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In short time after, he depos'd the king;
Soon after that, depriv'd him of his life;

And, in the neck of that, task'd the whole state :
To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March
(Who is, if every owner were well plac'd,
Indeed his king) to be engag'do in Wales,
There without ransome to lie forfeited:
Disgrac'd me in my happy victories;
Sought to entrap me by intelligence:
Rated my uncle from the council-board;
In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;
Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong:
And, in conclusion, drove us to seek out
This head of safety; and, withal, to pry
Into his title, the which we find
Too indirect for long continuance.

Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king?
Hot. Not so, Sir Walter; we'll withdraw awhile.

Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd
Some surety for a safe return again,
And in the morning early shall mine uncle
Bring him our purposes: and so farewell.

Blunt. I would, you would accept of grace and love.
Hot. And, may be, so we shall.

'Pray heaven, you do! [Exeunt.

Blunt.

8 So in Painter's Palace of Pleasure: 'Great mischiefes succedyng one in another's necke. Task'd is here used for taxed: it was common to use these words indiscriminately, says Steevens. Taskes were tributes or subsidies, and should not be confounded with taxes, which are carefully distinguished by Baret. He interprets 'telonium, the place where taskes or tributes are paied.' Philips, in his World of Words, says 'Tasck is an old British word, signifying tribute, from whence haply cometh our word task, which is a duty or labour imposed upon any one.'

9 The old copies read engag'd, which Theobald altered to incag'd without reason: to be engaged is to be pledged as an hostage. So in Act v, Sc. 2:

'And Westmoreland that was engag'd did bear it.'

SCENE IV.

York. A Room in the Archbishop's House.

Enter the Archbishop of York, and a Gentleman.

Arch. Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed brief1,

With winged haste, to the lord marshalo;
This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest
To whom they are directed: if you knew
How much they do import, you would make haste.
Gent. My good lord,

I guess their tenor.
Arch.

Like enough, you do. To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day, Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men Must 'bide the touch: For, sir, at Shrewsbury, As I am truly given to understand, The king, with mighty and quick-raised power, Meets with Lord Harry: and I fear, Sir Michael, What with the sickness of Northumberland (Whose power was in the first proportion), And what with Owen Glendower's absence, thence (Who with them was a rated sinew too3, And comes not in, o'er-ruled by prophecies), I fear, the power of Percy is too weak To wage an instant trial with the king.

Gent. Why, good my lord, you need not fear ; there's Douglas,

And Lord Mortimer.

Arch.

No, Mortimer's not there.

Gent. But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry

Percy,

1 A brief is any short writing, as a letter, &c.

2 Thomas Lord Mowbray.

3 A strength on which we reckoned, a help of which we made

account.

And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head
Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.

Arch. And so there is: but yet the king hath drawn
The special head of all the land together :-
The prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
The noble Westmoreland, and warlike Blunt ;
And many more cor-rivals, and dear men
Of estimation and command in arms.

Gent. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well oppos'd. Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear; And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed : For, if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the king Dismiss his power, he means to visit us, For he hath heard of our confederacy. And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him; Therefore, make haste: I must go write again To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael.

[Exeunt severally.

ACT V.

SCENE I. The King's Camp near Shrewsbury. Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE HENRY, PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

K. Hen. How bloodily the sun begins to peer Above yon busky1 hill! the day looks pale At his distemperature.

1. I do not know (says Mr. Blakeway) whether Shakspeare ever surveyed the ground of Battlefield, but he has described the sun's rising over Haughmound Hill from that spot as accurately as if he had. It still merits the name of a busky hill.' Milton writes the word, perhaps more properly, bosky, it is from the French boscageux, woody.

P. Hen.

The southern wind

Doth play the trumpet to his purposes:
And, by his hollow whistling in the leaves,
Foretells a tempest, and a blustering day.
K. Hen. Then with the losers let it sympathize;
For nothing can seem foul to those that win.—

Trumpet. Enter WORCESTER and VERNON.
How now, my lord of Worcester? 'tis not well,
That you and I should meet upon such terms
As now we meet: You have deceiv'd our trust;
And made us doff our easy robes of peace,
To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel;
This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
What say you to't? will you again unknit
This churlish knot of all-abhorred war?
And move in that obedient orb again,
Where you did give a fair and natural light;
And be no more an exhal'd meteor,
A prodigy of fear, and a portent

Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
Wor. Hear me, my liege;
For mine own part, I could be well content
To entertain the lag-end of my life
With quiet hours; for, I do protest,
I have not sought the day of this dislike.

K. Hen. You have not sought for it! how comes

it then?

Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
P. Hen. Peace, chewet3, peace.

2 Shakspeare forgot that he was not at this time old, it was only four years since the deposition of King Richard.

3 A chewet was (as Theobald justly observes) a noisy chattering bird, a pie or jackdaw; called also in French chouette. This simple and satisfactory explanation would not do for Steevens and Malone, who finding that chewets were also little round pies

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Wor. It pleas'd your majesty, to turn your looks
Of favour, from myself, and all our house;
And yet I must remember you, my lord,
We were the first and dearest of your friends.
For you, my staff of office did I break

In Richard's time; and posted day and night
To meet you on the way, and kiss your hand,
When yet you were in place and in account
Nothing so strong and fortunate as I.
It was myself, my brother, and his son,
That brought you home, and boldly did outdare
The dangers of the time: You swore to us,-
And you did swear that oath at Doncaster, -
That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state;
Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
The seat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster :
To this we swore our aid. But, in short space,
It rain'd down fortune showering on your head;
And such a flood of greatness fell on you,-
What with our help: what with the absent king!
What with the injuries of a wanton time;
The seeming sufferances that you had borne;
And the contrarious winds, that held the king
So long in his unlucky Irish wars,
That all in England did repute him dead, -
And, from this swarm of fair advantages,
You took occasion to be quickly woo'd
To gripe the general sway into your hand:
Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;
And, being fed by us, you us'd us so

:

made of minced meat, thought that the prince compared Falstaff, for his unseasonable chattering, to a minced pie! The word is a diminutive of chough, pronounced chouh, from the Saxon ceo. Graculus Monedula. Belon, in his History of Birds, describes the chouette as the smallest kind of chough or crow, and this will account for the diminutive termination of its name.

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