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Thy maiden sword.

Lan. But, soft! who have we here?

Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead? P.Henry. I did; I saw him dead, breathless and bleeding

Upon the ground.

Art thou alive? or is it fantasy

That plays upon our eye-sight? I pr'ythee,speak;| We will not trust our eyes, without our ears: Thou art not what thou seem'st.

of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Westmoreland,withWorcester,and Vernon prisoners. K.Henry. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.— Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace, 5 Pardon, and terms of love to all of you? And would'st thou turn our offers contrary? Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust? Three knights upon our party slain to-day, A noble earl, and many a creature else, 10 Had been alive this hour,

Fal. No, that's certain; I am not a double man: but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy: [throwing the body down] it your father will do me any honour, so; if not, Jet him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be 15 either earl or duke, I can assure you.

P.Henry. Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and saw thee dead.

Fal. Didst thou?-Lord, lord, how this world] is given to lying!-I grant you, I was down, and 20 out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believ'd, so: if not, let them, that should reward valour, bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, 25 I gave him this wound in the thigh; if the man were alive, and would deny it, I would make him cat a piece of my sword.

Lan. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard. P.Henry. This is the strangest fellow, brother 30 John.

If, like a christian, thou hadst truly borne
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.
Wor. What I have done, my safety urg'd me to;
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it falls on me. [non too;
K.Henry, Bear Worcester to the death, and Ver-
Other offenders we will pause upon.-

[Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded.
How goes the field?
[he saw
P. Henry. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when
The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The nobie Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear,-fled with the rest;
And, falling from a hill, he was so bruis'd,
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace,
I may dispose of him.

[you

K. Henry. With all my heart. P. Henry. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to This honourable bounty shall belong: Go to the Douglas, and deliver him Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free: His valour, shewn upon our crests to-day, Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds, [A retreat is sounded. 35 Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back:
For ny part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is ours. Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field, To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt.

Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He40 that rewards me, heaven reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do. [Exit, bearing off the body. SCENE V. Another part of the Field.

The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Prince

K. Henry. Then this remains,-that we divide

our power.

You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland,
Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest
speed,

To meet Northumberland, and the prelate Scroop,
Who, as we hear, are busily in arms:

Myself,--and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March.
45 Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day:
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave 'till all our own be won, [Exeunt,

SECOND

KING

OF

HENRY IV.

INDUCTION.

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The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride;
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence;
Whilst the big year, swoln with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Kumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus

5

My well-known body to anatomize
Among my houshold? Why is Rumour here?
I run before king Harry's victory;

Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion

Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? My office is

To noise abroad,-that Harry Monmouth fell 10 Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword; And that the king before the Douglas' rage Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death. This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns Between that royal field of Shrewsbury 15 And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone, Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland, Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on, And not a man of them brings other news Than they have learn'd of me; From Rumour's tongues

20

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true

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The transactions comprized in this History take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed; and closes with the death of king Henry IV. and the coronation of king Henry V.

Enter

Enter Northumberland.

Bard. Here comes the earl.

North. What news, Lord Bardolph? Every

minute now

Should be the father of some stratagem:
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

Bard. Noble earl,

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
North. Good, an heaven will'

Bard. As good as heart can wish:
The king is almost wounded to the death;
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
Prince Harry slain outright: and both the Blunts
Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John.
And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk sir John,
Is prisoner to your son: O such a day,
So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won,
Came not, 'till now, to dignify the times,
Since Cæsar's fortunes.

North. How is this deriv'd?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?

5

10

15

I'll give my barony: never talk of it.
North. Why should the gentleman, that rode
by Travers,

Give then such instances of loss?

Bard. Who, he?

He was some hilding fellow, that had stoln
The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
Spoke at adventure. Look, here comes more news.
Enter Morton.

North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf",
Foretells the nature of a tragick volume;

So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd usurpation.

Say, Morton, did'st thou come from Shrewsbury?
Mort. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask,
To fright our party,

North. How doth my son and brother?
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
20 Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,

So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Prian's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd:

Bard. I spake with one, my lord, that came 25 But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue,

from thence;

A gentleman well bred, and of good name,
That freely rendered me these news for true.
North. Here comes my servant Travers, whom
I sent

On Tuesday last to listen after news.

Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way;
And he is furnish'd with no certainties,
More than he haply may retail from me.

Enter Travers.

North, Now, Trayers, what good tidings come

with you?

Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
Out-rode me. After him, came, spurring hard,
A gentleman almost forspent' with speed,
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloody'd horse:
He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold:
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting so,
He seem'd in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.

North. Ha Again,

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
Of Hotspur, coldspur? that rebellion
Had met ill luck?

Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ;-
If my young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point

1

2

And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it.
This would'st thou say,-Your son did thus, and thus;
Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas;
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:
30 But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with-brother, son, and all are dead.
Mort. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet:
But for my lord your son,-

35

North. Why, he is dead.

