4

For he is gracious, if he be observ'd 3;
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand *
Open as day for melting charity:

Yet notwithstanding, being incens'd, he's flint;
As humorous as winter 5, and as sudden

As flaws congealed in the spring of day".

3 if he be OBSERV'D ;] i. e. if he has respectful attention shown to him. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor:

"Follow'd her with doting observance." STEEVENS. 4 He hath a tear for pity, and a hand, &c.] So, in our author's Lover's Complaint:

--

"His qualities were beauteous as his form,

66

66

For maiden-tongu'd he was, and thereof free;
Yet, if men mov'd him, was he such a storm
"As oft 'twixt May and April is to see,

"When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be."

MALONE.

HUMOROUS as winter,] That is, changeable as the weather of a winter's day. Dryden says of Almanzor, that he is humorous as wind. JOHNSON.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1607:

"You know that women oft are humourous.”

Again, in Cynthia's Revels, by Ben Jonson: "-a nymph of a most wandering and giddy disposition, humourous as the air,"

&c.

as proud as May, and as

Again, in The Silent Woman : humourous as April." STEEVENS. "As humorous as April" is sufficiently clear. So, in Heywood's Challenge for Beauty, 1636: "I am as full of humours as an April day of variety; " but a winter's day has generally too decided a character to admit Dr. Johnson's interpretation, without some licence: a licence which yet our author has perhaps taken. He may, however, have used the word humorous equivocally. He abounds in capricious fancies, as winter abounds in moisture. MALONE.

6 congealed in the spring of day.] Alluding to the opinion of some philosophers, that the vapours being congealed in the air by cold, (which is most intense towards the morning,) and being afterwards rarified and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous gusts of wind which are called flaws. WARBURTON.

So, Ben Jonson, in The Case is Alter'd:

"Still wrack'd with winds more foul and contrary

66

Than any northern gust or southern flaw."

His temper, therefore, must be well observ'd:
Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth:
But, being moody, give him line and scope;
Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
Confound themselves with working. Learn this,
Thomas,

And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends;
A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in;
That the united vessel of their blood,
Mingled with venom of suggestion?,
(As, force, perforce, the age will pour it in,)
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
As aconitum, or rash gunpowder ?.

CLA. I shall observe him with all care and love.
K. HEN. Why art thou not at Windsor with him,
Thomas ?

Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592:

"And saw a dreadful southern flaw at hand."

Chapman uses the word in his translation of Homer; and, I believe, Milton has it in the same sense. STEEVENS.

Our author and his contemporaries frequently use the word flaw for a sudden gust of wind; but a gust of wind congealed is, I confess, to me unintelligible. Mr. Edwards says, that "flaws are small blades of ice which are struck on the edges of the water in winter mornings." MALONE.

Flaw in Scotch, is a storm of snow. See Jamieson's Dictionary in voce. BOSWELL.

7 Mingled with venom of SUGGESTION,] Though their blood be inflamed by the temptations to which youth is peculiarly subject. See vol. iv. p. 60, n. 6. MALONE.

8 AS ACONITUM,] The old writers employ the Latin word instead of the English one, which we now use.

So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613:

"The dog belch'd forth, strong aconitum sprung."

Again:

9

"With aconitum that in Tartar springs." STEEVens. RASH gunpowder,] Rash is quick, violent, sudden. This representation of the prince is a natural picture of a young man, whose passions are yet too strong for his virtues. JOHNSON. VOL. XVII.

N

CLA. He is not there to-day; he dines in Lon

don.

K. HEN. And how accompanied? can'st thou tell that ?

CLA. With Poins, and other his continual followers.

K. HEN. Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds; And he, the noble image of my youth,

Is overspread with them: Therefore my grief
Stretches itself beyond the hour of death;
The blood weeps from my heart, when I do shape,
In forms imaginary, the unguided days,
And rotten times, that you shall look upon
When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
For when his headstrong riot hath no curb,
When rage and hot blood are his counsellors,
When means and lavish manners meet together,
O, with what wings shall his affections' fly
Towards fronting peril and oppos'd decay!

WAR. My gracious lord, you look beyond him quite:

The prince but studies his companions,

Like a strange tongue: wherein, to gain the lan

guage,

'Tis needful, that the most immodest word

Be look'd upon, and learn'd: which once attain'd,
Your highness knows, comes to no further use,
But to be known, and hated 2. So, like gross terms,
The prince will, in the perfectness of time,
Cast off his followers: and their memory

Ihis affections-] His passions; his inordinate desires.

JOHNSON.

2 But to be known, and hated.] A parallel passage occurs in Terence :

quo modo adolescentulus

Meretricum ingenia et mores posset noscere,

Mature ut cum cognorit, perpetuo oderit. ANONYMOUS.

Shall as a pattern or a measure live,

By which his grace must meet the lives of others; Turning past evils to advantages.

K. HEN. 'Tis seldom, when the bee doth leave her comb

In the dead carrion 3.-Who's here? Westmoreland?

Enter WESTMORELAND.

WEST. Health to my sovereign! and new happi

ness

Added to that that I am to deliver!

Prince John, your son, doth kiss your grace's hand:

Mowbray, the bishop Scroop, Hastings, and all,
Are brought to the correction of your law;
There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd,
But peace puts forth her olive every where.
The manner how this action hath been borne,
Here at more leisure may your highness read;
With every course, in his particular*.

3 'Tis seldom, when the bee, &c.] As the bee having once placed her comb in a carcase, stays by her honey, so he that has once taken pleasure in bad company, will continue to associate with those that have the art of pleasing him. JOHNSON.

- in HIS particular.] We should read, I think-" in this particular; " that is, in this detail, in this account,' which is minute and distinct. JOHNSON.

His is used for its, very frequently in the old plays. The modern editors have too often made the change; but it should be remembered, (as Dr. Johnson has elsewhere observed,) that by repeated changes the history of a language will be lost.

STEEVENS.

It may certainly have been used so here, as in almost every other page of our author. Mr. Henley, however, observes, that "his particular" may mean the detail contained in the letter of Prince John. A Particular" is yet used as a substantive, by legal conveyancers, for a minute detail of things singly enumerated.' MALONE.

K. HEN. O Westmoreland, thou art a summer

bird,

Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
The lifting up of day. Look! here's more news.

Enter HARCOURT.

HAR. From enemies heaven keep your majesty;
And, when they stand against you, may they fall
As those that I am come to tell you of!

The earl Northumberland, and the lord Bardolph,
With a great power of English, and of Scots,
Are by the sheriff of Yorkshire overthrown :
The manner and true order of the fight,
This packet, please it you, contains at large.
K. HEN. And wherefore should these good news
make me sick?

Will fortune never come with both hands full,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?
She either gives a stomach, and no food,-
Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach,—such are the rich,
That have abundance, and enjoy it not.

I should rejoice now at this happy news;
And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy :-
O me! come near me, now I am much ill.

P. HUMPH. Comfort, your majesty !

[Swoons.

CLA.
O my royal father!
WEST. My Sovereign lord, cheer up yourself,

look up!

WAR. Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits

Are with his highness very ordinary.

Stand from him, give him air; he'll straight be

well.

CLA. No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs;