P. Hen. But how shall we part with them in setting forth?

Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves: which they shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.

P. Hen. Ay, but, 'tis like, that they will know us, by our horses, by our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.

Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see, I 'll tie them in the wood; our visors we will change, after we leave them; and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted outward garments.

P. Hen. But, I doubt, they will be too hard for us. Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us, when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and, in the reproof of this, lies the jest.

P. Hen. Well, I'll go with thee; provide us all things necessary, and meet me to-morrow nights in Eastcheap, there I'll sup. Farewel.

5

sirrah,] Sirrah, in our author's time, as appears from this and many other passages, was not a word of disrespect.

Malone.

It is scarcely used as a term of respect, when addressed by the king to Hotspur, p. 181. Steevens.

6-for the nonce,] That is, as I concieve, for the occasion. This phrase, which was very frequently, though not always very precisely, used by our old writers, I suppose to have been originally a corruption of corrupt Latin. From pro-nunc, I suppose, came for the nunc, and so for the nonce, just as from ad-nunc came The Spanish entonces has been formed in the same manner from in-tunc. Tyrwhitt.

a-non.

For the nonce is an expression in daily use amongst the common people in Suffolk, to signify on purpose; for the turn. Henley.

7

8

reproof-] Reproof is confutation. Johnson.

-to-morrow night-] I think we should read-to-night. The disguises were to be provided for the purpose of the robbery, which was to be committed at four in the morning; and they Poins. Farewel, my lord.

[Exit POINS.

P. Hen. I know you all, and will a while uphold
The unyok'd humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun;

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him.1
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,2
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;3

would come too late if the Prince was not to receive them till the night after the day of the exploit. This is a second instance to prove that Shakspeare could forget in the end of a scene what he had said in the beginning. Steevens.

9 Who doth permit the base contagious clouds &c.] So, in our author's 33d Sonnet:

1

"Full many a glorious morning have I seen

"Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,-
"Anon permit the basest clouds to ride

"With ugly rack on his celestial face." Malone.

vapours, that did seem to strangle him.] So, in Macbeth : " And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp."

2 If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

Steevens.

But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,] So, in our

author's 52d Sonnet:

3

"Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare,
"Since seldom coming, in the long year set,
"Like stones of worth they thinly placed are,
"Or captain jewels in the carkanet." Malone.

shall I falsify men's hopes;] To falsify hope is to exceed

hope, to give much where men hoped for little.

This speech is very artfully introduced to keep the Prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience; it prepares them for his future reformation; and, what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself,

And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time, when men think least I will. [Exit.

SCENE III.

The same. Another Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR, Sir WALTER Blunt, and Others.

K. Hen. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities, And you have found me; for, accordingly, You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,

and palliating those follies which it can neither justify nor forsake. Johnson.

Hopes is used simply for expectations, as success is for the event, whether good or bad. This is still common in the midland counties. "Such manner of uncouth speech, (says Puttenham) did the Tanner of Tamworth use to King Edward IV, which Tanner having a great while mistaken him, and used very broad talke with him, at length perceiving by his traine that it was the king, was afraide he should be punished for it, and said thus, with a certaine rude repentance: “I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow,' for 'I fear me I shall be hanged;' whereat the king laughed a-good; not only to see the Tanner's vaine feare, but also to hear his mishapen terme; and gave him for recompence of his good sport, the inheritance of Plumton Parke." P. 214. Farmer.

The following passage in The Second Part of King Henry IV, fully supports Dr. Farmer's interpretation. The Prince is there, as in the passage before us, the speaker:

4

"My father is gone wild into his grave,-
"And with his spirit sadly I survive,
"To mock the expectations of the world;
"To frustrate prophecies, and to raze out
"Rotten opinion, who hath written down
"After my seeming." Malone.

like bright metal on a sullen ground, &c.] So, in King

Richard II:

"The sullen passage of thy weary steps

"Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set

"The precious jewel of thy home return." Steevens.

I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition; 5
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect,

Which the proud soul ne'er pays, but to the proud.

Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves The scourge of greatness to be used on it; And that same greatness too which our own hands Have holp to make so portly.

North. My lord,

K. Hen. Worcester, get thee gone, for I see danger And disobedience in thine eye: O, sir,

Your presence is too bold and peremptory,

And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier of a servant brow.7

You have good leaves to leave us; when we need

5 I will from henceforth rather be myself,

Mighty, and to be fear'd than my condition;] i. e. I will from henceforth rather put on the character that becomes me, and exert the resentment of an injured king, than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my natural disposition. And this sentiment he has well expressed, save that by his usual license, he puts the word condition for disposition. Warburton.

The commentator has well explained the sense, which was not very difficult, but is mistaken in supposing the use of condition licentious. Shakspeare uses it very frequently for temper of mind, and in this sense the vulgar still say a good or ill-conditioned man. Johnson.

So, in King Henry V, Act V: "Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth." Ben Jonson uses it in the same sense, in The New-Inn, Act I, sc. vi:

6

"You cannot think me of that coarse condition,
"To envy you any thing." Steevens.

I see danger -) Old copies-I do see &c. Steevens. 7 And majesty might never yet endure

The moody frontier of a servant brow.] Frontier was anciently used for forehead. So Stubbs, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595: "Then on the edges of their bolstered hair, which standeth crested round their frontiers, and hanging over their faces." &c.

Steevens.

And majesty might never yet endure &c.] So, in King Henry

VIII:

"The hearts of princes kiss obedience,
"So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits,
"They swell and grow as terrible as storms." Malone.

P2

Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.

You were about to speak.
North.

[Exit WOR. [To NORTH.

Yea, my good lord.
Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
As is deliver'd to your majesty:
Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.

Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
But, I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,
Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home:9

He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box,1 which ever and anon
He gave his nose, and took 't away again;-
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff: 2-and still he smil'd, and talk'd;

8 You have good leave -] i. e. our ready assent. So, in King "Good leave, good Philip." Steevens.

John:

9

at harvest home:] That is, a time of festivity. Johnson. If we understand harvest-home in the general sense of a time of festivity, we shall loose the most pointed circumstance of the comparison. A chin new shaven is compared to a stubble-land at harvest-home, not on account of the festivity of that season, as I apprehend, but because at that time, when the corn has been but just carried in, the stubble appears more even and upright, than at any other. Tyrwhitt.

1 A pouncet-box,] A small box for musk or other perfumes then in fashion: the lid of which, being cut with open work, gave it its name; from poinsoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave.

Warburton.

Dr. Warburton's explanation is just. At the christening of Queen Elizabeth, the Marchioness of Dorset gave, according to Holinshed, "three gilt bowls pounced, with a cover."

So also, in Gawin Douglas's translation of the ninth Eneid: "- wroght richt curiously

"With figuris grave, and punsit ymagery." Steevens.