To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kifs earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a ftage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the firft-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courfes, the rude scene may end,
And darknefs be the burier of the dead! 6

TRA. This strained paffion doth you wrong, my

lord.

and in Timon of Athens. See alfo the Epiftle prefixed to Spenfer's Shepherd's Calender, 1579: -as thinking them fitteft for the ruftical rudeness of thepheards, either for that their rough found would make his rimes more ragged, and ruftical," &c. The modern editors of Spenfer might here fubftitute the word rugged with juft as much propriety as it has been substituted in the prefent paffage, or in that in As you like it. See Vol. VIII. p. 59, n. 7.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece :

Thy fecret pleasure turns to open shame,→
Thy fmoothing titles to a ragged name."

Again, in our poet's eighth Sonnet:

"Then let not Winter's ragged hand deface
"In thee thy fummer."

Again, in the play before us :

MALONE.

"A ragged and fore-stall'd remiffion." And darknefs be the burier of the dead!] The conclufion of this noble fpeech is extremely ftriking. There is no need to fuppofe it exactly philofophical; darkness, in poetry, may be ab fence 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 fublunary nature would cease. JOHNSON.

7 This trained paffion] This line, in the quarto, where alone it is found, is given to Umfrevile, who, as Mr. Steevens has obferved, is spoken of in this very scene as abfent. It was on this ground probably rejected by the player-editors. It is now, on the fuggeftion of Mr. Steevens, attributed to Travers, who is prefent, and yet (as that gentleman has remarked) "is made to fay nothing on this interefting occafion." MALONE.

BARD. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your

honour.

MOR. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To stormy paffion, muft perforce decay, You caft the event of war, my noble lord,

And fumm'd the account of chance, before you faid,

Let us make head. It was your presurmise,
That, in the dole of blows your fon might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er :'
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable2

I

3 You caft the event of war, &c.] The fourteen lines, from hence to Bardolph's next speech, are not to be found in the first editions, till that in the folio of 1623. A very great number of other lines in this play were inferted after the first edition in like manner, but of fuch fpirit and maftery generally, that the infertions are plainly by Shakspeare himself. POPE.

To this note I have nothing to add, but that the editor speaks of more editions than I believe him to have seen, there having been but one edition yet discovered by me that precedes the first folio. JOHNSON.

9 — in the dole of blows] The dole of blows is the diftribution of blows. Dole originally fignified the portion of alms (confifting either of meat or money) that was given away at the door of a nobleman. See Vol. XI. p. 256, n. 1.

STEEVENS.

You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:] So, in King

Henry IV. Part I:

"As full of peril and adventurous spirit,

"As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud,

"On the unsteadfast footing of a fpear." MALOne.

2 You were advis'd, his flesh was capable-] i. e. you knew.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"How fhall I doat on her with more advice-."

i. e. on further knowledge. MALONE.

Of wounds, and fears; and that his forward fpirit
Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you fay,-Go forth; and none of this,
Though ftrongly apprehended, could restrain
The ftiff-borne action: What hath then befallen,
Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
More than that being which was like to be?

BARD. We all, that are engaged to this lofs,3
Knew that we ventur'd on fuch dangerous feas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And, fince we are o'erfet, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods.

MOR. 'Tis more than time: And, my most noble

lord,

I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,-
The gentle archbishop of York is up,4
With well-appointed powers; he is a man,
Who with a double furety binds his followers.

Thus alfo, Thomas Twyne, the continuator of Phaer's tranfla tion of Virgil, 1584, for haud infcius, has advis'd:

"He fpake: and strait the sword advisde into his throat receives." STEEVENS.

3 We all, that are engaged to this lofs,] We have a similar phraseology in the preceding play :

"Hath a more worthy intereft to the state,

"Than thou the fhadow of fucceffion." MALONE.

The gentle &c.] Thefe one-and-twenty lines were added fince the first edition. JOHNSON.

This and the following twenty lines are not found in the quarto, 1600, either from fome inadvertence of the transcriber or compofitor, or from the printer not having been able to procure a perfect copy. They first appeared in the folio, 1623; but it is manifeft that they were written at the fame time with the rest of the play, Northumberland's anfwer referring to them.

MALONE,

My lord your fon had only but the corps,
But fhadows, and the fhows of men, to fight:
For that fame word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their fouls;
And they did fight with queafiness, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our fide, but, for their spirits and fouls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Turns infurrection to religion:

Suppos'd fincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rifing with the blood
Of fair king Richard, fcrap'd from Pomfret ftones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his cause;
Tells them, he doth beftride a bleeding land,5
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
And more, and lefs, do flock to follow him.

NORTH. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,

This prefent grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me; and counsel every man
The apteft way for fafety, and revenge:
Get pofts, and letters, and make friends with speed;
Never fo few, and never yet more need. [Exeunt.

5 Tells them, he doth beftride a bleeding land,] That is, ftands over his country to defend her as the lies bleeding on the ground. So Falstaff before fays to the Prince, If thou fee me down, Hal, and beftrideme, fo; it is an office of friendship.

JOHNSON.

• And more, and lefs,] More and less, mean greater and lefs. So, in Macbeth:

"Both more and less have given him the revolt."

STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

London. A Street.

Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, with his Page bearing his Sword and Buckler.

FAL. Sirrah, you giant, what fays the doctor to my water?"

PAGE. He faid, fir, the water itfelf was a good healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he might have more difeafes than he knew for.

7 what fays the doctor to my water?] The method of investigating difcafes by the infpection of urine only, was once fo much the fashion, that Linacre, the founder of the College of Phyficians, formed a statute to reftrain apothecaries from carrying the water of their patients to a doctor, and afterwards giving medicines, in confequence of the opinions they received concerning it. This ftatute was, foon after, followed by another, which forbade the doctors themselves to pronounce on any diforder from fuch an uncertain diagnostic.

John Day, the author of a comedy called Law Tricks, or Who would have thought it? 1608, defcribes an apothecary thus: "his houfe is fet round with patients twice or thrice a day, and because they'll be fure not to want drink, every one brings his own water in an urinal with him."

Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornful Lady:

"I'll make her cry fo much, that the physician,
"If the fall fick upon it, fhall want urine
"To find the cause by."

It will fcarcely be believed hereafter, that in the years 1775 and 1776, a German, who had been a fervant in a public riding-school, (from which he was discharged for infufficiency,) revived this exploded practice of water-cafting. After he had amply increased the bills of mortality, and been publicly hung up to the ridicule of those who had too much fenfe to confult him, as a monument of the folly of his patients, he retired with a princely fortune, and perhaps is now indulging a hearty laugh at the expence of English credulity. STEEVENS.