them : and of such as have,

I humbly pray them to admit the excuse

Of time, of numbers, and due course of things,

Which cannot in their huge and proper life

Be here presented. Now we bear the king

Toward Calais : grant him there ; there seen,⁴

Heave him away upon your winged thoughts,

Athwart the sea : Behold, the English beach

Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys,

Whose shouts and claps outvoice the deep-mouth'd sea,

Which, like a mighty whiffler⁵ 'fore the king,

Seems to prepare his way : so let him land ;

And, solemnly, see him set on to London.

So swift a pace hath thought, that even now

You may imagine him upon Blackheath :

Where that his lords desire him, to have borne

His bruised helmet, and his bended sword,

Before him, through the city : he forbids it,

Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride;

Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent,

Quite from himself, to God.⁶ But now behold,

In the quick forge and workinghouse of thought,

How London doth pour out her citizens !

The mayor, and all his brethren, in best sort,—

Like to the senators of the antique Rome,

With the plebeians swarming at their heels,—

Go forth, and fetch their conquering Caesar in :

As, by a lower, but by loving likelihood,

Were now the general of our gracious empress⁸

Domine, *non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam* ; which done, he caused *Te Deum* and certain anthems to be sung, giving laud and praise to God, and not boasting of his own force or any humaine power.—*Holinshed.*

4 'Toward Calais : grant him there ; there seen.' Steevens proposes, in order to complete the metre, that we should read :—

'Toward Calais : grant him there ; there seen *avhile*.'

5 'Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king,

Seems to prepare his way.'

Whifflers were persons going before a great personage or procession, furnished with staves or wands to clear the way. The junior liverymen of the city companies, who walk first in processions, are still called *whifflers*, from the circumstance of their going before.

6 'I. e. transferring all the honours of conquest from himself to God.'

7 i. e. similitude.

8 i. e. the earl of Essex. Shakspeare grounded his anticipation of a such a reception for Essex on his return from Ireland, upon what had already occurred at his setting forth, when he was accompanied by an immense

["518", "KING HENRY V.", "ACT V", "(As, in good time, he may,) from Ireland coming,\nBringing rebellion broached¹ on his sword,\nHow many would the peaceful city quit,\nTo welcome him? much more, and much more\ncause,\nDid they this Harry. Now in London place him ;\n(As yet the lamentation of the French\nInvites the king of England's stay at home :)\nThe emperor's coming² in behalf of France,\nTo order peace between them, we omit,\nAnd all the occurrences, whatever chanc'd,\nTill Harry's back-return again to France ;\nThere must we bring him ; and myself have play'd\nThe interim, by remembering you—'tis past.\nThen brook abridgement ; and your eyes advance\nAfter your thoughts, straight back again to France.\n[Exit.]", "### SCENE I. France. An English Court of Guard.\nEnter FLUELLEN and GOWER.", "Gow. Nay, that's right; but why wear you your leek to-day? Saint Davy's day is past.", "Flu. There are occasions and causes why and wherefore in all things: I will tell you, as my friend, Captain Gower: The rascally, scald, beggarly, lowsy, pragging knave, Pistol,—which you and yourself, and all the 'world, know to be no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits,—he is come to me, and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat my leek: it was in a place where I could not breed no contentions with him; but I will be so bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and then I will tell him a little piece of my desires.", "### Enter PISTOL.", "Gow. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock.", "Flu. 'Tis no matter for his swellings, nor his scurvy-cocks.—Got pless you, ancient Pistol! you scurvy, lowsy knave, Got pless you!", "Pist. Ha! art thou Bedlam? dost thou thirst, base Trojan,\nTo have me fold up Parca's fatal web ?²⁷\nHence! I am qualmish at the smell of leek.", "Flu. I peseech you heartily, scurvy lowsy knave,\nat my desires, and my requests, and my petitions,\nto eat, look you, this leek; because, look you, you\ndo not love it, nor your affections, and your appea-\ntites, and your digestions, does not agree with it, I\nwould desire you to eat it.", "Pist. Not for Cadwallader, and all his goats.\nFlu. There is one goat for you. [Strikes him.]\nWill you be so good, scald knave, as eat it?", "Pist. Base Trojan, thou shall die.", "Flu. You say very true, scald knave, when Got's will is: I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat your victuals; come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes him again.] You called me yesterday mountain-squire; but I will make you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek.", "Gow. Enough, captain; you have astonish'd⁴⁰ him.", "concourse of all ranks, showering blessings upon his\nhead. The continuator of Stowe's Chronicle gives us\na long account of it. But how unfortunately different\nhis return was from what the poet predicted, may be\nseen in the Sydney Papers, vol. ii. p. 137.", "1 *Broached* is spitted, transfixed.", "2 'The emperor's coming.' The Emperor Sigismund, who was married to Henry's second cousin. This passage stands in the following embarrassed and obscure manner in the folio—", "¹ Now in London place him.", "As yet the lamentation of the French", "Invites the king of England's stay at home :", "The emperor's coming in behalf of France,", "To order peace between them : and omit", "All the occurrences, &c.", "The liberty I have taken is to transpose the word and,\nand substitute *ze* in its place.", "3 'To have me fold up Parca's fatal web?' 'Dost thou desire to have me put thee to death?'", "Flu. I say, I will make him eat some part of my\nleek, or I will peat his pate four days:—Pite, I\npray you; it is goot for your green wound, and\nyour plody coxcomb.", "Pist. Must I bite?", "Flu. Yes, certainly; and out of doubt, and out of questions too, and ambiguities.", "Pist. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge; I eat, and eke I swear.⁵—", "Flu. Eat, I pray you: Will you have some more sauce to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by.", "Pist. Quiet my cudgel; thou dost see, I eat.", "Flu. Much goot, do you, scald knave, heartily,\nNay, 'pray you, throw none away; the skin is goot\nfor your proken coxcomb. When you take occa-\nsions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at\nthem! that is all.", "Pist. Good.", "Flu. Ay, leeks is goot:—Hold you, there is a great to heal your pate.", "Pist. Me a groat?", "Flu. Yes, verily, and in truth, you shall take it; or I have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat.", "Pist. I take thy groat, in earnest of revenge.", "Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels; you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels. God be wí' you, and keep you, and heal your pate.\n[Exit.]", "Pist. All hell shall stir for this.", "Gow. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition,—begun upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceased valour,—and dare not avouch in your deeds any of your words? I have seen thy gleeking⁶ and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore handle an English cudgel: you find it otherwise; and, henceforth, let a Welsh correction teach you a good English condition.⁷\nFare you well.\n[Exit.]", "Pist. Doth fortune play the huswifæ⁸ with me now?", "News have I, that my Nell is dead i' the spital", "Of malady of France ;", "And there my rendezvous is quite cut off.", "Old I do wax; and from my weary limbs", "Honour is cudgeld. Well, bawd will I turn,", "And something lean to cut-purse of quick hand,", "To England will I steal, and there I'll steal:", "And patches will I get unto these scars,", "And swear, I got them in the Gallia wars. [Exit.]", "### SCENE II. Troyes in Champagne. An Apartment in the French King's Palace. Enter, at one Door, KING HENRY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and other Lords; at another the French King, QUEEN ISABEL, the PRINCESS KATHARINE, Lords, Ladies, &c. the DUKE of BURGUNDY, and his Train.", "K. Hen. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!¹⁰", "4 Stunned.", "5 'I eat, and eke I swear.' The folio has 'eat I swear.'", "6 *Gleeking* is scoffing, sneering.", "7 i. e. disposition.", "8 *Huswife*, for jilt, or hussy, as we have it still in vulgar speech.", "9 [Exit.] 'The comic scenes of these plays are now at an end, and all the comic personages are now dismissed. Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly are dead; Nym and Bardolph are hanged; Gadshill was lost immediately after the robbery; Poins and Peto have vanished since, one knows not how; and Pistol is now beaten into obscurity. I believe every reader regrets their departure.'—Johnson.", "10 'Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!' Peace, for which we are here met, be this meeting Here, Johnson thought, that the chorus should have been prefixed, and the fifth act begin.", "SCENE", "Unto our", "Health", "To our", "And", "By who", "We do", "And, pru-", "Fr.", "Most w", "So are", "Q. Is", "Of this", "As we", "Your ey", "Against", "The fat", "The ve", "Have lo", "Shall cl", "K. H.", "Q. Is", "Bur", "Great b", "With al", "To brin", "Unto the", "Your m", "Since th", "That, f", "You ha", "If I de", "What n", "Why th", "Dear m", "Should o", "Our for", "Alas!", "And al", "Corруp", "Her vir", "Unprun", "Like pr", "Put for", "The da", "Doth ro", "That sh", {"bbox": [1028, 824, 1064, 839

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY V.

