you are altogether governed by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.

Hot. I had rather hear Lady, my brach,26 howl in Irish. Lady P. Wouldst thou have thy head broken?

Hot. No.

Lady P. Then be still.

Hot. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault.27

Lady P. Now God help thee!

Hot. Peace! she sings. [A Welsh song by Lady MORT. Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.

Lady P. Not mine, in good sooth.

Hot. Not yours, in good sooth! 'Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker's 28 wife! Not mine, in good sooth; and, As true as I live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day;

And givest such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,

As if thou ne'er walk'dst further than Finsbúry.29
Swear me, Kate, like a lady as thou art,

A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in sooth,
And such protést of pepper-gingerbread,

To velvet-guards and Sunday-citizens.30

26 Brach was a common term for a fine-nosed hound. It appears that Lady was the name of Hotspur's musical howler.

27 It is not quite clear what may be the woman's fault intended. If the context be taken strictly, it must be an unwillingness either to have the head broken or to hold the tongue. Or it may be that a woman will neither talk reason nor be still when others talk it. But probably it is a sort of disguised or ironical compliment; that he cannot be still while he has his wife to talk to, or cannot listen to the singing while she keeps him talking.

28 A comfit-maker is a maker of confectionery; that is, sugar-candies. 29 Finsbury, now a part of the city, but formerly open walks and fields, was a common resort of the citizens for airing and recreation.

30 Velvet-guards, or trimmings of velvet, were the city fashion in Shakespeare's time; here regarded as marks of softness or finicalness.-Sunday

Come, sing.

Lady P. I will not sing.

Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor,31 or be redbreastteacher. An the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours; and so, come in when ye will. [Exit.

Glend. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow

As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.

By this our book's drawn ; we'll but seal, and then
To horse immediately.

Mort.

With all my heart.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. · London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, Prince HENRY, and Lords.

King. Lords, give us leave; the Prince of Wales and I Must have some private conference: but be near at hand, For we shall presently have need of you.

[Exeunt Lords.

I know not whether God will have it so,
For some displeasing service I have done,
That, in His secret doom, out of my blood 1
He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
But thou dost, in thy passages of life,

Make me believe that thou art only mark'd
For the hot vengeance and the rod of Heaven

citizens are people in their Sunday-clothes or holiday finery.—Peppergingerbread is gingerbread spiced, or, perhaps, finely-seasoned sweet-cake.

81 Tailors, like weavers, have ever been remarkable for their vocal skill. Percy is jocular in his mode of persuading his wife to sing. The meaning is," to sing is to put yourself upon a level with tailors and teachers of birds." "The next way" is the nearest way.

1 Blood, as often, for person; that is, his person as represented in his progeny or offspring. The King is thinking of the wrong he has done to his own kindred, or family blood, in the person of Richard.

To punish my mistreadings.2 Tell me else,

Could such inordinate and low desires,

Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts,3
Such barren pleasures, rude society,

As thou art match'd withal and grafted to,

Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
And hold their level with thy princely heart?
Prince. So please your Majesty, I would I could
Quit all offences with as clear excuse
As well as I am doubtless 4 I can purge
Myself of many I am charged withal :
Yet such extenuation let me beg,
As, in reproof of many tales devised

By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,5
Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,
I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander'd and irregular,

Find pardon on my true submission.6

2 Mistreadings, of course, for misdoings or transgressions. The speaker's conscience is ill at ease; and his sense of guilt in the discrowning of his cousin and the usurping of his seat arms his son's irregularities with the stings of a providential retribution.

8 Lewd in its old sense of wicked or depraved. Repeatedly so. Attempts for pursuits or courses.

4 As the Poet often uses doubt in the sense of fear, so here he has doubtless for fearless, that is, confident, or sure. So, once more, in King John, iv. 1: "Sleep doubtless and secure." - Here, as often, quit is acquit, with myself understood after it, just as purge. As well is simply redundant, save in point of metre.

5 News-mongers are tattlers or tale-bearers; sycophants, in the proper classical sense of the term; that is, those who curry favour by framing or propagating scandalous reports. — Reproof, again, for disproof. See page 68, note 33.

6 The construction of this passage is somewhat obscure: "Let me beg so much extenuation that, upon confutation of many false charges, I may be par doned some that are true."

King. God pardon thee! Yet iet me wonder, Harry,

At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in Council thou hast rudely lost,7
Which by thy younger brother is supplied;
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the Court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd; and the soul of every man
Prophetically does forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at;

That men would tell their children, This is he;
Others would say, Where, which is Bolingbroke?
And then I stole all courtesy from Heaven,9

7 The Poet here anticipates an event that took place several years later. Holinshed, having just spoken of the Prince's assault on the Chief Justice, adds, "The king after expelled him out of his privie councell, banisht him the court, and made the duke of Clarence, his yoonger brother, president of councell in his steed."

--

8 Opinion here stands for public sentiment. The Poet has it repeatedly in the kindred sense of reputation. - Possession, in the next line, is put for the person in possession; that is, of the throne.

9 This innocent passage has drawn forth some very odd quirks of explanation, or obscuration rather. Of course means "I put all the graciousness and benignity of the heavens into my manners and address"; some

And dress'd myself in such humility,

That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,10
Even in the presence of the crownèd King.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new ;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,

Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, showèd like a feast,
And won by rareness such solemnity.1

11

14

The skipping King, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters and rash bavin 12 wits,
Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded 13 his state,
Mingled his royalty, with capering fools;
Had his great name profanèd with their scorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push

what as in Wordsworth's well-known line, "The gentleness of heaven is on the sea."

10 Meaning, caused both men's hearts to beat high with allegiant emotions towards himself, and their mouths to overflow with loud salutations. The Poet is very fond of the word pluck in the sense of draw, pull, or rouse.

11 That is, such solemnity as belongs to a feast. Solemnity was often used of feasts of state; much in the sense of dignity. Macbeth invites Banquo to 'a solemn supper," when he means to have him murdered.

12 Bavins are brush-wood, or small fagots used for lighting fires. So in Lyly's Mother Bombie, 1594: “Bavins will have their flashes, and youth their fancies, the one as soon quenched as the other burnt."

13 This word has been explained in divers ways. The most probable meaning is shown in Bacon's Natural History: "It is an excellent drink for a consumption, to be drunk either alone, or carded with some other beer." Likewise in Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier: "You card your beer (if you see your guests begin to get drunk) half small, half strong." So that "carded his state" probably means the same as "mingled his royalty"; the latter being explanatory of the former.

14 Alluding, no doubt, to the dancing, fashion-mongering sprigs that Richard the Second drew about him.