There is not now a rebel's sword unsheath'd, 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, Will fortune never come with both hands full, I should rejoice now at this happy news; And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy:- Cla. look up! War. Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits 10 The detail contained in Prince John's letter, Are with his highness very ordinary. pangs; Stand from him, give him air; he'll straight be well. observe .14 Unfather'd heirs 13, and loathly birds of nature: That our great grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died. [They convey the King into an inner part of the room, and place him on a Bed. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends; 11 Mure for wall is another of Shakspeare's Latinisms. It was not in frequent use by his cotemporaries. Wrought it thin is made it thin by gradual detriment: wrought being the preterite of work. The same thought is in Daniel's Civil Wars, 1595, book iv. Daniel is also speaking of the sickness of King Henry IV. : Wearing the wall so thin that now the mind Might well look through, and all his frailty find.' Shakspeare is here therefore the imitator. It is highly probable that he would read Daniel's poem when composing his historical dramas. 12 To fear anciently signified to make afraid, as well as to dread. 'A vengeaunce light on thee that so doth feare me, or makest me so feared.'-Baret. 13 That is, equivocal births, monsters. 14 i. e. as if the year. 15 An historical fact. On Oct. 12, 1411, this happened. Unless some dull 16 and favourable hand Will whisper musick to my weary spirit. War. Call for the musick in the other room. P. Hen. Enter PRINCE HENRY. Who saw the duke of Clarence? Cla. I am here, brother, full of heaviness. abroad! How doth the king? P. Humph. Exceeding ill. P. Hen. Tell it him. Heard he the good news yet? P. Humph. He alter'd much upon the hearing it. P. Hen. If he be sick With joy, he will recover without physick. 16 Johnson asserts that dull here signifies 'melancholy, gentle, soothing.' Malone says that it means 'producing dullness or heaviness.' The fact is that dull and slow were synonymous. 'Dullness, slowness; tarditas, tardiveté. Somewhat dull or slowe; tardiusculus, tardelet ;' says Baret. But Shakspeare uses dulness for drowsiness in the Tempest. And Baret has also this sense: Slow, dull, asleepe, drousie, astonied, heavie; torpidus.' It has always been thought that slow music induces sleep. Ariel enters playing solemn music to produce this effect, in the Tempest. The notion is not peculiar to our great poet, as the following exquisite lines, almost worthy of his hand, may wit ness: " 'Oh, lull me, lull me, charming air, My senses rock'd with wonder sweet; Grief who need fear That hath an ear? Down let him lie, And slumbering die, And change his soul for harmony? (From Wit Restored, 1658.) They are attributed to Dr. Strode, who died in 1644. War. Not so much noise, my lords;-sweet prince, speak low; The king your father is dispos'd to sleep. Cla. Let us withdraw into the other room. War. Will't please your grace to go along with us? P. Hen. No; I will sit and watch here by the king 17. [Exeunt all but P. HENRY. Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, Being so troublesome a bedfellow? O polish'd perturbation! golden care! That scalds with safety. By his gates of breath This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep, 17 The hint only of this beautiful scene is taken from Holinshed, p. 541. The poet has wrought up the bare bald narration of the chronicler in the most pathetic and poetical manner. 18 Gates. 19 A biggin was a head-band of coarse cloth; so called because such a forehead-cloth was worn by the Beguines, an order of nuns. Upon his head he wore a filthy coarse biggin, and next it a garnish of night-caps.' Nash, speaking of a miser in his Pierce Penniless. 20 i. e. circle; probably from the old Italian rigolo, a small wheel. The word has not hitherto been found in any other author. Shakspeare has it again in his Rape of Lucrece:- 'About the mourning and congealed face Of that black blood, a wat'ry rigol goes. Ringol is used by Nash in the same sense, in his Lenten Stuffe; and it may also have been Shakspeare's word, when we recollect that it would have been thus written in the poet's age-rigol. So many English kings. Thy due, from me, [Putting it on his head. Which heaven shall guard: And put the world's whole strength Into one giant arm, it shall not force This lineal honour from me: This from thee Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me. Cla. Re-enter WARWICK, and the rest. [Exit. Doth the king call? War. What would your majesty? How fares your grace? K. Hen. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords? Cla. We left the prince my brother here, my liege, Who undertook to sit and watch by you. K. Hen. The prince of Wales? Where is he? let me see him: He is not here. War. This door is open; he is gone this way. P. Humph. He came not through the chamber where we stay'd. K. Hen. Where is the crown? who took it from my pillow? War. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here. K. Hen. The prince hath ta'en it hence :—go, seek him out; Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose My sleep my death? |