Unto our brother France,—and to our sister,
Health and fair time of day :—joy and good wishes
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine ;
And (as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great assembly is contriv'd,)¹
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy ;—
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all !
Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your
face,

Most worthy brother England; fairly met :—
So are you, princes English, every one.

Q. Isa. Good be the issue, brother England,
Of this good day, and of this gracious meeting,
As we are now glad to behold your eyes;
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
Against the French, that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murdering basilisks:¹
The venom of such looks, we fairly hope,
Have lost their quality; and that this day
Shall change all griefs, and quarrels, into love.

K. Hen. To cry amen to that, thus we appear.

Q. Isa. You English princes all, I do salute you.

Bur. My duty to you both, on equal love,

Great kings of France and strong England! That I have
labour'd

With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours,
To bring your most imperial majesties

Unto this bar² and royal interview,
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness.
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd,
That, face to face, and royal eye to eye,

You have conгрected; let it not disgrace me,
If I demand, before this royal view,

What rub, or what impediment, there is,
Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,

Dear nurse of arts, pieties, and joyful births,
Should not, in this best garden of the world,

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?

Alas! she hath from France too long been chas'd;
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.

Her vine, the merry cherisher of the heart,
Unpruned dies: her hedges even-pleached,—

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair,
Put forth disorder'd twigs: her fallow leas

The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory,

Doth root upon; while that the coulter rusts,
That should deracinate³ such savagery:

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly to
The freckledowslip, burnet, and green clover,

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems,

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs,
Losing both beauty and utility.

And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,
Defective in their natures,⁴ grow to wildness by

Even so our houses, and ourselves, and children,
Have lost, or do not learn, for want of time,

The sciences that should become our country;
But grow, like savages,—as soldiers will,

That nothing do but meditate on blood,—
To swearing and stern looks, diffus'd⁵ attire,

And every thing that seems unnatural.
Which to reduce into our former favour,⁶

You are assembled: and my speech entreats,

That I may know the let, why gentle peace

Should not expel these inconveniences,
And bless us with her former qualities.

K. Hen. If, duke of Burgundy, you would the
peace,

Whose want gives growth to the imperfections
Which you have cited, you must buy that peace

With full accord to all our just demands;

Whose tenours and particular effects

You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands.

Bur. The king hath heard them; to the which,
as yet,

There is no answer made.

K. Hen.

Well then, the peace,
Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer.

Fr. King. I have but with a cursorary eye
O'erglanc'd the articles: pleaseth your grace

To appoint some of your council presently

To sit with us once more, with better heed

To resurvey them, we will, suddenly,

Pass our accept, and peremptory answer.⁷

K. Hen. Brother, we shall.—Go, uncle Exeter,—

And brother Clarence,—and you, brother Gloster,
Warwick—and Huntingdon,⁸—go with the king;

And take with you free power, to ratify,

Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best

Should see advantageable for our dignity,

Any thing in, or out of, our demands;

And we'll consign thereto.—Will you, fair sister,
Go with the princes, or stay here with us?

Q. Isa. Our gracious brother, I will go with them;
Haply, a woman's voice may do some good,

When articles, too nicely urg'd, be stood on.

K. Hen. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here
with us;

She is our capital demand, compris'd

Within the fore-rank of our articles.

Q. Isa. She hath good leave.

[Exeunt all but HENRY, KATHARINE,
and her Gentlewoman.

K. Hen.

Fair Katharine, and most fair!

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms,

Such as will enter at a lady's ear,

And plead his lovesuit to her gentle heart?

Kath. Your majesty shall mock at me; I cannot
speak your England.

K. Hen. O fair Katharine, if you will love me
soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to
hear you confess it brokenly with your English
tongue. Do you like me, Kate?

Kath. Pardonnez moy, I cannot tell vat is—like
me.

K. Hen. An angel is like you, Kate; and you
are like an angel.

Kath. Que dit il ? que je suis semblable à les anges.

Alice. Ouy, vrayment, (sauf vostre grace,) ainsi
dit il.

K. Hen. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must
not blush to affirm it.

Kath. O bon Dieu ! les langues des hommes sont
pleines de tromperies.

K. Hen. What says she, fair one? that the
tongues of men are full of decights?

Alice. Ouy; dat de tongues of de mans is be full
of decights: dat is de princess.

