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And of so easy and so plain a stop°,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it. But what need I thus
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',
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,

6 so easy and so plain a STOP,] The stops are the holes in a flute or pipe. So, in Hamlet: "Govern these ventages with your finger and thumb:-Look you, these are the stops." Again: "You would seem to know my stops." STEEVENS.

7 And this worm-eaten HOLD of ragged stone,] The old copies read-"worm-eaten hole." MALONE.

Northumberland had retired and fortified himself in his castle, a place of strength in those times, though the building might be impaired by its antiquity; and, therefore, I believe our poet

wrote:

"And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone." THEOBALD. Theobald is certainly right. So, in The Wars of Cyrus, &c. 1594:

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Besieg'd his fortress with his men at arms,

"Where only I and that Libanio stay'd

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'By whom I live. For when the hold was lost," &c.

Again, in King Henry VI. Part III. :

"She is hard by with twenty thousand men,

"And therefore fortify your hold, my lord." STEEVENS.

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.

[Exit.

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY IV.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The Same.

The Porter before the Gate; Enter Lord BAR

DOLPH.

BARD. Who keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is

the earl?

PORT. What shall I say you are?

Tell thou the earl,

BARD.
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.

BARD.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Here comes the earl.

NORTH. What news, lord Bardolph ? every mi

nute now

8

Should be the father of some stratagem":

The times are wild; contention, like a horse

8 — Some STRATAGEM :] Some stratagem means here some great, important, or dreadful event. So, in The Third Part of King Henry VI, the father who had killed his son says:

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O pity, God! this miserable age!

"What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly!

"This mortal quarrel daily doth beget!" M. MASON.

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,
And 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 Cæsar'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,

Out-rode me.

After him, came spurring hard,

A gentleman almost forspent with speed, ted

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 1
Against the panting sides of his poorjade 2
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting so,
He seem'd in running to devour the way1,
Staying no longer question.

9

-

1

FORSPENT with speed,] To forspend is to wasle, to exhaust. So, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of Lucan, b. vii. : crabbed sires forspent with age." STEEVENS. I -ARMED heels -] Thus the quarto 1600. The folio, 1623, reads "able heels ; " the modern editors, without authority-" agile heels." STEEVENS.

2

- poor jade] Poor jade is used, not in contempt, but in compassion. Poor jade means the horse wearied with his journey. Jade, however, seems anciently to have signified what we now call a hackney; a beast employed in drudgery, opposed to a horse kept for show, or to be rid by its master. So, in a comedy called A Knack to know a Knave, 1594:`

"Besides, I'll give you the keeping of a dozen jades,

"And now and then meat for you and your horse." This is said by a farmer to a courtier. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare, however, (as Mr. Steevens has observed,) certainly does not use the word as a term of contempt; for King Richard the Second gives this appellation to his favourite horse Roan Barbary, on which Henry the Fourth rode at his coronation :

3

"That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand."

MALONE. rowel-head;] I think that I have observed in old prints the rowel of those times to have been only a single spike. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson had either forgotten the precise meaning of the word rowel, or has made choice of inaccurate language in applying it to the single spiked spur, which he had seen in old prints. The former signifies the moveable spiked wheel at the end of a spur, such as was actually used in the time of Henry the Fourth, and long before the other was laid aside. Shakspeare certainly meant the spur of his own time. DOUCE.

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