Lives fo in hope, as in an early fpring

We fee the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not fo much warrant, as despair,

That frofts will bite them. When we mean to build,5
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we fee the figure of the houfe,
Then muft we rate the coft of the erection :
Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at leaft, defift

To build at all? Much more, in this great work, (Which is, almoft, to pluck a kingdom down, And fet another up,) should we furvey ↑

The plot of fituation, and the model ;
Confent upon a fure foundation; 7

This paffage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a flight alteration will, I apprehend, reftore the true reading:

Yes, if this prefent quality of war,
Induc'd the inftant action. HENLEY.

Mr. M. Mason has proposed the fame reading. STEEVENS. -in this prefent quality of war;] This and the following nineteen lines appeared firft in the folio. That copy reads:

Yes, if this prefent &c.

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is loft; but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it makes fenfe. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to fay, " Indeed the present action (our caufe being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to fay, in general, that all causes once on foot afford no hopes that may fecurely be relied on; which is certainly not true. MALONE.

5 When we mean to build,] Whoever compares the rest of this speech with St. Luke, xiv. 28, &c. will find the former to have been wrought out of the latter. HENLEY.

at leaft,] Perhaps we should read-at laft.

7 Consent upon a fure foundation ;] i. e. agree. So, in As

Question furveyors; know our own eftate,
How able fuch a work to undergo,

To weigh againft his oppofite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,

Ufing the names of men, inftead 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 coft
A naked fubject to the weeping clouds,
And wafte for churlish winter's tyranny.

HAST. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair
birth,)

Should be ftill-born, and that we now poffefs'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 fo much, lord Bardolph.

For his divifions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,8 And one against Glendower; perforce, a third Muft take up us: So is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers found

With hollow poverty and emptiness.

ARCH. That he should draw his feveral ftrengths together,

1

you like it, A& V. fc.i: For all your writers do consent that ipfe is he." Again, ibid. fc. ii: "-confent with both, that we may enjoy each other." STEEVENS.

8

one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower, See Holinfhed, p. 531.

STEEVENS.

And come against us in full puiffance,

Need not be dreaded.

HAST.

If he should do fo,9

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

BARD. Who, is it like, fhould lead his forces hither?

HAST. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland: 1

I

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is fubftituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

9 If he should do fo,] This paffage is read, in the first edition, thus If he should do fo, French and Welfh he leaves his back unarmed, they baying him at the heels, never fear that. These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to fhow what errors may be fufpected to remain. JOHNSON.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was the omiffion of the word to:

To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd,
They baying him at the heels: never fear that.

MALONE.

The duke of Lancaster, &c.] This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the fecond year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V. MALONE.

This mistake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true, that " King Henry IV. was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done fo from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him in full parliament. Rot. Parl. 111, 428, 532. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who, fpeaking of Henry's firft parliament, fays, "then the King rofe, and made his eldest fon Prince of Wales, &c. his fecond fonne was there made Duke of Lancaster." Annales, 1631, p. 323. He should therefore seem to have confulted this author between the times of finishing the laft play, and beginning the prefent. RITSON.

ARCH.

Let us on; 2

And publish the occafion of our arms.

The commonwealth is fick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath furfeited :-
An habitation giddy and unfure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many !3 with what loud applause
Didft thou beat heaven with bleffing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'st have him be?
And being now trimm'd in thine own defires,+
Thou, beaftly feeder, art fo full of him,
That thou provok❜ft thyself to caft him up.
So, fo, thou common dog, didft thou difgorge
Thy glutton bofom of the royal Richard;

And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'ft to find it. What truft is in these

They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:

Thou, that threw'ft duft upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came fighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'ft now, O earth, yield us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurft!
Paft, and to come, seem beft; things prefent, worst.

2

Let us on; &c.] This excellent fpeech of York was one of the paffages added by Shakspeare after his first edition. POPE. This speech first appeared in the folio. MALONE.

3 O thou fond many!] Many or meyny, from the French mefnie, a multitude. DOUCE.

4

in thine own defires,] The latter word is employed here as a trifyllable. MALONE.

I do not perceive that a trifyllable is wanted on this occafion, as any diffyllable will complete the verfe; for inftance:

And being now trimm'd in thine own furtout.

Defires, like furtout, is a word of two fyllables. STEEVENS.

MowB. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set

on?

HAST. We are time's fubjects, and time bids be

gone.

[Exeunt.

АСТ II. SCENE I.

London. A Street.

Enter Hoftefs; FANG, and his Boy, with her; and SNARE following.

HOST. Master Fang, have you entered the action? FANG. It is entered.

HOST. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lufty yeoman? will a' ftand to't?

FANG. Sirrah, where's Snare?

Host. O lord, ay: good mafter Snare.

SNARE. Here, here.

FANG. Snare, we must arreft fir John Falstaff.

HOST. Yea, good mafter Snare; I have entered him and all.

SNARE. It may chance coft fome of us our lives, for he will ftab.

HOST. Alas the day! take heed of him; he ftabbed me in mine own houfe, and that most beastly: in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth,

5 Where is your yeoman?] A bailiff's follower was, in our author's time, called a ferjeant's yeoman. MALONE.