We are denied access unto his person 10

Even by those men that most have done us wrong.
The dangers of the days but newly gone,
(Whose memory is written on the earth
With yet-appearing blood), and the examples
Of every minute's instance11 (present now),
Have put us in these ill beseeming arms:
Not to break peace, or any branch of it;
But to establish here a peace indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

West. When ever yet was your appeal denied?
Wherein have you been galled by the king?
What hath been suborn'd to grate on you?
That you should seal this lawless bloody book
Of forg'd rebellion with a seal divine,

peer

And consecrate commotion's bitter edge 12?
Arch. My brother general, the commonwealth,
To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular13.

10 In Holinshed the Archbishop says, 'Where he and his companie were in armes, it was for feare of the king, to whom he could have no free accesse, by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him.'

11 6

Examples of every minute's instance' are Examples which every minute instances or supplies,' Which even the present minute presses on their notice.

12 Commotion's bitter edge? that is, the edge of bitter strife and commotion; the sword of rebellion. This line is omitted in the folio.

13 The second line of this very obscure speech is omitted in the folio. As the passage stands I can make nothing of it; nor do any of the explanations which have been offered appear to me satisfactory. I think with Malone that a line has been lost, though I do not agree with him in the sense he would give to it. It is with all proper humility I offer the following reading :

'My quarrel general, the commonwealth,

Whose wrongs do loudly call out for redress;
To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular.'

i. e. my general cause of discontent is public wrongs, my particular cause the death of my own brother, who was beheaded by

West. There is no need of any such redress; Or, if there were, it not belongs to you.

Mowb. Why not to him, in part; and to us all, That feel the bruises of the days before; And suffer the condition of these times To lay a heavy and unequal hand

Upon our honours?

West.

14

O my good lord Mowbray 14, Construe the times to their necessities,

And you shall say indeed, it is the time,
And not the king, that doth you injuries.
Yet, for your part, it not appears to me,
Either from the king, or in the present time,
That you should have an inch of any ground
To build a grief on: Were you not restor❜d
To all the duke of Norfolk's signiories,
Your noble and right well remember'd father's?
Mowb. What thing in honour had my father lost,
That need to be reviv'd and breath'd in me?
The king, that lov'd him, as the state stood then,
Was, force perforce, compell'd to banish him:
And then, when Harry Bolingbroke, and he,-
Being mounted, and both roused in their seats,
Their neighing coursers daring of the spur,
Their armed staves 15 in charge, their beavers 16 down,

the king's order. This circumstance is referred to in the first part of this play :

"The archbishop-who bears hard

His brother's death at Bristol, the Lord Scroop.'

The answer of Westmoreland makes it obvious that something about redress of public wrongs should have fallen from the archbishop. Johnson proposed to read quarrel instead of brother in the first line, and explained the passage much as I have done. I have merely superadded the line, which seems to me necessary to complete the sense, and make Westmoreland's reply intelligible. 14 The thirty-seven following lines are not in the quarto. 15 i. e. their lances fixed in the rest for the encounter. 16 It has been already observed that the beaver was a moveable piece of the helmet, which lifted up or down, to enable the bearer to drink or breathe more freely.

Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights 17 of steel,
And the loud trumpet blowing them together;
Then, then, when there was nothing could have staid
My father from the breast of Bolingbroke,
O, when the king did throw his warder 18 down,
His own life hung upon the staff he threw :
Then threw he down himself; and all their lives,
That by indictment, and by dint of sword,
Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke.

West. You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know

not what:

The earl of Hereford 19 was reputed then
In England the most valiant gentleman;
Who knows,on whom fortune would then have smil'd?
But, if your father had been victor there,
He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry:
For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon
and all their prayers, and love,
Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on,
And bless'd, and grac'd indeed, more than the king.
But this is mere digression from my purpose.—
Here come I from our princely general,

him;

To know your griefs; to tell you from his grace,
That he will give you audience: and wherein
It shall appear that your demands are just,
You shall enjoy them; every thing set off,
That might so much as think you enemies.
Mowb. But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;
And it proceeds from policy, not love.

West. Mowbray, you overween, to take it so;
This offer comes from mercy, not from fear;
For, lo! within a ken, our army lies;

Upon mine honour, all too confident

17 The perforated part of the helmets, through which they could see to direct their aim. Visière, Fr.

19 This is a mistake: he was duke of Hereford.

To give admittance to a thought of fear.
Our battle is more full of names than yours,
Our men more perfect in the use of

arms,

Our armour all as strong, our cause the best;
Then reason wills, our hearts should be as good:-
Say you not then, our offer is compell'd.

Mowb. Well, by my will, we shall admit no parley.
West. That argues but the shame of your

A rotten case abides no handling.

offence:

Hast. Hath the Prince John a full commission,

In very ample virtue of his father,

To hear, and absolutely to determine
Of what conditions we shall stand upon?

West. That is intended 20 in the general's name:

I muse, you make so slight a question.

Arch. Then take, my lord of Westmoreland, this schedule;

For this contains our general grievances;-
Each several article herein redress'd;

All members of our cause, both here and hence,
That are insinew'd to this action,
Acquitted by a true substantial form;
And present execution of our wills
To us, and to our purposes, consign'd 21;
We come within our awful banks 22 again,
And knit our powers to the arm of peace.

20 Intended is understood, i. e. meant without expressing it. Entendu, Fr.; subauditur, Lat.

21 The old copy reads confin'd. Johnson proposed to read consign'd; which must be understood in the Latin sense, consignatus, signed, sealed, ratified, confirmed; which was indeed the old meaning according to the dictionaries. Shakspeare uses consign and consigning in other places in this sense.

22 Awful for lawful; or under the due awe of authority. Thus in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

From the society of awful men.'

It is also used in the same sense in Pericles :

'A better prince and benign lord

Prove awful both in deed and word.'

Awful seems peculiar to Shakspeare in this acceptation.

West. This will I show the general. Please you,'

lords,

In sight of both our battles we may meet:

And either end in peace, which heaven so frame! Or to the place of difference call the swords

Which must decide it.

Arch.

My lord, we will do so. [Exit WEST. Mowb. There is a thing within my bosom, tells me, That no conditions of our peace can stand.

Hast. Fear you not that if we can make our peace.
Upon such large terms, and so absolute,
As our conditions shall consist 23 upon,

Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.
Mowb. Ay, but our valuation shall be such,
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice 24, and wanton reason,
Shall, to the king, taste of this action :

That, were our royal faiths 25 martyrs in love,
We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind,
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.

Arch. No, no, my lord; Note this,-the king is

weary

Of dainty and such picking 26 grievances :

For he hath found,-to end one doubt by death,
Revives two greater in the heirs of life.
And therefore will he wipe his tables 27 clean;
And keep no tell-tale to his memory,

23 To consist, to rest; consisto.--Baret. So in Pericles :Then welcome peace, if he on peace consist.'

24 Trivial.

25 The faith due to a king. So in King Henry VIII. :—' The citizens have shown at full their royal minds,' i. e. their minds well affected to the king.

26 Piddling, insignificant.

27 Alluding to the table books of slate, ivory, &c. used by our

ancestors.