Then imitate the action of the tiger;

Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage:
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head1,
Like the brass cannon: let the brow o'erwhelm it,
As fearfully, as doth a galled rock

2

O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height!-On, on, you noble English3,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders,
Have, in these parts, from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument5;

1The portage of the head.' Shakspeare uses portage for loop-holes or port-holes.

2

'O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.'

To jutty is to project; jutties, or jetties, are projecting moles to break the force of the waves. Confounded is neither worn, or wasted, as Johnson tells us; nor destroyed, as Malone infers; but vexed, or troubled. Swill'd anciently was used for washed much, or long, drowned, surrounded by water: Prolutus.'-Daniel, in his Civil Warres, has a similar passage:

A place there is, where proudly rais'd there stands

A huge aspiring rock, neighbouring the skies,

Whose surly brow imperiously commands
The sea his bounds, that at his proud foot lies;
And spurns the waves that in rebellious bands
Assault his empire, and against him rise.'

3 You noble English.' The folio reads noblish, by mistake; the compositor having taken twice the final syllable ish. Steevens reads noblest. This speech is not in the quartos.

4 'Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof.' Mr. Pope took the liberty of altering this word to fetch'd. The sacred writings afford us many instances of its use. 'Ascita et accepta a Græcis, Fet and taken out of Greece.' It is often coupled with far, as in the expressions 'far-fet and dear bought,'' affectated and far-fet.'

Dishonour not your mothers; now attest,

That those, whom you call'd fathers, did beget you! Be copy now to men of grosser blood,

And teach them how to war!-And you, good yeo

men,

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear

That you are worth your breeding: which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips",
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot;
Follow your spirit: and, upon this charge,
Cry-God for Harry! England! and Saint George!
[Exeunt. Alarum, and Chambers go off.

SCENE II. The same.

Forces pass over; then enter NYM, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Boy.

Bard. On, on, on, on, on! to the breach! to the breach!

Nym. 'Pray thee, corporal1, stay; the knocks are too hot; and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives: the humour of it is too hot, that is the very plain-song of it.

Pist. The plain-song is most just; for humours do abound;

Knocks go and come; God's vassals drop and die;

6 Slips are contrivances of leather to start two dogs at the same time.

1 "

Corporal.' Bardolph is called lieutenant in a former scene; so that there is a lapse of memory in the poet in one or other of these instances.

2 A case of lives; that is, a pair of lives:' as a case of pistols,' a case of poniards,'' a case of masks.' So in Ram Alley, we have a case of justices.'

And sword and shield,

In bloody field,

Doth win immortal fame.

Boy. 'Would, I were in an alehouse in London! I would give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety. Pist. And I:

If wishes would prevail with me,

My purpose should not fail with me,

But thither would I hie.

Boy. As duly, but not as truly,

As bird doth sing on bough.

Enter FLUELLEN 3.

Flu. Got's plood!-Up to the preaches, you rascals! will you not up to the preaches?

[Driving them forward. Pist. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould1!

Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage!

Abate thy rage, great duke!

Good bawcock, bate thy rage! use lenity, sweet

chuck!

Nym. These be good humours!-your honour wins bad humours.

[Exeunt NYM, PISTOL, and Bardolph, followed by FLuellen.

Boy. As young as I am, I have observed these three swashers. I am boy to them all three: but all they three, though they would serve me, could not be man to me: for, indeed, three such anticks do not amount to a man. For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd, and red-fac'd; by the means where

3 Fluellen is merely the Welsh pronunciation of Lluellyn; as Floyd is of Lloyd.

4 i. e. 'be merciful, great commander, to men of earth, to poor mortal men.' Duke is only a translation of the Roman dux. Sylvester, in his Du Bartas, calls Moses 'a great duke.'

of, 'a faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol,-he hath a killing tongue, and a quiet sword; by the means whereof 'a breaks words, and keeps whole weapons. For Nym, he hath heard, that men of few words are the best5 men; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest 'a should be thought a coward: but his few bad words are match'd with as few good deeds; for 'a never broke any man's head but his own; and that was against a post, when he was drunk. They will steal any thing, and call it,-purchase. Bardolph stole a lutecase: bore it twelve leagues, and sold it for three half-pence. Nym, and Bardolph, are sworn brothers in filching; and in Calais they stole a fireshovel: I knew, by that piece of service the men would carry coals. They would have me as familiar with men's pockets, as their gloves or their handkerchiefs; which makes much against my manhood, if I should take from another's pocket, to put into mine; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must leave them, and seek some better service: their villany goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast it up. [Exit Boy.

Re-enter FLUELLEN, GOWER following. Gow. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to the mines; the duke of Gloster would speak with you.

Flu. To the mines! tell you the duke, it is not so good to come to the mines: For, look you, the

5. The best men;' that is, bravest. So, in the next line, good deeds are brave actions.

6 Purchase, which anciently signified gain, profit, was the cant term used for any thing obtained by cheating; as appears by Green's Art of Coneycatching.

7' Carry coals.' See note on the first scene of Romeo and Juliet.

mines is not according to the disciplines of the war; the concavities of it is not sufficient; for, look you, th' athversary (you may discuss unto the duke, look you), is dight himself four yards under the countermines by Cheshu, I think, 'a will plow up all, if there is not better directions.

Gow. The duke of Gloster, to whom the order of the siege is given, is altogether directed by an Irishman; a very valiant gentleman, i'faith.

Flu. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not?

Gow. I think it be.

Flu. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the 'orld: I will verify as much in his peard: he has no more directions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog.

Enter MACMORRIS and JAMY, at a distance. Gow. Here 'a comes; and the Scots captain, Captain Jamy, with him.

Flu. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman, that is certain: and of great expedition, and knowledge, in the ancient wars, upon my particular knowledge of his directions: by Cheshu, he will maintain his argument as well as any military man in the 'orld, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of the Romans.

Jamy. I say, gud-day, Captain Fluellen.

Flu. God-den to your worship, goot Captain Jamy.

Gow. How now, Captain Macmorris? have you quit the mines? have the pioneers given o'er?

Mac. By Chrish la, tish ill done: the work ish give over, the trumpet sound the retreat. By my hand, I swear, and by my father's soul, the work

8. Is dight himself;' that is, the enemy had digged four yards under the counter-mines.