Whereon, as an offender to your father,

commanded the prince vpon his alegeance, to leave the prisoner, and depart his way. With which commandment the prince being fet all in a fury, all chafed and in a terrible maner, came vp to the place of iugement, men thynking that he wold haue flayne the iuge, or haue done to hym fome damage: but the iuge fittynge ftyll without mouing, declaring the maieftie of the kynges place of iugement, and with an affured and bolde countenaunce, had to the prince, these wordes followyng,

"Syr, remembre yourselfe, I kepe here the place of the kyng your foueraine lorde and father, to whom ye owe double obedience: wherfore eftfoones in his name, I charge you defyste of your wylfulnes and vnlaufull enterprise, & from hensforth giue good example to those, whyche hereafter shall be your propre fubjectes. And nowe, for your contempte and disobedience, go you to the pryfone of the kynges benche, wherevnto I commytte you, and remayne ye there pryfoner vntyll the pleasure of the kynge your father be further knowen."

"With whiche wordes being abashed, and also wondrynge at the meruaylous gravitie of that worthypfulle juftyce, the noble prince layinge his weapon aparte, doying reuerence, departed, and wente to the kynges benche, as he was commanded. Wherat his fervauntes difdaynynge, came and fhewed to the kynge all the hole affaire. Whereat he awhyles ftudyenge, after as a man all rauyfhed with gladnes, holdynge his eien and handes vp towarde heuen, abraided, faying with a loude voice, 'O mercifull God, howe moche am I, aboue all other men, bounde to your infinite goodnes, specially for that ye haue gyuen me a iuge, who feareth nat to minifter iuftyce, and also a fonne, who can fuffre femblably, and obeye iuftyce!"

And here it may be noted, that Shakspeare has deviated from history in bringing the Chief Justice and Henry V. together, for it is exprefsly faid by Fuller, in his Worthies of Yorkshire, and that on the best authority, that Gascoigne died in the life-time of his father, viz. on the first day of November, 14 Henry IV. See Dugd. Origines Juridic. in the Chronica Series, fol. 54, 56. Neither is it to be prefumed but that this laboured defence of his conduct is a fiction of the poet and it may juftly be inferred from the character of this very able lawyer, whofe name frequently occurs in the year-book of his time, that, having had spirit and refolution to vindicate the authority of the law, in the punishment of the prince, he disdained a formal apology for an act that is recorded to his honour. SIR J. HAWKINS,

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 fon fet your decrees at nought;
To pluck down juftice from your awful bench;
To trip the course of law," and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of
your perfon:
Nay, more; to spurn at your moft royal image,

In the foregoing account of this tranfaction, there is no mention of the Prince's having ftruck Gafcoigne, the Chief Juftice. Holinfhed, however, whom our author copied, speaking of the "wanton paftime" in which Prince Henry paffed his youth, fays, that where on a time hee ftroke the chiefe juftice on the face with his fifte, for emprisoning one of his mates, he was not only committed to straighte prison himselfe by the fayde chief juftice, but also of his father put out of the privie counsell and banifhed the courte." Holinfhed has here followed Hall. author (as an anonymous writer has obferved) [Mr. Ritfon] might have found the fame circumstance in the old play of King Henry V.

Our

With refpect to the anachronism, Sir William Gascoigne certainly died before the acceffion of Henry V. to the throne, as appears from the infcription which was once legible on his tombftone, in Harwood church, in Yorkshire, and was as follows: "Hic jacet Wil'mus Gafcoigne, nuper capit. juftic. de banco, Hen. nuper regis Angliæ quarti, qui quidem Wil'mus ob. die domi'ca 17.a die Decembris. an dom. 1412, 14.to Henrici quarti. factus index, 1401." See Gent. Magazine, Vol. LI. p. 624.

Shakspeare, however, might have been misled on the authority of Stowe, who in a marginal note, 1 Henry V. erroneously afferts that "William Gafcoigne was chief juftice of the Kings Bench from the fixt of Henry IV. to the third of Henry the Fift:" or, (which is full as probable,) Shakspeare might have been careless about the matter. MALONE.

To trip the course of law,] To defeat the process of justice; a metaphor taken from the act of tripping a runner.

So, in Hamlet:

JOHNSON.

"Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven."