K. Hen. The princess is the better Englishwo-

to wildness; but they were defective in their proper and
favourable nature, which was to bring forth food for man.⁷

5 'Diffused attire.' I have observed, in a note on
The Merry Wives of Windsor, Activ. Sc. 4, that diffuse
was used for obscure, confused. I find, from Florio's
Dictionary, that diffused, or defused, were used for con-
fused. Diffused attire is therefore disordered or dish-
evelled attire.

6 Favour here means comeliness of appearance. We
still say well or ill favoured for well or ill looking.

7 'Pass our accept, and peremptory answer.' To
pass here signifies 'to finish, end, or agree upon the
acceptance which we shall give them, and return our
peremptory answer.'

8 'Huntingdon.' John Holland, earl of Huntingdon,
who afterwards married the widow of Edmund Morti-
mer, earl of March. Neither Huntingdon nor Clarence
are in the list of Dramatis Personæ, as neither of them
speak a word.

1 The basilisk was a serpent which, it was anciently
supposed, could destroy the object of his vengeance by
merely looking at it.

2 'This bar,' that is, this barrier, this place of con-
gress. The Chronicles represent a former interview in
a field near Melun, with a barre or barrier of separation
between the pavilions of the French and English; but
the treaty was then broken off. It was now renewed at
Troyes, but the scene of conference was St. Peter's
church in that town, a place inconvenient for Shak-
speare's action; his editors have therefore laid it in a
palace.

3 To deracinate is to force up by the roots.

4 'Defective in its forces.' It has been proposed
to read nurtures, i. e. culture, as I think, very plaasi-
ly. But Steevens concurs in Upton's opinion, that
change is unnecessary. 'Sua deficient natura: They
were not defective in their crescive nature, for they grew

Act V.
I eat some part of my
ate four days—Pope, 1.
our green wound, and

truth, you shall take it;
my pocket, which you

earned of revenge.
I will pay you in
odmonger, and by no

God be w' you, and
le.
't this.

a counterfeit cowgirl
an ancient tradition—
respect, and won as
decedented valour,—and
ads any of your words
and galling at this ge-
ou thought, because he
in the native garb,
the English cudgel: you
do regest, let a Wosh
good English condition.
[Exei
the huswife' with me

 dead if the spiral

quite cut off.

weary limbs

bawd will I turn,

urse of quick hands,

there'll Steal:

these scars,
the Gallia wars. [Eul

nampagne. An Apert-
Palace. Enter, at one
FORD, GLOSTER, Ex-
MORELAND, and other
rich King, QUEEN LI-
ARINE, Lords, Ladies,
and his Train.

meeting, wherefore we
are.

The follo has 'eat 'l
eg.

us we have it still in rel-
' of these plays are now
eroneages are now dis-
quickly are dead; Nym
shill was lost imme-
and Peto have vanished
Pistol is now been ban-
ner regrets their depar-
tment.

therefore we are met ;
net, to be in this meet-
the chorus should have
begin.

519

## SCENE II.

## KING HENRY V.

521

K. Hen. Nay, it will please him well, Kate; it
shall please him, Kate.

Kath. Den't shall also content me.

K. Hen. Upon that I will kiss your hand, and I
call you, my queen.

Kath. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez: ma
fay, je ne veux point que vous abaissez vostre grand-
deur, en baisant la main d'une vostre indigne servi-
teure; excusez moy, je vous supplie, mon très puissant
seigneur.

K. Hen. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate.

Kath. Les dames, et damoiselles, pour estre baisées
devant leur nopces, il n'est pas le coûtume de
France.

K. Hen. Madam, my interpreter, what says he?

Alice. Dat it is not de fashion *pour les* ladies of
France,—I cannot tell what is, *baiser, en* English.

K. Hen. To kiss.

Alice. Your majesty *entendre* bettre *que* moy.

K. Hen. It is not the fashion for the maids in
France to kiss before they are married, would she
say?

Alice. Ouy, vrayment.

K. Hen. O Kate, nice customs curt'sy to great
kings. Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confined
within the weak list¹ of a country's fashion: we
are the makers of the manners, of the liberty
that follows our places, stops the mouths of all find-
falls; as I will do yours, for upholding the nice
fashion of your country, in denying me a kiss:
therefore, patiently, and yielding. [Kissing her.]
You have witchcraft in your lips, Kate; there is
more eloquence in a sugar touch of them, than in
the tongues of the French council; and they should
prefer persuade Harry of England, than a general
petition of monarchs. Here comes your father.

### Enter the French King and Queen, BURGUNDY, BEDFORD, GLOSTER, EXETER, WESTMORELAND, and other French and English Lords.

Bur. God save your majesty! my royal cousin,
teach you your princess English?

K. Hen. I would have her learn, my fair cousin,
how perfectly I love her; and that is good English.

Bur. Is she not apt?

K. Hen. Our tongue is rough, coz; and my con-
dition is not smooth: so that, having neither
the voice nor the heart of flattery about me, I cannot so
conjure up the spirit of love in her, that he will ap-
pear in his true likeness.

Bur. Pardon the frankness of my birth, if I
answer you for that. If you would conjure in her,
you must make a circle: if conjure up love in her
in his true likeness, he must appear naked, and
blind; Can you blame her then, being a maid yet
rosed over with the virgin crimson of modesty, if
she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy in
her naked seeing self? It were, my lord, a hard
condition for a maid to consign to.

K. Hen. Yet they do wink, and yield; as love is
blind, and enforces.

Bur. They are then excused, my lord, when they
see not what they do.

K. Hen. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin
to consent to winking.

Bur. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if
you will teach her to know my meaning: for maids,
well summered and warm kept, are like flies at
Bartholomew-tide, blind, though they have their
eyes; and then they will endure handling, which
before would not abide looking on.

K. Hen. This moral² ties me over to time, and
a hot summer; and so I will catch the fly, your
cousin, in the latter end, and she must be blind too.

1. i. e. slight barrier.

2 A moral is the *meaning* or application of a fable.

3 'Yes, my lord, you see them respectively, the
cities turned into a maid.' See note on Twelfth Night,
Act v. Sc. 1.

4 *Præcarissimus* for *Præcarissimus*. Shakspere
followed Holinshed, in whose Chronicle it stands thus.
Indeed all the old historians have the same blunder. In

Bur. As love is, my lord, before it loves.

K. Hen. It is so: and you may, some of you,
thank love for my blindness; who cannot see many
a fair French city, for one fair French maid that
stands in my way.

Fr. King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspec-
tively, the cities turned into a maid;³ for they are
all girdled with maiden walls, that war hath never
entered.

K. Hen. Shall Kate be my wife?

Fr. King. So please you.

K. Hen. I am content; so the maiden cities you
talk of, may wait on her: so the maid, that stood
in the way of my wish, shall show me the way to
my will.

Fr. King. We have consented to all terms of
reason.

K. Hen. Is't so, my lords of England?

West. The king hath granted every article:
His daughter, first; and then, in sequel, all,
According to their firm proposed natures.

Exe. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this:—
Where your majesty demands,—That the king of
France, having any occasion to write for matter of
form, shall name your highness in this form, and
with this addition, in French,—Notre très cher fil
Henry roy d'Angleterre, héritér de France; and thus
in Latin,—Præcarissimus* filius noster Henricus,
rex Angliæ, et hæres Franciæ.

Fr. King. Nor this I have not, brother, so de-
nied.

But your request shall make me let it pass.

K. Hen. I pray you then, in love and dear alli-
ance,

Let that one article rank with the rest;

And, thereupon, give me your daughter.

Fr. King. Take her, fair son; and from her blood
raise up

Issue to me: that the contending kingdoms
Of France and England, whose very shores look
pale

With envy of each other's happiness,

May cease their hatred: and this dear conjunc-
tion

tion

Plant neighbourhood and christianlike accord

In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance

His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France.

All. Amen!

K. Hen. Now welcome, Kate:—and bear me
witness all,

That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen.

[Flourish.]

Q. Isa. God, the best maker of all marriages,
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one!
As man and wife, being two, are one in love,
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal,
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy,
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage,
Thrust in between the paction of these king-
doms,

To make divorce of their incorporate league;

That English may as French, French Englishmen
Receive each other!—God speak this Amen!

All. Amen!

K. Hen. Prepare we for our marriage:—on
which day,

My lord of Burgundy, we'll take your oath,

And all the peers', for surety of our leagues.—

Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me;

And may our oaths well kept and prop'srous be!

[Exeunt.]

### Enter CHORUS.

Thus far, with rough, and all unable pen,

Our bending² author hath pursu'd the story;

the original treaty of Troyes, printed in Rymer, it is
*præcarissimus*.

5 'Our bending author.' That is, unequal to the
weight of his subject, and *bending* beneath it. Thus
Milton, in his Apology for Smeatymnus, speaking of Bi-
shop Hall:—'In a strain as pleeful—manifested a pre-
sumptuous undertaking with weak and unexamined
shoulders.'

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