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
He, that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from other's eyes,
That, what he fear'd is chanc'd. Yet speak, Morton;
40 Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies;

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,
And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

Mort. You are too great to be by me gainsaid:
Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
45 North. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.
I see a strange confession in thine eye:
Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear', or sin,
To speak the truth. If he be slain, say so:
The tongue offends not, that reports his death:
50 And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead;
Not he, which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

55 Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

Bard, I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. Mort. I am sorry, I should force you to believe That, which I would to heaven I had not seen: But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,

To forspend is to waste, to exhaust. Jade seems anciently to have signified that we now call a hackney; a beast employed in drudgery, opposed to a horse kept for show, or to be rid by its master. Poor jade here means the horse wearied with his journey. A point is a string tagged, or lace. * For hilderling, i. e. base, degenerate. 'Mr. Steevens observes, that in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally blank. i, e. so far gone in woe. Feur for danger. Reud'ting

4

breath'd,

Rend'ring faint quittance', wearied and out-
[down
To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
From whence with life he never more sprung up.
In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: then was that noble Worcester
Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword,
Had three times slain the appearance of the king:
'Gan vail his stomach', and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is,-that the king hath won; and hath sent out
A speedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.
North. For this Ishall have time enough to mourn.
In poison there is physick; and these news
Having been well, that would have made me sick,
Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice
crutch;

To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
You cast the event of war, my noble lord,
And summ'dthe accountof chance, before you said,
Let us make head. It was your pre-surmise,
5 That, in the dole of blows your son might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:
You were advis'd his flesh was capable

Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit 10 Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd; Yet did you say,-Go forth; and none of this, Though strongly apprehended, could restrain The stiff-born action: What hath then befallen, Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth, 15 More than that being which was like to be?

20

Bard. We all, that are engaged to this loss,
Knew that we ventur'd on such dangerous seas
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Choak'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And, since we are o'erset, veinture again.
Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods.
Mort. 'Tis more than time: And, my most
noble lord,

251 hear for certain, and do speak the truth,-
The gentle archbishop of York is up,

30

With well appointed powers; he is a man,
Who with a double surety binds his followers.
My lord your son had only but the corps,
But shadows, and the shews of men, to night;
For that same word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls;
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
35 Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Turns insurrection to religion:
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
40 He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
Of fair king Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his cause;
Tells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land",
45 Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
And more and less' do flock to follow him.

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Must glovethis hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif;
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flush'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron: And approach
The rugged'st hour that time and spight dare bring,
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead! [my lord: 55
Bard. This strained passion doth you wrong,
Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.]
Mort. The lives of all your loving complices

North. I knew of this before; but, to speak
truth,

This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
50 Go in with me; and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety, and revenge:
Get posts, and letters, and make friends with speed;
Never so few, and never yet more need. [Exe.
SCENE

A street in London.

II.

Enter Sir John Falstaff, with his page bearing his sword and buckler.

Fal. Sirrah, you giant! what says the doctor

Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er to my water?

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1 Quittance is return. By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. 2 i. e. reduced to a lower temper, or, as it is usually called, let down. i. e. began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under his fortune. i. e. bend, yield to pressure. The dole of blows is the distribution of blows; dole originally signifying the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) given away at the door of a nobleman. That is, stands over his country to defend her as she lies bleeding on the ground. 1. e. greater and less.

Page

Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for.

Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird' at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, 5 man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter 10 but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason then to set me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson' mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd' with an agate 15 'till now; but I will neither set you in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fledg'd. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my 20 hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; yet he will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal. Heaven may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it; and 25| yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a batchelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can assure him.- -What said master Dombledon about the sattin for my short cloak, and slops?

Page. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he lik'd not the security.

30

a horse in Smithfield: If I could get me but a wife
in the stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.
Enter the Lord Chief Justice,' and Servants.
Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that com-
mitted the prince for striking him about Bar-
dolph.

Ful. Wait close, I will not see him.
Ch. Just. What's he that goes there?
Serv. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
Ch. Just. He that was in question for the rob
bery?

Serv. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the lord John of Lancaster.

Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again.

Sere. Sir John Falstaff!

Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf.

Page. You must speak louder, my master is Ideaf.

Ch. Just. I am sure he is, to the hearing of any thing good.--Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.

Serv. Sir John,

Fal. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels want soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is a worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.

Serv. You mistake me, sir.

Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest 35 man? Setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so.

Fal. Let him be damn'd like the glutton: may his tongue be hotter!-A whoreson Achitophel a rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security!-The whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough with them' in honest 40 taking up, then they must stand upon-security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. I look'd he should have sent ine two-and-twenty yards of sattin, as I ain a true knight, and he sends me security. Well, 45 he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot he see, though he have his own lanthorn to light him.- -Where's Bardolph

Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse.

Fal. I bought him in Paul's", and he'll buy me

Serv. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd: You hunt-counter', hence! avaunt!

Serv. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship 50 abroad: I heard say your lordship was sick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the

1i. e. to gibe. 2 Mandrake is a root supposed to have the shape of a man. 'That is, I never before had an agate for my man. Our author alludes to the little figures cut in agates and other hard stones, for seals; and therefore Falstaff says, I will set you neither in gold nor silver. i. e. the young

man.

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⚫ Mr. Steevens thinks, "this quibbling allusion is to the English real, rial, or royal; and that the poet seems to mean, that a barber can no more earn sixpence by his face-royal, than by the face stamped on the coin called a royal; the one requiring as little shaving as the other." That is, to keep a gentleman in expectation. 'To be thorough seems to be the same with the present phrase to be in with (in debt) a tradesman. At that time the resort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the post. "This judge was Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the king's-bench. He died December, 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church, in Yorkshire. 10 That is, blunderer.

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