STEEVENS,

And mock your workings in a second body.8
Question your royal thoughts, make the cafe yours;
Be now the father, and propose a fon: 9
Hear your own dignity fo much profan'd,
See your moft dreadful laws fo loosely flighted,
Behold yourself so by a fon difdained;
And then imagine me taking your part,
And, in your power, foft filencing your fon:
After this cold confiderance, sentence me;
And, as you are a king, speak in your ftate,'-
What I have done, that misbecame my place,
My perfon, or my liege's fovereignty.

KING. You are right, justice, and you weigh this

well;

Therefore ftill bear the balance, and the fword:
And I do with your honours may increase,
Till you do live to fee a fon of mine
Offend you, and obey you, as I did.
So fhall I live to speak my father's words;-
Happy am I, that have a man fo bold,
That dares do juftice on my proper fon :
And not lefs happy, having fuch a fon,
That would deliver up his greatness fo
Into the hands of justice.-You did commit me:

8 And mock your workings in a fecond body.] To treat with contempt your acts executed by a representative. JOHNSON. 9 and propofe a fon :] i. e. image to yourself a fon, contrive for a moment to think you have one. So, in Titus Andronicus:

I

a thousand deaths I could propose." STEEVENS. in your ftate,] In your regal character and office, not with the paffion of a man interested, but with the impartiality of a legislator. JOHNSON.

2

You did commit me: &c.] So, in the play on this fubject, antecedent to that of Shakspeare:

mine ear;

For which, I do commit into your hand
The unstained fword that you have us'd to bear;
With this remembrance,3-That you use the fame
With the like bold, juft, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand;
You fhall be as a father to my youth:
My voice fhall found as you do prompt
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practis'd, wife directions.-
And, princes all, believe me, I beseech
My father is gone wild4 into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his fpirit fadly I furvive,5

3

you ;

"You fent me to the Fleet; and for revengement,
"I have chosen you to be the protector

"Over my realm." STEEVENS.

▪remembrance,] That is, admonition. JOHNSON.

4 My father is gone wild-] Mr. Pope, by fubftituting wail'd for wild, without fufficient confideration, afforded Mr. Theobald much matter of oftentatious triumph. JOHNSON.

The meaning is-My wild difpofitions having ceafed on my father's death, and being now as it were buried in his tomb, he and wildness are interred in the fame grave.

A paffage in King Henry V. A&I. fc. i. very strongly confirms this interpretation:

"The courses of his youth promis'd it not:
"The breath no fooner left his father's body,
"But that his wildness, mortified in him,
"Seem'd to die too."

So, in King Henry VIII:

"And when old time fhall lead him to his end,

Goodness, and he, fill up one monument."

A kindred thought is found in The Two Gentlemen of Verona: "And fo fuppofe am I; for in his grave

"Affure thyfelf my love is buried." MALONE.

5 with his fpirit fadly I furvive,] Sadly is the fame as foberly, seriously, gravely. Sad is opposed to wild. JOHNSON. The quarto and first folio have fpirits. The correction was made by the editor of the third folio. MALONE.

To mock the expectation of the world;
To fruftrate prophecies; and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my feeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, till now:
Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the fea;
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,"
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of parliament:
And let us choofe fuch limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our ftate may go

In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be

6 the ftate of floods,] i. e. the affembly, or general meeting of the floods: for all rivers, running to the fea, are there represented as holding their feffions. This thought naturally introduced the following:

"Now call we our high court of parliament."

But the Oxford editor, much a stranger to the phraseology of that time in general, and to his author's in particular, out of mere lofs for his meaning, reads it backwards, the floods of State. WARBURTON.

The objection to Warburton's explanation is, that the word ftate, in the fingular, does not imply the fense he contends for: we fay an affembly of the States, not of the state. I believe we muft either adopt Hanmer's amendment, or fuppofe that State means dignity; and that, “to mingle with the state of floods," is to partake of the dignity of floods. I fhould prefer the amendment to this interpretation. M. MASON.

I prefer the interpretation to the amendment. State moft evidently means dignity. So, in The Tempest:

Higheft queen of ftate,

"Great Juno comes.'

STEEVENS.

with the fate of floods,] With the majeftick dignity of the ocean, the chief of floods. So before, in this fcene:

"And, as you are a king, speak in your state,—.” State and eftate, however, were used in our author's time for a person of high dignity, and may in that sense be applied to the fea, fuppofing it to be perfonified. MALONE.