Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes,
That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet fpeak, Morton;
Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies;

And I will take it as a sweet difgrace,
And make thee rich for doing me
me fuch wrong.

MOR. You are too great to be by me gainsaid: Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

2

NORTH. Yet, for all this, fay not that Percy's dead.3

I see a strange confeffion in thine eye:

Thou fhak'it thy head; and hold'ft it fear, or fin,4

Your Spirit-] The impreffion upon your mind, by which you conceive the death of your fon.

JOHNSON.

3 Yet, for all this, fay not &c.] The contradiction, in the first part of this fpeech might be imputed to the distraction of Northumberland's mind; but the calmnefs of the reflection, contained in the last lines, feems not much to countenance fuch a fuppofition. I will venture to distribute this passage in a manner which will, I hope, feem more commodious; but do not wish the reader to forget, that the most commodious is not always the true reading:

Bard. Yet, for all this, fay not that Percy's dead.
North. I fee a frange confeffion in thine eye,
Thou Shak'ft thy head, and hold ft it fear, or fin,
To Speak a truth. If he be flain, fay fo:
The tongue offends not, that reports his death;
And he doth fin, that doth belie the dead;

Not he, which fays the dead is not alive.

Mor. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a lofing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,

Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

Here is a natural interpofition of Bardolph at the beginning, who is not pleafed to hear his news confuted, and a proper preparation of Morton for the tale which he is unwilling to tell.

4 hold'ft it fear, or fin,] Fear for danger.

JOHNSON.

;

To speak a truth. If he be flain, say so:5
The tongue offends not, that reports his death;
And he doth fin, that doth belie the dead
Not he, which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a lofing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,
Remember'd knolling a departing friend."

BARD. I cannot think, my lord, your fon is dead.
MOR. I am forry, I fhould force you to believe
That, which I would to heaven I had not feen:
But these mine eyes faw him in bloody ftate,
Rend'ring faint quittance,

breath'd,

wearied and out

S If he be fain, fay fo:] The words fay fo are in the firft folio, but not in the quarto: they are neceffary to the verfe, but the fense proceeds as well without them. JOHNSON.

• Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,

Remember'd knolling a departing friend.] So, in our au thor's 71ft Sonnet :

66

you fhall hear the furly fullen bell

"Give warning to the world that I am fled." This fignificant epithet has been adopted by Milton : "I hear the far-off curfew found, "Over fome wide water'd fhore

Swinging flow with fullen roar."

Departing, I believe, is here used for departed. MALONE.

I cannot concur in this fuppofition. The bell, anciently, was rung before expiration, and thence was called the paffing bell, i. e. the bell that folicited prayers for the foul passing into another world. STEEVENS.

I am inclined to think that this bell might have been originally ufed to drive away demons who were watching to take poffeffion of the foul of the deceased. In the cuts to fome of the old fervice books which contain the Vigilia mortuorum, feveral devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of a dying man, to whom the priest is adminiftering extreme unction. DOUCE.

7 faint quittance,] Quittance is return. By faint

To Harry Monmouth; whofe fwift wrath beat down
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

From whence with life he never more sprung up.
In few, his death (whofe fpirit lent a fire
Even to the dulleft peafant in his camp,)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the beft temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, all the reft
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 Hotfpur's lofs,
Lend to this weight fuch lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not fwifter toward their aim,
Than did our foldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: Then was that noble Worcester
Too foon ta'en prifoner and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whofe well-labouring fword
Had three times flain the appearance of the king,
'Gan vail his ftomach, and did grace the fhame

quittance is meant a faint return of blows. So, in King Henry V:

We fhall forget the office of our hand,
"Sooner than quittance of defert and merit.”

8 For from his metal was his party feel'd;

STEEVENS.

Which once in him abated,] Abated is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied to a fingle edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON.

9 'Gan vail his ftomach, Began to fall his courage, to let his spirits fink under his fortune. JOHNSON.

From avaller, Fr. to caft down, or to let fall down.

MALONE.

This phrafe has already appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, Vol. IX. p. 194;

Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The fum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath fent out
A fpeedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Weftmoreland: this is the news at full.
NORTH. For this I fhall have time enough to

mourn.

In poison there is phyfick; and thefe news, Having been well, that would have made me fick,' Being fick, have in fome measure made me well: And as the wretch, whofe 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 fo my limbs, Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief, Are thrice themselves :3 hence therefore, thou nice 4

crutch;

"Then vail your ftomachs, for it is no boot;

"And place your hands below your husbands' foot."

REED.

Thus, to vail the bonnet is to pull it off. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

"And make the king vail bonnet to us both." To vail a ftaff, is to let it fall in token of refpect. Thus, in the fame play:

"And for the ancient custom of vail-ftaff,

Keep it ftill claim thou privilege from me :
"If any afk a reason, why? or how?

"Say, English Edward vail'd his fiaff to you."
STEEVENS.

See Vol. VII. p. 235, n. 1.

I Having been well, that that would, had I been well,

2

3

would have made me fick,] i. e. have made me fick. MALONE,

-buckle-] Bend; yield to preffure. JOHNSON.

even fo my limbs,

Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,

Are thrice themfelves:] As Northumberland is here comparing himself to a perfon, who, though his joints are weakened

A fcaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel, Muft glove this hand and hence, thou fickly quoif;

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,

Which princes, flefh'd with conqueft, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; And approach
The ragged'ft hour 5 that time and spite dare bring,

by a bodily disorder, derives strength from the distemper of the mind, I formerly proposed to read "Weakened with age," or, "Weakened with pain."

When a word is repeated, without propriety, in the fame or two fucceeding lines, there is great reafon to fufpect fome corruption. Thus, in this fcene, in the first folio, we have "able heels," instead of "armed heels," in confequence of the word able having occurred in the preceding line. So, in Hamlet: Thy news fhall be the news," &c. instead of "Thy news fhall be the fruit." Again, in Macbeth, inftead of" Whom we, to gain our place," &c. we find

"

Whom we, to gain our peace, have fent to peace."

In this conjecture I had once fome confidence; but it is much diminished by the fubfequent note, and by my having lately obferved that Shakspeare elsewhere ufes grief for bodily pain. Falstaff, in King Henry IV. Part I. p. 406, fpeaks of "the grief of a wound." Grief, in the latter part of this line, is ufed in its prefent fenfe, for forrow; in the former part for bodily pain. MALONE.

Grief, in ancient language, fignifies bodily pain, as well as forrow. So, in A Treatife of fundrie Difeafes, &c. by T. T. 1591: "he being at that time griped fore, and having grief in his lower bellie." Dolor ventris is, by our old writers, frequently tranflated "grief of the guts." I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

4 nice] i. e. trifling. So, in Julius Cæfar :

"That every nice offence fhould bear his comments." STEEVENS.

5 The ragged'ft hour-] Mr. Theobald and the fubfequent editors read-The rugged ft. But change is unneceffary, the expreffion in the text being used more than once by our author. In As you like it, Amiens fays, his voice is ragged; and rag is employed as a term of reproach in The Merry Wives of Windfor,